Today Google announced (in several places) that the Android Market is being rebranded “Google Play”
The new marketplace (sorry, “play store”) includes content from four main areas – Movies, Music, Apps & Games, and Books. Of course, not all of these are available outside of the US yet, so folks in Australia will only get access to Apps & Games and Books for now. READ MORE »
This morning Google announced a brand new Google+ page for Android Developers.
The goal is to create “a place for Android developers everywhere to meet, share, and connect with the people behind the Android developer experience”.
The Android Developer Relations team will be hosting Google+ Hangouts from this page, and even calling in some external developers to talk about how their apps are made. If you’re keen to sit down for a chat, check out the weekly Android Office Hours on Google+.
The page was only created a few hours ago, but already holds some great info. It’s great to see Google reaching out to developers in this way, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes in the future.
Check out the Android Developers page on Google+
One of the things I love about Google is that the company has a sense of humor. Just look at how seriously they take April Fools day, or the easter-egg built into Google Docs.
This sense of humor didn’t miss the Android team. Take a look at the official documentation for ActivityManager. What’s this I see? READ MORE »
I woke up this morning to a perfect storm of Google+ announcements. Firstly, the big news – Google+ is now available to anyone with a Google account. No invite required. This is great news, as it lowers the barrier to entry significantly. I can now invite all my friends to join, and they can invite their friends, etc. Unfortunately it also means my Google+ Invites app (a.k.a. Social Invites Plus) is now entirely obsolete. Well, that was fun while it lasted 
But that’s not the only Google+ news. In the same blog post Google announced a bunch of new Hangout features, including mobile video & publicly broadcast streams. Also, you’ll now be able to share your screen and/or Google Docs with Hangout participants (which puts Google+ squarely in the business arena). And we finally have the ability to search Google+! This has probably been the most requested feature, and the ability to search posts as well as people makes the service far more useful.
And just in case you weren’t impressed with those features – Google published another blog post a few minutes later announcing features 101 through 107. This includes a slew of mobile features, such as +mentions, the ability to +1 comments, and change your profile picture all from the mobile app. These are more incremental updates, but it’s great to see Google actively pushing development like this, and responding to the small features that people have been asking for. I don’t know any other Google product which has had so many feature updates in such a short period of time. Hopefully they continue to keep up the good work. I believe Google+ has huge potential, and it’s by far the most promising social service from Google yet.
Something interesting to note (in case you thought this post wasn’t related to Android development 
), Google seems to be having difficulty synchronizing feature releases between their Android and iOS apps. This stands to reason – Apple requires approval for updates in the App Store, while Google would have no delays releasing an app on the Android Market. But this is a significant area of concern for many developers. The more app stores you distribute to, the harder it becomes to keep them all up to date. The code base will differ between stores; content policy differs; and even product packaging has to be done differently. It’s worth taking note – Google doesn’t have it any easier.
Add me on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/115578224090485355580/
Last night Google posted a tweet from @AndroidDev mentioning a new badge available for Android developers. If you’ve currently got an app on the Market, you can download the official badge titled “Available in Android Market” to place on your website. This is designed to help standardize the Android branding experience, and ensure your app marketing looks professional. READ MORE »
Google has just announced the availability of the Plus One (+1) button for webmasters. Google +1 is similar to Facebook’s “Like” button. Clicking “+1″ on a webpage will share the page publicly with your friends. But where can your friends see this? Unlike Facbook, Google doesn’t have a homepage where you can see all your friends’ activity. Instead, your +1′s will be shown to your friends – in the actual Google Search results. If you click +1 on a news article about Android, the next time your friend searches for “Android” there’s a good chance they’ll see this article, with a little icon beside it indicating you recommend the link.
Obviously, Google +1 is a powerful tool for website owners. By placing a simple button on your website where visitors will click, you can directly influence your search ranking! But how can you add the +1 button to WordPress? There are no plugins or widgets for +1 yet. Instead, I’ll show you how to add the Google +1 button directly to your WordPress site. READ MORE »
According to the latest report from Engadget, Google has pulled a popular range of video game console emulators from the Android Market. The developer Yong Zhang’s account has been disabled, and all his apps removed from the Android Market. Some of the apps previously published under his account (yohngzh) include Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid and Gameboid. READ MORE »
No, it’s not the latest version of the Samsung Galaxy phone. The galaxy Google’s talking about is the App Galaxy – a term they use to describe the world of Android development. Google has published a guide for Android developers which is, essentially, a guide to making money with Android. READ MORE »
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