OnePlus has taken to their forums to discuss upcoming updates for Cyanogen OS and OxygenOS. Both of these have 5.1 on the way, but OxygenOS won’t get an OTA until after the OnePlus 2 release.
The post OnePlus Updates Users on 5.1 Plans appeared first on xda-developers.
It wasn’t too long ago that 2K displays on smartphones were considered to be overkill, but in 2015 they’re commonplace on high-end models. Reports now indicate that ZTE could be going head-to-head with Samsung’s Note 5 and pushing the pixel boundaries ever further with the 4k panel on their next flagship.
The post 4K Display rumored on upcoming ZTE flagship appeared first on xda-developers.
Android fans all over the world get excited about every new iteration of Android that makes its way out of the Google HQ. So it is no surprise to see fans eagerly awaiting the release of Android M, even though their existing device may not receive an update.
At XDA, we too are excited to witness firsthand what a consumer release of Android M brings on to the table. Rather than being a major overhaul as Lollipop was, Android M is more of a refinement and polishing over Lollipop as it seeks to tackle major issues and complaints that consumers had about the previous release.
One such complaint, which has existed ever since devices started becoming portable, is that the battery life is just not enough. Irrespective of whether the device lasts 12 hours on battery or 10 days, people would still look and expect for more. With modern smartphones, this problem is compounded by the fact that the hardware and software capabilities of new devices continue to expand, while the developments in consumer-ready battery technology may not be able keep pace.
With Android M, Google is doing its bit towards giving a more satisfactory battery performance. With the Doze feature, devices on Android M can prolong their standby times by suspending all lower priority background activity when the device is unused for a period of time.
This works in a two-step approach. First, the device needs to be idle with respect to motion, which determines if the device has been left unattended for a specific period of time. Once it is confirmed that the device is not actively being used, the system in Android M pauses all lower priority background tasks in favor of a state of deeper sleep.
But how much of an improvement can we actually expect?
The good guys over at Computerbase.de took it upon themselves to figure out if Google’s claim of increased battery life actually stands true. The test involved loading the Android M Developer preview on one Nexus 5, and Android 5.1.1 in another, and subjecting both of these to similar scenarios to see how much of a tangible effect the latest version of Android M has.
Both the devices did not have SIM cards, and had Bluetooth, NFC, Android Beam disabled, along with the LED and tones disabled. The phones did have Wi-Fi enabled and GPS set to accuracy mode, and were placed at the same distance from the router. Along with this, both the phones had three IMAP accounts and a Gmail account with default settings loaded in. The phones also had identical apps installed and configured. The phones were left to idle for 48 hours, and the results are as below:
The initial results are indeed promising. After 48 hours of idle time, the Nexus 5 on Android 5.1.1 had a battery drain of 24% while the Nexus 5 on Android M’s Dev Preview had a drain of just 9%. The Android M Dev Preview (roughly) halved the battery drain as compared to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. But how many hours of increase are we talking about?
At these projected values, a Nexus 5 in similar circumstances would last 22 days on standby on Android M, while this figure would be down to just 8 days on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. The results are definitely tangible and significant, to say the least.
One thing to note is that Android M’s Doze works upon only on standby time. It does not do anything towards increasing Screen On Time. So if you are a user who uses his phone more than keeping it idle, your results may not be at the same scale as this test.
Nevertheless, we are excited to see how future devices and apps adapt to these changes. We can definitely see some app developers misusing high priority notification in the future, and in turn, denying users their right to standby time. This would also greatly increase the life of Android tablets as they are more prone to leaving idle as compared to smartphones. Along with this, these results are based on a Developer Preview, so things can change for good (or worse) from now till the consumer release. We have our fingers crossed.
What do you think of Doze? Are you happy with the existing battery life on your phone? Do you think these improvements are enough to make a difference in your usage patterns? Let us know in the comments below!
Read on for more related coverage:
The post Android M Brings Much Improved Standby Time to Nexus 5 appeared first on xda-developers.
May 28th 2015 was a special day for OnePlus. Afterall, it was on this day that they had promised to release Hydrogen OS, their own homebrewed China-specific ROM for the OnePlus One. And they did deliver, as Hydrogen OS was unveiled to the public in a beta format. Tag along as we take a look at what this ROM has to offer in our Initial Impressions.
