Google Play Music All Access Launches in Brazil
Google’s Play Music has been rolling out throughout the rest of the globe steadily this past year and now more markets are getting All Access, the subscription-based service that gives users access to everything available in Google’s Play Music Library. The service has now finally hit Latin America, starting with Brazil. As Google announced on their Google Brazil blog, users in the area can now pay monthly for All Access.
Galaxy Note Edge Premium Edition Now Up for Pre-Order in Germany
Recently, we reported that Samsung wanted the German buying public to vote on whether or not they wanted the Galaxy Note Edge, and now there’s a ‘Premium Edition’ up for pre-order for a sizable €899. So, what’s so premium about this edition? The Premium Edition features an official Samsung flip wallet, a 64GB EVO MicroSD card, a display cleaner and a whopping three years of warranty from Samsung themselves. Is all of this enough for a device that’s essentially a Galaxy Note 4 with a curved display on one edge? Well, €899 is a lot of money, but it does feature some decent throw-ins as well. If you’re interested, you can pre-order it here.
O2 Launches Shared Data Plans in the UK
O2, not exactly known for their generous data amounts, have announced “Sharer Plans”, which we covered in detail earlier in the week. These plans are, essentially what you think they are and offer amounts from 1GB all the way up to 20GB sizes. This data bucket can be shared throughout as many as 10 devices, and while the 20GB allowance is fairly spacious, an unlimited data amount for single-users would be appreciated and has been a long time coming.
Google Play Books Rolls Out to Further Countries
Google have been expanding their services over this past year and it seems like Play Books is the next in line to hit new territories. Heading to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Google’s Book Store has now landed in over 60 countries since they launched the service. As usual, to check if your territory you can use the Google Support page.
Google to Bring App Store to China
Here at Android Headlines, we cover a lot of Chinese news as we realize that Android is much bigger than just Europe and North America. While devices like the recently launched Meizu MX4 Pro and Oppo N3 are brilliant, for a lot of buyers one key piece is missing; Google Play. China has been pretty critical of Google in the past as our Editor Alex discovered while he was there this week, their services are often blocked in China. However, there’s talk that Google is in talks with a number of Chinese giants to help facilitate a launch of an app store in the region. It’s clear that there’s progress on the matter as Chinese developers can now charge for their wares in the Play Store. The Information has the full story, but until we see some solid movement I’m not so sure we’ll see a launch until some time next year.
SwitKey Updates With 12 New Indian Languages
Some time ago, you may remember that we wrote about a SwiftKey Beta that featured 12 new Indian languages. Now, that update is rolling out to all SwiftKey users, which is great news for those that don’t enjoy messing around with unfinished software. You might already have the update by now, but if not we’ll tease you with the full changelog below:
Keyboard is faster to appear, quicker to disappear
More responsive typing
Easier correction of capitalization
12 New Indian Languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Nepali, Sinhala
Emoji Prediction support for 14 additional languages, including: Bulgarian, Finnish, Romanian and Ukrainian
Multiple bug fixes
Telefonica Says O2 is Doing Well, But Doesn’t Rule Out Sale of UK Stock
Reuters is reporting that Telefonica might be open to the sale of some UK assets if the market proves volatile in the future. Telefonica’s COO, Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, had this to say about the market: “In the landscape as it stands today we are in good shape. But the position taken by BT when and if it launches in mobile will be a key event. Virgin and others already have converged offers, but we don’t see a major appetite from consumers. So we’ll see how that evolves.” I’m inclined to agree with him as BT entering the mobile market could be a big deal, especially after their success with fibre-optic broadband in recent months. Reuters has the full story.
SoftBank Launch the Xperia Z3 in Japan
The Xperia Z3 is finally launching on SoftBank in Japan as the 401SO and like the version offered by au by KDDI, this one features 32GB of internal storage and unlike other Japanese models there are no branding here. The price for the Xperia Z3 on SoftBank’s network is to be 69,120 Yen and it’s available in black, copper, white and silver green. If you want more info on the device, like that PS4 Remote Play you can find some here.