ARM’s next Mali GPUs will support updateable drivers via the Google Play Store

Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 765/765G mobile platforms in December 2019 and a fascinating addition to the list of gaming features supported on these chipsets was support for updateable GPU drivers. Although GPU drivers are usually bundled along with OTA updates, Qualcomm resolved a way to push out more frequent updates via app stores and Xiaomi became the first smartphone brand to push out GPU updates to the Mi 10 series and the Redmi K30 Pro earlier this year. Following the suit, the silicon design company ARM has also announced similar support for its Mali class of GPUs found on MediaTek, Huawei’s HiSilicon, and Samsung’s Exynos mobile processors.

Just like PCs, updateable GPU drivers on smartphones can come in handy for fixing bugs, improving graphics performance, or adding new features from OpenGL or Vulkan APIs. Since manufacturers take months to perfect OTA updates, updates to GPU drivers can be sent quickly and more frequently through app stores when they are independent of system updates.

Typically, OEMs can prepare their software by using a placeholder for the GPU application, wait for for the chip manufacturer (Qualcomm, MediaTek, Huawei, or Samsung) to implement the updated GPU driver in the updated BSP, and push the updated GPU driver to all the supported devices via an app store after signing the application. As mentioned above, Xiaomi has already benefitted from the functionality and sent updates to the Adreno 650 GPU on Mi 10 (review), Mi 10 Pro (review), and Redmi K30 Pro via its own apps store.

In the blog post, ARM announced that it has implemented support for updateable drivers for Mali GPUs but without revealing which GPUs will benefit from the feature. We suspect this applies to the Mali-G78 GPU that was recently announced alongside ARM’s Cortex-A78 CPU architecture. The Mali-G78 GPU is expected to be seen on upcoming mobile platforms from MediaTek, Samsung, and Huawei – even though HiSilicon may not be able to reap the fruit of this development and may have to resort to reusing last year’s Kirin processors as semiconductor manufacturer TSMC has been barred from engaging in business with Huawei as part of the trade ban imposed by the U.S. government.

For years, Mali GPUs including the Mali-G77 on the current flagship chipsets like the Samsung Exynos 990 and MediaTek Dimensity 1000/1000L have been unable to keep up with the performance of their counterparts in the Qualcomm Adreno lineup. The support for updateable GPU drivers means there is some scope for this situation to improve in favor of companies other than Qualcomm.

In addition to the updateable GPU driver, ARM has also announced that upcoming Mali GPUs will support Android GPU Inspector, an open-source profiling tool that will help game developers to optimize the graphics performance – aiming for higher frame rates and better rendering quality – on their games and apps for different GPUs from a variety of vendors and across multiple devices.  Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy Note 10, Samsung Galaxy S20, and Google Pixel 4 are some of the devices that will soon be supported on Android GPU Inspector.

The post ARM’s next Mali GPUs will support updateable drivers via the Google Play Store appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/3euh1NL
via IFTTT

Realme 2 Pro starts receiving stable Android 10 update with Realme UI

The first Realme phone to carry the “Pro” moniker, the Realme 2 Pro, was launched back in 2018. The Snapdragon 660-powered mid-ranger was initially shipped with ColorOS 5.2 on top of Android 8.1 Oreo. After delivering the ColorOS 6 flavored Android Pie update in 2019, Realme is now rolling out the Android 10 update to the Realme 2 Pro in the form of Realme UI.

Realme 2 Pro XDA Forums

About a month ago, the company opened up “Realme UI Early Access” program for the owners of the Realme 2 Pro, which was more of a public beta testing of Android 10. The current stable release is tagged as RMX1801EX_11.F.07, and it is available for beta participants as well as regular users. The standard upgrade path requires users to be on software version RMX1801EX_11_C.31 to ensure a smooth transition.

Thanks to Realme Community user sai00002 for the screenshot!

The update brings along a refreshed UI and a bunch of new features, e.g., Smart Sidebar, new Digital Wellbeing tools with Focus mode, cross-device file transfer, random MAC address generator support, and much more. The complete changelog can be found below.

