Jetpack Joyride

One of the most promising indie games of 2019, Summer Catchers, made its debut in July on Steam. The reception was quite good, with reviews mostly positive. And now, by the end of winter, it can make its way to Google Play. It’s already available for those willing to pre-register and get notified when the game arrives.

Summer Catchers is a story-based auto-runner with boss fights and minor enemies for grinding. It features endless levels where you’ll want to find items to unlock the next one, rhythm game elements, and a bit more complicated background than most of these games can boast. It’s hard to develop an auto-runner at the end of the decade and make it really interesting to play, but Noodlecake Studios somehow managed that.

Of course, the Android version will bear a lot of differences, first of all, in terms of controls. The way the game looks on smaller screens will also affect the overall perception and thus, the reception. Still, there is little to mess up in pixelized visuals, and the worlds look good even as we see it in windowed mode.

The release date of Summer Catchers, as well as details like its size, probable price (or that of in-game purchases), or system requirements, are yet unknown. Preorder it to know it all among the first players. Will you? Have you played it on Windows? Do you expect it to be just as good on Android? It will be great of you to share your thoughts and expectations in a comment.

Google’s experiment codenamed Digital Wellbeing is one of the most ambitious ways to balance digital and real activity, enabled by digital solutions. It seems a paradox that a company promoting digital services cares about their limitation in users’ lives, but so it does. Now Digital Wellbeing includes lots of apps for life control, and recently Google introduced three more — so far as demo versions only.

The most logical one is Screen Stopwatch. It shows you the exact time you have spent today with your screen active. No real-time countdown, because it can make the user nervous. The clock is seen all the time your screen is active; still, it’s not so irritating, and you can easier focus on your current activity.

Activity Bubbles is, in fact, a wallpaper. Each time you turn your phone on, it adds a bubble to the picture. The longer you have your screen active, the bigger the bubble grows. In fact, it’s another visualization of Screen Stopwatch. It only works, though, if your home screen remains free from apps you’re using. And so far, it lacks customization options.

Finally, the third one, Envelope, is a combination of an app and some handwork. Like in an extremely simple google Cardboard, it also requires scissors and a sheet of paper. Print a layout, cut it out, and fold an envelope to put your smartphone into. There are two various layouts: one only allows you to make and answer calls, the other leaves access to the camera, so you can take photos and videos, but you’ll need to break the envelope to watch it. So far, there are only layouts for Pixel 3a, but probably others will be added too.

It’s not sure whether these apps make it to Google Play as full versions, but they are at least interesting. Would you use any of them? Why would or wouldn’t you? Drop a comment to share your thoughts; it may change the way we see things.

Most services by Apple remained a closed territory with no legal ways to enter unless you own a pass — a device designed in Cupertino. While Windows users had their ways to handle it (at least, there has been iTunes all that time), Android only had two apps by Apple, one of them being Apple Music, and another helping users migrate from Android to iPhone or iPad. Not much, heh? Well, with iCloud reworked, Android users will feel at greater ease with it.

It’s especially useful if the iPhone is your primary device, backed with an Android one. Then you may need to access Apple-exclusive docs, notes, cloud storage, and so on. Partly this problem is solved with services like Google Photos (that backs up pictures from your iPhone unlimitedly), but sometimes there isn’t such a service.

No, Apple didn’t release an iCloud app for Android. Instead, it reworked its web interface for mobile devices. So you can launch your favorite browser on your Samsung, Moto, LG, or whatever, and enter iCloud in it. Not that it’s the best possible way, but at least it’s possible after recent updates.

It’s quite obvious (like most things done by Apple), so we won’t need a detailed tutorial. Most of the things required you do every day. So:

Yes, it can all be so simple. When you’re in, you can see shortcuts in your browser, namely Photos, Notes, Reminders, and – the most logical of it – Find iPhone. At least, so it looks, with just four icons, the most reasonable choice.

To provide the most relevant experience most users can encounter, we tried the service with Samsung A30, one of the most popular lower-middle-class Android smartphones of 2019. Quite fresh and productive for its class, it remains quite an average device, so the experience with it can be extrapolated for a broader selection.

We used Google Chrome as the browser. Logging in took almost no time beyond typing in the name. First, we started loading Photos, and it took about 15 seconds for the online gallery to load. The response is quite fast, given that the device is way beyond the flagship ones.

With iCloud, you can download photos to your device, share them via email, or let other users access it right on the cloud (by entering their email). Most operations, though, require downloading the photo. And, of course, there is no online editor.
It was harder with Notes, though. It doesn’t let you edit notes; as soon as you open one for editing, the virtual keyboard appears and closes immediately, before it even displays symbols. No good, Apple.

Find the iPhone is probably the most crucial of the services, and it works fine. You need to re-enter your AppleID password for that, and if two-factor authentication is on, you’ll also need a 6-digit code. Then the built-in map shows you all your Apple devices that are currently online. For those lost, it will display the last detected location.

There are no problems with Reminders just because the service doesn’t even show up. Hope it will be here soon, as well as reworked and finally usable Notes. So far, they are only accessible for reading; it’s not a beta, but it’s just better than nothing.

It can be a great Pro option if your browser supports direct bookmarks on the home screen and treats them like web apps. Thus, the experience gets the closest to the native Apple one. Google Chrome, for example, does support it.

To create a shortcut, open the page in your Chrome, tap the three-dot menu button in the upper right corner, and in the drop-down menu, select “Add to Home Screen.” Then specify the size of the icon. It will be enough to tap it to proceed directly to photos, notes, or whatever.

It’s a good start, though there are many steps to make yet. Make Notes usable, add Reminders, link it to iCloud mail (for those using it), and so on. But it’s better than what mobile users had before. And what do you think about using iCloud on non-Apple devices? Tried it? Wish it had something? Tell your opinion in comments, as sharing your thought is good.

From an experiment with voice controls, Google Assistant has evolved into one of the most advanced of its kind. On your smartphones, tablets, and home devices, it simplifies your interaction with all those various techs and the Internet of information. Along with voice requests and commands, a great thing about it is the information cards it displays when it considers them necessary (and mostly correctly).

Mostly, though, doesn’t mean “always.” It would have been logical to let users decide which sorts of notifications they would like to see. And with the new interface of Google Assistant, this feature finally arrives. The updated menu has a new section named Notifications, where you can adjust its behavior and select what alerts you want to receive.

The settings are highly detailed, offering separate toggles for various types of reminders. So if you are, for example, interested in flights and bookings, but not in calendar events or news updates, you can just turn some of them on and others off. The update may arrive sooner than we expect; it’s so close to ready that it may be a question of weeks or even days.

Do you use Google Assistant? Or plan to use it? Will you find it better with these fine settings? Drop a line in comments to share your opinion, and we’ll be glad.