It’s been a while since Google started rolling out dark modes in its various apps. Over the course of last year Google apps like Contacts, YouTube, Play Games, Phone, Messages, and some parts of Google Maps have received the battery friendly and less eye blinding dark mode. Android Pie was supposed to come with the most wanted system-wide dark mode but when the latest android version started rolling out we were left to keep dreaming. But thanks to a new post we can get our hopes up and that Android Q might finally land the feature.
In a post (now made inaccessible by Google) in Chromium bug tracker (spotted by Android Police), Googler Lukasz Zbylut stated that
“Dark mode is an approved Q feature […] The Q team wants to ensure that all preloaded apps support dark mode natively. In order to ship dark mode successfully, we need all UI elements to be ideally themed dark by May 2019.“
He also pointed out that there will be master setting for the Dark mode under Settings>Display>Dark Mode. He later pointed it to Settings>Display>Night Mode, so we don’t know which one it’s gonna be. As for me I don’t really care as long as I can turn the phone dark!
Interestingly though the post dates back to October 2018, so we don’t know if its still relevant. Google might or might not have changed their mind, but we can only hope. We still can’t say for sure that it will come with Android Q but at least we can be sure that Google indeed is legitimately working on a system-wide dark mode. And Google making the post inaccessible only fuels it further.
Here’s an excerpt from the post if you want to go through it all
Its 2019 already, and we still don’t have a battery that lasts an eternity with a single charge. Just kidding. But seriously even in 2019 we have phones that don’t last a full day. No matter how careful you are with your phones battery throughout your day, at the end you go home and the first thing you do is plug in your charger.
So with the following tips you can somewhat extend your battery life and keep your phone alive
1. Modify your location services The location service when active on high accuracy sucks the life out of your battery like a vacuum cleaner. There are settings which reduce the impact of location service in your device’s settings, Head over to settings>Location and set the mode to GPS only. What happens in this mode is that the location is determined only with the GPS and no Wi-Fi or mobile network is used. Use this mode if you don’t use the location based apps like maps more often. This trick alone can hugely boost your battery’s life.
2. Disable the Auto Brightness You can’t deny that you love your screen to be more colorful and more bright. But brightness is nemesis of your phone’s battery. When the adaptive or auto brightness is on your battery literally hanging by the thread. Turing off the adaptive brightness might cause you some trouble while trying to use the phone outdoors and manually adjust the brightness but that sacrifice will help to stay your phone alive for a longer period and I think that’s what counts more. Another setting to use to your benefit is the screen timeout. The longer time you have set the more it affects so try to set it to the minimum time limit which is seconds in most android phones.
3. Turn Battery saver on Okay I know this sounds ridiculous but hear me out. There are more than one battery saving modes on android phones. These modes have different settings that can help to optimize your battery life. Using battery saver will surely impact your background processes and apps but considering the amount of battery you can save the trade-offs are minor.
4. Use wrappers or ‘lite’ version of apps Everyone knows how much of a battery sucking vampire the official Facebook app, Messenger and Chrome are. Consider using the lite versions of Facebook and Messenger app or browser like Chromer and Cake Browser. Or you can use wrappers for these apps which take less storage and consume less power and energy. And even the usability isn’t that much different but the real difference is how much strain on your battery is reduced.
5. Embrace the darkness Though this trick works more in favor of those with OLED screen, that doesn’t mean LCDs can’t take the advantage. Even Google is implementing dark modes in most of its applications. Implementing dark themes on supported apps like Twitter, Pocket, Telegram and more. Using a dark theme and a dark wallpaper can significantly reduce the strain on your battery and you have to admit that everything dark looks really cool!
6. Limit background processes and apps If you are like me and don’t need more apps that need to be run in the background this can be a great way to extend your battery life. In android the background process optimization by default is not that good and you have to take the matters into your own hand. Apps and processes use your data and energy constantly even if you are not running those apps. These run in the background to provide various services like push notifications, for sync purposes and such. Limiting the background process will limit the functionality of the apps and processes but as I said before if you are like me, totally worth it. For limiting background process head over to device Settings>Developers Options>Background Process Limit and choose according to your preference. You can also restrict background data and process for individual apps. For that head to Settings>Apps>Data Usage>Restrict Background Data
7. Use Greenify Let me tell you, Greenify works wonders. This app is a life saver. Greenify allows you to hibernate apps when they aren’t running in foreground thus restricting the apps to run in background. Unlike the native android setting to limit background process you can choose which app you want to hibernate and which you want to let run. But be careful about what you choose as many of the apps are required to run in the background by the system itself.
