It's been previously reported that BlackBerry has had 2 Android smartphones in the works. However, now there's a new rumor that says the company has added another to the list. Evan Blass cites "a person briefed on the company's plans," and says BlackBerry will be releasing one new Android smartphone each quarter, for the next three quarters.
It's no secret that Sony's mobile division has been having a difficult time trying to make a profit. Thanks to the company's recent investor day, we have learned they are going to change the countries they focus on. They will be working to grow in East Asia, Europe and the Middle East, while spending less time and effort in India, USA, China and Brazil.
It was only the end of May when tax officials raided Google's Paris HQ, and now it's happening in Madrid. Spain officials are pursuing an investigation to see if Google is guilty of any tax evasion or tax fraud. Google says they comply with Spain's tax law and will be working closely with the authorities to answer any questions they have.
In this video we recap some of the most interesting Android related stories that we saw this week. It's been an exciting week for Google as we learn the name for the next Android update, as well as the specs for the new HTC Nexus phone. Google Maps received a massive update to their satellite images which vastly improves the quality with trillions of new pixels. Motorola gives us a killer deal on their Moto G4, but this deal is for Amazon Prime member only.
Check out the links below to learn more about these top stories.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for a recap of the news every week. Thanks for watching and have a great weekend everybody!
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Besides our very own forums, Google+ has long been a great place for Android users to congregate in communities around their favorite ROMs or apps. Many of our readers likely only use the website because for the longest time it was required to sign up for application beta testing.
For some time, you were even required to use an account there just to comment on YouTube (though last year Google reversed that change after much backlash). Google hasn't yet given up on its social media website yet, and since the website is supposed to be used for far more than just users of Google products, it appears that Google may soon roll out additional features including the ability to view link previews in comments as well as the ability to show/hide low quality comments in order to improve everyone's user experience while using the app. We're seeing evidence for these features in the latest Google+ update version 8.2, by the way.
Disclaimer: The evidence we dig up from the APK files of an app are not definitive. Google may choose to pull these features without any indication in a future release.
Link Previews in Comments
Currently, Google+ doesn't provide many formatting options for commenting on a post. In fact, the few formatting options that are available aren't really publicized at all. Even on the desktop version of the website the comment box is pretty much void of any options.
It appears that Google will finally be bringing at least one new feature to the comment box; a feature that has already existed for quite some time whenever you create a new post: the ability to add a properly formatted link with a link preview.
<string name="create_comment_add_link_button">ADD</string>
<string name="create_comment_add_link_hint">http://ift.tt/1MzlHiF;
<string name="create_comment_add_link_title">Add a link</string>
<string name="create_comment_invalid_link">"The URL provided isn't valid"</string>
<string name="create_comment_preview_error">No preview available, but you can share a comment instead.</string>
As someone who frequents several Google+ groups for Tasker creations, it's about time. Google+ comments can become a mess if you share a lot of different links.
Low Quality Comment Toggle
<string name="menu_show_low_quality_comments">Show low quality comments</string>
We know that this menu option will appear under the dropdown menu whenever you open the menu in any post, according to these next few strings.
<item android:id="@id/show_low_quality_comments" android:title="@string/menu_show_low_quality_comments" support:showAsAction="never" />
<item android:id="@id/hide_low_quality_comments" android:title="@string/menu_hide_low_quality_comments" support:showAsAction="never" />
Current Options Underneath Every Post
showAsAction being set to "never" means that the menu option will only be shown in the overflow menu list, and the fact that no icon is identified in these strings indicates that it will merely show up as another text button in the menu.
That's all we've found in the latest Google+ update. Do you still use Google+ regularly? Let us know your thoughts below!
A little over a week ago, the YouTube creator blog announced that content creators who have enabled the ability to live stream on their accounts would soon be able to run a stream straight from their mobile device. Initially, Google announced that only 5 of their YouTube partners would be able to use the feature. But now it appears that the promised support for livestreaming will indeed be rolling out soon to more users, if the latest YouTube 11.25.55 APK is any indication.
Source: YouTube Creator Blog
We'll Do it Live! … Finally!
Our source for the imminent roll-out are strings within the latest YouTube APK indicating support for the feature.
<string name="gallery_go_live_button_description">Go live button</string>
<string name="gallery_go_live_button_text">Go live</string>
…
<string name="live_upcoming_datetime">Live on %1$s</string>
While these strings would not constitute concrete evidence when tearing down other Google apps, we already know that Google will soon be offering this feature due to their official announcement. We can't give an exact date on when the feature will actually be rolled out to all users, though, as the switch seems to be on the server-side. We could not find the actual button to begin a live stream anywhere within the latest YouTube APK on any of our test devices. Nevertheless, we do know what the button will look like when it does start showing up for all users, as indicated in the gallery_fragment.xml file inside the APK's asset layout.
<com.google.android.libraries.youtube.common.ui.YouTubeTextView android:textSize="@dimen/gallery_camera_buttons_font_size" android:textColor="@color/gallery_camera_buttons_font_color" android:gravity="center" android:layout_gravity="center" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="@string/gallery_go_live_button_text" android:drawableTop="@drawable/ic_broadcast" android:contentDescription="@null" android:textAllCaps="true" res-auto:robotoFont="medium" xmlns:res-auto="http://ift.tt/GEGVYd" />
Miscellaneous Features Found in the Teardown
Disclaimer: The evidence we dig up from the APK files of an app are not definitive. Google may choose to pull these features without any indication in a future release.
Besides the principle "go live" feature that we all knew was eventually coming to Youtube, there are a few additional features that may be coming in the near future according to some additional strings we found within the latest YouTube update. First up, we're seeing some evidence that YouTube will allow you to retry saving offline videos that failed to save the first time you attempted to offload the content. This will likely be useful mostly to users who like to save large amounts of content for when they travel, only to see that something went wrong when they tried to save certain videos or playlists.
<string name="offline_retry_failed_videos_dialog_message">Retry saving all failed videos in this list?</string>
<string name="offline_retry_failed_videos_menu_item">Retry saving failed videos</string>
Current Options Shown within the Offline Videos List
Finally, we're seeing evidence that YouTube will soon provide additional playback options for videos. Currently, the only options available to users are Previous/Next, Play/Pause, and Close.
Soon, we may be seeing the ability to Stop and Retry playback of a video. More playback options are always welcome to satisfy everyone's use cases, although the current offerings are more than enough for the majority of people.
<string name="playback_control_retry">Retry</string>
<string name="playback_control_stop">Stop</string>
That's all we've found within the latest YouTube app update. Let us know your thoughts below!
The Wi-Fi Alliance has just announced some additional features that will be coming to 802.11ac devices in the near future. The new features include MU-MIMO, which will let the router multitask by sending data to multiple devices at once. The channel bandwidth is increasing from 80MHz to 160MHz, an increase from 3 spatial streams to 4, and additional channels for the 5GHz band.
