The brand new Moto X Pure Edition is finally making it into the hands of those who pre-ordered and Motorola has a little surprise for us too. The company has just released the source code for the kernel on GitHub and you can view all 39,736 of the commits right now.
Google’s main rebuttal for the StageFright exploits focused on how Address Space Layout Randomization(ASLR) neutralized many of these attacks. However, members of Google’s own security research team(Project Zero) are now speaking out about how little ASLR does to actually prevent these attacks from exploiting Android’s critical weaknesses.
Even our favorite phones have issues; little bugbears that grow in annoyance as time goes by, problems that we hope will be fixed via a software update or hardware refresh in the next edition. But what happens when the manufacturer fails to notice these details, or simply doesn’t acknowledge that they’re important?
These things persist through new releases, and without significant work become tied inexorably to the brand itself, ruining the image and potentially damaging sales and reputation in the minds of those that pay attention. As a sort of companion-article to the piece we wrote earlier this week, here’s what we consider a major failing for some of the biggest names in Android, the areas we feel that need the most work moving forward.
Coming from a website that has grown entirely from an obsession with modifying the software on our smartphones to allow it to run more efficiently, this may not come as a surprise: we’re not massive fans of TouchWiz. Samsung’s custom implementation of Android has become somewhat synonymous with Google’s operating system itself in the minds of a significant subset of consumers, and that has lent hugely to the idea that you need a lot of processing power to make the OS run smoothly. As we know of course, this isn’t the case, even if the design of the software layers means that typical resource usage is higher than some competitors. Those that run Nexus devices, or who have installed vanilla ROMs on to previously sluggish phones will know the difference that a ‘skin’ like TouchWiz can make.
In short, TouchWiz is bloated, and introduces jank where there shouldn’t be any. Samsung seem happy to try to cram their phones with as many applications and software features as possible, leaving the user with what can be a very inefficient mess if not handled properly. This trend does seem to be improving, with the Korean company making vague claims about slimming down their ROMs in recent years, but the issue is still evident on the Galaxy S6 and Note 5 models that use the beastly new Exynos SOCs. Its worst component seems to be its handling of RAM as made evident in reviews, with apps popping out of memory and having to be reloaded if not used recently. The situation isn’t all bad of course; the phones aren’t slow per se, but instead just don’t do their specifications justice, with performance tending to degrade over time.
To stay on top, Samsung would do well to attempt to streamline the TouchWiz experience further, whilst thinking hard about what really is and isn’t necessary when it comes to gimmicky functionality.
HTC make some excellent smartphones, with award-winning designs, great hardware and decent software, and in many cases don’t really get the recognition they deserve. Their recent offerings have done well with reviewers but less well with consumers, leading to a decline in sales and profit. There are many factors to this of course, which we’ve discussed before, but the area we’ll be focussing on now is one that has received a lot of negative attention.
Recent flagships from the Taiwanese manufacturer have had a consistent weakness in the camera department. This is not for want of trying however; HTC has been known to introduce a good few innovative ideas in the name of better picture quality, with partial success. The One M7’s 4MP ‘Ultrapixel’ camera was completely new for the time, ducking out of the megapixel rat-race in favour of attempting to get closer to pocket-camera pixel sizes and gain more light. It worked too, along with the OIS that was included, performing far better than competitors in low light situations. Unfortunately that’s where it ended, with day time shots losing definition and clarity, and fans hoping for more the following year. Unfortunately the M8 was arguably worse, adding a gimmicky ‘duo camera’ setup that allowed for refocusing after a shot is taken, but at the same time removing the OIS and crippling the phone’s shutter speed. This year, HTC dropped the ‘Ultrapixel’ plan altogether, introducing a 20MP unit that seemed to represent the opposite or what the company had previously stood for. Unfortunately, again, the M9 disappointed, producing fairly pleasing shots in daylight, but noisy washed-out snaps once the lighting conditions weren’t optimal. There have been other attempts, like the Desire Eye range, and this year’s M8S, but none have impressed or put any pressure on the competition.
HTC desperately needs a winner for their next flagship model, and the camera they design must be the pinnacle of that experience. The m10 will need some good hardware to make this happen; HTC can’t afford to rely on software trickery this time, they’ll need a large sensor, OIS, a megapixel count that doesn’t introduce too much noise and a fairly wide aperture. Without these, it could easily face another year of poor sales and low returns.
Commenters on the last article pointed out quite rightly that the omission of Sony was a noticeable oversight, and as a previous owner of a Z1 and someone that was pleased with the phone’s features and the company’s developer support, I can only agree. Ignoring the geocentric nature of much of the biggest tech news sites, Sony are a major force across the world when it comes to Android phones, and in England where this writer lives they’re extremely prevalent. Unfortunately, it’s not the same story everywhere, and crucially, the Japanese company still isn’t particularly popular in some of the world’s largest markets, making a noticeable dent in its overall performance.
