OnePlus 8 unbrick tool is now available

OnePlus phones are often considered as the spiritual successors to the Google Nexus lineup, mainly because of their developer-friendly design. The company even offers a hassle-free unbricking method via their customer support channel. The device-specific unbrick package, internally known as ‘MsmDownloadTool’, utilizes Qualcomm’s Emergency Download Mode (EDL). We recently talked about the availability of the unbrick tool for the global and Indian variants of the OnePlus 8 Pro, and now we have our hands on the equivalent package for the regular OnePlus 8 as well.

OnePlus 8 XDA Forums || OnePlus 8 XDA Review

Tinkering with your device is not without its risks, and a misstep can lead you to temporarily brick your phone. But, now that the EDL flashing packages for the regional variants of the OnePlus 8 are easily accessible to the community, power users can rescue their phones themselves. It is also possible to switch between the international (IN21AA), European (IN21BA), and the Indian (IN21DA) OxygenOS firmware to unlock region-exclusive features, albeit end users are suggested to take a backup of the ‘persist’ partition before attempting such cross-flashing.

MsmDownloadTool for the OnePlus 8 — XDA Thread

The current set of MsmDownloadTool for the OnePlus 8 is based on the day 1 update. The OEM is using VMProtect as an obfuscation/anti-debugging measure while building the flasher, thus your antivirus might flag it as a potentially rogue candidate which is a typical case of false-positive detection. OnePlus has also introduced a mandatory login requirement in the recent revisions of the MsmDownloadTool, but you can easily go around that prompt by selecting ‘User type’ as ‘Other’.

One can force their OnePlus 8 unit to boot to EDL mode by shutting down the device and holding down both volume up and volume down buttons while connecting it with their PC. The flasher, which can only be executed under Windows, should automatically detect the phone if proper drivers are installed. The flashing process re-locks the bootloader while wiping the phone, and may take around 5 minutes to complete.

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Samsung announces a blood pressure monitoring app for the Galaxy Watch Active 2

Samsung on Tuesday announced that the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 smartwatch will soon be able to monitor the blood pressure of its users in South Korea. The company said in a press release that its Samsung Health Monitor application has been cleared by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and will enable cuff-less blood pressure monitoring and tracking when paired with the Galaxy Watch Active 2.

This is not to be confused with ECG support that Samsung is currently working on to add to the Galaxy Watch Active 2. For uninitiated, ECG measures the rate and rhythm of the heart’s electrical activity, while blood pressure measures the pressure your heart exerts against the arterial walls when the heart is beating (systolic pressure) and when the heart is resting between beats (diastolic pressure). High and low blood pressure, if untreated, can lead to an increased risk of strokes and other cardiac diseases.

To start using the blood monitor functionality, users will have to calibrate their Galaxy Watch Active 2 using a traditional cuff. Samsung advises this calibration to be performed every 4 weeks to ensure accuracy. Once the watch has been calibrated, users can use the cuff-less blood pressure monitoring anytime anywhere using the Samsung Health Monitor application.

The blood pressure measurement is done through pulse wave analysis which is obtained by Heart Rate Monitoring sensors on the watch. The application then analyses the relationship between the calibration value and heart rate monitoring data to determine the actual blood pressure. Samsung also mentions that you need a Galaxy smartphone for this, and the phone should be running Android Nougat and above.

Samsung says its plans to roll out the application to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 within the third quarter, with a promise to progressively expand the functionality to upcoming Galaxy watches. This last bit is interesting as it confirms that Samsung is working on a new Galaxy smartwatch. According to our own Max Weinbach, this upcoming watch that Samsung is referring to is actually the Galaxy Watch 2 that could launch alongside the Galaxy Note 20.

Samsung Galaxy Watch XDA Forums

So far, the Samsung Health Monitor application has only been approved in South Korea. Since Samsung most likely will need a similar clearance by health organizations in other countries like the U.S. through the FDA, it will likely take some time for the app to make its way in other countries.

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Source: Samsung Mobile Press

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OPPO A52 and A72 are two mid-range smartphones coming to Europe

Earlier this month we confirmed the existence of two OPPO phones that the Chinese company was planning to launch globally. The first was the OPPO Find X2 Neo which was a rebranded version of the Chinese Reno 3 Pro that was launched around the end of 2019. We also learned about the existence of the OPPO A72. However, at the time the only bits of information we had about this phone was its model number — CPH2067 — and that it would come running Android 10.

Now a new leak from German tech blog Winfuture has shed more light on the OPPO A72 including its possible specifications and has also confirmed a new mid-range phone called OPPO A52 that could launch alongside it. WinFuture claims that both phones are likely to be mid-rangers and they could soon launch in European markets. 

The OPPO A72 and OPPO A52 are nearly identical in terms of the underlying hardware and basic design language with the only differentiating factors being camera and memory configuration. On the front, both utilize a 6.5-inch hole-punch display with a 2400 x 1080 resolution. Powering these devices is the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 octa-core SoC, featuring eight cores running at 2GHz frequency. 

