The much-anticipated OnePlus Nord is finally here and is already on sale in most markets. The device received its first software update last month, which brought several performance improvements and bug fixes along with support for OnePlus Buds. Now, OnePlus is rolling out yet another software update in the form of OxygenOS 10.5.4 that further improves the front and macro camera performance, display performance, quality of video calls, and fixes some bugs. OnePlus notes this update also improves the launch speed of the Gallery app and fixes a bug which stopped the music playback when launching the front camera.
The full changelog for the OxygenOS 10.5.4 update is posted below:
System
Improved launch speed of Gallery
Improved display experience
Fixed issue of being unable to join Red Cable Club
Fixed issue of background music pausing when launching front camera
Camera
Improved quality of video calls
Improved color accuracy and white balance for low-light selfies
Improved vibrancy and color accuracy of macro camera
Cloud Service
Fixed issue of syncing Notes (India only)
The OxygenOS 10.5.3 will be rolling out to OnePlus Nord units gradually over the next few days. However, if you haven’t received the update just yet and don’t want to wait for the rollout, you can also sideload the update by flashing the update package from the below links. We have provided links to both incremental OTA and full OTA zips.
In recent years, Dirty Unicorns has been one of the most feature-packed, stable, and popular custom ROMs available for various Pixel phones, but for a long time, it couldn’t be found on the XDA forums. That changed with an announcement on the Dirty Unicorns Twitter account on Monday, August 3rd and you can now enjoy a traditional Dirty Unicorns forum thread for each supported device.
ATTN: We’re going back to XDA!
No, this is not a really late April fools joke. We wanted to take a moment to briefly explain why. Please read the entire thread of tweets.
For the uninitiated, Dirty Unicorns began nearly a decade ago as an offshoot of the then-popular Ice Cream Sandwich ROM named AOKP. Dirty Unicorns really began to establish its own “personality” during the Jelly Bean era and has become one of the longest-lasting custom ROMs of all time. Though real-life matters have left me running stock on my daily-use devices for at least the past year, I had been a longtime user of Dirty Unicorns before that and even covered major developments in the ROM over time.
Currently, some of the outstanding features in Dirty Unicorns include popular Pixel-specific features unavailable in AOSP such as Motion Sense and Active Edge, and Pulse still brings a graphic equalizer to the bottom of your screen along with a more robust take on system theming than the one that comes standard to Pixel phones. The Dirty Unicorns theming engine basically mimics Google’s approach while adding more options. For example, more accent colors and fonts are available in Dirty Unicorns beyond the ones in the stock Pixel ROM. Also, there are more navigation “pill” options and more icon shapes available. Also, there are four available system themes: light, dark gray (“Google” gray), pitch black, and “solarized dark”. Some of the theming features are highlighted in the following screenshots:
As for their Android 11 plans, I’ve been told by one of their leading developers that the ROM’s most popular features should make the jump some reasonable time after the Android 11/R code is released by Google to AOSP. Of course, it takes time to port these features since Google often moves features around in their code with each major release so don’t expect Dirty Unicorns 15.0 to come out right after the next AOSP push. Such is the case, of course, with every feature-laden custom ROM that adds anything significant to the standard Android source code.
On August 6th, 2020, Huawei hosted their Huawei Developer Webinar that focused on introducing their new e-commerce related services. This webinar titled “Connect LIVEs with E-commerce” is an hour-long and was streamed for free online. If you missed the livestream, you can catch the replay using the link below. In their article, we are going to recap all of the most exciting points from the stream.
Global partners Share their Live E-commerce Experiences
Huawei invited global big names from the e-commerce domain to come share their experiences at this webinar. These experts were able to share their thoughts on the increasingly popular e-commerce livestreaming solutions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, companies have been looking at new ways to have successful online retail events. One of the areas seeing the most growth is in-app livestreams. During the webinar, we got to hear from the following experts:
Roosevelt Nascimento [Head of Product and Business Intelligence for Dafiti]
“We need to take advantage of the Huawei partnership to offer a seamless and better experience. Huawei has a high standard of quality devices using technology like high-quality images for image search, or even HiAI as an assistant to find the right product.”
Andres Cooper O. [CEO and Co-Founder of Chilaeutos]
“Livestreaming allows us to reach more users, position our brand, and strengthen our ties with our community. Livestreams create entertainment and useful information about our industry.”
Amelyn Marin [Marketing Manager for E-fast]
“A key factor with an impact on e-commerce business is the user-friendliness of the platforms that people use to buy products. COVID-19 has forced many stores to close their doors for weeks. As a result, many of them have relied on online broadcasts to connect with potential customers without needing a physical place.”
Larry Lin [VP, Head of Marketing for Zaful]
“This feature brings great profit potential to the livestreaming market. Unlike sellers in China, sellers in other countries are not familiar with the technique of livestreaming… Many players are still entering the industry. Zaful is one of them.”
Roland Ros [CEO and Founder of Kumu]
“It’s not just like the home shopping network. Basically what’s happening is you’re actually selling products to your friends and family like they were in your own home. So that’s something that’s really very interesting for us and E-commerce.”
