OnePlus schedules event for 4/20, OnePlus Two incoming?

After a report revealed that Chinese startup OnePlus would be launching not 1, but 2 handsets this year, former Oppo vice president Pete Lau n’ friends are gearing up to announce something on April 20th. The company — which has upped their employee count from 6 to over 1,000 new workers — announced the news, where else, but on their Google+ page.

We’re not sure what they’ll be announcing, but it’s pretty short notice. Their announcement post didn’t give us any clues, only that “From here on out, anything could happen.” While it seems fairly sudden to announce a followup to last year’s OnePlus One, it has almost been a year since the original was announced. Still, we’re not ruling out the possibility of a new hemp backed OnePlus One cover either.

Jokes aside, we’d actually love to see a OnePlus Two and maybe smaller OnePlus Half unveiled on Monday. Despite countless flubs over marketing of the OnePlus One last year and an even more frustrating invite system, it’s hard to deny it was a great phone at an even more attractive price point. Recently, OnePlus launched their own in-house Android build for the device dubbed OxygenOS, followed shortly after by Cyanogen OS 12.

We wont have to wait too much longer, April 20th is barely a few more days away. Heck, even sooner if you’re in China. What do you guys think it will be. Even better, what are you hoping for?

Cyanogen OS 12 rollout resumes for OnePlus One with critical bug fixes, “OK OnePlus” in tow

OnePlus unceremoniously halted the OnePlus One’s Cyanogen OS 12 update earlier this week in order to add in an”OK OnePlus” voice command, and just as they’ve promised the upgrade is going right back out before the weekend begins.

Cyanogen’s Steve Kondik shed more light on the rollout and why it had to happen. The main reason is that they encountered a critical bug that was of utmost importance to fix, specifically in areas of telephony and MMS messaging.

So here’s what’s going down:

• Users who haven’t received the upgrade to Cyanogen OS 12 will now get a small prep upgrade, and then this new version over-the-air, complete with the voice command and bug fixes.


• Those who have already received the upgrade will receive a small upgrade that includes the bug fixes and voice command.

And that’s that. Sometimes a delay is in the best interest of the masses, and we’re glad OnePlus and Cyanogen decided to do what was necessary to eradicate what could have turned out to be very serious issues. The upgrade is still rolling out in stages so go ahead and check for it once you’ve gotten to a WiFi hotspot and a decently charged battery.

[via OnePlus]

The next device from OnePlus may be made out of more premium materials

We’re coming up on nearly one year since the OnePlus One was announced, and the phone has held up well. The company has made a lot of mistakes, but you can’t deny the device is one of the best. According to recent rumors the next phone from OnePlus is shaping up to be even better.

The latest rumor about the “ OnePlus Two” is about the build materials. OnePlus chose polycarbonate for the original device, but they may be going with something more premium in the next model. Reports suggest that OnePlus wants the next device to come off as higher-end, of course we’re talking about metal.

The only problem with a metal OnePlus Two would be the potential higher price. Many people loved the OnePlus One for its affordable 0 price point. Metal does make sense if OnePlus is still trying to provide the #neversettle experience. HTC and Samsung are now using metal in their flagship devices. OnePlus is all about competing with the big boys, and this move would certainly do that.

OnePlus One is now permanently available to buy without an invite

Last Friday, OnePlus issued an open invitation for anyone who cared to be on the lookout for a big announcement today. OnePlus 2? Hopeful, but those hopes were dashed if the contents of this blog post is all we’re to expect today: the OnePlus One is now available for anyone to buy without an invite.

It’s been possible to buy the OnePlus One without an invite for quite a bit of time now, except you had to wait until Open Sale Tuesdays to partake. Even still, finding a OnePlus One invite has always been as easy as finding leaves on the ground in autumn.

Anyone who really wanted a OnePlus One by now likely already has one, and anyone who wants one in the future can be happy that they won’t have to play the waiting game or jump through hoops to get it. With that, the company also announced a decent sale that will take 75% off the cost of their Flip Covers and premium screen protectors. Bamboo SwapStyle covers are also now available without a purchase (but only until their current stock runs dry).

Folks in North America, the European Union, Hong Kong, and Taiwan will be able to get in on these deals, though everyone else is sadly left out.

[via OnePlus]

OnePlus confirms that you’ll initially need an invite to buy the OnePlus 2

We’d hoped OnePlus would have grown enough to do away with the invite system for the OnePlus 2, but it looks like we’re in for more of the same old song and dance. The company has confirmed that the OnePlus 2 will require an invitation to buy at launch.

