Earlier this week, Google finally merged Currents and Play Magazines into one app, which is the Play Newsstand. Which we had been hearing rumors about all the way back at Google I/O in May. It’s actually got a very nice UI, and with many of your news sources you can see stories from that particular site, Google+ posts as well as YouTube videos from that particular account. Now you can get your news and magazines all in one app. Google is offering plenty of magazines for free and discounted prices to get everyone talking about and using Newsstand. There’s actually a pretty wide variety of magazines available including:
Maximum PC
Men’s Health
People
PC Gamer
Maxim
Wired
Woman’s Health
Entertainment Weekly
Runners
In Style
Sports Illustrated
BeerAdvocate
Vanity Fair
Bicycling
Linux Format
Redbook
That’s not all of them though, there’s plenty more available for free or cheap. It appears that they all seem to be either free or $0.99 for a single issue. You can visit all the magazines on sale here.
Remember that Newsstand isn’t all about magazines though. All your favorite news feeds can be added as well. So don’t forget to add Android Headlines to your Newsstand as well. I’ve been using Newsstand over the last few days and am really loving the UI and the overall app. I just wish Newsstand was available on the desktop. As many people believe this is the reason why Google got rid of Google Reader, but until it’s available on the desktop, it’s not a good enough reason in my opinion. As much as I do like Feedly, I really miss Google Reader, but I’m guessing the most of the rest of you don’t miss it.
How many of you are using the Play Newsstand right now? What are your initial thoughts on the app? Do you wish Google had kept Currents and Play Magazines separate? Let us know what you think in the comments below.