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Check your bank account: another round of Nexus 6P settlements is being distributed
Nearly a year and a half after the initial payments went out
It's a tale as old as time: phone arrives on store shelves to great reviews, phone reveals itself to have serious problems, customers file a class-action lawsuit. The Nexus 6P may have started on a strong note, but it didn't take long to develop issues with premature shutdowns and bootlooping. Huawei and Google paid out settlements to owners early last year, but it seems like another series of payments are making their way into bank accounts.
LineageOS drops support for Nexus 6P, Pixel C, and 14 other Oreo devices
Saying goodbye to LineageOS 15.1
LineageOS is the most popular custom ROM around, boasting support for dozens of popular phones. While most new development in the past year has focused on bringing Android 9 Pie to new devices, Lineage has continued to offer an Oreo ROM for older phones, but that option is sadly going away.
The last generation of Google Nexus devices went out with a bang. The Nexus 5X was infamous for its bootloop issue, while the 6P was best known for its random shutdown problems. A class-action lawsuit against Google and Huawei for the 6P's hardware woes was filed in 2017, and last year, it looked like a settlement was on the horizon. At long last, payments are starting to go out to claimants.
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- A Googler has rectified the status of this issue, saying "Fixed" was an incorrect status. The right one is "Won't fix (Obsolete)," as we had all presumed, and that's what the issue tracker now says.
Even though the Nexus 6P was considered to be one of the best Android phones back when it was released, a few issues soon became apparent. The processor easily overheated, a bootloop bug made quite a few units die prematurely, and lastly, a battery problem surfaced that led to early shutdowns anywhere between 50 and 0 percent. At least the remaining owners of this Nexus device don't have to worry about the latter issue anymore — according to Google, that is. An engineer just marked the early shutdown entry in the company's issue tracker as "fixed."
A group of security researchers has discovered an exploit that lets Bluetooth and USB accessories wreak all sorts of havoc on multiple Android smartphones. In both cases, the door of entry was the cellphone modem, or baseband, which is found inside all smartphones.
I'm not even sure how many functional Nexus 6Ps are still out there, but Google apparently really wants anyone hanging on to its last Nexus phone to upgrade a Pixel 4. In fact, they're offering you a sweet twenty-six Washingtons if you box it up and send it to them in the mail. Just look at this very compelling advertisement, it's true!
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- You can now file your own claim to join the Nexus 6P settlement — which, it should be noted, still has yet to be approved by the court according to the settlement's site. The deadline to submit a claim form, opt out of the suit, or comment/object to the settlement is September 3rd.
The Nexus 6P was one of those phones with high initial quality that failed the test of time. In the months and years following the launch, many Nexus 6P owners noticed their phones would bootloop or simply shut down without warning. The law firm Chimicles & Tikellis filed a class action lawsuit in 2017, and it looks like a resolution is on the horizon. Nexus 6P owners may be eligible for as much as $400 in restitution from Google and Huawei.
It's the first Monday in a new month, so there's one thing you can typically expect from today: Google will release its monthly security patches for Pixels. There are a couple of surprises this month, though. The Nexus 5X and 6P are still getting updates, and December images for Google's 2016 Pixels are again curiously absent. The list of functional patches included this month is large, and it also includes "improved memory performance in certain circumstances," for the Pixel 3, 3XL, 2, and 2 XL.
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- Google saw fit to deliver the December update to the 5X and 6P, but every security patch they receive from here on out is a bonus. Keep in mind, they could end at any time.
Google's Nexus 5X and 6P, released in 2015, were the last phones in the series before the company launched the new Pixel line. In the same year, Google established its three-year update policy, which set the last update for the pair of Nexuses (Nexi?) sometime in 2018. Last year, an impromptu two-month extension was revealed, placing their final sunset in November of 2018. And, well, here we are. This month's security updates could be the last either phone sees.
You may not have heard, but Android turned 10 this week. Over the course of the past decade, Google has loaded its phones up with tons of quality wallpapers — and here, we've tried to create a comprehensive repository of them.
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Another month, another set of security updates. At the same time that Google is rolling out DP4 for Android P, the monthly security patches for existing Pixel and Nexus devices are also landing, with both full OTA images and factory images being posted. Interested in what's changed? The security bulletins for both July and Google's hardware are also live.
Each month Google releases security updates and fixes for both Android in general, and its most recent first-party hardware. This month is no exception. OTAs and factory images for Nexus and Pixel devices are now live, as is this month's security bulletin, functional patches for which seem to include a fix for the Pixel 2 XL's proximity sensor issues.
Every month Google's ritual of regular security updates keeps our Pixel and Nexus devices safe from both real and imaginary electronic boogeymen. These updates usually land sometime in the first week of the month, and like clockwork, here they are. Google has just posted both the May 2018 OTA files and system images for its Pixels and remaining supported Nexus devices, as well as the latest general Android and first-party security bulletins.
Android Auto's Wireless mode was rumored for months before we got official confirmation of it. JVC and Kenwood introduced a total of 7 Auto head units with Wi-Fi connectivity as an option at this year's CES, but until now even if you just got one of these new units, you couldn't use the mode as your phone wasn't ready for that. Now Google has flipped the switch: wireless mode for Android Auto is enabled on Nexus and Pixel devices.
Google's monthly tradition continues—owners of Pixel and (some) Nexus devices can grab the latest software builds. The updates will roll out automatically in the coming days, but you don't have to wait. The OTA files and system images have both shown up, and there are bulletins documenting the surprisingly extensive list of changes.
What makes the camera on Google's Pixel phones so good has more to do with the software than the hardware. Google's image processing is far ahead of its rivals, which is why it can boast a competitive Portrait Mode with only a single camera. Thanks to the Camera NX mod, it's possible to get similar results on many other phones, including non-Google ones.
Google's ARCore technology is building steam since its initial test launch on Pixel and Galaxy S8 phones. This came with a promise to support more phones, which was followed a few weeks later with a half-dozen more phones added during MWC. To keep the momentum going, Google also featured nearly 90 new apps and games that made use of ARCore in some way. Now with the latest update, we can likely guess at the next phones on the list.
Another month is just starting, and that means it's time for the latest round of Pixel and Nexus patches to roll out. Google has posted both the system images and the OTA files, so you can get the latest version on your device without waiting for the update. You might actually want to go out of your way this time as there are some functional updates for Pixel devices.
The Nexus 5X and 6P were released in October 2015, and ended up being the last devices under the Nexus brand. The following year, Google released the original Pixel, marking an end to the company's lineup of affordable devices. Google has now confirmed to Ars Technica that Android P will drop support for the 5X and 6P, along with the infamous Pixel C tablet.
It's time again for another update to Android, and it's rolling out to Google devices starting now. If you just can't wait for the OTA to reach you, there are some files you can download to skip the wait. It looks like most devices just have a single build this month, which will make things much easier.