Coming to the camera, both phones feature a quad-camera setup on the back. The OPPO A72 features 48MP primary and 16MP front cameras whereas the OPPO A52 uses a 12MP primary and 8MP front shooters. The rest of the camera assembly is identical among two, with both having an 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth and 2MP macro shooters at their disposal.

Other probable specifications of the OPPO A72 and OPPO A52 include 4GB of RAM, Bluetooth 5.0, microSD expansion support, USB Type-C connector, side-mounted fingerprint scanner, and a 3.5mm audio jack. As mentioned earlier, the OPPO A72 and OPPO A52 also differ in terms of internal memory. As such the OPPO A72 is said to be packing 128GB of internal storage while the OPPO A52 may offer 64GB storage on the base variant. 

Details regarding the pricing and exact launch date aren’t yet known but the leak states that we could expect both phones to hit the European markets soon.

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Source: WinFuture

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MIUI 12’s Dark Mode 2.0 brings along wallpaper dimming, automatic font weight and contrast adjustment

Xiaomi uses its own custom UX on top of Android, known as MIUI. While Android version upgrades are notable updates for most of the OEMs in the Android industry, users with Xiaomi devices look forward to MIUI version upgrades, as these are the ones that bring along plenty of noticeable changes to their phones. Xiaomi has been working on the next version of MIUI, MIUI 12, which is scheduled to be released next week. The company has begun with official feature reveals on Weibo, detailing the various changes that the new version bump will bring along.

MIUI 12 builds upon the work done within MIUI 11 in the context of the MiLan Pro font and the comfort it lends to the overall UX. This comes to us in the form of Dark Mode 2.0, which improves upon the previous dark mode implementation by bringing along features such as wallpaper dimming, automatic font-weight adjustments, and font contrast adjustments.

MIUI 12: Wallpaper Dimming

MIUI 12’s Dark Mode 2.0 comes with a smart wallpaper dimming feature. Instead of just darkening the whole wallpaper in a blanket manner, this new update will attempt to simulate how light transitions during the day cycle.

It is unclear right now if this feature will be limited to the included system wallpapers, or if it would be much more widely available across all user-applied wallpapers.

MIUI 12: Font-weight adjustments

Dark Mode 2.0 will also be able to automatically adjust the weight of the text. This is based on MIUI 11’s dynamic font system, and it automatically reduces the weight to reduce glare and text blur.

 

The changes are reverted back in light mode, which will theoretically make reading on both the modes more comfortable.

Font Contrast Adjustment

In addition to changing the font-weight, the font and background contrast will also be changed according to the screen brightness.

This way, you can also use Dark Mode during the day while retaining text legibility, and use it normally at night without dazzling your vision.

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We expect to see more MIUI 12 features unveiled as we come closer to launch. Stay tuned!

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Some Android 10 users are facing random freezing and unresponsive UI issues

A growing number of Android 10 users are reporting a stability issue with the OS that causes their device to become unresponsive whenever an app freezes. Artem Russakovskii from Android Police recently took to Twitter to highlight the issue and a number of users have since come forward to confirm that they have also experienced it on their Android 10 devices. In case you haven’t experienced it for yourself, the issue occurs whenever an app freezes on a device running Android 10 and makes the UI completely unresponsive. Once it occurs, users aren’t able to close the app, head back to the home screen or open the notifications shade and have to lock their device for a while before it becomes responsive again.

Another thing that really bothers me on the Pixel 4 XL – when an app freezes up, it oftentimes locks up the whole UI. Notifications, home gesture – everything becomes unresponsive.

Sometimes the UI unfreezes when the app does, sometimes the app remains frozen.

Anyone else?

— Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) April 17, 2020

While a vast majority of the reported cases are from Google’s Pixel devices with the stock Pixel launcher, several OnePlus and Xiaomi users have also reported facing the bug. Additionally, the issue doesn’t seem to be launcher related as a number of users running third-party launchers like Nova Launcher and Action Launcher have also experienced it on their Android 10 device. As far as the offending apps are concerned, users have reported facing the issue while using Amazon, Twitter, YouTube, YouTube Music, and the Google Play Store. Even though most of the affected devices are running Android 10, Android Police has also reported facing the issue on a Pixel 3 running the Android 11 developer preview.

Looks like below? I have 3 videos about this.https://t.co/aIgPUbW5qn

— Cosmin Buzle (@CBuzle) April 20, 2020

Several users on Reddit have also confirmed facing the issue, with a few users revealing that it also occurs on custom ROMs based on Android 10, including AOSP 10, LineageOS 17.1, and more. This leads us to believe that the issue might be more of a widespread Android bug than one limited to a few devices or third-party launchers. As of now, we have no clue about what’s causing the issue on affected devices and Google has released no official statement on the matter. We’ll update this post as and when the company addresses the issue.

