As they often do, Amazon is giving away $50 in free apps today. Some highlights include: The Bard’s Tale, Weather Live, and tinyCam Monitor Pro. Head over to the link to check the free apps and games out!
The post Amazon Giving Away Over $50 Worth of Android Apps appeared first on xda-developers.
Sony’s Smartwatch 3 is the company’s third take on smartwatches, albeit the first from the company to feature Android Wear. In many ways, the watch is an upgrade from the Smartwatch 2 as it brings along IP68 rated waterproofing along with the switch to ARM’s Cortex A7 for the CPU.
The recent update to Android Wear based on Android 5.1.1 has brought along woes to an otherwise decent device. Users of the Sony Smartwatch 3 have started facing a rather inexplicable battery drain after this update. The pattern to the drain is not clear enough, and it exists on and off. Possible causes have been guessed at being changes to WiFi drivers, as well as wakelocks caused by the Wear Battery Stats app. Users have tried many fixes, but the issue and its fix still remain vague at best.
However, in a rather rare case (for OEM’s) of actively working with power users and utilizing their experience as well as willingness to assist, Sony Mobile has reached out to users on our forums to draw upon bug reports in an attempt to nail down the cause of this drain and provide an update that actually fixes it. Post from the Sony Mobile’s representative calls for bug reports:
Hi all,
My name is Johan and I work for Sony Mobile. I would like to inform you that our SmartWatch team is looking into this as we speak but it would be great if you guys would be willing to help them out by providing bug reports from the watch.
Please do only take and share reports of when the battery drain is happening.
Here are two ways of taking the report.
* From the Android Wear app on the phone:
- Tap the hamburger menu (3 vertical dots) and select “Report wearable bug”
- Wait for the notification on the watch saying “Bug report captured”
- On the watch swipe the notification left and select “Open”
- Read the information and if you agree, tap “OK”
- You will get a notification on the phone, when you tap it is possible to (for example) upload the bug report to Google Drive and share the link on xda
* From the watch, using the UI:
- Enable Developer options
- Go into “Settings”->”About”
- Tap “Build number” until you see “You are now a developer”
- Go into “Settings”->”Developer options”
- Enable “Bug report in menu”
- Go back to the watchface
- Swipe left 3 times to get to the “Speak now” screen
- Swipe all the way down and tap “Take bug report”
- Wait for the notification on the watch saying “Bug report captured”
- On the watch swipe the notification left and select “Open”
- Read the information and if you agree, tap “OK”
- You will get a notification on the phone, when you tap it is possible to (for example) upload the bug report to Google Drive and share the link on xda
It is a commendable effort on the part of Sony Mobile to acknowledge the existence of battery drain as well as reaching out to the developer community. They have worked for the developer community in the past, and their continued effort on this path is certainly worthy of praise. We hope other OEM’s also follow along and start working with the community rather than against it.
If you have a Sony Smartwatch 3 and have been facing battery drains, capture a bug report and report it in this thread. Please do follow along the instructions and also help keep the thread clean.
What do you think of Sony’s effort of reaching out to power users for help? Does it help instill confidence in the company as a corporate willing to listen to its users after sales? Or does it reek of another case of an update being pushed but still being “unfinished software”? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Read on for more related coverage:
The post Sony Smartwatch 3: Call For Battery Drain Bug Reports appeared first on xda-developers.
Ebay seller “breed” is offering the LG G4 for $499 (about a $100 off) for the European H815 version. This should work just fine on AT&T or T-mobile and is a great deal for an awesome device. Don’t forget about LG’s promo for a free battery, charger, and SD card.
The post LG G4 for $499 – eBay Deal appeared first on xda-developers.
As part of the free app per week promotion for the Family section of Google Play Store, Dr. Panda & Toto’s Treehouse is available for free (Costs $4.99). The game is geared towards children, featuring cutesy graphics and sounds revolving around taking care of a pet turtle.
The post Dr. Panda & Toto’s Treehouse appeared first on xda-developers.
Selected processors have different thermal throttling that directly influences device performance. A good example is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 which gets really hot. Follow this article to learn which SoC handles the heat decently without throttling the performance.
The post Thermal Throttling – Which SOC’s are the Worst Offenders? appeared first on xda-developers.
If you use your phone a lot, it’s possible that you use the same set of programs over and over. Having quick easy access to the apps that you have most recently used can be a quick way to go between apps. Android widgets can be very helpful.
XDA Forum Member registered-user offers up a neat little widget that allows you to get quick access to your most recently used apps. In this video, XDA TV Producer TK reviews MRU Widget. TK shows off the application and shares his thoughts, so check out this app review.
Be sure to check out other great XDA TV Videos
The post Most Recently Used Apps Widget – XDA App Review appeared first on xda-developers.
The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge still featured the same-old TouchWiz design language with aesthetics plenty of power users find unappealing. Despite its theme engine, the phone did not come with any themes that truly captured the simplicity and cohesiveness of Stock Android. Nevertheless, given that developers and designers could create their own themes, everyone had their hopes up for one based on Lollipop’s base look. And here it is!
This stock Material Design theme took 3 weeks of perfecting (and publishing processes) and has now hit the Samsung Theme Store. It is available for free for all S6 and S6 Edge users. The new aesthetic compliments Samsung’s interface surprisingly well, and it truly brings a breath of fresh air for those that got Samsung’s latest yet didn’t particularly like TouchWiz’s arguably dated aesthetic nor the bundled themes.
If you like this theme by Samer Zayer you can join his Theme’s Google+ community where you can find more information and discuss the current theme itself and revisions or releases. You can also donate to his Paypal if you feel like rewarding him for his hard work.
Do you like this new look for TouchWiz? Sound off below!
The post Stock Lollipop Theme Now Available for S6 Theme Engine appeared first on xda-developers.
