- 5,043,443
REGISTERED - 44,802
ONLINE NOW
May 13, 2013 By: Jimmy McGee
Back from his much deserved vacation, Jordan reviews all the important stories from this week. Included in this week’s news is an announcement of Jelly Bean on the Sony Xperia Tablet S being rooted and Facebook Home on your device without a whole lot of working using the Xposed Framework. These our only some of the stories from this weekend released on the XDA Portal.
Jordan talks about the other videos released this week on XDA Developer TV. Jayce talks about App Development and testing your apps, as well as whether or not software development is your calling. Pull up a chair and check out this video.
May 9, 2013 By: Will Verduzco
We’ve featured various large-scale, cross-device ROMs on the Portal throughout the years, but it’s hard to argue that any particular ROM has earned the notoriety seen by CyanogenMod. After humble beginnings on the T-Mobile G1, CyanogenMod has grown into a huge project kept alive by dozens of developers throughout the world. In fact, today’s release is available for 40 devices at the time of writing.
So what’s the significance of CyanogenMod 10.1.0? Aside from being based on Android 4.2.2, this is the first time since Ice Cream Sandwich that Release Candidate nomenclature has been used. And coming in as one of the final milestone releases prior to the official release of CM10.1, one can be almost assured of a relatively bug-free experience.
Anyway, that’s enough yapping. Most of you flashaholics can’t wait to get started. More information can be found in the official CyanogenMod blog. To get started with the downloads, visit the CyanogenMod Mirror Network directly. Those looking discuss your findings can undoubtedly do so within the device-specific forums on XDA. And most importantly, if you find yourself grateful for these developers’ tireless efforts make sure you donate to the team.
May 7, 2013 By: egzthunder1
As time goes by and technology leaps forward, we get to enjoy the benefits of advancements right in the palm of our hands. Most mobile devices in this day and age are equipped with a wide array of onboard electronics and sensors, capable of making our experience with them more enjoyable and closer to what can only be described as intuitive. Rotating the device making the screen turn to landscape mode, keeping the device awake by virtue of its camera and face recognition software, and even something as simple as a magnetic compass to help us determine direction, are only some of the features included. It seems that technology evolved once again with the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Mobile devices are normally equipped with temperature probes/sensors internally to check for battery/component overheating (for safety purposes), but it seems that Samsung engineers decided to sit down and collectively devise a way to enable to phone to measure ambient conditions as well. To make a long story short, the device sports temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors (hygrometer), which allow the device to tell you exactly what the current conditions are EXACTLY where you are located (and not by virtue of downloading data from the web).
This being an absolute first for the mobile world, our devs saw it as an opportunity to try and expand on the range of software capabilities added to the phones. XDA Forum Member jsstp24n5 released an application that makes use of these new on board sensors. Weather Station is a simple app that will provide you with data measured by your device such as temperature, ambient pressure, dewpoint and relative humidity. The full integration of sensors can also make use of things like the GPS in order to do things such as calculating pressure with respect to elevation. The app also offers a wide variety of options for displaying and reporting its data, such as graphs, tables, and even has widgets. This is essentially like having your own personal weather forecast system in your pocket.
Please take the app for a spin and provide feedback to the dev. Also, keep in mind that other devices may have sensors on board as well, so feel free to try it out and be more savvy about your surroundings. As always, bugs and feedback are appreciated.
The Galaxy S4 is the only Android device right now with ambient temperature and humidity sensors. This Weather Station app I developed (free and with no ads) utilizes these sensors to the full delight of amateur and pro meteorologists:
You can find more information in the original thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
[Thanks to Portal Admin willverduzco for the tip!]
April 30, 2013 By: egzthunder1
The Samsung Galaxy S 4 was just released a few days ago, going on sale across the US through most carriers (root already achieved). Reviews are somewhat mixed, with some claiming this to be the latest best thing in smartphone history, while others are not so impressed. US carrier versions seem to suffer from carrier-itis, which is a medical term for “severely crippled and loaded to the eyeballs with bloatware“. If history has taught us anything since the Galaxy family has been around, it is the fact that Verizon Wireless tends to lock the daylights out of every phone in in their line up. It is in fact, one of the only carriers world wide that actually sell bootloader locked Galaxy devices (as well as many other devices). Well, Verizon, it looks like your worst nightmare is coming as AT&T is going to start following your same model as well. According to a review posted by Engadget as well as several people talking in IRC channels, and topped off with a comment by Mr. Cyanogen himself, it seems to be that the “death star” is bringing in Samsung’s latest and greatest with a big slap in the face of all developers: The phone has a locked bootloader.
