Wileyfox pulls through on an Android Nougat update a little late, coping with the demise of Cyanogen with a little of its own software design.
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Andrasta is the new Cyanogen and it is about Big Data
Andrasta looks to be an Android fork that's obsessed with artificial intelligence, machine learning and being smart. We learned this through a car crash.
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Wileyfox after Cyanogen: Android Nougat is coming
Wileyfox is one of two prominent manufacturer partners to Android ROM vendor Cyanogen. And, at least for the next few days, it still is.
But beyond December 31, the UK startup will have to figure out how to bring fresh updates to the deprecated software on its six devices out in the market.
Luckily for its customers, the company looks committed to the challenge and is addressing the issue in a statement through its live chat support staff:
Hi, Our OS Strategy and Software plan moving forward will be complete soon.
We have agreed a smooth transition where we will continue deliver constant and consistent software and OS updates.
Our plan is to bring our entire Wileyfox portfolio onto Android N, the latest version of Google Android’s OS, in a timely manner – while still continuing to protect the range with Google software security updates.
We will share our full and final plan in due time.
The message received by Redditor /u/BurkusCat (linked in our Source spot) also added that Wileyfox does not represent Cyanogen in its comments and that it is confident that the “software will continue to evolve and stay pure to Android, enhanced to maximise our consumers’ user experience.”
While there are some stray manufacturers with the odd Cyanogen phone or two (like ZUK and bq) Micromax sub-brand Yu is the only other company with a Cyanogen-dependent product portfolio that will either need weaning off or reworking altogether. We shall see how these companies evolve.
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Cyanogen dies, CyanogenMod officially becomes Lineage OS
“A company pulling their support out of an open source project does not mean it has to die.”
So begins a new thread of history for the Lineage OS Android Distribution, the all-new forking of CyanogenMod we’ve all expected. The change —announced on the community’s blog — was warranted after Cyanogen Inc., the commercial effort attempting to spread the software, decided to shift focus and co-founder Steve Kondik pulled out of the venture to work on Lineage.
At the same time, Cyanogen Inc. has decided to shut down services for its Cyanogen OS fork. No more updates and nightly builds will be produced beyond December 31, though any open source material will remain free to download.
LineageOS.org is the new home address for the original open source project with links to social media and the GitHub repository dedicated for the refresh — we presume that files are still being migrated over from Cyanogen’s Seattle facilities through the end of the year.
Both entities are being watched closely for their next moves as Lineage figures out how to plant new infrastructure and find a way to keep lights on. Cyanogen Inc., on the other hand, is now centering itself in Palo Alto, California, and will likely deliver on some missions first rumored long ago. Maybe not.
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Repositories hint that CyanogenMod’s new name will be Lineage
Cyanogen and CyanogenMod have effectively split ways. The co-founder of both, Steve Kondik, has stuck with the latter. But the financial and legal spaghetti tangles between the two entities has meant that the community-driven Android ROM-editing project will have to go through some major changes to survive.
It seems that one of the changes will be the name. Sources to Android Police have pointed to references of “LineageOS,” the “Lineage Android Operating System”. An official repository is headed by the title “Lineage Android Distribution”. While the additional words may differ between mentions, “Lineage” seems to be the link in this case.
Merriam-Webster primarily defines the word as “descent in a line from a common progenitor.”
CyanogenMod files have been migrating over to GitHub at a rapid pace. Kondik wrote in a Google+ post that a lot of CyanogenMod’s infrastructure will need to be moved out of Cyanogen property if the project is to be saved. It’s likely that these movements represent that effort.
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Cyanogen move is official and so is Steve Kondik’s departure — wither CyanogenMod?
Whispers about another major shakeup at Cyanogen were verified. The Android ROM distributor’s CEO, Lior Tal, has confirmed on Wednesday that it will move out of its longtime Seattle headquarters by the end of the year and has broken ties with co-founder Steve Kondik.
The purpose of the change is to improve the communication and performance of the team which will now operate under one roof. This consolidation effort will allow us to build in greater efficiencies and reduce restrictions in our product development lifecycle. Understandably some are unable to follow their role and relocate. We appreciate and value all of the amazing work these individuals have provided to the growth and success of Cyanogen.