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Via: Android Police

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WhatsApp is increasing the group voice and video call limits to 8 users

WhatsApp‘s group audio and video calling feature, which was released all the way back in 2018, is finally getting a much-needed upgrade. According to a recent report from WABetaInfo, the latest beta release of the popular messaging app increases the limit of participants in group audio and video calls, allowing users to connect with up to 7 more users at the same time. Previously, group calls were limited to a maximum of 4 participants but with the latest beta update (v2.20.133), you will now be able to add up to 7 of your friends to a group call.

 

News about the increased limit first surfaced online just a couple of days ago, when WABetaInfo spotted strings of code regarding the update in WhatsApp beta for Android (v2.2.128). The increased limit is finally rolling out in the latest beta release and, following the update, users will be able to add up to 7 other contacts to any given group audio or video call. In order to add more than 4 participants to a group call, you will have to head over to the Call tab and then tap on the New Group Call option (see attached screenshot). In the following menu, you’ll be able to choose up to 7 more people in your contacts list to connect with on a group audio or video call. It’s worth noting that the feature will only work if all participants are on the latest beta release for WhatsApp.

On top of that, WhatsApp has also made some minor changes to the way the call button works within groups. The button will now let you directly start a call with group members in case you’re in a group with 4 members (or less) and all participants will be added to the call. In cases where there are more than 4 members in a group, the call button will bring up a list of all the group members and you’ll be able to choose the people you wish to add to the group call. To try out the new features, you can sign up for the WhatsApp beta program by following this link and then download the latest update from the Play Store link below.

WhatsApp Messenger (Free, Google Play) →

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Source: WABetaInfo

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Xiaomi will announce MIUI 12 alongside a new Mi 10 variant on April 27th

Xiaomi’s MIUI is among the most popular Android skins for two primary reasons. The first and the more obvious reason of the two is the usual budget-friendly pricing of phones under Xiaomi, Redmi, or spin-off brand POCO; the second is the horde of features in MIUI that Xiaomi builds over stock Android to make the experience more user friendly. For a few months now, we have been on the lookout for any information about MIUI 12, the next incremental update to MIUI 11. Our wait could end soon as Xiaomi has announced it will announce MIUI 12 alongside their new mid-range 5G phone – the Mi 10 Youth Edition – on April 27th.

MIUI 12

Xiaomi has been dropping hints about some of MIUI 12’s upcoming features through AMA sessions on Weibo. In the latest episode, the MIUI team revealed MIUI 12 will come with uniform font styles, optimizations in terms of iconography and design language throughout the UI, a more minimal outlook, and some camera features like the ability to remove passers-by from images.

While Xiaomi is reserving the details of the new optimizations or features till the launch on the 27th of this month, the MIUI 12 teaser says the upcoming Android skin will unite imagination and reality and the tagline used for endorsing MIUI 12 translates to, “Touch the imagination, feel the truth.”

We hope to learn more about the features ahead of and at the launch event.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Youth Edition a la Mi 10 Lite 5G

While MIUI 12 might be the more exciting product at the launch for most existing Xiaomi users, the company will also be launching the Mi 10 Youth Edition for potentially new ones. This smartphone is likely to be a rebranded Mi 10 Lite 5G, which has already been launched in Europe last month.

Among its features teased officially, the Mi 10 Youth Edition smartphone will feature quadruple cameras including a telephoto setup with up to 50x zoom. Notably, the Lite variant does not feature a telephoto camera, so that could be unique to the Youth Edition.

The shape of the telephoto camera module suggests Xiaomi could be using a periscopic telephoto setup that was first launched commercially by Huawei on the P30 Pro (review) and then by OPPO on the Reno 10X Zoom Edition (review). It is plausible that the Mi 10 Youth Edition uses periscopic camera modules for 5X optical zoom that Samsung started mass producing in 2019. We’ll have more confidence once Xiaomi formally confirms the capabilities of the camera.

Official render shared by Xiaomi

Meanwhile, in another render, Xiaomi has also revealed the four color variants of the Mi 10 Youth Edition. Two of these color variants resemble the Coral Green of the Mi 10 and the Arctic White of the Mi 10 Pro while the other two a faded copper variant and a soft moss green.

Other than this, the phone may also get a gray color, like the Mi 10 Lite 5G. Unlike the Redmi Note 9S/9 Pro and the alleged Redmi Note 9, the camera module is on the top left corner. The Mi 10 Lite comes with a U-shaped notch and not a hole-punch as we see on the Mi 10 series and the same can be expected of the Youth Edition phone, given the similarities in their designs.

Mi 10 Lite 5G

While the Mi 10 Lite is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G mobile platform, the same cannot be said about the Youth Edition with surety just yet. We’ll wait for a while until Xiaomi confirms these itself and will update you following the same.

Share your thoughts on the phone in the comments below!

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Source: Weibo (1)(2)(3)

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