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[aktrazer]

We've decided to build a list of commonly used terminology on the site to help everyone understand what we're talking about when we use some of these terms. If you have any additional terms or questions you'd like answered, feel free to post them here!

Glossary of terms:

1X (EV-DO):
1X is, well, outdated and a legacy network. However, if you are in a very weak signal area and 3G/4GLTE are not available, your phone may pick up this slower network. It's speeds are about 400-600 Kbps but can reach an estimated maximum of 2 Mbps. This type of network, like i said, is not used as a primary network anymore but more of a 'failover' network if 3G/4GLTE isn't available.

3G:
Definition - "3G, short for third Generation, is a term used to represent the 3rd generation of mobile telecommunications technology. Also called Tri-Band 3G. This is a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecommunication services and networks that comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by the International Telecommunication Union. 3G finds application in wireless voice telephony, mobile Internet access, fixed wireless Internet access, video calls and mobile TV."
3G is the previous generation of cell phone connection technology. Most carriers have moved on to 4G(LTE) technologies, providing higher speeds.

4G:
Definition - "4G is the fourth generation of mobile phone mobile communications standards. It is a successor of the third generation (3G) standards. A 4G system provides mobile ultra-broadband Internet access, for example to laptops with USB wireless modems, to smartphones, and to other mobile devices. Conceivable applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, 3D television and Cloud Computing."
4G is the current iteration of mobile technology. It's infrastructure allows for higher data transmission and reception speeds.

Android SDK:
A software development kit that enables developers to create applications for the Android platform. The Android SDK includes sample projects with source code, development tools, an emulator, and required libraries to build Android applications. Applications are written using the Java programming language and run on Dalvik, a custom virtual machine designed for embedded use which runs on top of a Linux kernel.

ADB - Android Debugging Bridge:
This program and service allow your computer to talk to your phone and manipulate it using command line paramters. More information, including command line paramters and switches can be found here:

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AOSP - Android Open Source Project:
When you see AOSP, typically the ROM in question will be more basic Android, without the bells and whistles, if you will. These ROMs generally run a touch faster than other ROMs. No Sense, no TouchWiz, just Android.

AOKP - Android Open Kang Project:
These ROMs are usually more involved and have more tweaks and tuning capabilities. Kang is a commonly used word in the Android community used to describe stealing someone else's work and is frquently used with a negative connotation. AOKP was developed to allow developers to build ROMs that are enhancements on each other's work. The more devs, the more customizability and streamlined it can be, as they all build on each other's work.

APK:
Android application package file. Each Android application is compiled and packaged in a single file that includes all of the application's code (.dex files), resources, assets, and manifest file. The application package file can have any name but must use the .apk extension. For convenience, an application package file is often referred to as an ".apk".

Blur (Motoblur):
Blur is an Android UI replacement and push-based service focused on social networking, developed by Motorola. It aims at functional similarity to Palm's Synergy, including such features as Remote Wipe. Motoblur includes a variety of widgets which combine various social networking portals such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter as well as other services (news or weather reports) all in one place. Feeds and data are regularly pushed to these widgets.

Baseband:
Definition - "In telecommunications and signal processing, baseband is an adjective that describes signals and systems whose range of frequencies is measured from close to 0 hertz to a cut-off frequency, a maximum bandwidth or highest signal frequency; it is sometimes used as a noun for a band of frequencies starting close to zero. Baseband can often be considered a synonym to lowpass or non-modulated, and antonym to passband, bandpass, carrier-modulated or radio frequency (RF). The term is often used in contrast to passband, which refers to a signal which has been translated to a higher frequency, often for transmission by frequency division multiplexing."
Wow, that's a lot of information and big words. In essence, baseband is the range of frequencies or modulations that your phone transmits and recieves.

Bootloader:
Well, just like in your PC, the bootloader is what starts before your phone loads the OS. It loads key components such as the kernel and instucts the OS to boot. Bootloaders are device and hardware specific, so for any X number of devices, there are X different bootloader versions. We'll get to "unlocking" later on in this guide.

Bootloop:
This is a very common term used to describe a phone that is stuck at the boot animation screen and won't complete the boot procedure, allowing you access to the phone. Many times this is caused by not wiping the appropriate partitions completely before loading a ROM, but sometimes, well, it just happens. The best couurse of action is to wipe the ROM slot completely and attempt to reflash, 99 times out of 100, this fixes the bootloop.

Brick (soft) AKA soft-bricked:
Now we get into one of the most misused terms in the Android community. People often associate "bricking" with a complete unrecoverable device. As in, it's only good for a paperweight. In fact, there are 2 types of bricks, hard and soft.
Soft brick is used to describe a phone that will get past the bootloader but not boot into the OS. Now, that means that you get nothing, no boot animation, anything, but you can still recover the phone by fastbooting or flashing a new ROM.

