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jeudi 2 janvier 2020

Google temporarily kills Mi Home integration with Assistant following creepy Xiaomi security camera bug

The advent of smartphones has also brought us smart, well, everything. Smart light bulbs, smart cameras for your home, and of course, smart hubs so you can access your voice assistant of choice anywhere in your home and interact with all of these things. But of course, one big concern remains, and that is the privacy factor. After all, not everyone feels comfortable having an Internet-connected, always-on camera watching you while you sleep or while you’re at home. These concerns may very well get more vocal following one creepy incident that happened yesterday with a Google Nest Hub and a Xiaomi Mijia smart security cam.

A Redditor with the screenname /u/Dio-V who owns a Google Nest Hub and a number of Xiaomi cameras around their home asked the Google Assistant to display one of their cameras’ feeds. Instead of seeing a feed from their own cameras, they got stills that were seemingly from other people’s homes, including that of a baby sleeping and an old man sleeping in a chair. Further contributing to this creepiness is the fact that all stills were distorted and black and white as if we were watching a horror film. Given it’s a real issue and assuming that these are indeed live images from other people’s homes, this potentially represents a major security vulnerability. It could mean that your own home’s feed could have shown up on a random person’s smart display anywhere else around the world.

xiaomi mi home nest hub xiaomi mi home nest hub xiaomi mi home nest hub

Credits: /u/Dio-V posting on /r/Xiaomi

In order to stop this from happening and to investigate it better, Google has temporarily killed Google Assistant integration for Mi Home smart home products, including light bulbs, cameras, and more. We tried to connect to a Xiaomi smart lamp through both a Google Home Mini and the Google Home app and we were unsuccessful for both, suggesting that the integration has been killed effective immediately. A Google spokesperson stated to Android Authority that they were “aware of the issue and are in contact with Xiaomi to work on a fix. In the meantime, we’re disabling Xiaomi integrations on our devices.

Trying to control a Xiaomi smart lamp gives you an error in the Google Home app.

We will update this article if Xiaomi issues a response or if this issue is resolved.

Via: Android Authority

The post Google temporarily kills Mi Home integration with Assistant following creepy Xiaomi security camera bug appeared first on xda-developers.



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You can use Substratum custom themes on One UI 2.0 with Synergy

When One UI went into public beta way back in November of 2018, many were excited to start using it. It offered massive improvements in aesthetics and features, along with a system-wide dark mode. Even better, Samsung didn’t disable installing custom overlays in One UI. Sadly, around the time of the Galaxy S10 launch, Samsung did eventually merge the changes blocking custom overlays used by the Substratum theme engine. The Projekt team found a workaround dubbed “Synergy,” but that workaround was patched with the launch of One UI 2 based on Android 10. The Projekt team has now released an update to Synergy that works with One UI 2.0.

Screenshots from different themes

Themes on One UI have been possible for a bit of time now with Custom Themes Installer for OneUI. This app would let you install themes that were compiled for the Samsung theme store and made specifically for this app. It’s very useful but doesn’t give the same type of flexibility as Synergy. Synergy lets you import themes directly from Substratum Lite and the aforementioned custom themes. There’s a bit of a process to get it up and running, but it doesn’t require root to do. You can check out our original announcement post for instructions on how to set it up. You can also check out the forum post below for more information. There are a number of themes that will work out of the box, but because of the update to One UI 2.0, some may be broken. Let us know in the comments what ones you try!

Synergy on the XDA Forums

Synergy - OneUI Theme Compiler ($1.99, Google Play) →

The post You can use Substratum custom themes on One UI 2.0 with Synergy appeared first on xda-developers.



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Latest One UI 2.0 update reveals more about the Samsung Galaxy S20’s camera features, Fold 2’s charging, more

Samsung’s latest software builds usually gives us a good idea about what Samsung is working on for its upcoming smartphones. The added strings, resources, and code give clues about future products, devices, and features here and there for bored nerds like me to find. For this year’s H1 flagship devices, namely the Galaxy S11 (Galaxy S20?) series, we already found references to a high refresh rate display, several new camera modes, 108MP camera sensors, and more. At first, we found a few strings partially describing the new camera features, but after a few updates, we have some more information about these new features.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Keep in mind all the information below comes from official Samsung firmware. This information showed up in the Galaxy Note 9’s official One UI 2.0 update that’s rolling out now. These strings come from various system APKs which we decoded using APKTool. Software can prove to be a reliable source of leaks because these strings show the actual features that Samsung has spent time and money developing. Last year with the Galaxy S10, we found many of the camera features before the official launch of the phone. While we can’t always know specifically which phones will launch with which features, most major and impressive-sounding features do tend to launch first with the Samsung flagships for the year.

