android
CyanogenMod 9 for quad-core HTC One X Released
A company called TripNDroid Mobile Engineering has just released CyanogenMod 9 for the quad-core, Tegra 3 variant of the HTC One X smartphone. The developers behind the rom state that since it was built from source it will not be inhibited by any parts of HTC’s OS overlay, Sense. From the attached report, there are still a few issues that are not ironed out yet but for most of it, it works as you would expect it to. What currently is working fine is mobile network (data, calls, sms etc.), GPS, Bluetooth, Bluetooth tethering, WiFi, Hardware video decoder, 2D and 3D hardware acceleration, audio as well as audio recording.
For now, the camera and the Wi-Fi hotspot capability do not work yet. A feature that was added to what the developer describes as a rom which is close to stock CM9 as possible is the needlessness of a hardware menu key which has switches to a multi-tasking feature in this rom. If you are interested and understand all the risks behind flashing the rom click here for a full set of instructions as well as the download link for the rom. Of course to clarify, only the quad-core HTC One X can use this rom and not the dual-core LTE enabled ones.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?