I know that at this point, Samsung is probably hiding behind the carriers, using them as shields, contractual obligations, yadda, yadda, yadda. We tend to think that this is a somewhat valid excuse, but the truth of the matter is that when a certain company reaches a point of critical mass in terms of how big it actually is, the tables turn. In other words, AT&T’s success (or Verizon’s for that matter) is not just dictated by the quality of its network. One thing that people also look at in this day and age, is the wide array and variety of top of the line devices being offered. The combination of both certainly makes up for about 90% of the total success of a carrier, with the remaining 10% attributed to good customer service. So, that leaves you at, quite possibly (and being a bit conservative) on a 60-30 split in terms of importance. After all, you could have a 5G network, but if you have no phones to support it, what good is it? I guess what I am trying to say here is that Samsung definitely had a lot of weight in negotiations in order to avoid caving in like this, which makes me wonder even more if the Korean manufacturer is in fact leaning towards the dark side.
The SGS4 International and T-Mobile versions are sold unlocked and are perfectly capable of taking the market by force. Why do you let two carriers dictate how you make your products? I hope that Samsung realizes that they likely have considerable weight as people nowadays are happy about devices performing well, and not so much about getting over 9000 Mbps in speed (particularly when you will be capped or hit a limit). So, Samsung, you ARE driving the market and the continued success for these carriers and not the other way around. At this point in time, I can draw two conclusions:
The path you are taking right now is likely #2, as you obviously can spend a pretty penny on half decent lawyers (based on recent wins against Cupertino’s finest). In fact, it seems to me that you are turning into what you claimed to despise the most. You have absolutely, positively, nothing at all to gain from locking the bootloader (and neither does AT&T for that matter), and in fact, you are simply losing a good stream of bug reviewers and people who can discover pretty serious flaws in your code. Let alone the sole fact that, regardless of your statements about us (us being the developer and hobbyist world) representing a small fraction of your overall sales, you will definitely lose lots and lots of potential sales, which will translate into millions of dollars of lost revenue. Again, having someone with as massive of a following as Steve Kondik telling hundreds of thousands of users from this group not to buy this device… well, lets just say that I sincerely hope your contract with AT&T has a provision for getting paid back for unsold devices.
Well, Samsung, if for argument’s sake you are indeed being locked by AT&T into this nonsensical contractual provision, you are effectively the proverbial elephant with a chain around its ankle. For those of you not familiar with this analogy, when an elephant is young, it can be chained easily to prevent it from escaping. As the elephant grows up, the chain can no longer restrain it, but the elephant does not break it because it knows in its head that it will not be able to, even though it can. You needed to be around when you were a smaller player in the market and as such, you took upon weird termed contracts and accepted certain conditions from carriers. Fast forward 12 years or so since the boom of mobile devices and your introduction to the world of mobile communications. You are now a behemoth and are still bound by the same stupid chain, refusing to break it because you think you will hurt your business. You are a provider, you have many, many venues to get your products out to your customers (other carriers, developer edition phones, selling directly, etc). God only knows how many millions of dollars you spend yearly on marketing efforts, so getting your name out there is not exactly an issue either. Why in the world are you letting a single (well, two if you count Verizon) dictate how YOU do business? You have successfully made a name for yourselves already. I am positive that IF you were to threaten carriers to pull your devices from their networks, they would effectively soil themselves. Oh, and there is no law protecting them from being able to block your devices from working with their network either. It would likely fall under the umbrella of anti-competitive practices (aka boycott). Considering past/recent events involving carriers (DMCA and the T-Mobile/AT&T failed merger, for instance), I am sure that any court would be thrilled to hear such a case and rip the carriers to shreds.
