Confirming long running rumors, Microsoft announced today its plans to bring its Cortana virtual assistant to devices running Android and iOS.

Think of Cortana as the Microsoft equivalent of Google Now. The app is currently only available on Windows Phone devices and Windows 10 preview PCs, but Microsoft acknowledged that, in order to make it truly competitive, Cortana needs to work on the two mobile platforms that people actually use in significant numbers, Android and iOS.

CORTANA FOR ANDROID WILL DO “MOST OF THE THINGS CORTANA DOES ON YOUR PC OR ON A WINDOWS PHONE.”

Because Cortana for Android will be just another app, it will lack features that require deep system integration, like access to toggling settings. But Microsoft insists in a blog post that Cortana for Android will be able to do “most of the things Cortana does on your PC or on a Windows phone.” That includes, for instance, reminders based on location, updates from websites you visited, and updates based on flight status or parcel tracking emails. In short, Cortana’s functionality will be familiar to any Google Now user, though Google’s implementation has a clear lead in terms of depth and breadth of features. Cortana for Android will not be accessible through a voice command, due to the aforementioned lack of a system access. That means you won’t get to wake up your device by uttering “Hey, Cortana” which sounds a little cooler than “Ok, Google.”

The first version of Cortana for Android will be hitting Android in late June.

While there’s no mention of it in Microsoft’s announcement, Cortana will be probably one of the apps that are pre-installed on future devices running Cyanogen OS, thanks to the partnership between Microsoft and Steve Kondik’s company. Because Cyanogen has prided itself on providing developers deeper access to Android compared to what Google’s Android allows, Cortana for Cyanogen will probably have more features than Cortana for Android, including hotword recognition.

This is the latest move in Microsoft’s strategy of embracing competing platforms and making its products and services widely accessible, regardless of who makes the platform. What do you think of this move? Is Google Now all you need or is Microsoft welcome to try to shake things up?

Source: AndroidAuthority

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After months of being an iOS exclusive, Twitter has finally brought its streaming application Periscope to the Google Play Store. The app lets you broadcast live streams directly to your Twitter account, notifying your followers when your broadcast begins. The Android version is very similar to its iOS counterpart, but with a few added features. More detailed notification settings are present on the Android version, as well as a ‘Return to Broadcasts’ feature that easily lets you return to the broadcast you were currently viewing if it gets interrupted by a phone call or text.

Overall, the app is pretty intuitive and basic. With the app, you can both stream and watch live video, replay feeds, chat with other viewers, create private streams, and much more. In the short time I’ve been using it I’ve experienced a ton of bugs and crashes, so you might want to keep that in mind before you download.

Over a week ago, Periscope’s rival streaming app Meerkat came to the Google Play Store, so we knew Periscope’s Android launch wasn’t too far off. Meerkat has some nice features, but now that Twitter’s own streaming app is on Android, we’re not sure how long Meerkat will be around. In any case, Periscope is now available for all devices running Android 4.4 KitKat and above. Be sure to head to the download link below if you’re interested.

Download Link

SOURCE:GOOGLE PLAY

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There's a new version of the Play Store rolling out, and that means you're probably obsessively hunting for the APK. Well, we've got that. More importantly we've taken a look inside the APK to see if there's anything of note. There are some minor layout alterations, but also some interesting clues inside.

Left: older layout, Right: newer layout - ignore the Nexus S

Googler Kirill Grouchnikov explained that this version of the Play Store finishes standardizing the alert dialog popups, like you might see when you leave reviews. I haven't noticed any dramatic changes, but apparently the above image demonstrates the tweaks. So that's cool. 

You might remember we say hints in a Play Services teardown of specific Play accounts for kids that could be more locked down than a standard account. At the time we spotted things that pointed to time limits and restrictions on app usage. Now the above strings appear to show how download limits will be enforced. Searches could be filtered to only show appropriate material, and authentication might be required every time for in-app purchases in apps designed for kids.

None of that will be exposed just yet, but you can download the new Play Store below all the same.

