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jeudi 2 décembre 2021

JetBrains releases Compose Multiplatform 1.0 for creating Kotlin-based Android, desktop, and web apps

JetBrains produces some of the most popular integrated development environments (IDEs) around for creating software with Java, PHP, Kotlin, and other programming languages. The company has also been working on JetBrains Compose Multiplatform, a framework for creating cross-platform applications based on the Kotlin language (and is connected to Google’s Jetpack Compose). Multiplatform has been in various stages of development across different platforms for a while, and now JetBrains says it’s ready for everyone to use on Android, desktop, and the web.

JetBrains said on Thursday, “with Compose Multiplatform by Jetbrains, developers can easily create desktop apps with UI in Kotlin. The framework is declarative, so the code reflects the UI and developers don’t need to worry about UI update logic, it allows them to preview parts of the UI without building the whole app, and shares the common API with Jetpack Compose by Google to simplify the adoption. […] Developers can share their UI and state management code between Android, Desktop and Web, and easily port the Android Jetpack Compose-based apps to desktop. ”

That all means that it’s now possible to create applications across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and the web with a single Kotlin codebase. Desktop apps can use menus, keyboard shortcuts, and notifications, with hardware-accelerated rendering using the Skia graphics library. Web apps built with Multiplatform have access to special CSS abilities for interacting with page elements.

There’s no shortage of frameworks at this point for creating cross-platform software, with Electron likely being the most popular right now (powering Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and many others), though Electron does not support mobile at all. Google is currently developing Flutter, which uses the Dart programming language and currently supports desktop platforms, mobile, and the web — same as Jetpack Compse Multiplatform.

More information about Compose Multiplatform is available on JetBrains’ website.

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Apple announces the best apps and games of 2021 on its ecosystem

It’s the last month of the year already — December. It’s when some major corporations share data with their users about how they’ve used their services in the past 11 months. Spotify and other music streaming services, for example, allow you to check the statistics revolving around your listening habits. And Google has already shared its list of top apps and games for this year. Apple is no stranger to this annual event, and it has also announced its equivalent list. It will be sending physical awards to the winners, too — as it has done yearly for over a decade now.

In a newsroom post, Tim Cook — Apple’s CEO — stated:

The developers who won App Store Awards in 2021 harnessed their own drive and vision to deliver the best apps and games of the year — sparking the creativity and passion of millions of users around the world. From self-taught indie coders to inspiring leaders building global businesses, these standout developers innovated with Apple technology, with many helping to foster the profound sense of togetherness we needed this year.

2021 App Store Award Winners

Apps

  • iPhone App of the YearToca Life World, from Toca Boca.
  • iPad App of the Year: LumaFusion, from LumaTouch.
  • Mac App of the Year: Craft, from Luki Labs Limited.
  • Apple TV App of the Year: DAZN, from DAZN Group.
  • Apple Watch App of the Year: Carrot Weather, from Grailr.

Games

Trend of the Year: Connection

This year’s top trend is Connection, and winners brought people together in meaningful ways — while meeting social, personal, and professional needs for users around the world.

Which of the winning apps and games do you actively use or play? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Apple announces the best apps and games of 2021 on its ecosystem appeared first on xda-developers.



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Leaked Galaxy A73 renders reveal a familiar design and missing headphone jack

Over the last few weeks, we have seen multiple leaks of the upcoming Galaxy A series phones. Early last month, we got an early look at the Galaxy A53 through leaked renders. Then a week later, leaked renders of the Galaxy A33 surfaced online, revealing its overall design and a few specifications. Now yet another Galaxy A series phone has leaked: the Galaxy A73.

OnLeaks and Zouton have published high-quality renders of the Galaxy A73, providing us a very first look at the Galaxy A72 successor. As far as design goes, the Galaxy A73 doesn’t look radically different from its predecessor.

As you can see in the images linked below, the phone features a rectangular camera module on the back and the centered hole-punch display on the front.

Galaxy A73 front and back Galaxy A73 display and back Galaxy A73 upside down

The power button and volume rocker keys sit on the right side of a plastic frame while the bottom houses a USB Type C port, speaker grille, and microphone. Similar to the Galaxy A53, the Galaxy A73 also seems to be doing away with the 3.5mm audio jack. The phone measures 163.8 x 76.0 x 7.6mm (9.3mm with the rear camera bump).

As per the leak, the Galaxy A73 features a flat 6.7-inch FHD+ display with 1080 x 2400 resolution. It will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 750G chipset, a step up from the Snapdragon 720G on the Galaxy A72. It will reportedly feature a 108MP main camera on the back, a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging support, and up to 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.

According to Zouton, the Galaxy A73 may launch in India at the end of December with a starting price of ₹32,999. Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed anything about the phone.

