Paranoid Android releases beta builds for the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro

Since its inception, Paranoid Android has garnered a strong fan following across the aftermarket Android development scene. The team behind the popular custom ROM recently released the “Quartz 3” revision of Paranoid Android, which brought in a truckload of new features like new accent colors, a Data Switch tile, and access to Pixel Feature Drop 3-related functionalities. Veteran PA developers Alexander Koskovich and Chris Crump, also known as XDA Recognized Developer ZVNexus and XDA Senior Member sirhc respectively, have now decided to bring all the goodness of Paranoid Android Quartz 3 to the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro. Notably, these are the first publicly available AOSP-based custom ROMs for the OnePlus 8 series on our forums.

OnePlus 8 XDA Forums ||| OnePlus 8 Pro XDA Forums

The current release is tagged as beta, primarily because there are some known issues related to the fingerprint sensor and brightness, especially on the OnePlus 8 Pro. As a result, you can’t find the builds listed on PA’s official download portal as of now. Interested users need to visit the discussion threads instead and download the unified beta build from the mirrors provided by the developers.

Paranoid Android Download and Discussion Thread: OnePlus 8 ||| OnePlus 8 Pro

It is worth mentioning that the installation process is a tad bit different from the usual affair. The current form of the ROM is more of a collection of individual partition images that you have to flash using the Fastboot interface. The developer duo probably took this route to avoid the limitations of the unofficial TWRP build. The flashing process will require you to factory reset your device, so do perform a backup beforehand.

The initial version of Paranoid Android for the OnePlus 8/8 Pro utilizes a modified version of the stock kernel as a placeholder. XDA Recognized Developer arter97 is working to port the PA kernel to these phones. Until then, early adopters are advised to stick with the default kernel.

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Advertisements can soon show feeds in a Google Ads app campaign and deep link from YouTube and Gmail

With all the devices and services that Google offers to consumers, it’s easy to forget that a large part of what the company does revolves around advertisements. Google is responsible for a lot of the ads you see around the Internet, and it’s also how people make money from ads. Google recently announced some new ways for customers to reach their marketing goals.

Here’s a quick summary of the announcements:

• Test My Site: revamped microsite for providing marketers and developers recommendations on increasing site speed and performance

• Feeds in App campaigns / Deferred deep linking: helps brands surface a wide range of products directly in their ads and brings users to the specific app product page upon app open

• Deep linking expansion: originally available on Search, Display, and Shopping ads, we’re expanding deep linking from YouTube, Hotel, Gmail, and Discovery ads.

• Ad destination report: new report type to help understand where consumers are landing and converting from ads.

There are a couple of features to dive into a little deeper. First, Feeds in App Campaigns and Deferred deep linking. In the screenshots below, you can see a couple of different feeds in app campaigns across Google and YouTube. A feed is essentially just a list of products that are defined in a unique way. In the example above, you can see products organized by subcategory and “Top Products.”

Deferred deep linking is all about smoothly transitioning users from an ad to an app. Above, you can see how a user can tap a product in the Wish ad, install the app from the Play Store, and then be taken directly to the product in the app. You don’t have to install the app and then go hunt for the product you saw in the ad.

Deep linking is a feature that makes it easy for users to tap something in an ad and go directly to the relevant page in an app. Google is expanding this feature to YouTube and Gmail. In the example above, an ad for groceries appears under a YouTube cooking video. The user can tap “Shop Now” and be taken directly to the store’s app.

These features are great for advertisers and users alike. Anything that makes it easier for people to take immediate action without breaking the flow is a good thing to retain shopper interest. Google urges advertisers to visit the Advertising Solutions Center for more information.

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Source: Google

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Apple Music for Android gets gapless playback and Android Auto enhancements

While it may not be a favorite for diehard Android fans, Apple Music is certainly popular in the music streaming space. According to a research firm, it was estimated that Apple Music is just behind Spotify in market share. Clearly, there are Android users who use Apple Music, and the app just got updated with some nice features.

Apple Music v3.3.0 for Android adds gapless music playback. For those unfamiliar with the term, it simply means there’s no gap between tracks. This becomes really important when you’re listening to an album and the songs are supposed to seamlessly blend together. Instead of a jarring bit of silence between tracks, they’ll smoothly transition.

