Chuwi Hi12 Tablet

Jumping head first into the hybrid tablet trend Chuwi have launched a 12 inch 2 in 1 tablet.  The Windows 10 tablet comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage and the same 2160*1440 display as the surface 3. The price is currently $269.99 but if you want the keyboard half of this device you’ll have to pay an extra $55.

This is the New TouchWiz on the Galaxy S7/Edge [Gallery]

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge is now shipping to T-Mobile customers, and XDA/Android Podcast Member altimax98 was lucky enough to receive his first thing in the morning.

Since then he’s been playing with it and digging deep into the user interface, trying to find as many neat little features as possible. So far, his experience has been satisfactory, but you’ll be able to hear his full hands-on in tomorrow’s episode of the XDA/Android Podcast. Until then, here is a neat gallery showcasing what the new TouchWiz looks like, with and without Material Themes.

As you can see, this isn’t very different from what we saw in the Marshmallow builds for the Note5 and S6/Edge/+, so those that have received the update aren’t missing out on much. Nevertheless, TouchWiz keeps changing here and there and it’s certainly very different than what we saw just two generations ago.

What do you think of the new TouchWiz look? How do you think Samsung’s skin has improved over time?

Check Out our Galaxy S7 Forum

Waze Shows Off New Design and Features in a Video

There’s going to be a big update hitting the Android version of Waze soon. We aren’t told when this update will start to roll out, but a new video shows off the changes that will be coming. The update will bring a fresh user interface, you’ll have quick access to your destinations, a quick way to send someone your ETA and more.

Rock, Paper and Scissors Come Together in Android’s Latest Ad

Continuing with the Be Together, Not the Same campaign, Android’s latest ad features Rock, Paper and Scissors becoming best friends. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I have to tip my hat to whoever is coming up with these ideas and the latest one is another home run in my opinion.

HTC is Now Letting People Pre-Order its Vive VR Headset

For those who have been waiting, the HTC Vive is currently available for pre-order directly from HTC’s website (and on Steam too). To pre-order, simply head over to their website and plop down $800 (plus shipping) to reserve your unit. This purchase comes with a pair of wireless lightboxes, a pair of wireless controllers, along with three games: Tilt Brush by Google, Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption.

On Plagiarism, Piracy in Design, and the HTC Themes Outrage

Android has matured by leaps and bounds as a mobile platform, winning the hearts of consumers worldwide and quickly establishing its dominance in the sphere, while simultaneously spreading to other ones.

While Andy Rubin’s brainchild does offer a host of options and variety that its competitors lack, the winning feature of Android is undoubtedly its customization options and the sandbox-like ecosystem which allows it to happen

The HTC Themes Outrage

HTC Themes is the Taiwanese manufacturer’s take on bringing a curated collection of themes, icon packs and wallpapers to Sense users, and has become quite popular in that clique. Recently, a Google+ user reported seeing a number of icon packs and themes on the store were originally works of the acclaimed Tha PHLASH. PHLASH handled it professionally, reaching out to HTC via multiple channels, but much to the woe of him and the community, the Themes store staff failed to respond. In the time since then, HTC has been tagged, emailed, mentioned and tweeted at in a widespread attempt to justify the wrong done, but to no avail.

Piracy in Design

Creative Design
Creative design, which consists largely of subcategories like graphic design, icon design, wallpaper design, et al, is the hub of piracy, theft and plagiarism in the design ecosystem, given the ease with which the act can be carried out. From masking and clipping with batch processing to color changes and blatant duplicates from showcase sites, the creative design sector has seen its fair share of scandals. The Android theming community on Google+ and Reddit is a tight-knit group, and on more than one occasion has been rocked by piracy and plagiarism misconduct.
Interface Design
While interfaces cannot be pirated per se, plagiarism runs rampant among its community. Layouts, visual styles, aesthetic theming, and other UI elements are often the brainchild of a designer thinking out-of-the-box, but once a certain element gains enough popularity, variants or even direct manifestations of it are bound to be spotted in the wild. Take, for example, Tinder’s card-stack layout, which gained traction at a tremendous rate and now exists in a host of apps, albeit some have their own spin to it.
Experience Design
Experience design remains the class of design most impervious to any form of infringement.  This category of design consists of a language that designers are continuously uncovering each day, a language that appeals to human being and conducts a subtle underlying conversation with the user’s consciousness, a language that is discovered and not created. As such, aside from the occasional blatant copy, experience design remains, for the most part, idiosyncratic to its creators.

When Piracy Reared its Ugly Head…

The Android theming community has seen its fair share of wrongdoings in numerous forms, with some of the most prominent instances of plagiarism and theft being the uprising when supposed designers decompiled relatively simple icon packs, used them as base shapes, added filters and masks, and released new packs under their own developer account. Another exemplar of classic design plagiarism is the blatant recreation of existing designs then amended and redistributed by the offenders, with this occurrence being boosted by design showcase sites like Dribbble, Behance and MaterialUp.

