🐕 Good morning! Had a great dinner out last night capped off with Kyoto only barking once. A real improvement!

Google brings Android games to Windows (not for you)

Wake up people in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong: Google is bringing Android games to Windows in your markets, right now, and nowhere else yet, for some reason.

What’s happening:

• Back in December, Google announced Google Play Games would be coming to PCs.
• Just a month later, that’s happening, if you’re in those regions and manage to get in the beta.
• Google says you’ll be able to “play a catalog of Google Play games on… Windows PC via a standalone application built by Google,” and testers will be able to try out popular mobile games like Asphalt 9, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Summoners War, and Three Kingdoms Tactic.
• Google says “more than 25” games will be available. (Possibly meaning 26, I don’t know.)
• You’ll need Windows 10 or 11, a gaming-class GPU, and an SSD drive with 20GB of space, some of which some gamers won’t have on more value-class laptops.
• And for what it’s worth, you can earn Play Points while playing/paying for Android games on PCs.

Why? Why now?

• Google seems to be racing to bring Android games to PC following Microsoft’s announcement that it would be bringing Android apps (not just games) to Windows 11.
• And of course, Microsoft surprisingly partnered with Amazon and its own Amazon Appstore rather than Google to achieve that.
• It could also be related to Apple allowing M1-chip Macs to run iOS apps and games too.
• But I mean… it is a little odd that Google just didn’t touch this market at all until now, letting the likes of Bluestacks emulate games by itself.
• It’s possible that the timing is finally right to move Android games to bigger screens, mouse and keyboard controls, and so on.
• Plus, Google’s new Android game developer site encourages devs to optimize games for publish-once-publish-anywhere cross-device play, so maybe there were limitations that have now been overcome?

Roundup

• 👉 Get an early taste of the Samsung Galaxy A53’s specs and design (Android Authority).
• 💰 Here’s why your flagship phone doesn’t have a telephoto camera: the lens plus OIS is reportedly reaaally expensive (Android Authority).
• 🍎 Apple has slashed trade-in offer value on many phones, and there’s less cash than ever on offer for trading in an Android phone. Which does prompt the question: why switch? (Android Authority).
• 🤔 OPPO outlines a possible battery-free future powered by cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi signals (Android Authority).
• 😬 Google is discontinuing its legacy free G Suite tier on July 1, meaning pay up or lose access to your free custom domains (Android Authority).
• 📁 A report says foldable phones tripled their sales in 2021: from approximately three million up to nine million sold (Display Supply Chain).
• 📶 Qualcomm is looking to move the SIM from an eSIM to an iSIM: integrated SIM, within the SoC, to save on silicon space and boost efficiency (Qualcomm).
• 📶 Wi-Fi 6 is so old news: MediaTek says it’s testing Wi-Fi 7 technology, first products could arrive in 2023 (XDA).
• 🧪 Biotech: Altos Labs bursts out of stealth with $3B in financing, Jeff Bezos funding, a dream team C-suite and a wildly ambitious plan to reverse disease (Fierce Biotech).
• 🚆 Former SpaceX engineers bring autonomous, electric rail vehicle startup out of stealth (TechCrunch).
• 💵 “Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal is a move toward the post-console world” (Wired).
• 💍 Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings prequel series now announced as Rings of Power is going to be all about… well, the Rings of Power — and here’s what you need to know (Gizmodo).
• 🤔 “ELI5: What is the technical reason behind the airline industry saying 5G deployment will compromise its flights?” (r/explainlikeimfive). In short, possible interference with altimeters which may make landings an issue, so everyone wants more time to assess and certify there won’t be interference.

Throwback Thursday

Something fun for you: on this day, January 20, back in 1892, the first official basketball game was played in Springfield, Massachusetts, by YMCA students of the game’s inventor, James A. Naismith.

• Naismith had invented basketball in 1891, “to condition young athletes during cold months,” using peach baskets and a soccer style ball.
• At first, the game was chaos: full contact, tackling, a free-for-all.
• The first rule change was to disallow running with the ball.
• The first international game was in 1893, just a year later, in Paris, in Montmartre.
• It took until 1894 for the soccer ball to be replaced by a ball Naismith contracted Spalding to make.
• And, the seriously great game of wheelchair basketball started in the mid 1940s.

Cheers,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.