Realme UI 1.0 (Android 10) update changelog for the Realme 2 Pro

• Visuals
  • Updated UI to realme UI
  • Brand new Real Design makes visuals more attractive and operation more efficient
• Smart Sidebar
  • Optimized user interface and improved one-handed operation
  • Optimized Smart Sidebar: Replaced File Console with File Manager; removed OSIE Visual Effect and No Notification Alerts
  • Drag an app out of Smart Sidebar to open it in Split-screen Mode
  • Added two new features: “Assistive Ball Opacity” and “Hide Assistive Ball on Fullscreen App”
  • Optimized the Floating Window feature for more apps
  • Added Bubbles: A bubble is displayed when you open an app in a floating window from the Smart Sidebar. Tap the bubble to collapse or open the app
• Screenshot
  • Optimized 3-Finger Screenshot Gesture: Use 3 fingers to touch and hold the screen, and swipe to take a screenshot of the selected part of the screen (partial screen capture). Use 3 fingers to touch and hold the screen, and swipe your fingers outwards to capture a long screenshot
  • Added screenshot settings: You can adjust the position of the screenshot preview floating window and set the screenshot sound
  • Optimized screenshot preview floating window: After taking a screenshot, drag it up and release to share it, or drag it down and release to take a long screenshot
• Navigation Gestures 3.0
  • Optimized gestures: All gestures are supported in landscape mode
• System
  • Added Focus Mode: Minimizes outside distractions when you are learning or working
  • Added whole new charging animation
  • Optimized the Quick Settings user interface for easier one-handed operation
  • Added pause feature for screen recording
  • Added a floating window and settings for screen recording
  • New sounds added for file deletion, calculator key touches, and compass pointer
  • Optimized system built-in ringtones
  • Added TalkBack floating prompts for Accessibility
  • New management feature for recent tasks: You can view memory of recent tasks and locked apps
• Games
  • Optimized visual interaction for Game Space
  • Optimized loading animation for Game Space
• Homescreen
  • Added new live wallpapers
  • Added artistic wallpapers
  • Added option to open Global Search or the notification panel when swiping down on homescreen
  • Added option to customize the size, shape, and style of app icons on homescreen
  • Optimized the graphic design of password unlock to facilitate one-handed operation
  • Support for animated wallpapers on the lockscreen
  • Added a Simple Mode for homescreen, featuring larger fonts, icons and a clearer layout
• Security
  • Random MAC address Generator: When your phone is connected to Wi-Fi network system generates a random MAC address to avoid targeted ads and protect your privacy
• Tools
  • In Quick Settings or Smart Sidebar, you can open Calculator in a floating window
  • Added the trim feature in Recordings
  • Added the Weather (dynamic) ringtone, which automatically adapts to the current weather
  • Added weather-adaptive animations in Weather
• Camera
  • Optimized the Camera UI for better user experience
  • Optimized the Timer UI and sound
• Photos
  • Optimized the Album UI for a clearer structure and photo thumbnails
  • Added Album Recommendations that recognize more than 80 different scenes
• Communications
  • realme Share now supports sharing files with OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi devices
  • Optimized the Contacts UI for a more efficient experience
• Settings
  • Search Settings now supports fuzzy match and contains a search history
• Music
  • Added Dual Mode Music Share in realme Lab

In case you are facing constant “No network connection” error while checking for the software update, Realme is aware of the situation. This is happening due to routine maintenance of their OTA servers, which should be resolved within 2 working days. This article will be updated once we get the manual download link.

---

Source: Realme

The post Realme 2 Pro starts receiving stable Android 10 update with Realme UI appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/2Z30kTk
via IFTTT

[Update: Spotted in Canary] Google is adding a screenshot editor to Chrome for Android

Update 1 (06/24/2020 @ 06:38 AM ET): The Screenshot Editor has made its way to Chrome’s Canary release channel. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on December 11, 2019, is preserved below.

