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by Joe Levi | January 31, 2011 6:02 PMTheming is one of the cooler things that you can do with an Android-powered phone. Applying a new theme can make your phone feel like an entirely new device with a whole new look and feel. The easiest way to do this is through a replacement Launcher app like ADW Launcher EX. Unfortunately, there's only so much that a launcher theme can style, and sometimes people want more (like custom fonts, custom notification icons, and a re-worked notification bar). For that level of customization you need to dig into the ROM itself, which generally means flashing a custom theme over the top of your exi...
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by Joe Levi | November 4, 2010 1:00 PMIt's been a long time coming, but the Android 2.1 (Eclair) update for AT&T's Backflip is finally available -- and it's a significant upgrade for the device, which has been stuck at version 1.5 (Cupcake). The update file runs a bit more than 90MB, and the installation process takes about 20 minutes, but once you've got it, it's well worth it. In addition to getting an extra two homescreens, the new Market, and a whole bunch of new apps available, users are reporting a noticeable jump in speed. Motorola should have this available any time now, but if you'd rather not wait, here's how you c...
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by Evan Blass | September 26, 2010 8:06 PMOne of the friendly folks over at XDA Developers has released a ROM claiming to be for the HTC Spark, a rumored Windows Phone 7 device. As you can clearly tell by the image generated when the flashing application is run, this model looks like...just about every single leaked HTC WP7 device we've seen so far. In fact, the only clue we have as to the Spark's identity is a report in WMPoweruser that it and the HTC 7 Trophy are one and the same device. If that's true, and the HD7 is the handset formerly known as Schubert, then we should theoretically only have one unknown Windows model to expect f...
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by Joe Levi | September 24, 2010 2:30 PMIf you've got a Google Nexus One and you haven't unlocked it, rooted it, and/or flashed a custom ROM on it, there's an update for you! If, on the other hand, you have done any of those, this update isn't for you. Don't proceed any further. This update is coming OTA (over-the-air), but if you haven't gotten it yet and want to manually update, here's how you do it. 1. Download the 2.2.1 firmware from Google. 2. Rename it to update.zip (for you newbies, update.zip.zip is wrong), and place it on the root of your microsd card. 3. Turn off off your Nexus One. 4. Hold the VOLUME DOW...
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by Joe Levi | September 21, 2010 5:00 PMThe current version of CyanogenMod ROM (my favorite Custom ROM for Android) is currently 6.0.0. It's based on the Froyo AOSP codebase with a lot of tweaks, optimizations, and improvements from the community and runs on phones ranging from the HTC Dream (G1) to the Google Nexus One. In my opinion, CyanogenMod is what Android is all about. It's fast, it's clean, and it reflects the work of the people who actually use it. So, what's on deck for the next version of CyanogenMod? 6.1 is the current work-in-progress and, according to Cyanogen himself, it's "coming together nicely". New Feature...
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by Joe Levi | September 20, 2010 3:30 PMIf you've got an HTC Dream or Sapphire (also known as the G1 and myTouch 3G) and haven't yet rooted it, you're in luck! Wes Garner has put together a new and much more simplified method of rooting these devices. While rooting the G1 wasn't all that difficult, rooting the MyTouch 3G often required the use of a "Gold Card" which added significantly to the process. Once you have rooted either of these devices, flashing a custom ROM (such as Cyanogen MOD 6) is a relatively simple task -- and can easily bring both devices up to Android 2.2 Froyo, breathing new life into two of the oldest Android...
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by Joe Levi | September 20, 2010 2:45 PMNot long ago we learned about 14 new devices coming from HTC including the HTC Lexikon. The Lexikon is rumored to be an Android 2.2 device with a slid-out keyboard heading to the Verizon sometime later this year or early next year. 911sniper got a hold of the specs even a link to a leaked version of the ROM. It's specifications aren't significantly remarkable, sporting only a WVGA 3.8-inch display, an 800Mhz processor, 5MP camera (no mention of an LED flash). However, the processor looks to be in the same family as T-Mobile's upcoming G2. This leads me to believe that the Lexiko...
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by Evan Blass | September 19, 2010 3:20 PMIt looks like that leaked copy of BlackBerry OS 6 that we saw running on the Bold 9650 last month was the real deal, as a ROM is now available for all 9650 owners to download and install. Since this is still beta software, users should naturally flash this firmware at their own risk. CrackBerry has published a video of its experience with the build running on a Verizon 9650, which we've re-posted below. BlackBerry OS 6 brings several new features to the device, including a revmaped UI, Universal Search, and a new WebKit browser courtesy of RIM's acquisition of former Windows Phone developer To...