You need to be part of the beta group in order to give this Hydrogen OS a spin. However, forum members have been kind enough to share their own links. You can find a number of download mirrors in the OP of this thread. Make sure you have decent download speeds and a reliable connection to download this 618 MB large ROM. There’s also a handy torrent present in the thread to help those with unreliable connections.
For power users, this step should be no different from installing any other ROM.
You will need:
Steps:
The installation should take a few minutes in recovery, after which you should manually reboot into system.
The first boot will take some more minutes as all the 111 pre-installed applications initialize.
On the first boot setup screen, you get greeted with the language selection menu offering options between two types of Chinese and thankfully, English. What follows the language screen are the usual guides for setting up the phone.
There is an additional setup screen for using a OnePlus account. Unfortunately, the creation process involved using my phone number, which the Input field did not accept.
Surprisingly, I encountered the dialog box for Google’s Location Service permissions. This was surprising due to the fact that I did not flash any Google Apps package, meaning the Hydrogen OS ROM comes pre-installed with Google Services.
Once you exit the setup process, you land at the homescreen. For someone using an AOSP ROM for quite some time, this comes as a jarring surprise as Hydrogen OS does not feature a homescreen. Or an app drawer. What you land on is a mix of homescreen and app drawer, much like MIUI. The first page of the “homescreen” contains shortcuts to a few system apps, while swiping to the next page uses the card stack animation to display the rest of the pre-installed apps. You can uninstall user apps directly from here by dragging them to the bin icon.
You can choose the “wallpaper” from the preset choices or from existing images from your Gallery. There are limited ways to customize the homescreen as you can only change the clock display widget from the preset choices. I personally couldn’t find any way to add more widgets so I do not know if such an option exists in the first place.
The Hydrogen OS ROM does indeed come preinstalled with Google Play Store, along with a Chinese Market/Play Store alternative. Other preinstalled apps include OnePlusWeather, Camera, Gallery, Clock, Messaging, Phone, Browser, Mail, Calendar, Calculator and Sound Recorder, along with the familiar Google Settings icon.
The Android Power Menu available on long pressing the power button is entirely replaced with just a Power Off option that slides down from top. You have to drag it down, and not simply click it, to power off your device. There are no other options available outside of Power Off, and with no way to customize.
Swiping from up to down on the homescreen actually brings up a quick search box for apps. To access the notification drawer, you have to make sure to swipe from the very top edge and actively try to start from the status bar. This does feel rather counter-intuitive on a 5.5″ phone as it deters one handed operation. Swiping down again on the notification drawer also does not open the Quick Settings panel, while the button on the right that does look like a switch for quick swap to Quick Settings instead takes you to the App Notification Manager screen.
When a notification arrives, swiping to the right will take you to the relevant app, while swiping to the left will dismiss it.
In the hunt for Quick Settings, I managed to swipe from the bottom of the screen, and lo and behold! The Quick Settings slides out halfway from the bottom to reveal shortcuts for various apps like Flashlight, Calculator, Camera and well, Settings. There are also icons for toggling various settings, just like how it is in the Quick Settings panel. There is also a dedicated toggle for VPN, which would come handy for their market.
The Recent Panel follows the standard AOSP card style, with the addition of a kill-all button.
The Settings app is rather limited at first glance, offering only a few settings. However, a lot of other options are tucked away inside the visible options. For example, the Apps and Permissions option is home to other nifty features like a Startup Manager called as “Auto Startup”, the Notification Manager mentioned above and a Permission Manager (ala App Ops). The Advance Settings option brings up the Developer Options screen, which is enabled by default, saving you multiple taps on the Build Number (the entry of which does not exist).
The default app in Hydrogen OS features 3 tabs: Call Log (default), Contacts and a “Yellow Pages” tab, along with a Floating Action Button for displaying the dialpad. The Yellow Pages tab is one of those areas in Hydrogen OS which does not have any English elements, but based on my interaction, the tab contains shortcuts for services like Recharge, Cab Services, Movies and Travel.
