x PhoneArena is looking for new authors! To view all available positions, click here.
  • Home
  • News
  • Android 4.2 hitting AOSP today, ROM developers start your engines!

Android 4.2 hitting AOSP today, ROM developers start your engines!

Posted: , by Scott H.

Categories:

Share:

Discuss 21
Android 4.2 hitting AOSP today, ROM developers start your engines!
For those of you who like to tinker with your (Android-based) mobile devices, today is a milestone as Jean-Baptiste Queru, point man on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) announced that the source code for Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is being pushed to servers. This won’t mean much to you if you get all of your updates over the air from your carrier, but for power users that like to unlock their devices and install custom ROMs this means that today is the day that developers get their first crack on Android 4.2.

At this point there is usually something of a mad scramble as developers work to quickly get out largely unaltered ports of the software out. The initial wave of releases is often buggy, and even for self-designated power users patience can be a virtue if you aren’t excited about having to troubleshoot bugs, or possibly have to reflash your phone to an older version of the software. If on the other hand you  really like trying out new stuff and don’t mind the risk (or perhaps have more than one phone hanging around) then you can jump in right away.

Makers of popular custom ROMs like Clockwork Mod and AOKP will generally take a bit longer, often times several weeks, as they have written a lot of custom code that will have to be merged with the new source code and then tested. If you rely on one of those custom ROMs as your day to day phone, you’re probably better served waiting it out for your developers of choice to get a more stable version of the software ready. It’s also worth noting that owners of unlocked Android phones can already flash the newer 4.2-based apps to their phones without having to install a whole new OS, as we’ve already seen the new camera/gallery app, the new keyboard, and the new clock app available to install.

Even inveterate tinkerers may mark this day simply as an announcement without any actual release, but for developers on the Android platform this is the day that all of that custom ROM magic gets under way.

source: AOSP via Droid-Life

Share:

Discuss21

21 Comments

  • Options
    Close




Want to comment? Please login or register.

1. Pings posted on 13 Nov 2012, 13:27 4

The fun starts!

10. PhenomFaz posted on 13 Nov 2012, 15:58 4

You've jsut got to love open source and Android!

2. nwright94 (unregistered) posted on 13 Nov 2012, 13:35 1

Hopefully they'll port it to the kindle fire soon. My OG kindle fire still runs amazingly on cm10.

3. OptimusOne posted on 13 Nov 2012, 13:56 1

AND GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I WILL RELEASE A ROM TOMMOROW :)

4. DigitalMD posted on 13 Nov 2012, 14:01 3

Unfortunately custom ROMs are becoming few as the vendors and cell carries conspire to lock things down and refuse to provide open source drivers and key firmware libraries, so a Google AOSP is pretty meaningless these days.

6. OptimusOne posted on 13 Nov 2012, 14:30 2

what are you talking about? as far as i know, 95% of android devices have been rooted. 85% of them have unlocked or unlockable bootloaders(hax or no hax).

whatever any vendor does, whatever any carrier does, most of those restrictions have been bypassed thanks to ingeneous developers.

and vendors do provide open source drivers. it is the proprietary drivers that the vendors cannot release. and some of those have been released as well.

How are custom roms becoming few? look at the HTC Rezound for Verizon and tell me how many custom roms are available. look at the HTC One X and tell me how many custom roms are available? I would like to know your reasoning behind the statement of custom roms becoming few? where is your proof? as far as I know, custom roms are being made every day

please name me 2 current devices from each of the 4 major carriers that do not have any custom roms? and I'm pretty sure that any device that has had it's bootloader uplocked, been rooted, and has a reasonable amount of popularity has cyanogen mod ported. cyanogen mod is pretty much aosp.

hey guess what? where do the vendors get android source code to build their own roms. ie sense touchwiz, motoblur? they also get it from AOSP. so if you take away AOSP, where will vendors get their source code?

I love aosp roms. every device i have owned has an AOSP rom and I have alwaysed used that: htc g1>LG optimus one>htc nexus one>htc desire hd> htc amaze> htc one s

tell me 2 cases per US carrier that a device has been locked down and the restrictions have not been bypassed.

unless you prove that your statement is trye, you post is meaningless and play outright lying?

PS. Are you a verizon spokesperson?