Brick (hard) AKA hard-bricked:
This is the one we all fear. The infamous hard-brick. This term is used to describe a phone that is completely useless and can only be used as a paperweight. This type of bricking means you cant even get into the bootloader or recovery and cannot be recovered from.

The easiest way to avoid this terrible mishap?
Read up on what you're doing. Educate yourself on what is going on with your phone before you flash or mod it. Taking a few minutes to read up on what you're doing can save you more time and money than you could imagine.
Most importantly, read the instructions!

Busybox:
Definition - "A stripped-down Unix toolsest packaged in a single executable file. It runs in a variety of POSIX environments such as Linux (including Android), FreeBSD and others, such as proprietary kernels, although many of the tools it provides are designed to work with interfaces provided by the Linux kernel. It was specifically created for embedded operating systems with very limited resources. The authors dubbed it "The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux", as the single executable replaces basic functions of more than 300 common commands. It is released as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License."
In short, it's a payload of UNIX tools that enable the host OS to operate with more functionality outside of basic parameters.

CWM - ClockWork Mod Recovery:
CWM is a custom recovery program and functions similar to Safe Strap. It allows you to flash ROMs while maintaining the integrity of your primary (stock) system.

Dalvik:
Definition - "Dalvik is the process virtual machine (VM) in Google's Android operating system. It is the software that runs the apps on Android devices. Dalvik is thus an integral part of Android, which is typically used on mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers as well as more recently on embedded devices such as smart TVs and media streamers. Programs are commonly written in Java and compiled to bytecode. They are then converted from Java Virtual Machine-compatible .class files to Dalvik-compatible .dex (Dalvik Executable) files before installation on a device. The compact Dalvik Executable format is designed to be suitable for systems that are constrained in terms of memory and processor speed.
Dalvik is open-source software. It was originally written by Dan Bornstein, who named it after the fishing village of Dalvík in Eyjafjörður, Iceland, where some of his ancestors lived."
In short Dalvik is a VM that allows for running applications on hardware that may be limited compared to an actual PC. Like our phones.

Dalvik Cache:
The Dalvik Cache is a cache area for the actual Dalvik program. It is generated as the Dalvik program runs and optimizes programs that are contained within it's environment. Compare it to prefetch files in Windows.

De-odex(ed):
Basically, Apk files have respective .odex files that developers use to save space. Deodexing means you convert it back to a .dex file and put it back inside the apk, removing the .odex file entirely. This allows you to easily move and replace .apks without having to transfer it's respective .odex counterparts. The reasoning behind this, originally, was to de-odex services.jar to allow modifying color schemes and themes. If you de-odex services, you need to de-odex everything.

Factory Cable:
This is a cable that you can get from Team Black Hat (or make yourself). This cable crosses over one of the pins on the USB plug and bypasses the battery on your phone, allowing you to mod the phone if your battery gets below a safe level for flashing.

Fastboot (ADB Command):
The adb command 'fastboot' allows you to flash and erage system images while your phone is in 'AP Fastboot' mode. This is only used to manually force different images (boot.img, radio.img, etc) onto the phone.

Fastboot (Phone restoration):
Another way the term fastboot is used is to describe taking a set of 'fastboot files' and flashing them, en masse, to your phone, thereby restoring your phone to factory conditions. Fastboot files are generally leaked 3-4 weeks after a major OS update and allow us modders to have a safety net in case we need to restore our phones back to stock condition.

Flash(ing):
Flashing is simply rewriting software and firmware on your phone. Anything from installing battery mods or an entire ROM fall under the term flashing.

FXZ (Full XML Zip file):
FXZ files are archives of all stock partition images for a given device to be used in fastbooting.

FXZ (Process):
See Fastboot (phone restoration).

Init.d Support:
Init.d support allows users can install scripts and mods to run at boot, and thus modify almost any aspect of the phone that they want. There are battery tweaks, performance tweaks, GPS tweaks, signal tweaks, and the list goes on and on. However for these scripts to work, the phone must first have init.d support. Typically, Ramdisks provide init.d support, but sometimes it is possible to gain init.d support without flashing a new Ramdisk, or even without altering the Ramdisk at all.
Basically, anything in the init.d folder will be run at boot. Battery tweaks, CPU Overclock scripts, you name it.