Download Link

Source: AndroidPolice

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A rainbow of MIDI cables

The humble Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) protocol—which allows a wide range of musical hardware and software like synths and digital audio workstations (DAW) to communicate with each other—is over 30 years old at this point. Due to widespread support, though, it remains the primary connection protocol in the audio production world. Now, thanks to Google, built-in MIDI support is available in the Web browser, opening up a raft of creative possibilities.

Google's Chrome browser (from version 43) includes integrated MIDI hardware support, which previously required installing specialised software like the Web MIDI API. Websites that make use of Chrome's MIDI support are able to communicate directly with connected MIDI devices such as drum machines and keyboards, allowing users to control things like Web-based synthesizers with a preferred MIDI instrument.

Since MIDI support was rolled out to the Chrome beta channel in April, a number of different Web-based synths and DAWs created in HTML5 and other languages have popped up, showcasing some of the different musical possibilities for the technology. While the current crop of software can't yet compete on latency with dedicated software, and there are some audio quality hiccups here and there, it's impressive to see what can be done with a browser and HTML5.

One of the most impressive example is Heisenberg, an HTML5 synthesizer that makes use of the WebAudio API and Chrome's built-in MIDI support. While it's more of a teaser than a fully featured synth at this point, Heisenberg does let you toy around with its five presets, changing the waveforms and envelope filters, as well as letting you add delay and reverb or arpeggiation. Heisenberg is made by the developer Audiotool, which also makes an impressive full-on internet-based DAW in Flash. The developer is working to move the DAW over to HTML5, but you can check out the Flash version for free in the interm

Over at websynths.com, there's a great microtonal synth that lets you tweak the pitch shift of each individual oscillator to create some really interesting sounds. There are also a bunch of effects likes compression, delay, and distortion that you can add, as well the ability to share patches (ready-to-use synth settings) over the Web. A similarly interesting synth is available over at Synthy.io. The three-oscillator synth not only contains a built-in sequencer, but there's also a live mode that matches different sounds to trippy bars of colour.Those who can't wait for Audiotool can check out app.hya.io, a modular DAW built entirely in HTML5, with support for MIDI having just been added. While the interface is a little, er, functional compared to Audiotool's, it's quite a powerful DAW. You can add all sorts of different instruments and FX, sequencing them up to create some pretty sweet sounding loops. There's also support for direct audio input, so you can add vocals and the like to your tracks.

While it's early days for browser-based synths and DAWs with MIDI support—especially as there doesn't appear to be a way to get the browser to talk to standalone audio suites—there's a lot of potential for the collaborative development of tools and music. Combined with the power of social media, it's easy to imagine large groups of musicians jamming together on a piece of music in real-time. There's plenty of scope for educational institutions to use these tools, too, particularly with the number of inexpensive Chromebooks on the market.Finally, for more adventurous types, there's Vult, a Web app that lets you live-code your own synth. Vult's simple code outputs JavaScript to the browser, and is pretty fun to play around with, even if (like me) you're not exactly a pro code monkey. The full Vult project aims to create high-performance algorithms that run on the small microprocessors or microcontrollers common in dedicated DSP hardware, with the Web app serving as something of a taster for the code.

Source: Arstechnica

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Google is expected to unveil a new photo sharing and storage service at its annual I/O conference on May 28. According to reports, the service will be separate from its social networking site Google+.

According to a Bloomberg report, Google will unveil the service at the upcoming I/O developer's conference in San Francisco. The photo service will have some new features including the ability to share photos on other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The current Google’s Photo service is linked to Google + network allows users to directly upload the photos from their Android device to the Google+ photos app and has features like auto-upload and auto-enhance. However, rumours about Google separating its Photos service from Google+ have been making the rounds for a while now. The service has not gained popularity as other social networking sites. According to sources, Google may eventually phase out its social network completely. Google's senior vice president Sundar Pichai had also stated last year that it is likely that Google's photos and social-stream features would be treated as separate features.

