Monday, June 4, 2018

Some Amazon Prime exclusive Moto G5 Plus owners are getting bootloader unlock codes

Amazon Prime subscribers get a number of benefits that are simply off-limits to those who choose to not subscribe to the service. This includes access to services like Amazon Music, free 2-day shipping on select items, and more. One such benefit is the ability to get a discount on Amazon Prime Exclusive smartphones. The program offers an assortment of devices from a number of OEMs, including Motorola, LG, Nokia, and others. For the most part, these devices have had locked down bootloaders, but we’re now seeing reports from multiple Moto G5 Plus owners who are able to get an official unlock code directly from Motorola’s website.

I say “for the most part” because there have been a few instances where these Amazon Prime Exclusive devices were able to have the bootloader unlocked. These devices that slipped through the cracks were far and few between, but since the program’s inception we have seen a few of these reports. This was rare and happened much less than the recent wave of reports that we have seen throughout the Android community this month from Moto G5 Plus owners. Since Motorola nor Amazon have come out with an official statement on the matter it is unclear if this change is accidental or intended.

We are, however, seeing multiple reports over the last week so it seems as if the change may be widespread at this time. If it is a mistake, then we could see Motorola issue a fix to their bootloader unlock request backend, but for now it seems to be open-ended. We do want to point out that requesting a bootloader unlock code from Motorola will void the warranty of your Moto G5 Plus and the process of unlocking the bootloader will wipe all of the data from the phone (so backup as much stuff as possible before you proceed).

Source 1: Moto G5 Plus Forum Source 2: Reddit Source 3: Moto G5 Plus Forum

Facebook accused of sharing your personal data with OEMs

A report from The New York Times has accused Facebook of sharing your personal data with OEMs such as Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Samsung. The data has allegedly been shared over the past decade.

When Facebook first started out, the company made at least 60 deals with device OEMs to preload the application on their devices. While that may not be a problem, they also provided private APIs which allowed OEMs to incorporate the site’s functionality into the operating system itself. This includes address book integration, photo sharing, and more. The problem lies in the level of access granted to these private APIs, which raises concerns over the amount of data shared with these third-parties. The company claims that these private APIs were “tightly controlled” in a statement posted on the Facebook newsroom.

“Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go. These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences. Partners could not integrate the user’s Facebook features with their devices without the user’s permission. And our partnership and engineering teams approved the Facebook experiences these companies built.”

The New York Times reports that when using a Blackberry Z10 and logging into the Facebook Hub app, they were able to retrieve detailed data on 556 friends of the owner of the device. This included their relationship status, religious and political opinions, and upcoming events they had marked themselves as attending. Furthermore, the app was able to uniquely identify another 294,258 people. This level of access was apparently pulled back from third-parties in 2015, though the company apparently does not consider Blackberry a third-party in this case. They continued to share data with device OEMs even when third-party data sharing was disabled, though still has noted that users could consent (or not) to share their data.

Sandy Parakilas, who worked at the company in 2012 and led third-party advertising and privacy compliance for the platform, also spoke to The New York Times. “This was flagged internally as a privacy issue,” Parakilas said, “It is shocking that this practice may still continue six years later, and it appears to contradict Facebook’s testimony to Congress that all friend permissions were disabled.”

The social media giant says that they have ended 22 of these deals and are working to wind down more of them due to a decreased reliance on these private APIs.

Source: The New York Times

How to enable Google Feed in any country

Google reworked Now Cards almost a year ago and rebranded it to Google Feed. Unfortunately, those cards are not available in all countries. Google really restricts a lot of stuff for non-US citizens, but’s that’s a topic for another day. So, how can you activate Google Feed if you live in an unsupported country? Here’s how.

For rooted users

If you’re rooted, you can install Google Now Enabler application from XDA Senior Member aliuwr. Just head to this thread, download the APK file, and install it. It just takes one click to enable Google Feed. The application is tested by me personally and it worked on Android Marshmallow, Nougat, and Oreo, so you should not have any problems. The only downside is that it requires root.

