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Twitter finally gets around to patching Android app security hole... 22 months later
An attempt to show it cares about security
Twitter has patched its app from a vulnerability within Android that could let a malicious app siphon users' private date — including their direct messages — while bypassing system permissions. Every Twitter for Android user was notified about the security hole which affects users on versions 8 Oreo and 9 Pie.
Video shows Nokia feature phone running Android 8.1
Recent rumors, though, have put Android as an double-blind alternative for feature phones.
The race to smarten up a billion phones in rural, developing regions has seen some significant progress so far, most of it coming from KaiOS and Google's massive eight-digit backing into the voice-forward flip phone software suite. Recent rumors, though, have put Android as an double-blind alternative for feature phones. Now, we have our first moving vision of said concept.
Google is continuing to push Android developers to use the latest API features. Last November, all applications submitted to the store were required to target Android 8.0 Oreo or higher — meaning they would have to support runtime permissions and other breaking API changes. As expected, Google is now stepping up the requirements.
Google rolls out new security features in every version of Android, but some changes only apply for apps that target newer API levels. Thus, Google announced late last year it was cracking down on apps built for older versions of Android. Today is the big day—developers can no longer upload anything to the Play Store without targeting at least API level 26 (Oreo 8.0).
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- According to some Twitter users, Oreo is also available in France and Germany for the Honor 8, though owners may have to access the update via Huawei's HiSuite.
Honor 8 users are on a bit of an emotional roller coaster when it comes to getting Android 8 Oreo. In January, they were told that the 2016 device would not receive Android Oreo at all, even though the Honor 8 Lite and Honor 8 Pro were getting the new OS version, due to "hardware and software limitations." That didn't really sit well with anyone, though, and a few months later the Honor 8 Android Oreo beta arrived in China, before rolling out to the public in July, alongside builds for a variety of other Honor and Huawei devices. Now, the Oreo update has finally arrived for users in India.
Older Android aficionados might remember the short-term glory of lockscreen widgets. Added with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and then unceremoniously yoinked with Android 5.0 Lolipop, they allowed you to place your own extra stuff—like the then insanely popular DashClock Widget—right on the lockscreen. After that change, the trend for that level of customization shifted to full lockscreen replacements, most of which broke with changes in overlays as of Android 8.0 Oreo. But the new Ava Lockscreen, designed by the developer that brought you the Bixby button remapper bxActions and Floatify, is built for Oreo from the ground up.
The original Moto Z Play was released in 2016, and originally shipped with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. An update to Android 7.0 started rolling out in March 2017, and a 7.1.1 update came in June. The unlocked US model received 8.0 Oreo in May of this year, but only now is the Verizon model (also known as Moto Z DROID Edition) being updated.
When you've coughed up several hundreds of dollars for a brand new TV, the last thing you want to worry about is whether it will get firmware updates over the next few years or become outdated. But such is the state of our modern world that this is a question we do have to ask ourselves. Luckily for Philips owners, it seems that the company is doing the right thing and planning to upgrade all of its 2014-2018 models to Android 8.0 Oreo.
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- ASUS is now pushing the update to model ZS570KL as well. Here are the release notes:
The ASUS ZenFone 3.0 Deluxe is getting Android 8.0 Oreo starting today, ASUS confirmed in a forum post. One of our tipsters gave us the heads-up that his device was downloading the update earlier this morning. The post specifically calls out model number ZS550KL, which is the 5.5-inch variant available from ASUS's US store.
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- T-Mobile has released the help page for the update, and the OTA rollout has started. If you don't have Oreo already on your T-Mobile V30, you should get it soon.
It has taken a while for LG to update its 2017 ultra-flagship to the latest (major) release of Android. The Android Oreo OTA rolled out in South Korea at the end of last year, with a later update adding features from the V30 ThinQ. The Sprint V30 received Oreo in March, followed by AT&T a few days later and Verizon in April.
Some six months after launching its late-2017 flagship, the very capable Mate 10 Pro, Huawei took to the stage in Paris at the end of March to show off the new P20 series. The spotlight was, of course, on the P20 Pro with its unusual third camera, but the little sibling was not to be left out. Though it lacks the tertiary sensor that's present in its larger brother, the "regular" P20 sports most of the same features.
The Honor 7X – arguably the best budget phone in the U.S. right now despite launching with Nougat – is slated to officially get Oreo starting next Monday, April 30. Honor announced this via its USA Twitter page and in a press release. The update not only brings the phone up to Android 8.0, but it adds several new features to the $199 phone.
Following a two-month beta testing period, Huawei is set to start the Oreo rollout for yesteryear's flagships, the P10 and P10 Plus. The news comes via a Facebook video from Huawei Philippines' account, informing users that the update should be ready.
At the end of January, Essential announced that it would be skipping a full release of Android 8.0 Oreo, instead going straight to 8.1. About a month after the first beta build of 8.1 came out for the Essential Phone, the official Android 8.1 Oreo update has been released from the floodgates.
ASUS is slowly making progress on updating its entire ZenFone 3 and 4 lineup to Android 8.0 Oreo. The ZenFone 4 received the update in December, followed by the ZenFone 3 in January. The next phone from ASUS to get Oreo is the ZF4 Pro, according to a new post on the company's forums.
Motorola may be in the middle of a big staffing shake-up, but that's not stopping the company from keeping up with the flow of software updates for its existing hardware. Last year we saw Moto's flagship Z series, with its support for modular hardware add-ons, evolve with its second generation of handsets, including the high-end Moto Z2 Force. For the past couple months now, we've been watching Motorola's Oreo update for the Z2 Force spread to devices on more and more carriers, and now it looks like we're adding Sprint to that list.
The Amazon Echo Show was the first device in the new 'smart display' product category, and Google has begun working with manufacturers to make ones with Google Assistant. French tech company Archos recently announced a scooter running Android Oreo, and now it's making a strange Echo Show-like device.
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The format of Android build numbers has been the same for years, but it's changing in Android 8.0. The first non-preview version of Oreo just rolled out with the new format, which is a big departure. Rather than being three letters followed by three other characters, it's split into three blocks of numbers and letters separated by periods. It looks confusing at first, but you actually get more information from it.
Back in November, Samsung started rolling out beta builds of Android 8.0 Oreo for the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Several updates to that beta have been released over the past few months, but now Samsung is getting ready for the final public release. In the release notes for the most recent beta, the company announced that the program would end on January 26.
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HTC U11 owners on Sprint have something to look forward to on Monday. According to Mo Versi, HTC's VP of Product Management, the Oreo update will start rolling out to users at the start of the work week, though it might take a few days to complete.