aodNotify lets you preview notifications on the Samsung Galaxy S20 and other Samsung devices on Android 10

Samsung just launched its flagship Galaxy S20 series, and while the devices are packed to the brim with features, there’s one thing that’s missing on all three devices — a notification LED. Even though the devices do have an edge lighting feature for notification alerts, the feature only works when the screen is turned off. In case you’re on the lookout for a better alternative to the stock notification alerts, then you should check out the aodNotify app.

As the name suggests, aodNotify uses Samsung’s Always on Display feature to alert you of any incoming notifications. The app was created by XDA Senior jawomo, and in its first iteration, it only toggled Samsung’s built-in Always on Display whenever you received a notification. The second major iteration of the app lets you create customizable edge lighting effects to display a ring of light around the hole-punch. Now, with the release of the Galaxy S20 series, jawomo has updated his aodNotify app with a new notification preview feature.

The new notification preview will allow you to check if you have received any notification without fully waking up your device, as seen in the featured image shown above. The feature replaces the built-in Always on Display so you can see a preview of the latest notification. In order to conserve battery, the position of the notification will occasionally change on the screen. In the app’s settings, you can change how long the preview shows, how much information is shown in the preview, and the size of the preview. If you want to show the notification text or align the preview to the left, you’ll have to purchase aodNotify Pro which costs $2.99.

In case the aodNotify app sounds useful to you, you can try it out for yourself by clicking the Google Play Store link down below. It’s worth noting that the aodNotify app works with most Samsung Galaxy devices that have the Always on Display feature, which includes the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 10, and even mid-range devices in the Galaxy A series. However, the new notification preview feature only works on Samsung devices running Android 10 with One UI 2.0 or higher.

Notification Light / LED S20, S10 - aodNotify (Free⁺, Google Play) →

aodNotify thread on the Galaxy S20 forums

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Google starts rolling out a redesigned player page for YouTube Music on Android

YouTube Music is the default music app for Google-certified Android devices, so it has a lot of potential for growth. However, retaining users for more than a few minutes requires the app to have killer features like uploading your own music, showing lyrics for songs, and a sleek music player UI that shows the album art and provides quick access to handy music controls. That’s exactly why, starting today, Google is improving the UI for the player page in YouTube Music. Here are 4 screenshots from Google that show off the improved design:

The biggest changes to the YouTube Music player page can be summarized as follows:

• The button at the top of the player page to seamlessly switch between the audio and the music video is now always visible. Previously, the button would disappear after a few seconds to make the playback experience more immersive.
• Static lyrics are now shown in a separate tab next to the “up next” playlist. Google says this feature is an experiment, so we can expect to see it improve in future updates.
• Repeat and shuffle buttons are now shown on the player page itself, making playback control more convenient. Previously, you had to tap the “up next” playlist at the bottom to show these buttons.
• You can now more easily download, share, or add songs to a playlist by tapping on the album art.

As usual, the redesigned player page is rolling out to users gradually. You can download the latest version of YouTube Music (version 3.55.55) from the Google Play Store link or from APKMirror, but there’s no guarantee that installing the latest update will surface the new player page. I sideloaded the update on my Pixel 4 and did not get the new player page design, so your mileage may vary.

YouTube Music - Stream Songs & Music Videos (Free, Google Play) →

I’m personally sticking with Play Music until Google forces me off, though with every new update to YouTube Music, I’m tempted more and more to make the switch. Google still has a long way to go before they catch up to Spotify or Pandora, but by having YouTube Music pre-installed on every new Android device, Google is guaranteed to have a large userbase to justify investing more resources into YouTube Music.

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Chrome OS 80 rolls out with Debian Buster for Linux installs, Android app sideloading support, and better tablet mode preparations

Yesterday, Google announced on the Chrome Releases blog that Chrome OS version 80.0.3987.128 is rolling out for Chromebooks on the stable release channel. After briefly pausing the rollout for an undisclosed reason this morning, the Chrome OS 80 stable update is once again rolling out to most supported Chromebook devices. Here are the most important changes you should know about in the latest update, courtesy of AboutChromebooks.

