XDA Android: November 2017

Thursday, November 30, 2017

New Samsung Patent Shows a Fully Curved Galaxy Smartphone

In 2013, Samsung released its first smartphone with a flexible AMOLED display: The Galaxy Round. A year later, the Galaxy Note Edge hit the market with a curved display. The Galaxy Round and the Note Edge had limited availability, and it took 2015's Galaxy S6 Edge to make curved displays really popular.

It's telling that Samsung doesn't sell a mainstream flagship smartphone with a flat display anymore. And if a new patent is any indication, it's not stopping at displays — its next phone might fold around itself.

Following on the heels of Samsung's patent for a foldable phone user interface, LetsGoDigital found a series of new patents in the WIPO (World International Property Office) database for a device with a curved display on both sides. It doesn't merely have a curved-edge display — instead, the proposed smartphone has a 180-degree curved display that curves all the way to the rear. In the patent, Samsung says it offers a "completely new user experience" and an "improved grip".

Samsung Patent Shows Fully Curved Smartphone

The patent's first sketch shows a traditional curved-edge display for comparison. The second sketch describes the manufacturing process for the 180-degree screen design, implying that Samsung's thought seriously about developing it into a finished product — though it's impossible to say for sure.

A fully curved smartphone with a 180-degree curved display would be something completely different from what we've seen, but it might also never advance beyond the planning stages. Either way, we're eagerly awaiting Samsung's next move.

Via: LetsGoDigital (in Dutch)

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FCC Documents Reveal Unreleased Huawei Daydream VR Controller

Google has released two generations of virtual reality (VR) headsets of its own so far, both based on its Daydream VR platform. But while it announced a bevy of Daydream VR partners at its Google I/O developer conference this past summer, few third-party products made to store shelves. If Huawei has its way, it might just be one of the first: On Thursday, the smartphone maker's custom-designed Daydream VR controller passed through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Google's Daydream VR platform is in many ways an evolution of Google Cardboard, a cheap, affordable answer to Samsung's Gear VR. Daydream VR, which runs off of a compatible Android smartphone, has its own application store, development kit, and certification process. It's even got its own internal Google division, Daydream Labs, dedicated to exploring new VR experiences. Google Cardboard was great for what it does, but Daydream VR takes things to the next level.

Google had a number of requirements for Google Cardboard partners from the get-go, and the same is true of Daydream VR. They were fairly stringent, which is one possible reason there hasn't been much of an uptake yet. Another is market dynamics: HTC announced this past summer that it was working on a standalone Daydream VR headset, but cancelled that project in light of financial woes.

The FCC documents seem to indicate that Huawei is close to releasing something Daydream VR-related. It's similar to the Daydream VR controller that ships with the Daydream View, but Google affords original equipment manufacturers (OEM) a bit of design freedom, so it's not exactly the same. Still, all of the Daydream controller's most familiar elements are there, including volume up and down buttons, a touch-sensitive directional pad, a return button, and home button.

Here's hoping we learn more about it soon.

Via: Ausdroid Source: FCC

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Google’s Datally Helps Manage Your Mobile Data Usage

Despite the advent of 4G LTE, mobile data continues to be an expensive and unreliable proposition in many parts of the world. But at the same time, data consumption has increased exponentially — and with it the need to track it. Newer versions of Android have built-in management tools that keep tabs on data consumption, but for folks who need something a bit more robust, there's Datally, a new data-tracking application from Google.

Datally — a rebrand of Triangle, a data management application that Google released in June — can help users save more and do more with their data. It's designed to help users do three things, Google says: Understand, control, and save data.

Google Datally

Datally helps users understand their data consumption by generating hourly, daily, weekly and monthly reports. It also recommends ways they can save data by changing their usage habits.

Datally also has Data Saver, a feature that blocks application background data and tracks the real-time usage of every application on a given device. If an application is using an abnormal amount of data, users can cut off its internet access with one tap.

Finally, Datally helps users save their data by alerting them whenever they're near a public Wi-Fi network. The application helps them connect to the network and allows them to rate its network quality.

Google says that it has been testing Datally in the Philippines over the past few months, and that during its testing, users saved up to 30 percent of their data.

If you'd like to give a whirl yourself, Datally is available globally on the Play Store for all phones running Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher.

Source: Google Download Datally on the Play Store

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Amazon’s Silk Web Browser is Now Available for Select Fire TV Devices

Beaming an old webpage to your TV is harder than it looks, which is why it's sometimes helpful to have a built-for-TV web browser at your disposal. Sure, it's probably easier to pull up the troublesome website on your smartphone or tablet, but there's no substitute for the big screen. That's why Amazon brought Silk Web Browser, its in-house browser for Fire OS devices, to its Fire TV set-top box lineup this week.

Bing is the default search engine for the Silk Web Browser on the Fire TV, and it's the first thing you see after you launch the application. (Luckily, you can change it to Yahoo! or Google's homepage by digging through the settings menu.) Otherwise, the experience on is a dead ringer for the Silk Web Browser on Amazon's Fire tablets, especially when it comes to playing videos — you get a full array of playback controls including play/pause, fast forward, and rewind, which map to the Fire TV remote's physical buttons.

Silk Web Browser has been in the works for a while, it turns out. Evidence emerged in March of this year, when a few crafty folks discovered that you could sideload the tablet version of the Silk Web Browser onto Fire TV devices and it would work with the remote control. A few months later, an official beta version of the Silk Web Browser prematurely appeared in the Amazon Appstore.

Unfortunately, Amazon hasn't made a lot of progress on compatibility in the interim. Silk Web Browser only supports the 1st and 2nd generation Fire TV, the 2nd generation Fire TV Stick, and all version of Element and Westinghouse's Fire TV Edition televisions. The 3rd generation Fire TV is the odd one out, oddly, but it's a safe bet that Amazon's working on a fix.

Source: AFTVnews

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Instagram is Reportedly Testing ‘Regrams’, Stories Archives, and More

There's no doubt that Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app for Android and iOS, is more popular than it's ever been — it hit 500 million daily active users in September. But it could always use an update. On Thursday, The Next Web discovered unannounced features lurking in an unreleased Instagram client, including the ability to "regram" — or repost — photos and videos, archive old Stories, and more.

Republishing another user's Instagram photo has never been easy, but 'regrams' promise to change that once and for all. They appear to be a way to reshare content from someone you follow, which previously required saving images or videos and publishing them on your own account. Instagram's work-in-progress regram button saves you the trouble by sharing content from someone you follow with all of the people who currently follow you.

Source: The Next Web

If Instagram's other feature in testing, GIF search, sounds familiar, that's because social and messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Allo have popularized it in recent months. It's pretty much like it sounds: Type in the name of the GIF you'd like, and you'll get a gallery of choices you can add to Stories. From what we can tell, Giphy's supplying the content, here.

Ever wished you could save a Story forever? Good news: Instagram's testing an archive feature for Stories. There's also a new friends category, "Closest Friends," that lets you add people to a special list that not everyone can see. The next time someone who's using Closest Friends shares something, they'll be prompted to make it public or keep it private.

Source: The Next Web

That's not all that Instagram's testing. The Next Web spotted evidence of an iOS beta program, WhatsApp integration, a list of trending emoji and hashtags in Instagram's search bar, the ability to follow hashtags, and a pinned thread option in direct messages.

All of these features are in development, of course, and they may or may not make their way into the public Instagram app. With the evidence we're seeing, though, it looks like they're far along in the development cycle. Here's hoping they come to light.

