In a bid to make Chrome easier to use on large screen devices, Google replaced Chrome Home with the Chrome Duplex split toolbar UI early in 2018. The new UI, which was later renamed Chrome Duet in order to avoid confusion with Google Duplex, moved some UI elements closer to the bottom of the display in order to make them easily accessible on modern devices. The latest update for the feature arrived late last year when Google started testing a new Duet-friendly UI for tab groups. However, it now seems like Google’s Duet experiment wasn’t successful as the company has done away with it in the latest Chrome beta release.
As per a recent report from Android Police, the Chrome 84 beta release has removed the two feature flags for Duet: #enable-duet-tabstrip-integration and @enable-chrome-duet. The flags can still be seen in the flags list in Chrome 84 if you enable #temporary-unexpire-flags-m82 and #temporary-unexpire-flags-m83, but enabling them doesn’t make any difference. The unexpire flags also have a description that reads, “These flags will be removed soon,” which suggests that Chrome Duet has been completely shelved by the company.
For the unaware, Chrome Duet in its current form adds a toolbar to the bottom of the screen that includes a few shortcut buttons. While the address bar remains at the top of the screen, it can be opened by tapping the search icon in the bottom bar. These features make Chrome slightly easier to use on large devices. However, with the latest Chrome beta update, users won’t be able to enable these features in the browser. It’s quite possible that Google might, once again, release a new UI layout for the purpose with a new flag. But for now, we have no information regarding any such upcoming changes.
One of the advantages of open source software is the ability to allow forks of the main projects to exist. These forks can then take a different form to gain different features. If things go right, these changes and bug fixes can also make their way back upstream to the original project and then passed on to all other projects downstream that rely on it. Such is the beauty of open-source, and we are likely to see an example play out in a noticeable manner on our phones very soon. The code submitted upstream by the developer of the recently open-sourced Kiwi Browser will now make it easier for Chromium forks to enable extension support on mobile.
The Chromium browser is an open-source project that serves as the basis for a lot of web browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, and Kiwi too. Most of these Chromium-based browsers offer a handful of additional features over the base, but there are some that radically change the experience. Kiwi Browser by XDA Senior Member arnaud42falls in the latter category, with features like a built-in content blocker, dark mode, background video playback, AMP skipper, and the fact that it was one of the first Chromium-based browsers for Android that supported Chrome, the other being Yandex Browser. Earlier this year, Kiwi Browser went open-source, allowing other Chromium projects to include the code that enables extension support into their own projects. At the time of the announcement, the developer had mentioned that they were already working with other browser developers to help them integrate some of Kiwi’s Browser functionality.
As spotted by Dinsan Francis, arnaud42 had started a bug report on the Chromium Gerrit in order to make it easier for Chromium-based projects to enable extensions. The code proposed in the bug report would make it easier for Chromium forks to enable extensions if they want to, without affecting Google Chrome for Android. The submitted code has not been merged yet into Chromium, and to clarify, there is no evidence to suggest that Google will be enabling extension support for Chrome for Android. But still, there are “at least three variants of Kiwi” that are being worked on with extensions support.
As a result we increase maintainability for downstream players who do support extensions or may be tempted to do so (example: Microsoft, and of course, Kiwi Browser, but there are at least 3 variants of Kiwi that are getting born right now, including with a very very large OEM)
We asked the developer to elaborate on the projects being referred, but they mentioned that they would be unable to name them. Irrespective of the exact variants, this presents itself as good news for consumers as they will soon have more browser alternatives with extension support, and in turn, would prompt others to also consider its implementation.
Interestingly, the Chromium Gerrit commit that would change the Chromium build process to make it easier to rebase Chromium with extensions enabled was submitted by a Samsung engineer. However, we do not think Samsung would be the “large OEM” mentioned by arnaud42 because the Samsung Internet browser already supports extensions, albeit in a limited capacity as you can only install approved extensions from the Galaxy Store. Samsung would still be interested in the code that arnaud42 submitted, because it would make it easier for them to rebase the Samsung Internet browser with newer Chromium versions, such as how they recently updated Samsung Internet from Chromium 71 to Chromium 79.
