Remember the Samsung Galaxy Note 7? Everyone does. It came in with a bang, and went out with a literal one. But everyone will agree that we do need to move on, hoping to look forward to other different offerings that Samsung is planning for the future.
We have a few interesting tidbits on the next big thing from Samsung, the Samsung Galaxy S8. There has been nuggets of new information from different sources coming in, so we will take a look at these and figure out how Samsung's next move will appear to the market.
Starting off, one of the upgrades on the Galaxy S8 will come in an area which has not seen as much focus in terms of hardware as other areas of the smartphone. The front facing camera on the upcoming Samsung flagship will be finally upgraded with autofocus technology. Reports coming in from Korea mention that the S8 will use an encoder type focusing mechanism as against the current voice coil motor implementations. This will allow the camera module to be of shallow physical depth as the focusing actuator is mounted on the side of the lens instead of the middle. Having a camera bump on the front of the device would be poor aesthetic choice, so this upgrade will allow Samsung to hopefully continue on with a flat front design with no camera bump as seen on the rear. The report unfortunately, does not mention the resolution of the camera, so that is left for future leaks to figure out.
On the topic of cameras, the rear camera on the Galaxy S8 is not expected to use a dual-camera setup. There was speculation on this end, claiming that Samsung might be planning to use dual cameras on the rear. It turns out that was wishful thinking indeed, as the latest reports maintain that Samsung will stick to one sensor on the back only.
Moving on, we look at the claimed design and screen aspects of the Galaxy S8. Reports in early November claimed that the Galaxy S8 will come in two variants based on display sizes: a 5.7″ display variant and a 6.2″ display variant. The screen sizes do seem unreasonable for mass adoption as most consumers do not like the handling of devices with displays bigger than 6″, but Samsung has a trick up its sleeve. Samsung is expected to ditch all bezels on the OLED display on the S8's. This also means that the home button and capacitive buttons might finally be on their way out as well, something that another independent report claims.
As far as names go, the "Edge" moniker may also be on its way out as Samsung looks to standardize the Edge across its flagship lineup. The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus will have edge displays but not the name, and will likely be close to the current physical dimensions despite the increase in screen diagonal size as a result of the bezel-less and curved design. A flat variant of the S8 may not be revealed at launch.
The display itself on the Galaxy S8's will retain the 2K resolution as its predecessor, and not a 4K resolution display. However, the Super AMOLED display is likely to shift from the Diamond PenTile layout and go ahead with a Standard RGB arrangement which is claimed to consume less power and have a longer service life. The report claims that the new display will provide significant improvements for the purposes of virtual reality.
Since the physical home button is on its way out, the question that then pops up is: where will the fingerprint scanner go? Under the display, as per reports. The fingerprint sensor will be embedded within the display for optical fingerprint indentification, claimed to be faster and more accurate than an ultrasonic sensor.
In the audio department, the Galaxy S8 will get mixed reactions as it adds, and removes, features in this area. As a shocker, the Samsung Galaxy S8 will be the next smartphone that will ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack slot, as per report from Sammobile. The Note 7 kept the 3.5mm jack in harmony with the USB Type-C slot that is used for charging and data transfer, but the S8 is said to get rid of the 3.5mm port and opt for audio out through the Type-C port itself.
On the software end, Samsung will very likely also integrate an improved AI based assistant competitor. This will be the result of their acquisition of Viv Labs and its AI platform.
Lastly, there's the usual set of rumors and speculation that accompanies most talks of flagship successors. The S8 is claimed to come bearing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 or the 10nm-based Exynos 8895 SoC (depending on market). Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 835 instead of the 830, so we await more information on this end. Similarly, the speculation that the S8 will come with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage also needs more substantiation.
Samsung is expect to unveil the Galaxy S8 at Mobile World Congress in late February 2017. With all of these new features which are cutting edge in their own right, and the whole Note 7 fiasco behind it (and the estimated $17 Billion loss), it is unclear what pricing Samsung will look at adopting for the Note 8.
Many expected Samsung to play it safe with the S8 and exercise caution and prudence, but Samsung does not seem to be in the mood to hold any punches back.
What are your thoughts on the Galaxy S8 so far? Do you like the improvements that Samsung is expected to bring to the table? Let us know in the comments below!
