Thanks to XDA Senior Member me2151 we now have a complete bootloader unlock and root guide for the LG V20. This guide should work on devices with the LS997, VS995, H910, & F800L model numbers, and me2151 says there is a one-click root APK being developed too.
17 years ago, Europe committed to funding their own satellite navigation system. This would be replacing both the US-ran GPS and Russia-operated GLONASS that people throughout Europe have been using. They decided to call it Galileo and are promising people that it would be both faster and more accurate than the navigation systems that Europeans have been using up until now.
The project has cost a whopping €10 billion over the last 17 years it has been in development, but estimates say it will bring €90 billion to the EU economy over the next 20 years. Interestingly enough, reports say that 10% of Europe's entire GDP is in some way reliant on satellite navigation. From the average citizen using it to drive to and from work, all the way to a train needing to know what track it's on, many people and businesses rely on satellite navigation systems.
Earlier this year, Qualcomm announced they would be broadly supporting Europe's new navigation system with their chips. We're told that, assuming the software supports it, the following SoCs will be compatible with Galileo – Snapdragon 820, 652, 650, 625, 617, and 435. It will also be supported on Qualcomm's specialized automobile chip, the Snapdragon 820A, along with telematics and IoT solutions that use the Snapdragon X16, X12, X7, and X5 LTE Modems, and the Qualcomm 9×15 and MDM6x00 modems.
Europe's own Search & Rescue team will also be switching to this new satellite system. With yesterday's technology, it can take them up to 3 hours to narrow down someone's location, and even that is within a 6-mile radius. Galileo is said to be able to do this in just 10 minutes, and with only a 3 mile radius. Starting today, the new navigation system will have 18 satellites in orbit. Within the next two years, they're scheduled to launch another 8 satellites. They are aiming for a 30-satellite constellation by the time it is completed.
Lockheimer is the man in charge of Google's popular mobile platform (as well as Chrome OS), and he recently sat down with The Telegraph for an in-depth interview to discuss the future of Android. The first topic discussed in the interview was the motivation for launching the Pixel smartphone this year. Lockheimer says Google looks at the company's new hardware division as a completely separate OEM, which is now run under Rick Osterloh.
It seems Google may be worried about OEMs pushing their own technologies instead of services provided by Google. Lockheimer gave the example of Samsung promoting Samsung Pay on their phones, while Google can promote Android Pay on theirs. He was then asked about when Google Assistant would be available on other smartphones. We're told that there isn't anything to announce yet, but reminded us that Google has a history of wanting their services available to as many people as possible. His example here was Google Now being available on Android first but was later expanded to iOS. The interview also highlights on Android's fragmentation issue and Lockheimer shows they're doing a lot of work with the CDD (Compatibility Definition Document) and the CTS (Compatibility Test Suite) to keep true fragmentation as low as possible. He feels most fragmentation complaints are about OEM skins and how some people aren't a fan of Samsung or LG's take on the Android UI.
Android security was another topic brought up, and Lockheimer says he's proud of how Google and other OEMs are dedicated to providing monthly security updates. They spoke about the possibility of Android and Chrome OS merging, which Lockheimer says will not happen, and they touch on the accusations of the European Union saying Google is abusing a monopoly to promote their services.
The interview touches on some other points as well, like Instant Apps and Android's presence in China, so it's an interview that's definitely worth checking out.
OnePlus 3T owners will be excited to know that the first CM14.1 ROM has appeared for this device. In this video, Miles will be taking a look at how this ROM runs and if it's ready to be your new daily driver.
It looks like this ROM has no major bugs at this point. Check the official thread to see all the features that come with this ROM and to keep an eye on development.
Get this ROM from the XDA thread here.
At a time where smartphone enthusiasts long for OEMs to return to the days of spectacular and unique smartphone designs, the Lenovo-Motorola Moto Z and its brethren were some of the most anticipated phones going into 2016.
Ever since Google took on the Project Ara mantle, there was renewed focus on smartphone modularity. Many enthusiasts were bracing for a modularity revolution led by Google Ara, but until then, we had to be content with other solutions.
In an attempt to cash in on the modularity media frenzy, LG was the first to play with the concept with the LG G5. Their attempt could be called pseudo-modularity at best, as the practicality of "LG Friends" was rather limited and its compatibility restricted to just a single device, especially after we saw LG drop the concept altogether with the V20. The fierce competition from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and the HTC 10 made it difficult for LG to retain the limelight for daring to do something new.
Then came the Moto Z and Moto Z Force with Moto Mods. Released during the second half of 2016, Motorola had undergo the same set of difficulties that LG faced. Stiff competition in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (before it started exploding), the OnePlus 3, the ZTE Axon 7 and even the iPhone sapped attention away from the Moto Z family. Motorola's attempt at modularity was more true to its name than LG's attempt, and with the death of Google Ara it meant that Moto Mods would remain the best implementation of the modular smartphone concept. But still, the Moto Z family was relegated to the sidelines by consumers and media alike.
