The unlocked bootloader version of the ZTE Axon 7 might get official CyanogenMod support soon, as ZTE is working directly with the Cyanogen team to provide official ROM support for the same. ZTE has mentioned that they are providing hardware and will provide support to Cyanogen as needed, directly. However, to clarify, the ZTE Axon 7 will not ship with CyanogenMod out of the box.
It's time for another installment of our popular YouTube series "Homescreen Critique" brought to you by Taylor from XDA TV. We have some awesome setups to look at this week so be sure to check out the video!
"This setup uses a live wallpaper called Material Islands. There are several different islands to choose from that change depending on the time of day."
"The problem with the icons here is that they are not in any particular order that I can see."
"This one has an Xposed module installed called xStana that allows you to change the status indicators and the navigation bar."
"While this is not typically my style, I like it. It's clean and organised. The only thing I would change is using a different icon pack."
Submit your own setup in this thread to be featured in the next video.
As we inch closer to the launch day of the Pixel duo, new leaks are flowing in giving us a better picture of what to expect. The Android community expected a set of Nexus devices this year, but in line with Google's renewed focus on hardware, what we are getting instead are the Google Pixel and the Google Pixel XL.
Previous leaks and renders for the device show us devices that look like they have borrowed the front off the HTC One A9. But new pics of what are allegedly the display assembly for the devices show a front design that looks a lot more balanced in terms of top and bottom bezels.
The Sailfish, aka the Google Pixel with device codename S1, bears a display that is 4.99″ in size:
The Marlin, aka the Google Pixel XL with device codename M1, bears a display that is 5.46″ in size:
As is visible, the front bezels on the device are not that bad. The bottom chin looks more balanced with the top, and this should remain the case when the screen is off. When you do have screen on, the display will also include the navigation bar, which can give the illusion that the bezel is larger than it appears.
Reddit user kalasipaee made comparison pics based of this leak to visually show how the device measures up with the latest Nexus:
Alternate picture with bottom edges lined up:
Keep in mind that these images are based on display assembly of products that are not yet official. While the source in question has been reliable in the past with its leaks of display assemblies of the Moto G4 and the Moto G4 Plus, these are still to be considered with a pinch of salt till the products go official.
The Nexus 6P is a good example of phones that should not be written off till they are officially revealed. We hope Google manages to do the same with regards to the Pixel devices.
What are your thoughts on the Pixel and the Pixel XL based on these images? Let us know in the comments below!
While this was a pretty slow week for Android news, there were at least a few interesting things going down. The Galaxy Note 7 issue continues to get more absurd every day, even though most of us are probably tired of talking about it. There are also a few other stories that you might want to check out, so here are some of the best articles of the week.
Yesterday we posted about the Google Pixel launcher unofficially being available for download. Today we have a video tour of everything that's new in the launcher. Check out this short video and get the launcher for yourself from this article here.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 drama is reaching new proportions ever since Samsung came clean on the defect of the device. Even though the company did the right thing by recalling all devices sold up to that point, along with an inventory clean up of devices unsold, the market is still witnessing the repercussions of the potentially lethal flaw of a device that was destined to be amongst one of the most popular Android devices around.
The first generation Moto E, released in 2014, has received its first builds of CyanogenMod 14. The bug list of the device includes issues with video recording and dual SIM…
Charging our devices will always be an absolute necessity. Some of us end up needing to charge multiple devices at once. Me, personally, I have to keep track of charging my wireless headset, my Moto 360, my current review device, and my daily driver Nexus 6P. Instead of fiddling with multiple chargers around a multi-plug, why not use a multi-port charging dock? If you're on the go and you can't find an outlet, why not use a portable power bank?
What about when you're in the car and you need a quick top-up of your battery? Most cheap car chargers on the market won't do a very good job of that. That's why you'll need a high quality car charger capable of delivering a lot of power (say – using Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0) to your device. But when you buy a new charger, you'll want to make sure it's not only as fast as advertised but also safe to use. There are many charger/cable accessory vendors on the market, but today we're here to showcase some of the ones from Aukey.
We'll be reviewing 4 of Aukey's current Qualcomm Quick Charge compatible charging products: one power bank, one 6 port charging dock, one car charger, and one wall charger. In addition, we will be giving you a chance to win one of these products through a giveaway. Aukey is providing XDA-Developers with 5 of each product (meaning, 20 products in total) to giveaway. If you aren't one of the lucky few to win one of these products or you've entered to win one product but are also in the market for one of the other products listed, then you'll be happy to know that Aukey has also provided some discount coupons that you can apply towards the purchase of one of their products. But first, here is my review of some of Aukey's Qualcomm Quick Charge line-up.
