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vendredi 12 juin 2015

DIY Android Auto Box, LG G4 Rooted and More – XDA TV

Jordan

OnePlus is holding a competition for the OnePlus 2. That and much more news is covered by Jordan when he reviews all the important stories from this week. Included in this week’s news is the announcement of Tasker being updated to version 4.7 and be sure to check out the article talking about the DIY Android Auto dev-box. That’s not all that’s covered in today’s video!

Jordan talks about the other videos released this week on XDA TV. XDA TV Producer TK released an Xposed Tuesday video covering Scroll Me Up. Then Jordan reviewed the ASUS ZenFone 2. Also, TK gave us an app review of ICondy showing us how to combine icon packs. Pull up a chair and check out this video.


Be sure to check out other great XDA TV Videos

Check out Jordan’s YouTube Channel and Jordan’s Gaming YouTube Channel

The post DIY Android Auto Box, LG G4 Rooted and More – XDA TV appeared first on xda-developers.



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Blackberry Devices To Feature Android

Blackberry

Reuters is reporting that Blackberry may be considering shipping new devices with Android after it has become apparent that the Blackberry 10 range was not enough to claw the company back from the brink. This news comes from four sources they have been in contact with over the sudden change in direction.

 

 

The four sources, who requested that they not be named as they do not have authorization to discuss the matter publicly, claimed that the move to Android is part of a new strategy BlackBerry is using to change their focus on software and device management. It is not hard to imagine that this will either bring about an end to the Blackberry 10 line of devices or see the beginnings of a new line of Android devices to run along side it. This is expected to begin with a phone featuring a sliding keyboard as was seen briefly at Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

“We don’t comment on rumors and speculation, but we remain committed to the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which provides security and productivity benefits that are unmatched,” – Blackberry

Two of the aforementioned sources stated that the introduction of Android to Blackberry devices would make an excellent point regarding managing and securing multiple operating systems through the new Blackberry enterprise Service 12  (BES12). Regardless of their plans for possible future OS, Blackberry will have to make a pretty impressive turnaround if they still expect to be around in a few years time. The company that once housed 17,500 people was down to just 6,225 at the beginning of 2015 and has made further cuts since. It’s not hard to see why, as their user base has dropped from a reported 80 million to just 37 million in just a few years.

Blackberry stock

Blackberry share prices since their peak in 2011

 

It would certainly be interesting to see if this move will rescue the fallen company and how an OEM known for producing unaesthetic devices with an unpopular OS would fare in the incredibly fragmented and versatile world of Android. Even if an Android Blackberry does not prove to be popular, my guess would be that it will still outsell most of the recent devices made by BlackBerry, and that can only be a good thing.

 

Would you buy a Blackberry device running Android? Leave a comment below!

The post Blackberry Devices To Feature Android appeared first on xda-developers.



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Asus has considered puchasing HTC

htc-logo-1

The Chairman of popular laptop and smartphone maker Asus revealed that they have considered purchasing HTC, according to a report from Reuters. Both companies are based in Taiwan, but with HTC having recently had a poor forecast for the June quarter, the move could be a good one for both parties in the future.

The post Asus has considered puchasing HTC appeared first on xda-developers.



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jeudi 11 juin 2015

Spotify V3.0 Update

download

V3.0 of the Spotify app started to roll out to users today bringing with it some useful features. These include swipe gestures on the mini player to skip tracks and a more clear differentiation between the main and mini players through some UI tweaks. Some users are however reporting a lack of the new UI after the update.

 

The post Spotify V3.0 Update appeared first on xda-developers.



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Last.fm Receives Complete Redesign

5579b009a1ea6

Last.fm has had a major update after having no attention paid to it in years. The changes include a complete new design and the ability to scrobble from more sources including Soundcloud, Spotify and Rdio to name a few.

The post Last.fm Receives Complete Redesign appeared first on xda-developers.



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Overlay Firefox OS On Your Android Device

FireFox on Android

As many of you may know, Mozilla also has their own operating system for mobile devices known as Firefox OS. Thanks to Mozilla developer Fabrice Desré, you can now try the Firefox OS experience without flashing a ROM or removing Android by installing B2GDroid.

The  concept of the app is quite simple, set it as your default launcher and you will see an almost full Firefox OS experience, including: launcher, notification drawer, lock screen and settings. It doesn’t completely replace your ROM, but if you were considering buying a phone with Firefox OS or making the switch this is a good way to find out what to expect.

The app does include some of the Firefox OS apps, which are the apps you’d find included with the complete OS such as messaging, contacts, calendar, and its app store. Unfortunately some elements such as the notification drawer tend to conflict with Android’s own and at the these times you will likely be booted back to your old launcher whilst Firefox compiles an error report. As Firefox OS is not intended to work like this, you will find performance to be very poor and the stability is borderline unusable.

I spent a few hours trialing the software on my Android phone today. Whilst I attempted to not leave B2GDroid (This version is called “Fennec Fabrice”), the frequent crashes made this difficult and I was booted back to Nova Launcher frequently. Apart from these brief moments of respite I successfully kept to the app for close to 6 hours. You can see my first few moments with the app, exploring and habituating to the UI below.

Whilst I tried to enjoy my experience, it was made very hard. Several of the key features are inoperable when running on Android, the back key appears to be non functional and the home key brings up the recent apps menu which only appears to be capable of holding one app at a time. The UI makes everything incredibly large and you do get the feeling that you are using Firefox OS for the visually impaired.

That being said it is still in the early stages of development, several of us in the portal team tried it out and we each had very different experiences. I remain hopeful for the future of the app, with time and effort this could become a real benefit to people considering an alternative to Android.

 

FOS Screenshot_2015-06-11-16-53-19Screenshot_2015-06-11-17-16-22 Screenshot_2015-06-11-16-59-17Screenshot_2015-06-11-16-53-26

 

If you would like to try out the app for yourself, head over to here and then select the app as your default launcher.

 

Have you tried the app, how did it perform? Leave a comment below!

The post Overlay Firefox OS On Your Android Device appeared first on xda-developers.



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Find & Compare Phones With Google’s New Site

Which Phone

Which Phone, the new device comparison tool from Google, helps you narrow the field by asking which activities you find most important: listening to music, texting, snapping photos, etc. The site is geared towards casual consumers, but its simplistic questions and filters pair phones with needs remarkably well. Check it out!

The post Find & Compare Phones With Google’s New Site appeared first on xda-developers.



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