Articles about Android 9

Fairphone is not a new name in the smartphone market, but it's not one that everyone is aware of. The company has a strong ethical and environmental stance, producing handsets that are gentle on the environment, the people producing them, and are easily repaired.

Now the company has announced the Fairphone 3. Due for release next month, the Android handset is a decent mid-ranger which is likely to attract more interest than its two predecessors. So what's all the fuss about?

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OnePlus had a Christmas present for owners of its OnePlus 5 and 5T handsets -- an OTA update to Android Pie.

Now, a month later, the company has made Android 9.0.3 images available for download; perfect for those who like to manually flash their handsets. But this is not the same version of Pie that rolled out at the tail end of last year. OnePlus has introduced a number of important updates.

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OnePlus is well known for many things, including building up massive hype around its (generally) powerful and (relatively) cheap handsets. But one of the reasons many people choose the company is that it has always been quick at rolling out Android updates to newer handsets -- and it has a great track record for supporting its phones for much longer than its rivals do with their handsets.

The company may well be concerned about shifting its latest models, but owners of previous generations have not been forgotten when it comes to Android Pie. The latest version of Android is already available for the OnePlus 6 and 6T, and now the update is rolling out to the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T in the form of OxygenOS 9.0.0.

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If you have a OnePlus 6, you can now get your first taste of Pie as the Android 9.0-based Open Beta has arrived.

OnePlus is often among the first handset manufacturers to release upgrades to the latest Android versions, and things are no different with Pie. At the moment it's not clear how many betas there might be, or when OnePlus intends to release the final version of its slightly-customized version of the operating system, but this beta release is the first step on that journey -- at least for those who weren't tempted by the earlier developer preview.

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Recording phone calls is dodgy territory legally speaking, but whether you choose to do it depends on where you are in the world, and whether you're concerned about complying with the law. Since Marshmallow, Google has made it difficult to record calls on Android phones by killing the recording API, but this has not stopped third party developers finding ways around it.

But with Android 9 Pie, Google has made it impossible for apps such as Call Recorder - ACR and BoldBeast Android Call Recorder to be used to record calls. Unless, that is, you're willing -- or able -- to root your handset.

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Google has revealed what the P in Android P -- otherwise known as Android 9 -- stands for. Despite previous suggestions that it was going to be Pistachio, it is in fact Android Pie.

Just let that half-assed name sink in for a moment. Pie. Not even a specific pie to evoke some sort of imagery. Just a bog standard, run of the mill, common or garden... pie. The name is something of a damp squib and now the game of wait-and-see-if-I-actually-get-the-update begins. Google has already made the source code available on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), and Pie is rolling out to Pixel owners now. Everyone else will just have to wait to see when -- or if -- they get it. So what's new?

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For a little while now it has been thought that the P in Android P stood for Popsicle -- based largely on speculation and the fact Google shared some popsicle-related images on Instagram. But it seems that this is wrong.

A new leak -- this time courtesy of Huawei -- suggests that Google has gone with a nutty theme for the upcoming Android 9.0.

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