[Download] Android O Preview Images for Pixel/ XL, Nexus 5X, 6P, Player, and Pixel C

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 22, 2017       

Android O was surprisingly announced yesterday with tons of new features. The latest OS's Developer preview is now available for the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, the official Android Emulator, and you also get an emulator for testing Android Wear 2.0 on Android O.

Also Read: Google announces Android O: Here's what's new


Download the Android O developer preview firmware images for the Pixel and Nexus devices from the direct link below:

• Nexus 5X "bullhead"
• Nexus 6P "angler" 
• Nexus Player "fugu" 
• Pixel C "ryu"
• Google Pixel "sailfish"
• Google Pixel XL "marlin"

Note that these are strictly development images and they could be very buggy and unstable, and are not suitable for daily use.

You can find the complete instructions of "How to flash a Factory Image" Here

Take a look at the latest images of the Sapphire Blue Moto G5

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 22, 2017       

Motorola made their announcement of the new Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus a month ago at MWC. The 2017 Moto G series is already available in Lunar Grey and Fine Gold colors. There's also an unannounced Sapphire Blue Moto G5 (non-plus) edition, which was showcased at MWC.



Reputed tipster, Roland Quandt on his Twitter handle has posted the official renders of the upcoming Sapphire Blue Moto G5, have a Look:

The Moto G5 (or Moto G 5th gen) sports a 5" Full HD display (1080p), 5MP front camera, 13MP rear camera, 2800mAh removable battery, Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor, 2GB/3GB RAM, 16/32GB internal storage with SD support and Rapid charging.

The Sapphire Blue Moto G5 will be available in the UK via O2 Refresh program. 

Google announces Android O: Here's what's new

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 21, 2017       

Surprise! Android O is now official with a lots of new features. The latest OS Developer preview is now available for the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, the official Android Emulator, and you also get an emulator for testing Android Wear 2.0 on Android O.

Here's what's new in Android O

• Notification channels: Notification channels are new app-defined categories for notification content. It let developers give users fine-grained control over different kinds of notifications. It also allows users to block or change the behavior of each channel individually, rather than managing all of the app's notifications together.

• Background limits: Android O puts a big priority on improving a user's battery life and the device's interactive performance. It put additional automatic limits on what apps can do in the background, in three main areas: implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates.

• Autofill: With Android O. Users can select an autofill app, similar to the way they select a keyboard app. The autofill app stores and secures user data, such as addresses, user names, and even passwords.

• Picture in Picture (PIP): PIP display allows users to continue watching a video while they're answering a chat or hailing a car.

• Adaptive icons: With Android O, you can now create adaptive icons that the system displays in different shapes, based on a mask selected by the device. The system also animates interactions with the icons, and them in the launcher, shortcuts, Settings, sharing dialogs, and in the overview screen.

• Connectivity: For the ultimate in audio fidelity, Android O now also supports high-quality Bluetooth audio codecs such as LDAC codec. We're also adding new Wi-Fi features as well, like Wi-Fi Aware, previously known as Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN).

• Keyboard navigation: Android O adds more reliable, predictable keyboard model for "arrow" and "tab" navigation that aids both developers and end users.

• WebView enhancements: Android O enables multiprocess mode by default and adding an API to let your app handle errors and crashes, for enhanced security and improved app stability.

• Java 8 Language APIs and runtime optimizations: Android O now supports several new Java Language APIs, including the new java.time API. In addition, the Android Runtime is faster than ever before, with improvements of up to 2x on some application benchmarks.

• Partner platform contributions: Hardware manufacturers and silicon partners have accelerated fixes and enhancements to the Android platform in the O release. For example, Sony has contributed more than 30 feature enhancements, including the LDAC codec, and 250 bug fixes to Android O.

You can download the Developer preview images for Pixel and Nexus devices from here.

Which Android O feature are you most excited for?

