One month after BitTorrent's update with a dark theme and bottom navigation, uTorrent is getting the same treatment on Android. The changes are live as part of version 6.1.4, which began rolling out a few days ago.
You'll notice a new uTorrent interface which introduces four bottoms tabs: Torrents,...
Xfinity Remote DVR is back after two-year legal dispute
Comcast subscribers lost the option to set DVR recordings remotely after the company's failed legal battle against TiVo back in 2017, leaving customers without a convenient way to schedule and monitor their recordings away from their TV. More than two years later, the entertainment conglomerate has...
[Update: Out now] League of Wonderland is a new strategy battle game from Sega, and it's available for pre-registration
Update 1: 2019/08/29 8:24am PDT
Sega announces release date for League of Wonderland
Update 2: 2019/09/30 7:58am PDT
Sega has officially released League of Wonderland on the Google Play Store
League of Wonderland is a strategy game themed around fairy tales, historical figures, and popular...
Dragon Quest of the Stars is coming to the West, and you can pre-register for the closed beta today
Square Enix just announced that its free-to-play role-playing game Dragon Quest of the Stars will come to the West in early 2020. On top of this announcement, the developer has stated that starting today mobile gamers in select regions can register to participate in a closed beta...
[Update: Global release October 15] Monolisk is a new dungeon crawler available for pre-registration, and it looks great
Update 1: 2019/09/30 6:10am PDT
Monolisk will be released globally on October 15th
Monolisk recently arrived on the Play Store as a pre-registration release, and I couldn't help but notice how good it looks, which is why I'm writing this very article. The game is described as a fantasy mobile...
Pixel 4 live wallpapers ported to other phones [APK Download]
Just like the Pixel 3 last year, the Pixel 4 has already been leaked into oblivion, so we have a clear picture of the device's hardware and software more than two weeks prior to the official unveiling. And just like the Pixel 3, the Pixel 4 comes with a collection of live wallpapers that are unfortunately...
Dropbox becomes collaborative work tool with new 'Spaces' feature
Despite competition from tech giants like Google and Microsoft, Dropbox has remained one of the best cloud storage options because it just syncs files. However, the desktop app was recently overhauled to become a hub for all your work, and now Dropbox is introducing a new feature for people collaborating...
19 best new Android games from the week of September 23, 2019: Mario Kart Tour, Lock's Quest, and Vestigium
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. Today I have Nintendo's free-to-play mobile racer Mario Kart Tour, a port of a premium tower defense game, and a delightful card-based puzzler. So without further...
[Update: Early access starting in October] Minecraft Earth now available on the Play Store for pre-registration, new beta wave coming next week
Update 1: 2019/08/30 6:27am PDT
Minecraft Earth beta live in five cities for Android
Update 2: 2019/09/29 5:55am PDT
Early access for Minecraft Earth starts rolling out to select countries this October
In July the first closed beta for Minecraft Earth was released to select residents...
Google Play adds one-tap options for leaving all beta programs, clearing wishlist, and more
Google Play now has quite a few opt-in features for apps. You can join a beta program, add apps to your wishlist, register to get notifications when apps/games are released, and so on. If you want to wipe all of these settings at once, now you can.
A new 'Google Play preferences' section in the Play...
Twitch app gets new coat of paint in v8 beta release
I can't think of any complaint I've ever had with the Twitch Android app, but Twitch isn't resting on its laurels. A beta for the 8.0 update is now available on Google Play with a refreshed design and other minor changes.
The design has been refreshed to match other modern Android apps, with copious...
20 of the best Google Play Pass apps and games currently available
Google Play Pass arrived this week as an answer to Apple Arcade. Google boasts that over 350 apps and games are included with the monthly subscription service, though so far we've only been able to catalog around 250 or so. Google being Google, many of these titles are rather lackluster,...
Pixel 4 theming, wallpaper, and voice recording apps leak online [APK Download]
One of Android's advantages over the competition has always been customization. From third party launchers to manufacturer skins and even complete freedom over the homescreen layout, no two Android devices are certain to look the same. Thanks to yet another Pixel 4 leak, we now know that Google is...
