Flyperlink: The Best Way to Open Links from Within Apps

 

Flyperlink is a great alternative app to System WebView. System WebView is the browser that is used when you open a link from within an app. It's a very basic version of Chrome that many people get very frustrated with. There are no customization options for System WebView. Flyperlink creates a floating browser window that can be resized, minimized, and closed easily. I much prefer Flyperlink as my in-app browser, so I made a video showing you how it works.

Download Flyperlink

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Android 7.0 Nougat is Rolling Out to the Sony Xperia X Performance

Owners of both the Xperia X Performance (F8131) and X Performance Dual (F8132) are now seeing Android 7.0 Nougat being pushed to their devices in select regions. This update carries the firmware version 39.2.A.0.327, and XDA Senior Member Mazellat shows us they're showing up in XperiFirm.

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Sailfish OS Receives Certification for Government and Corporate Use in Russia

Jolla's Sailfish mobile OS platform hasn't had the best of luck over the years. The company's first flagship device was first shown off back in 2013, and later that year they announced Android owners would soon be able to install the Sailfish OS on select smartphones. The company announced the Jolla tablet in late 2014, which would be the second Sailfish OS device to be released by the company.

Toward the middle of 2015, the company even struck a deal to have their mobile OS installed on the Yotaphone (beating out both Android and Tizen). Things were looking good for the Finnish company, but then they started running into financial issues at the end of 2015. In January of this year, Jolla had to tell their community that not every backer would be able to receive the Jolla Tablet they paid for.

They were able to produce 540 tablets, but said they were looking into refunding the other 21,000 Indiegogo campaign backers. While looking for some additional funding, Jolla was able to close on a $12 million round in May of this year. These investors now include shareholders in its Russian licensing customer OMP (Open Mobile Platform) and this has forced the company to switch to a b2b company instead of being b2c like they were before.

Russia hasn't been the biggest fan of Google and their Android platform. In early 2015, Russia said they would start an antitrust investigation into Google and which concluded with claims that Google's pre-loaded Android applications were violating the company's antitrust laws. Since then, Russia has been actively looking into alternatives for the country's mobile platform of choice and it seems like they found one with Jolla's Sailfish OS.

Jolla says the Russian version of Sailfish OS will not be a fork. Instead, they will be working closely with its licensing partners within the country to develop custom versions that suit their particular needs. So Jolla will continue to maintain the core code base and that will be tied to all custom versions they develop.

Source: TechCrunch

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LeEco Releases Kernel Source Code for their Devices

In 2016, LeEco rapidly expanded their international presence with an aggressive marketing campaign in its first push into the United States.

The company launched the LeEco Le S3 and the LeEco Le Pro 3, and despite mixed reviews decrying the software experience, few have denied that these smartphones pack quite a punch in spite of their pricing. But software is something that can be fixed with enough tinkering, as we here at XDA are especially wont to do. However, one of the major hurdles facing active development is the timely release of kernel source code. Although required to do so under the GNU General Public License and GNU Lesser General Public License, some OEMs defer releasing kernel source code until they feel its necessary. Some companies release the code, but do so in an obscure location. Fortunately, it doesn't look like LeEco will follow that trend.

LeEco has just released the kernel source code for a fair number of their products. The company has created a new Open Source landing page on their corporate website for current and future kernel source code releases. So far, there are 7 sets of kernel source code for 7 current LeEco products including the Le S3, Le Pro 3, Le 1s (Lollipop and Marshmallow), Le 1s Eco (Lollipop and Marshmallow), Le 2, Le Max and the Le Max 2. The company is also listing kernel source code for a few TVs they sell including the Super4 X55, Super4, X43 Pro, and the Super4 X65. Lastly, LeEco has included kernel sources for three different versions of the LeTV Box U4 set-top box.

Some people outside the United States are reporting that these kernel source download links are broken. Oddly, LeEco has seems to be restricting its kernel source code downloads to people living in the United States. Developers living outside of the U.S., at least for now, will have to use a U.S.-based VPN service to download the source code.

Source: LeEco

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OnePlus 3/3T Users Voice Concern Over Touchscreen Latency Issues

The OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T are among the best Android smartphones you could buy right now (or not, in the case of the OnePlus 3). Mix great hardware with an open software approach (compared to other popular OEMs) and what you get is a flagships that is closest to the Nexus of old in the developer scene of 2016.

In fact, our forums for the OnePlus 3 attract more traffic than our forums for the Nexus 6P, which was the last Nexus flagship. But not everything is rosy with the OnePlus 3/3T. As of late, users have been complaining about an issue that should not exist on a 2016 flagship. Particularly, despite all of its hardware prowess, the OnePlus 3/3T have poor performance with respect to touch latency.

What is touch latency, you ask? This video from Microsoft Research explains and demonstrates touch latency and its issues in a very easy to understand form:

The delay between the response on the touchscreen to your input is what constitutes touch latency. Modern flagship devices, barring the OnePlus 3/3T that is, typically have latency at around 50ms. But a French review at Les Numériques quoted the touch delay on the OnePlus 3T to be at 93 ms, which as the video above would demonstrate, is unacceptable in high interaction scenarios.

