Items tagged with Google-Play
Late last month, Epic Games submitted an amended complaint against Google, which ended up being heavily redacted. However, it appears that Google has lifted some of the redactions, giving us a better insight into the arguments at hand, though much has still been left out. In the filing, submitted on August 5th, Epic claims that Google felt threatened by any app store other than Google Play. It was written that “Google has deliberately changed its course of conduct, erecting contractual and technological barriers that foreclose competing ways of distributing apps to Android users.” One such example of this is when Epic struck a deal with OEM OnePlus to make its games available through...
Read more...
In late June, Google began the phaseout of Android Application Packages (APKs) in favor of Android Application Bundles (AABs). With these changes and improvements for developers, the Mountain View-based company is now introducing the Android Game Development Kit (AGDK), “a full range of tools and libraries to help you develop, optimize, and deliver high quality Android games.” Announced yesterday, the AGDK has three key pillars: it is built for game development around C or C++ APIs with performance in mind, cross-compatible across Android versions, and backward compatible, when possible, with future Android platform updates. Furthermore, the developers behind the ADGK are “focusing...
Read more...
Google Stadia is an easy way to access and play many games, from virtually anywhere via the cloud, provided you do not have a powerful PC or console on hand. And it appears the service is getting better as Stadia for Android is preparing something called “bridge mode”, which will allow gamers to use their smartphones or other connected devices as a controller to play games on a TV. As Stadia version 3.15 begins to roll out through the Google Play store, a new feature called “bridge mode” has been spotted. As it stands, if you want to play games on Stadia using a Chromecast Ultra, you can only use a Google-made Stadia controller that works over Wi-Fi. With the bridge mode...
Read more...
Privacy and security have become Google’s modus operandi after the company announced a Password Manager for Android, iOS, and Chrome the other day. Now, the Android arm of Google is taking steps to make Google Play a more “safe, trusted space for billions of people to enjoy the latest Android apps.” The company is therefore “pre-announcing” an upcoming safety section in Google Play to allow people to know how their data is being collected and used. Working closely with developers, Google will be giving people transparency and control over their own data soon. This will be done through simple means of communicating app safety which are easy to understand for an end-user...
Read more...
Contrary to some beliefs, mobile devices are vulnerable to malware, such as recent spyware that was posing as an Android system update. Today, researchers have disclosed a new piece of mobile malware that hides in a fake application and is spreading itself through WhatsApp. This is just the latest reminder that people need to be more careful about the links they click and the apps they download on any device. The fake application, called “FlixOnline,” was discovered in the Google Play store by researchers at Check Point Research. It was found that if any user downloaded the app and granted the requested permissions, the malware then automatically replies to a victim’s WhatsApp...
Read more...
As the Apple and Epic Games battle rages on, regular consumers and even lawmakers are starting to notice and weigh in on the situation. This includes the Arizona House, which introduced House Bill 2005 making it illegal to force an Arizona-based developer to use an app store’s payment processing service. According to the Arizonan bill, digital application distribution platforms cannot do the following: Require a developer that is domiciled in this state to use a particular in-application payment system as the exclusive mode of accepting payments from a user to download a software application or purchase a digital or physical product or service through a software application. There...
Read more...
Billions of people worldwide use Android daily to learn, work, and play. As such, people have come to expect upgrades and improvements to the operating system over time. To make this happen, Google has started work on Android 12 and released a developer preview of the OS to get it polished before launch. With the developer preview launch, privacy and security are taking center stage alongside improved user experiences and compatibility features. Privacy And Security Privacy and security have become incredibly important to end-users in recent years, and Google seems to be listening. First in the list of new features is something called “Modern SameSite cookie behaviors in WebView,”...
Read more...
