The Verge - Google's Play to open a new revenue stream: paid content

Google Play accepting paid app submissions from four new seller countries

2012-04-13T05:14:05Z

Google Play has expanded its market reach to four new countries, opening its doors to app developers in the Czech Republic, Israel, Mexico, and Poland. With today's announcement, developers in these four countries will now be able to sell their apps and in-app products on Google's freshly rebranded platform. Once they've created a Google Play developer account, users will be able to upload their apps and price them in any available currency, while receiving payments to their own local bank accounts. They can also accept payments in local currency, though developers in Israel and Mexico who have been selling apps through an AdSense account may need to set up a separate developer account to do so (Google will send out e-mails to these...

Google adds Play Store to the top navigation bar

2012-03-27T03:44:06Z

You may have noticed an addition to the black navigation bar that runs along the top of most Google products in your browser — a link to the Google Play Store, helpfully labeled "New" in red block capitals. Google Play now has pride of place in between Maps and YouTube, signaling its importance to the company over services relegated to a drop-down menu like Translate and Reader. Will increased visibility for Google's newly unified store solve the issues it has with getting people to pay for premium content? Only time will tell, but what we'd really like is the ability to choose which services go into the bar in the first place.

Google Play bug causes false Russian email app update to appear on some Samsung Android devices (updated)

2012-03-26T22:10:24Z

A strange event today has a lot of Samsung Android owners rightfully worried about malware on the Android Market. We've received a raft of tips from users who have discovered an app titled "МТС Мобильная Почта" (MTC Mobile Mail) on their Samsung devices, an app they never installed and are finding it difficult to uninstall.

As near as we can tell, the issue appears to be this: Samsung has several pieces of software that it installs on it devices but that aren't in the Google Play store (for obvious reasons). However, every single Android app has an app name that identifies it on the Android system, in this case the "unique" name is com.seven.Z7, which identifies Samsung's email app. What appears to have happened is that...

The Google Play problem: paying for 'Angry Birds' with battery life instead of money

2012-03-23T20:00:54Z

Earlier this week, a report came out showing that some apps on Android use more than twice the power they actually need because they're running ads. Angry Birds in particular was called out, with 70 percent of its power draw dedicated to uploading information and downloading ads. That stark fact may be part of the reason why Angry Birds Space, which was released yesterday, has both a free and a $.99 "premium" version in Google Play.

Although it might not be entirely fair to single out Angry Birds for battery life issues, the app is a common example simply because of how popular it has become. At the center of the Android app ecosystem is a fundamental problem that hasn't yet been solved: paid apps get better battery life but simply don't...

Google Play may get movie purchases, says CNET

2012-03-23T01:03:04Z

When Google debuted its massive Google Play rebranding of its app and media stores, one thing that was still missing was the ability to purchase movies — but that may be about to change. CNET reports that Google is considering adding the feature due to pressure from its content partners. Hollywood studios are said to be tying Google's continued ability to rent titles to the addition of purchases, which obviously come in at a higher price point — with more profit — than rentals alone. The new option could potentially appear as early as this summer. Despite Google's incredible success with Android, it has thus far had difficulty establishing a successful media ecosystem, but whether the addition of movie purchases will change its...

Google Music has daily streaming limit, but most users won't ever reach it

2012-03-22T03:57:05Z

It turns out that Google's music service — now a part of Google Play — has a limit for how many songs you can stream each day, though for most users it's not something they'll ever have to deal with. The issue recently came to light when a Droid Life reader received a message saying that they had exceeded their streaming limit. Unfortunately, Google's support page didn't provide anything in the way of details about what that limit was. We reached out Google to see what was going on, and while the specific number wasn't revealed, we were told that there is indeed a daily limit for how many songs you can stream. However, Google says that it's set high enough that very few users will ever encounter problems.

Google Play Android app updated with sortable reviews

2012-03-18T15:14:02Z

The (recently-renamed) Google Play store app has received an update that brings some of the review sorting abilities that were introduced in the web app back in December. Thankfully, each review now says which device the reviewer was using, so you won't have to count on them writing that info in themselves anymore. With the update the reviews screen also gives you the option of only viewing comments from those on the latest version of the app or those using the same phone as you, and you can also sort reviews either by newness or helpfulness. Lastly, there are now two views under My Apps: "Installed" and "All," the latter of which mimics the "My Android Apps" screen on the web interface and shows everything you've ever downloaded —...

Google Play update appears to fix broken Market links on Motorola devices

2012-03-09T14:38:35Z

That was quick. Yesterday we reported that Google's Play rebrand of the Android Market may have inadvertently broke the Market shortcut links on some Motorola devices. Now it appears that a new update to Play (version 3.4.7) makes everything work the way it's supposed to again. We can confirm that our RAZR Maxx and Droid X2 — the former of which Droid Life originally confirmed as having the problem — are both running Play Store 3.4.7, and the Market links on both redirect properly to the new store. The update to the new version of Play is being pushed out as we speak, but if for some reason you didn't get it yet, you can pick it up it at the source link below.

Thanks, blacktea!