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dimanche 8 janvier 2017

How to Save your Parking Spot with Tasker

If you are enrolled in and regularly make use of Google Now, you might have seen the 'where I parked my car' card. This additional card is displayed whenever Google thinks you have stopped driving and left your vehicle.

I don't drive on a regular basis, rather I cycle everywhere and I find it very flattering each time Google serves me this card. It proves that Google doesn't know everything about us just yet, but if you're quick enough – the card can be used to find your bike again (unless it's been stolen).

With my incoming trip to China, I realized that Google services won't be helping me in my daily life. China blocks Google. So of course, that means no more Google Now as well. If you are lucky enough to go traveling where Google can't go or you are simply not a fan of Google Now, you might be interested in replicating the profile below. If not, you can always scroll to the bottom to download and import the project file.

You will need:
Android version: 4.0+ (Used 7.0),
Apps: Material Design Icons (optional)
Plugin: AutoVoice (optional), AutoTools (optional)) or Secure Settings (optional)
Needs: root (only if you wish to automatically toggle the location)

This project was initially created by Mishaal Rahman, but through discussion, experimentation, and collaboration was later expanded upon by myself.

Dude, where's my car? Save my Parking Spot

This profile is fairly simple. In my set up, I've made it so I can save my parking spot using a desktop widget. If however you prefer to use voice activation or a notification button, I have provided instructions below for those cases. In any case, when the profile is activated, the location is stored in a variable and recalled when needed.

It's good to point out that Android does a pretty decent job of managing your location access to ensure minimal battery drain, but if you prefer to keep your location services disabled you have to enable location services so Tasker can get a location fix. The more location services you have enabled the quicker the fix.

By default, Android will check for your location using GPS, mobile data, and WiFi in the 'High Performance' mode. If you always leave location services on, move on to the next part. Otherwise, you can toggle location with the below run shell action in Tasker (requires root).

  settings put secure location_providers_allowed=gps,network,wifi

Alternatively, you can use the Secure Settings plug-in to toggle these (here is how to make Secure Settings work on Android Nougat). Finally, for those of you without root access, if you grant the SECURE_SETTINGS permission to AutoTools you can then toggle location using that plug-in.

Save the location

Save the Location

  LocCar           Abort Existing Task          A1: Variable Clear [ Name:%LastLocation Pattern Matching:Off ]           A2: Notify Cancel [ Title:Location Issue Warn Not Exist:Off ]           A3: Get Location [ Source:Any Timeout (Seconds):20 Continue Task Immediately:Off Keep Tracking:Off Continue Task After Error:On ]           A4: Variable Set [ Name:%LastLocation To:%LOC Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]           A5: Notify [ Title:Location Saved Text:Tap to Navigate Icon:hd_location_place Number:0 Permanent:Off Priority:5 ] If [ %LastLocation Set ]          A6: Set Widget Icon [ Name:LocCar Icon:content://com.android.externalstorage.documents/document/primary%3AMaterial-Icons-010317-032209%2Fres%2Fdrawable-xxxhdpi%2Fic_car.png ] If [ %LastLocation Set ]           A7: Notify [ Title:Location Issue Text:Im sorry location could no be set. Icon:hd_aaa_ext_car Number:0 Permanent:Off Priority:5 Actions:(1) ] If [ %LastLocation !Set ]           A8: Set Widget Icon [ Name:LocCar Icon:content://com.android.externalstorage.documents/document/primary%3AMaterial-Icons-010317-032710%2Fres%2Fdrawable-xxxhdpi%2Fic_car.png ] If [ %LastLocation !Set ]

Getting location (A1-A4)

There are a few things I want to do before getting the location fix. Because most of the time %LOC (Tasker's global location variable) will have a value assigned to it already (last location fix), I only want to use the location coordinates requested through the profile. I will use the global variable %LastLocation to store these coordinates. If the task has been run again due to an error or a timeout, I need to clear the existing warning notification with the Notify Cancel action.

Notifications (A5,A7)

There are two outcomes of the Get Location action. We will end up with a new set of coordinates, or the action will fail to acquire the coordinates. If the fix is found, a notification will be displayed. Note the name of this notification. We will use this name to trigger the Return Location profile later. If a location fix is not made, or the coordinates are the same as before the Get Location action, we want to display a warning with an option to re-run the same task again (Action Perform Task assigned as a button).

Button (A6,A8)

I mentioned earlier that there will be a button which will change the color to show us a state of our parking profile. Color codes are:

white (ready)
red (fail)
green (armed)

All you need is a Tasker widget (not the shortcut) placed on your home screen for the task which will save the location. Make sure to assign an icon to this task to be able to add a task shortcut from the widget screen. I'm using this instead of the shortcut as I get Tasker to change the color of the icon according to the current state.
One of my favorite ways of getting the icons is the Material Design Icon collection, as you can find the one that suits you and quickly provide its color alternatives.
I have labeled the actions to show which one corresponds with fail/success outcomes. The IF condition %LastLoctation = set/not-set determines that outcome.

