Gadgetory

this episode of the Google Play weekly show is brought to you by aquarium 3d live wallpapers hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe Hindy the android authority app guy and welcome back to Google Play weekly this week we're going to talk about Google's picks for the best android apps and games of 2014 Google and Microsoft going head-to-head in Santa tracking and a whole lot more so let's get started in our first bit of news this week google has shared their picks for the best android apps and games of 2014 both lists are huge and include well over a hundred applications and games some of the games include instant classics like Monument Valley and Sky Force 2014 along with more predictable titles like Leo's fortune and don't tap the white tile on the application side of things you'll find stuff like the official Ted application I have TTT swiftkey Disney movies anywhere and a whole lot more the links are in the written companion which is in the video description below if you want to see both lists for yourself this last week Nintendo received a patent that allows it to emulate its Game Boy platform on a number of other platforms and that can be both good or bad the patent covers the emulation of the Game Boy for various purposes including smartphone computers and some unusual places like the headrest screens you see on airplanes this can be good or bad if Nintendo wants to be good about it they can publish an official emulator and finally have a chance to enter into the smartphone gaming world or they can use the patent to for school to remove existing emulators which would be very bad only time will tell us what Nintendo intends on doing google messenger got an update this last week that lets you customize your theme i wanted to mention this because a lot of people i've talked to express grief that the google messenger texting app was too simple and i thought they'd like to see that Google is spicing things up a little bit the update is rolling out soon so if you pick it up now or already habits you may have to wait a little bit for the updates you'll have control over what conversations have what colors and it's a fun way to kind of color code your conversations as usual the application is still free this last week Microsoft purchased a calendar an email application called a comp I for a reported two hundred million dollars the app itself is a calendar and email hybrid application with an imaginative UI and some fun features that bring something a little bit different to the table we're not sure why Microsoft bought them because they do have their own email and calendar clients but Microsoft has expressed that they plan on using this application to help their cross-platform efforts we're sure we'll see some follow-up to this over the next but for now the application will remain in development just as it is now so if you want to try it out you absolutely can it is free in our last bit of news this week Google and Microsoft go head-to-head in the battle of the Santa trackers up until last year nor adding Google used to work together to bring us our yearly Santa tracker after last year the pair decided to break up and this year Google has their own while NORAD has kind of sort of partnered with Microsoft on their own what we get is a brilliant analogy of the texting as a whole as two of the biggest tech giants in history go head-to-head buying over children's love of Santa no you can't make this stuff up folks both versions have some pretty fun features so it's not like one is better than the other so go ahead and take your pick before we get into the trending apps this week let's take a quick look at aquarium 3d live wallpapers this app gives you a beautiful and colorful underwater scene complete with equally colorful swimming fish you can purchase additional scenes and fish as in-app purchases or you can buy the pro version which includes everything including everything included in all future updates it's free to download in the Google Play Store so you can try it out without paying anything and we'll have a link to that in the video description below and we'd like to thank the developers for supporting Google Play weekly so who wants to see some trending applications as usual if you want to check any of these applications out you can find the links in the written companion which is in the video description below google has released a new application called device assist that helps people become more acclimated with the features of their devices it is only for nexus google play experience and android one devices and helps you learn things like Google now and other various Google features it's free and if you know someone getting a google phone for Christmas this is a great application to have them try google news and weather is getting an update very soon then add some new features and UI changes there is now a dark you I option for those that like their apps a little bit darker as well as some fun graphs for things like whether you can also now use the search bar to delve into topics in more depth the update is rolling out so if you don't have it yet have a little bit of patience because it is coming status is a new application that is designed to automatically update your status when you do things most adults may not have a use for this but this is a great application for parents who want to keep an eye on their kids without forcing their kids to do well anything it updates automatically in the background so kids can keep doing what they do and parents can keep doing what they do and no one has to do any additional work oh and it's free gota is a fun new free-to-play game where you get to play God you'll control over everything in your little world including what it looks like and the people who live there you can do things like cast miracles and nurture growth and stuff like that it's a little bit buggy because it is a new release but it is free to play so it won't cost you anything to try it out last up this week is a new app called ghost three privacy browser this app allows you to surf the web like any other browser but it also allows you to see what trackers website used to track your usage habits and it gives you the option to block them this is handy if you're a privacy minded individual there are a couple of small bugs here and there but it is brand new so those will probably be ironed out soon if you want to check out the latest news and reviews about android apps and games head on over to android authority com click on the little menu thingy and check out the application section and if you want to join the discussion head on over to android authority calm / community set up an account and join us in the forums I will see you there once again I'm Joe Hindy the android authority app guy don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and if you want to follow android authority myself for the rest of the video team you can find our social media links in the video description below if you're hanging out for a minute we have a couple of Awesome videos for you to watch right over there and they're also linked in the video description below for you folks on mobile finally don't forget to check out the written companion which is in the video description below because that is where you going to find all of the download links as always thanks for watching everybody and have a wonderful day