Tal mentions that the company is “well funded” to continue its operations at its facilities in Palo Alto, California.
Kondik had recently expressed his grievances over how the company was managed by his founding partner, Kirt McMaster. McMaster was framed in a Google+ Post by Kondik as the one that brought new management to the company that led to a spate of recent downsizing measures.
There is still no public word on whether Kondik will be allowed to extricate assets of the community-driven CyanogenMod project from Cyanogen property, something he has wanted to do.
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OnePlus updates coming and FitBit buying Pebble? | #PNWeekly 229
This week we’re looking at some of the issues facing the OnePlus 3 and 3T. We’ll chat about FitBit buying Pebble, and return to that nearly dried up well of Windows Phone rumors. Can Microsoft (and HP) mount a come back in mobile phones? All these stories, plus we’ll tackle your tech questions, so make sure you’re charged and ready for the Pocketnow Weekly!
Watch the live video broadcast from 2:00pm Eastern on December 1st (click here for your local time), or check out the high-quality audio version right here.
For folks watching live, you can comment and ask questions by using the #PNWeekly hashtag on Twitter during the broadcast. For folks watching later, you can shoot your listener emails to podcast [AT] pocketnow [DOT] com for a shot at getting your question read aloud on the air the following week!
Pocketnow Weekly 229
Recording Date
December 1, 2016
Host
OnePlus Issues and Company Responses
(00:04:10)
OnePlus 3T touch latency is a hot topic, but is it being blown out of proportion (partly by us)? If it is an issue, OnePlus claims they’ll fix it after they release Nougat updates. That Nougat update is currently an open BETA for folks who want to give it a spin.
Will these fixes and updates arrive in a timely fashion? Previous issues like RAM management and display accuracy point to fast fixes.
News
30:02 | Will FitBit buy Pebble? What might this mean for Juan’s Kickstarter Time 2 pre-order???
41:32 | Get nothing to recycle your Apple Watch!
45:06 | Are the internal problems at Cyanogen too large to overcome?
54:33 | Pixel estimates point to healthy sales in 2017
1:00:00 | Windows analysis: an Elite X3 sequel for consumers and x86 emulation on the Surface Phone
1:20:54 | CNN buys Beme, immediately shuts it down to change it
1:26:55 | Huzzah! Offline viewing arrives for Netflix tablet and smartphone apps!
1:32:03 | Motorola plans to deliver a Tango Moto Mod for the Moto Z
#PNWEEKLY Hashtag Questions!
Send in your questions with the #PNWeekly hashtag on Twitter. We’ll be answering them throughout and at the end of the show!
•
See you next week!
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Steve Kondik says Cyanogen troubles were brewing for too long
Cyanogen co-founder Steve Kondik has posted his thoughts on the state of his and Kirt McMaster’s company and where the direction of a more perfect Android may be going. One big development we’ve learned: Kondik feels like Cyanogen hasn’t been his company.
The specialized ROM maker recently overhauled its organization chart which saw McMaster replaced as CEO by Lior Tal. Job losses starting coming down the line and it has only been exacerbated by word that Cyanogen’s Seattle headquarters will shutter by the end of the year.
In a post on the private CyanogenMod developer Google+ group extracted by Android Police, Kondik wrote that after the CM community helped the company get on its feet making some cash, that money changed things.
“Unfortunately once we started to see success, my co-founder apparently became unhappy with running the business and not owning the vision,” Kondik said.
This, he claims, is what led McMaster to take less care with how he dealt with the media, mentioning that Cyanogen’s treatment of Android would be able to “put a bullet through Google’s head.”
With workplace morale at a low, Kondik figures that McMaster probably decided to blow everything up and start over. He quickly assembled a new team to help him find a new direction, but Kondik wanted to maintain his original vision. The company essentially operated in two factions for the time, but “the new guys had other plans” that brought them to the current ledge.
Kondik seems to be interested in moving forward with CyanogenMod, but as it is quite entangled with Cyanogen in terms of infrastructure and intellectual property, the community will have to beat out the closure of the Seattle facilities to keep everything it has done so far. Other than that, it might have to make major revisions in brand, code and corporate structure (perhaps even as a non-profit) to keep on going.
“The rest of the ROM community seems to be highly dependent on us, but simultaneously wants us dead,” Kondik said. “How on earth do you fix this?”
