It seems like Google may have a little bit of a problem when it comes to Android. There are an increasing number of reports coming in from users about random app freezes and UI lock ups. These reports were initially thought to be isolated to Google’s Pixel devices. However, OnePlus and Xiaomi users have begun reporting the issue too.
We're also looking into the horrible Play Store My Apps performance issues, and I'll be trying to reproduce both together on video in the coming days.
Here's the first try today showing
1) My Apps locking up badly after pressing Update 2) The Home button completely unresponsive pic.twitter.com/N1X0b1tQdv
The bug appears to be initiated by an app freezing. This has been reported to cause the whole Android UI to freeze up; leaving the device unusable. So far, users have been able to alleviate the issue by simply turning off the display and locking the device. Unlocking the device thereafter solves the problem. The bug can also be dealt with by pulling the notification shade down by using the fingerprint sensor. However, this is not supported on all devices.
The issue was highlighted on Twitter by user @ArtemR and @CBuzle. However, it seems like the issue has been around for quite a while. Staff from Android Authority and Android Police have reported the issue as well. The issue doesn’t seem to be linked to any one OEM or company as it even occurs on devices with Nova Launcher and Action Launcher. Most commonly, the issue occurs when YouTube, Amazon, Twitter, YouTube Music and the Play Store are in use. However, reports of it occurring while using other apps are increasing.
It looks like the issue seems to be plaguing devices running on Android 10. However, Android Police notes that there has been a report of it occurring on a Pixel 3 running the Android 11 developer preview. They also note that the issue seems to be similar to a memory management bug that was seemingly fixed with the December 2019 patch from Google.
Last night we saw a big fan fare of a smartphone launch. It was the very anticipated HUAWEI photography flagship, the HUAWEI P40 series. The ones we are going to see earlier is the HUAWEI P40 and P40 Pro. There is a third model, the P40 Pro+ which will be coming way later. Still, HUAWEI finally announced their first 2020 flagship.
The HUAWEI P40 is really everything that you might want in a
HUAWEI flagship photography king. If you owned the P20, it is really the
smartphone that you naturally want to upgrade to. There is one thing that it
does not come with though: Google.
This means that the HUAWEI P40 series will not have Google’s very handy Play Store and is stuck to the ways of HUAWEI’s own proprietary Mobile Services (HMS) and its AppGallery. We are not saying that it is a terrible thing though. It may sound bad, but you never know until you try right?
The Test Bed – The HUAWEI Nova 7i
Our test bed is a HUAWEI Nova 7i. In some markets, they know
it as the HUAWEI P40 Lite. We do not understand that half the time, so we will
just stick to Malaysia’s official name for it, we guess; the HUAWEI Nova 7i.
If you really have to know the specs of this MYR 1,099
device, it is is a mid-range smartphone that packs a relatively punchy
HiSilicon Kirin 810 system on a chip (SoC) and supported by 8GB of RAM and you
get 128GB of storage with that. The internals push EMUI 10.0.1.108 that is also
based on Android 10. So, when we say that it comes completely devoid of Google
stuff, I did not forget that this is still an Android device. We just mean that
the HUAWEI Nova 7i comes devoid of Google’s important frameworks that includes
the Google Play Store.
We are not focusing on the hardware capabilities of the
device, though. So, it does not really matter if the HUAWEI Nova 7i comes with
a 48-Megapixel camera and a Full HD display. What matters is that it represents
the collective of modern HUAWEI devices that are in the market right now,
starting with the era of the HUAWEI Mate 30 series. They all have one thing in
common, and that is HMS and AppGallery.
The focus of this write-up then, is what we can do with HMS
and what AppGallery can offer us. On paper, it does not look too good for the
write-up. The HUAWEI AppGallery is the third largest app marketplace behind
Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. Which may not sound like much,
because there are not many major app marketplaces in the market. Since there
are two major camps of smartphone Operating Systems (OS) in the market, the two
largest ones are quite a given.
Starting-up HUAWEI’s EMUI 10.0.1
Let us still give this a chance though. We fire up the device
and everything feels just like a regular Android smartphone at first. It is an Android
10 based system after all, so it starts up very similar to any Android. Except,
you do not sign in with your Google account. You sign in with or sign up for a
HUAWEI ID account. We had one, so that was simple.
If you are familiar with an EMUI device that has Google Play
Store installed on it, like the HUAWEI P30 series, navigating the smartphone should
be nothing new really. It is still a very familiar EMUI to the EMUI’s of the past;
in that, there is no difference in experience at all. You cannot see Google’s Play
Store on the home screen though. So far, so good; familiarity with the
interface saves the face.