Each guest explains how COVID-19 has affected their business, while they’ve seen an increase in online sales. Their partnership with Huawei allows them to grow this market using the new livestreaming technologies.
New Trends of Live-streaming E-commerce
Livestreamed e-commerce has become a hot growth area for the e-commerce industry. This area saw the most growth in 2020 as it becomes a strong method for obtaining capital for consumers and investors globally. The live e-commerce experience is far more interactive than your traditional online retail. Engage in real-time questions and answers, related to the current content being streamed. Consumers find this interactive experience much more exciting and make online shopping more fun in general.
If you look at retail trends across multiple industries, we find that those who use live e-commerce are seeing growing conversion rates when compared to traditional retail. Studying the current trend of e-commerce, you can safely predict that this is going to continue to be a growing market for online retail. Many companies will continue to invest in this new trend to gain the significant advantages of this type of content.
E-commerce sales growth
Huawei shared information about the growth of online e-commerce compared to typical retail sales. Huawei says that they’ve personally experienced massive growth in this area, with the launch of 25 new e-commerce stores in several different countries. They have also experienced an uplift in revenue of more than 200% in 2020.
In order to keep up with the change, companies will need to evolve the way they interact with customers. The days of boring texts descriptions and product review videos are gone. Now super interactive livestreamed content can be used to boost product sales.
Huawei went on to give specifics about the success of the different types of products being sold using live e-commerce. Watch the livestream replay for a more in-depth look at all of these specifics.
New Technology of Live-streaming E-commerce
As the webinar continued we got a look at the specific features that will be available through the HMS kits related to live e-commerce. The overall goal of these kits is to make the livestreaming process simple, faster, more cost-effective, and more immersive. The next-gen live studios can consist of as little as one mobile phone and an external camera. This is all you need to get started with your multi-camera livestream.
Digital backgdrops will be another feature that can replace costly sets and locations. Digital backdrops are easy to use and can be changed to fit your specific scenario. Hosts will also be able to show the internal details and parameters of the product. This information will be shown visually as an overlay on the livestream.
The final feature they discussed was a more fluid streaming experience. One of the biggest challenges of online streaming is maintaining a high-quality stream throughout your show. Since this is such an important feature to drive sales, Huawei put a lot of effort into making it easier to maintain your stream quality, even for slower connections. Your phone will be able to detect the quality of your connection in real-time and then adjust the stream quality accordingly.
Huawei proceeded to show their demo video of some of these features in action:
The current platforms that feature Huawei’s versatile mobile phone shooting features are:
LiveMe
Likee
Huawei MeeTime
These camera features are currently compatible with:
Drift action cameras
AIcidae AI panoramic cameras
This is just the beginning, as Huawei says more services and more compatible hardware are coming in the near future.
Collaboration Pilot Program
In the final part of the livestream, Peter Gauden [Head of WEU Eco-Development Marketing for Huawei Consumer Business Group] talked about their collaboration pilot program. The long-term program is designed to support the creation of the next generation of innovative apps and services. This program is open to all developers. Huawei is looking to help fund partners that are looking to implement livestreaming solutions into their platforms.
Banggood is one of the first major companies to join the program. Huawei is looking to fund five select partners in total. If you are a developer and you’re interested in joining this program, you can email Huawei at GlobalBD@huawei.com.
Pilot Collaboration Program
Huawei promises that they are here for the long run, with a goal of seeing the best ideas become reality.
This post is sponsored and written in part by Huawei. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.
Energy Ring is a great app on Android that adds a configurable ring around your device’s front-facing hole-punch camera. It allows users to quickly see their phone’s remaining battery life, making it a nice quality-of-life improvement. We’ve covered it several times in the past, and that’s because the developer keeps updating the app with support for new devices. Following the release of the OnePlus Nord, Energy Ring now supports the new mid-range device.
Some of Energy Ring’s out of box features include the ability to change the ring’s thickness, configurable ring direction, ability to choose colors, and a fun animation when your device is plugged into a power source.
According to the app’s developer, Energy Ring has virtually no effect on battery life. As explained by the developer, the app consumes almost 0 CPU load and is only briefly active when the battery level changes. The app has been in active development for several months, with the developer adding support for many devices from brands like Realme, Xiaomi, Honor, Motorola, OPPO, Huawei,Samsung, and others. You can read more about Energy Ring’s performance and features on the app’s forum thread linked below or download the app from the Google Play Store link embedded below.
Although Java and JavaScript are very different languages, they make a great tag team. Master them both and you will be able to build amazing Android apps and websites from scratch. To help you get started, here are seven great deals on premium courses at the XDA Developers Depot.
The 2020 Java Bootcamp Bundle
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The 2020 Complete Java Master Class Bundle
Taking you to the next level,this collection of seven courseshelps you thrive as a Java developer. In 62 hours of training, you discover how to code native apps for Android and rich web applications, using a range of popular tools. Normally valued at $1,066, these courses arenow only $33.99.