Follow these tips and you will be able to keep your phone alive for a lot more than you usually do. And if there are any other tips that I haven’t talked about let me know in the comments.
Huawei’s P20 and P20 Pro phones rocked the world last year with their awesome camera and unparalleled night mode. With the gradient back and the triple camera setup the P20 was one of a kind phone and Huawei looks like is going to return with the successor to those universally acclaimed phones with P30 and P30 pro.
Though there hasn’t been any rumors relating to the pro model, the P30’s renders has been released courteousy of OnLeaks. The removal of the fingerprint sensor from the rear panel is the biggest change from the previous version.
On the front the chin has been shrunken too and so has the iPhone X style wide notch to be replaced by a small, waterdrop notch similar to OnePlus 6T. The device seems to be quite the looker with the gradient fininsh being retained with a new gorgeous looking sea blue.
Since the fingerprint sensor is not in the back it might be placed under the display similar to what Huawei has done with the Mate 20 Pro. Along the sides, it seems like the device is getting the colored power button like Mate 20 Pro.
The most pleasant surprise though comes in the form of the return of 3.5 mm headphone jack. The last years model had no headphone jack included and because of that this information should be taken with a grain of salt as it is pretty rare for a company to bring back something they have chosen to ditch. It would be really cool if the information turns out to be true and I hope that other manufactures do the same.
The renders show that the device to be equipped with triple camera setups which wasn’t the case for P20. The P20 had only two lens and the triple lens was reserved for the pro model but that seem to have changed with P30. The three lens are likely 40 megapixel main shooter and a 5x optical zoom with the third being the wide angle lens.
As for under the hood the device will likely be powered with the new Kirin 9 chipset supported by 6 or 8 Gigabytes of ram and 128 or 256 Gigabytes of storage. The capacity of the battery might be huge 4000 mAh and support wireless and Quick charging. What do you think about the leaked renders about P20? Let me know in the comments below.
Just a few weeks ago when Samsung showed us its foldable phone demo it felt like an innovation and how futuristic it looked. Fast forward to the first week of January and that phone already looks like an old school. The one and only Evan Blass has posted a video in his Twitter account about a phone just a few days after the Nokia 9 Pureview leaks which is supposed to be foldable phone made by Xiaomi.
Since 2019 is gonna be the year of foldable phones Xiaomi might have been thinking “Since someone’s gonna fold it once why don’t we try to fold it twice. The more the merrier right?” And here we are looking at a video of a phone which can fold three times albeit with three times the thickness.
Can’t speak to the authenticity of this video or device, but it’s allegedly made by Xiaomi, I’m told. Hot new phone, or gadget porn deepfake? pic.twitter.com/qwFogWiE2F
Evan Blass himself isn’t sure if the phone is from Xiaomi but boy does it look flipping awesome. (See what I did there?) In the video below posted my Evan Blass on his Twitter account we can see that the user opening and using the Google maps in a tablet mode and after closing the app, the phone is folded twice, once from either side to form a phone with a more compact form and the UI shifts accordingly.
Sure the phone has its imperfections, visibly the display issues but even then of all the foldable phones we have seen this one is the most complete and elegant of all. Xiaomi itself hasn’t responded to the leak and no official news of foldable phone being made has come out of the company. And it raises all the questions about how the apps are gonna work and how the camera is gonna be setup. Will the foldable part function after being folded? Well whatever it is gonna be we can’t deny that foldable phones are here and the hype is real, and we are definitely excited for it.
Howdy y’all! New year is already two days old and I wish you all a happy new year and hope that you got your year going with a bang.
So with the new year I am starting a new series: Best apps of. This is going to be a regular series throughout the year and I will be posting about the best apps of every month. In this series I will be talking about apps that have caught my attention and that are a punch above regular apps. Let’s get the series started with a look at the best android apps for the new year. In no particular order here are the top 10 best android apps of 2019:
Ever since I got this app installed in my phone I have been a fan of it. Its everything a navigation feeling should be. Its responsive, its useful and its fluid (pun intended). You can customize the gestures to your liking with gestures like back, recent and home as well as Google Assistant, Google search, switching between last apps and so on. The animations are sleek and the gestures are a joy to use. Definitely try the app.
KLCK I have already talked about KLCK in my previous post about How to: The best apps to customize your android. KLCK is basically a lock screen app that lets you create and tweak the lock screen to your heart’s content.You can customize and add everything in this app and there are endless possibilities. Some of the things that you can add and show on your lock screen are weather, tasks, music player, lock screen message, animations and so on.
