Here are 27 temporarily free and 19 on-sale apps to finish off January

Welcome to the final day of January. 2018 is already chugging along, but if the rate at which time is passing (or the fact that it isn't Friday yet) has got you down, then maybe some app sales will cheer you up. I hope you like free customization stuff.

Free

Apps

1. Dual Calendar (Paid) $9.99 -> Free; 7 hours
2. ET Music Player Pro $0.99 -> Free; 2 days
3. AuditBricks - Site Auditing, Snagging & Punch List $5.99 -> Free; 4 days
4. OnSite Checklist - Quality & Safety Inspector $1.49 -> Free; 4 days
5. SnagBricks - Site Auditing, Snagging & Punch List $6.49 -> Free; 4 days
6. Weight Checker PRO $0.99 -> Free; 5 days

Games

1. FoxyLand | Premium $0.99 -> Free; 7 hours
2. Trippy Goat $0.99 -> Free; 7 hours
3. War Tank Racing Online 3D Pro $0.99 -> Free; 2 days
4. Dead Bunker II $0.99 -> Free; 6 days
5. Dots puzzle $0.99 -> Free; 6 days
6. Timing Hero VIP : Retro Fighting Action RPG $3.49 -> Free; 6 days
7. Calc Fast $0.99 -> Free; 7 days
8. Equations: The Math Puzzle Pro $1.99 -> Free; 7 days

Icon packs & customization

1. Digital Clock Live Wallpaper - Unique & Minimal $1.49 -> Free; 7 hours
2. Holo Droid $1.99 -> Free; 1 day
3. Fireplace 3D Pro lwp $0.99 -> Free; 2 days
4. 3D Steampunk Travel Pro lwp $0.99 -> Free; 3 days
5. Mee Dark - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 3 days
6. S8 UX Amaze - Icon Pack $1.49 -> Free; 3 days
7. X Back - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 3 days
8. Nomo - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 4 days
9. Sweetbo - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 4 days
10. Beauty Watch Face $0.99 -> Free; 5 days
11. Bold Analog Watch Face $0.99 -> Free; 5 days
12. My 8 - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 5 days
13. Rumber - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 5 days

Sale

Apps

1. Redshift - Astronomy $9.99 -> $4.99; 1 day
2. Fast Burst Camera $3.72 -> $0.99; 3 days
3. Total Calculator-Paid $1.99 -> $0.99; 4 days
4. English Spanish Dictionary $9.99 -> $2.99; 5 days
5. iRadTech $24.99 -> $16.99; 5 days
6. DirectChat Pro (ChatHeads) $1.98 -> $0.99; 6 days
7. Meeting Notes $3.49 -> $0.99; 6 days
8. VGB - GameBoy (GBC) Emulator $3.99 -> $1.99; 6 days
9. CloudPlayer Platinum cloud music player $7.99 -> $5.49; 7 days
10. Universal List Pro $1.99 -> $0.99; 7 days

Games

1. Monster RPG 2 $1.99 -> $0.99; 7 hours
2. The fabulous Animal Playground $3.99 -> $1.99; 2 days
3. Addition and subtraction up to 10 in German $2.49 -> $0.99; 3 days
4. Subtraction Math Trainer $2.49 -> $0.99; 3 days
5. Study planet $1.49 -> $0.99; 6 days
6. Mental Hospital IV HD $2.49 -> $0.99; 7 days
7. Mystic MAZE - A 3D Adventure $1.49 -> $0.99; 7 days
8. Unreal Estate $2.99 -> $1.99; 7 days

Icon packs & customization

1. Game of Life Live Wallpaper $2.49 -> $0.99; 6 days

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Here are 27 temporarily free and 19 on-sale apps to finish off January was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:24 PM No comments

Fresh Meat: 10 new Android apps worth checking out

New apps need lovin’ too, right? Every day there are thousands of additions to the Google Play store, but many go unnoticed and never receive the attention they deserve. We’ve shown in the past that this community can discover great apps and propel them to new heights. Our weekly Fresh Meat column highlights new apps with fewer than 100,000 installs. Browse our new Android app picks below and let us know which ones you enjoy.

Super Bowl LII Fan Mobile Pass

 

Description: Super Bowl LII – Fan Mobile Pass is the ultimate companion app for Super Bowl LII. Download the app prior to attending Super Bowl LII events or sign up onsite. NFL Fan Mobile Pass: Fans will receive a QR code after registering allowing them to check in to activities, collect badges, photos and videos.

