Taskbar 6.0 enables a Samsung DeX-like desktop mode experience on some Android 10+ devices

Android 10 has been out for nearly 9 months now, but one of its best features, desktop mode, is still widely unknown. That’s because it’s technically hidden in Android 10, requiring a development flag to be enabled as well as support built-in to the stock launcher app. Thankfully, the developer of Taskbar has figured out a way to make Android 10’s desktop mode far more useful, bringing a Samsung DeX-like experience to some devices.

For some background, Android 10 added a “Secondary Launcher” activity to Launcher3, the AOSP launcher app that Google’s Pixel Launcher and many other OEM launcher apps are derived from. When an Android device with support for display output is hooked up to an external display, this Secondary Launcher activity is shown on the external display. However, because this Secondary Launcher is extremely barebones, it’s not useful to use as a productivity tool. Third-party app developers figured out that it’s possible for their own launcher apps to replace the stock launcher on the external display, and that’s exactly what XDA Senior Member farmerbb has implemented in Taskbar 6.0.

Taskbar is an open-source Android app that puts a floating start menu and recent apps tray on top of any screen. Since it supports launching Android apps in freeform multi-window, it even comes pre-installed on Bliss OS, a popular Android port for x86 PCs. Back in early November, farmerbb released a fork of the open-source Lawnchair launcher with Taskbar integrated into it. This gave us an early look at what Android 10’s hidden desktop mode could look like with some development effort, but there were some glaring issues that needed fixing. The desktop mode user experience needed fixing so that freeform multi-window behavior worked as you would expect, the setup process needed to be cleaned up so you could control the DPI/UI without needing another app, and a better solution had to be found so that you wouldn’t have to change your default launcher. Now, farmerbb has updated Taskbar to version 6.0 to address all of these issues.

Desktop Mode with Taskbar 6.0

Setting up Taskbar’s desktop mode is quite easy:

1. In Developer Options, turn on “enable freeform windows” and “force desktop mode” and then reboot your device. (The latter may be unavailable on some OEM software like ZenUI/ROG UI, but don’t worry if it’s not there.)
2. Install Taskbar 6.0 (older versions won’t work) from Google Play.
3. Open Taskbar’s settings and go to “Desktop Mode.” Enable it and grant the app permission to “display over other apps” as this is required for the app’s floating start menu to appear. Then, set the app as your default home app. Don’t worry, though, as the next prompt will ask you to set your preferred/primary launcher app, so Taskbar won’t be hijacking your home screen. (Note that on some devices, changing the default launcher will disable Android 10’s full-screen navigation gestures.)
4. Next, I highly recommend you follow the instructions to “enable additional settings” for desktop mode. This will allow you to lower the DPI so UI elements aren’t enormous on the external display, to hide the navigation bar, and to even dim the phone’s screen to save battery life while it’s connected to the external display. You’ll have to set up ADB access on your PC and run the following command:

   adb shell pm grant com.farmerbb.taskbar android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

   (If you are using Taskbar’s “Donate” version, replace “com.farmerbb.taskbar” with “com.farmerbb.taskbar.paid” in the above command.)

5. Finally, check to make sure that “usage access” has been enabled for Taskbar. Doing so will allow the app to show a row of your recently used applications in the start menu.
6. Now, simply connect your phone to your external display using a USB Type-C to Type-C cable (if your external display supports Type-C input) or via a USB Type-C to HDMI adapter.

Once connected, you can use the start menu to launch apps, search for apps, add app icons to the home screen, open some system menus, and more. You can tap the icon next to the start menu to add/show widgets. You can launch multiple instances of windows, and in some cases like Google Chrome, have multiple tabs.

There are loads of other options and changes in Taskbar 6.0, so I recommend you read the full changelog available here.

Display Output on Android – Sadly Still Limited

Who might this be useful for? Samsung, Huawei/Honor, and LG offer their own desktop mode experiences, so there’s you won’t find much use out of Taskbar’s desktop mode if you own a smartphone from one of those brands. ASUS, OnePlus, Essential, Google, and Xiaomi don’t offer their own desktop mode experiences, so if you’re on at least Android 10 on a device from one of these brands, then you may find Taskbar’s desktop mode feature to be useful. If you want a desktop mode experience to be more productive, then I recommend you use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. If you have a portable external monitor/laptop chassis like the NexDock 2, then you’ll have an even better experience with Taskbar.

Keep in mind that in order to actually make use of this feature, your smartphone must support display output. Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 800 and 700 series chipsets natively support DisplayPort Alternate Mode over a USB 3.1 Type-C port, but some vendors (like Google) have disabled this functionality on their smartphones. If your device doesn’t support DisplayPort Alternate Mode, then you may have luck using a DisplayLink-certified adapter and the DisplayLink Presenter app to mirror the phone’s display. Screen mirroring using a DisplayLink adapter isn’t as ideal as native desktop mode through a standard connector, but it’s better than not having any display output at all! Fortunately, Taskbar can still be used if you’re just mirroring your phone’s display so long as the app is set as the default launcher, but you’ll have to use the developer’s SecondScreen app to change the resolution and density.

The biggest downside to desktop mode on Android right now is the limited app support. Even though Samsung and Huawei have both offered desktop mode experiences for years and sell millions of smartphones a year, there’s not a lot of demand from users to support desktop mode. That means that a lot of Android apps out there aren’t optimized for larger screens. Google wants to change that because broader Android app support for larger screens will benefit Chromebooks as well, but sadly, there’s still a long way to go before most Android apps support larger screens. Thus, while using Taskbar, you may notice that some apps refuse to run or just look terrible, and there’s not much you can do to fix that.

