Grit X By Polar

$ 429.95 purchasing options

Positives Lots of useful health insights Huge variety of sports profiles Rugged Fleshed out health tracking Incredible battery life Training recommendations Negatives Extremely limited smartwatch features Interface can be unintuitive No automatic activity detection Sleep detection can be hit or miss Somewhat large and potentially uncomfortable Not as accurate as some of the competition A little pricey

Bottom Line The Polar Grit X is a comprehensive and mostly accurate fitness tracker, but may not appeal to more casual users.

Read the full review

Reviews – Android Authority

Welcome to the 349th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:

• Google re-branded its G Suite package to Google Workspace. It’s functionally the same stuff. Google plans to include more collaborative features in the future and that apparently warranted a name change. Additionally, Google expanded pricing for small and large firms along with a few other changes. You can find out everything you need to know about it here.
• Google is adding some clearer account alert notifications this week in several of its apps in the near future. The purpose is to better communicate to people when something is actually really wrong versus when something is just kind of wrong.  The alerts are improving in a variety of Google apps. Hit the link to learn more.
• The App Store and Google Play debacle continued this week in two separate stories. The first was a House report in the US that said Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, and other companies have monopoly power and should be separated out a bit to prevent actual monopolies. We highly recommend hitting the above link to read more about that because there is a lot of info. Additionally, Google chose to defer its 30% mandatory commission in India for the time being due to retaliation from Indian start-ups.
• Nvidia wants to tackle some of the issues with video calling. It launched a new developer platform, Nvidia Maxine, this week to help with that. The platform helps with things like eye correction, face alignment, and other small things to make video chatting a little better. It can also upscale 360p video to 720p pretty reliably, adds in virtual backgrounds, filters out background noise, and even translate language in real time. It could be a really big deal for video chat apps and services.
• Google Assistant had some big announcements this week. The first is making Google Assistant work better with smart displays by letting people buy things straight from them and some other neat features. Additionally, Google announced deeper integration with third party apps, kicking it off with partnerships with 30 apps, including popular ones like Discord and Walmart. Hit the various links to learn more.

9th Dawn III

Price: $ 9.99

9th Dawn III is a new open-world RPG. It’s a fairly large game with a bunch of content, including over 1,400 items to collect, 270 unique enemies, and a ton of places to explore. For the most part, you dungeon crawl, collect gear, customize it, and go right back out to adventure again. The game adds in some stuff like fishing, cooking, gem collecting, and play Fyued (a card game) to round out the experience. The mechanics are easy enough to grasp for most people and the game has a lot more depth than it would seem from its graphics. It’s a bit expensive at $ 9.99, but you’ll easily get your money’s worth if you finish it.

Project Cheat Codes

Price: Free / $ 1.99

Project Cheat Codes is something a bit different for gamers. It aims to be a one-stop-shop for video game cheat codes. The developer has two main goals. The first is to keep the installation size as small as possible and the app omits any flashy graphics specifically for that purpose. The other is to include as many cheat codes for as many games as possible. It’s obviously a daunting effort but the app already has a decent and quickly growing collection of games. This one might be a pretty excellent gaming tool if the developer keeps at it. The premium version runs for $ 1.99 and we think that’s fair.

Sword Master Story

Price: Free to play

Sword Master Story came out of pre-registration this week and it already has a bunch of downloads. It’s a hack-and-slash action RPG with some gacha mechanics. Players collect characters, level them up, and use them to fight off bad guys. At its core, it’s not all that different from most other gachas. There is a set number of characters and the upgrade paths are fairly similar to most others in the genre. However, some people seem to enjoy its mechanics and story even if the translations are a little rough. The game has a few bugs here and there but it has some promise if the developers keep up with it.

InstaMocks

Price: Free

InstaMocks is a neat little app for screenshot enthusiasts. It lets you take screenshots and then mock them up inside of a device. People can use it to dress up their screenshots a bit. The app is mainly for developers, themers, bloggers, and similar types to make good looking screenshots for display on social media or the Play Store. Still, anybody can use the tool. It features over 40 devices, a built-in text editor, and you can work with up to 10 screenshots at once. It’s also a free tool.

Masketeers: Idle Has Fallen

Price: Free to play

Masketeers: Idle Has Fallen is the latest idle game in a genre crowded by 2020 releases. This one seems to be pretty good. Players collect masks to give them power and defeat bad guys. As you progress, your team can kill bad guys faster and earn more stuff at a faster pace. The combat portion of it is pretty neat even if it’s surrounded by familiar idle game ideas. Still, it feels a bit better and deeper than your standard idle experience. This is another one that has a lot of potential as long as the developers keep up with it.

