An animated franchise so funny, ingenious and always fresh like The Simpsons needed an equally as fun Android game ten Emmy Awards ago, but instead all we ever got from Homer& co. was trivia games. And some unofficial dumb puzzlers. And let’s not forget wallpapers. But enough of that, as Electronic Arts have finally unleashed The Simpsons: Tapped Out unto Google Play. A little late considering the exact same game has been up for grabs in Apple’s iTunes for almost a year, but we should probably let bygones be bygones, right?

Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority TL;DR The Trump administration has added Xiaomi to a blacklist reserved for companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military. US-based investors will need to remove any and all investments with the Chinese company. Xiaomi has denied any affiliation with the Chinese military and has since won a case to halt the move. Update: March 15, 2021 (1:20 AM ET): Xiaomi has won a case to block its inclusion on a blacklist reserved for companies with alleged Chinese military ties.

Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority TL;DR Apple is reportedly working on an iPhone subscription program. The initiative has been likened to iCloud storage or Apple Music subscriptions. It’s believed that you won’t fully own an iPhone using this plan. Update: April 4, 2022 (2:10 AM ET): Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman has now addressed the iPhone subscription program in his weekly newsletter. The journalist specifically noted that you won’t actually own your device if you subscribe to this program.

Your good tech news digest, by way of the DGiT Daily newsletter, for Wednesday, April 1. No April Fooling here! 1. Zoom? Not so much.Zoom has become the darling of the working-from-home/lockdown world but that popularity is coming at a cost. I mentioned yesterday how there’s been rapid backlash against the company. But people like Basecamp founder David Heinemeier Hansson (@DHH) have jumped way further, calling the organization “fundamentally corrupt.”

Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority Is Pac-Man relevant enough to drive sales for OnePlus? Does the titular orb chomping away at dots and the occasional ghost really have the clout to attract a Gen Z audience? The cultural relevance behind a 40-year-old video game character collaborating with a smartphone brand is not a discussion I imagined having on a Monday afternoon in the Android Authority Slack channel, but here we are.

The AAPicks team writes about things we think you’ll like, and we may see a share of revenue from any purchases made through affiliate links. We’ve all been there. Where is that exactly? You really want to get the right angle for this selfie, but no selfie sticks are available. Your only option is to resort to awkwardly propping your smartphone up in a corner like some kind of Amish person.

TL;DR In a new experiment, Google Assistant beat Siri, Alexa, and Cortana in all tested categories — except for one. That one category is curiously smartphone voice commands, in which Siri emerged the victor. However, Google Assistant is far and away the overall winner, head-and-shoulders above the competition. Now, we have new results from a different company – Loup Ventures – that comes to the same conclusion: Google Assistant trounces Siri, Cortana, and Alexa to emerge the clear victor.

Oliver Cragg / Android Authority TL;DR Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The deal will also see Activision Blizzard titles come to Game Pass. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s future role remains uncertain. Update, January 18, 2022 (12:22 PM ET): Microsoft responded to our query about Bobby Kotick’s role at Activision Blizzard after the Microsoft acquisition. Here is the company’s full response: Bobby will lead Activision Blizzard as CEO, as he has for the last 30 years.

Looking for a reasonably decent smartphone without paying a cent? Best Buy is now offering the Motorola Droid RAZR for free with a two year contract. With new devices like the Motorola Droid RAZR HD and RAZR M out on the market, the older Droid RAZR might not be the most exciting phone around, but it’s still reasonably capable. The Droid RAZR features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.

Netflix has announced Dolby Atmos support starting with the critically-acclaimed Okja, but the number of compatible devices is extremely limited. 10 best video streaming apps and services for Android Apps From delivering “low-resolution” DVDs to offering 4K HDR content with wide color gamut, Netflix has come a long way in terms of visual standards, but what about audio enhancements? While major TV manufacturers are busy advertising just how amazing their screens are, it seems audio standards are often neglected despite the fact that they’re just as important in media-consumption.