Widgets, Icons and Wallpapers – Miles’ Top Picks

Miles has been making some great videos over at XDA TV. Viewers often ask about what icons, widgets and themes he uses for him phone. In this video he takes us through all of his favorite customization apps and where we can download them.

DashClock Widget

Dash clock is a widget that allows for the integration of third party widgets like Fenix. If you're looking for a free clock widget, this is the best way to go.

Download

Dives – Icon Pack

The Dives icon pack is one of the cleanest icon packs out there. You might be familiar with this pack because it's the one that comes default on the OnePlus 3 OxygenOS.

Download

Facets – with Muzei

Facets has a bunch of amazing original wallpapers and is a great deal for 99 cents on the Play store.

Download

[Substratum] Dark Stock Theme

Substratum is a new theme engine with a small handful of themes to choose from. Here are two of the best themes that Miles uses for his phone.

Download

[Substratum] Origins Theme

Download

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Fact Check: The HTC 10 Does not Actually have Phase-Detection Autofocus

While doing research for our recent article on the Sony IMX378 and the Google Pixel, we noticed a piece of misinformation about the IMX377 and HTC 10 that had become fairly widespread. A lot of major websites are referring to the HTC 10 as having PDAF, despite the fact that it doesn't have it.

We searched through HTC's marketing materials, and could not find a single instance of HTC claiming that the HTC 10 has PDAF. So, we reached out to Sony and HTC to double check, and we got confirmation that the IMX377 and the HTC 10 do not use PDAF. Instead, the HTC 10 uses a combination of contrast-based autofocus and laser autofocus.

So where did this misinformation come from? It appears that this was initially started by a leak by LlabTooFeR that was mostly correct, but misstated what autofocus system was used to supplement the laser autofocus. We want to highlight that this was a leak, not an official confirmation, and that leaks are always subject to change (LlabTooFeR is still one of the most reliable leakers out there).

Unfortunately, a large part of the tech world has seen this misinformation repeated over and over again, and started to take it as fact, without double checking it. Even I was surprised to hear that my HTC 10 didn't have PDAF, and while to my knowledge we haven't made that claim in an official article (as we tend to rely on OEM sheets), I'm sure that I have mentioned it in passing conversation outside of XDA. This demonstrates just how widely a frequently repeated lie can spread, especially if not properly dispelled. Thankfully, very little harm came from this particular situation, aside from a couple funny moments of websites praising the HTC 10 for adding a feature that it doesn't have, but it still is a sobering reminder about how terrible our minds are at separating fact from rumor.

That being said, it does get us a bit more excited about the Google Pixel and Pixel XL phones, as the HTC 10 and IMX377 saw very good performance through its combination of contrast-based autofocus and laser autofocus, and the IMX378 and Snapdragon 821 should result in further improvements for the Pixel phones thanks to the addition of PDAF and further improvements to the ability to incorporate laser autofocus into a hybrid autofocus system.

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HTC Bolt Spotted in the Wild Sans a Headphone Jack

Even though Google's Pixel duo are made by HTC, Google has retained the branding of the devices while HTC has to remain in the shadows for these phones. But that does not mean that HTC will sit on the sidelines for the rest of the year, as the company is preparing to release its next mid-range device this month.

The HTC Bolt has been talked about before as a Sprint-exclusive. While the renders of the device gave us a fair idea of what to expect, we now have live images of the device, courtesy of Evan Blass and VentureBeat, to give us a better view of what the device feels like in person.

The HTC Bolt is known internally as Acadia, and it is HTC's latest upcoming mid-ranger that will also come bearing HTC's Sense skin atop of Android 7.0 Nougat. The Bolt sports a 5.5″ FHD display, and will come with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage and a microsd card slot. The SoC of the device is unknown as of now, but since this is a mid ranger, flagship grade SoCs like the Snapdragon 820 or 821 are ruled out. The device also sports an 18-MP primary camera with f/2.0 aperture and 4K video capabilities, along with an 8MP front camera. There is also a fingerprint scanner, as seen on the front of the device.

As visible in the images, the device comes with a USB Type-C port, but does not come with a 3.5 headphone jack. HTC's BoomSound tech is available on the device, but only via (USB Type-C) headphones and not via the single, bottom firing speaker.

The HTC Bolt is expected to be available globally, and in the United States through Sprint. Pricing of the device and its launch date are unknown as of yet.

What are your thoughts on the HTC Bolt so far? Would you consider this device for purchase? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Evan Blass via VentureBeat

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Amazon Updates Alexa Voice Service API

If you're a developer with a product that has a microphone and a speaker, then you can integrate the Amazon Voice Service (AVS) API into your device. Once the updated API has been integrated properly, it will listen for and respond to the Alexa wake word. This API can add hands-free speech recognition, along with cloud-enabled automatic detection of end-of-user speech to the product you're currently developing.

To help out, Amazon has even released a prototype project that can be built for the Raspberry Pi. To make this project happen, Amazon got together with Sensory and KITT.AI so they could leverage their 3rd-party wake word engines. The project should take you less than an hour, in order to create this hands-free Alexa prototype with the Raspberry Pi. So be sure to check out the sample AVS app over on the Alexa GitHub page.