The Hydrogen OS Gallery app comes with two tabs: Photos and All Pictures. The Photos tab which is the default tab, displays only pictures and videos taken via the phone’s camera and is presented in a grid layout sorted through date.
The All Pictures tab displays a folder list, with individual elements inside the folders following the grid layout and sorted as date modified. There are no other sort options present.
The clock app is one of those areas where stock Android should borrow from, as far as theming goes. The 4 standard tabs are present: Alarm, Clock, Timer, Stopwatch.
There is also a built-in time convertor present in the Clock tab, which can convert any time to a host of timezones (rather than displaying only the current time in various zones).
The camera present is an unthemed, stock AOSP camera app. Stock functionality is intact, so nothing more to mention here.
The calendar and calculator apps have also received a UI refresh, but both remain similar in functionality to their stock AOSP counterparts.
The Gmail app does not come bundled within the ROM, but is just a download from the Store away. The stock Email app supports Google, Exchange and a host of Chinese email providers. You can also sign up for an email account with www.163.com from within the Email app using your phone number, and I am not sure how I feel about that.
The Browser app sports a very iOS feel to it. There is a complete design refresh different from any other browser that I have ever used. The browser start-up page sports shortcut lists, along with a summary of previously visited URL’s. Unsurprisingly, the default search provider in the browser is from Baidu and not Google.
This is an addition to the stock apps present. It features a unique design and animations. The app by itself is a visual treat as it makes use of the device sensors to alter the animations. For example, the falling rain drop animation is always falling downwards in the direction of gravity, irrespective of device orientation. A caveat of the app is that it may not find your location at all and is another area without English translation, thereby leaving you with a beautiful but useless app.
In the app drawer/homescreen, this app is simply mentioned as “Market”, but if the folders it created on my SD card are clues, this app is called OnePlus Market. This is another app which does not feature a word of English, so on the basis of UI, it looks like a standard market application for downloading apps and games.
Out of the box, the ROM does not come with root access, which is standard for a ROM meant for the open market. This can be quickly remedied by flashing SuperSU‘s root package.
The ROM is also missing some notable features which have become synonymous with the OnePlus. For one, there is no option to disable the capacitive buttons on the device and enable a navigation bar, something I personally prefer. There are also no screen off gestures present in the settings. The ROM also comes with Double-Tap-To-Wake disabled with no setting to enable it, but this can be remedied by using an app to enable it.
There is a lot of Chinese interspersed throughout apps, even though the system language has been set to English. Some design decisions like separate directional swipes for notification panel and quicksettings feel counter-intuitive and definitely need getting used to. The swipe up from below for the quick settings is a rather illogical decision on UX as there is no indication that something will even happen with a swipe up gesture (I “discovered” it on accident).
The status bar is left largely unused as it only houses the icons for Wifi, Signal Strength and Battery, while the left side of the status bar is always left unused for some reason, as it did not display any notification icons for me even when I had many. It might feel like a small caveat, but for me, I did not realise I had restored my 50+ apps via Play Store as there was no ongoing notification for the same.
The ROM also did not come along with a Music Player app and neither with a File Manager, so there is no way of accessing anything other than pictures and videos outside of the Photo app. Of course, Hydrogen OS is still Android, so you can always download alternatives from the Play Store.
Performance wise, the ROM performs better than Oxygen OS but does not match newer CM12.1 nightlies or CM12.1 based ROMs. There are no apparent lags, but apps take a tad-half-second longer to open even when I had a lot of free RAM. I could not thoroughly test battery life, but there were no indications that the ROM will give stellar battery performance, so by my estimates, it will be slightly improved or be at par with Oxygen OS but not within range of closer-to-AOSP options.
One important point to mention here is that the ROM is in limited beta release and is not a consumer release, so there is scope for things to get better.
For a normal consumer, Hydrogen OS in its beta state is definitely better than Oxygen OS in its release state. The UI is more polished, there are less graphical glitches, and it performs at par, if not better, with regards to performance and battery life. This does say something as Oxygen OS follows a more minimalistic approach from AOSP while Hydrogen OS goes in the opposite direction. As a ROM, Hydrogen OS is what Oxygen OS never was: a ROM to show off.
