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Android |OT7| Now With a Whole New Messaging System

Furyous

Member
Noema and Android N previewers, does picture in picture or multiwindow work with Netflix? This may change my mind on buying a smartphone in the next five months so any help is appreciated.
 
Noema and Android N previewers, does picture in picture or multiwindow work with Netflix? This may change my mind on buying a smartphone in the next five months so any help is appreciated.

Works on the 5x. Both windows are functioning independently.
 

Noema

Member
Noema and Android N previewers, does picture in picture or multiwindow work with Netflix? This may change my mind on buying a smartphone in the next five months so any help is appreciated.

Just tested on N6: works fine both in portrait and in landscape.
 

Mindwipe

Member
Noema and Android N previewers, does picture in picture or multiwindow work with Netflix? This may change my mind on buying a smartphone in the next five months so any help is appreciated.

Picture in picture is Android TV only at present, but multi window works.
 
it truly is amusing to see people excited over features i had almost 4 years ago

reminds me of when iOS finally got SwiftKey
I feel like swiftkey kinda sucks on ios. I find that nothing beats the stock ios keyboard in terms of just regular typing. It always seems to know what my finger was trying to hit even when I'm being lazy. Apple definitely needs to steal swype though. I've yet to try gboard because....no canada.....shrug.

Anyway I've been looking at a lot of chromebooks lately now that chrome OS is getting the play store. It adds a ton to the offline functionality which is the main reason I never wanted one. I really dig the HP chromebook 13. Shits on the pixel imo in terms of value. But now that the play store is coming I bet there's going to be chromebooks with hardware that better supports that like hybrids and whatnot so it makes me want to wait.
 

Asgaro

Member
Alright, after nearly a year of Action Launcher usage, I think it's time to experiment with the almighty Nova Launcher Prime. Pretty hyped.

lez do diz
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Multiwindow sucks on phones anyways.

If I wanted to browse on a tiny ass screen I'd have liked the og iPhone.

Multiwindow makes it so the browser is fucking tiny just so you can watch some lame ass YouTube video next to it in another tiny window.

It's useful on tablets like the Pixel C, but that shit sucks ass on phones. All of you 6p users doing multiwindow to browse GAF and do something else should be ashamed.
 

Toki767

Member
I'd use multi window for something like Twitter and messenger app. Most other things are kind of too small to get a good view.
 

Noema

Member
Multiwindow sucks on phones anyways.

If I wanted to browse on a tiny ass screen I'd have liked the og iPhone.

Multiwindow makes it so the browser is fucking tiny just so you can watch some lame ass YouTube video next to it in another tiny window.

It's useful on tablets like the Pixel C, but that shit sucks ass on phones. All of you 6p users doing multiwindow to browse GAF and do something else should be ashamed.

It's truly honestly really not that bad.

07ESeX4.jpg

The N6 is large enough that the browsing real estate is still larger with multi window than most of the phones that I've owned in full screen.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Multi-window works well for me. It's not something I'll use as much as I thought I would, on a phone, but on a tablet, finally! We just need a new tablet. Pixel C is not my preferred form factor. And my Zenpad will never be updated.
 

-edm

Neo Member
Anyone running into a bug on N where you pull down the notification panel but aren't able to select any of the options such as battery or brightness? Happens about 50% of the time I use it and I haven't figured out a way to fix it apart from rebooting my device. On the 6p and apart from that everything is great. Battery has really improved after a rough first few days.
 
Anyone running into a bug on N where you pull down the notification panel but aren't able to select any of the options such as battery or brightness? Happens about 50% of the time I use it and I haven't figured out a way to fix it apart from rebooting my device. On the 6p and apart from that everything is great. Battery has really improved after a rough first few days.

Yeah I had that, as you say a reboot fixes it, but it's still pretty annoying.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
I upped the DPI on my 6P since now I can do it via stock. Man, so much more screen real estate. I love it. Multi-window is more usable now, too.
 

terrier

Member
I got a Huawei P8 Lite the other day and experiencing two weird things with it.

1) I am getting no lock screen media controls apart from the built in music app. No youtube, pocket casts, spotify or anything. What gives?

2) If I am on the lock screen and press the volume up / down buttons nothing happens. To change the volume or ring profile you actually have to be on the home screen with the phone unlocked.

I am using Nova launcher, but tried with the Huawei launcher and looked around settings and online but can't find anything.

That is the main issue i have with Huawei Emui Skin. It is too intrusive and makes lock screen behaviour so random. Try changing lock screen theme, sometimes some of them do not allow some features. For example i find lock screen notifications a mess on Lollipop, can't use them at all. It is a pitty because i am interested in P9 lite but will probably opt for other options because of that.

