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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 Nexus Player is quite old at this point — after all, it has "Nexus" in its name — but it still has its fans. That's in spite of a sleeping bug from late last year, no more OS or security updates, and most recently and worryingly, a large batch randomly dying. But the units being offered today for $33 on eBay are brand new and we suspect that won't be happening again soon.
For the last few weeks, a conspicuous amount of Nexus Player owners have been reporting that their streaming boxes have up and stopped working. The devices become unresponsive, either hanging at the Google logo during startup or displaying an error message. Some users have been able to save their devices by flashing a new system image, but others haven't been so fortunate.
After three years of official support, Google confirmed yesterday that the long-lived Nexus Player would no longer receive Android updates. While Android Oreo will continue to serve most users just fine, the custom ROM community will likely keep it updated for years to come. LineageOS already supported the set-top box with Nougat builds, but now it has been updated to Android 8.1 Oreo.
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.
Since late last November, Nexus Player owners have had the frustrating experience of erratic behavior from the remote. After about 5 to 10 minutes, the remote would seemingly go to sleep. Pressing any button causes the remote to blink for a few seconds, then hopefully reconnect. While not precisely broken, the erratic functionality from the remote has been a point of pain for owners of Google's streaming hockey puck. Finally, Google is preparing to roll out a fix.
Android TV is very much alive, as was made abundantly clear by the plethora of new Android TV powered televisions with Google Assistant capability shown off at CES 2018. Streaming boxes powered by Android TV, however, are conspicuously missing—the last Android TV set-top box to be released in the United States was the Xiaomi Mi Box in October 2016.
Google has added the Android TV Launcher and Core Services APKs to the Play Store, which honestly makes me wonder why they weren't there to begin with. Given that the Nexus Player has not received an update from Android Oreo 8.0 to the newest 8.1, this seems to be a convenient way for Google to keep the streaming hockey puck up to date.
Not a dull moment passes by in the land of Google product issues. Not long after Google Assistant functionality was added to the Nexus Player, Google's digital media player has begun to put its remote to sleep. Many people are complaining about the problem on Google's Issue Tracker, and the culprit has been revealed to be a Play Services update. It's similar to an issue NVIDIA fixed with SHIELD Experience 6.1 on the SHIELD Android TV.
The Nexus Player, Google's first (and only) digital media player (see note) has received support for Google Assistant as part of the November security update. This is the third Android TV device to receive the Assistant, after the nVidia Shield and select Sony Bravia televisions.
The month of October has just begun, which means Pumpkin Spice lattes, leaves falling off trees, and marathons of The Nightmare Before Christmas on TV. It also means Google has released another Android security bulletin, just like the company does at the start of every month. As usual, OTA zips and factory images with the fixes are already available for Pixel and Nexus devices.
One of the biggest memes in the Android community has been the "check for update" button. Until now, pressing that button never actually did anything; if you were in the update's rollout group, it would obviously reveal a pending OTA, but if you weren't, hitting it did absolutely nothing. However, Googler Elliott Hughes has informed us that that elusive button is actually useful now.
The Nexus Player is getting pretty long in the tooth, as it was released in 2014. It's still supported with software updates though, and was one of the devices to receive Android O Developer Previews earlier this year. However, a nasty bug was discovered close to official release, which caused the Nexus Player to upload a massive amount of data for no apparent reason.
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- The director of Android TV at Google reached out to us with some more information about this particular issue. They discovered the bug late in the release cycle, and the final build for the Nexus Player should include a fix.
If you've migrated your Nexus Player onto Android O, and you've noticed networking problems or sudden data cap issues, you're not alone. Some people, including our own Artem, have found that their Nexus Players are going a bit crazy, uploading hundreds of gigabytes of data for no apparent reason.
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Google released final system images of Android 8.0 earlier today, and now OTAs are starting to roll out. Although, I'm placing strong emphasis on "starting." The first wave of OTAs are targeting devices in the Android beta program, but already there have been reports of failed installations on certain phones. That's a Google launch for you.
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Google just took the wraps off Android 8.0 Oreo, which we've known only as Android O for the last few months. The source code is being pushed to AOSP today, but OTA updates are still in process. The system images are live right this minute, though. If you've got a compatible device and an unlocked bootloader, you can be on Android Oreo in just a few minutes.
As we just learned, the newest version of Android is called Oreo. And Google has just announced that Android 8.0 Oreo will be uploaded to the Android open Source Project today, and that updates to the newest version of the platform are currently being tested by carriers for the Google Pixel, Nexus 5X, and Nexus 6P. Google says these updates will begin rolling out in phases "soon," along with updates for the Pixel C and Nexus Player.
It's that time of the month again - Google has released the August security patch for Android, and it's available to install on Pixel and Nexus devices right now. As always, you can either wait for the update to be pushed to you, or sideload it manually.
It's that time again—Google is rolling out monthly security patches for Nexus and Pixel devices, but you don't have to wait. The system images and OTA files are now live and ready for your sideloading pleasure. In addition, the monthly security bulletin is available for your perusal if you want to know what's being patched this time around.
Google is rolling out new Android builds for its devices today, but it'll take a few days for the OTA to reach your device the old-fashioned way. If you want, the system images and OTA files are already available for sideloading. Pixel owners who have been experiencing freezes might not want to wait. Google says this update should address that problem.