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

Pocket Campaigns

 

Description: Pocket Campaign is a simple tool to convert the flavor of your tabletop campaign into easy-to-manage decks and cards. A card may represent a character, location, plot hook or really anything you can think of. Give your card a name, download a nice picture for it and add notes to describe it.

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

Scorefolder for IMSLP Petrucci

 

Description: With Scorefolder, you can discover, download and organize free sheet music for thousands of classical musical works – no ads, no registration required! Are you looking for sheet music by a particular composer? You will probably find his or her works with the Scorefolder app, powered by the great International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). 

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

Plex VR

 

Description: Plex VR takes all the movie, TV shows, and home movies from your Plex Media Server and launches them into virtual reality. With support for 360° and 3D videos, Plex VR delivers an amazing entertainment experience right to your Google Daydream headset.

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

PLAYMOBIL PLAYMOGRAM 3D

 

Description: Turn your smartphone or tablet into a hologram projector with the exciting new PLAYMOGRAM 3D sets! Whether in the glittering realm of ice princesses, or in the thrilling Ghostbusters™ adventures, PLAYMOBIL® fans can now immerse themselves in a magical virtual world, thanks to awesome hologram effects!

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

Feedster – News aggregator with smart features

 

Description: Single list for all news feeds from your accounts in social networks, RSS feeds from sites you like and all of this in combination with fresh and clean design, all necessary features like writing comments, rating posts, sharing and other.

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

Turbo: Income, credit score & debt to income

 

Description: Do you know the three key numbers that matter to your financial health, and how lenders may view you?* Get all three with Turbo, FREE from the makers of Turbotax. Powered by your tax and credit data.

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

PyeongChang 2018 Official App

 

Description: This is the official app for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (“App”). You will be the first to learn about the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games information in real-time and other information for the spectators!

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

Wheel Focused

 

Description: Arbella Wheel Focused automatically detects when driving starts and stops, and uses the phone’s sensors to measure your vehicle’s driving dynamics. It uses low-power sensing methods to reduce battery consumption.

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

Backing Track Play Music Pro

 

Description: Pro version: Download Music and No Ads! Now in the pro version you can download the songs and listen without needing to be connected! Backing Tracks Play Music is a Music Player with thousands of Backing Tracks for you to accompany with your musical instrument.

(Playboard) | (Play Store)

 

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Samsung just trademarked "Uhssup" as the name of an upcoming location-sharing social app for peak trendiness

Some of you might recall the "suh dude" meme that became popular around this time of year... two years ago. It seems like the execs over at Samsung watched a compilation or two of that, ultimately deciding that "Uhssup" would be popular with the urban crowd and trademarking the name in Europe and Asia. You know, before anyone else could take this glorious idea.

A few days ago, Samsung filed an application with the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) for the brand name "Uhssup." It's described as a mobile app that shows and shares the real-time locations of users and allows users to communicate with friends.

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Samsung just trademarked "Uhssup" as the name of an upcoming location-sharing social app for peak trendiness was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Stations by Spotify is a playlist-centric experimental music app that is only (supposed to be) for Australia [APK Download]

Choosing which songs to listen to can be a bit of a hassle. You might enjoy a certain song, but listen to it to much and you'll get tired of it. Spotify's new experimental app, dubbed 'Stations by Spotify,' is a way to just sit back and listen to music without any fuss. It's supposed to be exclusive to Australia, but we've got the APK and it runs just fine here in the US.

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Stations by Spotify is a playlist-centric experimental music app that is only (supposed to be) for Australia [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 5:59 PM No comments

Essential Phone Oreo update delayed, will release Android 8.1 instead

The Essential Phone received the second beta of Android 8.0 Oreo back in December of last year, but the public launch of Oreo on Essential’s flagship smartphone is going to be delayed a bit.

Today Essential officially announced that, following the beta seeds of Android 8.0 Oreo, it has discovered stability issues that the company believes will get fixed with Android 8.1 Oreo. As a result of that, Essential will hold off on updating the Essential Phone until it has prepared Android 8.1.

Essential will roll out a beta version of Android 8.1 Oreo for the Essential Phone soon, which will allow the company to test the software ahead of a public launch.

Essential says that with this delay in place, the public launch of Android Oreo for the Essential Phone will be a couple of weeks later than they originally planned.

