Kiwi Browser goes open source, allowing other Chromium-based browsers to add Extensions

The open-source Chromium project, based on the Blink engine, serves as the basis for dozens of web browsers. There’s the most popular, Google Chrome, along with others like Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, and more. Most Chromium-based web browsers offer a handful of additional features not found in Google Chrome, but there are some that radically change the experience. Kiwi Browser by XDA Senior Member arnaud42 is one such web browser, and for the browser’s second anniversary, the developer has fully open-sourced the web browser and all its features.

Back in 2018, arnaud42 released the first version of his Chromium-based web browser. When we first covered the project several months later, we were impressed by the feature-set it offered at the time, which pales in comparison to what the browser offers today. It had features like a built-in content blocker, dark mode, background video playback, AMP skipper, and more. The browser got better and better with each update, but what really made it shine is the fact that it was the first Chromium-based browser for Android that supports Chrome Extensions.

Maintaining such an ambitious project has proven challenging for the lone developer. The latest version of Kiwi Browser on the Google Play Store is based on Chromium version 77.0.3865.92, which is far behind the upcoming Chromium version 83 release that Google is planning. Rather than let the project go to waste, arnaud42 has decided to release the source code for Kiwi Browser on GitHub. He says that “everything is released, including extensions code” with “no strings attached” (the browser is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause.) He encourages developers of other Chromium-based web browsers to integrate Kiwi’s code into their projects. He states that in the last few weeks, he worked with other browser developers to help them integrate some of Kiwi’s functionality, so we may hear some good news from other web browsers on Android soon.

Arnaud42 will continue to review code submissions on the project’s GitHub if you’re interested in contributing to the project. The code is written in Java and C++ and all dependencies are already included in the repository to help developers who face difficulties setting up the Chromium build system.

Kiwi Browser Source Code on GitHub ||| XDA Forum Thread

Kiwi Browser is one of the most impressive projects we’ve seen on our forums for some time. The developer, arnaud42, is also a friend of XDA, so we would like to thank him for his work on this project over the last two years. We hope that other Chromium-based browsers incorporate some of Kiwi’s features soon because I’m really missing the ability to use Extensions on mobile!

Kiwi Browser - Fast & Quiet (Free, Google Play) →

Kiwi Browser (Free, XDA Labs) →

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Leaked Google Pay screenshots reveal “Google Card” debit card

One of the surprising “tech” product launches last year was the Apple Card. The company pitched it as a way to help Apple customers make smarter financial decisions through the help of a more intuitive app. The Apple Card has some interesting ideas, but it’s basically just a cash-back credit card. A new report and leaked images reveal that Google is developing a similar product tentatively called “Google Card.”

The report comes out of TechCrunch and they refer to the Google Card as a “smart debit card.” Many of the concepts are similar to the Apple Card, but the Google Card is a debit card. It’s a physical card that also exists as a virtual card in Google Pay, just like any other card you’ve added. The big difference between the Google Card and some other credit/debit card will be the integrated and detailed financial tracking.

Like any debit card, the Google Card will come with a checking account. Users will be able to access this account to check their balance, track purchases, add money, lock it, and other features in a new Google app. The card will be co-branded with bank partners such as CITI and Stanford Federal Credit Union. Leaked images give us a look at some of the other details.

The physical card itself is white with the logo of the partnered bank and Google. We can see that it’s a chip card on the Visa network, but there could be other networks included. The card design (which may not be final) also features a strange blue and green dot pattern. More important than the plastic, however, is the app experience, which is what should really set the Google Card apart from other debit cards.

The app will show recent transactions with merchant and date details. Since this is Google, there will be a wealth of information available as well. You will be able to see the location of the purchase on a map. If a card is lost or foul play is suspected, the user can lock the card immediately from the app and order a replacement. The virtual card will remain active as it has a different number than the physical card, so you won’t be completely out of luck. If the virtual card is the card in question, the user can rest it quickly.

In the app settings, we can see notification options and privacy controls. Users will be able to decide what information they want to share. Privacy is obviously going to be a big topic around the Google Card. People don’t have the same amount of trust for Google as they do for Apple. Many of us already give Google a lot of our personal information, but handing over the reigns on personal finance may be a bridge too far.

