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mercredi 3 mai 2017

Google Allo With New Features, Chat Backup/Restore, Incognito Mode For Groups And More

Google Allo is still a quite new messaging application in the Android world, but Google has been pushing hard for users to adopt it. Unfortunately, since its premiere, Allo has a lot of limitations. Today, however, Amit Fulay from the Google Allo team has announced new exciting features that will make Allo more enticing for new and existing users.

The first improvement added by Google is a chat backup option so you won’t have to lose your messages if you factory reset. Backups can be saved locally or uploaded to Google Drive. Local backups occur once a day. Users will have more control over cloud backups, as they can decide whether the photos or audio messages should be backed up over cellular.

The second feature introduced in this update of Allo is an incognito mode for group chats. End-to-end encryption and the ability to set expiration times now work in these conversations. Unsurprisingly, Google Assistant or Smart Replies are not available in the incognito mode.

Finally, the last feature worth mentioning is a preview for URLs pasted in chat as users will now see what is behind the link. This is a common feature from other well-known IM apps such as WhatsApp.

Google is rolling out the update right now, so you should expect to see the update hit your device in the coming days on the Play Store.

Source: @amitfulay



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Chainfire details changes to the Google Pixel/Pixel XL’s Bootloader with the May 2017 Security Update

Users flashing the latest May security update on their Google Pixel or Pixel XL have been finding that root access was no longer functioning. The reason for this, as XDA Senior Recognized Developer Chainfire has uncovered, is due to the fact the the bootloader included in the May 2017 security update no longer accepts flashing unsigned boot images.

Google appears to be using Android Verified Boot (AVB) to verify that boot images are signed before flashing, but the boot image does not need to be signed using an OEM key and can instead by signed using a custom key. Chainfire has detailed steps for developers to generate your own custom signing keys and then sign the image so your users on the Pixel and Pixel XL with the May security update can again enjoy root access.



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SafetyNet Fix for Xiaomi devices on MIUI Beta ROMs or Custom ROMs

Getting SafetyNet working on non-stock ROMs can be a bit of a hassle. Luckily if you’re using the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, Redmi Note 3, Redmi Note 3 Pro, Redmi Note 4, Mi 5, Mi 5s, Mi 5s Plus, or Mi Mix, then all you need to do to fix SafetyNet is to install a Magisk Module by XDA Senior Member Deic. This module replaces the build description and fingerprint prop to match the MIUI Stable ROM for each device, allowing SafetyNet to pass.



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Forget Windows Use Linux is a USB-Bootable Distro for your Android Recovery Needs [XDA Spotlight]

Microsoft’s Windows platform has been the single most widely-used desktop OS for decades, only recently sliding to second place behind Android as the most popular operating system used to browse the Internet. As popular as these two platforms are, unfortunately there are still intercommunication issues that can frustrate any user who owns a Windows computer and an Android phone (which is millions). These issues are especially prominent when dealing with ADB and Fastboot. Android enthusiasts, being no strangers to tinkering, have sought to remedy this in a variety of ways. But sometimes, no matter how many times you boot into safe mode, reinstall your drivers, install new drivers, or mess with system settings, you just can’t get your Windows computer to recognize your Android phone. To that end, XDA senior member steadfasterX released “Forget Windows Use Linux” (FWUL) – a bootable GNU/Linux ISO geared specifically towards Windows users who need to communicate more reliably with Android.

Based on the Arch Linux distribution, Forget Windows Use Linux is a USB-bootable GNU/Linux distribution meant to help transition Android-tinkering Windows users into a GNU/Linux environment. No longer will you have to suffer from driver issues on Windows or scrambe to download the right tools on another USB-bootable GNU/Linux distro. With FWUL, everything you need is right there at your fingertips. Your Android phone will be recognized effortlessly by your computer in FWUL, and all of the possible tools you would ever need to interact with your smartphone – no matter which brand – are already pre-installed.

Baked right into the Windows 10 themed, GNU/Linux-based OS are specialized tools such as Simple ADB, a GUI-based program for ADB/Fasboot, courtesy of XDA senior member mhashem6; JOdin, a Java based version of Samsung’s Odin software – a collaborative effort from XDA Recognized Developers AdamOutler, Benjamin Dobell and Ralekdev, with XDA Senior Members Loglud and jrloper; Heimdall, an open-source tool for flashing ROM’s on Samsung Galaxy devices, developed by XDA Recognized Developer Benjamin Dobell; as well as tools for flashing LG, Sony, and MediaTek devices, among others listed in the original development thread. Suffice it to say, FWUL is loaded with powerful and useful tools.

Screenshot of FWUL showing its “start menu” (bottom left), Heimdall (top right), MediaTek Flash Tool (top left), Team Viewer (bottom right), and JOdin (center) running concurrently in multiple windows

Setting up FWUL is quite simple. Instructions can be found in the original thread but all that’s required is a
clean flash drive (meaning a flash drive you’re comfortable with wiping) –  anything over 1GB is plenty – the ISO image, and a program such as ISO to USB for imaging the flash drive with the FWUL ISO. Once the image has been burned to the USB, simply plug it into your Windows device and select the USB drive as your boot device. Selecting this option varies by computer manufacturer, so Google search is your friend if you’re unfamiliar with one-time boot menus. Once booted, select “Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI USB.” Use the username “android” and password “linux” – no capital letters. Boom. You’re in. On the desktop will be all the aforementioned tools, ready and waiting to go. Note that some of these icons are installers, so you may choose what to install.

