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Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Welcome to the 370th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the headlines from the past week:
- Google confirmed the death of Google Cardboard this week. The app has been removed from the Play Store with a message indicating end of hardware life. Google Cardboard was the first VR platform on Android, so it’s kinda sad to see it go. However, there has been virtually no active development on the platform for years. Bye, Cardboard, we will miss you a little.
- Netflix is launching a new feature. The new Fast Laughs feature shows you short comedy videos in a stream-like format. This is obviously to fight against short video style apps like TikTok. The catalog includes clips from several shows and stand-ups on Netflix. It’s only available for iPhone at the moment, but it should eventually migrate to Android.
- Fitbit suffered a fairly significant outage this week. This kept the app from contacting the servers for a while earlier this week. Users did not have the option to update the various modules of the app and many other parts were also completely unnecessary. Fitbit finally fixed the problem, but it’s surprising what a minor server failure can do.
- In a surprise move, Google promised to no longer use your browsing history to serve you with ads. It also wants to stop tracking your specific activity in its other apps to serve you ads as well. The changes are expected to take place later this year. Click on the link to read the full story.
- A new PUBG game was announced last week. PUBG: New State is apparently an entirely different mobile game from PUBG Mobile. The game has many elements similar to PUBG Mobile, including its battle royale style gameplay. However, the game is set in 2051. The environments and equipment reflect this with new weapons and maps for players. Click the link to learn everything we know about PUBG: New State right now.
Warhammer: Odyssey
Price: Free to play
Warhammer: Odyssey is a new MMORPG set in the Warhammer universe. The game offers six classes, 12 specializations and the usual assortment of MMORPG social elements. In terms of gaming, it’s a solid, if somewhat typical, MMORPG experience. You run, complete quests, kill bad guys, and progress through the story. There are also decent graphics and simple controls, so it doesn’t take long to learn how to play. There are a few bugs as is the norm for new games, but most of them are minor things that the developer should be able to clean up fairly quickly.
Google pay
Price: Release
Google has officially launched a complete overhaul of its Google Pay app. It started working in November and the full version is now available. The app still has most of its original features. However, it puts a lot more emphasis on sending money to and from people similar to Venmo or Cash App than it does for NFC payments. Thus, the whole user interface is different to adapt to this new orientation. You can no longer send money over the web, which is a shame. However, you can scan your Gmail and Google Photos data to get receipts for some cash back options if you want. It’s better in some ways and worse in others, pretty much as you would expect.
Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Abyss: Phantom of Rebirth
Price: Free to play
Abyss: Rebirth Phantom is an idle RPG. Players embark on a quest to another world and adventure while they play. The inactive part of the game is essentially automatic combat. You’re really meant to sit and enjoy the game while you work and summon characters. However, the game has some flaws. Localization in English is below average with obvious grammatical errors. Also, the summoning system seems to be a bit messed up for some people. It certainly needs a few fixes, but has some promise for fans of the genre.
Flexcil
Price: Release
Flexcil is a note-taking app mixed with a PDF reader. The app started life successfully on iOS and is expected to officially launch on Android soon. The app allows you to read, annotate and organize your PDF files. You can also organize and extract other types of documents and notes. It’s a pretty powerful app overall with a bunch of different features that almost all revolve around organizing, PDFs, and note taking. It is currently in beta and you can click the button below to sign up for the beta. Just be prepared for bugs as this is a test version.
Blade & Soul: Revolution
Price: Free to play
Blade & Soul: Revolution is a new MMORPG from Netmarble. This one is actually quite promising. The graphics are pretty decent and there is a lot going on. It features a more complex fighting style, although you can just automatically fight if you want. It even includes faction wars with up to 500 players on each server. Otherwise, it has a solid MMORPG base with plenty of ways to customize your character. It will be up to Netmarble to decide if this one succeeds, but it has a good base, so we hope they build up properly.
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