Source: Android Developers

Reddit user leaks Real Life Images of the Samsung Galaxy S8+

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 21, 2017       

The internet is filled with tons of Samsung Galaxy S8 and a few S8 Plus leaks, of late. Yes, the upcoming flagship phone from Samsung has been making rounds in the internet for a long time and today, we have some real life images of the larger phone.

The above images of Samsung Galaxy S8+ are shared by a Reddit user "RuizTX". The Galaxy S8 Plus is the exact same phone as the Galaxy S8 in terms of design and specs. It feature a 6.2-inch Quad HD+ display.


Samsung is widely expected to unveil the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus during a press conference in New York City on March 29th. 

Source: Reddit

Motorola Announces Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus for Argentina

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 21, 2017       

Motorola has launched it's 2017 budget Moto Gs in Argentina. The Smartphones are now available for purchase at Motorola's Argentina website.

The Moto G5 Plus which costs $7.999 is available at $6.999 Argentine peso (including 13% discount launch offer). Specs wise, the G5 Plus features a 5.2 Full HD display (1080p), 12MP Dual Autofocus Pixels camera, 3000mAh battery, Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage with SD support and Rapid charging.



The Moto G5 (or Moto G 5th gen) sports a 5" Full HD display (1080p), 5MP front camera, 13MP rear camera, 2800mAh removable battery, Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor, 2GB/3GB RAM, 16/32GB internal storage with SD support and Rapid charging. The company haven't announced pricing details of the Moto G5 (non-plus) variant.

Grab the Moto G5 Plus at $6.999 Argentine peso

Here's the best look yet at Samsung's Galaxy S8

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 21, 2017       

Samsung is widely expected to unveil the much-anticipated Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus during a press conference in New York City on March 29th. The specs and design of these devices are no longer a mystery, as the device have been already leaked multiple times.



Just a few hours ago we saw first clear video showing the Samsung Galaxy S8 in all its glory. Now, we've got a couple of quality images of the Korean giant’s next major handset.


As you can see in the image above, the Samsung Galaxy S8 won't feature capacitive navigation keys, instead, Samsung is going with the on-screen navigation keys, for the first time. 

Galaxy S8 is keeping the 3.5 mm headphone jack and USB C, as expected. 

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to launch on March 29, 2017.

Samsung will be using the metal and glass body with the S8. The Galaxy S8 will sport a big 5.8-inch screen, whereas the S8 Plus will feature a 6.2-inch Quad HD+ display. 

At the heart of the phone, there will be a Snapdragon 835 SoC and the company will release another variant of the phone with their Exynos 8895 chipset, coupled with 4GB/6GB of RAM options. Storage on the phones might go up to 256GB, according to previous rumors. 

Thanks for tip!

[Video] Samsung Galaxy S8 in all of its glory

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 21, 2017       

Samsung is widely expected to unveil the much-anticipated Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus during a press conference in New York City on March 29th. The specs and design of these devices are no longer a mystery, as the device have been already leaked multiple times.

Now a Video of the Korean giant’s next major handset have found its way onto Weibo, giving us our best look at it so far.

Samsung Galaxy S8 [Video]

Source: https://t.co/lpfPBYb2OM pic.twitter.com/iZy4vgDFaH

— TechDroider (@techdroider) March 21, 2017

The Video itself is only 8 seconds long, but that’s more than enough time to give us an idea of exactly how the phone fits in the hand. 


As per the latest tweet by Evan Blass, the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus would be priced at €799 and €899. The DeX station, GearVR, and the Gear 360 will carry price tags of €150, €129, and €229, respectively

Source: Weibo

Grab the new Moto G5 Plus Launcher and Time-Weather-Battery Widget here [APK Download]

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 21, 2017       

Recently launched Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus comes with a new Pixel-like launcher. On the surface, the Moto G5 Launcher looks nearly identical to the Pixel Launcher, however you get a transparent app drawer design with the Moto G5 launcher. 