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by Evan Blass | September 19, 2010 1:30 PMPopular Windows Phone Android port XDAndroid has gone gold, at least in its Froyo incarnation. With the addition of several features and tweaks, XDAndroid 2.2 AOSP is now at its final version, bringing an almost perfect Android 2.2 experience to HTC devices such as the Windows Phone 6.5-powered Touch Pro, Touch Diamond, Touch Diamond 2, and Touch Pro 2. The project has also been tweaked and successfully ported over to other devices like Sony Ericsson's ill-fated Xperia X1. Some of the new features in this final build include a full language pack -- plus Chinese and Japanese IMEs -- and supp...
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by Joe Levi | September 17, 2010 2:01 PMWe've been eagerly awaiting the release of the HTC Desire HD, what some are calling a "GSM Evo", which we expect to happen sometime in October 2010. Apparently someone got their hands on one of these beautiful devices and was able to pull the ROM from it. This is just the raw image dump, it's not ported to run on any other device (yet), but you can open it up and take a look at it, and possibly pull some of the .APK files out for installing on your own device. Check out the thread at XDA-Developers for more information and the (password protected) download. (Via: Angelito (aka: Microa...
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by Joe Levi | September 8, 2010 12:00 PMAs most of you are aware, Motorola's latest couple phones are significantly more difficult to Root, and even harder to apply custom ROMs. That's only made the developers that much more devoted to finding a way. And find a way they have! Epic Unleashed 1.1 is the second release of the first custom ROM for the Droid 2. It's basically a stock ROM that has been deodexed, had the bloatware removed, scripts added, and the build.prop modified. How do you install it? First, download the ROM's .zip file from this thread, and place it on the root of you sdcard. 1. Root the Droid 2 2. Go to ...
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by Evan Blass | August 31, 2010 10:07 AMThree weeks after its counterparts on the Sprint network got the same treatment, Verizon's Palm Pixi Plus owners are starting to see the highly-anticipated webOS 1.4.5 update being offered for download. What makes this latest version of Palm's proprietary operating system so important is that it allows users to run 3D games and apps developed with the company's PDK software development kit. Interestingly enough, while Sprint's 1.4.5 rollout hit both the Pre and Pixi simultaneously, it is reportedly only Pixi (Plus) users who are seeing the upgrade right away this time around -- Verizon Pre ...
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by Joe Levi | August 30, 2010 8:30 PMIf you're lucky enough to have an HTC HD2 and adventurous enough to run Android on it, you're no doubt aware of Haret, a sort-of multiple boot app for Windows Mobile. This app lets you boot into other operating systems, and today you can get Froyo ROM with the HTC Sense UI that out-benchmarks the Nexus One. Impressive, very impressive! This ROM features the following: - Bluetooth: A2DP, streaming audio, answering and ending calls, etc. BT Keyboards don't work yet. - Camera w/flash & Camcorder - 3G & EDGE. - WiFi: Confirmed working with WEP and WPA. - GPS. - SIM contacts are...
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by Evan Blass | August 30, 2010 12:05 PMA new video has appeared online which seems to show a custom ROM booting on Verizon's Motorola Droid X -- a very big deal for anyone who has been following Moto's extreme attempts to ensure that such a feat would never be possible. As an excellent article by our own Joe Levi explained, Motorola has included a chip in the Droid X, known as eFuse, which makes it theoretically impossible to run any bootloader besides the stock one which ships with the phone. The chip essentially monitors certain code, and if it detects anything other than what is expected, the phone goes into recovery mode and...
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by Joe Levi | August 29, 2010 10:30 PMCyanogenMod 6 has finally made it out of the "Release Candidate Stage" and is now available for download and install on supported Android devices. For those of you who don't know, CyanogenMod is a ROM for various Android-powered phones. Built from the official Andoid Open Source Project (AOSP) codebase, CyanogenMod adds various tweaks, enhancements, and replacement apps with the intent of making your Android phone faster, more stable, and less dependant on carriers to update their handsets (as evidenced by the T-Mobile G1 running Froyo, and running it well). If you have one of the supported...
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Posts tagged with: ROM