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3
Jul

Want a VPN for life? Get Ivacy for only $40!


We all value our privacy, and when have so much of our lives online, that privacy and security is paramount. It’s far too often that people are the victims of identity theft, doxing, and worse, so having a quality VPN to protect the anonymity of your online browsing habits is a great idea.

Ivacy VPN is a highly reviewed service that offers person-to-person file sharing at blazing fast speeds, while completely protecting your identity, and right now you can get a lifetime subscription for only $39.99. With a regular retail price of $1,194, you save 96% through Android Central Digital Offers. The other wonderful benefit of a VPN is the ability to stream tens of thousands of movies, TV shows, sports events, and more from around the world. Having a quality VPN can help you completely bypass geo-restrictions, so you can get to the content you want now. You’ll even get a dedicated VPN add-on for Kodi.

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Ivacy VPN lets you connect to more than 450 servers in over 100 locations around the world, and its an official partner of the National Cyber Security Alliance, helping to promote privacy education and awareness. If you’re worried about the state of net neutrality and your internet speeds going forward, Ivacy VPN can help you overcome throttling and port blocking.

This week, you can save an additional 15% by using coupon code JULY4TH at check out. That means you’ll pay just $25.50 once for access to Ivacy VPN for life!

No more region-blocking the content you want to see; no more hacking, spyware, or government surveillance; no more worry that your privacy is at stake. Check out Ivacy VPN at Android Central Digital Offers and get a lifetime subscription for only $39.99.

See at Android Central Digital Offers

3
Jul

Spotify Lite is now on the Play Store and missing a ton of features


What sort of “lite” app doesn’t let you download songs?

Over the past few years, companies like Twitter, Instagram, and more have created “lite” versions of their mobile apps that take up less space, use less data, and can run better on slower hardware. Spotify is the latest company to follow this trend with its new Spotify Lite app, and while it looks good on the surface, Spotify might have made this a little too lite.

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Talking about the positives first, Spotify Lite looks a lot like its regular cousin. You can log into your account via Facebook, the playback screen has an updated UI, you can listen to all of your Daily Mix playlists, and there are settings for turning on a monthly limit for how much data you want to use with Spotify Lite.

All of that’s great and sounds good in theory, but when you look a bit deeper, you realize just how much Spotify took out of this Lite option. Here’s a list of everything you can’t do in Spotify Lite.

  • Download songs for offline listening
  • Change playback quality
  • Listen to individual songs (even if you log in with a Premium account)
  • Use Spotify Connect to control playback on other devices

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Some of those omissions are understandable, but it’s beyond me why you can’t save songs for offline use. That seems like it’d be one of the biggest draws to Spotify Lite, and especially when this is something that’s available in the main app, it’s weird Spotify decided to not included it.

Even with those roadblocks in mind, Spotify Lite still may be worth a look seeing as how it’s only around 15MB in size compared to the 100MB monster that is the regular Spotify app.

Spotify Lite is on the Google Play Store right now, but it’s showing up as incompatible with all of my devices. The “beta” branding on the app icon suggests that Spotify Lite is still in testing, so it should roll out to more users shortly.

Download: Spotify Lite (free)

3
Jul

Best keyboard apps for Android in 2018


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There’s nothing like a good keyboard to turn the average user into a prolific communicator.

Keyboards may be one of the most important choices you make on your phone. They will shape the speed and accuracy with which you use your phone to communicate, and because keyboards can see everything you type from passwords to social security numbers, it’s important to have a keyboard you trust and like. To that end, here now are the four keyboards we trust and like the most to help us tweet, text, and type up our articles in a crowded bar.

  • Gboard
  • SwiftKey
  • Chrooma
  • Fleksy

Gboard: King of the keyboards

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Gboard has been top of the Android keyboard mountain, and the reasons are clear: great predictions courtesy of machine learning, easy access to gifs and sticker packs such as the Disney Stickers collections, and a dictionary tied to your Google account, so it follows you everywhere.

