Late last month, Realme revealed the ColorOS 7 release timeline for a few of its devices. As per the schedule, the Realme 3 Pro, XT, X, 5 Pro, and X2 Pro will get ColorOS 7 based on Android 10 in the first quarter of 2020, with the Realme 3, 3i, 5, 5s, and 2 Pro to follow in the second quarter. Lastly, the Realme C2 was scheduled to get the update in Q3, 2020. The company has since opened ColorOS 7 beta recruitment for its flagship X2 Pro, with plans to roll out the stable update by January 2020. At the time, the company didn’t reveal whether the update would be released to older devices. But now, it has officially announced that the Realme 1, 2 U1, and C1 won’t be receiving the ColorOS 7 update.
As reported by The Mobile Indian, in a recent tweet Realme has confirmed that the aforementioned devices won’t be receiving the Android 10 update. The tweet came from the company’s official support handle for the Indian region in response to a query from a user. This new information falls partially in line with a post on the Realme Community from earlier this year, in which an admin stated that the Android 10 update probably won’t be released for the Realme 1 and 2 Pro. Thankfully though, the recently released update timeline confirms that the Realme 2 Pro will receive the update sometime in June next year. However, the Realme 1, 2, U1 and C1 won’t get the same treatment. These four devices were initially released with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box and have already received ColorOS updates based on Android 9 Pie.
Hi Partha,
We would like to inform you that ColorOS 7 based on Android 10 update will not be rolled out for realme 1/ realme U1/ realme C1/ realme 2.
It’s worth noting that ColorOS 7 on Realme devices will offer a closer to stock Android experience, unlike the version released on OPPO devices. As of now, the company has released no further information in this regard. However, since the company has already started ColorOS 7 beta recruitment for the Realme X2 Pro we expect to learn more about these changes in the next couple of weeks.
Back in September this year, Xiaomi first unveiled MIUI 11 at a launch event in China. The company’s updated Android skin introduced a ton of new features and visual improvements, including a completely redesigned UI, new font, updated Always-On Display, and more. While Xiaomi has already rolled out a stable version of MIUI 11 to a number of Xiaomi and Redmi devices, it seems like the company plans to introduce even more new features to the software.
MIUI 11 nightlies from the last couple of weeks contain evidence of several new features for the MIUI camera app that are currently in development. Here’s a brief rundown of all the new features we’ve managed to unearth:
Video Tagging
Strings of code in a recent MIUI 11 nightly hint at a feature called “Video Tagging” (translated) that will allow you to set a bookmark while recording a video. Upon playing the recorded video in the gallery app (presumably, only the stock MIUI Gallery app) you’ll get the option to skip directly to the bookmark. This new feature could come in handy while recording lectures/interviews as it will let you tag specific parts of the recording for easier editing later on. The description for this feature reads “click ‘mark’ in the video, you can check the mark position during playback” (translated).
Document and ID Card Scanning
Xiaomi is also prepping up to add a document and ID card scanner to the MIUI camera app that will allow you to scan various documents. The new “document mode” will let you save images in black and white or “strengthen” them, in a bid to make the text more legible. A separate “ID Copy Mode” has also been discovered which is designed specifically to scan ID cards. The mode includes support for double-sided shooting and it can create a 1:1 copy of an A4 ID card.
HEIC Support
The MIUI camera app will also get support for HEIF/HEIC file formats for images. The high-efficiency file format has been designed to drastically reduce the size of images, when compared to PNG or JPG formats, without losing much detail and it will let you store more images in the same amount of space. You will get the option to choose the format preference within the camera settings and the option will be titled “HEIC Format”. The description for the new setting reads “Capture photos in high-efficiency HEIF format.”
As of now, we have no information on when these features will go live in the MIUI 11 Camera app. However, since the code has already started appearing in the nightlies, it shouldn’t be long before we see the features in action in a beta release.
No matter what marketplace or service an app is distributed through, its app icon is the first thing a prospective user would notice. First impressions are of paramount importance when trying to reel in new users, which means that icons are key components of any application. And, regardless of the intent of the app, creating a beautiful application icon should be an important part of every app’s development phase. Although many developers of technical applications leave the graphics to dedicated designers, understanding the fundamentals of design and applying them is something anyone can do, given a knack for experimentation and analysis. App icons are no exception!
