IOS 7 Release

AOKP or Android Open Kang Project is a very famous and powerful Android Custom ROM coded, built and maintained by the worth members of Team Kang. The series began in November 2011 with the release of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and it stands high today with release of its latest Milestone 2 based on Jelly Bean 4.2.2. With the release of M2, AOKP now supports most of the Android smartphones and tablets, which now sums up to the list 44 devices.

Released: 21 July 2013

Today, we’re here to review and explain the major features supported by Milestone 2. Please note that these are only the major features which are observable by a user’s eye, but a huge list of other features and bug fixes are also there, merged in. The ROM took a huge leap by adding a large bunch of new devices, which are mentioned below.

The new devices added since the last Milestone 1 are:

Features explored & explained!

One of the most usable and unique feature, developed and bought by Steve Spear. AOKP Ribbons slipped in during the late nightlies, which has evolved fast enough to be regarded stable in the latest JB-MR1 Milestone 2. The aim of Ribbons is to serve its users with usability with not just tap-to-open Apps/action icons but also the toggles.

These icons/toggles are setup on the lockscreen, stacked finely spaced. You don’t need to worry about the number of icons or the space, as the arrangement is such that the icons are lined and can be swiped from right to left and vice-versa.

 Elements that can be altered here are:

To use, just press the lock/power key, you’ll certainly have all the ribbons displayed on your lockscreen.

Icons/toggles here are aligned on the notification panel while it is expanded. Elements that can be altered here are same as that of the lockscreen ribbon.

To use, swipe down from the top of the status bar and press on the notification icon at the top left.

Icons/toggles are placed just over the quick setting toggles. One of the best thing that happened with Jelly Bean was the introduction of a separate toggles panel and so some of us here prefer to keep the notification area clean and thus this ribbon function comes in handy. The elements that can be altered here are:

To use, swipe down from the top of the status bar. Quick setting toggles shall be visible below the ribbon icons/toggles

Swipe ribbon resembles much of Ubuntu’s sidebar making it a lot easy for lazy users like me. You can just put a large number of apps in it, so no more pressing the drawer button and swiping left and right to find your favourite app. Just place it in the swipe ribbon and access easily.

The elements that can be altered here are:

Quite a long list of modifications, huh? That is really awesome!

To use, gently swipe from the left, right or bottom of the screen respectively, the swipe ribbon will appear for you to scroll and select your app.

Note: Bottom swipe will only work if the on-screen buttons are permanently disabled or hidden.

So here, we’re done with the first and foremost feature offered by AOKP Milestone 2 (JB-MR1)

Privacy and security are quite essential aspects of Android. It might itself be open-sourced but yet it provides the best sense of security. AOKP adds a bunch more to this, it adds Permission Management tool. While we install an app, we do go through the permissions that it will acquire but our stock Android doesn’t help us to amend those permissions selectively.

AOKP’s Permission Management helps its user to manage permission of each and every installed app. You can allow or deny selective permissions of any of the app installed on your device.

 How to use?

Go to Settings > Permissions to execute the Permissions Management tool, make sure to switch it ON by tapping on the switch at the top right. The apps installed on your device shall be listed, tap on any app and the permissions required by it shall expand. You can now allow specific permission by ticking it or deny it by unticking.

It is very easy-to-use and handful feature offered uniquely by AOKP.

It’s a simple yet very elegant feature. What it does is, change the entire color scheme of your Android device from stock holo to a much more dark (black) pattern.

It could be easily enabled/disabled by going to Settings and switching ON/OFF the on-screen button corresponding to Dark AOKP.

 mGerrit is an automated AOKP app/tool to view real-time gerrit code reviews directly on your Android device. The App is merged into AOKP ROMs, if you’re using any other ROM, you can still install it from the app box below.

To use, go to Settings > ROM Control > About AOKP > mGerrit

You can find code reviews for specific repositories too, just tap on the lined icon on the top-right of mGerrit and select your desired repo.

