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Android Apps you shouldn't miss this week
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Samsung+
Samsung+ is an app for Samsung device owners that gets you exclusive access to help, device security, and more.
Download from Google Play
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Horizon Chase
Horizon Chase is a retro style racing game that is a self-labeled ode to the retro racing games of old! It also happens to be really fun.
Download from Google Play
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Lifeline 2
Lifeline 2 is the latest iteration in the Lifeline series. It's a text-based RPG about a girl trying to save her brother. It has Android Wear support!
Download from Google Play
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Pool
Pool is a new app from the famed file sharing site Mediafire. This app is kind of like Instagram mixed with Google Photos.
Download from Google Play
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Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
One of the games many have been looking forward to is Munch's Oddysee. It's an action-adventure platformer where you must find the last can of an ancient, delicious food!
Download from Google Play
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Headlines this week
- Pushbullet announced a new pro version of their popular application. It'll cost you about $5/month or $40/year. What's new? Pretty much nothing. The pro service is being criticized not because it's charging money, but because it's not giving anyone anything new. The same old Pushbullet now costs money and the free version is now a stripped down version. It's available now if you're interest.
- Starting in early 2016, the Google Play Store will start letting users know if an application has advertising. This will be placed in the app listing right alongside the in-app purchases label to let everybody know. It should start rolling out Monday, January 11th.
- In perhaps the saddest news we've reported on in a while, the mobile-centric Humble Bundles are coming to an end. The service will still have apps in their regular Humble Bundle deals and as individual sales, but no more bundles with just mobile games. It was a staple event covered by this show for years and we're sad to see it go.
- A new feature has been released for Google Search. Now you can actually live stream applications straight from search. Here's how this works. You do a search and if an app is a good search result, you can "stream" the app and see what it looks like and then you can go download it later if you want. It's actually a pretty fun way to demo applications. For now, there aren't a ton of apps but you can try Hotel Tonight if you want to see it for yourself.
- In a surprising move, Google Play removed the famed Tasker application from the Play Store for an alleged permission that would ignore battery optimizations such as Doze Mode. Unfortunately, the app had no such permission in the main version although it was present in the beta version. In any case, the app has been restored to the Play Store and is available right now.
- The season of acquisitions continues this week as Pandora picked up Rdio for a cool $75 million. Rdio was circling the drain and was in the middle of declaring bankruptcy when Pandora stepped in and took over. We don't know how this will affect Pandora, but we'll know for sure sometime in 2016.
- Jonathan Feist has released his weekly Android Customization series where he talks about creating your own voice activated reminders.
- Google announced that over a dozen countries now have a new, lower price that they can set their apps to sell for, giving developers bigger flexibility over their pricing and consumers cheaper apps to buy!
- Coincidentally, Facebook now allows Google to index its application on Google Search. This is no doubt in response to the app streaming feature we talked about earlier.
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App Updates this week
- Google released an update for Google Fit this last week. Included is more stats for runners and strength trainers. Overall, it helps Google Fit be a more well rounded fitness app.
- The final episode of Telltale Games' episodic adventure game Game of Thrones is out now.
- This week, Google announced a sort of "guest mode" on Hangouts that lets you invite non-Hangouts users to video calls.
- Skype received an update this last week that allows users to search conversations for stuff, save video messages, and more.
- In a recent update, Google Maps has turned on offline navigation and search in India.
- Google Camera received a fairly substantial update this last week. In the update, you'll see a brand new interface to hopefully make things easier.
- A new update for Google Photos helps you save phone storage by deleting images and video from your device that it has previously backed up.
- Google+ had a pretty exciting week. The app and the website both received pretty significant redesigns that have been lauded by some and complained about by others.
- A backend update was launched by Google this last week that gives Google Search the ability to process more complex questions.
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