Break into the computer science industry for only $39

Computer Science Advancement Bundle

Computer science is a growing section of many industries, so the skilled positions are becoming more numerous and lucrative. Some of them even offer the luxury of working remotely too, so you could explore the world, or just roll out of bed a few minutes before logging on.

To get into the industry, you could spend three years and thousands of dollars at college, or you could shortcut that and spend just $39 for the Computer Science Advancement Bundle. It’s a no-brainer, really.

Every new piece of tech you come across will have had computer scientists involved somewhere along the line, from the latest smartphones to self-driving cars. You don’t need to marvel from the sidelines, you can be a part of it.

This bundle is a huge 134 hours of premium computer science content, covering today’s most important technologies. There’s mainstream coding such as Python, various techniques for handling big data, web development, machine learning, and much more. 

Computer Science

This bundle isn’t just about learning to code, though there’s obviously plenty of that included. It’s got practical knowledge about actually landing yourself a top job too. For example Break Away: Programming And Coding Interviews coaches you to ace interviews for these roles. This useful learning kit is worth $199 alone.

The Computer Science bundle:

That’s almost $1,200 of content, all for only $39. It’s lifetime access as well, so if you’re a bit busy right now then why not grab it while it’s on offer and dive in when you’re ready.

This deal ends in the coming days, so don’t miss out. Hit the button below to find the deal.

Show me the deal!

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Five good Clash Royale decks showcased at the World Finals

Good Clash Royale Decks Featured

The first Clash Royale League World Finals have come to a close with China’s Nova Esports taking home the victory. The action left us with a bunch of new decks and unique strategies to check out, so we’ve done the hard work and put together a list of five good Clash Royale decks showcased at the World Finals. With Global Tournaments rolling out in the latest Clash Royale update, now is the time to expand your deck choices and start racking up those prizes!

PONOS Sports Raiki Jones – Royal Giant/Lightning

Raiki Jones Royal Giant Lightning good Clash Royale decks

Composition:

Barbarian Barrel, Guards, Mega Minion, Inferno Dragon
Furnace, Baby Dragon, Lightning, Royal Giant

The Japanese squad might not have made it to the finals, but the crowd favorites showed up in style and put up a good fight. In their match with the North American representatives Immortals, Raiki Jones managed to take down thegod_rf with this deck and set his team up for a King of the Hill victory.

With the Furnace providing constant pressure, Raiki Jones could play his Royal Giant behind his King Tower

Royal Giant and Lightning have been the basis for a number of good Clash Royale decks, but the addition of Furnace gave Raiki Jones just the boost he needed. The constant pressure put his opponent at an elixir disadvantage, which he then capitalized on with a big Royal Giant push.

Unlike most Western players, he also played the Royal Giant behind the king tower, giving himself even more time to build his push. Most players don’t do this because it gives your opponent plenty of time to react with a quick counter-push or prepare their defenses, but with the added Furnace pressure thegod_rf had to either react immediately or eat chip damage from the ever spawning Fire Spirits.

Nova Esports Little Shen – Targeted Bait deck

Little Shen targeted bait good Clash Royale decks

Composition:

Bats, Goblin Gang, Dart Goblin, Princess
Goblin Barrel, Skeleton Army, Royal Giant, Mega Knight

This unusual deck made it onto our list of good Clash Royale decks from the World Finals for a single reason: it was created specifically to take down Vivo Keyd Javi14’s deck in the last few matches of the CRL World Finals.

Visa issues meant Vivo Keyd only had three players, and opponents could scout out all of their decks

Due to visa issues the Latin American team Vivo Keyd could only field three players, meaning that Little Shen and his coaches had plenty of time to come up with a counter for one of Javi14’s favorite decks. The result takes the traditional spell bait deck to the next level with the addition of Skeleton Army and a pocket Royal Giant.

With just Zap and Fireball, Javi14 didn’t have enough to slow down the pressure. Little Shen also held Royal Giant until the last moments before double elixir time, catching Javi14 completely off guard. This proved to be such a good counter that Little Shen pulled it out for a second time in the third game of the series to take home the win and eventually the cup. This shows just how much of an advantage it can be to get good scouting information about your opponent.

