Funny thing about Netflix

About Thought

Best 'No Smoking' Logo ever!!

Smoking causes Cancer; Smoking is injurious to health.

How to install Custom Rom on Android

Here are the steps that you should follow:

1. Root Your Phone
2. Install ROM Manager App
3. Back Up
4. Download The ROM You Want To Try
5. Flash It
6. Want To Go Back? Restore It

1.Root Your Phone:

Follow this link.

2.Install ROM Manager App:

This is the easiest step. Go to the Android Market on your phone and install ROM Manager.
This excellent application handles backing up and restoring, as well as flashing new ROMs, all from an easy user interface. This application requires root, which is why we've first gone with step 1.
Got the app installed? You should see something like this:

 

3. Back Up:

This part is very easy and in fact I dedicated a whole tutorial just to this subject which you can read if you want more details about the backing up and restoring process.
Done reading the backup tutorial? Now check this out: you don't even have to perform a manual backup - ROM Manager will automatically ask if you want to back up or not in step 5, when you are flashing the new ROM. This is what it will look like:

3.1. Flash A Recovery Image:

If you read the backup/restore article above, you may have seen that there is a one-time step that was needed before ROM Manager, or any other manager, can install ROMs, back up, restore, or do anything with Nandroid Backup - and that is flashing a recovery image.

Important: unplug the USB cable during this step, as some users are reporting problems flashing recovery while plugged in (thanks DennGir and others).

This recovery image contains a boot loader which replaces your original boot loader.
The boot loader gives you the ability to run Nandroid backup and restore commands outside of the OS.
It also lets you install ROMs but we will not do that today. Since the OS cannot back itself up fully while running, ROM Manager will reboot into this boot loader to perform Nandroid operations.

Again, remember: this step needs to be done one time only.

4. Download The ROM You Want To Try And Copy It To Your Phone's SD Card:

Here is where you need to do a bit of research and find the ROM image you want to put on your phone. If you don't know exactly what you're looking for, again, Google can help you - just search for "YOUR_PHONE_MODEL ROM" and look around.
For instance, if you have a Nexus One, you may want to go with CyanogenMod and if you have a Sprint HTC Hero (CDMA), you will want to check out DamageControl.

If you bought ROM Manager Premium, which I recommend, you would have a "Download ROM" menu enabled right within the app, containing some of the most popular ROMs, so you don't have to look for them online or spend time downloading them on your computer and copying to the phone. If you choose not to use ROM Manager Premium or if the ROM you want is not included in the default list, then keep reading this section.

Each ROM you find will be based on a specific Android version - make sure to pay attention to that.

DamageControl ROM For The HTC Hero

In my case, I knew that there were not many options for my Sprint HTC Hero and I quickly found that the DamageControl ROM was exactly what I'd been looking for.
It is currently based off Android 2.1 and it's exactly what I had flashed on my phone to come up with this [p]review: Detailed Mega Review Of Android 2.1 On Our HTC Hero – Discover All The New Features (With Lots Of Screenshots).

Download The ROM You Selected

Download the ROM image, which is usually a zip archive, and copy it into the root folder of your SD card.
Important: you do not unzip the .zip file - just copy it as is.
You can do it by

• attaching the phone with a USB cable and selecting the option of mounting the SD card to be used as a drive on the computer

or

• unmounting the SD card, physically taking it out of the phone, and inserting into your own card reader

or

• downloading the ROM straight from the phone browser

Once you've copied the ROM image, you can proceed to flashing it in step 5.

If you purchased ROM Manager Premium for $3.99, in addition to thanking the developer for the awesome job, you've also unlocked a few premium features. In particular, the Premium version can download ROMs compatible with your phone straight from ROM Manager. Just select "Download ROM" and see which ones are available for your model.
Unfortunately, there is no ROM entered into the app for Sprint HTC Hero at the moment, so you still have to download it manually using the directions in step 4.

5. Flash It:

The process of installing new firmware or low-level system software in general is called flashing.
We will be flashing the new custom ROM over the stock one that came with your phone.

• Pop open the ROM Manager and click "Install ROM from SD Card"
• The ROM you downloaded in step 4 should show up in the list. If it doesn't, make sure you've put it into the root folder of the SD card.
• Click on the ROM and you should receive a popup inviting you to
  • back up existing ROM (which you should do unless you've already backed up manually) and
  • wipe data and cache, which you should only do if you want to do a clean install, i.e. when upgrading from the stock ROM. Note: this does not wipe your SD card data - it only wipes the phone's internal memory.
• Follow the rest of the prompts and voila - the ROM is being installed!

