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Nintendo’s first Android game Miitomo will launch in US & other countries on March 31

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Update: The Miitomo app is now available on the Play Store.

The game is already available in Japan— that’s how Jeff managed to go hands-on in our first look video earlier this month— but today Nintendo confirmed that its first smartphone game, Miitomo, will officially arrive in the US on March 31st.

The game isn’t exactly bringing over any of Nintendo’s very popular first party franchises to Android devices, but it does feature known Mii characters and, as we noted in our review, the release feels very much like a Nintendo title:

When you first start Miitomo, it’s immediately recognizable as a Nintendo title. It feels like someone took my Nintendo Wii and shrunk it down to fit inside of my iPhone 6s. The music and sound effects, most notably, are of the characteristic Nintendo style. The Miis themselves look just like the Miis on the game-maker’s handheld and home consoles. The writing — witty, with just a hint of corniness thrown in for good measure — is classic Nintendo.

Nintendo noted in its press release today that Miitomo was downloaded over a million times in the first three days after launch in Japan and it also managed to become the #1 most downloaded free app in both the App Store and Google Play.

While Nintendo didn’t mention other countries by name today, it did say that “several other countries” will receive the title on the 31st alongside users in the US.

Check out our review of the game on our sister site 9to5Mac from earlier this month to get a first look before it officially arrives in the US and other countries on the 31st.

WhatsApp beta update includes Quick Reply popup, solid color wallpapers, more

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WhatsApp is preparing a new set of features for its Android users, many of which have been on my wish-list for many years, and have perhaps been the biggest causes of my disdain for the popular messaging app. The new beta, WhatsApp version 2.12.560, rolled out today and features (among other things) quick reply, solid wallpapers and new multiple-selection tools and options.


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Google Admin app for Android updated w/ full mobile device management features

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Mobile first is a frequent buzz phrase for newly minted startups and for the most part it is easy for them to achieve. However, for legacy companies with products designed for the web, it is often harder to cram functionality and information on a smaller screen. With that in mind, the Google for Work Admin app for Android has been updated with mobile device management features previously restricted to the full web app.


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Samsung Internet 4.0 rolling out to older Galaxy devices and variants running Lollipop

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Early last month, Samsung updated their built-in browser with private browsing, a picture-in-picture video player, and third-party ad blockers on devices running Marshmallow. While Android 6.0 is rolling out to newer devices, those still on the Galaxy S4, S5, and other older devices will get these new features via an update starting today.


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Apple Music for Android updated with new homescreen widget, more

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Apple today has released an update to the Apple Music app for Android users. The update over month after the app’s last update that added support for saving music to SD cards for offline listening. Today’s update adds yet another feature that isn’t supported on iOS: the ability for users to add an Apple Music widget to their homescreen. The Beats Music app offered a widget when it was available for Android, but Apple Music has lacked it since release.


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Google’s Nik Collection of Photoshop & Aperture plugins are now free to download

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In 2012, Google purchased Nik Software and made their excellent mobile photo editor Snapseed free on Android and iOS. Since then, many of Snapseed’s features have been integrated into Google’s various photo products. Besides mobile, though, Nik also developed plugins for desktop photo editors — and starting today they are also free.


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Google’s easy to use ‘Accessibility Scanner’ analyzes apps for accessibility issues

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Google has published a new tool to help Android developers improve the user interface and experience of their apps. Accessibility Scanner can analyze any app with an eye towards accessibility issues that might not be a problem for most users but may cause user experience problems for some.


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You can now change themes, filters & layouts in updated Google Sheets and Slides for iOS

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Google is updating its Google Sheets and Slides apps for iOS today with new features that allow changing themes, filters and layouts on the fly from within the mobile apps.

For Google Sheets, the update brings the ability to view and change existing filters applied to a spreadsheet.


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Todoist app for Android gets updated with more Quick Add functionality, keyboard support, speed improvements, more

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Todoist, one of the best productivity apps released for any platform, has been updated to bring more smarts to its Android app. Unlike the last major update, this version doesn’t include a massive visual overhaul. Instead, the team focussed on bringing more intuitive and productive methods of adding, searching and filtering your projects.


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Albums in Google Photos get smarter, now let you add maps, locations, and captions

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Google Photos launched last year with numerous smart features, like face and object detection, that make sorting and finding your photos much easier. While the Assistant feature can already create photo collages and animations from burst shots, albums are about to get smarter with more features in an update rolling out today…


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Chrome tabs will no longer show up in the app switcher by default

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Starting with Android 5.0 Lollipop, Chrome tabs could exist individually in the app switcher. While it made websites feel more like apps, it was an annoyance that made it hard to keep track of open tabs. Google is now reversing that decision (as spotted by Android Central) and making merged tab the new default starting in version 49 of Chrome.


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Chrome 50 Beta improves reliability and adds features to push notifications, speeds up page load

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With Chrome 49 fully rolled out to desktops, Android, and Chrome OS, version 50 is now in the beta channel. It is expected to bring Material Design to the browser and introduce improved push notifications and other developer focused features.


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Uber is testing ‘Family Profiles’ feature for shared payment methods

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Uber is beginning to test a new feature that will make it easier for family and other close-knit groups to share an Uber account. That means that your family could use a single credit card for Uber across several devices, making it easy for parents to pay for their kids or other family members, for example.


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Google Hangouts now lets App customers video chat with up to 25 participants

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You’ll soon be able to hold video chat meetings with much larger groups as today Google begins increasing the number of participants Apps customers can have in a Google Hangouts video call at any one time. The old limit of 10 participants today gets increased to 25 users.

The change comes to Apps customers only— Business, Government, and Education—  while all other Hangouts users will still have the old limit of 10 participants for video.

Google notes that it will only show “the 10 most active video call participants” along the bottom of the video chat to maintain quality, but it will switch on the fly between active users for the new limit of up to 25 participants.

All Apps customers should start to see the new participant limit increase roll out over the next few days.