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vendredi 21 février 2020

[Update 4: Checks Sent] Google and Huawei may pay up to $400 to owners of bootlooping Nexus 6P

Update 4 (2/21/20 @ 3:05 PM ET): Nexus 6P users are starting to receive their settlement checks from the bootloop lawsuit.

Update 3 (1/24/20 @ 4:40 PM ET): Nexus 6P owners who filed a claim in the bootloop lawsuit should soon start receiving their settlement checks.

Update 2 (6/6/19 @ 9:15 AM ET): As promised, the claim period has begun for the Nexus 6P bootloop lawsuit and users can file a claim via the webpage linked below.

Update 1 (5/16/19 @ 9:50 AM ET): New details about important dates in the Nexus 6P bootloop settlement have been posted.

Some of you may remember an unfortunate page in the history of Android back in 2015-2016. Faulty chipsets caused a few devices to experience never-ending bootloops, or as we call it in the community, a “hard brick.” To this day, we still don’t know all the details on the exact issue with the devices. One of the most notable victims of the “great bricking” was the Nexus 6P, Google’s flagship device of the time. It was named as the best device of the year by many, but as you’d guess, it didn’t live up to the promise.

Nexus 6P XDA Forum

Unsurprisingly, the bricking of the devices were followed by a class action lawsuit, demanding Google and Huawei (the OEM which built the device) to reimburse the buyers of the Nexus 6P. It was then followed by a year of silence, after which we got the information that the court denied the motions from Google to dismiss the case. According to the newest information from The Verge, we may finally get the update to the situation.

The new proposed settlement gives Google and Huawei liability to pay up to $400 to each Nexus 6P user in the US who bought the device on or after September 25th, 2015. Google and Huawei have not admitted fault, but they have agreed to on the payout to finally settle the suit. Though, if you used the warranty exchange program to get the Pixel XL, you’ll only be eligible for reimbursement for up to $10. To get the reimbursement at its fullest, you have to submit a claim with the proper documentation.

As I already mentioned, you will only be able to get the reimbursement if you’re a citizen of the United States, as that’s where the lawsuit took place. Without proper documentation, you may only be eligible for up to $75. Keep in mind that the decision is not final, as the proposed settlement still needs to be approved by the court. The next, and probably final hearing, will take place on May 9th. We’ll make sure to update you with the results and the details.

Source: The Verge


Update 1: New details

The Nexus 6P settlement is moving forward with some new details. The claim filing period is set to open up on June 7th. The deadline to submit a claim form is September 3rd, 2019. You may also choose to exclude yourself, which will allow you to keep your right to any other lawsuit pertaining to this case. If you feel particularly passionate about this case, you can even attend the court hearing on October 10th, 2019. We will update this story when the claim period opens up.

Source: Nexus 6P Settlement


Update 2: Claim period open

As mentioned in the previous update, the claim period has opened today, June 7th. Nexus 6P owners can visit the webpage below to file a claim. During the process, you will be asked to provide documentation to prove you purchased the phone between September 29, 2015 and May 3, 2019. The file claim form will remain open until September 3rd, 2019.

Source: File Claim


Update 3: Settlement Checks

The claim period for the Nexus 6P reboot settlement ended a few months ago and now the next step of the process has begun. Settlement checks for those who qualified will be distributed within 40 days of January 12th, 2020. Here’s the important part of the document:

Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement at paragraph 1.14, the Distribution Date for Settlement Payments to be made to Claimants by KCC shall be no more than 30 days following the Effective Date, which is January 12, 2020. Due to the volume of claims submitted, and the documentation required to verify certain claim groups, the amount of time required to review and process claims was greater than anticipated. KCC has almost completed review and processing of claims. KCC requires additional time to accurately process claims, including allowing class members who are eligible to participate to cure any deficiencies. Accordingly, the parties have agreed to extend the deadline to finalize this phase of the claims procedure.

Attached hereto as Exhibit A is the Third Amendment to the Settlement Agreement, executedby the parties, which extends the time for KCC to make final distributions to Claimants by 40 days. The parties will continue to complete the claims administration process in accordance with the Settlement Agreement and the Court’s final approval order.

