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Welcome to the 451st edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the biggest headlines from the last week:
- Android OEMs are considering adding a Dynamic Island-style feature. Namely, realme is polling users to see if people would be interested in such a feature. Such a move may prompt some app developers to integrate it with their apps. However, without full Android integration, we don’t see any Dynamic Island clones being too useful overall.
- Google Reminders is changing. Google is migrating both Google Assistant reminders and Calendar Reminders into Google Tasks. Users can then convert all of their reminders into to-do tasks for which they get notifications. The move makes sense. To-do list apps are often superior to just reminders when it comes to some stuff. Still, we think things like birthdays don’t necessarily need to become tasks. In any case, hit the link to learn more.
- It turns out that YouTube’s dislike button does virtually nothing. Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, conducted a study that shows the dislike button does nearly nothing for a user’s recommendations. They found the better solution was to tell YouTube to stop recommending the channel, but even then, it wasn’t a great solution.
- Google Chrome is implementing a new feature. It lets you lock your private browsing sessions behind a fingerprint. Basically, you’ll be able to lock your incognito mode so that snoopers can’t see any tabs you leave open. The rollout is pretty slow but hit the link to learn how to enable it right now.
- Android 13 may finally bring seamless updates to all Android phone brands, including Samsung. Google is doing this by mandating that all phones running Android 13 use virtual A/B partition support, which is necessary for seamless updates. Hit the link to learn more.
Center Stage
Price: Free
Center Stage bills itself as a visual search engine for trading cards. It includes a function where you point your camera at a card, and it’ll show you what the card is worth. It’s useful for card collectors who want to negotiate a sale or a tarde for their cards. Plus, it’s fun to go through your collection to see if you have any gems. Currently, the app supports baseball, football, basketball, F1 racing, and hockey. Future updates will add Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering. It’s new, but it has few competitors.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel
Price: Free to play
Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel is a card dueling game centered around the Yu-Gi-Oh universe. It plays like most games in this space. You collect cards, build a deck, and duel against other players. There are a variety of characters from the TV show, and you work to improve your bond with each of them. There are several different ways to play, decent graphics, and an improved duel system from prior Yu-Gi-Oh mobile games. The animations can slow the pace of play a little bit, and, as a free-to-play game, there are going to be whales that ruin people’s good times. Otherwise, it’s not bad.
Justune
Price: $0.99
Justune is a simple guitar tuner app. It works with a few popular string instruments, including guitar, bass, and ukulele. This one works well because it’s very simple. You open it, select your instrument, and tune it. That’s all the app does. The app automatically recognizes which strings you’re trying to tune. There are also over 1,000 tunings available. There isn’t much else to say about it. It goes for $0.99 with no additional purchases. It’s a pretty good deal if you play guitar, bass, or ukulele.
Soccer Manager 2023
Price: Free / $5.49-$28.49 with in-app purchases
Soccer Manager 2023 is the follow up to the relatively successful 2022 variation. Players create a team, build it up, and compete to be the best team. It gives you a decent amount of control, including the ability to buy and sell players, on-field tactics, and training. Many parts of the 2023 version are better than the 2022 version, but many players believe it took a step backwards in terms of graphics and gameplay.
The game has premium options along with in-app purchases. The cheapest option grants you an advert-free experience, one save game slot, and 1,325 bonus credits. Going for the highest tier nets you a no-ads experience, 12,000 credits, ten save game slots, and more. You can choose depending on what you want.
dynamicSpot
Price: Free
DynamicSpot is an app that emulates Apple’s new Dynamic Island. It can do quite a few things, including show you notifications, check out your music controls, add a timer, and more. In some ways, it’s even better than Apple’s version. For now, it’s mostly proof of concept, although it works surprisingly well for something so new. We hope development on this continues because it’s actually pretty fun to use.
If we missed any big Android apps and games updates or releases, tell us about it in the comments.
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