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Experience Online Freedom with NordVPN

Your home network is likely seeing a large influx of new devices added, every year around the Holidays. Each new device connected to your network is a new opportunity for security problems. The best way to keep every internet-connected device private and secure is to use a VPN that is compatible with a wide variety of platforms. NordVPN has a huge array of security, location, and ad-block features that can vastly improve your internet browsing experience. Their wide range of compatibility makes this VPN the ultimate solution for all of your different devices. Don’t leave new Christmas electronics vulnerable. Check out all of the ways that NordVPN can improve your security.

Download NordVPN here

Fast and Stable Connections Everywhere

Without a doubt, one of the most important features that a VPN can offer is speed. All of the added security features mean nothing if you’re stuck with a slow connection. NordVPN understands this to an extent that it puts a lot of resources into creating fast connection options that prevent buffering or connection drops for your internet activity. A fast and stable connection is something you can expect with NordVPN.

Your connected devices will have access to 5,100 NordVPN servers in 60 different countries. With VPNs, the more connection options you have, the better. NordVPN is able to have enough servers that you’ll always have a fast connection option from your location. If you need to route your traffic through a specific country, you can do that to gain access to that country’s streaming selection and bypass restrictions.

 

If you are looking for a fast and secure VPN solution, look no further — it’s NordVPN. An independent IT security institute AV-TEST compared the speeds of the top VPNs in the industry. The result? NordVPN is the fastest VPN out there.

AVTEST

There are many different elements to take into consideration, that affect the speed of a VPN service. NordVPN focuses on these areas and implements improvements to provide a faster service:

  • Internet speed offered by your ISP
  • The quality of encryption
  • Distance to the VPN server
  • VPN server load
  • The security protocol being used
  • The firewalls or antivirus software used

Another way that NordVPN can help you maintain fast speeds, is by bypassing ISP throttling. Sometimes users will be throttled due to streaming a lot of content on Netflix or other services. NordVPN is able to bypass this, by hiding your internet traffic. Your ISP will no longer be aware that you’re streaming, and won’t be able to limit your speed to specific streaming websites.

Secure and Private with No-Logs Policy

If your main motivation to get a VPN is to further your privacy, it is very important to know what your VPN service does with your data. If your internet activity is logged, then you’re just a data breach away from a privacy disaster. NordVPN’s no-logs policy will ensure that this never happens. The company is committed to a practice that restricts any of your activity from being logged on their servers. By doing this, you’re protected from data leaks, hacks, or government prying. When the government comes around demanding to see your data, there will be nothing to show them.

 

Additionally, your ISP has the ability to track your internet usage and sell it to advertisers. A VPN prevents this from happening and puts you back in control of your data. If we know anything about major ISPs, we know that they are unethical and untrustworthy. Consistently finding them making deals with governments in the shadows, or fighting to destroy what privacy you have left. Remove your data from their control with NordVPN.

When it comes to encryption, NordVPN uses the best available to keep your connection secure. AES is an encryption standard used and approved worldwide by governments, cybersecurity experts, and cryptography enthusiasts. NordVPN uses AES with 256-bit keys, which is recommended by the NSA for securing classified information, including the top-secret level.

Block Ads and Malware

With a goal of improving your privacy and keeping your connections secure, you might as well block ads while you’re at it. As an optional feature, you can use NordVPN CyberSec to block known websites and trackers that push ads, malware, phishing hacks, and more. When you turn this feature on, you can browse the internet without clusters of ads destroying your experience. This works on Windows, iOS, macOS (OpenVPN only), and Linux. Use a VPN to block known ad trackers and stop the ads.

CyberSec a real-time block list of websites that are known for hosting malware, spyware, trackers, or other harmful software. So when our DNS server receives your request to enter a specific site, CyberSec quickly checks its address against the list of possible threats and decides whether to allow the access.

NordVPN

Secure Six Device on One Subscription

The number of devices that connect to the internet through your home network might be more than you think. Your TV, tablet, phone, computer, watch, and even your doorbell can be sending and receiving data at any time of the day. Using the available six different device connections, you can get all of your electronics set up with NordVPN protection.

Tip: Use one of your available connections to add NordVPN to your router, and every device that uses your router will be protected by extension.

Nord VPN has apps that are available for the following platforms:

  • Android
  • Windows
  • macOS
  • iOS · iPhone · iPad
  • Linux
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Android TV

Starting with your PC or laptop is a great way to begin your new VPN setup. Secure your internet activity today with NordVPN for PC, then expand your protected devices as needed. NordVPN’s competitive prices make it one of the best-valued VPNs on the market. The 30-day money-back guarantee makes this an easy and risk-free decision.

We thank NordVPN for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.

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Vivaldi 5.0 adds multiple tab rows and side panels to Android version

Vivaldi is one of the best web browsers around in terms of features. Although it doesn’t offer its own rendering engine (it’s another Chromium fork), the browser has implemented many design improvements over other browsers, such as multiple rows of tabs, a note-taking tool, and other handy features. Vivaldi 5.0 is now rolling out on Android, and there are some great changes for phones, tablets, and Chromebooks.

