Don't miss out on the sales for Dead Cells, Spirit, and Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition
Welcome to Wednesday, everyone. Today, we have a solid list of sales with more than a few standouts, not to mention a couple of titles worth highlighting. First up is the sale for Dead Cells, a fantastic...
Google restores long-lost Maps feature due to popular demand
Google found its missing compass, it was in the back pocket this whole time
Yesterday Google highlighted several great new features coming to Maps, but the company left one little detail out of its announcement: The compass is back. The classic orienteering widget is back by popular demand, and...
Samsung TV Plus is now available in India
More expansions are planned for 2021
Update
Now available in India
Samsung is responsible for some of the most popular Android phones in the world, but the company has plenty of other ventures up its corporate sleeves as well. Samsung brought its TV Plus service to select Galaxy phones a few months...
Google will offer free, unlimited Meet video calls a bit longer
24-hour limit for all users extended to June 2021
There's light at the end of the tunnel for millions of employees forced to work from home, and Google is here for them ... or at least wants to keep Google Meet relevant in the meantime. Previously Google made its Meet video chat platform free and...
All the free games included with Stadia Pro
Resident Evil 7, SpongeBob SquarePants, and more
Stadia's $10-a-month premium subscription, Stadia Pro, includes access to an ever-expanding catalog of games at no additional cost. The selection of redeemable games varies — Google adds a few each month, and sometimes removes some. Here, for your convenience,...
YouTube tests hiding dislike counts, since everyone out there's awful
In an effort to prevent targeted harassment
YouTube is no stranger to experimenting with new features, regardless of whether a proposed update is popular with its users. Its latest test is bound to draw in some negative attention, with major changes in the works for video ratings. In the coming weeks,...
Spotify's latest purchase hints at Twitch-style live concerts
Live audio chat app Locker Room is currently an iOS exclusive
Spotify has been aggressively expanding into the podcasting space to diversify its offerings. It appears that the company has found a new frontier for its ambitions: live streaming audio. Spotify just purchased Betty Labs, the parent company...
Hands-on with Rocket League Sideswipe, a bite-sized edition that's perfect for on-the-go play
No kidding, the game is really good
Last week Psyonix announced Rocket League Sideswipe, an upcoming mobile adaptation of the wildly popular competitive car-based soccer game. It's currently available as a limited alpha in Australia and New Zealand, but I've managed to get my hands on a working install,...
11 of the best and most useful Android widgets you can get
Make your homescreen more than just an app launcher
Not too long ago, Apple introduced homescreen widgets on iOS. Naturally, this leads to a renewed interest in the form factor across all platforms, including Android. And since Android app developers have had a lot more time to perfect their homescreen...
Google's Area 120 made a slick document scanner app
Stack automatically organizes your receipts and saves them in Google Drive
Area 120 is a Google team that focuses on small, experimental applications. Its latest release is its most practical yet: Stack, a document scanner and organizer that automatically grabs details via optical character recognition....
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts expansion is coming to Android next month
Arriving April 13th for $4
Update
Company of Heroes: Opposing Front will land on April 13th
Feral Interactive has just announced that it will bring the Opposing Fronts expansion to the mobile version of Company of Heroes next year. This expansion is expected to arrive on Android (and iOS) in early...
Niantic reveals its Pikmin App has entered into regional testing
Select users in Singapore can now test the app
Update
Niantic's mysterious Pikmin App enters early access in Singapore
Niantic has announced that it's partnered further with Nintendo to bring more augmented reality titles to mobile. The first game to come from this extended partnership...
Dead Cells updated with new DLC, main title discounted 50% in celebration
The Bad Seed DLC comes to Android, bringing fresh content to the popular roguelike
Dead Cells is one of the few mainstays across all of my Android devices. It's easily one of the best platformers on mobile, but better than that, the developer is active, and so The Bad Seed DLC has made its way to...
Google Maps is getting a ton of new features — here's what to expect and when
Indoor Live View AR navigation, weather and air quality layers, grocery pickup integration, eco routing, and more
Google Maps is easily one of the company's most successful products. The era of using a paper guide or linear follow-them-or-get-lost MapQuest directions is long over. And though some...
