In this week's episode we discover that Android Honeycomb, 3.0 is effectively just a re-skinned Android Gingerbread, 2.3. This information comes thanks to an intrepid user on the XDA Developers forums.
Anyone that looks at the current Android tablet landscape would be forgiven for thinking its chaotic. It is. The Intel and Nvidia CEOs both still say that Android is the OS to watch on tablets and as prices come down and manufacturers standardize on specs, it'll get a lot better. We're still waiting for the Google reference design tablet that we talked about in episode seven.
Turns out that if you've rooted your phone, you're blocked from using Google's new Movies for Android service. Google's response was that rooted users could, in theory, dig in to their phones, grab rented or streaming movies and in turn, pirate them. Lame.

All the Android news that's fit to Google for the week. We look at how Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook will work... and how they won't. We bring news of an always up to date way to root your Android phone from Lifehacker, along with an easy method you should try first. We also take a look at Acer's Iconia A500 tablet that very nearly matches the overpriced Motorola Xoom and at $450, what it means for the Android tablet market as a whole. Also, Kate Abraham brings the Android app review of the day; the 8500+ Drink Recipes app that ensures no matter what's in the liquor cabinet, you can whip up a tasty libation.

There is a lot of interest in

rooting Android phones

due to the extra control it gives you over your handset. In this tutorial, we show you

how to root your Android phone

using the

Samsung Galaxy S

as an example. The method we use also allows you to

unroot your Android

if the need should arise.

Andy and Sean take a look at what's involved in rooting the Android smartphone - a process of gaining admin access to the back end of the phone, which allows greater access for modifying the phone's operating system and carrier - talk about the pros and cons of doing so, and show you one easy way to root your phone.

You hear lots of people talking about

rooting Android devices

. "Rooting" is done so you can get root access to the device which gives you superuser privileges. As a "superuser" you can then

flash custom ROMs

and do other things that the manufacturer of your Android device never intended.

In this last episode, we give you a

summary of the rooting process

. We'll talk about the steps you took to

root your Motorola Droid

and outline the importance of good research whenever

rooting a handset

. We'll also point you in the direction of more

information on rooting

and custom ROMs.

In this episode, we show you

how to use ROM Manager

for Droid. ROM Manager has a free version available which allows you to

back up your Droid

easily,

install custom ROMs

and more. Most importantly, it gives your

Droid more boot options

so that you don't have to go through the same processes we outlined over the past few episodes.

Now that you've finished

rooting your Motorola Droid

, you should know that it is easy to

find custom ROMs

that you can use. Just use your search engine of choice and search for

Motorola Droid ROMs

and you should see plenty of results. Research ROMs that look promising and try them out if you like.

Now that you have successfully

rooted your Motorola Droid

, you'll want to

set up your Droid

. This will be similar to how you originally set up your Droid, except that now it will be

running OS 2.2, Froyo

. Take some time to get a feel for your new rooted Droid.

In order to continue the root process. you're going to need to

perform a factory reset

. We show you how to use your

Droid's recovery reboot menu

so you can continue

rooting your Motorola Droid

. Specifically, we'll show you how to install the rooted ROM and

upgrade to OS 2.2 Froyo

.

Here, we begin the actual root process by

wiping your Motorola Droid

and

install a new rooted ROM

. We'll show you how to install the new rooted ROM, but we also recommend that you

back up your Droid's data

first so that you can restore it later. Once you've done that, you're ready to

root your Motorola Droid

.

In this episode, we'll show you

how to flash the SBF file

to your Droid

using RSD Lite

. This won't

root your device

but it is one of the last steps on the way to

rooting your Motorola Droid

. This is one of the lengthier episodes, so be sure to follow each step carefully.

With RSD Lite installed, we can now flash the SBF file to your phone. This does not "root" it, but it paves the way.

The next step in

rooting your Motorola Droid

is to

install RSD Lite

4.6. This is the software that we will use to

flash the Droid

. This part is tricky as an improperly flashed ROM can potentially brick the device, but if you've been following along and follow this guide step by step, there should be no problems.

In this episode, we focus on how to

download and install device drivers

for your

Motorola Droid

. We'll give you the

download links to drivers

for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows and walk you through the

driver install process

, which is important because you need the latest drivers in order to

root your Motorola Droid

.

In order to

root your Motorola Droid

, you will need to download certain files first. These files range from

Droid device drivers

to a

Froyo 2.2 ROM

. We'll give you the download links for

rooting your Droid

and explain how each of these

files is necessary to root

your phone in this episode.

With the growing interest in

rooting Android phones

, we thought it would be a good idea to show you

how to root your Droid

and tell you

what rooting means

. There are many

benefits to rooting

your Droid, like

access to new software and ROMs

, but there are also some risks if the process isn't done correctly, which we outline in this episode.

In this series we show you

how to root your Motorola Droid

.

Rooting your Droid handset

can

unlock features

and give you

access to applications and ROMs

that you would otherwise be unable to use. While there are risks involved, if you follow this guide you should be able to

root your Droid safely

.