Download Taskbar 6.0

If you have one of the following smartphones, I recommend giving this app a try:

• ASUS ROG Phone II
• Essential Phone
• OnePlus 7
• OnePlus 7 Pro
• OnePlus 7T
• OnePlus 7T Pro
• OnePlus 8
• OnePlus 8 Pro
• OPPO Reno 10X Zoom

You can download Taskbar 6.0 from the Google Play Store link below or compile the app from its source code on GitHub. The app is totally free to use, but there’s a $1.99 donate version in case you want to support farmerbb’s development efforts.

Taskbar Forum Thread on XDA ||| Taskbar Source Code on GitHub

Taskbar - PC-style productivity for Android (Free, Google Play) →

Taskbar (Donate Version) ($1.99, Google Play) →

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LineageOS 17.1 adds support for new OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, and other devices following server hack

LineageOS is the most popular AOSP-based custom ROM out there. Its origin can be traced back to CyanogenMod, which was itself not only the most well-known custom ROM many years ago but also the reason the OnePlus One was so well-received by the community. Over the years, the team behind LineageOS has kept the project updated with new versions of Android for dozens of Android devices. The latest version, LineageOS 17.1, is based on Android 10 and supports a long list of devices. Now, the custom ROM team has added official support for their latest release for a lot of devices from OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, and more. Newly added devices include the Essential Phone, Moto X (2014), Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016), Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro, and more.

The LineageOS team recently decided to cease the development of LineageOS 15.1 and jump to version 17.1 rather than 17.0 after they decided to rebase on top of the updated AOSP release corresponding to the Pixel 4/4 XL launch. With the update, the team also announced Lineage Recovery as the default option to install LineageOS on officially supported phones. 17.1 also added a new ThemePicker, a partial screenshot feature, and a lot more.

You can find the new LineageOS nightly builds for each of the following devices by tapping on “Get the builds here” on their respective Wiki pages. All of the devices listed here except for the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 Duos are supported by LineageOS 17.1. The newly added Grand 2 Duos is supported by LineageOS 16 based on Android 9 Pie.

Device + XDA Forum Link	Code-name + Wiki Page	Maintainer(s)
Essential Phone	mata	haggertk, intervigil, npjohnson, rashed
Motorola Moto X (2014)	victara	jro1979, linckandrea, npjohnson
OnePlus 2	oneplus2	OzzysCmAcc, aviraxp
OnePlus 7	guacamoleb (mirror)*	AshwinRC
Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016)	a3xelte	danwood76, Stricted
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)	a5xelte	danwood76, Stricted
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 Duos	ms013g (mirror)*	djchittoor
Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo	s5neolte	danwood76, Stricted
Wileyfox Swift	crackling	115ek
Xiaomi Mi A2	jasmine_sprout (mirror)*	mikeioannina
Xiaomi Mi 6X	wayne (mirror)*	Isaac Chen
Xiaomi Mi Note 3	jason	dianlujitao
Xiaomi Redmi 2	wt88047	nicknitewolf
Xiaomi Redmi 7	onclite (mirror)*	Dhina17
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro	whyred (mirror)*	srfarias, SebaUbuntu
Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro	twolip (mirror)*	DD3Boh
Xiaomi Redmi Note 7	lavender (mirror)*	erfanoabdi

*Some of the download pages for newly added devices return a code 500 “Internal Server Error.” Until this bug is fixed, you can download the official builds from the official LineageOS download mirror. For those devices that require it, the download mirror for LineageOS Recovery can be found here.

Be sure to read the installation instructions for each of the devices as well as the other documentation linked such as for Lineage Recovery. Also, be sure to take a backup of your data before you start with the installation process.

Why the delay?

If you’re wondering why LineageOS has had a delay in getting new builds up, the answer is because LineageOS suffered a hack in early May. According to a statement published by the team on May 3rd, an attacker “used a CVE in our saltstack master to gain access to our infrastructure.” Salt is an open-source framework to manage servers that is used by loads of open-source projects like LineageOS. On April 30th, Cybersecurity firm F-Secure publicly disclosed a vulnerability in Salt that could be used to bypass authorization. Attackers quickly targeted Salt installations that were unpatched, resulting in dozens of servers being hacked.

The LineageOS team identified the attack and then quickly took down its servers. The team confirms that their build signing keys are unaffected (so third-parties can’t sign and distribute official LineageOS builds), the currently uploaded builds themselves are unaffected, and the project’s source code is unaffected.

Around 8PM PST on May 2nd, 2020 an attacker used a CVE in our saltstack master to gain access to our infrastructure.

We are able to verify that:
– Signing keys are unaffected.
– Builds are unaffected.
– Source code is unaffected.

See https://t.co/85fvp6Gj2h for more info.

— LineageOS (@LineageAndroid) May 3, 2020

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Night Vision uses the ToF camera on the Samsung Galaxy S20+, Note 10+, and S10 5G to let you see in the dark

Hardware-backed facial recognition in the Android smartphone world often relies on Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors. Samsung, for example, utilizes the ToF module on the 5G variant of the Galaxy S10 to power their 3D face unlock mechanism. The ToF camera tracks the distance between two objects based on the constant speed of light. Developers have also used data from this camera to create virtual 3D models with depth data to render the surroundings as a pseudo-night vision mode. We first saw this work on certain Huawei and Honor phones in the past with the help of an app named Night Vision / ToF Viewer, and the same app can help you to turn your Samsung Galaxy S20+, Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, or Samsung Galaxy S10 5G into a somewhat functional, but mostly gimmicky, night vision camera.

