Notes from Google Play: wrapping up 2022

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Reflecting on 2022, looking ahead to 2023

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26 temporarily free and 41 on-sale apps and games to start the week

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... It's the week before Christmas, so I hope you all have gotten your shopping done — I did mine yesterday. Whether you've finished yours or are still stressing about it, take some time to browse through the app sales list for today. While there isn't much that's particularly noteworthy, you might find something to enjoy. Free Apps Genetic Helper $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 2 days Passwords Manager : Store & Manage Passwords. $3.49 -> Free; Sale ends in 3 days Note Recognition - Convert Music into Sheet Music $3.49 -> Free; Sale ends in 6 days My Sheet Music - Sheet music viewer, music scanner $2.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 7 days Games Ancient Tomb Adventure - Labyrinth Puzzle & Riddle $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 2 hours Cashknight ( Duo Event Version ) $9.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 2 hours Tap tap cartoonist - Cartoon999 (VIP) $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 1 day Co...
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Samsung Display remains the leader in global display market

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The latest data from IHS Markit shows that Samsung Display has retained its dominant position as the top global smartphone display vendor in the first quarter of this year. It was able to do that as more smartphone manufacturers opted for OLED panels for their premium devices. Samsung picked up the bulk of those orders. Samsung's display affiliate is estimated to have shipped $3.4 billion worth of smartphone displays in the first quarter ending March 2019. It accounted for 40.2 percent of the smartphone display market in this period. Samsung Display also accounted for 80 percent of OLED panel supplies. Samsung Display retains its leadership It's pertinent to mention here that Samsung's Q1 market share is 6.6 percentage points lower than it was in the same period last year. However, the company has been able to keep its market share over 40 percent for eight consecutive months. None of its competitors are even close in terms of market share. Japan Display came in sec...
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Google Play Points reward program is official, but only in Japan for now

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... Earlier this month, Cody discovered evidence for a loyalty program  in a teardown of the Google Play app, and now we're seeing the first official word about it. The rewards scheme is called Play Points and has gone live in Japan, according to a support page for the app. Users can join the program by navigating to the 'Play Points' section in the app's hamburger menu. To begin with, one point will be awarded for every ¥100 (about $0.90) spent on apps and games — to be used on IAPs or converted to Google Play credit — but as you progress, higher levels can be achieved with even greater rewards. Check out the different levels below: Bronze level  (up to 249 points): 1 point earned for every ¥100 spent Silver level  (250–999 points): 1.25 points earned for every ¥100 spent 1 ¥300 credit for in-app items 1 ¥100 movie rental Gold level  (1,000–3,999 points): 1.5 points earned for every ¥100 spent +...
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Gear S3 frontier update patches major S Voice bug

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Samsung released a much-requested update for the Gear S3 frontier on Wednesday. The upgrade has been designed to patch a major bug that resulted in S Voice crashing whenever it was toggled — and from what we can tell, it’s working. The glitch itself has been running riot since May, which is around the same time the device received a routine maintenance update , leading us to believe a faulty line of code was the reason S Voice was unable to run without breaking down. Related: Gear S3 Frontier update is small, brings Jansky wearable Not all customers were affected by the glitch in the same way, though. Some noticed that the performance of S Voice suffered when asking it to retrieve information from the internet, like a weather forecast, but it never crashed. It’s all a little strange, but it’s nice to see Samsung release an update to fix the issue. We’re just hoping we don’t have to wait too much longer for it to arrive on all compatible units, seeing as it isn’t showing up in th...
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Wide Color Photos Are Coming to Android: Things You Need to Know to be Prepared

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Posted by Peiyong Lin, Software Engineer Android is now at the point where sRGB color gamut with 8 bits per color channel is not enough to take advantage of the display and camera technology. At Android we have been working to make wide color photography happen end-to-end, e.g. more bits and bigger gamuts. This means, eventually users will be able to capture the richness of the scenes, share a wide color pictures with friends and view wide color pictures on their phones. And now with Android Q, it's starting to get really close to reality: wide color photography is coming to Android. So, it's very important to applications to be wide color gamut ready. This article will show how you can test your application to see whether it's wide color gamut ready and wide color gamut capable, and the steps you need to take to be ready for wide color gamut photography. But before we dive in, why wide color photography? Display panels and camera sensors on mobile are getting better an...
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