Thank you for reading! Try these out too:

• 15 best RPGs for Android
• 5 best no-root screenshot apps for Android
• 15 best gacha games for Android
• 15 best Android apps of all time
• 10 best idle tap games for Android

If we missed any big Android app or game releases, tell us about them in the comments.

Android Authority

You have to hand it to Huawei. While geopolitical wrangling continues to plague its fortunes, the Chinese giant has pressed ahead and continued to launch new phones with barely a break in its stride.

That implacable attitude has also carried over to its sub-brand, Honor. The latest phone(s) to emerge from the youth-orientated company is the Honor 30 series.

In this review, we’ll be casting our critical eye over the Honor 30 Pro Plus — an impressively spec’d phone that sees Honor’s portfolio edging closer than ever to Huawei’s own premium offerings.

Can it overcome all the challenges in front of it and emerge as a legitimate sub-flagship-level player?

Find out in Android Authority‘s Honor 30 Pro Plus review.

Honor 30 Pro Plus review: The big picture

The Honor 30 Pro Plus is the top model in the latest N series evolution. 2019’s Honor 20 line expanded to two phones, but this time around we’ve got the vanilla Honor 30, the Honor 30 Pro, and the all-new Honor 30 Pro Plus. If that naming scheme sounds familiar, it’s because it perfectly mirrors the Huawei P40 trio — the first of many comparisons that can be drawn between the two series.

While Honor has continued to release phones in spite of the Huawei-US trade ban, it’s done so on a much narrower scope than its parent company. Affordable devices like the Honor 9X Pro have enjoyed a broader release across Europe and in the UK, but the brand’s de facto flagship, the Honor View 30 series, never officially made it out of China or Russia.

Read more: The best Android phones you can buy

That’s the same deal with the Honor 30 family, which makes it a little tricky to accurately price the Honor 30 Pro Plus. It retails at 4,999 yuan and 54,990 rubles in China and Russia, respectively, which puts the phone at around $ 800 mark, or ~€700 in Europe.

There’s some tough competition in that price range from the likes of Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Realme. Can the Honor 30 Pro Plus compete?

Honor 30 Pro Plus specs

Honor 30 Pro Plus vs Honor 30 Pro vs Honor 30: What’s the difference?

Before we get to the Pro Plus, let’s quickly run through the differences between the three Honor 30 phones.

As you can see from the specs table in the section above, the Honor 30 Pro Plus and Honor 30 Pro are fundamentally the same. You do get some enticing extras with the Plus variant like the 90Hz refresh rate display, 27W wireless charging, and more storage as standard.

The standard Honor 30 is the outlier with its less powerful processor, flat display (vs the waterfall design), and lack of an IP54 rating.

All three phones differ in the camera department. Each uses Huawei’s patented RYYB color setup for the main camera, but the Pro Plus bumps the megapixels from 40MP to 50MP. The standard model drops the ultra-wide lens to 8MP instead of 16MP, but does gain a 2MP macro camera.

All of the phones are also 5G ready (non-standalone/standalone), but do not support mmWave.

What’s the Honor 30 Pro Plus like to use?

In many ways, the Honor 30 Pro Plus is a cheaper facsimile of the Huawei P40 Pro. That includes the overall design language, which is a near-perfect mirror of Huawei’s flagship.

I say near-perfect because of the branding. I don’t mind a little bit of flair or subtle logos on the rear of a phone, but the enormous, all caps Honor name plastered on the back of the Honor 30 Pro Plus is an obscenity.

If you can look past that massive eyesore, the phone’s frosted glass gives off a soft blue/purple glow that is really pleasant on the eye and, ironically considering the unforgivable logo situation, far less gaudy than many recent China imports.

I should note that this branding monstrosity is only a problem with the Titanium Silver model and not the Midnight Black colorway, which also has a bling-tastic gold accent around the camera bump.

The enormous logo on the back of the Honor 30 Pro Plus is obscene.

One significant change from the Honor 20 series is the move to an in-display fingerprint sensor instead of a side-mounted reader. However, my success rate for unlocking the phone first time was much lower. Software-based face unlock is also available as an alternative.

What is a welcome upgrade is the display… mostly. The Full HD+ AMOLED panel pops with color, gets plenty bright, and like all Huawei/Honor phones, can be tweaked to the nth degree in Settings. It’s also a 90Hz panel which made zipping around the phone’s UI fluid and responsive.