The full content of the post is available at the source link.
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Wileyfox Swift 2 and 2 Plus blend respectable specs, premium design and aggressive pricing
What does the (Wiley) fox say? Nothing worth writing home about just a few months ago, when this British smartphone-manufacturing startup followed last year’s warmly received first-generation Swift and Storm with a far too humble Spark trio, but a “fresh look and impressive tech upgrade” now brings the Swift 2 in the limelight for all the right reasons.
Well, most of the right reasons anyway, as we can’t really act impressed by a 5-inch 720 display or Snapdragon 430 processor. On the decidedly bright side, both the Wileyfox Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus “make sophisticated statements” with “delicate curves”, aviation-grade aluminum metal housing, and diamond cut “iconic” fox logos.
Priced at £189 ($230) on British shores, compared to £159 ($195) for the standard configuration, the Plus version stands out thanks primarily to an awesome-sounding 16MP rear-facing Samsung 3P3 camera sensor with ISOCELL technology and f2.0 aperture.
The higher-end model also packs 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage space, while the non-Plus second-gen Swift settles for 2 and 16 gigs respectively, as well as a 13MP main Samsung shooter. Everything else is the same, including 8MP selfie cams, fingerprint recognition, NFC support, microSD capabilities, USB Type-C connectivity, 2,700 mAh battery capacity, 8.64 mm profiles, “big box speaker set-up”, and of course, pre-loaded Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 software “powered” by Cyanogen 13.1.
For a post-Brexit upper mid-range smartphone duo, the bang for buck pound feels quite competitive, don’t you think?
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Former Apple CEO’s Obi Worldphone MV1 spreads its wings to the UK at £100
Perhaps finally realizing the irony of only selling a Worldphone-branded device in parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, John Sculley just green-lighted the MV1’s British expansion.Best known for ruling Apple with an iron fist between 1983 and 1993, first alongside Steve Jobs himself, then after the co-founder’s controversial departure, Sculley also presided over Pepsi-Cola back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s,
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Apple sales records, Blackberry security, and we get stuff wrong | Pocketnow Weekly 211
Juan’s review of the Alcatel Idol 4S is LIVE, but what did Juan get wrong in his review? Apple sells it’s billionth phone while sales decline. Blackberry delivers the “world’s most secure Android smartphone”, but can we trust that claim in the light of recent encryption issues? Those stories, and we’ll tackle your viewer emails! Make sure you’re charged and ready for episode 211 of the Pocketnow Weekly!Watch the live video broadcast at 2:00pm Eastern on July 28th (click
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Cyanogen claims no “pivot” to apps, more information to follow
The CEO along with a co-founder of Cyanogen is responding to anonymously sourced reports that the company is turning away from its vision of an operating system based on Android in favor of apps. Both Android Police and Recode posted stories about the move.CEO Kirt McMaster tweeted out his response.Cyanogen NOT pivoting to apps. We are an OS company and our mission of creating an OPEN ANDROID stands. FALSE reporting was ...
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Cyanogen layoffs hit hard, a new charge on apps expected
Cyanogenmod is well and alive, but Cyanogen, the company, seems to be in a struggle.The company behind the more polished version of the Android ROM has laid off about 30 of its 136 employees, most of them working on quality assurance, systems and community support in the open source division. The smaller offices in Lisbon and India have been heavily reduced. Sources to Android Police say they aren’t ...
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British startup Wileyfox unveils fresh trio of inexpensive Cyanogen OS phones
With a cheeky name like Wileyfox, cool matching logo, and one of very few still ongoing Cyanogen Inc. alliances, the inexperienced but ambitious British makers of the affordable Storm and Swift smartphones couldn’t escape our radar again, as they just took the wraps off the low to mid-end Spark family.Meant primarily for domestic sales, the three new Wileyfox devices range in price from £90 to £130, and all run Android Marshmallow-based Cyanogen ...
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Cyanogenmod 13, Android Marshmallow out for OnePlus One
In addition to an OxygenOS update to version 2.2.1 for the OnePlus X, OnePlus also announced that Cyanogen has been able to finish the Cyanogenmod 13 update package — based on Android Marshmallow — for the OnePlus One.This update is a sight for sore eyes as it’s been more ...
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