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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.
Google Pay is rolling out more widely across Europe
Coming to Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, and Romania
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Google Pay’s tight integration with the Android OS makes it one of the most widely available and widely accepted mobile payment solutions. However, many international regions still don’t have access to this nifty tool, keeping people from the convenience of tap-and-pay on almost any Android phone. That’s changing today, at least for ten European countries where Google Pay is finally debuting.
Disney has announced that it's continuing Disney+'s international expansion in Europe. Starting today, the service will come to eight more European countries. This follows March's launch in the UK and other Western European markets. The platform also arrived in India shortly after.
Almost every detail about Xiaomi's upcoming budget Android TV device, the Mi TV Stick, has already been leaked in one way or another. The hardware was confirmed by Google earlier this month, but now the stick has been approved by the United States FCC, and a listing for it has appeared on Xiaomi's own Portuguese store.
Google, like many tech giants, gives non-profit companies access to some of its products at a discount, or even for free. To help alleviate the global impact of the coronavirus, it's expanding the number of companies (and, therefore, nonprofits) it serves with some of those programs, and it's also providing them with discounts to its business and enterprise-level G Suite services.
It's been more than two years since Google Assistant became available in the Brazilian localization of Portuguese, but speakers of the Portugal version (pt-PT) were left waiting. Google has been working on that for over a year, and it began testing it in a closed beta a few months ago, but it appears ready to make it public now.
YouTube's paid offerings are expanding to more and more countries. After an initial launch in the US in June, they have now reached over 25 nations worldwide and don't seem to be slowing down.
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.
Google has allowed paying for Play Store purchases through your phone carrier's bill for a while now, but it's not available on all carriers. Vodafone in Portugal just started supporting Play Store carrier billing, becoming the first carrier in the country to do so. In fact, the Google Play support page for Portugal hasn't even been updated yet.
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- It was pointed out to us that Android One was technically available in Europe since May, when General Mobile launched its first device in Turkey. The same phone later came to the Netherlands on August 21st, for €229. The Aquaris's release in Spain and Portugal is just part of the expansion of Android One's existing presence in Europe. Thanks Gijs!
Google's Android One initiative aims to bring low-cost, high-quality Android phones to the hands of those who are not able to afford a more premium device. While they are not known for having the fastest processors or the most gorgeous screens, they do come with the promise of a Nexus-like experience of stock Android and fast updates — sometimes even beating Nexus devices at their own game.
Our international readers often get frustrated when Google's apps and services aren't available outside the US. The same goes for Netflix: it's been expanding, first across North and South America, then to the major English-speaking countries, then slowly across Europe like a 21st century Napoleon with a penchant for original programming. Come October Netflix will open up its doors to Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
Today's a big day for Chromecast. Earlier today we reported that Google's little magic media stick was ready to stream shows to TVs in Japan and Austrialia. Now we see that the device has also arrived in Belgium, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerland as well.
Google quietly brought Play Books today to four new countries: Austria, Belgium, Ireland, and Portugal. The aforementioned countries only had access to Google Play Apps and Music before, so I'm sure the book lovers among those of you who reside in the four territories are ecstatic.
Earlier today, Sprint launched its new Nexus S 4G smartphone with tight Google Voice integration. Riding the buzz, Google in turn announced that the Nexus S is now available in the following countries:
[Updated] Google Starting To Flip The Switch On Purchasing Paid Android Market Apps In New Countries
Last week, Google announced that over the next 2 weeks, support for purchasing paid apps was coming to 18 more countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan.