Courtesy by TeamOvercome's forum.

adb: Android Debug Bridge, a versatile tool lets you manage the state of an emulator instance or Android-powered device.

Baseband: In communications and signal processing, the baseband describes signals and systems whose range of the frequencies measured from close to 0 hertz to a cut-off frequency, a maximum bandwidth or highest signal frequency; it is sometimes used to describe frequencies starting close to zero.

Boot Loop: simply means something is preventing the phone from completing it's boot cycle and is stuck between the boot animation and the unlock screen, creating a looped animation. This is often fixed by either reloading a Nandroid, or Reflashing a rom from recovery.

Brick or Bricked: Jargon for a completely unrecoverable device, (no more than a brick or paperweight). Some experts divide bricks into two a soft brick (corrupted software and non functioning device). A hard brick which is complete dead device only needs external interference or changing motherboard.

Bug or Software Bug: an Error or flaw in software that produces a failure or unexpected/unwanted result. Typically created from incorrect code, this is why some ROMs are better and smoother running than others because certain developers have taken the time to input "perfect" code..

Busybox: BusyBox is a single multicall binary that packages the functionality of most widely used standard Unix tools, BusyBox provides a fairly complete environment for any small or embedded system.

ClockworkMod: A recovery program that is often used to apply updates, ROMs, or create a back up or restore a backup file. Its an alternative to the stock Recovery with more options.

Dalvik Cache: Dalvik cache is a program cache area for the program Dalvik. Dalvik is a java based virtual machine that is the basis for running your programs (the ones that have the .apk extension). In order to make access times faster (because there's not JIT (just in time) compiler installed by default), the dalvik-cache is the result of dalvik doing a optimization of the running program. It's similar to the prefetch files in Windows.

Download Mode: A maintenance mode in Android device that is used for flashing ROMs, kernel, modems etc. Its achieved on the Galaxy Tab by pressing power button and volume down.

De-odex: Apk files have respective odexes that devs use to supposedly save space. Deodexing means you convert it back to a .dex file and put it back inside the apk. This allows you to easily replace files (not having to worry about odexes), but the main point was to deodex services.jar so that you can change all text to different colors (such as the clock color to white) and to deodex services.jar, you need to deodex everything.

Dev. or Developer: An individual that creates, or alters a file in such a manner as to advance the program.

Flash or Flash Memory: a program technology that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed.

Firmware: Firmware is Defined as a fixed program or Data control structures that are used to internally control hardware at the basic level e.g BIOS on a personal computer.

IPL: Initial Program Load is a bootstrapping process which is used to activate a computerised System. Basically its the sequence of operations performed when you first touch the power button till your OS fully loads. A BootLoader is responsible for this process on our tabs and loads the OS.

Kernel: The governor of the CPU usage and Battery output, one can upload certain Kernels to achieve greater performance speed of their device at the cost of some battery life.

Governer: A set of instruction codes that Directs CPU Function and usage.

Nandroid or Nandroid Backup: A file typically created in the custom recovery program, such as clockworkmod, that is a carbon copy of whatever state your phone is in before a drastic change is made. the file then can be moved onto or off of the SD card for later use in case something should go wrong in the ROM or Update, or a Boot Loop occurs.

OS: Operating system, I.E. Windows Vista or MAC or ANDROID.

Overclocking: Speeding up the CPU past the factory presets to achieve a faster and more responsive device.

Overcome: A custom ROM/Firmware that has been developed by Alterbridge86 to enhance the experience on the Samsung Galaxy tab and to get the best out of the device. Kudos alter

Patch: A modified set of programming instructions added to a main program to fix a bug, enhance its performance or simply add a feature.

Recovery Mode: A second Maintenance Mode in Android device used for maintenance functions like cache and stat wipes, fixing permissions, flashing update packages and it can be used to flash a new custom ROM as well.

ROM: Read Only Memory, a program used to make changes to anything from the look of the home screen, to icons to custom boot animation.

Root: Common word associated with giving a user "super user" access to their phones programming and other various aspects that would normally not be possible, also known as "Jailbroken" for iPhone's. Basically Its similar to getting administrative privileges on a Windows Machine.

SD Card: Its a Flash based storage media that is used to store Data. On the Galaxy tab there are 2 (TWO) SD card internal SD card which is the on board storage (16 GB or 32 GB) and external SD card which is the MircoSD card that you insert in the Card slot on the right side of the tab.


Shell or SSH: secure shell or ssh is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices.

Stock: Simply means an unaltered state, such as when you first purchase your phone from Verizon, or when you do a factory reset. Current stock image is Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

SU: "Super user", or root permissions.

Theme: A set of icons, backgrounds and app trays that change the ascthetics of the overall look of the droid and its applications.

Underclocking: Slowing down the CPU mainly to limit battery usage. You can ask thepitbull about that :lol:

File types:
.apk or APK's: An .apk file extension denotes an Android Package (APK) file, an .apk file can be opened and inspected using common archive tools.

.tar: Similar to a zip file, a tar file archives multiple files into one file.

.zip: Zipped file used to archive multiple files into one to save space and allow for single download.

.pit: Handle the partitioning of the internal SD.