Via: Reddit


Update 4: Checks Sent

After a long-drawn-out process, Nexus 6P owners are starting to receive their settlement checks. Users in the Nexus 6P subreddit have reported on receiving various amounts via PayPal. The exact amount of money you will receive depends on the specifics of your situation. Some have received as little as $5.82 while others have gotten $29. If you qualified and filed a claim, now is the time to check your inbox to see if your check is waiting for you.

Source: Reddit

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Over 400K private WhatsApp group invite links are exposed to search engines

WhatsApp is one of the most widely used messaging platforms on the planet. Just this month, the company announced they had passed 2 billion users. Like with other messaging platforms, WhatsApp group chats are a popular way to communicate with your family or groups of friends, colleagues, or Internet strangers. Users can invite others to private groups with the “Invite to Group via Link” feature and then share that link any way they’d like. If those invite links happen to be shared online, it looks like it’s alarmingly easy to find them with a simple search engine query.

This design flaw was first reported by journalist Jordan Wildon on Twitter. He discovered that the “Invite to Group via Link” URLs were being indexed by Google and could be found with the right search terms. The group chat links use the “chat.whatsapp.com” base URL, which can be found on Google with the “site:” modifier.

Jane Manchun Wong, known for reverse-engineering apps, brought more attention to the situation. She found that Google has over 470,000 results when doing a simple site search for the “chat.whatsapp.com” URL. Many of these results are invites for private groups. Once a user joins a group, they can see all of the participants and their phone numbers. Obviously, this is a pretty big privacy issue as some of the groups out there are ones people may not want to be publicly associated with.

Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liaison, tweeted about the situation, saying: “Search engines like Google & others list pages from the open web. That’s what’s happening here. It’s no different than any case where a site allows URLs to be publicly listed.” He goes on to say there are tools for webmasters to prevent content from appearing in search results, which WhatsApp clearly needs to do to protect users of these groups.

This is not the fault of Google or any other search engine. As Jane and Danny pointed out, this is due to a lack of foresight on WhatsApp’s part. They should be using the “noindex” meta tag or “norobots.txt” to exclude the invite pages from appearing in search engines.

A WhatsApp spokesperson has released the following statement to Vice:

Group admins in WhatsApp groups are able to invite any WhatsApp user to join that group by sharing a link that they have generated. Like all content that is shared in searchable, public channels, invite links that are posted publicly on the internet can be found by other WhatsApp users. Links that users wish to share privately with people they know and trust should not be posted on a publicly accessible website.

WhatsApp is saying that links shared publicly on the internet are searchable, but that’s handwaving the real issue here. This is not a case of people finding a few group chat links that were unwisely shared online. Thousands of group chat invite links are easily discoverable because WhatsApp is refusing to do anything to prevent search engines from indexing them. People shouldn’t be sharing these URLs online, but WhatsApp could solve the problem of them being so easily searchable.

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The new Google Assistant is starting to show up for G Suite users on the Pixel 4

The original Google Assistant was a Google Pixel-exclusive for many months from its launch in October 2016, until Google rolled it out for hundreds of millions of Android phones in 2017. Similarly, the new Google Assistant, which launched in October 2019 alongside the Google Pixel 4, remains a Pixel 4-only exclusive. It comes with new features such as continued conversations, making it feel far more like a human being. It’s integrated with the Chrome browser and can do many on-device tasks, including in third-party apps. It comes with a new minimal user interface and a trimmed size, but its availability is heavily limited as only Pixel 4 users are able to use it. What’s more, even that was limited as not all Pixel 4 users could use it. Those who used G Suite accounts didn’t have the new Assistant, as it was available only for personal Google accounts. Now, Google seems to be rolling out the Assistant for some G Suite users on the Pixel 4.

New Assistant UI.

The new Google Assistant has removed a few restrictions already. It no longer requires U.S. English, works with the Japanese language, and doesn’t require enabled gesture navigation now. The incompatibility with G Suite accounts still remains on paper as Google’s support page states that the new Assistant won’t work for users having a G Suite account for work or school. However, multiple users in the Android and Google Pixel communities have started reporting seeing the new Assistant even though they have one or more G Suite accounts on their devices. Not all users have got it yet as it seems to be another customary staged roll-out. Users that have got the new Assistant will be able to identify it thanks to its different user interface.