The Complete Full-Stack JavaScript Course
Covering both frontend and backend development,this coursehelps you master JavaScript for the web. You get 21 hours of training in total, covering ReactJS, NodeJS, LoopbackJS, Redux, Material-UI, and more. The course also includes three exciting projects. Normally priced at $200,it’s now only $28.
Oracle Java Certification Exam Preparation Courses + Tests Training Bundle
According to PayScale, Oracle Java Certified developers can earn up to $120k a year.This bundlehelps you pass the test, with 13 hours of training videos, 40 full-length mock exams, and exhaustive explanations of every question. Worth $400 in total, this bundle isnow only $29.99.
The Complete JavaScript eBook Bundle
If you would like to explore the full potential of JavaScript,this mini-library of ebooksis a great place to start. The bundle includes ten titles, covering basic JS along with fascinating topics such as enterprise development, machine learning, 3D graphics, the Internet of Things, and much more. The ebooks retail for a total of $400, but you canget them now for $19.99.
The Ultimate Java Expert Certification Bundle
With 11 courses and 38 hours of content,this Ultimate Bundlelives up to its name. The training covers the latest features in Java 9, shows you how to build web applications, and even looks at UI design. Just as importantly, you should come away with certificates and a nice portfolio. Usually valued at $2,200,these courses are now only$31.
The Comprehensive JavaScript Bundle
From developing games to creating dynamic web pages,this bundlehelps you master JavaScript through 142 hours of video lessons. Along with the fundamentals, you learn about JavaScript DOM, HTML5 canvas drawing, object-oriented programming, and more. The eight courses are worth $1,492, but you canget them now for $31.
OnePlus recently announced a revision to the frequency of OxygenOS Open Beta update rollouts. To improve the stability of their public beta builds, the company is going to reduce the frequency of Open Beta updates to a single OTA per month instead of 2 (or more, considering hotfixes). In accordance with the new strategy, OnePlus had rolled out an open beta build in June and July. And for the new month of August, we have a new set of Open Beta builds that bring over August 2020 security patches and a bunch of bug fixes.
The update bumps the Android security patch level (SPL) to August 2020 and includes several fixes and optimizations. The update also includes a new user assistance feature, which includes tips on how to use the phone. This is present at Settings > OnePlus Tips & Help.
The complete changelog for the Open Beta 17 and Open Beta 7 update for the OnePlus 7 series and OnePlus 7T series can be found below:
System
Newly added user assistance feature to help user master usage skills quickly(Route: Settings>OnePlus Tips&Help)
Fixed the abnormal error occurred in Lockbox
Fixed the auto-start issue with QXDM logs after reboot
Optimized user experience with long screenshot in some scenarios
Updated Android security patch to 2020.08
Messages
Optimized the categorization, messages of the same contact now merged in one card(India only)
File Manager
Fixed the issue that File Manager did not display some downloaded documents of apps
Network
Improved the stability of Wi-Fi transfers
Download OxygenOS Open Beta 17/7 for the OnePlus 7/7T series
The Moto One Vision is a lower mid-range Android One phone from Motorola, offering a tall 21:9 display, Exynos 96109 SoC, a 48MP primary camera, and a near-stock Android 10 experience. There was already an unofficial build of TWRP maintained by XDA Senior Member tys0n. However, this official build is supported by kaneawk, a well-known name among the Motorola community, who also manages several other Motorola devices, including the Moto X4, Moto X Force, Moto G6 Plus, Moto Z3 Play, and so on.
After the Realme 5 Pro, Realme X2 Pro, and Realme 6 Pro, the Realme C2 has become the latest to receive the official TWRP build. Although there doesn’t appear to be any working ports of custom ROMs available for the Realme C2 owners to try out, the release of TWRP will hopefully help kickstart the development scene.
LG V20 owners with an unlocked bootloader can also dip their toes into the world of custom ROMs and modding, thanks to the availability of official TWRP build. Apart from the unlocked and global variants, those holding onto carrier models will also be able to flash the custom recovery, all thanks to XDA Senior Member npjohnson.
The Lenovo Smart Tab M10 is an Android-powered tablet, offering a 10.1-inch full HD display, Snapdragon 450 SoC, up to 3GB RAM, a 5MP rear camera, dual Dolby speakers, and a 4850 mAh battery. The tablet comes running Android Oreo out-of-the-box. The TWRP build for Lenovo Smart Tab M10 is maintained by XDA Senior Member Yahoo Mike and can be downloaded from the link given below.
The Huawei P9 Lite (hi6250) was announced all the way back in 2016 with a 5.2-inch FullHD display, HiSilicon Kirin 650 SoC, 2GB/3GB RAM, and a 3,000 mAh battery. While an unofficial build of TWRP has existed since 2017, it’s only now that the device has bee added to the TWRP build roaster.
These builds should also work on other Huawei and Honor devices with the HiSilicon Kirin 650 SoC running EMUI 5 based on Android 7.0 Nougat.
Ergo Force F500
Finally, the Ergo Force F500, an entry-level smartphone from a lesser-known smartphone brand called TM Ergo, has also received the official TWRP support. Visit the link given below to download the recovery zip and follow along with the step-by-step flashing instruction.