Paranoid Android reboots itself with new Android 10 builds
- Reference: 1587135853
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/17/paranoid_android_reboots_itself_with/
- Source link:
Dubbed Paranoid Android Quartz, this build expands upon the previous versions, bringing across features like “Pocket Mode,” which is designed to stop accidental screen-presses when a phone is shoved into your Levis. There's also the latest April 2020 Android security patch, as well as various Google apps, like the Play Store.
Custom ROMs often tell the user to download the Play Store separately, due to licensing concerns. It'd be interesting to see how Paranoid Android's devs got around that, or whether they're counting on the mercy of the Chocolate Factory.
This is the first stable Paranoid Android ROM since 2018, when Google released an image running Android 7.0 Nougat. Why the hold-up? Part of the problem was the project's difficulties in retaining and replacing developers who have jumped ship to the corporate world.
The vast majority of Android vendors release phones with their own bespoke environments. Samsung has OneUI (formerly TouchWiz). Huawei has [1]EMUI . Oppo has [2]ColorOS . There are only a handful of outliers, like Motorola and Nokia. And this trend allows vendors to differentiate themselves in a fairly meaningful way.
But to make these environments, vendors need people with the intimate OS-level expertise. It's always easier to acquire someone from an open-source project than train your own in-house staff. And OnePlus is perhaps the best example of that trend, hiring several key Paranoid Android developers in 2015 to [3]work on its own OxygenOS skin .
Once those devs have left the building, it can be hard to replace them — spinning release schedules into turmoil, and costing projects valuable public interest. Now, after a few years in the wilderness, it looks like Paranoid Android has finally recovered.
"Last year, we asked our community if anyone would be interested in becoming developers and device maintainers for Paranoid Android. Gradually, our team has grown and we feel we have now reached a point where we have an incredible team that has the skills and ambition to produce a product that we are all proud to release," a [4]project blog post states. .
So far, only a handful of device-specific builds are available, including for the Asus Zenfone Pro Max M2 and M1, the Essential Phone, the OnePlus 3, 3T, 6, 6T, and 7 Pro, the RedMi 5, and the Xiaomi Mi 6 and 9. Support for other OnePlus, Pocophone, Sony Xperia, and Xiaomi devices will trickle out in the coming weeks. ®
Sponsored: [5]Legacy Modernization: Finding Your Way With Low-Code
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/12/huawei_mate_20_pro_review/
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/06/oppo_watch/
[3] https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-paranoid-android-team-587101/
[4] https://blog.paranoidandroid.co/#/post/2020/2020-04-16-pa-quartz-1
[5] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8553/legacy-modernization-finding-your-way-with-low-code?td=wptl1936
Re: Slipping differential?
Its the little things I miss, my old Oneplus2 running LineageOS had an option to turn on/off the flashlight by holding down the power button - super handy at night time. No such option in EMUI :/
Re: Slipping differential?
" didn't even know what EMUI was until I opened my Huwaei tablet."
Yet you've been using it all the time without knowing. It's all the background stuff you don't think about.
You do notice these things when you jump from one brand to another. EMUI is one of the less intrusive variations.
Phone makers PLEASE take note
Just. A. Plain. Vanilla. OS. With. No. Bloatware.
Nothing. Nada. Nowt. Zilch. SFA. Bugger all.
No custom apps to "differentiate" your product. Yes, you're differentiating it - by reducing the spacer users end up with, for apps and stuff they actually WANT.
No gratuitous "you can't do without this" apps in your product. Yes, you're differentiating it - by reducing the spacer users end up with, for apps and stuff they actually WANT.
If you have REALLY come up with stuff you feel we cannot do without, just make it available on the app store of your choice.
That way you'll be able to give people what they actually want, rather than what your marketing people imagine in their wettest dreams.
To reiterate, in case your marketing idiots are as slow on the uptake as they appear:
Just. A. Plain. Vanilla. OS. With. No. Bloatware.
Re: Phone makers PLEASE take note
You can get plain vanilla Android if you ignore brand names and buy a Chinese phone on eBay. My current one is a Cubot Max 2.
Re: Phone makers PLEASE take note
I believe Motorola are stock and maybe Nokia.
Re: Phone makers PLEASE take note
Nokia are indeed stock. One of the reasons I bought one!
Wot, no Sammies?
Does Samsung make it too hard to put a custom ROM on their devices? (Just asking - I have no idea!)
Re: Wot, no Sammies?
Yes.
Sony used to be one of the best. Not sure these days.
Odd...
they list so many to OnePlus, and now they are the best supported by this release.
Slipping differential?
"Samsung has OneUI (formerly TouchWiz). Huawei has EMUI. Oppo has ColorOS. There are only a handful of outliers, like Motorola and Nokia. And this trend allows vendors to differentiate themselves in a fairly meaningful way."
This idea has always puzzled me. Of all the reasons to buy this tablet or that phone I've never heard anyone or seen any review which says this is the better product because of the bloatcover. Usually the opposite.
Price, storage, price, resolution, price, processor, price - yes. But EMUI or another? - I didn't even know what EMUI was until I opened my Huwaei tablet. And I do regard myself as a bit of a expert on computery gizmos.