Amazon has been working with a number of 3rd-party developers to get Alexa integrated into their devices and now it's become even easier. To learn more about Amazon's Alexa Voice Service API, and to learn which implementation is best for you, you can head over to the Designing for AVS landing page that Amazon has set up for developers. Three examples they give for typical applications are push-to-talk, tap-to-talk, and voice-initiated (with a wake word).

There won't be a one size fits all solution for every project out there. If you're interested in integrating Alexa into your product, you should get an idea of what your product is capable of first. From there, you can build out the type of Alexa integration you think will be best for your customer. Amazon also offers examples for their automatic speech recognition profiles, hardware and audio algorithms, and they even talk about the specifics of noise reduction, acoustic echo cancellation, as well as beamforming.

Source: Amazon Developer

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Samsung Rumored to Launch the Galaxy Tab S3 in Q1 2017

We haven't seen much activity in the Android tablet market for quite some time. Sure, we get the occasional tablet that pops up here and there, but there hasn't been much in terms of a flagship level Android tablet at all this year. It's fair to say that people don't upgrade their tablets as often as their smartphones, and this is likely the reason why OEMs simply have not focused on this in 2016.

Looking back, the Nexus 9 was released back in November of 2014. The Xperia Z4 Tablet came out in June of 2015, then we saw the Galaxy Tab S2 in September of 2015, followed by the Shield K1 in November of 2015 and lastly there was the Pixel C in December of 2015. Samsung did launch a couple of mid-range tablets this year, but even the Galaxy Tab A with S Pen hasn't been launched outside of South Korea yet.

A new rumor claims that Samsung is looking to change this starting next year. SamMobile says their sources are telling them that Samsung is planning to launch two models of the Galaxy Tab S3 sometime during the first quarter of 2017. We are told the model numbers will be SM-T820 and SM-T825, with the T820 being the WiFi variant and the T825 being the LTE version. This is as much information as they have to go on now though.

These devices were rumored to launch in the second half of this year, but things didn't pan out that way. We aren't told what the hardware specs will be like, but the Galaxy Tab S series has been the company's high-end tablet lineup for a few years now. We also don't know if they will stick with the 9.7″ 4:3 aspect display, or if they will go back to the 16:10 aspect ratio that we saw in the original Galaxy Tab S.

Source: SamMobile

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Google is Rumored to Launch 2 Smartwatches During Q1 2017

Back in July, a rumor surfaced that claimed Google was preparing to launch a couple of Android Wear smartwatches. The image and rumor came from Android Police, but they were unable to cite the source of the information. They said Google is working on launching two different smartwatches (as shown in the photo) with one being bigger than the other. The larger smartwatch is code named Angelfish while the smaller one carriers the code name Swordfish.

Angelfish is said to have LTE connectivity and GPS so it can be a standalone device and show off all the features that Android Wear has to offer. The rumor says Swordfish will not have either of those, and it might not even have a heart rate sensor. The missing features, along with its smaller size, suggest it might be sold as an affordable smartwatch while Angelfish will carry a premium price tag. With the death of the Nexus line now official, we're likely to see these branded as a Pixel device, but this is unknown at this time.

Last month we learned that the official release of Android Wear 2.0 would be delayed until "early 2017". We haven't been told exactly why this delay happened though. It could be due to new features being added, or it could be so their developers can iron out some bugs and polish the mobile operating system. Since the mock-up renders of Google's upcoming smartwatches depicted features Android Wear 2.0 features, many speculated they would be launched alongside of the new update.

A new rumor from Evan Blass now says Google's two unannounced smartwatches will be released right alongside Android Wear 2.0. This doesn't come as any surprise since we are used to seeing Google launch hardware with new versions of their software. Evan also believes they will be launched during the first quarter of 2017, which matches the expected Wear 2.0 release date. We'll likely see more leaks about these devices as we get closer to their launches.

Source: @evleaks

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Google Store Pixel Phones Can be Rooted and Come With an Unlockable Bootloader

There's been a lot of mystery surrounding Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. Granted, we did have a ton of leaks leading up to the October 4th launch event, but there were still a number of things that simply were not talked about then. It wasn't until after the launch event that we learned more about the camera sensor, how after sales support would be handled in India, and how updates would be handled by its exclusive US carrier Verizon.

Thanks to developers, we do know that current root methods should not work on Pixel phones without changes. It was also suspected, and then confirmed, that Pixel phones purchased from Verizon would ship with a bootloader that's locked down tight. This isn't a surprise as smartphones purchased from Verizon Wireless always come like this. But with the death of the Nexus program, we didn't know if Google was going to lock these things down on devices that were sold directly on the Google Store. However, Google has officially come out and given a statement regarding the ability to root and unlock the bootloader of the Pixel and Pixel XL sold from the Google Store.

A Google spokesperson has told Dallas of Android Gadget Hacks that customers who purchased the Pixel and Pixel XL from the Google Store "will be able to root their devices." Not only that, but they went on to say that Pixel and Pixel XL devices purchased from the Google Store "will ship with an unlockable bootloader." It's definitely reassuring to see that Google is sticking with this when it comes to devices sold directly from the Google Store.

Source: Android Gadget Hacks

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