First set-up
No Play Store, no problem. There the HUAWEI AppGallery. First
thing I usually do with a new smartphone is download all the essential apps I
need. Those apps are Whatsapp, Telegram, Slack, Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter. Out of all those apps listed, I only found two – Facebook and Whatsapp.
They are not loaded into the AppGallery though.
What happens is that the HUAWEI AppGallery will lead you to a
third-party site to download the apk files of Facebook and Whatsapp. These are
the only two I found so far. Not looking good now. When we checked in, HUAWEI
says that these two sideloaded apps are safe because the AppGallery is the one
that leads us to the site.
That is not to say that you cannot sideload the rest of the
apps that I listed down though. You can still download the apk files from other
sites, no problem. Just be wary of the sources though.
Still, we worked with the two apps that we just downloaded.
They both work just like the Android version app should work. They look the
same too. The only question now is whether we can keep up with the most current
update packages or not.
Day 0 Wrap-up
We wrap the test up with that for now. We got our smartphone
running with the most essential WhatsApp up. Even Facebook is there, so far
that is the entertainment we are getting for the night.
Still, we are going to try to live through the HMS and
AppGallery as long as we can and go in-depth. The HMS is available on every new
HUAWEI smartphone you buy today. Yes, they are all running on EMUI 10 now too.
Still, the HUAWEI P40 that was announced last night is not
just that. When you buy a new HUAWEI smartphone today, you get a free 50GB
HUAWEI Cloud Storage subscription for the next year. If you already own a
HUAWEI smartphone device, you already have 5GB of HUAWEI Cloud Storage for free
anyway.
We will be looking to more apps next week with the HUAWEI Nova
7i. Until then, stay safe during this whole Movement Control Order period. To
the ones outside of Malaysia, you stay safe too.
At this point of time, COVID-19 has claimed over 3,000 lives
globally. These are known deaths caused by COVID-19 and there may be more than
that. To be honest too, this is a very difficult write-up. Not because there is
very little information to work with. It is just the fact that COVID-19 news
are not getting any better. There is a glimmer of hope though; WHO claims that
COVID-19 containment and treatment is very viable.
Source: MS Poweruser
Still, COVID-19, or more commonly known as Coronavirus at
this point has claimed more than just lives. It is affecting communities and commerce
as well. Of course it would, people run these businesses and communities,
people are getting infected and therefore sick; conducting business activities
then is difficult.
We saw Apple getting affected earlier on with their China
stores temporarily closing. Foxconn, their manufacturing plant had also stopped
operating at some point. Mobile World Congress 2020 has been cancelled; Geneva
Motorshow is also being torn down as we speak because they cancelled the event
at the very last minute. Even Formula 1 is being heavily affected; they lost China
GP this year and who knows which other GP is being cancelled due to the global
emergency that is COVID-19.
Plenty are hopeful that the disease will be contained and cured
by June or July. That is why some events has been postponed to then. Even Computex
2020 seems to be happening still. The situation now is not very encouraging
though.
This week alone we see more victims to COVID-19. On top of new confirmed deaths around the world we see Microsoft’s MVP physical event going completely digital. Facebook is also cancelling the F8 summit. Even Adobe is not spared; Adobe is having their Summit announcements completely online too. The hardest of all is Google having to cancel both their big conferences.
Source: Google
Google has cancelled their Cloud Next event earlier on this
week. They announced thought that the conference will be a completely online
affair. There was also a sort of expectation that some of the things that would
be covered on Cloud Next would appear in Google’s I/O which was still reported
to be happening. This morning proved our optimism wrong though. Google is cancelling
the Google I/O conference; their biggest developer conference of the year has
been cancelled.
If we are right, we are seeing Google’s latest Android 11 on
the big stage of Google I/O. It looks like we are going to have to see it on an
online stage instead; they show must go on, as they say. There is no final
confirmation yet on the online streaming of Google I/O yet though. We are expecting
them to go online because Google is completely equipped to livestream all their
conferences, which they have done before anyway. Of course, it helps that they
own YouTube anyway.
Google is not the first to be hit strongly by COVID-19. We
highly doubt that Google will be the last one. We are expecting the Olympics committee
to make an announcement soon regarding the Summer Olympics 2020 in Japan. For
all you know, Japan might be the one that makes the announcement of a border
containment. Still, these are just speculations; take it with a pinch of salt.
Not Google’s cancellations though, those are confirmed.
The HONOR 9X Pro has already been lauched in the Chinese domestic market and was expected to make its international debut at MWC2020; Wait didn’t MWC 2020 get cancelled? Unfortunately, yes it has been officially cancelled due to safety concerns over the ongoing COVID-19 virus outbreak.