Source: The Next Web

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OnePlus Announces New Beta Update for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T

In light of the OnePlus 5T's launch, some OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T owners expressed concern that their phones wouldn't receive as much attention from OnePlus as they had in the past. But OnePlus allayed those fears with the launch of the Android Oreo-based OxygenOS open beta in early autumn. And on Thursday, it released new updates for the OnePlus 3 (v28) and OnePlus 3T (v18).

The open beta updates — which include the same changes thanks to OnePlus's unified update system — focus on the phones' home screen, gallery and contacts applications, and behind-the-scenes system behavior.

Specifically, OnePlus says it's optimized the OnePlus Launcher's application shortcut menu and tweaked the Shelf's visual style. The Gallery application, meanwhile, now has a map that shows where photos were taken by location, and the contacts application now lets you add emergency information (ICE) to your personal information.

The rest of the updates' changes are mostly under-the-hood. Wireless hotspot management has been optimized, and both the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 4T now support the aptX/aptX HD Bluetooth audio codec. The Quick Settings menu has been spruced up a bit; there's a fix in place for slow charging issues; Wi-Fi performance is improved; battery usage statistics are more accurate; and the latest Android Security Patch was applied.

But as stable as the update might look, don't expect it to run flawlessly. You'll occasionally run into a long-press problem with the home button, the only recourse for which is a device restart. If you experience it or any other issue, OnePlus asks that you submit a bug report.

Source: OnePlus

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Pay What You Want for 10 Beginner-Friendly Coding Courses

It's no secret that the most important and high-paying jobs of the future reside in the world of tech and web development. It is somewhat of a secret, however, that the skills you need to break into this thriving sector can be obtained entirely online, at a tiny fraction of what you'd pay for a traditional computer science degree.

Online learning packages like the Learn to Code 2018 Bundle will teach you everything you need to know about some of the most popular, powerful, and in-demand programming languages and platforms around, and it's available for absolutely any price you want to pay.

Here's how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you'll instantly unlock one of the collection's 10 courses. Beat the average price paid, and you'll get the remaining 9 at no extra charge.

With 10 individual courses covering a different element of the development process, this bundle will turn you into a full-fledged coding wizard in no time, even if you're a complete novice going in. You'll learn how to code with Python (one of the most powerful and versatile languages on the planet), make top-selling apps for the iPhone using Swift 4, utilize the power of JavaScript in order to build interactive websites, and much more.

You'll take your education further as you dive into real-world projects, like working with web pages via MySQL, and you'll even dive into courses that will show you how to be competitive in the development world by mastering C#.

There's a truly massive amount of information crammed into this bundle, and you only have to pay what you want in order to gain access.

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Waze Adds Motorcycle Mode, Hotword Detection, and Carpool Route Support

Google-owned navigation application Waze is gaining new features ahead of the holiday season, and they're some of the biggest in its history. In a blog post on Wednesday, the Waze team announced a new motorcycle mode, hands-free voice commands, and support for carpool routes.

The most popular of the bunch is likely to be the new hotword detection feature. It's sort of like the Google Assistant's "OK Google" phrase: When it's enabled (Settings -> Sound & voice -> Talk to Waze -> and toggle Listen for "OK Waze" on), you can say, "OK Waze", followed by a voice command. It's an improvement on Waze's existing Voice Commands suite, which already let you preview a route, send road reports, and add pit stops by shouting at your phone's microphone. But before the update, you had to initiate Waze's voice command mode by tapping a shortcut or gesturing with your fingers. Now, it's entirely hands-free.

Source: Waze

Hotword detection isn't all that's new. Cyclists will appreciate two new motorocycle avatars to choose from, plus a new Motorcycle mode that's optimized for two-wheelers. After setting your vehicle type (Settings -> Vehicle Type -> Motorcycles), you'll get specialized routing that's optimized by Waze's crowdsourced data. Specifically, you'll be directed to routes where motorcyclists are riding, and you'll get a more accurate estimated arrival time.

The last new feature is support for carpool lanes, or high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes. In 22 markets across the United States and Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, Waze will determine the optimal route for users driving together with friends or co-workers, and will serve up additional navigational options and arrival times. (Enable it by heading to Settings > Navigation > Add Toll/HOV pass and selecting from the list of pre-populated passes, and by specifying your vehicle type in Settings > Navigation > Vehicle Type). Waze says it a first for navigation apps.

The new and improved Waze will roll out to Android and iOS users over the coming weeks.

Source: Waze

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Honor 7X Camera Test

There's a lot of reason to be excited about the new Honor 7X phone. Every aspect of this device is a step up from the previous model, the Honor 6X, including the camera, and while pricing and availability has yet to be announced, we expect the 7X to come in at a budget-friendly price with wide availability. The main camera has 16MP and 2MP sensors. We took this phone out to shoot some footage and take some photos, to test it out. We'll find out more next week on Dec 5 when Honor is expected to announce this phone.

For video, the phone can shoot in 1080p at 30FPS. That's pretty standard for any budget phone, so there's no surprises there. It was kind of nice find that it can also shoot in slo-mo at 120FPS, however this is limited to 480p resolution.

Check out these photos taken on the Honor 7X and keep an eye out for more video on this phone soon.

We thank Honor for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.

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Google Chrome for Android will Soon Password Exporting

It's a little hard to believe, but it's been almost five years since Google released Chrome for Android. Since then, the mobile port of Google's popular web browser has replaced the stock Android Open Source Project (AOSP) browser on most Android phones, received countless updates, and become one of the most-downloaded browsers on Android. Now, it's gaining a new feature: Password exporting.

Last month, we reported on Google Chrome's option to view saved passwords, which lets you view your passwords without having to sign into your Google account or visit the Google Passwords website. A new commit in the Google Git shows that Google plans to expand on that feature with a built-in password exporter tool.

Here's the commit's description:

[Android settings] Add a menu item to export passwords

This CL adds a menu item, behind an off-by-default feature, for exporting passwords from Chrome's settings. The menu item currently does not perform any action.

When the feature goes live, you'll see an Export passwords option in the top-right corner of the Passwords page in the Chrome Settings menu. Tapping on it will start the export process, which will download a file of your saved passwords to your smartphone. (The commit doesn't specify the format of the file, unfortunately, but it presumably isn't proprietary.)

Chrome's passwords exporter will be a welcome addition to a robust web browser. With increasing competition from third-party web browsers such as Samsung Internet, Firefox Quantum, and Microsoft Edge, Google's wise to keep adding features that attract users to its ecosystem. The Google Git commit shows the search giant is doing just that.

Source: Google Git

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Xiaomi Redmi 5A Launched in India with Snapdragon 425 and 13MP Rear Camera

A week ago, Xiaomi said that it would launch a new Redmi smartphone in India. Some reports suggested that it was the Redmi 5A, the successor to the Redmi 4A, which launched in India in March. Those reports turned out to be true: On Thursday, Xiaomi has officially took the wraps off the India-bound variant of the Redmi 5A, an entry-level budget smartphone that doesn't break the bank.

Here's everything you need to know about the Redmi 5A.

Redmi 5A Hardware

The Redmi 5A, which slots just below the Redmi 4 in Xiaomi's ever-expanding product portfolio, isn't new. It launched in China in October, and it's cut from the same cloth as the Redmi 4A, which is to say that it shares the same plastic materials, dimensions (140.4 x 70.1 x 8.35mm), weight (137 grams), 3.5mm headphone jack, and micro-USB port. The only differences are the Redmi 5A's larger battery capacity, new dual SIM/microSD slot, and newer software — it's powered by MIUI 9 out-of-the-box, based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat. All the rest of the specifications are the same.