Return the location

Return Location

   ReturnLocation           A1: Send Intent [ Action:android.intent.action.VIEW Cat:None Mime Type: Data:google.navigation:q=%LastLocation&mode=w Extra: Extra: Extra: Package:com.google.android.apps.maps Class: Target:Activity ]           A2: Set Widget Icon [ Name:LocCar Icon:content://com.android.externalstorage.documents/document/primary%3AMaterial-Icons-010317-032200%2Fres%2Fdrawable-xxxhdpi%2Fic_car.png ]           A3: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:3 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ]           A4: Variable Clear [ Name:%LastLocation Pattern Matching:Off ]

The task is very simple. We will run a Google Maps intent which will contain a location link:

  Action: android.intent.action.VIEW  Data: google.navigation:q=%LastLocation&mode=w  Package: com.google.android.apps.maps  Target: Activity

Our location global variable will supply the necessary coordinates. Once this is done, we just need to clean up the variable (please add a wait action) and change the color of the widget icon to white.

Profile: Return To Location

Return to Location profile

  Profile: Return To Location          Event: Notification Click [ Owner Application:* Title:Location Saved ]  Enter:        ReturnLocation

Now that we've set our car's location, we will create a profile that is triggered when we manually request our car's location at a later time. To trigger this task from the notification we created earlier, create an event Notification Click and add the name of the notification created earlier (Location Saved)

You now have a complete profile ready.

Using Voice Commands

AutoVoice profile

  Profile: Save Location          Event: AutoVoice Recognized [ Configuration:Easy Commands: save my location,save this location,save my parking spot,save this parking spot,remember my parking spot,remember my location,mark this location,mark this spot,mark this parking spot  Responses: okay i'll save your parking spot ]  Enter: LocCar

Should you wish to add a voice trigger to save your parking spot location, create a profile using the AutoVoice Recognized event. Fill the input with the potential spoken commands that you would use separated by commas. If you wish to hear the response – include one in the Responses menu. Once this is done, link this with the LocCar task created earlier.

If you wish to use an AutoVoice command to find your saved location as well. Create a new AutoVoice Recognized event, and link it to the ReturnLocation Task.

Conclusion

It is easy to assume that everyone has access to the same resources, but this is not often the case. Should you find yourself needing a simple way to save your parking spot without relying on Google services – or you simply prefer avoiding Google services entirely, this project is for you.

This project can also be modified and used for other purposes, unlike Google Now's parking card, so see if you can come up with something better. You can also experiment with AutoNotification to make the notifications more pretty or more interactive. I kept the entire project close to the vanilla Tasker experience (apart from using AutoVoice).

Download the project here!

In order to import a Tasker project file, download the above file and save it anywhere in your internal storage. Open up Tasker and check to make sure that "beginner mode" is disabled in the preferences menu. Then, long-press on the "home" icon in the bottom left hand corner and click on "import". Find the prj.xml file you saved earlier, and select it to import it. You will now see a new tab in the bottom row containing all of the profiles and tasks we referenced in this article.

We hope you enjoy this little creation of ours, and let us know if you think we can make any enhancements!

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Dissecting Performance: A Look at What Makes the OnePlus 3 & 3T Excellent Real-World Performers

To Android enthusiasts, speed matters — we recognize we use our phones for hours upon hours every day, often in quick and short bursts, and we want the best out of our time and often-expensive flagships.

Surprisingly enough, it's some of the least expensive flagships that performs the best in the real world — we are talking about the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T, the affordable premium smartphones that still manage to pack bleeding edge hardware. The processing package of these phones should be enough to suggest exceptional performance: a Snapdragon 820/1, 6GB of DDR4 RAM, and even UFS 2.0 storage, the only component that has an update available in modern smartphones like the Huawei Mate 9. For all intents and purposes, the OnePlus 3 and 3T have the best chipset and RAM configuration that non-Samsung and non-Huawei Android smartphones can have at this moment in time, and they will stay at the top until the new wave of early 2017 flagships hit the market.

But as we've seen time and time again, good hardware does not necessarily lead to excellent performance. In fact, we saw some glaring flaws in some of the most theoretically powerful smartphones of 2016, something that's become a sort of tradition with certain OEMs. Leaving aside the specifics, we know that an OEM's software and the implementation of the hardware at hand can have a tremendous impact in the resulting real-world performance. Thermals, for example, are very important for sustained smartphone usage, and while the Snapdragon 810 is long dead-and-buried (well, almost), we still see some Snapdragon 820 devices heat up quite a bit more than others. That being said, we found the OnePlus 3 in particular to do an excellent job in this regard, so we know that, at the very least, OnePlus learned from the mistakes it made with the OnePlus 2, and that the OnePlus 3 doesn't butcher its meaty hardware through shoddy implementations.

