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The LineageOS custom ROM used to support just about every phone imaginable, but lately the project has been going for quality over quantity. Oreo (15.1) builds have to fulfill stricter requirements to receive official status, and now Lineage is dropping support for 30 unmaintained phones and tablets.
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- If you have a Moto X Pure and you haven't received the update yet, your time has come. According to multiple reports on XDA, Reddit, and the Motorola support forums, Android 7.0 is now being pushed to everyone. Just in time for phones to start getting 8.0 Oreo!
Ah, Motorola. You were once one of the most enthusiast-friendly OEMs, yet you've now sunken down to a level deeper than possibly any other major phone manufacturer in this regard. Just a few years ago, your Moto X-series of phones were the absolute best phones on the market with updates: the Moto X (2013) beat the Nexus 4 out to 4.4 KitKat, and the Moto X (2014) did the same to the Nexus 5 with 5.0 Lollipop. These updates were rolled out mere days after Google officially launched them. However, it took over a year to update 2015's Moto X Pure Edition, the company's flagship at the time, to the now-dated Android 7.0 Nougat. Oh, how the great have fallen.
The Moto X Pure has had a bizarre (and frustrating) update history. It originally shipped with Android 5.1, and was updated rather quickly to 6.0 Marshmallow. However, the jump to 7.0 Nougat has been anything but quick. The update is still in the testing phase in most regions, despite Motorola promising it would be rolling out by the end of Q2 2017 (which has already ended).
The wait for Android 7.0 might almost be over for users of the Moto X Pure. Lenovo has just pushed the release notes for that particular phone's future Nougat update. News of the soak test for the device went out about a month ago, and it looks like the update might almost be ready for things to go live. There's no word on OTAs being released yet, though.
Motorola released the Moto X Pure two years ago, as the North American equivalent of the Moto X Style. It happened about a month before the release of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and received the update about two months later. Motorola doesn't seem to care about fast updates these days, so it should be no surprise that the Moto X Pure is still waiting for Android 7.0/7.1 Nougat.
Even in the midst of CES, there are still deals to be found. This one is from Best Buy, which has the unlocked 64GB Moto X Pure Edition on sale for $249.99. That is a respectable savings of $150 for a decent phone by today's standards. Even though it may not run circles around the best of yesteryear, this is still a good deal.
CyanogenMod is virtually the best-known custom ROM out there, and for good reason: it brings the newest version of Android to devices that would otherwise have to wait much longer to receive it, or would never receive it at all. This week, quite a few popular devices have received CyanogenMod 14.1, which is based on Android 7.1 Nougat.
Motorola picked a pretty busy day to release its list of phones that are slated to be upgraded to Android 7.0 - make of that what you will. After previously confirming that the new Moto Z , Moto Z Droid, and Moto G4 lines would be upgraded to Nougat "starting in Q4," a more complete list was published to the company blog today. The list is fairly predictable, with some notable exceptions.
Motorola was the first major smartphone maker to start putting its stock apps in the Play Store. Before that, OEMs would only update those apps as part of an OTA update. It sounds positively barbaric by today's standards. Motorola isn't done yet, though. Just today it added its stock file manager to the Play Store. You won't see much in the way of improvements this time, but who knows what the future could bring?
Do you want a Moto X Pure Edition? Were you waiting for a great deal to grab it? Now is the time and you better act fast. B&H is discounting the 32GB Moto X Pure by $150 from $399.99 to $249.99 and adding a couple of freebies to boot. You get a Bluetooth selfie stick, which you can always give to someone as a gift if you don't need it, and a 32GB MicroSD card, which is a nice addition on top of the 32GB of internal memory. The X Pure supports adoptable storage, so this doubles your phone's capacity.