Vivo Keyd Javi14 – Lava/Miner

Javi14 Lava Miner good Clash Royale decks

Composition:

Barbarian Barrel, Miner, Tombstone, Mega Minion
Baby Dragon, Fireball, Inferno Dragon, Lava Hound

Immediately after his loss to the deck above, Javi14 came back swinging with this Lava/Miner deck. Rather than either Poison, Zap, or Lightning spells to back up his push, this deck relies on Fireball and Barbarian Barrel as its only spells.

Editor’s Pick

Stay up to date with our Clash Royale update hub

Welcome to our Clash Royale update hub! We’ll be collecting all of the official balance changes and updates for Clash Royale as they’re released by the Finnish giant Supercell. If you’re a hardcore Clasher, be sure …

By placing his Lava Hound in the far corner behind his Princess towers, Javi14 was able to slip past defenses played too deep in the opposite lane. Once the Lava Hound arrived at the tower, he held his fireball until just before it popped, taking any defending troops low enough to be destroyed by the Lava Pups.

Mega Minion and Baby Dragon are enough to defend against swarms of enemies, and the Inferno Dragon makes quick work of beefy targets as they’re pulled aside by the Tombstone. The final nail in the coffin for this match was the Miner, which could easily get free hits on the tower while Little Shen struggled with the counter-pushes and Lava Hounds creeping across the river.

King-zone DragonX X-bow Master – Golem/Night Witch

xbow Master Golem Night Witch good Clash Royale decks

Composition:

Log, Bats, Zap, Clone
Lumberjack, Night witch, Electro Dragon, Golem

In their match against eventual champions Nova Esports in the semi-finals, King-zone DragonX’s X-bow Master made a big mistake by dropping a Golem behind his King Tower early in the match. His opponent Lciop immediately punished with a Lumberjack and Battle Ram push that destroyed X-bow Master’s Princess Towers just over a minute into the match.

He didn’t give up though, and held on to his key Clone spell until just the right moment. While his opponent thought he had the perfect counter to Golem with Pekka, a clutch Clone put more than 15 raged up Bats to work on a Princess Tower. After watching his lead evaporate in an instant, Lciop was never able to recover and eventually lost the match.

The main way this deck differs from the classic Golem/Night Witch archetype is the addition of one of this year’s new Clash Royale cards: Electro Dragon. It primarily performed defense duty against charging units and swarms. However, it didn’t have a major effect on this or any match in the tournament. Time will tell if it makes it into some of the best Clash Royale decks in the CRL regular season, but in the end fan concerns over its lack of balance have proved unfounded.

Nova Esports Legend’s Zappies 3M

Legend Zappies 3 Musketeers good Clash Royale decks

Composition:

Log, Ice Golem, Bandit, Royal Ghost
Battle Ram, Zappies, Elixir Pump, Three Musketeers

Nova Esports might have come in as the tournament favorite, but few were expecting to see Legend take the stage over his more successful teammates. However, he pulled out several good Clash Royale decks and took home the only King of the Hill sweep of the tournament.

Zappies don’t see much play outside of Asia, but Legend showed how useful they can be on defense

We chose this deck to highlight because it uses Zappies, which haven’t seen much play outside of the Asian leagues. This deck relies on Ice Golem and Zappies to slow down any charging attackers, with Bandit and Royal Ghost to provide most of the dps. Once the Zappies have taken down the attackers, they provide a great basis for a counter-push alongside Battle Ram.

It’s tempting to think that Elixir Pump and 3M would play a bigger role, but when Legend saw his opponent’s quick cycle deck, he (correctly) assumed he was up against a big spell card. As a result, he didn’t play Elixir Pump a single time, and his opponent’s Rocket sat harmlessly for the duration of the match. This just goes to show that good Clash Royale decks can be adapted to any situation and come out on top.

Good Clash Royale decks from the World Finals

I hope you enjoyed this list of good Clash Royale decks from the CRL World Finals. If you’re looking for even more decks to experiment with, check out our list of the best Clash Royale decks from the regular season of the Clash Royale League.