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HTC has been very vocal about which devices they plan on updating to Android 7.0 Nougat. Starting all the way back in May of this year, HTC announced their official roadmap for Android 7.0 Nougat (called Android N at the time). We were told they had plans to update the HTC One M9, HTC One A9, and the HTC 10 with Google's latest version of Android. The one device left off in this list was the HTC One M8, which didn't have any plans to get officially updated at that time.
Then in August, we did a piece that detailed HTC breaking their 15-day promise for delivering Google's latest Android update to the HTC One A9. A promise they made to the public when the device was announced. HTC did say they had plans to update the HTC 10 with Android 7.0 Nougat within the fourth quarter of the year, but the One A9 should have received the update quicker (according to their promise).
HTC had an official response to the issue and said HTC had changed their mind, and instead assigned their available engineers to work on the update for the "most popular flagship products" first since they felt this benefited the most customers. HTC did keep their Q4 promise for the HTC 10's Nougat update as it started to roll out to devices a little over a week ago. With unlocked HTC 10 units receiving their update, the HTC One M9 seems to be next on the list.
Yesterday, HTC confirmed that the unlocked version of the HTC One M9 would begin receiving its Android 7.0 Nougat update. They said it would start late that evening, so current owners should look out for this OTA update notification soon. The company also confirmed that carrier variants of the HTC One M9 should expect to see the Nougat update hitting their device "early next year."
Google unwrapped a new application yesterday called Trusted Contacts, that's somewhat similar to other services like Google+ Location Sharing and Google Latitude. The idea behind it is to offer a solution for those who need to know the location of a friend or loved one. Trusted Contacts isn't tied to a specific service though (like Google+ Location Sharing and Google Latitude were), which is what we're seeing a lot of from Google lately.
Once you install the application, you'll be allowed to label a number of the contacts you have in your phone as 'trusted'. By setting a contact to be trusted, you're not allowing them to automatically see your location though (and vice versa). You're basically just allowing them the opportunity to see your location. So, after you have set someone as a trusted contact, they'll be able to request your location from the new application.
At first, this will only be a request because the recipient can deny it. The person you are requesting the location status from will receive a full screen notification (similar to a phone call). If the person does not respond in 5 minutes, then the location of that person will automatically be sent to the one who requested it. Once they receive that full screen notification, they will have the ability to decline the location request or instantly share it.
Trusted Contacts is currently available for Android and can be downloaded directly from the Play Store right now. They tell us the app is coming to iOS in the future, but didn't give an estimation about when it will be made available. They did set up a landing page for it here though, so you can request to be notified when the iOS application will be made available to the public.
Google Camera received an update that added new shooting modes. These modes will adjust your camera for the appropriate lighting situations. This update will push to the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Pixel and Pixel XL. I tried installing the APK on other devices with no success.
Check out the video to see how the different shooting modes make your pictures better.
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For Android fans, 2016 has been rather uneventful. Sure, we've seen the end of the Google Nexus line, the release of Android Nougat, and the rise and fall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The two Google Pixel phones, besides the price hike, are not that different than the Nexus phones of old. Android Nougat, while finally implementing multi-window, hasn't really revolutionized the Android software landscape. And as for Samsung's disastrous Galaxy Note 7 – eh, they'll survive. But outside of the Android tech sphere bubble, events in 2016 have led to a huge shake up in the way the world does business. Sometimes, these major geopolitical events trickle down into the lives of your everyday Android fan.
We've talked before about how Brexit has temporarily affected the prices of certain smartphones, and how an Android enthusiast gets by in a 'third-world' country, but today we're going to discuss something that is highly relevant to a dedicated portion of our readers – India's recent demonetization of its highest currency denominations. While the whole issue is largely political in nature (and we do not hold an opinion on the motives or effectiveness), we are here to analyze how this move is likely going to affect the massive potential of the smartphone market in this developing country. Furthermore, we will touch upon how the Indian smartphone scene has been shaken up and changed by this move.
[This article will not touch upon the politics involved with the decision or its ramifications outside of the Android tech scene, so please don't get political in the comments — we are a technology forum first and foremost.]