They keep adding all the smart features that Android users have enjoyed from other keyboards and wrap it all in a quick and responsive (and free!) package. Themes on Gboard still aren’t as diverse or dashing as other keyboards, but the ones here look good and there’s a Material Black option, which is all you really need at the end of the day. You can also finally make your own gifs in Gboard like iOS users have been able to do for a while.

Best of all, Gboard hides no features or options behind paywalls or ads. The best keyboard on Android is completely free.

Download Gboard (free)

SwiftKey: Still great, but not the greatest

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Swiftkey is always right there alongside Gboard, but for a while now, it hasn’t able to outdo it and retake its throne. SwiftKey has been a major player in Android keyboards for years; it used to be the pinnacle of predictions and swipe, but both have fallen just a little behind Gboard. There is still a devoted following to SwiftKey, and after years of building a personal dictionary on SwiftKey, it can be hard to switch to anything else.

No worries, SwiftKey may not be number one, but it’s still a damn good keyboard and great for productivity. And while SwiftKey used to be a paid keyboard, it has been completely free for years now.

Download SwiftKey (free)

Chrooma: Color, choice, and clarity

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With most keyboards, you pick a theme and that’s that, but Chrooma thinks that’s a little boring. Instead, the colors of the Chrooma keyboard adapt to each app you’re using: it turns blue for Twitter, green for Spotify, yellow for Google Keep, and so on. There’s even a night mode that will darken the keyboards color selections at night — or all the time, if you leave night mode on like me. Chrooma’s color options are on point with most apps, and it’s easy to switch colors for the apps where it misses without losing the color adaptation when typing in other apps.

The swiping on Chrooma is top-notch, and the ability to swipe further and further left to delete whole words or sentences is fabulous for removing short chunks of text. If you want to get really fancy with the keyboard style, size, font, and having your settings sync between devices, you’ll have to shell out for Premium, which is a one time purchase of $6.99. It’s a little steep, but if you’re someone who moves devices frequently, that’s easily worth the convenience of having your predictions and settings follow you from device to device.

Download Chrooma (Free, in-app purchases)

Fleksy: Peckers can be choosers

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Fleksy has been making a comeback, but unless you’re a hunt and pecking typist, you’ll probably want to keep moving. Swiping words on Fleksy doesn’t happen, and the corrections on this keyboard can go a little overboard when you’re using a bunch of acronyms or non-standard jargon. There are some neat add-ons for this keyboard, including emoji suggestion, and a fireworks add-on that brings little explosions to your keyboard taps and sounds.

Fleksy has a low learning curve, but unfortunately, when you switch phones or factory reset your personal dictionary doesn’t always follow you. We hope to see this keyboard continue to improve and make up ground to compete more evenly with swipe-enabled keyboards like Gboard, but for the everyday hunt-and-peck typer, Fleksy should be great.

Download Fleksy (Free, in-app purchases)

What are you using??

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What keyboard matches your typing skills? Does anything beat the ease and prediction prowess of Gboard? Are you a SwiftKey savant? For Fleksy’s fireworks make your heart flutter? Tell us in the comments what you’re using and why it has the honor of being the default keyboard on your phone.

Updated July 2018: After careful re-evaluation and consideration, these are still the absolute best keyboard apps for your Android phone! Swype is dead — may it rest in peace — and TouchPal and Typany are too intrusive with their ads.

3
Jul

Samsung Galaxy S9 vs. Google Pixel 2: Which should you buy?


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Samsung’s market leader versus Google’s idealistic view of a smartphone.

Samsung’s flagships may outsell Google’s in massive numbers, but that definitely doesn’t stop many of us from thinking that the Pixel phones are the absolute best expression of Android on a smartphone. The Google Pixel 2 launched into a world where the Galaxy S8 was already over six months old, and now the roles are reversed: we have the brand-new Galaxy S9 to compare to.

The Galaxy S9 shares a lot with its predecessor, but there are strategic improvements that help it match the Pixel 2 — and in some areas it continues to best Google’s little flagship. Here’s how the new Galaxy S9 compares to the Pixel 2 in hardware, software and value.