Before you throw your arms up in a fit, it’s important to remember why OnePlus has to utilize these peculiar sales strategies in the first place. The biggest reason is that they don’t make a ton of profit on every device sold, so over-estimating their manufacturing needs by even the tiniest amounts could potentially be fatal in the long run. They also still don’t have the capacity to churn devices out at ridiculous rates like the big guys.

That doesn’t mean the OnePlus 2 purchasing experience will be exactly the same as the original device’s. We could see the invitation system evaporate much more quickly than it did for the OnePlus One (which only fully occurred just this morning) as the company has likely perfected and streamlined their manufacturing process to more efficiently meet demand.

Those are all the details OnePlus is willing to share with us about the forthcoming smartphone today, though rumors put its launch within a Q3 2015 window. We’ve also heard it will launch with a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 display, Snapdragon 810 chipset, 4GB of RAM and a 3,300mAh battery. It’s sure to be a smartphone worthy of attention by the time it arrives, though it’ll be up to you to determine whether you want to continue putting up with the sales and marketing hijinks OnePlus has become known for.

[via OnePlus]

Missed out on your chance to get the OnePlus drone? AndroidArea.com has you covered

This week, OnePlus unveiled their very own micro drone. It super small, super affordable, and, just like everything OnePlus, super hard to snag before selling out. Don’t worry, though. AndroidArea.com has you covered with the Skeye Nano Drone.

The Skeye Nano Drone is identical in construction and functionality to OnePlus’ DR-1, down to the six-axis controls and included remote transmitter. It is preprogrammed for three different flight modes covering beginner through advanced pilots (with stunt capabilities). The only difference between the the Skeye Nano Drone and the OnePlus Drone? The paint job. Just check out the images for comparison.

OnePlus’ drone was priced at a very affordable .99, and the Skeye Nano Drone isn’t much more expensive at .99. Is that the sound of the OnePlus hype train grinding to a halt? Get your fix now at AndroidArea.com.

Cyanogen CEO wants you to “calm the f*$! down” regarding delayed OnePlus One Lollipop update

OnePlus made some lofty promises for those who opted to buy their phone: Lollipop would be here by March 27th for those wanting OxygenOS, and March 31st for those who wanted CyanogenMod 12S. Looking at today’s calendar shows that it’s April 1st and neither updates are out, meaning they weren’t able to meet those goals.

So when are they coming? We still don’t know. The hold up isn’t that the firmware isn’t ready to go — OnePlus says things are mighty stable right now — but they have to wait for lengthy certification processes to be completed before they can get the green light, and it’s something they didn’t foresee taking such a long time.

And you think they’ve had a hard time dealing with the backlash due to the missed promise? Cyanogen has it even worse: they’re being bashed for the delay even when they weren’t the ones who promised it. CEO Kirt McMaster even went as far as using his brash tone to get the point across:

@Mark_SC_ @Paddietastic @CyanogenMod @cyngn @getpeid @oneplus guys… calm the f down… it’s coming soon… when ready!

— Kirt McMaster (@cyanogenone) March 31, 2015

While we might have preferred something a bit more politically correct, it’s true: Cyanogen has always gone by the “it’s ready when it’s ready” mantra, and they probably don’t deserve the flood of hate rushing their way.

This was simply another case of a young company (OnePlus) learning a tough lesson — never, ever, give an ETA on the OTA. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take more than a couple of weeks to get everyone the goods they were hoping to enjoy by now.

Surprise: OnePlus One’s Lollipop updates are delayed

OnePlus made a commitment to get CyanogenMod 12S and OxygenOS out to OnePlus One users by the end of this month. They promised that a failure to do so would result in a phone giveaway to show how serious they were to that commitment.

Aaaaannd it looks like they’re giving away phones. OnePlus One held another Ask Me Anything session on the Android subreddit, and when asked about the Lollipop-based upgrades promised they had some unfortunate news to share: they aren’t positive they’ll be ready in time.

OnePlus says they have stable firmware ready to go and things are running as smoothly as they ought to be, but unforeseen delays in the certification process might extend the timeline a bit further than they originally anticipated. As such, they confirmed they will be giving away at least 5 OnePlus One units. That doesn’t sound like a whole lot to part ways with for a manufacturer, but when you have profit margins as slim as OnePlus’s it’s a pretty big deal.

Perhaps more troubling is that they aren’t willing to give us another estimated release date, but perhaps they’ve learned a valuable lesson in all this and have adopted Cyanogen’s old way of thinking: no ETAs on OTAs, and it’ll be ready when it’s ready. OnePlus One says to stay on the lookout for more information in the days to come.

