Android Messages might let you send SMS messages from the desktop soon

Android Police

Google has a whole suite of messaging apps but it hasn’t been able to come up with one solution that can let you message on all platforms in the same way iMessage does for iOS and Mac devices. But that might change soon. Android Police found in the latest update of Android Messages that desktop SMS messaging might be coming to its users in the future. It’s going to be a browser-based option that could work similarly to how iMessage will let users send out texts to Android-using friends from the iMac app. According to the report, this feature would be available on almost all major browsers like Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer.

Syncing will supposedly be an easy process and you’ll get notified every time you get a new message. Support for multiple computers is also there as well as the ability to check which computers have access to your Android Messages and being able to remove those that shouldn’t be part of that list. There is no word though if and when this feature is rolling out but we are keeping our eyes out for it.

Source: Lifehacker

Square Enix officially launches ‘Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition’ on mobile

If you want to play the reimagined Final Fantasy XV game released in late 2016 on mobile, you now get that chance. The Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition just officially launched on both Android and iOS. It takes an episodic approach to the Japanese role-playing game with chapters released throughout the year. The first chapter is free but the future chapters will cost you. You can buy all chapters as a bundle for $27.99 or you can get Chapters 2 to 4 for $1.39 and Chapters 5-10 for $5.49 each.

The story follows Noctis and his three companions (Prompto, Ignis, and Gladiolus) on a road trip-style, open-world adventure going across Eos. You get more or less the same experience but on a more portable scale. Plus, the art style switched over to this more cutesy, chibi approach.

Source: Android Authority

Uber and Waymo abruptly settles lawsuit

In a surprising turn of events, Uber and Waymo have agreed to settle a self-driving trade secrets lawsuit on the fifth day of the case going to trial. Uber agreed to pay out 0.3 percent of its equity, which with the company’s US$72 billion valuation, puts that at over $245 million in stock. The company has also promised to work with Waymo’s parent company Alphabet to make sure none of Google’s confidential data will be used for Uber’s self-driving program (both in the hardware and software side).

The case began over a year ago when Waymo filed a suit against Uber accusing one of its former engineers, Anthony Levandowski, of downloading around 9.7GB of data or around 14,000 files before abruptly resigning from the company and later creating his own company called Ottomotto, which was acquired by Uber a few months later.

Source: Ars Technica

Netflix acquires another sci-fi thriller its original studio didn’t plan on releasing

Netflix pulls another Cloverfield Paradox and purchases another sci-fi film that’s been dropped by its original studio’s release schedule. The streaming service just bought from Universal the Michal Peña and Lizzy Caplan-led movie called Extinction. It follows the two as a married couple who are trying to protect their family from some sort of alien invasion. The film was written by Brad Kane (Black Sails and Fringe) and Spenser Cohen (who as The Verge points out has the 2013 TV movie Macklemore’s Big Surprise as his biggest credit). It’s directed by Ben Young, whose credits include Hounds of Love and some prank shows.

Buying rights to movies that studios no longer want helps defray the cost for the streaming service when it comes to the development and production process. It also helps the studios out to at the very least meet production cost and won’t have them spending too much on marketing. But as this story from AV Club states viewers do suffer from getting mediocre content and some of Netflix’s own big productions get sidelined for the next big flashy marketing campaign.