Android Pay launched this fall and it has already seen rapid adoption from users. Now it’s time for developers to get in on the fun.

On Tuesday, the Official Android Blog announced that, beginning today, Android Pay now works in Android applications. That means that users won’t have to pull out their card when making a purchase on their mobile device, and entering in the information is no longer a necessary step, either, as Android Pay saves all the pertinent details for a quick checkout procedure.

There are already plenty of different apps that support Android Pay, including Lyft, Doordash, Fancy, Instacart, OpenTable, Spring, and many others. The list is obviously still growing, and the Android team has included an Android Pay API on a dedicated developer site to make sure that support continues to grow.

There are some deals, too, to take note of when you use Apple Pay in select apps:

“For a limited time, you’ll also get special savings by using Android Pay in select apps—from $20 off on OpenTable* dining, $10 off your Lyft ride*, $10 off DoorDash* to 30% off Vinted*—there’s something for everyone.”

That’s not all, though. Android Pay is coming to Australia in the first half of 2016, too. The post says that many of the country’s major financial institutions are in negotiations, including Westpac, ANZ and many others, to add support for the mobile payment option through their MasterCard and Visa cards.

Have you tried out Android Pay yet?

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Lumsing, the mobile charging accessory manufacturer, has graciously offered to work with us here at Android and Me to give away three (3) Lumsing Harmonica Style 16000mAh Portable Chargers this fantastic holiday season. I love charging accessories. I can’t get enough of them. They are just so handy to have around, especially if you’re an on-the-go heavy phone user and your phone battery just isn’t what it should be. External battery packs are so helpful to give your phone all the extra power it needs when you don’t have the time to be tied to a wall.

We haven’t actually reviewed this specific Lumsing charger on Android and Me, but we did recently check out the Lumsing Grand A1 series of power banks and had a great experience with them.  In fact, I was just using one of them yesterday. Check out our Lumsing Grand A1 review here. We’ve been told that this Lumsing Harmonica Style charger functions similarly, and Amazon reviews will tell you this is a device that functions as advertised. This Lumsing’s 16000mAh capacity will charge almost any phone or tablet multiple times over. Right now, the Harmonica Style charger is selling for $29.99 on Amazon.

So, it’s giveaway time! Three lucky Android and Me readers will receive a Lumsing Harmonica Style 16000mAh Portable Charger by entering through the different methods in the widget below. This is a US-only giveaway (sorry non-US readers!) and the contest will run through Friday, December 18th. Winners will also have the opportunity to get 50% off any additional Lumsing product from the Amazon Lumsing store. After the contest is over, the winners will be contacted and the prizes will be shipped by Lumsing.

If you’re in the market for a giant battery like the one we’re giving away and you can’t wait for this contest to be over, Lumsing has given Android and Me an exclusive code to get $5 their Harmonica Portable Charger. The code is LTUZ3PUO, also good through the 18th. That will bring the price of this very high capacity portable charger down to $24.99 on Amazon.

We’d like to extend a HUGE thanks to Lumsing for teaming up with us for this giveaway. Let us know how you’re going to use or how you currently use your Lumsing battery pack by commenting below. Happy holidays and good luck, everyone!

Giveaway: Lumsing Harmonica Style 16000mah Portable Charger
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The rumored HTC One X9 still doesn’t have a launch date, but that doesn’t mean we have to sit around and wait for new pictures of the phone. Thanks to CNMO we now have four new images which show off the design details of the white HTC One X9. While we’ve seen the front and back of the phone already, this is the first time that we’ve seen the bottom edge of the device which features a centered micro USB port. The overall design of the HTC One X9 isn’t significantly different from other HTC devices we’ve seen before, but we’re a bit surprised that the phone sports capacitive buttons bellow its display and a polycarbonate panel near the top edge on the back of the phone.

Based on previous rumors, the HTC One X9 will feature a MediaTek processor along with a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 display, 13-megapixel rear and 4-megapixel UltraPixel front cameras, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 3000mAh battery. The device is bigger than the HTC One A9, but the lack of a fingerprint sensor and its use of a MediaTek processor lead us to believe that the One X9 will be a bit cheaper than the overpriced One A9 once it goes on sale early next year.

Gallery

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With 10 days to go before Christmas, HTC is offering a 60% discount on the HTC Re. The GoPro competitor features a 16-megapixel imaging sensor paired with a 146 degree wide-angle lens, 1080p video capture, 80 frames per second slow motion video and time lapse functionality. For just $79.60, the HTC Re could be the perfect stocking stuffer this year. For those who already own HTC devices, all HTC accessories are 40% off. We recommend checking HTC’s Dot View cases or the Magic Case for the Nexus 9.

If a new smartphone is what you’re looking for, the HTC One A9 trade-in promotion is still available. HTC is offering up to $500 in trade-in credit towards the HTC One A9 if you turn in qualifying iPhone. You can also get credit for turning in select Android phones, but the offer certainly isn’t as good.

The HTC Re and accessory Hot Deals expire at midnight PST, but you’ll have until early January to take advantage of the HTC One A9 deal.

Happy shopping!

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It was only about a month and a half ago that the OnePlus X first launched, but the phone is already going invite-free. The catch is that it’ll only be invite-free on a single day of the week.

