Humble Mobile Bundle 21 Includes Goat Simulator, _PRISM and More

The team behind Humble Bundle has just announced the 21st mobile bundle, and it comes with a number of Android games that you can get for a low price. As with all of the Humble Bundles lately, this month's offering is broken up in the three different tiers. So depending on which games you want, you could pay as little as $1, or as much as you'd like. As usual, portions of the revenue from this bundle goes toward charity.

The least expensive tier is $1, and for this occasion you get three different games for Android. First up is Westport Independent and this is a game about censorship, corruption and newspapers. The second game offered in the $1 tier is _PRISM and this is a puzzle solving game with 13 levels that can take around an hour to complete. Lastly, you will receive a copy of Sage Solitaire, a new solitaire variant that combines some poker elements into its gameplay.

For the second tier of the Humble Mobile Bundle 21, you will need to pay more than the average (which is currently at $5.12 as of writing this). There's only two games listed here as of right now, but in a week they will reveal some more games that will be added. The first game offered in this tier is Ghosts of Memories and this is another puzzle game that has you trying to free a woman trapped in crystal. The other game is Door Kickers, which is a real-time strategy game that has  you controlling a SWAT team.

The third and final tier of this bundle will cost you $6, and it comes with two different games. Unlike the second tier, there won't be any additional games added to this tier. The first game under this tier is Twofold Inc., and this is another puzzle game that has you unraveling tiles and matching them together so you can clear them away. The other game in this $6 tier is Goat Simulator, a silly physics simulator that has you controlling a goat and playing around in a sandbox environment.

Source:Humble Bundle

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Google Assistant Has Been Ported To The Nexus 6P

As expected, after the Pixel's system images leaked it didn't take long for users to find a way of porting Google Assistant to other devices; Simply altering your build.prop and installing the latest Google App (Velvet) is sufficient on the Nexus 6P.

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Unoffical CyanogenMod 13 Available for Huawei P9 Plus

An experimental version of CyanogenMod 13 is now available for the Huawei P9 Plus. Be warned though, there are plenty of bugs, so make backups before you try this out!

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Lior Tal Replaces Kirt McMaster as Cyanogen Inc. CEO

Cyanogen Inc. is undergoing a bit of reform recently. The team had laid off a large portion of its staff in late July 2016, and there were reports and refusals of Cyanogen Inc. shifting focus towards apps. Cyanogen Inc. refuted by stressing on the point that they were still an OS company, but their latest announcement mentions otherwise.

Cyanogen NOT pivoting to apps. We are an OS company and our mission of creating an OPEN ANDROID stands. FALSE reporting was outstanding.

— Kirt McMaster (@cyanogenone) July 25, 2016

As the Cyanogen Blog notes, the changes that Cyanogen Inc. is undergoing right now is the departure of Kirt McMaster from the role of CEO of the company. Kirt, famously quoted for his desire to "put a bullet through Google's head", is handing over the managerial reins of the company to Lior Tal, who was appointed as the COO around the same time the layoffs came. Kirt's current position within Cyanogen Inc. is of Executive Chairman, which as he reportedly notes, is more external-facing than internal. To add to the position shuffling, Steve Kondik is stepping down from his role of CTO and taking up the role of "Chief Science Officer", and will be reporting to Stephen Lawler, who is currently Cyanogen Inc's SVP of Engineering.

The other part of the changes comes with Cyanogen Inc. (and NOT CyanogenMod — sorry, but this needed to be made clear) moving out of the complete OS (full stack) business and venturing into a "modular" approach which is being called the Cyanogen Modular OS Program.

The new partnership program offers smartphone manufacturers greater freedom and opportunity to introduce intelligent, customizable Android smartphones using different parts of the Cyanogen OS via dynamic modules and MODs, with the ROM of their choice, whether stock Android or their own variant.

If we understand correctly, this is exactly what they had earlier refuted — moving from the OS business to Apps, albeit the form of it may have changed through the concept of MOD.

The announcement blog also mentions this:

At the same time, the program will offer the broader eco-system and developers the opportunity to tap into Cyanogen's expanding Artificial Intelligence cloud services, which learn usage patterns throughout the operating system and introduce smarter and more effective ways to resolve intent and interact with smartphones in a personalized and highly contextual way.

Details on the exact workings are sparse on this topic. Rather than speculate on what it is, we hope that more information is released on Cyanogen Inc's AI Cloud Services.

We will have to wait and watch what other developments take place with and within Cyanogen Inc., and whether their new mission is more feasible than their old one. With the reduced staff, a new CEO and a different purpose, Cyanogen Inc. certainly has another uphill battle ahead of it.

What are your thoughts on the recent changes within Cyanogen Inc.? How do you think these would affect the existing Android ecosystem? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Cyngn Blog

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Samsung Temporarily Halts Production of Note 7; US Carriers Halt Sales

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is turning out to be a bit of a blight to Samsung's otherwise impressive phone lineup, sales records and reputation in the market — all of which have taken a big hit ever since the Note 7's started catching fire. After the first few reports, Samsung had initiated a recall for the device and offered replacement units that were deemed to be "safe". But fresh reports pointed that these units were not any safer than the previous batch as several reports originated that these too had battery explosion issues.