So, I am sincerely hoping that you are indeed being forced by carriers AND that you are taking resolutions to tackle this pointless ordeal. All I am going to say is that after a 1 year affair with an Epic 4G Touch, being afraid to brick my device for flashing it as it was hard brick positive due to faulty chips (even with a documented reason AND fix provided by our developers which you paid no attention to whatsoever); and after seeing this ongoing trend by Samsung to bend over for carriers while making developer’s lives miserable and caring little about their users, I will gladly never recommend Samsung devices to anyone ever again. Just because I can, here is Steve Kondik’s closing statement on his Google+ post:
I would not recommend buying this device on AT&T if you want to run CyanogenMod or another custom ROM, or if you are a developer and need to work with or debug the lower layers.
It is now time to act and try to save face, Samsung.
You can find more information in here, here, and a bit more discussion going on in here.
April 27, 2013 By: egzthunder1
If you have ever heard the expression there is no free lunch, you likely know what that means. Like with most things in life, sometimes you need to give a little to get a little. This is normally the case when it comes to bootloader unlocking of most devices, regardless of manufacturer (keyword here is “most”…. I had to say this before Samsung fans jump out of their chairs with pitchforks :p). The likes of Asus and HTC normally offer official methods for unlocking their bootloaders. In order to do this, you must turn over your soul… err, I mean your warranty, just for that bit of extra functionality (and in the case of HTC, that is just a bit of extra functionality as there are still several things that are blocked even after a bootloader unlock). There are of course other manufacturers that offer these unlocking services as well, which give you a far richer experience and more freedom for the same price. One such case is Sony and their Xperia line up. Many moons ago, Sony came up with an official tool to unlock your bootloader, much like the aforementioned manufacturers have done, and yes, they also take your warranty along with the unlock right. However, you gain full control of the device by doing it, or at least nearly full control as you lose a little something in the process… Unlocking the bootloader on any Xperia device that supports it will also wipe out the included DRM (Digital Rights Management) keys embedded in the device, which are essential for a few software bits to work on the Xperia .
The newest addition to the Sony lineup, the Xperia Z, suffers from the same predicament. Unlocking the bootloader will effectively wipe your DRM keys, leaving you with a non-functional Bravia Engine 2, TrackID, or OTA update capabilities, as well as a few other things. If you have not yet unlocked your BL, but are considering doing it, you must read the guide made by XDA Forum Member rickwyatt. The member provides an easy to follow guide with tools to help you back up your TA partition, which contains (as you may have guessed/known) the DRM keys. Being able to back up the TA partition effectively gives you a “time machine” allowing you to go to the point before you unlocked your device. Restoring the partition will do two things: it will restore your DRM keys as stated earlier, and it will relock your bootloader. Mind you, this can only be done BEFORE unlocking the BL because your TA partition WILL change, and restoring someone else’s will instantly kill your device, hard brick style.
While this is not exactly the solution a few of you were waiting for to get BE2 working again on your unlocked Z, it is a step in the right direction. Just keep in mind that it is always advisable that if you are going to restore your TA partition from your backup, you should be on a completely stock rom/kernel. There are reports from some people in the thread who have had soft bricks by restoring over custom ROMs and/or kernels while others have had very few if no issues at all.
Take it for a spin only if you have not unlocked your device yet. The thread is a good discussion and is filled with lots of useful information that might prevent you from making a mistake in the process. Please make sure that you read and understand what is going on before diving in. And one last thing, keep in mind that by unlocking your bootloader, your warranty IS gone and this process WILL NOT bring it back.
This wont work if you Unlocked your bootloader already because
you have already changed you TA partition. also don’t flash
someone elses TA it will hard brick your phone
You can find more information in the original thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
April 26, 2013 By: egzthunder1
As of late, we have been covering apps that have surfaced on XDA that perform functions that we are used to seeing on most mobiles. However, the gist of these new/old apps is that they all add a bit of a twist to the already working models, thus breaking the status quo of all the other apps in its category. In the particular case of RSS feeds or other types of news feeds, most apps will deliver vast contents to your screen, from any source capable of relaying information to your particular app. However, the limitation for most if not all apps of this kind is that they will display only a couple of sentences, maybe even a small synopsis of the entire piece, and will link you to the source’s website to read the article. XDA Recognized Developer h4oxer has come up with a rather elegant solution to avoid having to go to yet another site to finish reading interesting stories.
