Hacking the Android framework

In Chapter 6, "Cooking" Your First ROM, we had a look at a few heavily-customized versions of Android, and lots of these customizations were related to the User Interface. UI customization is a tricky topic due to the personal taste factor involved: many users love a "pure Android" UI, many other users love the idea of a "different Android" UI, far from the mainstream UI experience.

In this section, we are giving you free will and the chance to choose between a vanilla Android and a customized one. You will learn how to make small customizations, to the status bar or to the colors, for example, or big customizations, like adding a new item to the Settings menu to properly set up the custom features of your custom ROM.

Customizing the boot sequence UI

The graphical appearance of the ¾¦+ boot sequence is definitely one of the most popular customizations you'd like to do and often the one that your users will ask for and will love.

During the boot sequence, a standard...