- 4,430,935
REGISTERED - 29,966
ONLINE NOW
March 2, 2012 By: ElCondor
Perhaps you remember the days of the very first Android ports to Windows Mobile phones such as the HTC Touch Diamond and HTC HD2. Beside the fact that this groundbreaking development was one of the factors that ultimately led to the end of Windows Mobile development on XDA, it did bring some innovative features to the table. Dual boot for example. It was revolutionary to be able to choose between Android and Windows Mobile. After a few months, when people started to move to newer phones, and this innovation ultimately got buried under the huge mess mass of development for Android phones.
It seems there is currently only limited active development for a dualboot system for native Android phones. There have been projects in the past, for example for the Samsung Galaxy S II, Droid Eris, Xperia Play and LG GT540, but it seems development is more focused on individual ROMs nowadays. Multi-device development – and yes, we use the word development a lot – is more and more subject to development on individual devices. In the past, developers collaborated to put together something great (Ervius Visual Kitchen, anyone?). The Android port to Windows Mobile, called XDANDROID, and the dual boot innovation are just few of the many examples of this.
Although it isn’t a bad thing that developers have a strong focus at individual ROM development, we probably all share the dreams of being able to boot into a clean, battery-saving and light-weight Ice Cream Sandwich ROM while also having the option to boot into another ROM, one that might be an experimental ROM or a ROM that is more focused on performance. Or any other combination. The open-source Android OS allows for many dramatic changes to be made to its structure, dualboot on Android has been proven to work on the Droid Eris, so why hasn’t development started yet? Why seems development of such innovative systems at a standstill? I say we fire up that innovation engine as soon as possible.
February 19, 2012 By: orb3000
Finally we got to the third and final part of this interesting interview:
If you missed previous parts, you can find them in here for Pt. 1, and here for Pt. 2
orb3000: What would you recommend to anyone interested in entering the
high-level hardware mod world?
AdamOutler: I would recommend getting a hold of some tools and hardware, get
on google and do it!
I’d choose the standard $60 Radio Shack temperature controlled soldering
iron, some breadboards, leds, 1kohm resistors, and a microcontroller. Any
open-hardware development board will teach you how to work with inputs and
outputs. One of my favorite development boards is the Arduino series. Some people may say, “hey, Arduino is not real hardware development, it’s too easy…BlaBlaBla… Whatever, they’re cheap and
work well. let me ask you, if you’re trying to prototype or learn
something, should it be easy or convoluted?. I’ve managed to make several
devices which solve real-world problems using my Arduinos including EMF
detection for locating a source of interference at work and UART processing
for developing Unbrickable Mod.
To really get into digital communications, you’ll want some additional tools
like the Bus Pirate. The Bus Pirate is a universal serial interface used to
communicate with just about anything at low speeds. It’s open-hardware and
known as The Hacker’s Multi-tool.
For troubleshooting and circuit identification, you’ll want something like
the Logic Sniffer. It can record digital highs and lows then display them on your desktop screen where you can run filters and detect logical patterns.
While I’m at it… I don’t think I can hammer this point enough; Use
Open-Hardware.
With Open-Hardware(like OMAP44xx) you can get all the information you need.
With proprietary hardware (like Qualcrapp processors) you have nothing to
work with.
orb3000: Why is your adamoutler.com main site generally down?
AdamOutler: My main webserver is a Texas Instruments EvalBot.
This is a Texas Instruments Development Board with an ARMv3 processor. Its
form-factor is designed to roll around the floor, bounce off walls, turn 90
degrees and keep going. For some reason it came with an Ethernet port, so I
re purposed the device to serve web pages. It does not do a very good job
and it locks up all the time. I could probably use a real web-server instead
of a development board on wheels.
orb3000: Finally, please tell us a bit of the Adam outside the hardware world, what do you do for a living? What is your current device?
AdamOutler: Heh, the funny thing is that what I do for a living is in the
hardware world… I’m an electronics tech. I have been working in
electronics for 13 years. In 1999, I joined the Army as a Radar Repairer
and my job was to keep multi-million dollar Artillery, Rocket and Missile
Radars operational at all costs. I changed jobs to be a Biomedical
Equipment Technician after working with Radars in Iraq.