What’s the same

Despite dramatic differences in initial appearances, there’s a lot shared between these phones. Sure the materials and designs differ, but they’re actually nearly the same overall size. The Pixel 2 is a tad shorter and lighter, but both phones are pretty compact and easy enough to manage in one hand — especially compared to the ever-growing competition in the 6-inch (and-above) smartphone space.

Samsung Galaxy S9 specs

Throughout the hardware you’ll find matching spec and features. The Galaxy S9’s new fingerprint sensor placement on the back matches the Pixel 2, as does its water resistance, stereo speakers, 64GB base storage and relatively small battery capacity — though the Galaxy S9 does edge out the Pixel 2 by 300mAh there, real-world use of the Pixel 2 shows it can do great things with what it has.

The phones are almost the same size, and filled with the same core specs and features.

For all of the design similarities between the Galaxy S8 and S9, one thing that took a big upgrade was the camera — and it’s exciting enough to have it up here in the “same” section to be mentioned alongside the Pixel 2. The Galaxy S9’s new camera sensor is doing a lot of the same multi-frame advanced processing of images that we hear Google talk about with HDR+ on the Pixel 2. These phones take different types of photos and often come to notably different results in the same scenes, but seeing each one on its own will show you they’re both great. The Galaxy S9 is often a bit truer to the scene and more simple, while the Pixel 2 takes photos that have more color, contrast and drama to them.

Add in its adjustable aperture up to f/1.5 and we see low-light performance that takes a considerable jump up to challenge the Pixel 2 as well. Right now this is still the Pixel 2’s crown, but I’m glad the Galaxy S9 didn’t stick with an iterative setup from the Galaxy S8 — the GS9 has extremely low noise and accurate colors at night. At the same time, the Galaxy S9 adds in 4K 60 fps video, as well as 960 fps slow-motion — both of which best the Pixel 2’s video capabilities in terms of raw numbers, but we know the Pixel 2’s video stabilization is still king.

What’s different

Remember our comparison of the Galaxy S8 and Pixel 2? Well, for the most part, you can just press replay on that. It only takes a glance to tell these phones have completely different identities, with the Galaxy S9’s primarily glass build and glistening curves contrasting with the Pixel 2’s monolithic metal and subtlety. Both execute their designs well, but it’s easy to see why so many people prefer the flashy head-turning design of modern Samsung phones — even if the glass back is a bit more fragile. Not everyone is attracted to the subtle approach of the Pixel 2, even if its metal body may age better.

Polar opposites in design, all surrounding a startling difference in usable screen space for the size.

Then, of course, there’s the difference in usable screen space for the size of the phone. In the same overall hardware package, the Galaxy S9 has a 5.8-inch 18.5:9 display, versus the Pixel 2’s 5-inch 16:9 display. Put another way, over 83% of the front of the Galaxy S9 is screen, whereas under 70% of the Pixel 2 is screen. That’s a startling difference in usable screen space for the same size of phone. Sure the immediate sides of the Galaxy S9 are curved and therefore not all that usable, and full-screen content doesn’t always utilize the space, but it’s tough to shake the feeling that the Pixel 2 “wastes” space on the front of the phone.

What’s inarguable is the difference in screen quality. The Galaxy S9 took the Galaxy S8’s display and made it 15% brighter, adding more brightness to what was already a bright, vibrant and just generally wonderful display. The Pixel 2 also has an OLED panel, but it’s just on a lower level in terms of colors and brightness, not to mention its 1920×1080 resolution is a bit lower as well. The Pixel 2’s display is certainly good enough, but it’s not an industry leader like the Galaxy S9.

Samsung wins on the ‘number of features’ game, but loses by the same account in software.

Samsung is always going to win the “number of features” game, and that’s clear again here with its inclusion of extras like a headphone jack, wireless charging, and an SD card slot. You can argue that having an option of 128GB internal storage on the Pixel 2 negates some of the SD card value, and you could also say the wireless charging is more of a niche feature. But you can’t say that having a headphone jack isn’t a huge benefit — particularly when you don’t have to give up anything else in the hardware to get it. Samsung even adds a really nice pair of earbuds in the box; Google gives you a USB-C headphone dongle.