The waterfall display, however, is an acquired taste — a taste I and many others don’t share. The way it flows into the delicate rear curve isn’t as severe as, say, the Mate 30 Pro, and I didn’t encounter any ghost touch issues, but it’s still impractical. There was also a slight yellow color shift towards the very edge.

I’m also not all that keen on the extra-wide punch-hole, though fans of wide-angle selfies may be happier to take the hit in screen real estate for that second front-facing shooter.

What’s the performance and battery life like?

The Honor 30 Pro Plus packs the same Kirin 990 SoC found in every Huawei flagship since the Mate 30 series debuted. Accompanied by 8GB of RAM, it should be no surprise that Honor’s affordable flagship rarely ever falters in the performance stakes.

Read more: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 vs Kirin 990 vs Exynos 990: How do they compare?

Those times it does fall behind other top-end chipsets are during gaming. The Mali GPU still lags behind the competition for playing intensive 3D games, but it’s a negligible hit.

The HiSilicon chipset is also known for its power efficiency. Paired with a 4,000mAh cell (and support for 40W fast charging), you’d expect at least all-day battery life and the Honor 30 Pro Plus doesn’t disappoint. I was averaging around seven hours of screen on time and could easily get through a day and a half without a recharge. That’s with the 90Hz refresh rate on all the time. Impressive.

Does the Honor 30 Pro Plus have Google apps and services?

No, the Honor 30 Pro Plus does not offer native support for Google apps and services.

Like every other new Honor and Huawei phone — that isn’t a revised version of an older model — the entire Honor 30 series is based on an AOSP build of Android and does not officially support the Google Play Store, Google apps, or Google Play Services. That doesn’t mean you can’t get all three working with some tinkering, but you’ll have to plod through workarounds and endure varying levels of hassle to do so.

Instead, Huawei has its own app store called App Gallery and its own core services (HMS). Check out our App Gallery deep dive here for more on what to expect, but the bottom line is that a vast majority of apps you likely use every day are not available via Huawei’s storefront.

While that might sound annoying (and it is), Huawei has clearly been working hard to improve the app situation despite the heavy restrictions forced upon it. Phone Clone is a handy app that lets you copy over almost every app from another Android device, while the Petal Search app (pictured above) will scour trusted APK sites to find apps from third-party sources. Both are available on the App Gallery.

Editor’s Pick

Huawei’s Play Store alternative has gotten better, but it’s the apps that count

If you’re looking to purchase any of the new Huawei P40 series, you’ll have to get comfortable using Huawei’s App Gallery rather than the Google Play Store. All thanks to the US trade ban. In …

Unfortunately, for all of Huawei’s commendable work, some apps obtained outside of the App Gallery either won’t work or will suffer from reduced functionality due to the lacking Google services. As an example, Netflix will only play in sub-HD quality and Uber can’t function at all due to the missing location API.

How are the cameras?

The Honor 30 Pro Plus has a triple camera setup that pairs a RYYB primary shooter with an ultra-wide camera and a periscope telephoto lens with OIS that supports 5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom, and up to 50x digital zoom.

The main camera is identical to the one found on the P40 Pro and P40 Pro Plus — a massive 1/1.28-inch sensor that uses Huawei’s unique RYYB color filter configuration. That’s some serious pedigree and the results are almost uniformly spectacular. Photos offer excellent levels of detail, impressive color accuracy, wide dynamic range, and solid exposure.

Low-light performance is also fantastic. There’s a night mode in the camera app, but the regular shooting mode actually does a better job at limiting noise — just check out the comparison below.

Honor 30 Pro Plus — Night Mode Honor 30 Pro Plus — Standard

The telephoto periscope camera is a slight downgrade from the P40 Pro, but still punches above its weight at the phone’s price point. This is especially true for any shots at 5x optical zoom where slight oversharpening issues are only really noticeable when cropping in. 10x hybrid zoom images are still decent enough, though anything beyond that turns into mush.

The ultra-wide camera has a few stumbles with color accuracy and the field-of-view isn’t quite as wide as some premium alternatives, but it still delivers crisp, dynamic images.

The Honor 30 Pro Plus has two front-facing cameras. Once you’ve turned the aggressive beauty mode off the standard and wide-angle selfie cameras both produce some great shots, though you lose some detail using the latter.

Video capture is solid, with support for up to 4K 60fps and impressive stabilization. Slo-mo capture at up to a ridiculous 1920fps is also good fun, though this is only available at 720p.

