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The Google Chromecast with Google TV is your Gateway to Live TV Streaming
At $50, the Google Chromecast with Google TV is an excellent entry-level gateway to live TV streaming services. Here's what we think of it.
Before September 30, a 4K-enabled Chromecast would set you back a minimum of $69, and you were limited by having to use your phone as your remote, jumping around in your launcher to the app you needed to watch the show you wanted. On the day the Google Chromecast with Google TV was announced, I ordered it so I could put it through its paces. Before I go into detail about the setup process and using the device, I'll mention that if you already have a 4K-enabled Android TV set-top box with a Google Assistant-enabled remote, there's no compelling reason to switch, even less so given the at-launch limitations of this Chromecast (as I'll explain later). But if you're looking to upgrade an old "dumb" TV for the first time, Google's new dongle is worth your consideration.
Ground Zero ROMs mourns the loss of one of its own
Ground Zero ROMs and the Android development community as a whole will sorely miss one of its own, a talented developer named Martin Coulon.
It was the year Motorola upended the Android world with the introduction of the first Moto X and Moto G, and it was the year that XDA Recognized Developer Martin Coulon (martinusbe) joined the Ground Zero ROMs team and began to establish a legacy that will last long after his recent passing due to cancer. Martin is remembered not only as a truly talented developer and maintainer but also as a kind and down-to-earth person who never hesitated to take the time to help others.
Dirty Unicorns is back on XDA with ROMs for several Google Pixel phones
Dirty Unicorns, one of the most popular and feature-packed custom ROMs for various Pixel phones, is back again on the XDA forums. Read on to know more!
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.
How to root the OnePlus Nord with Magisk
If you have gotten your hands on the new OnePlus Nord, here are the steps you can follow to easily unlock the bootloader and root the Nord with Magisk.
The OnePlus Nord is just beginning to arrive at the porches of early adopters, and there's already a way to root it. XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username has put together a guide that makes use of XDA Senior Recognized Developer topjohnwu's Magisk to root the device. Obviously there's no TWRP or flashable Magisk zip this early in the product cycle for the Nord, so rooting it will take a few steps. You'll need to have your PC handy and know your way around ADB and your PC's command-line interface.
AniWeather is a beautiful new weather app for Android focused on animations and simplicity
AniWeather is a unique weather app that features a simple, uncluttered and stylish design that evokes memories of the developer's Substratum chops.
AniWeather, like its name suggests, is an animated weather app developed by one of our community's legendary Substratum themers, XDA Senior Member llevo3. If by any chance the word "animated" conjures up images of tacky whirling lights or flashing graphics from a 1996 Geocities homepage, there is no need to worry - there is none of that here. The animations strike an excellent balance between subtlety and adding to the user experience. Another outstanding feature of AniWeather is its simplicity - there is no complex labyrinth of settings within settings or any cluttered array of obscure weather data.
Lockscreen Widgets lets you add widgets to your Android lockscreen
Lockscreen Widgets is an app that allows you to add widgets to your lockscreen and pretend it's 2013 and you're running Android 4.4 KitKat.
Even in 2020 Android devices running Android 10 can party like it's 1999 2013 with Lockscreen Widgets by XDA Recognized Developer/Contributor Zachary Wander (Zacharee1). As the name suggests, the app restores the ability from Android 4.4 KitKat and before to add widgets to the Android lockscreen. It works on any Android device running Android 5.1 Lollipop and later!
Wavelet is an Android app that can make your headphones sound much better with automatic EQ
Wavelet is an audio optimization app for Android that can be tailored to any of over 2,300 different headphone models, and it doesn't require root access.
Apps or mods that significantly improve the sound quality of your Android device often require root access, but that is not the case for Wavelet, an app developed by XDA Senior Member pittvandewitt. While the app is designed primarily for headphones, I've found its benefits extend to the phone's speakers and even my car's stereo over Bluetooth.
Overdrop Weather App Review - A Promising Alternative to Dark Sky
Overdrop is a promising alternative to Dark Sky, a popular hyperlocal weather app that's no longer available to Android users. Check out our thoughts on it!
Apple's surprising move to purchase popular "hyperlocal" weather app Dark Sky and pull it from the Play Store left many Android users scrambling to find a replacement, and Overdrop may be the new app of choice for some. I recently spent some quality time with Overdrop (which incidentally still uses Dark Sky's API as one of its weather service providers) and found it to be a promising though slightly flawed alternative.
[Update 2: $50 off globally] The Dual-Screen Nubia Z20 launches in North America and Europe next month
The dual-screen Nubia Z20 with a bezel-less front display and a second display on the back, is launching in North America and Europe on October 14. Read on!
ZTE's Nubia sub-brand showed off the dual-screen Nubia Z20 earlier this year, and consumers in the US, Canada, EU, and the UK will soon be able to purchase their own. While other manufacturers have resorted to waterdrop notches, pop-up cameras, "pizza-slice"/"shark-fin" cameras and hole-punch displays to eliminate bezels in the pursuit of touting an all-screen phone, Nubia simply put another display on the back so their users can just use the rear camera to take selfies.
OnePlus 6/6T's latest OxygenOS 10 Open Betas bring bug fixes and camera improvements
OxygenOS 10 Open Beta 31 is now available for the OnePlus 6 and its corresponding Open Beta 19 is available for the OnePlus 6T.
While some devices are just now getting an Android 9 Pie update, OnePlus is pushing out another Android 10-based beta update with its OxygenOS 10 skin or the OnePlus 6/6T. This update brings fixes to some minor bugs along with camera improvements. The update is on top of the October 2019 security patch level.
Substratum now supports Android 10 theming
If the built-in theming options in Android 10 aren't robust enough for your tastes, Substratum now supports Google's latest and greatest Android build.