Some of this may sound familiar if you remember Google Wallet, which also had a physical component, but was ultimately replaced by Google Pay. Tech companies like Google and Apple are better suited for making software that’s easy to use and understand. That’s the appeal of signing up for an Apple Card or Google Card. TechCrunch did not give a timeline for when to expect the Google Card to become a reality. Are you interested in this product?

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Source: TechCrunch

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Magisk Module enables Camera during call, Call Recording, AppLock, and more on Samsung Galaxy S20

OEM Android skins, such as Xiaomi’s MIUI or OnePlus’ OxygenOS, often feature multiple regional variants. While a few region-exclusive services can be controlled from the server side, some manufacturers prefer to ship a complete set of features inside the firmware, with selective access to regional features being controlled via hidden parameters that are not visible to regular users. In the case of Samsung, they define those features via their Consumer Software Customization file (CSC). Fiddling with the CSC is not everyone’s cup of tea, so XDA Senior Member Orphee has come up with an interesting Magisk Module named Decoded_CSC_Features_Files for the Samsung Galaxy S20 lineup that can unlock a bunch of features that are not otherwise available in certain regions.

XDA Forums for Samsung Galaxy: S20 || S20+ || S20 Ultra

Buy from Amazon.in — Samsung Galaxy: S20 || S20+ || S20 Ultra

As you may expect, this mod requires having an unlocked bootloader, thus it can only be installed on Exynos-powered variants of the Samsung Galaxy S20. The latest Canary version of Magisk is capable of patching the boot image of this phone, and the procedure is fairly similar to the Galaxy S10 rooting guide. Once you have Magisk up and ready, flashing the Decoded_CSC_Features_Files module can unlock the following features:

• Disable shutter sound menu
• Enable AppLock Protection menu
• Enable real-time network speed
• Enable camera during call
• Enable call recording (regular voice calls only)
• Data usage view on the quick panel
• Block call number menu
• Enable eSIM support

This module is based on work by XDA Senior Member m8980, but Orphee has further expanded upon it by adding numerous other features, such as support for eSIM. The package is compatible with the latest official firmware for the Galaxy S20 series (G98xFXXU1ATCT) and should work with future software revisions with little to no modification. The operator software version might be changed to “G981B” after installing this mod, but this is a harmless side-effect and can be ignored.

Download Decoded_CSC_Features_Files Magisk Module — XDA Thread

This post contains affiliate commerce links that will earn XDA a commission if you purchase through them.

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Samsung launches a handwashing app for Galaxy watches

Proper handwashing techniques have received a lot of attention in recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The simple act of washing your hands plays an important role in preventing the spread of the virus. Hot on the heels of Google’s handwashing timer for Wear OS, Samsung is doing its part and releasing a similar app for Galaxy smartwatches.

Samsung’s app is a little different from Google’s. Simply named “Hand Wash,” this is a stand-alone app rather than an extra feature tacked on to the existing Clock app. Users have to manually seek it out and install the app from the Galaxy Store, which, unfortunately, means fewer people will know about it. On the plus side, this allows the app to have more features.

The “Hand Wash” app can be set as your watch face, making it much easier to launch quickly. The watch face shows how many times you have washed your hands and how long it has been since your last wash. While Google’s app has a 40-second timer, Samsung is going with a less aggressive 25 seconds (still longer than the CDC recommends). The watch will vibrate when the time is up.

CDC’s handwashing instructions:

1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

Launching the app from the app carousel will allow you to manually enter how many times you have washed your hands. There is also a chart that shows how many times you washed your hands each day and the week’s average. The Hand Wash app will also remind you to wash your hands periodically. There are 8 reminders by default, but you can add more or delete up to 3 of the reminders.

The Hand Wash app seems to be available for all Samsung watches in the Galaxy Store. Samsung only mentions “Galaxy Watch” users, but I was able to download it on my non-Galaxy branded Gear Sport as well. Open the Galaxy Store and search for “Hand Wash” by Samsung Electronics to see if it’s available for your smartwatch.

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Source: Samsung

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Google Calendar prepares to add cross-profile support for work and personal calendars

Work profiles in Android isolate all applications and synced account information from the personal profile so users don’t accidentally mix information from their work and personal lives. While work profiles can help employees manage their work-life balance and avoid accidentally leaking information, there are a few inconveniences that they introduce. For example, many work-managed calendar applications don’t support cross-profile calendar sync, meaning users have to check their calendar app in both their personal and work profiles to make sure they don’t miss an important meeting or event. Even Google Calendar doesn’t support cross-profile calendar visibility yet.

