
By JON MOOALLEM from NYT Magazine https://ift.tt/31a0bNl
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Earlier this year, Apple announced Apple Arcade, a monthly subscription service that gives you access to a library of mobile games (including some exclusive titles) on iOS devices. The service isn't live yet, but Google is already testing its own competing service, named Play Pass.
XDA Developers found evidence last year that Google was working on the Play Pass service, but now the company is starting to test it. We received the below screenshots from reader Dustin, which show the signup page for Play Pass and the $4.99 monthly cost.
Read MoreExclusive: Google now testing 'Play Pass' app and game subscription service was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
It's been nearly a year since Lenovo introduced its most recent budget Chromebook models, the 11" C330 and 14" S330. The company is gearing to follow them up this year with the new 11" C340 and 14" S340, as well as a third larger 15" C340, all of which forego the MediaTek processors in favor of Intel 8th Gen chips.
The news was teased in the YouTube video above, spotted by Chrome Unboxed.
Read MoreLenovo teases 3 new Chromebooks, moving from MediaTek chips to Intel 8th Gen was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Jaybird was one of the first companies to popularize the true wireless earbud form factor, but its Run and Run XT products weren't without their fair share of issues. These new Vista models will hope to right the wrongs of their predecessors, offering a smaller/lighter design, better battery life, and a USB Type-C port for charging.
As before, these earbuds are intended for use during running and other types of exercise.
Read MoreJaybird's new Vista true wireless earbuds last for 6 hours and charge over USB-C was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Google's two-factor authentication hardware key, the Titan Security, has been available in the US for almost a year. After disappearing from the Store for a few months and a Bluetooth flaw that required Google to send free replacements, it's now making its way to four other countries.
The Titan Security Bundle contains two keys: the USB-A security key with NFC, and the battery-powered, Bluetooth/NFC/Micro-USB key. It follows the U2F (Universal 2nd Factor) standard, and lets you secure your accounts with a physical key only you have access to.
Read MoreGoogle Titan Security Key now available in Canada, France, Japan, and the UK was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
I'm a huge fan of mobile payments, mostly because it's convenient and I don't have to take my wallet with me to run small errands. Seeing Google Pay expand to more countries is always pleasant, especially when the services added include prepaid cards in addition to traditional banks. The list of supported services has further grown since our last post, as Google Pay now supports 25 more services in 14 countries in Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Read MoreGoogle Pay adds support for 25 more banks across Europe, Asia, and Australia was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Not to be left out today, the OnePlus 5 and 5T are also getting a new update. OxygenOS 9.0.7 is starting to roll out for the company's 2017-era flagships, bringing last month's security patches, the company's snazzy screen recorder, a landscape quick reply feature (which isn't quite as simple as it sounds), and a handful of other tweaks.
Read More[Update: Downloads] OnePlus 5 and 5T get native screen recording in latest OTA update was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
There's a wide variety of Bluetooth speakers available on the market, but only a few of them offer 360º sound. The list gets even smaller if you're on a budget, but Anker's Soundcore Flare and Flare+ speakers meet these criteria and are even cheaper now that they're on sale, down to $51 and $80, respectively.
Both speakers come with an LED light strip at the bottom that reacts to the rhythm of the music.
Read MoreAnker Soundcore Flare and Flare+ portable Bluetooth speakers down to $51 and $80, respectively (up to 20% off) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
It's that joyous time of the year when we're bombarded with long, boring press releases with lots of numbers on that tell how terrible a company is doing — that's right, second-quarter 2019 financial results are in. In news that will shock absolutely nobody, LG and Sony continue to struggle when it comes to sales of smartphones.
Despite posting record second-quarter and first-half revenues and operating profit totaling $559.4 million — largely due to strong home appliance sales — LG's Mobile Communications division continues to underperform.
Read MoreSony and LG still struggled to sell smartphones in Q2 2019, surprising nobody was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Samsung's new "Night" photo setting is rumored to finally compete with Google's excellent Night Sight, but there's just one hitch: When the feature first rolled out, it was limited to Exynos-powered Galaxy S10s, which aren't available in the US.
Read More[Update: Sprint, Verizon] Samsung's 'Night' photo mode finally coming to the US, starting with the AT&T Galaxy S10+ was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
If you take a look at how gaming smartphones are comprised, you'll find that the OEM usually draws from off-the-shelf components and augments them with software or extra hardware, like thermal coolants, to juice up performance. When it comes to SoCs, most chipmakers have come to integrate new features into their products in pushing for a strident gaming experience, but MediaTek has decided to christen a new line of chipsets for devices dedicated to the grind.
Read MoreMediaTek targets gamers on a budget with new Helio G90 series chipsets was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Google first revealed in May that Android Auto would soon have a brand new interface, but no firm release date was announced. A few people claimed to have received the new look back in June, but Google said it was still being worked on. The updated interface might finally be rolling out, according to multiple reports from our readers and Reddit.
The interface is identical to what Google teased a few months ago.
Read MoreAndroid Auto redesign is now rolling out, for real this time was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
It just so happens that we all tend to lose a wall charger every now and then, be it because of a power surge or because we're in a rush trying to make it out of the hotel before checkout time. Fortunately, Anker runs sales on its chargers pretty often on Amazon and we think its PowerPort Atom III block pulling 60W is a swell steal at $11 off, but you gotta get it before midnight PDT.
Read MoreHurry: Anker 60W USB-C + USB-A super compact wall charger is an all-time low of $32 for the next few hours was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

In celebration of DOOM's 25th anniversary, Bethesda has released official ports for DOOM and DOOM II on the Google Play Store. Each title is available for $4.99, and since they are both premium releases, you won't have to worry about any advertisements or in-app purchases.
DOOM gameplay trailer
Above you can view the official DOOM mobile gameplay trailer.
Read More[Update: Log-in will be optional] Bethesda just released DOOM and DOOM II on the Play Store was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
How many ways can you build a rectangle? When it comes to smartphone displays, it can get quite excessive. Chinese manufacturer Oppo recently revealed its work on a panel with a highly-translucent portion containing a phone's front cameras. Now, the company is circulating images and video of what it calls a "waterfall display" — basically a curved edge screen, but with the curves on steroids.
Some of the images compare what's presumably a testing device with the new display against the existing Oppo Find X, which features tapered slopes toward its sides.
Read MoreOppo's new 'Waterfall' display has the most extreme curved edges we've ever seen was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
