TWRP, one of the most popular touch-based recoveries available in the rooted community, has released another ground-breaking update, including a first among all recoveries: an on-screen keyboard. Other features include a terminal command feature and the ability to decrypt your encrypted data partition (using your the new onscreen keyboard to type your password). So how does the on-screen keyboard work? How do the new features affect performance and stability? Here we kick the tires on this significant upgrade to one of the leading touch-based recoveries.

Key Features
Full details about the latest version can be found on the official TeamWin site, but the biggest change by far is the inclusion of an on-screen keyboard in the recovery, which enables you, for example, to give your nandroid backups names that are easier to remember and enter your password when decrypting an encrypted data partition within recovery. The keyboard includes support for long-press, rapid backspacing by holding down the delete key and will delete everything left of the cursor when you swipe left after holding the the delete key. Also new to the TWRP party is a terminal command function that allows you to enter basic adb-style commands if your device is in dire straits and you can't get to a PC with the Android SDK on it. The file manager view in TWRP also replaces the "." and ".." items in the directory with an "(Up A Level)" option to make it more user-friendly. While the update apparently only warranted a decimal point, the significant new features reminded me of upgrading to Froyo from Eclair, or from Ice Cream Sandwich to Jelly Bean.

Kicking the Tires
In case you're wondering if the major new features also introduced major bugs or stability issues, let me put your fears to rest. I put TWRP through what I consider a rather rigorous series of tests. They included the following:

• I made a nandroid of my existing setup (ICS) and gave it a user-friendly name using the new on-screen keyboard.
  
• I flashed a different ICS ROM and a different Gapps package after formatting /system and doing a factory reset.
  
• I flashed a transparent calculator mod for the new ROM in recovery.
  
• I flashed a Jelly Bean ROM and a special Jelly Bean Gapps package.
  
• I restored my 192 user apps while in the Jelly Bean ROM so the recovery would have more work to do on the next factory reset,
  
• I made a nandroid of my Jelly Bean setup and also gave it a user-friendly name.
  
• I wiped /system again, did another factory reset, and restored my initial ICS nandroid.
  
• I saw that virtually every app, app setting, theme, and ICS ROM setting was exactly as it was before I put TWRP through its paces.
  
• Finally, I restored my Jelly Bean setup and am using it now (again, after wiping /system and doing a factory reset).

In testing the Terminal Command feature, I found that while it was useful for printing kernel debugging messages to the screen, and for rebooting into system, it definitely needs some refinement so more commands can be executed. Still, since it is such a potential boon for those of you who are often unable to connect to a PC while you're out, I'll give this debut a free pass, along with congratulations on such a forward-looking functionality. The only other very minor bug I found is that when in File Manager renaming a file, I always ended up in the /data/media directory as soon as I swipe right to confirm that I really did want to rename the file or folder, which was no big deal, since I easily navigated to what I wanted to do next. Considering all the nandroid backups, /system wipes and factory resets, and going back and forth from ICS to Jelly Bean seamlessly, I'd have to say that TWRP performed admirably.

"How do I get this awesome new recovery," you ask? If you have Goo Manager, simply tap the menu button and choose the "Install OpenRecovery script" item in the list, and it will download the recovery image and install it for you. Otherwise, you'd have to go into fastboot on your PC and flash the recovery images manually.