Apart from a new standalone photo service by Google, the internet giant is also expected to unveil some new features including Android for Work, along with a new Android OS, dubbed Android M for now and new voice commands to access Android devices, only with your voice. Last year Google had acquired satellite imaging company Skybox for around $500 million and reports had emerged that the company will use the technology for real-time satellite imaging. Google is also expected to make more announcements around Chromecast as well at its developer conference. Google will also launch a new version of its push messaging platform called Cloud Messaging 3.0 at the event. Google will also make some announcement around Android Wear. One session at Google I/O 2015 conference is titled Your App and always-on screen and will explore how to “transforms the watch into whatever app” a user is on from map to shopping list to fitness. Apart from this details about its next nexus device may also be revealed at the conference.

Source: Bloomberg

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Android app drawers come in all shapes and sizes, but most stick to the same basic formula. There's a homescreen with apps, folders, and widgets. Everything else is tucked away inside the app drawer.

Well, that isn't the case with Hexy. This experimental third-party launcher takes the apps that would otherwise be in your drawer and dumps them all over your homescreen. There they reside in a sea of hexagonal tiles. If you've ever seen an Apple Watch and though there's a method of managing apps I can get behind, here's your chance.

 

In the center of the screen there's a group of hexagons that contain your most used apps. It's surrounded by other clusters that organizes icons by their colors. If you don't have time to look around for the app you want, the search bar at the top lets you filter things down. There's a separate screen where you can keep your widgets, and that's where the customization options end.

  

Hexy is a product of SwiftKey Greenhouse, SwiftKey's incubator for creative ideas that may not amount to much somewhere down the line. Play around with it if you're interested. That's probably all the developers are doing.

Playstore Link

Source: AndroidPolice

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Adobe brought the stripped down Photoshop experience to Android tablets back in 2011, and added a version for phones in 2013. In a blog post today, the company says the all-in-one approach doesn't make as much sense. Therefore, Adobe will be releasing three new "capture" apps called Color CC, Brush CC, and Shape CC. The classic Photoshop Touch apps are being discontinued and will be pulled from the Play Store on May 28th.

  

Left to right: Color CC, Brush CC, and Shape CC

Photoshop Touch was a powerful little app, but what about these new ones? Color CC allows you to capture and edit color themes on the go by pointing your camera at things. The themes can be synced to Adobe Color service, making them accessible in Illustrator Line, Adobe Photoshop Sketch, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Shape CC is able to use photos of real life objects to create editable vector images. These files can be synced to Creative Cloud so you can use them in Illustrator and Photoshop. Finally, there's Brush CC, which offers the ability to create and edit brushes for Photoshop. This too syncs with Creative Cloud.

                         

Left to right: Color CC, Brush CC, and Shape CC

Okay, so we've gotten all that out of the way—can I just say, what the crap, Adobe? Being so-called "capture" products, these new apps aren't intended to replace the functionality of Photoshop Touch. So I guess we just lose that functionality? The blog post announcing the change spoke at length on the value of the more focused mobile editing experience with Photoshop Mix. Sure, but that's only on iOS.

If you bought Photoshop Touch, you'll still be able to use it, and I image it will remain accessible via your order history. Adobe is just unpublishing it for new users. You can get early access to the new apps by joining Adobe's beta testing group on Google+. In case the "CC" in the names didn't tip you off, these are Creative Cloud apps, meaning you'll probably need a Creative Cloud subscription to use them. I'd wager that has a lot to do with shutting down Photoshop Touch, which was a standard paid app. Adobe wants that sweet, sweet subscription money.

Photoshop Mix

Adobe is bringing Photoshop Mix to Android as part of the beta test. You'd think that would warrant a mention in the blog post, but I guess not. It doesn't work on tablets for some reason. Probably because Adobe hates everyone. Adobe also showed off a new mobile editing platform called "Project Rigel" that can manipulate 50MP images on a tablet. The problem, that tablet is an iPad. There's no word if it will ever be on Android.

Source:AndroidPolice

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A few Android phones have sported fingerprint readers over the years, but these were all using software built specifically by the OEM for the device. We're now hearing whispers that Google is planning to build fingerprint reaching technology into the core of Android when M is announced at I/O next week.