Testing Parameters
To test the charging abilities on each of these devices, I used a custom Tasker script to retrieve the estimated amperage, voltage, and battery temperature as reported by Android every 10 minutes and recorded a representative range of charging values that I could then use to extrapolate the estimated time to fully charge. Android's battery reporting is known to be a bit inaccurate at the highs and lows of the battery range, so I wanted to stick to values between 20-80% whenever possible. In addition, during each 10 minute interval I polled the amperage, voltage, and temperature 50 times to make an average for each measurement to avoid outliers.
I wanted to pull as much information as I could about the battery to test whether or not a device's battery stays within safe operating parameters. Of course, since these values are pulled from Android's estimates and not from actual electrical measuring hardware such as an ammeter or voltmeter, they won't be 100% accurate but for our general testing purposes it works out just fine.
My testing device this time is the Nextbit Robin (2680mAh battery capacity) which uses Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 over a USB Type-C connection. I stuck with the original OEM Nextbit Robin cable to ensure that there were no issues with QC compatibility. Although the Nextbit Robin does not support QC 3.0, the technology is fully backwards compatible with Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 and does not offer charging speed improvements over QC 2.0 (rather, it offers variable voltage adjustment) so it should not significantly change the data. All of the data collected below was from each individual product's Quick Charge port as it is the performance of that port that most of our readers would be most interested in.
Aukey 16,000mAh PowerAll QC 2.0 Power Bank
First up, we have the 16,000 mAh power bank with two ports: one Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 charging port (the orange-colored port) and the other a regular DC 5V output. The device uses a micro-USB input for charging and also comes with an LED that switches colors based on the status of the power bank and can act as a flashlight when long-pressing on the power button located on the back. I haven't been able to accurately test the actual battery capacity of this power bank, but during my testing of this device I was able to fully charge a dead Nextbit Robin 5 times, with some juice left to spare. It's not fair to estimate the mAh capacity of this external battery pack using the methods I'm using to test the power output, since I do not truly know the battery capacity of the Robin itself. Nevertheless, you should at least be getting a power bank with a capacity somewhere in the ballpark of 16,000 mAh.
Above, I have plotted the battery capacity, current, voltage, and the temperature of the Nextbit Robin versus time. From the data, I can extrapolate that it should take 78 minutes for the Power Bank to fully charge my Nextbit Robin (2,680 mAh) from 0 to 100%.
Aukey QC 3.0 Dual Port USB Car Charger
Extrapolating from this data, it would take 85 minutes to fully charge a Nextbit Robin. Not significantly slower than the power bank, but still plenty fast anyways. The speed of this charger should be more than capable of keeping up with the battery drainage from running a music stream + GPS navigation, which it did for me.
Aukey USB Turbo Wall Charger
With an estimated time of 77 minutes to fully charge the Nextbit Robin from 0 to 100%, you shouldn't have any issues using this stand-alone wall charger to replace your OEM power brick in case you lose it.
Aukey 6 Port USB Charging Station
Finally, here are the results for the 6 Port USB Dock. It should take an estimated 82 minutes to fully charge a Nextbit Robin using one of the QC ports. Thankfully, you have multiple other ports you can use to charge multiple other devices at the same time. I've tested the charging speed with multiple other ports being occupied by different devices, and it doesn't really affect each individual port in my experience.
Giveaway
Remember in the beginning when we said we had 20 products to giveaway? I know you're probably salivating at the chance to win one of these four Qualcomm Quick Charge charging products that I reviewed today. As mentioned previously, we have 5 of each product reviewed above to giveaway. All you need to do is meet the following criteria, and then fill out a quick survey on Google Forms to mark your entry.
If you meet all of the above criteria, then click the button below to enter!
Aukey Giveaway Entry FormDiscount Codes
Aukey has graciously provided us with some discount coupon codes that you can use to save a few bucks on the products reviewed above. So even if you don't win one of the products from the giveaway, or are otherwise ineligible for entry, you can still snag one of these charging products.
These codes can be used until 11:59 PM PDT on September 16th, 2016. Happy charging!
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During this year's Google I/O, Google officially introduced Android Nougat which has brought several much-needed usability enhancements to those of us lucky enough to own a modern Nexus device. There were some features Google outlined during Google I/O that didn't find their way into final Nougat production builds for current Nexus devices, most notably seamless updates.
Many users were disappointed by the revelation that seamless updates would only be present on devices that ship with Android Nougat, but for those of us planning on upgrading to the next Nexus Pixel devices we have an awesome new feature to look forward to. However, since Google I/O we haven't really seen any additional details about this new feature.
That hasn't stopped some of the more inquisitive among us from figuring out how exactly Google plans on making seamless updates work, though. Ethan Yonker, who goes by the screenname Dees_Troy and is best known for his work as the lead developer on the Team Win Recovery Project, dove right into the Nougat source code released by Google in order to understand what he's dealing with when the Pixel devices are inevitably released. Google has made some interesting changes to the partition layout of the upcoming Pixel devices – and with some crafty work by the developers on our forums, Dees_Troy surmises that dual-boot may be possible.
