latest
Samsung TV Plus will come to more European countries this month
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden
Read update
Samsung is responsible for some of the most popular Android phones in the world, but the company has plenty of other ventures up its corporate sleeves as well. Samsung brought its TV Plus service to select Galaxy phones a few months back, and it's announcing expanded availability that includes two new countries now with more on the way next year.
YouTube Premium comes with free channel memberships until December 31
But again, only if you live in any of these five countries
Last year, YouTube launched channel memberships as a bid to woo creators away from other platform-building sites such as Patreon and drive more revenue. But memberships can't be worth anything if there aren't any members, so for the second time this year, the Google-owned video sharing site is now offering free membership to YouTube Premium subscribers in several countries.
Instagram Reels officially goes global to face off against TikTok
What a time for choreographed lipsync karaoke partiers
Instagram, and then all of Facebook, famously and shamelessly copied the feature that made Snapchat stand out of the crowd: Stories. Now, Instagram is turning its attention toward the latest hot social media platform, TikTok, and has released its own take on it called Reels. The feature, which has been in testing since at least November and seeded to Brazil, is now available globally.
Spotify has been working on proper lyrics support for ages. It likely takes this long to implement the seemingly simple feature in part due to licensing issues surrounding songtexts, which already led to a lawsuit against Google. Spotify seems to have finally found a suitable solution, as TechCrunch reports that the company is planning to roll out lyrics synced with music to 26 markets today. The US, Canada, and the UK aren't among these, though.
WhatsApp payments suspended in Brazil just one week after launch
Regulators have raised concerns in the absence of further information
WhatsApp's recently launched digital payments system for Brazil has been suspended merely one week after its launch. The decision was handed down yesterday by Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) and the country's Central Bank, both of which are concerned about how it could harm competition with existing institutions in the domestic market.
Read update
In the last six months or so, Motorola has gradually shipped Android 10 to its 2019 mid-range G7 series. The update reached the highest-end G7 Plus in January, and the standard G7 and G7 Power followed suit more recently. The only model remaining was the cheapest G7 Play, which is now also getting the update, starting in Brazil.
Amazon is expanding its footprint in South America today by bringing its range of Echo smart speakers to the Brazilian market. With that, Alexa has now learned to converse in the country's official language — Brazilian Portuguese. Along with that come a new voice as well as local dialects, knowledge, and skills.A total of three Alexa-powered speakers have been launched in the country, which include the Echo Dot, Echo Show, and the standard Echo. Their pricing structure is as follows:
Read update
- While a lot of Google services start out as US exclusives, many ultimately expand their reach internationally. But the nature of that expansion can vary wildly, and while some offerings are quick to find global support, others spread at a far more reserved pace. A couple months back we saw the first, early steps Google was taking to bring YouTube Premium discounts to students in more countries. Now that access is seriously expanding, with availability extending to students in an additional 20 countries:
Until today, YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium plans offered special pricing for students, though only in the USA. But now, the reduced cost option is available in eight new countries.
Back in November, Assistant added support for Brazilian Portuguese, and intelligent speakers were able to communicate with their owners in this language. Unfortunately, smart displays weren't so great at learning a new tongue and couldn't interact with people in Portuguese as quickly as Google Homes. However, the devices have now graduated and are fully fluent in the language, as Nest Hubs and similar devices can now handle conversations em português.
Here in the US, Google Pay is widely supported, and for that we're grateful. In international markets, support isn't always as easily found, but the list of partner banks is ever expanding. Over the past month, we've noticed that Google Pay has added support for a number of new banks for a handful of countries around the world, opening the door for even more consumers to enjoy the ease of using the payment platform to make in-store, in-app and online purchases.
Google Assistant's language expansion is continuing on. Google had promised that 38 countries and 17 languages would be added in 2018 and many have already launched over the past months. But the year is nearing its end and we're still a little far from those numbers. Recent additions bring us closer though, as Assistant can now speak four more Indian languages and has expanded Brazilian Portuguese' support to Google Home speakers.
YouTube Premium and Music Premium are continuing their slow global expansion — though to be honest, they seem to be doing it at a rate faster than Google Play Music ever did. The latest addition is one of the world's largest countries in both surface and population, Brazil.
Read update
Google One's launch has been fraught with delays and pseudo-announcements. The unifying storage service was introduced in May, but only select users got invited to try it out, then Google re-announced it again a few weeks ago, saying it was available to everyone in the US. But we all know that just meant it was starting to be available to all. Now comes the news that One is finally stepping outside the borders of the USA and going south to Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, then sailing across the Pacific to Australia.
If you live in Brazil, Google says you can now use a new payment method to purchase apps, games, movies, books, and music from the Play Store: Mercado Pago. The service seems to be among the top online payment solutions in Brazil, and is joining credit and debit cards as well as gift cards as a means of paying for content on Google Play.
Yesterday, at its second annual Google for Brazil event, the company revealed both future plans and updates for its products and services in the country. If you remember, last year Google made a similar set of announcements for Indonesia, and now it's Brazil's turn. The details released cover the range from amusing to useful, with a bit of philanthropic education mixed in, too.
Welcome a fresh update of Google Maps to the world. Version 9.78 began rolling out to the beta channel last night, and with it come a few visual tweaks and a cool new feature for custom lists that shows the places you've visited. Turning to the teardown, it looks like Google will be giving contributors a little more visibility and control over their public profiles. Drivers in São Paulo, Brazil will also be getting a useful tool for navigating through or around the rodízio.
Motorola is yet to launch a new phone in 2018, a further sign that the once thriving OEM is becoming less and less relevant in the mobile industry. While the successor to last year's poorly-received Moto X4 has apparently been scrapped, we know that new Moto G devices are on the way, likely to go on sale in mid-May. Now we have a potential date for the launch.
Motorola seems to be moving away from interesting and niche Moto Mods, likely due to poor sales of anything that isn't a backplate or battery. The only interesting Mod to be come out recently was the gamepad accessory, but now there's another noteworthy Mod on the horizon. The company has announced a 'Power Pack & Digital TV' mod, but it probably won't be coming to the United States.
Following rumors that Google's digital wallet service Android Pay would be launching this month in Brazil and the Czech Republic, Google has made the news official today. With the Brazilian launch, this is Android Pay's first foray into South America.
Android Pay's arrival in Brazil has been rumored for a long time, but back in May, Google confirmed that it would be live by the end of the year in a few countries amongst which was Brazil. Most of those already have Pay, so Brazilian users have been waiting, but they won't be put off for a lot longer apparently.