Google Play Store v7.8.16 Brings New App and Notifications Icons

 By Unknown on May 11, 2017       

Google seems to have to play with the icons of its app ecosystem. The search giant some months ago revamped all its app icons with a new material design. But left out the essential Google Play Store.

And now, the newly rolling Google Play Store v7.8.16 finally brings a new app icon, and that's the same one, which Google tested earlier. And yeah, it's time to say goodbye to the basket type Google Play app icon. 

Also, another cosmetic change is the new notification icon for the Google Play Store, which is now similar to the new Google Play Store icon but has a tick icon inside it to indicate the application as installed. 

Well, the new update is already rolling out globally, but it will take some time to reach on your device, and it depends on the location where you're living. However, you can always head over to apkmirror.com and download, install APK manually. 

Google is Testing Search Bar in Notification Panel and This Concept Video Shows How it May Look

 By Unknown on May 11, 2017       

A few days back, folks at Android Police tore down the APK of Google App beta 7.1 and said that the company is working on adding a search widget in the notification panel and today, a reddit user has posted a video on how it may look when Google really implement it. 

As you can in the see in the YouTube video, he has imagined two scenarios- one is the normal Android style Google search bar and the other one is the Fuchsia OS-based search bar, and it looks far better than what we had imagined when the news broke out.

The primary intention of having a search bar in the notification panel is to quickly search the user queries. Some might think it as a redundant feature as the home screen already has the search bar, but in the Pixel phones, Google has moved it to just a small 'G' letter in the left corner.

As of now, there's no info on when this feature will officially roll out, but it will be added in the next Android OS upgrade to the Pixel phones.

Asus partner with Home Credit India to offer buyers 0% interest on phones

 By Vaibhav Jain on May 10, 2017       

Home Credit India Finance Pvt. Ltd, one of India’s leading NBFCs and Asus have partnered to offer users an easier and hassle-free way to purchase Asus smartphones in India. Home Credit India is now offers a zero percent interest on smartphone purchases.

Through the association, Home Credit India offers interest free EMI for consumers looking to buy Asus smartphones. Home Credit customers may purchase a Asus smartphones at 0% interest rate from over 8500 retailers across the country.

For now, the scheme is only available for selected Zenfone Smartphones including the Zenfone 3 Max 5.2, Zenfone 3 Max 5.5, Zenfone 3s Max, Zenfone 3 5.2 and Zenfone 3 5.5. Below are the Scheme details:

Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom with 5000mAh battery is now up for Grabs in the US for $329

 By Vaibhav Jain on May 10, 2017       

The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom is now officially available in the U.S. just for $329 and that’s a pretty crazy low price for a Smartphone with such an amazing specifications. 

Just like the 2015 Asus Zenfone Zoom, the Zenfone 3 Zoom prioritizes mobile photography with optical zoom. The device features a 12MP dual-camera setup which can magnify up to 12X with digital zoom. 

The Zenfone 3 Zoom comes with a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 5 protection, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage with microSD card slot (expandable up to 2TB). The device runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and will be soon upgraded to Android 7.0 Nougat. Asus also plans to add RAW support with Nougat.

The Camera centric smartphone comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 processor paired with a huge 5000mAh battery. You can grab the Zenfone 3 Zoom via  Best Buy and Amazon.

Confirmed: The Iconic Nokia 3310 (2017) Will be Available in Germany from May 26!

 By Unknown on May 10, 2017       

Speculations are rife about the comeback brand Nokia smartphones availability as the vendor said they'll be available from Q2 2017 at the launch event in MWC 2017. While the company chose to keep silent over the availability, e-commerce sites started taking pre-orders of the phones in various countries. 

Especially in European countries, the Nokia 3310 was up for pre-order from different sites, and all of them mentioned the same shipping date as May 26. Nonetheless, the date was not confirmed by HMD back then. 

However, the company has now confirmed that the iconic Nokia 3310 will be available to purchase in Germany from May 26, the same date as what e-commerce portals mentioned. This news is posted by Roland Quandt on his Twitter handle as he received an official info from the company. 

