play store - 7/18 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Dec

Square Enix Releases Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Dimensions, And Demon's Score THD On The Play Store

Posted by John Thompson in Games, News

If you're a Final Fantasy fan, you'll want to get yourself over to the Play Store as soon as possible, because Square Enix has just released Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy Dimensions for Android.

The titles don't come cheap; Final Fantasy II is priced at $7, whereas Dimensions will put you back $20, but considering how much similar games from Square on other platforms cost, it's not a terrible deal.

The two Final Fantasy titles don't require a top-of-the-range smartphone to run smoothly, but if you want to play Demon's Score THD, Square's third release on Android today, you'll need a device which has a Tegra 3 chip.

Dec

Google: Developers Can Now Localize Promotional Graphics In The Play Store

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

As Google continues the work of expanding its Play Store services across the globe, it only makes sense that the giant is also working to provide a cohesive, pleasant experience for users in the 130+ countries that now support paid apps. To that end, Google has announced in a post to the Android Developers blog that developers can now include localized promotional graphics and video in their Play Store listings.

Basically, what this means is that developers can upload separate assets to ensure that users in, for example, the United States will see English-language graphics and video, while others around the world see materials in their own language.

Dec

[New Game] Eufloria HD Brings Soothing Space Plants From The Humble Bundle To Google Play

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, News

The Humble Bundle for Android isn't just a great way to get cheap indie games and help charity - it's also shaping up to be a pretty great platform for launching Android ports. Take Eufloria: it's been available on Steam for PC since 2009, but once it came to the Humble Bundle, it was made available for Mac and Linux too. Now the game has been released to the Google Play Store. Five bucks gets you all the interstellar botanical strategy that you can handle.

If you're new to Eufloria, it's in the "chill" genre that seems so pervasive these days.

Dec

'Redeem' Option Now Shows Up In The UK Mobile Play Store, Gift Cards Likely Coming Soon

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Google, News

Yesterday, the gift card redeem page went live in the UK's Google Play Store, suggesting that gift cards will be hitting the scene relatively soon. It looks like Google is already gearing up for launch, as the option just showed up in the mobile Play Store, as well.

Of course, there's still one major problem: Play Store cards can't yet be purchased anywhere in the UK. In fact, they're not available anywhere aside from the U.S. for the time being.

Given the evidence, however, we fully expect that El Goog will officially announce Play Store gift card availability in the UK fairly soon.

Dec

Download: Latest Google Play Store 3.10.10

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Last Updated: January 13th, 2013

Google has started to push out an update to the Play Store for Android with version 3.10.10. The difference in size compared to the previous version 3.10.9 from about a month ago is about 1.5KB, and after ripping through the APK, I found no significant changes. There are some tweaks to the in-app billing, checkout, and authentication code, but from what I can tell, this is a bug fix release.

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:

File Size History

com.android.vending-3.5.19.apk 3.81MB (4,000,309 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.7.11.apk 5.07MB (5,319,551 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.7.13.apk 5.07MB (5,322,241 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.7.15.apk 5.07MB (5,322,517 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.8.15.apk 5.35MB (5,618,814 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.8.17.apk 5.35MB (5,618,730 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.9.16.apk 5.22 MB (5,482,490 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.9.17.apk 5.34 MB (5,610,397 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.10.9.apk 5.87 MB (6,158,861 bytes)
com.android.vending-3.10.10.apk 5.87 MB (6,160,306 bytes)

Download

The APK is signed by Google and installs on top of your existing Play Store.

Dec

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Returns, Now With Play Store Asset Downloads

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, News

Dear Android game developers: always use the Play Store for those massive extra downloads. Rockstar has got the message. They've returned the open-world classic Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to the Play Store after a few initial hiccups, and now there's no pokey downloads from outside sources. They've also fixed various bugs found in the original release, so fell free to shell out five bucks for a trip back to the 80s.

If you've never played Vice City (and you're 18 years or older) then you should. Many gamers, including yours truly, consider it the best entry in the series thus far.

Dec

Have You Heard? Play Books And Movies Are Out In St. Petersburg (And The Rest Of Russia)

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

It seems like we can't go more than a week or two without hearing that one of Google's content services has rolled out to a new country. Today, Russia is getting in on the action with Play Books and Movies now available throughout the country. You can purchase books like normal, and movies are available both for rental and purchase.

Prices for movie rentals start at around 49 rubles (USD$1.60) and purchases start at 99 rubles (USD$3.22). There are a number of major studios on board, including many American companies such as 20th Century Fox, NBC Universal, Paramount, and Sony, as well as local production houses like Central Partnership (Централ Партнершип).

Dec

Play Store Expands Carrier Billing To Australia, Partners With Payment Company Bango To Do So

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

One of the biggest problems with the Play Store is that, compared to certain other platforms, its international support for both products and payment systems is comparatively meager. This is, of course, one of the main reasons that earning revenue on Android seems harder for developers. Starting today, though, if you live in Australia and use Telstra, you have one more way to pay: carrier billing.

The rollout comes with special thanks to mobile payment platform Bango. This UK-based company specializes in connecting your wallet to the companies you want to give money to. This is particularly noteworthy since Bango is an international platform.

Dec

Snapseed, The Image Editor That Google Bought After It Won iPad App Of The Year, Is Now On Android

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Google, News

There are no shortage of image editors on Android. Even Adobe, which makes the class-leading Photoshop, has a version of its editor on the platform. Today, though, Google gets one of its very own: Snapseed. You may recall this particular piece of software when it was demoed by NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at CES this year. At the time, it was only available on the iPad where it had won App of the Year in 2011. Shortly thereafter, Google bought the company. Now, the Android version is finally being released.

^{This video is a bit older and shows off the iOS version, but you get the idea.}

Dec

[Update] Nexus 4 Returns To T-Mobile Yet Again, Only Now The Subsidized Price Is $400? What?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Nexus 4, T-Mobile

Getting your hands on Google's latest iconic Android handset seems to just get harder and harder as the holidays approach. Today, T-Mobile has the device back in stock yet again, however, the subsidized price is now bizarrely raised to $400 with a 2-year contract for existing customers. Um, T-Mobile...what?

This is still $100 off the "Suggested retail" price, which hasn't changed, but it's still $50 more expensive than buying it from Google outright. It's unclear if this is a mistake on T-Mobile's part, or if the company has been forced to raise the price for economic reasons. It's also possible that existing T-Mobile customers can get a lower price depending on the state of their contract, but this requires a log in to see.