Huawei is set to announce their new Kirin 970 SoC tomorrow at IFA Berlin 2017, according to a report from the German news website WinFuture.de.
The new SoC is said to be based on 10nm manufacturing process, in-line with the competition from Exynos, MediaTek and of course Snapdragon. The Kirin 970 is...
Thursday, August 31, 2017
There’s an Easy Fix for the Essential Phone’s Camera Quality – Google’s Camera App
The company behind the Essential Phone, while selling a nice looking phone with some pretty high end specifications, have made some pretty questionable decisions. We wrote an article detailing our...
How to Tell if Your Android 8.0 Oreo Device Supports Project Treble
We’ve first learned about Project Treble right before this year’s Google I/O 2017. Treble is the most significant low-level change to the Android platform to date. To simplify heavily, it separates the...
Motorola Launches the Mid-Range Moto X4 for €399, Europe Release in September, US in the Fall
We’ve been hearing about a new Moto X since May of this year, which was surprising to many since the company didn’t release one last year. Initial renders that were leaked had most of the details right, but some were off (the camera module in specific). Then this month the device was approved for sale...
Add a Quick Settings Display Mode Tile to the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+
Samsung’s OEM ROM software comes with hundreds of additional features on top of stock Android, and there are a ton of of quick settings tiles for some of them. However, those of you on the Samsung Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ may have noticed that a display mode quick settings tile is missing, so there’s...
Sony Equips the Xperia XZ1 with 3D Scanning and Image Creation Software
Sony is in Berlin this week for the big IFA 2017 conference and they’re announcing a number of new devices there. We reported on their two new flagship devices earlier this month that were leaked before the unveiling, and they have also launched a new connected speaker with support for Google Assistant....
Mod to Customize the UI of your Google Pixel running Android Oreo
With the Android Oreo OTA update rolling out to the Google Pixel phones, some are looking for ways to customize the user interface of their device. So XDA Senior Member Tulsadiver has put together a collection of mods that lets you pick and choose which mods you want to install through an...
One Click Tool to Change the Splash Screen on the HTC U11
The splash screen is one of the first things that every user sees after booting up a device. It generally shows the company logo before going into the device’s boot animation. Developers on our HTC U11 forums have managed to create a tool to replace this splash screen for the device.
The Universal Splash...
Sony Announces Which Devices They’re Updating to Android Oreo
When Google releases a new version of Android, people start asking which devices will be updated to it. Since each individual OEM handles their software updates differently, it can be confusing to know which device will get the new update. Some OEMs are easy to predict though, since they generally stick...
Sony Launches the Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact at IFA 2017
With most major OEMs pulling out their big guns for 2017, Sony is also refreshing its lineup to compete against the competition. After a few leaks, Sony has finally launched the new Sony Xperia XZ1 and...
Here is a Crazy Thought: Google Should Buy HTC’s Crumbling Mobile Division
Almost exactly six years ago Google did something quite unexpected: they announced they were purchasing Motorola Mobility. At the time Google was not really building its own hardware for its Android division,...
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
The Palm Brand is Making a Return Next Year, According to TCL
Back in the day, Palm pioneered the concept of personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, largely considered the predecessor to smartphones. They’ve entered this market back in 1996 and achieved success with devices like the Palm TX and the Palm Pilot. With the Palm Pre, in 2009, they attempted to take...
New Acer Chromebook 15 Announced at IFA 2017: Coming in October
Since 2011, Acer has been one of the world’s leading Chromebook brands. The first Acer Chromebook announced at Google I/O 2011 went on to become one of the most popular products ever released by the company. At their IFA 2017 press event in Berlin, where they’ve unveiled a range of new products, Acer...
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Receives Unofficial Port of Android 8.0 Oreo
With the initial rush of developers trying to boot Android Oreo on anything that’ll run it, the next big hitter to receive an unofficial port of the latest OS is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon edition. Android Oreo for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, ported by XDA Senior Member jhenrique09, is in an impressive...
Creating Your First Simple Android App [Video Guide]
Follow along with Rawad in this new series on XDA TV which takes you through the basics of creating an Android app. In this first video, we see how to setup Android studio and how to create a simple “Hello World” app.
Download Android Studio...
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 to be Officially Unveiled on September 11th
Many remember the radical design changes that Sharp introduced with their Aquos devices, but they weren’t something that really made people pay attention to. This could have been from a lack of marketing, availability, the brand itself, or something else. However, Xiaomi was able to turn a lot of heads...
