Posts From Jeff McIntire

Jeff McIntire
Jeff McIntire

Jeff has been an avid Android user since late 2010 (starting with the Samsung Captivate and later the Fascinate). He has been covering Android-related news since early 2012, with a focus on the rooted/development community. He also has been publishing icon packs for Phunktastic Designs since late 2015.

Substratum Theme Manager Gets a UI Revamp & Performance Improvements

Substratum Theme Manager Gets a UI Revamp & Performance Improvements

January 4, 2018
Substratum, a mainstay in Android system theming since the Marshmallow days, received a major design revamp this week along with some security improvements and a new default theme compiler to improve performance. The new design, first teased last month, has been long-anticipated and has finally arrived. The improvements to the user interface (UI) are designed to...
Hands-On Overview of Android Oreo-based OmniROM on the OnePlus 5T

Hands-On Overview of Android Oreo-based OmniROM on the OnePlus 5T

December 31, 2017
One disappointing aspect of the OnePlus 5T was that it shipped with Android Nougat instead of Oreo. (Even the Oreo beta the company pushed Friday is only 8.0.) But if you're interested in getting Android 8.1 on your 5T and you don't mind going the custom ROM route, there are several options available in our...
OxygenOS Open Oreo Beta Now Available for the OnePlus 5T

OxygenOS Open Oreo Beta Now Available for the OnePlus 5T

December 30, 2017
An open Oreo beta for OxygenOS was released Friday for the OnePlus 5T, bringing picture-in-picture (PiP) functionality, Smart Text Selection, system-wide autofill, and the December Android security patch to OnePlus's flagship smartphone. Though the open beta has been available for a while now for the OnePlus 5, those who got its newer, 18:9 display-touting sibling...
Dirty Unicorns Brings Fling, Pulse and SmartBar to Android Oreo ROMs

Dirty Unicorns Brings Fling, Pulse and SmartBar to Android Oreo ROMs

December 6, 2017
Some of the most popular custom ROM features during the Marshmallow and Nougat eras -- Fling, SmartBar and Pulse -- came from the bright minds at team Dirty Unicorns via the Dirty Unicorns Interface (DUI), and the enterprising team recently ported them to Oreo. If you're a fan of swipe gestures, audio visualizers, and a customizeable...
Android 8.1 Oreo now available for the Google Pixel, Pixel 2, & Pixel C

Android 8.1 Oreo now available for the Google Pixel, Pixel 2, & Pixel C

December 5, 2017
Google's pushed the final release of Android 8.1 Oreo live this afternoon. The Android 8.1 Oreo release is available in the form of factory images for supported devices such as the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, and Pixel C devices. Over-the-air (OTA) updates will likely follow on Wednesday...
Modify Android Framework Values without needing APKTool using Privset

Modify Android Framework Values without needing APKTool using Privset

December 3, 2017
Have you ever wanted to make changes to your Android device's framework values without having to use APKTool to decompile and recompile framework-res.apk? To bypass the lengthy time that can take, XDA Senior Member sir mordred (Oğuzhan Yiğit) created an application called Privset that allows you to make changes to your system framework with nothing more than...
TWRP Recovery Alpha Available for Pixel 2 and 2 XL

TWRP Recovery Alpha Available for Pixel 2 and 2 XL

November 1, 2017
Less than a month after Google's official announcement of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, XDA Senior Recognized Developer Dees_Troy announced alpha support for the popular TWRP recovery for the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL late Monday night. A custom recovery, of course, is the first step towards rooting and flashing a custom ROM,...
Why App Updates Sometimes Break Substratum Themes

Why App Updates Sometimes Break Substratum Themes

October 15, 2017
It's a common occurrence: users apply Substratum themes to their phones then later update Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, or any number of other apps from the Play Store. Suddenly they can't even open those apps until their theme overlays are disabled. Plenty of newer Substratum users have voiced their experiences with this issue ever since the...
The Ground Zero Open Source Project (GZOSP): an Android Oreo Base for Custom ROM Development

The Ground Zero Open Source Project (GZOSP): an Android Oreo Base for Custom ROM Development

September 27, 2017
Ground Zero ROMs, the ROM development team that brought us the popular custom ROMs Tesla, Tipsy, and Validus, has provided a central Android Oreo repository from which custom ROMs can be built without having to start from scratch (meaning straight from AOSP). The idea of the Ground Zero Open Source Project (GZOSP) is to give...