Android Police

Martim Lobao-

Martim Lobao

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About Martim Lobao

Martim is more of a numbers guy. He likes biking. He goes rock climbing to overcome his fear of heights. He is also the former world-record holder for youngest man alive. To get in touch via email, please feel free to reach me at martim [at] androidpolice.com

Latest Articles

If you own a home security camera, chances are you've already heard of tinyCam Monitor. It's one of the most full-featured surveillance apps on the Play Store, and pairing it with any average security camera will get you virtually all the functionality of something more professional like the Dropcam for a fraction of the price.

We've been seeing more and more competition among mesh Wi-Fi networking kits over the past few months, with even Google dipping its toe into the segment with Google Wifi back in October of last year. One big advantage Google Wifi has over some of its competitors that have been on the market for a while longer is price: whereas a three-pack from eero would set you back $499 and $399 from Luma, one from Google costs only $299.

Google has recently updated its Android Pay support page to reflect the addition of 35 new elements to the list of US banks that are compatible with the service, bringing the grand total to over 600 banks. In other words, Android Pay now works with more American banks than you probably even knew existed in the entire United States.

Like clockwork, this week's 10 cent app discounts have just rolled out to the Play Store in several countries. This time, we're getting these two titles: Piano Melody Pro and RE-VOLT Classic 3D.

The world of startups is an incredibly harsh one, with most companies ending up either getting bought or closing down — assuming they even manage to gain any traction in the first place. AppGratis is unfortunately an example of a startup that's recently fallen into the latter category, having just announced its shutdown a few days ago.

In an interview today with TechCrunch, Dieter May, Senior Vice President of Digital Services and Business Models, revealed that BMW has no current plans to integrate Android Auto into any of its cars. Instead, May prioritizes continued investment in ConnectedDrive, the brand's own platform of connected services.

Another year, another Exynos SoC. After teasing the Exynos 9 last week, Samsung has officially unveiled its new line of mobile chips. Samsung's Exynos chipsets are arguably the last remaining major competitor to Qualcomm's Snapdragon series, after both TI and Intel ceased manufacturing mobile processors and the loss of popularity of Nvidia's Tegra lineup among smartphones, and showcase the company's best efforts in developing an in-house SoC.

Google today announced that it has acquired Limes Audio, a Swedish sound company specializing in acoustic echo cancellation and speech enhancement. The move reaffirms Google's intentions to continue improving sound and call quality across its suite of products, particularly in Google Hangouts.

With the breakup and shut down of Cyanogen Inc, CyanogenMod — Android's most popular ROM — is also being discontinued. Of course, the advantage of an open source project is that it never really dies, and so Lineage OS is picking up where CyanogenMod left off (hence the lineage, get it?). The new OS is just a few weeks old, so many things are still falling into place. After having received a definitive name, Lineage OS is now getting an official new logo as well.

Just in time for the new year, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today officially launched the BHIM app, the country's new mobile payment solution. BHIM (which stands for Bharat Interface for Money) is India's bet to push the switch to a cashless economy, requiring nothing more than a smartphone to make any sort of transaction.

Android Pay may not yet exist where you live, but it is slowly continuing to expand into new markets. As of today, Pay is available in Ireland, making this effectively the first time a user can use euros with Android Pay.

Many Nexus 5X and 6P owners were understandably annoyed after discovering that several of the headline features announced for the new Pixel and Pixel XL would not be coming to their own devices. The Nexus line had always been synonymous to getting the latest and greatest directly from Google, and suddenly realizing that wasn't entirely true in a post-Nexus era left some users with a bad taste in their mouth.

One of the more annoying things about buying a non-Nexus (erm, non-Pixel) device is that sometimes you have to put up with the OEM's weird and whacky software quirks. Sometimes these genuinely add to the experience, other times... they don't. An example of one that falls into the latter category is the tiny notification bell on the lockscreen of ZTE's otherwise perfectly good Axon 7.

It seems like everyone is trying to get customers to buy the new Pixel phones, with Google buying out full-page ads, to T-Mobile offering $325 in bill credit to anyone who registers their Pixel with the carrier. For someone who's willing to spend a little time looking for a good bargain, it's relatively easy to knock off a few hundred bucks off the price of a Pixel.

Do you want to go trick-or-treating but don't feel like getting off your couch? Don't worry, Google's got you covered. With Google Maps and Google Street View, you can visit some of the spookiest places on Earth from the comfort (and safety) of your home.

A new update to Android Marshmallow 6.0 has begun rolling out for the two-year-old ASUS Padfone S. The hybrid device launched back in July of 2014 with KitKat 4.4.2 and offered a unique compromise between the portability of a phone and the screen real estate of a tablet — without resorting to the predictable phablet form factor.

After a report from The Information a few days ago claiming that Google would be ditching the Google for Work brand today, Google has officially announced that their business-oriented service will now simply be called Google Cloud.

Honest companies are expected to retain their users by offering the best service they can provide and not by actively locking them in and making it hard to switch to a competitor. Google, for example, lets users easily download all their contacts, bookmarks, photos, emails, and other personal data though Google Takeout. From there, anyone is free to close their account and move to a competing service, no questions asked. There are certainly companies that don't behave this way, but this is usually viewed with disapproving eyes — particularly when the company in question is already the biggest player on the market.

Google Patents might not be the most exciting of Google's search products, but it's one that's essential in realizing Google's mission of organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful. However, the world is made up of more than just a half-dozen countries, which is why Google has just announced that it's adding 11 new countries to its patent database, bringing the total to 17 patent offices around the globe.

Qualcomm's latest generation Snapdragon 821 chipset was announced back in July, but details have remained scarce until now. Today, Qualcomm has shared a lot more information on what we believe will likely be the processor that powers the next generation of Google's flagship phones.

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