Google Maps is a tool that most of us use on a daily basis, whether we are are looking for a place to meet up with friends or travel in our cars. Developers often use its API in various applications and services. For a change, here are three open-source alternatives to Google’s solution. Follow the link to learn more!
During Samsung’s annual personnel appointments announcement, we learned that J.K. Shin will no longer be handling the day-to-day operations of Samsung’s mobile division. Instead, this will be done by Dongjin Koh so that Shin can start focusing on the company’s long-term strategy as well as developing new growth businesses
For those living in the United States, when you use Google’s Image Search feature on a mobile browser then you’ll be greeted with a few new features. First is the ability to ‘Star’ an image for viewing later. You can then view your saved images and then add them to various ‘Collections’ to keep your saved images organized.
WhatsApp has almost one billion users across the globe, and a recent version of the application blocks access to Telegram links on it. The discovery has been made by a Redditor, and can either be an intentional move or a simple bug that blocks an ability to open links. Knowing Whatsapp, we can’t dismiss the first possibility.
If you were waiting to see the Android-to-Windows porting project in action, we have some really bad news for you: Microsoft has stopped working on Project Astoria, which was set to help developers to bring Android application to Windows 10. It appears that Android developers have to stick with just the billion people using Android handsets — bummer!
Google has just released a new application on Google Play called Arts & Culture that brings you into over 850 different museums that have partnered with Google Cultural Institute. With the application you can view and zoom into artwork in amazing detail, go on 360 degree tours through hundreds of museums, heritage sites, and landmarks, learn about the artwork and artifacts featured in these museums and more.
Adobe debuted Premiere Clip one year ago, but sadly it was only available on iOS. This is no longer the case as the application is finally available for Android in the Google Play Store. Premiere Clip is a video editing application that lets you sync a soundtrack, add slow motion effects, and adjust lighting before you publish it online or send it to your friends.
The XDA/Android podcast will bring you the best news each week from the perspective of the XDA team, r/android mods, admins and users. Each week you can find our latest episode here, on Youtube, Pocketcasts and on your favorite podcast app through the RSS feed: http://ift.tt/1QXeF8c
In this episode, the team discusses this year’s Black Friday deals, the OnePlus cable controversy and the company’s maturity, and the way in which updates and upgrades improve our user experiences!
Today’s cast includes:
Mario Serrafero: Twitter
Daniel Marchena: YouTube
Corey Feiock: Twitter
TK Bay: YouTube, XDA TV
Check Out XDA on Social Media. Twitter, Facebook and Google+
and don’t forget to pay a visit to r/Android!
Separate XDA Sub forums have been created for the carrier variants of the LG V10. This includes forums for Verizon V10, AT&T V10 and T-Mobile V10. Head on over if you plan on purchasing the V10!
The LG V10 boasts of some neat video recording capabilities, including manual mode for videos. This short film showcases just that, as it was filmed entirely on the LG V10. Take a look and see what manual mode can do in the hands of people that know how to make use of it!
If you have purchased the HTC Butterfly 3, you’d find this guide by XDA Senior Member DarkRazorZ useful. The guide has posted a step by step process on installing TWRP and then rooting the device, so read on ahead!
Historically, adding a forum on XDA has been decided by having our intern spin around in an office chair, blindfolded, throwing darts at a board. Actually, we add forums based on which devices we think will have strong community support.
We don’t get it right 100% of the time, but a lot of the time, just by virtue of having a spot on XDA and being in front of many users, the forums we add end up having a good bit of activity.
But today, we want to try something new: Create Your Own Forum, or CYOF. Through CYOF, we will let some members of XDA lead an entire forum section dedicated to ANY topic of his or her choice. These Forum Leaders will have basic moderation privileges and will share the responsibility with XDA’s moderation teams to ensure that forum sections are active, intelligent, and adhere to site rules.
What are some examples of new sections that might come to life under CYOF? Well, it’s up to you guys. Maybe we should have a section for modifying Android Auto in Honda cars, or a forum for utilizing Tasker in home automation scenarios. Perhaps someone wants to add a forum for a device we don’t have listed on XDA, or even a particular carrier. Maybe someone wants to lead a section where XDA users talk about repurposing old devices. Or organizing an open source development project. The possibilities are endless.