For full resolution sample photos from the Honor 30 Pro Plus camera check out the Drive folder here.

Related: Camera shootout: OnePlus 8 Pro vs Galaxy S20 Plus vs Huawei P40 Pro

What else is good about the Honor 30 Pro Plus?

Wireless charging — The Honor 30 Pro Plus supports Huawei’s 27W fast wireless charging tech and even has 5W reverse wireless charging.

IR blaster — An increasingly rare feature on modern smartphones, but always a welcome one for those that are prone to losing remote controls.

IP rating — A first for an Honor phone, the Honor 30 Pro Plus has been officially rated for protection against splashes of water.

Future-proofed — The Honor 30 Pro Plus supports 5G (Cat6) and Wi-Fi 6. Neither are particularly widespread right now, but it’s always good to know your phone won’t be obsolete with a year.

Dual speakers — The Honor 30 Pro Plus has a bottom-firing speaker but offers stereo audio via a secondary speaker in the earpiece. The sound is surprisingly rich even at high volumes.

What’s not so good about the Honor 30 Pro Plus?

Expensive expandable storage — While it’s great to have the option of expandable storage, Huawei’s proprietary Nano Memory cards are near double the price of a regular MicroSD card.

Magic UI — Honor’s take on Huawei’s EMUI platform suffers from the same information overload issues as its sister skin. Too many redundant stock apps, the odd bit of bloatware, and menus overflowing with options, many of which you’ll never use.

Honor 30 Pro Plus review: Should you buy it?

The more appropriate question is can you actually buy it, and the answer is: it’s complicated. An Honor spokesperson confirmed the brand currently has no plans to bring the Honor 30 Pro Plus, or any of the Honor 30 series for that matter, to markets outside of China and Russia.

While you can import the phone from online retailers like Giztop, that’ll get you the Chinese model which is — as was the case with the model I reviewed — overloaded with regional bloatware and a handful features that don’t have English language options.

The Honor 30 Pro Plus is Honor’s best phone to date, but ultimately it’s as tricky to recommend as it is to actually buy.

That’s a shame, because for all the things going against the Honor 30 Pro Plus, it’s the kind of niche appeal phone that would be perfect for the right kind of buyer. It feels churlish to call the Honor 30 Pro Plus a “cheap P40 Pro,” but for all intents and purposes that’s what it is — a mildly downgraded, far more affordable version of the ultimate camera phone.

In fact, the Honor 30 Pro Plus actually represents a much better deal than the €799 vanilla P40, which has an inferior camera setup, reduced charging options, and is missing a high refresh rate display.

Even putting the oddly restrictive availability situation to one side, the Honor 30 Pro Plus suffers from another glaring problem. No, not that hideous, ginormous logo on the back — I’m talking, of course, about the lack of Google services. No number of helpful workarounds can remedy the fact that Honor’s phone is at an immediate handicap against other recent non-Huawei/Honor devices.

There’s also the question of pricing. The upcoming Google Pixel 4a may challenge the Honor P30 Pro Plus for point-and-shoot photography, but it’d be a struggle to find any phone at the €600-€700 price point that can go toe-to-toe with Honor’s latest as a complete camera package.

If photography isn’t at the top of your wishlist, however, there are no shortage of similarly priced and in some cases even cheaper phones from rival Chinese brands that offer a better all-round package.

Related: The best budget phones you can currently buy

The obvious candidates are the OnePlus 8 (€699/£599), Realme X50 Pro (€599/£569), and Poco F2 Pro (€499/£549), which all outpace the Honor 30 Pro Plus on performance thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 SoC. They also all have Google services.

The Honor 30 Pro Plus is Honor’s best phone to date, but ultimately it’s a phone that’s as tricky to recommend as it is to actually buy.

Android Authority

OnePlus has been slowing trickling out details about the OnePlus Nord — the company’s second stab at cracking the mid-range market. We know the name, the processor (the Snapdragon 765G), and a ballpark price, but aside from leaks and rumors, we’ve had no official teases of what the phone actually looks like.

Thanks to a new teaser video (embedded below) published on the OnePlus Nord Instagram page — shared in advance with Android Authority — we’ve now been treated to our first look at OnePlus’ long-awaited affordable phone. It’s a fleeting glimpse to say the least, but there’s plenty to unpack and some brief clues about the OnePlus Nord specs.

The OnePlus Nord appears in the video at around the one minute mark as we see someone make a video call with the phone before slipping it into their pocket. The images in this article are screenshots taken from the video and show the front, back, and right side of the phone.

