Mods - 5/44 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

[Updated x2: LG Thrill] CyanogenMod Team Brings Nightlies To A Handful Of LG Devices, Adds Official CM7 Support For Samsung Epic 4G

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Dev, Epic 4G, LG, Mods, News, Optimus 3D (p920) / Thrill (p925), Optimus Black (p970)

The minds behind CyanogenMod have done it again, bringing nightly updates to several LG Optimus variants, and adding official CM7 support for the Epic 4G (not to be confused with Sprint's Galaxy SII variant).

Among the newly-supported LG devices are the Optimus 3D (p920), Hub (e510), Pro (c660), and Black (p970) (which is technically seeing the return of nightlies). It may be worth noting that the Optimus Hub and Pro both received RomManager support tonight, making it excessively simple to get CM goodness on the devices.

Update #1: The Epic 4G (epicmtd) nightly just showed up as well.

Update #2 1/2/12: LG Thrill (p925) appeared today.

Dec

CyanogenMod Team At It Again - Nightlies Arrive For Several Xperia Devices

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Dev, Mods, News, Xperia Active (Satsuma), Xperia Pro (Iyokan)

Just after expanding Nightly support to Samsung's Epic 4G and a slew of LG handsets, the CyanogenMod team has brought nightlies to a handful of Xperia devices, including Coconut (the Xperia Live with Walkman), Iyokan (the Xperia Pro), and Satsuma (the Xperia Active).

In a Google+ post earlier today, CyanogenMod announced that CM7 support had arrived for multiple new devices, throwing out a special hint to Xperia users.

For those not familiar, a "nightly" is a brand new released, built on a daily (or nightly) basis with a day's worth of new code. Often times, new features contained in nightly updates may be unstable or not fully tested.

Dec

[Exclusive] TacoRoot By Justin Case And Reid Holland: A New Temporary Root Exploit For All HTC Devices

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in HTC, Mods, News

Our own Justin Case has been collaborating with Reid Holland (erishasnobattery) on TacoRoot – a tool that should root just about any HTC smartphone – for some time now, and with the recent additions to HTC’s official unlocking tool, they’ve decided to release it.

At the moment, it’s quite gnarly – it’s only a temporary root for now, and there are various issues with it (see below). That said, it’s incredibly useful for downgrading phones like the myTouch 4G, which can’t be unlocked or rooted with the most recent version of their software. Besides, who could say no to a universal HTC root tool?

Dec

Motorola's Droid RAZR Can Finally Be Restored To Stock Thanks To Leaked Fastboot Files – Development Sure To Liven Up

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Dev, Droid RAZR / RAZR MAXX, Mods, News, Verizon Wireless

Motorola Droid RAZR owners (and developers) received a bit of good news yesterday, thanks to a leaked set of fastboot files which allow your RAZR to be restored to stock in case of a soft brick or other unforeseen issue.

Many users over at XDA and DroidRZR.com forums have already reported success in flashing the files and restoring their devices, indicating that the fastboot set is, in fact, the real deal.

For users, this means that there is always a way to get the RAZR back to stock configuration. The same goes for developers, meaning development for Moto's latest addition to the Droid family will liven up considerably.

Dec

[Updated x3] HTCDev.com Now Unlocking HTC Rezound, Vivid, Jetstream, Rhyme, And All HTC Devices Released After Sept 2011

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in HTC, Jetstream, Mods, News, Rezound, Rhyme, Vivid

Last Updated: December 29th, 2011

HTCDev.com has been unlocking the bootloaders of select HTC smartphones for some time now, but up until today, the Rezound was not among their ranks.

Update #1: HTC Vivid is unlockable as well - thanks again for the tip, jcase.

Update #2: HTC just updated the bootloader unlock site and announced that "All HTC Android devices launched after September 2011 are unlockable. The website will be updated accordingly to reflect this in the coming weeks. We continue to work on models launched prior to September 2011, please check back often for the status of older devices."

Here's the changelog if you will:

We've confirmed the Jetstream is also unlockable.

Dec

[Exclusive] How To Easily Root The Amazon Kindle, Regardless Of Its Software Version

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Amazon, Kindle Fire, Mods, News

Last Updated: December 31st, 2011

Update: Justin has repackaged the Kindle Fire root app apk, removing encryption and open sourcing the file.

Update: BurritoRoot may not work on version 6.0 firmware. If you're having trouble, update your firmware and try again.

On the historic date of December 20th, 2011, Amazon pushed out software version 6.2.1 to its Kindle Fire. The update was fairly minor -- its main additions had to do with improved scrolling and WiFi passwords -- but it brought about one devastating change: it broke all previous methods of root.

Seeing the issue, our own Justin Case got right to work; and after a night's worth of coding, with a group of fellow devs helping him through the testing process (namely, Vashypooh, Trevor Eckhart, and IOMoster), he developed a new method to root the Kindle Fire -- a method that works not only on software 6.2.1, but on all currently known versions of the Fire's OS (future updates make break this).

Dec

TeamWin Releases TWRP 2.0, A Highly Customizable Touchscreen Recovery

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Mods, News

TeamWin, the developers who originally developed CyanogenMod's WiMax compatibility, have been working on TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project) for a while now, and have just released the second iteration of the custom recovery.

TWRP 2.0's most notable new feature is without a doubt its touchscreen-centric GUI -- while this isn't a first, it certainly is extremely convenient: gone are the days of "scrolling" through lists with super-stiff volume buttons and selecting items with a click of the power button; with TWRP 2.0 you can simply tap and be there!

Other than that, most of the other new TWRP 2.0 developments concern bugs and glitches in the original version of the recovery, so we shan't spend any more time on them; instead, let's take a look at some of TWRP's core features, as listed on TeamWin's website (these were present in the original iteration as well):

Ability to save custom recovery settings
Touchscreen driven with real buttons and drag-to-scroll
XML-based GUI that allows full customization of the layout – true theming!

Dec

[Monthly Home Screen Challenge] And The November 2011 Winner Is...

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Home Screen Challenge, Mods

Last Updated: January 3rd, 2012

Our inaugural Monthly Home Screen Challenge for the month of October was a great success. So much so that we decided to keep the challenge going, and we got some awesome submissions for November. As always, it was tricky picking a winner, and after much deliberation we finally settled on Hotmann, who came up with an interesting take on the periodic table.

Just like last month's challenge, we have taken the winning submission and broken it down into its basic components for your reading/designing pleasure. Enjoy!

Winner - Hotmann

Hotmann's entry can be difficult to comprehend at first, but on closer inspection it is clearly one of the most creative uses of an Android home screen that I have ever seen.

Nov

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

Posted by Brian O'Toole 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 combination was seen previously in Android 3.0 Honeycomb, but is about to encounter widespread use on upcoming phones**.

Nov

Editorial: Android Custom ROM Developers, I Think We Need To Have A Talk

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, Mods

Dear Android Custom ROM developers: I love most of you. Really. You're part of what makes Android so awesome, because you're so enthusiastic about it, and about making it better. Because of you, we have awesome things like CyanogenMod.

I want to give you some numbers. Let's just look at some popular Android devices:

T-Mobile Galaxy S II: 9
AT&T Galaxy S II: 8
HTC ThunderBolt: 23
DROID BIONIC: 7
Epic 4G Touch: 10

What do these figures represent? The number of different custom ROMs found on the first page of the XDA forums for the above devices. The ThunderBolt's count comes from the pinned post on the ThunderBolt's forum with a listing of ROMs - and those are only the Gingerbread ones.