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Google Plans to Start Charging the Chinese OEMs for PlayStore Apps

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The Chinese market for smartphones has gained a lot of popularity around the world, especially Android smartphones. The popularity of the Chinese apps was also on the peak last year. But for the smartphone manufacturers from the Chinese industry may have to face some heat this year, as now they may have to pay for the Android apps and services on their smartphones.

Chinese smartphones
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In a tweet from the official Android Twitter account (spotted by SlashLeaks), Google has stated that it may start charging the Chinese OEMs from third quarter for using Android apps.

The tweet wrote, ”We plan to charge Chinese manufacturers in the third quarter of 2019, which may include Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi, and many other smartphone manufacturers.” Google has never charged the Android device manufacturers for its apps and services, but the tweet clearly shows that the biggest smartphone manufacturers like Huawei, ZTE and Xiaomi will be affected by this decision.

Last year in July, European Commission had fined Google with $5 billion, as it allegedly blamed the tech giant for “illegally tying” the Chrome and search apps to Android. Google provides a few pre-installed services and apps, like Google search and Google Chrome to the Android smartphone manufacturers for free, which was the major concern of the European Commission that Google forced those apps on to the smartphone users resulting in dominating their app market.

As a result, Google had produced a new licensing agreement for the smartphones that were shipped to Europe. According to the agreement, Google started charging the hardware firms, up to $40, for using its apps on their devices. The fee also depended on the size and type of the device as well as in which country it was going to operate.

Likewise, for the Chinese smartphone manufacturers as well, the company is planning to impose a fee on the usage of its apps and services. But still, the Android OS will remain free and open-source for them.

Germany Receives the Stable Android Pie Update for Samsung Galaxy 9 & 9 Plus

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Christmas has just ended well and with that Samsung has announced that the company is rolling out the Android Pie updates for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ users from some countries of Europe. SamMobile reported that the company has started to release the updates in Germany, and later, Samsung announced that the users from countries like Netherlands and Slovakia are also going to get the new Android Pie updates.

Samsung-Galaxy
Image Source: thenerdmag.com

The release has occurred way ahead of its decided date, that was in the late January in 2019, alongside the release of the same update for the Galaxy Note 9. The Android update is a stable update and not the beta one. Right now it is only available in a few countries in Europe.

Earlier this month, Samsung had released the beta version of Android Pie for its Galaxy S9 and S9+ users in UK, France, Poland, and Germany. The users who are having Samsung Experience UX based on Android Oreo, as well as those with the One UI beta on top of Android Pie, are receiving the update, along with the Samsung’s One UI version 1.0. One UI is basically created for the users so that they can easily use the apps on their big screen phones.

The update will change the software version for Galaxy S9+ to G965FXXU2CRLI, and the software for Galaxy S9 will be G960FXXU2CRLI. The size of the update software is around 1.7GB, which is available for download on the Samsung’s download servers. The users can check the availability of updates on the S9/Plus phones from the Software Update option in the settings of their phone.

The early release of the update indicates that Samsung is getting ready for some tough competition in the upcoming year. Although the update had to roll out for every S9 and S9+ users, all around the world, only a few will enjoy it before it gets officially released in January 2019. Till then, we can evaluate the difference between the earlier and the latest Android version on the basis of the feedback from the European Galaxy S9 and S9+ users.

Google Announced its Best of 2018 List; PUBG Selected the Best Game 2018

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The year is about to end, and Google, following the ritual of selecting best of the year, has published a list of its best apps of 2018, in various categories, including “Most Entertaining” and “Hidden Gems”. There are millions of apps and other content available on the Play Store, and along with apps, the list of bests includes the best movies, TV shows, and books, etc.

Google on the basis of various factors selected the top five among every category and named the best of all. Google, also, first time also added a Fan Favorite category, a user poll, from where the users could support their favourite apps in various categories. On the basis of the voting, Google Pay won the User’s Choice App of 2018 and Google selected Drops as the Best App of 2018.

Google-Play-Best-Of-2018-Awards
Image Source: 9to5google.com

The best app also included other subcategories, and among those categories, Tik Tok became the Most Entertaining App 2018. Unfold won the Hidden Gems of 2018, and Home Workout – No Equipment was named the Best Self-Improvement App 2018. Otter Voice Notes became the Best Daily Helper 2018.

The other main category was the Best Game 2018, and it also had various sub-categories, i.e. Best Game, User’s Choice Game, Best Casual, Most Innovative, Most Competitive and Best Indie. PUBG Mobile won the Best Game 2018 from both User’s Choice and Google. The Best Casual 2018 won by Ludo King, Battlelands Royale named the Most Innovative 2018, Real Cricket 18 won the Most Competitive 2018, and Alto’s Odyssey named the Best Indie 2018.

Black Panther was selected as the Best Movie of 2018 on Play Store, and the top five list includes the following:

  • Black Panther
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
  • Deadpool 2

Google’s top five TV shows of 2018 are:

  • The Walking Dead
  • Riverdale
  • The Big Bang Theory
  • The Flash
  • PAW Patrol

The top five eBooks of 2018 selected by Google:

  • Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
  • The Outsider by Stephen King
  • Fear by Bob Woodward
  • 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
  • Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

In the category of best Audiobooks of 2018, the following win the race of top 5:

  • 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
  • Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
  • Fear by Bob Woodward
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • The Outsider by Stephen King

Android 9 Pie – The Latest Version of Android Hitting the Market

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After Oreo, Google is back with its another desert, I mean the latest edition of Android – Android 9 Pie. It was launched on Tuesday and, is already rolling out on Google’s Pixel smartphones and will be available for most Android smartphones by the end of the year. This new version of Android is powered by artificial intelligence and, has come with many additional features that claim to help the users to reduce their smartphone addiction to an extent. Let’s see what Google has brought for us with its latest Android version:

1) App Dashboard: The new features of the Android 9, include an App Dashboard, showing various apps, that you have used, from most to least, the whole day long. The dashboard can also tell the number of times you have unlocked your phone, which can be an eye-opener for many, as people spent a lot of time on their smartphones these days.

2) Digital Well Being: The Digital Wellbeing, display a multicoloured circle, each colour representing a particular app, that you use on the daily basis, and between the circle, the total time, the phone screen is opened. You can tap on the colours, to further see the details about the app and set a limit for its usage.

Android Pie
Image Source: Image Source: Pcmag

3) App Timer: App Timer is another Android feature that will help to decrease your mobile usage. The timer is available on the App Dashboard, and you can set a time limit on a particular app so that when you have reached the limit, the app will grey out and you will not be able to start it again until the next set time.

4) Adaptive Battery: Android has come with another feature of saving the battery that works according to your app preferences. The earlier versions of Android also had a similar feature but in this one, with the aid of artificial intelligence, the phone will adapt your app usage practices and will divide the battery control according to the most to least used apps. This will ensure that the apps you need will use the battery.

5) App Actions: App Action also based on your daily app habits and creates shortcuts for your most used apps and activities you do on an app. It will result in the quick launch for even your daily activity inside a particular app.

Along with all the above features it has got a few more features like Gesture, Wind Down, Do Not Disturb, Adaptive Brightness, New Navigation System, etc. Most of them are using the artificial intelligence for making the smartphones more intimate part of our lives so that it can work according to our habits and can help us reduce our Smartphone addiction. Also by the end of the year, Google is going to add a few more features to Android Pie and Android Pie will be available for most of the Android users by the fall.