I’m currently in the Civil Service, but I’m still performing Inspection, PM,
calibration, and rebuilding medical equipment (like infusion pumps, x-rays
and ultrasounds) in a hospital as my daily job. Being a biomed and keeping
things in-line with regulations is a stark contrast to modifying radars.
When I’m at work, non-manufacturer authorized modifications can kill
someone. When I get home and work on mobile devices, I can kinda “let
loose”. The worst that can happen with mobile devices is it breaks. At
work, I could face much worse. 
My current daily phone is an Infuse 4G. My current Dev phone is a Samsung Captivate. My current development tablet is Nook Tablet.
orb3000: Thanks a lot for your time, any final comments you want to make?
AdamOutler: Yes. Since this will be on the XDA Portal and many
manufacturers will see this..
I believe Google chose OMAP4460 because it is the only truly open-hardware
processor available. Open-Hardware means device manufacturers can be
self-sufficient and modders can get the information they need.
Closed-Hardware means it has a relatively short life-cycle.
Samsung: Your Exynos 4210 processor without datasheets is now obsolete
because you chose to keep 1/2 of the datasheets private. I don’t know of a
single person who, with any sort of planning, would say “hey, I want that
processor because of ${Maintainability, Ease of use, Cost Effectiveness}”
All of these qualities are missing when you lock down your datasheets.
Qualcomm: Is there any benefeit to using a Qualcomm processor? Can you
prove it? As far as I can tell, they’re the Celerons of the ARM world.
About the only benefeit to using a Qualcomm processor is integral call
processor. However if the device manufacturers actually cared about the
device and its ability to work through upgrades they would never use
Qualcomm. Here’s a factoid, Qualcomm does not even let the manufacturers
have access to bootloaders. You do realize that the only reason people are
using your chips in their devices is because they think you might know
something they can learn from right?
NVidia: Sure TEGRA extensions are great, but we can’t program them into the
latest versions of Android without knowledge of how they work. You’ve closed
your hardware and thereby stifled development.
Texas Instruments: Good Job! Other processor manufacturers take note. Texas
Instruments is on the rise in the ARM industry because of decisions made by
all other processor manufacturers. We need more Open-Hardware to work with.
BTW… If anyone has access to Samsung Exynos 4210 Chapter 19, entitled
“Boot Sequence” or similar, I need it. The manual I have stops at Chapter
18.
Thats a lot of knowledge!. Hope you all have enjoyed the interview, if so please share it, want someone to be interviewed? Let us know!
Thanks for reading.
February 18, 2012 By: orb3000
Welcome to the second part of the interview with Recognized Developer AdamOutler:
Here you can find the first part in case you missed it.
orb3000: We know you have the longest bash script ever written, what is made for exactly?
AdamOutler: Mythical Librarian was a
project I created over the course of 6 months. At the time, my daughter was
3, could not read and liked TV Shows like Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street
and others. I found a way to make it so she could point to the show she
wanted to watch, with proper naming convention, XBMC could assign pictures
to each episode and she could select which TV Show she wanted to watch. The
idea behind this project was to automate the process of recording a video,
looking up the season and episode numbers, then renaming. Sounds simple
right?
I began with BASHSEXX(Bash SeasonXX, EpisodeXX). It evolved to support
MythTV’s database and was renamed MythSEXX. Eventually it got a small
following, people started reporting bugs, the script was supporting a large
number of functions and databases and was “thinking” on its own, so it was
renamed mythicalLibrarian.
Long story short, it takes a recording, references an online database,
parses, creates a local textual database, looks TVShows up based on
SeriesID, Original Airdate, Show Title and Episode Title, utilizes standard
and fuzzy logic, grades its performance, makes decisions if its going to
redo the lookup at a later time, maintains filesystem symlinks and manages
metadata. It talks to GNOME desktop, XBMC and MythTV. mythicalLibrarian
generates RSS feeds upon each action via Apache web server.
mythicalLibrarian also has the ability to update itself from the latest SVN
or Stable version.
The end result is the user can use XBMC as a better front-end for MythTV.
XBMC uses mythicalLibrarian to get information which downloads cover-art,
fan-art, episode-art, and displays detailed information about the episode,
while MythTV handles disk-space issues and recording.
