Google Publishes Factory Images, OTA Images and Binaries for the Pixel and Pixel XL

Many people were curious how Google would be handling the software side of things with the Google Pixel and Pixel XL. Before release, a system image of the Verizon variant was leaked and that was all we had to go on. So many weren't even sure if Google would allow us to root and unlock the bootloader of Google's 2 new smartphones. Just before release, we learned that if they were purchased from the Google Store then they were in fact, rootable and the bootloader could be unlocked.

This still left questions unanswered about other parts of the Android software though. Legally, Google only has to release the source code for the kernel and that's it, but it seems like they are treating the Pixel and Pixel XL more like Nexus devices than some had originally thought. The company is even keeping the Pixel and Pixel XL listed on the Nexus Files for Developers page that we are used to finding our Nexus images at.

Google Pixel users can find the download links for their factory images here, while Pixel XL owners can find their factory images here. Download links for the OTA images for the Google Pixel can be found here, and Pixel XL owners can find their OTA images here. Lastly, the driver binaries and vendor image for the Pixel can be found here, with the binaries and vendor image for the Pixel XL is right here.

Now, as far as the factory images and OTA images are concerned, there are three builds that are currently available (NDE63H, NDE63L, and NDE63P). The NDE63P build is the one that Verizon announced would be pushed to Pixel devices on launch day. This is the update that is said to include "Wi-Fi connectivity" improvements. Some are saying this latest update hasn't fixed their 2.4/5GHz switching issues though.

Source: Google Developers

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14 Google Shops will Open in Best Buy Stores Across Canada

Best Buy Canada and Google Canada have just a partnership that will allow 14 different Google Shops to open up inside Best Buy retail stores this year. We've seen other companies like Apple, Samsung and Microsoft do something similar as well, but the press release says it is the "first of its kind in North America." Either way, this looks like the latest push that Google is doing to get their hardware into the hands of as many people as possible.

The products that will be on display are the Pixel, Pixel XL, Daydream View and the Chromecast Ultra, and it will allow potential customers to come into the stores and try out the products for themselves. There will be trained Google product employees running these shops that will help to educate people about these products. We're told that "immersive experienced" will be provided, but they didn't go into detail as to what that entails.

10 of the 14 Google Shops within various Best Buy Canada locations opened up yesterday. So if you live near a participating location, then you can go in and try out the new Pixel smartphones right now. So far we know that Google Shops are available in Brampton, ON, Winnipeg, MB, Catharines, ON, Edmonton, AB, Nepean, ON, Oakville, ON, Etobicoke, ON, Coquitlam, BC, Surrey, BC, and Burnaby, BC.

Google Canada plans to open up four larger Google Shops at Best Buy Canada locations in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Mississauga later this year. So not only can customers schedule 1-on-1 appointments with Google's trained staff, they these bigger locations will also offer a weekly hands-on workshop. This workshop will give customers the ability to "learn the ins and outs of Google tech," like how to personalize your Pixel smartphone and how to stream content from your phone to the Chromecast Ultra.

Source:Newswire

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The BABBQ is Upon us Once Again, Come Meet The Team and Win Awesome Prizes

The Big Android BBQ is once again upon us and XDA will be in attendance! As well as taking the time to see some of the huge variety of talks and partake of the delicious food, be sure to drop by the our booth where we will be hosting giveaways and competitions over the weekend to give away some awesome tech and goodies from Nextbit, Rhinoshield, UMi, Aukey, Tronsmart and Choetech! As an added bonus you can meet XDA Admins, Mods, Portal Writers and XDA TV Personalities including:

With the #BABBQ16 just around the corner, make sure you hit up our #XDA booth for a chance to win one of these Robin's from @nextbitsys http://pic.twitter.com/ioPmYRDtxt

— XDA Developers (@xdadevelopers) October 20, 2016

Featured Talk: Cradle to Career – Pathways to Success In Tech is a diversity in tech round-table

Big tech companies are screaming "we want, no, we need diversity in our industry" – but how do we really achieve that? The skills required to create top-notch code are learned like a second language and the best time to get a person started on the path to code immersion is at an early age. We need to look to our preschoolers and elementary age children to become the highly skilled computer scientists, entrepreneurs, and problem solvers of tomorrow. Cradle to Career – Pathways to Success in Tech endeavors to cut through the noise and go right to the heart of the matter; asking the tough questions about how we get children from underrepresented communities on a path that leads to productivity and meets the current and future demands for skilled engineers and entrepreneurs.

