Google reportedly in talks for deeper Search integration on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

Samsung smartphones are equipped with the company’s own browser, Galaxy app store, “Samsung Daily” news feed, and even its own virtual assistant, Bixby. This, however, is set to change soon as Google and Samsung are reportedly discussing the idea of letting Google apps get more prominence on the latter’s Galaxy range of smartphones and tablet powered by Android.

As per Bloomberg, Samsung and Google are currently negotiating a deal that would promote Search, Google Assistant and the Google Play Store over the former’s Bixby and Galaxy Store. Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone producer and the deal would mean Google has direct access to the millions of Samsung smartphone users.

This also indicates Samsung is lower its guard against Google, especially with its continued bullishness about Bixby. Although Korean giant officially allowed the Bixby button on the Galaxy S10 devices to be remapped to other applications, the freedom was flanked by specific restrictions against using Google Assistant. We hope that changes for the older devices, even though the newer and upcoming ones including the Galaxy Note 20 series will no longer feature the Bixby button.

We can expect similar changes to other intersecting services from Samsung and Google, including the Samsung Daily and Google Discover feeds, the app store, default web browser, health and fitness apps, etc., in the future.

As per the Bloomberg report, Google is expected to pay for this real estate on Samsung phones but the terms of the deal have yet to be learned. This compensation could help mitigate the losses Samsung has incurred by the decline in sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Google did not explicitly confirm the development but did so without denying it either. A Google spokesperson told Bloomberg, “Like all Android device makers, Samsung is free to create its own app store and digital assistant… That’s one of the great features of the Android platform. And while we regularly talk with partners about ways to improve the user experience, we have no plans to change that.”

We hope to learn more details about this development soon. The collaboration follows the software optimizations announced for the Samsung Galaxy S20 series. The devices were among the first ones to launch with deep integration of Google Duo. This allows Duo to be launched directly from the Google Dialer or Messages app. In addition, the Galaxy S20 series was the first to support Full HD video calling on Duo.

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Source: Bloomberg

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OPPO R15 Pro receives stable Android 10 update with ColorOS 7

Back in 2019, OPPO launched a “Pro” variant of the OPPO R15 in India with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chip, 6GB of RAM, dual rear cameras and VOOC fast charging. The affordable mid-ranger was originally shipped with ColorOS 5.0 on top of Android 8.0 Oreo, and received its Android Pie update after a few months. The OPPO R15 Pro was also mentioned in OPPO’s ColorOS 7/Android 10 update roadmap, and the company started a public beta testing in late-June. And now, the final stable Android 10 update is rolling out to the OPPO R15 Pro with all the goodness of ColorOS 7.

OPPO R15 Pro XDA Forums

The new build is tagged as CPH1831EX_11.F.14, and it is currently available for download in India, Thailand and Malaysia. The changelog is quite huge, as ColorOS 7 adds several interesting features like the AirDrop like cross-device P2P file transfer protocol, system-wide dark mode, new navigation gestures, new Digital Wellbeing tools with Focus mode, revamped Camera UI, and much more. Expand the list below to see the complete changelog of this update.

