Mihăiță Bamburic

Modding fans, you're in luck. Shortly after Google released Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and pushed it to AOSP, custom ROM developers started work on new builds. The effort has paid off, as new unofficial AOKP and CyanogenMod releases are available, based on the latest version of the green droid operating system.

Almost two weeks ago the CyanogenMod team announced that a future version based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean would be released, but without mentioning a launch date. In the meantime, sporting minor alternations, custom distribution JellyBro is available using the CM 10.1 source code. The currently available build contains a limited number of enhancements, due to early stages of the feature porting process. However, if Android Open Kang Project is preferred, then developer Roman Birg has some good news.

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Last month Microsoft introduced Surface with Windows RT. The controversial tablet gathered plenty of criticism down the road, but there's one area where it has the potential to silence the naysayers -- product support lifecycle.

The Redmond, Wash.-based corporation revealed that Surface RT will be supported for little more than four years, starting January 24, 2013 until April 11, 2017. Interested buyers that plan on keeping the device for the long run should get some peace of mind, but it's not all good news at the moment. Microsoft has yet to reveal when product lifecycle ends for Windows RT, leaving room for interpretation whether the hardware support will end at the same time as the software.

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Google's attempt to sell the Nexus lineup on its own Play Store could be considered a failure. The company appears to be unable to keep up with the high demand, and as a result devices are mostly sold out all over the world. In order to prepare for that one moment when sufficient stock exists there is a website that checks global Play Stores for Nexus device availability.

Google Nexus Devices World Availability Checker keeps track of all Nexus 4 (including black bumper), 7 and 10 units sold in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. The website allows users to verify whether a particular device is available in stock at the local Play Store in the above mentioned locations. The advantage, over manually checking, is that prospective buyers are not limited to their regional online store, and can look up international availability, which comes in handy for those that want to shop abroad.

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The notification toolbar is commonly altered by manufacturers to include toggles, but what about a more down-to-Earth feature? Android is known for its customization prowess, and weather information can be delivered by a simple swipe using Notification Weather.

Instead of going over the top, the app takes a conservative approach by employing a look and feel that could even pass as stock functionality. It bears an uncanny resemblance to CyanogenMod 10's lockscreen implementation. For the present day Notification Weather displays the location, status ("cloudy" for instance), characteristic pictograph (cloud, drops, etc.), current temperature with minimum and maximum values of the day as well as wind temperature.

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There is a heated discussion surrounding the lack of LTE on the Google Nexus 4 -- my college Joe Wilcox deems it problematic, while I'm far less affected on the other side of the pond. But there's more to it than meets the eye. Fast data speeds are not out of this world on the Nexus 4 with LTE found working on Roger and Telus in Canada.

The Nexus 4 is similar to the LG Optimus G in the hardware department, but while the latter has a full-blown setup the former can only connect to LTE on Band 4. This limits the number of carrier networks that the Google-branded smartphone can utilize to achieve the higher data speeds. Rogers and Telus customers are apparently "blessed" by the recent discovery, as both can take advantage of LTE with only a few minor modifications. The bad news is that the hidden feature may be useless on other carriers that do not use the mentioned band.

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Smartphones and tablets do not take a break when owners sleep and instead bother users with various sounds and notifications. Good Night, Android! is an app designed to "silent" green droid devices at night by a simple tap of the widget.

With Good Night, Android! users can disable a number of features that are responsible for disturbing one's good night sleep. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Sounds and Vibration can be turned off and Flight Mode can be enabled by simply tapping on the widget installed by the app. Even though the name might suggest otherwise it can be used at any time of day, making it suitable for work meetings or school classes as well.

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Android 4.2 introduced the ability to add widgets on the lockscreen, allowing users to view more information without unlocking the device. Beautiful Clock Widgets is an app designed to take advantage of the new feature by offering a large selection of time & weather widgets.

Beautiful Clock Widgets can display more comprehensive information than the default Clock widget that Google offers. Users have access to the typical time (in AM/PM format) and date, but also to humidity percentage for the selected location as well as current temperature with minimum and maximum values of the day and a short status like "Cloudy". For every feature a different color can be assigned (for instance red for location, green for weather, purple for background, etc.).

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The LG Optimus G is one of the most powerful smartphones available today, but sadly it's not the most modder-friendly device because it ships with a locked bootloader. Thanks to Project FreeGee that is no longer the case for the AT&T and Sprint versions of the South Korean smartphone that now have an unlockable bootloader.

