Yesterday we went inside the spaceship through the “Vendetta” commercial for the Motorola XOOM and today, Moto is talking about how it could potentially replace your laptop.  Not sure if I’d go that far yet, but after having it for 2 days now, I can say that it has “WIN!” written all over it.  

Time to root that brand new Motorola XOOM of yours (Thanks @Koush!).  We aren’t going to dig into a bunch of background on what “rooting” means, but if you are new, just understand that this will void your warranty just like unlocking the bootloader will.  Only proceed if you are willing to accept that fact.

*NOTE – If you have the WiFi-only version of the XOOM, you have different instructions. [Here]

*BEFORE YOU ROOT, YOU’LL WANT TO UNLOCK THE BOOTLOADER. [Instructions]

Instructions:

1.  One last reminder.  Unlock your bootloader first.  [Instructions]
2.  Download this file to your computer:  xoomroot.zip
3.  Extract the contents into your Android SDK Tools folder.
4.  Open a command prompt from within your Android SDK Tools folder.

*Make sure nothing is selected and hold SHIFT+Right click – select “Open command window here.”

5.  Type:  adb reboot bootloader
6.  Type:  fastboot flash boot rootboot.img
7.  Type:  fastboot reboot
8.  Wait for your device to reboot all the way.
9.  Type:  adb remount
10.  Type:  adb push su /system/bin
11.  Type:  adb shell ln –s /system/bin/su /system/xbin/su
12.  Type:  adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
13.  And now this next step you have a couple of options.

Option A:  Push Superuser.apk in adb.  Type:  adb push Superuser.apk /system/app

Option B:  Exit adb and download Superuser app from the market.

14. Enjoy being rooted!

All credit to @Koush for this magic.  Hat tip to @PeterAlfonso for some 1-on-1 help.

This video has been floating around for a couple of days now, but we’ve been so caught up HypeBeastin‘ and in feeding Thunderbolt trolls that we struggled to find time to post it.  Well, now is the time.  This is a beautiful visualization of Android activations that starts back in October 2008 and takes us all the way up through January 2011.  It’s also a good reminder that we might not be where we are today if it wasn’t for the original DROID and that massive marketing campaign.  

I hate to say it, but isn’t it a little late for this device?  The HTC Merge was supposed to be out some time back in November or December, but received the temporary-axe just before launch and we thought it had been lost forever.  Then it popped up again in January from one of our Alltel connections who said it should be available within a month, only we’re still sitting here without it.  And then today, HTC actually announced it as the CDMA-world phone we were expecting, but who’s still interested in it?  It has a 3.8″ screen, is not 4G LTE, does not have a front camera, will more-than-likely include an abundance of Bing, and runs old HTC Sense on Android 2.2.  Well, I guess it does have a fancy physical keyboard though.

Tough sell especially with the new lineup of DROID devices including the Incredible 2 on the way, plus a handful of 4G LTE devices.  Anyone still looking at the Merge as their next phone?

Spring 2011.  Full presser after the break.  

The Motorola XOOM bootloader has been easily unlocked using “fastboot oem unlock” and thanks to a bit of help from some key players (Koush, Pete, and Charlie) in the Android community, we’ve put together this simple guide for you.  If you run into issues, be sure to drop them in the comments.

Instructions:

*Warning 1* – This will void the warranty on your brand new XOOM.  It also means that you may not be able to upgrade to 4G LTE, but I can’t confirm that.

*Warning 2* – This will completely wipe and format your XOOM.  Many of you have had yours for a full day now, but it’s probably a good idea to do this now than after  you’ve had it for a month.

*Note* – This uses adb.  If you are into hacking on your Android devices at all, it’s time you learn at least some basic commands.  Not everything in this world is a 1-click breeze.

1.  Get the latest Motorola USB drivers.
2.  Get the newest Android SDK and install it.

*They’ve changed the location of some files from the Tools folder and placed them in Platform Tools.  Go into Platform Tools, copy everything, and paste it all in your Tools folder.

3.  Open a command prompt from within your Android SDK Tools folder.

*Make sure nothing is selected and hold SHIFT+Right click – select “Open command window here.”

4.  Type:  adb reboot bootloader
5.  Your XOOM will reboot into the bootloader showing “Starting Fastboot Protocol Support.”
6.  Type:  fastboot oem unlock
7.  Read the warning on your XOOM’s screen.
8.  You may have to tap Volume Down to switch it to “Accept.”
9.  Then press Volume Up to actually “Accept.”
10.  Once you accept, your XOOM will be unlocked and formatted.
11.  And now on to rooting instructions:  How to:  Root the Motorola XOOM.

+1 Motorola XOOM.

Hopefully you weren’t too locked on to the $249 2-year contract price tag that Best Buy was advertising last week for the HTC Thunderbolt because this week they’ve jumped it up a notch to $299.  That would be the same $299 from the Buyer’s Guide that we first reported on last weekend and a number I’m sure many of you are not excited about.

And now that we know the TBolt is again in this week’s BBY ad, we’re putting more thought into that March 3rd date rather than the oddly spammed March 10th one that was spread around to every tech site on the planet last night.  Something seems too fishy about that one, but hey, who really knows at this point, right?  Buddha.

Cheers M!

The big rumor running around tech sites today suggested that the HTC Thunderbolt would be out next week on March 3rd or 4th, but the screenshot we just received from our friends at Best Buy suggests that it’ll be another week after that.  March 10th is apparently the date that BBY is expecting to launch the phone and we’re of course skeptical, but at least it’s not from a random guy in a forum.  Can you all wait another couple of weeks?

Update:  This document was spammed out to every tech site on the planet last night and as many have pointed out, it looks a little odd to be taken too seriously.  What’s even whackier, is that the tipster sent us a second email yesterday pointing out the fact that the Best Buy tweet about the 4th had been removed, only we already knew that.  Fishy, fishy, fishy.

Cheers C!