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mardi 28 avril 2020

Exclusive: This is the upcoming Realme Watch

Realme entered the wearable space in India with the Realme Buds Air TWS earbuds, following it up with the Realme Band smart wristband. While the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench in the launch plans of the company (and everyone else’s), Realme has continued to work on its next wearable, the Realme Watch. The existence of the Realme Watch is no secret, as it was teased by Realme India’s CEO himself in the company’s video Q&A.

The video barely offered a glimpse at the smartwatch, other than the fact that it has a square display. The company hasn’t offered any information beyond this, but the watch could be glimpsed at several certification listings across different regions. While we still don’t have any clarity on when the Realme Watch will be officially released, we now have access to a lot of information about the upcoming smartwatch, and we hope to give you more than a glimpse of the same.

XDA Recognized Developer @deletescape, known in the community for his work on the Lawnchair launcher, has shared with us some key information about the Realme Watch. This includes device renders, device functions, as well as renders/screenshots of how various functions of the Watch would look like on your wrist. While things could still change by the time the Watch is released, we have high confidence that this is how the device will more or less turn out.

This is the Realme Watch, Realme’s second fitness wearable product.

In the renders that @deletescape obtained, the Realme Watch appears as a familiar overall design but with its own distinct personality. We see a square display with rounded corners, and thick bezels all around. The “realme” branding makes an appearance on the bottom bezel of the device. The Watch has a singular push button on the right edge. The band does not appear to be changeable, at least from these renders, but we do not know this with finality. The clasp is not visible in these renders, so we do not have any information on that as well. We can, however, spot the charging pins on what appears to be hard polycarbonate back cover plate. The Watch will very likely adopt a magnetic charger.

In addition to the render, we also have a few specifications to go along. The Realme Watch will come with a 1.4″ TFT LCD touchscreen display with a 320×320 resolution. The battery inside the watch will be 160mAh in capacity, which could give you about 7 days of life with 24-hour heart rate monitoring. The watch will be IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. You will get Bluetooth 5.0 onboard for pairing your phone with the Watch, but there will be no onboard GPS on the device. Other sensors on the device include an acceleration sensor, a heart rate sensor, and a blood oxygen sensor. The Watch will not run on Android Wear OS; instead, it will run on a proprietary OS for lower cost smartwatches. The closest equivalent device to the Realme Band would be the Amazfit GTS that we reviewed, a device we can describe as a smart wristband with a bigger display, and an evolution from smart wristbands like the Realme Band and Mi Band 4.

The physical press button on the device will be used to lock and unlock the device, as well as aid in navigation with functions like returning back to the main screen. As is the case with smartwatches of this category, there will be limited storage onboard — the Watch will be able to store data for 7 days without connecting to a smartphone and companion app for syncing before it begins deleting older data on a rolling basis.

The Realme Watch will come with five preloaded watch faces within the device. However, we believe users should also be able to download more watch faces through the companion app and sync it to their Watch. We do not know if there will be any ability for third-party creators to create watch faces.

Realme Watch – Watch faces

The Realme Watch will come with the standard suite of functions that one expects out of a basic smartwatch. There will be step counting, heart rate monitoring, date and time functions, weather information, stopwatch, and alarm functions, and Find My Phone function. Most of these functions will be accessible through the Watch UI panes, where each pane will have four icons.

Realme Watch Realme Watch Realme Watch

Realme Watch – UI Panes

The Realme Watch should also be able to track 15 different kinds of exercises: outdoor running, walking, swimming, indoor running, outdoor riding, aerobic capacity, strength training, football, basketball, badminton, table tennis, indoor riding, yoga, elliptical machine, and cricket. Curiously, we also spotted functions related to sedentary reminders, water reminders, as well as a function to help users meditate by guiding users with controlled slow breathing exercises. The Activity pane within the UI shows the Weather data, your sleep data, your heart rate data, and your data related to step counting.

Realme Watch – Activity Pane UI

Other curious features on the Realme Watch will be the ability to control music on your phone (play, pause, next, previous, and volume control), and the ability to use the Watch as a Bluetooth shutter button to control your phone’s camera.

