Xiaomi Rumored to Feature Its Own SoC in “Meri”

China's biggest OEM — Xiaomi, is rumored to use their own in-house SoC in its upcoming phone models. In-house chips will reportedly be used in lower-priced devices in the last two-quarters of 2017, which sound like good testing platforms for the OEM before it moves on to higher performance devices.

This move is not entirely unexpected, as the Redmi producer planned to join the SoC market for quite some time now. First mentions about it surfaced two years ago when a company called Beijing Pinecone Electronics owned by Xiaomi signed an agreement with Leadcore Technology Ltd. That deal was about designing 4G multiple mode chips.

News about the possible use of the chips was published on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. The first device with an in-house chip will reportedly be the Xiaomi Meri. AnTuTu screenshots from the device point that the phone and the SoC will use a Mali-T860 GPU and come with a 5.46″ Full HD screen. The rest of the spec sheet is still a riddle.

Seems like this news is quite bad for two of the biggest SoC makers in the market currently, Qualcomm and MediaTek, as they were delivering chips for Xiaomi for the last couple of years. It's a big thing as the Chinese OEM sold over 10 million devices in Q2 2016. We hope that Xiaomi will maintain good GPL practices and will release the mandated source for its in-house chip.

What do you think about this move? Would you get a device with a brand new SoC? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Gizmochina

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Homescreen Critique 06

Are you ready for a fresh batch of new homescreens to check out? It's time for round six of Homescreen Critique with your XDA TV host Taylor. Here are this week's submissions.

The first homescreen comes from XDA user AVEEUX and this is the cleanest homescreen that has been submitted to us so far.

Here are the apps used to create this homescreen.

• Nova Launcher
• KWGT
• C Locker
• Wallpaper link

This homescreen comes from XDA user ZOMGALAMA. This homescreen doesn't look like much but when you tap the center clock widget, a circular menu appears. This homescreen has some cool animations and a really unique navigation system.

Here are the apps used in this homescreen.

• Nova Launcher
• KWGT
• Pixel Launcher

This next setup is from @bms2291 on twitter. It may not be snowing outside yet, but this homescreen definitely brings out the winter season in its design.

The apps used in this homescreen can be found here.

• Zooper Widget
• Simpax Icon Pack
• Nova Launcher

Submit your own homescreen in this thread to be featured in the next video.

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Samsung Chromebook Pro With 12.3″ 2K Display and Pen Leaked

While Samsung may still be rethinking its smartphone strategy for the coming year, they are apparently ready with their next step in the Chromebook market.

The Samsung Chromebook Pro starts off the spec sheet with its 12.3″ 2K (2400 x 1600) display with an aspect ratio of 3:2. Being a Chromebook, the device is of a conventional laptop form factor made of aluminum, but it does incorporate a 360° hinge as well as a stylus (called just "PEN", and no longer called the S Pen), which lends its additional use-case scenarios of a bigger tablet. The laptop is reportedly 13.9mm thin and is 1.08kg light.

The Chromebook Pro comes with a 2GHz hexa-core Rockchip SoC with 2x Cortex-A72 and 4x Cortex-A53 cores, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, which is pretty tough to swallow. The device also comes with two USB Type-C ports, an SD card slot and a headphone jack. The battery capacity is not mentioned, but the battery life is claimed to be at 10 hours. And being a Chromebook, it runs on Chrome OS, with the ability to run Android apps via the Google Play Store.

Pricing and release information is unavailable at this stage. The device did go up for preorder on Adorama for a price tag of $499, but the listing has since been pulled down. We will have to wait on Samsung to make the Chromebook Pro official to know more about its availability.

What are your thoughts on the Samsung Chromebook Pro? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Sammobile

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What’s New in Google Camera 4.2

After a long debate and a rigorous interview with twelve goat monks, I have decide to make a short video showing off the changes in the Google Camera 4.2 update.

This update is meant to be exclusive to the new Pixel phones but a port has been made that allows it to run on other Android devices. To run this mod, you will need an ARM64 Nexus device running Android 7.0 or later.

Download the APK here.

To see the full in depth look at this new update, check out the portal article from Mishaal.

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Widgets, Icons and Wallpapers – Miles’ Top Picks

Miles has been making some great videos over at XDA TV. Viewers often ask about what icons, widgets and themes he uses for him phone. In this video he takes us through all of his favorite customization apps and where we can download them.