In order to make annotations a simpler and more straightforward process, Google rolled out a new markup tool in Android 9 Pie last year. While the tool was initially limited to devices running Android 9, it was soon unofficially ported over to phones running older versions of Android. Earlier this year in September, Google started testing a couple of new features in the Google Photos app, and among these was a new markup tool. The markup tool was released to Google Photos towards the end of last month and now Google is planning on bringing a similar feature to Chrome on Android.

The upcoming screenshot editor was spotted in a recently merged commit on the Chromium Gerrit. The commit in question reveals code regarding a new flag for the “Chrome Share Screenshots” feature that “Enables UI to edit and share screenshots”.

As of now, it isn’t clear what the editing UI would look like or what features would be included, but we can expect it to be somewhat similar to the editing UI found in other Google apps. A bug report for the feature also reveals some key information regarding the feature and suggests that the screenshot image editor will “utilize the Ink image editor library”.

As of now, the feature seems to be in the early stages of development so it would be quite a while before it hits the Chrome stable release on Android. However, we can expect to see the feature in action in a beta version of the browser sometime in the near future. Since we’re talking about upcoming features in Google Chrome, it’s worth noting that Google is also testing a radically new UI for Chrome’s new tab page. The new UI is a far cry from the current new tab page and shifts all of the UI elements towards the top of the display.

Source: Chromium Gerrit, Chromium bugs

---

Update: Chrome for Android’s Screenshot Editor spotted in Canary release channel

Chrome for Android’s Screenshot Editor functionality has made its way to the Canary release channel. As spotted by Techdows, the screenshot function within the browser rests under the Share option. Once you click on the screenshot button, the screenshot editor comes up. However, the edit button does not do anything at the moment, but we expect the functionality to take shape in the coming releases.

You do need to toggle the Sharing Hub and Share Screenshot flags, but that shouldn’t be required when the feature makes it way to the stable release channel.

The post [Update: Spotted in Canary] Google is adding a screenshot editor to Chrome for Android appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/35d7Yw5
via IFTTT

Google decouples ML Kit’s on-device APIs from Firebase and introduces Early Access APIs

Google uses artificial intelligence extensively to serve highly contextual and accurate web and image search results. Besides Search on the web platform, Google’s machine learning models also provide for a variety of AI applications on Android phones ranging from the visual search on Google Lens to computational photography that Pixel devices are famous for. Apart from its own applications, Google also allows third-party developers to integrate machine learning features into their apps seamlessly with the help of ML Kit, an SDK (Software Development Kit) which is part Firebase – its online management and analytics dashboard for Android applications. As of today, Google is announcing a major change to ML Kit and will make on-device APIs independent of Firebase.

ML Kit was announced at Google I/O 2018 to simplify the addition of machine learning features to apps. At the time of its launch, ML Kit consisted of text recognition, face detection, barcode scanning, image labeling, and landmark recognition APIs. In April 2019, Google added Natural Language Processing (NLP) support in the SDK for developers to include APIs such as Smart Reply and Language Identification in their apps. A month later i.e. at Google I/O 2019, Google introduced three new ML APIs for on-device translation, object detection and tracking, and the AutoML Vision Edge API for identifying specific objects like types of flowers or food using visual search.

ML Kit comprises both on-device and cloud-based APIs. As you would expect, the on-device APIs process data using the machine learning models saved on the device itself while the cloud-based APIs send data to machine learning models hosted on Google’s Cloud Platform and receive the resolved data over an internet connection. Since on-device APIs run without the internet, they parse information faster and are more secure than their cloud-based counterparts. On-device machine learning APIs are also hardware accelerated on Android devices running Android Oreo 8.1 and above, and run off of Google’s Neural Networks API (NNAPI) along with special compute blocks or NPUs found on latest chipsets from Qualcomm, MediaTek, HiSilicon, etc.

