OnePlus Pods truly wireless earbuds show up in the Android 11 beta

OnePlus may be best known for its smartphones, but the brand also makes some excellent audio accessories. The Bullets Wireless and Bullets Wireless 2 were some of our favorite Bluetooth wireless earphones when they launched in 2018 and 2019 thanks to their long-lasting battery life, quick charging support, and overall value-for-money. This year, OnePlus announced the even more affordable Bullets Wireless Z earphones, but what we’re really looking forward to are their upcoming truly wireless earbuds which could be called the OnePlus Pods.

Since mid-May, notable Twitter leaker Max J. has been hinting at the launch of TWS earbuds from OnePlus. His latest leak revealed the possible design of the new earbuds, as shown in the image above. He suggests a possible July launch for the new audio accessory, which may coincide with the launch of the OnePlus 8T. While digging into the newly released Android 11 beta for the OnePlus 8 series, frequent XDA Portal tipster and Senior Member Some_Random_Username discovered evidence of the existence of new TWS earbuds from OnePlus.

In the new Settings APK from the Android 11 beta, Some_Random_Username discovered the following string:

<string name="oneplus_tws_pods_funtion">Headset function</string>

The “oneplus_tws_pods” in the string’s title piqued our interest, so we dug a bit deeper into the firmware. The only other references to anything related to OnePlus TWS earbuds were contained in the decompiled code of the Settings app. We discovered multiple references to “OnePlus Pods” and a companion application package named “com.oneplus.twspods” in classes including BluetoothDashboardFragment, BluetoothDeviceDetailsFragment, OnePlusPodDevice, and OnePlusUpdate.

In the BluetoothDashboardFragment class, there’s code to read the individual battery level of the left and right earbud, which is something that’s only needed for truly wireless earbuds as each bud has its own battery. In some parts, there are mentions of an “oppoPodsService” which may suggest a relation between the OnePlus Pods and one of OPPO’s existing truly wireless earbuds—perhaps the OPPO Enco W31 or OPPO Enco Free? The BluetoothDeviceDetailsFragment class references double-tap actions for playing/pausing music or skipping to the next/previous song, OTA updates, and a “find my Bluetooth earphone” setting which could be related to Google’s new Find My Accessory feature for Fast Pair devices.

What I’ve just mentioned are all expected features of any half-decent truly wireless earbuds, but OnePlus will likely have more to surprise us with. Perhaps the OnePlus Pods will support some kind of fast charging? There’s also the question of the design, pricing, availability, and most importantly, the audio quality. We don’t know much about these TWS earbuds, but we’re now pretty certain they actually exist.

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Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.

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LG V60 ThinQ and OnePlus 8 5G are now available on Sprint

Sprint will soon be folded into T-Mobile, but the carrier is still launching phones on its network. Both the LG V60 ThinQ and OnePlus 8 5G are now available from Sprint. Both of these devices are capable of 5G and they can also roam on T-Mobile’s LTE network.

The LG V60 ThinQ (our review) comes with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage with an additional microSD slot. In terms of cameras, there is a 64MP main sensor, a 13MP wide-angle camera, and a dedicated ToF sensor. It has a 6.8-inch display without any fancy high refresh rate. Sprint is also including the Dual Screen accessory with the device.

LG V60 ThinQ XDA Forums ||| OnePlus 8 XDA Forums

The OnePlus 8 (our review) is a similar device in that it has the Snapdragon 865 SoC, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. The main sensor is 48MP and it’s joined by a 16MP wide-angle camera and a 2MP macro lens. The display is 6.55-inches with a 90Hz refresh rate. Note that this is not the OnePlus 8 Pro.

Sprint is selling the LG V60 ThinQ for $899.99 or 37.50 per month for 18 months. It’s available in the “Classy Blue” color. The OnePlus 8 5G costs $699.99 or $29.17 for 18 months. It’s available in Interstellar Glow and Onyx Black. Both are available right now and ship in 3-5 business days.

