Teams and solo enthusiasts alike can now integrate the notification system into their ROMs

A few weeks ago the folks over at Paranoid Android took the idea of Facebook's new Chat Heads software and took it a step further to create what it calls "Halo", a new way to manage multitasking on Android. While the software is still in beta officially, the team took to its official Google+ page today to announce that it is completely open-sourcing the software for other ROM makers to implement on their own. The source code, which is admittedly not cleaned up and still doesn't support proper Tablet UI's, comes by way of two links to GitHub with everything ROM makers of any size need to get started with it.

With the information and links to the source code, it also took a moment to throw out some thanks to Facebook, a few notes on compatibility and scaling of apps from Google Play, and some notes on the new version of Halo currently being used on Paranoid Android's ROM. The Google+ post also links to a great walkthrough of the feature as it stands now, which you can find above.

Source: +Paranoid Android

Some ideas are so good that they should be shared

If you had Internet service today, you've no doubt heard about Apple's iOS 7 unveiling at WWDC. If for some reason you haven't, be sure to head over to iMore and find out about all the new features and the new look. We'll wait.

OK, now that everyone is on the same page, we're all probably thinking about how a lot of that seems familiar. Apple certainly did a little shopping around when they decided what new features to include, and even how they will all look. Android's represented well, as is Windows Phone, BlackBerry, webOS and even Meego. Fans of all these operating systems are taking to Twitter or Facebook or Google+ to express their feelings over "the borrowing", and there is quite a little uproar being made. But not from me.

I think what they did is a good thing.

Cherry picking features from the competition means the users of that same competition might get a few laughs at your expense, but it means much more than that. It's validation for the designers and engineers who came up with it first, and it delivers great stuff that looks good to the end users.

While iOS 7 may look like a blend of Holo Light with MIUI icons, that flat card inspired interface is a great way to traverse your way through what your phone has to offer. We love it in Google Now and the other updated Google applications, and iOS users will love it when they get the update this fall. And the folks who originally designed it, wherever they may be, can know that they bring joy to millions with their design. The same goes for the Pandora inspired iTunes Radio, or the wireless sharing originally thought up by Bump, or HTC Sense 4's lock screen notifications. Those are features everyone wants, and now iPhone users can have them.

While you're reading through the lists of what Apple "stole" and who they stole it from, try to remember that in this business everybody steals from everybody else. And in the end, that means we all get to benefit from a universal set of great features. 

A few folks (including us) who have preordered the NVIDIA Shield controller have found themselves in possession of a snazzy new Shield T-shirt over the past couple days to go along with their $350 preorder. Accompanying the shirt was a note, which reads thusly:

Thank you for pre-ordering SHIELD. SHIELD is NVIDIA's first gaming portable, and has been a labor of love for us over the last year and a half since we started the project. Our vision was to build a dedicated, open platform gaming device that would allow you to enjoy a wide catalog of native Android and streamed PC games with full freedom and mobility.

To celebrate the arrival of SHIELD, we've designed a limited-edition SHIELD T-shirt and have included one in this package to thank you for your pre-order. 

On behalf of the SHIELD team, we hope you enjoy the experience!

Now us being the skeptical type, we checked in with NVIDIA to make sure Shield was still headed for customers' hands this month, as promised. And we're assured that while no shipping date has been announced, "late June" is still on track.

Don't forget to turn on sync when you add new folders or Mail Categories

While the settings to enable and change sync settings for Gmail haven't changed in the latest update, many people are just being introduced to them for the first time with the addition of "Mail Categories" this last week. Simply enabling the new Mail Categories feature on the web view of Gmail will get the tabs to show up in your app, but unfortunately won't start syncing or notifying you of your mail to those categories by default. It'll take just a few taps through the settings of the Gmail app to have everything syncing and ringing once again though, so let's take a look at the process.

Lorain Wong will take up role as Vice President of Global PR, Corporate and Internal Communications from Taiwan HQ

HTC has named Lorain Wong as its new Vice President of Global PR, Corporate and Internal Communications. Lorain joins HTC from Chinese network services provider Pacnet. Prior to this, Wong had senior roles at Qwest Asia, Global One Asia Pacific and AT&T. She will assume her new role at HTC from the company's Taiwan HQ. HTC says her duties will include "public relations, media and analyst relations, corporate communications and issues management."

