You can try a Pixel Launcher with Android Go optimizations for low-end phones

XDA-Developers is a large community of developers, many of which enjoy Android development and a hobby and contribute their projects with the public. Since the Google Pixel Launcher isn’t available on the app store, both the Pixel and Pixel 2’s Launchers were repacked into APKs that can be installed on any Android device and would work without the need to root, appropriately named “Rootless Pixel Launcher” by AmirZ, and “Rootless Pixel 2 Launcher” by paphonb, both members of XDA.

The Rootless Pixel Launcher is also optimized for tablets like the Google Pixel Cand comes with various Android for Work features. There is also a specially compiled version that is optimized for Android Go – a version of Android optimized for smartphones with low-end processors, low-res displays, and limited RAM.

   
Source: XDA-Developers

The optimized version features a 4x4 app grid, the Google Feed panel, at a Glance widget, icon pack support, and home screen rotation. Widget support and notification dots are not supported, though. If you’d like to try it out, download the “go-optimized” APK at the source link, keep in mind, you do need to sideload it.

Check out the Via link for more screenshots of the optimized Launcher in action.

Source • Via

Nougat finally becomes the most popular Android version just as Oreo passes 1% of the market

Google has published its monthly analysis of Android market share today, and we have some big news. For the first time in history, the most used version of the OS is now Nougat - which launched in August of 2016, almost 18 months ago.

It takes the crown from Marshmallow, in fact its predecessor. Nougat is now at 28.5% of the pie (up from 26.4%), while Marshmallow dropped to 28.1% (from 28.6% last month). Lollipop completes the podium, still commanding 24.6% of the market at this time.

While all the older versions of the OS lost market share, Oreo is still gaining. At the same incredibly slow pace as it has since its initial release last August, but still - it is going up. In fact, this month it has broken past the 1% milestone, now running on 1.1% of devices out there. Samsung's imminent release of its Oreo updatefor the S8 duo should help drive those numbers even higher.

Source | Via

Samsung delivers official PyeongChang 2018 app

Samsung announced the official app for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics next month. It will offer live updates of sports venues, information about athletes, records and medal standings. In the two weeks before the Games actually begin, the app will offer news about upcoming events and the latest from the Torch Relay.

     
PyeongChang 2018 Screenshots

The app will give the ability to every user to customize the news feed and the push notifications. You can highlight athletes, sports, and even whole countries. There will be photo and video highlights.

Although the Games haven’t started, there is already information about venues, a full schedule of the events and a live stream of the hashtag #PyeongChang2018 from Instagram in which all fans can participate.

We previously reported that Samsung will hand out customized Galaxy Note8 phones to every official at the Games.

PyeongChang 2018 on Google Play • App Store • Galaxy Apps

Audiobooks now available on Google Play Store

After years of simply having ebooks, Google today announced that it is adding audiobooks to the Google Play Store. Audiobooks will be available in 45 countries and in nine different languages.

Just like the ebooks, the audiobooks will be available à la carte with no subscription service like on Audible. Once purchased, the book will be available to listen across all Google platforms, including the web, Google Play Books app on Android and iOS, Chromecast, Google Home, Android Wear and Android Auto. The progress will be synced so you can start on one device and pick it up later on another. You can also tell Google Assistant on any of the devices to play your audiobook and it will start playing the last one you played from where you left off.

Audiobooks can now be purchased from the Google Play Store on the web and on Android. iOS users can play audiobooks from the Google Play Books app but can only purchase them from the web.

Source

Android 8.1 now shows you how fast public Wi-Fi networks are

22 January 2018

Google Android

Although Android 8.1 has been out for a few weeks now, Google interestingly hasn't stopped adding new features to its latest software release. Case in point: speed labels for public (open) Wi-Fi networks.

This functionality has started rolling out today. Once you get it, you will see an estimation of how fast each nearby public Wi-Fi network is, as portrayed in the screenshot to the left. The levels are Very Fast (20+ Mbps), Fast (5-20Mbps), OK (1-5Mbps), and Slow (0-1Mbps). These labels should help you quickly decide whether it's worth connecting to such a network, hopefully saving you some time when you encounter a slow one - time otherwise spent waiting and waiting for things to load.

Unfortunately this doesn't work for password-protected networks. If for some reason you don't like the speed labels you can turn them off by going to Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi > Wi-Fi preferences > Advanced > Network rating provider and choosing None instead of Google.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Via

Opera Mini New Update for iPad Available for Download

Opera Mini New Update for iPad Available for Download.

What makes browsing the internet through Opera Mini even more spectacular is the screen real estate of the iPad 2. Available for all iOS devices, Opera Mini brings the fastest and most cost-efficient web-browsing experience for your iOS device.

The new Opera Mini for iPad brings smooth switching of tabs by just tapping on a tab preview and background loading of tabs is also present. The UI animations are overall smooth. In the Opera Mini menu, you get the usual slew of sharing, bookmarking, history and settings options. Social integration support for Twitter, Facebook and My Opera is also included.

Opera Mini also comes with support for the Retina Display on the iPhone 4. This browser can be downloaded on any iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 3.0 or later.

Mozilla Firefox 4 Full Version in Feb 2011

Mozilla’s senior director of platform engineering said that “We have worked tremendously hard on Firefox 4, and it’s time to ship it”. He further added that “We need everyone to help in testing, and do not disable Flash, Silverlight, or other major plugins as we need as many people testing these as possible and for Windows users, We need to know if you are affected by hardware acceleration causing crashes or other issues.”He further said “Bug counts demand another beta, we will drive the beta bugs to zero and ship another beta. If we can’t get them to zero in reasonable time, we will repeat, deliberately”. Firefox 4 is full version is expected to release in Feburary.