Realme Watch Realme Watch

Perhaps the greatest selling point of the Realme Watch would be its support for Hindi, in addition to English. This is a big deal for a smartwatch that is targeting the Indian market. As we note in our interview with Indus OS, companies intending to target the Indian audience need to focus on hyper-localizing their product with Indic language support. English is spoken by only 10.6% of India’s population, while Hindi is spoken by a good 57.1%. We do understand there is a difference in Hindi and English literacy as opposed to just spoken dialect, but our point still stands — adding in language support beyond English is a big advantage when targeting the Indian audience.

We do not know when the Realme Watch will be launched, in India or elsewhere. We also do not know the final branding of the product — though “Realme Watch” seems like a safe bet to us. We also do not know which price point Realme would be targeting for this product. Though, since it is in a similar product category as the Amazfit GTS, we can expect the watch to be around that price range.

What are your thoughts on the Realme Watch? Does it seem like an exciting product for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Exclusive: This is the upcoming Realme Watch appeared first on xda-developers.



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Samsung may debut its new Exynos 992 processor on the Galaxy Note 20

At Samsung Tech Day 2019 in October last year, the company announced its new flagship Exynos 990 SoC. The SoC is manufactured on the company’s new 7nm LPP EUV (extreme ultra-violet) process and it features a triple-cluster CPU core setup consisting of a combination of two custom M5 big cores, two ARM Cortex-76 middle cores, and four ARM Cortex-A55 little cores. Months after the initial announcement, Samsung’s flagship SoC finally made an appearance on the Galaxy S20 series earlier this year and we initially believed that it would also be featured in the upcoming Galaxy Note 20 series. However, a recent report from ZDNet Korea claims that that might not be the case and Samsung may include a new Exynos 992 chipset on the Galaxy Note 20 series.

As reported by Sammobile, Samsung may debut the new Exynos 992 chipset later this year with the Galaxy Note 20 series. The Exynos 992 chipset is rumored to be an improved version of the Exynos 990 that is being manufactured using Samsung’s 6nm process. The chipset is expected to offer a more power-efficient design and slight improvements in processing performance when compared to the Exynos 990. This is also expected to give the unannounced chipset a slight edge (1-3%) over its main competitor — the Snapdragon 865.

The report further reveals that the Exynos 992 may also be used in the Korean version of the Galaxy Note 20 series, making a return to flagship Exynos SoCs for Samsung after the Korean Galaxy S20 series shipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. Samsung’s switch to the Exynos chipset can also be attributed to the delay in the launch of the upcoming Snapdragon 865+, which was initially scheduled for Q3 2020 but has been pushed back due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The delay might also prompt other manufacturers, like Vivo, to opt for the Exynos 992 instead of the Snapdragon 865+ on its upcoming flagships.


Source: ZDNet Korea

Via: Sammobile

The post Samsung may debut its new Exynos 992 processor on the Galaxy Note 20 appeared first on xda-developers.



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lundi 27 avril 2020

Download MIUI 12 Wallpapers and new Super Earth and Mars Live Wallpapers

At the Mi 10 Youth Edition launch event in China yesterday, Xiaomi officially announced MIUI 12 for its Mi and Redmi devices. The latest iteration of Xiaomi’s Android skin comes with a new interface, a host of animation, privacy and health features, and much more. As with previous versions of MIUI, Xiaomi has also included a bunch of new static and live wallpapers in the MIUI 12 release. We’ve successfully managed to extract the wallpapers from the MIUI 12 firmware for the Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro and you can now download them from the links below.

MIUI 12 Wallpapers

The latest version of MIUI comes with a total of 29 new wallpapers (2340 x 1080 in resolution each) that can be applied to any device. They are divided into 6 categories: Natural Texture, Geometry, Dynamic Nebula, Minimalist Scenery, Black & White, and Mars. Here are all the new wallpapers included in the MIUI 12 release:

MIUI 12 MIUI 12 Natural Texture Wallpapers MIUI 12 MIUI 12 MIUI 12 MIUI 12 MIUI 12 MIUI 12 MIUI 12 MIUI 12 MIUI 12 MIUI 12

If you like what you see, you can download the uncompressed, full-resolution wallpapers from the link below.

Download MIUI 12 wallpapers

Live Wallpapers

Along with the aforementioned static wallpapers, MIUI 12 also includes two new live wallpapers — Super Wallpaper Earth and Super Wallpaper Mars. We’ve extracted the live wallpaper APKs from the latest firmware release and you can download them from the links below. Do note that, unlike the static wallpapers, the live wallpapers will only work on a Xiaomi, Redmi, or POCO device running MIUI 11.

