So now we're more than a week into the new Google Play replacement of Google Music, Books & Android Market ... so how is the new Google Play going as a replacement for Google Music? It's off to a pretty good start, all things being equal. The “Instant Mix” feature allows you to create the Google Play playlist version of Apple’s Genius Playlist, and it works pretty well. I have yet to be denied for an Instant Mix based on a song choice, while the Genius Playlist from Apple often comes up empty-handed when I ask it to create a playlist. What seems missing from Google Play is the talk of what the Google Drive phenomenon was, a cloud storage drive for Google Music or Google TV, as well as the interesting Google entertainment device. How will this fit in to Google Play? Is there more to come?
Google Play has already undergone a new update (version 3.5.15), which updates the My Android Apps section of with tabs as well as an app review feature that's user-generated. There's also an "Installed" tab to see what Android apps you've installed on your device, according to FierceMobileContent. Still, Google Play is already suffering through some initial challenges as a newly-minted app and service.
There's Google news from ZDNet of how Android apps bought at the Google Play Store are still crashing, even with the transition from Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich. This can be resolved over time, of course. Perhaps more troubling is the news that fake Google Play websites have already started happening, according to news from Trend Micro, who said that a hyper-innovative and fast-moving bunch of malware developers can create Android apps on the fly (like ANDROIDOS_SMSBOXER.AB) that sign you up for subscription services. "... premium abuser type of mobile malware. Such malware subscribes affected devices to premium services without the permission of the user, thus leading to unwanted charges," reads the article. Yikes.
Also this week: Google is being sued over their Google Play Store return policy over bogus Android apps, with PC Mag saying “A pair of Android users have sued Google over the company's app download policies, accusing the search giant of profiting off bogus apps and providing an insufficient window of time in which they can return underperforming apps.”
Google Music started out last Fall with a pretty good launch to a kind of sterile experience. There were questions as to whether it would be a Google MP3 Store or Google Musicstreaming service a la Spotify, and it turned out to be a little of both, with the exception that Spotify lets you stream more than just your own library. The original Google Music launch of just the streaming service (locker storage) happened last May. There was recent talk on CNET of a Google Music failure, which foreshadowed the Google Play launch. A later article spoke of Google Music losing users and that threw more gas on the fire that was already burning. Google Music was also available for the iPhone and iPad via an HTML app, and so far Google Play seems available for iOS as well.
