26
Sep
gplay

Google Play Store Surpasses 25 Billion App Downloads, Has A $0.25 Sale To Celebrate

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

You may remember that in December of last year, Google announced they had surpassed 10 billion app downloads in the Play Store, and had a $0.10 sale to celebrate. Today, the company is announcing that the Play Store has hit a whopping 25 billion app downloads. It took over 3 years to hit 10 billion; it took just 9 months more to hit 25 billion.

25 Billion Graph

Accordingly, the Play Store is again having a sale for the next five days, with many products discounted to just $0.25:

Every day you’ll be able to choose from a collection of apps from some of the world’s top developers including Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, runtastic, Full Fat and more.

19
Sep
Sony-playstation-logo

Sony Launching PlayStation Store Next Month For Certified Devices, PlayStation Mobile SDK Available For Developers In November

Posted by in News, Sony

Sony has announced that it will launch its PlayStation Store next month, bringing PlayStation Mobile titles to certified devices across 9 countries.

Previously, most of these titles were restricted to Sony's own Android phones, but the company has struck a deal that will bring 30 new titles from a variety of genres to selected Fujitsu and Sharp smartphones as well. This may not be big news for stateside customers, but it's particularly significant in the Japanese market.

According to the press release, the service will start in nine countries - Japan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia - on October 3rd, with more countries to be announced in the future.

18
Aug
google_play_thumb

Download: Latest Google Play Store 3.8.17

Posted by in Apps/Games, News
Last Updated: January 6th, 2013

Google is currently pushing out a quick follow-up update (v3.8.17) to the new Play Store (v3.8.15) that rolled out a couple of days ago. 3.8.15 brought significant under-the-hood changes, such as support for gift card redemption and wishlists, but 3.8.17 seems to be just a minor bug fixer. I have absolutely no clue right now what problems it resolves, and decoding the apk to compare with the previous version didn't really shine a light in any helpful way. A cursory run through the usual wishlist (no, not that wishlist) suspects produced no results.

Regardless, it doesn't hurt to be running the latest and greatest version of something as important as the Play Store, so hit up the download mirrors below (we verified them as legitimate and signed by Google).

16
Aug
image

How To: Redeem Google Play Gift Cards Using The Device Play Store App

Posted by in Google, News, Tips & Tutorials

If you've been following the Play Store-related news cycle recently, you are probably well aware that Google is on the verge of releasing gift cards for use on Play Store's digital goods. The Redeem functionality, along with a new Wishlist, came with the new Play Store APK v3.8.15 that started rolling out yesterday but, unfortunately, the UI does not expose it yet.

There is no web interface for redemption either, but after digging through the APK, I discovered that it was set to intercept calls to http://play.google.com/redeem. So, while you can't pop up the Redeem Activity in the app directly without hacking, removing the stock app, and installing the re-signed hacked version, there is a much easier way.

16
Aug
image

One Lucky Guy Buys $25 Google Play Store Gift Card, We Successfully Redeem It [Hands-On]

Posted by in News

Well, well, well, what have we here? It's one of those upcoming Play Store gift cards we discovered yesterday and saw earlier today. This specific one was purchased at a local Turnersville, NJ Target by one of its employees. The kicker? He claims they are just hanging out in bins next to the checkout counters waiting to be put up on one of those gift card walls. Anyone shopping at the store can grab them from the pile, purchase (the system already allows it), and give them a new home.

Here, check it out:

playstoregc

Now for the best part. The code from this gift card is now in our full possession (thanks, Mongocrush!).

16
Aug
image

Google Flips The Switch On Smart App Updates In The Play Store [Video]

Posted by in News, Videos

There seems to be quite a lot of movement happening behind the scenes at the Play Store - yesterday we discovered that Google Play Store gift cards and wishlist are getting prepped for launch, and today Google seems to have enabled those smart app updates that we've been salivating about since Google I/O.

Normally, when an update to an application comes out, the Play Store downloads it in full, which with large apps and slow connections can get quite painful (think 50MB+ sizes). Smart app updates, announced at an I/O session in June, was the solution. When enabled, only the incremental difference (a.k.a.

15
Aug
image

Google Is Gearing Up To Finally Introduce Play Store Gift Cards And A Wishlist [APK Teardown]

Posted by in Android OS, APK Teardown, Apps/Games, Google, News
Last Updated: October 17th, 2012

A new Google Play Store v3.8.15 apk started rolling out to Android devices today, but upon running through its UI, I was unable to uncover anything different from the versions before that. Yet the apk size gained a few pounds kilobytes, and not knowing what the 300KB of code and resources added was killing me. Not to worry, a few minutes later, I decoded both 3.7.15 and 3.8.15 and compared their contents.

Play Store Gift Cards

What I found inarguably points to Google gearing up to finally release redeemable Play Store gift cards - something we've been anxiously waiting for since the Android Market started supporting paid apps.

15
Aug
playstore

Download: Latest Google Play Store 3.8.15

Posted by in Apps/Games, News
Last Updated: January 6th, 2013

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:

A new Google Play Store update v3.8.15 has just started rolling out to Android devices. The new version updates 3.7.15 from the end of July, and so far outside of a minor cosmetic change, I wasn't able to pin down just what exactly is new.

28
Jul
google_play

Download: Latest Google Play Store v3.7.15

Posted by in Apps/Games, News
Last Updated: January 6th, 2013

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:

Google is in the process of rolling out a Play Store update v3.7.15 which follows 3.7.11 and 3.7.13 from early July. The latest version doesn't bring any new features as far as I can tell, so we can only assume it contains under-the-hood improvements and/or bug fixes.

17
Jul
image

Google Provides Official Update On Nexus 7 Pre-Order Shipments

Posted by in Android OS, News, Nexus 7

Just after giving the 8GB Nexus 7 "In Stock" status, Google has published an official update on the 7's pre-order shipping situation.  The statement, which should placate users who have felt in the dark about the status of their Nexus 7 orders, explains that all standalone 8GB Nexus 7 orders (without cases or other accessories) have been shipped, and that by the end of the day July 19th, all standalone 16GB orders placed through July 11th will be shipped as well (including upgraded overnight shipping).

Those who ordered their tablet with accessories (or a Nexus Q) should expect the 7 to ship this week with overnight shipping, with accessories potentially coming in separate shipments.

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