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5 Android apps you shouldn't miss this week! - Android Apps Week
- Google Earth is getting a massive overhaul on April 18th. An invite went out to some websites to attend the event. Typically, updates don’t get this much attention. Thus, we assume that this is no normal update. Google Earth has been around since 2005. It also existed as EarthViewer 3D since 2001. It’s been around for a while and Google thinks it’s finally time for a major overhaul. We’ll tell you more when we learn more.
- Burger King released a new ad this week. It was only about 20 seconds long, but it was highly effective. The actor on camera used the “Okay, Google” hotword to activate Google Assistant or Google Home. Then the actor asked it to search for Burger King’s signature food, the Whopper. Google shut it down a few hours later with a back-end update. It made a lot of people angry. However, I thought it was hilarious.
- Google is making another attempt to clean up fake news. It’s essentially integration with a variety of fact checking sites. Now when you Google Search something, the fact checking feature will kick in to let you know if it’s false. Thankfully, Snopes and Politico have decent track records. The only downside is if fact checking sites have conflicting conclusions. They will report the results to be inconclusive. Facts potentially being blurred based on political loyalty is also a little worrisome. Thus, the system may not be perfect. Still, it’s progress.
- As it turns out, Pokemon Go still has 65 million active monthly players. That’s actually incredibly impressive considering how many sites have tried to convince all of us that the game is functionally dead. Niantic also announced that new co-op features were coming to the game. The new co-op social features could be available as early as late spring of this year.
- Google updated Google Chrome for Android this week. Usually updates aren’t too special but this one is. The update fixes the pesky issue that we’ve all had where websites make jumps when advertising shows up. The update fixes that problem and lets you continue scrolling along as you once did. Good job, Google. And thank you.
For even more Android apps and games news, updates, and releases, check out this week’s newsletter by clicking here. There you can find all sorts of news that we didn’t have time for here. That includes Google’s game designer calling it quits, some potential app issues with Android O, and a new trailer for Modern Combat Versus. You can sign up for the newsletter by filling out the form below and we’ll send it to you every Sunday! Also, you can download the Android Authority app for up to the minute mobile news coverage!
If we missed any big Android apps or games news, tell us about it in the comments! Thanks for reading and check back next week for more apps and games news!