Thanks to XDA developer "Junior Passos" and Google Plus user "Angelo Aurich", You can now Download and Install the latest Moto G5 launcher and circle clock widget on your device. The launcher and widget is working perfectly on my Moto Z Play running Android 7.0 Nougat. Download the below package, then install the APK file through a file manager.

Download

Moto G5 Launcher: Direct Download (Junior Passos XDA)

[Update] Moto G5 Time-Weather and Battery Widget: Download (Angelo Aurich G+)

[Update: Beta 2] Google announces Android 7.1.2 beta for Nexus and Pixel devices

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 21, 2017       

Article: 31/01/2017

Google has just announced Android 7.1.2 Beta, which is an incremental maintenance release focused on refinements, so it includes a number of bugfixes and optimizations, along with a small number of enhancements for carriers and users.

The initial devices to get Android 7.1.2 Nougat Public Beta includes, Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, and Pixel C. While, the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 won't get 7.1.2 Update.



Google says to expect the final release of latest Android version (7.1.2) in just a couple of months. For now, users can grab the Beta Factory Images from below link.


Download: Android 7.1.2 Factory Images

Via: Android Developers

Update: 21/03/2017

Android 7.1.2 Beta 2 with build NPG47I is now rolling out for selected Pixel and Nexus Devices

The update adds new Notification Gesture to the Nexus 6P and it also brings Pixel Launcher, Pixel-style nav buttons to the Pixel C.

Android 7.1.2 Beta 2 adds 'Swipe fingerprint scanner to open notification' feature to the Nexus 6P

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 21, 2017       

Yesterday, Google announced Android 7.1.2 Beta 2 for selected Google Pixel and Nexus Devices. The new Android version includes a number of bugfixes and optimizations, along with a small number of enhancements for carriers and users.

As reported by a Nexus 6P user on twitter, Android 7.1.2 Beta 2 also adds new gesture to open the notification shade using the fingerprint sensor. 



Google is expected the release final version of  Android 7.1.2 Nougat on April 3, 2017.

via: AndroidPolice

[UPDATE! Second Teaser] Samsung Posts Galaxy S8 Teaser Video, Unpacked Scheduled for March 30 in Korea

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 20, 2017       

Article: 3/03/2017

We all know Samsung is readying to unveil its flagship device of the year, the Galaxy S8. Now, Samsung has aired the first Galaxy S8 TV commercial in South Korea.

According to an industry analyst "Samsung’s rare move to release a TV ad for the Galaxy this early appears to (be an attempt to) keep LG from dominating the nation’s premium smartphone market before the S8 rollout."

Samsung will be using the metal and glass body with the S8. The Galaxy S8 will sport a big 5.8-inch screen, whereas the S8 Plus will feature a 6.2-inch Quad HD+ display. 

At the heart of the phone, there will be a Snapdragon 835 SoC and the company will release another variant of the phone with their Exynos 8895 chipset, coupled with 4GB of RAM (U.S. and Europe) and 6GB of RAM (Korea and China). Storage on the phones might go up to 256GB, according to previous rumors. 

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to launch on March 29 in the US and UK, and on March 30 in Korea.

Source: koreaherald

Update: 3/20/2017

Here's another Samsung Galaxy S8 Teaser Video

Samsung announces Bixby: An intelligent personal assistant

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 20, 2017       

Samsung has announced Bixby, its upcoming AI assistant for the Galaxy S8 and an answer to Apple's Siri and Google's assistant.

This upcoming Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus will be coming with an extra button on the left side if the phone, below volume controls. Pressing it will activate Bixby, Samsung's new voice assistant. 

With Bixby, Samsung has employed artificial intelligence, reinforcing deep learning concepts to the core of our user interface designs. 

Bixby offers a deeper experience thanks to proficiency in these three properties: 

• Completeness: Bixby will be able to support almost every task that the application is capable of performing using the conventional interface (ie. touch commands)

• Context awareness: When using a Bixby-enabled application, users will be able to call upon Bixby at any time and it will understand the current context and state of the application and will allow users to carry out the current work-in-progress continuously.