For non-rooted users

So, what if you don’t use root? Well, then you have to do it in a slightly more difficult way.

First of all, download any free (or premium, if you use one) VPN application. I suggest using VPNhub just because it worked perfectly for me.
Go to your phone’s Settings > Apps > tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner and tap Show system.
Scroll down and find Google Services Framework.
Tap on it, then go into Storage section and tap on Clear storage.
Go back. Now find Google application and tap on it.
Tap on Storage > Clear Storage > CLEAR ALL DATA > OK.
Go to home screen and open the VPNhub app we downloaded earlier.
Make sure that United States is selected as a ‘Server Location’ and then tap on a lock icon to activate VPN.
Close the app and launch Google application.
That’s it! Now you can use Google Feed/Google Now Cards without any problems!

You can now disconnect VPN, restart phone, connect to another network, whatever. Google Feed will stick and it won’t be disabled ever again.

Nokia 6.1’s May security update is causing major Wi-Fi issues for many

The Nokia 6.1 is HMD Global’s first Android One device to launch in the United States. Hardware wise, it’s identical to the Nokia 6 (2018) which launched in China earlier this year. The U.S. version, of course, has near stock Android software due to the Android One program, and thanks to HMD Global’s speed at rolling out security patches the Nokia 6.1 already has the latest May 2018 security patches. The May security patch update for the Nokia 6.1 has been causing a ton of problems for some users, however, with multiple reports on the Nokia support forums stating that the Wi-Fi is a bit broken right now.

Users are reporting frequent disconnects and very poor signal strength that only started occurring after the latest update. The cause of the bug is unclear, as it only seems to affect some devices but not others. If a system update is required to fix it, then that’ll be trouble for users who can’t connect to Wi-Fi at all. On the support forums, users are being told to factory reset or go to a nearby service center.

Some users say that their Wi-Fi is working on the Nokia 6.1 when the device is placed in close proximity to the router. If that’s the case, a rollback software release may be possible for these users. Regardless, if you buy the Nokia 6.1 then we recommend you hold off on installing the May update until this Wi-Fi has been resolved.

Enable Google Chrome’s new design with one Chrome flag

The Google Chrome browser is open source, so we can track progress on its development quite easily. We’ve seen how Chrome is getting more optimized for touchscreen devices like the HP Chromebook X2 and the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, how a major Material Design revamp is underway, and how Chrome OS is receiving Android P-esque user interface changes. We cover the most interesting new Chrome flags that we discover, but it can be annoying having to dig around and enable multiple flags just to test all of the latest features. Google will be making that easier for us by consolidating all of Google Chrome’s new design behind one Chrome flag. Google Chrome Material Design refresh

What Google Chrome’s new “Touchable Refresh” interface looks like. Touchable Refresh combines the touch optimizations and the new Material Design changes. Enable it at chrome://flags#top-chrome-md

The flag, called “uifood”, is already available in the latest Chrome Canary and Chromium nightlies. You can enable it by pasting chrome://flags#uifood into the address bar. The Chrome flag is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS.

Google Chrome Material Design

Currently, enabling it doesn’t do much. We’ve been tracking progress on this flag since it first popped up in the Gerrit Code Review, and you can see how the Chrome team is slowly starting to wire support for all of their new UI features into this one flag. If you are interested in testing the latest Chrome design changes on your device, then we recommend enabling this flag to make things a bit easier for you to keep up with!

Ordering from Starbucks, Applebee’s, & Dunkin’ Donuts now available in Google Assistant

At Google I/O 2018, Google announced that food delivery and more restaurant services would be making their way into Google Assistant. The services mentioned such as Starbucks, Applebee’s, and Dunkin’ Donuts are now rolling out support for ordering food via Google Assistant on all supported Assistant devices.

Starbucks

The Starbucks action in Google Assistant is an action that will allow you to order your favorite drink or food from Starbucks then pick it up in the store. Starbucks currently has mobile orders through their own app with the same features. This new action will allow you to tell Starbucks what you want to order and where you want to pick it up. After you do that it will be ready when you get to the store. The action supports Google Home devices, the assistant on phones, tablets, headphone, and Chromebooks.