Some bugs do exist  but issues are typically addressed in a few weeks’ time and can be reported directly to the Github link. For instance, version 1.3’s web browser had some issues, but earlier today the developer updated FWUL to version 1.4 and with it brought a new web browser to the distro. While not meant to be an all-purpose OS replacement, FWUL, with its selection of powerful, pre-loaded Android tools, offers a lightweight and convenient compliment, or potentially even alternative, to Windows for your Android tweaking needs.

Have you tried FWUL or a similar project? Let us know in the comments below!

Keep an eye on FUWL and test the platform here!



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Mali-Cetus is the Codename of ARM’s Next-Generation Display Processor

There’s been a big push in VR lately with a number of content creators wanting to take advantage of the new technology. We’re multitasking with our phones more and more, HDR has started to become a marketing point, and the resolution of our screens is higher than it’s ever been. To keep up with these new demanding uses, ARM has announced a new display processor for phones, tablets, VR headsets, and TVs/STBs of the future called Mali-Cetus.

For our current generation of display processors, they outlined a number of requirements and detailed the popular use cases that we had previously needed. So our current generation was first optimized for 1080p at 60 frames per second, 1440p at 60 frames per second, and then 1600p at 60 frames per second. Adding on to this, they looked at what we’re starting to use our devices for, and what will soon start to catch on as more smartphones and tablets are introduced to the market.

This meant the next-generation Mali-Cetus display processor needed to address the higher display requirements for VR (which is 4K at 90 frames per second). ARM knows that smartphones and tablets are being used more and more for multi-tasking so they needed to address quad scaling for more layers. They need to have it handle UHD content such as HDR10, Hybrid Log Gamma, and Dolby Vision. Naturally, they also wanted to focus on power and quality optimizations for the systems that will utilize this architecture.

Mali-Cetus is a big step up from the Mali-DP500/550/650 display processors that we currently know of. We’re used to ARM releasing small iterations of this technology but realized they need to make a clean break in order to handle the growing demands of our mobile devices. It will, of course, take a while before this is even finalized and makes its way into our smartphone SoC, but it does give us a look at what we can expect to see in the future.

Source: AnandTech



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AutoVoice Chrome Extension Update Brings Google Assistant to the PC

Many feel that Google is still playing catch up to Amazon in regards to Google Assistant versus Amazon Alexa. Both have their positives and negatives, but we’re seeing Google making a lot of progress with both Google Home and Google Assistant as of late. Google recently released the Google Assistant SDK for developers to start tinkering with. It is in a developer preview stage right now, so it doesn’t have all of the features they have planned for at this time.

The Google Assistant SDK allows you to integrate the Google Assistant technology into just about any product you can come up with. They even showed off someone using it for a DIY robotic Mocktails Mixer in the blog post about the launch of the developer preview. We’ll have to wait and see if more third party companies start to use the platform in their products, but one popular Android developer recently modified the sample code and injected it into their Google Chrome extension.

We’ve talked about Joao Dias’ applications on multiple occasions since their Tasker plugins allow for a lot more customization options with our devices. AutoVoice is a popular one that they develop and it even has a Chrome extension so you can send voice commands to your phone straight from your browser. Mr. Dias was able to modify Google’s sample Google Assistant SDK code and put it right into their AutoVoice Chrome extension. This allows you to trigger Google Assistant right from your PC.

Be sure to check the demonstration video down below to get an idea as to how this works in practice. All you have to do is set up Google Assistant on your device by following the instructions written by us then simply run one additional command in the command line to get the AutoVoice integration up and running. The AutoVoice Chrome extension has an “always listening” feature so anytime you say “Hey Google,” or whatever else you have your wake up phrase set to, then you can start talking to Google Assistant directly.

Source: joaoapps



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LineageOS Week In Review: Introduction of Jelly, New Devices And More

As the successor to CyanogenMod, LineageOS has quickly become the most popular Android custom ROM among our readers. The team behind the ROM has just released another change log from which we can find out what they’ve been working on in the latest builds. Let’s learn what’s new in LineageOS.

As usual, new security updates make their way into all LOS builds. The latest Android 7.1.2_r8 tag with May Security Patches have been merged to the cm-14.1 branch. All builds from May 1st onwards will include the most recent AOSP security patches.

The next noteworthy thing is Jelly. The new app with this code name will replace the outdated AOSP browser. Jelly is designed to work on low-end devices with limited resources. It relies on the system WebView, so as long as that is up to date, the users should not have to worry about poor browser security. The second browser – Gello – is not dead, and moreover it’s being re-based on a newer Chromium version (m58). We should learn more about it in the coming weeks.

LineageOS will also feature an improved location tile in Quick Settings, which will now offer different modes. An auto-brightness toggle has also been added next to the brightness slider. The last change is a fix for non-Latin characters sorting in Trebuchet launcher.

Finally, the following devices were added to the automated LineageOS 14.1 build roster:

Model – codename

The following devices were updated to Android Nougat:

Unfortunately, support for the Sony Xperia M has been dropped, as the device is no longer maintained.

Apart from the change log, the LOS team announced some changes to the infrastructure that should reduce the costs of the project. Finally, three new build slaves have been added thanks to Academic Computer Club at Umeå University in Sweden. LineageOS build should now pop up much quicker. Go to the download page and check if there’s a build waiting for you and your device!

Source: LineageOS



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