MIUI Camera App gets full-screen gesture support in recent MIUI 12 beta builds

At the Mi 10 Youth Edition launch event in China late last month, Xiaomi officially announced MIUI 12. During the event, Xiaomi detailed some of the new features introduced in the latest software update, including the new animations, navigation gestures, live wallpapers, privacy features, and much more. Shortly thereafter, Tushar from our team managed to flash the MIUI 12 China Beta ROM on a Redmi K20 Pro and elaborated on some of the most interesting features in the release. Xiaomi has since rolled out similar closed beta builds of MIUI 12 for several devices and has pushed a few updates introducing even more new features, including full-screen gesture support for the MIUI Camera app.

The new full-screen gesture support in the MIUI Camera app was first spotted by XDA tipster kacskrz and Tushar was able to test it out on his Redmi K20 Pro. The gesture support essentially gives you an easier way to access the additional modes and settings in the MIUI Camera app. With the update, the app now gives users access to two different UI options — a tab-based UI and a panel-based UI. In the tab-based UI, you can swipe from right to left to reveal all the additional modes available in the MIUI Camera app. You can also swipe down on the viewfinder to bring up all the camera settings.

On the other hand, in the panel-based UI, you can swipe up to open the additional modes panel and swipe down to access the camera settings. Along with that, there’s another gesture that you can use to exit the edit screen which allows you to choose all the modes that are displayed on the home screen of the camera app.

As you can see in the video above, once you’re done rearranging the modes you can swipe down anywhere on the screen to head back to the viewfinder. The updated MIUI Camera APK that includes support for these gestures is included in the MIUI 12 builds that were released after the May 11 builds listed in our index. It’s also worth noting that these camera gestures will also make their way to Xiaomi.eu builds in the near future.

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Samsung Galaxy A51 and Redmi 8 were the best selling Android phones of Q1 2020

When it comes to global smartphone sales, Samsung dominates the Android side of the playing field with its budget and mid-range devices. In fact, the company’s Galaxy A series is so popular among the masses that it took the top three spots in the best selling Android smartphones list last year. However, riding on the fast growth of the Indian smartphone market, Xiaomi also managed to secure a spot on the list last year with the Redmi Note 7. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent decline in smartphone sales, Samsung and Xiaomi seem to be continuing the trend this year.

As per a recent report from market research firm Strategy Analytics, the Samsung Galaxy A51 was the best selling Android smartphone (2.3% market share) in Q1 2020, with 6 million units shipped globally. The Xiaomi Redmi 8 took the second spot with a market share of 1.9%, followed by the Galaxy S20+(1.7%), Galaxy A10s (1.6%), Redmi Note 8 (1.6%), and the Galaxy A20s (1.4%). The report further reveals that global smartphone shipments reached a total of 275 million units in the first quarter this year, with Android devices accounting for 86% of all smartphones shipped.

In a statement regarding the study, Juha Winter, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “As mobile operators have reduced subsidies in recent years, and many countries are now tumbling into post-virus recession, smartphone consumers globally are becoming increasingly price-sensitive and they are seeking out new Android models that deliver the biggest bang for their buck. Samsung Galaxy A10s, Xiaomi Redmi Note 8, and Samsung Galaxy A20s round out the fourth, fifth and sixth most popular Android smartphone models worldwide, and a further sign that many consumers want value-for-money devices with good-enough specs at affordable prices. Android is entering a post-premium era.”

It’s worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy S20+ was the only premium Android smartphone to make the list in Q1 this year. This falls in line with last year’s sales, where the Samsung Galaxy S10+ was the only premium smartphone to secure a spot in the top five best selling Android smartphones list.

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Source: Strategy Analytics

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Realme will launch a flagship with 5G and 65W fast charging in China on May 25th

Realme can be considered a young company when compared to the rest of the veterans in the smartphone industry. But its youth does not stop the company from orchestrating a launch blitzkrieg every now and then. It almost feels as if the company had announced its first true flagship just a few days ago in the form of the Realme X50 Pro and then the Realme X50m 5G. Now, the Chinese OEM is planning to launch as many as eight products at an event in China on May 25, and one of them is another flagship smartphone.

