Android 4.4 KitKat was finally officially announced last Thursday, and it definitely was a fun day in the Android world. Being that it was Halloween, we were all feeling like trick or treaters getting a bunch of Android 4.4 goodies pulled from the factory images. Developers quickly then went to work to try and get some of that KitKat on our devices, which of course hit some of the Nexus devices already. Last night, Birdman over on the RootzWiki forums, gave all of us with a GSM HTC One a nice little gift. He developed Android 4.4 ROMs for the T-Mobile, AT&T, and international versions, and it turned into a happy night
My first impressions of KitKat are that I am pretty impressed. It just feels nicely polished and a little more solid, which is what I was hoping for. When I first flashed the ROM I had to install the Google Experience Launcher because it did not have it built inside. Once I did that, it felt like I had a Nexus 5.
Now these builds are as KitKat as they can be, but it is also made complete with Android 4.3 binaries, so there might be some KitKat features that are missing. The Easter Egg for instance, just shows a “J” and nothing like the real KitKat Easter Egg shows. Voice commands work with Google Now flawlessly, which I was not expecting. I thought only the Nexus 5 had those capabilities, but I guess any device with 4.4 will be able to utilize those touchless controls. Overall I am pretty happy with this first build, and cannot wait to see what later builds have to offer. As of right now, I can honestly say I can use it as a daily driver, because it is that stable.
If you want to see it all in action, check out my run-through in the video below. All downloads are provided as well, so check it out and let us know how you like it.
RootzWiki Page Downloads
Google Experience Launcher
