Microsoft Surface Duo will get 3 years of OS and security updates, will have an unlockable bootloader

Yesterday, Microsoft officially announced the Surface Duo, their latest attempt at a mobile smartphone. It is a super cool looking dual-screen device running Android, which will also be known as the first Android device from Microsoft. With Android devices, one of the most important questions has been how many years of Android updates the device will receive, as this is crucial to the overall experience. Until recently, most Android OEMs only provided 2 years of updates. Now, Google and Samsung have promised 3 years of Android updates for their flagship devices. Microsoft is now also joining that three-years-of-update group with the Surface Duo.

Microsoft Surface Duo XDA Forums

Earlier today, a Microsoft representative confirmed to us that the Surface Duo would be receiving 3 years of both OS and security updates. The device is launching with Android 10, which means it should receive up to Android 13 in OS updates. Microsoft did not specify the frequency of security updates, but for the first year, they are required to provide quarterly security updates. In comparison, the most competitive dual screen to the Surface Duo is the LG Velvet, and LG has only committed to 2 years of updates which will historically take years to get released.

Further, Microsoft also confirmed to us that the Surface Duo will have an unlockable bootloader. This means you will be able to easily root it, mod it, or throw a custom ROM on there. Personally, I am waiting for a stereo speaker mod since the device only has a mono speaker. The interest from the community will dictate what custom works are available, which is where the $1,399 price tag might hurt a little. There is no information on whether unlocking the bootloader would void the warranty — but if we had to take a guess, we would say that it would void the warranty. We’ll update the article when we get more information in this regard.

All around, Microsoft is showing it is serious about the Surface Duo and the product line. Committing to three years of updates is a big deal, and is starting to become the standard for flagship Android devices. Hopefully, Microsoft won’t become the next LG in delayed updates Committing to providing the updates is a good first step, and bootloader unlockability will help it gain favor among the enthusiasts and meta-influencers.

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Unofficial Pixel Experience and TWRP are already available for the new OnePlus Nord

Third-party development for the OnePlus Nord is on full-swing on our forums, even though it’s just been over a week since the device went on sale. XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username has already released a guide to root the device using Magisk and now, developers have released unofficial builds of the Pixel Experience custom ROM and TWRP custom recovery for the device.

OnePlus Nord XDA Forums

How to Root the OnePlus Nord with Magisk

Unofficial TWRP recovery for the OnePlus Nord

XDA Recognized Developer mauronofrio has released an unofficial build of the TWRP custom recovery (v3.4.0-0) for the OnePlus Nord. You can download and flash the custom recovery on your device by following the instruction in the XDA forums thread linked below, after which you’ll be able to flash a custom ROM on the device. However, since this is an early build of the TWRP recovery, some features don’t work as expected. Here’s a list of all the things that you can and can’t do with the current version of TWRP:

• TWRP boots
• Decryption works
• ROM flashing should work
• Backups are broken
• Flash partition is broken for system and vendor
• Don’t wipe or format system and vendor partitions
• Format/wipe data is broken

Download Unofficial TWRP (v3.4.0-0)

Unofficial Pixel Experience ROM

An unofficial build of the Android 10-based Pixel Experience ROM is now also available for the OnePlus Nord, thanks to XDA Member CryllicBuster273. To install the ROM, you’ll first need to root your OnePlus Nord by following the guide linked above and flash the unofficial TWRP recovery on the device. Then you can follow the instructions in the XDA forum thread linked below to download and flash the ROM. The custom ROM comes with Google apps built-in, so you don’t need to flash a separate GApps package after flashing the ROM.

Download Unofficial Pixel Experience ROM

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Xiaomi finally prepares to roll out Android 9 Pie to the Mi Box 3

Launched back in 2016, the Xiaomi Mi Box 3 was a forerunner of today’s Mi Box 4K or the Mi TV Stick. Matter of fact, the “Mi Box” sold in the U.S. is nothing but a rebranded Mi Box 3. The Chinese OEM shipped the device with Android Marshmallow, skipped the promised Nougat update, and directly jumped to Android Oreo. While its successor, the Mi Box S, did pick up the Android Pie update a few months ago, the owners of the Mi Box 3 are stuck with Android Oreo till date. If you are still holding onto the older Mi Box, you will be excited to know that Xiaomi is now pushing out the long-anticipated Android Pie update for the Mi Box 3 to select beta testers.