While a delay is never fun, at least Essential is still committed to bringing Oreo to its smartphone.

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OnePlus 5T adds new gesture controls in Open Beta 3

If you are a fan of gestures like what you’ve seen on the iPhone X from Apple and you happen to have a OnePlus 5T running beta software, you might want to check out the latest update.

OnePlus has officially started rolling out the Open Beta 3 to the OnePlus 5T owners who are testing the pre-release software. According to the company, this brings with it new gesture controls which will let users quickly navigate their device if they disable the Android navigation buttons.

Over on Reddit, folks who already have Open Beta 3 on their devices have tried out the new navigational gestures and found them to be pretty quick and easy. Sliding up from the bottom left or bottom right of the screen will make you go back. Sliding up from the middle of the screen will take the user home. And if you pause for a moment after you slide up from the middle of the display, you’ll open the app switcher.

If you want to see what the navigation gestures look like in action, check out the video through this link.

The new Open Beta 3 also comes with a few other key additions and changes. The official changelog is below:

Phone

Added pick-up gesture switcher

• You can now choose which way you slide (up or down) to pick up a phone call

System

General bug fixes and improvements

Removed Clipboard function

• Thanks for your feedback, we removed this feature based on that.

Applied CPU security patch: CVE-2017-13218

Added new Navigation gestures that you can enable by going into settings and disabling the nav bar.

India only

Added SMS categorization function for India only

• This is an India only feature that auto-sorts your SMS messages into categories

Open Beta 3 is now available. What do you think of the new gesture controls?

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Android and Me 7:35 AM No comments

Alcatel gallery app replaced with shady third party gallery app via Play Store update

Alcatel is known for its relatively decent budget phones. In fact, some of them are arguably good choices in the budget market. However, it always seems like some of these “budget” companies have some sort of security scandal. Let us not forget Blu’s recent incident.

Now it’s Alcatel’s turn. Its devices have Alcatel’s own gallery app that is updated via the Play Store. It’s a basic app with only file access permissions, which is what you’d expect from a stock gallery app.

In November, the app was updated via the Play Store to an entirely different app called “Candy Gallery -Photo Edit,Video Editor,Pic Collage” by Hi Art Studios. Putting an unknown app onto a user’s phone without their permission is bad enough, but the app also requests tons of permissions including SMS, phone state, device ID, location, account info, WiFi networks, and a whole huge list of others.

Let’s be clear here. There is no excuse for this kind of bait and switch, and a strange app that has access to all of these permissions and information doesn’t belong on a smartphone without a user’s express permission. Owners of Alcatel agree, as shown by the flood of one star reviews on the app.

If you own an Alcatel device and have been affected, head to app settings and disable this app and use Google Photos in the meantime. And in the future, be wary of Alcatel. This has been the case for over two months and the company has not made any moves to fix it.

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Beta version of VLC gets experimental Chromecast support

VLC is a super popular media player app, and for good reason. With support for most file types and a ton of features, it’s everything a techie could want in an app. That is, aside from Chromecast support.

Fortunately, the latest update to the beta channel offers experimental Chromecast support. Being both experimental and in the beta app does mean that the functionality is imperfect, but it’s a big step towards official casting to the app and that’s awesome news.

There are also other additions to the latest beta like Chromecast and Samsung Dex support, so check out the app for your video playing needs! To join the beta channel, download the app and head to the beta sign up page and you should get the beta version later that day.

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Android and Me 4:10 AM No comments

Nokia 5 and 6 both getting official Oreo update

Nokia may not be a huge player in the cell phone game anymore, but the company (under HMD Global) is working hard to succeed in this competitive market. One of its biggest achievements so far is software support, a sore spot for many manufacturers.

Nokia has already pushed Android Oreo to much of its lineup, and now the Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 are getting the same treatment. The duo seem to get updates at the same time.

The update is now rolling out in phases, so if you don’t get it immediately, just be patient. Head to settings to check for the latest updates and let us know when you get it!

Sweeter and Smoother. The #Nokia5 and #Nokia6 are officially joining the #AndroidOreo family. pic.twitter.com/7bbW3j7SOF

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) January 30, 2018

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Android and Me 4:10 AM No comments

26 new and notable Android games from the last week (1/24/18 - 1/30/18)

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Games

Flip : Surfing Colors

Android Police coverage: Flip : Surfing Colors is a beautiful free-to-play endless runner that offers enjoyable gameplay

Flip : Surfing Colors is a vibrant and colorful endless runner that uses a unique color matching mechanic to add some depth to your standard auto-running gameplay.