Just as experts were pointing out that Samsung could face a second recall of the device, other stakeholders have swooped in to avert possible damage to customers. The latest in news comes from South Korea where it is being reported that Samsung has temporarily halted the production of the Galaxy Note 7. The halt is in cooperation with consumer safety regulators from South Korea, United States and China. The halt also includes a plant in Vietnam that was responsible for global shipments of the device.

In addition to this, shipment of replacement units to customers have also been paused. And to complement these moves, carriers around the world — including the Big Four in the USA and Telstra in Australia — have stopped selling the device. They are also advising customers to return the replacement units of the device as well. Many of the carriers are also offering customers the chance to pick up any other phone in the carrier's lineup as well, along with issuing refunds for accessories purchased in relation to the device.

There is strong insistence that the production halt is temporary in nature, but the carriers and the customers may not be as willing to give Samsung a third chance on this phone. The recall and its merits have been tarnished, and there is no way Samsung and the Note lineup walks out unscathed from this.

What are your thoughts on the overall scenario and its handling by Samsung? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Android Cast: Episode 21 – “Pixel Imperfect”

This week on The Android Cast:
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– The crew discusses the latest October Announcement from Google.
– We look into the implications of Google's shift away from the Nexus line
– Finally we wrap up on a discussion about the other recently announced hardware such as Google Home and Daydream VR.
——

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The Android Cast will bring you the best news each week from the perspective of the XDA team. Each week you can find our latest episode here, on Stitcher, on Google Play Music Podcasts, on TuneIn, on iTunes, on Youtube and on your favorite podcast app through the RSS feed: http://ift.tt/2cxz4n5.

Audio Version!

 

Video Version!

 

Today's cast includes:

Mario Serrafero: Twitter
Corey Feiock: Twitter
Daniel Marchena: Twitter

Check Out XDA on Social Media. Twitter, Facebook and Google+

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Google’s Pixel Exclusitivity Shows Why Carrier Exclusives Suck for Consumers

Amidst all of the craziness of the October 4th event, one thing that stood out was Google working only with Verizon as a launch partner in the US for the new Pixel phones.

On the surface this is a good thing for Google, a manufacturer who wants to gain a foothold in the US. Verizon is still the largest carrier, and they have an excellent track record with exclusives with the long running Droid lineup still going strong. AT&T has had lackluster success with exclusives, and Sprint and T-Mobile have had next to none. It also makes sense in that Verizon is co-branding the Pixel marketing push and judging by Verizon's home page, there is a mutual benefit at play. While Google in theory stood to benefit from this push, it also is showing why carrier exclusives suck and how we all lose…

The Note 7 will likely go down in history as one of the most publicly flawed devices in years. While the Amazon Fire Phone, HTC First, and Microsoft Kin would argue otherwise, none of them have crashed and burned in such a spectacular fashion. Now that two major US carriers (AT&T and T-Mobile) have discontinued sales of the Note 7, possibly for good, many potential purchasers of the phone are left looking for an equivalent replacement. Add to that the numerous current owners that are going to return their Note 7 units, again, only to look for something similar. So what will they find? The sad fact is that most US carriers do not currently carry a late-model, large-sized, Android flagship device – the Note 7 demographic – unless you happen to be on big red. To further compound this issue is that, like it or not, most US consumers still get their devices through the carrier with the rise of no interest loans or leases, myself included. This is where Google may have played its cards wrong.

By not making the Pixel phone available to all carriers through their installment plans, Google stands to lose out on potentially millions of sales from current and future Note 7 owners. As odd as it sounds, if you want a comparable device and you are not on Verizon your choices are limited to the LG V10, the currently-unreleased and promising LG V20 (which should arrive at the same time as the Pixel devices), or the Galaxy S7 edge. While the S7 edge may still be a solid contender, some Note 7 owners may want to break free from Samsung entirely leaving them with few choices. Further, LG simply does not carry the clout or notoriety that Google, Apple, or Samsung carry making even their flagship devices feel like a step down from what consumers may have desired. Sadly this leaves many few choices and at least some will flee towards the newly announced, and hard to find, iPhone 7 Plus. The market is just begging for a top tier flagship Android device to fill the large shoes the Note 7 will inevitably leave empty, and Google's brand recognition can easily make up for what it lacks in history as an OEM.

Google could never have imagined that the Note 7 would go down in history in such a fireball of failure, but it just goes to show why carrier exclusives and backdoor deals just suck for consumers. Hopefully the rumors of that exclusivity only lasting a short time pan out, even if it is a case of too little too late. Until then, I have no clue what device I will replace my Note 7 with…

So current owners of the Note7 what are you planning to do with possibly a second recall looming? Will you replace it with another Note 7, another Samsung device, or will you look elsewhere?

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