Galaxy S20+ Forums ||| Galaxy Note 10+ Forums ||| Galaxy S10 5G Forums

When we first tinkered with the app back in 2019, it wasn’t made to detect the Galaxy S10 5G’s ToF sensor. The developer, Luboš Vonásek, worked hard to gradually expand the list of supported devices with ToF cameras. The Android 10/One UI 2.0 update for the Galaxy S10 5G apparently made it easy to handle the ToF module, albeit the output is still limited to a low resolution of 240×180. On newer Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy Note 10+ and Galaxy S20+, the app can render the surroundings in night vision mode with a better resolution of 320×240.

Night Vision/TOF Viewer on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+. Image credits: Reddit user /u/toelingus

According to our own Max Weinbach, using Night Vision on Samsung provides better quality, while you can get a better range on Huawei devices. The VR mode in this app is no longer accessible since the last update, though, as the developer removed it completely. There is no complicated prerequisite – owners of the aforementioned phones can straight away download it from the Google Play Store without messing with ADB and/or any kind of system file modding.

Night Vision / ToF Viewer (Free, Google Play) →

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Credits to Reddit user toelingus for the screenshot!

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[Update: Delayed] Google will launch the Android 11 Beta on June 3rd, releases Developer Preview 4 today

Update 1 (05/30/2020 @ 01:07 AM ET): Google has announced that the launch and event scheduled for June 3, 2020, has been postponed. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on May 6, 2020, is preserved below.

Google announced the first Android 11 Developer Preview back in February. The first Developer Preview was released earlier than we expected because Google wanted to give developers more time to adapt to their apps to the new APIs and platform behaviors. Since DP 1, two more Developer Preview builds have been rolled out to the Pixel 2 onward. If it weren’t for the COVID-19 pandemic, Google would have released the first Android 11 Beta at Google I/O event, which was scheduled for May 12th-14th. This delay has impacted the Android 11 release timeline, and the tech giant has now announced that they are pushing back the release of the first Android 11 Beta. The first beta will now be revealed at an online event on June 3rd, 2020. To make up for the new gap between DP3 and Beta 1, Google is releasing Android 11 Developer Preview 4.

Google has aptly titled next month’s online event “#Android 11: The Beta Launch Show.” During this event, Google will release Android 11 Beta 1 which will contain the final SDK and NDK APIs. Google will also open up Play Store submissions for apps targeting the new Android version. Citing this change in plan, Google has also released an updated timeline for the release schedule.

Older Beta timeline

Updated Beta timeline

While Google had initially charted its plan to release only three Android 11 Developer Previews, it is releasing the Developer Preview 4 to fill up the gap caused by the delay in the release of Beta 1. Starting today, the DP4 builds for the Google Pixel 2/2 XL, Pixel 3/3 XL, Pixel 3a/3a XL, and Pixel 4/4 XL will be available for download. You can flash these builds manually to try out the upcoming Android version or wait for an OTA if you’re already enrolled in the Beta program.

Since Android 11 Beta 1 has been pushed back by about a month, Beta 2 will now be released in July instead of June. As with the previous schedule, Beta 2 will be the “Platform Stability” release. Google introduced this milestone with Android 11 to signify the finalization of internal and external APIs, app-facing behaviors, and non-SDK graylisting. According to official communication from Google, Android 11 Beta 3 will be released in August 2020, and this will be the “Release candidate” build. The Final Release is still expected to be available in Q3, which means it shouldn’t be pushed back to October or months after that.

While the exact date for Beta 2 onwards was not released, Flame Group – a company that consults with OEMs and ODMs to help them receive GMS certifications for devices – mentioned in a blog post that the “Final Release Candidate,” which is most likely Beta 2, will be released on July 6th. While Beta 3 is intended to be the Release candidate build, it appears that Flame Group is referring to Beta 2 when it talks about the “Final Release candidate.” Furthermore, the blog post states that Google will publish the Android 11 source code to the AOSP git repository on September 8th, 2020. Our source corroborates the information laid out in this blog post, as it is apparently information that Google shared with its partner OEMs.

Android 11 News on XDA

Android 11: The Beta Launch Show to substitute Google I/O 2020?

At the Android 11: The Beta Launch Show, Google will also be hosting a series of online talks and webinars for topics that were initially supposed to be covered at Google I/O 2020. The talks ranging “from Jetpack Compose to Android Studio and Google Play” will be held following the post-show Q&A session after the announcement launch. You can register yourself to get notified of the event on this page.

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Update: Google postpones Android 11 Beta Launch Show

Google has announced that the Android 11 Beta Launch Show has been postponed.

We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate. We are postponing the June 3rd event and beta release. We’ll be back with more on Android 11, soon.

— Android Developers (@AndroidDev) May 30, 2020

The next date has not been announced yet.

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Samsung Access program quietly launches for the Galaxy S20 with Premium Care and Microsoft 365 included

A few years ago, Apple launched its iPhone Upgrade Program. Apple’s program offered a great deal where every year you could pay a low monthly fee to have the option to upgrade your iPhone while continuing those monthly payments. Carriers and other device makers emulated this idea but started to add their own offers to improve upon it. Samsung, of course, was one of the companies that emulated that idea with the Samsung Upgrade Program. Now, Samsung has quietly launched a new program called “Samsung Access” that provides even more benefits at a lower cost.

Samsung Access, which we spotted earlier today on Samsung.com, is a bit different than the previous Samsung Upgrade Program in terms of benefits. Both Samsung Access and the previous Samsung Upgrade Program have you finance a new phone through monthly payments and later allow you to trade in the phone for the value that’s left. For example, if you had the Samsung Galaxy S10 for a year and paid $30 a month for 12 months ($360 total), you would have owed $540 left on the balance on the device. If you wanted to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S20 after it launched, you would send back the Galaxy S10 to Samsung so they could void the $540 and allow you to start a new contract for a new monthly fee for the new device.

Samsung Access works the same way for upgrading. If you wanted to keep the device instead of upgrading, you are able to pay off the full balance or just not upgrade and continue your financing which takes 36 months or 3 years.

