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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.
TWRP v3.5 lands with more Android 10 enhancements, adds 16 devices to official roster
TWRP is splitting up development into two branches
TeamWin Recovery Project, or TWRP for short, is a custom recovery partition often used together with custom ROMs and/or rooting. It can help you create full device backups, install new ROMs, and troubleshoot broken software. TWRP v3.4 was released in June with limited Android 10 support, and now TWRP 3.5 is rolling out to all supported devices.
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.
The LineageOS project is busy as always, adding support for more devices and implementing new features. The last time we covered the popular custom ROM, official builds for the OnePlus 6T and 7 Pro arrived, and there have been plenty of additions (or re-additions, in some cases) since then.
LineageOS is one of the best custom ROMs around, with official support for dozens of phones and a few unique features. The last time we covered the project, it started offering builds for the Redmi Note 7 Pro, Huawei Honor 5X, and a few others. Since then, a whopping 13 phones are now receiving Pie builds, but there's some bad news for Xiaomi device owners.
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After months of anticipation, the popular LineageOS custom ROM finally released a version based on Android 9 Pie last month. The project has already updated 30 devices to Pie, but now a few more have been added. Also, two phones now have official Oreo builds.
TWRP, short for TeamWin Recovery Project, is the most popular custom recovery available for Android devices. It can flash ROMs, backup and restore your phone, and even repair Android installations. In the two months since we last covered TWRP, the project has added nine more phones to the roster of supported devices.
In my review of the Xiaomi Mi 8 and Mi 8 Pro, I was surprised by quite how good the dual rear cameras were. Both phones have the same sensors, offering imaging performance at least on a par with recent OnePlus devices while challenging much more expensive competitors. Thanks to a new update, two more features are being added to the Mi 8's camera capabilities.
Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi is a jack of all trades. It makes a variety of connected gadgets, including TVs, toothbrushes, scooters, and even kettles. Yet, we know it mostly as a smartphone maker, and it’s now the fourth-largest in the world. It’s reached those lofty heights thanks to a simple promise: quality hardware at rock-bottom prices, and its flagship Mi 8 lineup is a prime example of that.
Considering it was only founded in 2010, Xiaomi's rise has been meteoric. It's now the fourth largest smartphone maker in the world, leading the field at home in China and in the second largest market, India. This year has seen the company's expansion into Western Europe, where it's already reached number four in sales despite only selling in a handful of countries so far. That position is set to be bolstered by Xiaomi's official launch in the UK.
Xiaomi is looking to really flesh out the Mi 8 family. Joining the regularly-named one, the Explorer Edition, and the SE, the Chinese manufacturer announced the Mi 8 Lite and Pro. Yes, that means that we have five different versions now. But as always, both of these new phones pack insane value.
Every month or so, an update to ARCore rolls out to add the augmented reality framework to a whole new set of phones, tablets... and now Chromebooks? Yes, the first Chrome OS device has been found among the list of profiles included in the ARCore APK, and that is the recently released Acer Chromebook Tab 10. Also joining the list are the codenames associated with the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, blueline and crosshatch, which are due out this Fall.
A few months back, Xiaomi attracted attention for the transparent Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition. Of course, it wasn't all positive attention. The phone has an improbable window on the back with components neatly arranged in a grid. We were skeptical from the start because that's not how real circuit boards look, and now a picture of the actual component confirms this is just a fake model of a PCB.
For all the traction China’s many smartphone brands have gained globally in the past decade, it’s in China itself where they remain most popular. And for good reason: because Chinese consumers don’t have access to many Western products or services. Xiaomi is one of the most popular smartphone brands in China, and while the unique market in that country has encouraged the company to think differently than its more global rivals in some ways, its latest smartphone strikes me as one built by China, for China. There’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but it makes me question just what Xiaomi’s pitch to the rest of the world will be, or if the company’s phones will ever matter outside a few, select regions.
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Xiaomi announced some new phones today, which I'm sure will sell in huge numbers (just not in the US). Among the new devices was the Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition. This phone is like the regular M8 except it has a transparent glass back that shows off suspiciously pretty internal components. Really, there's a little Snapdragon logo on what purports to be the SoC. This could all be smoke and mirrors.