Redmi 5A Specifications

That said, the Redmi 5A's specifications aren't bad for a budget phone. The Redmi 5A packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, a 28nm SoC with four ARM Cortex-A53 cores and an Adreno 306 GPU, and a 5-inch HD (1280×720) display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 296-pixel density (PPI). The phone's available in two models: One with 2GB of RAM with 16GB of storage, and one with 3GB of RAM with 32GB of storage.

Both models have a microSD card slot which supports up to 128GB of expandable storage. And both have a 13MP rear camera with a f/2.2 aperture, 1.12μm pixels, 5P lens, and phase detection autofocus, and a 5MP front-facing camera with a f/2.0 aperture.

The Redmi 5A sports a 3000mAh battery, which is a bit smaller than its predecessor (the Redmi 4A had a 3120mAh battery). Xiaomi says that the battery is rated for 8 days of standby time and 7 hours of video playback, and that it rapidly charges up to 5V/1A.

Rounding out the phone's internals are sensors including an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor, and an array of connectivity options: 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth v4.1, and GPS.

Redmi 5A Availability and Pricing

The Xiaomi Redmi 5A comes in Dark Grey, Gold and Rose Gold colors. Its price in India starts at ₹5,999 (~$93) for the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage variant. The 3GB RAM and 32GB storage variant will cost ₹6,999 (~$108), and the first five million units of the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage variant will be sold at ₹4,999 (~$77), which makes the device the cheapest Xiaomi smartphone in India for the time being. It will be available on December 7 at 12 p.m. on Flipkart and Mi.com, as well as Xiaomi's Mi Home Stores. It will then be made available at offline retailers including Mi Preferred Partners.

Redmi 5A	Specifications
Dimensions	140.4 x 70.1 x 8.35mm
Weight	137g
Software	Android 7.1.2 Nougat with MIUI 9
CPU	Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 (4x 1.4GHz A53) SoC
GPU	Adreno 306
RAM and Storage	2GB RAM with 16GB of storage and 3GB of RAM with 32GB of storage, expandable storage up to 128GB with microSD card slot
Battery	3,000Ah battery (5V/1A)
Display	5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) Full HD display
Wi-Fi	802.11n (2.4GHz/5GHz)
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.1
Ports	micro-USB, 3.5mm headphone jack, Dual SIM + Dedicated MicroSD Slot
Rear Cameras	13MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture, 1.12μm pixels, 5P lens, and phase detection autofocus
Front Camera	5MP front-facing camera with a f/2.0 aperture

Our take: The Redmi 4A has proven to be one of Xiaomi's bestsellers, and it seems likely that the Redmi 5A will follow in its footsteps. There's a negligible difference between the two, but Xiaomi doesn't have much competition in the sub-$100 price segment.

The ₹1000 discount is a clever idea, as it practically guarantees the 2GB/16GB Redmi 5A will gain a foothold right away. The buyers of the first five million units will get it at a cheaper price than Chinese customers, which is a testament to Xiaomi's persistence.

Source: Flipkart

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Alexa Rolls Out Notifications and Per-User Voice Recognition to More Alexa Developers

Amazon's voice-powered virtual assistant, Alexa, has been making strides lately. It could already tell you about your commute, make shopping lists, play music, give you the news, control your smart home, and lots more. But one of the features it lacked was notifications. Luckily, Amazon's on the case: Earlier this year, the retailer announced a developer preview of a notifications feature, and on Wednesday it expanded that preview to more developers ahead of an early 2018 launch.

The notifications feature, which customers can opt into on a per-app basis using the Alexa dashboard, gives developers greater control over Amazon's Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, and Alexa-enabled third-party speakers. It's a bit like the Google Home's "proactive assistance": Applications can flash or change the color of a device's lights when a message comes in, for example, or serve up a list of alerts on Alexa-enabled speakers with screens (like the Echo Show). Users, meanwhile, can ask, "Alexa, what did I miss?", or, "Alexa, read my notifications", to hear new messages, and can disable or suppress notifications by putting devices in Do Not Disturb mode.

Amazon says they're already live in Alexa applications like Life360, a family monitoring app that alerts users when loved ones arrive at designated places, and Dominos, which alerts customers about the status of their delivery.

The notifications announcement dovetails with the introduction of another new Alexa feature: Personalized responses. Amazon's Echo speakers already had the ability to distinguish between multiple users, but early next year, the retailer will let third-party developers take advantage. Amazon's "Your Voice" can recognize up to ten different voices associated with a single Amazon account; asking for book recommendations or a shopping list, for example, will give individualized results.

If you're interested in playing around with Alexa's dev tools, head to the source link to sign up for early access. Users, on the other hand, will have to wait until 2018 until notifications and personalized responses start showing up in their favorite Alexa skills.

Source: Alexa Blogs

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Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Microsoft is Working on a Smartphone Companion App for Windows Photos

ARM compatibility. Tabbed multitasking. A timeline-based workflow. The Microsoft's Insider program is a proving ground for experimental Windows features, and the new and improved Photos application is no exception. According to Italian blog Aggiornamenti Lumia, which spotted it on Tuesday, a yet-to-be-announced companion app for iOS and Android devices will let users quickly transfer pics and videos to a nearby Windows 10 PC.

The application will sync on-device content via Wi-Fi, and it's said to be akin to Microsoft's OneDrive application. Setup's simple: When it goes live for Windows 10 testers in iOS and Androids' respective app stores, it'll prompt them to scan a QR code on their PC and connect to the same wireless network.

Source: Aggiornamenti Lumia

The Photos companion app's launch will coincide with improvements to the Windows 10 Photos app. In the coming weeks, the rudimentary photo and video editor will get new special effects, music, themes, and a new sticker collection of hats, cars, and text overlays.

In many ways, Photos on mobile is indicative of Microsoft's broader strategy: Play nicely with other platforms. Microsoft's Edge browser just exited beta on Android. Newer Windows 10 preview builds let you send links directly from your phone to a PC. And Microsoft's word-in-progress Graph will eventually synchronize your phone and PC's clipboard.

Aggiornamenti Lumia wasn't able to nail down the Photos companion application's release date, but did manage to find a registration webpage. With any luck, it won't be long before it's out in the wild.

Source: Aggiornamenti Lumia Via: The Verge

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Honor’s Smartphone Shipments Doubled in India in 2017

Honor's relentless release cycle shows no sign of slowing down. Earlier this year, the Huawei sub-brand took the wraps off the Honor 6X and a couple of high-end devices, most recently the Honor 7X in China. On Tuesday, it made the Honor V10, its newest flagship phone, official. And the effort's paying off — the company doubled shipments of its smartphones in India year-over-year, and intends to ramp up manufacturing in the country.

"India is a key market for [us] and we will bridge the gap between our global and India launches going forward," Huawei Consumer Business Group Vice President P. Sanjeev, said in an interview with PTI. "We are looking to time our India launches in tandem with global launch and going by that, we should be seeing the new […] phones in India as soon as they are launched in the overseas market."