I believe it’s main portion is now the longest BASH script in existence.
orb3000: Regarding your current projects such as Unsecure boot on the Nook Tablet, running Ubuntu on Nook tablet, Exynos4120 UnBrickable Mod, what is the actual status and what users can expect from those amazing tools?
AdamOutler: While I did put in a lot of research into Unsecure Boot on the
Nook Tablet and even prototyped Nook Tablet ModChips, XDA Junior Member
Bauwks came up with a total software solution. This solution is now the
defacto standard used in all custom Nook Table booting including Ubuntu.
As for Ubuntu booting, there is considerable work going into a Nook Tablet
3.0 Kernel. This is required for proper operation of Ubuntu. The older 2.6
kernel will boot Ubuntu just fine, but there are problems which cannot be
corrected without proper underlying datastructures. The Ubuntu Recovery
system I came up with works well and will recover a dead Nook Tablet from
any known cause of bricking. I will continue this project as soon as I get my hands on a 3.0 kernel.
The Exynos4210 UnBrickable Mod is complete. We are now researching firmware
solutions. I have worked with Rebellos via Internet and it would appear
that the most logical solution would be to simply send it to him. He will
attempt to write new bootloaders and make GS2 UnBrickable Mod a reality.
Believe me, I want this badly as I receive several PMs per week asking about
the status of GS2 UBM.
orb3000: You have opened a thread called Do you want to help out
developers? Got a broken device? How the project is going, and what would
you like to ask/advice the donors?. We would like to take this opportunity
to remind everyone participating to help us to keep thread clean.
AdamOutler: A broken device may be something most people throw away.
However, to myself and others, they are research tools.
I stated devices in which I am interested at the top of the thread. Many members have posted
other devices which they are willing to part with. I would like to
encourage other developers and hardware hackers to take advantage of this
and use it as a resource for their projects.
Expect the third and last part soon. Thanks for reading.
February 17, 2012 By: orb3000
Finally we are back on the XDA Interview series! For those of you too new to XDA, you may find the previous ones in this links: Interview With XDA Developer pof, Interview with User Experience Admin svetius, Interview with XDA forum Admin mikechannon, etc.
This time we will talk with XDA Recognized Developer AdamOutler. It´s hard to find where to start when you have the pleasure to interview such a versatile Developer with so many active projects.
orb3000: Hi Adam, thanks for taking this time to talk. I will start asking how do you started to work in Unbrickable Mod?
AdamOutler: When I switched from iPhone to Android, I had a feeling of
immense freedom. I could do anything I want with an Android! So I did…
I did something and bricked my phone within about 1 hour of owning it.
I searched for ways to recover bricks and JTAG was the only option for my
device. It required soldering 8 tiny wires and purchasing a very expensive
box. I felt that was unacceptable and there should be another way to reload
firmware so I began research and was pulled into the thread Lets save some
bricks. After locating the hardware modification, I called it UnBrickable Mod because I
knew it had potential to make a device totally UnBrickable.
Cool factoid: The B in UnBrickable is always capitalized because it bypasses
Auto-Correct on Android devices.
orb3000: How Unbrickable Mod works?, can you explain us what is all about?
AdamOutler: That is a very broad question… UnBrickable Mod is a hardware
modification which enables USB upload of bootloaders. I think everyone
wants the reassurance that no matter what they flash on their device it can
be recovered. All CORTEX A8 processors have the ability to boot from USB.
Most modern devices support this and at the same time, most manufacturers
tend to lock this ability down. While UnBrickable Mod is technically a
hardware hack/exploit, it functions to increase device maintainability and
thereby increases device value. Personally, I view UnBrickable Mod as the
way devices should come from the factory.
Here’s a video which explains most of it.
(Note to readers, ignore this paragraph if you’re not a geek) While most
devices have a default failover mode to boot from USB, this is ineffective
if the device locks up on a bootloader. Each device has its own unique boot
mode. Most GalaxyS1 devices use a boot code of 0×9(OneNAND>UART>USB). By
modifying the value from 0×9 to 0×29(UART>USB>OneNAND), the device will
reverse its boot order and thereby cause the device to swap its boot mode
from the default boot first from OneNAND to booting first from UART, then
USB, then OneNAND. It’s not always the same value we’re searching for
though.. Each device has its own unique configuration and processor. A
booting code of 0×9 on a Hummingbird processor does not mean the same on any
other processor, nor is it guaranteed that the boot modes can be swapped,
also memory locations are different per processor.