Buy the LG V60 ThinQ from Sprint ||| Buy the OnePlus 8 5G from Sprint

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New OnePlus 8 “Ice Blue” color and 65W Super Warp Charging revealed in Android 11 beta

Back in April, OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro – the brand’s latest smartphones designed to compete with the highest-end premium flagships on the market. At launch, OnePlus offered the two devices in a variety of colors, including Glacial Green, Onyx Black, Interstellar Glow, Ultramarine Blue (as shown above), and Polar Silver. It appears that OnePlus may have another color in the works, though. Furthermore, there’s more evidence that OnePlus is working on an even faster version of its Warp Charge 30 technology.

Twitter user Lavin Amarnani discovered a few new strings in OnePlus’ Engineering Mode app which the company uses for hardware testing. If this app sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s pre-installed on every OnePlus phone. The app made the news in late 2017 when it was discovered that a simple intent could be constructed to elevate the privileges of the ADB shell process to superuser levels.

New Ice Blue Color?

The Engineering Mode app that’s present in the latest Android 10 and Android 11-based OxygenOS builds contains a list of device colors as follows:

<string name="str_sm8250_color0_title">Onyx Black</string>
<string name="str_sm8250_color1_title">Glacial Green</string>
<string name="str_sm8250_color2_title">Interstellar Glow</string>
<string name="str_sm8250_color3_title">Ultramarine Blue</string>
<string name="str_sm8250_color4_title">Ice Blue</string>

The first 4 colors in this list have all been released, but the “Ice Blue” one has not, as far as we can tell. Interestingly, the Verizon-exclusive Polar Silver color is missing from this list. Since the first 4 colors mentioned in this list all match the marketing names of OnePlus 8 series color variants, it’s likely that “Ice Blue” will end up being the marketing name of a future color variant for a OnePlus 8 series device. However, we don’t know if both the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro will be available in “Ice Blue” or if only one of them will be. It’s possible that “Ice Blue” may be the exclusive color for an upcoming carrier launch. Sprint may start carrying the OnePlus 8 5G after making an announcement later today, according to rumors.

65W Super Warp Charging

The OnePlus 8 Pro supports 30W wireless and 30W wired fast charging. OnePlus debuted its 30W wired charging technology with the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition. Early last month, a TÜV Rheinland certification listing revealed that OnePlus is working on a 65W fast charging solution. This feature is now confirmed in the latest version of the Engineering Mode app from the Android 11 beta for the OnePlus 8 series.

<string name="swrap_charger_test">Super Wrap Charger</string>
<string name="fastcharger_swrap">65W Fast Charge</string>

(Yes, there’s a typo in the strings. It’s an internal hardware testing app, though, so it’s not a big deal.)

OnePlus’ Warp Charge 30 technology charges at 5V/6A while OnePlus’ new Super Warp Charge 65 (I’m guessing the name here) will likely charge at 10V/6.5A. This will allow the next OnePlus smartphone, possibly the OnePlus 8T, to charge much more quickly than the OnePlus 8 or 8 Pro. OnePlus may choose to debut this feature on a special model of the OnePlus 8, though they recently ended their partnership with McLaren, so it’s uncertain if we’ll see special hardware variants of new OnePlus phones again.

65W Super Warp charging will likely be based on the same technology behind OPPO’s 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 and Realme’s 65W SuperDart charging. Future OnePlus smartphones with this charging technology will likely have a dual-cell battery, much like on the OPPO Find X2 and Realme X50 Pro. There are legitimate concerns that such fast charging can deteriorate the longevity of the battery and also that there’s a 2% efficiency loss during normal operation of the phone by nature of how the dual-battery solution is set up. For more information, I recommend reading Anandtech‘s article on how high-efficiency ICs enable fast-charging.

OnePlus 8 Forums ||| OnePlus 8 Pro Forums

H/T XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username

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The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ can now easily switch between devices

The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ are Samsung’s current flagship TWS solution, and they’ve been pretty successful for the most part. Samsung has even gone ahead and released them in new color variants like Aura Red, Aura Blue, and the company is scheduled to also release a purple BTS Edition. Even though the earbuds themselves are pretty good, there has been some confusion on how they handle connection to multiple devices. At launch, Samsung had mentioned “multi-point” (multi-device) support for devices using Bluetooth 5.0, but this was misleading as the feature was restricted to only Galaxy phones with the Samsung SmartThings app installed. Fortunately, the situation is now improving for the better, as the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ can now seamlessly switch between devices.

