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Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel guide: Tips and tricks for beginners
Everything you need to know to play like a pro
In early 2022, Konami finally brought over a true digital Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game (TCG), Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel to multiple platforms, including Android and iOS. It's not the first time, Yu-Gi-Oh! has arrived on mobile platforms. But none have shared the traditional (official TCG) ruleset. But a game staying true to one of the most popular TCGs in the world is enough reason to consider Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel as one of the best Android games to come out recently.
Google wants the EU to force iMessage to play nice with Android
Maybe public pressure wasn't enough after all
To call Google desperate in its attempts to persuade Apple to adopt RCS support within iMessage would be an understatement. For over a year now, Google's "Get the Message" campaign has tried to apply pressure through a series of pseudo-PSAs, even as Apple has all but ignored these calls for change. Today marks a new step in the cross-platform messaging battles, as Google is turning to EU regulators in an attempt to force RCS adoption — or, at the very least, some kind of improved messaging interoperability — on iOS.
How to share an Instagram post on Facebook
No more copying and pasting posts between Meta's social media apps
Meta's acquisition of Instagram in 2012 formed a special bond between the platform and Facebook. Managing your social presence between both is easier now, especially if you're dealing with many moving parts in life. You can create Stories, regular posts, and Reels and send them to your Facebook feed or page in a few taps. If there are existing posts, you may be able to share them from your small phones and large tablets.
Konami finally decides to cash in on Pro Evolution Soccer — the series is going free-to-play
Slated for release on consoles/PC next month, and mobile will arrive at a later date
Konami has just announced that the developers behind Pro Evolution Soccer and Winning Eleven will soon be launching a new soccer simulation game called eFootball. It would seem this new series will replace PES across all platforms, and it will be free-to-play, which also means it will be digital-only. The thing is, Konami already offers a F2P soccer game on mobile called eFootball, though it's easy enough to assume it will be replaced by the new cross-platform eFootball whenever it lands.
Codemasters and NetEase will launch the first open beta for Racing Master tonight
Only a few more hours to go
A NetEase developer known as Dahua Studios has just announced that it's working on an upcoming racing game for mobile in conjunction with Codemasters, and it will enter into open beta this month. The game is called Racing Master. It's a real-time simulation racer that's utilizing the Unreal 4 engine as well as some proprietary Codemasters tech, who just so happens to be a developer with a slew of famous racers under its belt, such as DiRT, GRID, and F1.
Instagram's integrated Messenger gains vanish mode, chat themes, and Watch Together
Instagram’s new chat experience is continuing to roll out while getting more feature-complete
Facebook promised that it would make messaging easier across all of its apps last year, and we've already seen evidence that the company was working on integrating Facebook Messenger with Instagram. The company made that move official at the end of September, introducing what it's calling a new Messenger experience on Instagram. And now, Instagram is adding a few more of the features initially promised, like Watch Together, chat themes, and vanish mode.
Facebook starts integrating Messenger with Instagram
Will the company soon invite WhatsApp to the party, too?
Early last year, Facebook promised that it would create a unified backend for all of its messaging platforms. Messenger, Instagram direct messages, and WhatsApp are all supposed to be interoperable, so you wouldn't have to worry about which Facebook app to use with which of your contacts. It looks like the company is getting ready to make these cross-platform chats a reality, as it has started distributing a popup on Instagram that advertises a Messenger integration.
First evidence of WhatsApp integration pops up in Facebook Messenger
Messaging between all of Facebook’s apps might soon be a reality
Early last year, we got word that Facebook was considering cross-platform chats between WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, running on a unified, encrypted backend. After the first small steps towards compatibility in the form of Messenger Rooms in WhatsApp, we now see this cross-app integration taking shape. According to WABetaInfo, a few hints have appeared in Facebook Messenger that reveal how the company is working on a way to contact WhatsApp users through the app.
The ultimate guide to using Windows Your Phone with Android
The A to Z of bringing your Android phone and Windows PC closer together
No matter how much we slam Apple for its closed ecosystem, many of us often find ourselves raving about how well coordinated the iPhone and Mac are. Then we turn to Android, which just can't do all those tricks, leaving us feeling a little peeved— at least until Microsoft came into the picture. Microsoft has all but adopted Google’s mobile OS after its own phone business crumbled, and it has increasing sought to bridge the deep divide between Windows 10 and Android with the Your Phone app.
