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If you follow the technology industry, there's a good chance you've heard the phrase "right to repair" at least once or twice. While many manufacturers want to restrict consumers' ability to repair the devices they own or take it to a third party for repairs, there are people on the other side of that argument who have been trying to keep that right. This is a battle and a debate that has raged on for years at this point, but today, Right to Repair proponents were granted a pretty huge win.

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The Pixel phones have replaced the Nexus line and while the former may have more exclusive features than the latter, that doesn’t always make them less open. In fact, just a few days after the Pixel 3 finally became available, it has already been rooted. Not the usual SuperSU root method, mind, but with the more modern modular Magisk framework. Suffice it to say, the Pixel 3 and 3 XL are about to become even more interesting in the hands of modders and hackers.

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While rooted devices may have security implications for owners themselves, they’re also seen as potential threats to one specific class of Android apps: online games. Rooted devices have the potential to install modified versions of the game that could, in theory, give players an unfair advantage. That’s why some developers, by default, prevent rooted devices from playing their games. While that may be understandable, Pokemon GO developer Niantic Labs is using a rather controversial method to do so.

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The heat that Facebook and Twitter are getting over various issues have put social networks under a microscope. It is also giving their rivals a chance to spin the narrative in their favor. Snapchat, who also recently received a lot of flak for its hugely unpopular UI redesign, is one that definitely needs such a positive spin. And this fledgling Snapchat Alpha hidden deep in the Android app could be the image, not to mention performance, boost it sorely needs.

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Google giveth and Google taketh away. New software versions are often expected to bring in new features and remove bugs but it isn’t unheard of for things to happen the other way around. There are some cases that features presumed to be there forever are suddenly yanked out without as much a warning. That definitely feels like the case with the sudden inability of non-root call recording apps to work in Android 9 Pie. That said, it probably shouldn’t come as surprise despite being an unfortunate “regression”.

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This week the developer known as Amir Ziadi released version 3.6 of his Rootless Pixel Launcher for Android. Those users that've never used this launcher before - it's good stuff. It's ready to roll with just about everything you could possibly want that's possible inside Oreo. All SORTS of features are jammed into this launcher, and it's entirely free to download and use.

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While many still swear by Google’s second-gen Pixels as the smartphones to beat, even their fiercest fans won’t deny how problematic they were at launch. And while the Pixel 2 XL has the lion’s share of complaints, even the smaller Pixel 2 was not without problems. One of those has remained unaddressed in the 8 months the phone has been in the market. Unsurprisingly, a frustrated developer has stepped to offer a workaround, but it’s not as simple as it sounds.

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Android is a highly customizable operating system but there are still some things that you can’t easily change. Almost ironically, the simplest customization, applying themes, isn’t possible without rooting your device. In Android 8.0 Oreo, however, developers have found a way around that limitation, creating the Substratum app and subsequent themes around it. Starting Android P, however, that workaround will no longer work and you’ll have to make do with theme engine your OEM has or, in the case of Google Pixel phones, none at all.

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Samsung boasts of how it has reimagined the smartphone camera in the Galaxy S9 and S9+ but it might still fall short for some more professional mobile photographers. There are certain restrictions placed that may not make sense for some of these advanced users. Those might need more than just a simple third-party camera app. The Zero Camera Mod is definitely more than just that and can greatly improve the Galaxy S9 camera experience, provided you're willing to go for a bit of an adventure.

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Some have been prophesying the eventual death of rooting on Android. If true, it's a very slow death. While it will probably never go away, development might soon be left to languish by the wayside. Especially when some of the main developers in the community start riding into the sunset. The most recent, and perhaps the biggest, blow is the famed Chainfire. After retiring from active root development last year, he is now putting a complete and indefinite halt to the apps themselves.

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This morning the creator of the app Magisk Manager discovered and announced the appearance of the same app on Google Play - only something was off. It would appear that the app on Google Play wasn't released by the creator, John Wu, at all. Instead of the app coming with the same features as the original, it came with malware.

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For one reason or another, there may be a time when you will need to record phone calls on your phone. Never mind the legal considerations, the technical hurdles might be harder to overcome. Not all phones expose that functionality even if, in theory, the device is more than capable of handling it. Fortunately on Android, you do have a choice and a way to enable call recording, like for the Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro. The catch is that getting there is actually the hard part.

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