Spotify for the desktop can finally initiate casting to Google Cast devices

Spotify isn’t a perfect music streaming service, but it is easily one of the best options out there. One of the features that makes Spotify so great is “Spotify Connect.” It allows you to open the app on any device and control the music wherever it’s playing. Google Cast devices are included in Connect, but with one big limitation: you can’t initiate from the desktop app. That’s finally getting fixed.

Previously, Google Cast devices were available in the Spotify mobile and web apps. You could easily cast to them and control the playback from any platform. However, the Windows and Mac apps could only control the casted playback after it had been initiated from the mobile or web apps. You couldn’t cast to a Chromecast or Assistant smart speaker from the desktop app. This was very annoying.

Good news!

You can now find Chromecast in the connect “devices available” menu in the Spotify desktop app and browser web player. Now you can cast your music to Chromecast from the desktop app without having to use the iOS or Android app.

Make sure your Spotify desktop app is up to date

Starting in Spotify for desktop version 1.1.38, Google Cast devices finally appear in the “devices available” menu. It works exactly how you’d expect. Simply select a device from the list to begin casting. You will be able to control playback from the desktop app or any other platform through the Connect feature. No more weird workarounds required.

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Source: Spotify Community | Via: 9to5Google

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A future OnePlus Nord device is coming to the U.S. this year

OnePlus recently took the veils off the OnePlus Nord (our review), a device that broke new ground for OnePlus. Previously, the company had only been releasing phones with mostly flagship specifications, with the exception of a one-off mid-range phone in the form of the OnePlus X in 2015. OnePlus’ gradual price hike reached its highest point this year, with the OnePlus 8 Pro reaching a $999 price point, which forced loyal OnePlus users who followed the brand for their price-to-performance ratio to look elsewhere. The OnePlus Nord is the company’s first mid-range device since then, but potential U.S. buyers were bummed to know the device was not slated for a release in the States. For now, at least.

OnePlus Nord XDA Forums

Wired’s review of the OnePlus Nord seems to hint that the phone might be coming to the United States. Or at least a Nord-branded device, that is, as Mr. Pei reportedly told Wired that a Nord-branded phone (not necessarily the one that launched as the OnePlus Nord) would be coming to the US later this year. So customers looking to buy a mid-range phone from OnePlus in the US might be satisfied by this decision. This also might mean that OnePlus is planning to make the Nord an ongoing smartphone series instead of just a one-hit-wonder like the OnePlus X, which is definitely appreciated as flagship OnePlus phones have been getting increasingly more expensive.

So what phone could we see launch in the US? It could very well be the same OnePlus Nord that is making the rounds globally, or it might be a slightly tweaked model exclusive for the US market. The timing is later this year, so we might see this device launch together with the OnePlus 8T and the OnePlus 8T Pro soon. Right now, you can get the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro, the company’s current flagships.

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Source: Wired

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Nubia Red Magic 5S with 144Hz display and active cooling fan launched in China

Earlier this year in March, Nubia unveiled its first 5G-enabled gaming smartphone — the Red Magic 5G — in China. Powered by Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 865 chip and featuring a 144Hz high refresh rate display, the Red Magic 5G offered users one of the smoothest mobile gaming experiences out there at a relatively affordable price. Building upon the success of the Red Magic 5G, Nubia has now unveiled the all-new Red Magic 5S in China.

Nubia Red Magic 5S: Specifications

Specification	Nubia Red Magic 5S
Dimensions and Weight	168.56 x 78 x 9.75 mm 218g
Display	6.65″ FHD+ AMOLED; 19.5:9 aspect ratio 144Hz high refresh rate 240Hz touch sampling rate In-display fingerprint sensor
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus Adreno 650
RAM and Storage	8GB LPDDR5 + 128GB UFS 3.1 12GB +256GB 16GB + 256GB
Battery & Charging	4,500 mAh battery 55W fast charging
Rear Camera	Primary: 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor Secondary: 8MP, Wide-Angle Camera Tertiary: 2MP, Macro
Front Camera	8MP
Other Features	Active cooling through a rotating fan within the phone 3.5mm headphone jack Low latency game screencasting Touch-sensitive shoulder buttons with 320Hz touch sampling rate Wi-Fi 6 Dual-frequency GPS Side pins for further docking
Android Version	Red Magic OS based on Android 10

The new Nubia Red Magic 5S is a minor upgrade over its predecessor and it packs in Qualcomm’s latest flagship Snapdragon 865 Plus chip, coupled with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The device features the same 6.65-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling, and an in-display fingerprint scanner.