This guide goes through the creation of an adaptive icon for a sample Android app using open-source software. Although the end result may not be in the format you might require, a lot of the design tips discussed here will hold true across multiple platforms.
The anatomy of an Android app icon
A GIF from Google breaking down an adaptive icon into its constituent parts.
After the release of “adaptive icons” with Android Oreo, an app icon can consist of three fundamental layers: an opaque background layer, a foreground layer with transparency support, and a mask that defines the shape of the icon. All these layers are 108 x 108 dp in size, although only the inner 72 x 72 dp can be visible to the user; the other region, cut away by the mask on top, is used for special effects within the UI to make the icon appear dynamic. For the uninitiated, dp or display-independent pixel stands as a measuring unit for all of Android’s interface, and is defined to be equal to the size of one pixel on a 160 dots-per-inch display.)
Nick Butcher from Google talks about a 66 dp circle in the center of the icon that no mask can clip away, called the “safe zone”. This is where the primary elements of our icon design will sit later on, when we get to the actual designing. Anything beyond this 33 dp radius may not be visible in the icon while it has a shape mask on.
Getting your hands dirty
Since icons are better off being vector images due to UI scaling, we’re going to need a vector graphics editor to make our icon. Inkscape is open-source and a great alternative to more expensive software, so it’ll be our choice for the purposes of this tutorial. I’ve also designed a project file available here that has the safe zone and Google’s own design keyline marked out, and a nifty layer mask that lets us preview the shape of the icon.
With the project file opened in Inkscape and the Fill and Stroke (Shift+Ctrl+F), Export PNG Image (Shift+Ctrl+E), and Layers (Shift+Ctrl+L) panels open, we’re ready to get started. The Layers panel is where the meat of the project resides, with the Foreground and Background layers meant to house their titular components, and Guidelines and Mask meant to be toggled on and off (by clicking on the little eye icon beside them) for reference.
Upon loading the file and setting up the panels, Inkscape should look something like this.
An icon is an expression of an app’s identity. As such, it must incorporate both the character of the app’s personality and platform-specific design guidelines, like the ones Android’s Material design language has to offer. For the purposes of demonstration, let us assume we’re working on a weather app that uses Material elements. We could use the classic sun-and-clouds motif to inform a user of the purpose of the app, and put a little spin on this basic design using drop shadows and geometry to make it blend well in its Android environment.
Background
The background layer of the icon.
Let’s begin with setting up the background, which will consist of a blue sky and a yellow sun in the center. Turning Mask invisible, I select and make visible the Background layer, fill the entire canvas with the Create rectangles and squares tool (F4), and set the fill color of the rectangle in Fill and Stroke to 64B5F6FF (a light blue) in accordance with the Material color palette. I then select the Create circles, ellipsis, and arcs (F5) tool, and holding Shift and Ctrl, draw a circle from the center of the keyline to the second-largest circle, and set its color to FFEE58FF, which gives us a warm little sun. It’s always good to stick to basic geometry in any sort of designing, and Android’s design language in particular encourages simplicity. To comply with Material guidelines, I also give the sun a subtle drop shadow through Filters → Shadows and Glows → Drop Shadow.
Foreground
The foreground layer of the icon.
Coming to Foreground, I draw a group of clouds around the sun by drawing circles from the circumferences of other circles, and give them all a fill color of EEEEEEFF. I then group the circles appropriately by right-clicking on multiple objects and selecting Group, and run the drop shadow generator on the two final shapes I obtain in the end. Turning Guidelines invisible and toggling Foreground and Background alternatively, the constituent layers of our weather app’s icon can be seen. If the app’s icon is ever dragged across a home screen, the clouds will cascade against a stationary sun!
Result
Mask can now be turned visible and tweaked with Edit paths by nodes (F2) to try and simulate different shape masks. Also, the two layers can be exported separately using the Export PNG Image panel for usage in Android Studio, and together for a Google Play icon.
While building a product icon, it’s always good practice to try and take an application’s purpose, distill it to its most abstract visual form, and represent that using simple geometry. The simpler any component in design is, the better and more reliably it usually works, and this holds true in graphic design too. For most purposes, an object shape in the foreground and a solid color or a pattern in the background (or vice versa) works just fine, but like in our example case, another layer of objects can be used if felt necessary; too much stacking or usage of drop shadows will only complicate the icon’s design.
