16
May
play

Google Play Store Expands Carrier Billing Options To Include Books, Movies, And Music On Sprint

Posted by in News, Sprint
Last Updated: August 23rd, 2012

Two weeks ago, Google announced a series of expansions to carrier billing options for Play Store Apps, Movies, Books, and Music on various carriers. While some changes went into effect immediately, Sprint, which already allowed direct billing for apps, was one carrier that was listed as "coming soon."

As of today, all three additional options are available to Sprint customers: books, music, and movies. Not surprisingly, carrier billing is the default option since it's by far the cheapest to carriers and Google as they get to bypass credit card fees. While this addition doesn't benefit everyone, I can see a few handy uses for carrier billing:

  • you don't own a credit card at all
  • you don't want to add a credit card to your Wallet account for some reason, be it security, paranoia, or a medical condition that prevents you from typing 16 digits in a row (also known as laziness)
  • you don't want to pollute your credit card statement with multiple charges
  • you don't want your significant others with access to your credit card statement to see what you're doing

Enjoy, Sprinters!

02
May
playtiny

Google Announces Carrier Billing For Movies, Music, Books, And Apps From The Play Store On Some Carriers

Posted by in Google, News

If you prefer not to give Google your credit card info, and would rather consolidate all your Play Store payments into one big carrier bill, then we've got some good news for you. Google just announced an expansion to the carrier billing system that now includes the ability to charge books, movies, and music to your carrier bill, in addition to apps.

2012-05-02 13h33_59

The full list of carriers that support the new billing is above. Sorry Verizon users, you're still not on the list. The other three major US carriers, as well as a host of international carriers, support the new payment system, though.

04
Apr
unnamed (2)

Google Play Books And Street View Updated – Here's What To Expect

Posted by in Applications, News

Google unleashed a small round of updates today, bringing new features to both the Play Books and Street View apps. Play Books has been updated with a brand new UI for devices running Android 2.2/2.3, including the nifty 3D page-turning animation users of Books' tablet interface have come to know and love.

unnamed shot_Apr_04_2012_1

Users can also add home screen shortcuts for individual books, allowing you to jump straight into your favorite book without actually opening the app. The update also enables offline search, and ensures that your device's display will stay on during TTS.

Google Street View, on the other hand, got a slightly less major update (but an important one nonetheless) – the app now includes Ice Cream Sandwich's signature action bar and action-overflow button for those running Android 4.0+, bringing its interface into line with ICS' current design standards.

06
Mar
gplay_logo_g

The Android Market Is Now Google Play - Integrating Apps, Games, Books, Music, And Movies

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

Goodbye, Android Market, hello, Google Play. Just moments ago, Google let loose the re-branded Android content hub. What's new? Actually, not all that much (yet).

The change in name is largely an exercise in product consolidation. Google Books, Google Music, Google Movies, and the Android Market are all now under the "Google Play" banner, in an attempt to bring all of Google's content services to one place.

gplay

Aside from the UI refresh, there's really nothing new going on so far as we can tell. Google plans to roll out an updated version of the Market (Play) to Android 2.2+ devices in the coming days, as well as to discontinue the Market branding.

28
Jan

Barnes & Noble Poised To Announce A Fifth Nook Device This Spring

Posted by in Barnes & Noble, Nook

Leave it to the New York Times to stuff a zinger like this in a three-page piece on the future of the publishing industry; it looks like Barnes & Noble is set to announce a new Nook device come this Spring. This will be B&N's fifth Nook device, following the Nook Tablet.

nooks

From the New York Times:

Barnes & Noble is trying to strike at Amazon with another device. At its labs in Silicon Valley last week, engineers were putting final touches on their fifth e-reading device, a product that executives said would be released sometime this spring. (A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman declined to elaborate.)

The million dollar question is what, exactly, Barnes & Noble is cooking up.

