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There's never been a better time to play Honkai: Star Rail
Honkai: Star Rail just dropped its juiciest expansion yet with version 2.0
Honkai: Star Rail 2.0 is here. It's a major milestone for the game to see its first expansive update of the year while somehow accomplishing this task before the game has reached its first anniversary. Honkai: Star Rail remains ambitious and fun as we enter the new year, especially now that a new update has dropped. In version 2.0, players will enter Penacony, where the line between dreams and reality becomes heavily blurred, bringing new content for everyone to enjoy. So, let's dig into exactly what you can expect from Star Rail's 2.0 update, as it's a big one you'll want to see for yourself.
Google Maps is ditching cloud-based location history for a more private solution
Your location history will be stored locally on your device going forward, but you can still opt for an end-to-end-encrypted backup
It's no secret that Google Maps keeps tabs on your every move with its Timeline feature, which logs all your pit stops and the routes you take. As long as you're signed in to your Google account with Location History enabled (it's off by default), Google collects all this juicy information and secures it in the cloud, promising it's encrypted. But if you're the paranoid type, the company will soon give you the option to stash your trips directly on your device.
Honkai Impact 3rd Part 2 could be the best entry point for players in 2024
HoYoverse plans to revitalize Honkai Impact 3rd with part two, streamlining the on-boarding process
One of Android's best gacha games is about to receive a major update in 2024. Honkai Impact 3rd will kick off part two in February of next year. Some of you may have been patiently awaiting Zenless Zone Zero news, but with this massive update rekindling Honkai Impact 3rd's storyline, you might be waiting a while. HoYoverse has a deep history with Honkai Impact, and only recently has Honkai Impact 3rd concluded its first arc.
What is the magical ingredient that makes a smartphone smart? Is it the eight-core processor onboard or the multiple gigabytes of RAM? Maybe it's the high-speed internet connection or the capable camera systems. If you answered yes to any of the aforementioned, you would only be partially correct. While all those things are generally present in a smartphone, the app ecosystem makes or breaks the smartphone experience — just ask the Windows phone. In Android, the app ecosystem is primarily powered by Google Play and its associated services.
In lengthy and popular Twitter threads, it can be useful to identify when the person who initially started the conversation replies to someone. Twitter seems to be testing a new feature in its Android app that lets you quickly identify just that.
Early last year, Facebook got all emotional, allowing us to do more than just actively like or passively dislike a thing. Reactions were introduced in the biggest shake-up the Like button had ever seen. This made it possible to react to a post with the entire range of human emotions. Well, with love, laughter, shock, sadness, or anger. Of course, this wasn't enough. We want to be able to react with emotion to everything. So now Facebook is bringing these same options to the comments below posts, too.
It's been a while since we covered specific features of Android 7.0, and it turns out there are a few new-to-Nougat features that people are forgetting about. One of those features is the ability to pin apps in the share menu; even the big boss Artem forgot about this one. If you share things frequently and only use a few options, this could come in handy.
We first saw custom tiles in an Android N Developer Preview a few months back, but unfortunately, not many apps have added this feature. It's a shame, really; custom tiles are easy to use and can add a lot of speed and functionality to frequently-used apps. Now, Shazam has added one called "Auto Shazam," and it might come in handy if you're a big music listener. I don't personally use Shazam anymore (Google does the same thing if you start a voice search, FYI), but I can certainly see the merits of this for people who are invested in it.
I'll admit, YouTube has added some strange features lately, and at first glance this seemed like yet another useless addition. Starting with a few select channels, a new 'Community' tab will appear on the channel's profile, both on mobile apps and the desktop site. This essentially works like a social feed for the channel, allowing content creators to share text, images, GIFs, livestreams, and more straight through the YouTube app. You can even choose to receive push notifications for Community posts.
A recent Google Maps update introduced a feature that makes upcoming turns and exits easier to follow. Rather than leaving you trying to reconcile the street names at the top of the screen with the direction of the blue path below, Maps has started to insert bubbles onto the map that mark the location for you while also showing you which road you're on.
Google is certainly no stranger to testing new features slowly. Most recently, it released an update to YouTube's UI that's been in testing for at least four months. And for Google, this is a good thing. Testing new features with limited samples of users helps get data not only on their usefulness, but also on how they augment user experience and engagement.
Heads up or "peeking" notifications, the little miniature pop-ups that appear in Android Lollipop if a notification comes in when you happen to be actually using your device, aren't for everyone. That's why Google will include the option to disable them on a per-app basis in the upcoming Android M release. (See Settings>Sound & Notification>App notifications in the Developer Preview.) It's also why apps like HeadsOff have sprung up to cater to those who want them to go away even sooner.
YouTube Collections are grouped subscriptions, basically playlists of particular channels or feeds, that can be labeled with a single title and viewed in a new playlist. They're handy, but apparently not enough people were making use of them. According to service messages on both the Collections pages on YouTube itself, and on the YouTube help page for the Collections feature, they'll be going away soon.
When was the last time that you used the Circle sharing feature on Google+? Statistically, it's probably been a while... and you certainly haven't used it in the last few days. According to enthusiast site Google Plus Daily, the ability to share Circles of followed people and pages was quietly removed from Google's social network earlier this week. If you've never used Shared Circles, they were similar to public follow lists on Twitter.
It seems that while Google hasn't actually released the official announcement yet (it's expected this morning), the Collections feature we've heard so much about in recent days now appears to be going live for some users.
If the rollout of an updated Play Store yesterday with some tweaked interface elements and an order history page was exciting, just wait until you see what else was hidden inside the latest version. I don't think there's any point in teasing, this might be the one we've all been waiting for. The Play Store is finally going to enable a method to offer discounted purchases. There are still a lot of unknowns, but it's real, and it's probably coming very soon.