Schedule

• -
• Day 1 - Friday 21 October 2016
• Day 2 - Saturday 22 October 2016

Select a day to view the schedule

9:00 am Doors Open & Registration

10:00 am – 11:00 am Keynote

11:30 am – 12:00 pm Student Session (Room 5)

12:00 pm – 12:30 pm Student Session (Room 5)

11:30 am – 12:30 pm Richard Hay – GooglePlex Memories (Room 1/2)

11:30 am – 12:30 pm James Williams – Kotlin (Keynote Room)

11:30 am – 12:30 pm Alin Jerpla – Sony Open Device Program (Ballroom A)

11:30 am – 12:30 pm Marty Ballard – Secure Your Firebase! (Ballroom D)

11:30 am – 2:15 pm Lunch Available

1:00 pm – 1:30 pm Student Session (Room 5)

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm Student Session (Room 5)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Chet Haase – What's New in Android (Keynote Room)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Chris Guzman – Libraries I wish I knew when I started (Room 1/2)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Matteo Doni – Infinite Feedback Loops (Ballroom A)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Etienne Caron – VR / AR / Tango (Ballroom D)

2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Code Kitchen (Room 5)

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Maarten Edgar – Do anything you want to any chromecast screen (Keynote Room)

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Jolanda Verhoef – Architecture with RxJava (Room 1/2)

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm John Hiott – Expanding into the Living Room (Ballroom A)

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Mark Scheel – Android Studio is Amazing (Ballroom D)

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Pierre-Antoine LaFayette – Taking your talents to VR (Keynote Room)

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Chad Schultz – Android Brain Strain Quiz (Room 1/2)

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Lorne Liechty – Service Oriented Architecture – Why Enterprise Android is Awesome (Ballroom A)

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Ian Lake – Audio playback in a multi-device world (Ballroom D)

10:00 am Doors Open & Registration

10:30 am – 4:00 pm Code Kitchen (Room 5)

10:30 am – 11:30 am Peter Rembiszewski – Putting the Mobile in Your Mobile App (Keynote Room)

10:30 am – 11:30 am Andy Dyer – Multiple Developers, One App: How to Not Break Everything (Room 1/2)

10:30 am – 11:30 am Adam Newman – Using Android DataBinding with MVVMP (Ballroom A)

10:30 am – 11:30 am Margaret Maynard-Reid – Making Android Apps with Intelligence (Ballroom D)

11:30 am – 2:15 pm Lunch Available

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Chet Haase – Satirical session (Keynote Room)

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Gautam Korlam – Lightning fast Android builds with Gradle + Buck (Room 1/2)

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Christina Lee – Intro to RxJava (Ballroom A)

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Mario Vivani – Building Rich Media Streaming Apps for TV the Easiest Way (Ballroom D)

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Hod Greely – Covering your bases – mobile data architecture (Keynote Room)

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm TBA (Room 1/2)

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Fabric (Twiter) – TBA (Ballroom A)

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Stacy Devino – So you want to be a commercial app developer (Ballroom D)

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Steve Kondik – Cyanogen (Keynote Room)

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm TBA (Room 1/2)

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Isabelle Giuong – Spreading Computer Science (and Android) Joy Throughout the Land! (Ballroom A)

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Nicolas Roard & John Horford – ConstraintLayout, the next steps (Ballroom D)

4:30 pm – 5:30 pm Special Closeout Event

6:00 pm – 10:00 pm Big Android BBQ

Still not sure what to expect? Check out our event recap from last year!

Are you coming to this year's event? Leave a comment below!