Google recently posted a blog post announcing that the on-device APIs from ML Kit will now be available as part of an independent service. This means on-device APIs in ML Kit – including text recognition, barcode scanning, face detection, image labeling, object detection and tracking, language identification, smart reply, and on-device translation – will be available under a separate SDK that can be accessed without Firebase. Google, however, does recommend using the ML Kit SDK in Firebase to migrate their existing projects to the new standalone SDK. A new microsite has been launched with all the resources related to ML Kit.

Other than the new SDK, Google has announced some changes making it easier for developers to integrate machine learning models into their apps. Firstly, the Face detection/contour model is now delivered as part of the Google Play Store so developers don’t have to clone the API and the model separately for their apps. This allows for a smaller size for the app package and the ability to reuse the model within other apps more seamlessly.

Secondly, Google has added Android Jetpack Lifecycle support to all APIs. This will help in managing the use of the APIs when an app undergoes screen rotation or is closed by the user. In addition, it also facilitates easy integration of the CameraX Jetpack library in apps that use ML Kit.

Thirdly, Google has announced an early access program so that developers can get access to upcoming APIs and features before the rest. The company is now adding two new APIs in ML Kit for select developers to preview them and share their feedback. These APIs include:

• Entity Extraction to detect things like phone numbers, addresses, payment numbers, tracking numbers, and date & time in text, and
• Pose Detection for low-latency detection of 33 skeletal points, including hands and feet

Lastly, Google is now allowing developers to replace the existing Image Labeling as well as Object Detection and Tracking APIs from ML Kit with custom machine learning models from TensorFlow Lite. The company will soon announce more details on how to find or clone TensorFlow Lite models and train them using ML Kit or Android Studio’s new ML integration features.

The post Google decouples ML Kit’s on-device APIs from Firebase and introduces Early Access APIs appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/2CvYPFn
via IFTTT

Google Play now supports vanity codes for subscriptions and more features to decrease churn

Last week, Google announced Play Billing Library version 3 with new features to make payments more accessible, make redeeming promo codes easier and keep better track of who purchased what item. Besides the implications this might have for non-Play Store apps, the new improvements aim to improve and streamline the experience of payments through Google Play. As part of the new Play Billing Library, Google is making changes to its subscription policy and adding new features to help developers gain and retain users by making a bunch of improvements to subscriptions and promotion codes.

Starting November 1, 2020, Google will make account holds and restore mandatory and make account pauses and resubscriptions (new) enabled by default for all apps that use subscriptions. An account hold temporarily blocks access to content if a user’s payment method fails while a restore lets them get right back in when they enter a valid payment method before the subscription lapses. A pause allows users to pause a subscription for up to 3 months. Resubscriptions are a new feature that lets users resubscribe to a subscription that expired within the last 12 months by going to the subscription center in the Google Play Store.

Google Play Subscription Changes

Google has also added a “frictionless” redemption flow to make it easier for users to take advantage of one-time promotional codes for subscriptions. This lets users redeem the code, purchase the subscription, and install the app from the Play Store in a few steps. This feature requires developers to use Play Billing Library v2.0 or higher.

Google Play Frictionless Subscription

Among other things Google is adding, When a user is attempting to cancel a subscription, developers can now show a list of up to 4 subscriber benefits telling them what they’ll lose by canceling.

Developers will now be able to post custom codes (called vanity codes) that multiple users can redeem. Users can redeem a custom code by entering it in their payment methods when buying a subscription. And last but not least, users will no longer have to opt-in to keep their subscriptions if the developer chooses to lower the price of the subscription. Instead, users will be simply notified of an upcoming price decrease of the subscription and can see the change in the subscription center of the Google Play Store.

These changes should significantly improve the way subscriptions and redemption of promo codes work throughout the Google Play Store. How do you like these changes?

---

Source: Android Developers

The post Google Play now supports vanity codes for subscriptions and more features to decrease churn appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/2CBq7KI
via IFTTT

GitHub for Android and iOS now renders Markdown, image, and PDFs, shows more details for diffs, and lets you mark files as viewed

I was very happy to share the news of GitHub’s Android app release just a few months ago. Like many other developers around the globe, I too was waiting for the official mobile application of the world’s most popular coding platform for years. The news first broke out last November, followed by a stable release of the app in March this year. I’ve been using the app ever since, and it has been nothing but smooth. Though, when it comes to functionality, it still lacks a couple of key features. The team behind the application has been very consistent with updates. And now, v1.2 of GitHub for Android brings along some of these requested features.

