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Google Unifies Media, Apps Into Google Play
eldavojohn writes "Google has just announced Google Play to merge their existing solutions for music, movies, books and apps in the new cloud based storage system promising that you will never have to worry about losing or moving them across devices ever again. You'll be able to store 20,000 songs for free. The region breakdown is: 'In the U.S., music, movies, books and Android apps are available in Google Play. In Canada and the U.K., we'll offer movies, books and Android apps; in Australia, books and apps; and in Japan, movies and apps. Everywhere else, Google Play will be the new home for Android apps.'"
Seems like it might infringe on the idea behind iTunes, or App Store, or something.
When I get almost the entire catalog via Pandora or Spotify?
At last, somewhere to store all my pirated music and movies!!!!!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I don't want my cloud provider to know type of media that's on there - if they know they'll pull it down at request or in case of apps possibly if the publisher just doesn't renew.
also a little birdie told me thet bitcasa beta is open.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
It's worth pointing out that all of this functionality is already available. There is nothing new here except the name and an icon. Not even an interface change. Much ado about nothing.
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
Proxy through international servers so you are coming from different IP addresses.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Hey, someone needs to protect American jobs with tariffs, because that worked so well in the 1930's.
"Si vis pacem para bellum" -Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus
...until I wake up one day and it's not.
USA: Music, Movies, Books, Apps
CAN: Movies, Books, Apps
UK: Movies, Books, Apps
Au: Books, Apps
Japan: Movies, Apps
Um, does this not seem odd? Only the US can store Music in Google Cloud? Is this because the RIAA can sue people there? Why the mashup of various media in various places. I wonder does this have more to do with law in the country in question, or the county of origin? Considering the stellar privacy stuff lately, I think I would rather figure out how to host my own server to take my stuff anywhere I like.
Oh and Books? Really? I mean you can fit like what a million on a micro SD card these days. Hell even music, unless you have a 20,000 song library, you can fit more music than you could ever really want on a 16GB smartphone... 32GB even more.
Video is intriguing. I can just imagine what is going to be uploaded there.
Jew
Nagger
That's racist, man.
Why no movies in Australia?
Unfortunately for this argument, laws vary from country to country, and so terms and conditions for any service must comply with relevant local laws in each country, and the wishes of the rights-holders regarding distribution of their product to those countries.
Did you really think that companies *prefer* having to build a different storefront with a different set of products, for every country they operate in? This isn't google forcing the restrictions, it's the content owners not granting google the rights to sell/distribute those products in the relevant markets, or the local laws preventing them from doing it for some reason.
is dissipation.
Encryption.
"Google Play" sounds like an environment for children. Why would people look there for serious applications?
worldmobilenet.com -- World Prepaid Wireless Internet plans
If security, confidentiality, and permanent ownership of the stuff stored are such overriding concerns, then it's likely that a cloud service isn't for you, and you should avoid using one.
absolute garbage. It just has apps in my jurisdiction.
Oh well, gotta go check on how my torrents are doing...
I can't be the only one that thinks the new name, Play Store, sounds a lot like something that would come from a children's toy mfg. Not the image you want to brand on your serious apps. Should've kept it Market.
Looks like RIM is going to have to find a new name for their tablet now that Google is using the "play" prefix.
This new Google Play thing even has a Play Books section!
Then go with a zero-knowledge provider like SpiderOak. All of the data is encrypted on their servers. Your password is encrypted before it even leaves your computer. (If you lose your password, your recovery option is "I'm fucked".)
Moreover, even if the feds came knocking on their door, all they could say is that you have x gigs of data on this particular server. The company can't even view your files, no matter how much they (or law enforcement, or a court) might want to.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
I just tested the new Google Play apps. Here's what I found:
Google Play Books: This item cannot be installed in your device's coutry
Google Play Music: This item cannot be installed in your device's coutry
Google Play Movies: This item cannot be installed in your device's coutry
(German user)
I think it is odd that Canada and U.K. don't get the music, Australia doesn't get music nor movies, and Japan doesn't get the books nor the music.
What is Google saying here? Are Canadian's tone-deaf... Japanese can't read?
I think it is a wacky world if where you live determines what you can buy.
Google Search taught me what my life was worth. Google Docs lets me write at home in my socks. Google Mail, I get so much I want to wail. Google Maps led me into a criminals trap. Google Play, another way to make me Google Prey.
Silence is a state of mime.
