• Breaking News

    Tuesday, August 25, 2020

    Android Fast, personalized and private by design on all platforms: introducing a new Firefox for Android experience – The Mozilla Blog

    Android Fast, personalized and private by design on all platforms: introducing a new Firefox for Android experience – The Mozilla Blog


    Fast, personalized and private by design on all platforms: introducing a new Firefox for Android experience – The Mozilla Blog

    Posted: 25 Aug 2020 02:23 AM PDT

    Galaxy S21 may get S Pen as Samsung said to ditch Note series

    Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:16 AM PDT

    Rumor: Pixel 5 is slower than the Pixel 4, has same camera as the Pixel 2

    Posted: 24 Aug 2020 12:23 PM PDT

    Google Discover surfacing TikTok-esque ‘Short videos’ - 9to5Google ��‍♂️

    Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:55 PM PDT

    I really hope Microsoft actually release more apps for Android now that the Surface Duo is coming out

    Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:48 PM PDT

    Microsoft literally made the perfect keyboard back in the Windows Phone days and it annoys me that I can't get it on my Android phone. Swiftkey just isn't as good.

    Similarly, why isn't there a Bing maps app on Android? I know we have Here maps app but Bing Maps no longer uses Here Maps data. I just want one unified maps app on my PC and phone and I want one amazing keyboard like the one the Surface Duo will have.

    Apparently, this is too much to ask from one of the largest companies in the world though.

    submitted by /u/TheMountainFolk
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    Google Pixel 4a VS Samsung Galaxy Note 20 - Camera Comparison Surprising!

    Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:14 AM PDT

    Custom ROMs are not dead, stock ROM just got better these days.

    Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:57 PM PDT

    Back on the old days, where people really want to get rid of Samsung's Lagwhiz because of horrible optimization. It was unstable, has a bunch of bloatwares and skin heavy. Other people also wanted more features and customizations.
    The very popular custom ROM named "CyanogenMod" offered more stability and regular updates(there were other good roms too). It was not perfect, but it has less bugs compared to stock.

    But fast forward on 2017 and beyond. The flashing community became less.
    Some people believe that flashing a custom ROM is not anymore necessary, because stock ROM is already good enough for a daily driver. Hardware is getting more battery efficient and powerful too.

    I have some friends back on my college that no longer flashes custom ROM. They were flashaholics and flash ROMs during classes.
    They said its good enough and they don't want further customizations/features.

    I got a Redmi K20 Pro last year. For almost a year, I have remained on stock MIUI.
    Even if I was a custom ROM addict before, for sometime, I forgot that custom ROMs exist for almost a year, because stock was enough and sufficient for my daily needs.

    Until a month ago, I wanted to bring back nostalgic memories of my past. When I was still using a Galaxy S4, flashing custom ROMs everyday.

    So I browsed XDA forums to flash a ROM, and found out that there is still a lot of people into this type of stuff. I got bored of MIUI so i wanted to try another thing.
    Custom ROMs are not dead. Phones like Xiaomi and OnePlus has a strong developer community support. This tradition must not perish.

    submitted by /u/FalconVita
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    Anyone else hate the new update to Microsoft Launcher?

    Posted: 24 Aug 2020 08:22 PM PDT

    They absolutely butchered it. It's feels like an offbrand Microsoft Launcher made by some spam developer.

    Feels like half the customizations are gone. Text is all bolded, the long-press app menu is no longer useful. Laggy interface on app drawer and recents menu. Bottom menu bar is gone.

    I actually couldn't handle it and reverted back to the previous version. Did they drastically change their development team or what?

    It's getting bombed in the recent store reviews too.

    submitted by /u/IggyCity
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    Galaxy Z Fold 2 video review reveals everything you’ve been dying to know

    Posted: 24 Aug 2020 11:20 AM PDT

    I feel a Pixel 5 with a SD 855/845 would've been a good decision over the 765G!

    Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:24 AM PDT

    Yes, I feel the above would've been a good decision and I guess even align with Google's cost/economical goals. 765G doesn't disappoint but isn't any better too than the old flagship SOCs (apart from serving vague 5G agendas)

    Redditors, your thoughts on above?

    submitted by /u/Relayedroid
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    Why do applications read Clipboard? (Real concerns)

    Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:24 AM PDT

    I've looked into « Trust » settings of my ROM (LineageOS 16) and discovered that many applications often read the clipboard.

    Applications like Fiverr, Audible, AliExpress, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram X, Twitch, Twitter, TikTok, Viber, Xbox, and so on.

    It's understandable that application can "write" to the system clipboard (there are buttons to copy links, for example). Other apps, like Word, have their own "paste" button.

    But for plenty of others, why do they need to read the clipboard?

    Isn't it a clear intrusion into privacy? Users do copy passwords from their password manager, or private information from private chats.

    And some applications, like Instagram, even access "usage statistics".

    It might be time for Android users to take a closer look at what they share with their applications; and if that's really needed for these applications to operate.

    submitted by /u/DarthJahus
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    What features of Android or your OEM are useful to everyone but you? AKA unpopular opinions about popular smartphone features

    Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:55 AM PDT

    What are the popular features that you don't care about? Why?

    Inspired by this topic, as I wanted to argue the usefulness almost every feature mentioned there but decided to make a post rather than a dozen comments. We are all different and have different needs anyway.

