Brand new design , better battery life , seamless device switching ! The newest version of Android brings a lot to the table. But its best feature is a little further under the surface: Smart lock screens that will let you be super secure without ever entering a PIN again.
Users of OPPO’s Find 7 and 7a smartphones rejoice, you’ll finally be getting some Android KitKat goodness (while others move on to getting some Lollipop, haha) at long last. OPPO has just released V2.0.0i of its own take on Android called ColorOS, and this update will be available for the OPPO Find 7 and 7a.
Features of the new version include a more minimalist design aesthetic, a global Gaussian blur effect for that svelte feel, more fluid animations, a redesigned task manager, and all the other inherent goodies coming with Android 4.4 KitKat. The phone’s relatively strong specs should be able to handle the transition, although we don’t really know how much the blur effect and the animations will tax the phone’s resources in daily use.
I suppose time will tell if this iteration of ColorOS will be a user favorite. According to OPPO’s official forum post, the update will not be available OTA, so users will have to manually do the update by downloading the files needed. For more info on the features, check out the video below.
You can find the complete instructions via the official forum post here, scroll down to find the link for the update instructions. As always, a good backup will be needed for operations such as this – we hardly need to remind you of that. So go on, enjoy some KitKat with this update.
SOURCE: OPPO
In keeping with what seems to be a yearly tradition already for Samsung, a page from TENAA's site shows that there will be another dual-sim flip phone that will be released exclusively in the Chinese market. The unnamed device might be called the Samsung Galaxy Golden 2, after last year's Galaxy Golden. The specs were posted on the site of China's own version of the FCC, so more or less those will be the final ones for the device, which is temporarily called the SM-WC2015.
According to the TENAA page, the flip phone will have two 3.9-inch AMOLED display screens, with both sporting a 768x1820 resolution. This is a slight improvement from the 3.3-inches and 320x480 of last year's model. It will be running on Android 4.4.4 with a 2.5GHz quadcore Snapdragon 801 processor. In terms of memory, it will have 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory, with space for a 64GB expansion card. The main camera will have a 16MP sensor while the front-facing one will just have 2MP, but both cameras may be able to record in 4K.
It seems to have just one color which will be, well, gold, given the reported name and its past models as well. It will be launched through carrier China Telecoms, and just like the other incarnations, this will probably not be released in European and North American markets. The Galaxy Golden was released in Korea in August last year, then in India and eventually China a few months later. The past years, they also released similar dual-sim flip phones through China Telecom as well.
As to why they only release these models in Asia, it may be due to the fact that it's only these markets that have a big demand for dual-sim smartphones. And the old-school flip phone type have a certain nostalgic appeal as well that might not be a selling point in the other markets. There are still no pricing details or availability schedules for the smartphone, or whether it will really be called Galaxy Golden 2.
SOURCE: TENAA
While we do love to solve puzzles on our mobile phones, sometimes the games available are not enough to challenge us. One game that looks simple enough but will eventually get your spatial (and color) knowledge going is Joinz, an endless puzzle game that has won awards in other platforms and is now available for Android devices. The game is like a love-child of the good old Tetris and puzzle game Threes!, but just a bit more complicated and does not involve math.
The object of the endless puzzle game is to try and replicate the three "tetris-like" shapes at the top of your screen, by sliding and matching the colored blocks. You get more points as you create these shapes, and you get bonus points the more complicated they become. Sounds simple enough right? And it is in the beginning, but the longer the games go on, the colors in the board start to become more varied, lessening your chances of creating the same-colored combos. Also, everytime you fail to join blocks, a new one is added to the board.
You get special gifts and power ups as the game goes along to help you clear the board when you're running out of options. The Silver Award-winning game has minimalist graphics and music that will not distract from the game, especially when things get a bit more complicated. You can try to beat your friends' high scores as well through a social leader board, if you're feeling a bit more competitive.
Joinz is available through the Google Play Store for only $1.99. There are no in-app purchases and ads, just that one-time payment to enjoy playing the puzzle game.
It is somewhat curious and at the same time disappointing that each release of Android alienates power users more and more while getting better and more secure. Such is the case of rooting, which is becoming more complex, in particular thanks to Android adopting the rather robust SELinux security framework. But unlike Chainfire, who is rather optimistic about the chances of rooting in the future, Xposed Framework developer Rovo89 isn't as confident. Long story short, fans might have to wait a while for it to come to Android 5.0, if it will ever at all.