The Red Magic 5S includes an improved cooling system, with a silver-plated cooling pad called ICE Ag accompanying the 15,000 RPM built-in fan for better thermal performance under load and while charging. Speaking of which, the device retains the 4,500mAh battery from its predecessor that supports 55W fast charging.

In the camera department, the Nubia Red Magic 5S still packs in a 64MP IMX686 primary sensor, coupled with an 8MP wide-angle camera, and a 2MP macro camera on the back. The device also features RGB lighting zones and capacitive touch triggers that offer a touch sampling rate of 320Hz.

Along with the Red Magic 5S, Nubia has also unveiled its new Red Magic TWS gaming earphones that feature a unique design and boast of a low-latency gaming mode that can drop the delay to just 39ms. The company has also launched a pair of neckband-style wireless earphones that also feature the same low latency gaming mode.

Pricing and Availability

The Nubia Red Magic 5S is available for pre-orders in China starting today, with the first open sale scheduled for August 1st. The device will be available in the following RAM/storage configurations:

• 8GB + 128GB: CNY 3,799 (~$543)
• 12GB + 256GB: CNY 4,399 (~$628)
• 16GB + 256GB: CNY 4,999 (~$714)

Along with the distinct red and blue two-tone color variant, the Red Magic 5S will also be available in a new silver color option. The device is expected to launch globally later this year in September.

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Motorola Moto G8 Plus, Nubia Mini 5G, and Realme 1/U1 Android Pie kernel sources are now available

Publishing the kernel source of an Android-powered smartphone is needed for the OEM to comply with the GNU General Public License v2, and it also helps third-party developers to build custom recoveries and ROMs for that device. An ideal kernel source release should be accompanied by appropriate commit history, and all the dependencies are expected to be properly documented. While we don’t expect every OEM to maintain such high-quality control, even a partial release should be enough for experienced developers to get the ball rolling. Manufacturers like Motorola and Nubia have a good track record of releasing kernel sources and they have now posted kernel sources for the Moto G8 Plus and the Nubia Mini 5G, respectively. Realme, on the other hand, has released a revised kernel source package targeting the Realme 1 and the Realme U1.

Motorola Moto G8 Plus

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 laden Moto G8 Plus was launched back in October 2019. The phone runs Android Pie out of the box, and its Android 10 update is under soak testing at this moment. As expected, the kernel source release for this device corresponds to the stable Android Pie-based firmware with the build number PPIS29.65-51-5.

Moto G8 Plus Kernel Sources || Moto G8 Plus XDA Forums

Nubia Mini 5G

Nubia’s Mini 5G is a first-gen 5G phone, which is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 chip paired with a Snapdragon X50 modem. According to our own Adam Conway, the “mini” phone felt like more of a proof-of-concept than an actual retail product. Nevertheless, the OEM has finally released the kernel source code, which can be downloaded using the link below.

Nubia Mini 5G Kernel Sources

Realme 1 and Realme U1

Realme has no plan to roll out a stable Android 10 update for the Realme 1 and the Realme U1, but XDA’s developer community has somewhat managed to fill the void. The company delivered the ColorOS 6 flavored Android Pie update for the phone duo more than a year ago, but they didn’t update the kernel source repo till date. Now that the Pie-based kernel sources are live, we hope that these phones will get stable custom ROMs in the coming days.

Realme 1/U1 Android Pie Kernel Sources

Realme 1 XDA Forums || Realme U1 XDA Forums

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Amazfit Bip S Lite with transflective color display, 30-day battery life launches in India for ₹3,799 ($51)

Following the launch of the Amazfit Bip S earlier this year in June, Chinese wearables manufacturer Huami has now launched the slightly more affordable Amazfit Bip S Lite in India. Priced at ₹3,799, the new Amazfit Bip S Lite looks almost identical to the non-lite variant with a square dial and a single button on the right edge. It features the same 1.28-inch transflective color TFT display with a resolution of 176×176 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection against scratches.

Amazfit Bip S: Specifications

Specifications	Amazfit Bip S Lite
Weight	30g (with strap) and 18g (without strap)
Water resistance	5 ATM
Screen	1.28″ Transflective Color TFT, 176×176 resolution, Always-on Display, 64 RGB color gamut Gorilla Glass 3 Anti-fingerprint coating
Sensors	BioTracker PPG Bio-Tracking Optical Sensor 3-axis acceleration sensor
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.0/BLE
Battery	200mAh lithium-ion polymer battery (typical value)
Theoretical charging time	About 2.5 hours
Battery Life	Daily use mode: 30 days Standby mode: 90 days
Supported devices	Android 5.0 and above, iOS 10.0 and above

The Amazfit Bip S Lite is an affordable fitness tracker that features a BioTracker PPG bio-tracking optical sensor and a 3-axis acceleration sensor for heart rate and activity tracking, respectively. However, to keep the price low, Huami hasn’t included the 2-axis geomagnetic sensor on the Amazfit Bip S Lite, which can be found on the regular Bip S. The device features support for eight sports modes and the Huami-PAI health assessment feature that makes use of data collected over the last seven days to show a PAI score.