What about real world performance? There are a myriad of factors that affect the resulting speed of the actual user experience, from the heft of the OS and bloatware to the frequency scaling algorithms employed by the OEM. As we've explained in a recent editorial, measuring real-world performance is a hard thing to do, but we can look at the objective causes – code, measurable behavior and design – to get an idea of what makes a phone perform (or appear to perform!) faster. Below we'll explain and demonstrate some of the more curious factors that help the OnePlus 3 and 3T achieve such excellent real-world performance.

Animation Tricks

This first example is a kind of illusion rather than an intricate software-hardware implementation. As many of you know, Animations can convey a strong feeling of speed and fluidity to the user — this is why one of the most popular pieces of advice ever given on XDA and other Android communities is setting the animation speed to x0.5 in the "developer options" menu. Many people swear this makes their devices "much faster", but in reality, the application state itself is loading at the same speed — the information is just displayed quicker, the response time looks shorter. If the activity being loaded or rendered is indeed very simple and takes next to no time to be fully displayed, then this animation speed change is even more effective. The same goes for loading applications from RAM and general in-app navigation, as these settings govern everything from app transitions to in-app animations and the speed of certain UI elements and menus.

OEMs understand the importance of animations, with a clear example being HTC and its M8, M9 and HTC 10 devices. The HTC M8 originally surprised users due to its speed and responsiveness — it's true that it employed excellent hardware for the time (that Snapdragon 801 holds up even today), but a not-so-sung-about aspect of this apparent prowess was HTC's use of animations. Not only did they speed up many transitions by default, but they flat-out removed some of them, such as going back to the homescreen. OnePlus does something very similar with the OnePlus 3 and 3T, a neat trick that the company's co-founder Carl Pei is not very shy about in interviews. In order to make the phone appear faster while still having animations that behave like Android proper, they add a subtle fade-out to the homescreen return animation, for example, in order to have it "end" sooner – smoothly and without jarring cuts – while still appearing fluid and very comparable to a Stock Android device.

In the first example above, the alpha begins changing shortly after the card begins moving downwards, while remaining visible enough for the user to subconsciously pick-up on the motion. This tricks you into recognizing it as the original Android transition (with a change in vertical speed), but you also see it end sooner as it fades before it reaches the bottom. This animation is most noticeable when lengthening the animations through the aforementioned developer options. The same effect is applied when opening applications, either hot or cold, from the homescreen, although in this instance it is a lot more subtle, although not as confined to the beginning of the animation as seen on the Pixel XL. You can also see that the Pixel XL's window expansion has a deceleration that makes it finish after the OnePlus 3T's, which keeps a linear speed throughout. That last segment of the animation actually costs the Pixel XL a few extra milliseconds, although it arguably looks cleaner and more inline with Material Design guidelines.

CPU Scaling and App Opening Speeds

This one is a curious aspect that I never see brought up when discussing app opening speeds, or general performance for that matter, and it's a shame that it isn't given how interesting it is. When Qualcomm brought up the "faster app launch times, and smoother, more responsive user interactions" featured in the Snapdragon 820 and 821, they didn't specify how this was achieved. In reality, it's due to a pretty clever feature that Qualcomm makes available on the chip for OEMs that purchase Snapdragon 820 and 821 processors, but not all manufacturers decide to implement it or implement it in the same way. Essentially, the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T are able to detect when Android is opening an application, and then quickly scale up and max out the clockspeeds on all cores in a short burst in order to get the fastest opening speed the device can achieve.

This is due to an overbearing boost framework Qualcomm offers to OEMs, with some of it being observable CAF sources and part of it being proprietary (which means they couldn't disclose much to me about it) — custom ROM makers can opt to strip this out of their ROMs when building from CAF, as SultanXDA did in favor of his own custom implementation (which is also very clever and works well). According to Qualcomm, there is no public name for this feature, and it's indeed not something that's been widely discussed. OnePlus isn't the only OEM to implement this either, but as said earlier, OEMs can and do use the feature differently. For example, the OnePlus 3 boosts the CPU frequency both when opening application and when loading them from the recents menu but at different maximum frequencies, whereas the Google Pixel boosts both activities at the same peak frequencies. Moreover, app opening is not the only activity "boosted" by Qualcomm's framework: it can also tap into boot processes, scrolling events, and also offers optimizations for a better browsing experience.