Both layers stacked, with the Mask layer being tweaked to preview the adaptive icon
You can read more about icon design in Material interfaces on the official Material website, and grab free system icons for use in icon design from the same website.
Update 1 (12/02/19 @ 00:45 AM EST): Realme X2 Pro is now available for open sale via Flipkart and their own online store at Realme.com.
The original launch article from November 20, 2019, remains unchanged.
Realme has grown at an astonishing rate over the last year and this controverts the globally declining demand for smartphones. Starting its journey with entry-level smartphones, Realme has rapidly evolved to grab a major chunk of the mid-range segment and is now vying for a share in the segment of flagships – or rather, flagship killers. Last month, Realme launched the Realme X2 Pro, their first true flagship smartphone, in China and Europe and today they’re launching the smartphone in India for an insane price of ₹29,999 ($417).
The Realme X2 Pro has kept the Indian consumers intrigued since the first announcement from Realme about their entry in the flagship segment. It is undeniably the most well-equipped flagship killer device available outside of China and has a lot of alluring features including many firsts for the sub-₹30,000 category. The list includes Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC, up to 12GB of RAM, a Super AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate, a 64MP quad-camera, 50W fast charging but it does not end there.
The Realme X2 Pro embraces a glass sandwich design with layers of Gorilla Glass 5 protection on both sides. The frame surrounding the edges of the phone is made of metal. The back panel has a reflective design with color options between Lunar White and Neptune Blue. Underneath the Gorilla Glass 5 on the front is a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution. A key highlight of the display is that it supports a maximum refresh rate of up to 90Hz, resulting in a smooth scrolling experience – even though the support for a higher refresh rate may be limited to certain apps. The display also features an optical in-display fingerprint scanner from Goodix.
A Snapdragon 855 Plus, currently the most powerful SoC for smartphones, powers the Realme X2 Pro. This is paired with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM. While a 6GB RAM variant was also announced during the launch events in China and Europe, it will not be a part of Realme’s catalog in India. The Realme X2 Pro also gets an upgrade in terms of the storage technology and it comes with a UFS 3.0 storage. The 8GB RAM model gets 128GB while the 12GB variant gets 256GB as the onboard storage. Notably, there’s no option to expand the storage.
The camera on the Realme X2 Pro gets another major upgrade over the previous models. The X2 Pro borrows the Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 64MP primary sensor from the Realme XT but the aperture of the attached lens is slightly smaller. Besides the 64MP camera, the X2 Pro features a 13MP telephoto camera with 2X optical, 5X hybrid, and up to 20X digital zoom. Then, there’s an 8MP wide-angle camera – which also facilitates super macro shots – alongside a 2MP portrait camera for improved bokeh. In terms of video, the rear camera supports 4K recording at 6ofps using the primary camera along with EIS. Additionally, there’s Full HD video recording on the wide-angle camera and other features like 960fps slow-motion video, bokeh video, and more. On the front, the Realme X2 Pro gets a 16MP selfie camera, which is most likely to be the same as the Realme XT.
Another major advantage of the Realme X2 Pro is the 50W SuperVOOC fast charging technology it borrows from the parent company OPPO. As per the company’s claims, the smartphone should take around 35 minutes to charge the 4,000mAh battery completely. That’s certainly impressive, especially taking the price into consideration. The 50W charger is bundled in the box and users will not have to buy it separately.
The Realme X2 Pro gets a stereo speaker setup with the earpiece doubling as the left loudspeaker and there’s Dolby Audio for sound enhancements. Additionally, there’s a new haptic engine on the smartphone for improved feedback and enhanced gaming experience. Further, there’s a vapor cooling chamber to help keep the temperatures low while gaming.
Standard: Lunar White and Neptune Blue
Master Edition: Red Brick and Concrete
Realme X2 Pro Master Edition
Realme has once again partnered with the Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa, who helped design the Realme X’s onion and garlic variants. This time, Fukasawa borrowed inspiration from construction materials and helped Realme create the concrete and red brick editions of the smartphone. These variants come with a frosted glass back design similar to the OnePlus 7T and give the impression of a sandstone-live surface.
The Realme X2 Pro Master Edition comes only in the 12GB/256GB variant, which comes at a higher price compared to the similarly specced variant of the standard edition. The concrete and red brick variants will be available in a limited quantity.