Did we miss any great decks from the CRL World Finals? Let us know in the comments!

Related

PUBG Mobile: Test out how much you really know about the action-packed game

pubg mobile android game moto g6

PUBG Mobile is one of the most popular Android games at the moment with well over 100 million downloads. You play as a mercenary who parachutes onto an island along with up to 99 other players. Once you land, you have to find weapons, ammo, and other supplies, and then try to take out as many other players as possible. The last man standing wins.

In this quiz, we’ll test out just how familiar you really are with the battle royale game. The questions revolve around weapons, controls, vehicles, maps, and more. If you consider yourself an expert at PUBG Mobile, you should get the majority of them right.

Are you ready to take on the challenge? Press the Start button below to get started — and don’t forget to share your score on social media at the end.

Note: There is a widget embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s widget.

This is the 20th quiz in our regular weekly series. You can take a few of the most popular ones via the links below or check out all of them by clicking here.

Let us know which questions you thought were the hardest and share your result with others in the comment section.

Cast your vote for the best Android apps released in 2018!

This is the featured image for the best android apps fan vote 2018!
We’re nearing the end of 2018 and that means it’s time to judge the best of things. Our researchers and reviewers did an excellent job with the Best of Android 2018 for smartphones. However, there are still two more major categories that still need judgment. They include Android apps and Android games. We don’t have a super scientific method of measuring apps. Different apps do different things and appeal to different people, after all. Thus, we couldn’t immediately figure out a way to determine the very best Android apps. Instead, we’re going to ask you!

Below is a massive poll with the 20 best Android apps as narrowed down by our editors. They include launchers, browsers, productivity apps, keyboards, security apps, and even one gaming emulator if you can believe it. To help keep to expectation, our criteria for this list include:

  1. The apps (or services) are from 2018 or at least the last few weeks of 2017. We cut off the wait time in early December every year.
  2. The developers had to update the app at least a few times to overcome new app bug problems.
  3. We do not include apps that received substantial updates, re-branding, or ownership changes. There are exceptions for apps with redesigns so huge that it no longer looks or feels like its previous version. In other words, Smart Launcher 5 makes the list, but Google Keep Notes with its name change and UI redesign does not.

Okay, so this poll is massive so let’s get right to it. There aren’t any special rules or anything to take into consideration. Just vote for the one you like the most! We have some basic subscriptions and links for each app under the poll in case you want to see what they do.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Introducing the apps!

Of course, we don’t want to just give you a massive list without explaining what all of these apps do in case you have not heard of them. Here are short descriptions and links for all 20 Android apps:

