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Kodi, Blocked On The Latest Sony Android TVs

Kodi is one very popular media interface, allowing users to install add-ons and stream movies and TV series. However, Kodi earned a bad reputation for itself due to its association with pirated content. While merited, in the opinion of some people, Kodi’s lousy rap is now also acknowledged by Sony. The renowned Japanese tech and entertainment company has blocked Kodi on its latest Android TVs, to the disappointment of those who bought the new TV-sets to run Kodi.

About Kodi

Kodi is an open-source platform for streaming and playing media content, permitting users to access lots of movies and TV series and shows, primarily via the many Kodi add-ons they can install. But Kodi and its add-ons offer access to pirated content, so many mainstream platforms and tech companies, as well as some of the regular streaming platforms’ users, consider Kodi a lousy app.

Even though Kodi is still a popular app for some people from different regions of the world, this streaming platform became troublesome for some of the mainstream companies. The first to take official action against Kodi was Sony.

Kodi, Blocked On The Latest Sony Android TVs, To The Disappointment of The Fans

A couple of days ago, Kodi devs pointed out to the Sony’s decision to block the platform on the latest Android TVs the Japanese tech company released. “Well done Sony Electronics for actively preventing users from installing Kodi on their newer Android TVs. How grown up of you. Even their firmware in the TVs is broken. Guess we will suggest users just to buy something else that does work,” said Kodi devs on Twitter.

Some of the Kodi’s fans have also reported that the latest Sony Android TVs are blocking the Kodi ID package from being installed or run. The solution would be recompiling the application from scratch with a different ID to make it run on the most recent Android TVs from Sony.

In the end, some of the Kodi fans who bought the latest Sony Android TVs announced their intention to move away from future Sony devices, and choose other tech companies instead, Samsung being the most attractive alternative for the majority of them.

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3 Must-Try Android Apps Of The Beginning Of 2019

Every day, more and more apps are rolling out on the Google Play Store. However, only some of them stand out and deserve our attention. Here are three must-try Android apps of the beginning of 2019.

Android is the best mobile operating system when it comes to customization and apps developing. There are millions of apps out there, and the majority of them are on the Google Play Store. Out of this multitude of applications, from productive apps and games to video players and video downloaders, only a few stand out. However, finding the most exciting apps for your needs might be challenging, so, here’s a short list (out of the many to come) with some of the best must-try apps of the beginning of 2019.

3 Must-Try Android Apps Of The Beginning Of 2019

WakingNews Alarm Clock

Remember those classic radio alarm clocks? Well, WakingNews Alarm Clock, designed by Yahoo, is bringing that concept into the modern days. If you’re bored of the standard, default alarm clock on your Android smartphone, then WakingNews Alarm Clock is ideal for you.

WakingNews Alarm Clock will wake you up by delivering audio news from sources such as Yahoo, HuffPost, Engadget, and so on. Also, you can select the content to match your daily routines and tastes.

Mint Browser by Xiaomi

Released recently, the Mint Browser y Xiaomi is one excellent alternative to Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, specially designed for low- mid-range Android smartphones. Being one of the top three must-try Android apps, Mint Browser must boast some cool features, right? Well, it doesn’t, but its simplicity, speed, and lightweight are what make it increasingly more popular among users.

Feedly & Feedly Classic

Another one of the top 3 must-try Android apps is Feedly. Feedly was a very popular RSS feed aggregator. Now, a recent update revamped the design of Feedly, making it look much more modern. However, that annoyed some of the application’s fans, so the devs released Feedly Classic which keeps the old-school design.

No matter which of the two apps (Feedly or Feedly Classic) you use, Feedly will deliver you the most popular and recent articles on a lot of topics, including Education, Tech, Gaming, Science, and so on. You can also personalize the feeds to get only those news that interests you.

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HP Chromebook 14 Would Be The First To Mix AMD Chipset With Chrome OS

Back in 2011 when the first Chromebooks rolled out, these devices were low-priced and focused on the low- and mid-range laptops market. However, in 2013, when Google launched its Pixel laptop, the giant Internet company proved that Chromebooks could also target the premium segment. In consequence, many other computer manufacturers joined this niche and developed more advanced and expensive Chromebooks. Now, another premiere is about to come in this market, as HP Chromebook 14, which would be presented at CES 2019, will be the first to mix Chrome OS with an AMD chipset.

As the name suggests, HP Chromebook 14 would feature a 14-inch display with a 1366×768 resolution. The laptop’s design would also be good-looking, boasting a textured finish. Most likely, the device would not be made with expensive materials so that it might come out with a classic, polycarbonate chassis.