Download the Super Wallpaper Earth APK || Download the Super Wallpaper Mars APK

The post Download MIUI 12 Wallpapers and new Super Earth and Mars Live Wallpapers appeared first on xda-developers.



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Xposed Module enables call recording on Sony Xperia phones running Android 10

The Google Phone app recently gained the long-anticipated call recording feature, albeit the company might have made it specific to select countries and/or regions due to concerning laws. While it is possible to install the Google-made dialer app on non-Pixel (or non-Android One) phones and pray for the call recording feature to be activated, it would be much more convenient to have this option as part of the stock dialer. XDA Recognized Developer serajr would have thought the same for the Sony Xperia community, as he comes up with an Xposed module that can enable call recording on any Sony phone running Android 10.

Xposed Framework XDA Forums

Several older Xperia phones have received the taste of Android 10 via OTA to date, and all of them are compatible with this mod. The installation part is, however, a bit tricky as users need to flash the recent version of Magisk first, followed by the EdXposed framework. Once you have EdXposed up and running, you can download the APK of the module from the discussion thread created by serajr, install and activate it via EdXposed Manager. A reboot is necessary for the changes to take effect, and you should get a dedicated “Record call” option on the dialer UI.

sony_xposed_call_recorder_1 sony_xposed_call_recorder_2

The module seamlessly integrates itself with the “Settings > Calls” section of the stock dialer app. Users can choose between AMR and MP3 as the recording format, and they can even turn on auto call recording for incoming and/or outgoing calls. Lastly, there is a master switch to toggle the whole call recording facility, which can be particularly useful to diagnose unforeseen errors in the module.

sony_xposed_call_recorder_settings

The UI of the module is not multi-language aware (only English supported), which is a known limitation. At the time of writing this article, the module is available only in compiled form, but the developer has promised to share the source code ‘soon’.

Sony Xperia Call Recording Xposed Module — XDA Download and Discussion Thread

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Amazon updates its 2017 Fire tablets to FireOS 6 based on Android 7.1 Nougat

Amazon Fire tablets are most popular for their dirt-cheap pricing and accessibility. The software inside them, while based on Android, is a long shot from the Android experience you’ll find on other devices. For one, Amazon doesn’t bother with Google Play certification, which means that they have greater control over open-source Android without having to follow Google’s guidelines. They can ship whatever Android version they want, and their software is heavily customized. Now, Amazon is updating its 2017 lineup of Fire tablets (7th-Gen Fire HD 10, Fire HD 8, and Fire 7) to FireOS 6, which is based on (brace yourselves) Android 7.1 Nougat. Yes, that one.

Android Nougat was released almost 4 years ago, in 2016, and brought with it several improvements for its time. Right now, though, it is a greatly outdated operating system: we’ve seen the release of Android Oreo (8.0/8.1) in 2017, Android Pie (9) in 2018, Android 10 last year, and Android 11 is already in the developer preview stage and will be rolling out to devices later this year. Amazon themselves have also used newer Android versions: the 2019 Fire HD 10 is running Android Pie.

The fact that Android 7 is rolling out to devices in 2020 might thus seem like satire at best, but in Amazon’s defense here, Fire tablets are mostly just aimed for media consumption. They sell for low prices, have really weak specifications, and they don’t even feature Google Play, so Amazon really has little need to keep these devices up to date at all besides critical security vulnerabilities. Plus, these are also older models, and it’s better to roll out an old version of Android than just leaving them on the software they were running, which was Android Lollipop–that launched in 2014, a whopping 6 years ago, and developers have started to drop support for it.

Anyway, if you want to grab this update, it is now rolling out in waves, so be on the lookout.


Source: Amazon / Via: Android Police

The post Amazon updates its 2017 Fire tablets to FireOS 6 based on Android 7.1 Nougat appeared first on xda-developers.



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Google is rolling out location tracking, battery notifications, and new settings for Fast Pair devices

Back in 2017, Google announced Fast Pair, a feature aimed at improving the first-time pairing experience for Bluetooth accessories. The first Bluetooth accessory to support Fast Pair was the first-generation Google Pixel Buds that debuted alongside the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Since then, dozens of other Bluetooth accessories from many different manufacturers have added support for Fast Pair. The latest device to support Fast Pair is the second-generation, truly wireless Google Pixel Buds that was announced earlier today. Alongside this product release, Google also announced that a few new Fast Pair features are coming to select Bluetooth accessories.