Google's Action Blocks update lets you move your Assistant widgets between phones
Handy if you're moving to a new device
Action Blocks is a small, interesting tool to help build some manual controls for Google Assistant functions. If you've been making heavy use of it for the last few months, we have good news: your created actions and other data now back up to Google Drive, along...
26 temporarily free and 61 on-sale apps and games for Monday
Don't miss out on the sales for Limbo, Bridge Constructor Portal, and Thimbleweed Park
Welcome to Monday, everyone. It would appear that the weekend was packed with sales, and so I have plenty of deals to share today, along with a few standouts. First up is Limbo, one of the best platformers on the...
Google Files reaches 1 billion Play Store installs surprisingly quickly
Doubling from 500M in less than a year
Even though Android is the most popular smartphone OS globally — on more than two billion active devices — not many apps join the exclusive 1-billion-downloads club. Among those that make it, Google is unsurprisingly the most popular developer. Its latest app...
Lawnchair 11 is here, rebuilt from the ground up (APK Download)
Alpha 1 has only been tested to work with Android 11, so proceed with caution
For Android users looking to get a Pixel-like experience on their phones, the Lawnchair launcher is an easy way to do so. While development had stagnated, the new team at the helm has put its shoulder to the wheel and given...
Hands-on with League of Legends: Wild Rift, possibly the best MOBA on mobile
Gameplay video included, two full matches
The build-up to the US open beta for League of Legends: Wild Rift has been a long one, but now that this beta is almost here, I've taken it for a spin ahead of time to report on my findings. Below I've detailed all of the critical bits, things like performance,...
Google Photos adds 'In the spotlight' memory for shows and concerts
In case you haven't seen one in a while
Google continues to expand its auto-generated Memories section in Photos at a breakneck pace. Just last week the "Cheers!" section started appearing for more people, and now "In the spotlight" is also showing up, auto-populating with collections of your existing...
12 new (and 1 WTF) Android games from the last week: The best, worst, and everything in between (3/22/21 - 3/28/21)
Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, Racing Master, Crash Bandicoot: On the Run, plus more
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's list is broken up into several segments, ranging from best, average,...
Google Pay adds 22 more banks in the US
Closing in on 3,000 total
Google's newest version of Pay takes the focus off of NFC transactions, but being able to cash out with your phone at the grocery store is still the best part of the app. If you've been waiting for your bank to add support for Google Pay, you might want to look again — 22...
These are the coolest neobanks and fintech startups from across the pond
Something for Simple users to look forward to
Simple is shutting down, and there aren't really any great alternatives out there in the US. But what about the other side of the pond? Europe is a hub for financial technology (fintech) startups and some of the innovative new banks are looking...
20 of the best free-to-play Android games available in 2021
A hand-picked selection of F2P mobile games that are actually worth playing
Update
This roundup has been updated with new games for 2021
Mobile games are often considered bottom-of-the-barrel, thanks to so many greedy free-to-play titles that have taken advantage of their customers over the years....
18 temporarily free and 40 on-sale apps and games for Friday
Don't miss out on the sales for Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, Muse Dash, and Titan Quest: Legendary Edition
Welcome to Friday, everyone. It's almost the weekend, and so it's time to check out the latest app and game sales on the Play store. I certainly have a few standouts today, starting with the...
Google Play's updated apps notification setting is broken for many
The toggle doesn't seem to work at all on Pixel phones
When Google removed the ability for the Play Store to notify users of app updates, people were understandably miffed. This even led to a third-party solution being developed, before Google eventually saw sense and brought it back as an optional...
Google Photos now telling users what those buttons in the media viewer mean
So those slider things... that's an editor?
Ever press a button without knowing what it exactly does? Maybe some of the icons aren't exactly self-explanatory. Google Photos has had a few of those for a while. Well, the cavalry's just come in and they're bringing in labels.
The share, edit, Google...
Hulu's annoying 720p cap for Android TV is finally getting lifted
First signs seen on 2019 Nvidia Shield boxes
Hulu streams 4K content to Apple TV, Fire TV, and Chromecast Ultra owners, but it has never raised the resolution cap beyond 720p for most with Android TV. Some reports, however, indicate that things may be taking a step up for the forlorn platform.
Hulu's...