If you are like me and like to upgrade a lot, that’s also a possibility with Samsung Access. You are able to upgrade your phone for no fee every 9 months. If you wanted to upgrade earlier in the cycle, say for example from the latest Galaxy Note to Galaxy S series or vice versa, you can do so if you pay a $100 fee. In the long run, you would likely save money using this service instead of buying and trading in phones every time a new one launches.

Samsung Access – Other Benefits

What makes Samsung Access better than the Samsung Upgrade Program are the other parts that are included in the monthly subscription. Samsung Access includes both Microsoft 365, which itself includes 1TB of OneDrive storage, and Samsung Premium Care. Microsoft 365 gives you full access to the Microsoft Office suite, including Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Skype, and Teams. The 1TB of OneDrive storage, which is included in a Microsoft 365 subscription, is especially useful on Samsung phones. You are able to link your Samsung and Microsoft accounts to use the 1TB of storage for photo backups in the Samsung Gallery app or Samsung Cloud storage for backups. The other benefit, Premium Care, is Samsung’s insurance program. If you break your phone, you are able to get it replaced or repaired for a $99 deductible up to three times in a 12 month period.

Samsung Access is available for the Samsung Galaxy S20 series only. When financing the Galaxy S20 series, it costs $37 a month for the Galaxy S20, $42 a month for the Galaxy S20+, and $48 a month for the Galaxy S20 Ultra. In my view, this is actually a great deal. If you were to sign up for Samsung Financing, Premium Care, and Microsoft 365 separately, it would cost you an extra $9 per month. That might not seem like much, but over the 36 months of the contract, you would save $324. That’s ignoring the money you can save from the upgrade program. If you want to cancel, you are also able to return the phone for free after 3 months. If you want to cancel before those 3 months, though, you will owe a $100 fee.

These programs are actually really good for those early adopters who love to upgrade (like me). It makes upgrading easy and painless along with not having to worry about accidental damage since it’s covered under Premium Care. All around, this is a pretty great upgrade deal. For a visual overview of what’s offered in Samsung Access, check out the video below that Samsung uploaded to their YouTube channel today. Otherwise, hit up the Samsung Access page and read the FAQs to get all the nitty-gritty details.

Samsung Access for Mobile ||| Samsung Access FAQs

Oh, and Samsung Access is also available for Samsung TVs, in case you’re interested.

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Realme 5 and Realme 5s start getting Android 10 with Realme UI

Launched back in August 2019, the Realme 5 was one of the first phones from the Chinese brand to feature the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chip. The affordable quad-camera phone comes with a 12MP primary camera and runs ColorOS 6 on top of Android 9 Pie. Within a few months, Realme refreshed the device with a 48MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GM1 sensor and launched it as the Realme 5s. According to the update roadmap shared by Realme India’s CEO Madhav Sheth, the phone duo is scheduled to receive a taste of Android 10-based Realme UI in May. The company has kept their promise as it has now rolled out the stable Realme UI update with Android 10 to the Realme 5 and the Realme 5s.

Realme 5 XDA Forums

Earlier this month, Realme started an initiative called “Realme UI Early Access” for the owners of the Realme 5/5s, which served as a pilot open beta testing before the actual rollout. The current stable Android 10 build is tagged as RMX1925EX_11_C.39, and it brings in several new features such as Focus Mode, optimized three-finger screenshot, and a revamped camera UI. It is worth mentioning that the Realme 5 and the 5s share a common firmware due to their internal similarities.

Thanks to Realme Community user mmmllL for the screenshot!

The combined changelog for the Realme UI 1.0 update for the Realme 5/5s is as follows:

Realme UI 1.0 (Android 10) update changelog for the Realme 5/5s

• 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.
• Network
  • Added Airtel and Jio VoWiFi feature
• Settings
  • Search Settings now supports fuzzy match and contains a search history.

Users interested in downloading this update should expect an over-the-air update to arrive on their phones soon. If it’s not available for your device yet, then you can enroll yourself in the “Application Channel” (Realme 5, Realme 5s) to bypass the standard staggered rollout scheme. We will update this article as soon as we get the manual download links.

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Source: Realme (1, 2)

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OPPO starts rolling out ColorOS 7 (Android 10) updates to its Find X, Reno, K, and A series phones in India

After conducting a successful beta run, OPPO is now set to bring the stable ColorOS 7 (Android 10) to a number of OPPO smartphones. The company has started rolling out the latest version of its custom skin to Find X, Reno, F, A, and K series of smartphones in India.

The update will be rolled out in batches, meaning only a small part of the userbase will initially get the OTA with the rollout gradually extending to all users in the coming days. Users can head to the Settings > Software Update and click on the Trial Version from the gear menu to see if it’s available for you.

ColorOS 7 brings a massive overhaul over ColorOS 6 including a minimalistic UI, revamped iconography, improved one-handed usability, full support for Android 10’s navigation gestures, system-wide dark mode, and much more. Check out our in-depth review of ColorOS 7 to learn more about the new software. Along with the above-mentioned features, the ColorOS 7 update for these phones also includes several India-specific features including Digilocker service to keep your documents handy, Smart Riding mode which blocks notifications while you’re driving, and Hawa Mahal wallpaper.