ColorOS 7 (Android 10) update changelog for the OPPO R15 Pro

• Visuals
  • Brand new borderless design makes visuals more attractive and operation more efficient.
  • Added OPPO Sans as the default font. The new font delivers a refreshing feel and fits well with OPPO’s pursuit of blending beauty and technology.
• Smart Sidebar
  • Optimised user interfaces and improved one-handed operation.
  • Drag an app out of Smart Sidebar to open it in Split-screen mode.
  • Added two settings: Assistive Ball Opacity and Hide Assistive Ball on Fullscreen App.
  • Optimised the Floating Window feature for more apps.
  • Added a bubble: A bubble is displayed when you open an app in a floating window from the Smart Sidebar. Tap the bubble to collapse and open the app.
• Screenshot
  • Optimised 3-Finger Screenshot: Use 3 fingers to touch and hold the screen and swipe your fingers to adjust the screenshot size. Use 3 fingers to touch and hold the screen and swipe your fingers outwards to capture a long screenshot.
  • Added screenshot settings: You can adjust the position of the screenshot preview floating window and set the screenshot sound.
  • Optimised screenshot preview floating window: After taking a screenshot, drag it up and release to share it, or drag it down and release to take a long screenshot.
• Navigation Gestures 3.0
  • New gesture: Swipe inward from both sides of the screen and then hold to switch to the previous app.
  • Optimised gestures: All gestures are supported in landscape mode.
• System
  • Added Dark Mode: Protects your eyes while reducing power consumption.
  • Added Focus Mode: Shields you from outside distractions when you are learning or working.
  • Added all new charging animation.
  • Optimised the Quick Settings user interface for easier one-handed operation.
  • Swipe left or right to ignore banner notifications.
  • Added a pause function for screen recording.
  • Added a floating window and settings for screen recording.
  • New sounds added for file deletion, calculator key touches, and compass pointer.
  • Optimised system pre-loaded ringtones.
  • Added TalkBack floating prompts for Accessibility.
  • Colour Accessibility Mode added to improve the user experience for visually impaired users.
  • New management function for recent tasks: You can view memory information about recent tasks and lock apps.
• Games
  • Optimised visual interaction for Game Space.
  • Optimised the startup animation for Game Space.
• Home Screen
  • More live wallpapers.
  • Added Art+ static wallpapers.
  • Customise whether to open Global Search or the notification drawer when swiping down on the Home screen.
  • Customise the size, shape, and style of app icons on the Home screen.
  • Swipe up on the Lock screen to switch unlock methods.
  • Optimised the graphic design of password unlocks to facilitate one-handed operations.
  • Supported live wallpapers on the Lock screen.
  • More screen-off clock styles.
  • Added a simple Home screen mode, featuring larger fonts and icons and a clearer layout.
• Security
  • Connect your phone to Wi-Fi networks using a random MAC address to avoid targeted ads and protect your privacy.
• Tools
  • In Quick Settings or Smart Sidebar, you can open Calculator in a floating
  • Added the trim feature in Recordings.
  • Added the Weather (dynamic) ringtone, which automatically adapts to the current weather.
  • Added weather-adaptive animations in Weather.
• Camera
  • Optimised the Camera UI for better user experience.
  • Optimised the Timer UI and sound.
• Photos
  • Optimised the Album UI for a clear hierarchy and quick lookup of photos.
  • Added Album Recommendations that recognises more than 80 different scenes.
• Communications
  • OPPO Share now supports sharing files with vivo and Xiaomi devices.
  • Optimised the Contacts UI for a more efficient experience.
• Settings
  • Search Settings now supports fuzzy match and contains a search history.
• Applications
  • Soloop Video Editor: Create your video with one tap.
  • Added DocVault, an app for easy management and use of your digital ID cards (available only on phones sold in India).

As always, OPPO has decided to choose an incremental rollout model to avoid spreading potentially showstopper bugs. In case you are running ColorOS 6 based CPH1831EX_11.C.35/C.36/C.37 on your OPPO R15 Pro, you can force the update by visiting Settings > Software Updates and clicking on Trial Version from the gear menu.

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Source: ColorOS Community

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No’Me is a launcher manager for those of you with multiple launcher apps

When it comes to UI customization on Android, third-party launcher apps are the first thing most users download to change the look and feel of their device. Since the Google Play Store offers a wide variety of unique launcher apps, it’s quite natural for users to try out a few options before settling down with the one that offers the most useful features for any particular use case. Some of you may also like to juggle between a couple of launchers depending on the need of the hour, but the lack of an easy way to quickly switch between different launchers could make the process a bit tedious. Thanks to a new app called No’Me, you can now switch between different launcher apps with a single tap and easily manage all installed launchers without bothering with the Android settings.

No’Me is a launcher manager/switcher app from XDA Senior Member Nx Biotic that is now available for download on the Google Play Store and XDA Labs. The app gives you access to a couple of useful features that you can use to easily switch between installed launcher apps, check information about the launcher app currently in use, and make changes to other default apps on your device.

As you can see in the attached screenshots, the Manager tab on the app gives you access to information about the launcher app currently in use, including details about the permissions, providers, services, activities, receivers, build number and version info. The Launchers tab lists down all the installed launcher app and lets you easily switch between them with a single tap.