06
Dec
unnamed

Aldiko Book Reader Gets Huge Update, Shows Love For Tablet Book Fanatics

Posted by in Applications, News, Tablets

If you're getting tired of reading eBooks on a tiny phone screen or looking for a new eReader application for that shiny new tablet, check out Aldiko Book Reader. This popular eBook application just received a huge update geared toward tablet users. It has an entirely new tablet-optimized user interface, which means reading books on your device will look much better than before. In addition to the user interface overhaul, here's everything else the update includes:

  • Support for opening and importing files into the app directly from the browser, email attachments, and third-party apps like Dropbox.
  • Support for opening PDF file attachments in the Gmail client on Android 3.0+ tablets.

28
Oct
2011-10-28 11h07_36

[Updated: Here Are The Winners!] Book Giveaway #11: Win One Of Six Books Courtesy Of Packt Publishing And The 2011 Open Source Awards

Posted by in Contests / Giveaways, Development
Last Updated: November 3rd, 2011

While most of you have heard of Open Source software at this point (I hope you have, anyway), you probably aren't aware that each year Packt Publishing puts on a contest to highlight the best and brightest Open Source projects across all platforms. The contest is currently in its voting stage, ends on October 31, 2011.

The contest features applications in six different categories, including Mobile Toolkits and Libraries, CMS, Most Promising Open Source Project, Business Applications, JavaScript Libraries, and Multimedia Software; with five contenders in each category.

The Giveaway

As such a big supporter of open source software, Packt Publishing has offered to let us give away three print books and three ebooks to six lucky Android Police readers, just for simply checking out the Open Source Awards.

12
Jul
wm_snap20110712_162149

[Updated: 3.0.27] Download: The New Android Market v3.0.27 With Support For Movies, Books, And Multiple Accounts

Posted by in Applications, News
Last Updated: July 28th, 2011

The new Android Market, announced mere hours ago, has started rolling out to a small set of users who, of course, immediately shared it with the rest of the world for everyone to enjoy (or hate, depending on your reaction to the design).

The process is very simple (no root needed):

  1. Download com.android.vending.3.0.27.apk from our mirror (no intermediate pages - direct link here) to your phone. If that doesn't work for some reason, here's a second mirror.
  2. Browse to it in your favorite file manager, such as ASTRO
  3. Click the file, then select Open App Manager
  4. Select Update
  5. You now have new new Market v 3.0.27

I personally kind of like the new UI, though the hover bar is really annoying and severely limits the real estate.

11
Jul
hi-124-9

[App For Kids] The Tale Of Peter Rabbit Is A Beautiful PopOut Book For Your Android Device

Posted by in Applications, News
Last Updated: July 18th, 2011

We cover a variety of apps here at Android Police: productivity, games, root, and even wtf every once in a while - but this one is a bit different. This one is for the children, and it's so well done that we couldn't resist throwing it out there for all of the parents.

ss-1280-0-11 ss-1280-2-1 ss-1280-4-1

The Tale Of Peter Rabbit is an interactive pop-out book that does more than just read to you. It creates an absolutely gorgeous environment inside its digital pages, with little additions here and there that really bring the entire experience together - like being able to drag items out of the images, pull them to the foreground, and move them around.

25
Apr
nook-color

NOOK Color Official Froyo Update: It's Almost A Real Tablet Now, No Hacking Required

Posted by in News, NOOKcolor (Encore)

The Barnes & Noble NOOK Color has been the e-reader of choice for many Android power users because of its hackability, making it easy to transform it into a full featured tablet. B&N must've taken note from the Android dev community, because an update has just been released for the NOOK Color that brings Froyo, apps, flash player, and more to this budget friendly device.

Before you get too excited, though, it's not exactly what you think. There is no access to the Android Market, nor does it include any Google Apps. In order to keep the user experience consistent, B&N has its own set of proprietary libraries that developers must use when writing apps for the NOOK Color, so everything flows together within the NOOK ecosystem.

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