Nexus 6P Partition Table
In case you aren't aware, your phone's storage is divided into several standard internal memory partitions. The partitions you're probably most familiar with are /boot, /system, /data, /recovery, and /cache, though if you're interested you can look up the actual partition table on your device. The amount of storage space available to you, the user, is determined by the size allocated to the /data partition. On the other hand, /system is where most of the Android operating system files reside. Resizing these two partitions to appropriate space for more user apps or perhaps a new version of Android is definitely possible, but the process can be risky and in general isn't something you should ever expect out of your device.
I'm greatly simplifying how updates work, but generally when you update only files within /system are modified and updates are applied at the block level, so that dm-verity is left unbroken. What you know as a "dirty flash" involves flashing a new ROM's system files on top of your current ROM's system files, without performing a factory reset. On the other hand, a "clean flash" involves updating both your /system and your /data partition (without touching /data/media, which is where your pictures, music, documents, and other personal files reside).
Whenever you are updating your device, you generally aren't able to actively use it at all. Instead, you have to wait for the recovery to modify all of the necessary files within each partition. This is to prevent any potential issues from the Android operating system attempting to access a file that is currently being updated, but on the flip side means that users have to sit through several minutes of watching the Android recovery logo apply an update.
Chrome OS Update Workflow – Presumably Android will follow something similar
Initially, we believed that phones shipping with Nougat pre-installed would only come with a secondary /system partition. According to Dees_Troy, the Pixel phones will ship with two copies of most, if not all partitions on the device.
The new Pixel phones will have 2 system partitions, 2 boot partitions, 2 vendor partitions, 2 modem partitions, etc. One set of partitions will be active — the set of partitions that are currently used to boot the device. When an update is published, the update will be applied to the second set in the background. Once the update has been applied, a prompt will appear asking to reboot. The reboot will not include booting to recovery. Instead, the device will switch which set of partitions are used to the second set and you will quickly, perhaps nearly instantly, boot an updated device. – Dees_Troy
With two copies of every partition, Dees_Troy predicts that we may be able to hijack the second set of partitions to dual-boot. If you are on one of the very few devices that supports the MultiROM project, you may be familiar with the prospect of dual-booting ROMs. If you've messed with MultiROM before, then you're definitely aware that the methods that they use are basically one giant set of hacks to get it working on Android. In every XDA thread providing MultiROM on a device, there is a large disclaimer near the top warning users that "none of these systems are made with multibooting in mind" which that "it is possible that something goes wrong and you will have to flash factory images again." But with Google graciously providing us with a second set of partitions to work with, Dees_Troy expects that we may be able to get dual-boot running on the Pixel phones with some cooperation between various members of the ROM community.
If we can hijack the second partition set to dual-boot, then we could also potentially use these secondary partitions to implement seamless updates for custom ROMs as well. So if you're one of the many dedicated Cyanogenmod nightly users, then you may be able to update to the latest nightly without having to reboot your phone into recovery every night. Even though TWRP's Open Recovery Scripting and the various delta updating tools have greatly reduced the time and effort required to perform a nightly update, seamlessly updating your ROM in the background definitely beats out all other options.
Do note that we can't be sure these features will work until we actually have working devices in hand, but given Dees_Troy's extensive work on TWRP and his research into Nougat's source code, we believe that this speculation is highly credible.
While all of these upcoming and probable features sound positive, we also uncovered a lot of changes that complicate development on upcoming Pixel devices. We'll be detailing these in another article scheduled for tomorrow, but in the mean time please keep your hype in check!
Sony's latest little kid on the block, the Sony Xperia X Compact, was launched just a while ago. But even for a device so young, Sony has made its developer-friendly intentions very clear from the get-go. The Xperia X Compact is the latest addition to the Sony Open Device Program.
What does this mean for the device?
Since the device is supported under the Open Device Program, you can build AOSP for the device, using resources (mainly software binaries) provided from Sony to aid in the process. You can easily build Android 6.0 Marshmallow as well as Android 7.0 Nougat for the X Compact. Along with the software binaries, Sony also provides build guides for building AOSP.
This is different from the Android 7.0 Beta program, which focuses on giving a taste of Nougat with Sony's skin onto supported devices with prebuilt images. But for the Open Device Program, Sony gives you the chance, permission and blessings to get your hands dirty and learn a thing or two along the way. And if you have anything to contribute back, Sony welcomes you to do it on their GitHub.
Sony continues to lead the way with its efforts. Others promise, but Sony knows that actions speak louder than mere words. We appreciate Sony's efforts towards open source.
What are your thoughts on the newest addition to the Open Device Program? Can this move convince customers to purchase the device? Let us know in the comments below!
