play store - 2/18 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

Swype Finally Arrives In The Google Play Store For $0.99, Playing Catch-Up In A Race It Invented [Update: Trial Version]

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

Time for a little history lesson. Way back in the summer of 2010, when smartphone screen sizes were still reasonable and people were still complaining about how hard it was to type on them, a little company called Swype Inc. thought it had the problem of touchscreen input licked. Android users went crazy trying to get into the beta for their gesture-based software keyboard, and tech blogs threw around words like "innovation" and "miracle" like rice at a wedding. Then the other shoe dropped: Swype was only interested in selling its slidey wares to hardware manufactures, as a tie-in for brand new phones - they had no intention of selling their nifty keyboard directly to end users.

Apr

[NSFW] Taint Wrangler Is A Gross, Perverse, Horrible Game That Will Probably Be Pulled Before You Finish Reading This Article

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

Last Updated: May 4th, 2013

You're a dick. I mean, in this game. Well, you could be a dick in real life, for all I know, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about phalluses. Why are we talking about phalluses? Because sometimes when we're trying to track down great games and apps for you guys to try, we accidentally stumble upon male genitalia. The Play Store is much like Chatroulette in that regard.

Note: NSFW cartoon imagery and language follows.

Apr

Download: Latest Google Play Store 4.0.26

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

An incremental update to the massively refreshed Google Play Store started rolling out yesterday evening. The new version is 4.0.26 while the previous version from April 9th was 4.0.25.

There is a more recent version of the Play Store available for download here: Download: Latest Google Play Store 4.1.6 - Sweet New Designs And OCD Fixes

And a few earlier ones:

As expected, there are no major changes in this release, just minor bug fixes, as confirmed by Ron's quick teardown and comparison.

Apr

AppAnnie: Play Store Downloads Reach Nearly 90% Of App Store Levels, iOS Still Bringing In 2.6x Revenue

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Android OS, Google, News

Last Updated: April 19th, 2013

Back in January, we learned that if you want to be a developer and avoid leaving money on the table, you need to be on both Android and iOS. One or the other isn't going to cut it. However, according to AppAnnie, if you have to choose just one platform, Android is still struggling to prove it's the one you should go with.

According to the report, Play Store downloads are nearing App Store levels, reaching close to 90% as much as the iOS store. Unfortunately, equal exposure isn't quite translating to equal revenue. As it turns out, Apple's platform is still bringing in about 2.6 times as much revenue as Google's counterpart.

Apr

Were The Nexus 10 Book Covers Left Lying Around For Months Prior To Release?

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Google, News, Nexus 10

Just last week, we saw the launch of the elusive book cover for the Nexus 10 – the only official accessory of its kind to come out of the Play Store for the 10" slab. Since we spied it at the Nexus 10's original launch, all had been quiet. Presumably, the covers simply weren't ready to be sold.

Naturally, I had to pick one up and give it a shot. After all, I have something of a penchant for official accessories, and promised to give it a quick look. When the cover did show up, however, I noticed something curious.

Apr

[Update: It's Back] Google Boots New Game Hazard Rush From Play Store For SEO Joke, Reminds Us Not To Mess With The Google

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Games, News

It was just five days ago that Hazard Rush was released to the Play Store. The developer took to Reddit to make the announcement and offer some freebies. Well, the community was into Hazard Rush, which (according to the app description) is a little like Snake and Geometry Wars. It's the next part of the description that got Hazard Rush banned from Google Play. The developer made a cheeky SEO joke, and that was enough for it to get swept up in Google's Play Store purge.

The description read:

Sit on the edge of your bus, train, subway, office or toilet seat as you evade enemies, trigger bombs, and collect multipliers in pursuit of your high scores.

Apr

Google Play's Favorite Things Twitter Sweepstakes: Win One Of 10 Nexus 10s, 7 Nexus 7s, 4 Nexus 4s, Or 100 $10 Gift Cards

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Google, News, Nexus 10, Nexus 4, Nexus 7

Got a dog bite? Maybe a bee sting? Perhaps you're just feeling sad? Google's got a little mid-week pick-me-up in the form of a sizeable giveaway. To promote the new look of the Play Store and the Google Play Twitter account, they're giving away ten Nexus 10 tablets, seven Nexus 7 tablets, four Nexus 4 phones, and no less than a hundred $10 gift cards to the Google Play Store. Unfortunately for our international readers, the sweepstakes is only for US residents.

To enter, you'll need to follow the Google Play Twitter account (@GooglePlay), then tweet out one of your favorite things (copper kettles, woolen mittens, unlocked devices with AOSP software builds) with the hashtag #favoritethings.

Apr

Download: Completely Redesigned Latest Google Play Store 4.0.25

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Following several recent leaks and the official announcement earlier today, Google started pushing out a completely redesigned, simpler, cleaner, and faster version of the Play Store for Android. The previous version was 3.10.14 while the new one is 4.0.25, and we have the download mirrors for you right here.

There is a more recent version of the Play Store available for download here: Download: Latest Google Play Store 4.1.6 - Sweet New Designs And OCD Fixes

And a few earlier ones:

The new Play Store really does look a lot better, especially on tablets.

Apr

Google Confirms The New Play Store UI, Rollout To Phones And Tablet On 2.2+ Starts Today

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

We've been seeing leaks about a new Google Play Store UI, that we all thought was going to be released at I/O this year. Nope! The rollout starts today, chaps! According to a post over on the official Android blog, the fancy card-based UI is coming to Android phones and tablets running Froyo (v2.2) and up. Worldwide, the new version will be available "over the next few weeks.

Oh, and you should be happy to know that the ugly pattern across the Action Bar is, in fact, not part of the final release. Additionally, the blog post touts a continuous scrolling interface that will show you more recommendations as you move down the page.

Apr

Front Page Of Play Store 4.0 Redesign Revealed By YouTuber

Posted by Ron Amadeo 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:

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.