Let’s start with the most interesting part: the cameras. If you squint closely at the images above (click to expand), you can just about make out the reflection of a dual-lens, punch-hole selfie camera, similar to the Huawei P40 Pro. This lends further credence up a recent report that suggested the OnePlus Nord will sport a main 32MP selfie camera with an 8MP wide-angle shooter alongside.

Related: OnePlus 8 buyer’s guide: Everything you need to know

Things are a little less clear for the rear camera. Early renders hinted that the OnePlus Nord — then rumored to be called the OnePlus Z — would have a triple camera. More recent speculation has pointed to a quad camera setup, however. While it’s not completely clear in the video, the reflection of one of the lenses and its position in the vertical module does seem to suggest that we’re looking at four cameras on the rear. Check out the image below and tell us what you think.

Other takeaways include the color of the phone, which appears to have a cool gray/blue tone. We can also see the button arrangement on the right side. This confirms that the beloved OnePlus alert slider will make its way from the OnePlus flagships to the Nord. Below that lies what appears to be a power button, with the volume rocker outline barely visible on the right in another frame. This tallies with very early CAD renders and echoes the button layout of the OnePlus 8 series.

Editor’s Pick

The OnePlus Nord could be a fan favorite, but it isn’t made for fans

Ahead of the upcoming launch of the OnePlus Nord, Android Authority sat down (virtually, of course) with OnePlus co-founder and director of OnePlus Global, Carl Pei, and VP of OnePlus France, Akis Evangelidis, to talk …

The teaser video, which is intended to set the tone for the upcoming phone, shows clips of young people attending important personal and world events and celebrations. The voiceover references staying true to yourself and moving forward — two themes that OnePlus’ Head of Global and co-founder, Carl Pei, says are integral to the OnePlus Nord’s identity.

Android Authority talked with Pei, as well as VP of OnePlus France, Akis Evangelidis, ahead of the teaser’s reveal. You can read some of the key takeaways from that interview here, where we discuss the core target market for the OnePlus Nord (spoiler: it’s not die-hard OnePlus fans) and the decision making behind dropping to a mid-range processor. We’ll be publishing more insights from our chat later today and tomorrow, so be sure to check back for more on the OnePlus Nord very soon.

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Welcome to the 324th edition of Android Apps Weekly! Here are the big headlines from the last week:

• India wants to ban several dozen Chinese apps over border tensions between the two countries. Some of the apps include TikTok, WeChat, ES File Explorer, basically everything from Cheetah Mobile, UC Browser, APUS Browser, and Clash of Kings. Additionally, the country wants Xiaomi out of the country as well. It’s a huge political thing and you can read more about it at the link.
• Google Photos received a hefty update this last week. Included is a new design, new logo, and a new map view. The map view is especially interesting. You can view your photos in the form of a map to see where you took them all. It’s a pretty big update. Additionally, there’s a scam for Google Photos. Make sure you click this link to read more about it so you don’t get caught with it.
• Scammers take advantage of everything, including the COVID-19 pandemic. ESET uncovered a new ransomware scheme this week. The app (CryCryptor) disguises itself as a contact tracing app like you would see from a government. It would encrypt your phone and not unencrypt it unless you pay money. It was shut down rather quickly and no apps on the Play Store had the ransomware.
• The IRS tried to use smartphone location data to find tax criminals. The government agency purchased a bunch of anonymous location data and tried to use it to find criminals. It didn’t work out so well and the agency gave up after a short time. The data purchased was actually perfectly legal. It usually goes to advertisers to see demographic data so they can advertise better in those areas. The IRS was just using it for something else and doing it poorly.
• Nintendo and The Pokemon Company announced a new game this week. Pokemon Unite is a five versus five competitive game that plays a bit like a MOBA. It won’t have every Pokemon, but it’ll have a decent selection. Players select their Pokemon, team up with others, and duel it out with an opposing team. That’s about all we know right now. Nintendo didn’t announce a release date, a price (although we suspect free to play), or anything else like. We do know it’ll be on Switch. Android, and iOS.

ARCore Depth Lab

Price: Free

ARCore Depth Lab is a demo application for augmented reality experiences with ARCore. The app doesn’t really do anything productive and it’s not a game. However, it does properly showcase a bunch of the really cool (and some new) ARCore APIs. One of the examples that is particularly cool is throwing a ball down the stairs and ARCore knows where the walls are. Another fun one is the snow demo where it’ll snow on your stuff. In any case, it’s free to use and it’s a neat way to see how ARCore is slowly, but steadily evolving.

