Flash Android 5.0 to a Bootlooping Nexus 5 in 2 Minutes

We all know the feeling of having a bootloop occur on our devices every so often, whether it be when we’re flashing a new mod or ROM, making an edit to a root-level file, or because of some unknown and unreported compatibility issue. But when it occurs over and over again and you have no viable backup made, flashing a fresh ROM again and again and starting everything from scratch can get pretty tedious and annoying.

With this said, XDA Forum Member Julian_os developed a very handy batch file tool aimed to bring some much needed relief in the aforementioned scenario. Called the Flash 5.0 N5 Tool, it flashes stock Android 5.0 Lollipop to your Nexus 5 automatically within 2 minutes of starting and can be used with your device when it is in either bootloop/bootloader mode and in a normal state with the bootloader locked or unlocked. And one can even say that this tool is home grown through and through as it was developed according to the XDA TV tutorial on writing batch files. Julian_os plans on updating the tool so future releases of Android will also be supported. Moreover, you can easily adapt the batch for use on additional devices, provided that you have the applicable image files, paths, fastboot drivers.

If you would like to give this a go, check out the Flash 5.0 N5 Tool thread for more details.

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Android Community Weekly Digest: Dec. 7, 2014

With Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday far behind us, it's time to take stock of the spoils of war. This week, we got bombarded with a lot of sales and promos, particularly on the entertainment side of things. A lot of new games have also entered Google Play Store and that is what we're turning our attention to in this latest edition of Android Community's Weekly Digest, covering the period from December 1 to December 7, 2014.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right

Android is certainly not lacking in JRPGs, both old school and totally new. Kemco is one of the more popular names when it comes to flooding Google Play Store with new titles, and their latest Revenant Saga puts a slight twist by introducing 3D battles in an otherwise purely 2D game. When it comes to old school though, Square Enix is right up there and it has just bestowed Android with yet another Dragon Quest game, Dragon Quest III. Unfortunately, it comes with the notorious Square Enix price tag. Games of high visual caliber aren't exactly that many on our mobile platform, so when games like Godfire: Rise of Prometheus arrives, we take notice. It's like God of War, but on a smartphone. And without physical controls. On the other hand, button mashing and heavy swiping shouldn't be a problem for Shadowrun: Dragonfall, as its turn-based battles and deep story plot makes this cyberpunk-meets-fantasy RPG a refreshing change.

If you haven't been able to decide on what game you'll want to spend your time on, check out Google's own pick for the top games this year. Be sure to also check out our Gaming tag portal for our own selection of new, updated, and sometimes weird games in the market.

Nexus and Android Lollipop

Google and OEMs continue to roll out Android 5.0 Lollipop to devices around the world, but things hit a bit of a snag this week. Though it doesn't really change the status quo, Google updated its support pages to explicitly mention that they are not to blame for delays in releases. While the Nexus promise of two weeks for Android releases still stand, Google passes the buck to carriers for any delays in rolling those out. Of course, that only applies to Nexus and Google Play Edition devices purchased from carriers, while those sold through Google Play Store remain favored.

This week also saw the surprising appearance of Android 5.0.1, a maintenance release seemingly targeted at Nexus tablets, including the Nexus 9, the 2013 Nexus 7 (WiFi), and the Nexus 10. On the other hand, Android 5.0 has started its descent on the Samsung Galaxy S5, starting in Poland, and finally arrives on the GPE variants of the HTC One (M7) and M8.

Cyanogen, OnePlus, and India

A drama that was unfolding a week ago finally came to ahead this week. After several leaks and rumors, both Cyanogen, Inc. and OnePlus confirmed and announced their respective thrusts to take the Indian market. For Cyanogen, however, this was revealed to be an exclusive deal with local OEM Micromax. Shocked and dismayed, OnePlus announced that they would continue to support the OnePlus One in India, even without Cyanogen's help. Cyanogen later clarified that its exclusive partnership with Micromax doesn't mean that it has abandoned the OnePlus One in India and that owners would continue to receive OTA updates. That said OnePlus' plans to develop a non-Cyanogen Android OS of their own seems to remain still on track.

Apps

This week was not without its interesting apps. Mixing humor with mobile devices, McDonalds Canada released a Fry Defender app that would protect your golden brown sticks from would be thieves. AirDroid releases version 3 of its app that lets you control your smartphone from a desktop or laptop, and with it new standalone Windows and Mac clients that will free AidDroid from the shackles of a browser. Cannibal Open Touch joins the custom Android recovery party by offering a fully touch-optimized and themable tool based on the popular ClockworkMod Recovery. A new app from Digital Turbine called Ignite was discovered to bypass Android's security safeguards and install apps without your knowledge or permission, all for the sake of carrier or OEM bloatware. And last but by no means least, Google releases its selection of the best Android apps for 2014.

HTC Releases Kernel Source for One M7, M8 GPe Devices

A few days, we talked about the Google Play editions of the HTC One M7 and M8 getting an Android 5.0 Lollipop update. Those updates, in addition to the totally new user experience, gave developers a chance to use the updated binary files, which were built to handle Android 5.0 without issue. HTC did its homework accordingly, and has now released the kernel source in a timely fashion.