If you are content with using a closed source ROM made specifically for the Chinese market, then Hydrogen OS can become your daily driver. Even if you do not belong in that group, I recommend giving this ROM a spin only to experience something different in terms of UI. Be sure to have a nandroid backup as chances are, it may not become your daily driver in its current state.
What do you think of Hydrogen OS? Does the UI impress you on the first look? Do you feel OnePlus did a fair job with Oxygen OS? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
The post OnePlus One Hydrogen OS: First Impressions appeared first on xda-developers.
So you’re waiting for that perfect phone, it’s bound to happen sooner or later right? An OEM will finally bow to consumer demand and make a phone with all those features that we want at a reasonable price and in doing so conquer the market. Wrong.
In a recent Discuss feature we asked you, “What’s the One Thing You Want to See on Your Next Phone?” Hundreds of answers later and it became apparent that many people expect to much from OEMs. Some of the answers we received did indeed fall within the realms of plausibility as far as the technology goes. However, the vast majority will not see a phone for many years due to a simple eternal factor, companies desire large and long term profits. We often forget that as power users we do not make up the vast majority of the market and our desires greatly differ from those of the average user. We are generally more hungry for battery life and storage, and as such these may take little priority when developing new models. The features that do take priority are those that are set to make the most money, these include but are not limited to: size, shape and numbers. Whilst many of us would prefer to sacrifice some precious millimetres in exchange for a higher capacity battery, for many users it is the look of a device that draws them in. Shape is obviously dictated by fashion trends set by the larger OEMs or based upon gimmicks (i’m looking at you LG G flex). And finally, we arrive at numbers. Big numbers, the bigger the better, right? By this I am referring to of course the specs, which whilst not being as impressive once you fully understand them, make a big difference to the lay person’s purchasing decision. These are often twisted to better facilitate the sales pitch.
The image here is taken from the specs page of a current flagship and shows a common problem with how the average user sees a phone before purchasing. “402 hours” of battery life? That’s almost 17 days, that’s about the same as my
It is in manufacturers’ best interests to create a phone that can be beat the following year. If it is in theory possible to place 512 GB of internal storage in our mobile devices, why hasn’t it been done? There are multiple reasons for this, the first being cost, as it still remains very expensive to buy this size of storage from manufacturers. Cost aside however, we currently live in a world where a phone with 128 GB of internal storage is considered significant. Any company would hesitate to leap to 512 GB when 256 GB can be used in several years and still be a major promoting factor and then make a further leap several years after that. Finally storage has become a controversial subject of late, many flagships have seen SD card support disappear in a bid to promote higher internal storage models of devices and cloud storage services.
It is commonly stated that “perfect is the enemy of good enough”, by which in this instance it is meant that in the search for this hypothetical perfect phone we can easily become distracted from that which we already have. It is human nature to desire more. I sit here looking at the phones on my desk, the latest addition features a 5.7 inch display, dual sim capability, a Snapdragon 801 and a 3000 mAh battery. It meets my every need, however I can immediately bring to mind a small list of things that I would change about it if I could. I also firmly believe that if I were given these features another list would come to mind in a never ending cycle. We should of course always strive for progress, but for now we still have some great technology in our hands. We may never see that perfect phone, but we will see some great devices along the journey.
“The flagship is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of code spilled by all those OEMs and developers so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a market. Think of the endless features claimed by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel, forced upon the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings.”
– Carl Sagan (of course, I could be paraphrasing here)
Which features do you think OEMs could release now that would still meet their interests? Leave a comment below!
The post Editorial: Why We’ll Never Have The Perfect Phone appeared first on xda-developers.
Google’s recent open-source drop of Chrome on Android was a great step forward. With many users not wanting to be assaulted with ads, and Google not allowing ad-blocking apps on the Play Store, it was only a matter of time before developers created browsers that automatically blocked ads. Enter NoChromo.
The post NoChromo, A New Ad-Blocking Browser, Appears appeared first on xda-developers.
Automate is a simpler and graphical alternative to the complex Tasker. With Automate, tasks are set up using visual flowcharts, offering beginners a better chance and smaller learning curve towards automation. Automate also supports plugins made for Tasker and Locale.
The post Automate – Automatic Tasks appeared first on xda-developers.