What's perhaps most interesting is that this "boost mode" is the only way in which the OnePlus 3T can achieve the peak 2.19GHz frequency on the little cluster. OnePlus was very conservative in its official specification sheet, as they rightly state that the OnePlus 3T's little cluster has a peak frequency of 1.6GHz, just like the original OnePlus 3. This much is true for many day-to-day operations, but Qualcomm's boost framework is designed specifically around ramping up the little cluster frequency of the Snapdragon 821-AC to 2.19GHz when launching applications, as confirmed to XDA by Qualcomm. The chipset maker also informed us that the Snapdragon 821-AB (found in the Pixel and Pixel XL) can also access this "boost mode", albeit up to a maximum of 2GHz in the efficiency cluster (by default); interestingly enough, the Pixel XL keeps it conservative as even in this scenario, the peak frequencies are 2.15GHz+1.6GHz.

F2FS with UFS 2.0

Another often-understated contributor to the exceptional real-world performance of 2016 flagships is the kind of storage they implement, and the read and write speeds they achieve. This helps in many operations including (and especially) opening applications, meaning many of the famous app opening tests you find on YouTube have a significant reason to detail not just the processor employed, but the storage type as well. The OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T are two of many devices that now employ UFS 2.0 storage, in particular a chip manufactured by Samsung. The Galaxy S6 was the first smartphone to utilize UFS storage, which marked a significant improvement over the previous eMMC solutions. The UFS 2.0 standard has faster theoretical maximums than a typical eMMC 5.1 solution, allows for simultaneous read and write processes, and it also includes new protocols and methods to reduce inefficiencies. UFS also has great performance scalability, uses little power and is optimized for mobile like eMMC. High-resolution video recording and storage-intensive tasks as well as loading heavy applications and games are some of the usage scenarios that see tangible benefits from this storage solution.

Source: Samsung

While many phones today use UFS 2.0 storage (and some even come with UFS 2.1), OnePlus managed to squeeze the most out of the UFS 2.0 chip on their OnePlus 3 by switching to F2FS starting with Android Nougat (and once you reset your device, as the switch requires formatting that would compromise your data). They informally began testing the feature with their Marshmallow community builds, too, and it's one of the reasons why the OnePlus 3T (F2FS by default) had a small performance advantage over the OnePlus 3 in both storage benchmarks and controlled app-opening tests. F2FS (Flash-Friendly File System) is a file system developed by Samsung in 2013 to cater to the specific characteristics of NAND-based storage solutions, specifically for use on Linux-based operating systems. It employs a log-structured file system, which writes all modifications to disk sequentially in a circular buffer structure, and it's faster than the traditional EXT4 standard on flash memory in most cases. XDA users have been experimenting with this for years, by the way, and you too can reformat your cache partition through TWRP if your kernel supports F2FS.

Not many OEMs have adopted into F2FS because there are still issues to solve, but some like Motorola have already tried it on their largely-Stock ROMs, making performance all that much sweeter. Furthermore, because of the CPU scaling mentioned above while opening applications, it's ensured that you'll get the most out of the UFS 2.0 storage because it eliminates possible bottlenecks caused by an interactive frequency scaling in the CPU. We took a look at the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T's storage solutions and file systems to clear up some misconceptions, and found that F2FS did indeed make a substantial difference in synthetic benchmarks like AndroBench, but also a noticeable and replicable difference in real-world scenarios such as app and game opening speeds, which we measured using Discomark, gathering large samples and controlling for variables. At the time, it was hard to discern why the OnePlus 3T's performance was slightly superior to the OnePlus 3's (early graphs shown above), but further tests with a reformatted OnePlus 3 showed that, under F2FS, the difference almost disappears regardless of storage capacity, as OnePlus' UFS 2.0 chip didn't increase storage by employing parallel chips.

What have we learned?

The biggest takeaway of this short exploration is the fact that OnePlus managed to achieve superior performance on the OnePlus 3 and 3T (compared to other OEMs) despite the fact that their devices largely employ the same hardware as other flagships. The RAM amount of the OnePlus 3 wasn't properly utilized at launch, and OnePlus is still satisfied with a ro.sys.fw.bg_apps_limit value of 32 (instead of the initial 20), which is still lower than the peak of 60 some more intrepid OEMs chose for their 4GB RAM devices. This puts a cap in the number of applications that can remain open at any given time (keep in mind you can edit this value if you so choose), meaning that if anything, RAM is the one aspect where the OnePlus 3 doesn't use its hardware to the fullest extent.

But as we've shown with the animations example, performance can appear to improve with mere tweaks to the design of the user experience. There are plenty of examples around, but the UI design and animation type or speed choices ultimately make a perceptible difference to the end user; using animations intelligently is not just smoke and mirrors, it's a smart design practice that other companies like Apple have also exploited to great extent in order to have their phones appear better than they are. OnePlus did a pretty good combination of design tricks and cutting-edge software to make the most out of the hardware in many regards, and the result is what I personally understand to be the fastest phone currently available (although the Pixel and Pixel XL certainly trade blows with it when it comes to smoothness and responsiveness). We hope you enjoyed these curious tricks and stay tuned for more dissections in the future!