• Cognitive tolerance: Bixby will be smart enough to understand commands with incomplete information and execute the commanded task to the best of its knowledge, and then will prompt users to provide more information and take the execution of the task in piecemeal.

Starting with smartphones, Samsung will apply Bixby to all other "Samsung" appliances including your air conditioner or TV. Since Bixby will be implemented in the cloud, as long as a device has an internet connection and simple circuitry to receive voice inputs, it will be able to connect with Bixby.

Samsung plans to eventually release an SDK to enable third-party developers to make their applications and services Bixby-enabled easily.

We will get to know more about Samsung's AI assistant on March 29.

Source: Samsung

Xiaomi Announces the Redmi 4A at ₹5999 in India

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 20, 2017       

Today Xiaomi announced the availability and pricing details of the Redmi 4A in India. With 16GB of internal storage, the Redmi 4A costs ₹5999 and will be available through Amazon India and MI's website.

With Redmi 4A, you get a 5" Display with Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 CPU, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory which can be expanded upto 128GB via a MicroSD card. The Device is packed with 3,120mAh battery and runs MIUI 8 on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow.



It comes in Dark Grey, Gold and an exclusive Rose Gold color, the Dark Grey and Gold variant will go on sale on March 23 at 12 noon, while the Rose Gold variant will be available on April 6.

Moto X Style Gets a Soak Test for Android 7.0 Nougat in Brazil

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 18, 2017       

Motorola kept its promise and is still one of the fastest when it comes to updating its devices! Now the company has started rolling out the Android 7.0 Nougat (Soak test) for the Moto X Style. 

The Soak test weighs in at around 1.3GB and adds many new features including New Moto Actions (One-handed mode) and Android Nougat goodies to the Moto X Style.

Screenshots:

Soak tests are beta tests for device firmware, usually sent to few dedicated members of Motorola's support forum. Public over-the-air updates usually start a few weeks (sometimes months) later. Moto Germany is expected to release the Official OTA for the Moto X family in May, 2017.

Via: Androidpit (Brazil)

Source: Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ to come in these color options

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 17, 2017       

Samsung is widely expected to unveil the much-anticipated Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus during a press conference in New York City on March 29th. The specs and design of these devices are no longer a mystery, as the device have been already leaked multiple times.

According to the information that we’ve received, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus will be available in Orchid Gray(Grayish Purple), Coral Blue, Arctic Silver and Midnight Black variants. At this point, we don't have any more information about the devices that we are yet confident enough to share.

We have already seen the phone leaked in full glory, thanks to Evan Blass and BGR for leaking the images. The phone will sport the glass and metal body, but the fingerprint sensor will be placed at the rear side of the phone beside the camera module, and this guy won't sport any dual camera, whatsoever.

Going by the iteration, Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will go on sale from April third week if the rumors are believed to be true. 

Moto G5 Plus gets new update; Improves Audio During a Video capture

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 17, 2017       

Motorola's recently released Moto G5 Plus is now receiving it's very first software update in Brazil.

According to the changelogs, the software updates will Improve Audio Quality of the device during a Video capture, includes Stability improvement and bug fixes. The update shows the new build number as NPN25.137-33 and weighs around  280.7MB. 

If you haven't got the notification of this new software update yet, Just go to Settings > About Phone > Software updates, and It will automatically start downloading the latest update. The update will take around 10-15 minutes to get Installed on your device.

Thanks Leonardo Vinicius

OnePlus 3/3T gets OxygenOS 4.1 (Android 7.1.1)

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 17, 2017       

After testing OxygenOS (based on Android 7.1.1) beta 12 for the OnePlus 3 and beta 3 for the OnePlus 3T, OnePlus has finally started pushing Android 7.1.1 Nougat to the OnePlus 3/3T.

