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Thursday, May 31, 2018

Nokia 5.1, Nokia 3.1, and Nokia 2.1 forums are now open

It's been a big week for Nokia as the company launched three new smartphones while also bringing some highly requested features to their current roster of devices. The launch of the Nokia 2.1, Nokia 3.1 and the Nokia 5.1 is what took center stage for the company, though, as they serve as the company's successors to their 2017 smartphone lineup. Naturally, this means the Nokia 2.1 will serve as their 2018 low-end smartphone with its 5.5″ 720p display and Snapdragon 425 SoC. This is followed by the mid-range Nokia 3.1 and its 5.2″ HD+ screen paired with the MediaTek MT6750 SoC. Lastly, we have the Nokia 5.1 which is an upper mid-range smartphone with a 5.5″ FHD+ smartphone rocking the MediaTek Helio P18 chipset.

The Nokia 3.1 will be available sometime in June while the Nokia 2.1 and Nokia 5.1 will be held back a bit for a July launch window. The forums for all three of these new devices are now open and ready for the community.

Nokia 2.1 XDA Forum Nokia 3.1 XDA Forum Nokia 5.1 XDA Forum

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How to build LineageOS 15.1 on a Windows 10 PC

LineageOS is the most popular custom AOSP-based ROM out there. The latest version, LineageOS 15.1, is based on Android 8.1 Oreo and the official roster has grown significantly since release. The team is always looking for more help whether it's by adding new features or supporting more devices. If you are interested in contributing to the project but don't want to switch your PC's operating system to a GNU/Linux distribution, XDA Senior Member Uldiniad has put together a step by step guide that shows you how to build LineageOS 15.1 on Windows 10.

The process requires that you set up the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) so while you technically can't avoid using Linux, at least this allows you to still keep Windows installed. Just like building on Linux, your machine should have an SSD of at least 256GB in size and at least 16GB of RAM. You'll also need to be on the latest Skip Ahead Insider Preview builds so you can take advantage of all the latest WSL features. If you're looking to upgrade your PC hardware so it'll be capable of building at an adequate speed, check out XDA's PC hardware reviews by Daniel Moran to get a sense of what you should consider.

How to build LineageOS 15.1 on Windows 10

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The Android Go Alcatel 1X goes on sale in the US next week for $100

Google introduced Android Go as a specially designed version of Android that was to be used by smartphone OEMs on ultra low-end smartphones. This allows Google to continue developing the regular branch of Android for more modern hardware while also offering something special for those emerging markets. So far Android has done well for these emerging markets, but these low-cost Android smartphones can find success in the more developed markets as well. This is why Alcatel is launching the Android Go-powered 1X in the United States next week for less than $100.

We've known that Alcatel has been busy working on a handful of new smartphones for their 2018 lineup. As the year has gone by they have brought more devices to market, but it was all the way back in February of this year when we learned about the specs of the Alcatel 1X. It was then when we learned that the Alcatel 1X was going to be the company's Android Go smartphone and that it would be shipping with a 5.3-inch FWVGA 18:9 display. Inside the Alcatel 1X is sporting the MediaTek MT6739 SoC and its base model will have 1GB of RAM.

Today's announcement shows that Alcatel is going forward with this device and that they will also be selling it in the United States for under $100 at Amazon. It has 16GB of expandable storage, an 8MP rear camera paired with a 5MP front-facing shooter, and is powered by a 2,460mAh capacity battery. Android Go is going to be a big selling point for a lot of people, though, so customers will also be using all of Android Go specific applications that come with the platform. This includes Google Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go, Google Assistant Go, and even some optimized applications such as Facebook Lite.

The Alcatel 1X with Android Oreo (Go edition) will work on GSM unlocked networks and will be available for purchase via Amazon next week while also coming to Walmart and Best Buy "in the coming weeks."

Source: PR Newswire

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Developers can restrict Android Go devices from downloading their apps

Android Oreo (Go Edition), also simply called Android Go, is Google's solution to the growing importance of emerging markets where budget devices reign supreme. Android Go is Android 8.1 Oreo optimized for low-end hardware; it's basically just a set of build configurations and special Go edition applications designed to run on hardware with as little as 512MB of RAM. The (now defunct) ZTE Tempo Go, Alcatel 1X, Nokia 1, and Nokia 2.1 are just some of the budget phones running Android Oreo (Go Edition). For developers looking to get new users, it's important to optimize their apps to run on low-end hardware. But if you have no interest or cannot reasonably optimize your app to run on Go edition devices, then you'll be happy to know that the Google Play Console now lets you add exclusion rules to prevent your apps from being downloaded on them.

Android Go

Users can still side-load your APK, though. If you simply wish to prevent users on budget hardware from having a poor experience with your app (and thus rating your app poorly), then this is a quick way to prevent that from happening on at least a small subset of budget devices. Still, it's better to optimize your app as much as you can anyway because the majority of Android users are on budget hardware.

If you wish to set up device exclusion rules for Android Oreo (Go Edition) devices then here are the instructions on how to do so, copied below from Google's support page. The instructions also tell you how to exclude users based on passing SafetyNet Attestation APIs (just like Netflix), but we really hope you don't have to resort to that.

