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Motorola Officially Announces Android 8.0 Oreo Update for Their Device Lineup
Motorola has now released their official 2017 update schedule on their blog! Check here if your device is getting the Android 8.0 Oreo update.
Motorola has been quite of a mixed bag when it comes to updates. Back when the company was owned by Google, they released a record-breaking Android 4.4 KitKat update, rolling it out to the Moto X and Moto G even before most other devices. With the Lenovo acquisition beginning 2015, things started to get progressively slower. After an acceptable Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop rollout and a relatively slow Android 6.0 Marshmallow update, the Android 7.0 Nougat update was surprisingly behind the competition. Earlier today, the Motorola support page started showing the devices which were going to get the Android 8.0 Oreo update, which was uploaded to AOSP some weeks back. And now we have an official statement on their official blog.
Password Managers using Android Oreo's Autofill API are Potentially Vulnerable to Data Leakage
A potential security flaw in Android Oreo's Autofill API allows for password managers to leak data such as passwords, addresses, or credit cards.
Autofill is one of the biggest, and most publicized new features introduced with the release of Android 8.0 Oreo. Many different password managing apps, like LastPass, have already implemented this new API into their applications. And while it can prove to be quite the improvement over the previous Autofill implementations using Accessibility Services, there's a potential security flaw to consider. Last month, a white paper was published to GitHub, documenting an inherent flaw in the Android Oreo Autofill API that could potentially lead to your password manager leaking more of your personal data than you gave it permission for. We're going to do a quick rundown of the white paper written by Mark Murphy (better known as CommonsWare) and published on his GitHub page on August 8th, 2017.
Xiaomi Mi 5X Receives Unofficial Android One Port, Based on Mi A1 Firmware
The Xiaomi Mi 5X, one of the latest offerings from Xiaomi, has just received a port of the Xiaomi Mi A1 firmware (based on stock Android 7.1.2!)
The Xiaomi Mi A1, announced last week, made headlines for being the first Xiaomi phone running stock Android. After all, it's the first phone from the company to form part of the Android One program. And with the device packing a Snapdragon 625, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, dual cameras and bone-stock Android 7.1.2 with all Google services on board (and an Oreo update on the way), it's arguably one of the most compelling options currently available from Xiaomi. However, for all intents and purposes, it's pretty much a rebranded Xiaomi Mi 5X -- a device which was launched back in July running the Android Nougat-based MIUI 8 skin.
What Project Treble Means for Future Custom ROM Development
Project Treble is now arriving with Android Oreo devices. Today, we're doing a rundown on what Project Treble means for future custom ROM development.
Here on XDA, we have previously talked about Project Treble, the largest low-level change introduced to the Android base since the first Android beta was released almost 10 years ago, and how you can tell if your device has it. For those still unaware of what Project Treble is, it modularizes the lower layer of Android by separating the vendor implementation (proprietary blobs and software, CPU and GPU drivers, et cetera) from the main Android framework and system. This results in speeding up system updates by modularizing the hardware abstraction layer (HALs) and separating it from the rest of the Android OS, and by eliminating OEM dependency on slow driver updates by silicon manufacturers. The end goal is to hopefully lengthen the 24-month major software update support period currently promised by most device manufacturers.
How to Stop Wakelocks from Any Android App Without Root
Have you ever wondered why your Android phone eats your battery life so fast when the screen is off? Wakelocks! Here's a tutorial on how to stop wakelocks!
Have you ever went to sleep at night with a completely charged phone, just to wake up with a low battery? Don't worry, it has happened to all of us. Even with Doze mode and all Google's efforts to improve battery life on Android, idle battery life isn't exactly ideal. Especially if you have lots of apps installed. The culprit is most probably a misbehaving wakelock from an app like Facebook, Messenger, Snapchat, you name it. Luckily, you can easily stop these wakelocks using simple shell commands. And you don't even need root for that! Today, we'll show you how you can stop wakelocks from any Android app without using root. This can be done on every Android phone, as long as you got ADB.
How to Use a Custom Launcher With Widgets on Amazon Fire OS
Amazon Fire OS devices force you to use their launcher, but there's a non-root way of setting up a custom launcher with widget support!
