Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite update adds 4K@60fps video recording and other camera improvements

Samsung launched two sub-premium phones – the Galaxy S10 Lite and the Galaxy Note 10 Lite – in January. The two phones are pitted against flagship killers like the OnePlus 7T but each of them serves different audiences. The Galaxy S10 Lite is targetted at users who want flagship-grade performance but some compromises in areas like design whereas the Note 10 Lite is aimed at users who want the S-Pen experience at a lower price.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite XDA Forums
Buy carrier unlocked: Starting at $573.99 in the U.S. || Starting at ₹39,999 in India

We recently reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite and found it to offer a striking value for money, especially for users who prefer buying Samsung devices. While its 48MP camera and the Super Steady OIS mode are made to impress, the phone lacked certain features in the video department. That has been rectified with the latest update which adds 4K video recording at 60fps to the S10 Lite (SM-G770F). Besides this, the update also brings improvements to the camera quality and stability.

The changelog also mentions Super Steady mode for UHD (4K) video recording but we found that wasn’t working on our unit. When selected, the Super Steady mode switches back to 1080p mode automatically and the option to select the video quality is disabled. We reached out to Samsung for clarity on this and will update the article as per their response.

Besides camera improvements, the update also brings improvements to the performance of the in-display optical fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 Lite. Other than that, there are improvements to the overall stability of the UI. Lastly, the update also brings Google’s security patches from February 2020.

The update is about 420MB in size and started rolling out in India last week. The rollout should be incremental based on your region. Since the Galaxy S10 Lite does not have separate Snapdragon and Exynos variants, the rollout can be expected to be smoother and quicker.

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[Update: New Home Screen] Spotify will get a refreshed mobile UI on Android and iOS

Update (3/9/20 @ 10:00 AM ET): Spotify is now rolling out a redesigned home screen UI to its mobile apps.

Spotify is undoubtedly one of the most popular music streaming services out there, but it faces strong competition from the likes of YouTube Music and Apple Music internationally, and services like JioSaavn in India. In order to stay ahead of the competition, the service keeps introducing new features ever so often. Most recently, Spotify reintroduced its widget for Android users, which was previously deprecated in a feature update. Now, in a bid to keep up with the times, Spotify is releasing a refreshed mobile UI for Android and iOS.

As per a recent blog post from the company, the refreshed UI brings some significant changes that are expected to improve the way users listen to music on Spotify. These include a new universal Shuffle Play button that aims to streamline audio streaming on the platform to a single click.

Along with that, there’s a redesigned Action row that houses all actions, including ‘like’, ‘play, and ‘download’, grouped together in the central part of the app. The action bar also houses a new downloading for listening without WiFi for premium users, which looks a lot like the one that the app has been using for podcasts. What’s really interesting is that the new Action row has an adaptive design that responds to the size of each device for easier one-handed use.

Furthermore, the UI redesign now also shows cover art in all views except the ‘Album’ view, which is expected to make navigating through the app and looking for familiar songs a bit easier. For previously liked songs, the cover art will also show a heart icon next to the track name. The new UI redesign is already rolling out for iOS users, but Spotify hasn’t revealed any timeline for the Android release. In a statement to 9to5Google, the company just said that the redesign is “coming soon” to Android.

Source: Spotify, context from 9to5Google

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Update: New Home Screen

After adding a few new UI elements to Android and iOS last month, Spotify is now rolling out a revamped home screen. The new UI is designed to make it easier for users to quickly jump back into familiar content. There is a new section at the top with recommendations that change throughout the day based on your routines.

Under the new recommendations area is where you’ll find your “Made for You” playlists, recommendations based on your listening, top podcasts, and more. You’ll also notice that everything is more compact now, which allows more content to be displayed on the screen. This update is rolling out now as a server-side switch, so keep an eye on your Spotify app.