Directors View

Directors View was one of the most exciting features we found in earlier copies of the Samsung Camera APK. We speculated this mode would allow you to record and swap between the different lenses on the Galaxy S20 as you were recording, similar to Filmic Pro on the iPhone. With an update from a newer One UI build, Samsung seems to have added new strings, and they prove that our guess was partly correct. It looks as though you will be able to select a subject to focus on and the Galaxy S20 will automatically track them. It will also allow you to get close up shots of a subject. This could be very good for recording interviews or cinematic shots.

Single Take Photo

We had previously found Single Take Photo as well, but in this newer update to the Samsung Camera app, we were able to find more information about the Single Take Photo mode. Single Take Photo is a new mode Samsung developed to use AI to take pictures and videos of any scene. This mode sounds very familiar to Google’s Photobooth mode from the Google Pixel. Google’s Photobooth mode will take pictures of you when it detects a smile, kiss, or other optimal moments. The idea is to always click the perfect photo by knowing what makes a photo good. Samsung is attempting to do something similar, though Samsung’s mode will work on more than just selfies. It will let you pan around an environment to automatically take the best pictures.

Single Take Photo should turn out to be a useful mode for beginners to photography and for those that have difficulty in framing and timing their shots. Samsung actually worked on helping with this last year with Shot Suggestion on the Galaxy S10. It would guide you to take better shots, and it often makes the task easier. Single Take Photo could be automating that entire process.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Leaked Features

Pro Video

Samsung Galaxy S20 Leaked Features

By popular demand, Samsung seems to be bringing back Pro Video. In earlier Samsung phones, going to the Pro mode in the camera allowed you to take photos or videos with options selected in Pro mode. Sadly, with newer updates, Samsung removed that feature and limited Pro mode to just photos. Luckily, Samsung seems to have a new Pro video mode for the Galaxy S20 in the works. This will let you change the exposure, shutter speed, color tone, and ISO manually. In the normal video mode, these options are automatically chosen based on the scene you are recording.

Bokeh Effects

When Samsung introduced Live Focus with the Galaxy Note 8, they also introduced Live Focus effects. These allowed you to change the blurred lights in the background of a photo into a bunch of different shapes to give your photos personality. With the Galaxy S10, Samsung introduced new Live Focus effects such as Blur, Big circles (aka big bokeh), Color point, Spin, and Zoom. Samsung is also working on 4 new modes: Artify (yes, there’s a typo in the strings shown below), Mono, Side light, and Vintage. The Glitch effect also shows up as a bokeh effect along with a Live Focus Video effect, so there is a chance it could be coming to the photography mode along with the video mode.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Leaked Features

Galaxy Fold 2 Super Fast Charging

Unlike the previous features we mentioned, we have more than just strings to show here. There is a file titled “bloom_front_charging_effect_superfast,” which is an animation file for the 2020 Galaxy Fold codenamed “bloom.” This filename tells us that the next Galaxy Fold will support Super Fast Charging for a minimum of 25W fast charging or a maximum of 45W fast charging. This is good as the rumored battery capacity appears to be very small, with one of the batteries coming in at 900 mAh.

Galaxy Fold 2 Super Fast Charging Animation Preview

As I shared on my Twitter in late November and we’ve seen in live pictures of the device posted in Mid-December, the Galaxy Fold 2 will have a smaller front display. This display is used specifically for showing the time, date, battery, and charging status. The animation, as previewed above, will be visible through this small front display.

samsung galaxy fold clamshell 2

Battery Health

A feature that will be great for a lot of fans is battery health. In the Samsung Settings app, we have found strings referencing the ability to check the health of the battery of your phone. Apple actually has had this feature on their iPhones for a few years now, and it helps to know when your phone’s battery is starting to show its age. This means you’ll be able to know the right time to get your battery replaced. A feature like this can help reduce e-waste by encouraging repair over upgrades. This doesn’t mean it will be easier to repair the devices yourself, but it does help to know when a repair is really needed.


We’re expecting to see these and other features debuted on the Galaxy S20. Samsung is usually good at backporting new software features to older Galaxy phones, though, so it’s likely we’ll see some of these features show up in future software releases for the Galaxy Note 10, S10, and other phones.

The post Latest One UI 2.0 update reveals more about the Samsung Galaxy S20’s camera features, Fold 2’s charging, more appeared first on xda-developers.



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Google Duo gets emoji reactions to video messages

Google’s efforts with messaging apps haven’t always resulted in success. In fact, pretty often they result in complete failure. Luckily, though, they seem to be starting to figure things out a little bit better. With RCS rolling out to all devices independently of your carrier or device, Android users may very well get close to the iMessage experience iPhone users have been enjoying for years. Before they figured that one out, though, they had other jabs at messaging, including a duo (no pun intended) of apps called Allo and Duo. While Allo has already died, Duo has become successful, turning into a go-to FaceTime alternative for Android.

