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Android Google Operating Systems

Google Begins Rolling Out Android 11 (venturebeat.com) 32

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Google today launched Android 11, the latest version of its mobile OS, and pushed the source code to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). From a report: Unlike previous major versions, Android 11 is not only arriving as an over-the-air update to Pixel phones first, but also on OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme phones "with more partners launching and upgrading devices over the coming months." That's a major departure for Android, updates for which take months to arrive thanks to carriers and device makers dragging their feet. It doesn't help that Android is the dominant mobile operating system available on thousands of different device configurations, powering over 2.5 billion monthly active devices. [...] Android 11 brings a long list of new features. Google originally split them into three themes: People, Controls, and Privacy. But there is also support for 5G, new screen types, and call screening. There's even a frame rate API for helping apps and games adopt variable refresh rates, which will be a big focus over the next few years as phones and TVs adopt the feature from computer monitors. Google also expanded the Neural Networks API for running computationally intensive machine learning operations.
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Google Begins Rolling Out Android 11 More

Google Begins Rolling Out Android 11

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  • Wha'ts wrong with Honda? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Arthur, KBE ( 6444066 ) on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @12:43PM (#60485094)
    My sister bought a 2021 Civic. The infotainment system runs Android 4.

    • Incidentally that's the last version of Android I got excited for. Didn't that introduce multi-touch? Everything since has been minor tweaks and pointless features.

      • Multi-touch is an older feature, but Android 4 did bring hardware acceleration to the user interface after it spent some time being worked on in the tablet-only Android 3/Honeycomb. It was one of the longer-lived releases, going all the way up to 4.4/Kit-Kat with the subversions. 4.4 was the first to bake in TLS 1.2 and enable it by default, which is probably the bare minimum for connectivity to continue to work with cloud services going at least a few years forwards.

        Android 5/Lollipop brought the Materi
    • You explained it right in your comment, they used an Android OS in a car...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DogDude ( 805747 )
      Why does it matter what version of Android the infotainment system runs on?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      You can't side load apps without hacking. There are no security issues, no browser, no reason to upgrade. Updating would do nothing except perhaps break some of the Honda apps.

      • That's just totally false. I own a 2016 civic. A browser and wifi ability is included. If I tether from my phone I can download APKs and browse the web. Installing APKs of course doesn't work unless you hack it (I did).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chrish ( 4714 )

        You're assuming they don't support Bluetooth at all, and any wireless method of upgrading the nav system's maps, remote door locks, remote starting, etc.

        Bluetooth is generally a pretty big attack surface, and the vulnerabilities in relatively ancient implementations like Android 4 are going to be well-known.

        You may not be able to hack it from the Internet at large (but that's coming too, lots of "use your car as a mobile hotspot!"), but Bluetooth range is somehow both shorter and longer than you want it to

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      My sister bought a 2021 Civic. The infotainment system runs Android 4.

      Shockingly, it's likely because Android 4 is the latest Android OS running on the Automotive SoC that it's using.

      There aren't that many automotive SoCs out there - a few models from Freescale and a couple from Qualcomm (which run Android 9 or so I believe).

      Given these SoCs are fairly dated already (they're automotive because the SoC vendor will keep them in production for at least a decade), it's likely Honda first started using it years

  • Some I trust more than others, many not at all - I do not want most of them to have access to my contacts. Many refuse to work unless I give permissions that I won't give. So it would be really good if for app X I could allow it access to a different contact list that had, maybe, details of my best mates: Donald Duck,Trump & Biden. My real friends few apps would have access to.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Bodie1 ( 1347679 )

      There's an app for that!
      (It only needs access to everything on the device)

      Note: This is a joke that may or may not actually be true; I have no idea.

    • Re:Can you lie to apps yet ? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 ) on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @12:54PM (#60485144)
      If you don't trust it, and it refuses to work without access to something that is presumably not its core functionality, they maybe you're better off not using it at all.

    • Re:Can you lie to apps yet ? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Voyager529 ( 1363959 ) <voyager529@yahoo. c o m> on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @02:09PM (#60485408)

      Some I trust more than others, many not at all - I do not want most of them to have access to my contacts. Many refuse to work unless I give permissions that I won't give. So it would be really good if for app X I could allow it access to a different contact list that had, maybe, details of my best mates: Donald Duck,Trump & Biden. My real friends few apps would have access to.

