Google Music and Books Receive Updates, Google Play Branding Included

by: | posted 03.06.12 | Apps, News

We love coordination like this. Moments after Google’s new “Play” media market went live (a rebranding of the Android Market), we are already seeing the first updates to their suite of apps with Google Play branding on them. If you jump into the market, you should see Google Books and Google Music updates, changing the names to Play Books and Play Music respectively. That is really all that is changing though is the branding, however, the Books update does mention that it is “now integrated with Google Play.”

Market Links:  Play Music | Play Books

Cheers Albert!

Official: Sony Xperia PLAY Headed to Verizon Spring 2011

by: | posted 02.13.11 | News

Time to welcome in a new member to the already impressive Android collection on Verizon, the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY aka the Playstation Phone.  Murmurs of the device possibly hitting Big Red started last week and today, it became official in an announcement at MWC in Barcelona.  The PLAY will come to VZW first out of all the U.S. carriers and should be here some time in the spring, which means it’ll be battling it out with new versions of our beloved DROID franchise like the DROID X2.

Loading up with Gingerbread (Android 2.3), a slideout gaming keyboard, 4″ screen, 5MP camera, 1GHz processor, and a GPU capable of producing 60 FPS, this could be one heck of a fun toy.  What do you guys think?  Who’s ready for some serious gaming?

Full gallery, press release and specs after the break.  

Is the Sony Xperia PLAY Headed to Verizon? (Updated)

by: | posted 02.09.11 | News

According to a chart that went live at Wirefly’s site on February 3rd, the Sony Xperia PLAY is headed to Verizon.  Yep, this would be the Playstation phone that we’ve been covering over at Android Life, but was kept far from the pages of DL since we assumed it wouldn’t come anywhere near Big Red.  The PLAY hasn’t been announced on a carrier yet, but could be on Sunday in a press event that kicks off just before MWC.  I guess we’ll know at that time if that chart needs to see some quick editing.  And I have to admit that seeing this phone on Verizon would shock the heck out of me.

Update:  As expected, Wirefly has now changed the carrier to “To be determined.”

Need a few specs?  How does a 4″ LCD screen, Gingerbread, 5MP camera and the ultimate gaming slide-out keyboard sound?  Anyone interested?

The PLAY’s Super Bowl ad featuring Andy and his creepy thumbs after the break.