It’s Thursday, December 24, 2015, and let’s talk about what happened this week over at XDA-developers.com.
First up, it looks like the “Japan exclusive” special edition gold Nexus 6P isn’t so exclusive anymore. Starting on the 21st, the 64 gig version became available through Flipkart for about 44,000 rupees, so if you’re in India, and you just can’t live without dat gold, they’ve got you covered.
LG has unveiled yet another tablet, the G Pad 2 8.3 LTE. This comes with the Snapdragon 615, 1920 by 1200 resolution 8.3″ display, 2 gigs of RAM, 16 gigs of storage, and a microSD card slot. Strangely enough, it’s still Android 5.1.1, and only available in South Korea for now, so we’ll just have to see if it’s going to become available in other areas down the road.
Microsoft has released a new Lumia Windows 10 phone with a Snapdragon 210 chip, 4.7″ HD display, 8 gigs of storage, and 1 gig of RAM for the equivalent of $140. That’s a really limited set of specs, so some of the Windows 10 features aren’t going to work on it, but not a terrible price.
Bluboo has announced a new phone, called Picasso, which is going to have a sapphire display, and absolutely nothing else is known about it. Sapphire sounds like an amazing upgrade, since it should make the glass much more durable, but with literally no more info about specs or pricing, my interest is immediately lost. Moving on.
Since Razer bought OUYA not too long ago, we’ve been wondering what was going to happen with it. This week they announced they’re relaunching the OUYA store, rebranded as Cortex, which will be available to people who own the Forge TV device. To go along with that, according to a comment on the XDA article, OUYA owners are eligible for a $50 discount toward the purchase of a Forge TV controller bundle, which would bring it to $100, and all users will be getting a $10 credit to the Cortex store. I was curious about the Forge TV when I saw it at CES last year, but these updates make it a bit more interesting.
After Nvidia released their sneak peek video of Marshmallow on the Shield K1 tablet last week, unsurprisingly the update has become available this week. Not only that, it comes with a bundled copy of Fallout Shelter from Bethesda and some new wallpapers. To address my obvious concerns, as an original Shield Tablet owner, Nvidia has said that they’re working on the update for the original tablet as well, and they should have more news early in the new year. So if you have the K1 tablet, mash that update button and let us know how it goes!
If you’re an owner of the Asus Zenfone 2 Laser, you’re in luck, as Asus has provided an official method to unlock the bootloader. This is specifically just for the ZE551KL model, but it’s possible that other ones will show up in time, so hopefully this will spur more development on that device, just be on the lookout.
According to a forum member, Motorola has started rolling out Marshmallow to the 2014 Moto X Pure Edition, so if you’ve got that device, make sure you’re not rooted, on a stock build, and hopefully you’ll receive it soon as well.
Apparently there was a leaked build of Android 6 for the Sprint LG G4, and as of this week Sprint has confirmed that it is actually the official release build, meaning they’ll be the first US carrier to roll it out to the G4. The TOT file is available in the forum if you’d like to go ahead and check it out instead of waiting for the OTA.
“HTC has started rolling out Android 6.0.1 to the A9, and 6.0 to the M9, so be on the lookout for those updates.”
OnePlus started rolling out an OTA to the OnePlus 2, bringing it to version 2.2.0, mainly including bugfixes and a couple of new features.
Samsung is looking for people in the UK and South Korea to beta test Marshmallow for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. It’s only for certain carriers, but if you’ve got that device and you’re interested, check out the portal post for details.
According to an interview with the CEO of Cyanogen, Inc, there are at least 6 OEMs that are going to be launching Cyanogen OS-powered devices in India in the next year, so I’m sure we’ll be curious to see how that turns out. Speaking of Cyanogen, the Nexus 4 and the Galaxy S4 Mini 3G and LTE models received official nightly builds of CyanogenMod 13 this week.
The Sony Xperia S received a port of Android 6.0.1 straight from AOSP thanks to XDA Senior Member billchen1977.
An unofficial build of CM 13 was released for the YU Yuphoria by XDA Senior Member TheStrix, with full GPL compliant sources on Github.
An unofficial build of CM 12.1 was released for the Samsung Galaxy A3, specifically the SM-A300FU, by XDA Senior Member evilracer123.
A user from reddit figured out that you can actually enable electronic image stabilization on the Nexus 5X, just like the Nexus 6P has, by editing the build.prop file and adding one line to enable the setting inside of the camera app. That actually gives me a bit more reason to root my device, so if you’ve got the 5X, it might be worth a look.
A new beta version of SuperSU was released this week, version 2.64, bringing a bunch of bugfixes for systemless root and other things.
And finally, one other video was posted to XDA TV this week, where TK reviewed Launcher X.
But you know what? That’s going to be about all from me for today. You can find the links to all the stories I talked about in the video description, as well as the links to my YouTube channels. Make sure to stay tuned for more exciting content coming out soon, give us a “Thumbs up” down below if you liked this video and subscribe to receive our content as soon as it becomes available. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.
Be sure to check out other great XDA TV Videos.
Stories mentioned:
Gold Nexus 6P “Special Edition” Launching on Flipkart on 21st Dec
LG Unveils SD-615 Powered G Pad II 8.3 LTE Tablet
Microsoft Launches Lumia 550 for Rs. 9,399 ($140) with Windows 10
Bluboo Announces Smartphone With A Sapphire Display
Razer Relaunches the OUYA Store for the Forge TV and Renames it Cortex
NVIDIA Shield K1 Tablet Receives Marshmallow OTA Update (Updated)
Official Bootloader Unlock for the Zenfone Laser 2 ZE551KL
Android M Update for Moto X 2014 (XT1095) Rolling Out
LG G4 Marshmallow (officially) Hits US with Sprint Update
HTC A9 to Receive Android 6.0.1; Unlocked M9 to Receive Android 6.0 Today
OnePlus Announces OxygenOS 2.2.0 for the OnePlus 2
Samsung Launching Marshmallow Beta Testing Program in UK & South Korea
More Than 6 OEMs in India Plan to Launch with Cyanogen OS
Google’s Nexus 4 Receives First Official Nightly Build of CM13
Official CyanogenMod 13 Nightlies for Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini 3G/LTE [GT-I9190/I9195]
Sony Xperia S Receives AOSP Port of Marshmallow
Unofficial CyanogenMod 13 Reaches YU Yuphoria
Unofficial CyanogenMod 12.1 for Samsung Galaxy A3 SM-A300FU variant
Enable EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) on Nexus 5X by Editing Build.prop
SuperSU 2.64 Released, Brings Improvements to Systemless Root
Launcher X – App Review
Check out Jordan’s Tech Channel and Jordan’s Vlogging YouTube Channel