Amazon's Fire OS, aside from having an Android backbone, can be considered quite a different beast from stock Android or even heavy skins like MIUI or Samsung Experience. They aimed to make their own OS based on the open source Android platform while remaining completely independent of all Google Play Services and certifications, instead favoring their own Amazon services. But it's still based on Android, so tech savvy users have been able to take the Fire OS platform and customize it to their will. Today, we are going to teach you how you can easily set up any launcher you want (with widget support) on Amazon Fire OS Devices, with no root required! You just need, as most tutorials we do, access to the Android Debug Bridge.
New API Allows Apps to Open Keyboard in Incognito Mode
Starting with Android Oreo, we've seen an interesting feature make its way to Gboard: incognito mode. There's an API allowing you to launch it on your app!
Starting with Android Oreo, we've seen an interesting feature make its way to Gboard: incognito mode. In a similar fashion to Google Chrome or most web browsers like Firefox or Samsung Browser, the keyboard incognito mode allows you to use your keyboard without actually saving any of your keystrokes or words used. It's a really useful feature, and something we really know we needed until now. And Google has also introduced an API to match.
Android Oreo Allows Apps to Read USSD Messages from Carriers
The USSD is a protocol for sending data through GSM, similar to SMS. Starting on Android Oreo, apps can now interact with incoming USSD code responses.
The USSD is a protocol for sending data through GSM, similar to SMS. It's most commonly used for callback services, checking data/minutes, interactive news, ringtone selling, and even payment methods. It's a bare-bones service that's available universally in smartphones and feature phones alike, and its reliability is the main reason why USSD hasn't changed one bit since GSM was first implemented in 1991. While they have been always present in any Android dialer app, USSD messages always appear as a dialog or basic, system themed menus. No other apps could interact with these USSD messages, at least until now.
The Chuwi Hi9 is an 8.4" Android 7.0 Tablet With a MediaTek MT8173
Chuwi is a little known Chinese brand that offers cheap Android tablets with decent, mid-range specifications. The Chuwi Hi9 is their latest offering.
Chuwi is a little known Chinese brand that has been trying to stand out in the crowded market of low price Android tablets. The company, which was founded around 2004, first started making MP3 and MP4 player devices as well as other multimedia devices. It was only after striking a partnership with Chinese silicon manufacturer MediaTek that they entered the Android market with full force. Since 2015, they've been aiming at reaching the global market beyond their native China. But it's not easy to get into the U.S. market (just ask LeEco), yet Chuwi is still pushing forward with their recently announced Chuwi Hi9 tablet.
postmarketOS is a Touch-Optimized Linux Distro for Smartphones and Tablets
postmarketOS is an aftermarket Linux distribution which has only one premise: giving smartphones and tablets a 10-year lifespan.
Arguably one of the worst things about the Android ecosystem is how quickly most devices reach the end of their software support life cycle, at least when compared to Apple or Google. Right now, you can expect to get up to 2 years of updates and 3 years of security patches from your manufacturer. If you're lucky, those updates may only take months rather than a year to arrive! This is due to many factors, silicon manufacturers being an important one. And Google has done lots of things to try and fix that, the most effort being Project Treble. However, if you're the tech savvy kind of person, you can keep your device up to date with custom ROMs, which port over the newest Android releases and security patches to older, unsupported phones. This is not enough, though, as eventually, age will take its toll, and your phone will become progressively slower as time moves on.
Android Oreo Arrives to the Moto G 2013 Through Unofficial LineageOS 15
The original Moto G 2013 has now received an unofficial LineageOS 15 alpha-quality build, based on Android 8.0 Oreo, with most things working nicely!
The Moto G line, first conceived by Motorola back in 2013 (during Google ownership), was always one of the most beloved phone lines among ROM developers in our forums. All 5 generations have outstanding developer support and a lot of ROMs and custom kernels to choose from. The first one of them, the Moto G 2013, launched in November 2013, went on to become the best selling phone in Motorola's history, even surpassing the iconic Razr flip phone. The phone featured a Snapdragon 400 processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 4.5" 720p screen, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (quickly updated to KitKat) and was available in 8 and 16 GB configurations, all for the absurdly low price of $200. While these specs are low range for all means nowadays, it hasn't stopped the phone from having a thriving dev community, even today.
Third Party Dialer Apps Can Integrate Visual Voicemail Services in Android Oreo
2 years after first implementing visual voicemail support, Google has now added a service for third party dialers to implement this feature!