Below is the full list of OPPO phones which are currently receiving the stable ColorOS 7 update based on Android 10:

• Find X
• Find X Lamborghini Edition
• Find X SuperVOOC Edition
• Reno 10X Zoom
• Reno
• Reno 2
• Reno2 F
• Reno2 Z
• R17
• R17 Pro
• F11
• F11 Pro Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition
• A9
• K3

If you can’t find your device on the above list, don’t worry. OPPO plans to expand the ColorOS 7 rollout to more phones in the coming weeks. Here are the phones which are scheduled to receive the ColorOS 7 (Android 10) update next:

• From June 10th
  • F9
  • F9 Pro
• From 15th June
  • A5 (2020)
  • A9 (2020)
• From 24th June
  • F7
  • F7 128G
• In July
  • F15
  • R15 Pro

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Have you tried out the ColorOS 7 update? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Xiaomi, Apple, Samsung, and Huawei sold more wristbands and earbuds in Q1 2020 despite COVID-19

Smartphone and tablet sales in the first quarter this year took a massive hit due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Not only has the situation forced manufacturers to scale down production and delay product launches, but the financial uncertainty of it all has also led to potential buyers deferring purchases. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case for the wearables market. According to the IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker report, Xiaomi, Apple, Samsung, and Huawei saw significant growth in the wearables segment in Q1 2020.

As per Business Wire, global shipments of wearable devices grew 29.7% YoY during Q1 2020, with total device volume reaching 72.6 million units. However, the growth was disproportionately spread across different categories in the wearables segment, with fitness bands and wireless earphones surpassing sales of smartwatches. The fitness band category saw a 16.2% growth in the first quarter, thanks to new product launches like the Fitbit Charge 4 and aggressive pricing from Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and Huawei. The wireless earbuds category, on the other hand, grew an impressive 68.3% and accounted for 54.9% of the total market share.

As far as individual brands are concerned, Apple maintained its top spot in the wearable segment with a 23.9% market share and 21.2 million units shipped in Q1 2020. Xiaomi took the second spot with 7.3 million fitness bands and smartwatches shipped in the quarter. Samsung ranked third with its wearables business accounting for 74% of its total shipments during the quarter, up from 58.9% at the same time last year. Its Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds+ were well received and the company managed to ship over 4 million units of the two models. Huawei and its sub-brand Honor took the fourth spot, with 8.1 million units shipped in the time period. The decline in smartwatch sales was directly attributed to the fact that these watches share some components with smartphones which were in short supply during the period.

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Source: Business Wire

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Samsung’s Exynos 992 may be a 5nm chip for the Galaxy Note 20 with ARM’s new CPU and GPU designs

This week, ARM announced the new ARM Cortex-A78 CPU as well as the ARM Mali-G78 GPU as part of its TechDay 2020. The two succeeded last year’s Cortex-A77 CPU and Mali-G77 GPU respectively. The wildcard announcement was the Cortex-X Custom program (CXC), wherein ARM announced that the first CPU made under the CXC would be the Cortex-X1, ARM’s most powerful CPU yet. The Cortex-X1 would specifically target peak performance in lieu of energy efficiency and PPA (performance, power, and area), which would lead it to compete head-on with Apple’s leading A-series chips. At the time of the announcement, I wrote that Samsung was a strong candidate to adopt ARM’s new mobile CPU IP. The Exynos M5 custom core in the Exynos 990 was Samsung’s last fully custom core for the foreseeable future, as the company’s custom CPU core project at SARC has ended (to learn more about why the project failed, read this article). Samsung, thus, was left with no option but to use ARM’s CPU IP starting with its next flagship SoC. Now, a report by ZDNet Korea states that Samsung’s upcoming Exynos 992 will be a 5nm chip for the Galaxy Note 20, featuring both the ARM Cortex-A78 and the Mali-G78, but not the Cortex-X1.

We first heard about the Exynos 992 a month ago thanks to another ZDNet Korea report. At that time, the publication had said the new SoC was intended for the Galaxy Note 20 series, and it would be fabricated on Samsung’s 6nm process, which is one notch lower than its cutting-edge 5nm process. The Exynos 990, on the other hand, is manufactured on Samsung Foundry’s 7nm LPP process with EUV. Now, the publication claims that that the Exynos 992 will, after all, be manufactured on the 5nm process.

The report notes that Samsung continues to fight with TSMC for superiority in the next-generation cutting-edge foundry processes. Over the last few years, Samsung Foundry has lost two high-profile clients to TSMC. It lost Apple as a customer from 2016 when the company fully migrated to TSMC. Then in 2019, it missed out on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 contract because of the superiority of TSMC’s 7nm process over its own 8nm process. This year, Samsung’s 7nm EUV process should have been a candidate for building the Snapdragon 865, but for reasons that are still not fully known, Qualcomm opted to award the contract to TSMC on its technically inferior 7nm N7P (DUV) process. Samsung, therefore, has been fighting a losing battle against TSMC, and because of this reason, it has lost no time in moving on from 7nm EUV to the next-generation 5nm process, while the 6nm process will slot below it.

According to ZDNet Korea, semiconductor industry sources on May 27 said Samsung Electronics recently finished mass production for the next-generation Exynos SoC (tentatively named as the Exynos 992) based on the 5nm process. The SoC will be released in August, which matches the time-frame for the launch of the Galaxy Note 20 series.

The report quotes an unnamed official from the semiconductor industry as saying that all preparations for the launch of a new application processor (Exynos 992) based on the 5nm process in the second half of August are complete. Now, it’s supposedly just a matter of deciding whether it will be used in the Galaxy Note 20.

The Exynos 992 is said to have significantly improved power efficiency and GPU performance compared to the previous Exynos 990 as it features ARM’s latest IP (Cortex-A78 and Mali-G78). There is no mention about the Cortex-X1, which ARM said would be part of next-generation flagship SoCs as a 1+3+4 configuration (1x Cortex-X1 + 3x Cortex-A78 + 4x Cortex-A55). The claims about the significantly improved power efficiency and GPU performance are reasonable because of how poor the Exynos 990 was in terms of efficiency. Its Exynos M5 custom core had a 100% efficiency deficit against the Snapdragon 865’s Cortex-A77 core, so moving to the newer Cortex-A78 (which brings with it 20% better power efficiency and performance improvement of 20% over the last-generation Cortex-A77) should provide enormous energy savings. The Mali-G78 is also 25% faster and more power-efficient than its predecessor, but on account of the numbers, it still won’t be able to match Qualcomm’s Adreno 650 GPU in terms of performance per watt. ARM has noted the Cortex-A78 will be mass-produced on 5nm – the 5nm process provides for 13% of the performance improvement of the A78 over the A77, while the remaining 7% gains are achieved due to better integer single-threaded CPU performance.