• New Linux container installations use Debian Buster instead of Stretch: Back in November, we noted that new installations of Crostini, the code-name for Google’s project to allow for running Linux applications on Chrome OS, will be based on Debian 10 “Buster.” Since the initial release of Linux app support on Chrome OS, Crostini installations were based on Debian 9 “Stretch.” Power users may have already upgraded their Linux container to Buster or even switched to a different distribution entirely.
• Chrome OS tab strip interface for tablet mode: Google is testing new flags that will make Chrome browser multitasking a bit more user-friendly in tablet mode. If you enable the “webui-tab-strip,” “new-tabstrip-animation,” and “scrollable-tabstrip” flags in chrome://flags, you should see a new UI for Chrome’s tab strip up top. Rather than the standard row of labels, the new UI shows a horizontally-scrollable list of cards with a preview of each tab. Pinned tabs are arranged in columns to the left. The number of open tabs is shown as an icon to the left of the menu button, and there’s also a “+” icon to open a new tab right next to it.
  

  New tab script interface in-development in Chrome OS 80. Source: AboutChromebooks

• Sideload Android apps without Developer Mode: In Chrome OS 80, you no longer have to enable Developer Mode on your Chromebook in order to sideload an Android app. Unfortunately, this method is only intended for developers, so you’ll have to use a few ADB commands to sideload the Android apps of your choosing.
• Bugfix for autorotation: According to Google, a bug that disabled autorotation when you attempted to pair a mouse to the device in tablet mode has been fixed. This means you can now pair your mouse without having to rotate your screen manually.

The stable release is now rolling out to most supported Chromebooks. The next stable Chrome OS release will be version 81. That update is scheduled to be released on March 24th, 2020.

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Chrome OS now supports Netflix picture-in-picture video and prepares to add support Ambient EQ on more future devices

Chrome OS is ever-evolving and Google has taken to its blog to detail some of the newest features. The blog post outlines Ambient EQ, a feature we’ve talked about before, and Netflix picture-in-picture mode. These are two features that should improve the media consumption experience.

First, let’s talk about Ambient EQ. This is not to be confused with Ambient IQ, which is an audio feature of Google Nest speakers. Ambient EQ is all about adapting the color temperature and white balance of the display to fit your surroundings. You can see how the color is adjusted in the image above. We’ve already seen this feature on smart displays. It will be available on the recently announced Samsung Galaxy Chromebook first in April. We should expect other Chromebooks in the future to come with support for it, which will require that those devices have an RGB color temperature sensor in addition to an ambient light sensor (the two usually come in a package).

Next is a feature we’ve been expecting for quite some time. Picture-in-picture mode was discussed for Chrome OS back when Google was working on bringing Android Pie to the platform. This feature is now working with the Netflix Android app on Chrome OS. All you have to do is switch to another window to activate picture-in-picture mode automatically. Again, this is the Netflix app from the Play Store. You can do picture-in-picture with the web player by using Google’s extension.

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Source: Google

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Breaking: Google I/O 2020 has been canceled, will be held remotely

Google I/O 2020 has officially been canceled. This is the latest tech event to be canceled due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19). The decision was made in accordance with “health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities.” The physical event will not happen, but Google will still hold a remote event.

In an email to ticket holders, Google explained that all guests who purchased a ticket to Google I/O will receive a full refund by March 13th. Guests who have registered for I/O 2020 will be automatically granted the option of purchasing a ticket for I/O 2021, no drawing.

A #GoogleIO update.

Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), we’ve decided to cancel this year’s physical event at Shoreline Amphitheatre. It’s sad that we won’t be able to gather as a developer community but your health and safety is our priority. (1/2)

— Google Developers (@googledevs) March 3, 2020

Google says they will “explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with our developer community” in the coming weeks. The official website will be updated with information as we approach the event. This is a disappointing development for anyone who was looking forward to attending the event, but it’s the smart decision.

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WhatsApp finally rolls out Dark Mode for Android

The story of Dark Mode for WhatsApp is a long one. We’ve been writing about Dark Mode coming to the app since all the way back in 2017. In the time since there have been multiple instances of the company testing and preparing to roll it out. Today is finally the day. WhatsApp for Android and iPhone is officially getting Dark Mode.