Spotify: Listen to new music, podcasts, and songs (Free, Google Play) →

Source: Spotify | Via: Android Police

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Master Business Stats and Big Data with this Huge Course Bundle

When you’re thinking about starting a new career, it pays to look forward. While many jobs have an uncertain future, the data science and analytics industry is set on an upward curve. Even today, the average salary for a data scientist is over $120,000.

Not everyone can go back to college, but there are other ways to get educated. The 2020 All-in-One Data Scientist Mega Bundle offers 141 hours of instruction, including 12 separate courses, and it’s currently just $39.99 at the XDA Developers Depot. 

Even if you don’t plan on becoming a full-time data scientist, mastering these skills will help you impress recruiters in many sectors. Ready to get started? Here’s are some course highlights.

Introduction to Data Analytics

This quick-start guide helps you master the fundamentals of analytics, data visualization, and data science. You get an overview of the whole subject, from defining problems to deploying solutions.

Big Data Hadoop Spark Developer

Hadoop is one of the most popular frameworks for handling big data. In this course, you take a tour of the key components and discover how to code your own solutions.

MongoDB Developer & Administrator

Many companies now use MongoDB to create scalable storage for data. Through video tutorials, this course shows you how to construct and maintain your own databases from scratch.

Data Science with Python / R

These two separate courses lay the groundwork for your career in data by helping you master two key programming languages. Python is used extensively in AI, and businesses use R for analytics.

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence for Beginners

Artificial intelligence is likely to shape the future of technology, and it is powered almost entirely by data. This introductory course helps you understand key AI concepts, along with machine learning, deep learning, and performance metrics.

Business Analytics with Excel

If you want to transfer your big data skills into your current job, this course is a must. The tutorials help you harness the power of Excel to unearth key insights in a business context.

In total, the bundle includes 12 courses with lifetime access and a certificate of completion. Worth $6,000 in total, the training is now only $39.99 for a limited time.

Prices subject to change

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Xiaomi shuts down its only Mi Store in the UK

Xiaomi is younger than a lot of other smartphone brands but it has become the preferred choice for the majority of Asian consumers.  In Western markets like Europe and the US, the company can be seen growing very well, especially due to the high value that phones under its spin-off brand Redmi offer. Xiaomi ventured into the UK almost two years ago, starting with a partnership with local telco Three followed by the opening of a retail store in London. Unfortunately for Xiaomi fans, though, the first and the only offline Mi store in the UK has been shut down by the company.

The Xiaomi store, which was located in London’s Sheperd’s Bush area in the Westfield shopping center, has now officially confirmed to have been shut down. Westfield’s website confirms the news while the now-defunct Twitter handle for Mi Store London reaffirms it.

According to a Xiaomi spokesperson, the shutdown is in line with the company’s updated retail strategy for the region. All of the products will continue to be available online through Xiaomi’s UK website and partner e-commerce platforms like Amazon UK.

In an official statement to Android Authority, Xiaomi said, “This adjustment to our local retail strategy is a reaction to our fast growing business in Western Europe. Since our official arrival in the UK over one year ago, we have loved building relationships with our users, Mi Fans and partners and thank them all for their support. UK users and Mi Fans can continue to purchase Xiaomi products through our official website mi.com/uk and other official channels that will be announced along with our product launches in the future.”

Since its launch in November 2018, the Mi Store in London was the one-stop-shop for not just Xiaomi, Redmi, and POCO smartphones but also audio accessories, wearables, smart home products, and unusual Xiaomi products like electric scooters and screwdrivers, umbrellas, bags and luggage, electric toothbrushes, etc. Fortunately, most of the products are still available online.

If you’re from the UK and know other stores where Xiaomi products are available, do let us know in the comments below. We’d be happy to share the details with other readers!

