Meet OmniROM, a new custom ROM for Android

OmniROM, a new custom ROM for Android, has been made official at BABBQ (Big Android BBQ), by several developers whom you may already know including Chainfire, Xplodwild and Dees_Troy.

In case you’re new to the custom Android ROM playground, you may have not heard of Chainfire’s SuperSU and rooting hacks (including the recent RegionLock Away removal tool for the Galaxy Note 3), Dees_Troy’s TWRP recovery tools used by custom ROM fans or Xplodwild’s Focal camera that was part of the CyanogenMod ROM, and which is currently available as a standalone app in the Play Store.

OmniROM will be available on several devices including the following: Nexus 4, W-Fi and cellular versions of the Nexus 7 (2012) and Nexus 7 (2013), Nexus 10, OPPO Find 5, Xperia Z and the Xperia Tablet Z. Naturally, in the future support for more devices is expected.

What about OmniROM features? Here are some of the key features of this new custom Android ROM:

• Flippable Quick Settings
• Roadrunner mode
• Multi-window
• Daydream enhancements
• Integrated Performance Control
• Multi-workspace
• Color-changeable
• 3D depth Phase Beam

There’s also a website for OmniROM, which should offer more details in the near future. Interestingly, the custom ROM also gets a sub forum on xda-developers, something other custom ROMs don’t have.

We have embedded the explanation of OmniROM, found on its official site, – although it reads very much like an anti-CyanogenMod movement – below, in case you want to read more about what it aims to offer.

We’ll take an in-depth look at OmniROM in the future, so stay tuned for more news related to this new custom ROM initiative.

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Why Omni?
Omni is what custom ROMs used to be about – innovation, new features, transparency, community, and freedom. While other ROMs may water down their distribution to ensure it passes Google approval, we offer you an alternative: an Android distribution which remains compatible, but which doesn’t compromise on your experience.

Omni is a chance to get involved, no matter who you are. Developers, whether you’ve been developing apps for a week, or ROM features for 3 years, you’re welcome. Users, we know you want to help out, and we know you’re frustrated when you are told “no bug reports on nightlies”. You want to help out more, and now you can – Omni actively encourages bug reports and feature requests, which can be added to our publicly accessible roadmap. What’s the point in giving you a ROM, and forcing you to not tell us about any bugs you find?

Talking of nightlies, we also recognise how people use Custom ROMs – we’re all custom ROM users and developers ourselves – the argument that “nightlies are not for end users” is over-used, and no longer valid. We’ve found that the vast majority of users want to get nightly updates to their ROM. For that reason, nightlies aren’t a playground – nightlies are for new features that are finished. You should be able to expect the same stability and reliability from a nightly as you would from a “release” ROM, and can report any bugs that prevent this from happening.

We know not everyone wants to update their ROM daily, and you are free to update as frequently or infrequently as you like. Omni is about flexibility and giving users what they expect, rather than forcing users to use unstable builds in order to run a recent version of Android, then be denied the ability to report bugs, or suggest features, or point out issues.

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