 The Review tab contains all the code reviews made at the AOKP gerrit, irrespective of their adaption or rejection.

The Merged tab holds the list of the all the code reviews which are accepted and merged to the source code at Github.

The Abandoned tab contains the code reviews which are rejected or are considered incomplete or inappropriate of reason whatsoever

Indeed the function comes in extremely handy when you desperately need a torch around you. You now don’t need to hassle yourself by going to download a 3rd party app or use toggles.

To use, go to Settings > ROM Control > Lockscreen and switch ON GlowPad Torch. You can either enable it via LockRing (by long pressing the lockscreen ring) or via NavRing (By long pressing the NavBar ring on the lockscreen).

HDR or High-Dynamic-Range mode is a  set of method used in photography to capture a greater dynamic range between the lighter and darker areas of an image. This function is a bliss for those who use their Android devices as daily Camera to present amazing shots. This mode is supported in almost all the custom ROMs and so now AOKP also has it. It can be enabled simply in the settings of the Camera app of your device.

Please note that HDR mode is not supported on all device, some might as well not support it.

Custom Toggles come in very useful every time, you don’t need to tap here and there to reach a function to enable/disable it. Thanks to our genius developers, we have it just in our hands. There is already a long list of toggles embedded in Custom ROMs but AOKP adds a few more to the list. New toggles include Custom, Stay Awake, Reboot, Sleep etc.

To add/modify toggles, go to Settings > ROM Control > Toggles > Toggles Setup

The so-much popular app for users to manage root permissions is here embedded in this very ROM, by the worthy developer Koushik Dutta (Former of ClockworkMod and ROM Manager). We’ve always had the Superuser app on our App drawer until Koush implemented his very own superuser app, which can not just be downloaded, but can also be merged into the ROM. You can Allow/Deny root permissions to apps, enable logs, notifications and perform every other action.

To access the in-built Superuser app, go to Settings > Superuser

Well, I am myself a huge fan of AOKP since the beginning. Reminding myself of the days of my first Android (LG Optimus One P500), when ICS was out and ported and so came AOKP, it was the only ROM to which I sticked for the longest period; 3 months. Been around 2 years now, when I migrated from Desire Z to Nexus S and now finally to the Nexus 4 and I still prefer the same and the best.

Being an old user, I have felt this ROM has evolved to where it stands now, offering an elegant interface, high-performance and extreme stability to be used as a daily driver, serving you with all the essential custom features.  The release tag (Milestone) speaks for itself, so if you’re someone who seek features and stability at one place, I can assure that you won’t ever look back, but then again its my own opinion and shall vary from person-to-person.

Holy yes! Out of the wildest dreams of the much awaited Nexus 4 users, Jelly Bean 4.3 is finally arriving to the coast. The sources are from Jeff Williams who shows in the Nexus 4 running Jelly Bean 4.3 (JWR66N). The rumors spent their time well before the release of JellyBean 4.3, we already covered up guide to Install Google Play Edition ROM (Android 4.3) on Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9505.

The plot, our friend Jeff Willams here bought a Nexus 4 from Craigslist but while operating it, he discovered something astounding which was a new version Android, Jelly Bean 4.3. While thinking that this might just be a build.prop edit, Jeff researched a bit and concluded that it was true. As soon as this news hit the web, developers/users at Reddit, provided an helping hand to Jeff, for taking a System dump and posting it online. Initially the dump was leaked as a TWRP supported backup, which could be restored using TWRP 2.5+. Later, gmillz at the XDA-Developers forum created a flash-able zip of the same, which was pre-rooted and could be flashed using any recovery on your Nexus 4. A bit more later, he slipped a new build which was deodexed and ran an insecure kernel. While flashing the pre-rooted zip, a whole bunch reported the root not working, but a solution is posted too, read the instructions below and flash the latest Jelly Bean 4.3 leak on your Nexus 4.

Kindly visit the original thread at XDA  forums for more info and interact with other users as well.

Well, we can only come up with what is visible to a user’s eye.