While Huami hasn’t unveiled the exact specifications of the battery on the new Bip S Lite, the company claims that it can last for up to 30-days on a single charge in a typical usage scenario and provide up to 90-days of battery life in standby mode. For connectivity, the Amazfit Bip S Lite includes Bluetooth 5.0/BLE and supports all Android devices running Android 5.0 or newer. The Amazfit Bip S Lite will also offer users access to over 40 watch faces and two custom widgets, with more than 150 watch faces to be added via OTA updates at a later date.

Pricing and Availability

The Amazfit Bip S lite has been priced at ₹3,799 and will be available for purchase in India on July 29th via a flash sale on Flipkart and Amazfit’s website. Interested buyers will be able to choose from three color options — Black, Blue, and Pink. In case you miss the first flash sale, the second flash sale is scheduled for August 3rd at 12 PM, and the device will go on open sale starting August 5th at 8 PM IST.

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This developer made a tool to schedule Google Assistant commands

Google Assistant offers a lot of functionality as a digital assistant, and a fair few of it extends to smart home and automation. Google provides some scheduling functionality for smart homes through Routines, which allow users to launch certain tasks routinely whenever certain conditions are met. Over the years, functionality under Routines has expanded, but there still remains a wide room for improvement with what exactly can be achieved with Google Assistant in the context of smart home automation. Now, a developer has made an open-source tool that lets you schedule Google Assistant commands, opening an array of functionality and use-cases for smart homes and beyond.

Timer for Google Assistant by wiseindy allows you to send commands to Google Assistant that will execute after a particular time, or by extension, for a specific time duration. The project utilizes IFTTT and an internet-facing web server to communicate with Google Assistant and your smart device. Once set up, you can send commands like “Hey Google, turn off the lights after 10 minutes” that execute an action after a particular duration. The project already extends this instruction set to make it possible to use duration commands such as“Hey Google, turn on the fan for 25 minutes”, which will send one command instantly and the final command after the duration.

The application doesn’t directly communicate with your local devices but uses IFTTT as a connecting medium for this communication. When you ask Google Assistant to “turn off a device after 5 minutes”, it will send that command to IFTTT, which in turn makes an HTTP request to your server with the device name and parameter “5 minutes”. The server turns on the device and waits for the specified amount of time. Once the time has elapsed, the server will make a web request to IFTTT, which will tell Google Assistant to turn off the device. Consequently, you do need an always running Node.js server that IFTTT can talk to, though it need not be running on the same network.

Timer for Google Assistant — Github

Setting up the project takes a few steps, but the included readme is handy and will provide you with adequate guidance. The project is also open-source, so you can examine the code and make contributions yourself. The current applications and use-cases are envisaged within the context of smart homes, but maybe the community can extend it to other novel uses.

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Google Chrome is getting a “Read Later” feature to save tabs for later

How often do you come across an article that you want to read but save for later? I do it often but I’m yet to figure out the perfect way to actually go back and read saved articles. There are many different ways to approach this — you can save the article as a bookmark, add it to your Notes or Sticky Notes apps, save it in an email draft, etc. All of these experiences are not as smooth as native options can be. But if you use Chrome as your primary browser — like nearly two-thirds of the world’s internet-browsing population does, you will soon be able to enjoy a native menu option to save links and revisit them later. Google recently added a commit to the Chromium Gerrit, suggesting a “Read Later” could soon be added behind a Chrome flag. 

As per the flag description, a new button for “Read Later” will appear when you enable the flag. The button will let you access a menu with all the tabs saved for later. We don’t know how the feature looks or actually functions since it’s not yet available for Chrome, including the latest Chrome Canary i.e. version 86.0.4213.0.

Among the main reasons that make this feature desirable is Chrome’s hunger for RAM. When you can feel Chrome hogging up on RAM and making your computer slower, leaving a bunch of tabs in the background appears like the least desirable option. Besides resolving the need to save links for later, Google is also working on reducing the RAM consumption by the Chrome browser.

Until the Chrome flag goes live, you can check out an interesting Chrome extension named LINER that can be used to save links or excerpts from articles. Using LINER, you can also highlight parts of an article so you don’t have to rummage through the entire text to find something specifically the next time you’re reading it.

Thanks for the tip, XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username!

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Source: Chromium

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