What Improved the Most in This Year’s Flagships?

The year is just about coming to an end, and we've seen most of what major OEMs have to offer. The flagship battle was hotly contested this year, with many phones offering many choices to suit many needs — just in the spirit of Android. Smartphones in general got smarter and better, and we are not complaining.

But all areas of a smartphone did not improve to the same degree. Some hardware features in smartphones evolved at a faster rate, and in some cases, minuscule improvements seemed drastic because the preceding flagship lacked oomph in that particular regard. Of course, subjective opinion and diminishing returns also change our perception of what was the biggest improvement in the flagships of 2016. So we ask you,

Which aspects of flagships saw the most improvement compared to the previous year? Which feature on a flagship gave you the most noticeable positive change compared to its predecessor? Was it the processor, the display, the build quality or the battery? Are there any areas where smartphones still need to improve on?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2f23UHH
via IFTTT

PSA: Android 7.1 Circular Icon Support is Determined by the OEM

Design consistency has been one of the major hurdles for Google since Android started becoming massively popular. Initially, Google's philosophy was to let OEMs have full control over their design philosophy. At first, this level of openness enticed OEMs to invest large amounts of resources into making Android smartphones and tablets.

However, the wide variety of OEM skins stood in stark contrast to the tightly controlled Apple iPhone experience. Starting with Android Lollipop, Google made major design changes (the Material Design UX, headed by at-the-time lead Android designer Matias Duarte) and hoped that app developers and OEMs would follow suit. While some OEMs such as Motorola and Sony were content with following Google's lead, others such as Samsung and Huawei still sport a design language that is largely non-Material.

Google hasn't given up on enforcing consistent design across various Android devices, and one of their latest efforts is the inclusion of circular icon support in Android 7.1 Nougat. Circular icons are intended to solve the issue with inconsistent icon size, but this approach has a set of issues that I'll let designer Liam Spradlin over at Android Police describe. Android 7.1 has barely made its way to Nexus devices, and it'll take quite a bit of time for OEMs to start rolling out Nougat, so it's unclear what impact circular icon support will have on design consistency. But what is clear is the fact that circular icons could die before they even have a chance to thrive: because Google has thus far made it totally up to the OEM whether or not they want their users to see circular icons.

---

Circular Icon Support is Determined by the Framework

Nearly every single one of the Google Pixel's features was leaked ahead of time by various blogs. Even the circular icon support was heavily hinted at as the leaked Pixel Launcher indicated support for circular icons, and other Google apps were slowly being updated with circular icon assets embedded in the APK. However, at the time the bloggers made an erroneous assumption: that circular icon support would be tied to the launcher. It's hard to blame them, though, as even Google's official announcement of the feature is bereft of any detail.

Fortunately, veteran Android developer Commonsware delved into more detail about how circular icon support would be implemented in Android 7.1 Nougat. Rather than app developer's exposing their round icon via PackageManager (allowing for launchers to decide whether or not to display round icons), the system framework decides whether or not to return either the regular icon or the round icon to the launcher.

When a launcher requests an app icon, the framework returns either android:icon or android:roundIcon, depending on the device build configuration.

What this essentially means is that the OEM can decide whether or not circular icons will be shown on your device. If Samsung, Huawei, LG, or any other OEM decides to forego circular icons, then your device will not see any round icon assets no matter what third-party launcher you install. Strike one for Google's design consistency push.

Commonsware has also discovered that the framework decides whether or not to return a circular or regular icon for ANY process that requests an app icon. In other words, developers need to be cautious that their circular icons look great not only in certain device/launcher configurations, but anywhere it may be requested.

Circular app icons are a nice visual change, but it's clear that there's an issue with their implementation. In all likelihood, we might see that only some devices like the Google Pixel and maybe some Motorola phones will implement circular icon support, while other OEMs will opt to continue using regular icons. If this scenario plays out, then Pixel owners may find themselves with a bunch of non-circular apps from app developers who don't bother to update their icon assets to accommodate only the few devices that would support round icons. And in that case, the entire consistency argument for round icons would be moot.

Thanks to Commonsware for discovering this!

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2fmCBGD
via IFTTT

RCS Messaging Support on Google’s Messenger App Rolling Out on Sprint

SMS once was a very integral part of communication, but the service no longer holds the same charm as it once did. With the advent of Internet-based IM apps on our smartphones, the reliance on SMS as a primary means of communication has been phased out.

A lot of this does have to do with the fact that SMS is limited and outdated, despite its reliability in certain situations.

People have realized that SMS is in dire need of an upgrade to keep up with current use-cases. Communication these days is no longer limited to just textual information between two parties — there's more media flowing through, and there are more people participating in conversations. Recognizing this need, the GSM Association along with Google joined hands in an initiative to upgrade the SMS experience.

Today, Google has announced that it is launching Rich Comunications Services (RCS) on Sprint, making this the first carrier launch from Google. RCS Messaging on Sprint, powered by the Jibe RCS cloud platform, will bring new features to SMS, like group chat, high resolution photo sharing, read receipts and more. To make use of this upgrade, users on Sprint need to grab the latest Messenger update. Further, new Android devices from Sprint coming next year will come with Messenger preloaded as the default SMS and RCS app.

The coming of RCS is a huge step for Android users in general as it gives the platform a lot of future potential. By implementing a universal profile on the carrier end, RCS is as close as we can get to an iMessage experience out-of-the-box across the wide plethora of Android devices. While other IMs have stepped in to fill the void that SMS failed to fill so far, a solution that is universally available and does not require any setup will be a boon for the average Android user. The advantages of modern IMs with the universality of SMS? Sign us up!

