Build and package your ROM flashing toolkit with ZIPme
ZIPme is an application that allows you to create flashable zips for use in recovery with applications and data you want to install on a new ROM.
If you’re a regular ROM flasher, you know the drill: Titanium Backup the apps, make a nandroid just in case, flash a new ROM, install Titanium Backup either via recovery or by downloading it in the Play Store, restore the apps that you wanted to restore (usually restoring a whole label rather than individually picking things), and then go and configure the ones in which the data didn’t quite make it (Twitter, Dropbox, etc.).
With ZIPme, you can create a flashable zip of at least a few of the things you’ll want installed on every ROM, and have them installed in recovery mode, where they’ll be significantly more quickly installed than that above scenario. You can also flash other things such as a custom build.prop, hosts file, boot animation, busybox, fonts, or init.d. You can choose to bundle entire directories and their contents, or just have a flashable zip containing your accounts, widgets, Bluetooth pairings, text messages, WiFi settings, and more.
ZIPme is absurdly useful for quickly creating a toolkit and aiding in getting your phone up and running in as little time as possible; once you’ve got the zip created, recovery management applications like 4EXT’s Recovery Console, GooManager, or TWRP Manager can script the actions to take and you can just walk away and return to a phone with most of your setup there and ready.
I should note that this is not a replacement for Titanium Backup, and the actions to create a flashable archive do exist within Titanium Backup, but the TB method, unless I am mistaken, involves jumping through a few more hoops with setting labels, filtering search results, and creating an update.zip – the ZIPme app is just simple and does this one job in a straightforward way. I believe ZIPme also wins on creating files and folders, but I may be mistaken.
Neither application appear to allow scheduled scripting to create these flashable archives with fresher data. Someone needs to get on that.
ZIPme is still in testing, so make sure to cover your bases with a nandroid backup and TB just in case something fails.
Download: Google Play
