HTC One M9 Set to Receive Android 6.0.1 Update This Year

Android 6.0.1 is not a mystery anymore and Google has dropped the source code for it. Mo Versi from HTC has informed us via his Twitter account that Android 6.0.1 for the unlocked HTC One M9 “is on target for this month”. This somehow confirms the leaks about upcoming update from the last week. HTC One A9 is set to receive an update too, while the HTC One M8 will get a Marshmallow before 1/11/16.

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Third-Generation Kindle Fire HD Gets Bootloader Unlock Tool

The Kindle Fire HD is a fairly nicely built tablet with some decent hardware that won’t break your bank account. The device runs a modified build of Android called Fire OS and does not come with any Google Play Services. Although you can sideload Google Apps, you’re still stuck on Fire OS. Thankfully, XDA Member spudowiar has released a bootloader unlock method which will hopefully open the floodgates for custom ROM development.

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Sony Publishes UART Plans, Makes Kernel Development More Understandable

When you get a custom kernel to flash onto your device, in most cases you don’t think about its development process. Developers often use some really complicated tools to make the device boot.

Among them you can find Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitters (UARTs) used mostly for debugging.

One of our favorite OEMs decided to show us how everything looks like.

Sony is the good guy Greg of Android development. We know this fact and we almost always support their decisions. During our last interview with Alin Jerpelea we learned a bit about Sony’s plans regarding AOSP development. To make things even easier for developers Sony decided to release some sort of manual of using UARTs. Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter uses special ports with different locations in selected Sony devices. With instructions provided in this blog post, things should be easier.

Developing a custom kernel and especially porting the drivers (what Sony did with its universal kernel) is a time-consuming task. Developers without proper tools may not be able to get any logs, as the device is not recognized by shell. Using UART is often the only solution to get a log and a chance to fix things to make a device boot and run properly.

Beware, dragons ahead! If you are not a developer or a power user willing to learn, do note that you might turn your expensive phone into an expensive brick. Use the provided information only when you know what you are doing. Unlocking the bootloader and opening the device cover may lead to warranty breach, so also keep that in mind.

Do you think that other OEMs should follow Sony’s strategy? Or is exposing such complicated plans to the public is a risky thing? Let us know what you think in the comments!

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WhatsGoingOn? – WhatsApp Bans WhatsBot in No Time

What does a big, rich company do when someone creates an interesting and nicely-written extension to their application? You might answer promote it, or at least let it exist. Not always.

There are some brands that prefer foul play. One of them is well known and there is a big chance that you have it in your app drawer or even used it right before reading this article: WhatsApp.

Ever since its initial release, which took place almost 6 years ago, WhatsApp gained much on popularity. It has almost 900 million users that send countless messages every day. Said application is worth billions of dollars, so we, the users, should expect it to be great. WhatsApp is not so great. In the last few weeks, the team behind it showed its true intentions doing some rather questionable moves… again. Ad rem.

No longer than a week ago folks from r/Android discovered that WhatsApp blocks linking to Telegram communicator. This was a first signal that something wrong was going on. We can only assume that it was a mistake or a leftover from some internal anti-spam testing. Unluckily for users, WhatsApp went even a step further.

During the TechCrunch Disrupt London 2015 hackathon a WhatsBot had been created. As its name suggests, it’s a bot that uses some variables to find a best meet-up point for friends.

To be more specific, it uses a combination of (lightweight) “artificial intelligence”, location data and mapping to find a coffee shop between all participants. It can even add some humor to the conversation as developers implemented funny comments and reactions. WhatsApp’s developers found it malicious and decided to ban the bot.

The company’s decision is malicious, mostly to its users. WhatsBot is a brilliant idea that saves loads of time for WhatsApp users that enjoy it. This is not a first time when WhatsApp decided to use its famous Cease & Desist strategy. If you are familiar with XDA forum for more than two years, you might have noticed that XDA received a notice about WhatsApp Plus – a mod that was the biggest extension written by a WhatsApp user. We wrote an analysis of the problem (and the hypocrisy of it), which we recommend reading. It’s not a strategy that pleases power users,but WhatsApp and Facebook don’t think that a few millions of users are worth to change the strategy.

The saddest thing is that you can’t test WhatsBot in its current form. WhatsApp has blocked the number used by the service. It’s very unlikely to see any other modifications like it being allowed to exist freely. We can only hope that WhatsApp will reconsider its standing regarding third party add-ons. We, as XDA would love to see this coming.

What do you think about WhatsApp’s decision? Was banning WhatsBot a good call? We’d love to hear some opinions from you in the comments!

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Android 6.0.1 Released; Includes New Emoji, Security Patches and More!

Just when people were starting to get settled into Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Google has added on a point release to the fray.

The Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update comes in the form of the MMB29M build which is available to download for Nexus devices. Devices for which the factory images are live at the time of writing are:

• Nexus 6P
• Nexus 5X
• Nexus 6
• Nexus 5
• Nexus Player
• Nexus 9 LTE & Wifi variants
• Nexus 7 2013 Wifi & SIM variants

The update should be rolling out via OTA to the aforementioned devices in a phased manner. If, however, you cannot wait to be on the latest version of Android as soon as it comes out (which is most likely the case for XDA users), you can grab the factory image and flash it manually.

So, what does this update contain? For starters, the newest build adds support for around 200 Unicode 8 emojis to Android. This brings Android’s emoji game at par with Apple’s iOS 9.1, much to the rejoice of people who were frustrated at being sent what appeared at blank boxes on their devices. Ars Technica created a full gallery of the added emojis, so head on over there if you want to see all the newest additions.

Apart from the new emoji, the 6.0.1 update improves upon the navigation bar on tablets. The “back” and “home” buttons have been shifted towards the left, while the “overview” multitasking button has been moved to the right. The change makes it easier to hit the buttons with your thumbs when you are holding the tablet. Also included is the “until next time” option for Do Not Disturb, a feature that was introduced in Android 5.1 but was missing on Android 6.0.

Along with all the visual and functionality changes, the MMB29M build also includes security patches. It bumps up the Security Patch Level of supported Nexus devices to December 1 2015, meaning that it incorporates all fixes up till this date. OEM’s should have been informed of this security update one month prior to public disclosure, so we can expect these making their way through to other non-Nexus flagship devices, hopefully. For a detailed list of all CVE’s addressed in this update, please refer the security bulletin page.

Even if you are not overly excited about the new emoji support , the new update is worth it from a security standpoint as it fixes upon a few issues which have had a severity status of “Critical”. You can either download the image and flash it manually, or you can wait for the OTA to hit if you wish to avoid a data wipe on locked bootloaders.

What do you think about the newest release? Are the changes worth bumping the release version to 6.0.1? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: Nexus Google+, Android Factory Images, Android Security Bulletin, Ars Technica

Image credit: Ars Technica

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Google Safe Browsing Comes to Android with Google Play Services v8.1

Tech savvy users probably don’t rely on third-party browser protection software very much, but it’s a godsend for your friends and family who end up visiting an innocent-looking site only to be attacked by malicious malware. Google Safe Browsing has provided a nice layer of security to Chrome users for many years now, and today the team has announced that protection will extend to all Android users running at least Chrome version 46 and Google Play Services version 8.1.

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Reminders Now Integrated Into Google Calendar

Google has announced an update to their Google Calendar application which now includes Reminders. These reminders are kept at the top of your day and will stick with you day by day so that you always remember what needs to be done. These reminders can be added via the Calendar application, Inbox by Gmail or by using the Google Now reminder functionality.

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