What are your thoughts on RCS finally coming out? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Google Blog

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2fLgMTQ
via IFTTT

The $99 UMi Diamond is Shock and Scratch Resistant

Our friends at UMi have just released a new model: the UMi Diamond, which, as the name suggests, is built to be tough (as a diamond…get it?) thanks to its impact and scratch protection. Not only is it likely to survive a drop unscathed, but it's packing some pretty good specs for a phone that is less than $100 during the pre-sale which ends November 14 (when the price goes up to $129).

It's a phone for people that like a smaller device, with its 5″ screen. The powerplant comes from a MediaTek octa-core CPU with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage with microSD expansion. The battery is 2650mAh which is more than enough for a phone of this size. Like all UMi phones, the Diamond is running near-stock Android Marshmallow, but the company plans to have an upgrade to Nougat ready by the end of next month.

In terms of design, the UMi Diamond reminds us a lot of a Galaxy S7 in the way that there's a metal frame going around the outside, while the back has a nice taper for a comfortable in-hand feel. It's really quite beautiful.

The Diamond is available in black, gold, and white. Each color has a matching front and back unlike some phones that only change the back color and not the front panel.

Check out the above video where UMi puts the durability of the Diamond to the test.

  Buy an UMi Diamond

Thank you to UMi for sponsoring this post, and keep an eye on the Portal because next week, we're giving one away!

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2f1KP8K
via IFTTT

Android’s Global Market Share Grows to 87.5%; Windows Tablets Grow in Shipments

Android has dominated the mobile market for a while now but the latest reports from independent researchers show it has reached yet another milestone.

For the third quarter of 2016, a report from Strategy Analytics says that Android as an OS was able to amass 87.5% of the total smartphone market. Competition from BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile and Tizen collectively make up 0.3% of the market. Then we have Apple's iOS sitting at just 12.1% of the global market share for smartphones, which is down from 13.6% compared to the year before.

It's unlikely that Apple is worried about this right now though since they make more profit selling smartphones than any other company in the business. The Android space is getting more crowded each passing year, and it's becoming difficult for some to even make a profit. Some OEMs have resorted to lowering prices in order to compete, but this will likely cause a number of them to go out of business if they're unable to make a profit from their venture.

That should not have a negative impact on Android as a whole though, since other companies can jump in and fill that gap if something like that happened.

While Android smartphone shipments are up, Android tablets are actually down for the third quarter of this year. Another report from Strategy Analytics tells us the Android tablet market share dropped by 17% last quarter and Apple tablets also saw a decline of 6%. This brings Android's tablet market share down to 65% while iOS market share is sitting at 20% for the quarter for the tablet market.

With these two platforms dropping so much in the tablet space, it may be surprising to learn that it was Microsoft's Windows platform that was able to grow tablet shipments an entire 25% compared to the third quarter of last year. Since the debut of the Surface RT in 2012, Microsoft has been able to steadily grow their 2-in-1 tablet presence each and every year, bringing their market share to 16%. While still behind Apple and Android tablets, Windows tablets are the only one increasing in shipments.

Source 1: CNBC | Source 2: Softpedia

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2f8EBkU
via IFTTT

Homescreen Critique 08

In the 8th episode of Homescreen Critique, Taylor is reviewing some of the best homescreen submissions of the week. Check out these awesome setups below.

alan smithee

Apps used in this homescreen:

• Nova Launcher
• Calendar Widget: Month
• Eye In Sky Weather
• KWGT Kustom Widget Maker
• Long Shadow Icon Pack
•  Min – Icon Pack

Check out this homescreen here.

Hiraethic

Apps used in this homescreen:

• SIMPAX ICON PACK
• KLWP Live Wallpaper Maker

Check out this homescreen here.

Rashad83

Apps used in this homescreen:

• Launcher 8 WP style
• 1Weather: Widget

Check out this homescreen here.

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

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2evjLOp
via IFTTT

SuperSU is Updated to Version 2.78 SR3, Fixes Pixel Related Issue and More

A little over a week ago Chainfire announced he was able to gain root access to the Pixel phones, and that it would be packaged up and released in a few days. Not long after, we saw the first official root method released for both the Pixel and Pixel XL. Thousands of us were instantly able to gain root access to our Pixel phones thanks to the work he put into the project. Many thought he would take a break and relax for a little bit, but yesterday Chainfire released a bugfix update for SuperSU.

In a Google+ post published right after lunch time, Chainfire released version 2.78 SR3 of SuperSU. He tells us that most of the changes in this update are related to the A/B partition layout of the Pixel phones, but that it included some additional fixes as well. The first change we're told about is a System bind, and how SuperSU has now replaced the /system to /system_root/system symlink with a bind mount for devices that have the A/B partition layout (like we see in the Pixel and Pixel XL).

This change fixes the absolute paths to something that Android actually expects and as a result it has fixed the System UI crash issue when the battery dropped to 15%. Chainfire says this will also fix some root apps that manipulate the /system partition as well. The next fix in this update was getting SuperSU's Full Unroot feature to work on devices that used the A/B partition layout.

This bug fix update also allows systemless root to survive when the Factory Reset Protection feature is enabled. However, we are told that updates to SuperSU that were installed from the Play Store will be lost. These were the three biggest changes/fixes that are included in the latest update to SuperSU, but Chainfire also gives us a full changelog of the minor fixes too.

• Fix 'Full Unroot' on slot-based systems
• sukernel: replace system symlink with bind mount
• sukernel: add missing slot check for system_root import
• sukernel: fix ramdisk backup segmentation fault
• supolicy: adjust priv_app policy to be able to call su
• launch_daemonsu: adjust su.img size detection
• ZIP: improve loop device setup
• ZIP: add factory reset protection (FRP variable, default if slots used)

Source: +Chainfire

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2fjEK8d
via IFTTT