Give Your App a Free Health Check Up At Droidcon UK

There are exciting news for app developers heading to Droidcon UK this year. Skills Matter have partnered with Novoda and NimbleDroid to bring two app clinics, one centered around design and one focusing on performance with prizes for the best of each.

The Performance Clinic – Thursday 27th October from 14:00 till 15.30

NimbleDroid is an automated performance analysis service for apps, and they are offering to give your app a free check up aimed at making your app as fast as possible. There will be two categories of prizes:

1) Best Startup Time
2) Most Improved Startup Time

For the Best Startup Time prizes, the NimbleDroid team will consider the official version of your app downloaded from Google Play on October 27th (you can upload your app to Google Play up until Thursday October 27th midnight London time).

For the Most Improved Startup Time prizes, the NimbleDroid team will use the official version downloaded from Google Play on Thursday September 29th AND Thursday October 27th, provided that the app must register before Thursday September 29th midnight London time. Each app needs to be registered only once. The prizes will be 3 months of NimbleDroid premium service such as custom user flows and premium support.

You can upload your app in advance here and read more about this clinic over at Skills Matter.

The Design Clinic – Thursday 27th October from 15.30 – 17:00

Whether your app has been developed since the days of Cupcake or hasn't yet hit the a final release, it can never hurt to have fresh insight in to your app's UX. This clinic will allow your app to be reviewed by a team of designers and developers including Google Developer Experts and some of the best developers in the industry. They will share their thoughts on your app and advise you on methods to improve your UX, answering any questions you may have.

We believe motion brings an app to life, and creates a compelling, enjoyable user experience. It can make the difference between a good or a great design in your app.

We are looking for the work you are most proud of, that extra attention to detail that creates the highest quality experience for your users using motion.

Rules

• The motion design MUST be implemented in a mobile app that conforms to Material Design guidelines
• The app MUST run on phone, tablet, TV or other Android-powered devices
• You MUST be an employee of the company, or the developer/designer of, the app you're submitting
• You MUST have a valid droidcon ticket and be attending the closing ceremony (when prizes will be awarded)
• The entry MUST be original work. Its implementation MUST be published on the Play Store or other app stores that are publicly listing the app (Amazon, etc)
• ONE entry per person
• By submitting your entry you grant Novoda and Skills Matter the right to use all the submitted informations and material for promoting the contest and its winners
• Entries MUST be submitted by October 17th, 23:59:59.999 UK time

You can upload your app in advance here and read more about this clinic over at Skills Matter.

Will you be uploading your app? Leave a comment below!

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2d8y5dF
via IFTTT

BlackBerry DTEK60 passes by the FCC

The BlackBerry DTEK60's FCC filings were just released, confirming what frequency bands BlackBerry intends to support on their U.S. model, as well as some more information about the device itself.

The DTEK60 is the successor to the Android based DTEK50 that was launched earlier this year, which resulted in some head scratching for its questionable naming scheme and small battery.

That being said, the DTEK60 is expected to be aimed at a substantially different market than the mid-range DTEK50 was, with leaked specifications from BlackBerry's website pointing to it having a 5.5″ 2560×1440 display, a Snapdragon 820 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage with MicroSD support, USB Type-C 2.0 with Quick Charge 3.0, a 21 MP PDAF rear camera with an f2.0 lens and dual tone flash, 4k 30 Hz recording and 720p 120 Hz slowmo, an 8 MP front camera with an f2.2 lens, 1.125 μm pixels, and an 84˚ field of view, a front mounted fingerprint sensor, NFC, dual-band WiFi, and a 3000 mAh battery. The specifications also list it as being 153.9 x 75.4 x 7 mm, weighing in at 165 g, having a red notification LED, and having four physical buttons (volume up/down, lock, and the BlackBerry Convenience Key). It is listed as having an accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and hall effect sensor, like the DTEK50.

BlackBerry also lists it as coming pre-loaded with the standard Android apps, plus BlackBerry Keyboard, BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry Calendar, Contacts by BlackBerry, Notes by BlackBerry, Tasks by BlackBerry, BlackBerry Camera, BBM, DTEK by BlackBerry, BlackBerry Device Search, BlackBerry Launcher, BlackBerry Services, BlackBerry Help, BlackBerry Password Keeper, Microsoft exFAT Technology for BlackBerry, BlackBerry Content Transfer, and Yahoo! Finance.

The FCC Filings confirm that the DTEK60 will support UMTS bands 2/4/5, and LTE bands 2/4/5/7/12 (hopefully indicating support for T-Mobile VoLTE).

On BlackBerry's website, the North American and Latin American DTEK60 was listed as supporting UMTS bands 1/2/4/5/8, and LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/12/17/20/29. The Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific model is listed as supporting UMTS bands 1/2/4/5/6/8 and LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/19/20/28A/38/40/41.