Demonetization – A Primer
If you've been keeping up with the latest in global news, you may have heard of India's recent demonetization move. For a short summary, the Government of India decided to withdraw the legal tender status of ₹500 and ₹1000 currency notes (valued at ~$7.5 and ~$15 respectively), both of which are (or were) the highest denominations of currency available in the country, with the next highest being ₹100 only (~$1.5) from the old currency; new currency notes of ₹2000 ( ~$30) and ₹500 also were to be put into circulation. The move was announced on 8th November 2016, and was put into effect in a very short time period of less than four hours, effective from 9th November 2016.
For some perspective, refer to the figures quoted in Reserve Bank of India's (the Central monetary authority in the country) Annual Report: the older currency denominations accounted for 86.4% of the country's cash circulation in value (not volume), all of which are now deemed worthless for barter exchange in their old state. Citizens had to deposit their older notes with banks to achieve any more use out of them, and strict withdrawal limits have been imposed (and slightly relaxed since) to make sure that tight control is maintained.
In essence, the largest cash denominations were essentially wiped out overnight, and the sheer value loss caused by the move saw a severe cash crunch in the country. To understand how the recent events would affect the Indian smartphone industry, it is important to look at the scenario before the event and the predictions that were made alongside.
Smartphone Sales
Recent reports from Morgan Stanley, released a few months prior to the surprise move, stated that India was in the running to overtake the United States as the second-largest smartphone market by 2017, riding on top of robust annual growth in the smartphone market. The country would have grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% through 2018 (compared to 5% estimation for China for the same period), and would account for 30% of the global growth during the period.
As growth in China had decelerated and was expected to stagnate, the moment was ripe for India to become the next point-of-interest for smartphone OEMs and their product strategies. Morgan Stanley's report from April of 2016 puts the number of smartphone users in India at 225 million. That figure – which is already impressive – actually only accounts for 18% of the total population of the country; 82% of the population of India does not have a smartphone, so the potential was (and is) absolutely massive. We saw plenty of OEMs shift their focus in smartphone production and marketing towards India precisely because of the huge potential for growth, and India has also been one of the engines driving smartphone prices down.
With Reliance Jio, a major LTE mobile network operator, expected to launch in 2016, Internet penetration in India was also bound to increase by a very good margin in a short time. All in all, the bigger picture was definitely rosy, a fact that was not lost on international OEMs that looked forward to a piece of the pie.
And then, demonetization happened.
The effects of demonetization were immediately felt in the form of a liquidity crunch in the market. Mind you, there was no lack of funds as people had plenty in the form of assets and bank balances (and old notes). What was missing was the ability to spend these balances. Electronic means of payment (RTGS, NEFT, Debit and Credit Cards) are still mediums largely restricted to urban and semi-urban areas, and even then, these do not enjoy the universal acceptability and preference that physical cash did before. To get a better idea on the cash dependence, India's Cash-to-GDP ratio is reportedly at 10.86% of its GDP (which itself is growing), while countries like UK and USA have low cash dependence at 3.72% and 7.9% respectively. Further, for a population of 1.2 Billion, the country only has 22 Million credit cards and 636 Million debit cards (not taking into account the fact that people can hold multiple cards) as of March 2016.
Now, couple these with the fact that smartphones in India are still largely considered as a luxury rather than a necessity and you'll understand how this demonetization move disproportionately affects the market segment that depends largely on cash – which happens to be the group that largely do not already own a smartphone. Further, sales of smartphones in rural and semi-urban areas continue to rely on physical brick and mortar stores rather than online marketplaces – places where the consumers and the sellers jointly prefer the convenience of cash. The direct consequence of all of these factors combined will give us a sharp decline in smartphone sales in these areas. Sales in urban metropolitan regions are affected as well, but the quantum of drop (and lost potential) is less pronounced here.
Of course, you do not need to take my word for it. On November 26th the Indian Cellular Association (ICA), which is the apex body of mobile industry in India comprising of the various stakeholders in the industry, put forth a formal request to the Government of India to allow the usage of the older and now invalid currency notes specifically for buying mobile phones. ICA claims that sales of mobile phones (smartphones and feature phones combined) have fallen by 50% due to the domino effect that demonetization is having on the Indian economy.
"The mobile handset sales have crashed and the sales are down in the brick and mortar channel, which is more than 80 percent of our turnover… the daily collection of our trade and industry, which should be around Rs 350-400 crore [~ $51 Million – $59 Million] is down by 50 per cent."