  • Bouncer – Bouncer is a security app. It lets users grant temporary access to permissions to apps and the app revokes those permissions later. For instance, you can give Facebook temporary permission to access your location and then set Bouncer to remove that permission later.
  • Cake Web Browser – Cake Web Browser is a slightly different approach to web browsers. It lets you search for various things and then you swipe between the search results like Tinder. It also comes with an RSS feed, a pop-up blocker, an ad-blocker, Slices (a news section), and more.
  • Carrot Weather – Carrot Weather is a decent weather app with a few fun, unique features. The app comes with weather basics like forecasts and current weather. You also get sassy quotes and a neat time travel feature. The time travel feature let you view the weather up to 70 years in the past.
  • Dolphin Emulator – Dolphin Emulator isn’t technically new. However, it was re-launched after years of abandonment. It’s the only somewhat decent emulator for GameCube and Nintendo Wii. The new versions fixed a lot of bugs and added some new features. Moral gray area aside, this is a welcome addition to the emulator scene on Google Play. Dolphin Emulator has nothing to do with Dolphin Browser.
  • Firefox Reality Browser – Firefox Reality Browser is a virtual reality browser for Google Daydream and other virtual reality headsets. It supports both 2D and 3D content and adds some much needed competition in the space. Of course, it needs more work, but VR is still fairly new.
  • Forest – Forest is a productivity app with similar ideas to Google’s Digital Wellbeing. You open the app and a tree starts to grow. If you leave the app to check Facebook or do other distracting things, your tree wilts. The goal is to keep you off of your phone while you work. It’s also configurable with a whitelist so you can still answer important texts or phone calls.
  • Grammarly Keyboard – Grammarly Keyboard is the best new keyboard of 2018. It doesn’t have a ton of flashy features like many of its competitors. However, it actively corrects your grammar as you type. It also explains its corrections. We expect more flashy features like gesture typing in future updates.
  • Haven – Haven is a niche security app. It’s an open source app that helps protect your stuff. You install it on a secondary device and put that device in your belongings. The app alerts you on your primary phone when your secondary device is moved, picked up, or otherwise messed with. It’s not useful for everybody, but it’s a really neat idea for frequent travelers.
  • Heimdall Parental Control – Heimdall Parental Control is what the name implies. You install it on your device and your child’s device. You can then control their device from yours. That includes limiting app and phone call time, tracking your child’s network activities, and the premium version has phone tracking as well.
  • Hyperion Launcher – Hyperion Launcher is the next big app from the developers of Substratum. It features a stock-style look, tons of customization options, and an optional Google Feed plug-in for fans of that. You also get third party icon pack support and tons of theming options. It’s surprisingly good for how new it is.
  • Khan Academy Kids – The regular Khan Academy is one of the best educational apps on Android. Khan Academy Kids fills a similar role for kids’ learning apps. The app covers reading, literacy, math, logic, memory, and problem-solving. It’s also entirely free with no ads or in-app purchases. What’s not to like?
  • Kiwi Browser – Kiwi Browser is another new browser from 2018. It’s based on WebKit and Chromium for a relatively smooth experience. You also get a strong ad-blocker, crypto-jacking protection, and a minimal-style UI for quick browsing and content enjoyment. It also supports 60 languages.
  • Lean Launcher – Lean Launcher is the friendliest launcher release for fans of minimalism. It has a stock Android look along with a few decent security and customization features. You can hide icons from your app drawer, change the theme, and use gesture controls. We didn’t love it as much as we loved some other launchers on the list, but it’s still really good for what it does.
  • Navigation Gestures – Navigation Gestures adds gesture controls to basically any smartphone. You can configure basically any gesture you can think of, including taps, swipes, and swiping from different parts of the screen. Those gestures can trigger all kinds of actions with more available in the premium version. It needs work, but it worked well in our testing.
  • Opera Touch – Opera Touch is another new mobile browser from Opera. It features desirable features like an ad-block, a QR code scanner, and a bunch of little usability features. It doesn’t sync with the PC version and we definitely think it should. However, it’s otherwise a very functional web browser from a big name in the space.
  • Poco Launcher – How did an OEM launcher make this list? Well, because it’s actually pretty good. Poco Launcher is a lightweight launcher with enough usability and security features to delight us. That includes home screen customizations, categorical app sorting, and you can hide apps from the app drawer. Not bad, Xiaomi, not bad at all.
  • ProtonVPN – ProtonVPN is our favorite new VPN from 2018. It gets the basics right. That means no logs, good encryption, and a home base in a neutral country (Switzerland). It has a bona fide unlimited free version, albeit at slower speeds. The subscription prices aren’t half bad either. It was a shoo-in for our best VPN apps list.
  • RememBear – RememBear is a new password manager from TunnelBear, developers of the popular eponymous VPN service. It had some issues on the onset, but it’s quickly becoming a positive force in the password manager space. It even has most of the desirable features that many other password managers have.
  • Smart Launcher 5 – Smart Launcher 5 was a massive departure from previous versions of the launcher. This new version features adaptive icons, theming, app sorting, an ultra-immersive mode, gestures, and other customization features. It even has an integrated app locker and that kills two birds with one stone for security fans.
  • YouTube Music – We debated internally whether or not to include this because it’s technically just a huge update. However, it’s about the only big new music service in 2018. We loved its integration with music videos along with streamed music in our initial impressions video. It should get much better over time with the possible exception of its actual music quality.

There were plenty of great apps from 2018 and if we forgot one, tell us about it in the comments after voting for Other so that we can count votes for your favorite apps as well!