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26 new and notable Android games from the last week (1/24/18 - 1/30/18) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 4:09 AM No comments

Chinese Honor 7X receives update with Face Unlock and latest security patch

Honor has promised to add a face unlock feature to the Honor 7X in Q1 2018 and the company has made good on that promise, and quite early too! The Chinese version of the device is now being updated to build B192.

This new version features face unlock, a very popular new feature that existed long before the iPhone X but has been popular ever since Apple included it in their notched flagship. Of course, Apple’s implementation is much more secure, but basic camera-based face unlocking can be quick and secure enough for most people.

The update also adds an AR Lens mode for the camera so you can add AR effects like layers and backgrounds to selfies. And of course it includes the latest January security patch into the mix.

Hopefully we’ll be seeing this update on the international models soon, since it’s currently limited to the Chinese model. But it’s good to see the company pushing for better security updates (a weak spot for Huawei) and new features for an already released device.

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Android and Me 3:10 AM No comments

VLC beta adds experimental Chromecast support

Google launched the Chromecast way, way back in 2013. Coming up on five years later, VLC is finally rolling out support for Google's streaming platform. The latest Play Store beta release (v2.9) includes experimental Chromecast streaming, and it (mostly) works.

VLC's flirtation with Chromecast actually started last year when the nightly builds posted to the VLC site began offering experimental support. It works the same as any other Chromecast-enabled streaming app.

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VLC beta adds experimental Chromecast support was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 2:49 AM No comments

Google Photos v3.13 adds search filter for Motion Photos, notifications for Photo Books, and a shortcut to set up reciprocal sharing [APK Download]

We're getting a new version of Google Photos today, and breaking from the recent theme, this one actually has a few changes, though most of them don't stand out all that much. It's now easy to search for Motion Photos with a convenient search category. There are new notifications related to Photos Books, plus the settings to turn them off. And if anybody is auto-sharing photos with you, there's now a shortcut for setting up the same arrangement with them.

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Google Photos v3.13 adds search filter for Motion Photos, notifications for Photo Books, and a shortcut to set up reciprocal sharing [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 2:49 AM No comments

How we fought bad apps and malicious developers in 2017

Posted by Andrew Ahn, Product Manager, Google Play

Apps bring devices to life -- letting you book a ride instantly, connect and share memories with friends, be alerted about current events, play games with someone across the globe, and get work done in the office or on the road. Google Play is committed to providing a safe experience for billions of Android users to find and discover such apps. Over the years, this commitment has made Google Play a more trusted and safer place. Last year we've more than halved the probability of a user installing a bad app, protecting people and their devices from harm's way, and making Google Play a more challenging place for those who seek to abuse the app ecosystem for their own gain.

In 2017, we took down more than 700,000 apps that violated the Google Play policies, 70% more than the apps taken down in 2016. Not only did we remove more bad apps, we were able to identify and action against them earlier. In fact, 99% of apps with abusive contents were identified and rejected before anyone could install them. This was possible through significant improvements in our ability to detect abuse - such as impersonation, inappropriate content, or malware - through new machine learning models and techniques.

We've also developed new detection models and techniques that can identify repeat offenders and abusive developer networks at scale. This resulted in taking down of 100,000 bad developers in 2017, and made it more difficult for bad actors to create new accounts and attempt to publish yet another set of bad apps.

Here are a few examples of bad apps we took action against in 2017:

Copycats

Attempting to deceive users by impersonating famous apps is one of the most common violations. Famous titles get a lot of search traffic for particular keywords, so the bad actors try to amass installs leveraging such traffic. They do this by trying to sneak in impersonating apps to the Play Store through deceptive methods such as using confusable unicode characters or hiding impersonating app icons in a different locale. In 2017, we took down more than a quarter of a million of impersonating apps.

Inappropriate content

We don't allow apps that contain or promote inappropriate content, such as pornography, extreme violence, hate, and illegal activities. The improved machine learning models sift through massive amounts of incoming app submissions and flag them for potential violations, aiding the human reviewers in effectively detecting and enforcing on the problematic apps. Tens of thousands of apps with inappropriate content were taken down last year as a result of such improved detection methods.