Given the competitiveness of Honor's smartphones, that's not exactly surprising. The V10, for example, has a 6-inch Full HD+ (2160 x 1440) display, Huawei's Kirin 970 SoC, a dual camera module consisting of a 16MP and 20MP, and a 3,750mAh battery. It ships with Android 8.0 Oreo, and it launches internationally on December 5.

The V10, which will be available in China from December 5 starting from CNY 2,699 (~$409), might launch in India for under Rs. 40,000 (~$620) a unit, according to PTI. The Honor 7X, meanwhile, launches in December. Registrations for the device have started on Amazon.

If both phones launch in India at competitive prices, they'll be candidates for the market's best affordable flagships, battling against the OnePlus 5T and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2.

Via: NDTV Gadgets

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Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus Leaked on TENAA Ahead of December 7 Launch

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus was leaked by the Chinese regulatory body TENAA on Wednesday. What's more, Xiaomi officially confirmed via its Weibo account that it will announce the Redmi 5 and the Redmi 5 Plus on December 7.

To recap, the Xiaomi Redmi 4 was announced earlier this year, and rumors of its successors have been churning out for the last few weeks. There have been rumblings that Xiaomi would launch both the Redmi 5 and the Redmi 5 Plus, a higher-end variant, before the end of 2017, and earlier this week the Redmi 5 was prematurely revealed by China Telecom.

Now, the Redmi 5 Plus has been leaked on TENAA, giving a first good look at the device. The phone will have a similar design to the Redmi 5, and will be made of metal with plastic caps at the top and bottom. The highlight might just be the 5.99-inch IPS display, which has a 18:9 aspect ratio and a Full HD+ (2160×1080) resolution. It's a larger screen than even the phones in Xiaomi's Redmi Note series.

The Redmi 5 Plus will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC, and it'll come in two variants: One with 3GB of RAM and 32GB, and one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Both will have a 12MP rear camera, though the sensor and pixel size remain unknown at this point. And the front-facing camera will be 5MP, same as the Redmi 5.

The Redmi 5 Plus will have a 4000mAh battery, judging by the leak. While the battery capacity is bigger compared to the Redmi 5 (3300mAh), it's still smaller its predecessor (4100mAh).

Separately, Xiaomi confirmed that the Redmi 5 and the Redmi 5 Plus will be announced in China on December 7. The Chinese OEM said that both phones will have a FullView display and a single rear camera, along with a fingerprint sensor below it. We expect to learn more next month.

Source: Roland Quandt on Twitter Via: GSMArena

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Take an Extra 70% off this Ethical Hacking Training

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Samsung Begins Mass Production of Second-Gen 10nm FinFET Chips

Samsung. Intel. TMSC. They're members of the exclusive club that fabricate the system-on-chips (SoC) in hundreds of millions of devices, and over the last few years, they've constantly been trying to outdo each other. The latest to make a move is Samsung, which this week announced it was ready to start mass-producing second-generation 10nm FinFET chips in Hwaseong, Korea.

That's a lot of jargon, but here's the gist: Samsung's new chips benefit from 10LPP (Low Power Plus), a new process that the company expects to start showing up in consumer devices in early 2018. With the introduction of the 10LPP process technology, its processors will be able to achieve 10% higher performance and 15% lower power consumption compared to the previous generation, which used 10LE (Low Power Early). 10LPP is derived from 10LPE technology,

"We will be able to better serve our customers through the migration from 10LPE to 10LPP with improved performance and higher initial yield," Ryan Lee, Vice President of Foundry Marketing at Samsung Electronics, said in a press release.

Samsung Electronics — the division within the company responsible for its SoC business — thinks 10LPP will confer a number of competitive advantages. First, it'll reduce the turnaround time for new chips — i.e., the steps between development and mass production. Second, it'll lead to much higher initial chip yields, which will stem losses incurred in manufacturing.

Samsung also announced today that its newest manufacturing line, S3, is ready to ramp up production of 10nm chips (and eventually 7nm FinFET chips). It's located in Hwaseong, Korea, and it's the third fabricator in the company's chip business. (The first two, S1 and S2, are in Giheung, Korea and Austin, Texas, respectively.)

Source: Samsung Newsroom

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Report: Samsung Likely to Source Fingerprint Sensors from Egistec for the Galaxy S9

These days, it's hard to find a phone without a fingerprint sensor. But not all fingerprint sensors are created equal. Take Samsung, for example, which shipped the Galaxy S5 with a swipe-based fingerprint sensor that didn't always work reliably. The Seoul, South Korea-based company switched to a much better touch-based sensor for the Galaxy S6, but two years later, Samsung was back in hot water for the Galaxy S8 and the S8 Plus's awkward rear-mounted, off-centered fingerprint scanner. But it might make amends with the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.

A Commercial Times report identifies Taiwan-based Egis Technology (Egistec) as the most likely fingerprint supplier for Samsung's fingerprint scanners, which are said to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2018. Historically, Samsung's been Egistec's biggest customer — the biometrics firm supplies fingerprint sensors for its Galaxy A, C and J series smartphones. But if it nabs the Galaxy S9 series contract, it'll mark the first time it's cut into the supply chain for Samsung's flagship phones.

It'd be payday for the Taiwan-based company. The Commercial Times report estimated that Egistec would generate net profits of as high as NT$2 billion (about $66.6 million) in 2018 by winning orders for fingerprint sensors for the Galaxy S9 series. That'd be up from net profits of NT$434 million (about $14 million) in the first three quarters of 2017, from losses of NT$65.64 million a year earlier.

According to the latest leak by Evan Blass on VentureBeat, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are expected to feature fingerprint sensors on the back. However, the fingerprint sensor will be placed vertically below the camera and the heart rate monitor, ditching the off-centered layout of the phones' predecessors. It remains to be seen how good the speed and accuracy of the new fingerprint sensors will be, but judging by Egis Technology's expertise, there's nothing to worry about.

Via: Digitimes

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Andy Rubin Takes Leave of Absence from Essential as Google Investigation of “Inappropriate” Relationship Emerges

Essential Products, the startup founded by Android co-creator Andy Rubin, launched its first product — the Essential Phone — to great fanfare earlier this year. But the company's in hot water over a Google investigation that alleges Mr. Rubin, who took a leave of absence for "personal reasons" on Wednesday, carried on an "inappropriate relationship" with a female colleague while at Google.

For the uninitiated, Mr. Rubin and Android — the company he helped to found more than a decade ago — was acquired by Google back in July 2005. He stayed on at Google for nine years, overseeing the eponymous Android operating system's (OS) development before departing in 2013 to found Playground Global, a studio that provides resources, mentorship, and funding to hardware startups. According to multiple reports, his departure coincided with the start of Google's investigation.

The nature of Mr. Rubin's relationship was never detailed in the report, but states that the employee filed a report with Google's Human Resources department. Google's policy prohibits personal relationships between two employees in the same division, and the company's investigators reportedly concluded that "Rubin's behavior was improper and showed bad judgement."

While Mr. Rubin hasn't commented on the situation, his spokesperson, Mike Sitrick, said that "any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual." Sitrick went on to say that Mr. Rubin "was never told by Google that he engaged in any misconduct while at Google and he did not, either while at Google or since."

It's another setback for Essential, which made major headlines but hit a few bumps in the road leading up to and following the release of the Essential Phone. In Mr. Rubin's absence, Niccolo de Masi, Essential's president, will be in charge for the time being.

"At our last regularly scheduled board meeting earlier in November, Andy asked for a leave of absence to deal with personal matters," an Essential spokesperson told The Verge. "The Board agreed and our President, Niccolo de Masi, will continue to run day to day operations at Essential."

