Files by Google prepares to add a Favorites folder

Files by Google was launched in November 2017 as a way to let Android Go users better manage storage space on their phones. Formally known as “Google Files Go”, Google later decided to make the app available for all Android phones through the Google Play Store. Since its inception, Files by Google has gone from being a barebones storage space organizer to become a better-equipped file manager that comes preinstalled on Google Pixel and Android One smartphones. It has gained several exciting features over time, including a dark theme, built-in media player, faster offline sharing, and more. In its most recent update, the app received the Safe Folder feature, letting users hide their sensitive files behind a 4-digit PIN. Now, the app is preparing for a new feature called Favorites folder to let you organize your favorite files in one place for quick access.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Our Editor-in-Chief, Mishaal Rahman, has discovered some strings for this feature in the Files by Google version 1.0.325710463. He managed to surface the menu options for the Favorites folder and was able to add a file to it, but the folder itself wasn’t viewable.

The Favorites folder will be a useful addition as it would allow you to access all your favorite and most frequently accessed docs, PDFs, and media files in one place. You won’t have to dig deep into a pile of folders and subfolders every time you want to access that specific file. Just adding it to the Favorite folder will ensure you can quickly reach it whenever you need. A lot of file managers offer this function, so this addition inches along feature parity with the competition.

For now, the feature remains a work-in-progress and isn’t available in the most recent version of the Files by Google app. As and when Google will decide to incorporate it into the app, we’ll sure to let you know.

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Files by Google: Clean up space on your phone (Free, Google Play) →

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Download MIUI 12’s new Super Saturn Wallpaper from the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra

Xiaomi officially announced its newest Android skin — MIUI 12 — earlier this year in April. As with all previous MIUI releases, the latest software update from the Chinese OEM included a bunch of new static and live wallpapers. Shortly after the official announcement, XDA Recognized Contributor linuxct managed to port the new Super Earth and Mars live wallpapers to other devices and later added two more options — Hale crater and Evergreen garden — to the list. Xiaomi recently released another set of live wallpapers with its 10th-anniversary special Mi 10 Ultra and you can now download it for your device.

This is Faraway Rings, the Super Wallpaper featured in the Mi 10 Ultra, ported to work on any Android device running Android 8.0 and above! This first video shows the Vertical version of it. pic.twitter.com/Lpq8V5iCxm

— linuxct (@linuxct) August 12, 2020

The new MIUI 12 Super Saturn live wallpapers include two options — Faraway Rings (Horizontal) and Faraway Rings (Vertical) — both of which can now be installed on any Android device running Android 8.0 or newer. As you can see in the embedded tweets, the Faraway Rings (Horizontal) wallpaper gives you a close look at Saturn’s rings in a horizontal orientation, while the Faraway Rings (Vertical) wallpaper aligns the rings in a vertical orientation. Both the wallpapers show a zoomed out version of the ringed planet on the lockscreen and unlocking the device zooms into the rings, with floating asteroids that move when you switch pages.

And this second video shows the Horizontal version of it, just like I showed a few hours ago. pic.twitter.com/dx3cWqSwNT

— linuxct (@linuxct) August 12, 2020

If you’re interested in trying out MIUI 12’s new Super Saturn live wallpapers on your device, you can download the respective APKs from the download link below. Once you have the APK installed on your device, you can pick the new live wallpapers from the stock wallpaper picker on your device. In case the wallpapers don’t show up in the stock wallpaper picker, you can download the Google Wallpaper app from the Play Store to apply the live wallpapers.

Download MIUI 12 Super Saturn Wallpaper port

MIUI 12 Super Wallpaper — XDA Forum Thread

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Tasker’s latest test hijacks Android 11’s power menu to let you do whatever you want

Popular Android automation app Tasker recently received a major update which introduced a ton of new features to the app. The update included a feature that unlocked the app’s ability to read any sensor on your phone to trigger a Task, a feature that will let you automate sending text messages or make calls via any third-party app, full Do Not Disturb customization, the ability to trigger Tasks via links, and much more. Now, the developer behind Tasker has shared a demo for an experimental plugin which will let you customize Android 11’s power menu to trigger any event in Tasker.