Cyanogen OS 12 (Lollipop) update for the OnePlus One halted to add “OK OnePlus” voice command

If you haven’t yet gotten Cyanogen OS 12 on your OnePlus One, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. The company has announced that they’ve had to halt the rollout in order to push out a new version that adds the “OK OnePlus” voice command into the fold. The rollout will resume mid-week, according to company man Carl Pei.

One might wonder why they simply wouldn’t wait until the current rollout is over and add the feature in a follow-up maintenance patch, but one would have to be behind the closed doors of OnePlus to truly know. We’re just glad they had a very good reason (the addition of an awesome new feature) to do it, and that it won’t take longer than a few days to get things going again.

Of course, if you’re impatient and can’t stand to wait you can always get the previous Lollipop release loaded onto your OnePlus One manually. There’s a handy guide showing you how to do just that over at the OnePlus forums so be sure to check it out. Otherwise, hold your horses and know that the goods should be going back out over-the-air before the week is over.

Cyanogen OS 12 officially arrives for the OnePlus One

Nine days after OnePlus released OxygenOS to give its phones their first official taste of Lollipop, Cyanogen Inc. has released its more feature-heavy Lollipop flavor for the device. Cyanogen OS 12 was announced late Monday night by way of Cyanogen’s official blog. Beyond the Material Design updates implemented throughout the OS and the underlying Android version bump (no, it’s not 5.1), a new Theme Engine feature is rolling out which allows you to apply themes on an app-by-app basis.

The new feature, called “App Themer” (shocking name, I know), allows you to choose which theme you want for each of your themed apps. For example, you might like a certain red theme but also want some of your apps to match a blue theme you also like. You could choose to apply the blue theme to G+ and the red theme to Inbox, just to switch things up. It’s a welcome new feature, one which I hope will soon make its way to CM12 community builds.

Aside from the new eye candy, Cyanogen has added its own email service, powered by Boxer. Cyanogen email provides native Exchange support, multiple accounts, and your choice of scripted quick replies to incoming messages. Beyond that, you can customize the LED notification color and the action taken when you swipe right or left on a message. Oh, by the way, if you have a YU Yureka instead of the OnePlus One, you’ll get your Cyanogen OS 12 fix “coming very soon”.

Are you excited to finally have Cyanogen OS 12 available OTA, or are you already on Oxygen OS or a custom ROM? If you’re on Cyanogen OS, do you plan to switch to their email service or do you plan to stay with Gmail/Inbox/your existing service? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

 

 

OnePlus will be launching not one, but two phones this year

OnePlus One, the manufacturer that people love to hate, is set to have a big year. We’ve heard plenty of rumors about the upcoming OnePlus Two, but two could have a new meaning in 2015. Bloomberg paid a visit to OnePlus HQ and got some juicy details about their plans.

The report states that OnePlus will launch two phones in 2015. The OnePlus Two is set to launch in the third quarter, while a another cheaper model will follow later this year. What started as a company with just 6 employees has now ballooned to over 1,000 employees. Hopefully the extra employees will ensure a smoother rollout for this year. OnePlus can not have a repeat of what happened with the OnePlus One.

Would you buy another device from OnePlus?

OnePlus DR-1 drone is actually real, but it’s little more than a toy [VIDEO]

Looks like our cause for caution regarding OnePlus One’s latest announcement was a bit justified. Just as they confirmed on Reddit, OnePlus has revealed the DR-1, and it definitely is a drone. Only, it’s not the serious spy-right gadgetry you were probably dreaming of when they first mentioned it.

It’s a toy. This thing costs .99, and although it will actually fly for a good few minutes it’s not to be regarded in the same light as something like the IRIS+ Super Drone.

OnePlus is touting this as the world’s smallest remote-controlled drone, though, and they’ll only be available as a limited one time run. Unfortunately the product is already being listed as sold out on their website, and if what they say there is true then there won’t be any other opportunities to snag one in the future outside of something like eBay.

So for all you folks mad that OnePlus was making a new product before shoring up the OnePlus One? Chill out, it’s just a quick little toy that likely took them no time at all to produce and did nothing to take away from the work that still needs to be done on their first ever smartphone.

OnePlus finally releases OxygenOS

After all the hype, after the frustrating delays, even a couple of days after Verizon’s Galaxy Note 4 started to receive its official Lollipop OTA, OnePlus has finally released its first official Lollipop update for its 2014 flagship One. The widely-anticipated OxygenOS, built with the efforts of several Paranoid Android developers, was announced mere hours ago by OnePlus CEO Carl Pei.