The initial public beta build (software version R2810) is meant for the MDZ-16-AB variant of the Mi Box 3 and it is coming in at nearly 620MB. The included changelog is hilariously tiny, thus all we know that the OTA brings in Android Pie to the nifty set-top box alongside the support for the Mi Remote app. Despite there is no ETA on when the stable build will land, it would be the third major Android OS update for the device (counting the unreleased Android Nougat build), which is quite impressive for such an affordable certified Android TV box.

Thanks to Reddit user u/Askmetech for the screenshot!

Considering the internal similarities between the Mi Box 3 (code-name: once) and the Mi Box S/Mi Box 4K (code-name: oneday), we hope that the aforementioned Android Pie beta firmware comes with most of the bugfix patches from the latter’s stable Android Pie build. Note that the firmware packages for these two streaming devices are not compatible with each other, so do not try to perform a cross-flash.

The Mi Box 3 supports 4K video playback at 60fps, thanks to the quad-core Amlogic SoC with the Mali 450 GPU and 2GB of RAM inside the device. There’s also support for Dolby Digital Plus audio playback, albeit the beta firmware reportedly breaks HD Audio passthrough for some users.

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Download MIUI 12’s new Super Saturn Wallpaper from the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra

Xiaomi officially announced its newest Android skin — MIUI 12 — earlier this year in April. As with all previous MIUI releases, the latest software update from the Chinese OEM included a bunch of new static and live wallpapers. Shortly after the official announcement, XDA Recognized Contributor linuxct managed to port the new Super Earth and Mars live wallpapers to other devices and later added two more options — Hale crater and Evergreen garden — to the list. Xiaomi recently released another set of live wallpapers with its 10th-anniversary special Mi 10 Ultra and you can now download it for your device.

This is Faraway Rings, the Super Wallpaper featured in the Mi 10 Ultra, ported to work on any Android device running Android 8.0 and above! This first video shows the Vertical version of it. pic.twitter.com/Lpq8V5iCxm

— linuxct (@linuxct) August 12, 2020

The new MIUI 12 Super Saturn live wallpapers include two options — Faraway Rings (Horizontal) and Faraway Rings (Vertical) — both of which can now be installed on any Android device running Android 8.0 or newer. As you can see in the embedded tweets, the Faraway Rings (Horizontal) wallpaper gives you a close look at Saturn’s rings in a horizontal orientation, while the Faraway Rings (Vertical) wallpaper aligns the rings in a vertical orientation. Both the wallpapers show a zoomed out version of the ringed planet on the lockscreen and unlocking the device zooms into the rings, with floating asteroids that move when you switch pages.

And this second video shows the Horizontal version of it, just like I showed a few hours ago. pic.twitter.com/dx3cWqSwNT

— linuxct (@linuxct) August 12, 2020

If you’re interested in trying out MIUI 12’s new Super Saturn live wallpapers on your device, you can download the respective APKs from the download link below. Once you have the APK installed on your device, you can pick the new live wallpapers from the stock wallpaper picker on your device. In case the wallpapers don’t show up in the stock wallpaper picker, you can download the Google Wallpaper app from the Play Store to apply the live wallpapers.

Download MIUI 12 Super Saturn Wallpaper port

MIUI 12 Super Wallpaper — XDA Forum Thread

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Mozilla lays off 250 employees to restructure its business but is reportedly still financially secure

The Mozilla Corporation recently announced that it was laying off approximately 250 employees in an attempt to secure the organization’s financial future. The layoffs were announced by the CEO of Mozilla Corporation and Mozilla Foundation Chairwoman, Mitchell Baker, in a public blog post, which also highlighted the company’s plans for the foreseeable future.

In the blog post, Baker wrote, “Today we announced a significant restructuring of Mozilla Corporation. This will strengthen our ability to build and invest in products and services that will give people alternatives to conventional Big Tech. Sadly, the changes also include a significant reduction in our workforce by approximately 250 people.”

Baker further revealed that the layoffs and restructuring were a part of the organization’s need to adapt its finances in a post-COVID-19 world and focus on commercially viable products that would help the organization generate revenue in the long term. This led some to speculate that Mozilla was facing financial troubles and had failed to renew its search deal with Google, which has historically accounted for 75-95% of the organization’s annual budget.

However, sources familiar with the matter have confirmed to ZDNet that Mozilla is financially sound and the layoffs were just a result of over-staffing in areas that the organization was not planning on prioritizing going forward. The sources also revealed that Mozilla and Google are expected to extend their current search deal for another three years at an estimated price tag of $400 million-$450 million per year. Details about the extended search deal will, most likely, be revealed later this year in November, when the organization is scheduled to disclose its 2019 financial figures.

