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QuakeAlertUSA might become your early earthquake warning app of choice

Anyone who lives near what's called the Ring of Fire is aware of "the big one" coming. Earthquakes are some of the most devastating natural disasters to occur in a short span of time. And while scientists have been able to develop an early warning system, it can only give people a moment's notice to take shelter — but every second counts. One such app that has recently come out is QuakeAlertUSA from Early Warning Labs.

QuakeAlertUSA might become your early earthquake warning app of choice was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 3:46 AM No comments

Pokémon Go will expand online PvP battles with a new ranked league in 2020 (Update: Rolling out now)

Update 1: 2020/01/28 10:10am PST
GO Battle League is starting to roll out

Pokémon GO got a little closer to its established universe when Pokémon trading was added to the game, which was soon followed by player versus player (PvP) Trainer Battles. Players are required to be within close physical proximity — or have a certain friendship level for battle — to use either feature. Niantic plans to get rid of this limit, at least for trainer fights, with the upcoming GO Battle League that will pair you with an opponent, regardless of their location

GO Battle League will do away with trainers’ proximity restrictions of the existing Trainer Battles in favor of a new matching system that will have no geographical limitations.

Pokémon Go will expand online PvP battles with a new ranked league in 2020 (Update: Rolling out 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 1:16 AM No comments

Pokémon Home will let you share your Pokémon across multiple devices and games (Update: Coming Feb. 2020)

Update 1: 2020/01/28 9:22am PST
Nintendo reveals Pokémon HOME is coming to Android in February

Pokémon has been an international phenomenon ever since it populated the early Game Boys. By now, the franchise has become considerably more cross-platform, with Pokémon GO available on Android and iOS and Pokémon Let's Go on the Nintendo Switch. At a press conference on Tuesday, the company behind the games announced Pokémon Home, the missing link between its games: It allows trainers to bring over their favorite pocket monsters from one platform to another for the first time (well, wirelessly anyway).

Pokémon Home will let you share your Pokémon across multiple devices and games (Update: Coming Feb. 2020) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 12:46 AM No comments

Flashing Builds from the Android Open Source Project

Posted by Mitchell Wills, Android Build Software Engineer

AOSP has been around for a while, but flashing builds onto a development device has always required a number of manual steps. A year ago we launched Android's Continuous Integration Dashboard, which gives more visibility into the continuous build status of the AOSP source tree. However, these builds were not available for phones and flashing devices still required a manual command line process.

In order to support developers working in AOSP we are launching Android Flash Tool, which allows developers to flash devices with builds listed on the Continuous Integration Dashboard. This can be used by developers working on the Android OS to test changes or App developers to test compatibility with the latest AOSP build.

A device being flashed.

Android Flash Tool allows anyone to use a browser supporting WebUSB, such as Chrome 79 or Edge 79, to flash an Android device entirely from the browser (Windows requires installing a driver). After connecting a device and authorizing the page to connect to it users will be presented with a list of available builds. After choosing a build click flash and the tool does the rest. You can flash recent Pixel devices and the HiKey reference boards with builds based on aosp-master.

Try Android Flash Tool yourself at https://flash.android.com.

Find out more at https://source.android.com/setup/contribute/flash.

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Android Developers Blog 12:44 AM No comments

Shadowgun War Games could be mobile's answer to Overwatch, and it's coming to Android Feb. 12 (Update)

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's clear that Madfinger Games hasn't given up on the title, and is now offering a beta sign-up on its website, and since registration is open to anyone, only so many slots in the beta will be available, so make sure to sign up soon, or else you may miss out.

Shadowgun War Games could be mobile's answer to Overwatch, and it's coming to Android Feb. 12 (Update) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 10:16 PM No comments

New Pixel 4 Google Assistant is rolling out support for three-button navigation

The Pixel 4 launched with a few innovative features, among them a new version of Google Assistant that integrates much tighter with the system than older implementations. After its initial release, some issues quickly arose, though. You couldn't use the new Assistant with G Suite accounts or with languages other than English, and you had to activate gesture navigation to get it to work. While G Suite users and non-English speakers are still left in the cold, the rethought Assistant finally supports the tried-and-true three-button navigation.

New Pixel 4 Google Assistant is rolling out support for three-button navigation was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 8:16 PM No comments

Google Duo now lets you send notes and doodles to your contacts

Reports of Duo's death have been greatly exaggerated. The app has continued to receive new features and improvements over the past year, and seemingly no longer requires a phone number. Now there's a new feature you can try out: drawing notes.

"We’re introducing this feature as we got feedback from users that they're looking for a more visual way to connect with their friends when one of them may be unavailable to get on a video call," Google said.

Google Duo now lets you send notes and doodles to your contacts was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 6:16 AM No comments

Get ready for the Game Developers Conference

Posted by Kacey Fahey, Games Developer Marketing, Google

Cross-posting from the Google Developers Blog.

Google For Games at GDC March 16-20, 2020

Join us online or live* at the Google Developer Summits during the Game Developers Conference on March 16 and 17 to learn about the latest tools and updates to build great games, reach more players, and improve discovery of your game.

Google has lots to share with the game development community at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March. Check out our plans and sign up to keep up to date with the latest GDC news and announcements from Android, Google Play, Firebase, and more.

For one week, tens of thousands of creators from the gaming community come together at GDC to hear the latest industry innovations and network with peers to enable better gaming experiences for players around the world.

Below is a preview of what to expect from Google, and remember, it’s just the beginning. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter as we reveal more leading up to the event, or you can check out our website, Google for Games at GDC.

Google for Games Keynote

We will start the week with the Google for Games Keynote on Monday, March 16 at 9:30 am PST. Join the livestream and learn about the latest tools and solutions to help game developers create great games, connect with players, and scale their businesses.

Google Developer Keynote photo at GDC 2019

Google Developer Summit

We have two days of in-depth sessions where you can uplevel your skills across Google products and solutions. Topics range from new tools to optimize game development, how to reach more devices and players, using new Firebase features to alleviate infrastructure management challenges, and much more.

Learn more about the Google Developer Summit we’ll be hosting on March 16 -17 and how you can join in person with an official GDC ticket or via livestream.

We’ll be sharing more details about everything we have planned at GDC in the coming weeks so be sure to sign up to be among the first to hear the latest updates, and save the date to watch the keynote and other Developer Summit sessions at g.co/gdc2020.

More to come soon!

The Google for Games team

*On-site events are part of the official Game Developers Conference and require a pass to attend.