Previously here I posted information on how to root a Verizon Galaxy Tab 10.1 SCH-I905. The original release came with Android 3.1 Gingerbread on it. Verizon have just released an update to v.4 ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich).
The actual Over-the-Air (OTA) ICS update from Verizon was not able to install on my device because of the modifications I made to it. In order to get the OTA ICS update to install I had to actually use Odin and flash the stock SCH-I905 Android image and do a factory wipe.
Prior to doing that I installed Titanium Backup Pro and made backups of my important apps. I then copied the entire contents of the sdcard to another computer.
One it was flashed back to the factory image the OTA updates arrived and the process went fairly quickly. I didn’t have to wait long between updates. They basically installed one after the other. There were several as the original release had a number of Gingerbread patches before the ICS update.
I managed to find out (see previous post) that a very recent version of ClockworkMod Recovery is available from the FTP site maintained by the Galaxy Tab CyanogenMod developer. The unlabeled version which was available in the FTP directory tree for CM10 for the Verizon Galaxy Tab was v.6.0.1.1, more recent than other free-floating releases. I guess he develops it and doesn’t always make an official post about the most recent releases.
Immediately after performing the factory wipe I booted the Tab into recovery and flashed the 6.0.1.1 CWM. I then performed a full device backup. This is a pristine backup of the newly flashed Galaxy Tab with ICS. This will be useful if I ever need to go back and restore the system. I will not have to go all the way back to the early Gingerbread release, but now have this recent release.
Getting the thing rooted was challenging, only because I was still using the old method which worked for Gingerbread. That method does not work, but there is a method that does work. Hoorah!
I found this article: How to Root ICS on Galaxy Tab 10.1! (Also for Tab 2) at GalaxyTabHacks.com which has a download “Download rooting files” and this gave me a GalaxyTabHacks.com_SuperUser.zip which I copied to the sdcard and installed with CWM. This installed not the previous app Superuser which worked under Gingerbread, and which I tried multiple times to get working with ICS and failed, but instead installed an app called SuperSU.
SuperSU is super. Immediately after installing it I installed AdFree Android and now my Tab is ad free. Yaay!
There’s a long list of things apps I will restore back to this newly updated Tab which is almost like a completely new device. I’m really impressed with the performance improvements with Ice Cream Sandwich. Let’s hear it for the Linux 3 series kernel and for Android.
Here are some of the more notable apps I will be re-installing:
LauncherPro – this is still a much better interface than the stock TouchWiz interface. It allows there to be many more columns and rows on the screen thereby allowing vastly more icons. And yes I can actually have so many apps that it pretty much fills up all the slots.
AdFree Android – I mentioned this but will mention it again. The ability to remove ads to me is not just something pleasant, there is also a privacy concern as ads these days are so invasive. I want it all blocked. My device is my device. I pay for it.
Titanium Backup Pro – I’m putting this at the top of the list because it is useful to a person like me who wants to hack their device.
aWARemote Pro – I mentioned this in previous posts. It lets one remotely control Winamp running on a PC on the local network.
Collins Mini Gem EN-EL – There are these amazingly cool bilingual dictionary made by Collins and other which can actually pronounce words. This one is English-Greek. It has been extremely helpful for understanding pronunciation of Greek words.
Larousse English French dictionary – almost identical the the Collins dictionaries. Its great to be able to hear French words pronounced.
ezPDF Reader – this is by far one of the most useful apps on the Tab. Its not just a PDF reader. It has features which take it to another level entirely – bookmarking features and zoom features which are very useful for those with collections of documents in PDF format, such as students. I have had several texts for classes in PDF format and this reader was the interface.
MobileSheets – similar to ezPDF, it displays PDF documents of sheet music and has similar features to it and others more specific to music. It basically turns the Tab into an electronic sheet music viewer.
Piano Perfect – I’ve tried several piano apps and this one seems the best by far. The sound is very good compared to others, and the number of keys can be set to a high or low number.
Lastpass – essential. Well, essential for me since I use Lastpass on all my systems to store passwords and other data including credit card info for payments.
Opera Mobile – Opera has one feature that no other browser I have seen on Android does – when a page is zoomed, it automatically re-fits the text onto the screen. All other browsers, when the page is zoomed, the characters will run over the edge of the screen. Why Opera gets this right and no others do I do not know, but it makes Opera essential.
NHK World TV – ok this goes under the category diversion but its actually cool to see the Tab working like a television. If you get Market Unlocker you can also switch to a non-US market and get KBS World.
K9 Mail – the best mail reader on Android that I’ve seen
SatTrack – another “diversion” category app but extremely cool. It will let you know when the Internation Space Station or just about any other orbiting satellite will pass overhead and be visible enough to see. It will tell you exactly where in the sky it will be at what time, how bright, and when.
Hacker’s Keyboard – much better than the stock keyboard
Tiny Flashlight + LED – more than a flashlight, a really cool app that can make the screen different colors. Also has a useful widget that can be used for turning the camera flash LED on or off.
Intuit GoPayment – accept credit cards easily with this excellent app from the financial software company Intuit. Open a free account and then download the app to your Android device. They will send out a free card reader so you can swipe cards, or you can enter them manually. The nice thing is it doesn’t require a merchant account and the approval process to set up an account is fast. The card reader actually plugs into the audio jack. The volume level should be set to maximum for best results.
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