Visual voicemail was first introduced roughly around 10 years ago. Instead of manually calling the voicemail service to hear your incoming voicemails, you have a visual interface for choosing, playing, and deleting voicemails. Samsung (Instinct), Apple (iPhone 2G), and BlackBerry (Storm/Touch) were the first OEMs to adopt a visual element in their voicemail services. However, Android has always been severely lacking in the visual voicemail department. Google Voice, which includes such services, became available without invitation on 2010, but it wasn't until 2015 that Google brought a native implementation of visual voicemail into the Android system, with Marshmallow.
LG V30 Camera App Ported to the LG G6, Brings Graphy Features and More
The LG V30 has now landed, and LG G6 owners can get a taste of the new, feature rich V30 camera app thanks to a port bringing most new features!
The LG V30 is now officially here. And perhaps one of the biggest improvements compared to other LG devices is in the camera department. You could say that LG designed the V30's camera with camera buffs in mind: a 16-megapixel dual camera with a 13-megapixel wide angle lens, a f/1.6 aperture (although exif data says otherwise) and lots of other features. The newest flagship from LG also comes with a feature-rich camera app to match. And while LG G6 users are officially staying with the lesser one (at least until the next update), the V30's camera app has already been ported to the G6 in our forums.
How to Check if Your Android 8.0 Oreo Device Supports Project Treble
Project Treble is arguably the most exciting change included in Android 8.0 Oreo, but not every device supports it. You can easily check if yours do!
We've first learned about Project Treble right before this year's Google I/O 2017. Treble is the most significant low-level change to the Android platform to date. To simplify heavily, it separates the vendor implementation from the Android framework in an effort to avoid lengthy waits for updates. Project Treble is currently supported by the Google Pixel and the Google Pixel XL running Android 8.0 Oreo. We've also learned from the initial announcement that, going forward, all devices shipping with Android 8.0 (like, for example, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 and the just announced Sony Xperia XZ1 series) will come with Treble support. Google also recently announced that they are working with OEMs to bring Project Treble to some existing flagships.
Android 7.0 Nougat Now Rolling Out to the Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo
2 years after the Galaxy S5 Neo was released to the market, Samsung is finally rolling out an Android 7.0 Nougat update to the Canadian model!
As the saying goes: it's better late than never. Roughly 2 years after Samsung launched their Galaxy S5 Neo, a year after Google released the Android 7.0 source code, and a week after Google released the Android 8.0 source, Samsung is now rolling out the Android 7.0 update to the Galaxy S5 Neo. The update was rolled out to the Canadian version (SM-G903W), with the European model expected to follow. The rollout comes around a month after the update was officially confirmed on the media.
Android Oreo Adds a Splash Screen API so Developers can Easily Build App Loading Screens
Google has just made it easier for developers to build app loading screens in their newest Android Oreo release, by making an official splash screen API!
Most developers have mixed opinions when it comes to splash screens. Some advocate for the use of it to hide the app loading in the background and then transition to it seamlessly. On the other hand, some consider splash screens a waste of time both for the user and the developer. Google's stance on this is mixed, having previously not promoting their use but have since started using splash screens themselves in many applications. And with Android Oreo, Google wants to make building a simple splash screen a way easier task for developers.
NVIDIA Shield Portable 2 Prototype Found by Redditor in Pawn Shop
A NVIDIA Shield Portable 2 prototype was found by a Redditor in a Canadian pawn shop, giving the community a look at how the device could have been.
Back in January, news came in that a NVIDIA Shield Portable refresh was being worked on by NVIDIA. The portable console, which went through the FCC in January, featured upgraded internals, a bigger screen, and an updated Android version powering everything behind the scenes. After over half a year without news of any kind, it's safe to say that the project was shelved. However, Canadian Redditor FwrigginRwootbeer got his hands on a NVIDIA Shield Portable 2 prototype after a trip to his local pawn shop and took to /r/Android and /r/theNvidiaShield to share some information and pictures of the device.
Android Oreo Receives Noticeable ADB Backup Enhancements
The ADB backup feature just received some noticeable improvements on Android Oreo, that should make for a much more reliable tool for users.
Depending on who you ask, you might hear that the Android Debug Bridge's Backup feature is a godsend. This feature, introduced in Ice Cream Sandwich, allows you to do a full backup of your device without using root or other applications, simply by using adb. However, this tool did have some limitations, which gave the edge to other apps like Titanium Backup. Android Oreo aims to fix some of those flaws in order to make it a better, more reliable tool. And as such, the new Android version received some much-needed enhancements for adb backup and adb restore.