Meanwhile in Vanilla land...

wtf ..... how do you get all those

On the other hand, looking for alternatives to the P9 lite , man i guess this is android dna, so many phones none of them perfect .... Moto G4 Plus, seems a good alternative.... but no NFC. really? Fingerprint scanner and no NFC so no mobile payments. WTF
 

Volotaire

Member
Despite the small screen real estate per window in multi window mode on small phones, I could still see myself being a heck of a lot more productive with the feature. It is one of the Samsung phone features that I have been envious of.
 

thenexus6

Member
That is the main issue i have with Huawei Emui Skin. It is too intrusive and makes lock screen behaviour so random. Try changing lock screen theme, sometimes some of them do not allow some features. For example i find lock screen notifications a mess on Lollipop, can't use them at all. It is a pitty because i am interested in P9 lite but will probably opt for other options because of that.
Okay thanks, where do I go about changing the lock screen theme? I have obsidian (magazine) as my current one. I obviously use nova launcher so not sure if that will cause any issues.
 
Using a third party launcher? If so switch to Google now launcher and change it there. They've added a new wallpaper picker where you can have different images but ATM you can only change it in the Google launcher wallpaper picker

Ah great will give that a go, yes using Nova Launcher
 

terrier

Member
Okay thanks, where do I go about changing the lock screen theme? I have obsidian (magazine) as my current one. I obviously use nova launcher so not sure if that will cause any issues.

No nova launcher related since lock screen is 'independent'.
I have a G7 and use Google now launcher.

https://mega.nz/#!zB0HxaCb!Yb7Q1ZfheM_Xt7o1Oe_WVks1mw9xbDV78FQ-BnqtHSc

Check this theme pack, for p8 lite.
just copy the .hwt files to the /HwThemes folder. Sometimes needs to reboot to detect them.

Try singularity.hwt, in themes it should appear as 'default(magazine)'

Remember that from lock screen you can swipe up from bottom to enable some options (also depending on theme) like media player, torch etc....

Oh and you do not need to change everything(font icons etc), you can choose to change only lock screen in the theme selection options.

edit: i am on 5.1.1 i know some p8 lite variants are already on MM so maybe there are more options now if you have it.
oh and probably already know it but check protected apps in settings, it is like 'stamina' or 'doze' , so messaging apps should be protected or you won't receive notifications if screen is off. EMUI has a ton of options and settings
 

Asgaro

Member
The article below just released on http://fxpblog.co/2016/05/22/hello-from-android-n.html
Anyone know what they want to say? Are they returning to development? Or are they only returning to write articles?

Their About page says:
What is FXP?

FXP is a group of independent Android developers whose members voluntarily work on Sony Mobile devices. We aim to provide the newest version of Android for as many of the latest devices as possible. We contribute our work to both Sony Mobile and CyanogenMod.

Which devices do we support?

We only support European Single SIM variants of devices. There are simply too many variants for our small team to support them all, and we only have the European Single SIM variants available to us anyway. However we are willing to accept contributions for other variants if the developer is also willing to maintain it.

Which alternative ROMs do we support?

We currently provide AOSP created with Sony Mobile’s repos, and CyanogenMod which is based on Qualcomm specific code provided by Code Aurora and has several modifications to support extra personalization. In the future we hope to support a greater range of ROMs from other sources, not just CyanogenMod.

Released article:
Hello from Android N!

Hello! It’s been far too long since our last article about open source projects for our favourite Xperia devices. 9 months is an absolute eternity in the world of smartphones so we have a lot of things to catch up with.

The last post at the end of September 2015 was a rather optimistic article featuring Firefox OS. Unfortunately just a couple of months after that post Mozilla abandoned the project and quit the smartphone race. Of course open source projects can never really die, someone will try to maintain it, but without the financial support of Mozilla it will quickly fall into obsolecence.

So back in the Android world, what’s been going on?

Shockingly we’ve never written about Android Marshmallow, which came out in October 2015. This was quite a disruptive release for device maintainers as Google replaced OpenSSL with a fork called BoringSSL. This broke a lot of proprietary blobs due to the missing dependencies. Fortunately our friends at Sony Mobile can recompile any blobs when necessary, which is a huge advantage compared to working on devices from other OEMs.

Marshmallow meant we got a new kernel branch which provides better support for Xperia Z5 devices. This was necessary because the Lollipop kernel was not fully compatible with those devices. It was better to take a new branch from Qualcomm than try to backport the fixes to the older kernel.

Suport for cameras was finally added to the proprietary blob zip. This is still under development - the open devices cannot use Sony’s proprietary technology - but with each blob release the camera quality improves.

THere are plenty more minor changes and fixes that are out of human memory, but can be found in the GitHib history plages if your desparate to know more.

