Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe Hindy the android authority app guy and it's Friday so you know what that means this week we're going to talk about some big moves that Facebook is making some new Google Play Store updates and a top three paid android app that doesn't do anything without further ado let's get started late last week we'll started rolling out an update to the Google Play Store on android devices that now shows a people section this is a simple feature that's easy to understand in the Play Store side menu that will now be a section called people in there you'll see recommendations based on what your friends downloaded and even how they rated whatever Google Play content they were using it's a little more than a recommendation system but let's face facts people are more likely to download an application based on word of mouth now Google Play has word of mouth built right in so i guess 30,000 people bought and downloaded an application that doesn't do anything what i say doesn't do anything I mean that literally it doesn't do anything and actually performed no tasks whatsoever according to android police the app was called virus shield and it sold for three dollars and ninety-nine cents in the Google Play Store which means it made about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars before it was finally taken down earlier this week that's a pretty good run for a totally useless application a recent piece in The Guardian exposed that the developer apparently didn't intend on releasing that version of the application and that it was little more than a UI placeholder the developer believes that everyone should be refunded and has stated that he plans on releasing the actual virus shield free of charge when it's actually done my personal thoughts on the matter are pretty simple if an app that doesn't do anything can make it into the top three best selling apps in just a week what does that really say about our buying habits speaking of paid app problems google just patented a new algorithm that finds and flags pirated applications in the Google Play Store even if piracy isn't the huge mammoths problem that some make it out to be it's still a pretty significant problem one particularly damaging issue was seen with the flappy bird fad where dozens of flat burg ripoffs appeared practically overnight google has filed a new patent to prevent that sort of copycat behavior from happening at least on such a large scale the algorithm would work by comparing the assets and code of an uploaded application to authorized applications already in the Google Play Store so let's say a malware developer clones Angry Birds and puts malware in it the my store would flag this automatically because it has the same code in assets as the original Angry Birds the only thing that is unclear is how precise the algorithm is and exactly how much code and assets have to be copied in order to get flagged of course apps based on other open source apps would not be flagged this would also fit right in with the recent news that Google started continuously scanning for malware in an effort to make the Google Play Store a happier place this last week Facebook announced two things that they'll be doing to their facebook Messenger platform that don't suck how about that so the first move Facebook made was to add free and unlimited Wi-Fi calling to facebook Messenger this means you can call anyone on messenger using your data connection or Wi-Fi to chat as long as you want to frankly this feature was a long time coming as Facebook has lagged behind major competitors in this area for quite some time this was part of an update that also included groups message forwarding and conversation shortcuts the second part of the facebook Messenger saga includes total separation from the facebook application the time being you can access messenger on both the official app and the proprietary one however in the near future they're going to remove that functionality from the official application so if you want to continue using it you'll have to download that second app when you combine this with the not so recent what's that back position it's not a giant leap in logic to assume that facebook Messenger may be merging with whatsapp eventually on some symbiotic level in our last bit of news this week let's talk a little bit about those new google app UI changes that we may be seeing very soon okay so from what we could find there are three designs that google apps could be using the first is what writer andrew grush calls the ich komm layout that came from writer Russell Holly who apparently got to preview a new google calendar the second is the android police layout as they apparently got their hands on some classified renders the third is the wild card which is a supposed screenshot from reddit for now no one but Google knows which one they're going with along with the new UI layouts word around the internet grapevine is that they'll also be introducing project Herod that would finally begin to build that bridge between Chrome Android and search this is probably going to be a huge deal because it would include a much deeper integration between chrome and Android we knew this one was coming when Andy Rubin stepped down and they put control of Android in the hands of the same guy who has control of Chrome it's going to be a really fun show to watch and it's apparently starting soon 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 first up this week is all cast the popular streaming app from couche has gotten an update which includes the boilerplate bug fixes and performance improvements it also includes Amazon fire TV support so if you happen to be an early adopter of bats and need to stream some local content from your Android device then this is the app you should be checking out the app also now includes support for redeeming codes if you ever end up with one of those carousel is a new application from Dropbox that essentially acts as a gallery app here's how it works you download it and install it and it automatically syncs your photos with Dropbox which is kind of expected out of any application from Dropbox at this point some other features include the ability to share photos with other carousel users and the ability to hide photos and videos should you need that if you use Dropbox to backup your photos this is an app worth looking at beware though as there are a few issues namely with Dropbox business accounts if you're looking for something that doesn't take place in the cloud another gallery replacement option was released this week called Impala and Paula is a mix between a gallery app and a camera app that sorts your photos based on a number of variables and also allows you to take pictures the app can also apply filters automatically once it learns your preferences so far people are having a few problems with the app but the general consensus is a positive one so if you don't mind a few release date jitters it's worth taking a look impossible road is a very minimal game and the second iOS game to come to android in the last two weeks that is really popular despite having really simple graphics the game is like a super simplified version of Mario Kart Rainbow Road race track and that you move along a track and you can jump off at any time to try to land on another part of the track it features flappy bird style scoring and it's a dollar 99 which is a bit too rich for my blood for how simple the game is but a lot of people seem to be enjoying it and you may be one of them last up this week is the Walking Dead Season one game and frankly that's all i have to say because it's the walking dead people have been waiting for this for a while now and frankly releasing it right after the end of the current season was a stroke of marketing brilliance the first episode is free but you have to pay for the last four episodes if you want to continue playing the game so far it has rave reviews which means the developers have obviously done something correct if you're a fan of the show you should at least try this one out 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 up and rity to myself for the rest of the awesome youtube 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 including Joseph regards review of the HTC One m8 and his review of the Samsung Galaxy s5 finally don't forget to check out the written companion in the video description for all of the download links as always thank you for watching and have a wonderful day