Next up in Apple Music is enhancements to Android Auto and downloads. The “Only showing music available on this device” message that appears when viewing downloads now extends to more views. This makes it more clear that you’re seeing only downloaded content when viewing albums, artists, and songs. Progress on downloads also appears to be tracked better.

The Android Auto “enhancements” aren’t clear, but we presume the experience has just been cleaned up a bit. The changelog also mentions “improved overall app performance.” Apple Music is a solid music streaming option and the Android app gained a dark theme and Chromecast support last year. Version 3.3.0 is available right now in the Google Play Store.

Apple Music (Free, Google Play) →

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Via: Android Police

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Here’s another look at Google’s Android TV dongle from the Android 11 Developer Preview

Today, Google released an Android 11 Developer Preview for the ADT-3, a set-top box aimed at developers that runs Google’s Android TV operating system. The Developer Preview doesn’t contain any user-facing changes—after all, the ADT-3 is only intended for developers—but we still took a look through the update to see if there are any upcoming Android TV-specific features that Google didn’t document. While we were digging through the firmware, we discovered another asset related to Google’s upcoming Android TV dongle.

​Earlier this month, we were sent pre-release firmware for a Google device code-named “sabrina.” Within that firmware, we discovered a video that reveals the design of Google’s Android TV dongle, the dedicated remote for the device, and the new Android TV UI that will presumably debut on the device. The video was created on October 10th, 2019, which was 5 days before the Pixel 4 launch date. Given the lifecycle of product launches, it’s unlikely that the final design and specifications of the dongle have changed much since that video was made. However, since we still don’t know when the dongle will actually launch, there’s always a chance that Google could have gone back at any point in the last several months to order a tweak to the design or internal components.

In the Android 11 Developer Preview for Google’s ADT-3 developer box, though, we found a video named “reboot_sabrina” in SetupWraithPrebuiltGtvs, the system application that handles that setup wizard for Android TV. This video shows the user how to reboot the “sabrina” Android TV dongle by unplugging it from its power connector (which seems to be a USB cord, though we don’t know if it’s micro-USB or Type-C) for 3 seconds. The video shows a sketch of the device with its overall oblong shape and “G” logo in the center, matching the design of the dongle that we saw in the pre-release firmware.

This video alone doesn’t really tell us much about Google’s dongle that we don’t already know, but it does corroborate the design of the renders we published earlier this month. Plus, it’s the first time we’ve seen anything related to “sabrina” in a publicly available source, especially one that’s very recent. Hopefully, this means that it won’t be long until we see the release of “sabrina.” Some of us can’t wait to get our hands on it. One thing to note is that the appearance of this asset in the Android 11 Developer Preview doesn’t guarantee that “sabrina” will launch with Android 11 out-of-the-box—I’m guessing it’ll launch with Android 10-based Android TV but will be one of the first to experience Android 11-based Android TV once that’s available (which usually happens a few months after the new OS for phones is made public.)

Here’s a summary of what we know so far about the specifications for Google’s Android TV dongle. We compiled this list of specifications based on an analysis of the pre-release firmware, so these specifications are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Category	Specification
CPU + GPU	Amlogic S905X2 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.8GHz Mali-G31 MP2
RAM	2GB
Display	HLG, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)
Connectivity	Broadcom BCM43569 (Wi-Fi 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1)
Audio	Cadence’s Tensilica HiFi 4 DSP
Remote	Yes, mic for Google Assistant

Here’s a video published on our YouTube channel that showcases the design of the Google Android TV dongle alongside its remote and new Android TV UI.

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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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Google Photos is getting a new logo and a simpler app design

Google appears to be quietly rolling out a brand new logo and app redesign to Google Photos. The new logo and design are live now for the iOS app, and the app was previously nearly identical across platforms, so it should be coming to Android too. Below, you can see a before and after of the app listing in the Apple App Store.

The new logo is the first thing that jumps out. It’s like they flattened the old logo and rounded all the corners. The changelog for Google Photos 5.0 on iOS reads: “Introducing a new, simplified Google Photos to help you find and relive your memories. As part of this, we’ve refreshed the Photos icon to reflect the new, simplified product experience.”

The Android app likely won’t look exactly like the iOS screenshots above, but they were very similar before. The iOS app had the typical search bar across the top, which has now been replaced with the simple  “Google Photos” wordmark. There is now a shortcut to the built-in messenger in the top left corner, which suggests Google will be putting more emphasis on the feature. The “Memories” row is now larger as well.

