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The Saygus V-Squared smartphone, which debuted with an intriguing presentation at CES a year and a half ago and was still being changed and promised at MWC in February, still isn't available. Of course it isn't. It's coming any day now, it really is, right after Valve releases Half-Life 3, Apple makes a combination television-car, and Google brings Fiber to [insert your town here]. But Team Saygus is insistent that the development process continues, as evidenced by their latest tweet.
Slowly but surely, the creatures are coming. They advance, nation by nation, relentless, refusing to stop until the entire planet is their domain. Hundreds of millions have felt their impact. Politicians and titans of industry are not immune. And even mainstream news outlets are scrambling to find "22 Tips For Catching Pokémon - #12 Will Make You Scream!" Today developer Niantic continues its bid for global mobile gaming domination by expanding Pokémon GO to 15 new markets in Asia, including hundreds of millions of new potential players on iOS and Android.
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we have a gorgeous spaceship/runner game, a Kairosoft manga title, a new twist on minesweeper, a pixelated puzzler, and a fencing fighter. Without further ado:
Olympic Games. Rio de Janeiro. 2016. Right, now that we've hit all of the ridiculous trademarks claimed by the International Olympic Committee and the cease-and-desist letters are already on their way, we can talk about Google's latest Doodles. As explained on the official Search blog, the company's latest fanciful logo reinterpretations hide a selection of minigames, all of which are rather vaguely themed after the upcoming events in Rio.
There's nothing that Samsung loves more than putting celebrities in its commercials. It's hardly alone in that regard, but some of the recent entries seem to be more about the celebrities than the actual phones. Case in point: the first TV commercial for the Galaxy Note 7 after the initial announcement press blitz. It features Christoph Waltz, Hollywood's current go-to somewhat creepy German-speaking dude, mildly berating Americans so they'll buy the phone.
The Nike+ system of sports trackers actually pre-dates Android, or at least the consumer version of the operating system. For a long time Nike withheld Nike+ apps and accessories from Android and Google Play, though they've loosened up a bit in the last few years and posted a bunch of fitness and sports support apps. The latest Nike+ app gets right to the heart of what the company is all about: selling stuff.
Box, the cloud storage service that doesn't start with "Drop," is still around and serving its users. They haven't been making much of a splash lately, though - the last major update to the Android app was way back in February of last year. But users are in for a treat: yesterday's update added a brand new interface. It's been in the works for a while (a beta version popped up over on APK Mirror in June), and the results are appealing. Check out the differences:
There's an old saying that goes, "never attribute to malice what can be explained by carelessness." So I'd rather not accuse Android game publisher Noodlecake of carelessness, since they usually release games that are fun, technically sound, and sometimes even lacking those $100 in-app purchases. But since they've made the Android TV version of snowboarding endless runner Alto's Adventure a $3.99 paid game, while the phone version is free, I'm not left with many other options.
"Hebrew, Hungarian, and Vietnamese" sounds like the setup for a rather tasteless "guys walk into a bar" joke. But don't worry, readers of delicate disposition: it's just the latest update to DuoLingo, the much-loved language learning app. The August 1st update posted to the Play Store lists all three languages as additions to its growing list, so feel free to bone up on them if you're planning an oddly specific bit of international travel.
It's been a while since we've seen any progress on the carrier billing front. Admittedly it's something of a niche feature - if you're using a smartphone there's a good chance that you also have a credit or debit card handy. But if for some reason you'd like to send your Play Store purchases to your wireless provider and pay them along with your bill at the end of the month, it's a handy option. Now it's available on a smattering of new carriers in Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, and Qatar.
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The Nexus 6 isn't exactly a smash hit of a device - between a niche target audience, an unusually large form factor, and a high initial retail price, it hasn't gotten the same warm reception as some other designs in the line. But there are still plenty of Android faithful using "Shamu," and more than a few of them using it on T-Mobile... including multiple Android Police writers. Since the beginning of August, a considerable number of those N6 users on T-Mobile have been experiencing serious connection issues.
Niantic's augmented reality take on Pokémon GO continues to be staggeringly popular as it approaches its one month anniversary. It recently passed 100 million downloads across Android and iOS, despite some rather vocal negative press after the removal of the Pokémon step tracker and third-party tools for hunting monsters manually. Today Niantic is expanding the game to some of the biggest markets it hadn't previously supported: South America and Central America.
Stickers: they're seriously business. Apparently. Not being into all of these newfangled messenger alternatives I've really never seen the point, but they're important enough that super-popular alt messenger Telegram thinks they need their own "trending" section in the app. Version 3.11 adds a trending sticker area to its dedicated sticker page, so you can browse the most popular images being used by the service's hundreds of millions of users. Neat.
The corporate half of the Cyanogen world might have seen better days, but the community-developer ROM is still going strong. They've recently released the CyanogenMod ROM to two new devices. The Huawei Honor 5X and ASUS ZenPad 8.0 have all been given initial nightly builds of CM 13 (based on Android 6.0 code), available to download and flash now.
If you've been a smartphone user for any length of time, you've probably thought that you could design a smartphone better than those hacks who had the gall to put the headphone jack on the top/bottom (delete whichever is inappropriate). Well now you can! Sort of. Chinese manufacturer ZTE is putting out press for "Project CSX," a program that will design products based on input from a community of users. The home of the project is over on the company's official forums.
Scoff all you like, Google purists: there are a lot of people who double-dip Android and iOS/Mac platforms, and we have the analytics to prove it. Those of them who subscribe to Apple's paid Music service (which is built off the bones of ye olde Beats Music) will be happy to hear that the Android version is now out of beta. It was available publicly on the Play Store before, but now it's formally released for everyone. Huzzah.
Cloud storage and reminder apps seem to go together naturally - Evernote and Google Keep both have some basic attachment tools, and they share collaborative elements with things like Dropbox and Drive. Today Dropbox is trying to bring it all together with Paper, the company's first new app in quite a while. It's up on the Play Store in beta form, and like the primary storage app, it's free to download and use.
Google's Creative Lab internal division certainly has a diverse body of work. Between all the experimental apps and weird web tools released under the name, you can find entries that range from novel to straight-laced and back again. The latest addition to the catalog falls into the former category. Verne: The Himalayas is a virtual tour of the world's highest mountain range, utilizing both Google's 3D satellite mapping technology and a cartoon abominable snowman.
Mobius Final Fantasy looks like a pretty standard entry in the famous RPG series from the last ten years or so: vague otherworldly threat, androgynous young hero, production design that borders on cocaine-fueled insanity. It helps that the plot is fleshed out in beautiful 3D cutscenes with full voice acting and orchestral music, unlike other "original" Final Fantasy mobile games such as All The Bravest. Indeed, Mobius might be the first Square-Enix title that can lay claim to being a truly original Final Fantasy game, built from the ground up for mobile devices. Today it gets a worldwide release, and it's a free download on the Play Store.
Look, it's not as if we at Android Police are fanatically opposed to Cheetah Mobile as a company. I can see how one could get that impression from reading the previous Cheetah stories, I really can. But between screwing up an otherwise anticipated game sequel with in-app purchases, screwing up a perfectly good ASUS phone with bloatware, or screwing up future generations of developers with bloatware classes, it's hard not to see them as the cackling cartoon villains of the Android software world. The company's latest acquisition is a French news aggregator call News Republic.