Potentially Harmful Applications (PHAs)

PHAs are a type of malware that can harm people or their devices -- e.g., apps that conduct SMS fraud, act as trojans, or phishing user's information. While small in volume, PHAs pose a threat to Android users and we invest heavily in keeping them out of the Play Store. Finding these bad apps is non-trivial as the malicious developers go the extra mile to make their app look as legitimate as possible, but with the launch of Google Play Protect in 2017 we've reduced the rate of PHA installs by a factor of 10 compared to 2016.

Despite the new and enhanced detection capabilities that led to a record-high takedowns of bad apps and malicious developers, we know a few still manage to evade and trick our layers of defense. We take these extremely seriously, and will continue to innovate our capabilities to better detect and protect against abusive apps and the malicious actors behind them. We are committed to make Google Play the most trusted and safe app store in the world.

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LG unveils new colors for G6 and Q6

While LG might be waiting a bit longer than expected to unveil a successor to the G6, the company is more than ready to unveil some new colors for last year’s flagship smartphone.

LG has officially revealed three new colors for the G6: Moroccan Blue, Raspberry Rose, and Lavender Violet. The Life’s Good crew says that the new hues will launch first in South Korea in February of this year, but that they will be expanding to “key markets” at some point in the future.

If you have had your eye on an LG-branded Q6, don’t fret, because the company has new colors for you, too. Those are Lavender Violet and Moroccan Blue. The Q6′s new shades will be available this February in South Korea as well, with other markets getting them eventually.

One can’t help but wonder if the new colors for the G6 will roll out to other international markets after the company has unveiled the smartphone’s successor.

What do you think of LG’s new colors? Should the company have launched them last year?

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Android and Me 1:16 AM No comments

Cake is a new mobile browser with swipeable search

A new browser aims to take on the likes of Chrome and Firefox, but only on your phone. Cake, which has picked up a big pile of venture capital, has just launched on Android today. The developers say it's a faster and more convenient browsing experience because it was conceived of and built entirely for mobile. Is it? You can find out now.

Cake is heavily focused on search, but you can enter URLs as well.

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Cake is a new mobile browser with swipeable search was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:39 PM No comments

Snap's Bitmoji Deluxe adds hundreds of new customization options

The announcement late last year that Snap intended to completely rebuild the Snapchat app would have been welcomed by frustrated users. A fresh design followed, and since then we've also heard that Stories will soon be available on the web. The latest crumb of news to come out of Snap Inc. brings word that there's a new update for its other popular app, Bitmoji, offering tons of new styles.

For those who don't know, a Bitmoji is a personal animated avatar that's created by the app using a selfie you take for it.

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Snap's Bitmoji Deluxe adds hundreds of new customization options was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:34 PM No comments

Google closes HTC deal worth $1.1 billion

Back in September of last year, it was confirmed that Google was paying $1.1 billion to HTC for the teams that worked on the Pixel, which would bring those individuals over to Google’s ranks.

Now Google has announced that it has closed that deal. With the deal being done, it means those HTC employees are now Google employees and that as a result, Google’s engineering site in Taipei is its largest in the Asia Pacific region.

HTC will still be around for the foreseeable future, as this doesn’t get rid of the company’s own smartphone division. While some of its smartphone talent is heading over to Google, HTC has been positive about the acquisition deal since its inception last year.

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Android and Me 11:25 PM No comments

Verizon won’t be selling Huawei phones, either

Huawei had lofty goals for its smartphone lineup heading into 2018, with plans to launch its flagship device on AT&T in the United States. Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out, and reports are that the U.S. government would like very much for AT&T to cut all ties with the smartphone manufacturer.

Of course, there are other options for Huawei, Verizon being one of them. But it turns out that the biggest wireless carrier in the U.S. won’t be carrying any Huawei-branded smartphones, either. As reported by Bloomberg, Verizon has decided it won’t sell the Huawei Mate 10 Pro and has no plans to carry any Huawei smartphones at all.

As was the case with AT&T, Verizon has felt a considerable amount of pressure from the U.S. government in this regard, and it looks like Big Red’s decision stems from that pressure.

It doesn’t seem likely that Huawei is going to get a chance to sell a smartphone on a U.S. carrier any time soon, if ever.

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Android and Me 11:25 PM No comments

Facebook vows to bump news stories from local sources higher up the news feed

There have been a few signs already this year that Facebook is maybe feeling the heat. Perhaps younger users are tending towards trendier, more dynamic forms of social media. Perhaps older users are tiring of such platforms altogether and going back to sending hand-written letters. Whatever the reason, Facebook understands that it needs to make some changes to keep its users coming back.