The News: UK Edition is, as stated before, a news feed. It is capable of retrieving information from pretty much any news source in the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), so you can stay up-to-date on anything from local news, traffic, to even some of that juicy gossip that revolves famous people. The difference between this app and others is that the app can retrieve the entire article and put it in your screen thanks to what the dev has called EasyRead technology. Because of EasyRead, there is no the need to link to an external website anymore, thus forcing you to read the article in a web browser. The articles are formatted newspaper-style, so they are quite easy to read. You do have the option to go to the website as well in case you are more comfortable reading the pieces that way.
The app’s interface can be fully customized by letting you change the order of all pieces, sources, and news type. On top of that, the app offers integration of some of the most commonly known media tools. This way you can share your favorite stories with the rest of the world via Facebook, G+, e-mail, and much more. The dev is looking for good feedback, whether it is bugs or suggestions. So, please leave your thoughts in the thread.
The News: UK Newspaper Edition (Free) is the ultimate App for getting the latest UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales) news from all the UK’s top newspapers, from broadsheets to tabloids. With our EasyRead technology you can decide to view the full articles in perfect newspaper format right from the App!
You can find more information in the original thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
[Thanks to XDA Recognized Developer h4oxer for the tip!]
April 25, 2013 By: egzthunder1
You may or may not recall sometime last year, when a member by the name of XDA Recognized Developer rovo89 introduced a brand new concept to this world, named Xposed Framework. This essentially enables the user to hack any ROM and change virtually anything without coding, cracking the ROM open with a kitchen, or even flashing a zip through recovery. Possibilities with such a tool are virtually endless, and it is nearly risk free. Some people have released a few things here and there, but as with most novel concepts, things take time to take a foothold in people’s minds. The good news is that more and more people are beginning to see the wonders of this framework and have begun using it to add functionality that would otherwise require a brand new ROM (as what you want may not be available for your favorite ROM). XDA Forum Member ruqqq is among those people, and he has released something quite interesting based on Xposed.
XThemeEngine is similar to TMobile theme engine found in CyanogenMod and derivatives. Essentially, choose a theme, download it, and apply it via the engine. There’s no flashing, and there’s no mess. The only difference is that the CM engine is only available for AOSP ROMs (there are some engines analogous to this like VR Theme Engine, but this one is completely built on Xposed as the platform). The dev states that this will work if two conditions are met: The device needs to be rooted, AND Xposed framework needs to be installed. It has been tested on a wide range of devices already without issues. The dev also states that it is possible (and in fact quite simple) to make new themes from scratch (template provided as well), so you can literally let your imagination fly. If your imagination pool is somewhat dried up and you feel like using an existing theme, porting can also be easily accomplished by following a few steps.
Please take it for a spin and share your creations with the rest of the world. Do keep in mind that this is still under beta phase and as such, there are some bugs. So, please read the entire opening post for all the details.
XThemeEngine allows you to theme your device similar to how T-Mobile/CM10 Theme Engine. Install theme apk, activate theme from XThemeEngine app. Voila!
You can find more information in the original thread and you can read more about Xposed Framework in this thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
April 25, 2013 By: Conan Troutman
With the release of a new flagship device, comes the inevitable clamor of people trying to get their hands on the latest firmware. Whether it’s to simply pick out the latest wallpapers and ringtones or begin examining it in greater detail and attempt to port the ROM itself or its newest features to another device, there’s always a buzz about the first ROM for a new device. Samsung fans can rejoice as the first firmware for the Galaxy S 4 GT-i9500 has just made an appearance today. Given the amount of hype and excitement surrounding this particular device, I’m sure there will be no shortage of people eager to get their hands on this.