In Android 10, however, Google added support for showing work calendar details in the personal calendar and vice versa. With cross-profile calendar visibility, you can see work events in your personal calendar, and if you attempt to edit an event created in your work calendar, you are directed to edit the event in the calendar app from your work profile. This maintains proper separation between personal and work profiles while also making things more convenient for workers. However, in order to support cross-profile calendar visibility, calendar applications have to be updated to support the new APIs. There’s evidence in the latest version of the Google Calendar app for Android that Google is preparing to enable cross-profile calendar support.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

In the latest version of Google Calendar, version 2020.14-1, we spotted new strings that hint at cross-profile calendar connections. One set of strings will appear as part of a promo message informing the user that they can “see all [their] events here, including [their] personal calendars.” Another set of strings describes the preference in Settings that the user must enable to show calendar events from their personal Calendar app in their work Calendar app. Enabling this preference will “[let] you see your work events alongside your personal events.” Once enabled, “you can then quickly jump to your personal Calendar app to change events.” To maintain privacy, “your calendars are still stored separately.”

<string name="cross_profile_drawer_promo_text">To see all your events here, include your personal calendars</string>
<string name="cross_profile_drawer_promo_title">Add your personal calendars</string>
<string name="cross_profile_learn_more">Learn more</string>
<string name="cross_profile_promo_dismiss">Dismiss</string>
<string name="crossprofile_connection_off">Not connected</string>
<string name="crossprofile_connection_on">Connected</string>
<string name="crossprofile_preference_activate_info">"Turning this on lets your work Calendar app show the calendar events from your personal Calendar app. This lets you see your work events alongside your personal events. You can then quickly jump to your personal Calendar app to change them. To Protect your privacy, your calendars are still stored separately."</string>
<string name="crossprofile_preference_activate_link">Turn on in Settings</string>
<string name="crossprofile_preference_deactivate_info">To keep your calendars separate across apps, update access in Settings. Once turned off, your personal Calendar events will stop showing in your work Calendar app.</string>
<string name="crossprofile_preference_deactivate_link">Turn off in Settings</string>
<string name="menu_crossprofile_preferences">Personal calendars</string>
<string name="work_profile_header_title">Work profile</string>

I set up a local work profile using the Island app, but I was unable to get cross-profile calendar visibility working. It’s likely this feature will roll out in a future update of the Google Calendar app or will be enabled via a server-side configuration change. Once the feature rolls out, we’ll let you all know.

Work Profile on a Google Pixel 4 running Android 10

Google Calendar (Free, Google Play) →

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We are all spending a little more time than usual online at the moment. But with every click and tap, we gift information to advertisers, government agencies, and even cybercriminals. If you would like to maintain some kind of privacy, HideMyAss! VPN can help. This top-rated service offers a range of great features to secure your connection and block ads. For a limited time, you can get a two-year subscription for just $79.99 at the XDA Developers Depot.

By routing your data through masking servers, HideMyAss! VPN allows you to stay truly anonymous online. No one can trace your IP address or physical location, making it impossible to track you across the web. 

The service also applies AES-256 encryption to keep your connections secure, and a strict no-logging policy ensures that there is no record of your online activity. Rated at 4.5 stars on TechRadar, this service even blocks ads and malware to improve your browsing experience.

Despite these layers of protection, HideMyAss! won’t slow you down. “It’s rare that a VPN can achieve such consistently fast connection speeds,” according to VPN Mentor. As a result, you can stream HD movies and enjoy multiplayer games without lag. 

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Moto G Power, Moto G Stylus, and Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite go on sale in the U.S.

While much of the U.S. is still under lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, smartphone brands are still moving forward with releasing products, no matter how ill-timed. We’ve seen both new product launches as well as already-announced products starting to go on sale. Just yesterday, Motorola announced that the Moto G Power and Moto G Stylus, two affordable mid-range smartphones, have gone on sale in the United States. Today, the value-flagship Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite has gone on sale. These 3 devices are a bit more affordable than your typical mid-range and flagship smartphones, so they may be more palatable to consumers in this tough economy.