WhatsApp is an incredibly popular app, so the rollout of Dark Mode could not be taken lightly. This Dark Mode is slightly different from what we’ve seen on other apps. It’s not pure “AMOLED Black” or even dark gray. The background is very dark blue with white text and teal accents. The iPhone app, on the other hand, is nearly pure black with blue accents. This is because the design team took care to pick colors that “minimize eye fatigue” and are close to the system defaults on Android and iPhone.

Users can enable Dark Mode by going to Settings > Chats > Theme in the app and selecting “Dark.” It should be rolling out in the coming days to the latest version of WhatsApp.

WhatsApp Messenger (Free, Google Play) →

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Black Shark 3 and 3 Pro gaming phones announced with retractable shoulder buttons, magnetic charging connector, and Snapdragon 865

Gaming phones are part of a growing segment in the Android ecosystem. The Black Shark was part of this trend when it launched in 2018. The company followed it up with the Black Shark 2 in 2019. Now, the Black Shark 3 and 3 Pro have been officially announced. We knew a lot about this device ahead of time, but now we can see it in full glory.

The Black Shark 3 series has quite a few surprises up its sleeves, but let’s start with the basics. Both devices are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC and the company’s latest liquid cooling system. They also feature LPDDR5 RAM, UFS 3.0 storage, and beefy batteries. The Black Shark 3 has a 4,720mAh battery while the 3 Pro is packing 5,000mAh.

Speaking of batteries, the phones have pretty great charging capabilities. The Black Shark 3 series can charge at 65W speeds via wired USB-C and 18W through the magnetic charging port on the back (more on that later). The 65W charging can get the phone to 50% in just 12 minutes and fully charged in 38 minutes.

Where the phones start to differ is the displays. The Black Shark 3 has a 6.67-inch FHD+ OLED display, while the Black Shark 3 Pro has a 7.1-inch 3,120 x 1,440 OLED display. These displays feature 270Hz touch sampling rates and latency of only 24 milliseconds, both of which are big deals for a gaming device. The displays have a refresh rate of 90Hz, so the Black Shark 3 series is a step below the ROG Phone 2.

Wrapping up the standard phone specifications, let’s talk about cameras. This is not an area of big focus for a gaming device, but obviously you want a capable camera on your smartphone. The Black Shark 3 series has triple cameras in the rear triangular bump: 64MP, 13MP wide-angle, and 5MP depth. The front of the device has a 20MP camera. Oh, and speaking of the front, there are front-facing speakers and a headphone jack.

The Black Shark 3 series is for gaming and there are quite a few gaming-specific features as well. The devices have “Master Buttons,” which are shoulder buttons on the right edge of the device. These are actual physical buttons, not capacitive buttons like we’ve seen in the past. The Master Buttons should feel great if you play a lot of games that use them.

We mentioned the magnetic charging port on the back earlier and this is another feature intended for gaming. The magnetic port is towards the middle of the back so you can use it to charging the Black Shark 3 while gaming. It doesn’t get in the way of your hands while holding the device in landscape mode like the USB-C port. It does charge slower, but it allows you to keep gaming.

The Black Shark 3 also gets a new game pad. The Gamepad 3.0 is meant to be mounted on the left side of the phone (in landscape mode) and it gives you a joystick, 4 mappable buttons, and a function button.The Black Shark 3 series also supports Xiaomi’s “Frozen Back Clip Pro,” which is a fan that can clip onto the back of the device to cool it down.

The Black Shark 3 is available now in China and the Pro model will be available on March 10th. A global release is expected in the “near future.” For pricing, you’ll be paying 3,499 yuan (~$500) for the 8GB/128GB model, 3,799 yuan (~$545) for the 12GB/128GB variant, and 3,999 yuan (~$575) for the 12GB/256GB option. The Pro model starts at 4,699 yuan (~$675) for the 8GB/256GB option and 4,999 yuan (~$715) for the 12GB/256GB variant.

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