Since we consider this an experimental initiative, we are going to start with just five new forums under CYOF. If you have an idea for a new forum section and want to volunteer your time and energy to be a Forum Leader, you can apply below. Or, even if you don’t want to be a Forum Leader but have an idea for a new forum, let us know!
XDA Recognized Contributor abo hani is back with a guide on adding custom stage icons and desktop shortcuts on to the Xperia Home launcher. Using this guide, you can modify a lot of elements on your home screen!
BlackBerry says they are being kicked out of Pakistan for refusing to give in to the government’s demands for access to their customers’ private messages. The Government of Pakistan has actually given BlackBerry until December 30th to comply with their “security concerns”, BlackBerry COO Marty Beard says they are not willing to make this compromise and they will be pulling their products from the country.
A member-contributed teardown of the ZTE Axon by Alex Lin has been featured on iFixit. Most teardowns are showcased via photos but this one was done in a series of videos. From removing the upper and lower back covers to pulling out the embedded battery, if you need to repair your ZTE Axon then this guide can help.
Companies like Samsung are pumping money into research and development all the time and every now and then we see some interesting and unique patent designs pop up because of it. It seems like Samsung’s latest patent filing shows us that a scrollable smartphone, a folded smartphone with a row of tabs, a foldable smartphone with a hinge system and a bendable smartphone.
To attract more customers, OnePlus has offered to trade in your new smartphone for a reduction in cost towards the purchase of an OnePlus 2 or OnePlus X. The company is also offering free insurance if the trade-in amount exceeds Rs. 5,000. However, as reasonably expected, the trade in value differs from device to device, and is also affected by the age and condition of the device. The offer is valid till 31st December 2015 in select Indian cities.
Microsoft has launched the Lumia 950 and 950 XL in India, for price tag of Rs. 43,699 ($657) and Rs. 49,399 ($743) respectively. Microsoft is also offering the MS Display Dock worth Rs. 5,999 for free with the new phones, giving you power to use the smartphones as a host for a desktop experience.
The Oppo R7s Plus has been certified by Tenaa in China and with this we learn quite a bit about the upcoming smartphone. Photos reveal that it will have a metal build to it and that there is a fingerprint scanner on the back. Specs in the certification shows us a 6″ 1080p display, Snapdragon 615, 32GB/64GB storage, 4GB of RAM and a 4,100mAh battery.
Like almost every device, the Xperia M2 has some flaws. There are some issues with GPS and the camera that still need to be addressed — but on the official forums, a Sony staff member promised to deliver an update fixing these problems. Be on the lookout as Sony may deliver an update in the upcoming weeks.
Multi booting roms on your device is a way to get past the trouble of making constant nandroids when you just want to swap between roms to try out something new. With the help from XDA Senior Member 54NJ41‘s guide, you can now enable multi boot on your Galaxy Note 5!
Electron team’s Ditto Note5 ROM has been updated to bring the features from Samsung Galaxy Note 5’s Marshmallow Leaked ROM on to the Galaxy S6. What’s more, all the features have been backported on to Touchwiz based on Android 5.1 rather than on Android 6.0. Go ahead and give it a try!
With the ease of meeting people and adding contacts to your smartphones today, you might have found yourself in a situation where you just couldn’t remember who that “John Smith” in your contacts list was. Was it your classmate, that guy your friend introduced you to once, or someone else entirely? Thankfully, contact notes exist to solve just that problem … except they actually aren’t very useful by default and aren’t shown when they matter the most: when you receive a call.
This is the issue XDA Senior Member nikanorov noticed and decided to fix with his app. Originally called Call Notes Pro, it is now known as HappyID and is offered for free, without advertisements, to everyone.
HappyID’s main goal is to show you your contacts’ notes on your screen when they call you, but it offers several options to make itself as useful as possible; you can pick which fields are shown in addition to the contact’s note field, including the company they work at, their title, birthday, when they last called and more. You can also reorder these fields so that the ones you’re interested in the most show up at the top.
