It was inevitable. I just can’t leave well enough alone. Why stay with a stock phone when you can hack it to unlock all these secret features that doesn’t come stock with the phone. “Rooting” a G1 is essentially hacking the phone to support aftermarket firmware. The most popular (and my favorite) being Cyanogens ROMS.When a phone comes out, take for example the Droid by Verizon, the guys on the XDA forums hack the phone and extract cool features out of it. Then they “port” or transfer it over to make it work on the G1. The most recent example is getting Google Navigation working on the G1. Google Navigation is only available on the Droid as of right now, but with a hacked phone and aftermarket firmware I am running the new Navigation on my G1. It is SO sweet!

So how do you root your G1 and what’s the catch?

You can find out how to root it here, and the catch is that if you are not careful you can “brick” your phone rendering it useless (it’s hard to actually brick your phone). I should also mention that if you root your phone you void your warranty. I rooted because I’ve had it over a year and it’s time for a new phone anyways. If I had bricked it, I just would have gotten another phone.

As of now though…although I do want another phone….I am having A BLAST with a hacked G1 running custom firmware.

If you are already running Cyanogens ROMS and you haven’t yet donated to him….shame on you. Donate now.