Market research firm IDC forecasts that feature phone shipments (not actual sales, but a hard-cap on potential sales) will fall by 24.6% while smartphone shipments will fall 17.5% this quarter compared to the previous quarter.
Telephony Services
The importance of mobile services was not entirely lost on the government. Seeing how a very large part of the low and medium income groups prefer using prepaid SIM connections over postpaid billing connections for their telephony needs, the government did allow the use of older ₹500 notes for topping up prepaid connections up to December 15th. There are restrictions in place, such as a maximum ceiling for a prepaid recharge with the old note being fixed at ₹500 (the value of the old note) per prepaid connection (effectively allowing you the use of only one of your older currency notes). But, looking on the bright side, some respite is better than nothing. The government did recognize telephony as an essential service, but consumers are holding back unneeded expenditure in this sector as uncertainty on the liquidity crisis continues.
One telecom service operator is standing above the pack, being on the positive end of the demonetization move: Reliance Jio.
Jio launched commercially to the public in early September 2016, becoming India's first and only 100% VoLTE operator in the country with a full 4G LTE network (no provision of 3G/2G service, which is a very big step forward for India). When Jio launched commercially, it actually launched completely free for the end user — no contract, no security deposit, no monthly fee, no prepaid expense, no money to be paid even for the SIM card — no strings attached at all. The free service provided users with unlimited 4G data, free VoLTE calls and texts across all networks, along with access to Jio's multimedia app suite. The only catch here was that data was soft-capped at 4GB daily per user, after which the user was throttled down considerably. But seeing how this limit was generous and the service was entirely free, there is not much to complain here. The free period was to end by 31st December 2016, beyond which the still-affordable rates of the telecom operator would apply. Consumers still retain the choice of going ahead with the rates, as one could simply cancel the SIM and dispose it off after enjoying the freebies.
While other telecom operators in the country are losing out on income as families look to cut down petty expenditure, Jio is gaining more and more subscribers. People who had held out on Jio are joining over if only to cut down on cash expenses. Jio sensed an opportunity with the demonetization policy, and thus the company recently announced that they will extend its free service offer until March 31, 2017. For consumers who are strapped for cash, a telecom service which does not want any of your money is an obvious winner. Other operators are most definitively feeling the heat, as many are now offering much more attractive deals to entice their customers to remain loyal to their services.
Digital Wallets
An EDC machine, used at merchant counters for card based transactions.
In the past few years, a strong emphasis was put on mobile payment solutions in order to transform the Indian economy from cash-heavy to cashless (or close). Banks and bank accounts are the center point in this equation, but more and more means are being adopted to add on factors of convenience. Not all merchants or consumers could practically afford Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines, commonly known as card swipe machines, for all of their financial transaction needs. This is where digital wallets factor in.
The concept of a digital wallet in the current Indian context is very much alike Android Pay and other mobile payment solutions in functionality, but differs in its implementation. Android Pay stores information regarding your debit and credit cards and is used to facilitate transactions at merchant counters, but popular digital wallets in India like Paytm, MobiKwik, Oxigen, FreeCharge, Airtel Money, Jio Money (and many more offerings by banks too) try and act as a wallet to actually store currency value within digital accounts rather than just act as information gateways for your bank account. In this regard, these digital wallet solutions are much closer to the likes of PayPal than they are to Android Pay or Samsung Pay.
[The security of such digital wallet solutions is questionable, but that is a topic for a different debate. Personally, I hold only nominal value in such wallets.]
Paytm is the current leader in the Indian market thanks to its early entry as well as consistent marketing efforts. The demonetization move strongly bolstered its usefulness as the service even facilitates exchange transactions which do not necessarily have a financial/for-profit nature (like splitting a bill with friends). Paytm rightfully saw immense opportunity by the government move, and immediately reacted with advertisements across television, newspapers, and social media pages as well as aggressive on-the-ground marketing targeting local shopkeepers and first-time users alike. Within a period of days, the app registered a 700% increase in overall traffic, a 1000% growth in amount of money added to Paytm accounts, 300% increase in app downloads, and a 500% increase in user transactions per week. As of a few days ago, the platform claims to have 150 Million users with 5 Million transactions per day, and is on its way to processing ₹24,000 Crore (~$352 Million) in transaction value by the end of the fiscal year. Just for reference, Paytm started off humbly in 2010, and it was only in 2014 when Paytm's wallet solutions were launched.