Google Assistant is Coming to New Connected Speakers and Appliances
IFA 2017 technically starts on September 1st and will last through the 6th, but companies tend to want to jump ahead of the frenzy and announce certain products a day early. This is what we’re seeing today with the announcement of three new Google Assistant smart speakers and some soon to be released...
Google to Comply With European Commission Demands to Avoid More Fines
Back in June Google was hit with two and a half billion fine for antitrust issues by the European Commission. The internet search giant, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., was accused of prioritizing its own store over other competing stores within its search engine. If they did not comply and...
Google Publishes Android Oreo OTA Images for Supported Pixel and Nexus Devices
Early last week Google finally announced the name of Android Oreo and then shortly afterwards uploaded the source code for the new update. As we were combing through those commits to find some new changes, Google then uploaded the system images for the update for supported Pixel and Nexus devices. Manually...
MiHome Launcher With New Grid Size Option Ported to Other Xiaomi Devices
MiHome launcher has been ported by XDA-member Dadovvv, who has spent hours working to take the it from the Xiaomi Mi Max and make it available for other Xiaomi phones running on MIUI, Android 7.0. You will need root access and a root enabled file manager such as MiXplorer to download and install...
Google Camera HDR+ Port Updated with Zero Shutter Lag, More Xiaomi Device Support, and Major Bug Fixes
As we reported earlier this month, Google Camera was ported with working HDR+ to any devices that used a Snapdragon 820/821 or 835 chip (with the exception of the ZTE Axon 7, according to reports from...
BlackBerry is Launching Another All-Touchscreen Phone in October
Before the advent of Android and iOS, BlackBerry phones were all the rage. After all, their QWERTY keyboard solution was replicated by pretty much every OEM back in the day. They dominated the smartphone market from 2006 to 2008-2009, ahead of when touchscreen smartphones took the world by storm.
While...
Zoolz Cloud Storage: Lifetime of 1TB Instant Vault and 1TB of Cold Storage
Regardless of how many hard drives you buy, there never seems to be enough space for all of your files. Cloud services are helpful, but are often either too expensive or don’t offer enough storage. On...
Android 7.0 Nougat Now Rolling Out to the Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo
As the saying goes: it’s better late than never. Roughly 2 years after Samsung launched their Galaxy S5 Neo, a year after Google released the Android 7.0 source code, and a week after Google released the Android 8.0 source, Samsung is now rolling out the Android 7.0 update to the Galaxy S5 Neo. The...
PSA: Do not Reply to Essential “Purchase Verification” Emails (Potential Credit Card/Identity Fraud), Emails Reportedly from Essential Phone Staff
The Essential phones are now shipping to customers after a really long wait, but things are not looking good for some buyers. Last night, an email allegedly coming from their support team was seemingly chained to many customers. The email, which came from customercare@essential.com, asked for the customer’s...
How to Enable Google Allo’s Built-in Translate and Assistant Auto-Complete Features
Allo is Google’s chat app integrated with the Google Assistant. Google Assistant in Allo lets yousearch within conversations, play games, tell jokes, and more. The other person in your conversation can...
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Jolla Introduces Sailfish X for the Sony Xperia X
Jolla has officially introduced Sailfish X – Sailfish OS for the Sony Xperia X. The company will start pre-selling the system late September, and downloadable images will be available in October.
After the Jolla Tablet fiasco, the Finnish company had a difficult time. Preparing for Sailfish X is one...
OnePlus Student Program Offers 10% Off Orders, Including the OnePlus 5
A lot of companies offer discounts on their products and services for anyone who is currently a student. This can be 50% off the price of an Amazon Prime membership, free access to Office 365 from Microsoft, and a ton of other discounts. OnePlus has just announced their OnePlus Student Program...
Verizon Google Pixel Android Oreo Update Page Mentions Always On Ambient Display and Instant Apps in Pixel Launcher
When it was announced that Google’s self-branded Pixel series would be available for Verizon Wireless last year, many wondered how the update process would be handled. Google is still able to push out...
Essential is Bleeding Consumer Trust Before its Products Even Reach Customer Hands
Whenever a new device is announced, manufacturers make statements and promises — sometimes it almost feels as if the statements are meant to be forgotten, and the promises broken after everyone’s attention...