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After an absence of seven years Google News is returning to Spain
The Kingdom of Spain says “bienvenidos” to Google’s return
In 2014 Google News decided to cease offering its services in Spain due to strict legislation regulating how news links and excerpts are shared online. But now winds of change are blowing through the streets of Madrid. In response to new laws passed in EU capital Brussels, Spain is loosening its restrictions on link sharing and Google has announced that it will be resuming its news service in Spain early next year.
The Pixel Buds A-Series come to 10 new countries next week
They'll be available in Australia, Japan, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Singapore, and the UK
The Pixel Buds A-Series are pretty freakin' sweet as TWE headphones go, hitting a great balance of price and features. Taylor Kerns said that at $100, they make the original and much pricier model "irrelevant," even with the loss of wireless charging. The availability for the low-price buds has been updated on Google's official support page, coming to nine new countries next week.
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.
Play Store accepting gambling apps in US and 14 other countries starting March 1
Non-gambling contests get a boost in new policies
Up to now, Google has only Android users in the U.K., Ireland, France, and Brazil to download apps from the Play Store to partake in real money gambling. But starting from this spring, the company will enact a policy update to expand their availability to 15 countries including the United States.
Google adds Play promo code support for France
Argentina and Romania have been taken off the list for some reason
It's not something those of us in the US consider often, but promo codes for free apps can't be issued by developers globally. Instead, Google maintains a list of countries that are eligible. Today's update is the first we've posted about in over two years; it adds five countries, but takes two away.
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 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.
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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.
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.
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:
Hell officially froze over when Google and Amazon decided to bury their squabbles and stop locking each other out of their respective TV ecosystems. Of course, Amazon apps have been available on Android for a long time, and the company would've shot itself in the foot if it didn't distribute its content and store to the biggest mobile OS in the world. However, TVs have always been a sensitive topic for Amazon and Google, as they're both directly competing with their Chromecast and Fire TV. Shortly after their truce, Amazon announced in April that it's bringing Alexa integration to Sony TVs powered by Android. As per a Play Store listing, it appears that this service is imminent, soon making it possible to control them via Echos.
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.
Despite Google Pay already supporting around 2,000 banks and credit unions in the US and not nearly as many internationally, US support continues to grow at a pace greater than all other countries combined. Since we last posted about international Google Pay additions last month, nine banks in ten countries are now on the supported list.
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.