No’Me also offers a companion app that you can download to quickly switch between launcher from a quick settings tile and it also builds dynamic shortcuts for currently installed launchers to let you switch between them using an app shortcut. Furthermore, No’Me also supports the QuickSwitch Magisk Module that lets the app identify launchers compatible with quick switch and enables Android Pie recent apps on supported third-party launchers.

If you’re interested in trying out the No’Me launcher manager, you can download it from the Google Play Store link below. The app is completely free to use and should work with all Android devices running Android 5.0 and newer.

Download No’Me – Launcher Manager: Play Store || XDA Discussion Thread

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Chrome OS may add a Phone Hub to manage notifications and pick up where you left off on Android

As part of Google’s suite of “Better Together” features, Chrome OS already offers easy integration with your Android phone for things like text/RCS messages, automatic Wi-Fi hotspot, and Smart Lock. Now, according to a recent report from 9to5Google, Google is working to expand Chrome OS’ integration with Android devices with a new “Phone Hub” feature.

A recent code change discovered on the Chromiun Gerrit points towards the upcoming Phone Hub feature flag, which “Provides a UI for users to view information about their Android phone and perform phone-side actions within Chrome OS.” The feature is expected to offer deeper integration between Chrome OS and Android devices, as the only information and “phone-side” actions currently available to users are viewing and responding to text/RCS messages.

Another code change regarding the feature reveals that the Phone Hub will be located in a new section of the Connected Devices page, right below instant tethering, smart lock, and Messages. The section will include three new settings, namely Phone Hub Notifications, Phone Hub Notifications Badge, and Phone Hub Task Continuation. While the code change doesn’t highlight what exactly will be available to users in the task continuation feature, 9to5Google suggests that the feature will let users seamlessly continue tasks from their Android device on a Chromebook.

As of now, it isn’t clear whether the Task Continuation feature will just let users move Chrome tabs between devices or if it will also allow users to continue app activity on their Chromebook. Since Phone Hub is still in its early stages of development, we currently only know that the feature will utilize Bluetooth to connect your Chrome OS device with your Android device. We also aren’t sure if the feature will require users to install a separate app on their Android devices.

It’s worth noting that Windows 10 offers a similar Your Phone feature which allows users to send and receive text messages, manage photos on their Android device, and use their phone’s media controls right from their Windows 10 machine. For Samsung devices, the Your Phone feature also lets users manage cross-device clipboards and view their device’s screen.

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Via: 9to5Google

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Mozilla rolls out Firefox 79 for Android with a year’s worth of changes

Mozilla Firefox is among the most popular alternatives to Google Chrome for both — mobile devices and desktops. Despite competition from Chrome, Mozilla Corporation — the organization behind Firefox — has been rolling out several updates over the years to keep their desktop and mobile apps relevant. After overhauling their desktop browser, known by its interim name “Firefox Quantum,” Mozilla has been working to upgrade the mobile browser — temporarily recognized as Fenix — for about a year. The new avatar has been available in the Preview channel (which was recently merged with the Nightly channel) for quite some time and is finally rolling out to the stable channel as Firefox 79 for Android, albeit without one key feature.

In July 2018, Mozilla for Android entered the maintenance phase to focus on developing an entirely new version without a new codebase instead of updating the existing one. Firefox for Android hasn’t received a major update since July last year and is now making a jump straight from version 68 to 79.

Among the new feature, Firefox 79 for Android brings a clean and modern UI. The codebase and thus, the functionality is the same as the Preview builds but one feature that’s lacking on the stable build is proper support for add-ons (a.k.a. extensions). Mozilla only starting adding support for add-ons on Firefox Preview/Nightly back in February this year. It added five more add-ons in April, and then another three earlier this month. As of now, the total number of add-ons supported on the stable as well as the Nightly channels is only nine. This means that Firefox for Android loses access to thousands of extensions that were supported on the previous versions.

While it is understandable that the complete migration of add-ons to the new codebase requires time, release without proper support is bound to disappoint those who like to use specific extensions avidly. If you want to continue using those add-ons, you may have to stick to the older version of Firefox for Android. But if you’re among those who want a cleaner and faster browser experience, you can go ahead and either update the app from the Google Play Store or download the latest version from APK Mirror.