5 ways you can learn to code in Python — for as little as $1

Pay What You Want Absolute Python Bundle

If you’re a wannabe coder, Python is a great place to start. Don’t worry about big fees for classes either; for today’s five-part Python deal, you can pay what you want.

Learning to code doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s not just for mega-nerds either. Anyone with a logical mind can learn with some practice, and Python is particularly suited to beginners. Compared to most programming language, it’s shorter, simpler, and easier to read. 

It opens doors too. Python is one of the most widely-used languages in modern coding. That includes roles that can be performed remotely, giving you the freedom to travel the world, or to stay at home and just not be restricted to putting on pants.

Today’s deal is on the Absolute Python Bundle, and it’s the perfect launchpad. Over 57 hours, spread across five curated learning kits, take you from noob to ninja through easy-to-follow video tutorials.

The Absolute Python Bundle:

There’s no fixed price for this bundle — you can pay whatever you like. Whatever you pay, even $1, you get Selenium WebDriver With Python 3.x: Novice To Ninja. However, if you beat the average price, then you get the whole bundle.

It’s not an auction or an elephant trap, the average price is displayed, and it’s around $9 right now. In fact, it will add to your basket at the lowest price you need to pay to get all five courses. If you want to pay more then you might be in with a chance of winning the epic giveaway.

Over 6,000 bundles have already sold, and the average price is slowly climbing. For more details, and to find the deal, hit the button below.

Check it out!

The AAPicks team writes about things we think you’ll like, and we may see a share of revenue from any purchases made through affiliate links. To see all our hottest deals, head over to the AAPICKS HUB.

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You need to download this photo editor if you use a Chromebook

Polarr Photo Editor is the best way to edit pictures on your Chromebook.

One of the most often asked questions about Chromebooks we get is how to edit photos. You see the same questions in the comments of Chromebook posts and in forums and everywhere else. It’s a valid question.

One of the biggest holes in the Chromebook toolbox has always been content creation apps and utilities. If you need to edit video or audio or do more than some quick touch up work on photos, you likely looked towards a Windows or Mac laptop instead of a Chromebook because the tools were few and far between and many of the available ones were little more than a link to an online utility.

That’s starting to change. The old adage of “if you build it they will come” rings a little true. Chromebooks are selling well even with a down market for traditional computers, and more and more schools are giving students a Chromebook to help them with their schoolwork and get them ready for the “outside world.” This puts more eyeballs on great apps, and developers like to have eyeballs on their stuff. Add in Android app support through Google Play and you have a ton of choices to sift through to find the best. We did it for you.

If you’re looking for the best photo editor for your Chromebook you should install Polarr Photo Editor.

Polarr is a stand-alone program developed for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome. There is even an online version you can use through your web browser. It’s a full-featured program, and not what many people imagine when they think of a Chrome app.

Simply put, it’s the real deal. In fact, it’s one of the best Chrome apps you’ll find and an example of just how good things can be.

Polarr is one of the first Chromebook apps that’s as good as anything on Windows or the Mac.

The feature set is the perfect mix for casual to advanced work, which is exactly where a Chromebook shines. If you just want to add a filter so your photo stands out a little on Instagram, they are there and can be applied with one click. If you just want to let the app do some automatic magic fixes, Polarr can do that, too, and it does a great job smoothing out the noise and sharpening your photo while not destroying the color balance. When you want or need to do more, Polarr has you covered there, too.

You can adjust the color, lighting, detail, vignetting, HSL (hue, saturation, and luminance), RGB channel curves, toning, and distortion. You can even apply photo effects like fringing or film grain. And you can do this on a RAW file (Polarr converts RAW files to JPG on the fly) up to 40MP in size.

The controls are simple and perfect for anyone who doesn’t have to use Photoshop five days a week to earn a paycheck. All adjustments are in real time so you can see what effect each has and you have a full history panel to undo any or all the changes. You can even drag and drop the controls so the toolboxes work the way you want them to.

Polarr on my Chromebook makes my workflow easy again.