As the WallStreetBets fiasco heated up yesterday, Robinhood and other companies were restricting free trade of GameStop and AMC stocks under the guise of “helping users.” Since then, people have been outraged, enough so to initiate class-action lawsuits against the stock-trading app. Individual users are also now taking to leaving poor reviews on Robinhood’s app store pages due to the issues, but it appears that Google is stopping those. 9to5Google reported that since restricting the stocks targeted by WallStreetBets, the Robinhood Android app was inundated with over 100,000 negative reviews, which brought the review average to 1 star. Previously, the app sat around four stars,...
Read more...
Google is going loud with new regulations to get their app store developers in line. With a possible new update to guidelines, Google emphasizes the 30% cut of purchases and leveling the playing field by making apps that skirted the rule come into compliance. According to a source familiar with the situation, Google could be moving to update app store regulations as early as next week. These updated guidelines would break the resounding silence Google had had since the Epic versus Apple spat began when Fortnite circumvented the 30% app tax on both stores. Epic Games, however, are not the only ones skirting the rule it seems. As reported by Bloomberg, “major developers including Netflix...
Read more...
Google is facing a serious issue with privacy and malicious apps on the Google Play store for Android users. The company recently kicked 85 apps that were malware-laden off the Play Store, and has now announced that the removal process for any apps that ask for SMS or Call Log permissions is beginning for developers who fail to follow specific steps. The policy change was announced last year, and Google has reportedly been reminding devs of the change. Removals for violation of the policy will begin in the next few weeks. Android users who have been using an alternative dialer or messaging app could be impacted. The reason for the policy change is that call and SMS log permissions have been abused...
Read more...
Is your smartphone secretly recording your screen activity? It turns out that conspiracy theorists may have some justification for their concern. Computer scientists from Northeastern University determined that some apps do violate a user’s privacy by quietly capturing pictures, videos, and recorded audio. According to the Northeastern University scientists, their research was the “first large-scale empirical study of media permissions and leaks from Android apps, covering 17,260 apps from Google Play, App China, Mi.com, and Anzhi.” The researchers worked with ten Android devices and an automated program to use the apps and determine whether any media files were sent to...
Read more...
Will the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have a notched display, as is the growing trend among Android devices, or will it skip the notch and use a more traditional bezel design at the top? The answer to that question might simply be 'Yes!', though that requires further explanation. Here it is—among a series of leaks and rumors, the most recent one suggests the Pixel 3 will have a regular bezel along the top, and the Pixel 3 XL will adopt a notched design. While the notched designed is relatively new, adopting it for one model and not another isn't unprecedented. Apple did the same thing when it launched its iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X models, the latter of which popularized the notch...
Read more...
If you have never listened to an audiobook, you are missing out on one of the better types of entertainment for long trips or people who drive a lot. The biggest name in audiobooks right now is Audible and it has been for a long time. However, Google wants people to think first of Google Play when they want a new audiobook and to facilitate that Google Play Audiobooks has some new updates to help better compete. These new features are things that some might think Google should have added to its audiobooks service at launch and include things such as smart resume and bookmarks. Google Play audiobooks launched in January and allows fans to get audiobooks directly via the Google Play Books...
Read more...
Last Friday mobile gamers got a surprise when PUBG Mobile launched in Canada. At the time the game launched in The Great White North, the only way for U.S. gamers to partake in the fun was to change their region and download the game. PUBG Mobile has now officially landed in the U.S. and the game is available on both Android and iOS platforms. The game is said to be an accurate and faithful reproduction of gameplay currently available on PC and console systems, and promises high-quality graphics thanks to Unreal Engine 4 along with HD audio. Perhaps the best news about PUBG Mobile is that the game is free, whereas it costs money to play on PC or console systems. If you have never played...
Read more...
Gamers in the Great White North got a surprise this week as without warning and with no fanfare, PUBG Mobile landed on the Google Play store in the country. This launch highlights the promise that the developer made to get the game on all major platforms. The game is an officially licensed mobile version and the soft launch is viewed as an early release to allow gamers to grab the game and beat on it for stability before a presumed larger rollout. PUBG did the same thing when it launched in early access form on Steam and stayed there for a long time before hitting an official release. Canada isn’t the first country to get a PUBG Mobile game, China was the first. The launch in Canada is...