For those of you who find Android 10's built-in theming options and system-wide dark mode a bit bare-bones, the latest beta of Substratum now supports Google's latest and greatest, provided the phone in question is rooted. I've put it through its paces on my backup phone, a OnePlus 5T running Android 10 via AOSiP and using the Liv Dark Substratum theme. I also had a chance to talk to a couple of members of the Projekt Development Team behind Substratum and gain some insight into how Android 10 support was achieved.
How to unlock the Nokia 2.1 bootloader
It is now possible to unofficially unlock the bootloader for the Nokia 2.1 - a necessary first step for rooting and flashing custom ROMs.
Nokia 2.1 owners now have a way to unlock their bootloaders thanks to the efforts of XDA Senior Member hikari_calyx. This, of course, is a required first step towards opening up a world of possibilities in the way of rooting and flashing custom ROMs, kernels, and other mods. The procedure described in the forum post involves flashing a "service bootloader" file available via a firmware download link and then unlocking it. Of course, the hope is that enough time passes before Nokia-brand manufacturer HMD Global blocks the procedure for a decent development community to, erm, develop. Of course, since Android Pie is already available for the Nokia 2.1, any custom ROMs that get built will no doubt be based on Pie.
MIUI-ify brings a MIUI 10-style quick settings and notification panel to the bottom of your screen
MIUI-ify allows users to swipe a MIUI 10-style Quick Setting and notification panel from the bottom of the screen, a plus for 6-inch-plus phone displays.
For users of stock Android, HTC Sense, LG UX, Oxygen OS, or One UI, pulling the notification panel up from the bottom of the screen may seem a bit backward, but with the 6-inch-plus screens of many modern flagships, some might actually find it preferable to stretching their fingers to pull the panel down from the top. XDA Senior Member TomBayley1 developed apps that allow users to do exactly that. One of them is done in the stock Android Pie/Q style but perhaps even more interesting is MIUI-ify, the one done in the style of Xiaomi's latest and greatest MIUI 10.
How to re-purpose your old Android phone into a high-res dash cam
With smartphones depreciating in value faster than ever, it might actually be a greater value to keep your old Android phone and use it as a dash cam.
While there are often trade-in offers and venues where you can sell your old phone when you're ready to upgrade, the notoriously rapid depreciation of smartphones might make it a better idea to simply keep your old handset. This is especially so when you can give it new life as a media player, digital picture frame or, in my case, a dash cam.
[Discussion] Do you use a Google Camera port?
Since the launch of the Pixel phone, Google Camera has gone from just another Google app to a vehicle for porting its best camera features to other devices.
Google Camera used to be just another Google app used mainly by hard-core enthusiasts who wanted to "Google all the things." Then the first Pixel phone launched in 2016 and the app became the difference between a passable photo and a great photo. Google showed that software can vault an otherwise ordinary 12MP shooter to the top of the DxOMark rankings and suddenly the development community looked for ways to port the Pixel-exclusive software features (especially HDR+) to other devices. With the subsequent launches of the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3, Google Camera ports only became more widely used.
Google Fi will support 5G thanks to Sprint's network
Sprint and Google announced Monday that Google Fi will gain 5G support in select markets through Sprint's network beginning in the first half of 2019.
If you use Google Fi you won't have to worry about missing the 5G revolution, provided you can afford the hardware and live in the right city. Google and Sprint announced Monday that Sprint will bring 5G to Google's signature Fi MVNO in the first half of 2019. Since Google Fi recently expanded its support to a much wider variety of devices, it shouldn't take too long to find a compatible phone to take advantage of Fi(veG).
Western Digital announces UFS 3.0 storage drives for high-end smartphones
Western Digital announced a UFS 3.0 Embedded Flash Drive for mid-to-late 2019 flagship phones to offer the latest in high-performance internal storage.
Aside from the Snapdragon 855, 5G, and foldable displays, the fourth-biggest 2019 buzzword in the Android world might well be UFS 3.0. The third generation of Universal Flash Storage specs were released early in 2018, but only in 2019 will we actually see phones with embedded storage that meet such standards. The first phone to be announced with UFS 3.0 storage was the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which will set buyers back about $2,000 for the most bare-bones variant. There were rumors that the Galaxy S10 would feature UFS 3.0, but no mention was made of it in Samsung's official Galaxy S10 spec sheet.
Google Pixel 3/2's Active Edge squeeze feature has been ported to custom ROMs
A fully open-source port of the popular Active Edge from the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 phones has been made available to the custom ROM community.
For the first time, a fully open-source port of the popular Active Edge from the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 phones has been made available to the custom ROM community, thanks to the efforts of XDA Senior Member Jertlok and the Dirty Unicorns ROM development team. The latter took to Twitter to announce Active Edge's availability.
Chrome 72 adds Trusted Web Activities, letting web devs ship Progressive Web Apps on the Play Store
Chrome 72 for Android now lets web developers publish their sites in the Play Store as Progressive Web Apps using a feature called Trusted Web Activities.
Google's Play Store is getting a whole new category of apps, thanks to an update to Chrome for Android of all things. Now that the stable channel of Chrome for Android is updated to version 72, Progressive Web Apps can now be published to the Play Store thanks to something Google announced in 2017 called Trusted Web Activities.
Android Studio 3.5 Canary adds "Apply Changes," an Instant Run replacement
Android Studio 3.5 introduces Apply Changes, the successor to the Instant Run feature of the popular app development tool.
Android Studio 3.5 (currently in the Canary and Dev channels) now features a new way to push code changes to your app and see their effects on the fly without having to restart the app. Dubbed simply "Apply Changes," it's the successor to the "Instant Run" feature in previous versions of Android Studio.