Hidden “Partial Screenshots” Demoed on Android 7.1 Nougat

Screenshots have been around in Android ever since 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (and even back to 2.3 Gingerbread if you were on Touchwiz). However, the functionality that was added back in the day has remained stationary despite the evolved needs in the past 5+ years. Stock Android started off with simple screenshots, and stock Android has remained with simple screenshots.

While other OEM skins add in features like scrolling screenshots and more, there is hidden screenshot functionality that can be found on stock Android now: partial screenshots. This is "hidden" in the sense that this functionality was added in the latest Android version, but it still needs a small edit to activate it.

XDA Senior Member MrWasdennoch, known in the forums for his Android N-ify Xposed Module, found out that Android 7.1 Nougat on the AOSP master branch contains a commit named "Partial Screenshot", which seemingly allows users to select a size and grid position on the screen to take a screenshot. This results in a screenshot of that particular selection, rather than the full screen, which will help constricting the information displayed to narrower focus points.

XDA Recognized Developer Maxr1998 managed to enable the functionality by modifying line 53 of TakeScreenshotService to takeScreenshotPartial(). The feature would be available in his upcoming ROM build for the Nexus 4, but he was kind enough to demo the functionality for all of us to see without needing to flash a whole ROM:

As demoed, the screenshot functionality allows you to quickly select a focus area, without needing a gallery app to crop the image for you. While a very small addition by itself, this does show that functionality as basic as a screenshot is still open to evolution.

We hope more such smaller additions, like perhaps scrolling screenshots, are made part of stock Android in the future.

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Rovo89 Gives Update on Current Status of Xposed for Android Nougat

It's been a few months since Android 7.0 Nougat, and subsequently Android 7.1 Nougat, were released. While we do love the new feature additions that an Android version brings to our beloved devices, it does bring a lot of changes under the hood that changes things up for developers.

Every new Android version usually means that a lot of community based efforts and modifications end up needing an update, and a lot of times, a full overhaul and thorough rethinking.

Xposed is one such modification framework that requires a lot of maintenance to and effort to get it running running on new Android versions. XDA Senior Recognized Developer rovo89 is hard at work bringing the Xposed framework up and running on the newest version(s) of Android. Here is a quick update from him on the current status of the framework on Nougat:

Current status for Nougat: Hooks are generally working now. However, they're still unreliable for inlined methods and when JIT is used (which is often the case). I had given a few technical insights here. I'm currently thinking about the different situations that need to be handled and I create unit tests for them. Then I need to fix those which are failing or even crashing the device – ideally without recompiling the whole ROM like in previous versions. Not sure if the latter is possible though.

The good news starts off on the first sentence, although the "but"s follow it soon after. It is reassuring to know that Xposed still remains a possibility on Android 7.x Nougat and is not ruled out on account of any drastically insurmountable change.

We will still have to wait on the developer to find workarounds to issue, test, retest, polish and package all of it before average forum dwellers can install it on their devices. Let's hope for the best!

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Plasma Mobile is a Fully Open-Source Smartphone OS from KDE e.V.

If you've dabbled with Linux distros in the past, then you've likely heard of KDE before. KDE stands for K Desktop Environment and it's one of the main desktop environment options (next to GNOME) that can be used on Linux distros. KDE e.V. is a registered non-profit organization that represents the KDE community when in legal and financial matters. The team behind this organization has just announced a new, open source smartphone OS called Plasma Mobile.

The team describes Plasma Mobile as a way to turn your smartphone into a "fully open hacking device, just like a PC." Those of you who have used KDE in the past might be familiar with the Plasma workspace by the name "KDE Plasma". KDE Plasma is available for desktops, netbooks, media centers for TVs, tablets and now mobile devices. If offers an adaptable user interface and in the future it will also offer a rapidly-maturing software system that is developed with an open life cycle.

The software has built the Plasma workspace into it, and offers KWIN/Wayland and Voicecall/Ofono while also integrating Plasma Apps, Plasma Widgets, Ubuntu Touch Apps and the possibility of installing Sailfish and Nemo Apps. Plasma Mobile's development team will be aiming to run many Qt/GTK/X11-based applications on the OS, and hope to implement package installation via the "apt-get install packagename" command. The platform will utilize libhybris on ARM devices while opting for DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) on Intel devices.

As of right now, Plasma Mobile only supports the Nexus 5 and the OnePlus One, along with some Intel-based devices. If you want to try this out on the Nexus 5, Plasma Mobile can be installed as a secondary ROM on your device thanks to MultiROM support. The team describes the state of MultiROM support for the Nexus 5 as "Solid" (so while it isn't perfect, it's past the 'Experimental' state).

Be sure to check out their forums if you are interested in trying out the software.

Source: Plasma Mobile

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[SPONSORED] A look at the RhinoShield CrashGuard for Pixel XL

CrashGuard is superior to the bumpers of the past because it has been engineered to absorb impact. This is done by utilizing a proprietary polymer material that is far more shock-absorbent than plastic, and it also has a protective honeycomb structure within the bumper to disperse impact properly. In fact, within the honeycombs are compartments of pressurized air that act as airbags and deflect impact energy. If that sounds really elaborate, it is, and the net result is that you can drop your phone from a variety of heights (up to 11 feet) and if you have a CrashGuard bumper on the phone, you're going to have a completely unmarked phone.

Not only are CrashGuard bumpers durable, but they're lightweight (with most of their bumpers coming in under 14 grams). They're also pretty grippy thanks to the matte finish, and they come in a variety of colors. Another thing we really like about the CrashGuard line is the pricing: the Pixel XL is priced at $24.99, and you can grab one from CrashGuard for the Pixel/Pixel XL.