What neat tricks have you found make your device faster? Share your observations in the comments!

>>> Check Out XDA's OnePlus 3 Forums!

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samedi 7 janvier 2017

HMD Global announces the Nokia 6; its first Android Smartphone for the Chinese Market

While this year's Consumer Electronics Show is just about wrapping up, HMD Global has decided to unveil some rather exciting news – its first Nokia-branded Android smartphone. The company has issued a press release and promotional footage of the Nokia 6, giving us the first sneak peak of what HMD Global has been working on since they acquired the exclusive brand licensing rights from Nokia. There's only one catch – the smartphone will be launched only in China.

HMD Global cites the strategic importance of launching in the Chinese market given the potential growth of smartphone users expected in 2017. Furthermore, the company is banking heavily on the Nokia brand to bring success. They expect consumers to latch on to the premium build quality expected of a Nokia-branded phone and have also priced the device competitively within the Chinese market.

Meet the Nokia 6

A new Nokia 6 smartphone is seen in this handout image released by HMD to Reuters on January 7, 2017. HMD/Handout via Reuters.

The device features a 5.5″ FHD screen with a layer of 2.5D Gorilla Glass. Internally, the smartphone is running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor with an X6 LTE modem, 4GBs of RAM, and 64GBs of storage. There are also dual amplifiers on the device which are coupled with Dolby Atmos audio technology. The rear camera is a 16MP sensor with phase detection auto-focus (PDAF) and an f/2.0 aperture lens, while the front facing camera is a 8MP sensor. Finally, the phone is running on Android Nougat, which HMD Global states is "the latest version" so we'll have to assume that it is on Android 7.1.

Further details regarding the device can be gleaned from the promotional video posted on Nokia's website. We can't say much about the build quality until we can actually hold the smartphone with our own two hands, but we did notice that the device features a micro-USB port (clearly visible at 00:35 in the video) rather than a USB Type-C port as we've grown accustomed to lately. But given the fact that this device is a Chinese-exclusive, it makes sense for HMD Global to opt for the older USB port. In addition, it appears the phone will feature capacitive navigation buttons rather than on-screen buttons, while the physical home button doubles up as the fingerprint scanner.

HMD Global will be selling the device through its exclusive online retail partner, JD.com, for 1699 CNY sometime "in early 2017". This converts to approximately 250 USD, though we are unlikely to see the device priced exactly like this if, or when, it launches internationally.

We do hope that HMD Global eventually brings this device, or hopefully a device with better specifications, to other markets. Although many of us Android enthusiasts here at XDA have questions regarding whether or not HMD Global will commit to frequent updates or will not get in the way of development, there are also many people eager to see the revival of the Nokia brand and the design quality that has been missing in their absence.

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Recapping 2016: XDA’s Most Popular Opinions

As we counted down the remaining days of 2016, we asked you, our readers, to give us your opinion on a wide range of topics – from the best application, game, and smartphone of the year to the biggest disappointment of the year.

These discussions generated fervent debate among our readers – no surprise given the diversity of opinions colored by individual preferences, experiences, and location. While the more popular opinions garnered a lot of affirmative responses, we were surprised by the arguments presented in some of the minority viewpoints. Whether or not we agree with your view, we certainly appreciate the time and effort you've lent to voice your opinion and participate in the discussion.

Without further ado, let's look back at what readers of XDA answered the questions we posed during our '2016 in Review' discussion series:

Best App of 2016

For the first question in the series, we decided to start off a simple topic – What was the best app of 2016? Given the drought of highly publicized applications released last year, we decided against restricting discussion to apps released only in 2016, and instead expanded the scope to include any application that you found most useful.

The most popular opinion for the Best App of 2016 is the ever-popular third-party launcher – Nova Launcher. We expected an application such as Nova Launcher to this category in the end, but nevertheless we couldn't help but nod our heads in agreement with our readers. Nova Launcher is among the most feature complete custom launchers, with the flexibility to run a no-frills minimalist setup or extensively customizing various aspects to mimic even the Pixel Launcher. Towards the end of the year, Nova Launcher also celebrated its 5th anniversary, which is where the stable builds brought many Pixel features and support for the latest Android 7.1 functionality such as launcher shortcuts.

Honorable mention also goes out to XDA Labs, our own in-house developed application distribution alternative, which also doubles up as a convenient way to access the forums and News Portal. It's free and ad-free, so there's nothing to lose in checking it out.

Best Game of 2016

Continuing the trend from above, we then asked you your opinion on the best game of 2016.

