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.'"

Comments

Will Apple file a lawsuit?

[walterbyrd]

Seems like it might infringe on the idea behind iTunes, or App Store, or something.

Re:Will Apple file a lawsuit?

[Nadir]

Actually, the "cloud" experience on Android was there long before Apple. Buy an Android phone, insert your google account, and a few moments later you have all your contacts, calendars and apps.

Re:Will Apple file a lawsuit?

[Cyberllama]

Yes, but that's hardly the same thing. It did that by getting them from the corresponding apps on your Mac when you synced the phone. It didn't pull them out of thin air, which is what "Cloud" is all about. It also didn't work unless you had a Mac. You used to need a computer to make your smartphone work. Now the Smarthphone IS the computer--or it least it can be if you're the minimalist sort.

Re:Will Apple file a lawsuit?

[rhook]

Until recently the iPhone required iTunes in order to sync your contacts/calendar/apps. Android devices have never required a computer in order to sync this stuff.

Re:Will Apple file a lawsuit?

[rsborg]

really? a windows user with an iPhone would have all their contacts synced with the iPhone?

As of iOS 2.0, yes. Using either CalDav+IMAP or Exchange ActiveSync you could sync your calendar and email fine with an original iPhone in 2008.

Re:Will Apple file a lawsuit?

[Americano]

No, they sued Amazon for trademark infringement when Amazon opened the Android Appstore, claiming that "App Store" was trademarked by Apple, and complaining that Amazon's use of the mark was infringing.

There was no patent on "having an electronic store." There was no suit over "having an electronic store." It was a trademark dispute, in which Apple basically said "They should have to call it something else without using the phrase "App Store." Amazon went live with their Android Appstore anyway, and Microsoft has also filed a challenge on the trademark, claiming it was too generic to be a legitimate trademark.

The most recent I've heard, a few months back, the case is still working it's way through the federal courts.

Silly lawsuit? Probably. But the USPTO granted them the trademark in the first place, so I'm inclined to believe that the USPTO deserves a fair share of the blame for the waste of the lawsuit, also.

Re:Will Apple file a lawsuit?

[oakgrove]

It's called business. Apple makes a lot of money and is in a sector ripe for real competition. It's the war of the ecosystems and with MS and Apple playing for keeps you better believe Google is going to step in the mix.

Re:Will Apple file a lawsuit?

[geekoid]

so.. after Android than? And with additional 3rd party programs?

For certain values of fine.

Yay!

[MightyMartian]

At last, somewhere to store all my pirated music and movies!!!!!

Some background

[DeathFromSomewhere]

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.

All my stuff in the cloud...

[Picass0]

...until I wake up one day and it's not.

WHY?

[DarthVain]

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.

Re:WHY?

[Anonymous Coward]

Each of these industries are entrenched in more than a hundred years of business law and protect their regional fiefdoms viciously. They do so because they all know the internet makes them completely obsolete. They know that without the anchor of a physical pretense some small company anywhere in the world can beat them.

Re:WHY?

[rsborg]

Each of these industries are entrenched in more than a hundred years of business law and protect their regional fiefdoms viciously. They do so because they all know the internet makes them completely obsolete. They know that without the anchor of a physical pretense some small company anywhere in the world can beat them.

Yet, with Apple, you can do all of this and more with iCloud + iTunes Match in 19+ countries. What it means is that Apple figured out there is no winning against the MAFIAA, and have paid their cut. Google is slowly starting to get with the program.

It's unfortunate, but it does appear that the media industry is going to win vs. the internet by balkanizing or eliminating it entirely.

The problem with clouds

[kawabago]

is dissipation.

Dumb move.

[__Paul__]

"Google Play" sounds like an environment for children. Why would people look there for serious applications?

Re:Dumb move.

[geekoid]

I'm far past my 20s and love the name. And Google has one of the best privacy policies. read it.
Google plays too well with others to give the impression they think it's their playground.

SO stop projecting what ever pops into you head onto others.

Re:I don't want my cloud provider to know type of

[Americano]

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.

Re:I don't want my cloud provider to know type of

[Ihmhi]

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.

First test

[jeti]

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)

Re:Why no movies in Australia?

[Adriax]

They're having problems with the australian correction algorithm. It's actually quite hard to rotate the video stream 180 degrees in real time so they can view it down there.

So, they still don't want my money...

[gshegosh]

...just because I live in Poland or some other "obscure" country. I say fuck you and go back to piratebay.

Re:I don't want my cloud provider to know type of

[JohnFen]

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.

Re:I don't want my cloud provider to know type of

[Fwipp]

For what values of lots?

Also, why are you using public-key cryptography for this?