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Aug

Top Three Honeycomb Issues We Want Resolved - And How You Can Help Make It Happen

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Last Updated: January 28th, 2012

If you've spent any significant amount of time with Honeycomb, then you know that it has its fair share of shortcomings. Not saying that I don't love Honeycomb -- I'm simply saying that it could use a few improvements. In fact, some of the bugs or missing features that I've come across in Honeycomb make me scratch my head, as I don't understand such simple oversights or how basic functionality can be missing.

Of course, thanks to Android's open source nature, there are steps that we, as users, can take to help further development by letting devs know what bugs bug us the most.

Jun

[Video] CyanogenMod 7 Ported To Motorola DROID X

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that cvpcs has achieved the impossible: he's thrown together (but not yet publicized) a build of CyanogenMod 7 that works on the Motorola DROID X!

Naturally, since no one but cvpcs has the firmware yet, there are still a few kinks that need to be ironed out before the ROM goes public - for example, GPS, 3G, Bluetooth, and the camera/camcorder have not been proven to work just yet, ~~and audio (including phone calls, speakers, the microphone, etc.) definitely isn't functional at the moment~~. However, as our own Justin Case put it, "If it boots, it can be fixed."

Update: cvpcs just tweeted that, with some help from Stephen Bird, he was able to fix the audio issue.

Apr

[HTC EVO 4G] Undervolt Your AOSP Kernel To Improve Battery Life

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News

This is for rooted users only.

We all want to squeeze every last little bit of juice out of our devices that we can, and if you happen to have a rooted HTC EVO 4G running an AOSP kernel (such as the one that ships with CyanogenMod), then XDA member -viperboy- just made your life a little bit better. Thanks to him, there is now an easy to way to undervolt your kernel, by way of four flashable .zip files.

Generally speaking, AOSP kernels are volted to support several different devices, so it stands to reason that some devices could handle lower voltages.

Mar

CyanogenMod 7 RC2 Rolling Out Now, Packing Android 2.3.3, New Features, Bugfixes

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Development, News

Cyanogen has just announced via the CM blog that CyanogenMod 7 Release Candidate 2 is rolling out now for supported devices. The team has managed to work in the changes found in Android 2.3.3, and this is the first RC to pack WiMAX for the EVO (previously it was only found in nightlies). CM7 has been feature-frozen with RC2 as well, meaning the team will focus on fixing bugs from this point on.

CHANGELOG

7.0.0

Common: Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) - Google

Common: Fixes and changes from AOSP master - Various

Common: ClockworkMod Recovery 3.0: Koush, Cyanogen, Zinx

Common: Themes engine - T-Mobile

Common: Performance enhancements for Qualcomm hardware - Code Aurora

Common: New boot animation - 73v1n - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYXiKWwp0DQ

Common: Fix readahead values for NAND/MMC devices

Common: Revamped notification widget - cvpcs

Common: Updated various graphics for GB style - blunden

Common: DSPManager updated for 2.3 - alankila

Common: Restyled music app and forward-port of features - Jason Asher

Common: Rotary answer in Phone app - James Peterson

Common: BT VoiceDialer fixes - Matthew Sparby

Common: Calendar enhancements - James Peterson

Common: Stagefright fixes for 7x30, 8x50, and 7x27 - Zinx, arcee, Cyanogen

Common: Pacman package manager - Kmobs

Common: Workaround for unknown phone number - Jiri Tyr

Common: Trackball answer/hangup - Juan Rodriguez

Common: CMParts reorganization - Robert Burns

Common: Optional screen on/off animations - Diogo Ferreira

Common: New browser incognito mode - optedoblivion

Common: New trackball/trackpad wake - Zinx, Cyanogen

Common: Legacy sensor/GPS support - arcee

Common: Enabled v8 javascript engine on armv6 (msm7227/msm7225) - arcee

Common: Customizable overscroll - arcee

Common: Torch cleanup - defer

Common: 2D compositor backwards compatibility - arcee

Common: OpenGL backwards compatibility - Zinx, Cyanogen, Sileht, ezterry

Common: SMS templates using gestures - Riccardo Ciovati

Common: Phone Goggles - David Bidorff

Common: Option to always show battery percentage on lockscreen - Robert Burns

Common: CPU frequency/scaling control in CMParts - Robert Ramiega

Common: Option to pause/play music with camera button - cvpcs

Common: Allow SIP User-Agent configuration - arcee

Common (non-HTC): Fixed mobile connection suspension - arcee

Common: New music widgets - Jason Asher

Common: Updated FLAC support - cvpcs, Cyanogen, kroot

Common: Updated wallpapers - Fitsnugly, Prash

Common: Customizable search/long-press search - Sven Dawitz

Common: New lockscreen styles - Rotary Revamped (default) and Lense - Sven Dawitz, Stefano Pignataro

Common: Customizable app launcher on rotary lockscreen - Sven Dawitz

Common: Now playing and album art on lockscreen - kmobs

Common: GPS fixes - CodeAurora, arcee

Common: Breakfast/Brunch - arcee

Common: Statusbar battery percentage with mini icon - Sven Dawitz, design by Jazz Kalsi