This particular topic attracted a plethora of differing opinions, which is quite understandable since mobile gaming has expanded to include thousands of titles and a multitude of different genres. Every individual has their own taste, and what one person may deem the best game may not be the best for another, but that's fine.

Some of the more popular opinions mentioned Critical Ops, Deus Ex GO, Vainglory and Clash Royale as their favorite games of the year. But the title of the best game of 2016 would have to go to Pokémon GO – love it or hate it, its popularity is undeniable.

Best Phones of 2016

Arguing over whose smartphone is better is a time old tradition of smartphone enthusiasts. Of course, given the wide variety of smartphones released each year, we had to segregate the Best Phone of 2016 category into three different price points: Best Flagship, Best Mid Ranger and Best Budget.

When it came to flagships, fans of the OnePlus 3 made their voice loud and clear. Though some might dispute the OnePlus 3 being included in the discussion given its price, the phone featured specifications that were highly competitive with other flagship devices at the time of its release. Coupled with its relatively low price, it should come as no surprise that so many people vouched for the device. Honorable mention goes to the ZTE Axon 7 as an oft-cited alternative to the OnePlus 3.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge also saw some love as the phone of choice for those of us with heavier coffers. Many users mentioned that they would have nominated the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 if it wasn't for the phone's explosive nature. To our surprise, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL saw relatively few mentions, as did the HTC 10. On the other hand, the Moto Z (and Moto Z family) did see some attention.

For mid range devices, the decision was more difficult to make. A few years ago, the debate was a lot more simple given the relatively little attention OEMs used to pay towards this segment. But Xiaomi pulled out all their stops with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (with the Snapdragon 650), and was our readers mid-range phone of the year. This is despite the fact that the device is priced in the budget category – it's just that good. Its performance is nothing like your typical budget phone, and I agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly. The phone stands uncontested in the budget end, and by virtue of its performance, it makes for a great mid-range phone without the mid-range pricing.

Best Smartwatch of 2016

This was a tough question to ask, seeing that smartwatches did not have a stellar 2016. Sales were dropping and consumer interest was lowering, so naturally OEMs reacted by not releasing many new smartwatches.

The Samsung Gear S3 Frontier LTE did win out in the end, though. This is perhaps the only popular smartwatch that can fully function without needing a smartphone to babysit it. This smartphone-less, smart functionality is thanks to the watch's LTE support. The rest of the specifications sheet is impressive with features like the rotating bezel complementing Tizen OS UI navigation. While it's a shame that Samsung's Gear smartwatches do not come in Android Wear variants, perhaps this decision might actually be for the better.

State of Tablets in 2016

If you thought smartwatch options were limited, try naming the tablets released in 2016. It made little sense to ask the Best Tablet question here – there were barely any to choose from. The limited options gave way to limited sales and popularity, which is a vicious cycle that tablets have entered into.

That is a reason in and of itself why the Android tablet's decline persisted this year. Smartphones are getting bigger and our use for dedicated tablets are shrinking by the day with the advent of Smart TV's, smartwatches, and now Home Assistants. Furthermore, people find that tablets end up lasting much longer than smartphones, thus giving them less of a reason to buy a new one. With Chromebooks also entering the picture – and with Android application support to boot – we expect this trend to continue into 2017.

Honorable mention does go to the NVIDIA SHIELD K1, which many people agreed to be a good purchase within the current limited options, despite it not being a 2016 product.

Most Improved OEM of 2016

Given the popularity of the OnePlus 3 as mentioned earlier, we were not surprised to see OnePlus win the most improved OEM of 2016 category. This opinion comes derives from them bouncing back strongly after a dismal 2015. But due credit should go towards their attempt at an open smartphone platform, which helps soothe the wounds of the bitter Nexus enthusiast.

Honorable mention also goes to HTC. The HTC One M9 was caught in the crosshairs for the Snapdragon 810 debacle, but the HTC 10 flew under the radar despite how impressive it was. HTC's mid-range portfolio was rather lacking this year, with the OEM choosing to theoretically-refresh-but-practically-degrade this segment with the release of the HTC One A9s.

Worst OEM Decision of 2016

As was the general theme of 2016, we saw a lot of disappointing things happen this year.

The general consensus of our community was in naming the death of the Nexus line as the worst OEM decision last year. Google's decision to replace the Nexus with the Pixel brand meant spelled the death of the truly open device many enthusiasts had come to love. What happens for 2017 is still up in the air, but seeing how the Pixel duo are resonating better with the general audience than any previous Nexus phone ever did gives us little hope on a revival.

(Dis)Honorable mention goes to the removal of micro-SD card slots and the loss of the 3.5mm headphone jack in some devices. To be fair, the removal of micro-SD card support has been an ongoing process, so this does not really qualify. But on the other hand, the loss of the 3.5mm headphone jack port on some very popular phones, and the reported removal of the port on future phones in 2017 just leaves us with one word — Ouch!

