Hasta La Gadget!

Google‘s been slowly making changes to their Play Store for the better, and today they’ve finally added one that thousands of developers have been requesting. This feature actually was released back in June for select “top developers” but today they’ve rolled out an update allowing all developers to reply to user comments and review.

Now all developers in the Google Play Store will be able to respond to any and all comments or reviews on Google Play. Previously only Top Developer Badge holders had this privilege, but now you’ll all enjoy it. The beta tag for this test feature has been removed and now all developers can offer an entirely new level of one-on-one support.

This is both a good and bad thing. For one developers will now be able to respond directly to claims and comments on their apps, as well as help out all those 1-star votes that shouldn’t be there. On the flip side we can see people purposely leaving 1-star reviews to get a quicker reply from the developer team. At least now users will be cautious since their review is tied to their Google+ account.

Now when a user doesn’t understand a simple feature and leaves a 1-star review in frustration, developers will be able to quickly and effectively change their minds and get the rating they deserve. This is rolling out in stages, so check your developer console as it should be appearing shortly. It also looks like Google’s added the Android 4.0 Roboto font to the Web Play Store, so it looks a bit nicer as well.

[via Android Community]

Google Play Store update allows developers to reply to all review is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In a mix of user interface usage, number crunching, and good ol’ analytics, the group known as ABI Research has revealed that Apple’s App Store has their top score in the mobile application storefronts category here at the start of 2013. The report they’ve released ranks stores based on both implementation and innovation with Apple winning the overall combined score over both the Google Play app store and Microsoft’s Windows Store, Google’s working for Android and Microsoft’s working for Windows Phone devices.

Combined scores for both implementation and innovation in this analysis showed Apple to be winning over the competition with 80.8 out of 100. Google’s score ended up being 72.2 and Microsoft ended up with a lovely 63.9, both of these also out of a max score of 100. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t Apple who won out when the scores were stacked up for innovation alone, with Microsoft scoring in at 77 out of 100 and Google coming in with 76, just the tiniest of points below the Windows Phone platform.

The innovation category for ABI Research works with what they say are the following five criteria: discovery, quality control, ease of use, “Breadth of Ecosystem”, and “Hosting and Deployment.” When they say Breadth of Ecosystem, they mean the availability of different kinds of media like apps, music, videos, and different kinds of apps, made for multiple screen sizes and even separate sections for phones and tablets. Hosting and Deployment for this study includes file-size limits as well as different methods for downloading media.

ABI researcher Aapo Markkanen made it clear this week that the study shows Microsoft doing well for their devices, but that it could all be for nothing if the Windows Phone platform doesn’t take off in a rather big way, rather soon: “Microsoft does seem to invest strongly in both personalized recommendation and editorial curation of apps. … [this approach] should favor developers with good products and little extra money to spare, over the ones that have mediocre products but big marketing budgets, [but this] won’t really matter if the devices powered by Windows Phone end up selling badly.”

[via ComputerWorld]

ABI ranks Apple App Store tops at start of 2013 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With Apple recently releasing a list of what it considers to be the best iOS apps of 2012, we’ve been waiting with bated breath for Google to reveal its own list. The wait is over, as today Google named the best apps to land on the Google Play Store in 2012. The apps range to ones that probably everyone has installed on their Android device to ones that will be relatively unknown to the mainstream crowd, so you could potentially use Google’s list to discover your new favorite app.

Google doesn’t assign any particular ranking to these apps, so none of them are supposed to be considered “better” than the others. Some of them bring online storefronts to your device, while others are services that many users take advantage of on a daily basis. The majority of them are free to install, save for just one app on the list. In no particular order, here are Google’s best Android apps of 2012:

• Evernote
• Zappos
• Pinterest
• Grimm’s Snow White
• Expedia
• Pocket
• Ancestry
• Fancy
• Mint.com Personal Finance
• SeriesGuide Show Manager
• Pixlr Express
• TED

It isn’t very surprising to see Evernote and Pinterest show up on the list, and Zappos is a clear choice considering it seems to be pre-installed on nearly every Android device that comes through our doors. It’s good to see apps like Pocket, Fancy, and Pixlr Express get some much-deserved attention, and it seems that Google has delivered a list that’s quite diverse.