Samsung Galaxy Buds+ Plugin v1.3.20061151 has begun rolling out, and it carries with it the update prompt for the R175XXU0ATF2 firmware update for the Galaxy Buds+. We spotted certain new strings related to seamless connections in the APK, and found that the feature described was already rolling out.

<string name="seamless_connection_desc">"You can switch your earbuds quickly to nearby devices without disconnecting them or turning on pairing mode. This works with any nearby device that's signed in to your Samsung account, even if it never paired with your earbuds before, and also with other devices if they've paired with your earbuds previously. In some rare cases, this may allow unknown devices to connect to your earbuds and control them. You can turn this off in settings."</string>
<string name="settings_seamless_connection">Seamless earbud connection</string>
<string name="settings_seamless_connection_desc">"Switch quickly to nearby devices without disconnecting your earbuds or turning on pairing mode. This works with any nearby device that's signed in to your Samsung account, even if it never paired with your earbuds before, and also with other devices if they've paired with your earbuds previously. In some rare cases, this may allow unknown devices to connect to your earbuds and control them."</string>

What is Seamless Connection on Samsung Galaxy Buds+?

To understand what this feature does, we need to take a step back and understand how the Buds+ connected to multiple devices before this update.

Previous Behavior

Previously, the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ could only perform a multi-device switch between two Samsung devices running Android 7.1.1 and newer, provided that the SmartThings app is installed on both the devices. SmartThings will enable the user to tap within the media panel on each device to move the Galaxy Buds+ connection between the two devices.

For non-Samsung phones, users must turn off the Bluetooth of the currently connected device (Device A), enter pairing mode on the Buds+ (tap once, and then tap plus hold) and then connect to the second device (Device B). To go back to Device A, you need to switch off Bluetooth on Device B and enter pairing mode on the Buds+ again, and so forth.

As one can imagine, this wasn’t very convenient.

New Behavior

With this new update, the switch between devices becomes convenient as you no longer need to switch off the Bluetooth on any of the devices, nor do you need to enter into pairing mode on the Buds+.

Presuming both the devices have been paired previously, you only need to select the pre-existing Buds+ connection on the device to connect and switch. So if you are connected to Device A, you need to open the Bluetooth connections page on Device B and select the Buds+. This will switch over your connection. To go back to Device A from Device B, simply open the Bluetooth connections page on Device A and select the Buds+ connection.

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I tried this device switching between the Dell XPS 13 2in1 (7390) and the OnePlus 7 Pro, and the experience is much more convenient. It isn’t true “multi-point” connection wherein the Buds+ would switch over to the active audio source automatically. I wouldn’t also call it “seamless” since you do need to fiddle with source devices. But it certainly removes the pain of pairing again and again simply for switching between devices. Considering how good the Buds+ are for voice calls, having this functionality is really handy when jumping between devices.

Galaxy Wearable (Samsung Gear) (Free, Google Play) →

Galaxy Buds+ Plugin (Free, Google Play) →

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This Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard Helps You Stay Productive on the Move

Many phones today are more powerful than laptops were five years ago. The only thing that prevents you from really getting things done on mobile is the touchscreen interface. With the Universal Mini Foldable Wireless Keyboard, you can easily turn your mobile device into a tiny computer. This lightweight accessory works with most phones and tablets, and it even has a built-in touchpad. Right now, you can grab it for just $103.99 at the XDA Developers Depot.

From writing an email to making changes to an important document, typing on a touchscreen can be a frustrating experience. As a result, you may find yourself taking your laptop everywhere. Instead, you could just pack this keyboard. 

When you need to write something, you simply unfold the keyboard and connect your device via Bluetooth. It works with Android, iOS, and Windows, including phones, tablets, computers, and even streaming boxes. The keyboard runs on a rechargeable battery, which lasts for 48 hours of typing and 560 hours on standby. 

