Retablature

I spent a little time voiding the warranty of my Lenovo Ideapad K1 tablet last week. I’ve owned it for over a year and like the idea of tablets but I grew increasingly frustrated at Lenovo’s lack of software updates. Finally, I got determined enough to flash it with a new ROM, just like I did with my Samsung Galaxy Epic Touch phone.

A number of web searches later and I had Cyanogenmod 10.2 running on it, with the latest Android 4.2.2 under the covers. My tablet speed tests report a speed boost of a whopping 25%, too. What’s more, I can transfer files with it much easier than with the stock rom, making it far more useful.

This kind of stuff is another example of the power of open source: if a company can’t (or won’t) do the right thing, customers have the power to do it themselves. (The corollary to this is: if you don’t have the right to hack it then you don’t really own it.)