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Download Meizu's Flyme OS 8 live wallpapers on any Android device
We now have access to 9 more live wallpapers from Meizu's Flyme OS 8. Download them on your device by following the link in the post.
Earlier this year in June, we shared a couple of live wallpapers from Chinese OEM Meizu's Flyme OS 8. The live wallpapers were essentially different color options of the same live wallpaper, which showed bubbles moving around on the home screen. Since then, Meizu has added 9 more live wallpapers to its custom Android skin and, unlike the previously shared wallpapers, they all offer a unique look.
Download Meizu's Flyme OS 8 colorful bubble live wallpapers!
We often share wallpapers from newly launched phones, but today we have 5 live wallpapers from Meizu's Flyme OS 8 Android skin.
There's no denying that people love customizing their smartphones with different wallpapers. No matter if your device is completely stock or rooted and modded up the wazoo, a simple wallpaper can change the feeling to fit your style or mood. We often share wallpapers from newly launched phones, but today we have live wallpapers from Meizu's Flyme OS 8 which was announced last year.
OnePlus, Realme, Black Shark, and Meizu join Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo's file transfer alliance
OnePlus, Realme, Black Shark, and Meizu have now joined Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo's file transfer alliance, allowing you to easily share files between devices.
Back in August last year, three Chinese OEMs — Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo — formed an alliance for the development of a new P2P file transfer protocol to simplify cross-device file transfers. The solution aimed to offer an AirDrop like experience in the Android ecosystem by allowing devices from different manufacturers to seamlessly share files between them. After months of development, it was finally rolled out earlier this year in February and now, a few more manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon.
Meizu 17 official render shows off quad rear cameras and ring LED flash
Chinese OEM Meizu plans to launch its next flagship — the Meizu 17 — on May 8th in China, featuring a quad-camera setup and in-display fingerprint scanner.
Over the last couple of years, a number of Chinese OEMs have set up shop in other regions around the world. While a few like OnePlus, Xiaomi, Realme, and Huawei have seen immense success in doing so, most others weren't able to leave a dent in the international markets. Among these is Guangdong-based Meizu, which has been missing from the Indian market since the launch of its last flagship — the Meizu M16th — towards the end of 2018. While the company might not have as strong of a presence in India anymore, it's still launching new smartphones in its home market.
Critical MediaTek rootkit affecting millions of Android devices has been out in the open for months
A critical flaw in MediaTek processors went unpatched in devices due to OEM neglect. Google hopes the March 2020 Android Security Bulletin will fix this.
On the first Monday of every month, Google publishes the Android Security Bulletin, a page that discloses all the security vulnerabilities and their patches submitted by Google themselves or other third-parties. Today was no exception: Google just made public the Android Security Bulletin for March 2020. One of the vulnerabilities that are documented in the latest bulletin is CVE-2020-0069, a critical security exploit, specifically a rootkit, that affects millions of devices with chipsets from MediaTek, the large Taiwanese chip design company. Although the March 2020 Android Security Bulletin is seemingly the first time that CVE-2020-0069 has been publicly disclosed, details of the exploit have actually been sitting openly on the Internet—more specifically, on the XDA-Developers forums—since April of 2019. Despite MediaTek making a patch available a month after discovery, the vulnerability is still exploitable on dozens of device models. Even worse, the vulnerability is actively being exploited by hackers. Now MediaTek has turned to Google to close this patch gap and secure millions of devices against this critical security exploit.
Magisk Canary update adds support for A-Only System-as-root devices on Android Pie
The newest update on Magisk's "bleeding edge" canary release channel brings in support for A-Only system-as-root devices running Android Pie. Read on!
Android's ecosystem supports two types of partition layout: the traditional partitioning scheme (where the ramdisk is present in the /boot partition and mounted as rootfs and system is mounted at /system), and the newer A/B partitioning scheme, where the system is mounted as rootfs. Google has made system-as-root mandatory for devices launching with Android 9 Pie (as part of the changes done for Project Treble), but A/B partitioning continues to remain a recommended but optional feature due to the changes it requires. This means that there are new devices that will launch with Android Pie, but come with a single "A-only" partition. For these devices, the OEM has to still ensure that the phone uses system-as-root, which in turn means that the ramdisk has to be merged into the system image in order to be mounted as rootfs. System-as-root is not mandatory for devices that upgrade to Android 9 Pie.
PSA: Your phone's software may be killing your favorite apps in the background
Some developers are attempting to band together and fight the problem of apps being killed in the background with the Don't Kill My App website.
One of the most common problems that Android users encounter is apps being killed in the background. This ugly problem can rear its head in many ways. You're multitasking between a few apps and suddenly one reloads, losing your place. Or an app you rely on to run in the background just stops working. Whatever the case may be, this is a problem on many Android devices. The Pixel 3, for example, recently received an update to fix some of these problems.
Meizu M16th launches in India with Snapdragon 845, 8GB RAM, and in-display fingerprint scanner for ₹39,999
Meizu has launched the new M16th flagship, with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, in India for an introductory price of ₹39,999. Read on!
Meizu has had a curious existence in the Indian market. Despite being around for a few years now, the Chinese OEM has been unable to make any significant progress towards market share, as the fierce competition from other Chinese OEMs has kept them without any major success. Meizu is hoping to change this with the launch of the Meizu M16th flagship in India.
Every upcoming/unreleased Android smartphone and tablet we're monitoring
Here's a list of every Android smartphone and tablet from Xiaomi, Samsung, OPPO, Huawei, Google, Vivo, Sony, Nokia, Motorola, etc. we're monitoring.
