One of my favorite movies is the 1978 Superman. Back in June, I purchased the Samsung Galaxy S4 through Verizon, which, for the most part, is an excellent device. After a 19% discount through my work, I pay $89 for 450 minutes, 1000 text messages and 2GB of data. While I reach 75% of text and talk, I must remain extremely parsimonious with my data usage, which means no streaming movies in the park while eating a slice of pizza and limiting my Google Music streaming during my commute. While I could certainly upgrade my data plan to 5GB for an additional $20 a month, I am happy seeing how 2GB suits my needs. For the most part, since I work from home and/or school, 2GB has sufficed.
However…
As a subscriber to Google Music, I have become very acquainted with the pin feature, which downloads and caches music directly to my device. This is a great feature, especially when I know I will be travelling as I was last weekend. However, due to the exorbitant amount of bloatware that comes preinstalled on my device, I can only cache so much at anytime. To combat this issue, I purchased a 64GB micro SD card (60GB after formatting) only to find that Google Music does not allow for downloading to external storage. Really guys? I think if the music applies DRM, then it shouldn’t matter where the data is stored, but I guess we’d have to take a closer look at what the publishing houses say about this. Nevertheless, I found an adequate workaround, but it now requires my device to be rooted.
Hence the title I am Superuser.
Although I always wanted to root my device, I was largely hesitant for two main reasons. First, I felt I didn’t have the time or patience to fool around with the device. Second, I was also somewhat worried about breaking (aka bricking) a brand new $600 device. But I was determined and ultimately successful and it took maybe 10 minutes to accomplish. As a result of rooting, I am now able to modify application configurations to cache data directly to my SD Card. As an added bonus, I have been able to remove much of the unnecessary bloatware installed by the manufacturers. C’mon, do I really need Yahoo News and Finance and HP Print Service? And some of the other apps ‘permanently’ installed are just ridiculous. But I am Superuser now, adios…