Most new Android phones and tablets shipping this year are running Android 10 software, and Google is getting ready to release Android 11 this fall. Meanwhile, Amazon’s latest tablets are running a fork of Android called Fire OS and some recent tablets are still stuck on Fire OS 6, which is based on Android 7.1 […]
Tag: custom roms
Paranoid Android returns with a stable Android 10 ROM
Once upon a time Paranoid Android was one of the most innovative custom ROMs for Android smartphones. Its developers added features for power users, and spent time rethinking Android’s navigation buttons, notifications, and other core features. But things have slowed down in recent years, and the last stable build of Paranoid Android was released in […]
Amazon Fire tablet hacking resources (Fall 2019 edition)
As usual, Amazon is offering deep discounts on Fire tablets for the holiday shopping season. And as usual, some folks would like Amazon’s tablets better if they worked a bit more like other Android tablets. Amazon Fire tablets run a fork of Android called Fire OS. That means they have an Amazon-designed user interface and ship […]
Amazon Fire tablet hacks: Google Play, Root, Recovery, and ROMs
Amazon’s Fire tablets are arguably some of the best cheap tablets worth buying, thanks to a combination of decent displays, specs, and performance and low starting prices (which are even lower on Prime Day or during other sales). The Amazon Fire 7 has a list price of $50, but you can pick one up for […]
Now you can install custom ROMs on the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2018)
After Amazon released an updated Fire HD 8 tablet last September, it didn’t take long for folks to figure out that you could install the Google Play Store on the 8 inch tablet. A few months later, folks figured out two methods for unlocking the bootloader and rooting the device (1)(2). While that theoretically opened […]
HP TouchPad refuses to die, receives Android 9 Pie custom ROMs
It’s been almost 8 years since HP launched the HP TouchPad tablet for $499, saw how poorly it was selling and then quickly marked it down to $99 and sold off remaining inventory in a fire sale… prompting bargain hunters to snatch them up and start tinkering with them. Since then, a small group of […]
Xiaomi is positioning the Pocophone F1 as a hacker-friendly device
Xiaomi’s Pocophone F1 will be the cheapest phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor when it goes on sale for $300 in India next week. The phone has made headlines for offering high-end specs at a mid-range price, but that’s not the only thing that makes it unusual for a smartphone in 2018. Xiaomi is […]
Custom ROMs bring Android Pie to older phones (Google Nexus 6, OnePlus One, and more)
Android 9.0 Pie started rolling out to a handful of phones the day Google released the latest version of its mobile operating system. And by a handful, I mean the Google Pixel and Pixel 2 line of devices and the Essential PH-1. It should also roll out soon to recent phones from Xiaomi, HMD, OnePlus, […]
Future of CopperheadOS looks murky (security-hardened Android)
For the past few years CopperheadOS has been providing an Android-based operating system designed with an emphasis on security and privacy. It features a security-hardened kernel, stronger sandboxing, and a number of other features designed for heightened security. But now it looks like the future of the operating system (and the company that makes it) […]
Oneplus to roll out fix for OnePlus 6 bootloader bypass vulnerability
If you’re the sort of person that likes to load custom ROMs on your smartphone, the ability to load system software without unlocking the bootloader might sound like a good thing. But it also means that anyone with physical access to your device might also be able to load malware. So when OnePlus was alerted […]