Common: SMS split for braindead carriers - Mike Wielgosz

Common: CMParts cleanup - Sven Dawitz

Common: Notification profiles - Martin Long

Espresso/Legend: Enabled native WiFi tethering - Cyanogen, OMAPZoom.org

Z71: Enabled MPEG4/AAC video recording - arcee

Z71: Enabled native WiFi tethering - arcee

Passion/Bravo/BravoC/Supersonic/Inc: Kernel 2.6.37 - Google, Cyanogen, defer, Kali-, toastcfh, slayher

Vision/Glacier/Espresso: WiFi calling compatibility and optimization - Zinx

Vision/Glacier/Ace: Unified kernel - HTC, Cyanogen, Zinx, Kali-, defer

Vision/Glacier/Ace: Fix FM radio on 2.3 - Zinx

Vision: Only install WiFi calling on TMUS devices - attn1

Espresso/Legend/Liberty: Unified kernel - HTC, Cyanogen, attn1, jznomoney, Alex Hofbauer

Supersonic: WiMAX support - HTC, Shinzul, toastcfh, shift, #teamwin, Cyanogen

ONE: Enabled native WiFi tethering - arcee

For those who don't know, CyanogenMod is the largest and most popular custom ROM for Android.

Feb

[Weekend Poll] The Great Divide: Is The Tablet/Phone Split Going To Hurt Android?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

Welcome to the first of a new series of polls, where every weekend, we'll ask your opinion on a timely Android-related topic. The goal is to see where the populus stands on issues and foster discussion to broaden our view. So without further ado, let's get into our first poll.

The Great Divide

Ever since the SDK was released, there's been discussion on whether Honeycomb would make it to phones or not. Most of the team here firmly said no - but a few of us thought it could. The debate was fueled by the SDK preview release - specifically, as Ars Technica noted, the emulator could scale down to WVGA resolutions.

Jan

CyanogenMod 7: Return Of The Nightlies (Now With 100% More Gingerbread)

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Boy, do we ever have some fantastic news for the AOSP ROM-loving crowd: CyanogenMod nightlies are finally back, meaning the first official CM7 builds are rolling out as I type this. Sure, they're probably moderately buggy (although generally, CM nightlies are still pretty good), and yeah, they may be missing some features - but let's be frank: it'll still probably be one of the most solid Gingerbread builds around, regardless of what device you're using.

At the time of this writing, only the myTouch Slide, original Droid, and Nexus One builds have been compiled and are ready for mass consumption.

Dec

Run, Run, As Fast As You Can: A Round-Up Of Gingerbread ROMs

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Last Updated: January 2nd, 2011

Introduction

A few days after releasing the Android 2.3 SDK, Google officially pushed Gingerbread to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Shortly thereafter, developers (such as the CyanogenMod crew) immediately started working on their custom ROMs based on the AOSP code (e.g. CyanogenMod 7).

It has only been a few days since CyanogenMod released version 6.1.1, their most recent stable update, so it's still likely to be a few weeks before a stable release of CM 7 is available. Nevertheless, a group of eager CM developers and enthusiasts have taken the liberty of packaging early unstable releases of CM 7 (with Android 2.3 Gingerbread) for a variety of Android devices.

Dec

[Breaking] Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Being Pushed To AOSP Right Now!

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Prepare your party gear and break out the keg, people: Google is officially starting the push of Gingerbread to AOSP (Android Open Source Project) as we speak. Jean-Baptiste Queru just announced that fact, saying he was going to begin pushing the code to the AOSP, and the process is expected to take a few hours.

What does that mean for you? ROMs built on AOSP code (such as CyanogenMod) will now have access to Gingerbread, so expect CyanogenMod for Gingerbread (CM7?) to start cooking shortly. Since the code is now finalized, it also means that Google will likely start pushing out the Gingerbread update to the Nexus One.

Dec

Video Of Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor Running Android 2.2.1 AOSP Surfaces, But Details Are Scarce

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, News, NOOKcolor (Encore)

Details are stupidly scarce on this right now - there isn't even an XDA thread, and Google's not showing any hits either - but YouTube user jacememes has uploaded a video of a NOOKcolor running an Android 2.2.1 AOSP (Android open source project) build. That's certainly a fast turnaround time, given that the device was just rooted a few days ago.

The video was shot with an Android phone, so it's not the best quality, but it's more than enough to show what it needs to. Unfortunately, it's fairly short - 1:41 - and about 40 seconds of that time is just the NC booting up, meaning that in the following 1:01, it's slow because it's still loading everything.

Oct

Motorola Droid 2 Gets Its First AOSP ROM - FRF91 Vanilla Android

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Droid 2, Froyo 2.2, Motorola

The Motorola Droid 2 may ship with a pesky eFuse bootloader which has been designed specifically to prevent rooting of the phone, but little things like that have never held back the truly talented and passionate (and nerdy). The FRF91 Vanilla Android ROM - the Droid 2's first AOSP (Android Open Source Project) ROM - has just made an appearance on DroidForums.

What does this mean? Well, in and of itself, not much, but it's a huge step up from the device's previous ROMs, which brought little to no customizations. At this early stage, core Android features like downloading apps from the Market still haven't been worked out, but it does open quite a few doors.