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Source: Android Authority

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Redmi showcases IR-based in-display fingerprint scanner for LCDs, ready for mass production

Smartphones, in general, may appear to be plateauing, but that is an over-generalization that takes away from the exciting development that does happen. For instance, in the past few years, we have seen capacitive fingerprint scanners slowly be replaced by in-display fingerprint scanners, mostly of the optical kind but some ultrasonic too. These in-display sensors first made their appearance on flagships, but the technology has slowly made its way lower down the market too. However, one drawback of these current generation in-display fingerprint sensors is that they work only with AMOLED displays, which adds on to the overall cost of the product. Now, Redmi has showcased in-display fingerprint sensor solutions for LCDs, and it claims this tech is mass production-ready.

Redmi General Manager, Mr. Lu Weibing took to his Weibo account to share a short clip demonstrating the in-display fingerprint scanner technology for LCDs.

According to Mr. Weibing, Redmi, the Xiaomi-backed sub-brand, has managed to successfully incorporate infrared-based in-display fingerprint scanner tech for LCD. He goes on to give a short summary, explaining that the working principle behind in-display fingerprint scanners is to record the characteristics of the fingerprint through the sensor that sits underneath the display. Since the sensor is under the display, there needs to be a channel to transmit either optical or ultrasonic signals, which limits the current generation solutions to OLED displays only as LCDs have a backlight module that does not allow this to happen. By extension, these in-display fingerprint scanners are thus limited to higher-priced devices since OLEDs are more expensive than LCDs. LCDs can only use back fingerprint scanners or side-mounted fingerprint solutions as seen on the POCO X2 (or Redmi K30, as it is known in China).

The Redmi R&D ream has overcome the technical limitations by using infrared high-transmittance film material. This film greatly improves the transmittance of infrared light through the display, which could not happen previously. This is different from optical fingerprint scanners which basically captured a photo of your fingerprint through a camera, as this makes use of infrared transmitters below the display to capture the fingerprint.

Redmi says that this approach successfully overcomes the hurdles of in-display fingerprint on LCDs. Though it remains to be seen how secure this approach actually is, and if it is better than optical in-display solutions, could this be adapted to OLED displays as well? Another element is cost, as LCDs are primarily adopted for their lower cost — if the IR solutions is more expensive, it would defeat the cost benefits that come from using LCD.

LCDs with in-display fingerprint scanners were expected to bring the tech down to lower price points. Goodix was also confident of LCD optical under-display fingerprint scanners entering mass production in 2020. It remains to be seen how Redmi’s IR based solution affects these plans, as Redmi has not given a timeline for a consumer product either.

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Source: Weibo

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AnTuTu Benchmark removed from the Google Play Store

Last month, Google removed nearly 600 apps from the Play Store for violating of in-app ad policies. Most of these were reportedly removed on the grounds of fraudulent and disruptive in-app advertisements. While Google refrained from naming the expelled apps specifically, infamous Chinese app publisher Cheetah Mobile seemingly got the ax – and this was not its first time. Weeks later, Google has now removed popular benchmarking apps from AnTuTu for their supposed connection with Cheetah Mobile. The apps removed from the Google Play Store include AnTuTu Benchmark, AnTuTu 3DBench, and AITuTu Benchmark.

The exact reason behind this expulsion is unclear but Android Police points out that AnTuTu’s association with Cheetah Mobile could be the culprit. In an archived version of AnTuTu’s Privacy Policy, Cheetah Mobile has been called the “data controller with regard to any personal information collected from users.” This Privacy Policy has been dated to October 10th, 2018, but the webpage was last cached as recently as on December 13th, 2019. As per the same document, “A “data controller” is an entity that determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal information is processed.”

As of December 26th, 2019, the Privacy Policy was updated and Cheetah Mobile was replaced with “Antutu Technology Co.,Ltd.” In contrast, however, the Privacy Policy button in AnTuTu Benchmark’s Play Store (latest archived) listing still directs to a webpage on Cheetah Mobile’s website.

