11
May
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"Google Play Games" Leaks Out In All Its Glory Ahead Of Google I/O - Hello, Cloud Game Saves [APK Teardown]

Posted by in APK Teardown, News

Remember how we told you Google Games was coming, and how it's going to pack multiplayer functionality, leaderboards, achievements, and stuff like that? That's happening. There are going to be cloud game saves too.

Fresh out of Google HQ, we've managed to score a copy of the new Google Play Services v3.1.36, which is very slowly rolling out to devices right now. For comparison, the current Play Services that most people have is v3.0.27. 3.1 is a massive update - the strings file, for instance, has more than doubled from 300 to 700 entries. This is how Google is pushing out all the shared files for Google Play Games.

03
May
1

Barnes & Nobile Announces Google Play For The Nook HD And HD+, Inches Them Closer To 'Real Tablet' Status

Posted by in News, NOOK HD, NOOK HD+

It's no secret that I've long been against calling the Nook and Kindle Fire series "Android tablets," as neither is more than a glorified e-reader to me. Today, Barnes & Noble dropped a bomb on that way of thinking, as it announced that the full array of Google Play services will now be available on the Nook HD and Nook HD+, essentially turning them into full-fledged tablets.

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Moving forward, all Nook HD and HD+ tablets will ship with Google services – including the Play Store, YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, and the like – but for those who already own HD/HD+ units, the new features will be showing up via an OTA update to v2.1.0, which should begin rolling out today.

07
Apr
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Front Page Of Play Store 4.0 Redesign Revealed By YouTuber

Posted by in News

The final piece of the Play Store 4.0 puzzle was posted on Google+ today. A YouTube employee by the name of Eileen Rivera posted a screen shot of previously-unseen Play Store front page:

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The design is a perfect match for the leaked build we got to play with a few weeks ago, and, if you ignore the action bar, a big improvement.

Of particular interest is the new Up button, which features the Play Store logo and a bone in a dog bowl. This is a reference to "Dogfooding" - a term Google uses to denote internal beta testing.

21
Mar
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Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' Book Available For Free From The Play Store For A Limited Time, With An Excerpt From The Upcoming 'Inferno'

Posted by in Deals, News

Ten years have passed since Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' took the world by storm, with the book selling over 70 million copies worldwide. If you're one of the few people not to have read the novel since its release, now's your chance to get it for free from the Play Store.

With the release date of latest Robert Langdon novel, 'Inferno', fast approaching, fans of the series have the chance to re-read The Da Vinci Code for free, before diving into the prologue and first chapter of Inferno, which will be released in May this year.

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The offer will only be available until March 24, so if you want to see what all the fuss is about then you'll have to act quickly.

20
Mar
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Hands-On With The Google Play Store 4.0 Leak - A Google Now-Inspired Design With A Horrible Looking Action Bar

Posted by in Applications, Google, News

The Google Play redesign is very real.

We've managed to secure a copy and we're going to extract every possible ounce of info out of it.

Sadly, we aren't allowed to distribute it - we have to honor the request of the person who scored us a copy. Sorry! We will tell you everything we can about it, though.

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The main screen is, well, broken. That makes navigating the app a little difficult. However with liberal use of the search button and a few tricks it's possible to find your way around. (And yes, the search still blows.)

Browsing For Apps

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Ugh.

20
Mar
1

Google Play Store Version 4.0 Spotted In The Wild With New Holo User Interface [Update]

Posted by in Applications, News

It's been a while since we've seen a significant update to the look of the Google Play Store - in fact, it's been in its current form since before the "Google Play" brand superseded the Android Market. But it looks like there is a new version in the works, and it's quite a change to the Store we've become used to. Droid Life got a hold of an APK that purports to be build version 4.0.16 of the vending app.

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The interface on display is much lighter than what we're used to seeing, more like the web version of the Play Store.

15
Mar
7a8c398c1fa9b8d23a06f517d04b4e03-Paperboy

Introducing 'Google Play News' - A Newspaper Section Is On Its Way To The Play Store

Posted by in News

This should be fun! Here's a really early peak at Google's latest content push: it's called "Google Play News," and these bits of News come in "Issues" and "Subscriptions," so we're guessing Google's getting into the newspaper business. "Play News" will be a new, "colored" Play Store section to go along with Apps, Music, Books, Magazines, Movies, and Devices.

Our smoking gun in this case was this piece of JavaScript, (mirror) from the web version of the Play Store. It's a little hard to read, but you should be able to control+f your way to interesting bits of text like this:

To read Google Play News, you must have a supported Android phone or tablet

Please sign in to get this News edition.

08
Mar
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Nexus 7 Arrives In The Play Store In South Korea, Nexus 4 May Be Launching In Japan Soon

Posted by in Google, News, Nexus 4, Nexus 7

Nexus 7 in South Korea

The international rollout continues as Google has announced that the Nexus 7 is now on sale in South Korea. This marks the ninth country the tablet can be purchased in and the widest availability of any Play Store hardware to date. The first runner up is the Nexus 10 with a whopping 8 countries.

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Nexus 4 in Japan

The Nexus 4, however, wants to catch up in that list with a possible Japanese launch. We've previously heard reports that the handset had already appeared, but multiple Japan residents have confirmed to us the phone is not actually on sale yet.

27
Feb
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Google Play Books Go Live In India, On Android Devices And The Web

Posted by in News

Google gets a lot of abuse for not making various parts of its Play Store available in most countries. It's not necessarily their fault, especially when it comes to books, movies, and music - international content contracts are like trying to trade horses on a quantum level. But a major part of the globe gets more access tonight, as Play Store Books become available to India's population of 1.2 billion. Get your literature on, folks.

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Google confirmed the addition from the official Play Store Twitter account, and a little work with a proxy server shows that the web portion of the store is live.

25
Feb
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Google Play Alternative Yandex.Store Available Worldwide With 50,000+ Apps, Yandex.Shell Upgraded With 3D UI

Posted by in Applications, News

So you want more than Google Play can deliver, and the Amazon Appstore leaves you cold. Russian Google competitor Yandex is here to help: they've just launched their own branded app store, creatively titled Yandex.Store. The APK is a freely-available download for any Android device, and after a standard account setup process, you've got access to an impressive selection of mainstream apps. Big titles like Angry Birds, ES File Explorer, SoundHound, Twitter and Opera Mobile are all sitting on the front page. Beneath that is a cache of apps 50,000 strong and growing.

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The vast majority of apps on display are free, but there are paid options as well, with support for credit card and cell phone bill payments from dozens of countries including the United States.

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