Microsoft Your Phone's drag-and-drop file sharing is now rolling out widely
Was previously only available to Windows Insiders
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The Your Phone app from Microsoft is a powerful productivity tool that bridges the gap between Windows and Android for cross-platform interaction. While the basic suite is open to most Android handsets, Microsoft tends to favor Samsung phones with newer features, and such was the case with RCS messaging and screen mirroring. Your Phone is now adding drag and drop for files, which, you guessed it, will again be available exclusively on a handful of Galaxy models.
Galaxy Z Flip and S20 to get cross-platform copy and paste via Microsoft's Your Phone
Microsoft ❤ Samsung
Microsoft’s love for Android has only grown over the last few months as the Your Phone app has gotten better and more functional with a bevy of cross-platform capabilities. The Windows maker’s deep partnership with Samsung meant that many of these features came first, and in some cases exclusively, to the latter’s high-end handsets, much like the support for RCS messages announced yesterday. Now, Your Phone will soon add a cross-device copy and paste option, which will only work if you own one of the 2020 Samsung flagships.
Niantic has revealed today that a new multiplayer feature tentatively titled Buddy Adventure should be coming to Pokémon GO sometime soon. This new feature will offer a shared augmented reality experience where players will interact with their friend's Pokémon via the AR camera. These friends can watch in real-time as you pet their Pokémon, and cross-platform support is expected, which means iOS and Android users can enjoy the upcoming Buddy Adventure mode together.
With the launch of Stadia, cloud gaming has received a ton of public attention, and many other companies working on game streaming have benefitted from the curiosity, too. In fact, Steam has had Remote Play, its own local-machine-based streaming service, for a long time already, and now a neat addition to it has left its beta tag behind. It's Remote Play Together, and as the name suggests, it lets you share local multiplayer games online with up to four players.
Google's been teasing Flutter—its cross-platform iOS and Android app-development framework—since 2015. Earlier this year it hit beta at MWC, with a final third production-ready beta landing at this year's I/O developer conference. As of yesterday, Flutter has hit Release Preview 1, marking further increased confidence in the quality and stability of the framework.
For most of us, this week is likely to be important because of Google's I/O developer conference, which starts tomorrow. But Microsoft is also desperately trying to push its own relevance on the Android platform at the company's Build 2018 developer conference, which began today and is scheduled to overlap with I/O. Details are sparse, but Microsoft has revealed that it is planning on updating its Android launcher to support the Timeline feature from Windows 10 for enhanced workflow, and it will also be rolling out a new "Your Phone" app for notification mirroring and file sharing.
Smartphone tech has come a long way over the last ten years, but a few commonly requested features are still lacking. Battery life can't be measured in weeks yet, Android still doesn't have a decent iMessage competitor, and there aren't any first-party cross-platform notification mirroring services. Some of our desires might not be reasonable, but others are. And, at least in the case of notification synchronization, there are plenty of third-party services that can fill the gap. Do you use one?
Catan Universe is United Soft Media's newest version of Catan and not only is it finally a multiplayer focused release on Android, but it can also be played against your friends and family no matter the platform they want to play on. That's right, whether you have purchased the game on PC, macOS, iOS, or Android you can enjoy an online multiplayer round of Catan.
Since Google introduced material design in 2014, the questions of whether and how to use the design language on other platforms like iOS has lingered. But Google hasn't been a stranger to material on iOS. Inbox users for instance should feel right at home moving between iOS and Android, as many of the interface's core components are shared.
Microsoft is the owner of Mojang, developer of the ultra-popular Minecraft sandbox building game. And at the E3 video game conference, they want everyone to know it. In between the usual slew of console exclusives and hype about the future, the company dedicated a little time to Minecraft exclusively. At least some of the new additions for Minecraft were released immediately for the Android version, most notably access to Realms servers and cross-platform play with the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Microsoft makes a lot of apps for multiple platforms. It also makes a lot of tools that are used by other developers to build apps for multiple platforms. It only makes sense then that the company would be interested in buying Xamarin, one of the leading platform providers for mobile app development.