In a recent post on Reddit, Tasker’s developer u/joaomgcd wrote: “I’m going away for about 1 month starting next week and since I’m not going to be releasing any updates this close to leaving I started experimenting with some stuff, so I created this simple plugin…Basically it adds an entry to the power menu items on Android 11 which will trigger an event in Tasker.”

As you can see in the attached video, the experimental plugin creates a Tasker button in Android 11’s power menu which can be customized to trigger any Task within the automation app. In case you wish to try out the plugin, you can download it from the Reddit thread linked below. Do note, however, that the plugin only works on devices running Android 11 and you won’t be able to enable it on older versions of Android. This is due to the fact that it makes use of Android 11’s new Device Controls API which lets developers put home automation shortcuts in the Power Menu.

It’s also worth noting that the plugin is currently just a proof-of-concept, but the developer plans on adding full-fledged Device Controls API support in a future release of Tasker. Once the feature rolls out in a stable release, you will be able to trigger any event from the modded power menu.

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Source: Reddit

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Mozilla lays off 250 employees to restructure its business but is reportedly still financially secure

The Mozilla Corporation recently announced that it was laying off approximately 250 employees in an attempt to secure the organization’s financial future. The layoffs were announced by the CEO of Mozilla Corporation and Mozilla Foundation Chairwoman, Mitchell Baker, in a public blog post, which also highlighted the company’s plans for the foreseeable future.

In the blog post, Baker wrote, “Today we announced a significant restructuring of Mozilla Corporation. This will strengthen our ability to build and invest in products and services that will give people alternatives to conventional Big Tech. Sadly, the changes also include a significant reduction in our workforce by approximately 250 people.”

Baker further revealed that the layoffs and restructuring were a part of the organization’s need to adapt its finances in a post-COVID-19 world and focus on commercially viable products that would help the organization generate revenue in the long term. This led some to speculate that Mozilla was facing financial troubles and had failed to renew its search deal with Google, which has historically accounted for 75-95% of the organization’s annual budget.

However, sources familiar with the matter have confirmed to ZDNet that Mozilla is financially sound and the layoffs were just a result of over-staffing in areas that the organization was not planning on prioritizing going forward. The sources also revealed that Mozilla and Google are expected to extend their current search deal for another three years at an estimated price tag of $400 million-$450 million per year. Details about the extended search deal will, most likely, be revealed later this year in November, when the organization is scheduled to disclose its 2019 financial figures.

In a statement to ZDNet, a Mozilla spokesperson said, “Mozilla’s search partnership with Google is ongoing, with Google as the default search provider in the Firefox browser in many places around the world. We’ve recently extended the partnership, and the relationship isn’t changing.”

Going forward, the Mozilla Corporation will prioritize commercialization efforts in the short-term, while work on open standards and protocols will take a back seat. However, Mozilla doesn’t plan to phase out its work in the web development community and will, most likely, pick up where it left off after its subscription-based services ensure long-term business survivability.

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Source: The Mozilla Blog, ZDnet (1,2)

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Xiaomi has no plans to launch the Mi 10 Ultra or Redmi K30 Ultra globally

Xiaomi recently launched the Mi 10 Ultra and the Redmi K30 Ultra, two phones that commemorate the company’s 10 years in the smartphone market. While the Mi 10 Ultra includes some of the best consumer-ready technologies that Xiaomi has to offer, the Redmi K30 Ultra represents Xiaomi’s insane value proposition with a low price tag but a heavy punch. Both smartphones are exciting for their own reasons. But as it turns out, Xiaomi currently has no plans to launch the Mi 10 Ultra or the Redmi K30 Ultra globally, limiting them to the Chinese market.

According to reports by GSMArena and AndroidAuthority citing Xiaomi representatives, the Chinese OEM is currently limiting the Mi 10 Ultra and the Redmi K30 Ultra to China only.

Both Mi 10 Ultra and Redmi K30 Ultra won’t be launching outside of Mainland China.

Further, Xiaomi has also ruled out the devices releasing globally under the POCO brand, as one could see in the case of the POCO F2 Pro/Redmi K30 Pro.