Not only that, but Duo also gets frequently updated with new features, including a Material Theme makeover not too long ago that makes the app fit with Android’s newest aesthetic. Now, the app is also getting emoji reactions for video messages. This feature is pretty similar to the one we’ve seen in apps such as Facebook, where you’re able to use different reactions for posts, photos and now stories as well. Instagram also introduced an option to allow users to react to stories using emojis. This feature sort of follows the footsteps of Facebook and Instagram by adding emoji reactions expressing laughter, love, and sadness to video messages in Duo, which can be viewed by the sender and, in the case of a group message, by everyone in the group.

I’m personally not a regular Duo user of any kind, but for those who commonly share video messages in Duo on a regular basis, this is probably quite a nifty feature. The update should be rolling out now through the Play Store, so if this is something you’re looking forward to, then, by all means, go ahead and update.

Google Duo - High Quality Video Calls (Free, Google Play) →


Source: 9to5Google

The post Google Duo gets emoji reactions to video messages appeared first on xda-developers.



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Google Duo gets emoji reactions to video messages

Google’s efforts with messaging apps haven’t always resulted in success. In fact, pretty often they result in complete failure. Luckily, though, they seem to be starting to figure things out a little bit better. With RCS rolling out to all devices independently of your carrier or device, Android users may very well get close to the iMessage experience iPhone users have been enjoying for years. Before they figured that one out, though, they had other jabs at messaging, including a duo (no pun intended) of apps called Allo and Duo. While Allo has already died, Duo has become successful, turning into a go-to FaceTime alternative for Android.

Not only that, but Duo also gets frequently updated with new features, including a Material Theme makeover not too long ago that makes the app fit with Android’s newest aesthetic. Now, the app is also getting emoji reactions for video messages. This feature is pretty similar to the one we’ve seen in apps such as Facebook, where you’re able to use different reactions for posts, photos and now stories as well. Instagram also introduced an option to allow users to react to stories using emojis. This feature sort of follows the footsteps of Facebook and Instagram by adding emoji reactions expressing laughter, love, and sadness to video messages in Duo, which can be viewed by the sender and, in the case of a group message, by everyone in the group.

I’m personally not a regular Duo user of any kind, but for those who commonly share video messages in Duo on a regular basis, this is probably quite a nifty feature. The update should be rolling out now through the Play Store, so if this is something you’re looking forward to, then, by all means, go ahead and update.

Google Duo - High Quality Video Calls (Free, Google Play) →


Source: 9to5Google

The post Google Duo gets emoji reactions to video messages appeared first on xda-developers.



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Some Pixel 3/3 XL owners will get a cumulative January and December security update

Google has had a rocky few months in terms of updating its Pixel devices. Rollouts of the monthly security updates have felt slower than usual, and the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL had to wait an extra two weeks to get the December security patch. Those weren’t the only devices that had to wait, however. Many Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL owners are still waiting, and Google has finally addressed the situation.

We’re now officially out of December and many Pixel 3 users (including myself) have not received the December OTA. Owners have been complaining about this all month and Google finally responded. The Made by Google Twitter account replied to a Pixel 3 XL user and said a “joint January and December security update” will be arriving in the “coming days.”

We assume that “coming days” means next week when the January security update is posted. It’s unclear why some Pixel 3 owners have been excluded from the update. According to Droid-Life, it could be isolated to Google Fi and T-Mobile customers (which applies to me). It’s very frustrating to wait a month for an update on a Pixel device when timely updates are specifically one of the reasons to buy one. We hope Google gets this situation figured out for next month.

The post Some Pixel 3/3 XL owners will get a cumulative January and December security update appeared first on xda-developers.



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Some Pixel 3/3 XL owners will get a cumulative January and December security update

Google has had a rocky few months in terms of updating its Pixel devices. Rollouts of the monthly security updates have felt slower than usual, and the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL had to wait an extra two weeks to get the December security patch. Those weren’t the only devices that had to wait, however. Many Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL owners are still waiting, and Google has finally addressed the situation.

We’re now officially out of December and many Pixel 3 users (including myself) have not received the December OTA. Owners have been complaining about this all month and Google finally responded. The Made by Google Twitter account replied to a Pixel 3 XL user and said a “joint January and December security update” will be arriving in the “coming days.”

We assume that “coming days” means next week when the January security update is posted. It’s unclear why some Pixel 3 owners have been excluded from the update. According to Droid-Life, it could be isolated to Google Fi and T-Mobile customers (which applies to me). It’s very frustrating to wait a month for an update on a Pixel device when timely updates are specifically one of the reasons to buy one. We hope Google gets this situation figured out for next month.

The post Some Pixel 3/3 XL owners will get a cumulative January and December security update appeared first on xda-developers.



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