Several users and developers have voiced their displeasure at the current state of touch latency on the flagship product. The issue has been brought up several times in the OnePlus forums, our device forums and on Reddit as well, gathering hundreds of votes and comments. XDA Recognized Developer Arter97 commented on the issue at OnePlus's forums, and gave his thoughts on the matter:

OnePlus 3/3T needs touch firmware (in /system/etc/firmware/tp, closed source) tuning for better latency. The latest 3.5.3 update on the 3T is still not good enough (tried it myself).
Currently, the "move sensitivity" on the OnePlus 3 is set too big, which results in latency. If you touch the screen and move the finger around very little (like 3~5mm), it won't be registered as a scroll. This is because the "move sensitivity" is set too big. We are on a 5.5″ screen. I think it'll be totally fine to reduce the threshold a bit. (If the threshold is set too small, a tap will be registered as a scroll. If it's set too big, a scroll will be registered as a tap and increase latency.)

As Arter97 mentions, the touch latency delay is not to be confused with smoothness. As we tested out in our hardware review of the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T, both the devices output exemplary real-world performance. You are unlikely to notice these latency issues in quick and sparse reaction scenarios, as the issue becomes much more apparent when you have numerous screen interactions like while typing, or when doing short scrolling interactions. And, you are much more likely to notice the issues if you come from other flagship devices with better touch response timings, like the Pixel XL. The latency troubles do not make the phone unusable, but they do perceptibly affect the device's overall responsiveness.

The OnePlus 3/3T need tweaking on the firmware level to help combat these issues. It is indeed a shame to have the experience of quality hardware marred by issues that should not be so pressing in 2016. It also bears to mention that the OnePlus 3/3T will not be receiving Android 7.1 Nougat right off the bat, so the touch latency improvements that this update brings across Android is unlikely to be seen here as well (unless OnePlus has been listening and cooks a fix). Our best bet right now is to have OnePlus issue fixes and improvements to this end, and hope that Android 7.1 further improves the scenario as well.

What are your thoughts on the OnePlus 3/3T's touch latency issues? Have you noticed input lag before? Let us know in the comments below!

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Google, Bertelsmann, & Udacity to Offer 10,000 Android Scholarships for EU Developers

Estimates peg the current number of active Android developers residing in the EU at 1.3 million.

Out of this group of developers, a recent report claims that just under half (42 percent) are self taught. As such, Google has recognized the need to reach out to these self-taught developers in order to foster independent development on Android. Therefore, Google has recently announced an initiative to fund 10,000 Android Developer training scholarships for developers residing in the EU. 9,000 of these scholarships will be specifically targeted towards aspiring developers getting their feet wet in the Android Basics course. The remaining 1,000 scholarships will be aimed at experienced developers who will benefit from the Associate Android Developer Fast Track, the training course required to receive the official Android Developer certification.

Google has announced a partnership with the international media enterprise Bertelsmann in this endeavor, which will be shifting part of their skill-building and training budgets across their nearly 1,000 businesses towards ICT. Furthermore, Google will also partner with Udacity to offer Nanodegree scholarships.  This partnership will begin next year, and will offer about 2,000 Android developers from Europe a chance at obtaining one of these Nanodegree scholarships.

In order to apply, all you have to do is visit a special Udacity landing page for more details about the available scholarships. Remember, these scholarships are only available to European residents and applications for the scholarships must be sent by December 18th of this year. Winners of the 9,000 Android Beginner Path and 1,000 Android Programmer Path scholarships will be chosen on January 5th of the upcoming year. There aren't special restrictions to apply for the Android Beginner Path scholarship, but the Android Programmer Path does require that you have at least 1 year of programming experience under your belt.
Source: The Keyword

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ZTE Wants You to Help Name its Project CSX Winner

At CES 2016, we learned that ZTE planned to crowdsource ideas for an upcoming smartphone release. This was a rather big deal because it's rare for a smartphone OEM to pull their ideas directly from the Android community. The rules were simple, and only required the ideas to be technically possible by 2017 and not be too expensive that it wouldn't be affordable by the general public.

So a few months ago, ZTE actually started to collect ideas from the community about what they wanted to see in the company's next smartphone. Then in October, ZTE had chosen 5 different features and asked the community to vote on which one they wanted the most. This caught the attention of us at XDA because one of the options for us to choose from was a flagship smartphone that used stock Android software.

Other options included eye tracking and a self-adhesive phone, intelligent smartphone covers, a powerglove, and a VR-interactive diving mask. A month later, ZTE wanted to get some details on why people chose the option they did. But soon, the winner was announce and surprisingly it was the eye tracking and self-adhesive smartphone idea. This would become the basis of an upcoming ZTE smartphone in 2017. We aren't told exactly when this smartphone will be released, but we are to expect it sometime next year.

While ZTE develops this new smartphone for the public, they want your help in coming up with a name for it (you can submit your idea here). Ideas will be collected until December 5th and ZTE will choose 5 different finalists for the name of the phone. These names will go up on ZTE's Project CSX website and the community will be able to cast their vote on which one they like the most. The winner will be announced at CES 2017, and ZTE promises the person who came up with the name will receive a "small cash prize" as well.

Source: ZTE Community

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