Google has gone and replaced the Android Market with a portal they’re calling ‘Play’, a place where all your Google content such as apps, books, movies and music will be stored and made available on all relevant devices.
In reality this is nothing more than a branding change, since the apps themselves — Books, Music, Videos, Market — are going to stay aesthetically and functionally identical. The biggest change is that Google is focusing on a unification of its content services, a single portal in which Google and Android customers can procure entertainment and share it among multiple devices from the cloud.
Over the past few months, Google has made a ton of changes to the Market in preparation for this: you can push app downloads to your phone or tablet from the web; you can synchronize book locations between the web, tablet and phone; and you can rent movies from the web and watch them on your phone, on the go.
Unfortunately for us Canadians, Google’s Music store is not yet active, but in celebration of launching Play they are offering a ‘7 Days to Play’ promotion with discounted paid apps, books and movie rentals. There are some fantastic deals available, including puzzle favourite Where’s My Water? for 25c and Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues for $3.99, and you’ll have to check back every day.
Google says, “Today we’re eliminating all [the] hassle with Google Play, a digital entertainment destination where you can find, enjoy and share your favorite music, movies, books and apps on the web and on your Android phone or tablet. Google Play is entirely cloud-based so all your music, movies, books and apps are stored online, always available to you, and you never have to worry about losing them or moving them again.”
The Android Market app will be replaced by the new Play portal in the coming days, but that will happen automatically behind the scenes. Check after the break for an overview of the new Google Play App Store, and let us know what you think about the change!
Source: Google
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