Google’s Play Store was only just updated to bring users the new Holo look that came with the introduction of v4.0. The new version, which is currently rolling out, updates the client to v4.1.6.

Image source: AndroidOS

Appearance-wise, the main changes appear as soon as you open up the new application. The content button’s have switched from having a pure white (left picture) background, to a colourful (right picture) one, which matches its content. You will also notice that the old black background for the settings and menu items sections have changed to the holo design.

‘My Wishlist’ has become more consistent with the updated Play Store, in that it now displays all items in the card grid format, rather …

You know that when Google I/O is only days away and the company begins to roll out updates to their applications, that it’s going to get people’s attention. Well, the current update to ‘Google Play Services’, from v3.0.27 to v3.1.36 , is no exception. Ron Amadeo over at AP has done his usual teardown on the APK and has found some exciting additions to the app, including the up-and-coming Google ‘Play Games’.

Play Games

Google Play Games is a new service which is expected to be announced at Google’s I/O. We have heard rumours floating around about what Google Play Games actually is, but now we all but have proof. Play Games will include a bunch of different features including …

Ever wondered how much your property is worth, but didn’t want to engage the services of a pushy real estate agent?

Today CommBank released its award-winning Property Guide App on Android phones allowing Android phone users to gain insights into property values via map searches, address searches, and even a camera (augmented reality) search.  There are also other features such as a suburb guide, but the beauty of the app lies in its ability to not only bring up current sales data but also historical data (via RP Data).  This could prove invaluable if you’re driving around looking to buy a house.

What CommBank has also been kind enough to do is offer the Property Guide App to all users …

Over the last few days we’ve seen major updates to Google Currents and Facebook, which have made us Android-faithful a happy bunch. Both apps have become a lot more usable, with either a complete redesign or the move to a native Android application.

Anyway, Google+ has now joined the party with a whole slew of new changes. Over both iOS and Android there are a total of 24 new and exciting features, with Android alone accounting for about 14 of them.

Direct from the change log:

- New feature: Google+ Communities
- Support for full resolution photo uploads via Instant Upload
- Subscribe to any circle for notifications
- Support for time zones in Events
- Basic profile editing

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I got quite a shock today when the update for Twitter for Android rolled out, revealing Twitter’s long-awaited Instagram competitor.

The change log states the follow:

Create beautiful photos right within Twitter, with filters powered by Aviary.
- Apply one of eight different filters to instantly add a new look and feel to your photos
- Choose a filter by comparing all your options in a convenient grid view or by swiping through each version
- Make your photos pop with balanced light and colors by tapping the auto-enhance wand
- Crop and scale to frame the action the way you want

Twitter has partnered with Aviary to pep up its photo editing software. Now, instead of it being a …

Google’s Drive app has today been updated on both Google Play for Android and the App Store for iOS devices. Today’s update has included a few new interesting pieces of usability, but the most interesting among the lot is the ability to edit spreadsheets natively.

The full change log is as follows:

1. Edit Google spreadsheets in new native editor
2. Edit contents of tables in Google Docs editor
3. Formatting is maintained when copy/pasting within Google Docs
4. Single tap to enter edit mode in Google Docs editor
5. Add a shortcut to Drive files/folders to your homescreen for quick access
6. Send Link now supports copying link to clipboard

There’s quite a bit new here, so it’s definitely …

So, Facebook got an update today. I know many of you are moving away from the Big Blue, but it’s good to see some improvements in the app that lets us down so often. Mark Zuckerberg has previously promised that they are working on a native Android application, but for the time being we’ll have to make do with any other improvement that we see.

Anyway, Facebook has made a fairly large update today. One of the things that many of us have been whining over is the ability (or lack thereof – until now) to share a story you find in your news feed. This options has been available on the desktop web client for quite some time …

Great news ladies and gentlemen, the long awaited moment has finally arrived! Google+ has been updated and includes a variety of new functional features.

First of all, Google has finally included the ability to manage your page from within the mobile app (thank you!). It’s a bit clunky at the moment – you need to sign out of your personal and into your page – but it does work. I’m sure that over time Google will refine this and make it much smoother and easier to use. For the time being though, Google has listened and we can finally manage our pages on the move!

Google has also included a new ‘Find People’ tab for finding people or pages to …

FroYo and Gingerbread users – Google has answered your wishes! If you’re running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, then you’d know that over the last few months the YouTube application has come to look very beautiful and work as smooth as you’d like. However, it had seemed that Google had forgotten about the older iterations of Android.

Well, not anymore! The YouTube application is today receiving an update and welcoming the FroYo and Gingerbread users among us into a world of clean and beautiful applications. Here’s some points from the change-log:

• New UI and Preloading now available on Froyo and Gingerbread devices
• New Watch experience
• Add videos to your YouTube TV queue
• More channels

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So, Facebook updated both their standard Facebook and Facebook Messenger applications last night. While the main Facebook page has a small addition of a Messenger link, the Messenger app is where the real change has come in.

Facebook Messenger now, in fact, allows you to send an SMS directly from the Messenger application. Facebook have ramped up the potential of the Messenger application and this is a major move for the company. In short, Facebook really wants you to spend time on their applications.

The updated SMS features of the app is supposedly only available for a few Android phones, with more to come in time. Here’s the phones available:

• HTC EVO 3D
• HTC One X
• HTC Wildfire S
• LG

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Twitter for Android has today received an update that brings a new added level of transparency. One of the major updated features is that profiles look nicer and richer, and there is now a pinch-to-zoom feature for images. Thank you Twitter!

Here is the change log of Twitter for Android 3.4:

• New profiles with header photos
• Photo streams on profiles and events
• Pinch-to-zoom on photos
• Search suggestions for people, topics and hashtags
• Improved protected account management including the ability to accept or deny follower requests
• Other improvements, polish, and fixes

This is a very welcome update to Twitter for Android and makes the stock client a whole lot more usable. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be spending that …

Google’s own cloud storage service, Google Drive, is one hell of a service. It allows for great collaboration and provides a whole host of utilities to work together and share files and documents.

The Android application, however, was not up to par with the desktop version. But this is about to change. Google has today updated the Google Drive application (which was developed in Australia) to now include most of the desktop features on your Android device.

You now have the ability to:

• Create folder, upload to folder and move to folder
• Filter folder contents by file type
• Auto-sync pinned content while on 3G
• Basic table support in Documents Editor
• Create, reply and resolve comments in Documents Editor
• View and

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