Following the launch of the Redmi Note 9 series earlier this year, Xiaomi’s budget-friendly sub-brand is now prepping up to launch the entry-level Redmi 9 series. While Xiaomi hasn’t released any official information about the Redmi 9 series yet, we do have some key details about the upcoming devices, including live images, specifications, and pricing. Here’s everything we know about the Redmi 9 series so far:
Leaked live images
Live images of the upcoming Redmi 9 have surfaced online, revealing some key aspects of its design. The images in question were shared by leakster Sudhanshu Ambhore (@Sudhanshu1414), which reveal that the Redmi 9 will feature a vertically-oriented triple camera setup on the back with the fingerprint sensor right underneath.
Here’s an exclusive live image of Redmi 9 with some key specs from a Chinese source
MediaTek Helio G80
13MP Main + 8MP Wide + 5MP Macro + 2MP Depth
Purple & Green color options (atleast 2)#Redmi9pic.twitter.com/X43WMx95VF
The device will also feature a fourth sensor within a separate module with the LED flash. Both the primary and secondary camera modules are within a circular design element on the back, which looks to have a different finish compared to the rest of the back panel.
The images showcase two color variants of the device — purple and green — and also shed light on the camera specifications. As per the leakster, the Redmi 9 will feature a 13MP primary sensor, an 8MP wide-angle camera, a 5MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor.
Additionally, another leaked image of the Redmi 9 has been shared on Chinese social media platform Weibo, which features the same camera module. However, the device itself is enclosed in a case in the third image, so we don’t get a clear look at its design.
Redmi 9 series certification listings
Along with the aforementioned live images, the Redmi 9 series has also been spotted in Bluetooth SIG and Wi-Fi Alliance certification listings. As per the listings, the devices in the Redmi 9 series will have the following model numbers:
M2004J19AG
M2004J19PI
M2004J19C
M2004J19I
M2004J19G
Even though the listings don’t reveal much about the specifications, they do confirm that the devices will run MIUI 11 based on Android 10 out of the box and that some variants of the Redmi 9 will include NFC support.
Leaked specifications
XDA Senior Member and noted Xiaomi tipster kacskrz tells us that the Redmi 9 goes by the code-name “lancelot”, with other variants also going by the code-names “galahad” and “shiva.” All of the three variants are based on MediaTek chipsets, with Sudhanshu claiming that the device will be powered by the MediaTek Helio G80 chipset.
In a separate tweet regarding the devices, he also reveals the rumored specifications of all the devices in the Redmi 9 series, along with their respective pricing. As per the tweet, the Redmi 9A will feature the MediaTek Helio G25 chip, coupled with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. The device will feature a 5,000mAh battery and will be priced between €100-120.
The Redmi 9C, on the other hand, will be available in two variants — with and without NFC — and will be powered by the MediaTek Helio G35, coupled with 3GB RAM and 64GB storage. The device will also feature a 5,000mAh battery and will be priced between €130-150. And finally, the regular Redmi Note 9 will be powered by the MediaTek Helio G80, along with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. The device will feature a 5,000mAh battery and will be priced between €160-180.
Several Geekbench listings for “lancelot” corroborate these specifications and further reveal that at least one model of the device will have 3GB of RAM. Kacskrz also revealed that he has spotted evidence of an EEA/RU firmware for “lancelot,” which means that the device might be launched internationally.
Imagine you’re scouring the internet for cool wallpapers and you come across a picturesque landscape. It has everything; a lush green forest, a pristine lake with a tiny island, snow-capped mountains in the background, and a thick cloud cover with sunlight seeping in through the gaps. You immediately download the image, set it as your phone’s wallpaper, and boom! Your Android phone gets stuck in a bootloop. Sounds unlikely, doesn’t it? Well, it’s true for this particular wallpaper.
WARNING！！！
Never set this picture as wallpaper, especially for Samsung mobile phone users!
It will cause your phone to crash!
Don’t try it!