Bouncer: Temporary App Permissions The app is still in beta but even then it managed create waves in 2018 and for good reasons. Amidst all the privacy concerns and data leaks this app provides just the level of security we require. As suggested by the name this app provides temporary permissions to the apps and you can revoke them any time from the notification area or schedule to revoke itself anytime you want. The app uses accessibility service and doesn’t require or access Internet so you can be assured that this app will not transmit any data at all. This a must have app for anyone with security concerns.
1.1.1.1: Faster & Safer Internet Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 is a DNS server which is focused on providing faster service alongside security. The app uses android’s native VPN service which means you won’t be able to use other VPN service of your choice while the app is in use. But that catch is somewhat foreshadowed by the fact that this is probably the fastest DNS server you can take advantage of.
CPL (Customized Pixel Launcher) CPL is a launcher and it has all the goodies and more that made the Pixel launcher so sweet. Along with the basic functions provided by the Pixel launcher, CPL provides more such as features like your selected icon packs, grid size, padding, customizable app drawer and gestures and swipes and many more. You gotta try the app to experience the sweetness of this app.
Cake Web Browser Cake web browser is an app that makes browsing the web swift and fluid. It makes the browsing hassle free and more intuitive. The swipe function provided by the browser ingenious. Every time you search in the browser you can view your results by simply swiping on the screen like Tinder or Snapchat (as mentioned in the Play store description). And you don’t have to worry about losing your search result page as the viewing page is different from the search page. Also the browser provides inbuilt ad-block service which is an added bonus.
Canva: Graphic design Canva is a app that can be used to graphic design, creating logo and much more. You can create YouTube thumbnail, resumes, presentation slides, social media posts and so on. There are more than a million templates to choose from so you are bound to find something that catches your eye. Or if there ain’t something that your like which is highly unlikely, then you can upload your own pictures for editing to your liking.Use this app to boost your social media posts or use it for your next class or job presentation and wow your audience.
Walli Walli is a wallpaper app and a unique one at that. It is a collection of wallpapers created by designers within the app sort of Instagram. You can follow the designers and like the pictures. You can download the picture in the standard smart phone display format or a square format. The most significant feature of the app is that it provides credit to the original artists who created the graphics.
Fleksy It’s been more than two years and still no keyboard app has been able to replace Fleksy in my phone. It has been my go to keyboard more more than two years and is probably the first app that I install in any new phone that I get. Once you use this app you will know what I am talking about. It provides one of the most accurate auto correct service and other features like swipe to space and backspace are hard to not get addicted to and I recommend this app to every android users. Beside that it also provides some extensions to boost productivity and make it fun to use like number row on top, invisible keyboard, and badges as achievements are unlocked. And it also has customization and themes so you can turn the keyboard to whatever you like.
Datally: data saving app by Google Datally is a data saving app by Google (duh!). You can track your data in real time, set data usage limit, stop data usage by unused apps and so on. With Datally you have complete control over your data and how you make use of it.
These are my best apps of 2019 (and 2018). Which are your best apps and which apps do you recommend to other users? Comment below
There have been a lot of noise surrounding the true Nokia flagship since HMD Global started releasing phones under the brand name Nokia. There have been lots of flagship level phone that has come out of the company but still not something that can compete with the market leaders like Galaxy S and Note line, the iPhones, Google Pixel and Huawei Mate and P series.
But that might be about to change with the much rumored Nokia 9 Purview. The rumor suggests that the phone might land with Penta-lens camera setup on the rear panel a first for the smartphone industry. The rumors suggested that the phone might land sometime next year but thanks to a new leak we can assume that the phone will land sometime during the first month of next year.
Renowned leakster Evan Blass gave us a glimpse of the phone in his new tweet published today. Have a look at the Twitter post below:
Since the leak is from Evan Blass himself we can assume that these might be the true looks of the phone itself. We can see in the snippet that the phone will be sporting the somewhat horrifying setup of five camera lenses the Trypophobia-inducing as 9to5google called it, along with the led flash. The phone will also be present with industry standard glass back and hopefully support wireless charging.
The snippet also give us a glimpse to its bare back which means the fingerprint sensor will be located underneath the display like the Oneplus 6T and Mate 20 Pro. We can see from the snippet that the sensor will be located at almost center of the display. That’s a relief as we won’t have to readjust the grip just to reach the fingerprint sensor. And the phone runs on Android One (Yay!).
