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This Google Discover hack has us yearning for the Google Now of old
Remember when the feed was actually useful?
Once upon a time, the screen to the left of the homescreen on Google's Nexus phones and tablets was called Google Now, and it was a genuinely useful feed full of contextual information about things like your commute, upcoming calendar appointments, package deliveries, and so on. This eventually went away as the screen, now Google Discover, was turned into a news feed. There's now a way to get it back, but it's unfortunately limited to those using Xposed on a rooted device.
How to reliably sideload the latest Google apps on Android 11
Try this if you get the dreaded verification failure error
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The Pixel 4 is the first Android phone to feature a proper secure face unlock mechanism that can't be easily fooled by pictures or similar looking people. To enable authentication in banking apps or password managers, this technology requires Android 10's new biometrics API. Since it's different from the previous fingerprint API, there are only a handful of applications that already support it. A new Xposed module provides a workaround for unsupported apps that aren't yet compatible with the Pixel 4's face unlock. The only caveat: it requires root access.
Most of our rooting and ROMing readers should be familiar with the name GravityBox, which is a set of tweaks that use the Xposed framework to modify AOSP-based ROMs with features and tweaks typically found in third-party projects—giving you ROM-like features while running stock, basically. Earlier today we were interested to see the tool had a listing on the Play Store, but after reaching out to GravityBox developer C3C076, we've learned it has no association with the project.
Xposed, a framework that allows users to install heavy modifications to Android, usually takes a few months to be updated for every new Android release. However, it took over a year for the creator of Xposed (Rovo89) to update the framework for Nougat, due to the major changes Android 7.0 made to the app runtime.
Xposed Framework was extremely popular in the KitKat and Lollipop days for heavy system modification, but until today, it lacked support for Android 7.0 Nougat. While the developer shared status updates every once in a while, progress was slow thanks to major changes in Nougat's app runtime. At long last, Xposed is finally available for Android 7.0 and 7.1 devices.
The Xposed Framework and its associated modules are the best friends of users who know their way around root-level tools, but don't want a full custom ROM (or can't find one for their less-popular devices). One downside is that Xposed is the passion project of a single developer, "rovo89." He (we have it on fairly good authority that it is he, though the dev is very private) works on the framework outside of his day job, and it's often several months before rovo89 has it working to a level that's ready for general users.
If you follow Android Police, there's a good chance you've got a rooted device, whether it be an easy-to-root Nexus or something like a Galaxy that takes more effort to do so. It's also very possible that you play Pokémon GO, which can probably be considered the fad of the year. For those of you who fall into both of those categories, you're probably frustrated that with the latest version (0.37), you'll now be forbidden from playing the game on your phone, just because some no-gooders used GPS spoofing and/or Xposed modules to get ahead. Even RootCloak doesn't work. Not to worry though, as there's a fairly simple way to circumvent this block.
The BLU R1 HD is a cheap Android phone, made even cheaper by its release as an Amazon Prime Exclusive device. You pay $50 (or $60 for the 16GB/2GB RAM version) for the phone instead of its original $100 price tag, but you get Amazon's apps pre-installed and its ads on the lockscreen. It's not that bad really: David has been trying to live with it for a month and hasn't faced many issues beside the "slowening", ie. the fact that the phone gets slower the more you use it.
Allo And Duo APKs Leaked But Inoperable, So One Modder Used A Custom Xposed Module To Peek Into Allo
So Allo has some people in the Android world quite excited, even if it is Google's third chat standard in four years and leaves the future of Hangouts somewhat nebulous. It's going to be several months before the public gets access to Allo in all its Assistant-infused glory, but there are already APKs leaking out to the Internet for both the standard Allo and the new Duo video chat app. At least a few users were able to grab the apps off the Play Store despite them being in pre-registered mode, and both of them were posted to our sister site APK Mirror.
Feeling Nvious? I Nderstand. But I have to warn you: with Google I/O kicking off in a few hours, you'll bet that we'll hear more about N than we have in the past months and your situation is only going to get more Nsufferable.
Following the launch of Xposed Framework for Android 6.0 last week, C3C076 has just announced a Marshmallow-compatible version of his popular all-in-one toolkit, GravityBox. As with previous releases, GravityBox is available as a separate app for Marshmallow, so older versions will continue to be accessible to users on JellyBean, KitKat, or Lollipop.
Xposed Framework is a modification for root-level users that allows them to apply a wide series of mods and tweaks to a variety of Android releases and skins. It's become a popular alternative to full custom ROMs, especially for users who only want one or two tweaks to their devices instead of a full transformation. The creator of Xposed, who goes by "rovo89" on XDA-Developers, posted a new version for Android 6.0 Marshmallow this afternoon after a brief tease earlier this week.
The Xposed Framework is one of the most versatile tools available for tweakers and tinkerers in the Android community. Installing the framework on a rooted device unlocks a world of possibilities for changing the behavior of system and user apps without any modifications to the app files themselves. These sorts of tweaks used to only be accessible to users on custom ROMs, but the ease and flexibility provided by Xposed caused it to very quickly gain popularity among fans of pure vanilla Android as well. There are currently hundreds of installable modules, which allow for everything ranging from YouTube background playback, to enabling Force Touch on Android, to even making several devices water resistant.
Android 5.0 brought major changes to the platform, and that made it hard to get the Xposed system tweaking framework functional. The project's developer has finally announced that Xposed for Lollipop is ready after months of betas and unofficial builds. That doesn't mean it's completely without risks, but nothing should be obviously broken.
A discussion on Google+ started yesterday by Yahooer (and former Nexus device maintainer) JBQ about modified firmware and app bug/crash reports has started something of a debate: should developers actually heed crash and other logs from users with things such as modified frameworks, or even custom ROMs?
Xposed is a fantastic tool for modders whose phones aren't as popular as mainstream models and don't get as much ROM support, or if they simply want a few Android tweaks without flashing completely custom firmware. Unfortunately, both the Xposed Framework and the module you're using need to be updated with each major release of Android for the functionality to reliably work. That's now true for GravityBox, a popular collection of tweaks and mods bundled into a single module, and Lollipop 5.1.
Before Android 5.0, the Android power menu (reached by pressing and holding the physical power button) included options for an airplane mode and setting the ringer to on, vibrate, or silent. And that was just the AOSP implementation: some manufacturer skins, custom ROMs, and root tools added extras like a screenshot button, a reboot menu, and other goodies. But with Android 5.0, we get... this.
Just about a week after the public release of the Xposed Framework for Lollipop devices, we are now privy to one of the best and most popular modules, GravityBox. And, like the framework, the developer of GravityBox is calling this version an alpha release. Still, those of you with Nexus devices are going to be very excited about this one.
Android 5.0 has a lot of smart features, and battery saver mode is one of them. When your phone reaches a user-defined low battery level, Lollipop will automatically reduce animations, turn off most background data, cut vibration from alerts, and lower the standard brightness on the screen. It's a smarter implementation of the feature than, say, the ultra power saving modes on recent Samsung or HTC phones, which disable all but a few apps.