Via: The Verge Source: The Information

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New Snapchat Redesign Separates the Social from the Media

If Snapchat was getting a bit too cluttered for your liking, you aren't the only one. Snap Inc., the company behind the popular social network, announced a redesign on Wednesday that streamlines the user experience (UI) by splitting it in two. Now, friends and third-party content inhabit distinct, separate sections of the application.

"Separating social from media has allowed us to build the best way to communicate with friends and the best way to watch great content – while addressing many of the problems that plague the Internet today," Snapchat said in a press release. "The new Snapchat separates the social from the media. This means that the Chats and Stories from your friends are on the left side of Snapchat, and the Stories from publishers, creators, and the community are on the right."

It's a palpable change to the way Snapchat works. When you fire up the application, you're instantly taken to the camera portion of the app. A swipe to the left of the camera shows content from your friends and other users who you communicate with every day, and a swipe to the right pulls up Snapchat's Discover feature. It's the tab where content from publishers, content creators, and the community live, and it's personalized to your tastes and preferences. (Your subscriptions and Snapchat Stories you're following are at the top.)

"Until now, social media has always mixed photos and videos from your friends with content from publishers and creators," Snapchat said. "While blurring the lines between professional content creators and your friends has been an interesting Internet experiment, it has also produced some strange side-effects (like fake news) and made us feel like we have to perform for our friends rather than just express ourselves."

Snapchat's also improved the Friends page. Starting today, your friends are listed in the order you want to talk to them.

It's a radical change for Snapchat, but it's probably for the best. Social networks started a medium for folks to keep track of and socialize with the people they know, but they've become one-stop shops for friends, celebrities, company, political, entertainment, and music updates. It's made it increasingly difficult to find the content you care about.

It's imposslbe to put the genie back in the bottle — we're used to social networks that do just about everything. But Snachat's move seems like a step in the right direction. Hopefully, others follow suit.

Source: Snap Inc.

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eBay Introduces a Personalized Shopping Experience for the Google Assistant

As useful as they are, Google Home and Google Assistant-enabled smart speakers are ultimately just another way to Google. But that's not necessarily a bad thing — especially when it comes to shopping. (Who doesn't like to shop hands-free, after all?) That's why companies like Walmart are getting in on the trend, and why eBay announced a personalized shopping experience for Google Assistant devices.

On Wednesday, eBay said it'll open up its storefront to Google Assistant-enabled devices including Google Home, Google Home Mini, home automation products from third-party manufacturers, and smartphones that support Google Assistant.

"We've collaborated with Google to be among the first to take advantage of the multi-surface switching capability, which lets you carry a voice conversation on Google Home over to your phone, seamlessly," eBay Lead Product Manager Jay Vasudevan wrote in a blog post. "So when you tell Google Home that you want to buy an item on eBay, you can easily switch to your phone, take a peek at the deal recommendation to make sure everything is correct and buy with confidence."

Source: eBay

It's basically like it sounds: Say, "ask eBay," followed by the product you'd like to find (e.g., "ask eBay to find me GoPro Hero 6"), and eBay's app for the Google Assistant does the rest. You'll be told how many product listings matched your query, and it'll recommend the best deal it could find. You'll then get the option of visiting the product page on your phone or refining your search.

That's not all that's new with eBay on the Google Assistant. The retail behemoth updated the "What's it Worth?" feature on the Google Assistant, which now lets you ask the trending price of any item you're thinking about selling.

It isn't Google's first foray into retail. Earlier this year, the search giant added Target to Google Express, a shopping service that acts as a middleman between buyers and brick-and-mortar retailers. With that came an announcement came a new shopping feature for Google Assistant.

Source: eBay

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Google Lens is Now Widely Rolling-out in Assistant on Pixel and Pixel 2

Google Lens, which was announced in Google I/O 2017 as the spiritual successor to Google Goggles, is a next-gen computer vision platform that classifies real-world objects. With nothing more than a smartphone's rear camera and a machine learning algorithm, Lens recognizes objects, landmarks, and even text in real time. It's exclusive to Google's first-generation and second-generation Pixel devices (though it isn't impossible to enable Lens in Google Photos for all devices using root), and starting this week, it's heading to the Google Assistant.

Several Pixel and Pixel 2 users are reporting that the update's begun in earnest. Two weeks ago, some lucky few spotted Lens in the Google Assistant app, but the rollout didn't appear to be widespread.

Google Lens in Google Assistant

If you're lucky enough to have gotten Lens, 9to5Google notes that the Google Lens icon will appear in the bottom-right corner of the Assistant user interface (UI) if the preferred input is set to Voice. If Keyboard is the selected method, it'll appear to the left of the microphone icon.

There's a brief tutorial when you first launch Lens, which explains what it can do, how it works, and what sort of information it's sending to Google's servers. After you tap through the messages, a carousel of four categories — Barcodes, Books & Media, Landmarks, and Text — serve as suggestions of what to try. Snapping a photo is as easy as tapping anywhere in the viewfinder; an icon in the bottom corner pulls up the live camera view, and a flash icon in the top-right corner switches on the flash.

Google Lens has a Share feature that outputs an image to any app, alongside any recognized text. Images taken with Lens appear in general Assistant history alongside the accompanying search result.

Lens in Assistant is set to roll-out in India, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Singapore on devices with English set as the default language. It's still early days for Lens, as it remains in a "Preview" state. And if you don't have a Pixel or Pixel 2, you're out of luck — Google hasn't said when Lens will come to other devices. Here's hoping that changes soon.

Via: 9to5Google

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Google Project Detects When Someone is Stealing Glances at Your Phone

Google's researchers are constantly experimenting. Some of their projects, like Gmail, are almost destined to become full-scale products. Others never see the light of day. But we're hoping that one — an artificially intelligent (AI) camera app that recognizes when more than one person is looking at a phone's screen — is in the former category.

Google's person-detecting demo, which will be presented by Google researchers Hee Jung Ryu and Florian Schroff at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Long Beach, California next week, uses the Google Pixel's front-facing camera and an eye-detecting algorithm to determine whether more than one person is looking at the screen. It's quick enough to recognize a person's gaze in two milliseconds, and runs entirely locally, meaning it doesn't need to be processed on Google's servers.

The embedded video above gives an idea of how it works in practice. (The researchers call it an "electronic screen protector.")

It's not Google's first foray into gaze detection (as Quartz points out, Google holds patents for vision-tracking computer pointers and Pay-Per-Gaze ad analytics suites), but it's arguably the most useful. These days, as an increasing number of people view family photos, check bank account statements, and enter payment information on the go, smartphones are becoming incredibly personal. And just like someone looking over your shoulder while you enter your ATM PIN number feels creepy, there's something uncomfortable about a stranger stealing glances at your phone's screen.

As Google accelerates its neural networks research and an increasing number of devices come equipped with AI-accelerated hardware, it isn't a stretch to say projects like these will become more common. But as with all internal Google projects, there's no guarantee they'll make their way into an application. At the very least, they're fascinating examples of how neural networks have the potential to affect our lives.

Source: Quartz

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OnePlus Co-Founders Talk About Plans for India, OnePlus 5T Camera, and More

OnePlus is one of a kind. In just a few short years, the Shenzhen, China-based startup managed to capture 12 percent of the high-end smartphone market and amass a worldwide following. It's experienced outsized growth in India, and in a wide-ranging interview with Gadgets360, OnePlus co-founders Pete Lau and Carl Pei of OnePlus underlined the region's strategic importance.