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Xiaomi’s Upcoming Mi Note 2 Pricing and Specs Leaked

Xiaomi has a a few distinct product lines that it follows along for its smartphones. The Redmi series of devices often fall into the low-end and budget price categories (even though there may not be anything low end about them), while the Mi lineup is towards the mid-end in terms of price. Of course, Xiaomi's products pack punches way above their pricing, but this distinction between the Redmi and the Mi lineup gives us a fair thought on what one can expect from the next iteration in the series.

The Mi 5 earlier in the year set the tone of Xiaomi raising the bar with its flagship. While still a good flagship choice in terms of pure hardware, the Mi 5 got left behind with the OnePlus 3 coming into the picture. But it seems that Xiaomi is looking set to pitch in another flagship with the upcoming Mi Note 2.

As per presentation slides obtained by AndroidPure from Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo, the Mi Note 2 certainly paints a strong picture. The phone will reportedly feature a 5.7″ 2K Super AMOLED display made by LG, which will also have support for 3D Touch (pressure sensitivity). There is also likely to be an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor under the glass, just as we have seen with the Mi 5s.

For the insides, the Mi Note 2 is likely to bear the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC. The RAM and storage combinations of the device will be 4GB + 64GB and 6GB + 128GB. There will also be a 4100 mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support over the USB Type-C port.

The phone will also sport a dual rear camera setup, with the sensors being reported as the 23MP Sony IMX318 plus the 12MP Sony IMX378 (which is used in the Google Pixel). How Xiaomi implements the dual camera system is yet to be seen. The phone will also have an iris scanner, just in case users thought that there was some feature missing.

Pricing for the Mi Note 2 is still quite up in the air. Earlier reports pitched in that the device would be around CNY 5,699 mark ($845), but these presentation slides bring down the price to CNY 2,799 ($415) for the base variant and CNY 2,999 ($445) for the higher variant. All of these pricing and spec info is based on leaks, so do take them with a pinch of salt.

What are your thoughts on the Mi Note 2 so far? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: AndroidPure

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Set Your Own Encryption Key with C-Encryptor

If you ever wanted to define your own encryption key for your personal secrets, try out C-Encryptor by XDA Recognized Contribuotr abo hani! Set your own custom key, or make use of the randomizer to set the encryption pattern.

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Check Out AICP 12.0 Based on Android 7.0 For the Samsung Galaxy S2!

If you have a Samsung Galaxy S II sitting in a drawer, check out AICP 12.0 based on Android 7.0 for the device! Bug list is restricted to issues with video recording and GPS.

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Samsung Rolls Out Industry’s First 8GB LPDDR4 DRAM Package

While 4GB of RAM may seem as a standard for flagships that come out these days, a lot of companies have been bringing in devices with 6GB of RAM, even though their utilization of such large amounts of RAM may remain questionable. But still, as technology progresses, improvements to hardware will continue on driving what we are able to do with software.

With the same spirit, Samsung Electronics has launched the industry's first 8 Gigabyte LPDDR4 mobile DRAM package. This DRAM package is expected to be employed within mobile units, not restricted to smartphones, especially in devices with high resolution and large sized displays. The 8GB DRAM package makes use of four of Samsung's newest 16 gigabit LPDDR4 memory chips and 10nm-class process technology.

"The advent of our powerful 8GB mobile DRAM solution will enable more capable next-generation, flagship mobile devices around the world"

Joo Sun Choi, Executive VP of Memory Sales and Marketing Division

The 8GB LPDDR4 package has reported dimensions of under 15mm x 15mm x 1mm. The thin 1mm form factor enables stacking the package together with other components like UFS memory or the SoC, which aids the OEM in making a compact PCB.

While 8GB of RAM may seem overkill within current smartphone use scenarios, the wider proliferation of Virtual Reality, and the inevitable move up towards merging the smartphone and desktop experience does mean that we need hardware to move on faster before software can play catch up in order to provide an experience which does not feel straight out of a Beta. Having overkill hardware on critical components like the RAM help in making better use of newer technology like dual cameras, higher resolution and larger displays, Virtual Reality and even go on towards use cases that would involve running virtual machines right on our smartphones!

Samsung has not provided any timeline within which we can see this DRAM package available in retail devices. But it would not be far-fetched to expect a mobile device around mid-2017 that makes use of this new piece of technology.

Source: Samsung Newsroom

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