Of all the useful elements Sony implements when it comes to its phones, aesthetics seem to be left on a lower tier of importance. The main mantra of ‘Omnibalance’, the word it uses to describe the design style it continually employs, seems to be purely that of function over form. The Z series in particular, has refined this over several revisions, but still features a dull, monolithic shape, with large bezels and somewhat uncomfortable edges. The pronounced rectangular shape makes the handsets feel larger than they should, look plain, and stand out when put into pockets. This is one of the main reasons why the smartphones Sony creates don’t always come across as immediately attractive, despite their otherwise positive reputation for good hardware, and combined with the lack of marketing in the US and India, leaves many consumers unwilling to make the effort to get hold of one of the units. There are some honourable mentions here of course; there have been some issues with display quality, largely resolved (especially in the pixel department), and with camera performance, which still needs work, despite the company supplying almost everyone else with their sensors to better effect. The Z5 seems to have solved that last issue, though. Still, if Sony wants more of a stronghold in new and larger markets, appealing design choices will go a long way to convincing new customers to make a purchase on first sight.
LG’s G-series of flagships have recently been at the cutting edge of tech, and the company has managed to build them up to a level where their release is one of the most anticipated every year. Last time we pointed out that an important reason for this success was the fact that the phones were good all-rounders, with no show-stopping flaws, and some clever additions. There is a fairly consistent negative quality to LG’s handsets however, and one that could improve their place in market to a high degree, namely build quality.
Now, straight off the bat, it’s important to differentiate this from the physical design of the handsets. LG have started a design language that generally discourages bezel size, whilst making intelligent choices that are actually useful, like rear mounted buttons placed where the user’s hand actually falls, whereas this complaint is more one of build materials. The three-axis curves of the G4 for example, look and feel great, but the surfaces that surround them are all plastic, and make the device appear cheaper than the competition. The rear buttons look aluminium at first glance, but aren’t of course, and they move slightly within their housing, creating the impression that they’re liable to come loose. The leather on the rear is actually surprisingly nice in the hand, and the soft finishes look better in reality, but they’re just not up to the quality of Motorola’s similar finishes.
I can’t help thinking that if LG was to up its game in the build materials department it would be left with some very compelling results. Hopefully it can continue with the design language it has begun but introduce some more premium touches on the hardware, like metal edges surrounding the display (again, like Motorola’s designs). Their main competitor Samsung pulled it out of the bag this year, and perhaps LG weren’t prepared for such a dramatic paradigm shift, but it’s served the purpose of making their handsets look a little toy-like in comparison. Regardless of the reasons for it, the Korean company needs to put some time and effort in making their next efforts more competitive, and if they can do that whilst maintaining power user features like removable batteries and SD card slots, they have the potential to do very well indeed.
We congratulated Motorola last time for their excellent use of minimal software disruption to create a simpler, quicker experience for the user, and for not falling into the same trap as other OEMs and stuffing their handsets with features of questionable value. Really, the other half of the smartphone experience lies in the hardware, and in recent years the company has performed well in that area too. Similarly to HTC, Motorola has gained a reputation for poor cameras, but the newly released Moto X Style/Pure and Play models have received some rather positive impressions so far, so it looks eminently possible that this trend has been broken.
Really there aren’t any major reasons why Motorola hasn’t done as well as it arguably should have done, so instead, there are a few more minor points to examine. Firstly, battery life on recent flagships has been far from exemplary, although admittedly not deal-breaking either. It’s a weak point, but as the public have almost become accustomed to charging twice a day now, this is far from individual. The Style/Pure seems to have average battery life from initial reports and therefore could definitely be improved, but it’s equally not something the American company should be lambasted for. Another historical annoyance comes in the form of its inability to release kernel sources in as timely a manner as others that use the same chipsets, which for us at XDA becomes particularly frustrating, especially when it becomes a habit (and which probably won’t be improved after its purchase by Lenovo). This is in addition to their continued relationship with Verizon, notorious in their own way, and similarly unpopular with our development user-base.
The only other honourable mention is that of Motorola’s lack of marketing clout, even in its home country, but especially abroad. Despite the Moto G being the company’s best selling smartphone ever, flagships still haven’t begun to appear in many carrier stores in Europe, although Motorola do seem aware of this and have begun to avoid carrier sales altogether and sell straight to the consumer. Ultimately, Motorola is an excellent opportunity for Lenovo to break into the West, but of course money will need to be spent in order for money to be made.
NB: Observant readers will notice that we’ve ignored Apple this time around, but this isn’t because there was nothing negative to say – in fact it’s because there’s too much. The way Apple manage their products and business is almost diametrically opposed to what XDA stands for, and due to this, the company’s perceived missteps could easily create dedicated article of their own.
Obviously it’s not possible for one manufacturer to build the ‘perfect’ phone, there are too many different opinions about what that would be defined as, for a start. Everyone has their own priorities, and hardware constraints generally mean that forcing every available feature into a device can turn it into a bulky mess. However, the more that these major flaws are brought into the limelight, the more pressure OEMs will be under to have them fixed (or limited), and by doing so we can improve the potential user experience of upcoming phones by an order of magnitude. This is important; companies should be listening to feedback, and watching how well competitor’s smartphones are selling due to their strong points, and we as consumers, should be as encouraging and vocal about this subject as possible.
