Mods - 2/2 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Dec

Modder’s Column: How To Remap Your Android Phone’s Hardware Buttons Without Touching A Single Line Of Code

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Editorials

So maybe you've recently upgraded your Android phone and haven't gotten used to the new device's button alignment yet... or maybe you never use that pesky Search key and want to turn it into the camera key your EVO 4G has always wanted... or maybe you just enjoy tinkering with your phone. If you're in one of those situations, what you may be lusting after is a way to remap your phone's hardware buttons (i.e. making the Search key take on the duties of the Home key, or vise versa).

Up until now, there haven't been any user-friendly methods of doing this, at least not any that can be so greatly customized.

Sep

Front-Facing Camera Hacked Into T-Mobile Vibrant

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Galaxy S, News, Samsung, Vibrant

All of Samsung's Galaxy S family have the same 4.0" Super-AMOLED screen, share a common iPhone-esque UI, and ... well, that's about it. The disparity between features in the SGS line has certainly caused some frustration with users; two have a flash, one has a keyboard and 4G, one has Bing (not really a feature worth crowing about), and two have front-facing cameras. Those two are the appropriately-named Epic 4G and the mothership, the Galaxy S i9000, which is mainly sold in Europe and Korea.

Considering the striking similarity in the appearance of the i9000 and the Vibrant, it's forgivable that users would confuse the two models, questioning the absence of a front-facing camera on their own devices.

Aug

Modder's Monday: Hacking Without Hacking - A Guide to Customizing Your Android Device Without Voiding Your Warranty

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in App Reviews, Applications, Development, Editorials, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Modder’s Monday is a weekly column about rooting, hacking, and other forms of modifying Android written by Jaroslav Stekl, a man who spends his days coding, hacking, hiking, and of course, writing for Android Police.

One of the many things that I love about Android, especially after spending several years with an iPhone, is how customizable it is - right out of the box. You can change your keyboard, tweak the status bar to make it work any way you like, change apps’ icons, and even install home replacements that alter how your homescreen works. The best part about all this?

Aug

HTC Wildfire Gets Access To Root-Only Apps With Soft Root

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Development, HTC, News, Wildfire (Buzz)

It may have taken a little longer than other HTC phones, but the Wildfire has finally been rooted… in a way. This method doesn’t unlock NAND on the phone (which means you can't remove stock apps or install custom ROMs), but it does allow running applications that require root (here are 8 great root-only applications if you need inspiration).

XDA user MartinEve, who accomplished the soft root, is already in talks with the developers of unrEVOked to make a more permanent solution, but until then, you can follow the instructions below to root your Wildfire (to find the most up-to-date instructions, hit the source link).

Jul

Unrevoked 3 Finally Brings Easy 1-Click Root, Recovery, Nandroid Backups, And Custom ROMs To HTC Droid Incredible. [Explanation + Instructions]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Aria (Liberty), Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Development, Eris, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Incredible, News

Unrevoked, a tool that brought the ability to run applications that require root and originally developed for the HTC EVO 4G and HTC Hero, was just updated to version 3.

Unrevoked 3

With this new version 3, Unrevoked finally brings a 1-click root solution to the HTC Droid Incredible that also allows you to flash a custom ClockworkMod recovery, custom ROMs, and take backups of your phone with Nandroid Backup.

Compared to version 2, you no longer need a previously rooted phone - Unrevoked 3 roots for you.

The only thing that Unrevoked doesn't do is unlock NAND permanently, meaning you won't be able to write to the system partition after the OS boots and therefore won't be able to uninstall various carrier installed garbage apps.

Jul

Verizon’s Motorola Droid X Uses Same Bootloader Encryption As The Yet-To-Be-Defeated Milestone. Translation: Good Luck Unlocking

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News

According to two separate sources on the XDA forums, the Droid X is loaded with the now-infamous locked bootloader present in the Milestone. If you’re unfamiliar, this site explains the current methods being deployed to defeat the Milestone, but none have managed to succeed without killing the phone functionality. Motorola locks the bootloader using a proprietary encrypted private key scheme, and without access to Motorola’s encryption method, the hope for unlocking lies in exploits. Currently, an exploit known as the “kexec” method ranks highest in terms of hopes of success.

What does this mean for Droid X users? Custom ROMs and recovery images may be a pipe dream, unless a serious vulnerability is discovered.

May

Froyo Ported To The EVO 4G!

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Sprint, Videos

This article mentions rooting and the flashing of non-stock roms. If you’re unfamiliar with either term, hit up our primers here and here for additional information

I’m not sure what Google was expecting, but when you give a phone out to a room of hackers, chances are the phones going to be hacked. First, we saw the EVO get rooted shortly after I/O and now it seems Froyo has been ported over as well. All this before the phone’s even hit the store shelves.

The details haven’t been publicly released yet as hacker ‘toastcfh’ over at the XDA-Developers forums continues to refine the process to ensure it’s easy enough for most people to perform.