Hatsune Miku – Tap Wonder

Price: Free to play

Hatsune Miku – Tap Wonder is a new free to play rhythm game featuring Japan’s more successful Vocaloid. The game features easy controls. Players just tap on the screen at various points to light up Hatsune Miku’s concerts. Additionally, there are a bunch of customizations to unlock and you can dress Miku up however you want. Some other game play features include skill trees, boost items, and cameos from other popular characters. It’s definitely a must for Miku fans or anyone who enjoys Vocaloids.

Oto Music

Price: Free

Oto Music is a new local music player app with a lot going for it. The app supports the expected features like Chromecast support, playlists, a dark theme, a slick (and somewhat customizable) UI, and an equalizer. There is also gapless playback and some other decent stuff. The app boasts a small install size at 3.9MB and some other fancy stuff like a sleep timer. It won’t blow your socks off, but it’s a solid local music player that hits most of the right notes and it’s entirely free with no in-app purchases or ads (as of the time of this writing).

Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe

Price: Free to play

Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe is the latest free-to-play game from Square Enix. It takes place in the Romancing SaGa universe and features a new story in the franchise. This is a surprisingly F2P (free to play) friendly game with excellent strategy RPG mechanics, various characters to get, and plenty of other stuff to do. The game has a 3.5 rating on the Play Store. However, 90% of those complaints are due to an extended maintenance that temporarily locked players out of the game. That rating will go up over time.

HEY Email

Price: Free trial / $ 99.99 per year

HEY Email is a new email app with some neat features. The app works like a normal email app. You can send and receive email, archive things, and all of that typical stuff. However, you can also use the app’s many tools to keep your inbox clean and minimal. For instance, the app’s “imbox” (not a typo) only shows you important stuff and automatically sifts out things like receipts, spam, and other such things. We especially liked the ability to view all attachments in one spot and the app’s clever use of categories like The Paper Trail (receipts), Notes to Self, and Set Aside. You get your own email address when you sign up, but you have to pay $ 99.99 per year to keep it. Even with the cool features, that’s a hard sell since most email is free and signing up for a whole new email account is a bit of a bother. We’ll let you decide if you like it or not, but it’s definitely not terrible aside from the price tag.

Thank you for reading! Read more here:

• 10 best AR apps for Android
• The 10 best rhythm games for Android
• 10 best music player apps for Android
• The 10 best strategy RPGs for Android
• 10 best email apps for Android

If we missed any big Android apps or games news, tell us about it in the comments or hit me up on Twitter!

Android Authority

In a recent response to the COVID-19 crisis, WhatsApp introduced more forward limits on the app to limit the spread of misinformation. Now, WhatsApp seems to be preparing yet another feature that would make it more useful during the ongoing pandemic.

Possibly prompted by the sudden rise in video calling, WhatsApp is reportedly looking to increase the group audio and video calling limit. The WhatsApp Beta watchers at WABetaInfo claim to have discovered a revealing string of code in the messaging app’s Android beta version 2.2.128.

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How to block (and unblock) someone on WhatsApp

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Currently, WhatsApp restricts group video and audio calls to a maximum of four participants. This limit is tiny in comparison to video chatting platforms like Skype and Zoom, which allow a much larger number of people to participate in group calls.

There is no word on WhatsApp’s new group calling limit, but if Messenger is anything to go by, then we could see a refreshed limit of as many as 50 participants. After all, both platforms are owned by Facebook.

How many people do you think WhatsApp should allow on group calls? Take our poll below and let us know your preference.

Loading poll

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Evan Blass

The OnePlus 8 series is coming in hot and leaks just don’t seem to be subsiding. The latest one is a series of images showing the alleged wireless charging dock, a screen protector, and a transparent bumper case for the OnePlus 8 flagships.

The leak comes courtesy of tipster Evan Blass who also previously outed images of official case variants for the OnePlus 8 line.

While images of the OnePlus 8 screen protector and transparent bumper case are pretty self explanatory, the wireless charging dock is something we’ve not seen from OnePlus before (see images above and below).

This is the first time OnePlus is incorporating wireless charging on its phones and as per previous rumors the OnePlus 8 Pro will feature 30W wireless charging. We still don’t know for sure if the same tech will also be incorporated on the standard OnePlus 8 variant, but rumored specs suggest otherwise.

What’s that at the back?