Other than these information we don’t have much to go through. As every other flagships in 2019 the device is expected to be powered with the new Snapdragon 855, have 8 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal memory as base storage. We have yet to hear about the price and availability but everything we have gotten so far is pointing toward a trued flagship that can deliver in every front and give the market leaders a run for their money.
So what do you think of the Nokia 9 Pureview? Are you excited about the device? What would you like to see from Nokia in their flagship device? Let me know in the comments. https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
You got a new android phone as a gift from someone or you bought yourself one. You powered it on, entered your Google account and installed some apps. But there is still some itching feeling you get every time you look at your phone’s interface. You see all these gorgeous interfaces and screenshots of phones while surfing the Internet and think: Gosh! I want my phone to look like that. Well despair no more as today I’ve compiled a list of all the apps that can be used to customize your phone as your liking.
Nova Launcher:All hail the king! When it comes to Android customization, the first app that everyone recommends is Nova Launcher. It is considered to be the king of the android customization world. You can set the grid size, the dock, the wallpaper (obviously). Beside all these basic functions Nova launcher can be used to show unread notification, the google feed to the left of your home screen, search and add shortcuts with the help of plug-ins that Nova has in its pocket. You can also set gestures and swipes to function as you wish. All these functions and that’s why its hailed as the king of customization. Nova launcher is free in play store to download and all the basic functions are available. But to fully experience the greatness of this awesome app you will have to install the prime version which is a $4.99. Also, as of the time of publishing this post the prime version is on sale for the lowest price of $0.99. Hurry up before the deal expires.
KLWP: Kustom Live Wallpaper KLWP is a relatively new app for android customization but it has become one of the undisputed winner in this field. So basically as the name suggests this is a live wallpaper app but its so much more than that. You can bend and twist this app to your liking and the sheer amount of customization ability provided by this app is overwhelming. For people new to this app browsing the presets developed by other customizers and using them will be easy unless you want to dive head first without having any knowledge whatsoever but you can still try to. KLWP is free in play store but for some advanced features and to use presets other than the one you created within the app yourself you will need the paid Pro key. Try this and you’ll fall in love with this app and everything it can do. Trust me!
KWGT is developed by the same developers as above mentioned KLWP app. KWGT provides almost the same function as KLWP albeit within the widgets. Other than some animation functions, KLWP and KWGT are on the same territory. Like KLWP presets developed by other users can be used in the app but for that it will require you to buy Pro key or you can just create your own. That way you’ll save money and learn the way it works.
Another app developed by the same developer as KWGT and KLWP. KLCK is a lockscree app and functions similarly to KWGT and KLWP. These three apps are almost like a suite and combined produce the most beautiful results you have ever seen.KLCK too will require the Pro key to be installed to fully explore the app’s extent or can be used to build your own preset.
Zooper is a widget app and is almost similar to KWGT. KWGT is somewhat inspired by Zooper. Zooper came before KWGT and is still going strong. Like KWGT and the Kustom suite Zooper can be used and bent the way user want to or you can use presets from other developers. To use the app you can download free version but for presets from other developers will require the paid Pro key.
Icon Packs can be used to customize the way your app icons look on the home screen or the app drawer or your folder. There are numerous icon packs in play store for you to download and make your phone look gorgeous. The icon packs that I use and recommend are Umbra, Pure, Delta, Simplicon, Simpax.
Beside these above mentioned various other apps like Smart launcher,
Pear launcher, CPL, and other live wallpaper apps can be used to customize your home screen make your friends ogle at your phone. Happy customizing!
It’s been a great year, and I am really looking forward to the next year. Like me for many of the tech giants 2018 was a colossal year in terms of revenue, popularity and success as a whole. Apple became the first American company to reach the $1 Billion market cap, Huawei shipped 200 million phones (lets ignore its company personnel getting arrested), Oneplus entered the American soil officially, Google made estimated $3 Billion with Made by Google, Amazon‘s Jeff Bezos is now the richest man in the world with $160 Billion net worth, and so on. Companies like Snap, Yelp! And IBM had a turbulent year.
Noticed that I didn’t pick the name of one of the prominent tech giant? Yep its Facebook alright. If there’s one company whose 2018 couldn’t get any worse its Facebook. With the Cambridge Analytica scandal at the beginning of the year and more recently the various data and privacy related issues really created a dent on Facebook credibility. With the recent news that Facebook shared user data with other companies like Netflix, Amazon, Spotify and a 150 other companies. Facebook provided these companies ability to access and even delete user’s messages which is a huge issue and has raised questions on user privacy and trust.
