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May

Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About, Part 8: Apps 58-65

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Best Apps For Rooted Users Series, Roundups

Last Updated: May 13th, 2013

There are plenty of apps in Google Play these days, but a relatively small proportion are designed to unlock the power of a rooted device. Since it can be easy for these powerful apps to get obscured by the crush of retro, free-to-play, side-scrolling platformer games, we like to aggregate the best root-only apps on occasion. Whether you want to free up some screen real estate, change icons around, or manage your backups, the apps you need are right here.

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

Apr

HTC One US Developer Edition RUU And Full ROM ZIP Posted, ROM Addicts Breathe A Sigh Of Relief

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in HTC, News, One

Do you hear that? It's the sound of a thousand HTC fans modding the crap out of their shiny new HTC One Developer Edition smartphones. The Taiwanese company just posted the RUU (ROM Update Utility) for the American version of the One DE, giving would-be tinkerers a safe way to restore their devices if something goes boom. You can download the RUU at HTC's Developer Center. We'd post some direct links for you, but HTC is insisting you go through the Downloads page. Click the RUU for a Windows EXE file, or zip for a ZIP file of the ROM.

Apr

It's Time To Swagger: Android Open Kang Project ROM Reaches 1 Million Users, AOKPush App Created To Celebrate

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Android OS, Applications, News

Congratulations are in order for the Team Kang, the developers of the Android Open Kang Project. As of yesterday AOKP is only the third community-created ROM to run on 1,000,000 Android devices, behind CyanogenMod and MIUI. The team announced their milestone on the aokp.co blog, noting that with the upcoming release of the first Android 4.2 Milestone build, they'll be shaking up the release process a bit.

Instead of the rather slow numbered build releases, AOKP will be automatically built and distributed from the team's servers every four days. These nightly (quadra-nightly?) builds will be for those who want to live on the bleeding edge of the custom ROM.

Apr

[Update: Never Mind!] CyanogenMod Will No Longer Allow Opting Out Of CM Stats – Cyanogen Says To Chill

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in News

Update: So, scratch all that. Steve Kondik took to G+ today to say that CM will return the opt-out option and will not require users to share data. Though it's with a heavy heart, it seems. Expressing some exasperation, he had this to say on the matter:

It's incredibly frustrating that a handful of incredibly vocal users are ready to "fork" over the issue. News flash: there are already a hundred forks of CM... In the end though, we should respect everyone's wishes here.

CyanogenMod is one of the most popular Android ROMs as far as anyone can tell. It's actually hard to know for sure.

Feb

HTC Releases Kernel Source Files For The One SV

Posted by John Thompson in Development, News, One SV

We've got some good news for the open source development community today: HTC has released the kernel source files for the One SV, in 16 different varieties to account for slight differences between carriers and countries.

Although this may not be of immediate interest to consumers, as developers get their hands on the source, it should result in faster and more stable ROMs for the device in the future.

If you want to download the kernel source, which is around 100MB in size, to check it out for yourself, you can download it from the HTC Dev Center.

Source: HTC Dev Center

Jan

Verizon Motorola XOOM And HTC One XL Get CyanogenMod 10.1 Support

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in HTC, Motorola, News, One XL (Evita), XOOM

Of all the Android ROMs out there, few receive even a fraction of the love that CyanogenMod does. For users that like to flash ROMs and experiment with all Android has to offer, getting official Cyanogen support can be like Christmas morning. Today users of the HTC One XL and the old Verizon Motorola XOOM get to do a little happy dance as CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies have become available for the XOOM, while an experimental build is up for the One XL.

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

Dec

XDA University Is Live, With Guides For Developers And End Users Alike

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in News

Most college kids are at home this time of the year, celebrating the end of finals and/or nursing hangovers. But the ROM's scene's number one destination is hosting classes all year round at the the new XDA University site. XDA-Developers has been working on the extension of the main site as a destination for newcomers to the world of root, custom ROMs, and other Android modifications, as well as a place to learn about more serious Android development. The site is live now at XDA-University.com.

What is XDA University? Well, it's somewhere between a textbook (the introductory page even describes itself as "this book") and a limited wiki.

Oct

CyanogenMod 10 Nightly Builds Come To The MetroPCS Samsung Galaxy S III

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Galaxy S III, MetroPCS, News

It's always a joyous occasion to welcome a new device into the CyanogenMod family. This time it's the MetroPCS variant of the Samsung Galaxy S III.

CyanogenMod is one of the most popular Android ROMs and is supported on a ton of devices already. The CyanogenMod 10 version being offered for the MetroPCS SGS3 is a nightly build, meaning it is the experimental product of a day's work. Bugs are to be expected, but CM10 is getting quite stable overall. There are no monthly builds for this device, but that might happen soon. The monthly "M Snapshots" tend to be a little more sturdy.

Aug

CyanogenMod 9.1 Includes SimplyTapp NFC Payment Support For Nexus Phones And The Galaxy S II

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in News

Jelly Bean may be all the rage at the moment, but the CyanogenMod team hasn't forgotten about their Ice Cream Sandwich implementation. Tucked in with the newly updated CyanogenMod 9.1 is support for the brand new SimplyTapp near-field communication system. SimplyTap is the labor of love of two dedicated CyanogenMod users, with the aim of broadening NFC payment usage via a more open implementation of the embattled standard. Currently the Tapp app is only compatible with CyanogenMod 9.1 - CM10 is moving a little too quickly to reliably add the necessary code.

Naturally, you'll also need an NFC-enabled device to use the SimplyTapp service.

Aug

Onandroid Allows Live Full Nandroid Backups Without Rebooting Into Recovery

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Android OS, News

Last Updated: December 21st, 2012

If you're going to be messing around with custom ROMs at all, it's a good idea to have a nandroid backup at the ready. A recent backup can save you a lot of time and heartache if things end up going sideways. However, backing up your system used to mean rebooting into recovery and waiting for 5-10 minutes while everything progressed. That's not the end of the world, but every barrier to backing up makes people less likely to do it. With Online Nandroid Backup (or Onandroid for short), you can get a full backup done within Android itself.