While the wait continues for Google to release Android Lollipop as an over-the-air software update and post official factory images of the latest operating system version, a number of developers over at XDA-Developers have taken it upon themselves to take the Lollipop source code and create builds for the Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10 and other devices.
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If you’re one of the unlucky few who purchased an Ouya at some point in the last few years, you now have reason to celebrate. While the Nexus Player—which was announced last week—was the first Android TV device to hit the market, it looks like the Ouya might have effectively become the second. Amazingly, the Android TV operating is in the process of being ported to run on the Ouya by a team on the xda-developers forum lead by member cbwlkr.
After Google made its new Android L developer preview available to Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 last month, it wasn’t long before we saw an unofficial port to other devices. First we got the Nexus 4, and now a user at the xda-developers forums was able to get the developer preview up and running on an HTC One (M7).
Not many expected to see a HTC One (M7) port, but XDA Senior Member ssrij and a team of developers managed to port the Android L Developer Preview to this former flagship device… The port is still in alpha stage, and some things simply don’t work. Running Android L on first generation HTC One was made possible thanks to ramdisk and kernel modifications, so it might not run as it should. However, the Developer Preview was made to show people how the Android L will look like and what functions we should be expected.
You can expect lots of stuff not to work at the moment, including: WiFi, Bluetooth, data, camera, and sound, but the developers are working to fix some of the issues with the initial alpha release for the M7. More info on the original forum post here.
Cofounder of the leading iOS photo-sharing app “Instagram” Kevin Systrom recently announced at SXSW (via TechCrunch) that the app has now reached over 27 million registered users. He also briefly teased the highly anticipated Android version of Instagram, which Systrom had an early build of running on his device at the show. The good news is, while we do not have a solid release date, Systrom said the company is taking its time to make sure the Android version is not just a scaled port of the iOS app:
“I don’t think it took us so long. We just had priorities. Had we tried to be both on Android and iPhone at the same time, it would’ve been tough to innovate in the way that we have”
Systrom also said the Android app is, “In some ways, it’s better than our iOS app. It’s crazy.” TechCrunch reported Instagram cofounder Mike Krieger said the Android team is “pretty impressed” with the app’s ability to differentiate itself from the iOS version. Unfortunately, the executives said the current build of the app was not ready for a full demo, which means we are likely still a few months out. We will keep you posted.
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ASUS announced on its Facebook today that the Transformer Prime would receive a firmware over-the-air Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update starting Jan. 12. Somehow this is even before the Motorola XOOM, Google’s reference tablet? Perhaps this will ignite a war among Tablet makers to get their devices up to Ice Cream Sandwich first. Bring it on!
“Eee Pad Transformer Prime received excellent reviews and great demand when it launched in December 2011,” said the company in a Jan. 3 Facebook post. “ASUS strives to create the best products and provide the best service for our customers, and will be releasing an FOTA update for the Transformer Prime shortly.”
The version 8.8.3.33 update will also improve the camera’s focus, the touch screen’s fluidity and experience, and the APK capabilities in Android Market. ASUS also used Facebook to address concerns related to GPS and bootloader on the Transformer Prime.
The consumer electronics and product manufacturer said the Transformer Prime is made from a metallic unibody design, so “the material may affect the performance of the GPS when receiving signals from satellites.” ASUS elaborated and claimed the device is “not a professional GPS device, and signal performance can be easily influenced by factors.” The factors listed by the company include weather, buildings, and surrounding environments.
A user on the XDAdevelopers forum has posted a somewhat stable ROM for Ice Cream Sandwich running on the Nexus S. This build shouldn’t be mistaken as complete though, seeing as it does have a number of bugs.Problems with this ROM include 3G connectivity (for some), data, NFC, panorama mode, and camera will force close with the first boot. If you’re just dying to checkout Ice Cream Sandwich this ROM is for you but shouldn’t be used day-today. Get the full details here.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhWVmMYquYY]
The fine folks over at the Touch-Droid forums have posted a guide that outlines exactly how-to port Android to the HP TouchPad. A lot of consumers bought the HP TouchPad duing the fire sale last month, only to realize WebOS isn’t exactly the greatest mobile OS out there. Luckily, fine developers everywhere have been working on a port.
