What do you do with your Rooted Android phone now?

So you rooted your Android phone... now what do you do? The first time I rooted, I just left it alone, and didn't change anything because I just wanted to be able to say I was rooted. I think I may have used the Terminal Emulator to move files because I'm a linux guy, rather than using the - at the time - poor file manager GUIs. But I've rooted 3 different Android phones now, and I wouldn't have it any other way. As soon as a root technique is released for a phone I have, my phone is rooted the same day. The best thing about it, is you don't HAVE to change anything, and you can always remove root later.

What do you do now though? You've got your rooted phone, you can see the Superuser Ninja in your app drawer, but you still don't know what apps to get and what ROMs are going to make your phone better or faster. You've already removed any warranty the phone might have had by rooting it, so here's a quick checklist of the things that EVERY root user should do once they have access to their phones.

1. Get Busybox. If you do nothing else that requires root access, this one is required for everything else anyway. You need it to install backup software, recovery software, and MOD software.
2. Get yourself a custom recovery app. ClockworkMod is pretty much the most well known, but there are others as well that work fine. I prefer ClockworkMod myself, so I'll focus on that. This changes your recovery screen menu, giving you more options for backing up and restoring. If you have at least a 16gb flash drive on your phone, you can make multiple backups of all your different ROM setups, so you can make a decision on which one you like best.
3. Get Titanium Backup. This is the most indispensable app on the market, more so I think than Busybox, but you need busybox for this one to work. Backup individual apps to your SD card, and then if you do a wipe, you can restore the apps instead of redownloading them and losing all their saved data - like your Battle.net Authenticator (yes, I've lost it twice now) or your banking info. If you get the professional version, you can also freeze apps so they can't run. With the standard version, you can uninstall programs, which is great for all that bloatware that seems to be finding itself onto 2.2 Android OTA updates. Finally, schedule a backup or two, and you'll always have the latest versions of all your software.
   
4. Download ROM Manager. Again, a paid or free version, with the paid one having a few more options available, but both functioning equally well. You can download new ROMs (a ROM is basically the GUI that you are using on your phone... like Gnome or KDE for Linux. Some ROMs come with new Kernels (the base Operating System, like Windows, Linux, MacOS...) BE CAREFUL... Only flash a kernel from someone you trust, or that has been vetted by one of the trusted Android Mod forums to the point of excessive. A bad kernel can destroy your phone, and your provider will laugh at you while they charge you full price for a new replacement. I'm personally enjoying Virtuous for Incredible, along with the theme, keyboard, and font mods that come with it, as well as the Virtuous custom kernel. It's awesome. CyanogenMod is pretty pimpish too. :)
   
5. Get AdFree on the market. It will only replace your hosts file so that Ad-Supported apps can't get their advertisements and fill your screen with garbage, which you could do by hand.... but add a new piece of software that is ad-supported, click this one, and it will update your phone with a new hosts file so you don't have to type it all out by hand.
6. SUFBS is the greatest root-required file manager. Not only that, it can also be a media player, handles zip files, searches your computer if you have it linked to your phone via WiFi, and has a built in terminal emulator.
7. SetCPU is the key to longer battery life, along with a new ROM and Kernel. Without this little gem, your phone will always run at "Ondemand" settings, running from the lowest clock speed to the highest, whenever anything requests a little more processor time. You can set up user profiles for full/charging, battery %, temperature, and screen off, with options like performance, ondemand, conservative, and powersave, it's pretty obvious which ones you should use for which times of day. What used to last 9-10 hours on a charge just texting, now lasts me 12-14 hours while acting as an MP3 player, web browser, voice recorder, and IRC client.... Yes, I'm quite happy now.

Another necessity you might want to look into, include AndChat, an Android IRC client. Join Freenode.net, and hang around in #unrevokedtest if you have an HTC phone, #android-root for general rooting tech, #droid-life if you have one of the multitudes of Verizon Droid phones, and ##physics for fun or math help... those guys are life savers. :P

Oh yeah, now that you've got root access, you can use the wonderful WiFi Hotspot software that is being pushed with 2.2 Froyo base roms. If you have Verizon, e-mail me, and I'll walk you through it. Other service providers, might try checking IRC to see what you need to change to bypass the crap subscriptions for WiFi access. While you're at it, the things you can absolutely delete without worry include Amazon MP3, Stocks and the Stocks widget, Skype Mobile, My Verizon crap, Visual Voicemail, etc... just be careful deleting anything with a RED name, as usually these are System Files, and bad things can happen if they are gone. Always back up before doing ANY modifications, and if you can get into recovery mode, you can always restore back to your last backup and save your phone.

If by chance you happen to break something, do whatever you can to remove root and s-off before you take your phone back to your provider... Keeping a solid ORIGINAL 2.2 Backup on your computer or stored in your nearly 8gb Gmail inbox will help a LOT if you need to do that restore one day, especially if your SD card somehow gets damaged...

Hope you guys have fun, and don't break anything or complain to me when something gets messed up... I didn't write any of the software, so I can't be held responsible.