Android is full of games, free or paid, with freemium and premium features. Most of us have at least one game to kill time, or liked a particular game at a particular time. Gamer or not, what Android game would you recommend to others, and why?
Close followers of OnePlus may have noticed a recent change in attitude from the company’s co-founder Carl Pei. Of late decisions and announcements have been made that have restored a little faith in the way the company is managed that gives us an increased hope for the future of OnePlus.
In early September, an unexpected bout of modesty arrived in the form of a forum post; in the post Carl was blunt and opened with the phrase “We messed up the launch of the OnePlus 2”. It was a surprising move for a company that previously had focussed on maintaining forward momentum and not looking back. In the following paragraphs, he appeared humbled and genuinely moved by his customers, partners and staff plights. In a bid to ameliorate the situation and assuage the growing malcontent he pledged to make a change to future launches:
In fact, there are very few excuses in this world that are valid. We simply messed up again and apologize for that. We don’t plan on making further promises for future launches, and will instead focus on showing the world how we’ve improved through our actions. – Carl Pei
Is OnePlus’s invite system a good method of controlling orders?
— XDA Developers (@xdadevelopers) November 24, 2015
Were they in the wrong? Yes. Did they handle the matter better than we expected? Certainly! There are still many understandably unhappy customers out there, the ones that received a cable with the OnePlus 2 are not eligible for a refund as the faulty cable is safe to use with the OP2. However, many customers are hailing this as an honest and open move in the right direction. Customers began claiming that they had received a full refund shortly after the announcement was made and were reporting that they had not been asked to return the cable before receiving their money.
I, for one, feel that Carl Pei and the company he co-founded have turned a corner — for the first time since the company’s inception there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. The issues are still there, but they are being handled as well as many of us could have hoped for and I can see them becoming less frequent as time goes on. It is well worth remembering at times like this that the company has not even celebrated their second birthday yet. As the old saying goes “Everyone makes mistakes. It’s what you do after the mistake that matters.”
Are OnePlus heading in the right direction? Leave a comment below!
Sony has finally fixed the Stagefright issue on the Xperia Z2 and Z2 Tablet. Update 23.4.A.1.264 brings just this security fix and is possibly the last before the Marshmallow’s official roll-out. If you are lucky enough, you should have gotten a notification prompt already. If not, wait a couple of days to get it.
To access your favorite applications you have to either go to your home screen or change the process in the app drawer. Snap allows you to check out information from widgets directly from a status bar. It’s an easy and efficient way to access your favorites on any screen.
The Huawei Mate 8 was announced yesterday, boasting the new Kirin 950 SoC. To help the development of this device, XDA sub forums are now live for the Mate 8!
It hasn’t been too long since the release of the Elephone M2, but in order to keep the competition on its toes, Elephone has already announced the M3. The device is to be powered by the octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 SoC (MT6755), and will sport a USB Type C connector along with the signature M series design. The price of the device will be an unbelievable $99 in China.
There are reports that a benchmark for a Tegra X1 Nvidia Shield Tablet has been spotted. That and much more news is covered by Jordan when he reviews all the important stories from this week from his top secret cabin. Included in this week’s news is the announcement of the Huawei Mate 8 and be sure to check out the articles talking about all the exciting new offical CyanogenMod 13 Nightlies. That’s not all that’s covered in today’s video!
Jordan talks about the other videos released this week on XDA TV. XDA TV Producer TK released a video talking about the updated for Marshmallow GravityBox Xposed module. Then TK gave us a quick review and giveaway video for Choetech Wireless Chargers. be sure to check out Jordan’s OnePlus X unboxing video. Pull up a chair and check it out.
Be sure to check out other great XDA TV Videos.
Stories mentioned:
Check out Jordan’s Tech Channel and Jordan’s Vlogging YouTube Channel
Google has been granted a patent which shows a design for a wearable that sits on a single ear and wraps around the head. The patent also describes the wearable of being capable of retaining its shape configuration, along with doubling up as a touch-based input surface. There is a good chance that we may see this as a basis for the next-gen Google Glass wearable.
