If you’ve ever installed a custom Android ROM, odds are extremely good that you’ve used the popular ClockworkMod recovery to do so. The pre-boot environment works well for what it does, but the low-power resources necessitated that users control it with a series of button presses. Now that almost all physical buttons and trackballs have become passe for Android, and even capacative buttons are on their way out thanks to Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, creator Koushik “Koush” Dutta is working on finally bringing touchscreen controls to ClockworkMod. He teased an early version of the new software on his Google+ account, but did not offer a download.

Koush isn’t the first to experiment with touchscreen-capable custom recoveries. Various lesser-known recoveries are touch-enabled, and there’s even a version of ClockworkMod modified with on-screen controls. But Koush controls the “official” release, and his versions of CWM stand as the most widely-used custom recovery on Android, and an official update would soon find its way onto hundreds of thousands of devices in the hands of eager modders.

The developer didn’t give a timeframe for when downloads would be made available. Then again, he’s a busy man: Koush is part of the CyanogenMod team, updates the core ClockworkMod Recovery and new ClockworkMod Tether apps, and is taking the lead on a possible CyanogenMod App Store for rooted and/or banned apps. If you’re desperate for more intuitive control of your recovery, you can try the above mod or an unnoficial touch version of TeamWin’s recovery. As always, mod at your own risk – no self-respecting Android power user has his or her warranty intact for more than a few hours.