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Click the image above to watch the video on YouTube!
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Android Apps you shouldn't miss this week
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Poncho
Poncho is an adorable little weather app that's perfect if you like colors. You'll need to sign up for the beta first, though.
Sign up for the beta here!
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Assassin' Creed Identity
Assassin's Creed Identity is an action RPG game based around the Assassin's Creed universe.
Download from Google Play
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Playbook by Google Play
Playbook is a fun new app that allows you to check out the latest Android features. Great for developers!
Sign up for the beta here!
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Spaces
Spaces is a new social network that is built into Google+. It's like a social network that builds mini social networks!
Download from Google Play
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Vector 2
Vector 2 is the latest in the Vector franchise. It's a parkour-themed platformer with miniaml graphics, a fun premise, and lots of fun stunts to pull off.
Download from Google Play
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Headlines this week
- The Google Play app awards was announced at Google I/O this week. Some of the winners included Clash Royale taking best game, Pokemon Shuffle Mobile taking the Go Global award, and the best app was Houzz, which is an interior design app. All of the games were Freemium which is kind of sad but the apps were pretty decent if you want to check them out.
- Google I/O was full of stats about Android, including some fun app stats. According to Google, there were 65 billion installs from Google Play this last year, with 200 million active Google Photos users and one billion active Google Chrome mobile users.
- It has been officially announced that Android apps are coming to Chromebooks. The feature will roll out sometime later this year and should include well over a million apps and games. It won't be available for all Chromebooks, as older models will be getting the shaft, but this is a big deal for the OS as a whole.
- During Google I/O, they announced that Daydream is coming which will be Google's VR platform. As part of the presentation, they showed off what the YouTube VR app will look like and it looks pretty awesome. It was also announced that Unity and Unreal engines will support Daydream, so you can expect some fun games to come out.
- Google also announced Allo and Duos, a couple of new messaging apps meant to be used in tandem. Duos is a one-on-one video chatting service while Allo is a text messaging service that includes smart features from Google Assistant. Allo will have encryption and both apps seem to have quite a few features. We'll know more when it gets released later this year, but you can sign up for pre-registration now. This will be alongside Hangouts, which reportedly isn't going anywhere.
- Another big announcement from Google I/O is that Android Auto will eventually be a standalone app that you can run on your smartphone and tablet. This will give you Auto in virtually any car without forking out the money for expensive upgrades or a new car. It should be released to Android later this year.
- Android Wear 2.0 was announced at Google I/O and you may be wondering why this is featured in an apps news roundup. That's because the new OS will allow apps to be installed and run natively on the watch without a phone companion which is will make watches standalone devices instead of just companion devices. That's exciting.
- Sometime soon, Google is rolling out an update to the Google Play Store that will allow everyone to find beta apps more easily so testers can have a little more fun. On top of that, they also announced the Family Library which will allow you to share your purchases with other people's devices. These features should be rolling out later this year.
- Google announced a new thing called Android Instant Apps, a feature that will allow you to download and use select parts of an application based on what you want to do. For instance, you could download just enough of Amazon to place an order, but without having to install the full app. It should work on devices running Jelly Bean and later when it's released.
- One of the key announcements at Google I/O was Google Assistant. It's a personal assistant that promises to be much, much stronger than Google Now and will be integrated into a number of Google products, including Google Home, Allo, and others. The demonstration at I/O was impressive to say the least and we're excited to see it in action.
- Pokemon GO is now open for beta registration for people in the United States. Signing up for the beta has no assurances that you'll actually get in, but it is an opportunity to try the app out before everyone else. The good news is that even if you don't get selected for the beta, you can still get an email notification when the game is widely available.
- Never Alone, a game that has been on Nvidia Shield devices for a while now, will soon be on Android proper. The release date is slated for June 23rd, 2016 which is just a scant month away. The game is a beautifully done platformer where you play as a girl with her dog. It'll likely be expensive, but we tested on our Shield devices and it's pretty good.
- Koushik Dutta's popular Chrome app Vysor, which allows you to mirror your Android device on your screen, was pulled from the Chrome store due to a patent complaint. It has been brought back with a payment option in order to pay for the patents used in the software.
- Soon, Google Chrome will start disabling Flash by default on most websites later this year. The top 10 websites will have a little extra time to get their stuff together, but eventually, Flash will be phased out of Chrome.
- If you're wondering what Samsung's Good Lock UI will look like, we have a video that will show you!
- If you want to learn more about Android game developer, we have an awesome tutorial available for beginners!
- In this week's Android Customization, Feist will show you how to throttle your own processor using root access and Tasker.
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App Updates this week
- A big update was released for Cortana this week that will allow the personal assistant app to sync notifications natively between Windows 10 and Android.
- Google Keyboard was shown off at Google I/O as part of the Android N Preview 3. It comes with some new features, including themes. We don't know when it will be released to the public, but it's on Android N Preview 3 right now.
- Spotify released an update this week that makes it compatible with Android TV!
- Yahoo Mail was updated this last week. Included is a few new features, improved syncing, and improved contact management.
- Great news, Android Pay is now available in the UK!
- The official STARZ app got an update this week that gave compatibility to some Android TV devices!
- T-Mobile's Binge On and Music Freedom initiative added some new apps this week, including Google Play Music (finally!), Spotify, Radio Disney, TIDAL, NBC, and more!
- Twitter is considering not including things like images and links in the overall character limit, which would be awesome.
- It has been reported that WhatsApp is rolling out video calling to beta testers here in the near future.
- Waze received an update this week that allows people to plan carpools. It's only in San Francisco for right now.
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