[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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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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Download the OPPO Find X2 Pro’s wallpapers

The OPPO Find X2 series was launched last week as the successors to 2018’s Find X. Just like the OPPO Find X turned the world’s attention towards the Chinese company with its slide-out camera module and the first 3D face unlock mechanism in the Android club, the Find X2 and the Find X2 Pro comes with several premium features. The list of exciting features on the OPPO’s new flagship series includes a 120Hz 3K display, 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging, Snapdragon 865, up to 12GB RAM, and custom Sony sensors for photography.

OPPO Find X2 XDA Forums || OPPO Find X2 Pro XDA Forums

In his first impressions of the Find X2 Pro, Mishaal Rahman, our Editor-in-Chief, highlights the advantages of the “O1 Ultra Vision Engine” augmenting the 6.7″ 3K AMOLED display. The dedicated display chip is used for SDR to HDR video conversion, motion interpolation, and automatic white balance adjustment. The motion interpolation converts all video content to 60fps resulting in much smoother video playback, especially while watching movies or shows natively shot in 24fps.

Additionally, the display settings on the Find X2 series include a “Natural Tone Display,” which, as per Mishaal, has a better white better adjustment based on ambient lighting than the Google Pixel 4 and looks very soothing to the eyes. The 120Hz refresh rate allows for smooth scrolling experience in most apps.

To complement the high pixel density of the breathtaking 3K AMOLED display, OPPO has some really expressive and aesthetic wallpapers. But, if the starting price of about $1,150 discourages you from buying the phone, you can get some of these gorgeous wallpapers for your existing phone.

The images in the gallery above are compressed to fit into this article. However, you can download 15 uncompressed and high-quality OPPO Find X2 Pro wallpapers in their full resolution i.e. 3168 x 1440 pixels by clicking on the link below.

Download OPPO Find X2 Pro’s high-quality 3168 x 1440p wallpapers

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Samsung Galaxy S20 kernel source code is now available for the Exynos models

Just a couple of weeks following the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S20 series, the company has now released the kernel source code for the Exynos variants of all three devices. The Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and Galaxy S20 Ultra are all flagships powered by the company’s Exynos 990 chip in all regions, except in the US, Hong Kong, and a few Latin American countries. The devices pack in some impressive hardware and with the kernel source code released, developers and power users will be able to unlock the full potential of the hardware.

Galaxy S20 XDA Forums || Galaxy S20+ XDA Forums || Galaxy S20 Ultra XDA Forums

If you’re an Android developer, you can now head over to the Samsung Open Source Release Center website and access the kernel source code for the Samsung Galaxy S20 (SM-G981B), S20+ (SM-G986B), and S20 Ultra (SM-G988B). For those of you who have already purchased one of these devices or plan on getting one, the kernel source code release means that you’ll soon see third-party development for the devices pick up pace on our forums.

Developers will now be able to port the popular TWRP custom recovery over to the devices, develop custom kernels and release custom ROMs for the devices. You can now head over to our Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra forums (linked above) and keep an eye out for development for the devices. Much like last year, we also expect Samsung to release kernel sources for the Snapdragon variants of the Galaxy S20 series in the coming days.

Buy the Galaxy S20 from Amazon.in 

Buy the Galaxy S20+ from Amazon.in

Buy the Galaxy S20 Ultra from Amazon.in

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