If someone sends you this picture, please ignore it. pic.twitter.com/rVbozJdhkL
The wallpaper was recently shared on Twitterby renowned Samsung leakster Ice Universe, who claimed that the wallpaper “will cause your phone to crash!” Despite their warning, several users downloaded the wallpaper to check if it actually did do anything on their phone and they were met with the following results:
This is the most fucking bug I’ve ever seen. I even tried in safe mode but still no help. Had to reset app data. Shitsung do something pic.twitter.com/ASeHfNNGYI
Huh, tested this in an emulator. Crashes SystemUI. Checked for any odd issue with the image’s header, didn’t notice anything off from my limited knowledge of JPEG. It also ends properly. pic.twitter.com/s2m0q0WNqo
According to Davide Bianco, lead developer of the AOSP-based custom ROM “POSP”, this particular wallpaper causes some Android devices to crash as it makes use of the RGB color space, instead of the sRGB color space that is supported natively on Android. Bianco has submitted a patch to AOSP that reportedly fixes the issue and the description of the patch states that “The issue occurs when the user tries to set as wallpaper an image that is not sRGB. What happens is that variable y value is higher than the histogram bounds, making SysUI crash. One possible fix is to limit y value to be always less than 256.” Along with Bianco, the developers behind the popular LineageOS custom ROM have also come up with a unique solution to the problem. You can check out the patch description over on the LineageOS Gerrit by following this link.
We strongly recommend against using this image as your wallpaper under any circumstances. In case you have already used it and your device is stuck in a bootloop, please check the instructions below on how you may be able to recover your device.
A report from 9to5Google on the matter further reveals that the issue is limited to devices running Android 10 or older and it doesn’t affect devices running the Android 11 Developer Preview. This is due to the fact that on Android 11, the system converts the color space if it’s not supported, but on Android 10 it does not. Which means that this isn’t an issue with this particular image and could be caused by other images using the RGB color space.
Do note that while the issue doesn’t affect all Android devices, we strongly recommend against trying the wallpaper on your phone. In case you try it anyway, you might be able to recover your device by either resetting it completely or by entering safe mode and changing the wallpaper. But since some users over on Twitter weren’t able to recover their devices using the aforementioned methods, it would be best if you don’t use the exact image as your wallpaper. If you really like the wallpaper, just take a screenshot of the image and use that as your wallpaper instead.
Android 10 has been out for nearly 9 months now, but one of its best features, desktop mode, is still widely unknown. That’s because it’s technically hidden in Android 10, requiring a development flag to be enabled as well as support built-in to the stock launcher app. Thankfully, the developer of Taskbar has figured out a way to make Android 10’s desktop mode far more useful, bringing a Samsung DeX-like experience to some devices.
For some background, Android 10 added a “Secondary Launcher” activity to Launcher3, the AOSP launcher app that Google’s Pixel Launcher and many other OEM launcher apps are derived from. When an Android device with support for display output is hooked up to an external display, this Secondary Launcher activity is shown on the external display. However, because this Secondary Launcher is extremely barebones, it’s not useful to use as a productivity tool. Third-party app developers figured out that it’s possible for their own launcher apps to replace the stock launcher on the external display, and that’s exactly what XDA Senior Member farmerbb has implemented in Taskbar 6.0.
Taskbar is an open-source Android app that puts a floating start menu and recent apps tray on top of any screen. Since it supports launching Android apps in freeform multi-window, it even comes pre-installed on Bliss OS, a popular Android port for x86 PCs. Back in early November, farmerbb released a fork of the open-source Lawnchair launcher with Taskbar integrated into it. This gave us an early look at what Android 10’s hidden desktop mode could look like with some development effort, but there were some glaring issues that needed fixing. The desktop mode user experience needed fixing so that freeform multi-window behavior worked as you would expect, the setup process needed to be cleaned up so you could control the DPI/UI without needing another app, and a better solution had to be found so that you wouldn’t have to change your default launcher. Now, farmerbb has updated Taskbar to version 6.0 to address all of these issues.
Desktop Mode with Taskbar 6.0
Setting up Taskbar’s desktop mode is quite easy:
In Developer Options, turn on “enable freeform windows” and “force desktop mode” and then reboot your device. (The latter may be unavailable on some OEM software like ZenUI/ROG UI, but don’t worry if it’s not there.)