Paytm's runaway success highlights one very important point: Google missed the mobile payment train in India. With the current turn of events heavily in favor of mobile wallets, Paytm's familiarity and ease-of-use appealed to the Indian demographics and provided relief in desperate times. By doing so, the company/app has gained trust and widespread acceptability (ranging from the small time newspaper vendors and local grocery stalls all the way to supermarkets and malls), something which currently-non-existent competitors like Android Pay will find extremely hard to compete with. Trust is of utmost importance wherever money is concerned, and Paytm has reached that critical mass where its familiarity will only accelerate its popularity.
Demonetization of the highest denominations is, no doubt, one of the biggest changes that the economy of India has seen in recent times. While not being directly related to the smartphone sector, it has still resulted in widespread ramifications less than a month out from the policy's implementation. The totality of the effects is very difficult to ascertain even in the long term. India was on track to become an even bigger market for smartphones and related services, and this move may have drastically altered the course of India's burgeoning smartphone market, influencing everything from smartphone sales and shipments to mobile carriers and digital wallet solutions. It even extends onto other scenarios, like spending on apps and effects on smartphone prices, but it's harder to draw conclusions on these aspects at the moment. All we can do right now, is wait, watch, and go with the flow.
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The best gift one could give a flashaholic is a system update, and Google seems to have arrived early on the scene. As it stands, Android 7.1.1 Nougat has begun its official rollout to officially supported devices.
The newest stable Android update with version number 7.1.1 brings new features of the 7.1 update to the Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X. Previously, features like the app shortcut menus, image keyboard support and round icon support were available on Nexus 6P and 5X officially only through the Developer Previews of Android 7.1, but this stable release makes the features available to all users at large.
The Android 7.1.1 update is also the first numbered update for the Pixel and Pixel XL. The update contains the raise-to-wake and double-tap-to-wake functionality, both of which were first spotted on Canadian Pixel devices.
The builds are labelled NMF26O for the Pixel and Pixel XL, NMF26H for the Pixel C, NMF26F for the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X and both the Nexus 9 and NMF26J for the Nexus Player. Missing from the list is Nexus 6, which has reached its end-of-life support in October 2016, and hence, only receives an updated Android 7.0.0 build (NBD91U) for this December update.
Further, the update comes along with the December 5, 2016 security patch. The first security patch was dated 1st December 2016 but was only a partial security patch, with the total December patch being this 5th December patch. In all, 6 critical vulnerabilities, 21 vulnerabilities marked high severity and 12 marked as moderate were patched in this complete patch. A point to note is that all critical vulnerability patches are part of the 5th December patch level and are not included in the 1st December patch level.
The Android 7.1.1 update is significant because it will become the first starting point for other OEMs who look forward to updating devices onto Android 7.1, Previously, Android 7.1 was a Pixel exclusive and was distributed later on to Nexus devices via a Developer Preview.
You can find the download links for supported devices down below:
If your smartphone or tablet has a fingerprint reader, chances are that its uses are limited. Apart from a few added benefits in the Google Pixel or Huawei smartphone line-up, most fingerprint readers on Android only serve to unlock your device. Fortunately, with the power of Tasker and a few plug-ins, we are able to considerably extend the functionality of the fingerprint scanner. Previously, I did a tutorial on how to assign custom fingerprint actions and make it context dependent. At the time, I only demonstrated how you could cast the current tab to your PC. In this tutorial, I will provide some additional examples of ways you can take advantage of a context-aware fingerprint reader.
But what if your phone doesn't have a fingerprint reader? Even if you don't have one on your phone, don't worry, as we can adjust the scripts to work just as well with an onscreen button. I will even demonstrate how to replicate this set-up with a fully transparent onscreen button, as well! XDA Senior Member Flextrick has updated the Fingerprint Scanner Tools with better Tasker integration, so here are my favorite custom fingerprint actions. At the end of each section, I will provide the Tasker summary for those of you who want to replicate the set-up on your own (and learn along the way), but if you would rather simply download all of the scripts mentioned in this article I've provided a download link at the end.
