Why Root Your HTC Droid Incredible

So, you just rooted your droid and now your thinking to yourself "sweet, now what?"  Well here's a list of apps that require root that will make you wonder how you ever lived without in no particular order.

1. Wireless Tether

Wireless Tether

This is by far my favorite app.  It makes my phone into a mobile hotspot which is really hand when you're on the go.  This app took a bit of work to get working on the Incredible, but it isn't too hard.  To get it to work you'll need a terminal like ConnectBot.  Start up a local terminal and type:

Market QR Code

Then when you run Wireless Tether it should say it's loading that file in the log.  From there you can configure Security (WEP), although so far I haven't been able to get it work with WEP enabled, I just use Access-Control and approve all the clients individually.  It also supports tethering via Bluetooth but I haven't tried it.

Developer Website

2. Lamppu

Market QR Code

Lamppu Widget

The Camera light on the back of the Incredible seems like it would make a great flash light right?  If you said yes, you are correct!  This was one of my most used features on my BlackBerry, but unfortunately HTC decided you don't get to do this and locked it down, but now that your Incredible is rooted, you can now make use of this!  This is where lamppu comes in, it gives you a widget to control the LED lights on the back of your phone.

3. ShootMe

ShootMe

Market QR Code

This is another program I used to use on my BlackBerry all the time that I enjoyed.  It lets you take screen shots of whatever your doing.  On the BlackBerry I had go to a menu and what not, but not this one it's even easier, just flick it to one side.  You can leave it running in the back ground for quick access anytime (surprisingly I haven't been taking random screen shots in my pocket) or quit when you're done for the moment.  I personally leave it running just in case I decide I want to take a quick screen shot.

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4. Shark

Shark

Market QR Code

Shark is a pretty cool program if you're into packet sniffing and whatnot.  It's kind of like a light version of WireShark for PC, but with a much lighter interface.  It will let you dump a PCAP file that you can examine later, or I guess if you're really crafty, use it right on your phone.  It would be cool to be able to crack WEP keys right on your phone or sniff for unencrypted passwords going over 3G.  Let me know what you're able to do with this.

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5. Webkey

WebKey

Market QR Code

This program I found just searching the Market for "root".  I've found it to be incredibly useful for when you need to type a lot and don't want to use the little keyboard.  Say, for example, you have a link on your computer that you want to open on your phone, well this software will let you control your phone from any web browser, and as you can see from the screen shot (below) you can go right to a webpage.  It also will do a GPS location pull and put the location on Google Maps for you.  Pretty useful if you lose your phone.  There's lots more you can do with it but I haven't played around with it too much.  One thing I haven't done is gotten it to work over 3G yet, that would make it 100x more useful in case you actually left your phone somewhere or it got stolen.

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WebKey Page

There are a ton of other apps requiring root access, but no others that I thought worth mentioning unless you're changing the ROM on your phone on a regular basis for some reason.  I personally like the HTC ROM and don't plan to move away from it and since I have the Wireless Tether app, I have no real desire to move to 2.2 before HTC releases it for the Incredible.  Anyways, even if these apps don't appeal to you, you can feel good knowing your phone is yours and you have full access to do whatever you want to it, just as you should.  Happy rooting!

Rooting the HTC Droid Incredible (the easy way)

So I've had my Droid Incredible for about a month now, and I have to say I'm very happy with it.  The 1ghz snapdragon processor is very responsive and the phone is really nice to use.  I upgraded to this phone from a RIM BlackBerry 8330 and anyone who's used one before will know how slow and clunky the phone / OS is, the difference is night and day.  Anyways I was perfectly happy with the phone without having root except for one feature; WiFi Tethering (also there were a few other features I wanted but could have lived without but are nice to have).  So here's the quick and easy way to root your Droid Incredible on Windows (it's also possible to do on Mac and Linux, I just happen to already be in Windows when I did this and didn't feel like rebooting).

Things you need before you start

1. Droid Incredible w/ USB cable
2. This USB driver (Windows)
3. unrevoked3.1 for your OS

Now for the steps

1. Enable USB Debugging Mode on your phone (Settings -> Applications -> Development)
   

   Android USB Debug Window

2. Connect your phone to your PC.  Now when I did this (I'm running Windows 7 Pro x64) it just said driver failed to install.  What I had to do was go to Start -> Devices and Printers then left click on Android Phone -> Properties then click the Hardware tab then click on HTC Android Phone USB Device then click Properties, then the Driver tab then click Update Driver  and from there tell it the location of the downloaded driver.  Let me know if you have to do something similar.
3. Reboot into the HBOOT menu.  To do this power off the phone, then push POWER + VOL DOWN and you should end up in the HBOOT menu.
   

   HTC Droid Incredible HBOOT Screen

4. The phone (still plugged into USB) should start installing new drivers for the boot menu, if it doesn't try unplugging and plugging the USB cord.
5. Now that that is finished, run the reflash.exe file that you downloaded (the unrevoked 3.1 program).  It should say something like "Waiting for device..." so reboot your phone (making sure USB Debug Mode is still on) and it should  then take control of your device.  If all goes well at this point in a few minutes you should have a rooted Droid Incredible!
   

   The Android Super User Screen

More later on how to make use of your newly rooted Droid Incredible!  Happy rooting!

Edit: New Blog Post Why Root Your HTC Droid Incredible