For example, I’ve just finished locating the modification required on the
Exynos4120 GalaxyS2. As far as I can tell, it will not be possible to
simply swap the boot modes. On the Exynos4120, a temporary connection must
be made in order to make the device attempt to boot from an alternate source
and failover into the USB mode. I chose a switch to make this temporary
connection. See XDA-TV GalaxyS2 Unboxing for more.
orb3000: For a regular user sometimes so many tools is kind of confusing, please tell us about the supporting software like UnBrickable Resurrector, ModeDetect, and Heimdall One-Click?
AdamOutler: These tools each serve different purposes. Lets start with
Heimdall One-Click
Heimdall One-Click is a cross-platform, all-dependencies-included, single
executable file, firmware packaging and distribution tool. It is superior
to the Windows-only Odin3. Its purpose is to allow users on Linux, Windows
and Mac to use the exact same file to flash firmware onto their device. The
advantages of using Heimdall One-Click over Odin3:
*Utilzing a much safer flashing method
*Allowing those with Windows, Mac and Linux to flash your firmware
*Increasing user-awareness of what is being flashed
*Packing your firmware into a much easier to use One-Click
*Supporting the work of other Open-Source developers
Heimdall One-Click is based on Heimdall by Benjamin Dobell. Heimdall is
actually safer to use than Odin, and Heimdall One-Click adds 6 points of
safety to standard flashing with Odin. I’ve also created a tool to make
Heimdall One-Clicks from Heimdall Tar.GZ packages.
The UnBrickable Resurrector is the firmware/software component to
UnBrickable Mod.
The UnBrickable Resurrector will tell you when you’ve connected a device
which has been properly modified. It also can recognize several other modes
like ADB, Media Player, Mass Storage and many others. By connecting an
UnBrickable Modded device and clicking the “Download Mode” button, you’re
activating a process of uploading customized bootloaders directly into
specific memory locations where they are executed and perform initialization
tasks designed to put your device into Download Mode or Fastboot Mode. The
Resurrector was created as a team effort by Rebellos and Myself.
I designed the high-level Java app and hardware mod while he designed the
HIBL(Hummingbird Interceptor BootLoader) and modified SBL.
ModeDetect was discontinued. It has been replaced and absorbed by the
UnBrickable Resurrector.
Basically, we’ve got Heimdall One-Click which makes loading software easy
and the UnBrickable Resurrector which gets you to the point where you can
load software. The reason for having them be totally separate entities:
Not everyone needs or can use the Resurrector and not everyone needs or can
use Heimdall One-Click. Although they work together to form a total
recovery system, they are separate in that developers may not need a full
300meg firmware flash to put their device into download mode and test a
kernel, and people flashing firmware would be confused by inoperative
buttons and extra status icons.
In short, UnBrickable Resurrector supports several devices and provides
hard-brick recovery to a soft-bricked state. Heimdall One-Click provides
soft-brick recovery to an operational state.
This brings me to my work-in-progress… Why don’t we have any
cross-platform tools which work with every single Android device out there?
CASUAL (Cross-platform ADB Scripting, Unified Android Loader), like the Unbrickable resurrector, will support several devices. Since it only requires 6 commands, it is intended to be an easy-to-learn, Cross-Platform, light-weight scripting language for deploying binaries over ADB with a Graphical User Interface. If you’re a developer who wants to deploy a new root script over ADB, put out a kernel for multiple devices or install applications via adb, CASUAL will be your
application of choice. It works on Linux, Windows and Mac. A basic script can be created by simply putting all of your binaries into a zip file then typing in a few adb commands without the word “adb” and replace file
references with $ZIPFILEfilename.ext. For example:
[code]
Shell mkdir /data/tmp
push $ZIPFILEzergRush /data/tmp
shell /data/temp/zergRush
remount
push $ZIPFILEzergRush /system/bin
[/code]
The end-user of a CASUAL application will not see the script. They will see
a GUI. User will simply plug in their Android Debug Bridge enabled device,
select the operation from a drop-down box, then click the big button. It
will also provide a great way to easily root an Android Virtual Device from
Linux as well. CASUAL will support every single Operating System and every
single Android Device.
