Report: Samsung Completes Note 7 Investigation, Blames Faulty Batteries

The Galaxy Note 7 was one of the most anticipated smartphones when it was first launched, thanks to its symmetrical design and superior camera performance. But a few weeks after the device went on sale, reports started coming in about the device's explosive performance. This led Samsung to immediately recall and replace Note 7 devices with what they believed to safe batteries, but when the replacement devices started to catch fire it forced the South Korean electronics giant to completely halt sales of the device.

After the Galaxy Note 7 debacle, Samsung has been busy investigating the cause behind the explosions and overheating issues in its flagship device. Reuters reports that Samsung has now finished its investigations of the Note 7 and has reached a conclusion that faulty batteries were mainly responsible. Earlier a tear down by a manufacturing technology company called Instrumental showed that the Note 7's "aggressive design" was the reason for battery explosions and overheating, but Samsung's reports are indicating that this wasn't the case. According to a source who spoke to Reuters, Samsung didn't find any design or software-related issue which could cause the battery to explode. The source also noted that the company was able to replicate the battery fires during its internal investigation.

The source says Samsung will likely officially announce the investigation reports on January 23rd, which is the day before the company is slated to announce its fourth-quarter earnings. The source also adds that along with the investigation reports the company will also announce new safety measures they have been taking to ensure the safety of their future devices.

Finding the root cause of the Note 7's fire safety issue is crucial for Samsung as it prepares for its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8. As the launch of the Galaxy S8 nears, Samsung would definitely like to leave behind the bitter memories of the Note 7 fiasco.

Source: Reuters

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ZTE Reveals the Specs of their Crowdsourced Hawkeye Smartphone — SD625, 1080p, 3GB RAM

We've talked about ZTE's Project CSX smartphone extensively. The company first announced the idea back in August of last year, and started asking the community what they wanted to see in a smartphone from ZTE. Naturally we wanted the company to release a device with stock Android, but things didn't turn out that way. Instead, ZTE says the community chose the self adhesive phone with eye-tracking software and then asked the community what it should be called.

The company unveiled the ZTE Hawkeye at CES earlier this year, but they still hadn't revealed any hardware spec details about the device. They had even launched a Kickstarter campaign to sell the phone to the community without announcing any of this information. That changed yesterday though, as ZTE has finally announced what hardware it plans to use inside the innovative ZTE Hawkeye. Which, if thing goes according to schedule, should start to ship in September of this year if they're able to collect at least $500,000 on Kickstarter.

So yesterday, ZTE announced the Hawkeye would be using a Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 SoC and have a 5.5″ 1080p display. It is to be equipped with a 13MP and 12MP rear (dual) camera along with an 8MP front-facing camera for selfies. Inside they're telling us it will have 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot for expanding the storage space. All of this will be running on Android 7.0 Nougat and powered by a 3,000mAh capacity battery.

Other features to note here are the fingerprint sensor, Hi-Fi audio, NFC, USB Type-C, and Quick Charge 2.0 technology. ZTE is asking that you pledge at least $200 for this phone, so seeing mid-range specs like this is to be expected. ZTE is also asking that the community helps decide what colors and material finish they should use with the phone. They want you to go to their forum and vote on the two polls they created earlier today.

Source: Kickstarter

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Google and LG’s Watch Sport and Watch Style Launching with Android Wear 2.0 on Feb 9

Android Wear 2.0 is the next iteration of upgrades planned for connected smartwatches. While Developer Previews have been around for a while, the last one was rolled out in mid December as Developer Preview 4. So it's only expected that we start getting impatient for the final release once new information starts rolling in.

While it was widely known that the Android Wear 2.0 update will be rolling out in early 2017, we now have a specific date to set our eyes on. Notable leaker Evan 'evleaks' Blass has leaked the date on which we can expect Android Wear 2.0 to launch.

Mark your calendar: Android Wear 2.0 launches on February 9th.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 17, 2017

In his blog post on VentureBeat, Evan has also leaked the upcoming new Android Wear smartwatches. Meet the new Watch Sport and Watch Play:

Evan reports that Google has teamed up with LG in a 'Nexus-style' partnership to produce the first devices powered by Android Wear 2.0. The watches will be launched along with Android Wear 2.0 on February 9th, and will begin selling in the US from the next day. The watches will also be given prominent placement at LG's booth at MWC 2017.

Evan notes that the mockups from Android Police closely resemble the shipping products. The Watch Sport will be 14.2 mm thick and will sport a 1.38″ OLED display with 480 x 480 resolution. The Watch Sport is the flagship product, with 768MB RAM, 4GB internal storage and 430 mAh battery.

The smaller Watch Style will be 10.8mm thick and will sport a 1.2″ 360 x 360 OLED display. Evan specifically mentions swappable straps, although something like that should be a standard feature, so we will have to see what that means. There is 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a 240 mAh battery on this device.

Both the watches will come with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and the Sport will throw in 3G and LTE connectivity along with GPS and NFC as well. This will allow the watch to take advantage of Android Wear 2.0's Android Pay capability. There's a heart rate sensor on the Sport, too.

One more point of differentiation on the Sport and Style is the water and dust resistance certification. The Watch Sport will bear IP68 certification, while the Watch Play will have it limited to IP67.

On the other hand, both the watches will have iOS compatibility, will include Google Assistant integration and boast of handwriting recognition. There is also a digital crown button to facilitate UI navigation.

