AOKP lovers, here is some good news for you. The AOKP team today released the first Android 4.2 Jelly Bean based Milestone build with all the usual AOKP features that we love for all the Nexus devices. A Milestone release means that the ROM is bug-free and good enough for day-to-day use.

Since this is the first Milestone release from the AOKP team based on Android 4.2, it has worked on porting all the previous features along with adding some minor new ones. Below is the full list of feature included the Milestone 1 release -:

• General UI
  • Custom boot animation
  • Custom carrier label
  • Notification background
  • Statusbar brightness slider
  • Recents RAM Bar & Kill All button
  • Power menu options
• Lockscreen
  • Customizable text color
  • Volume wake & music controls
  • Allow any kind & unlimited number of widgets (new)
• Navigation Bar
  • Fully customizable NavBar (buttons, color, transparency, widgets, etc.)
  • Menu arrow keys while typing (new)
  • Customizable NavBar Ring
• Statusbar
  • Battery indicator styles
  • Clock styles
  • Signal styles
  • Statusbar transparency (new)
  • Customizable Statusbar Toggles (new, based on Google’s tiles)
• LED Control
• Custom Vibrations
• Sound Settings
  • Less frequent notification sounds
  • Headphone action
  • BT connect action
  • Flip action
  • Quiet Hours (CM)
  • Disable safe headset volume warning (new)
• Themes support (multi-user support still buggy, use at your own risk)
• NFC Polling modes

Back in May when Samsung announced the Galaxy S3, it mentioned that the device supported wireless charging as well. However, to enable wireless charging users needed to buy an official inductive backplate from Samsung, which the Korean giant never released. The Galaxy Note 2, which was unveiled at IFA in late-August, met with the same fate.

Thankfully, an XDA member took things in his own hands and came up with a wireless charging mod for the Note 2 that takes only 10 minutes and costs less than £10. The mod has been confirmed to work on the International Galaxy Note II (N7100), N7105, along with the AT&T and Sprint variants of Note 2. T-Mobile Note 2 owners can also get wireless charging on their device, but that would require some additional steps and mods.

The mod is not for the faint hearted though, as it requires soldering. There is another mod which does not require any kind of soldering and can be found here.

The Nexus 7 was the first Android/Nexus device to ship with Chrome as the stock browser. With Android 4.2 and the Nexus 4, Google completely ditched the AOSP browser and made Chrome the new default browser. While Chrome for Android is an excellent browser, it has some serious performance issues on slightly older devices. It feels a bit bloated and is a memory hog compared to the AOSP browser. Apart from performance issues, Chrome for Android clearly struggles on some heavier sites like TheVerge, where pinch-to-zoom is choppy. It is also visibly slower than the iOS6 and AOSP browser in benchmarks.

Thankfully, many custom ROMs for the Nexus 4, including CyanogenMod and AOKP, still include the AOSP browser as an alternative to Chrome. However, if you are running the stock Android 4.2.1 build on your Nexus 4 with root access, you can easily install the stock AOSP browser in just a few steps.

Step 1: Download the browser.apk file from here, and transfer it to your phone.

Step 2: Copy the browser.apk file to the /system/app folder. Then, long press the apk and select the option to change its ‘Permissions’. Change the permission of the APK to -rw-rw-r.

Step 3: Rename ‘BrowserProviderProxy.apk’ and ‘BrowserProviderProxy.odex’ to something. Otherwise, the AOSP browser will just force close.

Also, keep in mind that once you change the name of these files, you will not receive any OTA updates in the future. You will need to rename these files back to their original name, if you want to receive the OTA update.

The AOSP browser also supports Flash, which Chrome lacks. Simply download and install the Flash Player APK from here, to enjoy Flash based websites on your Nexus 4.

The CyanogenMod team has started rolling out CM10.1 nightlies for the Nexus 4 a.k.a Mako. The CyanogenMod team noticed that quite a few ‘developers’ had kanged the mako device tree from their git, and released kanged versions of CM10.1 for the Nexus 4, which was surprisingly being used by many people. Thus, the team decided to release official nightly builds for the handset.

Keep in mind that the CyanogenMod team still has not synced Android 4.2.1 to their repos, so the current CM10.1 builds are based on Android 4.2. However, knowing the CM team, it should be a matter of just a couple of new nightlies before Android 4.2.1 is integrated into the CM sources.

Got the Nexus 4 or already ordered one? Want to tinker around with it but afraid that you will brick it somehow? Worry not! XDA moderator – mskip – known for his toolkits for the Galaxy Nexus and the various variants of the Galaxy S3, has released his toolkit for the Nexus 4.

The Nexus 4 Toolkit will allow current and future Nexus 4 owners to easily unlock their handset without the hassle of using adb or fastboot. The toolkit also offers many other options including the ability to directly flash a stock factory image from Google to the handset, temporary boot into a custom recovery without flashing it, backup all your data and much more.

The Nexus series from Google is already easy to unlock and tinker around with, but this toolkit from mskip makes them ridiculously easier. If you are among the few lucky people out there who have already got their hands on the Nexus 4 and are interested in rooting it, I will highly recommend you to use this toolkit. Head over to this thread on XDA forums to download the toolkit and for other instructions.