Confusing powerplay

Cheetah Mobile’s CEO, Fu Sheng, is also listed as the chairman and manager of the Antutu Technology Co., as per Tianyancha enterprise database (Chinese alternative to Crunchbase). To make things even more tortuously confusing, Cheetah Mobile – the supposed owner of AnTuTu – owes 54% of its stakes to Kingsoft Corporation, which has Lei Jun as its chairman. For those who may be unaware, Lei Jun is the co-founder of Chinese technology giant Xiaomi.

AnTuTu brushes it as a “misunderstanding”

After Android Police published the story, AnTuTu reached out to them, calling this a “misunderstanding” and explicitly claiming that it is not governed by Cheetah Mobile. On the contrary, Cheetah Mobile claims it is only one of the investors in AnTuTu but the latter still holds a “considerable account of shares” and therefore, the control of the company.

Here’s the full statement sent to Android Police:

We received a notification email from Google on March 7th informing us that AnTuTu was one of the related publisher accounts of Cheetah Mobile, all AnTuTu apps were removed from the Play Store. But in fact, We think there is some misunderstanding about it. Antutu is NOT the related account of Cheetah Mobile!!

AnTuTu was founded in 2011, even before Cheetah Mobile, and is one of the earliest Google Play developers. Cheetah Mobile invested in us in around 2014 and became one of our shareholders since then. However, we still retain a considerable account of shares and Independent operation of the company as well as our own independent Google Play account. Cheetah Mobile has never touched our Google Play account, and AnTuTu has NOT done any promotion of Cheetah Mobile’s software.

We believe that the reason for Google’s misjudgment is that we purchased and used the legal services from Cheetah Mobile, so our privacy policy link used the address of cmcm.com. This is what we are working on, including changing legal supplier. Regarding Fu Sheng being the chairman / manager of Beijing AnTuTu Technology Co., Ltd., this is because of the requirements of the investors. In fact, many Chinese companies have such requirements when investing. When the shares reach a certain percentage, investors will require changes in government registration documents. The company is actually operated by Beijing AnTuTu Technology Co., Ltd. Henan Branch. (https://ift.tt/2vQollS), and Fu Sheng does not actually participate in the operation or the management of AnTuTu. Anyway, we have informed the investor Cheetah Mobile asking them to solve these problems caused by them.

We hope that Google can examine AnTuTu’s account carefully and finally resolve this misunderstanding as soon as possible.

We’re waiting for any further updates from Google and/or AnTuTu in this regard and will revise the article accordingly. In the meantime, you can choose from plenty of other benchmarking apps if you really need to or grab an APK from the official downloads page if you still wish to use AnTuTu or AITutu Benchmark apps.

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Download: Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite starts receiving official Android 10 update

The Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite was launched way back in July 2018 alongside the Mi A2 as successors to the original Mi A1 under the Android One program. The Mi A2 Lite was a fairly humble device, with specs similar to the Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro. The phone launched with Android 8.1 Oreo, and was later updated to Android 9 Pie some months later. Now, users can rejoice as Xiaomi is finally rolling out Android 10 officially for the device!

The official Android 10 update for the Mi A2 Lite comes in the form of build number QDLMIXM with an approximate size of 1.1GB. Just last month, we spotted that the device’s Android 10 kernel source code was uploaded by Xiaomi to its official Github, indicating that a release was around the corner — so we aren’t entirely surprised here. We are a little surprised by the delay it has taken to update an Android One device, but some of the delays can be attributed to COVID-19 and the impact it has on several sectors across the world. This Android 10 update should be seeding out to users around the world in small batches initially, with a wider rollout expected in the coming weeks if no critical bugs are found. If you cannot wait, we have download links for the official update package that you can use to sideload the update yourself before it arrives on your device.

You can download Android 10 update (Recovery ROM) using the link below:

Download official Android 10 for the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite || Mi A2 Lite XDA Forums

Please refer to our device forums for installation instructions.

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Thanks to XDA Recognized Developer yshalsager for the download link!

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