Android Thoughts - Opinions, News, Advice & Reviews on Android Devices

"An Android developer by the name of Koushik Dutta is building an alternative Android app store which will house the apps that have been banned from Google’s official Android Market. These will include the custom ROMs (customized versions of the Android OS), classic gaming emulators pulled due to copyright complaints, unofficial tethering apps removed at the behest of mobile operators, Visual Voicemail apps, one-click rooting apps, and more."

Koushik Dutta, the developer known for creating ClockworkMod, is creating an app store for things like tethering apps, ROMs, emulators, and whatever else doesn't have a home on any other market. There is no launch date right now but if you check the source you'll see a screen shot of a page for a developer to upload, showing progress has been made.

One thing I love about Android is the app store options you have without having to jump through hoops other than check one box in your settings. It took AT&T a while to get a clue but other than that no carrier has had a problem with alternate app stores. It will be interesting to see how carriers respond once this new app store becomes a reality.

"Sure, installing CyanogenMod 7 on an Amazon Kindle Fire is cool and all. But xda-developers forum member x1011999 decided to skip Android 2.3 Gingerbread and port Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to run on Amazon’s $199 tablet."

The Kindle Fire has some decent hardware in it. While it only has 512MB of RAM, a little light especially for a tablet, it does have a dual-core 1GHz OMAP CPU and a decent SGX540 GPU. The Ice Cream Sandwich build for the Fire is still in the early stages. Basic features like audio and WiFi are not working. But if you like to play with bleeding edge ROMs on new hardware you should definitely look into this a little more. Check out the source article for a video of ICS in action on the Kindle Fire.

"After over 4 months of work, many sleepless nights, and contributions from people all around the world, I am proud to release CyanogenMod 7.0 into the wild!"

It's here! It's HERE!! CyanogenMod 7.0 is now officially out. Based on the latest Android 2.3.3 version 7.0 is not available for 30 different devices. I'm sure those of you who were running the release candidates have already updated but for those of you holding off for the final release fire up ROM Manager and get your update on!

"On several Android forums around the web, Android users have been regularly reporting rapidly draining batteries after flashing custom ROMs (such as Cyanogenmod 7) to their devices. In what follows, we will provide you with a step-by-step solution to said problem."

I've not run across this myself but I don't flash devices very often. If you have flashed your device or frequently flash your device and are having a few battery live woes perhaps this quick little fix will get you up and running again. You pretty much charge your device, reboot into recovery mode and use ClockworkMod Recovery to wipe the stored battery statistics file. Any of you flashers (rom flashers... geez, people) out there having serious battery drain issues?

"The custom ROM is based on Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread and supports a wide range of phones including the HTC Evo, MyTouch 4G, Aria, G2, and Google Nexus One."

If you're wanting Android 2.3 you may not have to wait any longer. Thanks to the CyanogenMod team you can get a custom ROM with Gingerbread now! They have just made CyanogenMod-7 Release Candidates available for a number of phones. They don't support NFC but anyone with a Nexus S, which is the only current device to supports it, comes with 2.3 anyway. It sounds all good to me! Let us know if you try it out!

"It's been confirmed by a source that there is a DL19 ROM. Normally updates come 2 weeks after the ROM is made which makes sense for the DL11 to come on the 26th because that is 15 days after it was made. Since there is now a DL19, it doesn't look like the Samsung Epic 4G will be getting Froyo until January."

Well, the rumor mill was wrong again. Anymore the only way I'll believe a ROM is going to drop is when I see it for myself on my own device. Anything else is usually all rumors, speculations, and people trying to make a name for themselves reporting things that may just be fabrications.

Did you get a Nexus S for Christmas? Want a little more hard-core Android love for that pure Google device? Here you go! It's great to see so much development going on for so many Android devices. Of course it's expected for the Nexus S but it sure didn't take them long! It's available via ROM Manager.

"Android: We mentioned the CyanogenMod 6.1 Release Candidate when it first came out, but the stable version dropped today with performance improvements and feature additions for tons of Android phones."

It's heeeerre! Cyanogen has dropped the RC and released the final CyanogenMod 6.1. From the new camera features, to the notifications bar power controls, to the ability to listen to FM radio on device that couldn't before, what's not to love? Oh and there is an awesome new feature where you can unlock your phone and directly launch an app by drawing a simple shape on your lock screen! Pretty spiffy. Any of you running the RC or even those of you who have been holding out head over and get it from Cyanogen's site.

"If you've rooted your Android phone and chosen to run the all-around great CyanogenMod ROM, you can download the latest update for beefy performance enhancements, as well as new features in Email, Camera, and other apps."

All rooted Android users rejoice! The oh so wonderful CyanogenMod version 6.1 has reached the release candidate stage. This version brings a nice performance boost and many other wonderful features like updates to the camera and email software and enabling FM radio on your Nexus One! Head on over and give it a go then let us know how it's treating you. What improvements are you noticing most?