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Google's unstoppable march continues: the company just won't rest until every financial institution on the planet can use the Google Pay mobile payment system. Over the last few weeks we've been cataloging additional banks added to Google's various support pages, and there's been a notable uptick in new entries. That's especially true for Switzerland, where more than eighty banks added Google Pay compatibility last week.
Google brings out the fireworks to mark the end of Euro 2020 and the Copa America
Italy and Argentina celebrated in latest Google Easter egg
This weekend saw the completion of two major sporting events and Google decided to celebrate the winners in typical Easter egg fashion. Euro 2020 and the Copa America are two of the biggest soccer (or, actual football) tournaments and were won by two of the most successful footballing nations, Italy and Argentina, respectively. If you search either competition name in Google right now, you'll be treated to fireworks in the colors of the victors.
Samsung's watches now support ECG monitoring in 32 more countries
It still requires a paired Samsung phone
Samsung's Galaxy Watch3 and Watch Active2 both have hardware support for ECG monitoring, but it is taking a long time to show up for everyone, since the feature has to be approved by each country's health agencies. It was exclusive to South Korea until September of last year, when it was enabled for use in the United States, and now it's coming to 32 more countries.
RCS support in Messages is spreading to more countries, including India
New additions: India, Canada, Kuwait, Ghana, Malawi, Philippines, South Korea, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates
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After Google deployed RCS (Rich Communication Services) in the U.S. without the help of the four three big carriers, the company seems to be set to repeat that effort internationally. People in multiple countries across the world report that they're able to use RCS features in the Messages app powered by Google's Jib servers. That might indicate that we'll soon see universal and worldwide RCS support from Google, regardless of country or carrier.
Google Pay adds support for 24 new banks in 23 countries
Forget your wallet, grab your phone — you've got Google Pay
Google Pay continues to expand its support to additional international banks. To help you keep track of which financial institutions have added their credit and debit cards to the service, we've compiled a list of recent additions. Since we last looked in July, Google's added 24 new banks in 23 countries.
Google Pay is now available for 25 new banks in 14 countries
Leave your wallet in your bag or pocket
Google Pay support is ever expanding among financial institutions, and that's both the case in the US and the rest of the world. As such, we've compiled a list of the latest international banks that have added their credit and debit cards to Google's contactless payment service, coming in at a total of 25 institutions across 14 (mostly European) countries.
Google Pixel Buds 2 are now available in Canada, the UK, and many more markets
The long, long wait is finally over
It was all the way back in October 2019 when the 2nd-generation Pixel Buds were revealed at Google's big annual hardware event, which seems like such a long, long time ago now. It wasn't until April this year that customers in the US could get their hands on a pair, and until today there's been no availability outside the States. If you live in Canada, the UK, or one of several other lucky countries, you should now be able to make an order.
Google Pay gains support for 29 new banks and financial institutions in 22 countries (Update: 11 more banks)
Because carrying a wallet is so over
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Google Pay is compatible with a wide range of cards from various institutions around the world. Sadly, there are still a bunch of them that don't work with the contactless payment service. Thankfully, it is constantly gaining support for new banks and financial institutions, including the below 29, spread across 22 countries.
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- OnePlus has posted a more complete statement to its forums, indicating that the layoffs aren't quite as extensive as rumored. According to the company, a total of 20 total employees are affected by the company's restructuring in Europe:
OnePlus has reportedly made severe staffing cuts in its European operations. While the tech brand has experienced massive growth in other markets over the past few years, it has also faced major headwinds across the continent in the same time which have led to previous rounds of layoffs.
Google cuts back on Pixel Buds 2 color options for non-US countries
Oh So Orange looks to only be available in US at the moment
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If you've been waiting for Google to finally start selling its second-generation Pixel Buds, you may need to check your ensemble expectations if you live outside the United States. The company has cut down the number of colors it has listed for the 10 foreign markets the Pixel Buds 2 will be in.
Android Auto expands wireless compatibility to most supported countries
Only Japan and Russia are excluded
Some cars and head units are capable of displaying Android Auto from your phone wirelessly, but there are additional restrictions to the functionality — other than owning a compatible handset, you also need to live in one of the regions where the wireless connection is available. Luckily, the list of supported countries is expanding, and now you can use wireless Android Auto in almost all locations where the wired version is available, with only two exceptions: Japan and Russia.
Disney+ launches in the UK and more Western European countries today
Now you don't have to watch The Mandalorian through other means
Disney+ has been available in the US since last year, but it hasn't come to too many other countries so far. As expected, that has changed today as the service has launched in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. It was also supposed to come to France simultaneously, but the French government asked the company to postpone the launch, now set for April 7, for fears of coronavirus-related network congestion.
LG is having a hard time pushing timely software updates even to its flagship range, despite having a dedicated Software Upgrade Center for this exact purpose. The South Korean brand did begin updating a few of its V- and G-series phones to Android 10 in the last couple of months, but not all these releases have yet to see international availability, and many users remain clueless as to when the update notification might pop up on their LG handsets. To smooth their ruffled feathers, LG Italy recently published its Android 10 update roadmap.
It might be the least known of the BBK family of Chinese smartphone manufacturers, but Realme is making a splash in the European market with the launch of its X2 Pro flagship, which is now on general sale in Europe. The sister company of OnePlus, Oppo, and Vivo looks to continue with a trend we've seen from many Chinese phone makers in recent years by offering insane specs for a ridiculously low price.
Here in the US, Google has had its own mail-in repair center set up for Pixel phones for around eight months. In the rest of the world, though, Google offers nothing of the sort, instead pointing customers to recommended walk-in and mail-in service centers via a support page. These support pages have just been updated, indicating that official mail-in services will soon be offered in a number of European countries.
For years and years now, mobile users have clamored for the same experience watching YouTube on their small devices as they have on a computer. You can keep YouTube playing and switch to another tab or app, you can resize that window and open another one side-by-side, and all of that without paying for a subscription. On mobile, however, non-paying users had to wait until 2016 and YouTube's multi-window support to be able to do something else while watching a video. If you wanted more perks like background playback and picture-in-picture, you had to be a Red, now Premium, subscriber.
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Smartphone leaks are seemingly unavoidable for the major brands these days, that's assuming they aren't doing the leaking themselves. This latest Huawei P30 Pro leak certainly seems accidental, though, since it was an Amazon.it listing that went up prematurely before being quickly taken down. The anticipated 10x zoom is noted, among practically all of the other pertinent specs.
Google Pay's international expansion is improving. Although not at the same rate as its US bank and credit union support, the mobile payment service keeps steadily adding more institutions and card options for its users around the world. So if you live somewhere where Pay has already launched but your bank wasn't supported before, take a look at the new additions and see if it now is.
As the story goes, Google isn't particularly good at making its own services and apps work together. Take YouTube Music for example. It took months for the streaming service to be available on Android Auto and as an alarm provider in the Clock app, and it still isn't integrated in Google Maps the way Spotify and Play Music are. But things are ever-so-slowly improving. You can (now) pick YouTube Music to be your music provider on Google Assistant and Home speakers in many, many more countries.
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.