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Motorola is headed into the summer with the Moto Z at the top of the roster, but the 2015 flagship Moto X Pure is still available too. In fact, you might prefer this phone to the new modular devices Motorola is pushing. With that in mind, B&H is looking to get some Moto X Pure stock off its hands with sizable discounts and some free microSD cards.For the more budget-conscious, there's the 16GB Moto X Pure for $239.99. That's down from $349.99 list price (currently $300 from Moto). This device is available in black or white/bamboo and comes with a free 32GB microSD card. Since the Moto X pure supports adoptable storage, it doesn't matter as much that it only has 16GB of built-in storage. However, the better deal is the 64GB model, which is $319.99. The regular B&H price is $449 ($400 direct from Moto). This one is available in black, white/bamboo, and white/gold. It comes with a 64GB microSD card free with purchase.
Fans of the community-created CyanogenMod ROM, your cup runneth over with new gadgets to try out on CM 13 (based on Android 6.0 code). Five new phones and a tablet have been given the nightly treatment in the last week or so, to wit: the OnePlus 2, the Moto X Pure (the US multi-carrier variant of the Moto X Style), Yu's low-priced Yureka, the Oppo R5 and R5s, and the original version of Sony's Xperia Tablet Z. They're all available at their respective download locations under CM's somewhat nebulous device codenames.
I never thought there would be a day when I'd know this much about US carriers and MVNOs, but this is what happens when you work on a US-based site like Android Police. Republic Wireless though comes a lot less often on our radar, and I just discovered why. Until now, the MVNO only had a couple of devices to choose from. Literally, a couple: the Motorola Moto G (3rd Gen) and Moto E (2nd Gen). It also seems to be ahead of its times, relying on Wi-Fi calling and piggy-backing on Sprint's network when Wi-Fi isn't available.
Mother's Day is coming, and Motorola thinks you should give a Moto X Pure to the woman that raised you.To help out, Motorola is taking $100 off the device. That brings the base model down from an already reasonable $399.99 to a more compelling $299.99. The 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models are all on sale. All you have to do to fulfill your end of the deal is help the company make money by clicking the buy button.Motorola.com lets you customize your phone using MotoMaker. If you don't particularly care about changing colors and such, you can snag the device from the likes of Amazon and Best Buy (except Amazon is selling the phone for $50 off, not $100). B&H, though, is the place to go. There you will get $50 credit to spend at the store plus a bunch of other goodies, including a 64GB microSD card, a tripod, a mount, and a selfie stick.Links are available below.
I don't understand a lot of things about design, but if you ask me, those Jonathan Adler designs for Motorola's X Pure Edition aren't that appealing. They're interesting, sure, and I might want them for a couple of days or weeks, but I'd get bored of the pattern pretty quickly.
Here's a free tip, would-be criminals: don't tag yourself in photos of an active crime and then post said photos to social media. It's a 21st century problem for those whose leisure activities are just a little bit more than the law will allow, but Motorola has used that interesting situation as a springboard for its latest series of TV ads. The first one, "Photo Opp," is probably the very first time an Old West outlaw has ever been shown with a smartwatch.
Perhaps the deals we posted this morning on the 6P and 5X were a touch too Nexalicious for your taste. Are you of a more Mototastic persuasion? If you are, you'll be interested to know that the Moto X Pure is on sale today on Motorola's website. The 16GB model is a cool hundred bucks off, while the 32GB version is the recipient of a more modest $50 price cut.These aren't just the basic black or white versions of the phone either, you can make any combination you would like with Moto Maker. There is still a premium charge of $25 for the wood and leather backs, but it's sweet to see the fully customized version of the phone for sale.Amazon and Best Buy also have the Moto X Pure on sale, but you will only be able to choose from the black and white/bamboo models. Amazon isn't charging the extra $25 for the premium bamboo back, like Moto and Best Buy, so that's the place to pick it up if it's your favorite combo. Here are the links-Moto Maker
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The 2015 Moto X Pure is one of the finest Android phones available right now with a clean, up-to-date build of Android and great hardware. It's a competitively priced phone, but B&H is making it even more so today. Starting now, the Moto X Pure with 64GB of storage is available on B&H for $399, and you even get a bundle of mobile photography gear valued at $59.99.
Motorola rolled out Marshmallow to the 2015 Moto X Pure a few months ago, but now the first factory image is available for download. Well, "available" might not be the right word. We're under the impression that it exists, and you can theoretically obtain it, but you have to ask Motorola for the privilege.