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Android Google Operating Systems

Google Releases Android 13, Rolling Out First To Pixel Phones (theverge.com) 23

Posted by msmash from the OS-updates dept.
This year's major Android update, Android 13, is officially releasing today for Google's Pixel phones, the search giant has announced. From a report: The annual update is getting an official release a little earlier than usual, following Android 12's release last October and Android 11's release in September 2020. The list of updates arriving with this year's version of Android is likely to be familiar if you've been keeping up with Android 13's beta releases. There's the ability to customize non-Google app icons to match your homescreen wallpaper that we saw in Android 13's first developer preview, a new permission to cut down on notification spam, and a new option to limit which of your photos and videos an app can access.

Back in January, we wrote that Google planned to spend this year catching up with Apple's ecosystem integrations, and there's more evidence of this in Android 13's official release. The update includes support for spatial audio with head tracking, which is designed to make sounds appear as though they're coming from a fixed point in space when you move your head while wearing compatible headphones, similar to a feature Apple offers for its AirPods. Today's post doesn't say exactly which headphones this will work with, but Google previously announced it would be updating its Pixel Buds Pro to offer support for spatial audio. Secondly, there's the ability to stream messages from apps including Google Messages directly to a Chromebook, similar to iMessage on the Mac.
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Google Releases Android 13, Rolling Out First To Pixel Phones More

Google Releases Android 13, Rolling Out First To Pixel Phones

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  • ...must migrate to Lineage OS (Score:4)

    by echo123 ( 1266692 ) on Monday August 15, 2022 @02:18PM (#62791700)

    As a current owner of a fine Pixel 3a, (with a case I like, from Google in-fact), it looks like I'm soon destined for LineageOS in order to receive security updates only unsupported hardware.

    • I actually rolled back to 11 on my pixel. 12 was such a shit show and was killing my phone. Maybe I'll take a look at lineage os also....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mspohr ( 589790 )

      I traded in my Pixel 3a for the 6a. Only cost $150.
      Definitely worth it.

      • Fascinating info, although since I am not currently in The US the offer is frustrating me, although I've got a bit more than a month to figure something out. What's notable is if I were to buy a Pixel 6, I'd only receive $47 for my old Pixel 3a, whereas a purchase of a Pixel 6a would give me $300 credit.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why is consumer-facing Linux always such a mess? To be fair Android has been about the best one so far but still you're having to go to custom installs of derivative operating systems from 3rd parties.
  • I never jump on a new OS...I appreciate those that do that might find a bug. They can beta test it all they want, but until they put it in the wild...you really never know. Too much of my job depends on the phone. So I'll wait a day or two just to be sure. My P6P is running fine on 12.

    • Hopefully, it's better than the initial Pixel 6 release. Man, that fingerprint reader was a joke to start with. I was kind of a fool to jump on the Pixel 6, but I had a 3a and knew that it would be ending support this spring. I thought so many times about returning the thing and buying something different....

    • until the update arrives to my Samsung phone

      • It's already there, look for "Android 13 One UI 5.0" videos on YouTube. The meme with Samsung and the updates is from the times when they were competing with Windows Phone. Now they're reasonably quick with them AND have even longer support than the Pixels (4 OS updates and 5 years of patches)!

        Granted that's for PHONES and possibly for the mid-high end series, the tablets were a complete shitfest, at least up to until the last 1-2 generations; don't know about the very recent (and eye bleedingly expensive)

        • The last OS major upgrade came for my Samsung phone 8 months after it did for the Pixels.

          • Well, it might very well happen that surprisingly the Pixels get out of support before Galaxy's and you'd get updates on the Samsung well beyond that. As for the new stuff, it might be more of a feature than a bug if others are doing the beta testing before you. There are people royally pissed about Android 12 https://issuetracker.google.co... [google.com] and hanging on for dear life on Android 11. That is the ones that had the chance to get old enough devices that came with 11, because devices shipping even as of Febr

    • I never jump on a new OS...I appreciate those that do that might find a bug.

      We are all the beta testers now.

      • I never jump on a new OS...I appreciate those that do that might find a bug.

        We are all the beta testers now.

        It's from Google, so... ya.

  • It is just another number bump that does nothing to really fix anything or make the device something you want, instead of need.

  • Head tracking? When will the privacy shenanigans end?

    Seriously this looks like a bullet item for any company that wants to make a big push into the so-called metaverse:

    The update includes support for spatial audio with head tracking, which is designed to make sounds appear as though they're coming from a fixed point in space when you move your head

    Efforts at virtual reality focus overwhelmingly on the visuals, to the point that VR becomes purely a battle of PPI and refresh rates.

  • Do it come with the trucker hat?

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