The Watch Sport will come in titanium and dark blue colors, while the Watch Style will come in titanium, silver and rose gold colors.

Pricing for the devices is not known yet. Assuming this is a 'Nexus style' partnership and not a 'Pixel style' partnership, we hope the watches are priced competitively and not at a hefty premium. We will have to wait until the launch announcement to know more.

What are your thoughts on the LG Watch Sport and the LG Watch Style? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: VentureBeat Image Credit: Android Police

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Google Shares Details on How They Spot Malicious Apps in the Play Store

Google works very hard at keeping malicious applications out of the Play Store and off of your device. They aren't perfect at this and there are some instances when a malicious app slips through the cracks and is published in Google's application store. Thankfully, Google will remove them if an issue is brought to their attention, but they're still constantly scanning and checking applications and games that have already been published in the Play Store.

One of the methods Google uses to see if an application on your device is safe, is with their Verify Apps feature. This will scan an application you want to install from outside of the Play Store. This scan takes place before and after it's actually installed on your phone just to make sure it is safe to be on there. This verify function is baked into the Android OS and there are instances when a device is no longer using the feature at all (which in some cases can be security reasons).

Google flags these devices that are no longer using the verify feature and considers them to be Dead or Insecure (DOI). Now, if Google starts to detect that an application is being installed from the Play Store to a high number of DOI devices, then that raises a flag for them. This flags that as a DOI application, and Google uses this metric with many other security measures to see if it needs to be investigated. Google is even taking this a step further and finding out if an application is the cause of the phone becoming DOI.

For instance, if Google notices that a high number of devices are becoming DOI because they installed a certain application or game from the Play Store, then it makes sense that this would need to be looked into. Using these methods, Google has been able to uncover over 25,000 applications that had been infected by the Hummingbad, Ghost Push, and Gooligan malware.

Source: Android Developers Blog

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OnePlus: OxygenOS 4.0 Doesn’t Use a Debug Kernel

Some people have felt that OnePlus rushed out their official Nougat OTA update for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T just to meet the deadline they set for their customers. Recently, there was a vulnerability that was discovered which let you to change SELinux to permissive mode with a simple Fastboot command. Then someone found a kernel debug notice inside their kmsg log when they were trying to submit a bug report for the company's new OxygenOS 4.0.1 update.

This has led to even more speculation about whether or not OnePlus rushed out the update just to meet their deadline. We've been in contact with OnePlus about the SELinux issue, and they informed us that it would be fixed in their next OTA update. That was almost one week ago and in fact OnePlus did announce a 4.0.2 update for the OnePlus 3T yesterday. We haven't been able to confirm whether or not this vulnerability was patched just yet, since the 4.0.2 update could have already been finalized before they made that announcement.

Seeing this debug kernel notice isn't a reassuring thing to see in your logs as these can sometimes be susceptible to attacks. However, OnePlus has confirmed with Android Central that this message is just an error and that it isn't anything we should be worried about. The company has said the kernel used in OxygenOS is a "proper release kernel to match the consumer-ready software running on the phone." OnePlus says this message was triggered by Systrace tools and that OnePlus is not using a debug kernel in their official releases.

Just like with the SELinux issue, we're told by OnePlus that this will be resolved in a future OTA update. This debug kernel message will be removed from the code entirely so there isn't any additional confusion caused in the future.

Source: Android Central

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Google Maps Starts Showing Parking Availability

Android Police writes that "Google maps is showing parking information for some users". The extra feature seems to be part of a new Maps V9.44beta. The parking information shows up as small round "P" icon next to your destination, as shown in the images below.

You can expand the directions and get a more descriptive explanation of the parking situation. The icon appears to change to a red background when parking is not readily available at your destination. This parking icon shows up for public destinations including malls, airports, and popular attractions.

The new parking finder looks like a great feature to add to Google Maps, which has lately been adopting a lot of useful functionality.

What's your favorite Maps feature? Let us know below!

Android Police

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Android One Phones to Come to U.S. Mid-2017

Google is rumored to be bringing the Android One line of smartphones to the US. The Information website writes that the first phone bearing the brand could launch as early as mid 2017. Its believed that the phone will be priced somewhere between $200 and $300.

The report doesn't disclose who the phone will be manufactured by, but its understood that LG is potentially a partner already for the Android One Brand. Android phones account for more than half the smartphone sales in the U.S. partly in thanks to strong phone manufacturer marketing by brands like Samsung and LG. Google wants Android to be recognized as a brand on its own and hopes that the Android One brand and the newly-released Pixel will help raise that awareness in the US.

Manufacturers that partner with Google to release a phone under the Android One brand will be given "major Promotional dollars if they play by the rules" The Information stated. The rules include the phones launching with Google Apps preloaded, as expected. Part of this push for the Android One brand to be released in the US is that Google realizes that Android is not a well known brand when compared to phone manufacturers themselves, and of course Apple. Google still makes the majority of its mobile income from advertising and via the Google Search bar, Google is hoping that the Pixel and Android One brands will allow Google to showcase its AI and VR abilities through hardware Google has more control over.

The Android One brand was launched in 2014 in India through which low cost phones were supported directly by Google to ensure timely updates for a minimum of two years from the date of release. This is to combat the criticism that Android suffers from fragmentation and doesn't offer timely security updates across its ecosystem when compared to Apple. Google has since expanded the Android One brand to Europe and Japan as well as African countries like Ghana and Kenya.

The Information

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