ZDNet Korea notes that Samsung did not use the Exynos 990 in the domestic South Korean Galaxy S20 variants, opting to use the Snapdragon 865. At that time, this had been a surprising decision, interpreted by many to signify that Samsung itself lacked confidence in the Exynos 990’s performance and power. Now, though, Samsung Systems LSI hopes to expand its market share by using the Exynos 992 in the domestic South Korean variants of the Galaxy Note 20 series. The Snapdragon 865 will still be used in some overseas markets, however – likely referring to the U.S./China/Hong Kong/Latin America/Japan variants of the phones. The Exynos 992 will, therefore, prove Samsung Foundry’s competitiveness by being the first major mobile SoC to be fabricated on the cutting edge 5nm process.

Samsung Electronics recorded $3.64 billion in revenue in the system semiconductor business in Q1 2020. This came despite the fact that the Galaxy S20’s Korean model excluded the Exynos 990 in favor of the Snapdragon 865. The reduced reach of the Exynos was made up by supplying a high-resolution image sensor (the 108MP ISOCELL Bright HMX) to Xiaomi, which increased sales. Now, the securities industry expects Samsung Systems LSI to record more than $3.77 billion in sales in the third quarter of this year when the Galaxy Note 20 is released. According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung Electronics ranked third in the global application processor (AP) market last year with a 14.1% share, below market leader Qualcomm with
33.4% share and second-placed MediaTek.

ZDNet Korea’s report seems to be reliable on account of what we know. The Exynos variants of the Galaxy Note 20 series, therefore, are expected to be faster and much more power-efficient than the Exynos Galaxy S20 variants. It has to be hoped that Samsung finally manages to overcome the performance deficit against Snapdragon and differentiates its own SoC in a positive manner. If this is finally achieved, the competitive nature of the smartphone market will finally get back on track.

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Source: ZDNet Korea

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Google’s new AR tool helps you keep 6 feet apart in accordance with COVID-19 social distancing guidelines

There’s no denying that COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we go about our daily lives. The health advisories issued in light of the pandemic necessitate social distancing, and such practices need to be ingrained deeply into our way of living, at least for the near future. But this change has been sudden, and people need time to break old habits and to adjust and make new habits. If you are finding it difficult to envisage the six-feet social distancing guideline, Google has released a new tool called Sodar that uses AR to help you visualize the space that you need to keep around yourself.

Sodar – use WebXR to help visualise social distancing guidelines in your environment. Using Sodar on supported mobile devices, create an augmented reality two meter radius ring around you. #hacktohelp https://t.co/Bu78QrEN9f pic.twitter.com/kufatNFDQk

— Experiments with Google (@ExpWithGoogle) May 28, 2020

Sodar, which we presume is a play on “social distancing radar”, is a web-based augmented reality tool that superimposes a 2-meter virtual ring on your viewfinder. Since it is web-based, you do not need a special app to run it, though it appears to be restricted to Chrome on Android. Just open up the Sodar website on Chrome on your Android smartphone and grant it the permissions it needs to function. You would need to calibrate it with a view of the ground and space around you, but once done, the virtual ring will show you the distance you need to keep from other human beings.

Keep in mind that AR-based solutions are not fool-proof in their assessment of our real world, despite all the advancements, so treat the boundary suggested as a guideline rather than a measure of accuracy. In matters of health and public safety, it is better to err on the side of caution. Still, it’s a good tool to have to reinforce the ideas of social distancing and just how much distance is needed.

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Source: Experiments with Google
Story Via: AndroidPolice

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OPPO is selling a smartphone and several accessories with Neon Genesis Evangelion branding, but only in China

It’s a common trend for Chinese smartphone manufacturers to launch special edition variants of their phones in the domestic market. While some of these special edition variants offer better hardware specifications or a transparent back, most others offer a slightly different design/color based on a pop culture reference. For instance, the recently launched Vivo iQOO Z1 is also available in a special edition One Piece variant that has a bright yellow color and features the skull and bones logo from the popular anime/manga on the back. Vivo’s sister company OPPO is also known for launching similar special edition variants of its smartphones and, just last year, it released a Gundam Edition for the Reno Ace in China. And now, according to a recent post on Weibo, the company is offering a limited-edition Neon Genesis Evangelion edition of the OPPO Ace2 along with a couple of similarly themed accessories.

OPPO will be offering 10,000 units of this special edition Neon Genesis Evangelion model of the OPPO Ace2 starting from June 1st. The company was, most likely, able to obtain the Neon Genesis Evangelion branding license (from Japanese Studio Khara) for distribution only in China. The device is already up for pre-orders on Chinese eCommerce platform JD.com at a price of CNY 4,399 (~$615), which is exactly the same price as the regular 8GB/256GB variant of the OPPO Ace2.

For this price, you get a purple OPPO Ace2 with neon green accents on the back, Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 865 chip, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage, a 90Hz high refresh display, and a 4,000mAh battery with support for 65W fast charging. Along with that, you also get a special edition case, charger/cable, wired earphones, and a unique cylindrical box. The Neon Genesis Evangelion special edition lineup also features a couple of accessories, including the Enco W31 TWS earbuds, the OPPO Watch, and a wireless charger.