Price and Availability
The Realme X2 Pro will be available in India exclusively via Flipkart starting November 26, 2019, which will be its first invite-only early access sale. The 8GB/128GB variant will come for ₹29,999 ($417) while the 12GB/256GB variant is priced at ₹33,999 ($473). Realme is also including the Realme Wireless Buds costing ₹1,799 ($25) for free for the first sale. Invites for the first sale will be distributed through Realme’s social media channels.
The first 10,000 realme.com buyers can return the phone with no questions asked, if they do not like it.
The Master Edition of the Realme X2 Pro will be priced at ₹34,999 ($487) and will have its first sale in late December 2019.
Realme has also collaborated with DJI to introduce the DJI Osmo Mobile 3 handheld gimbal as a recommended accessory for the Realme X2 Pro. The DJI Osmo Mobile 3 will have to be purchased separately, though Realme did not reveal pricing and availability information.
Realme also teased the Realme Earpods at the event, though this will be launched later on.
Update: Realme X2 Pro goes on open sale
The Realme X2 Pro is now available for sale and you can buy it without any invite. The flagship killer has been listed on their online store as well on Flipkart. You can get an additional 10% discount by using HDFC credit or debit card and this is also applicable on EMIs.
With the Android 10 rollout picking up pace, OEMs have started releasing updated versions of their Android skins. While some manufacturers like Xiaomi and OnePlus have already released updated versions of OxygenOS and MIUI for a couple of their devices, others like OPPO have just announced their Android 10-based skins with plans to roll them out to devices in the next couple of weeks. Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE is the latest to jump on the bandwagon and it has now unveiled its MiFavor 10 skin based on Android 10.
In a recent post on Weibo, ZTE has shared a nifty infographic for its upcoming Android 10-based skin — MiFavor 10. As reported by GSMArena, the updated skin includes a new system-wide dark mode, along with plenty of black backgrounds, to make night-time usage a bit more comfortable. The skin also includes completely redesigned icons, with ZTE including over 1600 system icons to choose from. As stated in the infographic, over 80 of the new system icons are designed for micro-motion effects that add a nice touch to the overall experience. Additionally, the skin features optimizations to motion curves that are expected to make transitions a whole lot smoother.
ZTE’s MiFavor 10 also features dynamic wallpapers, most of which go along with the new darker aesthetic, along with six new built-in themes with their own distinct iconography. Notifications have also been updated with a new visual style and they now pop-up in a small floating window that’s expected to keep distractions to a minimum. The new notifications look a whole lot like the ones we’ve seen on Samsung’s One UI. ZTE has also shown off a new compact window interface and a floating keyboard to make multitasking easier.
The MiFavor 10 update also brings a couple of interesting smart features that will allow users to recognize the contents of your screen by long pressing on it with two fingers. The system will be able to recognize both text and images and provide users with product matches and recommendations based on what is identified. ZTE also claims that the new software will feature full-fledged voice control and navigation that will allow users to execute certain in-app actions. On top of all that, the new skin brings improvements to ZTE’s AI engine, Z-Booster 2.0 for fast app startup times, superior graphics and less stutter. While ZTE has confirmed that MiFavor 10 will be coming to the Axon 10 Pro, Blade V10, and Axon 9 Pro, the company hasn’t released an update schedule.
Early last month, LG launched an Android 10 preview for its current flagship — the LG G8 ThinQ — in South Korea. The preview allowed users to experience all of the cool new features released in Android 10 on their device and it also included a couple of additional UI changes. For instance, the Android 10 preview on the G8 ThinQ moved all of the menu tabs and pop-ups towards the bottom of the display for easier access, introduced a new intuitive card type menu, and more. Now, the company is finally rolling out a stable version of the update to the device.
As reported by GSMArena, the stable Android 10 release for the LG G8 ThinQ is now rolling out to users in South Korea. The update (software version G820N20c) not only upgrades the device to Android 10 but also bumps up the Android security patches to the November 2019 release. While we don’t have access to a detailed changelog as of now, we do know that the update includes all of the new features introduced in Android 10, including the system-wide dark mode, new navigation gestures, etc. The update also includes the aforementioned UI changes that we previously saw on the LG V50S ThinQ.
