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Jun

Google Play "Longest Day Deals" Suddenly Unleashed, Offers Popular Apps, Games, Music, Books, and Movies On The Cheap [Updated x2]

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Deals, News

The EA titles that went on sale earlier today appear to not be the extent of the deals to be had on Google Play today. Without much warning, the Longest Day sale is underway bringing you a plethora of solid apps, games, music, and books for vastly reduced prices. Longest Days in this case likely refers to the summer solstice; the longest day of the year. For those of you without a calendar handy, that's tomorrow.

The handy links in the Play Store are just starting to show up, but this will probably be announced officially tomorrow. In the meantime, you can get a jump on things.

Jun

Google Play Movies Continues To Slowly Invade Europe, Now Available In Spain

Posted by John Thompson in News

A few months after it went live in France, Google Play Movies is now available in neighboring Spain, as it continues to slowly make its way across Europe.

Google Play announced the launch on its Google+ page, noting that people in Spain can now buy popular titles such as Fuga de Cerebros 2 and El Sueño de Iván through the store.

Although there's no time frame for the launch of Play Movies in other parts of Europe, you can be sure that the service will be on its way to countries such as Germany and Italy fairly soon. If you live in Spain, you can now download movies right now from play.google.com and your Android phone.

May

The Ultimate Google I/O 2012 Preview

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Rumors

Last Updated: June 27th, 2012

Google I/O is coming and it's time to get excited! It's like Christmas in June! It will be here in just a few ~~short~~ agonizing weeks - and we need to prepare. There is background information you need to know, rumors you should have in mind, and past announcements and acquisitions that need to be remembered. Google always leaves little news breadcrumbs for those that pay attention, and I pay attention. Fanatically.

This post will be part news recap, part rumor roundup, and part speculation. The last time I did this went pretty well, and now it's time for another look at what the little elves at Google HQ are working on.

May

Because We May – Coalition Of Game Developers Set To Offer Deep Discounts In Celebration Of Pricing Freedom

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Games, News

From May 24th to June 1st, a boatload of your favorite Android games will be going on sale in celebration of pricing freedom. Because We May, a coalition of game developers that is "preparing for launch," announced the sale recently, explaining that the purpose of the sale is to "celebrate online stores that give us control over pricing."

The stores involved include the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, Steam, Google Play, and a few others (including a "Direct from Developer" option).

Games in the Google Play category (so far) include favorites like World of Goo, Osmos, Smuggle (and Snuggle) Truck, Canabalt HD, and 26 other great games.

May

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

Posted by Artem Russakovskii 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!

Apr

[Holy Crap] Google Is Now Selling The GSM Galaxy Nexus Unlocked And Contract-Free For $399 On Google Play

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy Nexus, News

So, it looks like Google is getting back into the smartphone selling game - the GSM Galaxy Nexus just showed up on the Play Store. What's even more interesting, is the fact that it's selling for $399, unlocked and completely contract free. Three-hundred-ninety-nine dollars. That's only $99 more than many of Verizon's subsidized phones!

~~Since this just landed, we're not entirely sure of all the details yet, but we're going to start digging through the page and will update this post with all the info we find.~~

Since it's unlocked and contract free, it will work on both AT&T and T-Mobile, along with "200 [other] GSM providers worldwide." Unfortunately, it's only available in the U.S.

Apr

Google Wrests Controls Of GooglePlay.Com From Squatter

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News

After what was a pretty obvious application of the ICANN anti-squatting policy, it seems Google has now gained control of GooglePlay.com from an ad-serving Japanese squatter. Google filed a complaint under ICANN anti-squatting regulations, and after the case's short stint at the National Arbitration Forum (a non-court but legally binding decision-making body in the US), Google now shows as the registrant of GooglePlay.com.

A quick 'whois' of the domain yields the following:

Registrant Name: DNS Admin
Registrant Organization: Google Inc.
Registrant Street1: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Registrant Street2: 
Registrant City: Mountain View
Registrant State: California
Registrant Postal Code: 94043
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: 16506234000
Registrant Fax: 
Registrant Email: dns-admin@google.com

While the page in question still loads, it shows that the domain has been seized (according to Google Translate), and a change in registrant information usually indicates that either the squatter has given up the domain freely, or a decision has been reached and the domain seized by ICANN, beginning the process of transfer of ownership.

Apr

OfficeSuite Pro 5 On Sale In The Google Play Store For A Mere $2.99 (Down From $15)

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Deals, News

Sure, you can use Google Docs on your phone or tablet for free, but what if you crave something a little more robust than Google's web-based offering? You would usually have to drop some serious cash on a full office suite in the Play Store, but today you can get a great deal on OfficeSuite Pro 5 which is on sale for just $2.99 through April 4th, a huge discount over its normal $15 price.

OfficeSuite Pro 5 comes with all the features you would expect from a full mobile office suite. For starters, it can edit and create Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Mar

Google Play Movies Goes Live In France

Posted by John Thompson in News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

People living in the US, UK, Canada, and Japan have been able to enjoy renting and purchasing movies from the Google Play library for some time now, and today, anyone living in France can use the service to get their movie fix as well.

If you have a French Google Play account, you will now have a link to purchase movies both online at play.google.com and through your Android phone. To celebrate the French launch, French classics such as 'La Grotte Des Rêves Perdu' and 'Le Bal Des Actrices' have been added to the store for everyone to enjoy.

Upon the launch of Play, Google said that it wants to bring different content categories to as many countries as possible, but didn't specify a timeline for this to be achieved.

Mar

Google Attempting To Seize GooglePlay.com With ICANN's Help, Will Probably Win, Here's Why

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News

Cybersquatting, one of the more profitable forms of trolling, is nothing new to anyone familiar with the interwebs. In fact, it's often a source of some pretty funny disputes.

That gets us to today's story: a lot of people have noticed Google doesn't actually own GooglePlay.com (link goes to WhoIs.Net - not the actual page). Now, Google wants that page, and they've filed an ICANN dispute to get it.

It has become such a problem that the United States passed its own legislation to address the issue. The preferred method for dealing with these disputes, though, has been an arbitration body known as ICANN, whose decisions are binding around the world (mostly because they essentially control the Domain Name System).