Despite the mini layout, the keys are surprisingly comfortable and you should get good accuracy. In addition, the built-in touchpad allows you to navigate with greater precision on large screens. It’s the perfect upgrade for coders, writers, and other remote professionals.

Normally priced at $129, the keyboard is now only $103.99 with this deal.

Prices subject to change

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Fitbit is preparing to bring Google Assistant support to fitness watches

Late last year, Google announced its plans to acquire Fitbit for a reported $2.1 billion. The deal is still pending approval and we haven’t heard anything about it in a while. We still don’t know what the two companies plan to do, but it’s looking like Fitbit may be working on bringing Google Assistant support to its devices.

Currently, Fitbit supports Amazon Alexa on the Versa 2 fitness watch. The device doesn’t have a speaker for answers to be read aloud and there’s no hotword detection. The integration is rudimentary when compared to full-fledged smartwatches, but it’s better than nothing. Fitbit reportedly approached Google about bringing Assistant to the Versa 2, but the company was not super willing to make it happen. Strings found in a recent update to the Fitbit Android app seem to indicate things have changed.

The folks at 9to5Google found a few mentions of “Assistant” in the APK. These strings could easily be in reference to Amazon Alexa, but a few XML files clearly name “google_assistant.” The strings and XML files list basic things like activating Assistant, error messages, on-boarding, etc. The groundwork certainly seems to be in place for support.

<string name=”ga_activate_assistant”>Activate Assistant</string>
<string name=”ga_activate_assistant_general_error”>Unable to process request to activate Assistant</string>
<string name=”ga_deactivation_error”>Error deactivating Assistant</string>

• res/layout/a_google_assistant_on_boarding.xml
• res/layout/f_google_assistant_landing.xml
• res/layout/f_google_assistant_teaser.xml

Further digging into the Fitbit app, there is mention of only using one assistant at a time and being able to switch providers whenever you want. Users will likely get a choice at start-up between Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but they’ll be able to switch on a whim. That’s a great option for users who may be invested in either ecosystem.

As mentioned, Alexa support is currently available on the Fitbit Versa 2, which makes it a likely candidate for Google Assistant support. It’s also entirely possible that Fitbit will save it for a new product launch. This is certainly an exciting development for any Fitbit fans in the Google ecosystem.

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Source: 9to5Google

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Google’s Messages app will soon enable Bubble notifications in Android 11

Google introduced the new Bubbles notification API with Android 10 Beta 2 back in April last year. The API was initially offered as an opt-in feature for developers, allowing them to test it in their apps so that the apps were ready when the feature finally rolled out in a future Android release. As expected, the feature was enabled by default in the Android 11 Developer Preview 1, and in the leaked Android 11 beta, the API gained a user-facing setting. Back in December last year, we saw the feature in action on Android 10 in an APK teardown of the Google Messages app. Then, earlier this month, Facebook Messenger’s chat heads feature switched over to the bubbles notification API on Android 11 devices. Now, according to a recent comment on Reddit, the feature will soon be enabled in the Google Messages app on devices running Android 11 beta.

The comment in question comes from the official Android beta program account on Reddit, which states: “Bubbles for Android Messages will be enabled over the next month. If you’re in the Android Messages Beta, you’ll receive an update starting in the next week or two that enables the new feature…The feature is controlled on the application side, so you will be able to use the feature on 3rd party messaging apps as our partners start enabling it.”

Once the update rolls out, you will see a new option called Bubbles in the Google Messages settings with a toggle to turn it on or off. Enabling the feature will make all incoming text messages appear in a bubble. The notification bubbles will appear at the edge of the display with a photo of the contact, the app icon, and a preview of the message. If left untouched, the preview will disappear shortly thereafter and will be replaced by a notification dot. Tapping on the notification bubble will open up the conversation in an overlay, allowing you to quickly reply to the message. To dismiss the bubble, you’ll be able to tap and hold on it and drag it to the ‘x’ icon that appears towards the bottom.

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Source: Reddit

Note: The attached screenshots are from an APK teardown of the Google Messages app running on Android 10.

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