Accompanying the announcement is a YouTube video showcasing the main features of OxygenOS. It appears to be basically stock Android with Paranoid Android’s well-known implementation of Quick Settings. Feel free to watch the video below and judge for yourselves…

There is, of course, a place for stock-plus ROMs in the development community, as they tend to be as popular as the full-featured ones. This is apparently the niche OnePlus is seeking to carve out for themselves in its own development-friendly ecosystem. Carl Pei sums it up as follows:

We want to be careful that we aren’t adding features simply for the sake of differentiation. We’ve implemented some important features thus far, but they are subtle and meaningful. That’s our philosophy behind OxygenOS: keep it light and essential.

OnePlus One owners are encouraged to download the ROM and provide feedback. In fact, Pei asserts that you can “begin taking a direct role in the future of Oxygen” by using their dedicated feedback app.

via OnePlus blog

OnePlus expands sale of the OnePlus One to all EU countries

To now, the OnePlus One wasn’t available for everyone in the European Union. As easy as it may be to import one from the UK, Germany or other big countries, there’s nothing like dodging the headache and inflated price tags that tend to come with that process.

Thankfully, OnePlus is putting an end to the need to do that. They have announced that they have extended availability of the OnePlus One to all countries in the European Union. Specifically, the lingering list of countries who were yet to be in on the fun looks like so:

• Bulgaria


• Croatia


• Cyprus


• Czech Republic


• Estonia


• Greece


• Hungary


• Ireland


• Latvia


• Lithuania


• Luxembourg


• Malta


• Poland


• Romania


• Slovakia


• Slovenia

And that’s about all that is known at this time. Rollouts haven’t started yet, and OnePlus doesn’t have a specific release date or pricing to share for these regions, but they promise that information will be along shortly.

[via OnePlus]

Cyanogen CEO: OnePlus would have only sold one phone outside of China without CyanogenMod

You can officially close the books on the OnePlus and Cyanogen marriage. If Steve Kondik’s assertion that you likely won’t be seeing any more collaborations from the two didn’t cement it, perhaps CEO Kirt McMaster’s penchant for saying the wrong things at the wrong time will.

The heady CEO spoke at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, and laid out this following juicy nugget:

Without Cyanogen, OnePlus would have sold like one device in international markets. Essentially they built their brand on the back of Cyanogen.

Whether McMasters’ comments are true remains to be determined, though we’re sure he could have made his point with a bit more class. It’s natural for the CEO to feel good about his company’s position, what with them securing a major partnership with Microsoft, and all. They’ve also gotten deals inked with major Chinese OEMs, Qualcomm and more to get Cyanogen loaded up on phones and development devices as soon as 2015.

There’s no doubt Cyanogen is great, but to suggest OnePlus would have been next to nothing without them is quite the boisterous stance. Luckily for OnePlus, there’s a chance to prove everyone wrong with a follow-up that runs software built by the folks who make what many consider to be the second best ROM in the land — Paranoid Android.

[via PCWorld]

Deal: $50 off the OnePlus One throughout an entire week of flash sales

OnePlus is trying to move some units of their first smartphone this week. The company has announced a series of flash sales that will go off this week. We already know what the sale will entail, too: they’ll be taking off the cost of either the 16GB Sandstone Black or 64GB Silk White, which are price tags of 0 and 0, respectively.

The catch? These sales will only pop up at brief moments, so you’ll need to be at the ready to order one. Thankfully the company gave us a cheat sheet on the times that the deals will go live. Here’s the full list:

• June 1 – 12:00 GMT (8 am EST)


• June 2 – 2:00 GMT (10 pm EST -1 day)


• June 3 – 12:00 GMT (8 am EST)


• June 4 – 2:00 GMT (10 pm EST -1 day)


• June 5 – 12:00 GMT (8 am EST)


• June 6 – 2:00 GMT (10 pm EST -1 day)


• June 7 – 12:00 GMT (8 am EST)

As you can see, the times alternate each day to to account for different regions, or for people who might not be able to get to their computer to order one at a certain time. Pick a day that works best for you and make sure you’re there!

We should also note that stock for this promotion is limited on a daily basis. For instance, the 64GB Sandstone Black model is still available today, however the Silk White model is already sold out (more will be available during tomorrow’s promotion). That means you’ll want to pick the soonest day and time you can to make sure you can be on OnePlus’s website right when the floodgates open. Knowing all that, you can head right here to buy one if you’re interested.

[via OnePlus]

OnePlus is announcing something on June 1st, could be the OnePlus Two

Last year, the original OnePlus One was made official back in April. Here we are at the tail-end of May and suffice to say, we’re probably a little overdue for a One followup. Now, OnePlus never committed to a yearly release schedule for their devices, so it’s not like they’re actually “late.”