Android smartphone and tablet leaks can be exciting, but there are so many new devices on the horizon that it can be a real headache to keep up with them all. There's the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, Google Pixel 3, Nokia 9, Sony Xperia XZ3, Huawei Mate 20, and Motorola One Power just to name a few. From what I can see, there are over 100 upcoming devices from major device makers such as Google, Huawei, LG, Nokia, Samsung, and Xiaomi. To wrap my own mind around the confusing mess of smartphone leaks and to help others who have trouble keeping up with all of the rumors, I've put together several tables sorted by brand of every upcoming/unreleased Android smartphone, tablet, and smartwatch.
There are nearly 16,000 Google Play Certified Android devices
According to the latest statistics from the Google Play Developer Console, there are nearly 16,000 Google Play Certified Android devices on the market. This number likely vastly underestimates how many Android devices are out there, though!
The Android operating system is often compared to Microsoft Windows because of how ubiquitous it is. While Windows continues to dominate on the desktop, Android has been dominating on smartphones for years. At Google I/O 2017, Google announced that Android was installed on over 2 billion devices. That's a staggering number to consider, and it's a testament to just how successful Google's business model with Android has been. Most of us are familiar with Android devices from large brands like Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, LG, Sony, Oppo, OnePlus, Motorola, and more, but there are actually a ton of devices from manufacturers you've never heard of. Just how many? There are a little over 16,000 Google Play Certified devices, and even that number likely vastly underrepresents the true number of Android devices that have ever been made!
How to Check if a Phone or Tablet is Certified Android Before Buying
Looking to buy a new Android smartphone or tablet, but worried that it won't support the Google Play Store and Google apps like Gmail, Google Photos, Google Maps, and more? Here's how to check if your device is Certified Android BEFORE you buy it!
So you want to buy an Android smartphone or tablet. There are so many devices out there that it can be a real headache trying to decide what to get. If you can afford it, you could shell out hundreds of dollars for flagship devices like the Samsung Galaxy S9, Huawei P20 Pro, or Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium. You could alternatively go for a mid-range device like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro, Honor 9 Lite, or Motorola Moto X4. Budget phones like the Nokia 1 or ZTE Tempo Go are also options. Despite vastly different specifications, features, and pricing, all of these devices have a few things in common: they're made by major Android OEMs and are Certified Android devices so they can support the Google Play Store.
Google Removes the 100 Device Registration Limit from the Uncertified Device Page
We recently learned that Google would begin blocking any uncertified device from accessing Google Play apps and services. We now have new information: the whitelist that users can sign up for now no longer has a 100 device registration limit!
Good news for the Android community today: Google has heard our concerns. When we first broke the news that Google would begin blocking Google Play uncertified devices from accessing Google apps and services, there was a lot of confusion about what this would mean for users. At first, it seemed like the webpage wasn't working at all, and then it worked with IMEI values, and then we were told it accepted the Google Play Service Framework Device ID (but only in decimal format). One last thing that users, especially developers, were concerned about is the fact that the page seemingly only allowed for 100 IDs to be whitelisted. However, a Google representative has confirmed that they are removing this limit from the uncertified device registration page and that the webpage now accepts GSF IDs in their original hexadecimal format.
How to Fix the "Device is not Certified by Google" Error
Are you having trouble with signing in to your Google account? Can't access the Google Play Store or use Google apps like Gmail, Maps, Play Music, or Photos? Seeing a "device is not certified by Google" error? Here's how to fix that.
A few days ago, we reported that Google is starting to block uncertified Android devices from accessing Google Play apps and services. That means that any device that isn't certified by Google will no longer be able to download and use apps like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Play Music, Google Photos, and more. There's a huge market for devices that don't ship with Google apps out of the box, ranging from name-brands such as Amazon all the way to less recognized Chinese brands. If you buy an Android device and you see the "device is not certified by Google" warning, what can you do about it? You don't have many choices, but we'll run down the list of available options so you can maybe unblock Google apps on your uncertified Android device.
Meizu Introduces the M6s with a Side-Mounted Fingerprint Scanner
The Meizu M6s improves on its predecessor, the Meizu M5s, in just about every way. The system-on-chip, modem, display, and more have gotten a substantial upgrade.
On Tuesday, China-based smartphone maker Meizu announced the successor to last year's Meizu M5s -- the M6S -- and it's a massive improvement. Just about every element of the M6s has been upgraded, from the system-on-chip to the modem, display, and more.
Meizu Releases Flyme 6 For Third Party Devices
Meizu has officially announced the availability of Flyme 6 for several third-party devices such as the OnePlus 3T, Nexus 6, and Nexus 6P.
Flyme OS is one of the most popular Android-based operating systems in China. Produced by Meizu, Flyme is officially available on all of its own smartphone offerings, but recently the company has started to port Flyme 6 for other smartphones.
Benchmark Cheating Strikes Back: How OnePlus and Others Got Caught Red-Handed, and What They've Done About it
OnePlus and Meizu have been caught cheating on benchmarks. XDA investigates how it happened, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.
A few years ago there was a considerable uproar, when numerous major manufacturers were caught cheating on benchmarks. OEMs of all sizes (including Samsung, HTC, Sony, and LG) took part in this arms race of attempting to fool users without getting caught, but thankfully they eventually stopped their benchmark cheating after some frank discussions with industry experts and journalists.