As diverse as it is, it notably doesn’t feature any games unless you want to count Grimm’s Snow White – an interactive storybook – as one. Perhaps Google will also release a list of its favorite Android games for 2012? Only time will tell, but for now, let us know if you use any of the apps listed in Google’s favorites for the year!

[via Google]

Google lists best Android apps of 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When it became apparent not too long ago that the LG Nexus 4 was selling out of the Google Play online store faster than free bricks of gold, we immediately asked ourselves: was this by design, or was it a mistake? There are two possibilities that remain even after the information being reported today by no less than the head of mobile at LG UK has been released – even after Andy Coughlin spoke up with CNET about the fact that the device “had proven extremely popular” when it was released initially to Google Play. One possibility is that yes, indeed, Google simply did not expect so many devices to be sold, so they didn’t order a supply to meet the demand – the other is more nefarious.

This set of quotes from LG also includes a couple of sentences that should be analyzed by you and I, those interested in how Google went about setting up sales for the Nexus 4. “As with any sales process, LG supplies product quantities against partners’/customers’ (ie retailers, operators etc) forecasts,” LG’s Coughlin said, “demand via the Play Store has been very high in this instance.”

See both our T-Mobile Nexus 4 review and our original Nexus 4 review for two perspectives and more details than you could possibly ever want!

The Nexus family is one made by Google to present a pure version of their newest Android operating system without mobile carrier software add-ons. In the past, Google had presented each new Nexus device as one made for developers primarily – a software developer looking to make Android apps would always benefit from having a device that not only had the newest Android software, but was able to access the newest updates from Google faster than any other device on the market. With the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung ramping up to the LG Nexus 4, the public started seeing the Nexus platform as the true Android hero, a hero for all consumers, not just developers.

The other option that isn’t simply Google not seeing this demand for what it was is the possibility that Google ordered less than they expected they’d sell on purpose, this creating artificial demand and many more interesting stories in the press than there otherwise may have been. Of course this would presuppose that Google did not have enough confidence in the selling power of the Nexus 4 for it to sell massive amounts of its own merit, and we simply cannot believe such nonsense.

Instead we must believe that the projected numbers simply did not meet the end demand and that the scramble Google and LG are experiencing is real – and that the Nexus 4 really is the start of Google’s initial vision for Android in which one device could be released straight from Google across all carriers at once. One hero device, one Nexus. Perhaps with the 5th handset this will be true – we know people want it, now it’s time for Google to make it.

Google’s Royal Nexus 4 Supply Miscalculation is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome to Friday evening everyone! Not only is this the beginning of the weekend, but it’s also the last day of November. Tomorrow December begins, and the holiday rush will soon be in full swing. How about we all prepare with a recap of the news from the final day of the month? Today Verizon announced that it will soon be sending out Jelly Bean updates to the Motorola DROID RAZR HD and the RAZR MAXX HD, so if you own one of those phones, be on the lookout for an update next week. Apple launched its new iMac today, and we learned that the company will be bringing the iPad Mini to China on December 6, with the iPhone 5 to follow a week after.

Honda unveiled an updated 2013 Civic at the Los Angeles Car Show today, while new user-configurable gauges were shown off for the Cadillac XTS. According to benchmark tests, it turns out that the new iMac is able to boast a 25% performance boost over last year’s model, and it seems that Apple is now offering variable-cost iTunes gift cards at retailers, though they require that you load at least $15 onto them.

We heard rumors earlier today that claim the next Xbox could launch in time for Christmas 2013, and Sony has filed an interesting new patent for a hybrid Move/Dualshock controller that splits in half. A new report from comScore shows that Samsung and Apple continue to dominate the smartphone space, while we learned that Google Play revenue has risen 300% though the App Store still sells more. Nokia is hunting for a Linux engineer, which has the Android community excited, and it appears that ASUS is gearing up to undercut the Nexus 7 with a tablet that costs only $99.

The Humble THQ Bundle has pulled in more than $2 million in just one day, and Xbox Live Gold has gone free for this weekend only. There’s a new PS Vita bundle on the way to the United States, and Facebook has rolled out its new Photo Sync feature for its mobile app. Finally tonight, Chris Burns delivers his review of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the weekend folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: November 30, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.