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Welcome to the 475th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- The second Android 14 developer preview dropped this week. It includes some better stability, improved performance, Android 14’s photo picker selector, better support for third-party app stores, and more. Google is moving right along with these updates, as we also learned that Android 15 is going to be codenamed Vanilla Ice Cream.
- Google I/O 2023 is happening on May 10th, 2023. This is a huge event every year. Google is likely announcing a bunch of software updates and changes. Additionally, we usually see hardware launches as well. Save the date because we definitely did.
- Google One is making VPN by Google One available to all subscribers, and not just the ones using the 2TB or higher plan. In addition, Google is introducing dark web monitoring as part of its plan, and it’ll tell you if your usernames and passwords are on the dark web for sale. Both are excellent security features.
- Facebook is letting you access Messenger within Facebook again. This feature has been in beta for months, and a lot of folks have it already. However, Facebook officially announced it this week. Facebook says the move is to bolster discovery and sharing features. This reverses the company’s decision to make Messenger a separate app nine years ago.
- Scammers are using AI voices to steal money by impersonating loved ones. Research suggests that AI voice-generating software bilked people out of over $11 million in 2022 alone, and everyone expects that number to increase over time. You can read more at the link, but it’s not a great use of AI software.
Paranormasight
Price: $14.99
Paranormasight is a mystery-horror visual novel from Square Enix. The story revolves around a set of curse bearers who can kill anyone they want under certain circumstances. The protagonist aims to seek out the other curse bearers to bring his friend back to life. The story branches consistently based on player choices, and those choices can kill off some characters, or otherwise change what happens to them. It’s a surprisingly captivating story, and Square Enix might have a sleeper hit on their hands with this one. It’s expensive at $14.99, but that’s also discounted from its $17.99 base price.
Weather by Globin.dev
Price: Free / $0.99 per month / $3.49 per 6 months
Weather by Globin.dev is a simple weather app that gets the job done. The UI is mostly clean, and lightly customizable by letting you change icons. It includes basic information like current temperature, hourly forecasts, daily forecasts, and weekly forecasts. There are also things like atmospheric pressure, UV index, and other stuff as well. The base units are metric, but you can change it to imperial in the settings. There is a subscription to remove ads, but it’s not very expensive.
Doctor Who: Lost in Time
Price: Free to play
Doctor Who: Lost in Time is an idle game featuring characters from the popular TV show. You gather resources to upgrade things in various iconic locations from the show. In terms of story, you’re helping to save the timeline of events, which is pretty standard fair for TV show tie-ins in mobile games. It lets you relive past stories, and cashes in on that nostalgia factor. The game is reasonably well put together, although the mechanics aren’t anything we haven’t seen before. We think Doctor Who fans who are also into idle games will like it.
TrueShot
Price: Free / $0.49 per month / $4.99 once
TrueShot is an app for beautifying your screenshots. You start by importing a screenshot, and then using the sliders and settings to make it look more fancy. There isn’t much to it, and most of it is just adding a background gradient for some extra flair. However, some folks may like that, so it could be of use. The app is free with a single $4.99 purchase. You can optionally do the $0.49 subscription, but we have no idea why anyone would.
Uncharted Waters Origin
Price: Free to play
Uncharted Waters Origin is a fairly unique game. It’s an open world game where you sail the high seas, take on bad guys, trade goods, and do other things like that. The game uses the real world as a map, and even uses historical data for things like weather patterns. The world is beautifully rendered, although we wish the characters were as well. In any case, this is a deep game with a lot to do, and aside from some early day bugs, it seems pretty good.
If we missed any big Android app or game releases this week, tell us about them in the comments.
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