Install Taskbar 6.0 (older versions won’t work) from Google Play.
Open Taskbar’s settings and go to “Desktop Mode.” Enable it and grant the app permission to “display over other apps” as this is required for the app’s floating start menu to appear. Then, set the app as your default home app. Don’t worry, though, as the next prompt will ask you to set your preferred/primary launcher app, so Taskbar won’t be hijacking your home screen. (Note that on some devices, changing the default launcher will disable Android 10’s full-screen navigation gestures.)
Next, I highly recommend you follow the instructions to “enable additional settings” for desktop mode. This will allow you to lower the DPI so UI elements aren’t enormous on the external display, to hide the navigation bar, and to even dim the phone’s screen to save battery life while it’s connected to the external display. You’ll have to set up ADB access on your PC and run the following command:
adb shell pm grant com.farmerbb.taskbar android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS
(If you are using Taskbar’s “Donate” version, replace “com.farmerbb.taskbar” with “com.farmerbb.taskbar.paid” in the above command.)
Finally, check to make sure that “usage access” has been enabled for Taskbar. Doing so will allow the app to show a row of your recently used applications in the start menu.
Now, simply connect your phone to your external display using a USB Type-C to Type-C cable (if your external display supports Type-C input) or via a USB Type-C to HDMI adapter.
Once connected, you can use the start menu to launch apps, search for apps, add app icons to the home screen, open some system menus, and more. You can tap the icon next to the start menu to add/show widgets. You can launch multiple instances of windows, and in some cases like Google Chrome, have multiple tabs.
There are loads of other options and changes in Taskbar 6.0, so I recommend you read the full changelog available here.
Display Output on Android – Sadly Still Limited
Who might this be useful for? Samsung, Huawei/Honor, and LG offer their own desktop mode experiences, so there’s you won’t find much use out of Taskbar’s desktop mode if you own a smartphone from one of those brands. ASUS, OnePlus, Essential, Google, and Xiaomi don’t offer their own desktop mode experiences, so if you’re on at least Android 10 on a device from one of these brands, then you may find Taskbar’s desktop mode feature to be useful. If you want a desktop mode experience to be more productive, then I recommend you use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. If you have a portable external monitor/laptop chassis like the NexDock 2, then you’ll have an even better experience with Taskbar.
Keep in mind that in order to actually make use of this feature, your smartphone must support display output. Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 800 and 700 series chipsets natively support DisplayPort Alternate Mode over a USB 3.1 Type-C port, but some vendors (like Google) have disabled this functionality on their smartphones. If your device doesn’t support DisplayPort Alternate Mode, then you may have luck using a DisplayLink-certified adapter and the DisplayLink Presenter app to mirror the phone’s display. Screen mirroring using a DisplayLink adapter isn’t as ideal as native desktop mode through a standard connector, but it’s better than not having any display output at all! Fortunately, Taskbar can still be used if you’re just mirroring your phone’s display so long as the app is set as the default launcher, but you’ll have to use the developer’s SecondScreen app to change the resolution and density.
The biggest downside to desktop mode on Android right now is the limited app support. Even though Samsung and Huawei have both offered desktop mode experiences for years and sell millions of smartphones a year, there’s not a lot of demand from users to support desktop mode. That means that a lot of Android apps out there aren’t optimized for larger screens. Google wants to change that because broader Android app support for larger screens will benefit Chromebooks as well, but sadly, there’s still a long way to go before most Android apps support larger screens. Thus, while using Taskbar, you may notice that some apps refuse to run or just look terrible, and there’s not much you can do to fix that.
Download Taskbar 6.0
If you have one of the following smartphones, I recommend giving this app a try:
You can download Taskbar 6.0 from the Google Play Store link below or compile the app from its source code on GitHub. The app is totally free to use, but there’s a $1.99 donate version in case you want to support farmerbb’s development efforts.