Read more...
Symantec has issued a warning that it found at least eight different apps on Google Play that were infected with a malware called Android.Sockbot. The apps all posed as add-ons for Minecraft: Pocket Edition and claimed to change the way characters look in the game with new skins. The infection from these apps was widespread with an install base between 600,000 and 2.6 million devices. The malware was mainly focused on infecting users in the U.S., but there were infections in Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, and Germany as well. Symantec says that it set up network analysis of the malware and found that it was aimed at generating illegal ad revenue. However, the apps had no functionality to display ads...
Read more...
Anyone who has driven an Android smartphone any distance whatsoever has no doubt wondered whether any of the apps they use could be serving as information conduits. The relaxed vetting process that the Google Play Store has in place ('relaxed' versus the jailer-esque process in use by those minding Apple's app store) results in their stocking all but the most obviously malicious apps, after all, so a little suspicion in the mix just makes sense. So is this neat new Find Parking app that just asked for location privileges pushing data on my movements into some database somewhere? Will personal data end up indelibly etched on a list (or two...or ten) if I use this app to buy the concert tickets...
Read more...
With a full-throated "Me too!" targeted straight at Microsoft's recently-released Outlook app, Google yesterday upgraded their Gmail email app for Android to better support non-Google email accounts, including @yahoo and @outlook. Since last year users have been able to configure their other IMAP/Pop accounts to their Gmail for Android app, however, the app's somewhat shoddy design required users to switch between accounts to read and act on the content therein. With Gmail, Android users can now easily manage all the email from all of their accounts in a unified Inbox — the new "All Inboxes" option — in which they can view and respond to all of their email messages without needing...
Read more...
It’s great that there are folks out there who look for exploits and vulnerabilities and then let companies know about them before ne’er-do-wells have a chance to perform malicious actions, but one hacker made himself something of a nuisance early this week by doing just that. According to CNN Money, Turkish hacker Ibrahim Balic was testing a vulnerability he discovered on Google’s Developer Console when he crashed Google Play. Developers were unable to post new apps and updates. The crash occurred on Sunday and extended into Monday. After Google fixed the problem, Balic tested the vulnerability again--and crashed Google Play again. He told CNN Money that he expected the exploit...
Read more...
While Microsoft considers whether or not to take its ball and go home, Google wants to play with everybody. The company’s Google Play Games is dropping some new features this week at GDC, including the expansion of multiplayer support for iOS devices. That’s right--Android and iOS gamers can challenge each other, in turn-based and real-time multiplayer games, thanks largely to the new Play Games Unity Plugin and an early Play Games C++ SDK that also supports leaderboards and achievements. Game Gifts Other features include the ability to send your pals in-game objects with “game gifts”, direct multiplayer invites, and 18 new game categories in the Google Play Store. For...
Read more...
A month ago, Pebble announced that its app store was going to be available within its iOS and Android app, and after a delay, the Android version is now available in addition to the iOS version. You can simply snag the Pebble app store app from Google Play and use it to browse for and download watchfaces and other Pebble apps. For instance, Pebble has a few new app partners in eBay, Evernote, and Time Warner Cable. The announcement about the app store availability included a note that Pebble smartwatches now get Pebble for Android 2.0, too. Pebble Evernote app Pebble is making strong progress with its product offerings. With this release, the Pebble App Store is available on the two dominant...
Read more...
Although it cuts against the app’s actual name, NVIDIA’s TegraZone is now available on all Android devices whether or not they’re running a Tegra chip. This, courtesy of TegraZone v.2.9, which is now available in the Google Play Store. With the update, users can track their game collection across any and all of their Android devices, and there’s support for Google Play Game Services as well, which includes achievements for downloading games, submitting reviews and ratings, and more. You can also personalize your TegraZone experience with Google+ login implementation. One feature sure to make a few users happy is full support for controls for the NVIDIA SHIELD and MadCatz...
Read more...