In the previous article, I demonstrated how you can cast the currently opened Chrome webpage to your PC using Join. Since I published that article, I've come up with a few changes that I thought would improve its functionality. While the profile alone does exactly the same thing, I've updated the task to cast the page to the selected PC based on what WiFi is connected or an input selected from a dialog. I have also added a toggle to enable then disable the AutoInput accessibility service, as these accessibility services tend to slow down your phone. To do so, I have added a Secure Settings accessibility toggle action as the first and last action in the task. If you struggle to get the Secure Settings plug-in on Android 7.0+ working, look at my solution here or check the run shell options from here.
WiFi Connected Context
WiFi context
Unless you can get the location values from another profile, you will need to create two additional profiles. One will set the variable %Location to home, another to work. Create the profile, WiFi connected, fill in your home SSID, and link the task which will set the variable %Location to home. Do the same for your work WiFi.
Now that we have that part ready, we can update our original task by simply adding an IF condition to the Join Send Push action. A push to the correct device will be issued depending on our %Location variable, which we set based on a WiFi Connected profile as mentioned above.
Chrome Profile
Profile: Connected Home State: Wifi Connected [ SSID:FASTBERRY/SLOWFROG MAC:* IP:* ] Enter: Connected Home A1: Variable Set [ Name:%Location To:home Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] Profile: Connected Work State: Wifi Connected [ SSID:ITC-STAFF MAC:* IP:* ] Enter: Connected Work A1: Variable Set [ Name:%Location To:work Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] Profile: Chrome On PC Application: Chrome Event: Variable Value [ %FingerScanned eq 1 ] Enter: Chrome A1: Secure Settings [ Configuration:AutoInput: service.ServiceAccessibility - Enabled Timeout (Seconds):0 ] A2: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] A3: AutoInput UI Query [ Configuration:Only Visible: true Only Clickable: false App Package: com.android.chrome Check Screen State: false Text: ((?<=http:\/\/|https:\/\/|https:\/\/www.|http:\/\/www.|www.))?.* Regex: true Variables: address Timeout (Seconds):20 ] A4: Join Send Push [ Configuration:Device: Chrome@Home Url: %address Timeout (Seconds):60 ] If [ %Location ~ home ] A5: Join Send Push [ Configuration:Device: Chrome@work Url: %address Timeout (Seconds):60 ] If [ %Location ~ work ] A6: Secure Settings [ Configuration:AutoInput: service.ServiceAccessibility - Disabled Timeout (Seconds):0 ]
Dialog Context
Dialog
If you have multiple PCs you would like to cast to in a single network, perhaps a dialog would be a better option for you. I'm going to use AutoTools to generate a dialog which will consist of names of the PCs that you can cast the current Chrome webpage to. Once clicked – the website will be sent only to that PC. If you are going to use just the dialog, you don't need to recreate the profiles from above. All you need to do is add the AutoTools Dialog action to your task. Populate the names with your home devices and assign commands to each option. These commands will be stored in a variable %atcommand. Once pressed, the variable will be set, and we can trigger the correct Join Push action. Each Join Push action will have a matching IF condition (%atcommand ~ home or work etc).
Chrome Dialog Profile
Profile: Chrome On PC Application: Chrome Event: Variable Value [ %FingerScanned eq 1 ] Enter: Chrome Dialog A1: Secure Settings [ Configuration:AutoInput: service.ServiceAccessibility - Enabled Timeout (Seconds):0 ] A2: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] A3: AutoInput UI Query [ Configuration:Only Visible: true Only Clickable: false App Package: com.android.chrome Check Screen State: false Text: ((?<=http:\/\/|https:\/\/|https:\/\/www.|http:\/\/www.|www.))?.* Regex: true Variables: address Timeout (Seconds):20 ] A4: AutoTools Dialog [ Configuration:Dialog Type: List Title: Select your pc Icon: android.resource://net.dinglisch.android.taskerm/hd_hardware_dock List Type: 0 Texts: Home,Work Text Size: 20 Image Width: 100 Commands: home,work Dim Background: true Top Margin: 16 Bottom Margin: 16 Bottom Buttons Top Margin: 16 Bottom Buttons Bottom Margin: 16 Close On Select: true Separator: , Command Variable: atcommand Cancelable: true Turn Screen On: true Timeout (Seconds):60 ] A5: Join Send Push [ Configuration:Device: Chrome@Home Url: %address Timeout (Seconds):60 ] If [ %atcommand ~ home ] A6: Join Send Push [ Configuration:Device: Chrome@work Url: %address Timeout (Seconds):60 ] If [ %atcommand ~ work ] A7: Secure Settings [ Configuration:AutoInput: service.ServiceAccessibility - Disabled Timeout (Seconds):0 ]
WhatsApp – Continue conversation on the PC
Here's a new one we've cooked up in the lab. Holding a Whatsapp conversation on your phone is great for quick back and forth messages, but sometimes you would rather hop on to your PC to type out longer responses. As such, I've created a very simplistic, yet very useful profile that will get WhatsApp's online interface up and running on your PC so you could continue your conversation. If you have more than one PC, feel free to link this to a WiFIi Connected context or create a dialog like we did in the previous example.