The steps outlined are pretty technical, so this isn’t exactly for the feeble — yet. We expect developers will probably get a much simpler version up soon. But for those of you who are up for the challenge, this should work for now. Check out the instructions over at the forum, and the video above. We’re not sure exactly how stable this build is.
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When we think of Google and browsers we usually think of the latest Chrome build, the fastest real world use desktop browser around. While the browser currently shipping on Android is nothing to sneeze at, Google’s real innovation in the browser space is arguably happening with Chrome. That’s why it’s surprising we haven’t heard more about a potential port of Chrome to Android, a project the Android team is now actively working on with the open source WebKit community.
Googler Andrei Popescu, along with a couple others working on the project, took to WeKit-Dev group today (via TechCrunch) to announce their focus on the port:
We would like to give an update about WebKit on Android. A while ago, we started the effort to upstream the Android port of WebKit. For a variety of reasons, this work took longer than anticipated and was never finished. We realize that the incomplete Android port that exists today in WebKit ToT has caused quite a bit of confusion and inconvenience to the project as a whole and we are very sorry for that.
In case you’re confused, the browser currently running on Android was originally based on the WeKit layout engine and Chrome’s V8 Javascript engine, but also varies from the desktop version of Chrome enough that two separate teams work on the two browsers.
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[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmpmlOpvoC0″]
Qualcomm is reportedly behind the first known port of Android to the HP TouchPad. As seen in the video above, the user boots his TouchPad into Linux, which then boots into Android. While its booting, Qualcomm’s Quic logo appears. But the question to ask is how did this make it out of the Qualcomm offices and into the hands of a consumer?
It only makes sense for Qualcomm to be the first to jump on the port, seeing as they did design the processor in this device. The port seems relatively snappy — leaving me almost salivating..no wait. We’re not sure if Wi-Fi, the camera, audio, or multi-touch is working quite yet.
There is always the chance this could be fake, but it looks relatively real to us. At any rate, we can’t wait for the port to be released. Luckily, the developer community is already hard at work, thanks to a little incentive. (NotebookItalia via AndroidCentral)
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Honeycomb ported to the Logitech Revue
Google has announced the release of the Android SDK add-on for Google TV. This SDK will allow developers to begin to build/optimize their apps for larger displayes, and more importantly emulate Google TV to see how the apps look on the big screen. As seen above, Honeycomb has already been ported to the Logitech Revue — making us very excited.
Along with the SDK add-on, Google has released a few UI Guidelines. Google says some apps will work, while some might need tweaking:
Depending on the design and use case, an existing Android app may work well on Google TV as is, or it may require fixes. With the add-on you can test your apps to determine if they would be a good fit for TV and whether any tweaks are required.
There’s no word on when Honeycomb will hit Google TV, but this SDK release and the I/O promise of “late sumer” sure makes it sound like it will be soon. Google says the initial number of app available on Google TV will be small, but we’re certainly looking forward to it nonetheless.
Did you land your hands on the HP TouchPad this weekend, and not satisfied with WebOS? We understand the WebOS part of things, but the TouchPad could actually be considered a pretty nice piece of hardware..if it’s running the right stuff. While we mentioned an Android port was in the works this morning, the folks over at HacknMod are holding a little contest to see who can successfully do the port first. Total prize money tops $1500.
The basic Android port is going for $450, Wi-Fi is going for $350, both audio and camera are going up for $300, and lastly, MultiTouch is going for $100. Devs, that’s $1500!
If you think your dev skills are up to the challenge you can get started by posting your first bit of code into GitHub (full directions here). Note, all code developed for this project must be licensed under open-source. May the best coder win!
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If you we’re lucky enough to get your hands on one of those $99 HP TouchPad‘s this weekend, you’ll probably want to stay up to date with the “Touchdroid” project. Over at RootzWiki, the Touchdroid team is apparently hard at work on getting Android (2.3 Gingerbread to be exact) ported to the device that’s currently running the soon to be extinct WebOS.
The project is still in its infancy, to say the least. However, the timing couldn’t be more perfect with a ton of new Touchpad users undoubtedly itching to shed that ugly, outdated WebOS. The wiki also notes a Honeycomb port will follow only if Ice Cream Sandwich isn’t released in the meantime. Swing by the RootzWiki forum if you’re interested in contributing or just keeping up to date on the project. We’ll keep you updated as the guys get closer to a stable beta.
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