Now, here’s where things swing in the other direction: the Pixel 2’s software experience. This is a place where Samsung’s approach of “more features” can get in the way of having enjoyable and useful software for many people. Android 8.1 Oreo on the Pixel 2 is smooth, clean, consistent, and great to use. The Galaxy S9 has far more features, but so many of them are set up to be left unused and just sit in your way when you’re trying to do other things. Convoluted processes for doing so many things just seem unnecessary when you see how simple it all is on the Pixel 2. It’s a difference in philosophy and perhaps Samsung’s approach doesn’t bother you, but people who use Pixels know what I’m talking about here — using Google’s take on Android is fantastic, and it stays that way over time with three years of guaranteed software updates.

Bottom line: Which should you buy?

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There’s a lot to digest in this comparison. Much of the core experience and features are shared between the Galaxy S9 and Pixel 2, but the exterior designs, screen and additional features differ widely. There are two clearly different approaches to a high-end smartphone at play here.

There are two clearly different approaches to a high-end smartphone at play here.

The Galaxy S9 is the features king, with hardware that bests the Pixel 2 with extras like wireless charging, a headphone jack, newer processor, bigger battery, and a larger (and nicer) display. The hardware is flashy, which is appealing to many people, even if it’s a bit more fragile. The Pixel 2 is much more subtle in its hardware and simple to use in its software. It has the core features you need, and little extra. There aren’t many headline-grabbing things you can point to, but just use one for a few days, and you’ll see what all the talk is about. It also has a proven great camera, and the track record of software support direct from Google.

Finally, we have to remember pricing. As high-end smartphone prices continue to rise, the Pixel 2 held its ground down at a relatively affordable $649. The Galaxy S9, on the other hand, is roughly $100 more depending which carrier you buy from — which I think is enough of a gap to matter to people when they’re cross-shopping these two phones. If you’re really keeping the budget tight, the Google Pixel 2 is obviously a better choice. If you’re willing to pay more money for more features, regardless of whether the overall experience may be better, you’re likely to go with the Galaxy S9.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

  • Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
  • Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
  • Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
  • Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
  • Join our Galaxy S9 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint

Update July 2018: Refreshed with a new perspective based on the age and price of the Pixel 2.

3
Jul

Add three of Netgear’s Arlo Pro 2 cameras to your home for just $483


One for the front, one for the back, one for inside!

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This 3-pack of Netgear’s Arlo Pro 2 cameras is down to $483 at Amazon, which is around $200 lower than it normally sells for. It normally sells for $680 and has never dropped below $510 in the past. It comes with 3 of Arlo’s latest Pro 2 cameras and the required base station for them to work properly. The cameras are all wireless and weatherproof, making them perfect to use inside or outside.

You’ll have access to the most recent 7 days of recordings at no additional cost, though you can subscribe to other plans which offer access to 60 days of recordings.

See at Amazon

3
Jul

Android P Beta 3 (Dev Preview 4) released for Pixels with stability fixes, July security patch


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The latest software is available right away for Pixels and coming soon to other phones in the Developer Preview program.

Plenty of us have gotten in on the Android P Beta fun already, but Google has released yet another update to improve stability and fix bugs in the yet-to-be-named new Android release. Android P Beta 3 is now available for Google’s own Pixel devices through the Android Beta Program, which will push out over-the-air updates to anyone who has enrolled or enrolls now. If you have one of the many phones from other manufacturers — like Vivo, Essential, OnePlus and Xiaomi — you’ll have to wait for a little bit to get your update; Google says they’ll be pushing out the latest version “in the coming weeks.”

So what’s in this update? Well as you can imagine at this point, things haven’t changed dramatically from Beta 2. Google has already finalized all of the APIs in Android P, which is important for developers who are making their apps compatible with the latest version. (For the developers out there, Beta 3 is analogous to Developer Preview 4.) Google says Beta 3 is focused on “stability and polish,” as well as getting the latest July security patch out to phones running on the Beta software. Google says that the system is “near-final” and is labeling it as a “release candidate build” — so what we see here shouldn’t be far off from what’s finally unveiled as the official version. Our only hope is that the gesture-based navigation option receives some polish.