However, the Motorola Moto Z might be among the most underrated flagships of 2016. We were underwhelmed when the phone was first launched, as several aspects of the device were unappealing on paper. Not only that, but the phone took its sweet, sweet time to hit the mainstream market as we had disappointingly learned that Verizon would remain the exclusive carrier for the phone within the United States. Such delayed releases can put a dent in consumer enthusiasm – something we saw with the LG G5 and V20 as well. Even though it took a while for the Moto Z to enter the market, we have had a chance to play with the Moto Z at the XDA office. With the slew of developments coming out of Motorola on Mods, our opinions on its few shortcomings have changed.
The first set of complaints targeted at the Moto Z usually start with its design. The Moto Z is one of the thinnest phones to release this year, which meant that there were a lot of compromises Motorola had to make with the exterior of the phone.
The Moto Z feels premium, and one could argue, too premium. With a thickness of just 5.2mm and weighing in at just 136g, the Moto Z is in a class of its own compared to phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the OnePlus 3 with thickness of 7.9mm and 7.4mm and weight of 152g and 158g respectively. The differences would imply that the other two phones are thick and heavy, but anyone who has handled either of these two popular devices would agree that both are comfortably thin and manageable — the Moto Z is just that much thinner and lighter. As one would expect, Motorola's obsession with thinness comes at the cost of reduced battery capacity and some questionable hardware choices, but it also lends itself to more practical long term handheld usage with lower wrist pain. Hours spent with the Moto Z, whether it be gaming or watching a movie, are physically less taxing on the wrist joints. It is a very subtle difference that not a lot of people would notice if their usage does not involve long and continuous multimedia sessions, but the ergonomics of the device in such situations cannot be overlooked.
The battery capacity is unfortunately the prime victim of the Moto Z's thinness, but the Moto Z still manages to lessen the pain through a few redeeming factors. With a battery capacity of 2,600 mAh, it is quite difficult to last through a day or two's usage on a device with a 5.5″ QHD display and a top of the line SoC. But, through the miracles of Turbo Charging with the 15W charger included in the Moto Z packaging, one can top up pretty quickly if you get some time near an outlet. You can realistically look at getting around 50% of your total capacity in half an hour of charge, which is not too shabby by itself, and is one of the fastest charging protocols around in terms of percentage per hour. If you are in a real pinch, a few Moto Mods do offer battery extensions, which can help you get some additional juice to last through the day.
The next complaint that people point out is the awkward chin on the Moto Z. The rounded square fingerprint sensor and the 'moto' branding on the front gives us a big chin rivaled only by the likes of the Google Pixel. There are no capacitive buttons for use either, which further adds insult to injury. But, the chin does play well in real world usage. It presents itself as a good resting spot for your fingers in landscape use, such as when watching a movie. And because the phone is so thin, you can effectively "pinch" and hold the device between your thumb and index finger. Motorola's fingerprint sensor functionality is also unique in the sense that since the button does not simultaneously act as a home button, it can used as an alternative to the power button for screen off functionality. It furthermore ignores light-graze touches, so you do not accidentally lock your device without deliberate intention to do so.
War of the Chins: OnePlus 3, Moto Z, Pixel XL
Otherwise, the rest of the hardware on the Moto Z is top notch (if it exists, unlike the 3.5mm headphone jack). Smaller stuff that make up the smartphone experience, like touch screen latency, hardware button quality, build quality and overall finish, thermal performance, radio and modem performance, vibration and tactile feedback — all work very well in tandem to give the user a clean and coordinated experience. All of these complement the other major areas of hardware like the 5.5″ QHD AMOLED display, the top of the line Snapdragon 820 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 32/64GB of internal storage (UFS 2.0 on F2FS for fast real-world performance!) and expandable storage options up to 2TB via micro-SDXC, USB Type-C, and a competitive camera setup with a 13MP rear camera with f/1.8 and OIS.
The stock flavor of Android 6.0 Marshmallow (on unlocked Moto Z's) also plays a great role in this clean experience. Motorola is seeding the Android 7.0 Nougat update gradually, but impatient owners have the ability to sideload the update as well.