And as if all that were not enough already to round off the year Facebook now has the top spot in the list of the least trusted site of all on the internet. In a poll conducted by Fortune Facebook took the top spot for the least trustworthy company. According to the poll results only 22 percent of the users in the US trust facebook with their data. The poll results showed that Amazon is the most trusted company with 49 percent , followed by Google (41 percent), Microsoft (40 percent), and Apple (39 percent).
In another poll conducted by Toluna Facebook again claimed the top spot for the least trusted sites followed by Twitter and Amazon tied on the second spot and Uber tailing on the third spot. According to the survey of 1000 people conducted by Toluna 40 percent of the people said they don’t trust Facebook with their data. Twitter and Amazon came second with 8 percent of people’s mistrust and Uber with 7 percent followed by Google at 6 percent.
The Xiaomi Play comes with 5.84-inch FHD+ (1080 x 2280) LCD display with water-drop notch.
It has dual AI 12MP+2MP rear camera setup.
Xiaomi will provide 10GB of free data per month for up to a year
The device will be powered by yet to be announced MediaTek Helio P35 SoC
The Chinese brand Xiaomi doesn’t seem to be resting even in this holiday season as it launched yet another device in its already diverse and confusing catalog with the first phone in its Play series in China. The device named Xiaomi Mi Play has a 5.84 inch FHD+ display with the new trendy water-drop notch on top and a rather obnoxious chin at the bottom. Seriously, why do these manufacturers keep doing this? Drop the chin already.
Aside from the display the device will be powered by MediaTek’s octacore Helio P35 SoC. The Helio P35 is a 12nm octa-core chipset clocked at 2.3GHz coupled with IMG GE8320 GPU and 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM. As it seems the Mi Play will be the first phone to be using this chip so the chip is somewhat still a mystery. And the chip seems to be a mid ranger so don’t expect much power from the device.
The device is focused more towards youth so it comes in a glossy glass back panel with now trendy gradient colors. The phone will be available two gradient versions- Dream Blue and Twilight Gold. There will be a third option with the regular Black panel for those with simple taste.
Another highlight of the device is the 12M+2MP dual rear cameras with AI capabilities, another trend in 2018. The front selfie shooter is a lone 8MP camera. The 12MP is the main shooter whereas the 2MP shooter is there for depth sensing for portrait shots.
The phone is available in single variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The phone will run on Android 8.1 Oreo with MIUI skin on top which is disappointing as its almost 2019 and Xiaomi has a reputation for lack of software upgrade. The battery size reads at 3000 mAh and chargeable via a USB-C port.
After all these specs what make the deal even eye popping is the 10GB free data Xiaomi is providing to users per months for up to a year. Unfortunately the deal is only for users in China and consumers from other countries will not be able to take benefit of the deal. The device is priced at 1,099 yuan which converts to $160. And for that price even without the 10GB data its a pretty sweet deal. The device will be available to order from today and hit the shelves from tomorrow.
The hype of the recent OnePlus 6T and the most recent McLaren edition hasn’t died out completely and in the midst of this hype another hype train has started with the leak of alleged OnePlus 7 or the upcoming 5G phone. Posted by Twitter user Ishan Agarwal in his account he says that it might be our first look at the upcoming phones from OnePlus.
As you can see in the above picture which seems to be taken during the office meeting (seriously what on earth was this guy thinking). This might be someone taking great risk to just take the picture or OnePlus doing it on purpose (this is happening way more lately). In the picture, the CEO of OnePlus is holding what looks like a prototype of a phone in white version and a circular camera modules with VIVO like led strip. Beside him on the office table is another prototype in red variant and can also be seen in the presentation monitor. If this picture is anything to go by that is one hell of a change in the phone design.
The phone also looks to lack fingerprint sensor on the back indicating that the sensor will be housed internally like the recent 6T. We do know that OnePlus is going to release a 5G phone before the OnePlus 6T successor so the prototype might be the 5G version. Rather than leaving it to our imagination we at least have a glorious visual of the phone, whichever version it may be. Although this news must be taken with a grain of salt as it just seems to be a prototype and we know that a lot of overhaul can happen until the release period.
Other than this picture we know that the upcoming OnePlus phone will have the 7nm Snapdragon 855 SoC powering the device and nothing more. OnePlus is doing great in the smart phone market with its latest offering and the deal with T-Mobile has made it a mainstream device. And with the US carrier also pushing for 5G it is almost certain that the 5G phone will be in the US market.
TECHVITA 