Here we end the first part of the interview, stay tuned for the following two parts.
Thanks for reading.
February 14, 2012 By: Jase Glenn
Welcome to Field Report, I’m Jase Glenn and I’ll be guiding you through this weeks latest innovations by some of the most creative developers in our community. Most of the articles we write about on the Portal have to do with a finished product. Field Report is a step in a different direction, where we discuss the latest innovations as they’re happening, and the thoughts of the developers behind them.
Transformer Prime
First up is a hardware hack for the venerable Transformer Prime by XDA Member Erusman. As most of us are aware by now, the Transformer Prime has been plagued by non-functional WiFi and GPS since launch, which in fact led to ASUS recalling many of the launch day Primes. Frustrated by these difficulties, Erusman decided to take the initiative, and in true XDA form not only took apart his Prime, but in the process fixed his tablet’s WiFi, GPS, and light bleed. When I asked him about how the idea came about and what his future plans were Erusman said:
“Well, my whole mod started out of fustration with Asus and the prime. I think alot of people were let down when they found out the “Prime” wasn’t exactly as they hoped for. Out of the box my primes GPS didn’t work. It suffered lightbleed and WIFI was very week. I like others was hoping ICS update would fix the issues. It didn’t. By that time I was out of my return window, and I was hearing horror stories from those that were RMA’ing theirs. After all this led to the first opening of the prime on XDA and mods.
I had no idea this thread would go this far. The cool thing is that it led to many people opening their primes and fixing the problems themselves. I just updated the thread with the latest. The antenna I made was my final mod. My future plans are to eventually mod it with some permenant antenna. Fixed to the back using SMA female connectors. Use it for GPS (now that it works) in a vehicle for my courier business. But for now I am just enjoying the Prime at home (fastest android tablet) for movies, bedside surfing and games.”
The great thing is Erusman actually made a play-by-play with pictures in his thread here so that anyone experiencing these issues can take a crack at it. That being said our next innovator took a software approach to solving a problem.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the latest of the Tab lineup. Due to the newness of the tablet, XDA Senior Member eaglerazor123 decided to show the users of the Tab 7.7 some love by creating the first custom ROM for it; without even owning one.
When I asked him about the difficulties he faced and what the future held, he said,
“Difficulties?! Umm..you know making a rom without that Device isn’t simple! My build is ready now! But it seems to be bootlooping! A minor bug! I’m waiting for the logs from Testers! And for [sic] Future Features, I may dig ICS for it.”
So Tab 7.7 users interested in testing this out head on over to the thread here and let him know you care. This leads us to our last (but certainly not least) story: HaRET for WP7.
HaRET for Windows Phone 7
Most of us remember HaRET from the final days of Windows Mobile, but for those of you who don’t, allow me to explain. HaRET (Handhelds Reverse Engineering Tool) is a program designed to allow Windows Mobile smartphones to boot the Linux kernel. HaRET was instrumental in allowing users of devices like the HTC HD2 to load Android and set off a wave of additional development. After WinMo’s demise at the hands of Microsoft, HaRET is back; this time for Windows Phone 7.
Spearheaded by XDA Recognized Developer dcordes, this latest version of HaRET is back, but not without difficulty. According to an update I received from dcordes:
HaRET needs to posess special rights (“kernel mode”) in order to access certain memory regions. This is required in order to load the Linux kernel into memory, flush memory to get rid of unneeded stuff and start Linux.
* HaRET uses a method to go to kernel mode “SetKmode” that was dropped in WP7
* On proposition of (minDark) I patched HaRET to get rid of it. Now HaRET no longer crashes but obviously lost it’s ability to boot a kernel (lol).* Although it runs and does things that require no GUI, we don’t see anything now, also due to WP7 specific changes. Recomendations have been made how to fix this (ultrashot)
* (minDark) proposed HtcRoot project (GoodDayToDie) as a solution to the disability to obtain kernel rights. GoodDayToDie now showed interest in using his HtcRoot project in order to help us with this.
* This project is not device specific. Aim is to run HaRET and boot Linux on any WP7 device and the patched HaRET was already tested on leo and mozart.