Mr. Lau called India's smartphone market "very, very important" for OnePlus and said that the company's working to "localize" its smartphones for the market. One example is in the selfie camera, Mr. Lau said:

"When you turn on beautification, our algorithms for India, for China and for North America and Europe are all different, because people in different regions have different standards of beauty […] It uses the SIM card and phone number. It can tell through the phone number, so it's not the colour of the skin. If it's a Chinese person who lives in India, they will have to use the Indian beauty standards," Lau replied.

OnePlus thinks those features will practically sell themselves. "In India we'll do some basic traditional marketing like airport billboards and theatre ads, but it's not going to be our main marketing strategy," Mr. Lau told Gadgets360. "As an example, if you have theatre ads, when OnePlus users watch a movie, they will feel really good to see their phone in the ad."

Mr. Lau also touched on the release of the OnePlus 5T, OnePlus's decision to swap the secondary rear camera's telephoto lens for a low-light sensor, and how that lens will improve with time:

"We see that the user demand for low-light photography exceeds that of optical zoom. This is a feature that we didn't talk about during the launch because it's coming later, but in social apps, when you take a video it's going to use the secondary camera so you can get better video in low light. These apps compress the quality of video […] You don't need to use the very high-resolution camera so you can use the better low-light camera. The app doesn't need to change. It will work automatically. This feature will come in a future OTA update."

It's all in OnePlus's go-getting spirit, Mr. Lau said. "[Our] direction will always be to implement the latest and greatest technology, as well as focus on our products. That will never change."

Source: Gadgets 360

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Blu’s Software Update is Locking People out of Their Phones

Blu is one of the biggest budget phone manufacturers out there. You don't have to take our word for it — the Miami, Florida-based original equipment manufacturer (OEM) nabbed a commanding 36 percent of the unlocked smartphone market in the U.S. last year, according to Strategy Analytics. The key to its success, some say, is a gigantic lineup of midrange, low-range, and feature phones that cover every price bracket from $20 to $300. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows: Some of Blu's devices don't always get the time and attention they should, which leads to serious bugs.

This week, users reported that an over-the-air (OTA) update rolling for the Blu Life One X2 and other devices is locking people out of their phones. After the upgrade, which includes the latest Android security patch level, is finished, the system reboots and appears to reset the security PIN/pattern, effectively locking users out of their devices — and by extension their applications and personal information. It's caused generated a slew of complaints on social media, including Twitter and Reddit.

@BLU_Products My Blu Life One X2 Has me locked out! Its asking for a password nothing works #Blu #Android #lifeOneX2

— Austin (@CyberDDog) November 29, 2017

The only fix for affected users at the moment is a hard reset with the phones' SIM card and SD card removed, which newer Blu phones automatically perform after a number of unsuccessful unlock attempts. But that's not doing the trick for some folks.

Blu says it's aware of the issue and says it's working on a remote fix for affected users, but we're skeptical. Users affected by the bug aren't seeing the required Wi-Fi keys load in the phone's locked state. Still, here's hoping the company brainstorms a solution — and fast.

This almost goes without saying, but if you own a Blu device, don't update it until Blu gives the all clear.

Source: /r/IntoBlu

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Microsoft Introduces “Sets”, Bringing Tabs to Every Windows 10 Application

Web browsers are much more versatile than most programs, generally speaking, and that's because they're skewed toward productivity. Case in point: Browsers such as Vivaldi, which allow you to group multiple tabs together and organize them any way you choose. So what if other programs were to adopt those same paradigms? That is to say, what if you could write a paper in Microsoft Word in one tab and research and search the internet in another, all within the same application? It's not as crazy as it seems.

"Sets", a new feature heading to the Insider release branch of Windows 10, condenses multiple programs into a single window. They're accessible from browser-like tabs, and the general idea is that users will be able to open said tabs inside any application running on their computer. Eventually, applications such as Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Spotify, and Counter Strike will automatically group together in a single, unified window, with the goal of improving productivity.

"With Sets, what belongs together stays together," Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President for the Windows and Devices group at Microsoft, said in a press release. "The concept behind this experience is to make sure that everything related to your task: relevant webpages, research documents, necessary files and applications, is connected and available to you in one click. As Office, Windows and Edge become more integrated to create a seamless experience, so you can get back to what's important and be productive, recapturing that moment, saving time."

"Sets" is a radical change to the way Windows works, and that's why it won't launch for everyone on the Insider track right away. Microsoft says some users will get the feature randomly, a rollout method that's known as A/B testing:

"With Sets specifically, we'll introduce a controlled study into WIP so that we can more accurately assess what's working and what's not," Mr. Myerson said. "That means a smaller percentage of you will initially get Sets in a build. It also means that some of you won't get it at all for a while, as we compare the usage and satisfaction of task switching in Windows for people who have sets versus people who don't. Eventually everyone will get Sets — but it could be awhile."

For a full list of what to expect in the latest Windows Insider release, check out the source link.

Source:
Windows 10 Blog

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Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Bootloader Unlock Codes for the LG V30 (H930/H930G Models) are Now Available

The last update to LG's bootloader unlock program added the unlocked US model of the LG G6 (US997). Since then, the LG V30 has been announced, and released in select markets. It still hasn't seen a wider roll-out yet, but it has been available for more than a month in markets such as the US. However, development for the device hasn't started yet, because of one simple reason: there was no official bootloader unlock available, up until now.

LG has added the H930 and the H930G models of the LG V30 to its bootloader unlock program. The H930 is the unlocked European variant, while the H930G is an Italy-only model. Both of them are single SIM variants of the V30. Owners of these variants of the V30 can now head over to LG's site and get the bootloader unlock codes.

Unlocking the bootloader allows custom recoveries such as TWRP to be flashed. Developers have already started work on getting TWRP up and running. An alpha build of TWRP has been released by XDA Recognized Developer jcadduono. The developer says that things like OTG storage, MTP and ADB have been confirmed to work, but other things such as backup / restore and SuperSU haven't been tested yet. Also, he notes that the proprietary encryption on LG's stock ROMs will probably never work.

Releasing the bootloader unlock codes means that, potentially, LG V30 owners could have the chance to flash AOSP custom ROMs such as LineageOS in the future. However, it's currently too early to make bold predictions, and we're yet to see how the story of the V30's development will unfold. If the device gets popular among developers, then it's good news for all parties involved, especially for enthusiast users.

It's worth noting that LG still hasn't added the unlocked US model of the V30 (US998) to the bootloader unlock program. As the V20 and the G6's unlocked US models were eventually added, we expect to see LG add the US unlocked V30 model to the program in the near future. However, owners of US carrier variants or regional dual-SIM variants of the V30 are out of luck.

Source: LG Developer Via: XDA Forums Source 2: XDA Forums

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Google Patents Dual-Screen Convertible Laptop

Patents don't always make it into consumer products, but there's always a chance they might. And that's what makes Google's patent for a dual-screen convertible laptop so exciting.

The newly uncovered United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) filing follows another, related Google patent for an automated and motorized laptop lid. This one shows a device made up of two screens that combine to form a laptop.

We've seen a number of convertible 2-in-1s like these over the past several years in all flavors. Some have screens that fold around the back of the keyboard, and others detach from the keyboard entirely.

