Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe handy the Android authority app guy and welcome back to Android apps weekly this is episode number 154 so let's get started first up let's take a look at the headlines from the last week Verizon's urge to pester their customers seems to be reaching new heights this week because a new report talked about Verizon's new brand wear program the idea is that the app and game developers can pay Verizon an exorbitant amount of money and their apps will be downloaded by Android phones on Verizon's network when that phone gets booted for the first time it's no small wonder that people are buying unlocked phones in greater numbers it was announced this week that a hallmark feature of Google Plus was leaving hangouts on air is officially being moved over to YouTube where it will become part of the YouTube live experience this is yet another big feature ripped out of the social network and one that people weren't really using anymore that's probably because the lack of reverse chronological order made it impossible to plan a hangouts on air this also comes on the heels of Google removing the requirement to have a Google+ account to post user reviews on Google Play snapchat purchased a company called verb for one hundred and ten million dollars this last week the deal is for seventy-five percent in stocks and twenty-five percent in cash verb is a search application that tries to show you local stuff based on your location reviews and whatever else they can pull from sites like Yelp no one's really sure why snapchat purchased the company but the popular rationale is that snapchat search function sucks and they intend to improve it and we'll see how that works out it is worth noting that verb 1 TechCrunch Disrupt in new york back in 2014 Google Play made a significant move this week by releasing a truly separate top charts for applications and for games previously you could only see the top charts for apps and games but the app section was essentially an ad-hoc game section with a smattering of apps throughout now both sides are completely separate so you can find apps or games instead of just games this is great news and something that should have happened a really long time ago the update is rolling out now so everyone should have it sometime soon with duo released and a low on the way the big question has been what Google will do with Google Hangouts a report this week indicated that hangouts will continue to stick around after the release of the new chat apps but it will be more focused on business use over time we imagine that means that the server we'll be stripped of the more consumer based features with business features added in later at least it'll still be around for even more Android apps and games news releases and updates including the latest Pokemon Go news you can check out this week's newsletter which is linked in the video description below if you want to sign up for the newsletter we have a form that you can fill out in the written companion which is also linked in the video description below and we'll send it to you every single Sunday for even faster updates check out the android authority app and now it's time for the new releases that made a big splash this week if you want to check out any of these apps or games for yourself you can find those links in the video description below it's a space thing is a completely free game that was released earlier this week it's an arcade shooter where you play on the ground and match wits with an opponent in the air the controls and the mechanics are simple enough to understand but you'll need to have some decent reflexes in order to win each round it comes with a few boss battles power-ups and even a local multiplayer mode where you and a friend can play on the same device it's all entirely free so don't expect the very best but it's still not bad Mars Mars is a platformer where you must explore the planet of Mars you do this by leaping from platform to platform and using your thrusters to make sure you make a clean landing if you don't you'll end up having a rapid unscheduled disassembly it takes a minute but the controls are easy to grasp and it shouldn't take you long before you're floating around effortlessly you'll also have opportunities to take selfies and unlock other characters it also comes with Google Play games achievements Microsoft released a new application called Microsoft flow this week the idea of this application is to directly compete with apps like IFTTT for those that don't know I have TTT and flower applications that allow you to create actions that are performed automatically for instance you can have the service save an image to Dropbox after you post it on Instagram all by itself yes IFTTT is definitely superior in this space but a little competition never hurt anyone you can try out the application for free but it is an alpha release and it's going to be buggy Square Enix has released their latest puzzle game with Deus Ex go much like Laura Croft go this game has you traversing puzzle maps in order to defeat the bad guys and clear the level unlike Laura Croft code this game features characters and environments from the deus ex games the game features 50 story levels that you'll have to use various tactics to make your way through the developers have also promised a new puzzle every day as part of their live content feature it's $4 99 cents which is also exactly how much Laura Croft NGO costs Google duo was released this week to extremely polar reviews on one hand it's a wicked simple video calling app that just works on the other most of us already have video apps that do this exact thing already unlike most video calling apps duo operates using your phone number so there is no account setup if you have someone's phone number and they have duo you can use this app to call them which is just fantastically easy of course we'll have to wait for allo to come out before we can render final judgement since the two applications are supposed to work together and that about does it for this one folks if you want to keep watching we have our review of the galaxy note 7 linked up there on the screen and in the video description below don't forget to sign up for that newsletter and keep it tuned to Android authority because we are your source for all things Android thanks again for watching everybody and have a wonderful day