Vivaldi 5.0 on Android updates the browser’s tab bar to support smaller tabs (by hiding the close button), and you now have the option for two stacks of tabs, same as on the desktop browser. This is most useful on tablets, Chromebooks, and other Android devices with large screens, but you can use stacked tabs on regular smartphones as well. The tab bar (along with the toolbar/address bar) can also be moved to the top or bottom of the screen, just like Samsung Internet and Firefox.

There are also new improvements in store for tablets and Chromebooks with Vivaldi installed. Side panels are now available, which appear on the left side of the browser and can display history, downloads, bookmarks, and notes. The panel can be turned on or off whenever you want. Vivaldi wrote in its blog post, “one thing that puts Vivaldi ahead of other Android browsers is its first-of-its-kind unique UI. And now we elevate it with a brand-new, super flexible design for you.”

Vivaldi 5.0 includes other new features, such as a page-specific dark mode toggle and an ‘Append to Note’ option that appears when selecting text. The update is rolling out now on the Google Play Store, alongside the release of desktop Vivaldi 5.0, which adds shareable themes and a built-in Translate Panel.

This seems like an impressive update for Vivaldi, but other mobile web browsers aren’t staying still. Mozilla rolled out a new homepage to its Firefox iOS and Android browsers last month, and Google started testing all-new widgets for Chrome on Android in October.

Vivaldi Browser (Free, Google Play) →

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mercredi 1 décembre 2021

Samsung reportedly plans to expand water resistance to more Galaxy A series phones next year

This year the Galaxy A52 and Galaxy A72 became one of the first Galaxy A series phones to receive water resistance. Now if a new report coming out of South Korea is anything to go by, Samsung will be trickling down the water-resistance feature to many more affordable phones in the Galaxy A series.

According to a report from The Elec (via 9to5Google), several new Galaxy A series phones are set to get an official IP rating next year. The move will likely give Samsung a leg up over Chinese players like Xiaomi, OPPO, and Realme, which have long given Samsung tough competition in mid-range and budget segments.

Not every single model in the Galaxy A series will be getting an IP rating, though. The report notes that only the Galaxy A33 and above models will be bestowed with water resistance properties. That means the Galaxy A33, Galaxy A53, and Galaxy A73 all should come with an official IP rating for dust and water resistance.

The report reveals that Samsung will use membrane material and waterproof silicone to achieve water resistance and dust proofing. The membrane material will be applied to the microphone and speaker. Meanwhile, a rubberized silicone will be used to protect the charging port.

While IP67/68 rating has long become a key feature on higher-end flagship phones, it has yet to become commonplace among budget and mid-range phones. As OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei revealed in an interview with MKBHD, it can cost up to $15 per device to do the IP certification, so it’s understandable why most OEMs skimp out on waterproofing on affordable phones.

Earlier in September, The Elec reported that Samsung was planning to bring optical image stabilization (OIS) to all Galaxy A series phones launching in 2022.

Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed whether it plans to offer water resistance and OIS on upcoming Galaxy A phones.


Featured image: leaked render of the Galaxy A53 (via OnLeaks)

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OnePlus 9R picks up November 2021 security update

When OnePlus rolled out the November 2021 security update to the OnePlus 9 series last month, it left out the OnePlus 9R. But that’s finally changing as the company is rolling out a similar update to its 2020 affordable flagship.

As per user reports on OnePlus forums, the company has started rolling out OxygenOS 11.2.6.6 to the OnePlus 9R. It’s a small update that weighs 372MB and packs November 2021 security patches and stability improvements.

OTA prompt for OxygenOS 11.2.6.6 on a OnePlus 9R

Screenshot credit: @shagulhameed on OnePlus forums

 

OxygenOS 11.2.6.6 update changelog:

  • System
    • Improved system stability and fixed known issues
    • Updated Android security patch to 2021.11

OxygenOS 11.2.6.6 has already started hitting the OnePlus 9R units in India. If you own one, look out for an OTA notification in the coming days. To manually check for the update, navigate to Settings > System > System Update. If you don’t want to wait, we have provided direct links to incremental and full OTAs which you can use to manually install the update. If you’re on OxygenOS 11.2.5.5, pick the incremental package. If you’re running an older version, you’ll need to flash the full OTA. After downloading the package, transfer it to the root directly of your phone’s internal storage and flash it using the Local Upgrade method within the System Update menu.

Download OxygenOS 11.2.5.5 for the OnePlus 9R

OnePlus 9R XDA Forums

In October, OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus 9RT, an upgraded version of the OnePlus 9R. The new model boasts several upgrades and improvements over the previous model, including a faster chipset, better camera, and more. As a quick refresher, the phone features a 6.62-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, up to 12GB RAM, a 50MP Sony IMX 766 primary shooter, an in-display fingerprint reader, and a 4,500mAh battery with 65W fast charging support. The OnePlus 9RT is currently exclusive to the Chinese market but it’s reportedly launching in India this month alongside the OnePlus Buds Z2.

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