What are your thoughts on the BlackBerry DTEK60? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: FCC

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2d1VIpc
via IFTTT

Aukey Qualcomm Quick Charge Giveaway Winners Announced!

10 days ago, we posted a review+giveaway article featuring 4 Qualcomm Quick Charge compatible charging products from Aukey. We randomly selected a set of winners for each product after verifying their entry eligibility, and within hours of the giveaway closing we began sending out the first batch of private messages over our forums.

We waited approximately 48 hours for winners to respond, and if the winner failed to respond we randomly selected another participant from our pool of entries and sent them a private message while giving these new winners approximately 48 hours to respond.

Many participants answered as they received a message, but some participants failed to do so. Rather than continuing to delay announcing the giveaway, we've decided to go ahead and announce the giveaway winners we've confirmed while continuing to search for the final few winners! The winners listed below have all had the necessary information collected into a spreadsheet that we have forwarded along to Aukey. Within the next couple of days, you should be receiving an e-mail message from Aukey with shipping confirmation. But since we have yet to fill up all of the giveaway slots, stay on the lookout because there's still a chance you may win!

---

Giveaway Winners

So far, we've confirmed 17 out of 20 winners. We still have two more winners to confirm for the Aukey 16,000 PowerAll QC 2.0 External Battery as well as one winner for the Aukey QC 3.0 Dual Port USB Car Charger, so you will see a '?' in place of a username for some of these slots.

• Aukey QC 3.0 Dual Port USB Car Charger

  1. krisman
  2. gr_exclamation
  3. SundarNagarajan
  4. Kil4Thril
  5. ?
• Aukey 16,000mAh PowerAll QC 2.0 External Battery
  1. gipikay
  2. Seanbest
  3. drago10029
  4. ?
  5. ?
• Aukey USB Turbo Wall Charger (QC 3.0)
  1. Hitorijanae
  2. Google~Android
  3. rob98
  4. Mnementh666
  5. ajayk111
• Aukey 6 Port USB Charging Station (QC 3.0)
  1. bellzz
  2. Tmobilefan906
  3. RatchetPanda
  4. IPTN
  5. 1619415

Congratulations to all of the winners, and thank you for participating in the giveaway! We've gotten lots of valuable feedback over the course of this giveaway (and will especially be tweaking our battery measuring methodology to collect far more sample points), and we hope to implement them in our future reviews/giveaways.

---

Follow Aukey on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

Follow XDA-Developers on Twitter, Google+, YouTube, or Facebook.

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2dpJ6Lh
via IFTTT

SuperSU Privacy Policy Updated Under CCMT

Just about a year ago, Chainfire had announced that he will be passing on his projects to Coding Code Mobile technology LLC (abbreviated to CCMT). The end user would not see changes to the apps they loved, but the change was happening nonetheless.

Until now, SuperSU's privacy policy continued to exist under Chainfire's name. Some users expressed concern over this mismatch, so as an update, Chainfire has informed us of the privacy policy being published under CCMT. Content-wise, the privacy policy remains virtually the same according to Chainfire, but the parent body for the same is now rightly reflected as CCMT.

If you have concerns about what the new privacy policy could be hiding, you can read it here.

Source: Google+ – Chainfire

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2dp451d
via IFTTT

Google Announces YouTube Go in India: The Data-Friendly Way to YouTube

At the Google for India event held in New Delhi, Google announced its next step in targeting the emerging mobile market in India: YouTube Go.

While India is currently in the midst of seeing some very heavy competition on the data and its pricing thanks to the entry of Reliance Jio in the 4G space, there is still a vast number of users that continue to depend on 3G and even 2G connections for their smartphone experience. Google has been focusing a lot for improving various aspects of the smartphone experience for these users, and a good part of this focus also extends to YouTube. In the past, Google launched YouTube Offline to target users on slower networks to download videos and watch them later. They then launched Smart Offline for YouTube, where you could schedule these downloads to occur at off-peak times when bandwidth is plentiful and data is cheaper. With YouTube Go, the YouTube experience has been re-imagined from the ground up to bring in the next generation of viewers.

Google says it is focusing on four concepts with YouTube Go: relatability, offline availability, cost-effectiveness and making videos a social experience. Google has listed a few of the notable features of YouTube Go:

• Discover relatable videos on the landing screen as it features trending and popular videos in the users area.
• Ability to preview videos before watching or saving them offline, giving users on a data-crunch a chance to decide on the video before committing to it.
• Ability to choose resolution and amount of data whilst saving or streaming videos.
• Share videos offline using Bluetooth directly from the YouTube Go app, without incurring any data charges.

YouTube Go is in a gradual rollout in India, becoming available for more users in the next few months. The app is scheduled to launch publicly early next year. You can sign up to be notified of the app here.