Realme is celebrating its second anniversary in China on May 25, and it is commemorating the occasion by launching a slew of products across different categories. The company may not necessarily launch eight smartphones or even smartphone accessories, as it could rely on other lifestyle products to pad up the number. However, there is at least one confirmed smartphone launch, coming in the form of a flagship with an internal name of “Blade Runner”. This smartphone has been certified by the CCC, and has been confirmed to come with 65W SuperDart charging and 5G support.

Realme has shared renders of the phone too, showing off several aspects of the phone.

In the renders, we can see that the phone comes with a quad-rear camera with the branding “AI Quad Camera” inscribed beside it. The camera island gets a different finish than the rest of the device. The rest of the device is very glossy, as revealed in the real-life images.

The phone also has a distinct “realme” branding on the left edge.

Other details of the smartphone, and other notable releases as part of the launch lineup, should be revealed soon by Realme themselves. It wouldn’t be too much of a guess to expect a high-end SoC and other premium features on this phone.

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Headspace is now free for unemployed people and health care workers in the US

Headspace is a service that provides instruction for meditation and mental health exercises. With over 10 million installs in the Google Play Store, it’s one of the most popular apps in this genre. A lot of people may feel stressed and anxious in these times, which is why Headspace is offering its content for free to unemployed people and health care workers in the US.

If you are recently unemployed, all you have to do is fill out a form on the Headspace website. The form will ask for your name, where you previously worked, your role, the industry, last date of employment, and ZIP code. There is a checkbox to verify the information is true, but this is basically running on the honor system. Health care workers can learn more about getting free access here.

Once enrolled, you will get full access to all of the Headspace content, which usually costs $70 per year or $13 per month. The offer is only available until June 30th and the access lasts for a year. Here’s what you get with Headspace:

• Hundreds of guided meditations on everything from stress to sleep
• Over 40 mindfulness exercises for cooking, eating, commuting and more
• Super-short meditations you can do anytime. Great for busy schedules.
• Expert guidance from former monk, and Headspace co-founder, Andy Puddicombe
• Sleep Sounds to ease the mind into a truly restful night’s sleep
• Fun, simple animations to help you with your meditation practice and answer any questions you might have

Headspace: Meditation & Sleep (Free⁺, Google Play) →

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Source: Headspace | Via: The Verge

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Google Chrome will soon block resource-heavy ads that eat up your data or CPU

All the way back in 2018, Google Chrome started blocking ads on sites that didn’t comply with the Better Ads Standards. Google continues to work on making sure ads are presented in a non-harmful way, and part of that includes how ads impact performance. Chrome will soon start blocking ads that are especially demanding on your data or CPU.

According to Google, a small percentage of ads (only 0.3%) are using 27% of the network data used by all ads in Chrome. These ads are sucking up data and draining batteries of users. Not only does that negatively affect consumers, but it strains networks and costs money. Starting this summer, Google will cap the resources a display ad can use in Chrome.

Ads in Chrome will be limited to using 4MB of network data or 15 seconds of CPU usage in any 30 second period, or 60 seconds of total CPU usage. If those thresholds are reached, the frame will show an “Ad removed” message and inform the user that the ad has used too many resources.

Google says they will be experimenting with this over the next few months and it will be launched toward the end of August. Google has long worked on blocking certain ads and intrusive video ads. Chrome is notorious for being resource-intensive, and blocking these ads could play a small part in improving the experience.

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Source: Chromium Blog

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Google Chrome tests showing Google Search results in a dark theme that syncs with Android 10’s dark mode

The introduction of a system-wide dark mode toggle in Android 10 has had a massive effect on the UI designs of many Android apps. A lot of Android apps have built-in dark themes now, and many of these apps also sync their dark theme with Android 10’s toggle. Google Chrome already does this for its toolbar and settings pages, but soon it’ll also darken Google Search results in sync with Android 10’s dark mode toggle.