Download Firefox 79 for Android from APK Mirror

Firefox Browser: fast, private & safe web browser (Free, Google Play) →

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Via: Android Police

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Download: Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 and Redmi Note 7S receive stable beta Android 10 update with MIUI 11

Update 2 (07/29/2020 @ 02:59 AM ET): Xiaomi has started rolling out Redmi Note 7’s Android 10 update to the European variant.

Update 1 (07/20/2020 @ 05:40 PM ET): The Redmi Note 7 is now receiving Android 10 for the global region. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on July 9, 2020, is preserved below.

Launched back in 2019, Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 7 brought 48MP camera to the masses. The company decided to use a different camera sensor on the Indian variant, but they quickly phased out the initial model in favor of the Redmi Note 7S with a 48 MP primary rear camera. There is virtually no difference between the regular Redmi Note 7 and the Note 7S except the camera. Both models share a common code-name (“lavender”), thus their firmware packages are identical as well.

Redmi Note 7/7S XDA Forums

The factory-installed operating system on the phone duo was MIUI 10 on top of Android 9 Pie. The MIUI 11 update kept the underlying Android layer intact for them, but the phones have received a taste of Android 10 via MIUI 12-based closed beta builds. Xiaomi is now rolling out the Android 10 update for the Redmi Note 7/7S through the stable channel of MIUI, but there are a few stumbling blocks you should be aware of.

First of all, the stable build is still based on MIUI 11, not MIUI 12. Moreover, the company treats the current update as a “stable beta”, which means an authorized Mi Account might be required to sideload the ZIP file. Once Xiaomi marks it to be stable enough, they are going to flip a server-side switch that will eventually remove the need for such authorization before flashing. Alternatively, they could also release new builds with additional bug fixes.

The software version of the new build is V11.0.2.0.QFGxxXM, and it bumps the Android security patch level (SPL) to June 2020. The OTA is rolling out in China and India as of now, while other regional variants should get their updates soon. In case the bootloader of your Redmi Note 7/7S is unlocked and you want to install the updated build right now, either pick the appropriate Recovery ROM from the following table and flash using TWRP or straightaway choose the Fastboot ROM to bypass the Mi Account authorization requirement.

Redmi Note 7/7S (lavender) — MIUI 11 Android 10 Download Links

Region	Build Number	Recovery ROM	Fastboot ROM
China	V11.0.2.0.QFGCNXM	Download Link	Download Link
India	V11.0.2.0.QFGINXM	Download Link	–
Global	V11.0.1.0.QFGMIXM	Download Link	–
Europe	V11.0.1.0.QFGEUXM	Download Link	–

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Thanks to XDA Recognized Developer yshalsager for providing the download links!

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Blurry photo of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 leaks, showing off the hole-punch display

Samsung is gearing up to unpack a load of new consumer tech at the Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event on August 5. Among the five devices to be launched at the event is the next generation bump of Samsung’s first foldable device. Seemingly called the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, instead of just the “Galaxy Fold 2”, there is a lot of excitement around the device as it marks a step of refinement for the series. Samsung has had a few foldable opportunities now, with the first Galaxy Fold, then the “fixed” version, then the Galaxy Z Flip, and the more recent Galaxy Z Flip 5G. Now, a leaked photo gives us an early look at the Galaxy Z Fold 2’s massive front.

This leaked photo of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 shows off the internal display of the phone, the one that actually folds along its central axis.

While there isn’t much that you can take away with a cursory glance on this photo, apart from the new name on the boot splashscreen, one can notice the hole-punch display if you take a very close look. Here is an edited photo that enunciates the hole-punch better:

As you can see now, the internal display on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 will have a single hole-punch front camera, centered on the right half of the screen. The protective lip around the device no longer has an extension for the hole punch. This is a big change from the front cameras present on the first generation device, which had a noticeably unique notch setup, as pictured below:

Front camera setup on the first-gen Samsung Galaxy Fold

Previous reports suggested the possibility of an under-display camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 2, but that no longer appears to be the case. Other than this, the new device is expected to come with a 7.7″ interior display, a larger exterior display, plenty of RAM and storage, the latest processors, 5G capabilities, and will continue to exclude the S Pen. We should learn more in the coming days.

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Source: Naver (deleted)
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