23
May
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Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7" And 8.9" Pre-Orders Open In Over 170 Countries, Ships Out June 13th

Posted by in Amazon, Kindle Fire HD, News

Amazon tends to be a bit focused on the United States because, well, it's a US company. But they're expanding the reach of both the Amazon Appstore (which now works in almost 200 countries) and the Kindle itself. A press release this morning announced that the Kindle Fire HD is now available for pre-order in more than 170 countries, in both the standard 7" model and the premium 8.9". Hardware will begin shipping out to customers on Thursday, June 13th.

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To say that they're a bit late is an understatement - the 7" tablet has been available in the US since September of last year, with releases in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Japan before the end of 2012.

22
May
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Amazon Appstore Updated To Version 5.0, Adds Support For Nearly 200 Countries

Posted by in Applications, News

Gordon Gekko tells us that "Greed is Good," a sentiment that I happen to agree with under the circumstances. n Amazon's continuing effort to be the first place everybody turns to for their Internet purchases, the online retail giant has updated its Android Appstore to v5.0 and now supports "nearly 200" countries. Thanks to an announcement last month, we know that this expansion propels the precise count from merely 7 markets up to a shocking 195. While Amazon's list counts a few non-sovereign nations and dependent territories, the total coverage still soars well above Apple's 155 or Google's 134 (for paid apps).

20
May
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Sony Releases The Xperia Tablet Z Worldwide Starting At $499, Available Later This Week On Amazon And Newegg

Posted by in News, Sony, Xperia Tablet Z

If an official AOSP build and CyanogenMod support have got you hot and bothered to try out Sony's latest entry into the tablet world, there's good news. The Xperia Tablet Z is now officially available through Sony's partner channels worldwide, according to a press release issued this morning. This much-anticipated 1080p tablet is the larger brother to the Xperia Z smartphone, in both design and hardware terms. Sony's US store still shows a pre-order doesn't list any retailers, but Amazon shows the 16GB and 32GB models at $499 and $599, respectively, arriving on Friday the 24th. Newegg has it coming in the day after.

09
Jan
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Facebook Pages Manager For Android Finally Installable In US, UK, And Everywhere Else The Play Store Is Available

Posted by in Applications, News

A few days ago, Facebook quietly released its Pages Manager app for Android to the Play Store. The app, which had been making iOS-toting page managers' lives easier for quite some time, was a welcome addition, save for one thing: it could only be installed in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, leaving US users in the dark.

It appears that's changed today. The Pages Manager app, in an update too small to warrant a change log, opened up to those in the US.

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A refreshing sight for international page managers

Facebook hasn't released an official announcement regarding Pages Manager, so we don't have official confirmation that the app has launched globally.

29
Oct
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Now You Can Purchase Movies From Google Play In Canada, The UK, France, Spain, And Australia

Posted by in Applications, Google, News

We know a lot of our international readers have been eager to get their hands on the Play Store's content ecosystem. It turns out Google is just as eager for that as you are. In addition to movie rentals, users in Canada, the UK, France, Spain, and Australia will be able to purchase movies outright and watch them forever.

Said Google on the matter:

We’ve recently added a ton of great new entertainment to Google Play, such as movies and TV shows from Twentieth Century Fox. Earlier this year we expanded our service beyond movie rentals and now you can purchase movies and build a library of your favorites in Google Play.

13
Sep
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Google Maps With Navigation Arrives In Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan And More MENA Countries

Posted by in Google, News, Videos
Last Updated: March 12th, 2013

While we still wait for newer products like Play Movies or Play Books to reach a wider audience, Google's been hard at work bringing a slightly more useful product to additional countries: Google Maps with Navigation. After bringing voice navigation to India, nine more new countries are being added to the supported list for the Navigation beta. Including the following:

  • Egypt
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Qatar
  • Kuwait
  • Lebanon
  • Bahrain
  • Jordan
  • Algeria

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Unfortunately, the service will require Android 4.0 or higher. This is likely due to Arabic script API incompatibilities with older versions. Though, it's a little unclear on just when all the necessary features would've been added (for example, bi-directional text was only added in Jelly Bean).

24
Aug
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ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 Owners Across Europe Receiving Jelly Bean OTA

Posted by in Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Transformer Pad 300

After ASUS' US-bound Transformer Pad 300 (TF300) got its taste of Jelly Bean OTA goodness – and subsequent full-fledged firmware download – owners of the tablet's international (or WW) variant were stuck furiously pressing "software update" in hopes of getting their own OTA. Well, it looks like ASUS has made dreams come true, at least across Europe. Just earlier today, ASUS UK officially put users on the lookout via Twitter:

Following that tweet, users have confirmed the OTA rolling in in countries including (but not limited to) Germany, Slovakia, Spain, the UK (of course), Greece, Portugal, and Northern Ireland.

11
Jun
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[Rumor] Amazon May Be Ready To Launch Its Appstore In Europe Very Soon

Posted by in Amazon, News

So far, Amazon's Appstore, which competes with Google's own Play Store on Android apps, has been stuck within U.S. borders. A report from All Things D, however, says that may be about to change soon. The online retail company, the site says, is preparing to launch in Europe. No details on when beyond "later this summer" were available.

All Things D speculates that this might herald the arrival of the Kindle Fire, however it also rightly points out that launching a device in a new country is more complicated than launching a software storefront. We're a little skeptical that an international launch of the Appstore will mean the Kindle Fire is heading to our friends across the pond.

15
Aug
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150 Million Android Devices Now Activated Worldwide, With 550,000 More Being Added Daily

Posted by in Android OS, News

Hot on the heels of its acquisition of Motorola for $12.5 billion this morning, Google has announced on its blog that Android is now running on 150 million devices worldwide.

That figure is up a whopping 20 million on last month's 130 million, with the post also mentioning that an additional 550,000 units are being activated every day across 123 countries (though we already knew that).

With these numbers, there's no doubt that the growth of Android is as strong as it ever has been, and it goes without saying that the death of our favorite platform has been greatly exaggerated.