The new GitHub app enhances the pull request review experience. You can now mark files as viewed as you’re going through them, helping you review the code in a more organized fashion. The updated diff page gives you more details about the changes, including deleted and renamed files, and more. GitHub for Android 1.2 also gains ability to render Markdown, image, and PDF files on request. The team also fixed the emoji rendering issue, allowing you to use emoji shortcodes in labels and commit messages.

GitHub for mobile 1.2 adds more details to diffs, renders markdown files, and lets you mark files as viewed as you’re reviewing them. Plus lots more! Download now: https://t.co/ULOtMFIIuA pic.twitter.com/qS98CvP1AC

— GitHub (@github) June 22, 2020

You can check the full changelog of the update below. GitHub for Android 1.2 is already available on the Play Store as a stable build, so make sure to update to get all the new features.

GitHub for Mobile v1.2 changelog

• Improved pull request review experience, with support for marking files as viewed, collapsing files, deleted files, and more
• Markdown, image, and PDF files now render if you click on them while browsing code
• Typing new comments is now smoother than ever, with no jumping or flickering
• Labels, user statuses, and commit messages that used emoji shortcodes now properly render emojis
• Organization badges on user profiles link to the mentioned organization
• You can view multiple author avatars for commits on pull request timelines
• New fork badge on repository profile that links to the parent repository
• New “Metaphorical Technology” custom app icon!
• New support for iPad pointer effects
• Fixed an iPad bug where keyboard dismisses while typing a review
• Fixed voice-over bugs in the inbox filter view

---

GitHub (Free, Google Play) →

The post GitHub for Android and iOS now renders Markdown, image, and PDFs, shows more details for diffs, and lets you mark files as viewed appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/3g4k0gz
via IFTTT

Microsoft Launcher v6 beta update enables landscape mode and new Feed design

Microsoft’s efforts in Android app development haven’t gone unnoticed in the Android community. The company has released and updated many of its applications and services for our favorite platform over the past couple of years. Microsoft Launcher, a home screen launcher replacement with over 10 million installs on the Google Play Store, is definitely one of the most notable ones. A new beta build of the upcoming major v6 update is now available, and it adds a handful of welcome features.

The first and most noticeable new feature is support for landscape mode. To be honest, I rarely ever hold my phone in horizontal mode, but I can see how a lot of people could make use of it. Many major launchers have had landscape mode support for a while. Even’s Google’s default Pixel Launcher lets you rotate the home screen. The changelog also hints that the launcher is now more memory-efficient. Both of these features have been available since the first preview build of Microsoft Launcher v6 from January.

The update also introduces a redesigned Microsoft Feed. For those who aren’t familiar, Feed sits on the minus one pane on your home screen, and it displays information from various Microsoft services. You can check out your schedule or just browse the news. Feed now features a blurred background and more even spacing between cards. You can also create folders in the app drawer and double-tap anywhere to lock the screen. Both of these features have been available since the last preview build.

Microsoft Launcher’s new Microsoft Feed design. Image credits: Kerry Wan/AndroidPolice.

Here’s the full changelog below if you’re interested:

Microsoft Launcher v6 beta changelog

• Support landscape mode
• Updated Microsoft Feed design
• Beautiful Wallpapers
• Improved performance

Fix in this build:
• Add up to 3 rows in Dock
• Organize your App Drawer with folders
• Double tap to lock screen
• Improved app search
• Fixed bugs and crashes

You can try out the new features by opting into the beta program on the Play Store.

Microsoft Launcher (Free, Google Play) →

---

Via: AndroidPolice

The post Microsoft Launcher v6 beta update enables landscape mode and new Feed design appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/31dIAqS
via IFTTT