Of all the Android ROMs out there, few receive even a fraction of the love that CyanogenMod does. For users that like to flash ROMs and experiment with all Android has to offer, getting official Cyanogen support can be like Christmas morning. Today users of the HTC One XL and the old Verizon Motorola XOOM get to do a little happy dance as CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies have become available for the XOOM, while an experimental build is up for the One XL.

The XOOM has mostly been forgotten by Verizon and Motorola – the last software update brought it up to Ice Cream Sandwich while the WiFi-only XOOM is on Jelly Bean. The One XL is mainly for the international market, but it's very similar to the North American One X – it has a Snapdragon S4 processor and LTE support. This device is running Android 4.1 in the official software channel.

CyanogenMod 10.1 is based on Android 4.2.1, so it has support for the quick settings drawer, photospheres, gesture typing, and all the other new Jelly Bean goodies. The newest build for the XOOM is a standard nightly, but the current One XL build is showing as "experimental." As long as nothing goes seriously wrong it should become a nightly as well very soon. If you're okay with some bugs, feel free to get flashing.

Updated to clarify difference between nightly and experimental builds.

NVIDIA's Shield portable gaming system is easily the most anticipated product to come out of CES. Today, we finally got a chance to go hands-on with an early build of the device, and got a few hands-on videos in the process. Let's break down the videos first.

So, what did I think? NVIDIA clearly took its time designing a controller that you'll actually want to use and hold. The batteries are located at the bottom of the unit, to counterbalance the weight of the display. The control sticks are an absolute joy - they felt as smooth as butter. I was able to get a degree of control in Dead Trigger 2 that I've only ever experienced on a console. It becomeimmensely more playable, and thus, enjoyable. The bumpers and other buttons - including the D-pad - felt a little sloppy. NVIDIA says this is something they're well aware of and that these early demo units are not indicative of how the final buttons will feel (eg, they'll be a lot better).

 

The Shield is undeniably on the heavy side, but I don't think anyone will find holding it particularly tiresome. One issue, though, is that because it's a little hefty and you have games designed for play on larger tablet screens, sometimes UI elements and scale force you to hold the admittedly large Shield closer to your face than I find comfortable. It's a minor concern in the grand scheme of things, I suppose.

As far as build quality, I'd say it felt like I was holding something on par with your average Xbox 360 controller - solid, high-quality ABS plastic. The units we were playing with were also pretty beat up (see overhead photo of the controls), and they seemed to be handling the abuse without much issue. The removable face plates are magnetic, by the way (see images), and are swapped quite easily.

Steam integration is what you're probably really chomping at the bit about. OK, so we did play with it. It works. The first time we tried, though, it didn't - the controller wasn't recognized by the connected PC. But when it did work (on our second try), it was fantastic. Black Ops II popped up on the Shield and ran great - no frame skipping, and a high frame rate generally. On the issue of latency, 2-3 minutes just wasn't enough time to be sure how gameplay will be affected by what little there was. It seemed totally playable to me (a lot better than OnLive), and I like to think I'm pretty picky compared to the average person in that regard. There was noticeable latency, sure, but it was very, very minor. And I expect that will likely be further reduced by the time the Shield launches. As it is now though, again, I would say it is definitely playable.

After this hands-on, I have high hopes for Shield, and am looking forward to spending a lot more time with one once they're on the market. Is this going to be the device that revolutionizes mobile gaming? That's hard to say. There are a lot of factors to consider - price, release date, competing products, critical reception. But I will say this: I think Shield is the most serious Android gaming product to come along to date, and has the best chance of anything out there to change the landscape in a significant way. Whether or not it actually will, well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Somewhere within the depths of the internet are entire subcultures of people who do things. Among those people are ones who like to work out – you know, it's their thing. Their schtick, even. Some of these guys actually happen to cross over into geekdom at one point or another. Crazy, I know. Somewhere along the lines, these fitness-nut/geek hybrids got together and created a game. And a social network. And a way to track fitness. Then they put them all together and called it Fitocracy.

Sound crazy? Well, that's for good reason – it kind of is. And now it's on Android.

  

Basically, Fitocracy is exactly what I said: a social network inside of a game with a way to track fitness. I still can't completely wrap my head around it, and I spent the last little while checking it out. The gist goes something like this, though: it's social, like Facebook (you can even sign in with Facebook). But it also tracks your workouts. At the end of your workout, you can then "publish" it – which effectively sends it to something akin to "your wall."  People on your friends list can see it. It's kind of neat.

But! The plot thickens. There are also points allocated for each specific activity within your workout. The more things you do, the more points you get. Then, those points help you level up – like a game! I'll admit, I was pretty skeptical at first, but after messing with it for a bit, Fitocracy is actually pretty awesome.

  

As a thing, Fitocracy has actually made a pretty big name for itself on iOS, too – so it shouldn't be a wasteland when you sign in for the first time. And from what I can tell, the people who use this app really love it, and are dedicated to it. Hell, it even has groups for various types of workout (or even for beginners), so if you have any questions, you can just ask. That type of support is fantastic, especially for someone who may have just gotten into fitness.

It's not just a mobile app, either – you can access everything Fitocracy has to offer via the website. The layout is intuitive and easy to navigate, so it actually may be easier to explore it there first.

I admit, it's actually a little bit daunting at first. There's a lot to take in. But Fitocracy is completely free, so there's really nothing to lose and you can take all the time you need to figure it out. If you work out, I highly suggest giving it a look – it's a really cool idea. Grab it from the widget below.

You know, for an underdog, Pantech has been proving it knows how to put out some pretty decent, affordable hardware as of late. Just two days ago, it unearthed the upcoming Discover for AT&T, and now a leak of what appears to be the VZW equivalent – the Perception – just showed up in a leak over at Unwired View.

Much like it's Big Blue-powered cousin, the Perception is said to be packing a 720p display and 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4. Other details are scant at the moment, but it's probably pretty safe to assume the rest match up with that of the Discover, as well.

No word on exactly when we'll see this not-so-mid-ranger show up on VZW shelves, but rumor has it that it could be sometime this quarter.

For some time, Motorola Mobility has offered its MOTODEV Studio for Android suite as a standalone alternative build on Eclipse. A lot of developers seemed to like the additional tools Moto built into Studio, but weren't exactly keen on dropping Eclipse in exchange for Moto's less open solution.

Now that Motorola is a part of Google, it seems that state of affairs just won't do. Earlier today, on the official Motorola blog, the company announced it was open sourcing key parts of MOTODEV Studio and merging them into the Android Open Source Project. Looking at the commits (here), head of the ADT/Tools team at Google, Xavier Ducrohet, seems to have been involved extensively in the process.

From here on out, these special add-ons will be known as the Motodev Core Plugins, and you can actually just add them on top of your current Eclipse install. Find the instructions here.

So how about that Android / Motorola "firewall?" Looks like somebody left a couple ports open.

Inside Motorola Blog