Here's the changelog for OxygenOS 4.1 (Android 7.1.1), which is the same for both phones:-

• Upgraded Android 7.1.1
• Updated Google security patch to 1st March 2017
• Added expanded screenshots
• Improved picture taking of moving objects with blur reduction
• Improved video stability when recording
• Improved WiFi connectivity
• Improved Bluetooth connectivity
• General bug fixes

This OTA is incremental and is now rolling out for a small percentage of users, OnePlus will begin a broader rollout in a few days. The download page has not been updated with the latest firmware of OxygenOS 4.1, So you might have to wait a little to Install this latest OS on your OnePlus 3/3T.

Source: OnePlus (OP3T) | OnePlus (OP3)

January security patch rolling out to the Moto X Play

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 17, 2017       

Moto X Play is among the list of devices that will be receiving Android 7.0 Nougat officially by Motorola. According to Motorola Germany, the device is expected to get Android Nougat by May, 2017 along with few other Moto X Phones. 



The Moto X Play has now started receiving a new software update with the January Security Patch, bug fixes and Stability improvement in India, the update weighs in at around 13MB. Note that the device still runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. 

Screenshot:

If you haven't got the notification of this new software update yet, Just go to Settings > About Phone > Software updates, and It will automatically start downloading the latest update. The update will take around 10-15 minutes to get Installed on your device.

Thanks Thakur Tishh Singh Rathour for tip!

Google Working on a Third Device codenamed “taimen", Larger Than Pixel XL

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 16, 2017       

2017 Google Pixel rumors have been surfacing over the last couple of months and many of those rumors have been consistent across multiple reports. However, a new report from the Droid-Life claims that Google is working on a third Smartphone, which will be larger than the current Google's Pixel XL.

Yesterday, a report confirmed that the 2017 Google Pixel will be codenamed "Walleye" and the 2017 Pixel XL will be codenamed "Muskie", but it seems that Google is also working on a third larger Smartphone under codename "taimen." The report also claims that the phone will have a bigger screen than "muskie" and "walleye."

Rick Osterloh (Google's head of hardware) has already confirmed that the second-generation Google Pixel(s) will be released this year. If the rumors are true, we might see two Pixel Phones and a Larger (maybe Nexus) Phone this year.

Source: Droid-Life | Image: Crunk C

[Update] Some Nexus 6 users receiving Android 7.0 OTA on top of 7.1.1 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 By Vaibhav Jain on March 16, 2017       

Few months ago, Google announced Android 7.1.2 update for selected Nexus and Pixel devices and you may have noticed that the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 were both not listed because Google won't be pushing further system updates to these devices.



Google guarantees Android system update for two years, so Android 7.1.1 is marked the end for the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9. Now, Some Nexus 6 users on reddit are now receiving Android 7.0 OTA on top of Android 7.1.1 Nougat, Sounds weird? Here's the proof-

After Android 7.0 Update downgrade, the Nexus 6 users are facing various issues including Force Stop and App crashes. 

Phone app and acore keep force closing to the point to where the phone is unusable, I managed to make it to Update in settings and it shows a 56.1 Mb update for March security patches but the spam force closing won't let it. Gonna have to side load from the images on Google's site. - reddit user B_Stache

That said, if you have downgraded/updated your Nexus 6 to 7.0 via OTA, you should sideload Android 7.1.1 Image right away. Google has yet to announce anything official on the matter

Source: Reddit

Update: A Google employee has responded to the reddit thread, here's what he said:-

There was a recent OTA update for Android 7.0 that is causing confusion for some Nexus 6 users. For those of you that want to guarantee future OTA updates, you will need to get back on the 7.0 supported track. If you are experiencing issues after accepting the 7.0 update, please factory reset your device to help resolve any problems.
For any Nexus 6 users that want to continue flashing/sideloading future builds, you can stay on 7.1.1 and continue to do so.