Throughout the course of time, the US banking system has gone largely unchanged. There have been a variety of micro-evolutions – from cash to check, check to debit, and the like – but the way we interact with banks has remained much the same. Many people take comfort in the fact that they can walk into a local branch and speak with someone should a problem arise, but therein also lies the problem with banking as we know it: physical branches. I'm not saying that brick-and-mortar banks are a necessarily a bad thing in themselves, but being tethered to a physical location can be exceedingly annoying.

• Green Dot Announces 'GoBank', An Online-Only, Smartphone-Centric Take On The Traditional Banking System
• Citibank Mobile For Android Now Accepts Remote Check Deposits, If You Can Get Through
• Sending Money With Gmail Is Live, You Just Need To Be Invited - Here's How (US Only)
• Bank Of America App Updated With Mobile Check Deposit And Universal Transfers

Simple And GoBank: A Closer Look At The Future Of Banking In The Cloud was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

This edition focuses only on new games. The app roundup is coming up soon.

Featured App

Strategy & Tactics: WW II

Today's roundup is presented by Strategy & Tactics: WW II from HeroCraft. You could be forgiven for thinking that this turn-based strategy game looks a lot like Risk, but instead of Napoleonic struggles, the digital adaptation takes the battlefield to WWII-era Europe.

• [New Game] Fireballs HD For Android Is Part Tron, Part Snakes, All Flaming Fun For The Family Of Four
• Invictus Games Brings Turn-Based Strategy Game 'Greed Corp HD' To Android Tablets
• [New Game] Glu Mobile's INFECTED Hits The Android Market – Team Up With NYC Cops, Snipers, And Muggers To Defend Against The Zombie Onslaught
• EA Games Brings The Game Of Life To The Android Market – Play Through Infinite Alternate Lives With Up To Three Friends

34 Best (And 1 WTF) New Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (5/2/13 - 5/14/13) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Part two is all about the non-games discoveries, which there are a lot of.  Before we get into that though, there is one detail I left out of the games article that I really should mention:

The Play Games Codename

Google always comes up with the coolest code names for projects, and the Play Services games client is no exception.

• [I/O 2013] New APIs For Location, Single Sign-On, And Google Cloud Messaging
• AutomateIt Becomes First App To Introduce New Activity Recognition Features
• [I/O 2013] Google Officially Launches Play Games, Brings Achievements, Game Sync, Leaderboards And More
• "Google Play Games" Leaks Out In All Its Glory Ahead Of Google I/O - Hello, Cloud Game Saves [APK Teardown]

[APK Teardown] Google Play Services 3.1, Part 2 - All Your App Data In The Cloud, A New Cloud-Based Location Service, And More was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Fresh out of Google HQ, we've managed to score a copy of the new Google Play Services v3.1.36, which is very slowly rolling out to devices right now. For comparison, the current Play Services that most people have is v3.0.27. 3.1 is a massive update - the strings file, for instance, has more than doubled from 300 to 700 entries. This is how Google is pushing out all the shared files for Google Play Games.

• [APK Teardown] Google Play Services 3.1, Part 2 - All Your App Data In The Cloud, A New Cloud-Based Location Service, And More
• PSA: Google+ Games Will Disappear June 30, Google Play Games To Blame
• [Fresh Out Of The Oven] Zombie Runaway Released To The Android Market, Asks You To Save The Undead
• [I/O 2013] Google Officially Launches Play Games, Brings Achievements, Game Sync, Leaderboards And More

"Google Play Games" Leaks Out In All Its Glory Ahead Of Google I/O - Hello, Cloud Game Saves [APK Teardown] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

The big XE5 update just hit the interwebs, so that means it's time for a teardown! XE5 is still Android 4.0.4 based, but now we're up to build 4.0.4-665738; the old version was 4.0.4-625737.

The Glass Team is still extraordinarily messy; any new file usually has copies in a million different locations. Basically, everything ships in every APK. Maybe the Glass Team is using extremely bad organization as a form of Teardown obfuscation. (It's not working.)

Take A Note

It looks like note taking is coming to Google Glass!

• [APK Teardown] Google Glass "XE4" System Dump - Are You A Typophile?
• A Feature Cut From Jelly Bean? Google Music Was Supposed To Include A Ringtone Editor
• [APK Teardown] Google Voice 0.4.2.80 - Something Wants To Read Google Voice’s Settings
• [Update: Evernote Too!] Catch Notes Follows Google Keep's Example, Commandeers 'Note To Self' Voice Action—Wait, They Can Do That?!