Both Buzzfeed and Ars Technica have talked about the possibility that fingerprint scanners could become a supported piece of hardware in stock Android. The information we've been able to gather on our end checks out with the Buzzfeed rumor.  It wouldn't really be a surprise if this came to pass—there have been hints in AOSP that fingerprint readers were a planned feature, and even Motorola's former CEO Dennis Woodside said the Nexus 6 was originally supposed to have one.

So if Google announces fingerprint reader support at I/O as part of Android M, then what? Presumably there's going to be a preview build of M just like we had for Android L last year. However, none of Google's current hardware has a fingerprint scanner. That leaves two possibilities—this particular feature won't be usable until later this year when the next Nexus comes out, orGoogle will release new hardware at the event.

As nice as it might feel the believe a new top-secret Nexus is going to appear out of thin air (OMG Nexus 5 2015 confirmed), this seems unlikely. Making a new piece of hardware for a developer preview on the basis of one feature would be very odd. Just a few days until we find out, but don't get too excited in the meantime.

Source: AndroidPolice

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We've been following the development of Google's Hangouts Chrome app for quite some time. The project referred to as Ultraviolet in August later launched in October as a floating chatheads-style experience. It was okay, but at the beginning of this month we caught wind of a change in the works that completely redoes the experience. That change has now gone live.

 

The new interface looks quite a bit like the Android app. You have one panel with contacts, messages, and calls on the left, and the active conversation thread is visible to the right. A floating action button lets you open up a new conversation.

The interface is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS. The chatheads interface is still available out of the box, just with the updated contacts list. To switch over to the new look, go to settings and disable the transparent UI.

Source: AndroidPolice

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The 2nd gen Moto G got Lollipop back in January, but that just wasn't written in cards for the 1st gen model here in the US. Folks carrying around that older device have been stuck on KitKat, waiting to get their hands on all the slick animations and material design they've been drooling over since last summer. Now, with Google I/O 2015 a week away, here we are. Motorola has announced an over-the-air update bringing Android 5.0.2.

At this point, you already know what to expect. You've had an entire year to get excited. So sit back, pour yourself something nice, and wait on the notification to come in. Or, you know, jam on the update button. Sometimes that works too.

Source: AndroidPolice

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According to new findings in Snowden's documents, the "Five Eyes" nations, which includes the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand planned to hack Google's mobile app store in order to infect Android smartphone users with malware.

The documents showing the project are dated between November 2011 and February 2012, so it's possible the intelligence agencies have succeeded in their goals, or at least they may have until Google implemented stronger security measures in 2013 when it found out its whole network was hacked by the NSA.

The agencies used a spying program called XKEYSCORE that seems to appear again and again in such revelations. This is a "passive surveillance" program that captures (mainly unencrypted) Internet traffic that passes through cables, which are tapped by the NSA and other Five Eyes agencies.

After the program identified which traffic represents user connections to Google's app store, the agencies could then use other programs such as IRRITANT HORN to break those connections and send their own malware to the agencies' targets. The malware, or "implants," would then grab sensitive information from smartphones such as emails, texts, web history, call records, videos, photos or other files.

It seems the main motivation for grabbing this kind of information was to avoid being blindsided in case an Arab Spring-like mass unrest happened again in the Middle East or Africa. This is why the agencies focused on Senegal, Sudan and the Republic of the Congo, at least at the time. However, the agencies also used the same programs to hack targets from France, Cuba, Morocco, Switzerland, the Bahamas, the Netherlands and Russia.

Within the same project, the agencies also managed to exploit some major vulnerabilities within Alibaba's UC Browser, a popular web browser in China and India used by half a billion people. The UC Browser was leaking information such as users' search queries, phone numbers and UIDs that can be used to track people, as well as location information protected by encryption that could easily be broken with publicly available tools.

Citizen Lab, a human rights and technology research group, contacted Alibaba last month, and the company has since fixed these security issues with an update launched on May 15. Alibaba said it has found no evidence that customer data has been leaked, although it's unlikely the surveillance of this data could have been detected.

According to Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert, this vulnerability could have been used by criminals as well, which makes the agencies' decision not to disclose the vulnerability reckless from a cybersecurity point of view.