All of the details mentioned above are achieved successfully on the Moto Z, but then there is its exclusive feature: despite being more within the realm of add-on cases than true modular parts, the Moto Z is still the best modularity implementation in smartphones right now. The Moto Mod ecosystem started off with just a handful of mods at launch, but that portfolio has expanded on towards more options — a commitment that LG (and in a way, even Google) could not follow through. At the moment, the following mods exist:
What is more exciting than the current options available is the promise of what is to come. Lenovo has committed to releasing at least 12 new Moto Mods in a year. Some of the ideas thrown on the wall include e-Ink displays on the back, 5G modules and Tango-ready mods. Lenovo has not officially confirmed what's in the works, but the number that they quote leaves room for innovation beyond the tried and tested. The whole modular platform is practically an experiment on consumer expectations and social acceptance, so the mod makers involved already know the risks of this growing platform.
Further, the Mods are not restricted to just one device — a total of three devices in the Moto Z lineup (the Moto Z, the Moto Z Force and the Moto Z Play) share the same mod configuration. This means that mod makers realistically have a wider audience of potential customers, thus giving them a better margin to work with. The LG G5 failed in this regard, as the modularity aspect was restricted to one device only and was quickly dropped with the V20, thereby restricting the mod market to the subset of users who purchased the G5. Depending on how many more devices that Lenovo will put out with the same mod configuration in 2017, we can expect makers to show more interest into developing innovative use cases.
The Moto Z was a very different take on the smartphone in 2016. At a time when phones look increasingly similar, the Moto Z did have enough to stand out from the crowd. This was something that the market and us as tech reviewers have been craving ever since smartphone designs have started becoming "standardized" — the Moto Z had that "wow" factor and novelty.
With the device, Lenovo also laid the foundation for an entirely new platform and branding — one that promotes innovation in the smartphone world without worrying about making the smartphone first. Lenovo can really bring modularity to popular acceptance if they persist along the route. The Moto Mods are at least one reason to remain excited about.
Even without the mods, the Moto Z is a good option for flagship hardware for this year. The reasons why it was ignored and cast aside was the lack of options in modularity and its price, as well as a hiatus between announcement and release. Lenovo is working on expanding Moto Mod options, but when it comes to price and availability, you can pick up the device on sale for $499 on Amazon in the U.S.
The Android Support Library is a resource that is provided from Google for anyone who is developing Android applications. It offers a number of features that simply are not built into Android's framework, and also offers backwards-compatible versions of new features as well (think the Snackbar, a FAB, tabs and more). It's there for developers who want useful UI elements and also provides a number of utilities that applications can draw on.
Almost once a month we see Google pushing out a new update to this support library, and the update for December has been made public. This update brings its version up to 25.1.0 and it comes with a number of changes, new and modified APIs, fixed issues and deprecations. At the very top, Google highlights what they feel are the most important changes in this update. This includes some changes to RecyclerView, the deprecation of FragmentActivity.setSupportMediaController() and FragmentActivity.getSupportMediaController(), and an adjustment to appcompat:buttonTint.
This update adds the ExifInterface support library, which unbundles support for reading Exif information from JPEG/RAW files, along with setting the Exif information on JPEG images. The Snackbar has been refactored so that applications can display custom content. They've added a new leanback.media package which lets helper classes integrate media players into Android TV apps. And they've added an ArraySet class to the v4 support library (which corresponds to the class that was introduced in API level 23).
This update also comes with a long list of fixes to some of the current items in the Android Support Library. The password visibility toggle used to fail accessibility tests, but has been fixed. Appcompat used to not respect state_enabled on pre-L devices, but has been fixed. Apps were unable to tint AnimatedVectorDrawableCompat on API level below 24, but that has been fixed as well.
You'll definitely want to check out the whole list of changes for version 25.1.0 of the Android Support Library.
We're seeing a lot of companies working to bring virtual reality to the web thanks to a project called WebVR. At its heart, WebVR is an experimental JavaScript API for a website that can access VR devices like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard and Daydream View. It was first conceived in spring 2014 by Vladimir Vukićević from Mozilla, and both Mozilla and Google have been working on it a lot lately.
Version 1.0 was introduced back in March of this year, and a month later Samsung announced that WebVR was supported on their Gear VR headset. Early demos from the Chrome team showed they were able to maintain 90 FPS rendering with it, making it a viable platform for virtual reality. Google has been working to make it available to the public and says they are on schedule for a release in early 2017.
For now though, it's currently limited to the beta version of Chrome 56. Google just announced that web developers can access the new API by signing up for Origin Trial. Once enabled, not only will you be able to access the WebVR API, but you can also use the GamePad API extension as well. The WebVR API will give the developer access to the input and output capabilities of the virtual reality devices mentioned above.
The developer will even have access to the device's position and orientation, which can enable web apps to render a stereoscopic 3D scene on the headset's display. The GamePad API extension is what the developer needs in order to access input from motion controllers so the user can interact with the VR environment. Google reminds us that the WebVR API is still evolving and that we should expect changes based on developer feedback. As mentioned, WebVR is scheduled to launch with the stable channel of Chrome 57, slated for a release in early 2017.