OnePlus announced today that the OnePlus X will now be available without an invite every Tuesday. The OnePlus X Tuesday open sales will start this week, so you’ll be able to snag an X without an invite tomorrow.

Do your happy dance – the #OnePlusX is now invite-free every Tuesday! Starts tomorrow. http://pic.twitter.com/VvUs6EbXUO

— OnePlus (@oneplus) December 14, 2015

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While this isn’t quite the same as the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2’s open availability, which make the phones available invite-free every single day. Given that OnePlus is already making the OnePlus X available invite-free for one day of the week, and that it’s probably not quite as in demand as the One and 2, we could see the OnePlus X going totally invite-free at some point in the near future.

Now that the OnePlus X will be available without an invite every Tuesday, are you tempted to pick one up?

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Every week we cover new Android apps with Fresh Meat on Wednesday, followed by Android Gaming on Thursday and Top 10 App Updates on Friday. When Monday rolls around, we look back to see which apps were the most appealing to our audience. Read on for the five most popular Android apps from last week. These apps are ones that are most likely new and haven’t appeared in the top five list more than three times.

1. Flow Home (Beta)

App info: Flow Home is a new kind of Android launcher. Instead of just icons, we show things from inside the icons.

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2. Paperback

App info:  Paperback simplifies the way you take notes without sacrificing the features you need. Easily take, organize and secure your notes in a beautifully designed user interface. 

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3. Cortana

App info:  Cortana is your truly personal assistant—helping you get things done by letting your PC and phone work together.

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4. Cardboard Camera

App info: Cardboard Camera takes VR photos—moments in time you can relive in virtual reality. Hear the sounds as they happened, and look around to see the scene in every direction.

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5. Age of Empires:WorldDomination

App info: The all-time favorite Age of Empires real-time strategy series with over 20 million copies sold worldwide can now be played on your smartphone.

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Note:  To ensure that all apps receive a fair chance to make the list, we will retire any app that has made the list for three consecutive weeks.

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Inbox by Gmail has been adding noteworthy features as the updates roll in, and the latest one is certainly no different.

The new update was released on Monday, December 14, and brings with it at least one major new feature. Now users can easily share Trip Bundle summaries in a single tap of the screen. The share button, which is present in the summary header, can be tapped to quickly send a summary of a trip you might be planning to family members, friends, or whoever else you might want to send that info to.

That’s not all, though. Inbox has also picked up improved attachments from a mobile device, which will let users quickly access recent photos and documents, and the option to add an email to a trip by utilizing the “Move to…” option.

According to the Gmail blog, the update will be rolling out over the coming week, so if you’re not seeing it just yet, keep an eye out.

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If you don’t own a Chromecast yet, Google would like to give you $20 for buying its media streaming dongle. Right now, you can buy a Chromecast for only $30 and Google will give you a $20 Google Play credit, making it one incredible deal. With $20 Google Play credit you will be able to rent 4 to 5 movies or buy one HD title, but you can honestly use the cash to anything on Google Play. If you want to spend it on in-app purchases to get you ahead in Clash of Clans or buy a good book, there’s nothing Google can do about it.

Google is running the $20 Google Play Credit promotion for US residents only between now and January 2, 2016. Just make sure you the credit is added to your account by January 31, 2016, and used up by January 31, 2017.

Will you be gifting the new Chromecast this year or buying one for yourself?

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With 2015 winding down, all major Android manufacturers are now focusing on their 2016 flagship devices. While the Samsung Galaxy S6 was one of the best-selling Android smartphones of 2015, Samsung isn’t going to sit back and hope to repeat the phone’s success by releasing an incremental upgrade next year. With only a few months to go before the Galaxy S7 is likely unveiled at Mobile World Congress, the Wall Street Journal has gotten wind of a few new features that will be included in the device.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Galaxy S7 will feature a pressure-sensitive display, similar to the 3D Touch display on Apple’s iPhone 6s. The S7 is also said to come with a USB Type-C charging connector that would “allow for a full day’s charge in under 30 minutes and in some cases significantly faster than that.” The camera on the S7 will feature low-light imaging improvements, and Samsung is working on a variant of the phone which will sport a retina scanner as well. There’s no guarantee that that specific variant of the phone will make it to market, but we certainly wouldn’t mind an alternate way to keep our data secure on our phones along with the fingerprint reader.

Other Samsung Galaxy S7 rumors claim that the basic design of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge will not be too far off from the Galaxy S6 and that the phones will again use Qualcomm chips.

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HTC has officially promised Android 6.0 updates for a dozen of its most popular phones, but a leaked internal roadmap lists off a new devices which were not previously named and gives us an idea as to when those updates are currently scheduled for. HTC has already released the Android 6.0 update for the HTC One M8 and plans to give the One M9 a taste of Marshmallow before the end of this month. For the most part, HTC plans on getting Android 6.0 rolled out to the various versions of this year’s and last year’s HTC One in the first quarter of 2016 while the most popular desire phones from this year and last should get a taste of Marshmallow sometime in Q2 of next year.

As this most leaks, we expect the dates and list of devices to change over time. While not explicitly called out in the leaked document, the listed release windows are for unlocked devices only. Carrier-branded versions of these phone will be updated to Android 6.0 as well, but the timing will be different since HTC has to go through extra software review steps to ensure that Android Marshmallow works perfectly with any software customizations which were tacked on by the service provider.

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