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Out with the old, in with the new: LineageOS cut support for Android 9 Pie earlier this year, and to make up for the loss, the open-source project has just released version 18.1 based on Android 11. It comes with official support for about 60 phones and tablets.
LineageOS ROM releases first builds based on Android 10 (Update: Builds are back)
LineageOS 17.1 is here
LineageOS is the most popular custom ROM in existence, and the project prides itself on bringing newer versions of Android to unsupported devices. However, Lineage has been a bit slow to roll out a version based on Android 10 — the Pie-based ROM was already available by this time last year. Thankfully, the next major version of LineageOS seems to be just around the corner.
Slowly but surely, Android 9 Pie is rolling out to Motorola's lineup of phones. That also means new kernel source packages, which can be used by developers to create custom Pie-based ROMs and recoveries. Motorola has now released two new source packages for two (or possibly three) devices.
TWRP is a fantastic custom recovery - it can do everything from flashing ROMs to creating full storage backups. The tool supports a wide range of phones and tablets, and now a few more devices have been added to the list.
While Android Pie rolls out to phones from Google and Essential, most OEMs haven't announced which devices will receive the update. HTC revealed a few days ago which of its phones are being updated, and now it's Motorola's turn.
With the Moto G6 and G6 Plus slowly becoming more and more widely available, Motorola has published the kernel source code for the Moto G6 and G6 Plus. The G6 Play's source code was released in late April, but it's taken over a month on top of that for the G6 and G6 Plus's for whatever reason.
Android Enterprise Recommended program adds new models from Huawei, Motorola, BlackBerry, and others
Back in February, Google announced the Android Enterprise Recommended program, which defines which phones are ideal for business use. Devices in the program have to follow a set of guidelines from Google, such as rolling out security updates within 90 days of release. The company announced today that a handful of more devices have been added to the program, including the Moto G6, Huawei P20/P20 Pro, and Sony Xperia XZ2.
Over a month ago, Motorola took the wraps off of the Moto G6 line, including the G6, G6 Plus, and G6 Play, but we haven't heard anything on the availability side since then. We'd previously expected them to become available in mid-May, but that obviously didn't happen. However, some info has begun to trickle out, and we'll update this post with all the US G6 availability we see.
If you’re planning to buy one of Motorola’s newest handsets, you should be aware that you won’t get lengthy software support. Motorola is promising just one major Android upgrade for the new Moto G6 series, while the Moto E5 series may not get a major update at all.
For smartphone fans who enjoy a good spoiler, we started the year off with a pretty substantial one, when in mid-January a very convincing peek at Motorola's 2018 lineup surfaced. That included some follow-ups to the affordable Moto G5 family in the form of the Moto G6 and G6 Plus, and it wasn't long before we also got a look at some even more budget-friendly options when a leak outlined the Moto E5 Plus. It had been feeling likely that we'd be seeing at least some of this hardware make its debut this week, ahead of possible sales next month, and today we see that confirmation arrive, as Motorola launches the Moto G6, G6 Plus, G6 Play, E5, E5 Plus, and E5 Play.
Carphone Warehouse, a phone retailer based in the UK, has had a leak involving the upcoming Moto G6 and G6 Plus on its site. Color options, contract pricing, and some specifications for both phones have been prematurely published, allowing us to get an even closer look at Motorola's upcoming Moto G lineup.
Motorola is about due for some new phones, and they're probably not far off now. You can tell because some new devices just showed up in a changelog for the Moto Voice app. The app now includes support for new features on the Moto G6 and G6 Plus. Oops.
Motorola is yet to launch a new phone in 2018, a further sign that the once thriving OEM is becoming less and less relevant in the mobile industry. While the successor to last year's poorly-received Moto X4 has apparently been scrapped, we know that new Moto G devices are on the way, likely to go on sale in mid-May. Now we have a potential date for the launch.
If you're champing at the bit to know when the Moto G6 and G6 Play will be available, it's looking like mid-May is a good bet — at least in the US. Someone at American retailer Fry's Electronics appeared to pull the trigger a little early by posting the G6 and G6 Play (no G6 Plus) on its website for pre-orders. Those pages have since been pulled down, but we saved them for posterity. There are also leaked specs for the G6 Plus that confirm what we've heard before, as well as FCC filings for the Z3 Play.
We just saw a leaked photo of the Moto E5 yesterday, but apparently that wasn't all there is to leak. Droid Life has posted renders and details on six phones: the Moto G6, the Moto G6 Plus, the Moto G6 Play, the Moto X5, the Moto Z3, and the Moto Z3 Play. All of them follow the trend of a higher screen-to-body ratio with an 18:9 display.