vendredi 5 mai 2017
jeudi 4 mai 2017
Worldwide Tablet Shipments Decline 8.5% in Q1 2017 as Migration Continues from Slates to Detachables
The worldwide tablet market has shrunk again in Q1 2017 with a Year-on-Year decline of 8.5% and total shipments of just 36.2 Million across the entire industry. This contraction marks the tenth straight quarter that tablets have experienced decline, with the previous five quarters even recording double-digit drops.
This data comes from the International Data Corporation (IDC). “Tablets” as a market are divided into two parts — detachable tablets which come with first-party keyboards and closely resemble laptops, and the other being slate tablets which lack a keyboard option. Within the tablet market, detachables continue to grow while slates are steeply declining after peaking back in 2014.
The decline for tablets was accelerated by the popularity of smartphones, and now, detachables face competition from the PC market with the growth of ‘convertibles’, laptops that swivel their keyboard to give better access to the main touchscreen without allowing for removal of the keyboard. How tablets fare in the long run will only be answered if detachables continue their good growth rates against convertibles, even though their shipments are dwarfed against them currently.
Huawei surprisingly was the only company in the top five to experience positive growth in Q1 2017, with an astounding 31.7% increase YoY, going from 2 Million units shipped in Q1 2016 to 2.7 Million shipped in Q1 2017. Considering the declining popularity of tablets, it certainly became rare to see a positive result in this space.
Amazon and Lenovo round up the fourth and fifth places. Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets with their aggressive pricing which resulted in stagnation in terms of total shipments YoY but an 1.8% decline in market share YoY. Lenovo shipped lower a quantity and lost 3.8% YoY, but it does have its portfolio spread wider across convertibles and detachables.
What are your thoughts on the current tablet market? Where do you think tablets are headed towards, in the future? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: IDC
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Manually Remap the Bixby Button on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ with Root
Many were surprised when Samsung first revealed they would have a dedicated button on the side of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ for their new personal assistant. Sony has had a dedicated button on a number of their smartphones, but it was used to take photos with its camera. This has been a button that has been remapped by many enthusiasts, and button remapping itself has been done on Android since its inception. So even if you didn’t care to use the Bixby button on the Samsung flagship, then at least you hoped to have an option to remap it.
And that is exactly what users started to do. This was first demonstrated in a YouTube video where the person simply installed the All in one Gestures application to remap the button. This enabled you to launch Google Assistant instead of Samsung’s Bixby assistant. Samsung’s initial restriction in the form of lack of options meant that if you want to use it for a Bixby button then you could use it normally. But if you wanted it for something else then you would need to go out of your way to install an application that lets you remap it.
However, this party didn’t last long as Samsung almost instantly started rolling out an OTA update that disabled this remapping functionality. It was still technically possible, but most solutions that sprang up after this OTA update simply killed the Bixby service after it was launched and then started an application of your choosing. There were three of these that we found last week and they all work without having root access to your smartphone with varying success.
However, if you have root access then you can manually remap this button to a number of other options. XDA Senior Member redplate recently wrote up a tutorial in our Galaxy S8+ guides forum that detailed how it’s done. The mod works by editing the Generic.kl file that is located in the /system/usr/keylayout directory. Other users chipped in with suggestions with what the button could be remapped to, including Google Assistant, launching the camera, launching your music player, volume buttons, home button, power button and more.
Head on over to the forum thread for the complete instruction set!
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Motorola Reportedly Working on a New Tablet with ‘Productivity Mode’
Tablets were once quite popular on Android. But as phones grew bigger and use cases for tablets became smaller, consumers lost interest in what was once considered an important secondary device. With waning consumer interest, major OEMs gradually pulled themselves out of the tablet market.
The current scenario for tablets is very grim. Barring a few sporadic releases here and there, there really isn’t much in terms of hardware options that Android could boast about. Even if you could pick up a tablet that suits your hardware requirements, the software is just not in place to give you any additional benefits for the screen size beyond what your phone could do anyways.
Lenovo-Motorola seems to be in the mood to change that. As reported by AndroidPolice from their internal sources, Motorola is working on a new tablet device which brings with itself some software additions that (hopefully) derive greater utility from the hardware.
AndroidPolice received a screenshot from their source. The image shows a device with tablet-like proportions, with its navbar icons aligned to the left. The navbar icons are, interestingly, followed by the icons for the App Drawer, the Settings app and the Gmail app. The main image shows a feature called “Productivity Mode”, which enables switching between the apps by using the aforementioned icons on the navbar. Long pressing the app icon and dragging it upwards will reportedly close the app.
AndroidPolice is “highly confident” in the quality of this information. Beyond the screenshot image, there is nothing more that is ‘confirmed’, but there is plenty that can be inferred. AndroidPolice claims that the tablet will be on the larger size, around 9-10″ in diagonal and will have a premium look and feel to it. Some versions of the tablet could offer cellular connectivity, they say. There is no release period, no more details on the hardware and not even a name as of yet.
More details of the device will surely surface when the device comes closer to release. For now, one can hope that a company does take it upon itself to fix Android for tablets and bring them back to the mainstream.
What are your thoughts on the Motorola tablet and its rumored Productivity Mode? What features or changes in a tablet would entice you to purchase one? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: AndroidPolice
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Make the Community Stronger & Give Back: Become a Mod on XDA
Have you gotten a lot out of XDA over the years? Do you wish that you could do something to give back to the community? Maybe you’re a bit OCD and just need some cleaning to do? Then perhaps applying to be an XDA Moderator is for you!
On XDA, we have a small army of volunteer Moderators who spend their free time cleaning up spam, acting on reported posts, keeping the site organized, and helping people in the community. Since XDA’s founding in 2002, it has been our Moderators that have made the site a hospitable place for phone development, customization, and the formation of new friends (daww!!). Our Mods do it out of love for the site, for the Community, and because they are obsessed with phones and technology.
As the number of devices on XDA grows, so does our need for Moderators. We’re putting out a call for anyone interested in being a Mod!
What does the “job” entail?
- Acting on reported posts
- Deleting spam
- Moving threads to proper sections (to keep things tidy!)
- Helping users
- Resolving conflict
What’s in it for you, you may ask? Well, as mentioned, this is a volunteer position, but being a Moderator on XDA means being a part of the biggest, most influential phone development site on the internet. Also, Moderators get access to our Ad-free template, which loads much faster than what everyone else uses, and when we roll out new site features, Mods get to test them out first. Mods also participate and contribute towards policy and site changes.
So what are you waiting for?
Apply now–and take a look at the requirements to make sure you qualify.
Click to Apply!
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mercredi 3 mai 2017
Dualboot Patcher App for the Nokia X/XL Enables Multiboot Support
Nokia X users can now use the open source DualBootPatcher app to enable multiboot support for ROMs and kernels on their device. Check it out!
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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.
New features in #GoogleAllo rolling out today! Chat backup/restore, incognito mode for groups and link preview http://pic.twitter.com/v7uc3unGkG
— Amit Fulay (@amitfulay) May 3, 2017
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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