ZUK Z2, the successor of the ZUK Z1, will reportedly pack a few trick up its sleeve. Along with the Snapdragon 820, the Z2 will also boast of a rotating camera, much like the OPPO N3 albeit with a different swivel direction. The phone is scheduled for Q1 2016, so we can expect more information as the dates draw closer.
Want to insert those fancy introduction pages on your app? Try out this App Intro library made by Paolo Rotola and Andrew Quebe. The library has been updated to v3.3.0, which adds support for Android 6.0 Marshmallow along with support for status bar visibility options and navigation bar color options.
SunShine is a bootloader unlock tool that works on many different Motorola and HTC devices. The tool is continuously updated to support the unlocking of a wider range of devices as they discover new exploits to take advantage of. Today, XDA Senior Recognized Developer jcase has announced that SunShine has been updated to version 3.2 Beta with support for the Verizon Motorola Droid Turbo.
Mozilla is seemingly trying really hard to cut ties with Google. One of the most popular browsers doesn’t use Google as its search engines, and according to Mozilla, the company doesn’t rely on Google to get revenue anymore. Firefox uses Yahoo and some local search providers to get revenue. Find out how much they earned!
Somewhere around a decade ago, when XDA was a little forum based in Netherlands, users gathered together to make some modifications to Windows phones. It was one of the few, if not only operating systems that allowed modding to such degree.
Many amazing developers started their careers hacking their Windows Phone devices, but when Android appeared, everything changed. Microsoft decided to tightly close all its systems making them similar to iOS. Windows Phone has almost died.
XDA was always about crossing boundaries and limitations. There is always an exploit waiting to be discovered and used to gain control over technology. One of the Windows Phone legends – XDA Recognized Developer Heathcliff74 – did something utterly amazing and created a tool that makes Windows Phone enthusiasts cry tears of joy. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Windows Phone Internals. WPI allows users to unlock the bootloader on selected Lumia phones. After this process, devices can obtain similar rights to Superuser rights on Android. This means that we might finally see some custom ROMs landing on nearly forgotten Lumias.
Heathcliff74 announced that Windows Phone Internals support most versions of Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile. These two operating systems are shipped with most currently available Lumia phones. There is a great chance that your device might be supported and you can unlock your phone.
There are two detailed videos on which Heatcliff74 shows how to use his tool. While it looks simple, you should use this tool with caution. Messing around with bootloaders is always risky, so there is always a chance to hard brick your device.
On the first one you can learn some basics.
Second video teaches you how to create a custom ROM with root access.
You can find more details about this tool by visiting the forum thread and Heathcliff74‘s website on which the Windows Phone Internals are shared, or read the XDA thread. Thanks to XDA Senior Moderator timmymarsh for the tip!
Are you excited to see some new custom ROMs on Lumia phones? Are you ready to get a Windows Phone device? Share your thoughts in comments below!
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Customers who register on vMall currently will receive up to £40 in discount coupons to be used on selected Honor smartphones, including the new Honor 7, only available to redeem on November 27th. The Black Friday flash sale will start at 9:30am while stocks last. Customers who have already registered, will receive their sign-up discount coupon soon.
While we enjoy seeing CyanogenMod 13 ports popping up like mushrooms, there are some devices that get Android 5.1 ports. One of them is Samsung Galaxy E5 (E500H). CyanogenMod 12.1 port has been made by XDA Forum Moderator and Recognized Developer jackeagle. The only bug left is a FM Radio, so it’s not a big deal. Of you have this device, give it some AOSP love!
The Elephone M2, successor to the M1, packs in a decent punch on a tight budget. The company Elephone is also known for its pro-developer attitude, and to further encourage developer attention, we have created sub forums for the device. Head on over to meet other Elephone M2 users!
The Wileyfox Storm and the Wileyfox Swift are two affordable but high-bang-to-buck devices currently available in Europe. These devices run on Cyanogen OS, and naturally, are very easy to play with on the software side of things. Keeping in mind this aspect, we now have XDA forums for the devices to bring together software tinkerers for both the devices!
