Chrome OS is getting a clipboard manager that stores the last 5 copied items

Copy and paste is an essential feature that most of us use every day. If you do a lot of work from a computer, it’s even more important. Windows 10 has a handy feature (Windows key + V) that allows you to see the last several things you copied. Chrome OS will soon be getting a very similar clipboard manager feature.

According to a new commit in the Chromium Gerrit called “Multipaste,” Chrome OS will be getting a near-identical feature to Windows 10. The associated flag (chrome://flags/#multipaste) explains: “Pressing Search + V will show a menu that allows you to paste things previously copied.” For those unfamiliar, the Search key is essentially Chrome OS’ version of the Windows key, as it’s used in many common keyboard shortcuts.

Looking further into the commit, we can see that Chrome OS’ clipboard manager will store the five most recent items that have been copied. These things can include text, formatted text, images, links in a bookmark format, and a mysterious thing called “web smart paste.” It’s also possible that there will be a button in the quick settings tray to bring up the clipboard manager without the keyboard shortcut.

There’s no guarantee that this new clipboard manager will ever make it to stable Chrome OS, but it would be pretty useful if it does. The Windows 10 feature is very handy and even Gboard has something similar. If you do a lot of copy and pasting, you know how annoying it can be to accidentally “overwrite” the last thing you copied. This would be a big time saver, though we wish it will be upgraded to let you save more than just five items.

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Source: Chromium Gerrit | Via: 9to5Google

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Google is working on another bottom tab switcher for Chrome on Android

Google has been toying with adding a bottom bar on Chrome for Android for a long time. First appearing in 2018, “Duplex” (as it was known at the time) was an experiment that added a bottom navigation bar to Chrome. It was later renamed to “Duet” to avoid being associated with Google’s AI project, and it underwent several changes before ultimately being removed. Now, the company is working on a different bottom bar, this time for tabs.

A new Chrome flag allows users to add a tab bar on the bottom in Chrome for Android. This flag originally appeared earlier this year, but now it’s available in the beta channel of Chrome 84. What the new bottom bar does is pretty straightforward: It places your open tabs in a strip as circles with the site’s favicon. Just tap on one of the icons to switch to the tab.

The tabs look very similar to Chrome for Android’s implementation of tab groups. With the tab bar enabled, there’s still a tab button with the number of tabs showing in the top bar, which now seems redundant. Regardless, the bottom strip is a much quicker way to switch between tabs. Rather than tapping a button to see the tabs first, they are always present on the screen. It’s much closer to a desktop-like experience.

As mentioned, this is available in Chrome 84 beta. You can enable to flag at chrome://flags/#enable-conditional-strip, however, it does appear to not be working for everyone (it worked for me after force close/clear cache). Frequent XDA tipster Some_Random_username reports seeing this feature enabled for them on Chrome Canary 85.0.4174.0 without the flag, though your mileage may vary. It’s likely that Google is testing this new UI with users to see if it’s worth rolling out in the stable release. Don’t get your hopes up, though, since Google is known to axe Chrome features left and right.

Chrome Beta (Free, Google Play) →

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Via: Android Police

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Warden is an open source app from the developer of Aurora Store that lets you disable trackers/loggers [Root]

It’s no secret that we’re constantly tracked while on the Internet. While marketers and organizations contend that tracking users help them understand their behavior and preferences so they can improve their services, many users find this degree of tracking to be invasive. Many users may even end up divulging more information about their browsing habits than they intended to, often by browsing some insecure or untrustworthy websites. While its commonly believed that most of the tracking online happens while browsing the Internet on our PCs, there are hundreds of Android apps out there that come with built-in trackers to not just store information about you but also share that information with potential third-party clients such as advertisers.

If you take privacy more seriously than the average user and absolutely want to deter being tracked by apps on your phone, you should try out a new open-source app called Warden that claims to block trackers and loggers hidden within apps. Warden is created by XDA Senior member WhyOrean who is notable for his work behind the Aurora Store, a popular, unofficial, open-source Google Play Store client. Using root access, Warden allows the user to disable all detected trackers and loggers contained within apps. It also features a profile-based “debloater” that supports scripting. The app supports Android version 5.0 and above.

The Warden App Manager uses a static list of trackers and loggers compiled by French non-profit Exodus Privacy. It reads the dex (Dalvik Executable) files within each app installed on your phone to see if any of the class names match a known tracker or logger from the aforementioned list. Loggers, in this context, means “all utilities which are used to log user activity on an app or logcat in general.” WhyOrean notes that not all loggers are evil and some might be used to log users’ activities for various (legitimate) purposes. However, there are a few logging tools “like ACRA, xLog” that are powerful tools that can “send user data to devs without user’s consent.”