If you have one of the many other phones that are supported by RhinoShield, you can check out their Amazon page to see all of their available options.

Thanks to RhinoShield for sponsoring this post.

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What Improved the Most in This Year’s Flagships?

The year is just about coming to an end, and we've seen most of what major OEMs have to offer. The flagship battle was hotly contested this year, with many phones offering many choices to suit many needs — just in the spirit of Android. Smartphones in general got smarter and better, and we are not complaining.

But all areas of a smartphone did not improve to the same degree. Some hardware features in smartphones evolved at a faster rate, and in some cases, minuscule improvements seemed drastic because the preceding flagship lacked oomph in that particular regard. Of course, subjective opinion and diminishing returns also change our perception of what was the biggest improvement in the flagships of 2016. So we ask you,

Which aspects of flagships saw the most improvement compared to the previous year? Which feature on a flagship gave you the most noticeable positive change compared to its predecessor? Was it the processor, the display, the build quality or the battery? Are there any areas where smartphones still need to improve on?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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PSA: Android 7.1 Circular Icon Support is Determined by the OEM

Design consistency has been one of the major hurdles for Google since Android started becoming massively popular. Initially, Google's philosophy was to let OEMs have full control over their design philosophy. At first, this level of openness enticed OEMs to invest large amounts of resources into making Android smartphones and tablets.

However, the wide variety of OEM skins stood in stark contrast to the tightly controlled Apple iPhone experience. Starting with Android Lollipop, Google made major design changes (the Material Design UX, headed by at-the-time lead Android designer Matias Duarte) and hoped that app developers and OEMs would follow suit. While some OEMs such as Motorola and Sony were content with following Google's lead, others such as Samsung and Huawei still sport a design language that is largely non-Material.

Google hasn't given up on enforcing consistent design across various Android devices, and one of their latest efforts is the inclusion of circular icon support in Android 7.1 Nougat. Circular icons are intended to solve the issue with inconsistent icon size, but this approach has a set of issues that I'll let designer Liam Spradlin over at Android Police describe. Android 7.1 has barely made its way to Nexus devices, and it'll take quite a bit of time for OEMs to start rolling out Nougat, so it's unclear what impact circular icon support will have on design consistency. But what is clear is the fact that circular icons could die before they even have a chance to thrive: because Google has thus far made it totally up to the OEM whether or not they want their users to see circular icons.

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Circular Icon Support is Determined by the Framework

Nearly every single one of the Google Pixel's features was leaked ahead of time by various blogs. Even the circular icon support was heavily hinted at as the leaked Pixel Launcher indicated support for circular icons, and other Google apps were slowly being updated with circular icon assets embedded in the APK. However, at the time the bloggers made an erroneous assumption: that circular icon support would be tied to the launcher. It's hard to blame them, though, as even Google's official announcement of the feature is bereft of any detail.

Fortunately, veteran Android developer Commonsware delved into more detail about how circular icon support would be implemented in Android 7.1 Nougat. Rather than app developer's exposing their round icon via PackageManager (allowing for launchers to decide whether or not to display round icons), the system framework decides whether or not to return either the regular icon or the round icon to the launcher.

When a launcher requests an app icon, the framework returns either android:icon or android:roundIcon, depending on the device build configuration.

What this essentially means is that the OEM can decide whether or not circular icons will be shown on your device. If Samsung, Huawei, LG, or any other OEM decides to forego circular icons, then your device will not see any round icon assets no matter what third-party launcher you install. Strike one for Google's design consistency push.

Commonsware has also discovered that the framework decides whether or not to return a circular or regular icon for ANY process that requests an app icon. In other words, developers need to be cautious that their circular icons look great not only in certain device/launcher configurations, but anywhere it may be requested.

Circular app icons are a nice visual change, but it's clear that there's an issue with their implementation. In all likelihood, we might see that only some devices like the Google Pixel and maybe some Motorola phones will implement circular icon support, while other OEMs will opt to continue using regular icons. If this scenario plays out, then Pixel owners may find themselves with a bunch of non-circular apps from app developers who don't bother to update their icon assets to accommodate only the few devices that would support round icons. And in that case, the entire consistency argument for round icons would be moot.

Thanks to Commonsware for discovering this!

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RCS Messaging Support on Google’s Messenger App Rolling Out on Sprint

SMS once was a very integral part of communication, but the service no longer holds the same charm as it once did. With the advent of Internet-based IM apps on our smartphones, the reliance on SMS as a primary means of communication has been phased out.

A lot of this does have to do with the fact that SMS is limited and outdated, despite its reliability in certain situations.

People have realized that SMS is in dire need of an upgrade to keep up with current use-cases. Communication these days is no longer limited to just textual information between two parties — there's more media flowing through, and there are more people participating in conversations. Recognizing this need, the GSM Association along with Google joined hands in an initiative to upgrade the SMS experience.

Today, Google has announced that it is launching Rich Comunications Services (RCS) on Sprint, making this the first carrier launch from Google. RCS Messaging on Sprint, powered by the Jibe RCS cloud platform, will bring new features to SMS, like group chat, high resolution photo sharing, read receipts and more. To make use of this upgrade, users on Sprint need to grab the latest Messenger update. Further, new Android devices from Sprint coming next year will come with Messenger preloaded as the default SMS and RCS app.

The coming of RCS is a huge step for Android users in general as it gives the platform a lot of future potential. By implementing a universal profile on the carrier end, RCS is as close as we can get to an iMessage experience out-of-the-box across the wide plethora of Android devices. While other IMs have stepped in to fill the void that SMS failed to fill so far, a solution that is universally available and does not require any setup will be a boon for the average Android user. The advantages of modern IMs with the universality of SMS? Sign us up!

What are your thoughts on RCS finally coming out? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Google Blog

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