Xiaomi users allege they are being banned from Pokémon Go
Banning problematic users from online games and services is nothing new. Accounts are often banned for violating terms of service, community guidelines, or outright cheating. A group of Pokémon Go players believe that they have been banned for a less conventional reason—using a Xiaomi phone.
A recent...
10 temporarily free and 26 on-sale apps and games for the weekend
We're in the final days of September and autumn is here. It's also the weekend, or close enough, so that means I'm back for one more round of app sales. Today's list, like Wednesday's, is quite small, so it shouldn't take anyone too long to sort through. There's not much of note here, but as always,...
[Update: New games and a removal] ASUS shares list of 120fps games ahead of ROG Phone II launch
Update 1: 2019/09/27 1:10pm PDT
New games and a removal
ASUS announced the ROG Phone II earlier this year, and it is truly a beast of a smartphone, featuring up to 1TB of storage, a Snapdragon 855 Plus, 12GB of RAM, and a 120Hz display. With the September launch date inching closer, the company...
Is Google Play Pass worth it? Depends on who you are
I have 500 words to tell you whether or not I think you should get Google Play Pass for $5 a month or if you're better off with an alternative solution. Frankly speaking, if you're the type that constantly uses a wide array of apps and games and are always curious enough to try just one more every...
YouTube Music will replace Play Music as a pre-installed app in Android 10
It has been more than a year since Google revamped its music and video offerings with the YouTube brand front and center. The company signaled that YouTube Music would eventually replace Play Music, and it's moving one step closer to making that a reality. Devices that ship with Android 10 will no...
[Update: 23 more] Here are 251 apps and games available on Google Play Pass right now (Updated continuously)
People have been wondering about the full roster of launch titles featured in Google Play Pass — supposedly, we've got over 350 of them to go through. Here's the thing: Google doesn't make it easy to suss out all of the apps participating in the program, whether through the Play Store or external...
Firefox Preview 2.0 adds search widget and playback control notifications [APK Download]
As you may know by now, Mozilla has halted development of the stable Firefox release on Android, only adding security patches at the moment. The company is instead focussing on its next-generation browser, Firefox Preview, slated to replace its aging counterpart before the end of this year. A big...
Facebook experiments with hiding like counts to tackle social envy
Facebook used to be a place where you could freely share moments from your life with your peers, but once the network grew into the behemoth we know it as today, users soon began competing against each other to see who could get the highest like count on their posts. To combat this potential spiral...
DoorDash suffered a data breach in May affecting 4.9 million users
DoorDash helps you get food from your favorite restaurants without ever stepping outside your home. To do that, the service naturally needs some of your data, including your address and payment details, which makes it a good target for hackers. Unfortunately, the company experienced a breach back...
[Update: Fix coming] Google broke the Play Store's Updates tab
Update 1: 2019/09/26 5:19pm PDT
A Googler with whom big boss Artem had been talking with on Twitter has informed us that a rollback of the defective Play Store software is incoming, so you should
Google wouldn't be Google if it didn't break stuff from time to time. If you've been wondering...
Google's hyperlocal news app 'Bulletin' is shutting down
Google launched a new hyperlocal news service in early 2018 called Bulletin. It's understandable if you don't remember—Bulletin still hasn't moved out of the pilot phase, and it never will. Google has just alerted Bulletin users that it's shutting down the platform in November.
The idea behind bulletin...
ROME: Total War - Alexander is coming to Android on October 4, and you can pre-reg right now
It would appear that Feral Interactive has been quite busy with its mobile ports for the ROME: Total War series. Back in December of 2018 ROME: Total War was released on the Play Store, and then in June 2019 the standalone expansion ROME: Total War – Barbarian Invasion arrived. As of this morning,...
[Update: Rolling out for all] Spotify picks up two new custom playlists: On Repeat and Repeat Rewind
Update 1: 2019/09/26 7:27am PDT
Spotify officially announced these two playlists and has rolled them out globally to all users. As we surmised, On Repeat is for the songs you've played the most over
Usually Spotify's custom playlists are all about music discovery, but two new additions we...