    So I got a Note 9 recently. It's not the phone I'd buy for myself, but my phone died and my girlfriend gave me her Note. Overall it's nice (though I'd love it much MUCH more if it was 5-5.5") but I noticed that I dislike or don't care about most features people love it for. In my case these features are:

    • Fingerprint reader. This is something I could definitely live without. I've had phones with side readers (okay), front readers (so-so) and back readers (from meh to shit). I have to turn my phone over and look for the reader if I want to use it because it's poorly located (next to the camera and not where my index finger goes when I'm using the phone with one hand). Thankfully Note 9 has face/eye unlock, but if it didn't I'd still prefer pattern unlock over the fingerprint reader like I did on my previous phones. Oh and I tried the fingerprint gestures but it resulted mostly in accidental swipes, and on the Note 9 having to look for the reader (so that you don't try swiping on the camera) ruins the feature completely. Anyway Smart Lock makes all the unlocking features less important (now this is a good example of an underrated feature).

    • Gesture navigation. I was stoked about it, I tried all the unofficial options (XDA navigation, FNG) and all the official ones, yet I keep coming back to the nav buttons. I really dislike the nav buttons and I welcomed the change unless I tried it out and just couldn't get used to it. Here I will sing praise to Samsung and its Goodlock: NavStar lets you move the buttons to the right for one-handed use. Without this option I'd surely prefer gestures on a phablet like this.

    • Voice assistants. I still haven't found any use for Google Assistant besides "remind me to paint the walls pink tomorrow at nine am", which is neat but not very useful. It doesn't integrate well with third-party apps that well (being able to seamlessly use it with Todoist would have changed my opionion... perhaps).

    • Wireless charging. I have a pad at home but I'd easily give it up. It's extremely useful to people like my gf who forgets to charge her phone otherwise, but it's definitely not a game changer to those who are a bit more organized.

    • Always on display. I loved it on dumbphones and early smartphones, but can't get used to it on an OLED screen. Every time I see it I try to turn the screen off only to discover that it was off already. I guess it's more useful if you don't have a smartwatch though.

    • The Bixby button. Of course I love the idea of a customizable button, setting up BxActions was one of the first things I did after getting this phone. However so far most of my keypresses were accidental. I guess the location of this button is great if you use the phone with two hands, but I only switch to two hands when I take the S-Pen out. The volume buttons location also sucks for one-handed use btw.

    • Samsung Edge Panel. Same, it sounds like a good idea but 90% of time it was accidental wherever I put it. Actually a lot of One UI features like pop-up view sound nice but I can't find any real use for them.

    • Telephoto. It may be handy sometimes (though I haven't needed it yet in 1.5 months since receiving the phone) but a superwide would have been way more useful.

    • Headphone jack. I still use wired headphones sometimes, and I've used the line in for recording sound but I did the same on my previous phone without the jack and the only "inconvenience" was having to use an adaptor. It's nice to have the jack but it's definitely not the hill to die on for me.

    • NFC. I think the amount of phones with NFC I've had exceeds the amount of times I've used it. I know you can use it for public transportation or payments in many countries but I don't live in such a country so it's useless to me. I was excited about NFC tags back in 2012 when I got my first phone with NFC but I still haven't come up with a use case for them in the following years.

    • OLED screen. Yes, it's nice. But frankly I don't care. I don't care about Pentile and PWM, neither do I care about OLED blacks. I don't know what black smear is, my screen looks and works great (no burn-in so far), the IPS screens I had before looked and worked great as well. Oh and I run it at FHD+ resolution because that looks good enough and I see no reason to use WQHD+.

    I guess this post makes me look like some kind of a "get off my lawn" guy but actually I'm always happy to embrace the innovations, it's just that most of them end up landing somewhere between "okay" and "meh". I loved the useful ones: One UI is great (ugly tho) and the S-Pen is absolutely amazing (literally the only thing that makes its size justified, but I'd still like it to be 5-5.5"). I can't say anything about the hyped features I haven't tried (like the high refresh screen).

    What about you?

    submitted by /u/suicideguidelines
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    PSA: Tachyon VPN appears to be a scam

    Posted: 23 Aug 2020 08:00 PM PDT

    Hi all,
    I've been looking around for VPNs on mobile since I'm travelling these days and have stumbled over the emerging decentralized VPN approaches I found interesting. Two of those would be Tachyon or Orchid. This post is about Tachyon.
    Since VPNs can easily be an attack vector, I was doing a bit of research but only found a few conclusive reviews about Tachyon (besides prominent hype articles). Nothing too bad neither but usually just some doubt in the independent reviews I've seen. They seem to have a rapidly growing userbase though and quite a few downloads on Google Play Store (500k+). They do offer a GitHub repo which I sifted through but didn't find comprehensive at first glance. I'm not qualified to judge the code though.
    But what really raised my suspicion was that their official subreddit seems to be very ingenuine. The posts are your standard advertising, which is fair. But the comments, so I'm convinced, are altogether posted by bots. All comments share the same one- or two-sentence structure, are all very positive, don't interact, and come from people who's post history only consists of hyping some bitcoin stuff.
    If you compare it to other subreddits of apps that could potentially pose some security threat like YouTube Vanced (for being an out-of-Play-Store-App), the difference is striking. You'll find some genuine discussions there.
    So why would a genuine app that's built on trust and is as security-sensitive as a VPN find themselves with such a subreddit? It certainly raised my suspicion - if you have got any (opposing?) information about Tachyon VPN I'd be happy to hear about it.

    TL;DR: The official Tachyon VPN subreddit consists of bots. I wouldn't trust that app.

    submitted by /u/hurrahurrahurra
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    Chinese-Made Smartphones Are Secretly Stealing Money From People Around The World

    Posted: 25 Aug 2020 02:42 AM PDT

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