Archive

An Official Alpha Release WITH Kernel Source? Who Does This Sort of Thing?

An Official Alpha Release WITH Kernel Source? Who Does This Sort of Thing?

January 26, 2013
Here at XDA, we take the responsibility of carriers and OEMs to provide timely updates to their devices (and to honor their GPL requirements) seriously. There are those who do a good job (Samsung is one of them), those who don't always do a good job (HTC, Motorola, LG), and those who do a terrible job...
New Galaxy Note 2 Bootloader Unlock Achieved, CASUAL Tool Updated

New Galaxy Note 2 Bootloader Unlock Achieved, CASUAL Tool Updated

January 26, 2013
There is nothing better than a good story line. When it comes to good story lines on XDA, few are better than the Verizon locked bootloader debacle. It's always big news when one is unlocked, and it's always tragic when one is re-locked. This happened recently with the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II. First, it...
Official Jelly Bean 4.1.2 Update for the Samsung Galaxy S II I9100

Official Jelly Bean 4.1.2 Update for the Samsung Galaxy S II I9100

January 25, 2013
It's no secret that Samsung has dropped the ball in some areas such as the Exynos brick bug and the lack of proper documentation. However, they managed to keep true to their word that the Samsung Galaxy S II would officially see Jelly Bean. This will put the device on software that is as up to date...
Phonster Combines Ingress and Pokemon Concepts for a Unique Gaming Experience

Phonster Combines Ingress and Pokemon Concepts for a Unique Gaming Experience

January 24, 2013
Gaming on Android has gotten a lot better in the last year. We're seeing full featured games that aren't just iterations of repetitive puzzles. Some have more involved campaigns or story lines, and others have immense multiplayer modes. One such example of a unique Android game is Ingress. Instead of playing in levels, Ingress uses...
App Review: Sneaky Pictures Now with Spy Camera OS – XDA Developer TV

App Review: Sneaky Pictures Now with Spy Camera OS – XDA Developer TV

January 24, 2013
Sometimes, you want to take a picture of the dust on the ice machine at a grungy restaurant. Sometimes, you want to take a picture of a cute animal. Sometimes, you want to snap a picture of your friend with guacamole on his face or parsley in his teeth that they don’t know about. In...
CONTEST: Crowdsourcing the Design for the Next XDA Merchandise

CONTEST: Crowdsourcing the Design for the Next XDA Merchandise

January 24, 2013
crowd·sourc·ing noun \ˈkrau̇d-ˌsȯr-siŋ\   : the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers At XDA, you could say we specialize in crowdsourcing. You could even say that we had it perfected before it became hip. Our developers...
Forums Added for Sony Xperia Z and Firefox OS

Forums Added for Sony Xperia Z and Firefox OS

January 23, 2013
Recently, we created two new forums for your browsing pleasure. The first is for a phone that we recently examined during our time at CES, the Sony Xperia Z. The second isn't for a physical device, but rather for Mozilla's Firefox OS. The Xperia Z is Sony's flagship device for early 2013. The device is dominated by...
Comprehensive Guide to Microsoft Surface (and Windows RT) with 50+ Tips and Tricks

Comprehensive Guide to Microsoft Surface (and Windows RT) with 50+ Tips and Tricks

January 23, 2013
Development and tweaks for the Microsoft Surface have been been catching steam lately. There are a group of developers porting regular Windows applications to Windows RT. There are also a couple of ways to alter touch screen settings. However, Windows RT is still a brand new operating system, and people using it for the first...
Rethink How You Open Apps with HomeFlip

Rethink How You Open Apps with HomeFlip

January 23, 2013
Home screen replacements are made with many features in mind: customizability, speed, small file sizes, and many others. In some cases, they may not even be traditional "launchers" at all. There are apps out there that function as an application launcher, but are not exactly intended to replace your standard launcher. HomeFlip by XDA Forum Member id0x12345 falls...
Want a Fast, Multilingual T9 Dialer Replacement for Android?

Want a Fast, Multilingual T9 Dialer Replacement for Android?

January 22, 2013
One of the biggest shortcomings in stock Android is the lack of a T9 dialer app. For those who aren't familiar with the feature, a T9 dialer basically allows you to search for phone numbers from your contacts using the classic phone pad by simply pressing numbers instead of letters for contact names. The feature...
App Review: Select Apps to Keep Your Screen On with KeepScreen – XDA Developer TV

App Review: Select Apps to Keep Your Screen On with KeepScreen – XDA Developer TV

January 22, 2013
Recently, we reviewed Screen Standby. This app turns your screen off, but doesn't put your device to sleep. This allows you to stream movies to another screen without killing your battery keeping the screen on. However, what if you want the opposite? If you are playing Ingress and while running around collecting XM your screen...
New Calculator Helps You Figure Out Hex, Decimal and Binary At a Moment’s Notice

New Calculator Helps You Figure Out Hex, Decimal and Binary At a Moment’s Notice

January 22, 2013
Imagine you're at a club, and you are chatting up this beautiful creature who you fear might just be humoring you. You keep asking her for her number, and finally she relents, but you find it strange that she reaches for her phone. After tapping on the screen for a few seconds, she says she...