As part of a promotion, Samsung is going to give you over $500 worth of credits towards in-app purchases in popular Android games like Cut the Rope 2. The catch? You have to use the obnoxiously superfluous Galaxy Apps store to get the credits. The Samsung Galaxy Apps store is an exclusive store only available to owners of Galaxy-branded devices, like the Samsung Galaxy S9, S8, Note 8, etc. It’s just like the Google Play Store, but smaller and less useful.

Essential Phone Update: February 17 2021 (4:11AM ET): Earlier this week, 9to5Google discovered that the Essential smartphone brand was now owned by Carl Pei’s Nothing. The move meant that Pei’s new company could use Essential’s trademarks, logos and more branding. Pei has now confirmed the news on Twitter, saying it has indeed acquired Essential’s trademarks. Check out the tweet below. The Nothing founder didn’t mention anything about patents being acquired though.

Today, it’s rare to encounter an Android application that never connects to the internet. Whether your app is backing up data to the cloud, authenticating users via “Sign In With Google,” downloading images, or posting content to social media sites, many apps need to be in regular communication with remote servers. Networking has become such a staple of mobile applications, that there’s a wide range of libraries designed specifically to help you retrieve data from remote servers and share data with the wider internet.

Just a few days before Disney releases Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in movie theaters, Android gamers can sail the seven seas with the newly launched mobile game Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War. The strategy game will feature characters and content from all five movies in the Disney franchise. 15 best strategy games for Android Apps The game, from developer and publisher Joycity, will allow players to become their own pirate captain as they build ships and train their sailors to battle other ships in online multiplayer battles.

If you’re one of the lucky people to get your hands on a PlayStation 5, you would’ve received the PlayStation Collection of critically acclaimed PS4 games as part of the PlayStation Plus service. PS5 owners now have another cool perk though, in the form of a free six-month subscription to Apple TV Plus. Sony announced the promotion on its website this week, and both existing and new Apple TV Plus subscribers can take advantage of it (although this isn’t available for people subscribing via Apple One).

UPI, or the Unified Payment Interface gateway, has played a big role in the burgeoning fintech revolution in India. This has seen the arrival of several players with Google Pay, PayTM, PhonePe being some of the biggest ones around. With the launch of Mi Pay, Xiaomi too is looking for a piece of the pie. After a prolonged beta test, Xiaomi is now finally rolling out Mi Pay in India. Here’s a quick guide to get you started with Xiaomi’s payment service.

Hadlee Simons / Android Authority A viral post has revealed that many people are adding ‘Reddit’ to their search queries, and it turned out that several Android Authority members are doing the same thing. So we wanted to get a better idea of just how popular this practice is. Is it a niche practice or are way more people doing it than one might think? We posted a poll earlier this week and here’s what you said.

TL;DR Nvidia has released its Maxine developer platform to improve video calls. The platform enables face alignment and eye correction for more natural conversations. Other supported features include dramatic bandwidth savings and video upscaling. The COVID-19 pandemic means that video-calling has become more important than ever, as companies hold virtual meetings, schools hold online classes, and families connect over the internet in lieu of physical visits. This widespread shift to video calling has laid bare a few major challenges for the tech, and Nvidia has now announced a solution in the form of its Maxine developer platform (h/t: The Verge).

Even though you sign up for Pandora Premium to access Pandora‘s on-demand music, the music service introduced a new way for everyone else to have the same access: through ads. Starting today, radio listeners and those on Pandora Plus can unlock an on-demand listening session if they watch a 15-second video advertisement. Depending on the advertiser, the videos can be up to 30 seconds in length, though you can skip the video ad after 15 seconds are up.

Jimmy Westenberg / Android Authority TL;DR Google is rolling out the September 2021 Android security patch to Google Pixel devices. There are no featured fixes listed in this update, but there are a number of security fixes. It’s now rolling out to the Pixel 3 and newer devices. Pixel phone owners can now look forward to getting their monthly Google security update. The company has announced its rollout of the September 2021 security patch to supported Pixel phones.