Google is rolling out its Play Points reward program in the United States, the company has announced. The program has already been available in South Korea and Japan over the past year where it has millions of people who are participating. The program is free to join, offering points that can be used for discounts, special items, and more.
Huawei might receive an early Christmas gift in the next few weeks, presuming the US government makes good on President Trump's promise to grant a number of exceptions to US companies wanting to do business with Huawei. As many as 260 requests have been filed, asking a license to do trade with the Chinese manufacturer, one of which is believed to be Google. If granted, this could mean that Huawei phones will be able to ship Google Play apps and services again, at least for a short period of time.
Google has banned services that offer predatory personal loans from the Play Store. The change was quietly revealed on the company's 'restricted content' policy page, which now lists high-interest loan services among the types of apps no longer allowed in the store, including certain payday loan apps, ones offering access to peer-to-peer loans, title loans, and similar.
Some Android users might make light of the conundrum that Huawei has found itself in with regards to the US blacklist, Huawei phone owners are getting desperate for reassurance that their investments aren't going to go up in smoke. That's especially true for those who decided to buy the Huawei Mate 30 series, especially the $1,000 Mate 30 Pro. They're unfortunately caught in a state of limbo and, sooner or later, there will be some enterprising people who will have no reservations taking advantage of them.
There's a new sort of scam going on here in 2019 that takes advantage of a modern phenomenon. The idea that you'd pay a fee each month for a service, like Netflix, became commonplace over the past decade. App makers in the Google Play app store were found utilizing a loophole, recently, in the way they get money from unsuspecting users - in some cases to the tune of hundreds of dollars in a single action.
Google Play Pass is the obvious alternative to Apple Arcade for Android devices. Normally I wouldn't say such a thing, but the launch dates and announcements for both services are right on top of one another.* It's like a gas station opening right on the other side of the highway from another gas station - there's nothing wrong with that, it's just business!
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro is probably one of the best Android smartphones to be released this year but almost every piece has to inform users about its most critical flaw. Due to conflicts with the US, Huawei is force to ship its latest and greatest without one of the most crucial parts of the Android experience: Google Play Store and services. Unfortunately, Huawei may have just closed the door on users who might have hoped to unofficially install Google's software on the phone.
Back at the beginning of August, Google put a new subscription service called Google Play Pass into testing. Essentially, it seems that the Play Pass is Google's answer to Apple Arcade, as it's billed as a subscription service that grants users access to a collection of premium apps and games. Even though Google confirmed that the Play Pass was in testing when it was first outed last month, it didn't tell us when the feature might launch.
Today we're looking at how Android 10 utilizes collected info from phones connected with Google Play to optimize apps on current devices. After the initial shock of Android 10 gestures and the joy of discovering top-tier features like internal audio screen recording, we took a brief look at what lies beneath. Android 10 was released on September 3, 2019, starting with Google Pixel smartphones and moving out from there - right to Essential Phone and others.
This week the folks at Google responsible for destroying bugs in software have expanded their bug bounty program. Adam Bacchus, Sebastian Porst, and Patrick Mutchler of Android Security and Privacy released a statement on the subject, suggesting that they are "increasing the scope of GPSRP to include all apps in Google Play with 100 million or more installs." GPSRP stands for Google Play Security Reward Program. Google also launched a new program along similar lines called the Developer Data Protection Reward Program (DDPRP).
In case you haven't noticed by now, a large number of companies are really fond of subscription services at the moment. Apple already offers Apple Music, iCloud, and Apple News Plus subscriptions to those who want them, and later this year, it will add one more to the list: Apple Arcade. The idea behind Apple Arcade is to give subscribers unlimited access to a curated collection of mobile games.
If you prefer to get your movies and television shows from Google Play Movies and TV, the company has good news for you: Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar movies can now be rented and purchased on the platform in 4K Ultra HD resolution. Through Ultra HD movies aren't new on the platform itself, this is the first time Disney has offered its content in 4K for digital purchase on the platform.