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Apr

Cracking Glass – Saurik Posts Account Of Google Glass Root, Controversy, Exploits, And How To Crack Your Own Glass

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Development, Glass, Google, News

Several days ago, something happened that sent a not insignificant ripple through coverage of Google Glass: someone "jailbroke" the device.

Saurik, who posted the above photo to Twitter, had modified Glass' software "while in the Bay Area after picking it up from Google's headquarters in Mountain View."

Understandably, this idea was a bit bedeviling to the press – ostensibly, Glass is a relatively limited platform for developers, who can only write apps using a web-based API, allowing software to be integrated with the device over the internet. Eric Schmidt's words regarding the relative closed-ness (or at least, less-than-total openness) of Glass' platform to start were still wet on the page.

Apr

CyanogenMod Developers Add Official Support For Oppo Find 5 As First CM10.1 Nightly Goes Live

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Find 5, News, Oppo

Oppo Find 5 is one of the sexiest Android phones in recent history - just take a look at some of the photos in our review published earlier this year. At $499.99 ($569.99 for the 32GB variant), it's also cheaper than most unlocked high-end modern devices, yet it manages to pack a quad-core 1.5GHz Krait, Adreno 320, 2GB of RAM, a 1080P 5" display, a 13MP camera, NFC, and a 2500mAh battery.

One of David's main complaints in the review of Find 5 was the software. As of today, this bullet can be crossed off if you're the adventurous kind not afraid to dabble in flashing custom ROMs.

Mar

Neatly Releases A 'Final Beta' To The Play Store, Provides A Smarter Twitter Feed

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Last month, we talked about a new Twitter client called Neatly that promised to do what the social network won't do itself: provide a more intelligent and less thorough approach to your feed. Twitter opts to list every tweet for people you follow in chronological order, which has helped with the up-to-the-minute identity the company builds for itself. Neatly chooses, instead, to filter by the most important updates, and allows you to filter by topics.

The beta was cool and now it's available on the Play Store for everyone. The extra information you get is copious and very helpful.

Mar

CyanogenMod's Team Hacksung Expresses Frustration With Exynos But Neither Confirms Nor Denies Plans For CM On Galaxy S4

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Development, Galaxy S4, News

Last Updated: April 22nd, 2013

The rumor mill is hot today after a comment on XDA caused some to worry that CyanogenMod would not arrive for the new Galaxy S4. XpLoDWilD took to the forums to respond to questions about the difficulty of developing for the handset. The comment appeared to be speaking on behalf of TeamHacksung (the sub-group within CM that deals with devices like the SII, Note, SIII, Note II, etc.), other CM members were quick to point out that no one person has the authority to speak for the entire team.

Here's the initial comment:

Nobody at team hacksung (the team behind galaxy s2, note, s3, note2, gtabs...

Jan

This Awesome Homescreen Uses Photos Of Real Objects As App Icons, Is Beautiful

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

Forget skeuomorphism. Why do we need things that look like objects if we can just use actual objects? That's what reddit user and notable George Bruns ballad davy_crockett thought. Using a combination of Apex launcher's ability to resize the icon grid and MultiPicture Live Wallpaper to use multiple photos for different homescreens, he created a layout that's made up entirely of real-world things. Want to play music? Tap the headphones. Need the clock? Hit the watch! It's that simple.

The neat thing about this concept, though, is that if you want to do it yourself, there are virtually no limits to how much your homescreens can differ from this one.

Jan

Tile Launcher Beta Makes Your Android Homescreen Feel A Little More Windows Phone-y

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Whether you use Windows Phone or not, chances are at some point you're going to have to get used to the concept of tiles. Microsoft's putting them everywhere. On your Xbox, PC, tablet... They're unavoidable. If you like the idea of tiles over icons, though, here's an app you might want to try out: Tile Launcher Beta. While it's not quite a clone of the MS-borne smartphone interface (for example, you can still have a custom background), it does place brightly colored squares on a continuous scrolling homescreen.

You know...it kinda grows on you. While I've never been a huge fan of the Windows Phone interface as is, the tiles here are pretty slick and, as in the left-hand screenshot above, with some custom icon tweaking they can be made to look gorgeous.

Dec

From The Creator Of Tweet Lanes: Chris Lacy's Action Launcher Now In The Play Store

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Chris Lacy, developer of the gorgeous, widely lauded Tweet Lanes, has finally brought his latest creation to the Play Store – Action Launcher.

As the name would suggest, Action Launcher is a custom launcher with an emphasis on its ever-present action bar. The action bar allows users to quickly open a side-panel app drawer which, in Lacy's words, "aims to allow you to load any app in one second from your home screen." The bar also features Search and Play Store shortcuts, along with an action overflow.

The action bar, as you can see in the video above, is not the only trick Action Launcher has up its sleeve.

Nov

HTC Droid DNA Gets Root, Custom Recovery, And Modified Kernel Ahead Of Official Release

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Development, DROID DNA, News

That sure didn't take long. Just two days after the official announcement - and still a few days away from retail availability - the Droid DNA has already been rooted and gotten some goodies from famed Android modder/hacker dsb9938. Apparently the DNA is unlockable using HTC's official bootloader unlock tool, which allows a custom kernel to be flashed. The first available kernel has only been slightly modified to allow root in adb connections - a requisite in order to flash the custom recovery and root the device.

After going through the unlock process, the kernel is flashable via fasboot. With that out of the way, you're free to flash the recovery (ported to the DNA by developer Utkanos), which is also flashed with fastboot.

Nov

Apex Launcher Updated To Support Android 4.2, Adds A Few Minor Features Just For Kicks

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Apex launcher, following closely behind Nova Launcher, has updated to include support for the Android 4.2 update that's currently rolling out to various Nexus devices. If you like your launchers like you like your anterior corner of a butterfly's wings, you can download the update directly on your device. You'll also get a few new extras, including the option to close the app drawer after launching an app and better icon label handling. Here's the full changelog:

What's in this version:

* Added option to close drawer after launching apps
* Added option to toggle home screen alpha effect (leave it off for smoother transitions)
* Improved icon label handling (labels will not be cut off or hidden automatically)
* Fixed FC under Android 4.2
* Various bugfixes
* Updated translations

The update is live on the Play Store right now.

Oct

ADW/EX Launcher Updated To v1.3.3.7, Brings All New Everything

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Back when ICS was released, it brought a whole new stock launcher, leaving old-style GB launchers in the dust. One such launcher - ADW - just received a massive update in the Play Store, bringing it back from the dead.

This is basically a full re-write of the launcher, but it still offers many of the features that made ADW and ADW EX so popular back in the day, including icon themes, gestures, widget resizing, and more.

ADW is of course, free in the Play Store, while its "pro" version - ADW EX - will set you back three bucks. If you were a fan of ADW back in the day, or are just looking for a new launcher to test out, hit the widget to check it out.