Google Photos raises a glass in the new Cheers! memory collection
The bar and drink-focused section is now appearing for more users
Update
Cheers! section now appearing for more people
Towards the end of 2019, Google Photos started to offer AI-curated memory collections that can be made into photo books. Since the feature was introduced, Google has expanded it...
Final Fantasy VIII Remastered is finally available on Android
It sure took its time
In 2016 Square Enix released Final Fantasy VII and IX on Android, but VIII was still missing from the collection, a point of contention with fans over the last few years. Well, out of nowhere, Square has just released Final Fantasy VIII Remastered on the Play Store, and it's...
SaGa Frontier Remastered is now available for pre-registration
The SaGa collection on Android will soon be growing
Latest update
SaGa Frontier Remastered is gearing up for next month's release
Square Enix recently revealed that the classic PS1-era RPG SaGa Frontier is coming to a plethora of platforms as a remaster in the summer of 2021. The game is slated...
Gboard's glorious Emoji Kitchen combos now support Unicode 13.1 (APK Download)
Prepare for even more emoji fun
Emoji Kitchen is one of the funnest things to make its way into Gboard in years, and Google is constantly working on improving the emoji mix-and-match feature. In its latest iteration, we finally get support for the newest emoji that were introduced as part of Unicode...
Assistant Memory looks like it's about to pick up some great new ways to keep track of stuff
Keeping track of everything from photos to reservations
Google Assistant has been able to "remember" things on your behalf for years now, with voice memos saved across any supported device. It's one of the most valuable tools any voice assistant can offer, and Google's looking to make it a lot more...
Prepare your deck — Magic: The Gathering Arena for Android now leaving early access
These planes were made for walking
The latest version of the decades-old card battle game Magic: The Gathering has been in testing for a few months, with an early access open for at least some countries. Now that's over, and MTG: Arena should be available in many more regions on the Google Play Store....
Crash Bandicoot: On the Run is available on Android a day early
And it's filled with in-app purchases
Latest update
Crash Bandicoot: On the Run is finally available on Android
It would appear that two Crash Bandicoot fans (Jump Button and Motwera) have uncovered an upcoming mobile Crash Bandicoot game through a Facebook search. Currently, there is...
Disney+ is getting more expensive on Friday
But only by a dollar
Disney+ has now gobbled up an impressive 137 million subscribers around the world. Considering that Netflix has a little over 200 million, and it's been at this game for more than a decade, it's fair to call Disney's streaming service an incredible success. But pretty soon it's...
Rocket League is coming to Android later this year — just not the version you want
It's called Rocket League Sideswipe, and you'll play on a 2D plane
Psyonix has just announced that it will be bringing Rocket League to mobile, but it won't come as the core game but instead an offshoot made specifically for mobile that plays on a 2D plane. This title is known as Rocket League...
Samsung updates Good Lock module Pentastic with new Air Command customization for your S Pen
Jazz up your S-Pen experience
Pentastic is one of the newer Good Lock modules, allowing users to customize their S-Pen experience. The latest update adds some custom backgrounds to Air Command, as well as brightness and blur control. After opening Pentastic, tap the style of Air Command you wish to...
Codemasters and NetEase will launch the first open beta for Racing Master tonight
Only a few more hours to go
Update
Racing Master speeds its way onto the Play Store as an open beta
A NetEase developer known as Dahua Studios has just announced that it's working on an upcoming racing game for mobile in conjunction with Codemasters, and it will enter into open beta this month....
Popular meditation app Balance jumps from iOS to Android
Trying out the guided meditation sessions is free, but eventually you'll have to pay up
What with a billion or so people spending almost all of their time at home over the last year, it's no surprise that there's been a boom in the practice of medication. Popular guidance app Balance has been exclusive...
12 temporarily free and 42 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday
Don't miss out on the sales for Samorost 3, Star Traders: Frontiers, and Dragon Quest III
Welcome to Wednesday, everyone. Even though the middle of the week tends to be slow when it comes to sales, I have a handful of noteworthy titles today, including a few standouts. First up is Samorost 3, a gorgeous...
Google’s search tools can help with your homework
Focused on STEM
Google has become invaluable to students and teachers, especially with remote learning becoming a necessity all around the world. Despite some of their shortcomings, the company's tools are generally incredibly helpful, and now, Google has highlighted a few more education-focused...
