Posts by Tomek Kondrat- XDA Developers

Re-evaluating the Minimum Requirements for current XDA Recognized Developers

Tomek Kondrat January 18, 2019

For years, the Recognized Developer program has been giving recognition to XDA’s most important assets – developers. Apart from the prestige, the developers are also getting many perks, like a bigger inbox, access to a build server, and more. One of the Developer Committee’s tasks is keeping the Recognized Developer group as active as possible. To...

ZTE Quartz gets TWRP, factory images, and kernel source availability

Tomek Kondrat October 14, 2018

The ZTE Quartz is the first smartwatch running Android Wear 2.0 (now WearOS) by Chinese company ZTE. The device was released in mid-2017 at a price less than $200. Custom development on smartwatches isn't nearly as popular as it is for smartphones, but that doesn't mean it still doesn't happen. Thanks to the efforts of XDA...

OpenKirin’s ROMs now support Honor 8, Honor Note 8, Huawei P9/P9 Plus, and Huawei Mate 8

Tomek Kondrat September 24, 2018

LineageOS is the most popular custom ROM for Android devices. It's often used as a base for other custom ROMs such as Resurrection Remix. There are other ROMs like OmniROM that are also popular and may or may not be based on LineageOS. Thanks to the efforts of the OpenKirin project, unofficial LineageOS, Resurrection Remix, and...

Unofficial Port Of LineageOS 15.1 Available for Honor 5X

Tomek Kondrat September 24, 2018

AOSP based versions of Android have a lot of fans. Pure Android is fast and has no additional applications or services that clutter the user experience. While we see a lot of Android Pie ROMs popping up lately, Android Oreo is still a new thing for some devices. The latest device that joined the Android...

Sony Xperia XZ3 Live Wallpapers ported to Sony devices running Android 7.0+

Tomek Kondrat September 24, 2018

A wallpaper is that small thing of the UI that we see hundreds of times a day. Most of us use a static image, but some good looking animated alternatives can make your screen look even better. Live wallpapers from the new Sony Xperia XZ3 can now be used on Sony devices running stock Android 7.0...

Official TWRP Recovery Makes Its Way To Samsung Galaxy A8/A8+ 2018

Tomek Kondrat September 23, 2018

Having access to a custom recovery is one of the most important projects for every custom ROM community. Without it, flashing a custom ROM, a mod, or even rooting your device with Magisk would be very risky without an easy way to make backups. Over the last few years, TWRP has been the biggest project...

Solid Explorer Is Now Optimized For Android TV And Chrome OS

Tomek Kondrat April 30, 2018

In the years since it was released, Solid Explorer has built its reputation as one of the top file managers available for Android. It was installed over a million times and has a rating of 4.6 in Google Play Store. The popular file manager has finally made its way to Android TV and Chrome OS. Usually,...

500 Firepaper will stop working on June 15th as 500px closes down API

Tomek Kondrat April 28, 2018

Those of you who love having a random, but always great wallpaper, have surely heard about 500 Firepaper. It's an application that was created by XDA Senior Recognized Developer Chainfire and it has been changing the look of many Android home screens since late 2013. Unfortunately, according to the developer, 500 Firepaper will stop working this...

Pixel Launcher’s “At A Glance” Widget Now Available In the Latest Google App Beta

Tomek Kondrat April 27, 2018

The Google Pixel launcher that comes pre-installed on Google's devices brings some unique features that usually are ported to other launchers. One of the features called "At a glance" can now be enabled on every Android device via latest beta of Google app. "At a glance" is a useful widget that shows the date and current weather....

The Journey of F2FS and why File Systems Matter: Interview with Stan Dmitriev from Tuxera

Tomek Kondrat April 6, 2018

File systems aren't discussed on XDA or any other forum all too often. The topic involves a lot of low-level development, so developers prefer to focus on applications, ROMs, or kernels. Nevertheless, the file system is a vital part of every storage. It's the technology that outlines how data in your device's storage is stored...

WireGuard, a Revolutionary VPN Project, Adds Support for Android ROMs

Tomek Kondrat November 28, 2017

It’s hard to imagine the modern Internet without a VPN. For many years, VPNs have extended private networks across public networks, enabling users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. This consequently has had the effect of allowing users to...

Interview with OmniROM Developers Max Weninger and Jake Whatley – Origins, Custom ROM Development, Tips and More!

Tomek Kondrat October 10, 2017

Recently I had the pleasure of talking with two OmniROM developers -- Max Weninger (maxwen) and Jake Whatley (Gandalf). OmniROM has been part of the Android development scene for four years now and it offers a distinct and polished Android experience, with a history of introducing excellent features with tons of customization options. Innovation, transparency, community, and freedom are...