Are You Rooted?

Let me first explain what it means to root your device.

Rooting gives you access to the system files of your phone or tablet. You can then do a number of different things, such as flashing a rom.

What is a rom, you ask? A rom is basically a whole new operating system. At the very least they usually increase performance and battery life. But there is so much more you can do. There are 3 basic categories for roms:

- Stock based roms: These are going to be very similar to what came on your phone since it's based on the same code. They may also offer a few customizations as well though. For instance, I am running Viper on my One S, which is mostly stock but extremely customize-able. As you can see from this photo, it retains a lot of the Sense feel, but it doesn't have to.

- AOSP(Andoroid Open Source Project): These roms are based on stock Android. So if you love the hardware of your device, but don't particularly care for the manufacturer's overlay, this is the answer. They are going to be as close to stock as you're going to get, while giving you a few developer dependent features and tweaks. 

- Random roms: Random roms, as I like to call them, are just out there. Things like miui for example, that just completely change the look and feel of your phone. I personally have never used anything like these, but I know they appeal to a lot of people.

Once you've flashed your rom of choice, you can begin exploring the world of customizing. 

From changing the status bar icons, to adding quick settings in the notification bar, with the right rom or the right theme, you can do it all.

Now that we've covered roms, I want to talk about some of the main reasons that I see people rooting for. Those would be to uninstall bloatware and for free wireless tethering. 

When you get a phone from a carrier, you'll no-doubt be greeted by the unholy amount of crap that is pre-installed. More often than not, you can't remove of these useless apps that do nothing more than waste space. But fear not, all it takes is a root. 

Since rooting gives you access to the system level of files in your device you can easily go through your system apps with something like ES File Manager, or just simply download Root Uninstaller from the Play Store.

The other most common reason that I've found for rooting is free wireless tethering. That's right, FREE! No one wants to pay an extra $15+ for wireless tethering when data plans already cost upwards of $30. The answer? Rooting! 

Not only can you download the app pictured above for free wifi tethering, but there are even free apps in the Play Store. All with a simple root. 

I've only scratched the surface on the amount of things that you can do when rooted. So tell me, are you rooted? Are you thinking about it? Let me know in the comments!