12. DigitalMD posted on 13 Nov 2012, 18:28 1

REALLY ,? Are you that clueless? I can name 10 current Android phones that you can't unlock and load a bootloader or kernel on and without that, you can;t load a working version of anything that is a newer level of Android. Motorola has at least 4 current phones like that, HTC has 3 or 4 and so on.
Are you a Google spokesman?

Unlock my Motorola Razor or Droid X2 bootloader, I challenge you. The best have tried for months.

13. TROLL (limited) 5 days ago posted on 13 Nov 2012, 18:40

Why is it that difficult to unlock Bootloaders?

There's step-to-step reviews and guides vaiable!

14. DigitalMD posted on 13 Nov 2012, 18:45 1

If its locked by the HW vendor unless you have the HW keys , you cannot unlock the bootlaoder, so you cannot install custom recovery or kernels. Without a new kernel, graphics acceleration and several necessary system calls in 4.1 or 4.2 won;t work, so all you have is a crippled version .
Check XDA for hundreds of post on this topic.
Here is the Moto Droid X2 for example, Never been unlocked . Root is not unlock. Root does not get you a new kernel.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1172

15. TROLL (limited) 5 days ago posted on 13 Nov 2012, 19:00 1

You have a point. That's why never buy phones that have locked Bootloaders! i'm already running JB4.1.2 with
CM10 with Siyah Kernel. Once you root you have a tottal new excperience from standard phones.

16. DigitalMD posted on 13 Nov 2012, 20:38

More and more phones are coming out with locked bootloader. Samsung is even caving in to Verizon demands to lock it down.. Some are even shipping with root counters so they can void your warranty.
Of course you can buy the "developers model of these phones in some cases. at $600 + and no warranty. Its'a bad trend, We should fight it, but the hacker community is really small potatoes compared to the "normal" customers, so its a hard fight to make stick.

19. ilia1986 posted on 13 Nov 2012, 23:38

Nonesense. Galaxy S phones are always very developer friendly.

20. DigitalMD posted on 14 Nov 2012, 20:57

Wrong, both the Sammy Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 have locked bootloaders on Verizon.
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/09/20/samsung-galaxy-note-2-has-locked-bootloader-with-verizon/

17. Edmund posted on 13 Nov 2012, 20:40

Exactly what I was about to say. You know something is wrong when even Sony abandons the project.

5. Pings posted on 13 Nov 2012, 14:12 2

Like that will stop us. Lock it down. We'll find ways around it. Even then I will only buy a phone that can be customized.

7. nyamo posted on 13 Nov 2012, 15:13

oem's are getting sneaky though. have you heard about the optimus g and how if you remove some key bloat the device goes into sercurity lock down and wont let you boot past the splash screen?

i for one will wait a few days on any 4.2 port and let the trouble shooting be done by others

9. OptimusOne posted on 13 Nov 2012, 15:33

lol optimus G is using LG's custom UI and it is only ics

I'm pretty sure there will be no problem with 4.2 aosp because it doesn't come with any bloat to begin with

11. DigitalMD posted on 13 Nov 2012, 18:28

REALLY ,? Are you that clueless? I can name 10 current Android phones that you can't unlock and load a bootloader or kernel on and without that, you can;t load a working version of anything that is a newer level of Android. Motorola has at least 4 current phones like that, HTC has 3 or 4 and so on.
Are you a Google spokesman?

Unlock my Motorola Razor or Droid X2 bootloader, I challenge you. The best have tried for months.

8. Mr.Mr.Upgrade posted on 13 Nov 2012, 15:23 2

And the king of android phones Win again....And the crowd goes wild....chanting nexus,nexus,nexus,nexus,nexus

18. anirudhshirsat97 posted on 13 Nov 2012, 22:42

Can't Wait For The AOKP ROMs To Come Out.
Currently On Resurrection Remix 4.1.2 With Siyah Kernel.

21. DigitalMD posted on 14 Nov 2012, 20:58

both the Sammy Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 have locked bootloaders on Verizon.
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/09/20/samsung-galaxy-note-2-has-locked-bootloader-with-verizon/

Want to comment? Please login or register.

Hot Phones

  • Samsung Galaxy S4Samsung Galaxy S4
  • Apple iPhone 5Apple iPhone 5
  • Samsung GALAXY Note IISamsung GALAXY Note II
  • HTC OneHTC One
  • Sony Xperia ZSony Xperia Z
  • Google Nexus 4Google Nexus 4
  • LG Optimus GLG Optimus G
  • Nokia Lumia 920Nokia Lumia 920