If you have been keeping track of our coverage, especially of the Redmi K30 Ultra “cezanne“/M2006J10C, you’d notice that we could not explicitly confirm that the device would launch outside of China, namely because of the fact that it came with a MediaTek Dimensity SoC that had remained a China-exclusive till then. However, more recently, MediaTek had mentioned that the Dimensity SoCs would begin shipping in devices outside of China in Q3 2020. This, coupled with the existence of the M2006J10G as well as the existence of global beta builds for cezanne up until 14th July, had given us a sliver of hope that the device would indeed make its way outside of China. While we are still hopeful that Xiaomi may have a change of heart in the future, this confirmation from company officials is a conclusive statement that the device will not ship outside of China officially. No such indications had indicated for the Mi 10 Ultra, so its China-exclusivity was not a surprise.

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Source: GSMArena, AndroidAuthority

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Dropbox launches its password manager, secure folder, and computer backups for Plus plans

Dropbox Plus users were treated to a slew of new features today, including the company’s new password manager, PIN-protected folder, and computer backup.

In a blog post, the company announced that Dropbox Passwords, Dropbox Vault, and computer backup are no longer in beta and are now available for users on Dropbox Plus (and Professional) plans.

Dropbox Passwords uses zero-knowledge encryption so saved passwords and logins are protected and only accessible to users. When you install the browser extension or mobile app and visit a website or app with a login field, Dropbox Passwords can autofill your information, making sign-in seamless. Passwords sync across an unlimited number of devices that run Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android, and if you run Google Chrome, Firefox, or Edge on desktop, you can also import your existing passwords. The iOS and Android apps support biometric authentication (Face ID or Touch ID on iOS or fingerprint scanner on Android), and the app also automatically locks itself after a period of inactivity or when the device is locked.

Dropbox Vault provides users with a place to secure and organize sensitive documents. Using a PIN for secure access, Dropbox Vault users can store sensitive documents such as a Social Security card, bank statements, and more. Files saved in the Vault won’t appear anywhere outside of it, so they’ll remain secure even if someone gains access to your device or account (and they don’t know your PIN). Users can share these files with trusted friends and family in case of an emergency by setting them as trusted contacts. Vault can be accessed from the desktop and mobile apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android or from the web at dropbox.com. The Vault is listed alongside your existing files and folders but cannot be synced to your PC’s storage.

Finally, Dropbox’s new computer backup feature will allow users to automatically back up files from folders like Desktop, Documents, and Downloads on their PCs. Users won’t need to manually drag and drop files from Finder/File Explorer into their Dropbox account. As you’d expect, these files and folders are continuously synced, so you can access them from any device, like that new computer you just got.

You can try out these new features if you’re a Dropbox Plus or Professional member. Plus plans cost $12/month or $120/year for 2TB of storage or $20/month or $200/year for 3TB of storage.

Dropbox: Cloud Storage to Backup, Sync, File Share (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Dropbox Passwords - Secure Password Manager (Free, Google Play) →

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Google explains why they’re experimenting with hiding the full URL in Chrome

We’ve known that Google has been experimenting with hiding the full address in the URL bar in Chrome for several months now. After all, Google has been developing these changes in the open in the open-source Chromium project, as spotted earlier this year by AndroidPolice. In a blog post published today, Google provided more details on its plans to experiment with how Chrome on desktop displays URLs. The goal, according to Google, is to understand how showing (or hiding) URLs helps users avoid phishing and social engineering attacks.

You can quickly identify and determine the authenticity of a website by examining the URL. However, many users aren’t familiar with all the parameters in a full URL, and attackers can take advantage of that to trick users. Google points to a study that found that more than 60% of users were fooled by a URL if a misleading brand name appears in the path.

As part of an experiment in Google Chrome 86 for non-enterprise-enrolled devices, Google will hide part of the URL for some users—leaving only the domain name by default. Once you hover over it, the URL will expand fully. Users can also right-click on the address bar and enable the option to “Always show full URLs” if they prefer to always see a URL’s full path for every website they visit.

Google doesn’t say how long this experiment will go on for, but if you’re not randomly assigned to the experimental group and for some reason want to be a part of it, you can install Chrome Canary or Dev, open chrome://flags, and enable the following flags:

#omnibox-ui-reveal-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-hover
#omnibox-ui-sometimes-elide-to-registrable-domain
#omnibox-ui-hide-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-interaction

The third flag will optionally show the full URL on a page load until you interact with the page.

Hopefully, Google will finish this experiment soon and decide how best to proceed with showing the URL in the address bar. If they do choose to hide the full URL by default, we hope they keep the option to always show full URLs.

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