Welcome to the 429th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- T-Mobile is dealing with an unblockable phishing attack right now. It was first reported by the NJCCIC. Basically, the scam involves texts to users thanking them for paying their bills and offering a free gift. It’s difficult to block because they use group messaging and that’s a bit more tricky to block than normal. In any case, check the link if you’re a T-Mobile subscriber to make sure you don’t get hit.
- CNN Plus is being shuttered on April 30th, 2022. The reasoning is pretty apparent. It wasn’t popular and nobody wanted it anyway. The service reportedly had less than 10,000 total subscribers and that’s about as bad as it gets. Some of the content may find its way to HBO Max, but otherwise, let’s just pretend like this never happened because that’s what Warner Bros. Discovery is going to do.
- A third-party tool that installed the Google Play Store on Windows 11 machines apparently also installs malware. The app is Windows Toolbox and on top of the Play Store, it also installs some sketchy scripts along with a malicious Chrome extension. The extension redirects users to affiliate and referral links while also stealing personal data. Hit the link to learn more.
- Netflix announced a few things this week. The first was that they lost 200,000 subscribers over the first quarter of 2022. That’s not great news. The company followed it up by announcing an ad-supported plan that is cheaper than the stock plans. Finally, they also announced that account sharing is mandatory across all accounts. We asked our readers and they are summarily displeased with most of it.
- Google is killing off call recorder apps. The company restricted the functionality on earlier versions of Android. It’s not killing it off for good this time. The company is banning all call recorder apps from the Play Store starting on May 11th. It does so by restricting the use of the Accessibility API. However, the loophole is that stock dialer apps don’t need the API to call record calls. Thus, call recording is at the discrepancy of the OEM and not of app developers. We’ll see how this pans out over time.
Berserker Online
Price: Free to play
Berserker Online is an idle game with RPG elements. It plays as you would expect. You sit around while your heroes beat up enemies and level up. The game also boasts dungeons, bosses, and a PvP arena. It uses the classic combination mechanic to make weapons stronger. The developers over-promise some of their mechanics, but it’s as good a time waster as you’ll get in the genre. Unfortunately, the game had some release-day bugs that caused some issues with people loading the game. We think they have it worked out, but if not, give it another few days.
Zola Watchfaces
Price: $0.99 each
Zola Watchfaces is a developer on Google Play and they launched several new Wear OS watchfaces recently. The themes are subtly different between them, but most of them have similar features. They include a battery status, always-on display, 24 or 48 hour modes, and more. They aren’t the most game changing watchfaces you’ll ever see. However, they are an inexpensive way to add a bit of flair to your smartwatch if you want to.
Time Defenders
Price: Free to play
Time Defenders is a mobile gacha RPG. It boasts a roster of over 70 heroes and there are almost certainly more to come. What makes this game pretty decent is the execution. The characters are fully voiced with decent animations. The story is not bad and the whole package plays pretty well. It has a lot of the usual gacha pitfalls like tedious grinding to upgrade units. However, you can grind for upgrade materials instead of needing multiple pulls. It’ll get more grindy and tedious over time as all gachas do, but it’s honestly not terrible.
Proton Calendar
Price: Free
Proton Calendar is the latest app in the Proton software suite. The beta launched for use although you do need to be an existing Proton user to use the calendar. The calendar itself is pretty good. It includes widgets, recurring events, a daily planner function, and a dark mode along with the light mode. This one separates itself from the pack by having end-to-end encryption on servers that are based in Switzerland. It’s about as safe of a calendar as you can get in 2022. Again, you have to be an existing Proton user to get into the beta, but hopefully that goes away when the app officially launches.
Dungeon of Gods
Price: Free to play
Dungeon of Gods is an action RPG with very simple mechanics. It’s mildly reminiscent of Nonstop Knight so if you’ve played that, you have a sort of idea of what you’re in for. You drop in, walk around, and kill a bunch of bad guys. From there, you earn loot, stay ahead of the difficulty curve, and keep going. That’s the basic game loop although there are a few other things you can do. It’s a decent little time killer and the microtransactions could definitely be worse. The only issues are some early bugs that can cause the occasional crash or connection issue.
If we missed any great Android app or game releases or news, tell us about it in the comments.
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