Even though HP Chromebook 14 would target mid-high-end of the Chromebooks market, under the hood, it won’t pack some high-performance components.

HP Chromebook 14 Mixes AMD Chipset With Chrome OS

Under the hood, HP Chromebook 14 would boast an AMD A4-9120C processor, a not so popular chipset, which is featuring two Excavator cores running at 1.8 GHz. Besides, this Chromebook would also pack a GCN 1.2-based Radeon R4 iGPU with 128 SPs operating at 720 MHz. In short, HP Chromebook 14 would allow users to run some productivity apps, play some low-demanding games, and navigate the Internet, but that’s all.

In addition to all that, the HP Chromebook 14 would come out with 4 GB of DDR4 RAM and 32 GB of local eMMC storage, which is similar to the majority of the other Chromebooks. As regarding the connectivity, the upcoming HP Chromebook 14 would come with a Qualcomm 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.2 controller, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C ports, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and a microSD card reader.

As we’ve already mentioned, HP Chromebook 14 will run Chrome OS. Also, the new Chromebook will boast a 47.36 Wh battery which would last for about nine hours and 15 minutes at normal use.

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Asus ZenBook S13 To Feature The “World’s Slimmest Display Bezels” Thanks To Reversed Notch

The notch, made famous by Apple with its iPhone X smartphone, became a popular feature for Android and iOS smartphones. Thanks to the notch, manufacturers could come up with devices with thin edges, thus, with larger screens. However, many users have complained about this feature, so smartphone producers had to adopt other approaches to increase the size of the screens. As for the laptops market, Asus ZenBook S13, which the company would present at CES 2019, would be the “world’s slimmest display bezel” thanks to a reversed notch.

A reversed notch is the opposite of a regular notch that we can see on Android and iOS devices. If the notch on smartphones is like a cut into the screen, the reversed notch, such as the one on the upcoming Asus ZenBook S13, will lay above the display.

Asus decided to adopt this reversed notch to increase the size of the ZenBook S13’s display and reduce the bezels as much as possible. By doing that, according to Asus, the screen-to-body ratio of the ZenBook S13 reached 97%.

Asus ZenBook S13, with its reversed notch and the “world’s slimmest display bezels,” is also a high-performance laptop

While, on the exterior, the upcoming Asus ZenBook S13 boasts the “world’s slimmest display bezels” thanks to a reversed notch that houses the webcam, under the hood, the laptop is packing 8th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, 16 Gb of RAM, and 1TB of PCIe SSD storage. Also, there is excellent news for gamers, as Asus ZenBook S13 is also boasting a dedicated Nvidia MX150 GPU.

The majority of the laptops in the same class as ZenBook S13 adopted integrated graphics from Intel, so the upcoming Asus’ notebook would have an advantage edge over them as it’s boasting a “discrete graphics card.” Therefore, Asus ZenBook S13 can smoothly run the latest video games at lower resolutions.

Asus ZenBook S13 would be presented during the CES 2019, and the company plans to roll out the device in Q1 2019, but an exact release date has not yet been announced.

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Android Q To Feature An OS-wide Dark Mode

Android fans have always asked for the introduction of a dark mode across the entire operating system. Now, it seems that the wait is over as the next Google’s OS for mobile devices, Android Q, might feature an OS-wide dark mode, pleasing the users who have asked that for some time now.

According to a Google engineer, “dark mode is an approved Q feature. The Q team wants to ensure that all preloaded apps support dark mode natively. In order to ship dark mode successfully, we need all UI elements to be ideally themed dark by May 2019.” The information was revealed via the Chromium bug tracker.

From the description of the bug tracker post, we can also learn that the dark mode will be available under Settings -> Display -> Dark Mode section. Also, the post, which is now unavailable for unknown reasons, contained several links to internal documents, revealing additional details about this OS-wide dark mode feature.

Android Q To Feature An OS-wide Dark Mode

In addition to all that, another information revealed via the AOSP also indicated that a dark mode is about to come out with the upcoming Android Q operating system. According to it, the dark theme would require a specific wallpaper file.

“Dark Mode expects a specific wallpaper file to be present in the filesystem. This file is generated for most ways that the wallpaper can be set except for when the default_wallpaper resource is used,” the text reads.

All that information suggests that, indeed, Android Q will feature an OS-wide dark mode. And, in reality, the possibility that Android Q to receive a dark theme is high since Google has focused on bringing this feature in a multitude of its applications, both Android- and web-based, such as YouTube, Google Phone app, Messages, Contacts, and Google News, among others. Also, Google Chrome would get a dark theme with the Chrome 73 version.

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