With HD2 we have a special case: We have a known working Linux kernel for it and it runs WP7. Since the aim is to boot Linux from WP7 using HaRET, WP7 flashed HD2 is the perfect test setup.
Progress is moving rapidly, and headway being made, so if you feel you can contribute head on over to the thread here.
So there you have it folks, the Transformer Prime gets chopped, the Tab 7.7 gets its ROM cherry popped, and HaRET is back with a vengeance. Stay tuned for next weeks version. Jase out.
February 4, 2012 By: PoorCollegeGuy
Sometimes development can be fueled by nothing more than a well made tool or tutorial that gets people started. In most cases, it’s some sort of kitchen that takes some of the hard parts of making a ROM and turns it into a simple menu option. In other cases, it’s a 10 minute tutorial showing users what’s what and how to do things.
The latter is the case for Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc users, as XDA Senior Member iridaki has taken the time to write an entire tutorial on unpacking, repacking and modifying the image files.
The pre-requisites are relatively simple to understand, and include:
Requirements:
1. Linux (any form will do, for example virtual box etc)
2. Perl (already included in Ubuntu, me thinks)
3. The Xperia Boot Tools package attached in this post
4. The mkbootimg binary (I already compiled it for Linux x86 and included it in the attachment)
5. Reading this post VERY VERY VERY carefully
From there, it’s a bunch of terminal commands that do the work for you. However, as long as you’re attentive and careful then you shouldn’t run into too many problems. And, as always, make sure you make a complete backup of your device before attempting to flash your work, just in case you skipped a step somewhere.
For those budding developers who want to give this process a try, you can check out the full tutorial in the original thread where you can also find discussions and additional information. Being ever so humble, iridaki has also said that if you manage to find any mistakes then you should post them in the thread so corrections can be made.
January 30, 2012 By: PoorCollegeGuy
Any tool that helps in the development of Android is a welcome addition to the veritable arsenal of tools and kitchens out there to help beginners and experts alike make their ROMs everything they can be. Of course, anything that makes the process easier is even a more welcome addition.
XDA Recognized Developer wes342 is developing a set of tools compiled into a studio software that takes the guess work out of ROM making and allows users to put the most possible modifications on their ROMs. There are literally over two dozen features and tools that range from compiling and decompiling .dex files to unpacking and re-packing boot.img files to make up among the most complete Android development tools out today.
The plans for future features at this time include:
Cross Platform ( Linux, Windows, Mac …Etc..)
More Supported Devices
More Supported Roms
More Features (Transitions, Boot animations, Etc….)
And even a few possible features that may be included in future releases:
Source building for any device.
(Gingerbread , ice cream sandwich)
Kernel source building
Svn Rom downloading (warm , synergy, ext…)
For those who want to check out this impressive software, you can find the full feature list, download links and instructions for installation and use in the application’s thread.
January 4, 2012 By: PoorCollegeGuy
HTC Desire users are among the latest who can have that Ubuntu goodness on their phones.
XDA Senior Member zacthespack has been developing an app that runs a user through installing Ubuntu on their Android devices, most recently the HTC Desire. The app is pretty cool. Basically, a user downloads an Ubuntu image and the app will install Ubuntu via chroot within Android. And, as we all know, people who run Linux on their phones win. Always.
It’s a seriously awesome concept, but as with all great ideas and developments, testers are always needed. Says zacthespack:
Ok guys As this app becomes more stable I will be looking to create other apps to run different linux distros, so far im looking at fedora and backtrack, any others people would be interested in
So there’s the opportunity to possibly check out other distros and builds as well.
If this looks like something you can get into, HTC Desire owners can check out the thread dedicated for them here. Any other Android users who want to give it a try can check out their dedicated thread here.
The threads contain download links to various builds, the apps (both free and paid versions) and instructions on how to do everything. As with any operating system installation, there are some dangers so be sure to be careful!
December 26, 2011 By: Bandage
A little shy 18 months ago Google rolled out its Android App Inventor to the masses, giving even the most novice of users the ability to create their own apps. Well Google giveth, and Google taketh away, just months later announcing the discontinuation of the Android App Inventor site and its features on December 31, 2011.
