Google Music includes free full track sharing via Google+

Google’s new Music endeavor is certainly exciting, and not just because it’s yet another digital music store. Google is the first company to offer a free preview of your purchased music to your contacts on Google+. Your friends can listen to one full play of any song or album you purchase.

All this is in addition to the considerable social features built in to Google Music, by way of Google+. You can recommend songs or albums to individual friends or Circles, who can see an instant link to the relevent music on the Android Market or the Google Music web site. Naturally all your music is instantly added to your personal digital locker, available for unlimited downloads or pins at any time.
This functionality should be showing up in the brand new Google Music app, as well as the web versions of Google Music and Google+. You can purchase music with the same credit card that’s attached to your Android Market account, and T-Mobile customers will be able to add music to their phone bills soon.

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Google: Over 200 million Android devices activated globally

Today during the live broadcast of the Google Music event going on now, Google has just announced that over 200 million android devices have been activated a globally. A number that has doubled in the past 6 months. Whoa, that is a pretty large number that appears to be growing by the thousands every single day.

The Google “These Go to Eleven” event has just announced the new Google Music and that it will be completely free offering Android users 25,000 songs worth of free cloud storage for all their music. For all of the details as they become available feel free to check out that link above.
Not only that but all of this music will be full high quality 320 kbps music, beating Apple’s 256 offering. We are still digging through all the details but thought the above numbers regarding well over 200 million android devices was worth a quick post. The Android Army is going strong and is showing NO signs of slowing down. Enjoy the ride guys!

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Google Music unveiled with Android Market integration, stays free

In a creatively-teased event in Los Angeles this afternoon, Google finally pulled the wraps off its long-awaited music store. Hundreds of tech press were crammed into Mr. Brainwash Studio, where the details were finally hammered out. Google has been testing the streaming music waters for since May with its Google Music Beta program, but today it comes to everybody in the country.

Streaming and Syncing
Google Music is now open to everyone in the United States. The uploading and streaming properties are intact: you can upload up to 20,000 songs to Google, completely free, and stream it to any device. Users can upload their music selectively using the Google Music desktop application from Windows, Linux or Mac. The Google Music app for Android, updated today, will tie into users’ digital locker saved on Google’s servers. You can stream the music to unlimited Android devices and access it from a desktop browser. An interesting new feature is a pin manager: simply pin songs or albums to your device to save a local copy, to make sure you can get to it even without a connection.
Android/Market integration
As expected, Music has been added to the Android Market along with Movies and Books. Google is offering “millions of songs” in the updated version of the Market, including suggestions based on your current music collection. Once a song or album is added it goes straight into your digital locker – no download necessary, unless you want it. All songs get a free 90-second preview, and come in at a high-quality 320kbps files.
The Market also gets some interesting social features, as your Google+ contacts can recommend music, which you can then check out. Friends will receive one free full play of recommended music that has been shared, a feature that’s completely new to the music industry.

The Music store is live at the web version of the Android Market, and will be rolling out to Android devices in the next few days.
Sony Music, Universal, and EMI have all signed up for the service – so far, Warner Music is not on board. Numerous independent labels are also debuting with Google Music. Google is actively pursuing more music partnerships. Some exclusive Google Music content includes six as-yet-unreleased Rolling Stones concert, as well as Coldplay, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam and Shakira. Busta Rhymes’ new album will be available only on Google Music, and the first track is a free download right now.

Independent Artists
Independent artists can share their music through the Artist Hub, which publishes music directly to the Android Market. Artists can set their own prices (even free!) and establish their own band profiles on the Google Music service. Artists get 70% of the revenue from their songs with no album or track fees, and they can sell music against their YouTube videos.
T-Mobile integration
T-Mobile customers will be able to pay for new music through their phone bill, just like they can with apps. The functionality hasn’t been added just yet, but should be coming very soon. T-Mobile will aslo be giving their customers free exclusive content from Drake, Maroon 5, Busta Rhymes and others through the end of the year.
Google didn’t mention pricing, but a quick look at the web version of the Android Market shows most individual tracks at 99 cents, with some featured albums as an all or nothing purchase.
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ASUS Transformer Prime Smart Cover revealed

While we all sit and patiently wait for the ASUS Transformer Prime and its quad-core Tegra 3 power to actually hit the shelves and our fingertips, we’ll settle for a few accessories. This here is the Transformer Prime smart cover and I have a feeling Apple wont be happy with what they see. It looks quite a bit different if you ask me, but you never know these days.

We don’t have full details or if this will be an official accessory from ASUS but this here is the smart cover that will protect your lovely tablet, and double as a stand at the same time — who woulda thought? It appears as if this smart cover has learned a thing or two from the Japanese and becomes an Origami master and folds into a neat little stand although the angle might be too low for some. See the image below for an idea of what I mean when I say Origami.

It looks very similar to that unofficial Samsung smart cover we saw a few months back that Samsung quickly denied having any part with to obviously avoid a lawsuit from the likes of Apple. Again, we aren’t sure if this will be sold or marketed right from ASUS but I have a feeling it wont. Either way this case looks as awesome as the tablet does and I surely will be buying both when the time comes.
Who else is buying this quad-core beast — now with a neat little case?

