Rooting and modding Android phones isn’t always easy. And even when it is, it cal always be easier. That’s the philosophy that drove XDA user “pvyParts” to create Auto-Installer, a simple Android app that adds the ubiquitous ClockworkMod custom recovery software to any Sony Xperia phone made in 2011. What’s more, it does so via a sneaky little partition setup that doesn’t touch the phone’s bootloader – thereby preserving user’s manufacturer warranties.
Installation couldn’t be simpler, though you do have to have a rooted phone in order to apply the software, and it only applies to phones that have been updated to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Download the free app from the Android Market, run the CWM installer and reboot your phone – bingo bango, instant mod time. Alternately, you can download the app from the original thread and install it via the standard non-Market method.
The other options included in the app follow the pattern established by ROM Manager, the official ClockworkMod Recovery app. You can reboot directly into recovery, make an automatic Nandroid backup via the app, and check your root status. This is a major boon for those who have a less popular phone that hasn’t made its way into the official support list yet. The app is now on its fourth revision, so most of the kinks have been worked out already.
Oh, and there’s a Nyan Cat in the background. Nice.