WhatsApp Profile
Profile: WhatsApp On PC Event: Variable Value [ %FingerScanned eq 1 ] Application: WhatsApp Enter: Whatsapp A1: Join Send Push [ Configuration:Device: Chrome@Home Url: http://ift.tt/1Dt3Tno Timeout (Seconds):60 ] If [ %Location ~ home ] A2: Join Send Push [ Configuration:Device: Chrome@work Url: http://ift.tt/1Dt3Tno Timeout (Seconds):60 ] If [ %Location ~ work ]
Facebook – Open Facebook on a PC
In a very similar fashion, we can continue our Facebook browsing on our PC if you're getting tired of scrolling your feeds on your mobile device. In the same way as before, we'll point our PC to the URL of Facebook's desktop site via a Join push. Of course, feel free to again modify this by adding a WiFi Connected context or a dialog for multiple devices.
Facebook Profile
Profile: Facebook On PC Event: Variable Value [ %FingerScanned eq 1 ] Application: Facebook Enter: Facebook A1: Join Send Push [ Configuration:Device: Chrome@Home Url: http://ift.tt/g8FRpY Timeout (Seconds):60 ] If [ %Location ~ home ] A2: Join Send Push [ Configuration:Device: Chrome@work Url: http://ift.tt/g8FRpY Timeout (Seconds):60 ] If [ %Location ~ work ]
Maps – Navigate home, or to your favorite location
A one click 'Take me home' button can save some time and frustration, especially when you're in a hurry. Although you can create a launcher shortcut to start Google Maps navigation, some users would prefer not to clutter their home screen with additional icons. When Google Maps is open, we can pass an intent to ask Google to take us home (requires the "Home" location in Google Maps to be set or a hard-coded address in the variable). If you wish to have a few favorites to choose from like 'work' or 'Las Vegas', we can also link a dialog.
Navigate Home
With a quick press of a button, an Intent action is sent. This will open Google Maps and set 'home' as your destination. Simple!
Create a dialog with AutoTools, and fill in a list of locations. You can use places like home or work, cities, or specific addresses. List them separated with commas. The AutoTools dialog will populate the variable %attext when the option is pressed. This option will be passed over to the intent, in the data field: google.navigation:q=%attext . The intent: android.intent.action.VIEW will take you to your destination.
Maps Fav Profile
Profile: Maps Go Home Event: Variable Value [ %FingerScanned eq 1 ] Application: Maps Enter: Maps Dialog A1: AutoTools Dialog [ Configuration:Dialog Type: List Title: Select location Icon: app-icon:com.google.android.apps.maps List Type: 0 Texts: Home,Work,Las Vegas Text Size: 20 Image Width: 100 Dim Background: true Top Margin: 16 Bottom Margin: 16 Bottom Buttons Top Margin: 16 Bottom Buttons Bottom Margin: 16 Close On Select: true Separator: , Command Variable: atcommand Cancelable: true Turn Screen On: true Timeout (Seconds):60 ] A2: Send Intent [ Action:android.intent.action.VIEW Cat:None Mime Type: Data:google.navigation:q=%attext Extra: Extra: Extra: Package: Class: Target:Activity ]
Hangouts – Quick reply Templates
I know I seem to love the AutoTools Dialog action, but that's because it provides a very useful feature that can be applied in a wide range of Tasker scripts. In this case, we will use a dialog to quickly populate the clipboard with a quick-reply template. Once the selection is made, you can paste your text message or reply in seconds. No need for typing.