The limited-edition device also appears to include some additions on the software front, including Neon Genesis Evangelion wallpapers and themes. Unlike the hardware changes, the custom themes will be made available to other OPPO users via the company’s theme store but they’re limited to just 1,000 copies on a first come, first serve basis.

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Source: Weibo (1,2)

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Free Android screen mirroring app “scrcpy” adds seamless copy-paste, stay awake option, and more

Working and interacting between devices with different operating systems can be a pain sometimes. There are few first-party tools available to set up multi-platform connections, and many of them require that you own devices from the same brand. Fortunately, third-party tools are there to save the day. A free and open-source project called scrcpy allows you to mirror your Android device’s screen to a personal computer, whether it’s running Windows, Mac, or Linux. It does that by using Android Debug Bridge as a connection tunnel and streaming the h.264-encoded video through it. Just yesterday, the developers of the project released a new version of the tool with some welcome features.

Seamless Copy-Paste

One of the most important of these features is the ability to seamlessly copy and paste between your phone and a computer, and vice versa. Copy-pasting UTF-8 encoded text from a computer to a phone works with Android devices running Android 7 and later. That’s because the command to inject the ‘paste’ key event via ADB was introduced in Android 7.0. Nevertheless, this newer approach definitely beats the older one which involved grabbing the copied text from Android’s clipboard.

Stay Awake

Another great new feature lets you force the device to stay awake. Combined with the command to turn the screen off, you can interact with your device on your PC while the actual device’s screen is turned off.

scrcpy -Sw # turn screen off and stay awake

You can also use the Ctrl + Shift + O shortcut to turn the screen back on.

The rest of the changelog of scrcpy 1.14 includes general fixes and workarounds for some bugs.

Download scrcpy 1.4

scrcpy 1.4 running on a Windows 10 PC

As I already mentioned, scrcpy is an open-source project. You can see and contribute to the repository on GitHub as well as download the tool. It’s a command-line tool so there’s no fancy GUI, so be sure to check the installation and configuration instructions there. Make sure to create issues and send pull requests to the repository if you encounter a bug.

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Via: OMG! Ubuntu!

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Xiaomi Mi 8 SE/9 SE/9 Lite and Mi 8 Lite/Max 3 Android 10 kernel source code now available

Qualcomm debuted their 700-tier chipset series with the release of the Snapdragon 710 SoC back in 2018, and Xiaomi was the first smartphone maker to adopt it with the Mi 8 SE. Later on, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 712 SoC with a little performance boost over the Snapdragon 710, and Xiaomi once again was first in line to utilize the then-new chipset on the Mi 9 SE. As the two platforms are software compatible, Xiaomi unified the kernel source code for the Mi 8 SE and Mi 9 SE. Now, Xiaomi has updated its kernel source code repository with the updated kernel sources corresponding to the Mi 8 SE and Mi 9 SE’s Android 10 update. Furthermore, Xiaomi has also merged the Mi 9 Lite’s sources with the same kernel source code tree.

Xiaomi Mi 8 SE Forums ||| Xiaomi Mi 9 SE Forums ||| Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite Forums

You may already know that the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is yet another example of Xiaomi’s rebranding strategy because the device is a clone of Xiaomi’s China-exclusive Mi CC9. Xiaomi decided to use the aging Snapdragon 710 on this phone but kept the original source code release independent from the Mi 8 SE to date. Given that all of these SD71x-powered smartphones received their respectively Android 10 updates around the same time, it seems justified for Xiaomi to maintain a unified kernel source code tree from now on. Note that the Mi CC9 Meitu Edition (code-name “vela”) is also covered under this new branch named “sirius-q-oss”.

Mi 8 SE/Mi 9 SE/Mi 9 Lite/Mi CC9/Mi CC9 Meitu Edition Android 10 Kernel Sources

Xiaomi took a similar approach in the case of the Mi 8 Lite and the Mi Max 3. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 636-powered Mi Max 3 and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660-powered Mi 8 Lite picked up their Android 10 updates last month, so Xiaomi has now uploaded kernel sources for both of these devices based on their respective Android 10 updates.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite Forums ||| Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Forums

Mi 8 Lite/Mi Max 3 Android 10 Kernel Sources

 

 

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Windows 10 May 2020 update brings WSL 2, revamped Cortana assistant, and “Your Phone” calls to ARM devices

per StatCounter, Windows commands a market share of 76.5%, meaning that every three out of four computers in the world run on Windows. While Windows did admittedly lose its dominant status as the OS across platforms to Android, it still presented itself as the go-to desktop option for many, many users. The latest version of Windows, Windows 10, is now receiving the May 2020 stable update, which brings several key features such as Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2, a revamped Cortana experience, Your Phone feature for Windows on ARM, and more.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 was first announced during Microsoft Build 2019, and is now being rolled out to all users under the stable Windows 10 branch. This update brings a full Linux kernel to the stable branch. As part of this update, WSL 2 is also now updateable through Windows Update, so users no longer need to rely on the command line only to update the kernel.

Microsoft did announce GPU acceleration and Linux GUI app support for WSL 2, at Microsoft Build 2020. But, these features are not yet available even for Windows Insiders, so there is bound to be further waiting for users on the stable branch.

Chat-based UI for Cortana

Another highlight of this Windows 10 version update is the new Cortana experience, which now takes the form of a chat with the digital assistant.

Users can now interact with Microsoft’s digital assistant in a chat-based user interface, via either text or by voice in natural language. You can resize, move, and dock the app window on your desktop to accommodate your preferred workflow. Cortana will be able to help you access information quicker, connect with people faster, and help you stay on track of your schedule. Specific tasks that Cortana can accomplish include calendar and schedule assistance, helping join meetings in Microsoft Teams, find out about people in the organization, make lists and set reminders, open apps and settings pages, get definitions and quick answers and get weather and news updates.