Most big OEMs respect open-source licensing and release the GPL-compliant kernel source code for all their shipping devices and firmware. However, this usually takes a few weeks to make its way to developers, but HTC has released these files almost instantly, thus giving developers a chance to implement the changes into the kernel branches and make them Lollipop-ready. The provided zip files aren’t small, as they are both almost half a gigabyte each, but HTC servers seem to be in really good shape all things considering. We do hope that other OEMs will follow HTC’s lead and provide the GPL content within a day or two after the official roll-out, or provide them at all…

Developers interested in working on the HTC kernels can get the source code by visiting the official HTCdev webpage, where you can find kernel source for Android 5.0.1 and other Android revisions for all HTC devices.

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Google Developer Kits available for offline access to resources

If you're a developer trying to create apps and services on Google's platforms and you live in a country with intermittent Internet connection, it can become quite a challenge. Before you can finish running a code lab or even trying to learn the ropes, you're already hindered by bandwidth issues. But now the tech giant is giving developers the chance to access resources offline by offering a pilot kit.

The pilot kit contains the I/O Dev Bytes Series, a YouTube series that teaches you coding basics, including the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop. It also has full videos of the Google Udacity course, including Android, App Engine, HTML5 games, UX and Mobile Web modules. The whole Android website is also in the kit, as well as Material Design docs, Web Fundamentals, Google Cloud Platform docs and all Android, Cloud and Design videos from the YouTube channel of Google Developers.

So basically, everything you need to know and work with developing apps and services is there in several CDs which you can use even if you don't have Internet. This is great news for those developers who are living in developing countries where Internet access is always a problem, which has prevented them from fully taking advantage of all these Google resources. Or even if they have Internet, the slow bandwidth makes it twice as long to even just watch the video tutorials, let alone finish coding and trying it out.

Google says that so far, they have distributed 2,000 of these kits in the Sub-Saharan Africa, India and Bangladesh areas through their respective Google Developer Groups. If you feel like you need to have one of these kits, you can get in touch with a group near your area. They also have instructions you can follow if you're a school, tech hub or incubator.

SOURCE: Google

Relocate the Dalvik Cache to Get More Space on your Moto G with Mod

Having little to no memory left on your Android device is a bummer especially when you’ve already tried cutting down your files, music, videos, photos and apps to only the very bare essentials (which definitely has a wide scope needless to say). For owners of devices without SD card slots, this can be pretty frustrating, and the non-LTE variants of the Moto G is no exception. This is because the internal eMMC storage of the device has an approximately 600MB partition called /cache, which unfortunately and frustratingly not used because cache of apps is stored in /data. Hence, this leaves 600MB of unused space on your phone.

To access this untapped memory space, XDA Senior Member Bert98 has written a tutorial linking files in the dalvik cache to /cache, providing you an extra 600MB of memory which you would not have otherwise. This solution may not work however, if you have a lot of apps installed, being more than 90 apps, and if you’re running ART. The reason for the latter restriction is that ART uses a lot more memory than dalvik and space in the /cache partition would not be big enough to accommodate this size.

If you’d rather not go through the process yourself, you also have the option of a mod automating this for you, courtesy of XDA Senior Member skyguy126. The installation of the mod varies depending on whether you’re running a stock or custom ROM on your Moto G, and in either case, instructions are provided. Skyguy126 has also provided troubleshooting instructions in the event that something had gone wrong during installation.

So, if an extra 600MB of memory space sounds like something you’ll be interested in, head over to the Moto G dalvik relocation tutorial thread and mod thread for more information.

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Our Favorite Android, iOS, and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

The best thing about smartphones is that they're always improving thanks to developers looking for ways to make our pocket computers even better. This week we have lots of great downloadables for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. Take a look and see if any strike your fancy.

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ACA Clock Widget Keeps Track of Multiple Time Zones

For many Android users, the home screen never stays the same for more than a couple of days. I don’t know if it’s because of the absolute vast options for customization, their aesthetic tastes simply change quickly, or simply that they enjoy playing around with home screens. In any case, any customization addict knows that this pastime wouldn’t be possible without the right apps.

With this said, ACW Clock Widget is a great application for home screen customization. Developed by XDA Forum Member xsmile711, the app packs over 30 widgets (17 of which are free) for telling the time and weather. Options for customizing widgets are also pretty expensive, allowing you to toggle location, date and time, calendar events, battery level percentage, alarms, and more. In addition to this, you can set what will happen once you tap the widget, with possible actions including opening clock or date settings, turning off the screen, and opening apps. Furthermore, you’re not limited in the number of widgets you can place, as ACW Clock Widget allows you to place multiple clocks in the same home screen each displaying different time zones.

ACW Clock Widget is currently in beta right now, and can be downloaded from the Play store and the original forum post. If you would like to give this a whirl, head over to the ACW Clock Widget application thread for more details.

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