So far this year, the company has killed its unsuccessful virtual assistant, promised to clean up Messenger's act, and committed to making the Facebook news feed more personal.

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Facebook vows to bump news stories from local sources higher up the news feed was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Amazon sale offers discounts on Fire TV and Cloud Cam

After discounting its Fire HD 8 tablet earlier this month, Amazon is now offering a deal on a different Fire-branded device.

The Amazon Fire TV is now on sale. This is the new model that launched in late 2017 and is a small square that’ll dangle off the back of your TV. It supports 4K Ultra HD and HDR and also includes Wi-Fi, 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of built-in storage.

Also included with this Fire TV is an Alexa Voice Remote. With the remote, you can use Alexa to search for shows and control playback. The Alexa Voice Remote also lets you control smart home devices like connected cameras, lights, thermostats, and more.

In addition to discounting the Fire TV, Amazon has put its Cloud Cam on sale. The Amazon Cloud Cam is an indoor security camera that records 1080p video and can alert you when it sees movement. You can watch the past 24 hours of motion alert video for free or upgrade to a paid subscription to get 7, 14, or 30 days of cloud storage.

Amazon’s Cloud Cam includes two-way audio, too, so you can talk to your kids, pets, or whoever else on the other side of the camera.

This Amazon Cloud Cam deal is only good today, January 29, so you’ve only got around 7 hours left to take advantage of it. The Fire TV deal will be available for a limited time.

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Android and Me 8:46 AM No comments

Razer Phone receiving update with HDR and Dolby 5.1 for Netflix, security patches, and more

Following its announcement back at the start of January, the Razer Phone’s update with HDR and Dolby 5.1 for Netflix is now rolling out.

Razer tells us that this update is now going out over the air to Razer Phone owners, and some of the folks in the Razer Insider forums have already gotten it. As expected, the 249MB update enables HDR and Dolby 5.1 support for Netflix, and it includes the Netflix app as well.

It is worth mentioning that to get HDR playback for Netflix, you’ll need to be subscribed to Netflix’s Premium plan. This plan is $13.99 per month and includes HDR, Ultra HD, and support for streaming on up to four screens at once.

This new Razer Phone update also brings the January 2018 Android security patches, including fixes for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. There are also a few camera improvements included, like a fix for an issue that’d cause some images to appear yellow and some tuning and image quality enhancements.

Razer says that this update is now rolling out, but as with most OTA updates, it might take a few days to hit your device. Be sure to keep an eye out for it!

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Android and Me 7:21 AM No comments

Begin the week with 23 temporarily free and 34 on-sale apps

January is on its last leg with no sign of slowing down. Monday has rolled around again — I hope that everyone had a good weekend. Today's list of app sales has plenty of variety, so have it and I'll see you all on Wednesday.

Free

Apps

1. Material Unit Converter - Offline Measurements $0.99 -> Free; 2 days
2. Cloze Test Generator Pro $1.99 -> Free; 5 days
3. English Word Formation $1.99 -> Free; 5 days
4. Friendship Test Pro $0.99 -> Free; 5 days
5. Kitchen Timer Pro - Kitchen Reminder Timer $0.99 -> Free; 6 days
6. MyLog Pro - Diary + Notes + Pocket $0.99 -> Free; 6 days

Games

1. Monster's Socks $2.99 -> Free; 1 day
2. PUSH $0.99 -> Free; 2 days
3. Dungeon Defense $0.99 -> Free; 3 days
4. Hangman Kid's App for Spelling Word Practice $2.99 -> Free; 3 days
5. The Ball Reach $0.99 -> Free; 3 days
6. The Lost Lands:Dinosaur Hunter $1.49 -> Free; 3 days
7. Skee-Ball Plus $2.99 -> Free; 6 days

Icon packs & customization

1. Gothic 3D Live Wallpaper $0.99 -> Free; 1 day
2. Retrome Wallpapers $0.99 -> Free; 1 day
3. Shimu - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 1 day
4. Athletica WatchFace Pro $0.99 -> Free; 3 days
5. Lovely Snowfall Live Wallpaper $0.99 -> Free; 3 days
6. Dualix - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 4 days
7. Morine - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 4 days
8. 3D/4D HyperCube B&W Wallpaper $1.49 -> Free; 5 days
9. Ravic - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 5 days
10. Nomo - Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; 6 days

Sale

Apps

1. Guitar Songs Pro $3.99 -> $1.99; 1 day.

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Begin the week with 23 temporarily free and 34 on-sale apps was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 6:49 AM No comments

Samsung Galaxy S9′s ‘Intelligent Scan’ combines iris scanning and facial recognition

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is going to be announced on February 25. Samsung is already marketing the camera system on the upcoming smartphone, which will reportedly have a variable aperture. But Samsung will likely have something else to discuss about its newest flagship.

