Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe Hindy the android authority app guy and it's Friday which means it's time for another episode of Google Play weekly in this week's episode we're going to talk about the Angry Birds RPG gameplay trailer a new rumor that suggests that Google Hangouts and google voice is going to be merged and finally Google is killing off tap to pay in Google Wallet for all devices that are not running KitKat without further ado let's get started last week we talked a little bit about the new angry birds RPG that's coming out and this week we have some actual gameplay footage to see alongside the teaser trailer of the game has had a soft launch in a few countries around the world on iOS so we've got a glimpse of what the game is actually like early reports are that the in-app purchases include lives which you lose when you lose a battle and lucky coins which start at six dollars and fifty cents for a pack of 100 and range to 3,000 for a hundred and twenty four dollars and ninety-nine cents as usual people are divided into those who are curious about the game and those who hate it already thank you to the in-app purchases I'll be reserving my final judgment until after the game actually comes out a not so new rumor has been circulating around the internet that states that Google is going to be killing off google voice and integrating it directly with google hangouts this story really shouldn't surprise anyone because logic dictates that this is where google was kind of headed anyway hangouts has already replaced Google+ messenger as well as Google Talk and it already allows for SMS support really the only thing missing at this point are the features you get from google voice such as phone calls and voicemail service the popular guess is that this will be announced officially at Google i/o this year and will likely roll out in the months after even if makes all the sense in the world and it does we won't know anything for sure until google officially announces it earlier this month we celebrated the second birthday of the Google Play Store and this week we're going to be celebrating the third birthday of the Amazon Appstore to celebrate amazon is offering 60 percent off a number of apps and games over the course of the next two weeks according to reports the apps that are on sale will rotate out daily so those looking to take advantage are encouraged to check back every day to see what's on sale in addition select titles such as sonic dash and The Hobbit will award those who make in-app purchases with fifty percent of their purchase given back to them in the form of Amazon coins which you then spend on other apps and games it's a fairly good offer for those who use the amazon appstore and the next two weeks mark an excellent opportunity to beef up your app library google released google play services 4.3 this last week and like most releases it won't have too much of an impact on the end user just yet but it does have a whole bunch of new features for developers the new update includes a few brand-new api's for developers including google analytics tag manager and a new API that will allow people to autofill their stored addresses an addition new functionality was added to invite friends to multiplayer games and virtual gifting is now also available of course it will take app devs a little while to implement these changes into their games so for now there's nothing for the end user to be expecting but keep an eye out down the road for these new changes if you use Google Wallet stap to pay feature and it's on a device that isn't running android 4.4 kitkat you're about to get really mad okay so here's what's going on google announced the whole host card emulation thing that essentially negates the need for a secure element unfortunately this feature was never backported so the only devices that can use it our devices that run KitKat since the secure element is no longer needed in Kit Kats google has decided to no longer support it this has made a lot of people quite angry because about ninety five percent of people aren't running KitKat devices and will therefore lose the ability to use tap to pay we've no doubt that this will iron itself out eventually but we agree that Google may have pulled the trigger a little early with this one 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 pocket casts is among the most popular and highly rated podcast apps in the Google Play Store and its first up this week they recently updated their application to version 4.5 which includes the all-important to chromecast supports also included are a range of fixes and smaller features it's one of the best out there and it's worth all four dollars that the developers are asking for it paypal has done a lot to their app over the last year or so any recent update has added even more security and other features users of their mastercard feature can now see their available credit within the application and paypal will now link your phone to your account for improved security all that's needed is the additional SMS permission some people may not like that but we tried it and it only % the one text message to confirm that your phone is in fact your phone if you don't use the app but do use paypal we recommend you give it a second try pebble beta 11 is out now and if you have a pebble and are actively looking for the latest improvements we recommend you give it a shot included in this release are various improvements in performance and other activities like side loading applications various developer oriented improvements and the app itself apparently loads faster there are still some issues but like the Beatles always say it's getting better all the time so metal gear solid 5 was released and with it came what could be one of the best game companion apps available today if you bought the game you should definitely check out the application you can use it as a standalone app or you can sync it to the game for more enjoyment it's worth checking out anyway but if you have the game on console then you should probably try the app out as well last up this week is an app that focuses on finding all of the apps that are compatible with the chromecast it's called cast store and it's a fairly simple premise since the Play Store is kind of unorganized for chromecast users this app provides a place for people can search for apps for their devices that have chromecast support if you have a chromecast then you should probably have this application to once again I'm Joe Hindy the android authority app guide don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and if you want to follow android authority myself or the rest of our 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 joshua progress 7 best features of the Oppo find 7 as well as chases android authority QA which also happens to be android authorities 1000 episode finally don't forget to check out the written companion which is in the video description below thank you again for watching and have a wonderful day