What are your thoughts on YouTube Go? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: YouTube Blog

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2doPnar
via IFTTT

Xiaomi Launches the Mi 5s and the Mi 5s Plus in China

Just about half a year from the launch of its 2016 flagship, Xiaomi has released two more devices that become part of its flagship lineup. The Mi 5s and the Mi 5s Plus are upgrades over the Mi 5, and offer some changes that make for an interesting lineup.

Both the new devices ditch the glass back of the Mi 5 and opt for a metallic unibody design. The contouring of the devices is similar to the Mi 5, but instead of glass or ceramic, you get a brushed metal finish on the metallic back. The fingerprint scanner is differently placed and implemented on the devices — the Mi 5s features an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the front that utilizes Qualcomm's Sense ID technology. The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor can work through multiple materials and with higher accuracy, which allows the sensor to be placed below the glass surface. It is also immune to surface contaminants like sweat and condensation. The Mi 5s Plus goes for a traditional sensor placed on the rear of the device.

Xiaomi Mi 5s

The Mi 5s features a 5.15″ FHD LCD display, with the higher end variant also supporting pressure-sensitivity. The insides come bearing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC, options of 3GB LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of UFS 2.0 storage or 4GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The battery is of a decent 3,200 mAh capacity, and supports Quick Charge 3.0 via the USB Type C port. The camera setup on the Mi 5s is a 13MP Sony IMX 378 sensor on the rear with f/2.0 aperture and the front is a 4MP camera.

Xiaomi Mi 5s

As the name would imply, the Mi 5s Plus builds up on the 5s, but it does so in significant ways. The display gets a bump up to 5.7″, although it still retains the FHD resolution. The SoC remains the same with the Snapdragon 821, but the RAM and storage get bumped up to 4GB/64GB in the base variant and 6GB/128GB in the higher end variant. The larger screen also accommodates a larger 3,800 mAh battery. The camera setup on the front remains the same, but the rear setup opts for a dual-camera setup much like the Huawei P9. What you get is two 13MP sensors, with one for capturing color images and the other for capturing monochromatic images with more light and lesser noise. The camera and the software then combines the images together to give you an enhanced final photo.

Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus

The Mi 5s is priced at CNY 1999 ($300) for the base 3GB/64GB variant and CNY 2299 ($345) for the 4GB/128GB variant. The Mi 5s Plus comes in at CNY 2299 ($345) for the 4GB/64GB variant and CNY 2599 ($390) for the 6GB/128GB variant. The phones will go for sale in China, but there is no clear info on when these phones will arrive in markets outside of the region.

With the Mi 5s and the Mi 5s Plus, Xiaomi is preparing to battle against the new range of smartphones that have come out in the second half of 2016. But with Xiaomi following a six-month release cycle for flagships and refreshes, we can expect to see a newer flagship in the early months of 2017. We just hope that the flagships released in the past, like the Mi 5, are not forgotten with every passing six-month period.

What are your thoughts on the Xiaomi Mi 5s and the Mi 5s Plus? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: MIUI Forums

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2doUPFR
via IFTTT

Lenovo Announces More Layoffs That Hit Motorola’s Chicago Office

Motorola's Chicago office has not fared well since the company was acquired by Lenovo. After the acquisition of Motorola, they knew an upcoming financial report would be in the red, so they announced a restructuring plan. The company then laid off 500 employees in Motorola's Chicago office, and then two months later the company announced they would be laying off another 200 people. All in all, 2015 was not very good for Motorola's once-booming office in Illinois.

A month after this second batch of layoffs were completed, Lenovo published their first quarterly loss in 6 years. The company was able to increase overall revenue by 16% compared to the year before, but it just wasn't enough. Out of $12.2 billion in revenue for the quarter, Lenovo ended up with a net loss of $714 million. 2016 hasn't been a great year for Lenovo either as the company is still bleeding money from its smartphone division.

Overall, they have been able to bring in a profit this year thanks to their restructuring plan, but things are just not looking too comfortable when you isolate their smartphone business. Last month, the CEO of Lenovo say they're predicting a complete turnaround sometime around 2017 and 2018. He says it takes time to integrate the new mobile business and compares it to how long it took them to integrate the PC business.

However, this transition period has not been steady for Motorola's Chicago office. The company has just confirmed they are going through another round of layoffs an says less than 2% of their entire 55,000 person staff will be effected. However, sources close to Droid Life are saying that out of the 1,200 employees left in Motorola's office, over 700 will be let go. Lenovo's official statement says they are "absolutely committed to Chicago," and that this is just part of the "ongoing strategic integration between Lenovo and its Motorola smartphone business."

Source: Droid Life

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2dzyOXZ
via IFTTT