Google first introduced dark mode support as a feature flag in Chrome browser version 74. They later introduced a dedicated “Themes” section in Chrome’s settings, and they also added a feature flag to render all web content using a dark theme. While it’s currently possible to display Google search results in a dark theme by using the #enable-force-dark feature flag, doing so may break the experience of many websites that haven’t been designed with darker background colors in mind. With the new #enable-android-dark-search feature flag that was just merged in the Chromium Gerrit, though, you’ll be able to show darkened search page results so long as Chrome’s dark mode is enabled. And since Chrome’s dark mode can be set to sync with the “system default” theme, that means the darkened search results can sync with Android 10’s system-wide dark mode toggle.

This feature is still a work-in-progress, though, as Google search results weren’t being darkened when I enabled the feature flag on a freshly built Chromium APK running on a Pixel 4 on Android 10. As 9to5Google pointed out last week when the commit first emerged, Google could have accomplished this goal through the “prefers-color-scheme” media CSS feature. However, that doesn’t seem to be the approach that Google is taking here.

In a related commit, Google details how the Chrome browser will show darkened search results when the user has Android 10’s dark mode enabled. The description states that “when the user is in night mode and visits Google search (homepage or results),” Google Chrome will “append an extra URL parameter to indicate that this user should get the darkened version of the website.” It seems that Chrome will append ?cs=1 to any Google Search URL if the user has dark mode enabled. Here’s an example of how this URL parameter darkens the Google Search results page:

The #enable-android-dark-search feature flag is currently available in the latest Chromium build but will eventually make its way over to Dev, Beta, and Stable releases. We’ll be tracking this feature as its development progresses.

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[Update: More Countries] RCS support in Google Messages is rolling out in Italy

Update (5/14/20 @ 2:50 PM ET): Google starts rolling out RCS support in Singapore, Portugal, Argentina, Pakistan, Poland, and Turkey.

Rich Communication Services, or RCS, is a communication protocol that’s often described as the successor to SMS or an alternative to iMessage for Android. With RCS, users can exchange media files in high quality, see read receipts, see typing indicators, start group chats, and more over mobile data and even Wi-Fi. However, universal, app-independent RCS support requires carriers to implement the protocol in their networks, which some have done while others have dragged their feet on. Google has been pushing RCS adoption under its “Chat” banner, using the company’s own servers and “Messages” app to bypass the need for carrier adoption. So far, Google has rolled out RCS in the Google Messages app for users in the U.S., Spain, the U.K., and France, but now they’re expanding support to another European country: Italy.

The Italian rollout was first reported by Italian technology website TuttoAndroid (via AndroidPolice). While WhatsApp is widely used in Europe, RCS will prove to be a viable alternative that’s built into the main messaging app on your phone. This is convenient and easily accessible for the average user, which is especially important during these times when we’re all stuck at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is possible that we’ll also RCS roll out to other markets as well in the coming weeks. This is probably just wishful thinking, but we could even see a global release of RCS in the Messages app.

“Google Chat” rolling out in Messages for some users in Italy. Source: TuttoAndroid

TuttoAndroid indicates that the feature is rolling out independent of carrier support, so be sure to download the Messages app and check to see if the feature has rolled out for you. If the feature is available for you, you should be greeted by a “welcome to Chat” pop-up when you launch the app. Take note that all participants in a conversation have to enable “Chat” in order to use RCS features, otherwise you’ll fall back to SMS.

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Update: More Countries

Late last month, RCS support in the Google Messages app rolled out in Italy. Today, more countries are being added. Singapore, Portugal, Argentina, Pakistan, Poland, and Turkey can now take advantage of RCS if they use the Messages app. As per usual, it appears to be rolling out via a server-side switch, but you can see if you have it by going to the Settings and looking for “Chat features.”

Messages (Free, Google Play) →

Via: Android Police

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