It would actually be better if they would create a secured server in which only vetted apps are in it. My parents and in-laws are now on Android, and I worry about their downloading apps. Basically, it would be better for them to pay $.99-5 / app KNOWING that it is safe, rather than have access to so many apps of which a small number of them are insecure.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Then go with a zero-knowledge provider like SpiderOak. All of the data is encrypted on their servers. Your password is encrypted before it even leaves your computer. (If you lose your password, your recovery option is "I'm fucked".)
Moreover, even if the feds came knocking on their door, all they could say is that you have x gigs of data on this particular server. The company can't even view your files, no matter how much they (or law enforcement, or a court) might want to.
Unfortunately many countries have laws under which you can be forced to give up your encryption keys to law enforcement. God only knows how the US has resisted implementing laws like this so far, although I don't see this situation lasting long considering how the government lately seems hell bent on eliminating the human rights of its citizens.
...just because I live in Poland or some other "obscure" country. I say fuck you and go back to piratebay.
You just ruined a decent Cloud service idea we have still been waiting on for years now.
I will continue to use Gmail it seems.
Eh, I guess I could video-crypt truecrypt data in to frames or some other useless nonsense for fun.
Static is best film.
And every country has a guy willing to wield a lead pipe.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You know, until they shut down the service in 18 months because it isn't popular enough...
As if finding something in Apps Market wasn't hard enough!
A few years ago I downloaded some test video from Google Video... doesn't work anymore since they shut things down.
So it's kind of amusing that Google is trying to solve a problem they themselves took part in at one point.
In contrast any video downloaded from iTunes still works - even if it's not in the store anymore.
However, given the nature of DRM video I still think of all DRM protected video as a rental. It might be a long term rental, it's great if it still works but I'm not silly enough to expect it always will. Until the video content providers managed to get their eyelids forced open Clockwork Orange style and made to see the same light the music industry saw, very little will change about online video as much as Google (or Apple) might claim you can access it "forever".
Here's to hoping whatever Apple comes up with un regards to a newer version of AppleTV is a step towards the video industry seeing that light.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Do you know your country's laws about this sort of thing? Maybe you should look them up before you blame Google?
Then don't use cloud-based services. That's the route I take -- I just don't use them. I do use an Android phone and apparently will be using the cloud for apps, but that's all.
If you want cloud services, then use encryption -- but understand, if you're truly concerned, that encryption will not guarantee that your stuff stays private. All public key encryption is breakable without difficulty to someone who has access to a large sampling of your encrypted data and lots of CPU cycles to throw at the problem. Such as cloud providers do.
How long will it be before civilians are no longer allowed to purchase/own storage media, I wonder. I mean, all it's ever used for is piracy, right? According to the RIAA/MPAA?
Then again, there's probably more money to be made in litigation than in actually making/selling music/movies.
What if you create an encryption key, upload a few files, and then forget the key and lose any written copies? How can they force you to provide something which no longer exists?
For what values of lots?
Also, why are you using public-key cryptography for this?
Or better: Tarsnap - "online backups for the truly paranoid".
Advice: on VPS providers
How nice, all unified, except that quite a number of users have, since last week, not been able to edit their google docs. Searching for "help docs trying to reach google.com" shows how bad this problem is, and also displays google's apparent lack of interest in fixing it.
I can't wait to see the response when a problem occurs on this unified system of theirs :(
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
it's still miles away from being auto-profiled for lawsuit based on the mp3's you have.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Everywhere else, Google Play will be the new home for Android apps.
And I don't have an Android device.
Way to go! Get us excited about an awesome new service that does everything we've ever wanted, then tell me that basically it does nothing. Just because you live in a country the big media people forgot. And not some third-world country either - a perfectly normal and highly technological European country. Birthplace of the Android kernel, by the way. This is how they repay us?
I usually have nothing but good things to say about Google, and I know that for many parts this stuff is not really their fault, but god damn this stuff is always depressing.
</bitterness>
How come the US get to store music but we don't? I thought the US music comnpanies were far more hardcore than in the UK?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Well, call me a cynic (yes, I can be cynical, but many may agree) but this new "US based" Google cloud just makes it easier for the US government to examine ALL your personal data in one nice tidy little cloud. None of that mucking about with ISP's and the like trying to track down information about you!
Since they renamed the Android market, there is a now a button on my Motorola phone that no longer works.
I can only imagine what else this does on other handsets. It'd be nice if the manufacturers actually bothered to release software updates.
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