Your Phone on Windows 10 on ARM

The May 2020 update to Windows 10 brings the Your Phone app’s calling feature to ARM supported PCs. The Your Phone app lets you place, receive, or text reply to incoming phone calls from your PC. Previously, this feature only worked if you had a supported Android device and an x86/x86-64 Windows 10 PC. However, with the May 2020 update to Windows 10, Microsoft is now enabling this functionality in the desktop Your Phone app for Windows 10 on ARM devices, like the Microsoft Surface Pro X and Samsung Galaxy Book S.

Your Phone Companion - Link to Windows (Free, Google Play) →

Other features

Other smaller features in this update include:

• Faster Bluetooth pairing – devices can now be paired straight from the quick settings in notifications rather than opening Settings.
• More kaomoji available within the Windows emoji keyboard.
• Virtual desktops can now be named.
• The Xbox Game Bar now supports third-party widgets, letting you customize the overlay experience to fit with the way you game.
• Memory improvements in Microsoft Edge by taking advantage of segment heap capabilities.
• The Calculator app can now float on top of other windows.
• The Notepad app  is getting updated with wrap-around find/replace, quick text zooming, and the ability to show when the file has unsaved changes by displaying an asterisk in the title bar.

Windows 10 May 2020 update is rolling out to desktops, though Microsoft is initially limiting availability to those devices running versions 1903 and 1909 who seek the update via Windows Update. If you wish to install the update, navigate to the Windows Update settings pane (Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update), and select Check for updates. Once the update appears, you can choose to Download and Install. Note that the update may not be visible immediately as Microsoft will be ramping up roll out gradually.

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Source: Windows Blog

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Google rolls out Chrome OS 83 with tab groups in the browser, virtual desk naming, and more

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting adjusted work schedules of its employees, Google had to temporarily pause Chrome and Chrome OS updates earlier this year in March. While the updates resumed shortly thereafter, the company announced an updated schedule for future releases with a couple of significant changes. As per the new update schedule, Google rolled out Chrome OS 81 early in April this year bringing Android-like gesture navigation and touch-friendly browser tabs for touch screen Chromebooks. The company then skipped the Chrome OS 82 update altogether and it’s now rolling out Chrome OS 83, which includes all the work that went into the Chrome OS 82 release and more.

According to a recent post from the company, the latest update brings a minor change to the Virtual Desk feature that was initially released on Chrome OS 76. The new feature will let you rename your Virtual Desks, which is expected to help you better organize your Chromebook. To rename your virtual desks, you’ll have to click on the desk name on the Overview screen and then enter any name of your choice. The update also brings the tab grouping feature that was first seen in Chrome browser version 83, which will let you group browser tabs together and label name with a custom name and color with just a right-click.

Along with the aforementioned organization features, Chrome OS 83 also includes a new ‘Show Password’ icon that will let you view your password/pin during login, the ability to control media sessions with the Google Assistant, and new Google for Families features that will let you approve your child’s Chrome Web Store extensions and apps, add a school account, and set Play Store app time limits. The update has already started rolling out to eligible Chrome OS devices starting today and should roll out to all users over the coming days.

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Source: Chromebook Help

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OPPO is reportedly hiring MediaTek and Unisoc engineers to design its own chip

The U.S. Commerce Department recently extended the trade ban against Huawei until May 2021 and moved to block many chip makers from supplying HiSilicon Kirin SoCs to the company. While the trade ban currently only affects Huawei, the uncertainty of the situation has raised concerns among other Chinese manufacturers. Due to this, Huawei’s biggest domestic rival — OPPO — started investing in its own chipmaking capabilities last year, shortly after the trade ban was first announced. With the recent extension and escalation of the trade ban, OPPO is now stepping up efforts to design its own mobile chips and has managed to snag top engineering talent from its own suppliers MediaTek and Unisoc.

As per a report from Nikkei Asian Review on the matter, OPPO has recently poached several top executives from its chip supplier MediaTek, along with many engineers from China’s second-largest mobile chip developer Unisoc, to create an experienced mobile chip development team in Shanghai. The recent hires include Jeffery Ju, MediaTek’s former co-chief operating officer, and a former executive with Xiaomi, who had already been working with OPPO as a consultant. Along with Ju, another rising executive who’s involved in MediaTek’s 5G chip development will join OPPO in a month or two.

Sources familiar with the matter have further revealed that OPPO has also reached out to engineering talent from U.S. based chipmaker Qualcomm and Huawei’s own chip unit HiSilicon. A source with direct knowledge of the developments was quoted saying,” OPPO has been aggressively recruiting chip talent since last year as they realized that owning the chip design capability will give it more control over its supply chain…Developing chips, however, could mean burning a lot of money, and even if they have hired a group of experienced professionals, such efforts take years to mature.”

In a statement regarding the recent revelations, OPPO told Nikkei that it “already has the chip-related capability” and that “any  R&D investment is to strengthen its product competitiveness and user experience.” However, the company did not respond directly to questions about its recent hires. While MediaTek declined to comment on the matter, Jeffery Ju could not be reached for comment.

OPPO’s recent efforts are part of a larger “de-Americanazation” campaign that was kicked off by Chinese companies due to the rising tensions between the two countries. It’s also worth noting that OPPO currently lacks a competitive chip design team and relies heavily on U.S. supplier Qualcomm for its mobile chips and 5G modems. Similarly, while Xiaomi also has a chip unit, which was formed back in 2014, it hasn’t introduced a second-generation design of its mobile chip since the first one was released in 2017 and relies on Qualcomm and MediaTek for its smartphone chips.

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Source: Nikkei Asian Review

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