The world has gone literally Lollipop crazy this month. You obviously do know…but just in case. Lollipop is Android’s newest operating system. This comes in the form of Android 5.0 and is the next evolutionary step up from Android 4.4 (KitKat). Since its source code hit the AOSP at the start of November, everybody (and I do mean ‘everybody’) has been waiting and waiting for news of their update to land. So far Motorola and Nexus seem to be leading the pack with their devices getting their updates rolling out quite quickly. In fact, the race has become somewhat of a badge of honor for the OEMs and developers. Kinda like a way for the OEMs to show who loves their customers ‘the most’.
That said, all of us ‘unloved’ customers of other OEM’s are left waiting like a third wheel wondering when we will get a lick of that sweet Lollipop goodness. Well, thankfully we don’t always have to wait for our manufacturers to share the love. No, instead there are plenty of developers always working on ROM versions and ready to give you what your manufacturers cannot. And today it seems HTC are getting a little bit of love from the guys over at XDA. Yep, if you own an HTC One M8 then listen up. XDA member Holy Angel has uploaded what seems to be the first proper working Lollipop based ROM for the HTC One M8. The ROM is supposedly based on a leaked version of the official HTC Lollipop update. Although no-one has actually seen this update. Nevertheless the Skydragon ROM team have managed to port the ROM for the M8 bringing those that cannot wait the illusive Lollipop.
So what do you need to do? Well, firstly, it does need to be made clear that the ROM is only working for the Google Play Edition (GPE). So, if you are not running a GPE One M8 then do not install this. That said, it probably will not take the guys much longer to port this over to the standard One M8. As this is a ROM, there are the more typical caveats in place. You do need an unlocked bootloader. You will need to root (if you are not already) and you will need some knowledge of how to install such ROMs. Flashing this type of content can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. So you have been warned. Its your fault if anything goes wrong. Not forgetting the golden rule. Backup! That said if you need Lollipop and running a GPE HTC One M8 then click here to head over to the XDA thread where you will find installation instructions and of course, the actual download.