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If you were, for some reason, hoping to download CM File Manager or Kika Keyboard, I have some bad news. A report last week claimed that Cheetah Mobile and an associated company called Kika Tech were engaged in some shady advertising practices, and now Google has responded. These two apps have been suspended from the Play Store, and Google may still take further action.
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Google Photos makes it easy to back up every photo and video you capture on your phone, but some of those files might eat into your Google storage allowance. You can let Google compress files or get a Pixel if you want unlimited storage, but it can be hard to keep track of all those files. If you want to know which files are taking up your space, Google Drive has the answer (both the app and website).
Wires are so yesterday, but it's hard to find a good set of true wireless earbuds without breaking the bank. The TicPods Free from Mobvoi might not have everything you want, but they're a good deal at $130. Today, they're an even better deal with a $30 discount on Amazon.The TocPods Free do an admirable AirPod impression with their long stems. They're not quite as compact, but they have proper ear tips that will actually stay in your ear. Sound quality is impressive for the price, and they get around 4 hours of battery life with another three or four charges in the case. Sadly, they charge via microUSB instead of Type-C.
The news reports you get from Google Assistant are about to get a whole lot smarter, or so says Google. The same artificial intelligence that powers the Google News app is coming to Assistant. Google pitches the new system as a way to get quick, personalized news in audio form throughout the day.
What good is a smartwatch without some fancy custom watch faces to go with it? Facer has been one of the best sources for cusotmizable watch faces since the days before Google supported third-party watch faces. The app is forging ahead, even as interest in smartwatches has waned. The big v5.0 update adds more designers, including some traditional watchmakers. There's also a new premium subscription option that includes the full catalog of watch faces.
Lenovo's Smart Display was the first Assistant-powered screen on the market, but it wasn't cheap. Luckily, the price has come down somewhat over the last few months. It even got as low as $150 at Costco on Black Friday. Today's sale isn't quite that low, but it's close at $160.
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- It's only been a week since we saw Samsung first start accepting sign-ups for the Note9's One UI Pie beta program, and reports have already begun arriving of the software hitting users' phones.
Samsung has traditionally been behind on UI design, which I know is shocking for the company that brought you TouchWiz. However, it's trying to turn things around with One UI. The revamped Pie-based interface is coming next year in stable form, but there's a beta. That beta has apparently expanded to US unlocked Note 9 devices. Yay.
We at Android Police endeavor to bring you the best Android-related news, but rarely do we get to bring you Android police news. Today, we do. The popular indie game "This Is the Police" is coming to Android, and you can sign up for a release notification right now.
Battery technology has been slow to evolve, which limits how much processing power we can pack into pocket-sized devices. If only there was some magical new technology that could solve the world's battery woes. Graphene? Lithium-air? No, the answer, friends, is the ASUS ROG Phone. This modern marvel of mobile technology has two USB-C ports, so obviously, it can charge itself.
When Google announced the revamped Google One subscription, it said there would be special perks and deals for members. It didn't offer much in the way of examples at the time, but it's starting to take shape with a new promo. If you've got a Google One subscription, check your email. You may well have an offer for up to $200 off the Pixel 3/3 XL.
Google Lens made its debut in the Google Photos app on select devices a while back, but now it's available everywhere. You can still search from the Photos app, but Google just added a new shortcut to make it easier to scan your photos. From Lens, just tap the album button at the top of the screen, and you're all set.
It's possible that you have some inappropriate images on your phone, and it's also possible you will occasionally receive more of them. I'm not here to judge, but there's a new app that judges for you what is and is not NSFW. Cover automatically finds and segregates NSFW photos and videos on your device, even if you've forgotten they're saved. It can operate in the background to hide such items before they appear unexpectedly in other apps, too.
With 2018 coming to a close, it's time to start obsessing over 2019 phone rumors. Top of the list is Samsung's upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S10. We've heard a lot of tidbits about this one, and now we've got some renders to go with them. They show a phone with a screen covering almost the entire front of the device, save for an oblong gap in the corner. This could be Samsung's take on the notch, and I bet a lot of you aren't going to like it.
The deals always pick up after a phone has been out for a few weeks, and that's been true of the Pixel 3 and 3 XL. If you missed those Black Friday sales, there's still something waiting for you at the Google Store. If you want to pick up the latest Google phones, you can get a free Pixel Stand and some extra earbuds.
Skype is rolling out a new feature today in recognition of United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Starting now, you can get live captions in your Skype video calls, making the service more accessible for those with hearing impairment. Even if you hear just fine, this feature might help you filter out the noise in a busy video call.
Reddit has made some substantial changes in the last couple of years with the launch of an official app, a new site design, and (most recently) a new system for "gilding" posts. Now, the official Android app is getting a related update. You can now make in-app purchases to get Reddit Coins—up to $100 worth of them.
The device we currently know as the "NVIDIA SHIELD" is not the first one to carry the name. That honor goes to the handheld device launched in 2013, later renamed SHIELD Portable. After that came the SHIELD Tablet, and finally the SHIELD Android TV in 2015. It was not the only way to get Android TV, but NVIDIA's box is the only one that had any staying power. Three years on, this device has gotten 20 updates across three major Android versions. I can't think of another Android device that offers so much value after more than three years of use. That's why we're taking another look at the SHIELD—it's changed quite a lot.NVIDIA has added integrations with services like Plex and SmartThings, and there's the ever-evolving GeForce Now streaming service. While NVIDIA has launched a revamped, smaller SHIELD, the original hardware gets all the same updates and features. The Android TV implementation looks and works much differently than it did in 2015, not always for the best, though. If you want a powerful Android TV box, there's simply no other choice. For all intents and purposes, the SHIELD is Android TV, but that's not all it is.Note: For this re-review, I have been using the revamped 2017 model. However, most of this is equally true of the original 2015 version.
The update to Android Pie was supposed to be faster in the wake of Project Treble, but most phones are still languishing on Oreo. HTC announced several months ago which of its phones would get Pie, a list that included most of its recent releases. Well, the first one is rolling out now—it's the HTC U11 Life.
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- The 2016 Pixel's delay in receiving their November monthly security updated garnered plenty of attention, but a technical explanation for the additional wait was never provided. If you've been curious, we're told the developers of the popular ROM Dirty Unicorns may have dug up a potential answer: Google ran out of space in the system partition for those devices trying to bring APEX to the hardware.
Unlike most Android device makers, Google promises monthly updates for its Pixel smartphones. For the 2016 Pixels, that consisted of two years for system updates and another year of security OTAs. Owners of those phones were naturally concerned when the November security update never arrived while newer devices got quick OTAs. Well, now it has.