Google has once again started rolling out a new update to the Play Store. The latest update bumps the Play Store version to 3.1.0.9, and brings about a new install screen.

Once you tap on the ‘Accept & Download’ button, users will be greeted with a screen that looks something like this -:

Other than this, the update does not really bring about any noticeable changes.

You can either wait for the Play Store to be automatically updated, which can take quite a few weeks, or manually download and install this APK (Mirror 1) to get the latest version (v3.10.9) now.

Thanks @WinDroidGuy

Earlier today, Google started rolling out the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OTA update for the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 7. The update, however, is only being rolled out for the Play Store variant of the Galaxy Nexus — known as takju. Thankfully, an XDA developer — bigxie — has released a rooted Android 4.2 Jelly Bean ROM for the Galaxy Nexus that will work on any variant of the Galaxy Nexus.

So, if you own a Galaxy Nexus and cannot wait for the official Android 4.2 OTA update to be available, here is how you can manually install the update on your handset.

The steps below will work on any GSM variant of the Galaxy Nexus, including yakju and takju. It will, however, not work on the CDMA/Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus.

Before you proceed further, please make a backup of all the data on your phone including your pictures and other files on the internal memory of the Galaxy Nexus. Also, the steps below require root access with a custom recovery installed.

Step 1: Head over to this thread on XDA forums to download the stock, rooted Android 4.2 flashable zip file. Once the download is complete, transfer the file to your phone’s internal memory

Step 2: If you are already running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean on your Galaxy Nexus with a custom recovery, simply boot into CWM or TWRP, and flash this zip file. Your data and installed apps will remain intact in this case.

OR

Step 2: If you are running any Android 4.1.x or Android 4.0.x based custom ROM, then you need to do a factory reset prior to flashing the Android 4.2 custom ROM.

If you are not sure how to flash or install a custom ROM, please refer to this guide.

Samsung will be rolling out Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean update for the Galaxy Note by the end of this year. Rumors and leaks suggest that Samsung will be bringing quite a lot of new features to the Note including the Note 2′s Multi-view multi-tasking feature.

A couple of weeks ago, a Jelly Bean firmware for the Note 2 leaked online but it was not in a flashable zip state. Thankfully, the folks over at SamMobile have managed to get their hands on a flashable zip of the same Jelly Bean firmware – XXLS2.

The firmware contains a lot of new features including a new unlock screen as on the Galaxy S3 or the Note 2. Other new features include Air-view using S-Pen, and the usual Jelly Bean enhancements. The Project Butter effect is still missing, but that is bound to happen since this is still a test firmware.

Installation Steps

If you have previous experience with the ODIN tool, then installing the XXLS2 firmware will be a walk in the park for you.

For newbies, below is a step-by-step guide -:

Step1: Download the leaked XXLS2 Jelly Bean firmware for the Galaxy Note from here.

Step 2: Make sure you are running either Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7. Install Samsung’s KIES software which will automatically take care of all the required drivers. Then, download ODIN from here.

Step 3: Fire up ODIN, and click on the ‘PDA’ button and select the XXLS2 firmware file that you downloaded in Step 1. Do not play around with any other option in ODIN. Let everything be as it is.

Step 4: Switch off your Galaxy Note, and then boot it into Download mode by pressing the Volume Down + Home + Power button simultaneously. Skip the custom OS warning by pressing the Volume Up button.

Step 5: Connect the Note to your PC now. Once all the required drivers are automatically installed, ODIN should detect it and display a random COM number inside a glowing rectangle.

Step 6: Press the Start button and wait for ODIN to flash the firmware. Once the firmware is flashed, your phone will automatically reboot. Keep in mind that the first boot will take some time so please be patient.

With every new Android version, however minor it be, Google also includes a bunch of new wallpapers. While these new wallpapers are not particularly jaw-dropping. quite a few Android users are fascinated by them.

The Nexus 4 System dump was made available just a few hours ago, and one reddit member has done the hard work of extracting all the new wallpapers from the dump and uploaded it to imgur for other Android users to enjoy.

The specs of the Nexus 4 was known for quite a few weeks before its official announcement. What was not known was how much Google was going to price it. At $299 for the 8GB and $349 for the 16GB version, Google has surprised everyone which such a tempting price.

The pricing of the Nexus 4 has baffled many people who are wondering how Google and LG are selling such a powerful device at such a low price.

If you are wondering how the Nexus 4 stacks up against other Android super-phones and the almighty iPhone 5, below is a small chart comparing the devices “on paper” -:

There is no overall winner here. While the Lumia 920 has arguably the best camera in all the above phones, the HTC One X+ has the best display.

But, which smartphone is the best for me? Which one should I buy during the holiday season?

The answer is completely subjective. If you love iOS, then stick to the iPhone 5. If you are an Android lover, the Nexus 4 with its tempting price is the winner. If you are an artist or a student who takes notes on-the-go, the Note 2 will be perfect for you. If you are one of the few Nokia loyalists left and are looking for a stunning camera phone, pick up the Lumia 920.

If you have already invested in one of the three major mobile ecosystems, stick to it. Otherwise, if you switch over to a new mobile platform, you will have to invest again in apps and games that you have already paid for once.