This ROM itself is labelled as I9500ZCUAMDG and appears to be a complete and flashable (via ODIN) ROM intended for the Chinese market containing the usual CSC, PDA and modem files. With a build date of only yesterday, it’s certainly pretty fresh. And being based on Android 4.2.2, it will of course feature all the latest and greatest (according to Samsung at least) features for any mobile device, as well as many of the features you would expect from a vanilla build. The firmware itself was posted to the forums by XDA Senior Member AdamLange to kick off the devices dedicated official firmware thread, so be sure to bookmark that if you intend to keep your S4 close to stock.
I guess there isn’t really much else to add so what are you waiting for? Go and start digging.
April 25, 2013 By: egzthunder1
Ever since the days of Windows Mobile, we have had features available on our devices that we pretty much have taken for granted. This includes things like applications for taking down notes, setting calendar events, alarms, and many others are things that we have lived with for many years. Because of this, not too many improvements are done to said features as they essentially do everything we expect of them—and they do it well. We have some developers out there who apparently can take these 100% working, reliable concepts and squeeze an extra 5-10% more out of them, making them effectively even better than the original tools. In this particular case, the concept in question is ensuring that you can use your devices when you wake up the following morning.
XDA Forum Member shadrmg has developed an application called AC Socket. The concept of this app is quite simple: It is a reminder to charge your device every night. Stock Android (well, not just Android but pretty much any device out there with a battery) will normally start complaining about lack of juice somewhere around the 10-20% battery charge remaining mark. While this app does not actually mess with that, it provides the device with a dedicated app to ensure that you remember to plug in your phone at a specific time, regardless of the charge level present in your phone. While you could potentially accomplish the same by setting up an alarm on your phone, this app also goes a step further and provides you with an average for your daily battery usage. The app also gives the user the opportunity to either disable this notification for a single day or completely.
Again, while this may not be the most novel concept out there, it takes an existing one and adds a bit more functionality. After all, lets face it. How many times have you gone to sleep after a stressful day only to find out that your phone died halfway through the night because you forgot to plug it in? Please take this for a spin and provide any feedback you may have to the dev.
AC Socket is an easy tool to help You not to forget dock-in Your smartphone at night every evening to have fully charged battery each morning.
You can find more information in the original thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
April 23, 2013 By: egzthunder1
Not too long ago, XDA Forum Member taomorpheus released a rather interesting alternative to the current official Facebook app called Fast. The app is essentially a replacement for the original, bringing to the table a far simpler, less bloated, and much lighter client for the the infamous social media site. As good as it is, there is always room for improvement. Since the dev knew this to be the case, he kept on cranking ideas to make the experience of Fast even faster. The result after some months worth of testing, one can now use the app without going into the app thanks to widgets. With that in mind, he embarked on a journey to add as much FB functionality to the home screen launcher as humanly possible. However, this had to be done without compromising the lightness of Fast, which is (after all) what sets it apart from its official counterpart
Fast Home Widgets, much as its name suggests, is a set of widgets (10 to be precise) to do virtually everything you normally do on Facebook, but without actually opening the FB app. As mentioned earlier, the beauty of this pack is that it allows you to do something different with each widget, so you could essentially arrange them and use just the ones with the services that you normally use. For instance, lets just say that the only two things you do on Facebook are update your status and upload pics, but you are not interested in anything else like group chats, instant messaging, or even the news feed. You now have individual widgets dedicated to these two things alone, without having to have extra options that you do not use, effectively reducing the clutter and making the entire experience a more simplified one.
As a quick note, the dev has stated that these are in private beta testing at the moment. If you would like to participate as a tester, to please send him a pm. There is no mention of limit for the beta testing program, so this can only mean that the dev is doing it to have a better pulse on the feedback for the widgets. They will be released in two batches: The first few will be available for testing in the next day or so and the last few towards the end of next month. As it is the case for everything on XDA, please do not ask for ETAs. If you get on the beta list, please provide any and all feedback for the dev. After all, that is exactly what you are signing up for.
It’s a set of 10 widgets (android 4.0+) created in order to do the basic stuff on Facebook.
The first release will come with 5-6 widgets. I have planned to release the other 4-5 widgets by the end of May.
You can find more information in the original thread.
April 20, 2013 By: Jimmy McGee
The Nexus 7, combined with the Jelly Bean operating system, has finally made the Android tablet accessible and initiative. But there are a few things that aren’t quite so obvious, unless you know where they are. All these tips are standard functionality and don’t require any rooting or modifications to your tablet.