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The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 now has its own place in the XDA Developers Forums! Meet up with fellow Tab S2 owners and discuss all aspects of the tablet, technical or otherwise (in the correct subforums, of course).
XDA Senior Member Jozinek has posted the system dump of the new Xperia Z5 Compact. The dump is from the firmware 32.0.A.4.11 and has been mirrored to Google Drive and Mega for easier downloading. If this interests you, head on over to the forum thread for download links!
YouTube’s global gaming head, Ryan Wyatt, has recently been talking about the ease in which people want to stream their mobile gameplay to the internet. During the Tokyo Games Show we learn that an upcoming update to the application will bring this new feature to users with a recent version of Android.
Messages for Android Wear has just been released in the Google Play Store, and it comes from the developers who brought us Video for Android Wear and Mail for Android Wear (appfour). This time around they are putting their talent to work to make it quicker and easier for us to respond to and read our text messages from an Android Wear device.
XDA Senior Member JavierAlonso has put together a detailed guide on how to fix the rejects thrown up by PatchROM. For the uninitiated, PatchROM is an open source project from the MIUI team to craft MIUI ROMs using assembler and disassembler techniques.
We recently learned about the possibility of getting Alexa on Fire TV and now Amazon has announced a number of new devices. There’s a new Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablets, a $50 Amazon Fire tablet and a $100 Kids Edition. The company has even introduced FireOS 5 with this new batch of hardware.
@upleaks just posted an image of what is said to be an upcoming Android smartphone from Lenovo. The really interesting part about this though is that he believes this device is designed (at least in part) by the Motorola team. Lenovo recently told us that Motorola’s hardware team would be designing their future devices and this is rumored to be the first of its kind.
We’re told that Vowney will not be the official name, but the company plans for it to be the “jewel in the Elephone crown”. As far as specs are concerned, Elephone says we should expect a quad-core Intel SoC, Quad HD display, 3GB of RAM, 20MP camera(possibly the Sony IMX230), 64GB storage, 3,800mAh battery and the choice of Android 5.1 Lollipop or Windows 10 Mobile installed.
New Nexus phones are coming, which means exciting times for enthusiasts and developers alike. With this new round of solid phones with pure Android, we will likely have to choose between a Nexus 5 from LG and a Nexus phablet from Huawei. Given these manufacturers’ histories, the leaked specifications and designs, and your personal preference, which one would you pick?
Now on Tap was announced at Google I/O 2015 but the feature has never shown up in any of the developer preview builds that have been released. This changes today, and as long as you have the Android M Developer Preview 3 installed on your device, then Now on Tap functions exactly like it did when Aparna demoed it earlier this year.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google Glass is now going to be called Project Aura. Not only that, but it seems that Google is also hiring some engineers, software developers and project managers from Lab126 (aka Amazon). A new hire on the project has described it as “Google Glass and beyond” and that they are also “building cool wearables”.
Google are now offering another Nanodegree through Udacity that they state “teaches you the skills you need to build your very own business, from ideation to marketing to monetization.” Check it out!
Shin Jong-kyun, head of Samsung’s mobile division has been talking to some people in the press about Samsung Pay as of late. In a recent interview, he was asked if the payment service would be available on some cheaper smartphones soon. We are told that Samsung plans to “gradually expand” the service as time goes by.
Google have frequently launched initiatives in order to help small businesses grow, back in March they launched a project called Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map. Now they have brought a new app to the play store in order to aid businesses market their companies better. The beautifully material designed Primer app offers lessons in advertising, content, measurement, and strategy.
The lessons are all currently five minutes or less and begin by quickly covering the question “what will we answer?”, they are then presented through clear and simple cards, each with just a few sentences. Many of the cards offer a deeper exploration of the concept through hypothetical scenarios and they usually finish with a short but fun activity such as short related puzzles or mini-quizzes. You can add lessons to a queue to be read later, view the currently featured lessons recommended by Google or view them by category. There are even a few tools to help develop your own content.
“When people succeed, Google succeeds. At our best, we help businesses of all sizes try new things and get more customers. But we also know it’s hard to get the knowledge you need to do innovative marketing. So we assembled a small team of our own marketers and challenged them to build a product they would use. The result is Primer” – Google
Google have promised that new content will be added each week with new features coming periodically. This content is created by the best “explainers” Google can find before their creative team works to make them suitable for the app. However anyone can suggest content for the app by emailing the team at: hello@yourprimer.com
If you are starting your first business, this app is definitely worth more than a few minutes of your time, the lessons it has to offer are an invaluable tool for both novices and experts alike. The fact that the app showcases material design flawlessly as well is just a bonus.
Have you tried the app? Leave a comment below!
You can avoid this issue by using a PIN code or a pattern security layer, but if you are running most versions of Android 5.x with the password for protection then your device could be vulnerable to this exploit. Google has patched this bug in the LMY48M build of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, but some Lollipop devices will never receive an OTA update to fix it.
XDA Recognized Developer ketut.kumajaya has compiled CyanogenMod 12.1 builds for the Xiaomi Redmi 2. The ROM has a few bugs such as back and front camera not working and sound from speaker and headset, but apart from these, the builds are good enough for daily usage.
