For those of you who don’t know Google dropped official “developer device” support for the CDMA (Verizon) version of the Galaxy Nexus last week. While a statement was released explaining why, it apparently required further explanation as it wasn’t officially explained in full as to what this drop actually meant. So without futher hesitation here is what the official Google Group’s post has to say: Read more
This is a big day for ROM developers everywhere as Xiaomi, a Chinese technology company, has open sourced its MIUI ROM for Android. For those that live under a rock, MIUI gives Android an iOS flair in both look and feel and is based on both Android 2.3.7 and CyanogenMod 7 sources. MIUI 4 (based on Ice Cream Sandwich) is even being toted as extremely stable on the Galaxy S II. You can check out our review on an earlier version here. It’s even safe to say that it’s one of the more popular ROMs out there.
If you are wanting to take a stab at the code you can swing on over to the Github where you will find several application and ROM source codes uploaded. While it may not be all of them you can certainly bet we’ll see more source codes pop up in the near future. Enjoy!
– Compass
– File Explorer
– Notes
– Sound Recorder
source: MIUIAndroid
While most of us aren’t surprised by this move, I’m certainly not, Google has dropped official support for the CDMA (Verizon) Galaxy Nexus as a developer device. They did the same for the LTE Xoom and Nexus S 4G as well. At first folks thought was in regards to Google Wallet not being officially supported by Verizon however it was for a more in depth reason. It was first discovered by Droid-Life earlier this afternoon and while everyone was in a buzz and crying foul about the change, what we needed to do was wait. After many tech blogs reached out for comment, Dan Morril, an Android engineer had this to say:
Hello! This is a quick clarification about support for CDMA devices.
For various technical reasons, recent CDMA Android devices implement core telephony functionality in .apk files provided in binary form by the carriers. To function correctly, these .apk files must be signed by the so-called “platform” key. However, when an individual creates a custom build from the AOSP source code, they don’t use the same signing key as these CDMA flies were signed with.
The result is that these files don’t work properly, and pure AOSP builds running on these devices can’t place calls, access mobile data, and so on. Because we aim to make sure that we are as clear as possible about the degree of support that devices have, we updated the docs over at source.android.com to reflect this reality.We will still make available as many as possible of the closed-source binaries for these devices, and Nexus devices will continue to have unlockable bootloaders. And, of course, GSM/HSPA+ devices are still supported, as are any other devices we’re able to support. We’ve simply updated the documentation to be clearer about the current extent of CDMA support.We are of course always working to improve support, and we’ll keep everyone updated as we make improvements. Thanks as always for your interest in AOSP!– Dan
Samsung just pushed out the kernel source code for AT&T’s version of the Samsung Galaxy Note. There are three different versions listed for download at Samsung’s Open Source Release Center. Why three, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine at this point, but according to one developer, they are almost all identical save for one line of code. Any guesses? Now, lets see what the talented dev community brings to the table once the device is actually released.
source: Android Police
via: Samsung Open Source Release Center
So if you haven’t realized from my posts by now, I like to experiment with Android from time to time and today was one of those more special days. While poking around FaceLock.apk, which I decompiled with apktool, I opened this. The screenshot above portrays a file “arrays.xml,” which contains what looks like phrases to be presented on the lock screen when a user’s face is not recognized. As those of you fortunate enough to run ICS know, currently an unrecognized face only returns “Sorry, don’t recognize you” or in some cases “Couldn’t find a face.” Aside from a different spelling of “recognize,” the list above also offers a substantially more varied output. So what is the meaning of this? I supposed it could be simply leftovers, never scrapped before release, or, letting my optimistic imagination run just a little bit, perhaps this is some preliminary work towards a future update; Majel maybe? It’s a stretch, but the varied and pretty casual responses seem more AI like to me. In any case, an interesting little something indeed.
Update: For some unknown reason, the dev has been asked to pull this down from the site.
Read more
Well it appears that Motorola has heard the development community’s cry for an unlocked bootloader as an article on the Motorola blog suggests that they will be releasing a “Developer Edition” of the powerhouse Droid RAZR sometime soon. The article was posted and quickly redacted suggesting that the news was released a little too soon. If you look at the image below, courtesy of Droid-Life, you can see that the article is dated for the 30th (tomorrow).
Right now the phone is only to be available in Europe but Motorola gives word that it will be seen in the United States. Even though Motorola said they were working on a bootloading solution over a year ago, and again in April of 2011, until now we had yet to see it happen. The only difference between this version of the RAZR and the one out for sale now, is the fact that it has an unlockable bootloader, as the original shipped with a locked bootloader. Otherwise it’s the same ridiculously thin, powerful device.
Right now the blog link in the source is down and you’ll get a “You 404’d it, Gnarly Dude” message. However the folks at Droid-life were able to snag a screenshot of the article before it went down. Hit the break below to check it out. I don’t know about you guys, but this is one heck of a win for the development community and who knows, this may be the start of a beautiful thing. Motorola hardware with unlockable bootloaders… You can’t beat that. Enjoy! Read more
If you have been wanting to root your Lenovo ThinkPad and haven’t had time, knew where to go, or were a little bit apprehensive about doing such things then today is your lucky day as we have the process all lined up for you. Heck we’ll even give you instructions on pushing ClockWork Recovery to your device as a special bonus. We’ve compiled the process from Vulnfactory and XDA and have it broken down below.
As with all rooting, your device’s warranty will be void and all responsibility if you brick your device falls on you. However if you are more than ready to root this device hit the break below to get the files and instructions needed to root and get a custom recovery onto your ThinkPad. Just FYI this only works on Windows PCs. Read more
We knew it would be only a short time before we saw ROMs popping up for the HTC Rezound after it was announced that the device’s bootloader was unlocked. While it may be some time before we see an official OTA build for Ice Cream Sandwich that hasn’t stopped developers from getting their hands on leaked images. We discussed an early build for the Sensation that was released back in December and it appears that developers are hopping all over the system.img released for the Rezound a few days ago as well. Both images show an ICS experience that is chalked full of Sense (obviously) but deep down it’s ICS.
So if you’ve unlocked your bootloader, rooted and installed a recovery hit the links below to check out ICS on the Rezound and if you’re in the market for a new Android phone, remember that the device is going for $199.99 which is a great price for a really great phone. Hit us up in the comment section below to let us know how they run. Enjoy!
A few days ago we showed you a preview we saw of the HP TouchPad running CM9. If that video had you chomping at the bit to get your taste of CM9 and Ice Cream Sandwich on the device, now’s your chance as it has been released in alpha. However it is very much an alpha build as all of the following doesn’t work:
So as you can see this alpha build has a lot more work to be put in but it shows promise. If you can stand the bugs and don’t mind various aspects not working hit the source to get your little piece of ICS. However I recommend using something else as your daily driver. That aside, if you’re interested check it out and let us know what you think!
[via RootzWiki]
