The latest Google Photos update brings some minor additions, mainly allowing you to manually specify album covers and edit photo descriptions directly from the app. Unfortunately, Chromecast support still isn’t available just yet if you’re awaiting that feature.
The latest update to Skype’s android app brings along improvements to the “Recents” tab, allowing you to see more chats without scrolling. The update also aims for consistent usage of the round avatars, as well as ubiquitous display of online status information, and “other fixes and stability improvements”.
Hacking Team’s RCS Android has been dubbed as the most sophisticated Android based malware to be ever exposed, by security research firm Trend Micro. The source code of this exploit is present in Hacking Team’s leaked data dumps, and the exploit uses vulnerabilities in default browsers from Android 4.0 to 4.3.
Much has been said about the overheating and subsequent throttling issues surrounding the Snapdragon 810, but XDA forum member schecter7 thinks he may have found a simple fix.
What is CPU throttling caused by? Excess heat.
How do you get rid of excess heat? Add a bigger heat sink.
This is essentially what XDA member schecter7 has done to his Sony Xperia Z3+ phone. By sandwiching some aluminum foil between his phone and his third-party TPU case, he’s created a sort of poor man’s heat sink, better dispersing the concentrated heat generated by the Snapdragon 810 over the whole case of the phone.
It probably seems more than a little bit silly to use aluminum foil as an external heat sink, but schecter7 has produced some real-world results. By measuring temperature and benchmark scores while running AnTuTu Benchmark multiple times consecutively, drops in performance can be seen as the phone heats up—this is CPU throttling in action. He ran through this test several times: once with a phone case; once without a phone case; and once with both a phone case and foil.
The results, shown below, indicate a ~1–2°C drop in temperature and a performance boost upwards of 5%. XDA member nfs2010 reported even better results if you have access to some copper foil.
The AnTuTu experiment: temperature and performance vs. consecutive runs both with and without case & foil. While a 5% boost may not be much, it might be worth it for some power users looking to stave off CPU throttling and eek out even a slight boost in performance. Further, it’s easy to do, and it utilizes materials (aluminum foil) that nearly everyone has in their kitchen. If it even slightly improves performance, maybe it’s worth a shot.
Also, while it may seem like this DIY hack could adversely affect your wi-fi and cell reception, there have been no complaints, thus far, on the Xperia Z4/Z3+; of course, your mileage may vary depending on your particular phone and antenna design.
Does this simple DIY heat sink work for you? Let us know in the comments!
Sony has announced on its official blog that it has begun to roll out Android 5.1 to the Xperia Z3 and Z2 lines, confirming recent reports. Along with the normal enhancements that accompany the latest version of Lollipop, Sony claims improvements to camera performance, volume controls and enterprise tools.
Forum user ThunderSky7 has released a Cyanogen mod theme named ZENER. Zener comes in either light or dark (for AMOLED) options. This is a comprehensive theme including custom looks for: SystemUI, Phone, Play Store, Camera, and more.
There are many great features on our phones. Between Microsoft’s Cortana coming to Android and Google Now getting more and more intelligent, voice control of our searches is not far away. Siri, Cortana and Google Now are not the only ones looking to make a vocal search assistant, as song identification service SoundHound is jumping into the ring with their new Hound app as well. So the question begs to be asked, which digital assistant implementation is actually better: Hound by SoundHound or, the Android standard, Google Now?
In this episode, XDA TV Producer TK compares Hound to Google Now in a Digital Assistant Showdown. In this cage match two will enter, how many will exit? Could it be two? Can there be two kings of the digital assistant world each providing their own value depending on the situation? Is there a clear winner? Check out this video to find out!
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