It's too early to tell for certain, but we might very well see elements of the patent's design make their way into a future Google-designed laptop — most likely a Pixelbook. Here's hoping that comes to pass.

Source: Fresh Patents

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Samsung Looking to Upgrade Bixby By Acquiring Fluenty, An Artificial Intelligence Startup

Fluenty is a smart reply assistant application, which can be run in both Korean and in English. When given a text, it can suggest automatic replies which range from witty to actual informational answers. Founded by developers previously at Naver and Daum, two of the biggest Korean search engines, the developers already have experience in creating intelligent algorithms. The service is available on KakaoTalk, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and Line. It launched in the US in 2015 and South Korea in 2016. It seems that now Samsung has acquired the firm, after investing nearly a million dollars in the company last year in September. This likely comes as an effort from Samsung to further improve their currently-lackluster AI assistant Bixby.

Bixby has been long criticised for its lack of features, launching even without voice recognition. When compared to its competitors, it's simply no contest and Bixby loses out, even today and even though Bixby offers some innovative features. Samsung looks to be wanting to change that, and will probably be looking to integrate the team of engineers, assets and IP they have acquired into improving the artificial intelligence.

This comes after just last month Samsung relaunched its Samsung Research division, which integrates the Digital Media & Communications Research Center and Software Center into one division of the company, with the sole purpose of improving their AI technology. Samsung has already made acquisitions in the past with the intention of improving its AI when it bought out the Viv Labs startup in the US last year. Samsung's smart home appliances are also likely to integrate Bixby at some point, so it seems Samsung is gearing themselves up for an all-out improvement on their artificial intelligence services. With the acquisition of the whole team behind Fluenty, it may be possible that soon Samsung can outpace its competitors, though they are in a position where they have to catch up, rather than put themselves in the lead.

Source: The Investor

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OnePlus 5T Lava Red is Exclusive to China

OnePlus announced the OnePlus 5T in early October, the newest in its wallet-friendly line of smartphones, and it's since gone on to break the company's sales records. But OnePlus isn't resting on its laurels. On Tuesday, it announced a red-colored limited edition OnePlus 5T "Lava Red" that'll be exclusive to China.

Source: OnePlus

OnePlus said the OnePlus 5T Lava Red will start at 2,999 RMB (about $450), which we're assuming is for the base 6GB RAM/64GB configuration. If there's a 8GB RAM/128GB — and that's a big if, because OnePlus hasn't released the Lava Red's spec sheet yet — it'll presumably cost 3,499 RMB (about $500).

For the uninitiated, the OnePlus 5T has a 6-inch, 18:9 aspect ratio display with a Full HD (1920 x 1080p) resolution. It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip paired with up to 8GB RAM, and it's got up to 128GB of non-expandable storage. The battery is 3000mAh, and the camera — a dual module with one 16MP sensor and one 20MP sensor — can produce the sort of out-of-focus bokeh effect seen on DSLRs.

The OnePlus 5T Lava Red is exclusive to China right now, but there's a chance it'll come to other regions eventually. We'll have to wait and see.

Source: OnePlus

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Xiaomi Redmi 5 Leaked by China Telecom, Has 5.7-inch HD+ Display and Snapdragon 625

Thanks to devices such as the Redmi 1s, which offers a great experience at a price point under $100, Xiaomi's Redmi series are some of the most popular devices out there. The Redmi 1s has since been followed up by the Redmi 2, the Redmi 3/3s, and most recently the Redmi 4/4X in 2017. Now, rumors about Xiaomi's 2017 budget smartphone, fueled by leaked TENAA listings and alleged live shots of Redmi phones, are positively flying. And on Tuesday, a China Telecom leak gave a tantalizing glimpse.

It's tentatively called the Redmi 5, and the design looks pretty similar to the Snapdragon variant of the Redmi Note 4. The phone has a metal body with plastic caps on the rear top and bottom, and its bezels are smaller than the Note 4. That's because the display is taller than any Redmi device released so far.

In the most drastic departure for the Redmi series yet, the Redmi 5 will be the first with a 18:9 aspect ratio. To be precise, it'll have a 5.7-inch 18:9 HD (1440×720) screen, which translates into an area equivalent to a 5.5-inch 16:9 display. That's a huge step up from the Redmi 4's 5-inch 16:9 HD (1280×720) display.

The Redmi 5 is said to be powered by Qualcomm's MSM8953 'lite' system-on-chip, better known as the Snapdragon 625 (seen on the Redmi Note 4, Mi Max 2, Mi A1 and others). The 'lite' label might have to do with the processor clock speed — the MSM8953 'lite' is said to be clocked at 1.8GHz instead of the standard Snapdragon 625.'s 2GHz clock speed.

The Redmi 5 will reportedly ship in configurations with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and all models will have a microSD card slot which supports expandable storage up to 128GB. It's said to have a 12MP rear camera, but the sensor and pixel size remain a mystery for now. The front-facing camera will have 5MP resolution, similar to current Redmi phones, and in terms of connectivity, the phone will reportedly have a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microUSB 2.0 port (isntead of USB Type-C), and dual SIM slots. It'll also have a fingerprint sensor.

The dimensions of the Redmi 5 will be 151.8mm x 72.8mm x 7.7mm, and it's said to weigh 157g. Unfortunately, it'll have a 3300mAh battery, which is a substantial downgrade from the 4100mAh batteries of the Redmi 4 and the Redmi Note 4. Coupled with the drastically larger display, it remains to be seen how the battery life will be affected.

Finally, the phone is said to ship with Android 7.1 Nougat and, strangely, Xiaomi's in-house MIUI software (version 8.5.1.1). We imagine that even if it ships with MIUI, which is unlikely given the Redmi lineup's history, it will soon receive an update to MIUI 9.

According to some reports, the Redmi 5 may be available starting from December 10. Stay tuned.

Source: Roland Quandt on Twitter

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NVIDIA Shield Tablet Update Patches KRACK and BroadPwn Vulnerabilities

NVIDIA released the original Shield Tablet back 2014, and followed it up with a more powerful model, the Shield Tablet K1, in 2015. It's not terribly common to see original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) support older devices long past their launch date, but the company continues to buck the trend by regularly upgrading its entire Shield lineup's software. Most recently, it announced Shield Tablet firmware version 5.3, which includes security patches for KRACK and BroadPwn.

Shield Tablet firmware version 5.3 adds every Android security patches through November 2017. It also fixes connectivity issues with Zagg Bluetooth keyboards, and includes stability improvements and optimizations.

NVIDIA Shield Tablet 5.3 Update Change Log

Addresses Wi-Fi vulnerabilities (KRACK and Broadpwn)
Fixes connectivity issues with Zagg Bluetooth keyboards
Overall system stability and security optimizations
Update to Android Security Patch Level November 5, 2017

The last NVIDIA Shield Tablet and Shield Tablet K1 update, which was in May, included April's security update.

The BroadPwn vulnerability — a flaw in Broadcom's Wi-Fi code — was patched in Android's July 2017 security update. Along with a fix for BroadPwn, that month's patch addressed 138 exploits and vulnerabilities, 18 of which were Remote Code Execution, which allow attackers to execute code remotely.

KRACK was more recent. Security researchers uncovered the exploit in October, which spoofs legitimate access points. If a connection to a vulnerable device is successful, attackers can use a program called sslstrip to manipulate all traffic that isn't on port 80 to port 10,000. Once that's done, they're free to snoop on all of the data that's being transmitted to and from the aforementioned device.