However, the close-knit theming community has ensured that during trying times, no developer or designer is isolated and left to deal with the subsequent fallout alone, showing remarkable solidarity by banding together to reach out to all viable sources through all possible channels, giving the issue at hand the utmost visibility and attention that such matters necessitate.

 

Android Pay is Reportedly Launching in the UK Next Month

A report from the Telegraph says that Google is finally getting ready to bring Android Pay to Britain next month. They are citing “industry sources”, but don’t go into further detail about it right now. It had been rumored about them waiting until Google I/O to launch Android Pay in the region, but if this report is correct then it could be coming sooner.

The LG G5 for Latin America Will Not Have the Snapdragon 820

When LG announced the LG G5 last week at Mobile World Congress, we received official confirmation that it would be rocking the new Snapdragon 820. While this is true for some markets, it seems it won’t be true for others. It’s been revealed that the LG G5 for Latin America (and possibly other regions too) will have the Snapdragon 652 instead of the 820.

Samsung’s LSI Ranks in the Top 5 of the Global Smartphone SoC Market

A new report from Strategy Analytics says Samsung LSI (which is the division in charge of the company’s Exynos SoC) now ranks in the top 5 of the global smartphone application processor market. The company actually ranks 4th, beating out Spreadtrum, thanks to the 50 million units shipped in 2015 in products like the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5.

Xiaomi Receives Over 16.5 Million Registrations for Xiaomi’s 1st Mi 5 Flash Sale

Xiaomi will be holding the company’s first flash sale for the Mi 5 on March 1st. To help gauge how much interest the device will have, they setup a registration page. While not officially pre-sales, it does show that over 16 million people have some interest in purchasing it. We doubt they’ll actually have that many units to ship, but it’s clear they will sell out quickly.

Samsung is Reportedly in Talks to Acquire Tidal Again

A few months ago it was reported that Jay-Z was spotted leaving the office of Samsung Research America. He was allegedly in talks with Samsung about an acquisition of his music streaming service, but things didn’t seem to pan out. Now, the New York Post cites multiple sources who say Jay-Z & Samsung have reignited those talks and Samsung could be preparing something big with it.

Old But Gold: Sony Ericsson Devices From 2011 Get Marshmallow Support

Before making a whole bunch of “Z” devices, Sony, or rather Sony Ericsson, was focused on bringing up some really good and affordable devices. In 2011, Sony released about a dozen mid-range devices that are still quite popular, and not only on XDA.

If you have one of these in your pockets, we have some really exciting news for you – prepare for some marshmallows, as CyanogenMod 13.0 is up and running!

Bringing the latest version of Android to an older device is a challenging task. There are some hardware limitations like storage or RAM and often an old kernel source that makes the porting a pain. A group of developers known as LegacyXperia has put these limitations in the bin and brought impressive builds of CyanogenMod for the following devices:

• Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc – anzu
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Live with Walkman – coconut
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V – haida
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo – hallon
• Sony Ericsson Xperia pro – iyokan
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro – mango
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo L – phoenix
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Active – satsuma
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini – smultron
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray – urushi
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Play – zeus

The list of bugs is very short and contains such things as the FM Radio, ANT+, HDMI and 720p video recording. These things are not deal breakers, so you can use the CyanogenMod 13 as your new daily driver. There is only one requirement that needs to be met – your device must have a fast SD card put in the slot. A class 10 or higher is required. We must admit that seeing the support for such old devices is definitely a pleasure to watch. Some newer devices are left behind while Sony’s development stage is thriving.

If you are interested in development and you have some ideas how to fix things, you can use team’s GitHub and Gerrit to make code contributions. In other scenarios, head over to the development thread to get the latest build for your rocking Xperia phone.

ASUS ZenFone Zoom: Does the Optical Zoom Matter?

XDA TV Host Jordan reviewed the ASUS Zenfone 2 in June. Since then ASUS had added pieces and parts to the ZenFone 2 to created new special models. Today we are looking at the ASUS ZenFone Zoom, the ASUS ZenFone 2 with an optical zoom.

After spending a couple weeks with the device, Jordan gives you his full review of the ASUS ZenFone Zoom. Check out this video to see what his thoughts are!

Be sure to check out other great XDA TV Videos.

More ZenFone Links:

• ASUS ZenFone Zoom Unboxing and Camera Samples
• ASUS ZenFone 2 Device Review – XDA TV
• Buy the ASUS ZenFone Zoom at B&H

 

Check out Jordan’s Tech Channel and Jordan’s Vlogging YouTube Channel

Diesel Gives You Quick Access to Your Apps

Need a quick way to access recently or frequently used apps? Diesel lets you do that by placing a shortcuts bar in your notification panel, with several options options to tweak it to your liking.