LineageOS is the most popular AOSP-based custom ROM out there. Its origin can be traced back to CyanogenMod, which was itself not only the most well-known custom ROM many years ago but also the reason the OnePlus One was so well-received by the community. Over the years, the team behind LineageOS has kept the project updated with new versions of Android for dozens of Android devices. The latest version, LineageOS 17.1, is based on Android 10 and supports a long list of devices. Now, the custom ROM team has added official support for their latest release for a lot of devices from OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, and more. Newly added devices include the Essential Phone, Moto X (2014), Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016), Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro, and more.
The LineageOS team recently decided to cease the development of LineageOS 15.1 and jump to version 17.1 rather than 17.0 after they decided to rebase on top of the updated AOSP release corresponding to the Pixel 4/4 XL launch. With the update, the team also announced Lineage Recovery as the default option to install LineageOS on officially supported phones. 17.1 also added a new ThemePicker, a partial screenshot feature, and a lot more.
You can find the new LineageOS nightly builds for each of the following devices by tapping on “Get the builds here” on their respective Wiki pages. All of the devices listed here except for the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 Duos are supported by LineageOS 17.1. The newly added Grand 2 Duos is supported by LineageOS 16 based on Android 9 Pie.
*Some of the download pages for newly added devices return a code 500 “Internal Server Error.” Until this bug is fixed, you can download the official builds from the official LineageOS download mirror. For those devices that require it, the download mirror for LineageOS Recovery can be found here.
Be sure to read the installation instructions for each of the devices as well as the other documentation linked such as for Lineage Recovery. Also, be sure to take a backup of your data before you start with the installation process.
Why the delay?
If you’re wondering why LineageOS has had a delay in getting new builds up, the answer is because LineageOS suffered a hack in early May. According to a statement published by the team on May 3rd, an attacker “used a CVE in our saltstack master to gain access to our infrastructure.” Salt is an open-source framework to manage servers that is used by loads of open-source projects like LineageOS. On April 30th, Cybersecurity firm F-Secure publicly disclosed a vulnerability in Salt that could be used to bypass authorization. Attackers quickly targeted Salt installations that were unpatched, resulting in dozens of servers being hacked.
The LineageOS team identified the attack and then quickly took down its servers. The team confirms that their build signing keys are unaffected (so third-parties can’t sign and distribute official LineageOS builds), the currently uploaded builds themselves are unaffected, and the project’s source code is unaffected.
Around 8PM PST on May 2nd, 2020 an attacker used a CVE in our saltstack master to gain access to our infrastructure.
We are able to verify that:
– Signing keys are unaffected.
– Builds are unaffected.
– Source code is unaffected.
Hardware-backed facial recognition in the Android smartphone world often relies on Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors. Samsung, for example, utilizes the ToF module on the 5G variant of the Galaxy S10 to power their 3D face unlock mechanism. The ToF camera tracks the distance between two objects based on the constant speed of light. Developers have also used data from this camera to create virtual 3D models with depth data to render the surroundings as a pseudo-night vision mode. We first saw this work on certain Huawei and Honor phones in the past with the help of an app named Night Vision / ToF Viewer, and the same app can help you to turn your Samsung Galaxy S20+, Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, or Samsung Galaxy S10 5G into a somewhat functional, but mostly gimmicky, night vision camera.
When we first tinkered with the app back in 2019, it wasn’t made to detect the Galaxy S10 5G’s ToF sensor. The developer, Luboš Vonásek, worked hard to gradually expand the list of supported devices with ToF cameras. The Android 10/One UI 2.0 update for the Galaxy S10 5G apparently made it easy to handle the ToF module, albeit the output is still limited to a low resolution of 240×180. On newer Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy Note 10+ and Galaxy S20+, the app can render the surroundings in night vision mode with a better resolution of 320×240.
Night Vision/TOF Viewer on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+. Image credits: Reddit user /u/toelingus
According to our own Max Weinbach, using Night Vision on Samsung provides better quality, while you can get a better range on Huawei devices. The VR mode in this app is no longer accessible since the last update, though, as the developer removed it completely. There is no complicated prerequisite – owners of the aforementioned phones can straight away download it from the Google Play Store without messing with ADB and/or any kind of system file modding.