If you’re clamoring to get Android P on your own phone, there are several ways to do it — the easiest is to simply wait a few hours and receive an OTA update. But you can also download and install the software manually if you wish — we have full instructions on how to do so.

Android P

  • Android P: Everything you need to know
  • Android P Beta hands-on: The best and worst features
  • All the big Android announcements from Google I/O 2018
  • Will my phone get Android P?
  • How to manually update your Pixel to Android P
  • Join the Discussion

3
Jul

Sony WF-SP700N review: MrMobile finally tries “truly wireless”


Summertime is no time for over-ear headphones (as the sweat smears on my QC-35 earpads will attest). So when Sony asked me to review its new truly wireless WF-SP700N earbuds, the timing was perfect. Despite their unimaginative branding, these are actually good sport earbuds, with an acoustic noise canceling feature that’s a rarity in wearables this small. The WF-SP700N also gives you the option to disable that ANC to allow external sound though, keeping you from getting surprised by a cyclist on your morning jog.

Unfortunately, these buds also make some pretty big compromises – from aesthetics to battery life to the bulky case that comes alongside them. Are they a good fit for you? Join me for the MrMobile WF-SP700N review – and if you decide you’re more of an over-ear listener after all, don’t miss my MDR-1000X review from a while back!

Stay social, my friends

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  • The Web
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
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3
Jul

How to install Android P on your Pixel right now (or roll back to Oreo)


Get the Android P Developer Preview on your phone right away.

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The Android P beta is here, and its first proper update brings it up to Developer Preview 3.

The main way to load the Android P preview is to enrol in the Android Beta Program, which makes it super easy to opt in and out of the program. If you’re more hardcore, or want to manually flash the Android P developer preview, we have those instructions, too.

  • The easy way
  • The harder way

The easy way — Android Beta Program

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If you don’t want to mess with unlocking your bootloader or the command line, you will get an update to the Android P if you’re part of the Android Beta program. That means that if you have one of the eligible devices, you can simply visit the Android Beta portal and opt-in to the beta, which will then prompt Google to send your phone or tablet an over-the-air update.

Head to Android Beta program portal on your Pixel phone.
Sign into the Google account associated with that phone.
Scroll down to Your eligible devices.
Find the device you want to enrol in the Beta program and tap Opt in.
Follow the prompts to accept the over-the-air download.

Note: To leave the Beta program, simply tap the Opt out button on the Android Beta Program page to unenroll. Your phone will receive an over-the-air update to return to the latest stable version of Android, but your phone will be wiped clean upon rebooting, so back up your stuff.

Which devices are eligible for the Android Beta Program?

The preview is supported on the following phones and tablets:

  • Pixel 2
  • Pixel 2 XL
  • Pixel
  • Pixel XL

The following phones are also eligible to download the Android P Beta, but you’ll need to follow the individual install instructions linked below:

  • Nokia 7 Plus
  • OnePlus 6
  • Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S
  • Essential PH‑1
  • Sony Xperia XZ2
  • OPPO R15 Pro
  • Vivo X21

Learn more about the Android P Beta on non-Google devices

The harder way — Flashing through bootloader

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Before we go through the steps of sideloading Android updates, it is strongly recommended that you have previous knowledge of working with the Android SDK (software development kit) and the Terminal (OS X or Linux) or Command Prompt (Windows), as it is possible to harm your device if something were to go wrong in the following process.

If you need to download the Android SDK you can grab it from the Android Development website and follow their instructions on how to install it correctly. For the following process, all you will need is the adb and fastboot files which are located in the Platform Tools folder, so make sure to read the description at the dev site and grab the right download.

Additionally, all the following commands are written as they would be in Terminal on a Linux or OS X platform. If you are following this guide and using a Windows machine, you will not need to use the “./” seen in the guide. Just type the rest of the command line by line in the order they are listed and you’ll be good.

Enable developer settings and USB debugging

Go to your Settings and scroll down to About Phone/Tablet.
Tap on the Build number seven times until the dialog box says you are now a developer.
Go back to the Settings menu and you should find a new option called Developer options. Tap into the Developer options.
Make sure that the developer options are turned on and that USB debugging is checked on.
Plug your device into your computer and tap “OK” on the dialog box asking you to Allow USB debugging while connected to the computer. You can also select to always allow access on that computer.

