Droid Hype

My latest gaming addiction has been the NBA Jam release on Android. It was recently on sale for 99 cents so I couldn’t resist. The updated graphics and zany gameplay makes it just as fun as the original.

There are just two quirks that I really wish this game didn’t have. The first small annoyance is that it always checks for updates on start. So if you are not connected to a cell tower or on wifi, it pretty much stops.

The second more serious issue is the inability for it to function at anything but the default 48dpi navigation bar icon sizes on the Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean OS releases. So if you have a custom rom and you plan to make or flash edits that shrink or modify the size of the navbar, NBA Jam will crash back to your homescreen or give you an ambiguous 5002 error code.

As always, make a nandroid before you do any kind of editing. You may never know what app your mods will break until it’s too late.

If you tend to crackflash often, then you probably use Titanium Backup and you’d want to know the easiest way to back up your SMS/MMS as well as your call log. These items are not retained when you go from rom to rom nor are they backed up when doing a user data backup in Titanium Backup. Here’s how you can do it on a set schedule so you never forget.

1. Open app drawer
2. Open Titanium Backup
3. Press the menu radio button
4. Select “Filters”
5. At the bottom press the “Create label” button
6. Name your label whatever you want
7. Press the “Add/Remove elements” button
8. Check the “[SMS/MMS/APN] Dialer Storage x.x” checkbox (version x.x numbers may vary)
9. Check the “[CONTACTS/CALLS] Contacts Storage x.x” checkbox (version x.x numbers may vary)
10. Press the “OK” button
11. Press the “Save” button
12. Press the back radio button
13. Select the “Schedules” tab
14. Press the “Add new schedule” button located at the bottom
15. On the schedule that just appeared press the “Edit” button
16. On the top combo box select the arrow to pull down the menu. Select the “Backup all system data” option
17. On the next combo box that says “No filtering”, click the arrow to pull down a menu. You should see your label you created. Select your label.
18. Select the time you want your backup to take place
19. Select the days you want your backup to take place
20. Press the “Save” button
21. Check the “Enabled” check box to enable your schedule
22. Now Titanium Backup will automatically backup your messages at the specified time and day or days.

When you are ready to restore on your new rom, just search for Dialer Storage and Contacts Storage and restore the data only. Perform a reboot and you should have everything back. Just be careful when going from major OS version updates (ex: Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich). You may encounter some weirdness, so be prepared to restore a nandroid or reflash if something doesn’t take right.

[via XDA]

The wait is over, Temple Run is finally available for your Android phone! Head over to the Google Play store and start downloading.

Here’s a quick tip on how to look up a saved wifi password on your Android handset. Let’s say you need to flash a new rom but you don’t have a password written down for a wifi access point you frequently use. Use any file explorer on your Android handset and navigate to the /data/wifi directory and view the bcm_supp.conf file. This is just a basic text file that contains all your wifi access points and passwords that you’ve used previously.

Make a backup of it or simply write down the password you need, enjoy!

There is a new recovery available from madmaxx82 called 4Ext that incorporates many features and options that every crackflasher needs. Did you ever want to queue up .zip files for flashing with backup, cache wiping, and numerous other options? This recovery and it’s associated control app has it all.

My normal routine is usually wipe cache, wipe dalvick, flash rom, flash kernel (if available), fix permissions, and then reboot. You can imagine how many volume and power button presses it takes to accomplish all that. With the 4Ext Recovery app, I can queue all this up with a few taps and let it do it’s thing. There’s even md5 checking involved if you need to verify, super handy.

Since purchasing the app and using the recovery (free), I started diving into making themes for it. After a few hours of tinkering, I managed to make a couple for testing.

The images below are my Super Paper Mario and Honeycomb Blue theme. After downloading (click the screenshot), you can install it via the control app. Or you can boot into recovery and flash the .zip.

I meant to post this a while back, but somehow forgot. Anyway, here’s the Adobe Flash 10.1 that works on the Viewsonic G-tablet. The Flash you see on the Market will NOT work.

Save to your Gtab and side load it via your favorite file manager.

Adobe Flash for Viewsonic G-tablet (registered users only)

Amazon released their version of the “market” to the public a few days ago. Some may wonder why would people even bother going to another app market place when there’s one built in (Google’s). Well, if the current trend of giving away paid apps for free every day is an incentive, I’m all for it.

Today’s freebie is Swiftkey, the popular keyboard replacement. Save yourself $1.99 and grab it via the Amazon Appstore app. You have about 12 hours before it goes back to full price. Don’t forget to queue up Angry Bird Rio while you’re at it. That’s also free for a limited time.

The folks at My Droid World just got the Flash 10.2 apk that is supposed to be released on the 18th of March. This will work on the Xoom tablet and just about all popular Android phones. I’ve loaded it on my G2 running CM7 and it works as expected.

Download your local copy below.

Flash 10.2 apk (registered users only)

There are a number of digital clocks on the market, but none are as simple and sleek as dclock. However, the only downside is that in stock form, there’s no way to make the background transparent. After some searching, it looks like someone on XDA gone ahead and done everyone a huge favor.

Feel free to jump over to that thread to grab the .apk or download below. Install via your favorite file manager.

Login Required

Angry Birds for Android full version is available! It’s actually free, but just about everyone is having a tough time downloading. So, here are some mirrors

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OYL7Z16Y
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0LVRMX4A
http://bit.ly/dhZ1Xc