Google Play

Google Play is giving away free music with its December Deals, offering a mix of free downloads and free streaming. The tracks appear to be updated weekly, so there should be time to grab more next week.

It’s looking like the freebies may be US-only, however: when you visit the same page in the UK, you get the same promise in the header, but the listed tracks (which number five rather than ten) come up at their normal price … 
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Earlier this month, ClockworkMod developer Koushik Dutta made his AllCast app available in beta to people willing to provide feedback on the app. This morning, however, Dutta released the app to the Play Store, making it available to everyone. AllCast is free to download, although there is a $4.99 premium option available to remove ads, splashscreens, and the limit on video length.

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Christmas is just two days away and with plenty of unsuspecting kids (and parents) awaiting new smartphones and tablets Disney is taking the opportunity to knock down app prices. For a limited time, numerous Disney apps within the Play Store are on sale for $0.49 and below.

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Cyanogen Inc, the parent company of the Android-famous CyanogenMod has raised an additional $22 million dollars in Series B funding. The money comes on top of the $7 million the company raised earlier this year as it announced three months ago it had incorporated.

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According to source code discovered by the unofficial Google System Blog, Google Play Music users will soon get the ability to upload music directly to the service from directly within their browser. As of right now, in order to upload files to the service, you have to download Google’s Music Manager app and select which files you would like to upload.

The source code discovered reads  “Drag songs or folders here to add music to your library. Or, if you prefer, select from your computer.” Google already allows users to drag and drop files to nearly all of its other online services, so it makes sense that Play Music would be next in line to receive the feature.

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Google has once again refreshed its free Google Play Music playlist for its December Deals offering with new music for you to grab. This week’s artist once again includes an interesting range of performers including Nine Inch Nails, Stevie Wonder, 2Pac, and Amy Winehouse.

What’s more is the playlist leads with Taylor Swift and follows with Kanye West, the two of which famously made headlines together following the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when Kanye unapologetically interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech.

At any rate, go ahead and grab 10 tracks while Google’s picking up the tab!
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Residents of New Zealand, Hong Kong, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago take note as Google Play Movies are now at your disposal. In total, Google added an additional thirteen countries bringing the total available market count to 27. This is the right time for residents of those countries to grab a Chromecast, kick their legs up on the sofa and watch a movie. Unfortunately, TV shows are still only available through the US, UK and Japan with no timetable for additional countries.

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As Samsung works to capture more of the Android gaming market with the release of a new controller, a new analytics study shows Android gaming is on the rise. Apple may be considered the dominant leader in the mobile gaming category and it remains steadily in the driver’s seat, but 2013 indicated the Play Store is moving up fast.

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Hot on the heels of the HTC One GPE receiving its own Android 4.4.2 update comes news that the Galaxy S 4 variant is now seeing the update arrive. Owners of the GT-i950G should start seeing the OTA update rolling out in the form of a 57.8MB update.

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In a world where families can all share one household tablet, the introduction of profiles for Netflix is huge news. Gone are the days when you had to see a mix of suggestions with other people sharing the device, now it’s just your recent shows and movies.The newest update began yesterday, December 14th and introduces:

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HTC One Google Play edition owners should look lively as they appear to be next in line for a software update to Android 4.4.2. According to an Android Police report, limited reports are beginning to arrive as HTC One GPE owners are starting to see the update arrive.

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A brand new Microsoft update for Skype for Android is including some new features as well as general improvements for users. The most notable addition in this update includes what Skype says is the first Android app to offer a “picture in picture window that lets you see your video call even when you switch away to other applications.”

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chUtv1kWIg8]

Cover, a brand new Android lockscreen first showed itself to the world at the tail end of October. The context-aware lockscreen notes which apps you want to use in specific locations and will present them on your lockscreen.

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If you have a Chromecast stick and have purchased movies or music from Google Play, you no longer need to cast them to your TV from your smartphone or tablet – you can now do it directly from the Chrome browser on your PC.

Make sure you have the Google Cast extension installed on your Chrome web browser (http://goo.gl/nzbB6t), and then look for the Cast icon in the Google Play web player. Click it and your movie or song will instantly start playing on your TV through Chromecast … 
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-Manual control of focus and exposure

-Locked exposure during Panorama capture

-Enabled additional language support

-Bug fixes

Google has announced the winners of the 2013 Players’ Choice awards for top Google Play apps and games. The awards are given based on user popularity, unlike the apps featured last week in the Play Store for a similar award,  which were chosen by Google themselves. There were six categories spanning apps and games. The winners of each respective category are listed below, as chosen by the Android community.

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Google this afternoon announced a major update to its Google Keep service on the web, just in time for the holiday season. The service has been updated with a totally new design, based heavily on the Keep Android app. There are now full color notes, a custom font, and text that scales to fit the size of the note. Also new is the ability to rearrange items in a list. The search functionality has also been improved, and a navigation drawer has also been added to make it easier to switch between notes.

• Sleek new design: many of your favorite things from the Android app are now on the web – full color notes, text that scales to fit the note, and a custom font just for Keep
• Rearrange items in lists: keep everything in order, all the time
• Improved search: finding the note you’re looking for is easier than ever
• Navigation drawer: quickly switch between your active and archived notes, or get a custom view of all of your notes with reminders

Try out all the features for yourself at keep.google.com.
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Google’s Android Device Manager first came our attention in August as a web-only tool to help locate your lost Android device. Now, with the release of the Device Manager app into the Play Store all Android users cane have a dedicated app to help you:

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A quick but notable update to Google’s Play Books app as it includes some performance enhancements and a new option to upload files. The newest update, available now via the Play Store includes the ability to “upload EPUB or PDF files to your library from your phone or tablet. From email or Downloads, touch the file to open it and choose Upload to Play Books.”

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In a flood of device announcements this afternoon, Google has just released a white Nexus 7 to go along with the black model this holiday season. Unfortunately, the white color option is only available in the 32GB storage option and with only WiFi connectivity. This means that those looking for LTE are forced to choose the black model.

The white Nexus 7 will run you $269.99, but thanks to a promotion Google is currently running, you will also get a $35 Google Play credit, which is essentially a free Chromecast. Other than the color, the white variant is identical to the Nexus 7 that we’ve come to know and love.

The white Nexus 7 is available on Google Play now, and is listed as shipping within 1-2 business days.