If done correctly, this will be everything you will need to do on your phone or tablet for the moment.

Unlocking your bootloader

Pixel phones bought from Google directly have a bootloader you can unlock. If you want to manually flash software, you’ll need to do this.

To do this you must first boot into your bootloader. You can either manually turn off your phone or tablet and hold down the power button and the volume down button to enter your device’s Bootloader Menu or you can enter the following commands into your terminal or command prompt.

Run the following command to make sure your device is properly connected to your computer. If it returns a string of characters it means that you are all set to start updating your device.

./adb devices

Now to enter into the Bootloader menu just run the following command.

./adb reboot bootloader

At the bottom of the screen, there will be several things listed including the lock state of the device. This should say locked unless you have unlocked your bootloader in the past and never went back and locked it again.

To unlock your bootloader, which is required only when flashing a stock firmware image (not sideloading an update), you must enter the following commands. Remember that when unlocking your phone’s bootloader it will factory reset your device, so you will lose everything stored on it. If you have not yet backed up anything important on your device you can hit the power button while Start is highlighted in the Bootloader menu and this will boot you back into your device like normal. Now back to unlocking your bootloader.

Now type:

./fastboot flashing unlock

A dialog will appear on the device asking if you are sure about unlocking. Again this will factory reset your device, so if you want to back out of the process you just need to select no with the power button. If you are ready to unlock your bootloader you press the volume up button and then the power button to confirm that you wish to unlock your bootloader.

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

It is recommended to reboot the bootloader just to give itself a check to make sure everything is working correctly before moving on to the next step.

Flashing the stock firmware image

Now that your bootloader is unlocked, it’s time to flash the new firmware. To find the images for the developer preview, head on over to the Developer Preview download page, find your device, and download the latest factory image available. It is easiest to then uncompress the file in the Platform Tools folder you downloaded (where the adb and fastboot files are) so that you don’t have to type the path to the different files when flashing the firmware. (Or if you know that you can drag a file into a terminal window to copy the path, just do that.)

To begin, make sure you are still in the bootloader menu on your device and double check that your bootloader is in fact unlocked.

First, make sure that your computer is communicating correctly with your phone or tablet. As long as your device’s serial number comes back as a connected device you are ready to begin updating your device.

./fastboot devices

Now it is time to flash the updated bootloader with the following command.

./fastboot flash bootloader [bootloader file].img

You will not see anything on the screen of your device but there should be a dialog in your terminal or command prompt. When it is done flashing the bootloader you should reboot back into the bootloader to make sure everything is still working correctly.

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

Next, you flash the updated radios. This step is only necessary if you are updating the firmware of a phone or tablet that has cellular radios built into it.

./fastboot flash radio [radio file].img

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

Finally, it’s time to flash the actual system image to your phone or tablet.

Warning: The following line of code will wipe your device. Normally, you can remove the “-w” from the command but when moving to a beta version of Android it’s not guaranteed to work.

./fastboot -w update [image file].zip

When this is done, your phone will restart itself and boot up normally. As this process clears all data from your device, it will take slightly longer for your device to boot up for the first time. Once you have been greeted with the device setup walkthrough process, you know you have successfully flashed a new version of the firmware.

If you do not want to enter the commands manually there are scripts included in the compressed folder containing the system image that will do most but not all of the heavy lifting for you. The flash-all script files will automate the flashing of the bootloader, radios (if needed), and the system image. The problem with this process is that you must first make sure that your phone is in the bootloader menu and its bootloader must be unlocked before starting the script. Of course, if these are not already done the script will fail to run and nothing will happen.

Going back to Oreo

When you’ve had your fun using the Android P Beta, and you’ve figured out that it’s not stable enough to use as a daily driver, it’s time to go back to Oreo. Thankfully the process is simple, and you just learned how to do it! Simply go back through the same steps above, except for two changes: you don’t need to unlock your bootloader again, and you’ll want to download the Oreo factory image from Google instead. Get back to stock, and maybe you’ll check out a future Developer Preview build.