In this video, XDA Developer TV Producer and newcomer Rob give you five tips you (possibly) don’t already know about modern Android devices. You’ll probably all know at least one of them, some of you will know three or four of them but we’ll be surprised if you know all them. I guarantee that if you know all of these tips Rob will give you your money back!*
*XDA Developers TV cannot be held responsible for such claims the content creator makes. And since this video is free, there’s a whole load of irony you’ll need to digest before you ask for a refund
April 16, 2013 By: egzthunder1
We have had some rather long running projects on XDA over the years. Some involve simple, yet elegant things like theming engines (UCCW, VR Theme, etc), while others focus a bit more on the functionality side of things. The case for recovery images is one such area that needs to be constantly evolving due to the evolution of the devices and their inner workings. Pushing an insecure recovery into a device is not always easy. Or rather, it is not as simple as some people make it be. Lots of things and information are required even before beginning the process of loading it onto a new device. For XDA Recognized Developer Dees_Troy and other members of Team Win, this has been the case for a while now, but they always tend to come out on top.
TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project) is an open recovery project that has been around for a couple of years now. It is a great alternative to the ever popular CWM if you are looking for something with a bit more flair and functionality. This new version, which stands at 2.5.0.0, is loaded with updates and fixes. These changes make the overall experience smoother and more enjoyable. For instance as of version 2.4.0.0, TWRP was given the ability to turn off the screen to save battery while in recovery. Version 2.5 takes that concept a step further and not only allows the user to select the timeout, but now even the screen brightness can be tweaked as well. On top of that, partition handling and selection has been vastly improved, and it is now easier to use thanks to the implementation of a scrollable list. And as if that weren’t enough, not being in the Android UI should not mean that you cannot enjoy a good looking recovery with our ever-growing-pixel-packed screens. So, a theme for 1080 x 1920 was added for devices like the Xperia Z, HTC One, and others. And speaking of which, the recovery is now available for the new beast from HTC… the One.
Please do keep in mind that the new version is still undergoing somewhat heavy testing and there are some bugs that you may run into. On the other hand, if you manage to get this installed, rooting the One will be as simple as using the built in tool to inject SuperSU. Please take it for a spin and report feedback and bugs that you may run into.
Team Win Recovery Project 2.x, or twrp2 for short, is a custom recovery built with ease of use and customization in mind. It’s a fully touch driven user interface – no more volume rocker or power buttons to mash. The GUI is also fully XML driven and completely theme-able. You can change just about every aspect of the look and feel.
You can find more information in the original thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
[Thanks to OEM Relations Manager jerdog for the tip!]
April 15, 2013 By: Samantha
Nearly every Android Jellybean 4.2 user will be familiar with DashClock, the lock screen widget app that allow users to see quite a bit of handy information upon quick glance. Pre-bundled with the widget comes your weather, missed calls and texts, Gmail, and your next calendar appointment. Now you can add your call log and network statistics to the list with DashCallLog and DashNet by XDA Forum Member apus2.
Both DashCallLog and DashNet are both extensions of the DashClock widget for Android 4.2. DashCallLog displays the call log of the phone and can be filtered to include the latest call, last incoming calls, outgoing calls, and calls you may have missed. Of each call, the call type (i.e. incoming, outgoing, missed), caller name, date and time, and duration will be displayed. Both the date format and individual call symbols can be personalized with multiple options available. Once selected, this opens up the call history.
DashNet is another handy DashClock extension that simply informs you of statistics regarding your network, be it WiFi or mobile connection. It’s an expandable widget that conveniently shows SSID, IP, and speed if you’re connected to WiFi. For mobile connections, the widget tells you your connection type (e.g. UMTS and GPRS) and operator name. Once tapped, the app displays a more extensive list of statistics such as signal strength, gateway, and network activity.
The open nature of DashClock allows for some pretty nifty and useful extensions to be developed by developers out there such as apus2′s DashCallLog and DashNet here. So if you would like to check them out, you can visit the application threads for DashCallLog and Dashnet.
YouTube
Follow
Like
Google+