Here at AC taking photos is part of the job, and a big part of that is trying to make sure the stray piece of dust or eyelash doesn’t ruin a photo and the bright screen on Android phones isn’t washed out. That means most of the time our pictures of phones need run through an editing program. I’ve been using Polarr on my Chromebook to do it without any problems. In a lot of ways, I prefer Polarr to Lightroom — I like the tools interface better and the file handling is much better if you only have a few pictures to work on. Most importantly, Polarr does a good job balancing the exposure and cleaning up the noise that gets left behind when your adjusting it.

If you have a Chromebook or Chromebox — especially if you’re all-in and it’s your only computer — you need to try it. You can install Polarr for free from the Chrome Web Store and get most of the experience. All the tool features are available but some of the advanced adjustments are locked. What you get for free is very usable and works great. If you like what you see and want to go pro, Polarr uses a subscription model and costs $24 per year for the pro version. That’s about $100 per year cheaper than Lightroom ($9.99 per month) and the things most people who don’t need Lightroom would want to do are easy with Polarr. I feel like I got my money’s worth.

Download Polarr (free)

Chromebooks

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How to pre-install a pre-ordered PlayStation 4 game

Get ready to play on Day One.

Downloading games can take hours, especially if you have a slow internet connection. This isn’t ideal when the future is increasingly becoming digital and we want to jump into our games as quickly as possible. Luckily, we can pre-install games that we have pre-ordered on PlayStation 4 so we can start playing as soon as the game unlocks after its release. Here’s how to do just that.

Our top picks

The Guide

First, scroll to your Library from the home screen.

  1. Navigate to the Purchased section.

  2. Select the pre-ordered game that you want to pre-install.

At this point, you’ll see a page with a countdown timer. If the game supports pre-installation, it should automatically do so within about 48 hours before the game is set to launch.

How to enable automatic downloads

  1. From the home screen, go to Settings.

  2. Scroll down to System.

  3. Select Automatic Downloads.

  4. Make sure that Application Update Files is checked.

Even after your game is pre-installed, you will not be able to play it early before its official release. You’ll still need to wait until the game unlocks after its release date. If you would like to do this process manually instead of having the game automatically download when available, follow the first set of steps again to do so about two days before the game’s launch if it is a title that supports pre-installation.

Below you’ll find a few upcoming games that we recommend picking up.

Our pick

Kingdom Hearts 3

$60 at PlayStation

Sora’s journey continues.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the most highly anticipated games out there. Don’t miss out when it releases in January and make sure you can jump in right after it unlocks digitally without needing to wait for it to download while others have fun.

Our pick

Resident Evil 2 Remake

$60 at PlayStation

Classic survival horror.

Leon Kennedy is soon to be back and better than ever. Jump into the classic zombie survival horror experience completely remastered for 2018. You thought it was scary 20 years ago? Just wait until you see it now.

Our pick

Anthem

$60 at PlayStation

BioWare’s newest venture.

Dragon Age and Mass Effect are stepping aside for the time being to make room for BioWare’s newest venture, Anthem. This shared-world shooter is set to be a lot like Destiny but with BioWare’s distinct flavor.

This is the Galaxy A8s, complete with display hole camera and triple camera setup

The Samsung Galaxy A8s.

  • Samsung Galaxy A8s renders have appeared on China’s TENAA website.
  • The renders show a phone with a rear-facing triple camera setup, as well as a display hole camera.
  • The Galaxy A8s is set to launch on December 10 in China.

Samsung announced plans last month to deliver an Infinity-O Display, which would see the camera sitting in an island on the screen. The firm’s first phone with the technology is the Galaxy A8s, and we’ve now received a good look at the device.

Galaxy A8s renders were uploaded to China’s TENAA regulatory website (h/t: Slashleaks), showing a phone with a trio of rear-facing cameras and a rear fingerprint scanner. We also get what appears to be a silver gradient colorway of sorts. Hopefully, the triple camera setup follows the more diverse normal/wide/telephoto formula rather than having one of the cameras acting as a dedicated depth sensor.

Check the front and you’ll indeed find an Infinity-O Display (or display hole camera, if you prefer). Samsung’s Chinese website shows us a better look at the display, along with a December 10 launch date. Check it out below.