Moto G Power & Moto G Stylus

Motorola announced the G Power and G Stylus back in February as part of the brand’s 2020 Moto G line. While we expected these devices to bear the “Moto G8” name, Motorola decided to drop the numbering from the branding entirely. Both of these phones went up for pre-order over 2 weeks ago, but on April 16th, Motorola opened up general sales. The Moto G Power retails for $250 while the Moto G Stylus retails for $300.  You can buy both devices online through Motorola.com, Best Buy, or B&H Photo right now. If you’re on Google Fi, you’ll also be able to buy the two phones through the Google MVNO, albeit at a later, unspecified date.

Moto G Power Forums ||| Moto G Stylus Forums

Buy Moto G Power: Motorola.com, Best Buy, B&H Photo, Google Fi (coming soon)

Buy Moto G Stylus: Motorola.com, Best Buy, B&H Photo, Google Fi (coming soon)

Both devices feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC, 4GB of RAM, a 6.4-inch LCD at FHD+ resolution with a left-sided hole-punch cutout, a 16MP front-facing camera, triple rear cameras, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB Type-C charging port, and Android 10. The Moto G Stylus has a higher resolution primary rear camera, a better wide-angle camera, and of course, a stylus pen. The Moto G Power has a larger battery than the Moto G Stylus, though.

Moto G Power and Moto G Stylus Specifications

	Moto G Power	Moto G Stylus
Size	159.85 x 75.84 x 9.63mm, 199g	158.55 x 75.8 x 9.2mm, 192g
SoC	Snapdragon 665	Snapdragon 665
RAM	4GB	4GB
Storage	64GB	128GB
Display	6.4-inch, FHD+, LCD, hole-punch	6.4-inch, FHD+, LCD, hole-punch
Rear Cameras	16MP (f/1.7, 1.12μm) 2MP (f/2.2, 1.75μm) macro 8MP (f/2.2, 1.12μm) 118° ultra-wide angle	48MP (f/1.7, 1.6μm) 2MP (f/2.2, 1.75μm) macro Action Cam 16MP (f/2.2, 2.0μm, 117-degrees FOV)
Front Camera	16MP (f/2.0, 1μ)	16MP (f/2.0, 1μ)
Battery	5,000 mAh	4,000 mAh
Ports	USB-C, Headphone jack	USB-C, Headphone jack
Software	Android 10	Android 10

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year, Samsung announced the Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note 10 Lite. The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite (our review) has a Galaxy S20-like design but with the previous generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, a 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display at 60Hz, a 4,500mAh battery, a 32MP front-facing camera, up to 8GB of RAM, and a triple rear camera setup consisting of a 48MP primary wide-angle sensor with “Super Steady OIS”, 12MP secondary ultra wide-angle sensor, and a 5MP tertiary macro camera. The display on the Galaxy S10 Lite is also notable for being flat, which some people might appreciate, but on the other hand, there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Forums

While the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite retails for ₹39,999 in India, the price in Europe is a whopping €649. The price in the U.S. is $650, which is similarly high compared to the price in India. This price is only $50 less than the OnePlus 8, but it’s also hundreds of dollars less than the highest-end flagship smartphones currently on sale. If you like what Samsung has to offer in the Galaxy S10 Lite, you can order it online through Samsung.com, Amazon, or Best Buy. It’s only available in the U.S. in a single color: Prism Black. Orders for the Silicone Cover have also gone up on Samsung.com.

Buy Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite: Samsung.com, Amazon, Best Buy

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Specifications

Specification	Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite
Weight and dimensions	75.6 x 162.5 x 8.1mm 186g
Display	6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Plus Infinity-O Display 2400×1080 (394ppi)
Rear camera	Triple Camera: Primary: 48MP Sony IMX586, Super Steady OIS AF F2.0 Ultra Wide: 12MP, F2.2 Macro: 5MP, F2.4
Front camera	32MP Sony IMX616, F2.2
SoC	7nm 64-bit Octa-core Snapdragon 855 1x 2.84GHz Kryo 485 Gold 3x 2.42GHz Kryo 485 Gold 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 485 Silver Adreno 640 GPU
RAM and Storage	6GB/128GB 8GB/128GB 8GB/512GB
Battery	4,500mAh (typical) 45W fast charging 25W charger included in-box
OS	One UI 2.1 based on Android 10

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