Besides offering an insight into pesky trackers, Warden comes with a “De-Bloater” and “Nuke it!” mode, both of which require root access. While the De-Bloater allows users to disable, hide, or uninstall apps with fishy trackers, the Nuke it! feature allows users to scan all apps installed on the device and disable all known tracker components (Activities, Services, Providers, and Receivers) automatically. Both “De-Bloater” and “Nuke it!” are considered experimental features at the moment, so be sure to visit the below thread to give feedback to the developer in case you experience any issues or have any suggestions.

Download Warden – App Manager

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DiscoverKiller is an Xposed Module that replaces the Google Discover feed with whatever you want

The default launcher app on Google’s Pixel lineup and many other smartphones running close-to-stock versions of Android offers a handy integration with Google Discover. As the successor to Google Feed, Discover’s launcher integration allows users to swipe to the left of their default home screen and conveniently access the latest news stories, video recommendations, and more. This feature has been adopted by notable skinned versions of Android as well, such as ASUS’ ZenUI, Xiaomi’s MIUI, and OnePlus’ OxygenOS. However, some users have lashed out at Google for showing clickbaity content in Discover while also showing advertisements in feeds.

XDA Recognized Developer Quinny899 has now come up with an interesting mod to “replace the Google Discover page of your home screen with whatever you want”. Dubbed as DiscoverKiller, the mod is presented in the form of an Xposed module. When enabled, the module can seamlessly substitute the Discover page with the Google Assistant ‘Updates’ screen or virtually any other third-party app, depending on how you customize it.

The Discover section is powered by the Google app, thus the module directly hooks into it instead of the launcher. This design allows DiscoverKiller to be compatible with any third-party launcher capable of showing the Google Discover feed without additional configurations. The module also offers a swipe-right-to-close option in case you choose to display the ‘Updates’ screen in place of the Discover page.

As a mandatory prerequisite for using this module, you need to install EdXposed with Riru Core after rooting your device using Magisk. Note that the initial version of DiscoverKiller is not verified by TaiChi. You can download the precompiled APK of the module from its XDA thread (linked below), while the source code is available on the developer’s GitHub profile.

DiscoverKiller Xposed Module — XDA Download and Discussion Thread

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Windows File Recovery is a new tool from Microsoft that may help you restore deleted files

Nothing is as frustrating as losing valuable information from your hard drive which can happen due to human error or hardware failure. There may still be a chance to recover some of those files, though, since a lot of file deletions involve deleting the file index until that block of storage is overwritten. Just a simple “delete” command in Windows, for example, is not enough to irrevocably make files unrecoverable. To do that, you need to securely wipe the drive by either writing a bunch of zeroes or other data to it over several iterations or physically destroy the drive. The point is is that if you’ve accidentally lost some of your valuable files, there is still a chance you can restore them. Microsoft just made that slightly easier to do with the release of the Windows File Recovery tool.

Windows File Recovery is available as a free app in Microsoft Store. Though, it’s not an app in the common sense of the term since it’s a command-line tool. Although it uses a CLI interface, it is still very newbie-friendly. After launching the tool, you have options to target files you want to recover by name, paths, or extensions. Microsoft says Windows File Recovery can recover data not only from the hard drive installed on your computer but from external storage, too. This means you can use the tool on USB drives, memory cards, external SSDs, and other storage devices, though Microsoft recommends using Signature Mode for recovering files from external storage. There are also Default and Segment modes for recovering files from NTFS-formatted drives. As of now, the tool supports drives formatted in NTFS, FAT, exFAT, and ReFS file systems and various file extensions such as PNGs, PDFs, MP3 and MP4s, and many more.

You can find more information about how to use the tool, what it’ll work on, and what files it can recover from Microsoft’s support page. You can download Windows File Recovery for free from the Microsoft Store linked below. Just make sure that you’re running Windows 10 2004 or later to install the app.

Windows File Recovery (Free, Microsoft Store) →

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Via: Neowin

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Google Chrome’s media controls can soon be popped out into a floating overlay

Google has been working on revamped media controls for Chrome for a while now, and they recently went live in the Stable version earlier this year. The global media controls allow you to manage whatever media is playing right from the toolbar instead of navigating away from your current tab to the tab/window that’s playing the media. Soon, it looks like those media controls will get even handier.

Recently, a feature request for the global media controls was picked up and added to the Chromium code. The request simply states: “Add ability to drag a notification out of the dialog.” This would make it possible to detach the controls from the toolbar and put them anywhere on the screen. The request goes on to explain: “We want the user to be able to click and drag a notification out of the media dialog and into an always-on-top overlay.”