We will use an array to store our messaging templates in. To create an array, use Variable Set and list your options separated by a comma. You will then perform a Variable Split by the comma and will then be able to list the array in an AutoTools dialog! Make sure it is a global array (contains an upper case letter in the name) as local arrays will disappear. The AutoTools Dialog will take the %Templates() array in the text field and will populate your list with options. All you need to do now is use the Set Clipboard action to store the value of %attext.
To help you out, I kept the array actions for you in the description. Once you have create an array of template responses you can delete A1 and A2 actions from your task. If you wish to modify your template response array in the future, simply go to the 'Variables' tab in Tasker and look for the %Templates variable.
Hangouts Profile
Profile: Hangout Template Event: Variable Value [ %FingerScanned eq 1 ] Application: Hangouts Enter: Hangout (16) A1: [X] Variable Set [ Name:%Templates To:option 1, option 2, option 3 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] A2: [X] Variable Split [ Name:%Templates Splitter:, Delete Base:Off ] A3: AutoTools Dialog [ Configuration:Dialog Type: List Title: Select your template Icon: android.resource://net.dinglisch.android.taskerm/hd_content_edit List Type: 0 Texts: %Templates() Text Size: 20 Image Width: 100 Dim Background: true Top Margin: 16 Bottom Margin: 16 Bottom Buttons Top Margin: 16 Bottom Buttons Bottom Margin: 16 Close On Select: true Separator: , Command Variable: atcommand Cancelable: true Turn Screen On: true Timeout (Seconds):60 ] A4: Set Clipboard [ Text:%attext Add:Off ] A5: Flash [ Text:Clipboard set to: %attext Long:On ]
Camera – Delayed Shutter
I always find it uncomfortable to use the camera for selfies. Scanning your finger to take a picture is perhaps not the greatest solution, however you can set a timer which will allow you to get your hand in position to take a much better picture.
To give ourselves a warning, the Android voice engine will count down for us with the action Say. After this – use the action Button – Camera to take the picture with the main camera. No need to play with the timers or reaching out for a button.
Camera Profile
Profile: Camera Seflie Main Event: Variable Value [ %FingerScanned eq 1 ] Application: Camera Enter: Camera A1: Say [ Text:In 3,2,1... Engine:Voice:com.google.android.tts:eng-gbr Stream:2 Pitch:6 Speed:6 Respect Audio Focus:On Network:On Continue Task Immediately:Off ] A2: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] A3: Button [ Button:Camera ]
YouTube – Cast video to PC
Owning a smart TV has made me realize that casting a YouTube video to a PC is unnecessarily difficult. Unless your PC has the YouTube page open in a TV mode, the cast option is not available. Fortunately, we can enable the option using the fingerprint scanner. This is yet another simple, but useful profile. All we will be doing is opening the YouTube TV page on our PC via Join Push, and you can then cast your current video to your PC! So simple!
If you don't have a sensor, the same behavior can be reproduced with an overlay, by making an invisible scene that will act exactly the same way as scanning your finger. Place it in a fixed location, so you would know where to tap (or long tap) and execute the following:
Scanned Finger A1: Variable Set [ Name:%FingerScanned To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] A2: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:2 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] A3: Variable Set [ Name:%FingerScanned To:0 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
You can make the button visible, but I found it a little distracting especially when watching videos. Select all applications that would support the use of the button by creating a profile which will show and destroy the scene.
Fake button
Profile: Fake Button Application: Chrome, Camera, Hangouts... Enter: Fake Button A1: Create Scene [ Name:Fake Finger ] A2: Show Scene [ Name:Fake Finger Display As:Overlay, Blocking Horizontal Position:200 Vertical Position:100 Animation:System Show Exit Button:On Continue Task Immediately:On ] Exit: Fake Button- A1: Destroy Scene [ Name:Fake Finger ]
You can download the entire Project by following the download link below. After downloading the Project XML file, you can import it by opening up Tasker then long-pressing on the Home icon at the bottom left. This will bring up the Tasker Project menu, which will allow you to import Projects located on the internal storage.