That said, the official global availability of the feature phone is yet to be known along with Nokia's Android phones availability as well. 

Indians are Consuming More than 50 Million WhatsApp Video Minutes Per Day More Than Any Other Country Globally

 By Unknown on May 10, 2017       

Back in November 2016, WhatsApp introduced the video calls feature to its platform, and the company now says Indians are in love with the feature. According to the Facebook-owned company, Indians are consuming a total of 50 million video minutes each day.

This number may not be a surprising one as an excess of 200 million users are active on WhatsApp, making it the largest than any other country. 

Across the globe, the company is receiving a total of 340 million video calls, out of which 50 million is from India. The video calling feature is a huge hit for the company because of its simple user interface. 

Currently, WhatsApp has over 1.2 billion active users, and the number is significantly increasing with every passing day. The company is also working to add various new features to the application. 

Meizu Officially Releases its Flyme 6 OS to OnePlus 3T and Various Other Smartphones

 By Unknown on May 10, 2017       

Some days ago, it was tipped that Meizu will release its Flyme OS to other Qualcomm chipset powered smartphones. Meizu, a couple of days ago officially released its Flyme OS 6 to a good number of smartphones. The notable smartphone here is the OnePlus 3T. Yes, you can now install Meizu's Flyme OS 6 in a OnePlus 3T. 

Other smartphones included in the list are Nexus 6P, ZUK Z2, Xiaomi Mi Note, Xiaomi Mi 3, high-end Redmi Note 3, Nexus 6, Redmi Note 2, and various other phones. Meizu also said that it would be adding more smartphones to the list in coming days. 

However, the real surprise is that the OS being released to Qualcomm chipset smartphones as all the Meizu smartphones are powered by MediaTek chip. Also, it's easy to sideload a ROM to any MediaTek chip that the Qualcomm ones. 

As expected, the procedure to get the ROM on the supported device is by flashing it, and for that, you need a device with an unlocked bootloader. You can download the firmware by clicking the link below. 

Meizu Firmware download

Grab the Fuchsia OS Demo app for Android [Apk Download]

 By Vaibhav Jain on May 10, 2017       

Google has already started working on its next operating system for Smartphones and Tablets that is not based on Linux called as Fuchsia. Instead, the Fuchsia OS will be based on the search giant's own kernel 'Magenta.'  

The default system UI for Fuchsia OS will be called as Armadillo. Armadillo and other Fuchsia apps are built on Google Flutter SDK, and the apps can be used on any platform- Android or iOS or Fuchsia OS.

If you’d like to see Armadillo in action, you can grab the APK file and Install it on your Android device from the below link. Armadillo will give you the first Alpha look at what Google’s next OS will be.

Armadillo's UI has a one big vertical scrolling page with incomplete application cards. To the bottom center we have just a home button, which shows a user’s profile. You can also combine two applications (Multitasking) by just long pressing a card and throwing it into another card.

Download Fuchsia OS Demo app - Here
(Compiled by Bradshaw | Via HotFixIt)

OnePlus 5 Spotted on Geekbench Benchmarking Site With Insane Scores

 By Unknown on May 09, 2017       

Currently, the talk of the town is the Chinese smartphone vendor, OnePlus's upcoming phone, the OnePlus 5. While the Company yesterday officially confirmed the name of the phone, it is now spotted on benchmarking site Geekbench. 

As you can see in the image below, it clearly states that the phone will bear a model number A5000, which was rumoured earlier as well. The device has a single core score of 1963, which is below the scores of Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S8+. 

However, the phone achieved a multi-core score of 6687, higher than any other smartphone released till date. The device was running Android 7.1.1 Nougat while running the benchmark test. 

Until now, no phone has achieved the scores as the OnePlus 5. In fact, the other Snapdragon 835 powered smartphones such as the Galaxy S8 duo, Xiaomi Mi 6, and Sony Xperia XZ Premium all have fewer benchmark scores. 

SOURCE