To set up the Starbucks action on your phone assistant, you are going to need to say “talk to Starbucks.” It will then link you to sign into a Starbucks account to get started. You will need a payment method in either Google Assistant or Starbucks to be able to make purchases. It will find the Starbucks nearest to you and ask you if you want to order your drink and food for that location. It will be based on your address, but it allows for you to go to a Starbucks in a different location if you don’t want to order from that store.

Starbucks also has a few new pages on their support site involving Google Assistant. Here are the support pages and their topics:

Every time I try to place an order using Google Assistant, it asks me for my password to confirm payment. What do I do?
Can I redeem a Starbucks Rewards with Google Assistant?
- The answer is no, at least not at this time.
I know exactly which store I want to order from using Google Assistant. Can I just tell it which one to choose?
- Initially, no. But it will offer up to 3 nearby locations to pick from.

This feature seems useful for me. With routines now supporting the addition of custom ones, you could set a routine to order Starbucks and get directions to work in the morning when you get in your car.

Applebee’s:

The Applebee’s action works by letting you order your favorite meal through Google Assistant. You can then have your meal delivered through Applebee’s. The action connects to an Applebee’s account that then allows you to order food through there. It will use your address on your Google account to get a delivery address. You can say “Ok Google, talk to Applebee’s” to learn more and order your own food. You can also save your favorite meal and reorder it easily. This action works on any device Google Assistant is available on.

Dunkin’ Donuts:

Dunkin’ Donuts works just like Starbucks. You order your food and coffee through Google Assistant and you can pick it up at the store without needing to check in. You just walk in and pick it up. With the Dunkin’ Donuts action, you can order those donuts and coffee on your way to work with a routine to order it then pick it up on your way.

The other food-service partners mentioned during I/O such as Domino’s Pizza and Panera Bread are also now supported. Try these out and let us know if you find these integrations useful!

Motorola Moto G5S Plus and LG V35 ThinQ now support ARCore

The Motorola Moto G5S Plus and the LG V35 ThinQ now support Google ARCore, the platform for augmented reality applications on Android. Both smartphones were recently added to the list of supported ARCore devices.

Augmented Reality via ARCore:

Succeeding Project Tango, Google ARCore was launched in preview late last year for the Google Pixel and top-tier Samsung Galaxy flagships. Unlike Project Tango, ARCore does not require dedicated hardware such as special cameras or sensors. The platform is designed to work on existing smartphone hardware.
Ahead of Mobile World Congress 2018, Google launched version 1.0 of the augmented reality platform which brought support for many new devices. The first public release saw new features such as environmental understanding of when a user places virtual assets on textured surfaces. With version 1.0, Google also started to allow developers to publish AR apps on the Google Play Store.
Version 1.1 of ARCore hinted at more devices receiving support for the platform such as the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S. (Both devices have since officially gained support for the AR platform.) The 1.1 update added two new APIs to the platform: An API that allows for developers to run their own image processing algorithms on images from the camera and an API that allows for rendering virtual objects to match real-world lighting.
Version 1.2 was announced at Google I/O 2018 and it added features such as “Cloud Anchors,” “Vertical Plane Detection,” and “Augmented Images.”

The list of supported devices grows. The Moto G5S Plus and the recently launched LG V35 ThinQ are just two of the latest devices to join the growing list of ARCore supported devices. According to users on our forums, the Moto G5S Plus supports the platform even on the Android Nougat release. That’s great news considering that a Motorola support page (now taken down) suggested that the Android Oreo release was rolling out, but nobody has actually received the update yet. The LG V35 ThinQ hasn’t started shipping to consumers yet, so we can’t verify if AR apps actually work on it yet. If you want to try an augmented reality app out, then download ARCore and an app like “Just a Line” to play around with AR.

ARCore by Google (Free, Google Play) →

Just a Line - Draw Anywhere, with AR (Free, Google Play) →