"Of course, the security agencies don't [disclose the information]," Deibert said. "Instead, they harbor the vulnerability. They essentially weaponize it." Taking advantage of weaknesses in apps like UC Browser "may make sense from a very narrow national security mindset," Deibert added, "but it's at the expense of the privacy and security of hundreds of millions of users worldwide."

Last year, Snowden's documents also showed that the NSA likes to masquerade as Facebook servers in order to send malware to hack into the users' computers, so Google's app store isn't the only target of such kind. Both reports also deal with information that is a few years old, so more companies could be affected by this sort of attack.

Source : Tom's Hardware

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If you're into hidden object games, you are probably familiar with Artifex Mundi. This developer has a bunch of these titles in the Play Store, all of them with thousands of downloads/reviews and nearly perfect ratings. They're also rather pricey, but for the next two weeks you can get a good deal on the whole catelog from Artifex Mundi and contribute to charity thanks to the Humble Bundle.

I'll assume you have a basic understanding of the Humble Bundle by this point. What you need to know about this one is it's a three-tier deal, which Humble Bundle just started doing recently. You can pay anything to unlock Deadly Puzzles, Time Mysteries 1, and Clockwork Tales. Pay above the average sale price at the time of purchase and you'll get Demon Hunter, Grim Legends, Time Mysteries 3, and Time Mysteries 2. If you pay $9 or more, the third tier opens up with Grim Legends 2 and Enigmatis 2.

There are usually more games added a week into each bundle, but I think this is already Artifex Mundi's entire catalog. At any rate, you've got two weeks to drop some cash on the bundle before it's gone.

Source: AndroidPolice

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If you've got a Find 7 or Find 7a phone from OPPO and you're itching for an official Lollipop ROM, head on over to the company's user forums. A beta version of Color OS 2.1, running on top of Android 5.0 code, has been posted for you to download. At the moment this edition of the software is not available via an over-the-air update, though that should be coming soon enough.

According to the post, this version of the misnamed ColorOS adds a redesigned interface and icon set. More relevant changes to the skin are the removal of a bunch of superfluous widgets and features, including something called "emoticon radar," in an effort to reduce size and increase performance. Whether they've succeeded or not is debatable; the ROM still weighs in at a Samsung-worthy 960MB.

 

OPPO warns that flashing the full ZIP in recovery will wipe all user data, so backup what you can before you pull the trigger. There are also some partition issues you'll want to check out on the forum post before updating. If all of that seems a little intimidating, maybe it would be best to wait for the official over-the-air update... even if it is several months late already. That's more than you can say for other OPPO phones.

Source: AndroidPolice

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Expectations are high for each update to Google's core apps on Android. After all, we know there are going to be a lot of new features announced at I/O in less than 2 weeks. Quite a few apps have recently gone through a Material refresh, and plenty of others have seen smaller changes as they slowly coalesce around the current design guidelines. That appears to be the story with the latest Google App update. The latest version finally enables full screen mode for Google Now on devices using custom launchers.

left: old version, right: new version

Prior to this release, users with the Google Now Launcher set as their default homescreen would see their Now stream with translucent status and navigation bars. However, people with any other launcher would see fully opaque black bars. The update changes this behavior so that the stream is always shown in immersive mode. Yes, it's a pretty simply change, but a lot of people have requested this for quite a while.

We've checked the Galaxy S6 to determine if 'Ok, Google' command is working everywhere again. Unfortunately, it still appears to be broken.

We're still poking around for more changes. If you stumble across anything worth calling out, let us know in the comments below.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

File Name: com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox-4.6.10.19.arm-300407085-minAPI19.apk

Version: 4.6.10.19.arm (300407085)

MD5: cb63f33e4b39d22278276fdb36a98caa

• APK Mirror (arm)
• APK Mirror (arm64)

Source : AndroidPolice

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The Asus ZenFone 2 is one of the more interesting unlocked phones to be announced lately, and you can secure yours right now on Amazon. A few more US retailers now have product pages up, but it looks like it's just Amazon taking orders. The first round of orders will ship on May 20th.