Check out these screenshots I took, showing the full process:

 

The flashing process should take 5-10 minutes installing everything and then 10-20 minutes during the first boot. Please be patient during this process.
Once the phone boots, you should find yourself in the new ROM.
This is it - end of the road! You've done it! Enjoy your fast and clean phone.

Problem During Flashing?

If after the "Reboot and Install" step, you immediately get a picture of Android with a big exclamation point, most likely it means the ROM image you downloaded was not cryptographically signed by the developer (which happens if they were in a hurry to release or simply don't use encryption).
That's OK - you can fix this by:

• clicking the exclamation point screen, which goes to the ClockworkMod recovery menu or simply rebooting into recovery manually (that's one of the options in the ROM Manager). Alternatively, you can boot into recovery by holding Power and Home buttons together while powering up your phone
• selecting the option that says "install zip from sdcard"
• toggling the "toggle signature verification" option to turn the verification off (it should say "Signature Check: Disabled")
• giving flashing another try by selecting "choose zip from sdcard" and selecting the right ROM, just like before

I took some screenshots of this process to make this easier to comprehend:

6. Want To Go Back? Restore It:

Alright, you may want to restore the original full backup of your OS that you took in step 3 (or 5). Maybe you forgot something in the original installation or want to go back to stock for another reason - no problem.
Install and load up the ROM Manager app in the custom ROM you flashed (basically, repeating step 2). Now use the "Manage and Restore Backups" menu to find your backup and restore it (including the OS itself and all the apps, settings - everything that you backed up).
After you're done restoring, you'll be back to your original OS as if nothing ever happened (was it just a dream?)

How to Download Paid Android Applications and Games for Free

Android is an open source operating system for mobile devices. The main feature of android is its market application that contains a lot of paid and free applications. But, most of the free applications are made available at a cost of advertisement (AdMob) in your mobile devices. So, we all prefer paid applications to free ones. But if you can’t afford them for whatsoever be the reason then you might want to get them for free.

There are two common ways to get paid applications completely for free viz. Google Search and Black Market applications. In this article I will describe them in detail to you so that it will be easy for you to work around these methods.

The first method is to use applications (aka Black market applications) on your phone to download paid applications directly to you handset. Blackmart, Snappz, Applanet and Apktor are the applications that let you install paid applications directly to your phone in order of preference. You might be thinking, “I’ve got four choices, huh! So, which should I use or which one is better?” Believe me, Blackmart is the best among these applications. Why? Black mart has a good user interface and contains both free and paid applications as well as games. The filter and sort options are what I like the most. You can filter apps by all, free or paid then you can sort them according to downloads, ratings and many more. Similarly, it also notifies when an update is available for your installed applications. In fact it is the best replacement for android market app. Despite of the fact that it crashes sometimes, it is the bestblack market application to download paid applications for free. You can download it from the link given at the bottom of this article.

Second method is also very simple. Just, Google search for the required application. For better search result and to make sure you get the download link to the application please follow the instructions given below:

• Search for application in your market app and then note down its name and version.
• When you get the name and version of the application you want to download google for ‘Application Name version .apk’ or ‘download application name version .apk’ without quotes. For example, to search for pro version of AppMonster app google ‘AppMonster Pro v2.0.9.3 .apk’

For better results (to download paid applications) it is good idea to include 'Pro' or 'Premium' word in your search query. As the application package files are shared by users you can also search them in file sharing sites like 4Shared, media fire,etc (If you want to download applications at full speed and with resume capability). The main drawback of this method is that you will have to mount your sdcard to your computer and copy the files to it each time you download new applications and then install them manually on your device. There are some websites that provide download links and reviews of paid and free applications. Check them out from the links given below for you might find the application you want in these sites.

Please remember that piracy is an illegal act. It is always recommended that you buy the original applications from android market legally. You can use this method to see how an application is (or how it works) and then buy the original one from the android market.

Download Black Market Applications from links given below:

Download BlackMart Aplha 

Visit following websites as you can get applications and games for free at these sites:

1. www.apktop.com 
2. android-market.co