When seen from the front, the supposed OnePlus wireless charging dock seems to have a tiny LED indicator to show when the phone is on charge. A Warp Charge symbol with battery percentage is also seen on the display of the OnePlus 8 phone placed on the dock.

Evan Blass

The back of the white colored dock shows something that looks like a speaker grille. However, it could very well be a cooling vent with an in-built fan to keep the phones cool.

Wireless charging usually tends to heat up phones more than wired charging and a cooling vent would make a lot of sense, especially if the phones are equipped with high-speed wireless charging.

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Wireless charging is finally beginning to live up to the hype

Wireless charging has been around for roughly a decade now, with Palm’s smartphones offering Touchstone charging back in 2009. It’s been almost a decade since then, and it’s now possible to find the tech on most …

On the other hand, a speaker at the back could make the OnePlus 8 phones function more like a smart display. It could allow users to have a better hand-free experience while taking calls or listening to music and other audio content.

Nevertheless, we’re just happy that OnePlus could finally be giving us wireless charging on a flagship. The company is now a part of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) which  supports the Qi wireless charging standard. So it would be reasonable to assume that whichever OnePlus 8 phone gets wireless charging will also work with other third-party Qi wireless chargers.

Do you like this apparent OnePlus wireless charging dock? How much do you think the company should charge for it? Drop us a line in the comments section below.

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If you’re using your laptop more than ever recently, you may have found yourself a bit short of ports and outlets. This handy 9-in-1 docking station from Tech Deals solves the problem, and it’s 30% off for a limited time.

There isn’t much this docking station can’t handle. It features HDMI, SD card, USB, and more ports so that you can run a one-person command center. Either that or you could turn your laptop into a gaming station.

The docking station does more than just add ports to your setup. You can set it under the back of your laptop and use it as a stand. Now you can type in comfort while attaching all of your peripherals to stay productive. You can even set up 4K mirroring as long as your laptop has the right type of processor and graphics card.

The 9-in-1 docking station at a glance:

• Connect up to nine peripherals with the HDMI, RJ45, SD Card, and USB ports.
• Enjoy improved ergonomics as the device doubles as a laptop stand.
• Mirror your display in high-quality with the 4K output.
• Connect any Windows 7, 8.1, or 10.1 laptop or MacBook.

This powerful 9-in-1 docking stand has a retail value of $ 99.99 but you can grab it right now for just $ 69.99. It’s the perfect work from home accessory as you’ll feel like you have your full office right in front of you.

This deal won’t last long and stock is limited, so check it out via the widget below.

Is this deal not quite right for you? To see all our hottest deals, head over to the DEALS HUB or follow AA Deals on twitter.

Android Authority

Welcome to the 311th edition of Android Apps Weekly! Here are the big headlines from the last week.

• A few Google services went down earlier this week. This seems to happen a lot with all of the extra load on networks due to stay-at-home orders. However, this particular failure was a router problem in the southern United States. The issue was swiftly solved and things are back to normal. However, do expect some connection issues with how hard the Internet is used right now.
• Huawei introduced Celia this week. It’s basically Huawei’s version of Google Assistant. It works a lot like a super basic version of a voice assistant app. You can use it to set alarms, check weather, create reminders, and send messages. In other words, it does the usual stuff. It also only uses certain search engines in certain regions. It comes pre-loaded on the Huawei P40 Pro.
• Last week, we talked about the US partnering with companies to track your phone and the coronavirus. It turns out the same thing is happening in the EU. The commission promises to make the data anonymous, but use smartphone movements to track people to get an idea of how the coronavirus spreads. Of course, people are concerned as they are in the US. Hit the link to learn more details.
• The Weather Channel app is a surprisingly good spot to track COVID-19’s spread through the US. The new feature is a new section within the official app and lets you track things across the country, or state by state. For instance, you can check Montana and see the progression of the illness. We highly recommend it because it is from a neutral source with a long history of reliability.
• There were many smaller incidents involving coronavirus this week, especially with the new stay-at-home orders. For instance, a 77-year old man in Spain was fined for playing Pokemon Go in public. In addition, YouTube and Netflix are cutting stream quality to 480p to relieve data usage across the world and not just in the EU. However, it’s not all bad news. Google Play Movies may provide some free movies for people to watch while they’re stuck at home. Hit all the links for more details!