Now that the Amazon listing is live, we can find out exactly which variants come in which colors. The 16GB version with 2GB of RAM comes in black or silver only. That one is $199, by the way. The $299 ZenFone with 64GB of space and 4GB of RAM can be purchased in silver, gold, or red. Both versions of the ZenFone 2 are GSM/LTE devices with support for all the bands you need for North American carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile (and any associated MVNOs).

The price and color availability should be the same on B&H, Newegg, and Groupon when pre-orders are up. Amazon does offer Prime shipping, though. Canada? Nothing yet on your end, but Canada Computers has a page up with broken "buy" buttons. So that's something, I guess.

Source:AndroidPolice

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Left: old, Right: new

Our long national nightmare is finally over—Google has updated Maps with a translucent status bar. No more will you stare at that flat black status bar and curse your life and everyone in it.

The status bar is plain gray on the main map interface, but it's blue in the areas of the app that use a standard action bar (i.e. local business listings and the settings). There very well may be some other changes lurking in Maps 9.9, but nothing is jumping out at us. It's possible we've simply been thrown off by the shocking addition of the translucent status bar. You'll need to be on Lollipop to see any difference, though.

I should note that readability of the bar is somewhat bad when there's a busy map on the screen. At least it's more consistent with Google's other apps. You can grab the update from APK Mirror below if you don't want to wait.

PlayStore Link

Source: AndroidPolice

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YouTube updates have been rolling out about every week or two for the last couple of months. Most of the changes haven't been very big, but they're polishing up little aspects of the app in notable ways. The latest version bump doesn't make a lot of changes, either, but it's continuing the trend of small but visible changes. A permanent Cast button has been placed in the action bar and there are updated icons in the privacy selector for uploads. A quick teardown also reveals that we might finally be able to choose to download just the audio track for offline playback, which should make it much easier to store music for the road.

What's New

Permanent Cast Icon

left: old version, right: new version

The first change should stand out almost immediately after starting up YouTube. A Cast button has been permanently affixed to the action bar, even if there's not a Chromecast or Android TV around. It's present in almost every screen of the app, except for Settings and the video upload workflow. If there's no Cast targets available, the icon will simply remain grayed out and doesn't respond to taps.

It's not clear if this is a bug or if the icon was intentionally made permanent. Perhaps Google wanted to avoid the experience of having the Cast button pop into existence a second or two after YouTube launched, or maybe this is just a branding decision to remind people that they should use their Chromecast more often. Whatever the case may be, I imagine many users without a Cast receiver of some kind are going to see the new icon as an obnoxious waste of space that takes up space that should belong to titles.

I hate to be the person that calls out design issues, but I think this might be getting a little over the top. Here's the Uploads screen, with 4 buttons stacked in the action bar.

New Icons For Video Privacy

left: old version, right: new version

If you're adding any content to YouTube through the Android app, you're going to see a slightly cleaned up privacy picker. The icons representing Public, Unlisted, and Private have been replaced with sharper looking and more communicative versions. The pop-up box has also been made a little larger for easier tapping, and the background color has also been turned from gray to white to up the visibility a bit.

Teardown

Disclaimer: Teardowns are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete evidence. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. There is always a chance that details may change or plans may be cancelled prior to the launch of a new feature discovered in a teardown. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced.

Upcoming: Audio-Only Downloads For Offline Playback

It looks like YouTube is about to add a new option to the Quality selector for storing content offline. There's a new string that suggests we'll have the option to grab just the audio track from a video, and leave the visual component behind. The name for the string matches the naming pattern for the current offline selectors, and the feature makes perfect sense, so there's not much guesswork here. The only question is how long we have to wait before this feature goes live.

new:

Audio Only

old:

360p
720p (HD)

This has been a pretty heavily requested feature, since music videos needlessly take up a lot of space when many people only want the audio to play back with the screen turned off. No doubt, this will make a lot of Music Key subscribers very happy.

For reference, these are the current options as seen in the Settings screen or while making a request to add a video to offline storage.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

File Name: com.google.android.youtube-10.19.53-101953130-minAPI15.apk

Version: 10.19.53 (101953130)

MD5: 0adbd4c2bc25d4615b761cc2a05df927

• APK Mirror

Source : AndroidPolice

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