Best Feature of Android in 2016

We saw two Android version releases this year: the major Android 7.0 update and then the minor Android 7.1 update. Many would agree that Android as an OS is a lot more mature than what it once was, but that does not mean we cannot not enjoy a new feature or two rolling out across the board.

Double Tap Recents to switch to the last used application won the best new feature of Android last year. This features increases the speed with which we multitask between applications. Granted, this feature has been available through custom ROMs and Xposed modifications for a while now, but it is always nice to see Google and OEMs bake these features directly into the stock OS.

Biggest Disappointment of 2016

This category was an interesting one to discuss. As is natural, we end up expecting a lot based on our needs and wants; only to end up with disappointed when something fails to live up to our expectation.

Surprisingly, the Google Pixel and the Google Pixel XL have been the biggest disappointment of 2016 according to our users. Users mentioned that they expected something more appealing in terms of build quality seeing as this was to be Google's answer to the iPhone. What we got was indeed Google's answer to the iPhone – but with the iPhone's signature large bezels and equally large price tag.

And of course, there's no way we can leave out the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The phone was initially the exact opposite of disappointment, but public opinion quickly turned when news of the phone's explosiveness spread like wildfire.

2016 was a very eventful year and will be remembered for years to come. We would like to thank all our readers for supporting us through the year. Stay tuned as we kick start 2017 with more discussions – and let your voice be heard!

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Google Talks About the Certification Process for Daydream at CES 2017

The virtual reality market has been booming in the past few months thanks to the success of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Other companies are hoping to expand virtual reality to broader markets by introducing cheaper alternatives to the high-end, gaming centered VR products.

Google debuted their Daydream VR platform last year at Google I/O 2016, and they immediately began working on rules and guidelines that other companies should follow. This involved creating the Google Daydream Labs division which requires smartphone OEMs to have their device certified for the platform.

Google learned the hard way that OEMs will not always work to ensure their hardware performs in a satisfying way for the consumer. Thus, the company sought to introduce stricter rules that their partners would have to follow in order to be certified for the Daydream VR platform. To have a phone certified for Daydream, it must feature several hardware components and needs to pass a number of tests, most of which were outlined in the Android Compatibility Document for Android 7.0/7.1 Nougat.

At CES 2017, Google opened up a discussion regarding the certification process for smartphones to be Daydream VR ready. A big focus with Daydream hardware is the perception of lag, and Google's Amit Singh states one of the goals is to reduce the motion to photon latency into the 22ms-25ms range. This latency builds up from components such as the display, the sensor, and even the hardware, so there are multiple ways an OEM can reduce the latency and thus reduce perceived lag. Naturally, Google would prefer OEMs implement certain hardware that is proven capable for VR, but the company will make exceptions if the OEM is willing to cooperate and optimize their hardware for Daydream VR.

This is most evident in the recent announcement that the Mate 9 Pro and Mate 9 Porsche Design have become Daydream VR certified smartphones. There are currently three main requirements right now for Daydream certification: a GPU with the power to handle VR content, Android 7.0+, and an OLED panel. However, Mr. Singh states that Google is working with Huawei and some other companies to determine if some non-OLED panels can eventually be made feasible for Daydream VR.

Source: VRHeads

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Pure Nexus ROM Available for the Google Pixel

The popular Pure Nexus ROM, based on AOSP Android 7.1.1, is now available for the Google Pixel. The ROM includes a mix of features, along with a focus on stability. Head on over to the ROM thread to know more!

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New Phones with Old Android Versions: Why Security Patches & Feature Updates Lessen the Downsides

They say two things are inevitable, death and taxes; for us Android enthusiasts there is a third thing, and that's reading debates and complaints about OS updates… or lack thereof.

With billions of devices spanning the entire price spectrum, from hundreds of manufacturers in dozens of countries, it would come as no surprise that keeping such a large and diverse fleet of devices updated would be difficult — every company targets different audiences, with different means and resources, by offering different hardware configurations. This problem is compounded when large OEM's like Samsung and Huawei down to small ones like BLU and UMi seem dead-set on layering Android with added features that delay development of updates; even when OEMs decide to slim down their ROMs to allegedly speed up the process, manufacturers often fail to deliver on their promises. This has even caused newly announced devices to be launched with seemingly "out of date" Android versions, which immediately sets the user behind the curve and waiting for months to receive the latest and greatest. Sometimes this means waiting for half a year (like with the Honor 5X and Marshmallow) or a mere few months (as was the case with the original Moto G and KitKat). But should this really be a major cause of concern, or make us write off an entire device – and the hardware we ultimate most of the price for – because it isn't running the latest and greatest in terms features and software?