LTE - Long Term Evolution:
Definition - "LTE is a standard for wireless data communications technology and an evolution of the GSM/UMTS standards. The goal of LTE was to increase the capacity and speed of wireless data networks using new DSP (digital signal processing) techniques and modulations that were developed around the turn of the millennium. A further goal was the redesign and simplification of the network architecture to an IP-based system with significantly reduced transfer latency compared to the 3G architecture. The LTE wireless interface is incompatible with 2G and 3G networks, so that it must be operated on a separate wireless spectrum."
LTE is a high speed wireless network that most modern phones run on. There is quite a bit of tech lingo involved with what is truly 4G/LTE and what isn't. For our purposes the basic definition of LTE is enough.

Kernel:
This is the term used to describe the piece of software that bridges communication between the OS and hardware. Think of it as the 'brain' of the phone. It controls the flow of data and allocates resources to the phone based on it's resource needs.

Nandroid or Nandroid backup:
This term can be used to describe a backup of your system that's generated in a custom recovery program such as CWM or Safestrap.

OTA - Over The Air:
OTA is the process by which carriers push software and firmware updates to your phone. Basically, it's when you go to About Phone and select System Update. If there;s an update, it is delivered OTA.

Overclocking (OC):
Overclocking is setting your CPU's clock speed to higher than factory levels. While you'll see a performance increase running at higher frequencies, prolonged overclocking can cause heat damage and possibly destroy your device. Use with caution

Underclocking (US):
The inverse of overclocking. This is often done to preserve battery life and will negatively impact performance

Roaming:
Roaming is simply using your cellular device outside of the mobile network it is registered to. This is to say, you're not on your home network but still have an alternate provider who can provide service.

ROM:
Here's where it gets a little dicey. ROM stands for Read-Only Memory as we all learned in computer class. In the android world, a ROM is a piece of software that can be flashed to your phone. This mainly covers custom OSes and their components and is, for the most part, what all Android enthusiasts enjoy the most. The ability to flash a custom OS with customized components and tweaks for speed, battery life and anything else you can think of.

Root(ed):
Rooting is the proverbial master key for android enthusiasts. Gaining root access simply means that the user has superuser permissions (or Administrator rights) to the phone. This allows for flashing custom recoveries, ROMs and other pieces of software to further customize your Android experience and make it truly yours.

Root exploit:
This is the actual process that gains superuser permissions. We won't get into all the ins and out but many exploits find ways to exploit vulnerabilities in software and elevate user permissions to root (Administator). Anything from timing certain file pushes to exploiting vulnerabilities in stock software.

Safestrap:
Similar, in function, to CWM, Safestrap is a custom recovery program that interrupts the boot sequence between the bootloader initialization and OS boot and was developed by Hashcode and DHacker29. Safestrap started off with only the ability to flash one custom ROM and took up to 20 minutes. The current iteration (V3.11) has the ability to flash up to 5 custom ROMs utilizing a rom-slot system and make them 'hot-swappable', taking less than 1 minute to switch between them. It also has support for making full backups of rom-slots as well as performing other functions such as wiping partitions and formatting sd cards.

Stock:
Simply put, stock is your phone, the way it came, with no modifications.

Superuser:
Superuser is the app that manages what apps on your rooted device have access to su. Apps that are granted su have elevated permissions and can modify just about any part of the system. The app was originally written by zinx and consists of two parts, Superuser.apk and the su binary.

Superuser (apk):
Superuser.apk runs as any other app and gives you, the user, a place to see what apps you have allowed or denied, as well as view a log of what apps have used su when.

Superuser (binary):
The su binary is what other apps call when they need superuser rights. The binary checks the database maintained by Superuser.apk to determine if you have already granted rights to the requesting app, and if not tells Superuser.apk to display a prompt asking you for permission.

Unlocked (Bootloader):
The oh-so coveted unlockable bootloader on devices is the key to customizing every part of a device, right down to the bootloader and kernel. There is a very large difference between having a rooted device and and unlocked bootloader. Having an unlocked bootloader means you can change all the software and firmware on a device. This is very advantageous when it comes to flashing kernels as unlocking the bootloader allows you to flash any kernel you desire that suits your needs.
It's important to note that while rooting will not void your warranty, unlocking your bootloader WILL void it.

Unlocked (Device):
an unlocked device is very different than a device with an unlocked bootloader. An unlocked device is a device that can be used on any carrier. Due to recent developments in the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), unlocking your device will no longer be legal without expressed permission from the carrier.

Zipalign(ed):
Zipalign is an archive alignment tool introduced first time with 1.6 Android SDK (software development kit). It optimizes the way an Android application package (APK) is packaged. Doing so enables the Android operating system to interact with the application more efficiently, and hence has the potential to make the application and overall the whole system much faster. Execution time is minimized for zipaligned applications, resulting is lesser amount of RAM consumption when running the APK.

[rickw]

great job akt,PS:i pinned this

[aktrazer]

I thought I hit "Post and Pin". Oh well, thanks!

[ZKK007]

Love it! This will come in handy to a lot of people