These are just as stated to be visible and we’re very much sure that a lot of unknown improvisations are under the cover and yet to be revealed by Google, officially.

In case, you don’t have root permissions working, download UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.41.zip and flash it using the recovery.

I have already flashed the de-odexed and insecure kernel version, enjoying it to a huge extent. Flash and share with us your experience with the new Jelly Bean 4.3. Are you satisfied with this? Well, I too expect that the official version includes a lot more than this. Hit the comments!

[Source]

Google Play Edition ROM (Android 4.3) is Now Available for Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9505

Best Custom ROMs for LG/Google Nexus 4 E960 [2013 Edition]

Accessory Review: FlexiFrame Bumper Case (Clear/Black) for Nexus 4

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 was released 4 months ago at the Mobile World Congress as a contender of Apple’s iPad Mini. Launched with Android 4.1.2, this 8-inch tablet has gain much popularity over the past few month. According to Samsung’s OS version update list, the device is eligible to be updated to the upcoming Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. By forwarding the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update to the device, Samsung has just move a step ahead in the direction.

In fact, it all began a couple of weeks ago with the leaked version of Android 4.2.2 update for the the WiFi only variant of the Galaxy Note 8.0. The new update for the Galaxy Note 8.0 GT-N5100 is already on the roll now and is available for a number of countries listed below. The users of the device in these parts of the globe can receive the latest version of Android from Samsung using Kies or the on-device OTA update feature.

If you have not able to get it so far because you have rooted your tablet or due to some other reasons, you can also bump its firmware version and enjoy the new features. Even if you country is not listed below and you wish to update your device, you can install any unbranded firmware manually using Odin. Just make sure not to install a branded firmware on and unbranded device and vice versa.

The new firmware with PDA version XXCMH1 is reported to introduce various new features, performance improvements and better battery life.

Philippines (Sun): XTC-N5100XXCMH1-20130820111347.zip

Vietnam: XXV-N5100XXCMH1-20130819111212.zip

Malaysia: XME-N5100XXCMH1-20130819110541.zip

Indonesia: XSE-N5100XXCMH1-20130819110917.zip

Thiland: THL-N5100XXCMH1-20130819111645.zip

Germany: DBT-N5100XXCMH1-20130809094824.zip

The first boot after installing the new firmware will take longer that it does normally so wait patiently. If the device is stuck on the Samsung logo screen for more than 5 minutes, reboot it into Recovery mode by holding the Volume Up and Power buttons together and follow the steps given under Method 1 at this page.

A couple of month ago Samsung released a list of its Galaxy line up that would be upgraded to Android 4.2 and 4.3. Later we got rumors that OEM will promote some of its older flagships like Galaxy S3 and Note 2 to Android 4.3 directly. It has been more than a month since the 4.2 firmware was leaked for the former device (S3) and the delay in the official release can be seen as just another indication that the above mentioned smartphones might be directly promoted to Android 4.3.

The way Samsung has started the Android 4.2.2 update to a less popular mid-range device like the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus cannot be without a reason and we hope that the neglection of S3 and Note 2 that might be tasting sour to the users of these devices, will finally turn into some pleasant sense pretty soon. Another mid-range device from Samsung’s second generation tablet line up has now started receiving Android 4.2 update via OTA. The users of Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 GT-P3100 finally have a big reason to smile as they are now entitled to enjoy the not-so-latest version of Android before most other people with higher models.

The first Android 4.2.2 firmware for the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 GT-P3100 (3G + WiFi) is already out for the users of this device in France. Since it is an unbranded firmware, it can be installed on any Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 with model number P3100 that is not locked to a network provider. In other words, if you are able to use ant SIM card on your Tab, you can have this new firmware.

We have not been able to test this firmware, nor do we have any official changelog, so we cannot list what new features the 4.2 update for the device brings with it, but we hope that it’ll improve the performance of the device and also bring the multi-page lockscreen with widgets support. Download the firmware from below, install it and lets us know of the new changes you discover.