An official Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP) custom recovery is now available for Sony’s new Xperia Z2, giving owners the opportunity to flash third-party ROMs and tweaks — such as CyanogenMod — and make complete backups of their device.
It may be near impossible to obtain a OnePlus One right now, but that hasn’t prevented the folks behind the Team Win Recovery Project from announcing the handset’s first custom recovery. The release will allow the first OnePlus One owners to start flashing custom ROMs and tweaks to their device as soon as the first batch is shipped next month.
Want a taste of CyanogenMod without having to root or flash custom ROMs? Now you can, thanks to CMApps, a free download that puts a bunch of CyanogenMod apps on any Android. The package includes CyanogenMod’s built-in music player, clock widget, sound manager and more — and it’s available now in Google Play.
Samsung recently upset a lot of international Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300) owners when it told them they weren’t getting an Android 4.4 KitKat upgrade because their handset “does not allow them to effectively support the platform upgrade.” The South Korean claimed that only 1GB of RAM wasn’t enough to run KitKat’s latest features smoothly. But that may not be true.
When Samsung confirmed it was giving up on KitKat for a large number of Galaxy S3s, the development community decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. Using a Galaxy Note II KitKat ROM, one develoepr has been able to create an almost perfect Galaxy S3 port.
Inspired by Motorola’s excellent Active Display functionality on the Moto X, Peek Notifications in Paranoid Android provide users with a glimpse at outstanding alerts on their lock screen even when their smartphone is locked. All you have to do is lift your phone, and you can see whether you have missed calls, text messages, emails, and other important notifications waiting for you without actually having to wake up your device.
Until now, Peek has been available only with the Paranoid Android custom ROM — but you can now get it as an unofficial standalone app compatible with almost all devices running Android 4.4 KitKat.