Google is expected to officially announce this soon. The more major piece of news would be when the company decides to expand the Assistant to more Android devices. It wouldn’t be surprising to see such an announcement at I/O 2020.


Source 1: /u/HesThePianoMan | Source 2: /r/GooglePixel | Source 3: /r/GooglePixel

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Take Your Business From Startup to IPO With Insight from This Seasoned VC

There is no doubt that going to business school gives you an advantage when it comes to launching a startup. However, paying the exorbitant costs associated with attending business school isn’t feasible for everyone. Delivered by seasoned venture capitalist Chris Haroun, An Entire MBA in 1 Course gives you similar insight into the nuances of running a business but for a fraction of the cost.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/uPbc5JD3jek

Chris Haroun is an award-winning business school professor and venture capitalist who regularly gives lectures at Bay Area business schools. In this course, he offers seven hours of knowledge. 

The training is focused on the goal of launching a company from scratch. You start by learning how to analyze your chosen market and find paying customers. The course also shows you how to raise money in a hurry, working with VCs and investment banks. 

Through video lessons, you learn a range of other key business skills. The course helps you develop better presentations, create realistic financial forecasts, and file your taxes efficiently. Haroun draws on real-world experience to provide concrete examples, and you can learn at your own pace. 

This training is usually priced at $200, but you can grab it now for $13.99.

 
An Entire MBA in 1 Course: Award Winning Business School Professor – $13.99

See Deal

 
Prices subject to change.

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New Gboard beta improves start-up speed, reduces keyboard latency, and more

Gboard is one of the most popular keyboards on Android, thanks to its predictive text suggestions and swipe-typing capabilities, as well as feature integration with other Google services. The app has steadily gained features over the months and years, with some noteworthy additions being Emoji Kitchen, direct copy-pasting images into social media apps, GIF suggestion and sentence completion, and Extra Tall and Extra Short keyboard heights. When apps consistently gain a lot of features, they do take a hit in its performance, especially with increased startup times to account. The newest Gboard beta takes cognizance of this creep up, as the release attempts to improve the start-up speed of the app and reduce the keyboard latency.

The latest Gboard beta also continues the trend of adding new features, as it has now introduced word prediction and spelling correction for handwriting input, although this is limited to US-English only for now. Tibetan language users now also get a layout for handwriting input. While one can debate on who would prefer handwriting input over traditional typing, it can come in handy in edge case scenarios, so it is good to see Google still focusing on this area.

The complete changelog for the new Gboard beta is as below:

  • Improvements to the keyboard latency and startup-time
  • Enables keyboard borders for tablets
  • Adds support for next word prediction and spelling correction for handwriting keyboards for faster typing. (En-US only)
  • Adds support for handwriting layout for Tibetan

This particular release has not made its way to APKMirror just yet, but it will eventually. So, for now, if you are interested in getting the beta, you would need to enroll for the same from the Google Play Store. Alternatively, you can stick with the stable release as these features will eventually make their way to the stable branch too.


Gboard - the Google Keyboard (Free, Google Play) →

Source: AndroidPolice

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Sony Xperia L4 is Sony’s latest attempt at the entry-level smartphone market

Sony has vacated large regions of the worldwide smartphone market, but it hasn’t given up on releasing phones. The company’s flagship Sony Xperia 1 and Sony Xperia 5 phones are due for a refresh. The rumored Xperia 1.1 and the Xperia 5 Plus will be launched via an online event after the cancellation of MWC 2020. Sony’s budget and lower mid-range phones typically don’t tend to perform well in terms of sales except in its home market of Japan. The company is keeping to its strategy, however, of making low-key announcements of budget and lower mid-range phones. The Xperia L series is Sony’s series for the entry-level market, and now, Sony has launched the Xperia L4. The Xperia L4 is the successor to last year’s Xperia L3.