Currently, we have no information regarding a broader rollout for the update, but we expect the company to release it in other regions over the next few weeks. It’s worth noting that the company also launched the Android 10 preview for the LG V50 ThinQ last month. Since the Android 10 stable release has started rolling out for the G8 ThinQ, LG V50 ThinQ users should also get the stable update in the following weeks.
For users who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, Google’s new Live Caption tool in Android 10 could be really useful. This tool was announced at Google I/O earlier this year, and what it does is automatically provide captions for audio that’s playing on your device. It works with videos, podcasts, audio messages, and other supported media (but not phone or video calls). When Google launched the feature, they made it a Pixel 4-exclusive, though they said they planned to bring it to the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a sometime this month. However, we’ve already shown that it can run on other devices, too, and now I’m going to share how to enable it on your own device.
You’ll need a rooted device running Android 10 to make this trick work because Google so far intends for Live Caption to only work on the latest Pixel smartphones. Apart from the method I used to enable Live Caption support on Android 10, there’s another method that involves changing system property values to trick the Device Personalization Services app into thinking it’s running on a Pixel 4. However, doing so on an older Pixel phone will break the Google Camera app, so I won’t share this alternative method. The method I’m sharing won’t touch any system properties; instead, it directly sets all the values controlling the Live Caption feature to be true. Thus, no camera functionality, or any other functionality for that matter, should be affected. Still, before flashing any mods like this, you should have a backup handy.
I enabled Live Caption on my Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3 XL. Some of my followers on Twitter said it worked on the Pixel 3a, first-generation Pixel, Essential Phone, and Redmi K20 running a custom AOSP-based ROM. Live Caption doesn’t seem to work on the OnePlus 6T or OnePlus 7 Pro running OxygenOS 10 using this method, but hopefully, we can get it working with a little more debugging. If you want to try it out on your own device, here’s what you need to do.
Go to Settings > Apps and tap the menu to show all system apps. See if “Device Personalization Services” is installed. This app is pre-installed on Pixel devices. It shouldn’t be there on non-Pixel devices, but some custom ROMs may have bundled it anyway.
If your device already has “Device Personalization Services” installed, then you must update to the latest version of the APK extracted from the Pixel 4. Specifically, install this APK. The APK extracted from the Pixel 4 has code for the Live Caption feature. Other versions of this APK will not have Live Caption. If your device doesn’t already have Device Personalization Services installed, then do not try to install it and just continue to the next step.
Open Magisk Manager and install the “SQLite for ARM aarch64 devices” Module from the Downloads section. Note: If you already have an SQLite binary from TitaniumBackup or Termux, then my Magisk Module installer script will detect it so you won’t need to install this separate SQLite binary.
Reboot your phone.
Download one of the following Magisk Modules that I made and install it in Magisk Manager. If your device had “Device Personalization Services” installed and you followed step #2 to update to the latest version, then install this Module called “LiveCaption_Pixel.zip“. If your device didn’t have “Device Personalization Services” installed and you skipped step #2, then install this Module called “LiveCaption_nonPixel.zip“. The difference between the _Pixel and the _nonPixel Modules is that the _nonPixel one has the “Device Personalization Services” app bundled with it. This is a system app, so it cannot be installed like any normal APK if you don’t already have it installed.
Reboot your phone.
Check Settings > Sound or Settings > Accessibility for the Live Caption setting. Enable the feature and see if it works by watching a YouTube video with English language audio. If it doesn’t work, try rebooting one more time.
Hopefully, you should have Live Caption up and running on your rooted Android 10 device. I’ve had the feature enabled on my Pixel 2 XL for over 2 months now without any issues. A word of warning, though. Do not update the Device Personalization Services app through the Google Play Store. Google serves different versions of the app to different devices—if you install a version that wasn’t made for the Pixel 4, you’ll lose the Live Caption feature. Disable automatic updates for this app in the Play Store, and check to make sure that any updated APK you do install through APKMirror came from the Pixel 4.
I discovered this method on my own, but I would like to thank XDA Forum Moderator Didgeridoohan and XDA Recognized Developer topjohnwu for helping me debug my script. I would also like to thank XDA Senior Member 73sydney, jcmm11, adpoliak, and all others involved in the GPay-SQLite-Fix Magisk Module as I borrowed the code to check for an SQLite binary.