But with OEMs like Samsung, HTC, LG and Sony already playing their hands for this year, OnePlus has to do something and quick. If we had to give them credit for anything, it’d be keeping their cards so close to their chest. After several mini announcements this year (like OxygenOS) we may finally have a date for actual new hardware.

OnePlus is once again teasing an event on their Google+ page, but this time it looks like it could actually be the OnePlus One followup we’ve been waiting for and not some new portable battery charger or anything like that. The startup posted a photo of the original One being erased along with the tag line “we think it’s time for a change.” If we were betting men, we’d say a OnePlus Two is almost certain. Of course, this is OnePlus we’re talking about here, so we wont get our hopes up lets we find ourselves blindsided by a new OnePlus color or denim battery cover.

Like in previous years, 2015’s flagships all have a little something they’re missing. The Galaxy S6 has some of the worst battery life we’ve experienced on a handset, the G4 is simply too big to use comfortably with one hand, the One M9 has a terrible camera that only performs in the best lighting conditions. If OnePlus was smart, they’d carefully consider all of these weaknesses when building their new phone. With rumors that there could be 2 OnePlus handsets this year — a smaller sized phone and larger sized phablet — we hope they can surprise us.

 

 

OnePlus to address lingering touchscreen issues for the OnePlus One in latest firmware update

While OnePlus has worked to eliminate the touchscreen issues many have experienced since the OnePlus One launched, there were still a few unlucky souls out there who were stuck with the abnormal behavior (said behavior being that the touchscreen simply became unresponsive with no rhyme or reason). Thankfully those issues are close to being addressed.

OnePlus says they’ve been working tirelessly with Synaptics to figure out why some users were still experiencing these issues, and they’ve seemingly identified the issue and are working on a fix. A firmware upgrade is being readied for those who are affected by it, great news if you were at your wit’s end and just about ready to quit.

Unfortunately the good news stops there as the company does not yet have a timeline to provide for its arrival. If your patience has already worn thin they’re inviting you to contact customer service just as you normally would, but for those who can stand to wait then the suffering should soon come to an end.

[via OnePlus]

OnePlus One’s CyanogenMod 12.1 nightlies now have touchscreen fix, and early results seem good

OnePlus mentioned they’d be working on a final fix for the OnePlus One’s touchscreen issues, and it seems they’re further along than they let on. The fix can be found in the latest CyanogenMod 12.1 nightlies for the device.

The early word from those who have already flashed it seems overwhelmingly positive, with many folks suggesting their touchscreen issues have completely evaporated as a result. There’s a small group who remain skeptical, saying they’ll see how things fair once their device is used in warmer conditions (the issue is apparently magnified in heat).

So what do you do from here? Well, if you’re comfortable flashing custom ROMs and need this fix as soon as possible, the May 15th nightly (and any nightlies thereafter) should have the fix. Otherwise if things go well with testing in the early going it might not be long before the OTA is on its way to your handset. Let us know if you notice the change if you flash it!

[via Reddit]

Alleged OnePlus 2 leak shows phone could have wooden back with fingerprint scanner

The OnePlus 2 is on its way, and the OnePlus team has started their unapologetic hype train leading up to the big July 27th reveal. Sad news for them, though, as PhoneArena seems to have procured shots of the thing ahead of launch.

There are 4 initial takeaways just by taking a quick glimpse at the photos:

1. It does resemble the OnePlus One ever-so-slightly.


2. It seems to have a metal frame, though this could just as easily be a plastic border made to look like metal.


3. The back appears to sport wood, which would be a very nice touch (but could also be a premium wooden cover that won’t come stock with the device).


4. There’s some sort of dimple on the back cover. The OnePlus logo is clearly visible beneath it, so one could surmise that the dimple is the fingerprint scanner rumored to be part of the kit.

And that’s just what we know from this supposed leak (it’s not known how reputable the source of the leak is). OnePlus has already spilled the beans on a couple of device details, such as the fact that it’ll use USB Type-C, as well as confirming the use of a modified Snapdragon 810 chipset that goes easy on the heat.

Other rumors suggest we’ll be getting another large screen in the 5.5-inch to 5.7-inch range which has a strong chance of boasting 2560 x 1440 resolution. The phone will also obviously launch with Lollipop-based OxygenOS. One last tidbit confirmed by the company is that the device will cost more than 2, which doesn’t exactly give us a solid price tag but at least tells us to expect the base storage model to cost higher than its predecessor.

[Updated to note that there’s a chance this could be a fake render.]