Our buddy Pete Alfonso continues to work his magic to make the original DROID one of the most current Android devices on the planet.  Today, he’s releasing Android 2.3.5 through DL so that OG owners can have it before almost any other smartphone.  There aren’t a lot of spicy changes, but there are new GApps, an updated Search app that is not in the market yet, Gtalk with video and the new market.

Download:  generic_sholes-ota-eng-pete.zip

As usual, download the file from above and drop it on your SD card.  After that, boot into recovery through ROM Manager, make a backup and then “install zip from sd card.”

And just in case he updates it, you’ll want to check this folder.  Here is his github.

Be sure to keep up with Pete at his site and on Twitter!

Developer barczakmark took it upon himself to create a DROID Bionic boot animation while we all wait impatiently for Motorola and Verizon to release the actual device.  He patched together this rendition after seeing all of the leaked blurry cam photos that have made it into the wild and overall, did a pretty damn good job.  This should give us a little something to make the wait until September 1 somewhat manageable.

Download:  480×854 | 540×960  (more resolutions at the source link)

Instructions:

*Rooted users only.

1.  Drop the .zip onto your SD card.
2.  Open up ROM Manager and reboot into recovery.
3.  From there, “install zip from sd card” and choose the .zip.
4.  Run it and enjoy!

The rest of the screen resolutions can be found at RootzWiki.

Cheers Jeff!

You all know MIUI by now, don’t you?  This would be one of the few ROMs that actually gives you a completely new user experience.  We released the port of the new overhaul last week for the original DROID, but today, it’s all about the DROIDX and DROID2.  This has been one of those ROMs that wouldn’t make its way onto either device because of its stingy bootloader.  Well, thanks to our boy @cvpcs who figured out his 2nd-init magic for some CM7 goodness, we now have MIUI.  Huge props to the MIUI team (Frameworks43) for getting this out to us.  

Apparently there are thousands of people who have been waiting for this ROM to be released, and luckily for all of you, last night our dear friend Actngrezy and Mojo Droid uploaded it for the masses. Project Elite 6.5 is based off Android 2.3.4 and is going to make your OG DROID run smooth as butter. Plus, there is even an alternative themed ROM if stock coloration doesn’t tickle your fancy.

What’s even better news is that the developers recently received a DROID Incredible, and you may be seeing Project Elite on multiple devices in the future. Fingers crossed, people. So enough talk, let’s get to flashing! 

Remember the breakthrough that allowed the flashing of CM7 onto the DROIDX back in June?  It looks like that same method (2nd-init) could potentially work on the DROIDX2 as well, opening up this device to some pretty fun times.  Everything was pulled from the Atrix’s 2nd-init and is still very beta at this time, so we’re not suggesting that just anyone go out and start playing around with this.  The best thing you can do is start talking about it (a lot), ask your favorite devs to take note of it, and then watch the magic happen.

More info at this XDA thread.

Cheers Adam and Thomas!

Yesterday we found out that the newest Netflix update allowed Honeycomb tablets to enjoy all the movie streaming goodness. Well unfortunately, our rooted Asus Transformer friends were left out in the cold, but a developer over at XDA wasn’t going to let this happen for long, and decided to make it work.

Mistar Muffin has just released a flashable zip for rooted Transformers which takes a certain file (libnvomx.so) from the Motorola XOOM and pushes it to the system of the Transformer, making Netflix miraculously stream the Red Monster (my nickname for Netflix). 

Big news in the land of the DROIDX2 today; the first ever ROM has been released by c21johnson and it actually looks pretty sharp.  Sporting an all black theme along with a ton of “performance based enhancements,” this should make DX2 users extremely happy for the time being.  The ROM is definitely a “beta,” but that doesn’t mean it can’t be your daily driver.  In fact, the bug list is almost non-existent and doesn’t appear to include anything major.  Go grab it!