The advantage is obvious for modders. With an unlocked bootloader owners of the AT&T and Sprint variants will be able to install Android Open Source Project-based distributions such as AOKP Jelly Bean Milestone 1 or CyanogenMod 10, once support is added. Another benefit comes from the Nexus 4 sources, which can be used to streamline the development process for compatible custom distributions, as the two devices share underpinnings.

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Starting today the HTC DROID DNA is available for purchase at Verizon Wireless. On a two-year contract the J butterfly's US brother runs for $199.99, while off-contract it costs a marginally higher $599.99.

Like the J butterfly, the DROID DNA comes with a massive 5-inch Super LCD3 display with 1920-by-1080 resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 2 for protection. Power comes from a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor backed by 2GB of RAM and a relatively small 2020mAh non-removable battery. Unlike the J Butterfly, the big red version has to make due with just 16GB of internal storage as it does not feature a microSD card slot.

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Custom recovery is at the core of Android modding by allowing users to root or load custom green droid distributions. The recently launched Nexus 4 and Nexus 10, running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, can also join the modding train with new custom recoveries from ClockwordMod and Team Win Recovery Project.

With Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Google introduced a new feature -- multiple-user support -- which modifies the internal storage structure by adding a "0" folder for the default user. Aside from the obvious benefit, the new functionality also causes issues with custom recoveries that are not designed to take it into account. Now though CWM 6.0.1.8/9 and TWRP 2.3.2.0 are available with support for the recently introduced Nexus 4, 10 and multiple user support.

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Parent company Mozilla announced that Firefox for Android now supports older green droid devices using ARM v6 architecture. The latest update allows the open-source browser to run on smartphones such as HTC Status, Motorola Fire XT or Samsung Galaxy Ace, but also looks to the present with improvements for newer versions of Android.

Mozilla claims that limiting Firefox for Android to run solely on the ARM v7 architecture would eliminate "roughly half of the nearly 500 million Android phones", obviously making a dent in its market share and popularity among green droid users. The minimum hardware requirements now involve an 800MHz ARM v6 processor accompanied by 512MB of RAM. What about less "ancient" devices?

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Last week Google launched its new flagship smartphone -- the Nexus 4. Shortly after, Android developers bestowed the LG-made device with root, but for hassle-free modding there is an all-in-one toolkit available as well.

Manual modding operations offer more control over the process, but take more time to perform. The Nexus 4 Toolkit is designed to automate a considerable number of tasks ranging from rooting Android 4.2 Jelly Bean to setting file permissions on Google's flagship smartphone. Users can also lock/unlock the bootloader, perform a full-system backup using ADB, install BusyBox, download the factory image, flash a custom or stock recovery and much more.

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Thanksgiving Day rapidly approaches, and the Winter Holidays are just around the corner. For the long-distance conversations usually associated with those events, popular VoIP and Video chat company Skype has introduced Skype Gift Cards.

With Skype Gift Cards, users of the popular VoIP and video chat service can access a number of premium features such as worldwide calling to landlines and mobile phones, text messaging, or Skype Wi-Fi hotspots. Starting at $10, Gift Cards are available through Skype Shop and the company's Facebook page, as well as at a number of retail locations such as Microsoft Store, Target and OfficeMax.

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Windows 8 is the least intuitive and the most controversial operating system released by Microsoft in years. In my review I said that Windows 8 is "more suited for early adopters rather than everyone" because of usability issues encountered during my time with it. However as with most problems there is a convenient solution and it involves the classic keyboard and mouse.

Windows 8 is still designed to be operated the old fashioned way, even though the focus is now on touch devices. Microsoft tried to please both desktop and tablet users, but the former are actually disadvantaged because of it. Instead of using a crippled operating system by always going to the desktop tile or shutting down via the power plug, I will present how to use some of the newly introduced features using the keyboard and mouse.

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Google is known for its laissez-faire philosophy when it comes to Android modding. As a result, shortly after the company launched the new Nexus 4 with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, members of the modding community bestowed the new smartphone with elevated privileges (popularly known as "root").

Rooting Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on the Google Nexus 4 is similar to the method that I recommended in "How to root Android 4.2" for the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7. In order to run apps with elevated privileges Nexus 4 users have to enable Android debugging, unlock the bootloader and load (not install) a custom kernel or recovery. The latter of the two allows to flash the SuperSU package in order to root Android 4.2, while the former requires to perform a number of commands in order to achieve the same result.

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