In a statement to ZDNet, a Mozilla spokesperson said, “Mozilla’s search partnership with Google is ongoing, with Google as the default search provider in the Firefox browser in many places around the world. We’ve recently extended the partnership, and the relationship isn’t changing.”

Going forward, the Mozilla Corporation will prioritize commercialization efforts in the short-term, while work on open standards and protocols will take a back seat. However, Mozilla doesn’t plan to phase out its work in the web development community and will, most likely, pick up where it left off after its subscription-based services ensure long-term business survivability.

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Source: The Mozilla Blog, ZDnet (1,2)

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Xiaomi has no plans to launch the Mi 10 Ultra or Redmi K30 Ultra globally

Xiaomi recently launched the Mi 10 Ultra and the Redmi K30 Ultra, two phones that commemorate the company’s 10 years in the smartphone market. While the Mi 10 Ultra includes some of the best consumer-ready technologies that Xiaomi has to offer, the Redmi K30 Ultra represents Xiaomi’s insane value proposition with a low price tag but a heavy punch. Both smartphones are exciting for their own reasons. But as it turns out, Xiaomi currently has no plans to launch the Mi 10 Ultra or the Redmi K30 Ultra globally, limiting them to the Chinese market.

According to reports by GSMArena and AndroidAuthority citing Xiaomi representatives, the Chinese OEM is currently limiting the Mi 10 Ultra and the Redmi K30 Ultra to China only.

Both Mi 10 Ultra and Redmi K30 Ultra won’t be launching outside of Mainland China.

Further, Xiaomi has also ruled out the devices releasing globally under the POCO brand, as one could see in the case of the POCO F2 Pro/Redmi K30 Pro.

If you have been keeping track of our coverage, especially of the Redmi K30 Ultra “cezanne“/M2006J10C, you’d notice that we could not explicitly confirm that the device would launch outside of China, namely because of the fact that it came with a MediaTek Dimensity SoC that had remained a China-exclusive till then. However, more recently, MediaTek had mentioned that the Dimensity SoCs would begin shipping in devices outside of China in Q3 2020. This, coupled with the existence of the M2006J10G as well as the existence of global beta builds for cezanne up until 14th July, had given us a sliver of hope that the device would indeed make its way outside of China. While we are still hopeful that Xiaomi may have a change of heart in the future, this confirmation from company officials is a conclusive statement that the device will not ship outside of China officially. No such indications had indicated for the Mi 10 Ultra, so its China-exclusivity was not a surprise.

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Source: GSMArena, AndroidAuthority

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Dropbox launches its password manager, secure folder, and computer backups for Plus plans

Dropbox Plus users were treated to a slew of new features today, including the company’s new password manager, PIN-protected folder, and computer backup.

In a blog post, the company announced that Dropbox Passwords, Dropbox Vault, and computer backup are no longer in beta and are now available for users on Dropbox Plus (and Professional) plans.

Dropbox Passwords uses zero-knowledge encryption so saved passwords and logins are protected and only accessible to users. When you install the browser extension or mobile app and visit a website or app with a login field, Dropbox Passwords can autofill your information, making sign-in seamless. Passwords sync across an unlimited number of devices that run Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android, and if you run Google Chrome, Firefox, or Edge on desktop, you can also import your existing passwords. The iOS and Android apps support biometric authentication (Face ID or Touch ID on iOS or fingerprint scanner on Android), and the app also automatically locks itself after a period of inactivity or when the device is locked.

Dropbox Vault provides users with a place to secure and organize sensitive documents. Using a PIN for secure access, Dropbox Vault users can store sensitive documents such as a Social Security card, bank statements, and more. Files saved in the Vault won’t appear anywhere outside of it, so they’ll remain secure even if someone gains access to your device or account (and they don’t know your PIN). Users can share these files with trusted friends and family in case of an emergency by setting them as trusted contacts. Vault can be accessed from the desktop and mobile apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android or from the web at dropbox.com. The Vault is listed alongside your existing files and folders but cannot be synced to your PC’s storage.

Finally, Dropbox’s new computer backup feature will allow users to automatically back up files from folders like Desktop, Documents, and Downloads on their PCs. Users won’t need to manually drag and drop files from Finder/File Explorer into their Dropbox account. As you’d expect, these files and folders are continuously synced, so you can access them from any device, like that new computer you just got.

You can try out these new features if you’re a Dropbox Plus or Professional member. Plus plans cost $12/month or $120/year for 2TB of storage or $20/month or $200/year for 3TB of storage.

Dropbox: Cloud Storage to Backup, Sync, File Share (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Dropbox Passwords - Secure Password Manager (Free, Google Play) →

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