The are three layers to Xposed's problems with Android 5.0 Lollipop. The first is the easiest to overcome, as it only requires waiting. It is also the first door that must be opened. Android Lollipop, while announced, still isn't in its final form, as Google is still doing some last minute tweaking to the platform. It will be considered done once the first batch of Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 devices start shipping. Until then, it is still too fast a moving target for developers like Rovo to hit, and it's wiser to wait for things to settle down and solidify.
The second problem is technical and actually more difficult to address. As Xposed requires root access, it faces the same problems as Chainfire and root developers do, but to to a greater extent in some areas. Rovo hasn't decided yet what path to take to make Xposed work in the new secure Android world, but hopefully Chainfire's work will show him the way. But it isn't the only problem either. Xposed also interacts with the Android Runtime, which in Android 5.0 has been switched to ART fulltime. Aside from still not being in its final form as mentioned above, there is no assurance that OEMs would make use of ART that is found in AOSP versus some other mix of their own. Add in the fact that ART in Android 4.4 is quite different from ART in Android 5.0. Again, everything hinges on the final Android 5.0 release that is still to take place in a few weeks.
The last problem, sadly, is one that isn't too easy to solve from a technical standpoint. Rovo has been candid about his loss of personal motivation on working on this aspect of Xposed, and who can blame him given the messy and bleak state it's in right now. When people are demotivated, they tend to also move quite slowly. That said, Rovo hasn't entirely given up on getting Xposed to work on Android Lollipop. He just isn't confident when that will all come together, if it's actually possible to make it work at all.
With the latest Android 5.0 now out of the bag, many are quite eager to have a taste on their device. One subset of the Android community that might not be excited to have a taste of Lollipop are power users who live and thrive with rooted smartphones and tablets. The reason is that in the attempt to make the Android platform more secure, Android developers may have, unintentionally or not, left root devs and users out in the cold, an issue that SuperSU developer Chainfire tries to explain in more detail.
The situation with rooting in Android isn't clear cut. It is natural and laudable that Android developers strive to make the mobile platform as secure as possible, plugging up holes in the process. But it is also understandable that some users would want functionality and access that Google isn't willing to hand over, despite the platform's Linux and open source roots. Rooting is the solution for this but achieving root on a device is practically the same as exploiting security holes in the system, holes that are getting fewer and fewer as Android's security is gradually improved.
Developers such as Chainfire who have been monitoring the progress of Android 5.0 Lollipop, at least its incarnation in the AOSP source code, have been quite aware of the changes that will step on the rooting territory and practically break things. The good news is that Chainfire is optimistic that rooting will still be possible in Android Lollipop, but it is getting to be quite more difficult to do so. And in some cases, it might become even more of a super power user activity even more than it is today, cutting off a lot of potential new root users. As proof, Chainfire has released two quick band aid fixes for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 running on the latest LPX13D developer preview. This would unbreak root on those devices, but the installation method is different, using fastboot images instead of the usual CWM/TWRP recovery images.
The future of rooting on Android 5.0 isn't something set in stone yet and it depends on how much of the security changes, particularly in SELinux, will make it to the final version of Lollipop, which has still to be released to the public, probably by November. In addition to that, Chainfire also has his own personal vision for rooting on Android. Unlike what some would presume, the developer doesn't advocate throwing out the baby with the water in terms of security. While there is currently no way to get root without exploiting security holes, he also doesn't advise turning off all other security features, like turning all of SELinux into permissive mode. He wants to use just enough permissions as necessary without going overboard, quite a balancing feat and definitely a noble goal. Hopefully Google will appreciate the gesture enough to meet root developers half way and help find a compromise that will benefit everyone in the Android community.
This actually happened already, back when the first developer SDK for Android 5.0 Lollipop – then known as the cryptic Android L – came out. A bunch of features were then grabbed, de-odexed, and released as installable APKs for other phones not having the Nexus brand. It’s happening again, as Google has released what should be the final developer SDK before Android Lollipop is launched.
What has happened is that the Lollipop keyboard has now been grabbed by XDA member “Shaftamie” and released as an installable APK for almost all Android phones – starting from 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or better. Also, no root access is needed for you to install the keyboard.
What is it, really? It’s the Google keyboard, now packed with Material Design goodness. That should make everybody at least want to try it. There is a downside to it, though. Early jumpers have noticed that the keyboard tends to force close on non-Google apps when changing to landscape mode. The thread starter has since promised to look into the issue.
If you don’t mind the glitch, there’s some heavy Material Design love within the keyboard. This is probably the most clean and minimalist keyboard that you can use out there. Check out the download link for the APK within the official XDA thread at the source link. Tell us if you get to try this.
SOURCE: XDA