At Google I/O 2019 last year, Google quietly announced that Fast Pair will be getting a handful of useful new features. The first feature they mentioned, “Find My Accessories,” will let users ping the last known location of their Bluetooth accessories in the “Find My Device” app. Next, Google stated that users will receive a notification on their phone showing the battery level of their paired accessory whenever they open or close the charging case. Finally, Google showed off a revamped Bluetooth settings page where users will be able to control all of the settings supported on a Fast Pair device so users won’t have to open a dedicated app just for that accessory.

Since this early announcement at last year’s I/O developer conference, we didn’t know when these new features would roll out, although we’ve caught glimpses of them in APK teardowns in the last few months. Today, however, Google finally announced the rollout of most of these features.

Find My Accessory

If your Bluetooth earphones or headphones are connected to your phone but you don’t know where they are, you can now locate them by ringing them in settings. For true wireless earbuds, you can ring the left and right earbuds independently. In a future update coming in the next few months, you’ll be able to locate your lost accessories even if they aren’t connected to your phone through the Find My Device app. You’ll need to have Location History enabled, though.

Find My Accessories Fast Pair

Battery Notifications

Next, Google announced that you’ll receive a phone notification about the battery level of each component (right earbud, left earbud, and, if supported, the case) when you open the case of your truly wireless earbuds. You’ll also be notified when the earbuds and case battery levels are low.

Fast Pair Battery Notifications

Revamped Device Details Page

If you have a device running Android 10+ and a select Fast Pair-supported Bluetooth accessory, you’ll be able to adjust all the settings for the accessory from the Bluetooth device details page. Currently, only the Harman Kardon FLY and new Google Pixel Buds support showing these additional settings in the device details page. Bluetooth accessory makers are encouraged to surface these settings in the device details page by using the Slices API to integrate options from their dedicated apps.

Finally, Google announced that your accessory name will include your first name after it pairs to your phone over Bluetooth. Renaming Bluetooth devices is already possible, but this automates a step that many users never bother to do.


These features, save for the Find My Device integration, are rolling out now for supported Fast Pair Bluetooth accessories. Fast Pair is a part of Google Play Services and is supported on Android versions 6.0+.

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Qualcomm Quick Charge 3+ announced for better fast wired charging on mid-range devices

Qualcomm Quick Charge is a proprietary fast wired charging solution found on hundreds of devices with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs. There are multiple versions of the technology that Qualcomm licenses to OEMs, with the most advanced being Quick Charge 4+. Today, Qualcomm introduced a new version of its Quick Charge technology: Quick Charge 3+.

With Quick Charge 3+, Qualcomm aims to bring its fast wired charging technology to smartphones at a lower price point. This new technology is intended to serve as an upgrade for devices using Quick Charge 2.0 or 3.0 without significantly increasing the price to implement. Qualcomm says the new technology allows for charging a device from 0-50% in 15 minutes, which is 35% faster than the previous generation (presumably Quick Charge 3.0). Qualcomm also says that their new charging technology can keep a device 9°C cooler than before when charging. These numbers are based on reference data from a single IC and an “appropriate board/battery design,” though Qualcomm did not reveal more details on the setup they used to produce this data.

Quick Charge 3+ supports standard USB Type-A to USB Type-C cables as well as accessories that support scalable voltage with 20mV steps from Quick Charge 4, a feature that Qualcomm calls Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage (INOV). Quick Charge 3+ is backward compatible with older Quick Charge versions, so new accessories based on the new standard can still fast charge older devices.

This technology is already supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765G SoCs but will also be supported on new Snapdragon mobile platforms that will be introduced later this year. The technology is supported by two new PMICs: SMB1395 and SMB1396. These PMICs allow OEMs to implement QC3+ using the same software implementation without needing to implement an external Over Voltage Protection (OVP) chip or sense resistor. The SMB1396 also supports both wireless and wired input. Xiaomi’s new Mi 10 Lite Zoom, also known as the Xiaomi Mi 10 Youth Edition in China, is the first device to support both Qualcomm Quick Charge 3+ and Quick Charge 4+ simultaneously. We can expect more devices launching later this year to feature Qualcomm’s QC 3+.

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