As recent buyers of the Galaxy S4 on Verizon are receiving their devices, it’s about that time to start rooting and ROM’ing! If you are currently looking for the newest builds of the community’s most popular custom ROMs, you will be happy to learn that both Paranoid Android and AOKP have unofficial nightly and beta builds up for flashing. 

The new “milestone” release from the Android Open Kang Project (AOKP) is starting to roll out today. So far, we’re seeing builds available for most Nexus phones including toro (Verizon Galaxy Nexus), toroplus (Sprint Galaxy Nexus), mako (Nexus 4), and maguro (GSM Galaxy Nexus). We’re told that a post detailing the full changelog is in the works, but for now, you can expect changes to the nav/statusbar for tablets, “rewritten” RomControl, custom toggles, and a ton of bug fixes.

To grab the latest builds for your devices, hit up the source link below. 

This morning, the first AOKP build built off Android 4.2.2 has been uploaded and posted for everyone’s enjoyment. The build focuses mainly on bug fixes and a smooth merge from Android 4.2.1. Additionally, more devices such as the Motorola DROID 3, DROID 4, RAZR, and Bionic are also getting in on the Jelly Bean fun thanks to new maintainers, dhacker, Hashcode, and Quan. Good work, fellas! 

Custom ROM’s are still a large part of this community, with two of the top dogs being AOKP and Paranoid Android for a multitude of devices. If you are currently running one of their previous builds, then it looks like it is time to update.

Over the weekend, a release candidate for Paranoid Android 3+ was uploaded to XDA, along with an extremely awesome/in-depth hands-on video giving an overview of the ROM and its features such as hybrid property settings. These settings allow you to change the layout of the entire device and for individual apps. For example, you can use the tablet UI for the Gmail app if you so choose and any other app that is compatible. Definitely watch the video if you are prepared for your mind to be blown. 

Yesterday, the AOKP team released JB-MR1 Build 2 for their many followers. Inside the newest build, which is built atop Android 4.2.1, are a ton of new features such as enhancements to the boot animation picker, custom NavBar background colors, and a brand new feature called Call Statistics. With Call Stats, you can get an in-depth look at phone usage such as filtering dates, pie charts showing incoming/outgoing usage, and more.

The full list of new features is below. 

Late last night, the AOKP team finally dropped their first release as MR1 for Jelly Bean (Android 4.2.1). As you had probably hoped, it contains many of your favorite features from past builds.

You’ll find the custom boot animation, statusbar tweaks, power menu options, custom lockscreen options, a fully customizable navigation bar, more statusbar styles, LED control, sound settings, and more. And maybe more importantly, they fixed some of the bugs that came with stock Android 4.2.1. 

Oh, the Internet. It’s a fun and beautiful place for the most part, but sometimes, it can be a real pain in the ass. Unfortunately for our friends in the Android Open Kang Project, their forum (aokpDOTco) has come down with an illness, malware to be exact, and all of their user’s usernames and passwords have been compromised. AOKP’s founder, Roman, took to Google+ to break the bad news and to advise people who signed up that this would be a good time to change up your passwords. 

Last night, the AOKP team announced that Build 5 was ready for the masses, bringing with it a ton of new features and the successful merge of Android 4.1.2. On top of the merge, features ranging from custom nav bar options for tablet users, NavBar widgets have returned, as well as a toggle for menu UI overflow. Full list of new features can be seen below.