[Update: Pre-reg now available] Pearl Abyss will launch Black Desert Mobile globally on Android this year
Update 1: 2019/06/18 9:37am PDT
Check out the new gameplay trailer for Black Desert Mobile
Update 2: 2019/08/23 10:59am PDT
Black Desert Mobile is coming to the Play Store this winter
Update 3: 2019/09/26 6:43am PDT
Black Desert Mobile is finally available on the Play Store for pre-registration
Black...
13 temporarily free and 20 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday
Welcome to another round of app sales. We're halfway through September's final week. It's a small list today, so be sure to pop by Monday's roundup (where there was a lot more to be had) if you're hungry for more. I'll see you on Friday.
Free
Apps
Digital Dashboard GPS Pro $0.99 -> Free; Sale...
Lock's Quest is the latest tower defense game on the Play Store, and it's a premium release
Lock's Quest was originally a Nintendo DS tower defense game released in 2008, and it eventually made its way to consoles and PC in 2017. This means the game was originally a premium release with an upfront price, and a mobile port just arrived on the Play Store for $7.99 without any in-app purchases...
Cloudflare's WARP VPN is now available to everyone
Cloudflare has long focused on internet security and content delivery, but it has been leaning into the consumer space lately. It started with the 1.1.1.1 DNS app and then announced the WARP VPN service earlier this year. However, the waitlist has just been growing ever since. Cloudflare says WARP...
More improvements for Android on entry-level phones
In many places in the world, entry-level smartphones are often the first and only way people get access to the internet. As we build Android for everyone, making sure that these devices are affordable and high quality is a top priority. That’s why we launched Android (Go edition) in 2018—a platform...
Viber introduces Shorts, a new way to read stories in the form of text messages
Books, movies, and series are common ways to widely share a story, but it's far more common to tell personal adventures orally or over text messages. However, Viber came up with a new feature that mixes things up, letting you read short stories on your phone, which take the shape of fictitious text...
Madfinger is offering a beta sign up for Shadowgun War Games, an upcoming 5v5 battle game
It would appear that the pre-registration for Shadowgun War Games was announced last year, though the title has been missing in action since that announcement. Thanks to a recent press release, it would appear that Madfinger Games hasn't given up on the title, and is now offering a beta sign-up on...
Runtastic becomes Adidas Running four years after acquisition
There are many fitness tracking apps around to monitor your runs, rides, and other workouts. Over the past few years, several of them have been acquired by athletic apparel and footwear manufacturers, which usually made them part of their overall fitness offering. For instance, Under Amour integrated...
Mario Kart Tour finally arrives on Android, and it’s easily the worst game in the series
At the tail end of August we learned that Mario Kart Tour would land on Android on September 25th, and early this morning, the racer was officially released on the Play Store. Now, the thing to remember is that this is a game that has been delayed more than a few times, with announced dates coming...
Microsoft game streaming service xCloud launches as public preview in US, UK, and Korea
Google hasn't announced Stadia in a vacuum; game streaming services have been in the works for years, with varying degrees of success. The technology to provide virtually lag-free, high-end graphics over miles of cables and Wi-Fi networks has only recently become robust enough. Thus, it comes as no...
[Update: Now in stable] Apple Music beta adds Chromecast support and 100,000 radio stations
Update 1: 2019/09/25 1:35am PDT
All of these new features, including the dark mode and live lyrics are now available in the stable version of Apple Music, and rolling out to users.
Earlier this month, Apple Music received a beta update that added a new dark mode and synchronized lyrics with...
[Update: Fixed] Chrome 77 broke printing for Google Calendar, but there's a workaround
Update 1: 2019/09/24 3:41pm PDT
Printing from Calendar in Chrome 77 should be working just fine now, no print-to-PDF hack needed.
Chrome 77 started rolling out a few days ago, and it has plenty of improvements — a feature for sending links to other devices, a contact picker for web apps, a...