Set up device exclusion rules for SafetyNet or Android (Go edition)

Sign in to your Play Console.
Select an app.
On the left menu, select Device catalog.
Select the "Excluded devices" tab.
Next to "Exclusion rules," select Manage exclusion rules.
Next to "SafetyNet Exclusions" or "Android Go Exclusions," select an option:
- SafetyNet Exclusions
  - Don't exclude devices based on SafetyNet Attestation API: Selected by default.
  - Exclude only devices that don't pass basic integrity: This helps you determine whether the particular device has been tampered with or otherwise modified.
  - Exclude devices that don't pass basic integrity, as well as devices that are uncertified by Google: This helps you determine whether the particular device has been tampered with, otherwise modified, or hasn't been certified by Google.
- Android Go Exclusions
  - Don't exclude Android Go devices: Selected by default.
  - Exclude Android Go devices: Prevent devices running Android Oreo (Go edition) from installing your app on Google Play.

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Samsung wins case that would have forced them to update older phones

If you ask an Android enthusiast which smartphone you should buy they'll likely suggest one that has a good reputation when it comes to software updates. This mean something in the Google Pixel line or it could be one that has a dedicated developer community behind it. Either way, timely and extended software updates is a feature that many of us look for but it's something that we rarely see these days. A consumer association recently took Samsung to court claiming the company should provide at least 4 years worth of Android updates to their phones, but the court ended up ruling in Samsung's favor in the matter.

Most OEMs will support their flagship devices for two full years after they have been released. Some companies, including Google, have extended this support period by one year, but only when it comes to security updates. Google has been working to make things easier for Android OEMs to support devices they no longer sell, but it ends up being a poor business decision unless they have data that shows the company is losing sales as a result of it. However, we're getting to the point where Android is a highly targeted operating system and this means it has become a major target of malware developers.

It makes sense that a consumer association took Samsung to court in an attempt to force the company to support their devices with Android updates for 4 years after release. Samsung feels their 2-year support cycle is good enough and their update frequency is "reasonable" enough too. The case was brought to court in the Netherlands and the court ended up ruling in Samsung's favor. The court believes the claims made by the association were "inadmissible" since they related to "future acts."

So for instance, if a severe issue was discovered in the future then Samsung may make the decision to update all of their devices on the market. Not only that, but the court says there may be a case where Samsung isn't able to update the software due to the nature of the bug and/or the limitations of the hardware. So it would be unfair to hold Samsung liable for something like that.

Source: BCC

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Pro Camera mode is now available for the Nokia 8

Before Nokia dove into the Android smartphone market, the company was making devices that used Microsoft's mobile operating system. That platform has since died, but the Nokia Lumia series of smartphones still holds a strong place in a lot of people's hearts. Most Android enthusiasts had little interest in switching over to a Windows-based mobile platform, but it was clear that the Nokia Lumia was able to produce some incredible looking photos. This is why news of the Pro Camera mode making its way to the upcoming Nokia 8 has owners excited.

One of the big selling points for the Nokia Lumia smartphones was the impressive camera quality that came along with it. When looking back to that era, buying a smartphone that also produced impressive photos was actually slim pickings. Over time we've seen many Android OEMs step up to fill the gap as they have learned this is actually a make or break feature for some customers. So when Nokia came back as a new Android smartphone brand it left many wondering how long it would take before they would embrace their smartphone camera heritage.

Take control of every photo. I'm glad to announce that Pro Camera mode is now available for #Nokia8 ! pic.twitter.com/q2sTWh3IvU

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) May 31, 2018

As the newly formed company grew we started to see this happen more and more and it's something that we covered just last month with the Lumia's pro camera mode for the Nokia 7. The pro camera mode was one of the most popular features of the camera app from the Lumia phones and we're now seeing it brought to the Android smartphones. Early this morning Juho Sarvikas, the Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, announced that the pro camera mode is finally available for the Nokia 8 and current customers can now start using its features thanks to the new update.

This new camera mode lets you adjust the white balance, manually focus the photo, adjust the ISO of the image, set a manual shutter speed, adjust the exposure of the photo and more.

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Real-time Google Lens with Style Match and Smart Text Selection now rolling out widely

Over the last couple of years, Google Lens has been able to garner a lot of attention from the tech community during the company's annual developer conference. One of the highlights from Google I/O 2018 was the fact that Google Lens will soon start to work in real-time and that it would be receiving a couple of new features. This includes features like Style Match and Smart Text Selection, but we had yet to learn exactly when those features would be rolling out to the community. We're now seeing reports that these new real-time features are rolling out to the community as we speak.

In case you missed it, Google showed off a number of new Google Lens features on stage at Google I/O earlier this year. One of the new features is being called Style Match and it offers a way for you to search for similar products online by simply pointing the smartphone camera at something. This may result in the exact product you're looking at it or it may just show you some similarly designed results that it was able to find. To that end, the Smart Text Selection feature lets you point the camera at some text displayed on any object.

This could be a menu, a street sign, a card, anything. The camera software will then detect that you're looking at some text and let you interact with it as if it was a digital object. This is especially useful as you can then do a Google web search using the text in real-time. We're now seeing a report from Engadget saying these new Google Lens features are making their way to devices right now. As always, Google likes to do a slow, gradual rollout with new features so if you don't have access to it right now then it may only take a bit more time before you do.

Google Lens is being built directly into the native camera applications and will be available from smartphone OEMS including Google, LG, Motorola, Xiaomi, Sony Mobile, Nokia, Transsion, TCL, OnePlus, BQ and ASUS.

Source: Engadget

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