Google is hosting a big discount promotion for the holidays that include up to 70% off in in-app purchases for select games, game titles on sale from $0.99, up to 50% off applications and app subscriptions, whole albums discounted down to $0.99, lots of HD movies on sale for $5.99 and sometimes lower, deep discounts on books and a collection of TV shows to choose from too. There’s a lot of material at low price, which should appease a lot of people.
Samsung devices are widely recognized by Android enthusiasts to tout superb hardware but unfortunately acceptable software. Touchwiz – love it or hate it, you’re generally stuck with it if you buy a Samsung Galaxy device.
Thanks to the efforts of the development community on XDA, you can have the option to switch over to an AOSP-based ROM – if you’re willing to wait. Most flagship devices on the market have been blessed to operate on Snapdragon SoCs, making it easier for developers to port AOSP over to their hardware thanks to the extensive documentation provided to developers on the hardware. However, Qualcomm’s blunder with the Snapdragon 810 caused Samsung to drop its use of the SoC in favor of exclusively using its own in-house Exynos SoC.Enthusiasts looking to use Google’s stock Android software in place of Touchwiz have generally had to wait many months for the developer community to port AOSP to their hardware, thanks to complications arising from a lack of documentation for Samsung’s Exynos brand of SoCs. That hasn’t deterred developers from tackling the issue anyways, and thanks to XDA Senior Member tdcfpp we now have our first AOSP-based ROM booting on the Samsung Galaxy S6.
According to a post by the developer responsible for the initial port, the major hurdle that they have yet to get past is getting multi-boot working because the developer cannot continue testing the port as it would require removing the Android HardwareComposer (enabling GUI rendering via the GPU) in order to check the FrameBuffer. Doing so would currently cause the device to enter into a bootloop, making further testing more difficult for the developer.
Clearly, the team’s work is far from over, but it’s important to show them your support if you’re interested in eventually tasting the Marshmallow-flavored fruits of their labour.
Huawei has made the Huawei Mate 8 official at an event held in China earlier today. The device is the successor to the Huawei Mate 7, and sports Huawei’s new Kirin 950 SoC.
Starting off, the Huawei Mate 8 sports a large 6″ IPS LCD display with 2.5D curved glass. The display is surprisingly still 1080p with a ppi of ~367. The choice of FHD instead of QHD on such a large display does seem questionable, but it should help with the battery life and graphics performanc without sacrificing too much quality.
The Mate 8 bears a metallic body, with a curve on the back of the device to make it a bit easier to hold in the hand. The device press images look like they are bezel-less, but there’s a good chance it has a manageable amount of bezel all around, all of which were photoshopped away to make the device look more appealing. The speakers of the device find themselves on the bottom edge, while the back of the device carries a circular fingerprint reader, much like the new Nexus.
On the inside, the Huawei Mate 8 bears HiSilicon’s new Kirin 950 SoC, which is an octa-core chipset based on the popular big.LITTLE design. It has 4x Cortex A53 clocked at 1.8 GHz along with 4x Cortex A72 clocked at 2.3 GHz. The device rocks a Mali-T880MP4 for the GPU, along with 3GB/4GB of LPDDR4 RAM depending on which storage variant the user opts for. It comes in storage variants of 32GB, 64GB and 128GB, along with a slot for microSD expansion which users can choose if they are willing to give up dual SIM functionality.
Camera wise, the Huawei Mate 8 packs in a 16MP Sony IMX298 sensor with a f/2.0 aperture, OIS, PDAF and dual-LED flash; but supports only 1080p video recording with no 4K option. The front shooter is a 8MP Sony IMX179 with a f/2.4 aperture.
The Huawei Mate 8 packs in a 4,000 mAh non-removable battery (supporting Quick Charging up to 2A at 9V), and runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, albeit with Huawei’s EmotionUI 4.0 skin on top. The device will be available for purchase in China from Q1 2016, and will cost CNY 2999 ($470) for the 32GB/3GB variant, CNY 3699 ($580) for the 64GB/4GB variant and CNY 4399 ($690) for the top tier 128GB/4GB variant. Global availability of the device will be announced at CES 2016, so be on the lookout if this device appeals to you.
What are your thoughts on the Huawei Mate 8? Will you purchase a 6″ LCD device with a 1080p display in 2016? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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