Wong replaces former VP of Global Communications Jason Gordon, who was one of several high-profile execs to depart HTC last month.

Source: HTC

A solid set of specs and features for an extremely low price now available in the U.K.

Archos' top of the line 10-inch tablet, the Titanium 97b, will be available in the U.K. starting today exclusively at Dixons for the great price of just £199.99. Announced back in January and launched in the U.S. in March, the Titanium 97b is your standard large form factor tablet with a 9.7-inch 2048x1536 IPS display, 1.6GHz dual-core (an unnamed A9) processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage with an SDXC expansion slot and USB OTG capabilities. The Titanium 97b has a sleek aluminum build, is just 10mm thick and weighs 650g.

On the software side Archos ships a pretty much unchanged build -- save for a few Archos media apps -- of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with access to the Play Store and Google apps. They aren't the highest specs in the world, but at £199.99 for a 10-inch tablet it's hard to find a better deal out there. The Titanium 97b will be available exclusively at Dixons stores in the U.K. or online (from Currys) at the source link below.

More: Currys

Win a white Nexus 4 and bumper from us — just because 

It's WWDC day -- the day in which Apple will revolutionize the magical industry with features we've probably had on Android for some time now. There are approximately 14,629 liveblogs all blogging the same thing, which you can also stream live in an Apple-approved browser/device/cranial implant.

Oh, but there's more. E3 is getting underway in Los Angeles, with Microsoft showing off more Xbox One features. And, you guessed it, that means more liveblogs.

For what it's worth, we're glued to iMore's WWDC liveblog and WPCentral's E3 liveblog. And to keep things interesting, we're going to give away a brand-new, in-box, white Nexus 4 and bumper -- just because we can. Just leave a comment on this post and tell us what you're hoping (or not hoping) to see from WWDC or E3, or whether what you saw was interesting, or just meh. Contest is open to everyone, and we'll close things up at 5 p.m. EDT and pick a winner.

Good luck!

We hooked up with the folks from BTI recently in Las Vegas to take a quick look at their GoStick II portable battery. This is one of those "need-it-right-this-second" solutions that'll give you an extra charge in a pinch via microUSB. The GoStick II has a 2,600 mAh capacity, so you'll only get about one extra go with this thing. 

The GoStick II is nicely designed. It's about as big as a roll of quarters and finished with a soft-touch coating. The rounded triangle design fits nicely in your hand, which is a plus when you're using the included LED flashlight (long a favorite feature for me when it comes to portable batteries.) The five-stage charge indicator is easily visible but not harsh, and it lights up after you hit the button for 1 second. A 3-second hold lights up the LED flashlight.

The 5V/1.0A input and 5V/1.2A output are on the butt of the GoStick II.

The GoStick II is available now for $29 if you want to give it a go. We've got more pics after the break.

Sprint today announced the mid-range, 5-inch ZTE Vital, available June 14 for $99 on contract. The Vital includes a not-quite next-gen Qualcomm MSM8960 processor running at 1.5 GHz, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, and a 5-inch IPS display at 1280x720 resolution. It's got a 2,500 mAh removable battery, 1GB of RAM and a microSD card to expand on the 8GB internal storage.

The Vital is LTE-capable, of course, and sports a 13-megapixel camera on the back and a 1MP shooter up front. It's also got the Sprint ID theme-switcher on board.

More: Sprint

iOS 7, OS X 10.9 expected - follow the announcements live on iMore

Whatever your mobile OS of choice, new stuff from Apple is big news. And at today's WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) in San Francisco, Apple fans are expecting major new versions of the company's mobile and desktop operating systems -- iOS and OS X. On the mobile side, iOS is expected to undergo its biggest visual overhaul yet, with new, flatter, more minimalist UI from designer Jonathan Ive.

You'll want to head over to our sister site iMore for live keynote coverage, including analysis and commentary on the announcements as they happen. The action kicks off at 10 a.m. PDT -- that's 1 p.m. EDT, 5 p.m. GMT, 6 p.m. BST or 7 p.m. CEST. Apple will also be streaming video of the event to Mac computers, iOS devices and Apple TVs (sorry, Windows/Linux/Chrome OS users.)

In the meantime, hit the comments and share any predictions about which Android features might finally be gracing the iPhone and iPad today.

More: iMore WWDC liveblog