Other than that, this seems like a fairly simple refresh. The app looks a little cleaner and more streamlined. People will probably be hesitant about the new logo, but I actually think it’s a nice refresh as well. It matches up with Google’s previous logo redesigns nicely. At the time of writing, the Android app and Play Store listing for Google Photos have not been updated yet.

Google Photos (Free, Google Play) →

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Via: Justin Duino

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Google releases an Android 11 Developer Preview for its ADT-3 Android TV box

Late last year, Google announced Android 10 for Android TV and the new ADT-3 developer device to go along with it. The ADT devices are fully intended for developers and they’re guaranteed to receive updates and security patches from Google. Today, Google is announcing the Android 11 Developer Preview for the ADT-3 box.

The Android 11 Developer Preview for Android TV doesn’t include any visual updates or user-facing changes, but there’s a lot going on under the surface. It brings a bunch of privacy, performance, accessibility, and connectivity features. In addition, there are a number of new APIs that Android TV apps can now use.

We wrote about the new developer features in the first Android 11 Developer Preview back in February. There are a few that are especially important for Android TV devices. One of the most notable is low-latency video decoding, which allows apps to check and configure low-latency playback for a specific codec. This is very important for real-time streaming services like Stadia.

Another important feature pertaining to Android TV is HDMI low-latency mode. This allows apps to check for and request auto low latency mode (commonly known as “game mode”) on external displays and TVs. In this mode, the display or TV disables graphics post-processing in order to minimize latency.

We also discovered that Android 11 adds support for a bunch of new game controllers, which will be very handy for gaming with Android TV. Android 11 adds 84 new mappings for Xbox, Razer, Mad Catz, and more. A controller mapping is what allows Android to appropriately associate buttons to the correct KeyEvent. So if you tap the “A” button it will translate to the “A” KeyEvent in the game.

As mentioned, the Android 11 Developer Preview for Android  TV is strictly intended for developers. The following image is for ADT-3 developer device only. All user data on the ADT-3 device will be wiped after flashing. Once the device has been flashed to Android 11, you will not be able to go back to the previous Android 10 build.

1. Download the system image (link) and unzip the file.
2. Plug in the ADT-3 developer kit for Android TV and enable Developer options.
3. Run flash-all.sh in the unzipped folder to perform manual system image installation to the ADT-3 device.

The flash-all script uses fastboot and adb tools to upgrade the system. The latest version of fastboot is recommended; developers can find it in the Android SDK Platform-Tools package.

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Source: Google

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DontKillMyApp is a benchmark to test how badly your phone handles background apps

Smartphone companies come up with even more exuberant claims about long-lasting batteries with each new device. Inarguably, the battery sizes on smartphones have increased substantially over the past years – that’s why the popularity of tools like Greenify has dwindled over the years. However, to extend the battery backup, manufacturers also tweak their custom Android-based software to kill or put background apps to sleep, and some of them do it really aggressively. One of the victims of the agonizing issue is Urbandroid the developer of Sleep as Android, a smart alarm app. The same developer is launching a new app called “DontKillMyApp” that will help you measure how well can background apps survive on your phone.

The app is named after Urbandroid’s earlier project – a website by the same name meant to highlight how aggressively different manufacturers freeze background apps. While the website gives a more general overview of the aggressive app killing in custom Android skins, the app should give a more contextual and specific picture of how well a phone – and more importantly, your phone – handles background apps.

To run the benchmark, you need to keep the phone idle for some time for the app to test how well background tasks are handled. It lets you choose the duration of the test between an hour and 8 hours and warns you against using the phone or charging it during that period. The app displays a persistent notification and you can stop the benchmark using the same if you need to use the phone.

To test this, the app runs a service in the foreground with the help of a persistent notification, adds wakelock to it, and executes some repeating tasks on the main thread at intervals of 10 seconds. Additionally, the app schedules and alarms for every 8 minutes. At the end of the testing period, it sees how many of those commands have been executed and presents them with a visual graph.

The DontKillMyApp app is currently available in Early Access and you can try it out to see how your phone handles background apps. In the future, we can also expect to see some suggestions within the app about ways to exempt apps from being killed and to keep them running in the background.

Share your results in the comments below! Meanwhile, here’s a gripping editorial on how app developers suffer due to these aggressive battery optimizations.

DontKillMyApp (Free, Google Play) →

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Via: Android Police

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