In the beginning of 2015 there was one surefire method of tracking updates across all OEMs, and that was the Android OS update version. Didn't have the most current release of Android, but wanted to know if you were secure? Well you were out of luck, as tracking the releases for security patches was all but impossible — some OEMs didn't update at all, and the ones that had minor updates (infrequently) didn't exactly detail what changed and for which reasons in terms of security. Release notes: Bug Fixes… This all changed in late 2015 following a series of massive security flaws and exploits that affected a significant proportion of Android devices in some shape or form, including the infamous "Stagefright", and these ultimately prompted Google and committed OEMs to deliver monthly security patches to address the biggest vulnerabilities.

Google took security seriously and began the Android Security Bulletin that has been putting out updates since August of 2015. The real benefit of these bulletins and the security patch system are threefold. Firstly, it allows users to see how updated they are through the settings menu, instead of a largely ambiguous OS version which meant little to the actual security level. Second, it holds OEMs accountable to the user by not allowing them to hide behind the OS version or their own confusing particular patch numbers. Finally, it made security patches easier to push out by streamlining their release, making them more transparent, and also patching them on older Android releases — users no longer needed to be on the latest version of Android to get the latest protections, and prompting OEMs to keep track of devices regardless of whether they were running the newest OS enhanced users' prospects as well . These security patches have greatly improved Android, helping the brand itself alleviate the constant assault it suffered for flaws like Stagefright or the WebView vulnerabilities found by Metasploit. While the road was tough in the beginning, many OEMs are now pushing updates out for older devices at a fairly steady rate and many new devices launched with what could be considered an "outdated OS" are relatively current in terms of security.

As recent as a year ago a device getting an update that was not fixing a glaring user-facing issue or a major OS release was a rare sight; but today such updates are commonplace most often coming in sub-100MB patches. As OEM's push these updates to their devices there may also being device enhancing features such as the FM radio patch that T-Mobile Galaxy S7's saw early last year. What's more, even carriers are complying with these security patches. Bugs get squashed, features get added, and even battery improvements have all been seen coming with these security updates. Some OEMs running their own ROMs, such as EMUI or MIUI, can have their devices get the latest features in feature updates without necessarily upgrading the Android OS version, too. In terms of both features and security, jumping to a new Android dessert is no longer an absolute necessity.

So what am I saying? Are major feature releases suddenly less important and we shouldn't focus on these why buying a new phone or recommending one? In the past one of the primary reasons for obtaining OS updates was the enhanced security they brought. While major OS releases like Nougat and Marshmallow do have enhancements and benefits that cannot be brought to older OS releases by nature, the core of security improvements are available on older releases. Also too, many of the improvements and features brought to devices via major OS releases have been found in OEM skins in one shape or another, even if they might have been poorly implemented, and other UI improvements are superseded by OEM UI changes anyway. Night mode, display-size tuners, custom quick settings, multi-window and double tap to switch apps were seen in older releases brought by skins like TouchWiz or EMUI.

Not every phone is a Pixel, and not every user is an enthusiast. As an enthusiast group though, we demand the latest and greatest software and features, or we find ways of obtaining it ourselves (which is why we care so much about open bootloaders, but that's another story). But we are a very small piece of the market, and the mainstream market would rather have something that works than one that doesn't, but that runs the very latest software. Just ask Note 4 owners how rough those initial Lollipop updates went, or iPhone 4S owners running iOS9. A major benefit to security patches is that OS version updates to aging devices may negatively impact the user experience whereas security updates only stand to improve the safety and security with little in the way of negative side effects.

A year and a half ago, before Android Security Bulletins, OEMs needed to update their devices to provide the most updated security benefits so major OS versions were the end-all be-all. Today though, the Security Patch version should be more important to the end user than the OS version because even if you are running the latest OS, you aren't necessarily running the latest Security Patch. Instead of mocking OEMs for slow major feature releases or launching a device on a perceived "outdated OS", many OEMs should be commended for keeping devices on relatively current patch versions and in some cases rolling out patches before Google does. That's not to defend the skins or ROMs OEMs use (personally I'm not a fan) instead it is merely giving credit where credit is due. We could argue all day whether Samsung's vision of Android is superior to Huawei's, OnePlus's, or Google's, and there would be no clear winner.

Like it or not people like these OEMs' stock ROMs enough to continually purchase their products, and the discussion of these slowing down feature updates is a larger debate for another day. People who buy a device from the Galaxy S or Huawei Mate series are familiar with the look and feel of those respective brands, and our beloved AOSP feels alien to them. Fortunately, with the advent of security patches, users are no longer forced to live with an insecure OS to use what they really want… After all isn't Android's tag line, "Be Together Not The Same".

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