22
Nov
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17

MoDaCo's Paul O'Brien Releases Patch For Galaxy Nexus Softkeys With Menu And/Or Search Key Reinstatement

Posted by in Galaxy Nexus / Nexus Prime, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Mods, News

One of the most prominent new features on the Galaxy Nexus, and Ice Cream Sandwich, is that the soft-keys are displayed right on the screen. While the notion is a sound one, there will always be those who miss some of the legacy features left behind. In this case, those would be the Menu and Search keys, stalwarts of Android's interface paradigm since its release with the G1. What was once four buttons - Home, Menu, Back, Search* - has been whittled down to just Home and Back, along with the introduction of the new multitasking-purposed App Switcher button. This ...

04
Nov
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13

Download: Leaked Galaxy Nexus Full System Dump (ICL23D), Recovery, And Boot Images

Posted by in Dev, Galaxy Nexus / Nexus Prime, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Mods, News, Samsung

I'm surprised this didn't come sooner, but better late than never, right? The full Galaxy Nexus (presumably GSM) system dump, together with boot and recovery images were leaked earlier today by none other than Paul O'Brien, the founder of MoDaCo, a talented developer, and creator of many custom ROMs. If you remember, previously only the apps as well as certain bits and pieces of Ice Cream Sandwich were made available for download.

The files were extracted by Paul from a test device running build ICL23D and are about 170MB in size combined. You can download all 3 of ...

06
May
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2

[Download] Gingerbread For The T-Mobile LG G2x

Posted by in G2x (p999), Gingerbread 2.3, News

On Monday, we teased you guys with an early look at Gingerbread running on the G2x from This Is My Next. There was some definitely some disappointment in the air when you realized that a download wasn't available at that time, but that all changes now.

This is for rooted devices only.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

...

02
Nov
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2

Exploit Found Allowing Permanent Deletion Of Files On G2's /system Partition (NAND Memory)

Posted by in Desire Z (Vision), G2 (Vision), HTC, News

You're probably aware of one of the slightly more irksome facets of the G2 that is stymying attempts at custom ROMs, namely the locked down /system partition, where the OS is kept. Heretofore it has been impossible to tinker with this internal memory in a permanent fashion. All alterations were reverted on the next boot, leading to solutions like Paul O'Brien's VISIONary soft-root.

Well, Mr. O'Brien isn't the kind of fellow you can restrain with NAND lockdowns, and with a flourish today he unveiled his latest hack. His program, G2 Google Goggles Remover, is a proof of concept ...

28
Oct
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39

ZTE Blade / Orange San Francisco Review: Two-Thirds Of A Nexus One For One-Third The Price

Posted by in Blade, Devices By Manufacturer, Orange, Phone Reviews, Reviews, ZTE
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Introduction

Since the advent of Android in 2009, the family of devices running Google's mobile OS has grown from one handset to now hundreds and possibly thousands of unique models. In recent months, Android has seen an explosion of devices coming from lesser-known Asian manufacturers, with one of the main selling points being price. The manufacturers realized that with Android they had a readily and freely accessible operating system, a large market of potential customers, and all they had to do was put together a cheap device to capitalize on Android's continued growth. Unfortunately, these devices often cut corners where ...

22
Oct
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15

Alpha Froyo ROM Released For ZTE Blade / Orange San Francisco

Posted by in Blade, Devices By Manufacturer, Froyo 2.2, News, ZTE

Here's some great news for owners of the budget flavour-of-the-month, the ZTE Blade. Saddled with Éclair at birth, the dudes over at MoDaCo's ZTE Blade section have given their phones a new lease of life with a Froyo port from the domestic Chinese model to their beloved Orange San Francisco.

The ROM is very much in the Alpha stage right now, but even so it is very exciting news for those of you who have heard of the Blade. For those of you scratching your heads in bewilderment, stay tuned - our ZTE Blade review will be up early ...

14
Oct
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0

MoDaCo's Paul O'Brien Releases VISIONary - One-Click Soft Root For The T-Mobile G2 With Autorun-On-Boot

Posted by in Applications, Dev, G2 (Vision), HTC, News

With the G2 already getting a non-persistent "soft-root" solution, it was only a matter of time before someone combined it into a nice, user-friendly package. Stepping up to the plate (or rather, the crease) is Paul O'Brien, the founder of UK smartphone website MoDaCo, well known for a myriad of clever hacks.

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Superusers, you can haz them

Deriving its name from the HTC Vision device codename, VISIONary is a simple one-click temporary root app for the T-Mobile G2. The application installs itself to /data/app, and a version that will run automatically on boot is also available. VISIONary ...

29
Sep
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1

Orange San Francisco - £99 WVGA AMOLED Phone - Unboxed On Video And Already Rooted

Posted by in Devices By Manufacturer, Orange

Here's a device that's been making some waves in the UK Android community. Over at MoDaCo.com, founder Paul O'Brien picked up Orange's rebranded ZTE Blade for £99 ($160) with a pre-paid SIM. Judging from his video, it seems that you get quite a lot of device for your money, including that aforementioned 3.5" AMOLED screen. Despite being burdened with a silly name and an abundance of network shovelware, the Blade/SanFran's 600 MHz CPU appears to run Android 2.1 pretty nicely.

As is his wont, Mr O'Brien has cracked the Blade right open, with root being achieved pretty much immediately, ...

07
Sep
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0

Froyo ROM Leaks Out For the Acer Liquid

Posted by in Acer, Froyo 2.2, News

For one of the first phones out with a Snapdragon, this sure has been some time coming. Over at the MoDaCo Android forum, poster LIQUID_USER managed to obtain what he has described as a “very early build” for Acer’s 3.5”, Éclair-running slate. Despite this somewhat unofficial status, the build Acer_LiquidF_0.007.00_EMEA-GEN1_05.01.01) is said to be quite stable, with most device functions working as normal, including wireless tethering and Adobe Flash.

As expected, performance benchmarks have increased but the CPU still can’t quite catch the Nexus One at its current clocking (on the other hand, the Acer Liquid’s GPU drivers have ...

13
Aug
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2

Dell Streak 2.1 Pre-Release Build Leaked–Get It Now, For O2 UK Devices Only

Posted by in O2, Streak
Last Updated: August 15th, 2010

This file could make your phone permanently unusable (“bricked”). This update is ONLY for UK Dell Streak phones with the version _21 baseband (O2 phones). Do NOT flash this on a US Streak. As with all unofficial updates, flashing this is done at your own risk.

So you’ve read all about what features are coming in the Streak’s Eclair update, and the planned September release window. Well, some enterprising members over at the MoDaCo Android forum have managed to catch a pre-release version of the 2.1 update, purportedly a newer version than that tested in the original Engadget ...

13
Jul
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8

Nexus One Finally Receives FM Radio Support, Not Thanks To Google But The Android Community. Coming To A ROM Near You!

Posted by in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, News, Nexus One (Passion)

Ever since HTC released its version of Google’s Nexus One, the Desire, people have wondered why Google haven’t given the N1 any FM Radio capability. The HTC Desire uses the same Broadcom chipset as the Nexus One, so why does one have FM Radio and the other doesn't?

Official Word

Asked about this at their I/O conference, a Google rep said the company had no plans to bring FM Radio to the Nexus One and told everyone to turn to the hacking community for support, as there are a number of custom ROMs out there for the device.

Android ...