Specifications Sony Xperia L4
Dimensions & Weight
  • 159 x 71 x 8.7 mm
  • 178 g
Display
  • 6.2-inch HD+ LCD
  • 1680 x 720
  • 21:9 aspect ratio
SoC
  • MediaTek Helio P22
  • PowerVR GE8320 GPU
RAM & Storage
  • 3GB/64GB
Battery
  • 3,580mAh
  • Fast charging (USB-C PD?)
Fingerprint Sensor Side-mounted fingerprint
Rear Cameras
  • 13MP primary sensor, f/2.0, 26mm
  • 5MP wide-angle sensor, f/2.2, 17mm
  • 2MP depth sensor, f/2.4
Front Camera
  • 8MP, f/2.0, 27mm
Android Version Android 9
Sony Xperia L4 Sony Xperia L4

Not much is remarkable about the Xperia L4 if we consider the rest of the budget and mid-range smartphone market. In a vacuum, it does bring a few important changes. It has a 6.2-inch HD+ (1680×720) IPS LCD with a 21:9 aspect ratio. The tall-and-narrow aspect ratio matches the aspect ratio of Sony’s flagship Xperia 1, as well as a few competing phones from Motorola. The side sense and multi-window features make sense here, according to Sony, by letting users easily access their favorite apps. At the 6.2-inch diagonal, it’s arguably going to lead to a cramped experience in terms of display width, but one-handed usability may get a boost.

The Xperia L4 is powered by the MediaTek Helio P22 SoC, the same as its predecessor. Unfortunately, there is nothing impressive about this SoC anymore, even for entry-level phones. The Realme C3 is powered by the newer Helio G70 SoC, which is much, much faster. The Helio P22 was used in phones like the Xiaomi Redmi 6, and they were hardly great performers. Sony has still quite a way to go. The RAM and storage configuration is 3GB/32GB, which is the minimum for a budget phone these days.

Sony’s latest attempt in the entry-level phone market comes with a triple rear camera setup, the first for the Xperia L series. It has a 13MP primary sensor, a 5MP ultra-wide angle camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. Bokeh mode is included, as expected. The front camera’s resolution is 8MP. Photos can be captured in the 21:9 aspect ratio.

The Xperia L4 has a 3,580mAh battery with support for fast charging. It’s unclear if it supports the USB-C PD fast charging protocol. Sony’s Xperia Adaptive Charging (based on Qnovo) monitors the phone as it charges and ensures that it isn’t overworked. It’s a genuinely useful feature that Sony has offered over the years.

The Xperia L4 will be available in Black and Blue colors. In terms of availability and pricing, Sony vaguely said the phone will be available in “select markets” from Spring 2020 onward. Pricing details weren’t divulged. Frankly speaking, it’s hard to get excited about phones of this caliber. It’s a harsh truth that Sony will have to get used to even if it wants to operate in only a few markets.


Source: Sony

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New Google Chrome test adds a share button to the top toolbar

Towards the end of last year, Google rolled out a bunch of new changes for Chrome on Android and we spotted a few more features that are currently a work in progress. These include a new UI for Chrome’s new tab page, a screenshot editor, a custom share sheet, a duet-friendly UI for tab groups, and more. Since then, Google has released a few of these features and we’ve spotted some more upcoming features that are currently being tested with a small set of users. Earlier this month, Google started rolling out the Chrome 80 update for Android and desktop, bringing some security features to the browser. And now, we’ve spotted yet another upcoming feature that will add a share button to the top toolbar in the browser.

Chrome Android Share button (1)

The new share button in the top toolbar is currently available as an experimental flag in the latest Chrome Canary update. While the feature isn’t enabled by default, you can enable it by navigating to chrome://flags#share-button-in-top-toolbar. The feature is only available for Android devices and, as you can see in the screenshot below, it adds a share button right next to the tab and menu in the top toolbar. As you’d expect, the feature will allow you to easily share webpages with a single tap.

This is a welcome addition because in the current version of Chrome sharing pages requires you to open up the menu by tapping on the three-dot icon and then select share from the following drop-down menu. It’s worth noting that Google has been working on the commit that implements this flag since December and it’s quite likely that the company will run a trial with a small percentage of users before making the feature available in the stable channel.

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