Source: GSMArena
In light of these developments, HUAWEI and HONOR are going to be launching their products via a live stream. HONOR’s launching will be on February 24 at 6:30PM CET (11pm IST) with not one but two products. The live stream of their launch can be found on their Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and even on their global website.
HONOR 9X Pro will be launched together with HONOR’s laptop, the MagicBook. Even though the HONOR 9X Pro is not a new phone, it is will be coming the latest HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS). This phone is also the first phone for HONOR to launch with HMS.
The HUAWEI Mate 30 had a taste of HMS in countries such as Spain, Indonesia and Malaysia but the HONOR 9X Pro will feature a revamped version of the HMS. HUAWEI has been working tirelessly on the HMS ecosystem as it has to replace Google’s apps and services in hopes to keep existing users and hopefully attract new users too.
The phone itself was released in August of 2019. The 9X Pro runs on the Kirin 810 processor which is touted to offer the ultimate gaming experience, backed up powerful performance. Even though the processor launched back in August, it has only just made its debut in HUAWEI’s line up with the launch of the Nova 7i.
Source: HONOR
Other than the phone, let’s not forget that they will also be launching the HONOR MagicBook that will also play its role in the while HMS ecosystem. Even though it will be in the HMS ecosystem, the MagicBook will be the first device by HONOR to run Windows 10.
#Sony announced their #Xperia5 late last year; Impressing most of the #tech world with its specifications and its slender form. The Xperia 5 comes with a Snapdragon 855 and 6GB of RAM. The smaller 6.1-inch screen retains the 20:1 aspect ratio we first saw on the Xperia 1. However, its smaller size makes the smartphone a lot easier to handle in hand.
The Xperia 5 is currently available in Malaysia at a recommended retail price (RRP) of MYR3,399.
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Despite the new thing that is the Samsung Galaxy Note10 that came out in 2019, there are still many that regards the previous Samsung Galaxy Note as one of the best, if not the best Samsung Galaxy Note to date. To be fair, the Samsung Galaxy Note9 was a remarkable smartphone that holds very high regards in our hearts and minds. It was also still a very formidable flagship smartphone even today if you look at it.
While Samsung has stopped officially manufacturing the Samsung Galaxy Note9, you may still be able to head down to your favourite local smartphone store and get your hands on one for not very much money today. Yes, we are talking about getting one from the likes of Lowyat Plaza, or other large retailers in the Klang Valley. Still, there is one drawback about getting the Samsung Galaxy Note9 today; it still runs on an outdated One UI based on a now outdated Android 9.0 Pie.
That is about to change however with Samsung’s rollout of their new update on the Samsung Galaxy Note9. The new update promises One UI 2.0 that is based on the Android 10 Q. Obviously the One UI 2.0 update will also come with the new Android in the box.
For those that are not yet familiar with One UI 2.0, you can expect some really nice things to come with the new update for the Samsung Galaxy Note9. For one, you get better, more powerful camera app with something called Director View. There is a new dark mode that is ever so popular these days too. The slow-mo selfies that are made popular by its bigger sibling, the Samsung Galaxy Note10 will also make it into the Samsung Galaxy Note9 with the update. All this makes quite a lot of sense since the Samsung Galaxy Note9 hardware is still quite powerful by today’s standards. It can still hold itself against the Note10, that is for sure.
Of course One UI 2.0 comes with more things that we have just listed. The One UI 2.0 and Android 10 rollout for the Samsung Galaxy Note9 is reported to be rolling out now in Germany first. Malaysia will definitely get our share of One UI 2.0 love very soon, considering that the market is also one of the first market’s to launch the Samsung Galaxy Note9.
When you own a device from the fruity manufacturers from Cupertino, you do not get the privilege of transferring files between devices other than using AirDrop. Technically, AirDrop is a combination of using Bluetooth and WiFi Direct to drag and drop files between Apple devices. While Android devices can plainly use Bluetooth to share files, WiFi Direct between devices have been a little finicky from one Android device to another. So we are stuck to using slow Bluetooth file transfers if you use an Android device from Xiaomi and I am using one from Samsung.
Of course WiFi Direct is an option, but only if you use certain smartphones that are from the same manufacturer. This may no longer be the case though. Fast file transfers between Android devices could be made possible with the “Peer-to-Peer Transmission Alliance”. The Alliance is made to allow high-speed file transfer and sharing between devices. In that case, you get AirDrop like performance from Android devices; 20MB/S over-the-air file transfer speeds.
The only issue is that the Alliance currently consists of three manufacturers. The three manufacturers are OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi. Not even HUAWEI is part of that alliance, which also means that you only get fast file transfers between these three manufacturers until anyone else joins the Alliance. Still, nothing wrong with being hopeful.
