Sprint will be the Exclusive U.S. Carrier of the Essential Phone How to Install...

xda-developers
Jun 12, 2017 9:09 PM • by Tomek Kondrat

Sprint will be the Exclusive U.S. Carrier of the Essential Phone

Andy Rubin's Essential Phone is available for reservation directly from the company's website, with the product shipping sometime later this month. In addition, the company has just announced that American wireless carrier Sprint will be the exclusive U.S. carrier if you plan to get the phone on contract.

Sprint is not the largest carrier in the U.S. The company still trails behind Verizon, AT&T, and most recently T-Mobile in subscribers. USA Today asked Essential's President Nicolo de Masi about teaming up with the fourth largest carrier in the U.S.

"I feel like we are a new brand and a new consumer electronics company and we are partnering with the network of the future.

It's certainly conscious for us to work with partners that can make an investment in supporting our brand ambitions…(and) it's an approach that obviously Andy Rubin has been very successful with in the past as well as a lot of our management team."

Presumably, one of the reasons behind this move is Andy Rubin's relationship with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. The Japanese company owns 83 percent of Sprint and Rubin is an advisor to the SoftBank Vision Fund.

Teaming up with Sprint is a strategic move. Essential's CEO states that most of the phones sold in the U.S. are purchased at retail stores, which lines up with market estimates and makes sense given the customer has a chance to touch and feel the phone before buying.

Finally, Sprint will offer a "premium space" to showcase the Essential Phone in its stores. The carrier also plans to run an advertisement campaign and give the device a "hero launch". Though Sprint will be selling the phone, the device will not carry Sprint's or any other company logo.

The Essential Phone will start shipping out to customers by the end of the month. It costs $699 for the unlocked model but for $50 extra users can opt to get a 360 degree accessory camera. There is no mention of when customers will be able to pick up the device from Sprint's retail store. We should have more details soon.

Source: USA Today

Android Advices
Jun 12, 2017 6:58 PM • by Karthik Iyer

How to Install Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow based LineageOS on Xiaomi Redmi 4A Smartphone

Xiaomi launched the Redmi 4A smartphone earlier this year. Currently, it is one of the best budget smartphones which you can in the market. It is priced very aggressively and it offers a decent set of specs for the price at which it is being offered at. However, if you are one of the million users of Xiaomi smartphone then you already know about bad the software on the Xiaomi smartphones are. It is not bad in terms of the performance, however, when it comes to UI, it is definitely on the heavier side.

Well, if you feel the same way, then your only option is to install a third party ROM which you have to flash manually. However, if you are wondering how to do it, well, you are in the right place since today we will show you exactly how to do it. Today in this tutorial we will be showing you exactly how to install Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow based LineageOS on Xiaomi Redmi 4A Smartphone. But before we begin the installation, let's take a look at some of the features of this ROM. Below are some of the features that this will add –

About the ROM

Wifi
Bluetooth
Audio
2G-3G Network Switch
Smooth
RIL
Camera
Sensors
Lineage Boosts
Hotspot
Fingerprint
All sensors

Now with that out of the way, let's take a look at some of the prerequisite that is required for this installation.

Installation

The first thing which you need to make sure is that you are creating a complete backup of your files. Since we will be completely wiping the internal memory of the phone, you will end up loosing all your files.
You also need to make sure that you are installing a custom recovery software. You can install any of your choices, however, we suggest you go for TWRP for this installation.
You also need to make sure that the battery in the smartphone as about 60-percent charge before you begin the installation. If your smartphone's battery dies during the installation, then you may end up with a completely bricked smartphone.
And lastly it is also necessary to make sure that you have downloaded the firmware file which is necessary for the installation. Without this file, you won't be able to proceed with the installation and hence we suggest you download the same from the link given below.

LineageOS 13 for Xiaomi Redmi 4A

Installation

Assuming that you have downloaded the files given in the link above, it is now time to begin the instalaltion process.
The first thing which you need to make sure is that you copy the downloaded file to the smartphone.
Once done, simply turn off your phone and enter into the recovery mode. You can do this by pressing Volume Down + Power Key at the same time.
After this, once you are in the recovery menu, look for wipe and format option ⇒ wipe data, system, cache and Dalvik cache and initiate it.
Once done, now return back to the recovery menu and tap on Install.
Now it will ask you to browse for the firmware file which you had copied earlier. Simply navigate to the same and select it.
After that simply swipe to begin the installation.
Do make a note that the installation will take some time and hence we suggest you be patient with the same.
After it is done, before rebooting you can also choose to install the GApps.
Once this is done, your device will automatically reboot into the new ROM.

Do make a note that the first reboot may take a long time and hence we suggest you stay patient with the same. Having said, if you have any queries regarding the setup, then be sure to let us know by commenting down below and also stay tuned to Android Advices for more tutorials like this.

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