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Brave may not have the best reputation following referral code injections and its founder's history as the disgraced Mozilla CEO, but it does have a unique approach to ad-blocking without completely cutting off websites from monetization, which you might enjoy. Since the software is based on Chromium, it follows comparable development cycles and comes in similar flavors as Chrome does: Stable, Beta, Dev, and Nightly. Brave Stable and Beta have been available on the Play Store for a long time already, and now the Nightly variant joins them.
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All modern browsers have a private browsing mode, but Mozilla launched Firefox Focus last year to go a step further. This blocks ads and shreds your browsing history after each use. It's all about privacy, and that's why the developers are in the process of switching browser engines from WebKit to Gecko. You can try the new version now, too.
Mozilla has long maintained four release channels for Firefox: Stable, Beta, Aurora, and Nightly. Only Firefox, Firefox Beta, and Firefox Aurora have been available on Android via the Play Store. Now, Mozilla has followed through on an earlier promise to swap Aurora for the nightly build. The Play Store listing remains the same, but the app will be a little different.
CyanogenMod 14.1 nightlies have been rolling out for more than a week now and bringing Android 7.1 to several devices including Nexuses and other phones and tablets that don't have the official update yet and likely won't for many more months.
The corporate half of the Cyanogen world might have seen better days, but the community-developer ROM is still going strong. They've recently released the CyanogenMod ROM to two new devices. The Huawei Honor 5X and ASUS ZenPad 8.0 have all been given initial nightly builds of CM 13 (based on Android 6.0 code), available to download and flash now.
Over the past week, CyanogenMod 13 nightlies have been released for several Android phones and tablets, breathing new life into what can be now considered old hardware. Most of the devices had CM12.1 prior, meaning that the jump they're witnessing is just from Lollipop 5.1 to Marshmallow 6.0, but the Verizon Galaxy S5 never had CM12, it was on CM 11 (KitKat) prior to this update. That must feel like a quantum leap.
The Galaxy S II is an iconic device in Samsung's line-up. It had a big role in changing the public's perception of Samsung's brand and establishing it as a major smartphone player. But in our day and age, at a time when the S7 is about to be announced, the S II is getting long, really looooooooong in the tooth. It's a 5-year old device by now and its specs (dual-core 1.2GHz processor and 4.3" 480x800 display) can hardly be found in the lowest of the low-end Android phones. It does have 1GB of RAM and 16/32GB of storage though, which make it a potential candidate ripe for more modern Android ROMs.
Time to dust off your old phones. That Droid 4 in the back of your drawer, that Droid Bionic in the shoe box in your garage, and those RAZR and Droid RAZR that you can't even remember hiding or throwing away, they've all gotten a fresh breath of air. If you own of these you've probably scoured XDA's forums for months and found several custom ROMs based on Marshmallow for them, but if you prefer the CyanogenMod flavor in your ROMs then today is the day you can start flashing it.
Some hardware refuses to die. More than 4 years after Barnes & Noble introduced the Nook Tablet and 2.5 years after it closed its Nook manufacturing business, the tablet is still alive and kicking. At least in the hands of the CyanogenMod maintainers.
CyanogenMod has been breathing fresh and 'mallow-tasting air into the lungs and ROMs of abandoned devices. The Galaxy S III practically returned from the dead after receiving the kiss of the CM 13 nightly, the Nexus 4 that was left behind by Google strapped on its big boy shoes and sprinted to the new version, and now it's the Nexus 10's turn to receive some chest compressions and get resurrected.
A few months ago, Nexus 4 owners felt a little bit abandoned when their darling device was left out of the Marshmallow party. While the Nexus 5, 6, 7 (2013), and 9 all got their new dessert flavor, the Nexus 4 was left with a used Lollipop that didn't taste just as sweet as it did when it was first released. But fret no more, you old-school Nexus warriors, CyanogenMod is here to save you from descent into irrelevancy thanks to the latest CM 13 nightly.
CyanogenMod has just announced the first nightly builds of CyanogenMod 13 (CM13) running Android Marshmallow 6.0, which will begin rolling out to a handful of select devices. Nightly builds are not as bug-free as snapshot releases, but they are typically still reliable enough that many users don't mind facing a few issues here and there in order to stay on the bleeding edge.
Like it or not, CyanogenMod is still one of the most popular, well-supported custom ROMs out there. However, downloading the necessary files to flash it could be an exercise in frustration. See, the CM download page only listed device code names, but now it uses the device names you actually know.
At this point, the words "OnePlus One" and "touchscreen issues" seem to be almost synonymous on our site. You can't mention one without the other being brought up after all the annoyed reports from users, promises of solutions, so-called "fixes" being rolled out, only to be followed by an emerging set of new issues and vows by OnePlus like a snake that sheds its skin only to regrow another one. But that may be over. And I use italics here, because if you read the comments on OnePlus' forum and Reddit, you'd think a miracle just happened and we're about to canonize Steve Kondik while he's still alive. But past experience has told us to be wary of any categorical assurance regarding OnePlus' touchscreens. So we're cautiously optimistic. This may be it, people.
Did those rumors of Microsoft investing in professional ROM developer Cyanogen spook you, Android purist? Then you might want to skip flashing today's nightly build for your Nexus 6. Starting late last night, CyanogenMod devotees who flashed the March 31st nightly builds to their phones and tablets were disheartened to see the following message as Android was upgrading:
Even while the more corporate side of CyanogenMod makes new deals with smartphone makers and OEMs, the original "CM Team" continues to expand the ROM's lineup of officially-supported phones and tablets. Today the original Moto E (from 2014) and the Oppo N3 both get their first nightly software builds, and yes, both of them are CyanogenMod 12 (based on Android 5.0 Lollipop AOSP code). You can download and flash them now.
Xperia Z3 Tablet owners with a custom ROM addiction may be happy to know that CyanogenMod now has the hook up. If you're excited by this news, you can head over to CyanogenMod's crib, knock on the door, and ask for scorpion_windy. Just be careful. Scorpion_windy might not be in the mood.
There's been a bit of a kerfuffle with Cyanogen, Inc. today: conflicting interests in the Indian market mean that its relationship with OnePlus is probably over. But the development of the community-based ROM continues, and owners of the Verizon variant of the LG G3 can see for themselves tonight. The phone now has a nightly build of CyanogenMod 11 (Android 4.4) of its very own, and more are sure to follow soon.
For all the grief we give Samsung tablets about fake leather and physical home buttons, the higher tiers of hardware have some great specs. Speed demons and resolution fanatics might be particularly enthralled with the Tab Pro series, all of which feature 2560x1600 screens. If you appreciate the hardware but could do without Samsung's Android skin, the developers at CyanogenMod now support the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1.
The Galaxy S4 Active is pretty solid as both a high-end phone and a "ruggedized" handset, but as with a lot of Samsung devices, TouchWiz keeps some power users away from a purchase. Now the indefatigable CyanogenMod team is giving you some AOSP-style options: they just released their first nightly build for the S4 Active. You can pick it up for your phone at the usual spot and install it via the custom recovery of your choice.