This sounds worse than it is, so don’t worry. But we also understand it can seem like an impossibly difficult thing the first time you’re trying it. That’s OK, we all felt the same way when we first tried it, too. Just take the time to read through everything before you start clicking and tapping things and you’ll do just fine.

If you have any trouble along the way, be sure to hop into the forums and ask for help!

Android P

  • Android P: Everything you need to know
  • Android P Beta hands-on: The best and worst features
  • All the big Android announcements from Google I/O 2018
  • Will my phone get Android P?
  • How to manually update your Pixel to Android P
  • Join the Discussion

Update July 2, 2018: Updated this guide to reflect the release of Android P Beta 3.

3
Jul

Possible Benchmark for A12 Processor From 2018 iPhone Surfaces Featuring 10% Faster Speeds, 4GB RAM


Apple’s 2018 iPhones are expected to include a new 6-core A12 processor, and the A12, like all of Apple’s processor iterations, is expected to bring speed and efficiency improvements. A new benchmark taken from a 2018 iPhone may give us some insight into just how much faster the new A12 is than the A11 in the iPhone X, provided the benchmark is legitimate.

Uploaded to Geekbench 4 on June 27 (via French site iGeneration), the benchmark for the 2018 iPhone suggests a single-core score of 4673 and a multi-core score of 10912.

Comparatively, the iPhone X with an A11 processor features a single-core score of 4206 and a multi-core score of 10128, indicating the new A12 chip will be approximately 10 percent faster than the A11 chip when it comes to both multi-core and single-core performance.

Compute scores for the 2018 iPhone were also included, and it features a Metal score of 21691. Compared to the iPhone X’s Metal score of 15234, the result suggests GPU improvements.


We don’t know which of the three iPhones was benchmarked using Geekbench 4, but so far, rumors suggest that all three will use the same A12 chip. The iPhone is labeled “11,2,” and it is running a version of iOS 12.

Notably, the benchmarked device appears to include 4GB RAM, up from 3GB RAM in the iPhone X. Well-respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested the two OLED iPhones coming in 2018 will feature 4GB RAM while the lower-priced LCD model will continue to feature 3GB RAM, suggesting the benchmark may pertain to one of the OLED models.

We can’t confirm the veracity of the benchmark because it’s not impossible to fake these results, but early benchmarks do sometimes pop up in the months ahead of a new device’s release because there are prototype iPhones being tested by Apple employees who may have opted to run the Geekbench 4 app.

We asked Geekbench founder John Poole about the results, and he said there was nothing “obviously wrong” that stood out, but he did warn that he had not yet had time to dig into the scores.

Apple in 2018 is rumored to be introducing three new iPhones, all of which will feature upgraded processors, faster LTE speeds, a TrueDepth camera system, slimmer bezels, and no Home button, as Apple is transitioning to an all Face ID lineup. We’re expecting a 5.8-inch OLED that’s identical in design to the current iPhone X (but perhaps with a new gold color), a larger 6.5-inch OLED device that can be thought of as an “iPhone X Plus,” and a 6.1-inch LCD device that will be available at a lower price point.

The two OLED devices are expected to include better camera technology, with Apple sticking to dual-cameras for those iPhones. The LCD device, meanwhile, may only feature a single-lens camera.

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhones
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2
Jul

How to Rearrange the Control Center in watchOS 5


In watchOS 5, you can rearrange the Control Center to put the Control Center features that you use at the top, so they’re quicker to access when you swipe up on your Apple Watch.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to remove features you don’t often use, but you can bury those less desirable options at the bottom of the menu.

Bring up the Control Center by swiping upwards on the Apple Watch’s display from the watch face.
Scroll down to the bottom.
Select “Edit.”
While the Control Center icons are wiggling, use a finger to pull an icon out of its position and then drag it into a new one.
When finished, tap “Done.”
That’s all there is to it. It’s a simple little function that you might not think to look for, but it can be handy if there are Control Center features that you use on a regular basis because you’re able to get to them more quickly.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4, watchOS 5Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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