[APK Teardown] Google Glass XE5 - A "Take A Note" And Menu Voice Commands, More Wink Work, And Localization Progress was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here.

Featured App

3CX Mobile Device Manager

Today's roundup is brought to you by 3CX Mobile Device Manager. The app is designed as an employee, device, and inventory tracking service, allowing employers to take a fast and accurate look at where all their mobile devices are at any given time.

• [New App] Microsoft Xbox SmartGlass Released: Cross-Platform Goodness For Console Gamers
• Google Rolls Out A 'Recommended For You' Section In The Play Store, Tells You What Apps You'll Like And Why
• Download: Latest Google Play Store v3.5.19
• Report: Over Half Of All Android Apps Are Free

27 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (4/25/13 - 5/6/13) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

APK Teardown is usually at its best when I have a previous version to diff against and, you know, when I've actually used or at least seen the software in question. I don't have any of those benefits for this teardown, so things could get interesting.

• [APK Teardown] Google Glass XE5 - A "Take A Note" And Menu Voice Commands, More Wink Work, And Localization Progress
• Kittehface Software Releases Photosphere Live Wallpaper, Gives Your 'Spheres Another Practical Use
• [APK Teardown] Google Search - Reply To SMS With Voice, Post To Facebook & Twitter, An Android@Home Card, And More
• [APK Teardown] Google+ 3.5.3 - An "Apps" Main Menu Icon? A "Manage Apps" Settings Section? What Is Going On Here?

[APK Teardown] Google Glass "XE4" System Dump - Are You A Typophile? was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

This edition focuses only on new games. The app roundup is coming up soon.

Featured App

Boulder Dash®-XL™

Today's roundup is brought to you by Boulder Dash XL from Herocraft. Boulder Dash wasn't considered the greatest game of the bygone 8-bit era, but it had its share of fans thanks to interesting "Dig-Dug meets Tetris" gameplay.

• Cloanto Releases Amiga Forever Essentials For Android - Will Allow Licensed Emulation Of Multiple Amiga OS Versions
• Activision's 30th-Anniversary PITFALL! Rework Hits The Play Store As An Endless Runner With A Little More To Offer
• [Review] Super Drill Panic Takes You Back To 1992; Also, The Center Of The Earth
• [New Game] Square Enix Recycles Some Intellectual Property With New Endless Runner Mini Ninjas [Update]

23 Best (And 3 WTF) New Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (4/19/13 - 5/1/13) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

• Rooting Explained + Top 5 Benefits Of Rooting
• Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About: Part 1 (Apps 1-8), Part 2 (Apps 9-16), Part 3 (Apps 17-25), Part 4 (26-33), Part 5 (34-41),Part 6 (42-49), Part 7 (50-57), Part 8 (58-65)
• Custom ROMs Explained And Why You Want Them
• How To Fully Back Up And Restore Your Android Phone Using Nandroid Backup
• How To Flash A Custom ROM To Your Android Phone With ROM Manager + Full Backup & Restore
• So You Want To Know About Bootloaders, Encryption, Signing, And Locking?

• [New App] Nandroid Manager Gives Rooted Users Full Control Of Their Nandroid Backups
• New In Titanium Backup: Create Flashable Zips Of All Your Apps And Data
• Titanium Backup [Pro] Can Now Restore Apps From ClockworkMod 5 Backups
• Titanium Backup Updated To Version 5.6.0, Adding Ability To Restore From ADB Backup Files, Other Improvements

Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About, Part 8: Apps 58-65 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

This is the app roundup. The game roundup from last week can be found here.

Featured App

PassWallet - Password Manager

Today's roundup is brought to you by PassWallet (formerly Password Wallet) by HandyApps. Passwords are hard, thanks to the thousands of logins required for modern digital living.

• [I/O 2013] Google Launches Play Music All Access, Finally Updates The Music App, Combines Your Library With A Subscription
• MLB At Bat Service Is Free For T-Mobile Customers For The 2013 Season, Download The App Before June 30th To Activate
• Spotify's New ICS App Now Out Of Beta And Available In The Play Store
• [Rumor] Google Said To Be In Talks With Record Labels To Expand GMusic With A Spotify-Like Streaming Service

50 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (4/9/13 - 4/24/13) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.