      You're looking for one of these:
      https://github.com/M66B/XPriva... [github.com]
      http://www.android.protectmypr... [protectmyprivacy.org]

      Both of which require the Xposed Framework
      https://github.com/ElderDriver... [github.com]

      Which seems to basically require Magisk
      https://magiskmanager.com/ [magiskmanager.com]

      Which, naturally, requires root...the system kind...that will trip SafetyNet and will likely prevent you from running your banking apps or Google Play...and while you can get Netflix from APKPure, you won't be able to get it from the Play Store, either.

      So yes, it's entirely possible to tell apps "you absolutely have GPS permissions...I'm at the north pole...and not moving...and also I have one contact, named
      Wsoldkgf Swegfwe, with the phone number of +1 111-111-1111...and my phone's unique ID changes daily, so...keep up!" ...but it's getting progressively harder to do it.

    • Contact list: run the app in your work profile, it will only get the address book in your work profile, which you can setup to look real enough.

      • Contact list: run the app in your work profile, it will only get the address book in your work profile, which you can setup to look real enough.

        Can you assign apps to s specific profile? or does the profile have to be system wide? I haven't actually used them but if I could have gmail and outlook have different contact lists it would be awesome.

        • I've only used it a bit with a banking app, combined with F-Droid Shelter. You can only have Play Store apps in the work profile, nothing side loaded. And you have to switch modes. For me it didn't work (didn't fix the crap banking app problem), but give it a try and let us know.

  • Android still has its old versions problem. (Score:3)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @01:00PM (#60485154)
    Android Kitkat is still the lowest common denominator, a version from 2013. Google has to do something about this. I think they should have a legacy upgrade program where they port to older phones or provide a trade in scheme. It would be like Apple still manufacturing computers coming with Mavericks or Microsoft with Windows 8.1.

    • MS does still support 8.1. Or at least most if not all software that worked in 8.1 still works in 10. And 10 works (in my case) on 10- and 15-year-old hardware, quite decently as long as the C: disk is SSD.

      As for "when will my device get it?" ... mine will never get it. It was originally sold with 8, and got 9 when I bought it and 10 about 6 months after Google released it. And that's it. They said at purchase that it's supported for 2 releases and 3 years of security updates. From initial release, not purc

      • Your fist centens is talking about two different things, The first microsofts support for the wndows 8.1 os , there you are partly right, you still get security patches ( free)for anything else you have to pay ( availability might be limited according to windows edition and size of company).on to windows 10 support for 8.1 software. This miget differ from sw to sw. So yea it seams ms dies a better job with updating than the dumpster fire (at least historically) called the android eco system, we will hav
  • "Unlike previous major versions, Android 11 is not only arriving as an over-the-air update to Pixel phones first, but also on OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme phones "with more partners launching and upgrading devices over the coming months." I know on the OnePlus user forums, the minute a new or updated version comes along, there will be a TON of new "When do I get it" threads. LOL.

  • I've got an LG phone on Google Fi, which means I'll never see it. I don't know why LG has to plaster so much customization over Android because their settings system replacement is horrible and it takes them forever to update. Last LG phone I buy, that's for sure.

    • I've got an LG phone on Google Fi, which means I'll never see it. I don't know why LG has to plaster so much customization over Android because their settings system replacement is horrible and it takes them forever to update. Last LG phone I buy, that's for sure.

      You might like Pixel smartphones or smartphones with the Android One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] OS.

      • I had a Nexus 5 and 6 and am on Fi. So I'd also buy an economical ($400) Pixel with a headphone jack. Probably will get something Motorola.
  • My Pixel 3a XL is now running Android 11 after an OTA upgrade today. After the upgrade, one app (VLC) did not work correctly. I remembered what tech support for a different app (Stopwatch & Timer+ from Jupiter Apps running on Android 10 at the time) suggested: uninstall the app, then install the app. This worked for both the above-mentioned apps (Stopwatch & Timer+ on Android 10 and VLC on Android 11), so I'm thinking the go-to solution for sudden Android app problems on current Pixel phones is prob

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