A feature called “Intelligent Scan” has been surfaced ahead of the official announcement by SamCentral. As it currently stands there is no mention of the feature in any current build of Samsung’s mobile software, nor is it mentioned in any beta seeds of the Android 8.0 Oreo build.

There is a video showcasing the feature, which will apparently combine iris scanning and facial recognition to get a better picture of the person that is trying to unlock the device. It looks like iris scanning will work in low-light situations, too.

The idea appears to be for Samsung’s biometric security measures to work in tandem in an effort to make unlocking the Galaxy S9 a lot easier and smoother. If the iris scanner can’t pick up the needed information to unlock the handset, then the facial recognition aspect can kick in to grant access.

This is a nice idea in theory, but it will be interesting to see how well it works in practice. As noted in the original report, there doesn’t seem to be any indicator that this is a Galaxy S9-specific feature, as no new hardware is explicitly mentioned, so it is possible that Intelligent Scan could see the light of day on slightly older devices, like the Galaxy Note 8 or the Galaxy S8, too.

What do you think of the idea?

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Android and Me 5:21 AM No comments

Samsung Pay launches in Mexico

Samsung Pay, Samsung’s mobile payment service, continues its rollout to international markets.

Samsung has confirmed that Samsung Pay is now available in Mexico, which marks the 20th market to get the service. As is par for the course, Samsung has partnered with a variety of companies to mark the launch. Those include American Express, Visa, Citibanamex, Santander, HSBC, and others.

Samsung Pay will work in Mexico in the same way it does in those other markets. You’ll just need to find an NFC-supported terminal or a standard credit card reader and you will be able to use your supported Samsung-branded smartphone to check out.

As far as those supported devices go, you’ll need a Galaxy Note8; Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+; Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge; Galaxy S6 edge+; Galaxy Note 5; Galaxy A8 and Galaxy A8+ (2018); Galaxy A5 (2016 and 2017); Galaxy A7 (2016 and 2017); Galaxy A9 (2016); Galaxy A3 (2017); and Galaxy J5 Pro and Galaxy J7 Pro.

How often do you use Samsung Pay?

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Android and Me 5:21 AM No comments

The default gallery app on some Alcatel phones has been replaced with spamware, and users are angry

Like most Android phone manufacturers, Alcatel has uploaded many of its phones' apps to the Play Store. This allows the company to update various system apps without sending out a full Android upgrade. Some time in mid-November,  Alcatel's gallery app received such an update - a very bad update, if reviews from owners of Alcatel phones are any indicator.

The app was formerly known simply as "Gallery," and was published to the Play Store by "mie-alcatel.support" (one of Alcatel's developer names on the Play Store).

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The default gallery app on some Alcatel phones has been replaced with spamware, and users are angry was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 4:14 AM No comments

[Update: Possibly coming to Android on Feb. 9th] Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition is available for pre-registration right now

• Update 1: 2018/01/29 11:54am PST
  Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition possibly coming to Android Feb. 9th

Well, we already knew that Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition was going to release by the end of this year, though it is looking like the release will be sooner rather than later thanks to the game's fresh availability for pre-registration on the Play Store. So not only can you sign up to receive a notification once this title is officially available, there is an all-new trailer to accompany this pre-registration that reveals some new scenes of gameplay.

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[Update: Possibly coming to Android on Feb. 9th] Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition is available for pre-registration right now was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 2:59 AM No comments

14 new and notable Android apps and live wallpapers from the last week (1/23/18 - 1/29/18)

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Apps

Turbo: Income, credit score & debt to income

Android Police coverage: Intuit releases Turbo credit score checking app for Android [APK Download]

Turbo: Income, credit score & debt to income is a completely free tool from Intuit that offers you an easy way to check your credit score.

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14 new and notable Android apps and live wallpapers from the last week (1/23/18 - 1/29/18) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 2:24 AM No comments