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Android Auto rolls out to 6 more European countries
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, since you asked
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Although a bunch of cars now come with advanced navigation systems, these can rarely beat the simplicity and expansibility of Android Auto. Sadly, though, Google's in-car service isn't globally available, leaving many users unable to properly use their favorite services from their ride's dashboard. Thankfully, Android Auto is expanding to 36 more countries, making it seamless to get directions, play music, and interact with Assistant, thanks to native integration with your car's infotainment system.
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.
Samsung One UI 3.0 beta ending for Note20, starting up for Galaxy S10 series
Android 11 is nigh for some
Samsung's One UI 3.0 on top of Android 11 edges closer to a stable release with news that beta testing has ended for some Galaxy Note20 devices. But with that end comes a new beginning: Galaxy S10 series devices are entering their own beta.
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 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.
Google Opinion Rewards expands to Hong Kong and Malaysia
The move follows expansion to Chile, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates earlier this year
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Google Opinion Rewards had a rocky ending to 2019, with many users' credits expiring without warning or explanation. That was soon rectified by placing an expiration date beneath your balance, though the explanation for the whole debacle was too little, too late. Moving past the controversy, Google's forging ahead in the new decade by making Opinion Rewards available in Chile, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates.
Huawei P40 Lite E pre-orders get started in Europe
Joins the regular P40 Lite as we await the high-end models
Huawei is gearing up to refresh its P line of smartphones later this month with at least two new flagship models. While we still have a couple of weeks until their unveiling, a few devices from the P40 series have already started appearing on Huawei’s official channels. The company’s Polish site has listed two mid-tier P40 phones bearing the Lite moniker that the locals can pre-order right away.
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Google Pay already supports a plethora of credit cards from a multitude of banks all over the world, but there are still many institutions left that don't work with Google's payment system. It's great to see that the number of compatible banks is rising internationally, and today, we can report a whopping 62 newly added banks — though about half of these are savings banks located in Denmark.
I'm a huge fan of mobile payments, mostly because it's convenient and I don't have to take my wallet with me to run small errands. Seeing Google Pay expand to more countries is always pleasant, especially when the services added include prepaid cards in addition to traditional banks. The list of supported services has further grown since our last post, as Google Pay now supports 25 more services in 14 countries in Europe, Asia, and Australia.To make it easier to read, we're sorted the new services and banks by country so you can find whether your financial institution has recently signed a partnership with Google Pay:
Little by little, Google's been making YouTube Premium and YouTube Music available to more and more users. Sometimes that means making the services available on new devices, or offering discounts to lower the barrier to entry. But a lot of the time, it's just about rolling them out to new countries. So far this year we've seen expansion into India, South Africa, and Latin America, and today that trend continues with a push further into Europe.
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.
Beta tests for Google Assistant's Polish language support have been going on for several months, so it's no surprise to see the feature officially launch. If you speak Polish, you will now (or soon, at least) be able to use Assistant in that language. Developers can also build Actions on Google in Polish.
Beyond being your awesome digital photo archiver, Google Photos offers to print copies of your pics if you prefer to keep those memories in a physical album. After launching in May of 2015 in the US, Photo books expanded to seven more countries over time (Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain), and they're now reaching five more.
Wear OS users in Poland and Russia are now able to use Google Pay on compatible watches, bringing the number of countries with Wear OS/Google Pay capability to seven: those two plus the US, UK, Spain, Australia, and Canada. With both Poland and Russia having a healthy number of financial institutions supported by Google Pay, this is nice news for users in those countries.
Android Pay is a nifty way to make purchases at supported retailers. At a minimum, it lets you eschew the wallet in your back pocket for the phone in your front when picking up a pack of gum. And now two more banks in Spain and Poland have added support for the service.
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Android Pay has existed for more than a year now. It's expanded far beyond the original US launch, but there's a lot of the world still to go. Google has announced another step along the way for Android Pay, and it's Poland. This is the second EU nation to get access. Well, that's only if you still count the UK. Post-Brexit, I guess you could say Poland is the first.
Newsstand is probably the least sought-after of Google's various media offerings in the Play Store, if only because most of the content found in those newspapers and magazines is available elsewhere. Even so, Google seems to be standing by it. Today four new territories have access to the paid issues and subscriptions in Newsstand: the Philippines, Poland, Taiwan, and Ukraine. Readers from those countries, head to the Play Store on the web or your phone or tablet to check it out.
While Motorola, LG, and HTC have been relatively quick to update their flagship devices to Lollipop, Samsung owners have been (not so) patiently tapping their feet in anticipation for the news of their Galaxy phones receiving the same treatment. But the wait is almost over for Galaxy Note 4 users, as the 5.0.1 update has started rolling out in Poland, according to SamMobile.
If the mention of "Poland only" in the title didn't deter you, you'd probably like to know that, hot on the heels of the LG G3's Poland-only Lollipop update, Samsung has decided to begin its Lollipop update for the Galaxy S5 in that country as well. As for what's new, you obviously get all the new goodies that Google has included in the OS, as well as some fairly substantial visual changes to the look and feel of Touchwiz, including a material redesign of some core Samsung apps.