Other more recent updates include:

Recovery mode is now available on more devices
Devce repos were reorganised for easier maintenance
Kernel is now built with DTB appended
A new kernel branch was started to support Xperia X devices
We’re also getting ready for Android N by ensuring our devices can build on Google’s master branch. We’ve already accounted for several changes so by the time Android N is released we will be ready for it.

Finally we want to get back to regular articles. There will be the usual comments on major events in the Android world but also fortnighty articles which focus on developements in the open devices project.

We hope you’re glad to see us back!
 

Skux

Member
I'm running the N beta on my 5x and it's pretty good. I really like the new pulldown tray with single presses for wifi and mobile data toggles. Split screen with YouTube and Chrome is perfect for when I want to watch/listen to a video while posting on GAF.

But they removed Chrome's "merge tabs and apps" feature, which I used. It was much easier to press the overview button to go through tabs instead of reaching to the top of the phone to switch tabs.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I'm running the N beta on my 5x and it's pretty good. I really like the new pulldown tray with single presses for wifi and mobile data toggles. Split screen with YouTube and Chrome is perfect for when I want to watch/listen to a video while posting on GAF.

But they removed Chrome's "merge tabs and apps" feature, which I used. It was much easier to press the overview button to go through tabs instead of reaching to the top of the phone to switch tabs.

Merge Tabs and apps is gone in general. Not just N. Dumb idea so they scrapped it.
 

Chorazin

Member
Man, the new N version is running so smooth on my Pixel C. Really happy that the update fixed the major problem I had, which was incredibly slow internet speed. It was extremely painful to use the tablet due to that!
 

kazinova

Member
None of the Microsoft apps seem to work on preview 3 at the moment.

I know most people don't care but if you're a recent Windows Phone convert like me it really stinks that Groove doesn't work.
 

Moppeh

Banned
Hey AndroidGAF, so my Xperia Z3C broke again for the second time, so I decided it is time for an upgrade.

My plan is with Bell and their phone selection isn't great, but I was wondering if you guys maybe some had some recommendations.

I don't really need the fanciest screen or the fastest tech, when it comes to phones I'm more about the features.

After my issues with my Z3C, I'd really like a larger phone with better durability. Also, with the slightest crack in the screen, my Z3C became useless, I'd like something that can keep on trucking if it takes damage. Outside of that, I love having expandable memory and strong battery life.

Out of what Bell provides, I'm basically looking at a Galaxy 7, a LG G4 or a LG G5.

I had a Galaxy 3 before and quite liked it but I really disliked all of the bloatware on it. Outside of that it was a pretty great phone.

At a quick glance, the differences between the LG G4 and G5 seem rather minimal. I don't really know anything about these phones. How are they? How would they compare to the Galaxy 7?

Sorry for all the questions guys, but I really don't want to make another mistake getting a phone that just doesn't jive.
 

kami_sama

Member
If you're looking at the S7, G4 and G5, I would look at the S7. It still has some bloat, more than other phones, but it's still the better phone.
 

Quixzlizx

Member
This is more of a Google question than an Android question, but does Google track every website you visit and tie the history to your account when you're logged in, or just your Google searches/actions on Google sites?
 

Saiyan-Rox

Member
Me too. Although it doesn't seem there's a way to interact like in cardboard.

Was thinking the same after ordering it

it'll make it pretty hard to use for other apps won't it without the button? probably left it out cause they expect people with OP2 to use it and they don't have NFC

heh OP even leaves NFC out of VR headsets :p
 

kami_sama

Member
Was thinking the same after ordering it

it'll make it pretty hard to use for other apps won't it without the button? probably left it out cause they expect people with OP2 to use it and they don't have NFC

heh OP even leaves NFC out of VR headsets :p

The Cardboard button doesn't use NFC.
In the first version it used a magnet, and in the second one it was a little piece of felt that touches the screen.
You can buy a bluetooth controller, 3€ for one at aliexpress, or you can simply wave a magnet close to the phone.
 

Asgaro

Member
Oneplus giving away free VR headsets

Anyone manage to grab one? I did :D

Is it US only? I can't seem to change my country?

edit: Rush hour alert! To provide you with a smoother shopping experience, we have temporarily disabled address book editing. Don't worry - you can still edit your address during checkout.
 

kami_sama

Member
Is it US only? I can't seem to change my country?

edit: Rush hour alert! To provide you with a smoother shopping experience, we have temporarily disabled address book editing. Don't worry - you can still edit your address during checkout.

All the way down you can change your country.
 

AndyD

aka andydumi
This is more of a Google question than an Android question, but does Google track every website you visit and tie the history to your account when you're logged in, or just your Google searches/actions on Google sites?

I think your Chrome history moves across devices. Hit Ctrl+H and you will see it shows that device and others as well.
 
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