Matisyahu's Blog

Nothing has released the Nothing OS 2.0.2 (link) and rather than waiting what I decided to do was side load it via the following instructions (link). The whole process was very smooth and when it came back up I found that it was more responsive although I did change the icon pack from the monochrome to the colourful one in part due to the icon pack not providing a full suite of icons for the apps that I use. Everything transitioned across smoothly without any problems with the kernel being rebuilt but still at 5.4.210 so I wouldn’t be surprised if some minor bug fixes along with security fixes were made given that the Android Security Patch has been updated to August 2023 (Google Play patch is still at July but those updates tend to come in the first week of the following month so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the August update in the first week of September 2023).

The big focus over the next few months is is the stabilisation of Android 14 with Samsung having pushed out a public beta of One UI 6 (their branded version of Android 14), there are rumours of the Pixel 8 which will be coming with Android 14 (which will probably use the latest LTS release of Linux kernel 6.1). There is still a lot of work being done at Nothing as many of those engineers who worked on the One Plus have joined Nothing (link) but I would say that when Android 14 does come to the Nothing Phone 1 that they’ll keep the same kernel version for the sake of stability.

The Pixel 8 will be interesting to see what they have on offer but given that the Pixel range now support VoLTE and 5G in New Zealand it has become a viable phone for those who are happy to buy a phone from a non-teleco retailer. My goto place where I buy my phone from is either Mighty Ape or PB Tech unless there price is too high and it works out cheaper to buy it direct from the US then get it sent via NZ Post’s remailing service called YouShop. Rumour has it that Google will extend support for the Pixel to match what Samsung is offering which will go a long way to reducing the amount of e-waste.