Credits: Chrome Story

The second part of the description is key as it will allow the controls to stay on top. This is important because otherwise, you would have to keep opening the global media controls every time you wanted to control media playback since the controls lose focus when you click away right now. The code for this feature has already been added to Chrome, and there will be a flag that will soon be able to enable this feature on the Canary channel. The flag can be found at chrome://flags/#global-media-controls. 

If you’re someone that keeps a lot of tabs open (which most of us probably are), Chrome’s media controls are a real time saver. Having the shortcut in the toolbar means you never have to worry about which tab is playing media. Putting the controls in a floating window saves you from that extra click. Is it a huge deal? Maybe not, but it’s a nice option. We look forward to seeing the feature rollout.

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Source 1: Chromium Gerrit | Source 2: Bug Tracker | Via: Chrome Story

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Breaking: India bans 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, Mi Community, and Clash of Kings

The Government of India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT has just issued a press release announcing the ban of 59 apps that are “prejudicial to [the] sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.” The list of banned apps includes TikTok among others. As of today, here is the list of 59 Chinese apps that will be banned in India:

List of 59 Chinese-made apps now banned in India

1. TikTok
2. Shareit
3. Kwai
4. UC Browser
5. Baidu map
6. Shein
7. Clash of Kings
8. DU battery saver
9. Helo
10. Likee
11. YouCam makeup
12. Mi Community
13. CM Browers
14. Virus Cleaner
15. APUS Browser
16. ROMWE
17. Club Factory
18. Newsdog
19. Beutry Plus
20. WeChat
21. UC News
22. QQ Mail
23. Weibo
24. Xender
25. QQ Music
26. QQ Newsfeed
27. Bigo Live
28. SelfieCity
29. Mail Master
30. Parallel Space
31. Mi Video Call – Xiaomi
32. WeSync
33. ES File Explorer
34. Viva Video – QU Video Inc
35. Meitu
36. Vigo Video
37. New Video Status
38. DU Recorder
39. Vault- Hide
40. Cache Cleaner DU App studio
41. DU Cleaner
42. DU Browser
43. Hago Play With New Friends
44. Cam Scanner
45. Clean Master – Cheetah Mobile
46. Wonder Camera
47. Photo Wonder
48. QQ Player
49. We Meet
50. Sweet Selfie
51. Baidu Translate
52. Vmate
53. QQ International
54. QQ Security Center
55. QQ Launcher
56. U Video
57. V fly Status Video
58. Mobile Legends
59. DU Privacy

Many notable apps are on this list. First of all, there’s TikTok, the video-sharing social media platform that has seen a surge in popularity since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Then there are multiple apps from Xiaomi, including Mi Community and Mi Video Call. Popular utility apps like Parallel Space, Xender, Shareit, and Cam Scanner are also mentioned. China’s Twitter alternative, Weibo, will also be banned. The incredibly popular “Clash of Kings” mobile game will also be banned in India. We’ve seen controversies arise around several of these applications in the past, most notably TikTok, Cam Scanner, and all the DU mobile apps, but to see a targeted ban like this from a major government is something we never quite expected.

The Government of India “has decided to disallow the usage of [these apps], used in both mobile and non-mobile Internet enabled devices.” This means that Indian users will not be able to access these apps and services through either the mobile app or through a website sometime after today, though it’s unclear if the government will force app stores to delist these apps on mobile app stores on top of blocking these services on an ISP-level.

India is citing section 69A of the Information Technology Act in its decision to ban these 59 mobile apps. Section 69A of the IT Act reads as follows:

69A. Power to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource.–

1. Where the Central Government or any of its officers specially authorised by it in this behalf is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above, it may subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the Government or intermediary to block for access by the public or cause to be blocked for access by the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource.

2. The procedure and safeguards subject to which such blocking for access by the public may be carried out, shall be such as may be prescribed.

3. The intermediary who fails to comply with the direction issued under sub-section (1) shall be punished with an imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and also be liable to fine.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT notes “raging concerns on aspects relating to data security and safeguarding the privacy of 130 crore Indians” as a contributing factor in its decision. The ministry “has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.” Because of “the compilation of [this] data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India,” the Ministry of Electronics and IT considers this matter “of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures.” Tensions between India and China have been escalating this month over border disputes which led to a major Chinese smartphone maker canceling its live online product launch and spurring consumers to voluntarily boycott Chinese-made apps and products. Today’s announcement is the latest escalation that has spilled over into the realm of smartphone technology.

We will keep an eye out on this news to see if the ban list is expanded, shrunk, or dismissed entirely in the coming days.

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