DashClock Widget

Dash clock is a widget that allows for the integration of third party widgets like Fenix. If you're looking for a free clock widget, this is the best way to go.

Download

Dives – Icon Pack

The Dives icon pack is one of the cleanest icon packs out there. You might be familiar with this pack because it's the one that comes default on the OnePlus 3 OxygenOS.

Download

Facets – with Muzei

Facets has a bunch of amazing original wallpapers and is a great deal for 99 cents on the Play store.

Download

[Substratum] Dark Stock Theme

Substratum is a new theme engine with a small handful of themes to choose from. Here are two of the best themes that Miles uses for his phone.

Download

[Substratum] Origins Theme

Download

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Fact Check: The HTC 10 Does not Actually have Phase-Detection Autofocus

While doing research for our recent article on the Sony IMX378 and the Google Pixel, we noticed a piece of misinformation about the IMX377 and HTC 10 that had become fairly widespread. A lot of major websites are referring to the HTC 10 as having PDAF, despite the fact that it doesn't have it.

We searched through HTC's marketing materials, and could not find a single instance of HTC claiming that the HTC 10 has PDAF. So, we reached out to Sony and HTC to double check, and we got confirmation that the IMX377 and the HTC 10 do not use PDAF. Instead, the HTC 10 uses a combination of contrast-based autofocus and laser autofocus.

So where did this misinformation come from? It appears that this was initially started by a leak by LlabTooFeR that was mostly correct, but misstated what autofocus system was used to supplement the laser autofocus. We want to highlight that this was a leak, not an official confirmation, and that leaks are always subject to change (LlabTooFeR is still one of the most reliable leakers out there).

Unfortunately, a large part of the tech world has seen this misinformation repeated over and over again, and started to take it as fact, without double checking it. Even I was surprised to hear that my HTC 10 didn't have PDAF, and while to my knowledge we haven't made that claim in an official article (as we tend to rely on OEM sheets), I'm sure that I have mentioned it in passing conversation outside of XDA. This demonstrates just how widely a frequently repeated lie can spread, especially if not properly dispelled. Thankfully, very little harm came from this particular situation, aside from a couple funny moments of websites praising the HTC 10 for adding a feature that it doesn't have, but it still is a sobering reminder about how terrible our minds are at separating fact from rumor.

That being said, it does get us a bit more excited about the Google Pixel and Pixel XL phones, as the HTC 10 and IMX377 saw very good performance through its combination of contrast-based autofocus and laser autofocus, and the IMX378 and Snapdragon 821 should result in further improvements for the Pixel phones thanks to the addition of PDAF and further improvements to the ability to incorporate laser autofocus into a hybrid autofocus system.

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HTC Bolt Spotted in the Wild Sans a Headphone Jack

Even though Google's Pixel duo are made by HTC, Google has retained the branding of the devices while HTC has to remain in the shadows for these phones. But that does not mean that HTC will sit on the sidelines for the rest of the year, as the company is preparing to release its next mid-range device this month.

The HTC Bolt has been talked about before as a Sprint-exclusive. While the renders of the device gave us a fair idea of what to expect, we now have live images of the device, courtesy of Evan Blass and VentureBeat, to give us a better view of what the device feels like in person.

The HTC Bolt is known internally as Acadia, and it is HTC's latest upcoming mid-ranger that will also come bearing HTC's Sense skin atop of Android 7.0 Nougat. The Bolt sports a 5.5″ FHD display, and will come with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage and a microsd card slot. The SoC of the device is unknown as of now, but since this is a mid ranger, flagship grade SoCs like the Snapdragon 820 or 821 are ruled out. The device also sports an 18-MP primary camera with f/2.0 aperture and 4K video capabilities, along with an 8MP front camera. There is also a fingerprint scanner, as seen on the front of the device.

As visible in the images, the device comes with a USB Type-C port, but does not come with a 3.5 headphone jack. HTC's BoomSound tech is available on the device, but only via (USB Type-C) headphones and not via the single, bottom firing speaker.

The HTC Bolt is expected to be available globally, and in the United States through Sprint. Pricing of the device and its launch date are unknown as of yet.

What are your thoughts on the HTC Bolt so far? Would you consider this device for purchase? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Evan Blass via VentureBeat

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