Needless to say, it's a good idea to update all of your Shield devices.

Source: NVIDIA

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SwiftKey Beta Adds Location Sharing, Quick Paste, and More

Every developer debugs updates differently. Some choose to use Google Play's built-in beta-testing feature, while others like to separate their releases into several branches. SwiftKey takes the latter approach, and folks who've opted into the beta program will be glad to hear that a major update's rolling out this week.

The SwiftKey Beta offers a way to try out bleeding-edge tweaks before they make their way into the stable build, and the newest release, version 6.7.3.25, doesn't disappoint. It adds support for languages such as Chamorro, Ju|'hoan, Lisu, Palauan, Piedmontese, Sicilian, and Scots, and new layouts including Naratgul and VEGA. It also improves on SwiftKey's touch accessibility feature, which can now be accessed with a long-press gesture.

The update's other two standout features are location sharing and Quick Paste. Location sharing, which is limited to users in the United States for now, lets you send your coordinates to friends and family through SwiftKey. Quick Paste, meanwhile, puts any text you've copied next to the SwiftKey prediction bar for quick and easy access.

SwiftKey is one of the most popular 3rd-party keyboards available for Android in the Play Store. Its meteoric growth gained the attention of Microsoft, in fact, which acquired it for $250 million. Since then, the team's expanded it to iOS, released free themes, and introducing a number of new features.

Source: SwiftKey Via: Android Police

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Samsung Granted Patent for Under-Screen Fingerprint Sensor

Samsung's effort to develop an under-screen fingerprint sensor is an open secret. As early as Spring 2017, shortly before the release of the Galaxy S8, the Seoul, South Korea-based was developing a fingerprint sensor that could be embedded in a smartphone screen. It reportedly tried to build one for the Galaxy Note 8 but, but couldn't overcome key technical limitations. But if a new patent is any indication, Samsung hasn't given up on the idea.

On Tuesday, the company was granted a patent for an under-screen fingerprint scanner by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It describes a 12 pressure point-sensor sandwiched between cover glass and a display panel, and accompanying software that unlocks applications depending on who's using the smartphone.

Historically, Android smartphone manufacturers have placed fingerprint sensors either below phone displays (see: Lenovo's Moto G5 Plus) or on the rear cover (Samsung's Galaxy S8 Plus). In July, though, Vivo partnered with Qualcomm to prototype under-display technology that the company had been working on for the better part of a year. The new scanner passes ultrasonic signals through an OLED panel up to 1200 μm thick to read the contours of a fingerprint, obviating the need for direct skin contact.

As impressive as Qualcomm's solution is, though, it isn't as fast as traditional capacitive fingerprint scanners, and it requires an OLED panel in order to work properly. If Samsung's sensor solves those problems, it might just give it a leg up on the competition.

Via: GSM Arena Source: World Intellectual Property Organization

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Google Talks About Detecting and Blocking Tizi Android Spyward

We've reported in the past on the things Google does to keep Android smartphones and tablets safe from malware — for example, the Play Store detects Potentially Harmful Applications (PHAs) using a combination of algorithms and human screening. But sometimes new malware slips through the cracks. Case in point? Tizi, a spyware program that targets a small number of devices in specific geographic areas.

Tizi is part of a larger family of malware discovered by the Google Play Protect security team in September, which spotted it on device scans of root applications that exploited old vulnerabilities. After conducting an investigation this year, the team found more applications in the Tizi family, the oldest of which dated back to October 2015.

Source: Google Security Blog

Tizi was used in targeted attacks against 1,300 devices in a number of African countries, particularly Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania. The early versions didn't have rooting capabilities or obfuscate their code, but the malware, which works by stealing sensitive data from popular social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, LinkedIn, and Telegram, gained those features over time.

That's not the scariest part. The newest version of Tizi executes several info-stealing processes common to commercial spyware, including recording calls in WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype; sending and receiving SMS messages; and accessing calendar events, call logs, contacts, photos, Wi-Fi encryption keys, and a list of all installed apps. Tizi's developer went as far as to create a website and used social media to drive app installs from Google Play and third-party websites.

But Tizi shouldn't be a threat much longer. With Google's investigation now concluded, the search giant updated its on-device security services as well as the server-based systems that search for PHAs. The changes will help discover this kind of malware in the future, Google says.

For a technical breakdown of Tizi and a five-step checklist about how to reduce your chance of being affected by it, follow the source link.

Source: Google Security Blog

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Ubuntu 17.10 Brings Back GNOME Desktop Environment

Ubuntu is one of the most popular Debian-based Linux distributions, and it's undergone a lot of changes. Most recently, Canonical, the developer collective behind Ubuntu, switched from the GNOME desktop environment to an in-house alternative called Unity. But the most recent version of Ubuntu, 17.10, brings back GNOME 3.26.

With GNOME comes GDM (GNOME Display Manager), a tweakable settings menu that replaces Unity's LightDM. GNOME's ecosystem makes it arguably easier to customize than the latter — unlike previous versions of Ubuntu, for example, you can change the location of the Windows control buttons (minimise, fullscreen and close) in just a few button presses.

Source: Canonical

The flip-flop to GNOME follows Canonical's abandonment of Ubuntu Touch, a phone-optimized version of Ubuntu that used Unity as the default interface, and it's the first big change to Ubuntu in a while. It's not the only one: Ubuntu 17.10 has a new default display server, Wyland, that replaces the deprecated Mir (which is now only enabled on Internet of Things (IoT) devices.). Other changes include improved Bluetooth audio playback, the discontinuation of 32-bit ISO images, and a Linux kernel update to the newest version (version 4.13).

Ubuntu 17.10 also marks the second version of the operating system that starts with the letter "A". Ubuntu's names are ordered alphabetically, just like Android, and Canonical's started over again. Ubuntu 17.10 is "Artful Aardvark".

For a full list of changes, follow the source link.

Source: Canonical Via: Ars Technica

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Moto X4 and Z2 Force are the First Phones with Qualcomm’s Neural Processing Engine

Lenovo, Motorola's parent company, has been busy lately. It released the high-end Moto Z2 Force and the mid-range Moto X4 earlier this year, both of which rock Qualcomm system-on-chips (SoC) — the Moto X4 has the Snapdragon 630 SoC and the Moto Z2 Force has the Snapdragon 835. That's not the only thing the two have in common: They're the first commercially available phones to feature the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (NPE), a Qualcomm-designed platform that "accelerates on-device artificial intelligence (AI)."

The NPE leverages "on-device processing" and a deep learning model to improve the performance of the Qualcomm's Adreno GPUs — specifically the Adreno 510 (on the Snapdragon 630) and the Adreno 540 (on the Snapdragon 835). Lenovo, for its part, is using it to power its Landmark Detection application, which serves up links to Wikipedia pages when it recognizes one of more than 1,200 buildings, sculptures, and landscapes from around the world.

The NPE's potential extends beyond landmark-detecting smartphones, though. Qualcomm thinks that automotive, healthcare, security, and imaging industries stand to benefit.

You needn't look beyond the smartphone market for evidence. We recently reported that Google's new Pixel phones, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, are equipped with a custom SoC — the Pixel Visual Core (PVC) — that applies machine learning algorithms to the phones' image processing. Other SoC vendors on the cutting edge include Huawei and Imagination Technologies, which both recently revealed details about their own neural processing technologies.

If one thing's for certain, it's that AI developments are only speeding up — not slowing down.

Source: Qualcomm

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