The Samsung Galaxy A8s. Samsung China

We’re not quite sure what to expect in terms of specifications, but the TENAA filing lists a 3,300mAh battery and a 6.39-inch display. If it’s anything like the Galaxy A7 and A9 series, however, it will have a mid-range chipset, 4GB to 8GB of RAM, and 64GB to 128GB of storage.

Samsung isn’t the only company set to offer a display hole camera, as Huawei’s Nova 4 has also joined the party. Will this be the next major display trend after the notch? Well, only time will tell…

Would you buy a phone with a display hole camera over a device with a notch? Let us know in the comments!

NEXT: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx finally bridges the gap between mobile and laptops

Huawei Mate 20 Pro update brings better camera quality, faster biometric unlocking

A photo of a man holding the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

  • The Huawei Mate 20 Pro has received another system update, coming in at 523MB.
  • Notable changes include better face unlock, faster fingerprint unlocking, and better photo quality.
  • Huawei’s update also includes the November 2018 security patches.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro already received a meaty update over a month ago, but the Chinese brand isn’t finished for the year, as it’s delivered another significant update.

The update, listed as version 9.0.0.142 (build number C316E11R1P16), weighs in at 523MB and made its way to our personal device. And it brings plenty of improvements to the table.

A Mate 20 Pro system update notification.
A Mate 20 Pro system update notification.

For starters, Huawei has improved face unlock performance in “certain scenarios,” while the in-display fingerprint sensor should be faster too.

Other noteworthy tweaks include improved photo quality, better positioning in Google Maps, and a bug fix for Google Messages not displaying a notification badge. Finally, the update also brings Google’s November 2018 security patches.

Editor’s Pick

Android smartphones with the best battery life (September 2018)

Some people might think that the most important feature in a smartphone is its display size. Others believe it comes down to a phone’s processor performance, or the amount of RAM, or how much storage …

Huawei’s phone is probably the most feature-packed device of 2018, delivering a triple-camera setup, IP68 water/dust resistance, reverse wireless charging, and an in-display fingerprint sensor. In fact, our own Bogdan Petrovan said “you won’t find a more desirable phone on the market right now” in his Mate 20 Pro review.

The stacked list of features wasn’t enough for the device to win our smartphone of the year award though, as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 walked away with the gong. Nevertheless, Huawei’s device earned awards in the performance and battery categories.

NEXT: 15 best local multiplayer games for Android

Ice Cream Sandwich rides into sunset as Google raises API levels

The Galaxy Nexus was the first phone with Ice Cream Sandwich.

  • Google has confirmed that it’s ending support for Play Store Services on Ice Cream Sandwich.
  • The change means app developers need to target Android 4.1 as the oldest supported version of Android.
  • Consumers will be unable to see or download an app that solely targets Android 4.1 and up.

Ice Cream Sandwich was one of the most important Android updates in the platform’s history, but it’s long past its sell-by date. Now, Google has confirmed that it is discontinuing Play Services updates for API levels 14 and 15 (corresponding with Ice Cream Sandwich).

The company noted that Ice Cream Sandwich was released seven years ago, and now accounts for less than one percent of all active Android devices.

“Consequently, we are deprecating support for ICS in future releases of Google Play services. For devices running ICS, the Google Play Store will no longer update Play Services APK beyond version 14.7.99,” the company wrote on its developer blog.

The change means that developers will need to target API level 16 (Android 4.1) as the new minimum level for their app. However, developers can also build multiple APKs, with one supporting Ice Cream Sandwich and the other supporting a newer API level, if they really want to keep supporting the old version of Android.

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What does this mean for consumers, though? Well, Google confirms that Ice Cream Sandwich users will be unable to see or download an app update that targets the new minimum API level (Android 4.1). However, they will still be able to download the most recent update that targeted their device. But you should still see the latest updates if the developer in question chooses to publish multiple APKs, as outlined in the previous paragraph.

Ice Cream Sandwich delivered a host of features, including the Holo visual theme, virtual navigation keys on smartphones, screen capture, rudimentary face unlock, and mobile data tracking.

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