Hasta La Gadget!

Google Play crossed a rather significant milestone this morning: something to the tune of 25 billion app downloads. While the accomplishment is weighty enough on its own — especially given that the store also offers books, music and movies, which aren’t included in this tally — Google is celebrating in symbolic style with a number of apps and games for sale at just $0.25 over the next five days. Among the mix of discounted titles, you’ll find publishers such as Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, Runtastic and Full Fat. Not to stop there, shoppers will also discover a curated collection of 25 must-own movies, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the world and 25 top-selling magazines.

With today’s announcement, it was revealed that 675,000 apps and games now live in Google Play — a healthy increase when compared to 600,000 titles and 20 billion installs just three months ago. As you might expect, Apple still claims the largest selection with 700,000 titles in its App Store, although with such a thin separation between the two, we may see Google Play eclipse its rival in short order.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

Google Play hits 25 billion app downloads, holds celebratory yard sale with $0.25 games originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not content at stopping with its recent European tour, Google Play Books has made the trip to Japan and brought back a handful of new features. In addition to support for reading Japanese books in a vertical, right-to left layout, Mountain view now lets users tap on names of geographical spots within text and see them pinned to a Google Map alongside the option to find more information using Larry Page’s favorite search engine or Wikipedia. A freshly added translation feature takes user-highlighted words and phrases and spits them out in the reader’s language of choice. Particularly studious literature lovers can now mark up their digital books with notes and highlights that sync to the web and across their personal fleet of devices. A new sepia tone theme also joined the existing day and night views on their journey abroad. Hit the source links below for more details and the download.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Google Play Books app arrives in Japan, adds translation, place info, highlighting and more originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fox embraced a radical thought when it outlined its Digital HD initiative earlier this month: customers are more likely to buy digital movies if the content isn’t artificially delayed and priced to match the releases on conventional discs. The studio is about to see if that gamble on common sense pays off. As of today, you’ll find 600-plus Fox movies ready to buy or rent in HD across every major digital video store in the US, with many downloads cleared to arrive ahead of their physical counterparts at lower prices that reflect a disc-free reality. The media giant has also decided to play nicely with Google after a longstanding absence, putting its movies and TV shows on Google Play Movies and YouTube. Its tentpole movie release Prometheus is unsurprisingly being used as the prime incentive to try Digital HD; the title is available online three weeks before the Blu-ray launch at a more reasonable $15 price. The sci-fi thriller is even Fox’s first movie destined for UltraViolet cloud lockers. Only Americans will have expanded access to movies and TV at first, but it shouldn’t be too long before many countries can be creeped out by Michael Fassbender’s android — including on their Android devices.

Continue reading Fox kicks off its Digital HD initiative by joining Google Play and YouTube, offering movies early

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, Internet, HD

Fox kicks off its Digital HD initiative by joining Google Play and YouTube, offering movies early originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google and Boingo keep expanding their partnership, making GoGo a little jealous in the process were sure. Starting this week you’ll be able to hop online for free at over 4,000 Boingo hotspots across the country. Among the complimentary WiFi bastions are major airports such as JFK and O’Hare, as well as many subway platforms across New York City. All this is coming courtesy of Google Play, which is footing the bill for your free wireless adventure. The deal wraps up at the end of the month, but that still leaves you almost three weeks to take complete advantage of Big G and Boingo. PR is awaiting you after the break.

Continue reading Google Play foots the bill for 4,000 free Boingo hotspots through September

Filed under: Internet

Google Play foots the bill for 4,000 free Boingo hotspots through September originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 10:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever been tempted to rent a movie again, but thought the price was just a little too dear? Google may soon be willing to haggle a deal. One of its newly-granted patents could automatically lower the price of repurchase-friendly content, such as a Google Play Movies rental, depending on how likely you are to pull the trigger. Its algorithm weighs your personal tastes and repurchasing habits against those of your peers: if the code senses you’ll be relatively stingy, you’ll get a better discount. The analysis could even factor in the nature of the content itself. A thoughtful movie, ownership of the soundtrack or just a lot of related searches could lead to a repurchase at the usual price, while a simple action flick with no previous interest may bring the discount into effect. We don’t know if Google will offer these extra-personal discounts to the public at any point in the future, but if you suddenly notice a lot of follow-up bargains in Google Play, you’ll know how they came to be.

Filed under: Internet

Google patents buyer-specific price drops for follow-up sales, can tell if you’re a cheapskate originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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