I’ll be the first to admit I jumped right in when the App Inventor opened to the public, creating a plethora of useless apps to show off to my friends and coworkers. For those of us not boasting an impressive set of programming skills, it was a fun experience that gave us the tools to start us on the road to App development. My own creations consisted primarily of juvenile attempts at humor, though I did find some added functionality in some of my more serious efforts.
While the site will officially go dark on the 31st, it will live on as an open source project with the help of MIT. In 2012 we can expect to see a collaboration with Google and MIT to release free and open-source software that will expand upon what we’ve seen with the App Inventor. Educators and experienced programmers are encouraged to track their progress at MIT’s App Inventor Edu site.
The December 31st deadline to download your creations is fast approaching, now mere days away until the site goes dark. Head on over and log in to your account to download any projects you’d like to save.
December 23, 2011 By: Jase Glenn
M10Tools is going open source! Need I say more?
Okay, for those of you who don’t know about M10Tools, I’ll explain. In a nutshell, it’s a program that allows you to edit HTC Sense. Normally Sense is very challenging to edit directly, but with M10Tools a world of opportunity opens up to people with coding skills. Over the past few months things have really taken off, and now the developer wants to take it open source!
There’s a snag in the plans though. It seems one of the original devs has decided to quit, leaving an opening for new developer. According to Diamondback10 the new guy must have:
•Very good experience in C# and/or C++
•Windows dev of course
•Experience with reading/writing binary data would be helpful
•Experience with reverse engineering file formats would be also helpful
•Good spoken english required (German would be nice too)
•Communication is done via either IRC or Skype
•Development uses SVN, so knowledge about SVN and how it works is quite helpful
•Having a HTC phone with a sense 3.0/3.5 ROM is strongly advised. You don’t totally need it, but it helps a lot.
If you think you have what it takes to continue the legacy of this awesome program head on over to the thread here.
Happy Coding.
December 21, 2011 By: PoorCollegeGuy
Most of the new development on XDA is in the genre of kernels and ROMs but every now and then a gem like this falls into our lap. Everyone meet Fruit Cake Maker. XDA user samcripp has released a tool that will, as he puts it:
allow the user to create a picture perfect .img from your boot and system partition. It will then create an update.zip from it…a self contain ROM, already ready for installation, already inside an update.zip.
What that tells me is that this beast of a tool will take what’s currently on your Motorola Triumph and turn it into a fully functional, fully flashable ROM. That is pure win. If you have a Motorola Triumph, are feeling bold and understand that XDA and samcripp are not responsible for anything bad that happens, then check out the thread for additional details and download links.
For those who aren’t familiar with Fruit Cake Maker, it’s actually a pretty widespread project supporting several other devices. You can check it out here for more details!
If you’ve tried this on other phones or have tried it on the Moto Triumph, take a sec and leave a comment to share your experience.
December 7, 2011 By: orb3000
Due to the lack of a simple guide for compiling kernels, XDA Recognized Developer Droidzone decided to create his own specially for Devs. This guide includes an interactive menu and includes topics such as:
- Getting the sources
- Setting up the compilation box and preparing source code
- Setting up kernel parameters
- Compiling and distributing kernel
All very well explained for those who speak the language. You will need before staring Ubuntu Box a toolchain–either the Android NDK, or your own toolchain, HTC Desire GB/Froyo source from htcdevs.com, or sources from github and more importantly being familiar with the linux shell and basic linux commands.
Originally posted by Droidzone
[DEV] Kernel development HOWTO and Interactive menuI havent yet found a simple guide for compiling kernels. Some of them assume too much, and some are just outdated. So I thought I’d write my own for devs/budding devs. Here you go!
Note:
This is not a guide for newbies. It’s a dev guide for devs.
Research before asking questions, pleaseFor The Menu driven interactive kernel build script, see Post #22
Continue on to Dev original thread to find more.
December 6, 2011 By: orb3000
We all know HTC promised to unlock all the 2011 devices but that has not happened on the HTC Wildfire S, released back in May and still remains S-ON as there is no free software solution due to lack of dev support.
XDA member *se-nsei. along with a group of members is trying to pull attention to the Wildfire so we wanted to support the campaign for more devs and invite them to actively participate in development and ROMs for this forgotten phone!
So please spread the word and perhaps this device can join to the ICS party too!
For more information on how you can help, please continue on to the original thread
YouTube
Follow
Like
Google+