DragonSky

Price: Free to play

DragonSky is a new idle and merge game from Com2uS, the developers of Summoners War and other games. It plays like most idle and merge games. You start with a single character, merge it with a copy of itself to make a new character, and continue on this path until you have a massive collection of characters. Characters are dragons in this game and, to be honest, they’re fairly adorable. You clear stages with your dragons, earn experience points, and do other stuff as well. The game has its ups and downs and we expect it to improve more over time. However, the free to play aspects are a little strong with this one and Com2uS should probably calm down with the in-app purchases a little bit.

Almighty Volume Keys

Price: Free / $ 2.49

Almighty Volume Keys is a customization app for your volume keys. You can change the functionality to do a variety of things, including control music, record sound, turn your flashlight on and off, turn Bluetooth on and off, and do some other stuff. In addition, the app includes Tasker support and, of course, you can change the volume as well. It worked well in our testing and most people seem to have little if any trouble with it. This is an excellent app for remapping your volume keys.

War of the Visions FFBE

Price: Free to play

War of the Visions FFBE is the follow up to Square Enix’s insanely popular and good Final Fantasy Brave Exvius game from a few years ago. This one takes place in the same game universe, but instead uses Final Fantasy Tactics style game play instead of the traditional mobile RPG. It has the usual gacha elements, including character summons of various rarities along with upgrades, gear, and stuff like that. The combat is a bit slow, but the game makes up for it by giving you an auto-battle button for easier grinding. We have no doubt this will climb in popularity just like the regular Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

Facebook Creator Studio

Price: Free

Facebook Creator Studio is the latest app from the social media giant. This one lets creators mess around with their creations before it goes live on Facebook. You can check out analytics about your videos, manage your Facebook posts, and even respond to messages from fans of your page. The app started out quite poorly with a lot of bugs, hiccups, and sections not working properly. However, it should improve over time and, hopefully, this is the last app Facebook releases for this sort of thing for a while.

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game

Price: Free to play

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is, well, a mobile version of the card game from The Witcher series. The game boasts a fair progression system free of pay-to-win elements, plenty of cards to collect, plenty of deck combinations to build, and plenty of online PvP. The game isn’t a 100% faithful rendition of the version from The Witcher series, but it’s more than close enough to scratch that itch. The Witcher fans have already left to go download the game, but it’s good even if you haven’t played the games.

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As the years go on, more people are ditching cable in favor of streaming services. That’s because cutting the cord is usually cheaper, easier, and more flexible. It’s also possible to share subscriptions with friends and family, giving users access to multiple services without paying for them all. Unfortunately, sharing streaming services means handing out your passwords, thus handing over a piece of your privacy. Well, that’s all about to change thanks to a new Google Chrome extension called DoNotPay.

DoNotPay is a tool that promises users the ability to share streaming services without sacrificing private passwords. From our experience, this tool works just as expected, and it’s super easy to setup.

How to use the DoNotPay extension

After you install the extension in a compatible Chromium-based browser, you will need to verify your identity. To do so, you need to submit your mobile number and enter the code DoNotPay sends to you via SMS. Then, once you are logged into the streaming website of your choice, click the DoNotPay extension icon in your browser to generate a link.

You can send this link either by entering someone’s email address or manually copying and pasting it. Once the recipient clicks the link, they will be prompted to go through the same process you did earlier to download the extension and verify their identity. Once that’s all done, they can access your subscription services without knowing your password.

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There are no limits to how many links you can create, but the standard subscription device limits will still apply. Note that even though people you share your subscriptions with won’t be able to change your passwords or two-factor authentication mechanisms, you are still giving them some control over your accounts. It’s essential to always take caution when deciding who to share your subscription services with.

DoNotPay’s functionality isn’t limited to streaming services either. The technology behind the tool allows users to safely share login information from any website.

How does it work?

DoNotPay works by effectively passing on the login session via encrypted cookies from the websites you choose to share. Founder Joshua Browder promises this method is safe, secure, and that DoNotPay cannot access these cookies.

“We use VGS [Very Good Security], which provides encryption and PCI II compliance and is trusted by many fintech companies,” Browder told VentureBeat. “The cookies are also encrypted in transit and can only be seen by the people you are sharing them with.”

Read also: Disney Plus vs Netflix: Which streaming service should you choose?

It’s also worth mentioning that DoNotPay offers this service entirely free without selling any of your data. The company makes money through its legal services for a small $ 3 monthly fee, which you can also access from the extension.

As of right now, DoNotPay is only available for Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers like Microsoft Edge, though that may change in the future.

“We have plans to expand to Firefox, and even our DoNotPay mobile app if this service becomes popular,” Browder said. “The Chrome extension is a test to see if it catches on, which we imagine it will.”

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