Related articles

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• ASUS Transformer Prime heads through the FCC, Tegra 3 revealed in teardown [Update] (goandroid.co.in)
• ASUS Transformer Prime caught in the wild [Gallery] (goandroid.co.in)
• Asus roadmap leaked: Transformer Prime Nov. 9, more tablets in Q1 2012 (goandroid.co.in)

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NFC Expands its Reach, Google Wallet Now Accepted at Bay Area Gap Stores

A pair of fresh chinos? V-neck sweater? Paying for them with a single tap of your smartphone? Yuppies of the world with NFC-enabled handsets and Google Wallet now have the luxury thanks to Gap Inc. signing on as the latest partner in Google’s push for widespread adoption of mobile payments. More than 65 Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic stores (including outlet locations) in the San Francisco Bay Area are now equipped to start processing payments through Google Wallet.
Google’s efforts have mostly been centered around the tech-centric region near their home base as they continue to roll out single-tap payments in conjunction with merchants. The hope is that these test markets will show enough promise to warrant rolling out the technology on a more widespread basis. You can check out a map of Gap stores accepting Google Wallet and more at the announcement link below.
[via Gap]

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Acer Iconia Tab A700/A701 Surface, Could Have Full HD Display and Tegra

As the first reports of the upcoming Acer Iconia Tab A700 and A701 emerge, it isn’t so surprising that the tablets will likely feature the quad-core Tegra 3 processor. The chipset follows up the highly-favored Tegra 2 and is already seeing its fair share of deployment in future Android slates. Slightly more interesting is the suggestion that the A700/A701 will feature full HD displays with 1080p resolution. The information was gleaned from a user agent profile, which aren’t always the most trustworthy sources of information. But with 720p displays already reaching smartphones, the inclusion of high-definition screen technology in tablets doesn’t come from left field — the notion has our interest piqued. Acer’s next-gen lineup of Iconia Tabs could sure be a thing of beauty.
[via HDBlog.it]

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T-Mobile upgrades HSPA+ 4G in 11 more cities

Despite sticking with the older HSPA+ standard with no LTE plans in sight, T-Mobile continues to upgrade its existing network with commendable regularity. Today the carrier announced that 11 new cities will be getting the doubled speed standard that others have been enjoying for some time: Bend, Medford and Corvallis, Oregon, Benton Harbor, Michigan, Bloomington, Champaign–Urbana and Springfield, Illinois, Columbus, Georgia, Hagerstown, Maryland, Montgomery, Alabama and Yuba City, California.

The above cities will now enjoy HSPA+ with a maximum theoretical speed of 42Mbps down. That’s not to be sneezed at, since even on AT&T’s uncontested and relatively tiny LTE network, we could barely get above 20Mbps. T-Mobile says their network now covers 180 million Americans (which I’m sure is a wonderful comfort to the 120 million+ Americans who can’t get a single ever-loving bar). Notably for data-lovers, T-Mobile still offers unlimited data plans for smartphones, though customers are throttled after a certain limit.
T-Mobile has been particularly aggressive in expanding its 4G android lineup, currently lead by HTC’s Amaze 4G and the still solid Samsung Galaxy S II. T-Mobile’s tablet offerings are expanding as well: in addition to the Huawei-made Springboard, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is coming soon, both of which have HSPA+ 4G. After the Justice department denied AT&T’s approval to purchase its competitor, the future of T-Mobile is currently somewhat tenuous, but for the foreseeable future it remains an economical choice for those who spend most of their time in urban areas.

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HTC gets cease and desist for Vivid smartphone from porn firm

Earlier this month we got hands on with our review of the HTC Vivid smartphone. We thought the device was nice with good build quality, but it had a sub-par battery that left some to be desired. If you like that smartphone you might want to get one now. Apparently, HTC has received a cease and desist order from a porn company called Vivid Entertainment.

Apparently, the porn firm thinks that the HTC smartphone will cause brand confusion. Seriously? Brand confusion between a smartphone and porn empire? Vivid Entertainment has demanded that HTC change the name of the smartphone or risk being sued. HTC says that it is reviewing the claim and won’t make comment until it is finished.
I think that Vivid Entertainment is going to have a very hard time making this argument stick in court. I would imagine that the porn firm is simply looking for some press. The phone is on the AT&T network so AT&T may ultimately get into the issue as well.
[via The Verge]

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Harness Android Open Accessory Protocol with Electric Sheep

If you are the sort that likes to tinker and come up with your own accessories and apps for your Android device electric Sheep will tickle your fancy. Electric Sheep comes from a company called SparkFun and can hook to your Android device using a USB port. The little Electric Sheep board takes advantage of Android’s Open Accessory Protocol.

The board will give the user access to the phone systems for developing accessories and apps for different uses. The board also allows interaction with a microcontroller like Arduino. The Electric Sheep board will work with any Android device, not just smartphones. It has a USB header onboard for direct connectivity.
The board uses an ATMega1560 microcontroller and bootloader. The USB-host connector allows for easy connection to the Android device using a USB port. Electric Sheep is compatible with Arduino IDEA and HandBag. It is also Arduino-shield compatible. The Electric Sheep board is priced at $79.95 per unit.
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