Google Play

Google has used its Hangouts technology in many ways over the last couple of years, and one big way was the introduction of a new service called “Helpouts” that lets people sell their expertise to others over video conferencing. Now, it looks like Google is bringing Hangouts to a new area: customer service on the Google Play store.

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It appears that Google is about ready to jump into the kid-friendly mobile app space, as Launchpad toys has today announced that they’ve been acquired by the Mountain View company. Known for its Toontastic storytelling app for kids, the company is joining Google to “create even more amazing creativity tools for kids.”

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Rolling Stone magazine is making some of its archived issues available in the Google Play Newsstand app, with three or four major stories from each issue available for free. The move is being made in partnership with Google as a means of promoting the app, reports Fast Company.

Google Play’s global head of marketing Brian Irving says he views the Rolling Stone partnership as a way to demonstrate the possibilities of Google Play’s Newsstand, which he argues is better suited for content discovery than Apple’s Newsstand, due to features like customizable themes and key word searches.

Gus Wenner, son of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, said there was enormous interest in archived stories when properly promoted … 
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Google first announced its Google Play for Education program in mid-2013 at Google I/O with the program launching to K-12 schools in the United States later that fall, and today the company shared that it’s now bringing Google Play for Education to schools in the UK using Android tablets…
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Google today has updated its Play Store guidelines with yet another restriction on what developers can put in the descriptions of their apps. With today’s update, developers are now forbidden to include user testimonials in their app’s description. Any developer who breaks this rule could see the app in question pulled (via Android Police).

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One area in which Google Play Music has continually been lacking is its support for listeners outside of the United States. International use with Google Play Music got a little better tonight, however, as Google has revealed that it is bringing its Songza-powered automated playlist generation feature to listeners in the UK (via TechCrunch).

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Many reports have been hitting the web this morning that the Nexus 5 has ceased production, and while that may very well be true (we’re pretty sure it is), there’s no reason to go buying a backup phone out of fear that the device is going to magically disappear from the Play Store over the next few days (at least according to an official statement provided to us by Google)…

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Google has put together a hefty infographic showing 2014’s most popular apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, books & news.

Health and fitness was the fastest-growing app category, with MyFitnessPal topping the charts within the category. Candy Crush remained the most downloaded game. Other app category chart-toppers were Facebook, Netflix, Pandora, TripAdvisor, Duolingo, Flipagram and NFL Mobile … 
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Google has started notifying users of its Play Store about a $19 million settlement it reached with the FTC in September. The company is being required to pay out refunds for in-app purchases made by children on their parents’ credit cards after one of Apple’s lawyers brought the case to the FTC’s attention.

Users will have until December 2nd, 2015 to log into their Play Store accounts and mark any in-app purchases that were made by a minor in order to qualify for a refund. The total refund isn’t limited to $19 million, as that number serves only as a minimum required by the FTC.

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Project Ara is still slowly but surely making its way toward being a commercial product, and today one of the mysteries of the device–how people will buy and sell various interchangeable hardware modules–has been answered. Globant, a company focused on delivering “innovative software” has announced that they’ve partnered with Google’s Advanced Technology & Projects (ATAP) group on the development of a marketplace made specifically for Project Ara.

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From 9to5Toys.com:

Update (12/8 1:00pm): Target has Chromecast for $22.99. Redeem Google’s latest promo (below) to drop its effective price down to $2.99.

Google has just launched a new offer that extends a free $20 Google Play credit to anyone who purchases a Chromecast by December 21. According to the offer details, only Chromecasts purchased between December 7 and December 21 will be eligible for the free credit, but we were able to take advantage of it on our previously purchased Chromecasts.

You can check if you’re eligible for this promo by pointing your Chrome browser to chromecast.com/offers. The credit expires on January 31, 2016 and can be used on movies, music, apps, and other media. However, it can’t be used towards the purchase of any hardware. Only open to US residents.

Google Play, Amazon, and Best Buy are all promoting this offer for new Chromecast buyers.

At this point Google is pretty much paying you to own a Chromecast. Just recently, we’ve seen Google hand out free movies, Hulu Plus and Play subscriptions.

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The launches of Google’s new Nexus devices have been kind of a mess to say the least, and while more people have gotten the opportunity to purchase them because they’re being launched on more carriers, this also means that the rollout wasn’t as simple as just listing them on Google Play. But as of today, some amount of progress is being made, and those in the UK now have a chance to get their hands on the Nexus 6 via O2. Sadly, though, the launch of the Nexus 9 on T-Mobile in the U.S. has hit a bit of a snag, being delayed for an unknown amount of time.

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When Google released its Android distribution numbers for December earlier this week, Lollipop was notably missing from the chart as it had not gained enough of the market to appear. In a move that will slowly start to get Lollipop onto more devices, however, Samsung this evening has started to rollout its Lollipop update to the Galaxy S5. At this point, though, the update is only rolling out to the Poland Galaxy S5 variant (via SamMobile).

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Google’s Update Wednesday regiment is in full effect this afternoon as the company has rolled out updates to a handful of its Android apps. While many of the updates contain merely bug fixes, several are somewhat notable.

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