CyanogenMod

OnePlus One

Today my OnePlus One arrived. The expectation was enormous, and it hasn't disappointed me.
My OnePlus One (CM11 Flux Theme)
The OnePlus One unboxing was fun and showed how much design went into the packaging (unlike the Samsung Galaxy S5 one). The overall feel of the device, with its sandstone texture is lovely. The multiple OTA update experience was less pleasant, but the final result I am happy with.
I think I'll keep the CyanogenMod 11S ROM on it for now with the Flux Theme applied. I hope to get the AOSP ROM on it at some point to see how it fares compared to my Nexus 5.
My OnePlus One with its lovely black sandstone finish.
I don't currently have any invites to give out, but I'll be happy to share when I do.
Feel free to leave comments and/or questions, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have in the Google Plus comments.

Samsung Galaxy S5

Yesterday my Samsung Galaxy S5 arrived. These are my initial impressions, and if I find time to I may write a complete review.
My Samsung Galaxy S5
The unboxing was a bit disappointing. The plasticky protective films and lightweight feel of the device didn't give me a good first impression of the device, but so far in use I've grown to like the device and accept my initial purchase decision. The device comes with a mains USB charger and cable, a set of headphones with different sizes of earbud adapters.
The S5 next to my Cyanogenmod running Note 3
Yesterday evening the fingerprint scanner passed the "tipsy evening out with sticky fingers" test and I prefer the flattened and simplified TouchWiz to the horrible one on the Note 3.
The back of the Samsung Galaxy S5
The device is snappy and fast. I haven't noticed any slowdowns even when running some demanding apps and multitasking. I haven't been able to use the device long enough to pass judgement on battery life.

Here is a sample of a picture of Wobbles taken with the S5
Lets see how long I can resist voiding the warranty on the device by rooting it and flashing custom ROMs...

Feel free to pop any comments and/or questions you may have in the comments section below.

Android KitKat (4.4.2) on the Huawei G300

I pulled my Huawei G300 out of the drawer today and did a bit of long overdue tinkering.
My Huawei Ascend G300 running CyanogenMod 11
After updating the custom recovery, and installing the CyanogenMod nightly build and the minimum Google Apps package I have a fully functioning KitKat device.

My impression is that the device is snappier and more responsive, and all the usual day to day apps work great. I now just have to choose which sim card to pop into the device.

Thanks to Dazzozo, the CyanogenMod community and the MoDaCo forums for enabling me to make an older cheap device much more useful, long after Huawei and Vodafone started pretending the device doesn't exist.

You can get everything you need to update your Huawei G300 from here.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or feedback in the comments section below.

Jelly Bean on the Huawei G300

I've had a Huawei G300 since May 2012. I've recommended the handset to friends and family because it is excellent value for money and has a pretty good spec sheet. Since mid December 2012 I have been using Dazzozo's excellent CyanogenMod 10 port as the operating system on the device. While not perfect, it has been good enough to use the G300 as my Ingress device (yes, a device just for Ingress).

This morning I installed the January 14th update for CM10 by Dazzozo and was surprised by how much smoother and more responsive the G300 now is. In just one month there seems to have been a massive improvement. The MoDaCo community has come up with a masterpiece again.

If you have a Huawei G300 and want to take Jelly Bean for a spin, I recommend using this ROM. Thanks to Dazzozo and everyone involved in the development of this CyanogenMod ROM. Check it out here.

Ice Cream Sandwich Released [:-)], MoDaCo Down [:-(]!

As reported on The Verge, the Android Open Source code to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has been released! This means that anyone can start playing about with the open source code and using it in custom ROMs and ripping out some of the Ice Cream Sandwich goodness, if they wish to...
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Has Been Released!


My first reaction when reading the news was "Quick! I need to get over to android.modaco.com and see if any of the clever people have ported Android 4.0 to the ZTE Skate/Orange Monte Carlo/BAP!". Sadly at the time of posting android.modaco.com is down. Hopefully it will be back up soon and porting will be underway.
MoDaCo Down! :-(
On Twitter I noticed a couple of interesting tweets from CyanogenMod, the leader/bacon lover of CyanogenMod fame: the first tweet reads as follows: "..and we're off. check back in 2 months :) #cm9 #ics" This means that the CyanogenMod community has already started working on CyanogenMod version 9 based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. They may have it ready in a couple of months. Why not check the ETA with them... (that's just a joke. The first rule of CyanogenMod is to never ask for ETAs).

The second tweet "We're still going to get CM7.2 out the door while CM9 is being worked on." means that the  current version of CyanogenMod is not deprecated, there will still be one last hurrah for the Android 2.3.x Gingerbread based ROM.

[UPDATE] MoDaCo is back up and running. When I got back from work everything was where/how it was supposed to be.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions. Enjoy Android 4.0 if/when you get a taste of it!

What is MIUI? [Android ROM]

I have often asked myself the question "What is MIUI?" when reading mentions of it in forums such as XDA Developers and MoDaCo. This morning I decided to investigate and noticed the answer to my question had been very close to me for a while.
My MIUI Homescreen on my HTC Desire
MIUI is a CyanogenMod based Android distribution (ROM) with emphasis on creating and implementing a different user interface paradigm from the standard Android one. If you are already using CyanogenMod and/or have ROM Manager installed on your Android device, you may be able to download and install MIUI from ROM Manager. That is the way I installed MIUI on my HTC Desire this morning.
MIUI in the "Download ROM" section of ROM Manager.
Here are some more pictures of the MIUI homescreen with my choice of layout of widgets and apps. The MIUI launcher does not have an app drawer and as you should be able to tell looks like Apple's iOS user interface. The MIUI user interface does keep the classic Android notification pulldown bar, and has its own framework of fonts, colours and UI frames.

MIUI lockscreen. Very sleek!
The version of MIUI I am using at the moment is 1.7.15 which is based on Android 2.3.4. Performance is good, and I'm won over by the shiny and responsive interface. Well done and thank you to all those involved in the development and distribution of this fantastic ROM.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions and Google +1 at the end of the post!