Android 12 Now Available From The Android Open-Source Project
The Android 12 sources have been pushed out to AOSP in officially releasing this newest version of Android. Android 12 features a new user-interface with redesigned widgets and other graphical enhancements, more efficient system performance, more responsive notifications, faster machine learning performance, various privacy enhancements, AVIF image support, a variety of new developer APIs, and many other enhancements throughout the mobile stack.
Android Developers Blog and Ars Technica.
Also at Wccftech.
See also: Android 12 review: it's mostly about the looks
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Android 12 Now Available from the Android Open-Source Project
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 16 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
(1)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @05:58PM (2 children)
link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/android-to-take-an-upstream-first-development-model-for-the-linux-kernel/ [arstechnica.com]
"Android's kernel fragmentation is a huge mess, and you can imagine how long and difficult the road is for a bugfix at the top of the fork tree to reach to the bottom, where end-users live. The official Android.com documentation notes that "These modifications can be extensive, to the point that as much as 50% of the code running on a device is out-of-tree code (not from upstream Linux or from AOSP common kernels)." It's also a big time sink, and even Google phones typically ship kernels that start at two years old."
"They're lov'in it(tm)" also known as "how to engineer hardware device obsolesce". last fun fact: it's all ARM based, eh? nVidia gonna take away the cookie? green landfill monster sayZ: "cookie monster want cookie!" :)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 05 2021, @06:06PM (1 child)
Here's the alternative. [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 06 2021, @12:49PM
doubtful. the ARM CPU hardware is not uniform enough and/or gets "modified" soo much by a CPU manufacturer that a stock vanilla kernel will not work.
the stock vanilla for ARM linux kernel, one assumes, should work, if the CPU is ARM ... nope.
for samsung and qualcom, the (ARM) vanilla linux kernel is just a "framework" which the modify so it in essence becomes a "CPU driver made by the CPU vendor", like any other computer hardware "driver", like webcam, soundcard, scanner etc?
ARM derives 95% $$$ from mobile phone manufacturers. 95% of mobile is also android, which is managed by google ... the linux kernel is free. google and arm cpu manufacturers make billions off the back of a free open-source project whilst at the same time SHAFTING the idea of that opensource project?
*shrug* i guess i don't understand it or it doesn't matter ... unupdateable security cert? media player framework (stagefright?) bugs? project "blackhole" deep cover operation from area56i that brainstorm "fear" and "protection from the law" to guarantee ARM hardware is thrown away because of software not faulty hardware. also they research perfume to mask the unbelievable fishy stink emanating from google, qualcom and samsung :)
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Tuesday October 05 2021, @07:05PM (12 children)
How do people update Android phones? Unless your carrier pushes it or maybe you have a Pixel you aren't updating anything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @07:23PM (1 child)
I still have a Samsung that, between Samsung and the local provider, has had zero updates, ever. Still on Android 4.something, but I don't get Auntie Cindy's random screaming "alerts" either, which is a huge blessing. When this dies or they move to far up the Next-G ladder, I think I will just forgo having a mobile at all.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday October 06 2021, @01:26AM
Get an iPhone. Even models from 2015 (iPhone 6S) can still run the latest iOS 15. Go ahead and find me an Android from 2015 that can run version 12.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @07:32PM (7 children)
You get the latest version of LineageOS based on the latest version of Android.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday October 05 2021, @08:07PM (4 children)
this means you alkso have all the crap 'new' icons and whatever UI trend-du-jour.. Lineage may leave out lots of the 'bad' stuff, but until you can choose your "desktop manager" as you can with Linux/Debian, you get the new stuff, like it or not.
I understand the need to keep the OS 'minimal' - but why do we need holographic moving pop/slide animated icons?
I just want buttons or links..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @10:43PM (2 children)
Do you have an alternate suggestion? I've got an old Samsung tablet that is only used these days for, er, certain kinds of web surfing and I'd love to update it with something. And I also have an old Samsung S5 (or 6, I could never remember the model number), and it is still running stock that I'd love to replace it with something (I really don't want to get a new phone as the one I have is mainly used as a GPS-driving device and texts). I've sort of suffered from paralysis of options to this point and never pulled the trigger on anything yet.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday October 05 2021, @11:36PM (1 child)
Try
/e/ [e.foundation]
or
Ubuntu Touch [ubuntu-touch.io]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 07 2021, @04:27PM
Thank you. I will check them out.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Wednesday October 06 2021, @03:08AM
You can do exactly that. On Android it's not called a "desktop manager" but a "launcher" that you can use to give Android a new UI. Some of them are very minimal, which sounds like what you are interested in.
Granted, there may not be a lot of them updated for Android 12 yet, just because it's so new.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday October 06 2021, @01:24AM (1 child)
So who is selling you a phone with an unlocked bootloader besides Pine?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 07 2021, @03:04AM
Xiaomi
Typing from my unlocked, custom romed poco x3 plus
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @08:18PM (1 child)
In civilized countries, the carrier doesn't get to decide updates you get. The manufacturer does.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @09:07PM
If it were really civilized, the user would determine what updates they get, not the manufacturer or carrier. The manufacturer would be responsible for manufacturing hardware to a standard that could be supported by others. The carrier would be responsible for maintaining network infrastructure and compatibility with various standards and protocols. Perhaps the manufacturer and/or carrier should provide recommendations and sane defaults that should satisfy most users with minimal effort, but the user should be free to run the software of their choice.