Hasta La Gadget!

Google has released a new version of its Google Play Music app, bringing with it a handful of new features, including auto-generated Instant Mixes. You can nab the app from the Google Play store and use it on your Android device or Google TV, whichever suits your fancy. Either way, you’ll get access to Google’s vast music library while enjoying the variety of new features.

Perhaps the two best updates are the auto-generated Instant Mixes and gapless playback. Auto-generated Instant Mixes show up on the Recent tab, and are based on your favorite tunes. Gapless playback now makes it possible to listen to tracks seamlessly, assuming you’re running at least Android 4.1, providing a smoother transition between your favorite songs.

Other features include the ability to keep a variety of playlists on your mobile device, including Last Added, Free, Purchased, and Thumbs Up content. Improvements have been added for offline music storage, making listening to offline, locally-stored tracks easier. The gapless playback feature works for offline music as well, perhaps making your entire listening experience more enjoyable by eliminating possible buffering.

As for the Google Play Music app itself, users enjoy the benefit of having all their music stored online, a nice way to avoid the hassle of syncing or dealing with lack of storage. Users can upload up to 20,000 offline songs to the music collection for free, then access it via the app. Play Music includes social sharing features for providing full-play songs you purchased on your Google+ profile for others to enjoy.

[via Engadget]

Google Play Music gets auto-generated Instant Mixes is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Price drops are tricky things. On the one hand, price drops will likely get more people buying your product, but on the other, if someone purchased that same product immediately before the price drop went into effect, it’s likely that they’ll get pretty angry. With the recent introduction of the cheaper 16GB Nexus 7, Google knows this dilemma all too well, and now it’s trying to do something to make those annoyed Nexus 7 owners a bit happier.

Google has introduced a new price protection program for devices on the Google Plus Store. The program is pretty straight forward: if Google reduces the price of a device on the Google Play Store, it will refund you the difference provided you purchased the product within 15 days of the price drop. In order to get that refund, you’ll need to file a request with Google within 15 days after the price cut goes into effect, which you can do here.

This means that if you purchased a 16GB Nexus 7 on or after October 14, 2012, you can request that Google refund you the difference in price. Google says that if your purchase is eligible for the price protection program, you’ll have your refund within 14 days. Not too bad, and and we’re thinking that this program will make those who purchased a 16GB Nexus 7 in the lead up to its price drop happy.

It seems like this will be an ongoing promotion, so future price drops might be covered price protection. Were you one of the folks who purchased a 16GB Nexus 7 right before the price drop? If you are, will you be taking advantage of Google’s price protection program?

Google announces price protection for devices on Play Store is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Android users on AT&T and T-Mobile have been able to purchase apps from Google Play and have them billed to their mobile account for a while. Customers on Verizon Wireless didn’t have that capability, they instead have to use a credit card to pay for apps. We mentioned a few weeks ago that carrier billing was coming to Verizon Wireless for Google Play purchases.

That carrier billing for Verizon went live yesterday. This means that you can now purchase your favorite apps, music, and other content and have the purchase price added to your wireless bill each month. There are no hurdles to jump through on the user end in to set up carrier billing, you simply have to choose that payment method when you purchase an app or other content.

There are a few caveats to the carrier billing with Verizon Wireless. A billing cycle limit of $25 is reportedly being enforced. That means that each month you can’t charge any more than $25 worth of digital content to your mobile phone bill.

That’s good in some ways because if you lose your phone, whoever finds it can’t charge huge amounts of money to your mobile account. If you’re afraid a child with an Android phone on your account might take advantage of carrier billing to make unauthorized purchases, you can block web purchases for your account using the Verizon Wireless website.

[via Droid-Life]

Google Play carrier billing comes to Verizon Wireless is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple’s iTunes App Store has hundreds of thousands of apps to choose, and it’s one of the company’s main selling points for the iPhone and iPad. However, according to Bloomberg, Google said yesterday that they have closed in on the 700,000 mark for the number of Android apps in the Google Play store, which is right up there with the iTunes App Store.

Google has been working hard to lure developers into developing more apps for Android devices, and the company is making a push for better tablet apps, something that Apple has had an edge on ever since the company released the iPad in 2010. Hopefully with better proprietary tablet apps in the future, Google can look to overtake Apple in the tablet app ecosystem.

Yesterday, Google unveiled the Nexus 10 tablet, which features a 10-inch display and features a pixel-dense 2560×1600 resolution, which beats the iPad’s 2048×1536 Retina display. They also unveiled at 32GB Nexus 7 along with 3G capabilities. Google’s dedication to tablets is growing, so it only makes sense that their dedication to Android tablet apps grows as well.

However, Apple has argued that their iOS operating system leads to more sales than other mobile operating systems. Apple announced last week that it has paid around $6.5 billion to app developers since the iTunes App Store was launched in 2008. That’s quite impressive, but the number of Android apps in the Google Play might be a good reference that Google is doing something right as well for its developers.

[via Bloomberg]

Google Play reaches 700,000 Android apps is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In today’s consumer electronics market, the battle isn’t just about hardware. Software, in the form of applications, also play a crucial role in the competition. That is why companies like Apple and Google are constantly developing new apps to serve the different needs of its users. Following Apple’s bold announcement last week that its App Store is now home to more than 700,000 apps, Google has recently told Bloomberg that its own Google Play Store also has an estimated number of 700,000 applications up to date.

This, of course, means that both companies are now even in the game. Google might even have a slight edge since it can now eliminate Apple’s key selling point which is “more apps for the iPhone and the iPad.” Android has been successful so far in luring software developers to develop equally good apps for its Android ecosystem.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple and Google spent more on patents than R&D in 2011, Google introduces new rules to tackle rogue Android app issue,