Google Play Store turns two, celebrates birthday with special offers on games, books and more

Earlier this week, Google began with its birthday celebrations by offering deals and discounts on content, which have finally begun rolling out in India. Google had rebranded the Android Market to Google Play in 2012, though Android’s app and content storefront has been in existence since 2008. The Play Store is celebrating its second birthday and there are discounts and special offers on games, books, etc.

Once you access the Google Play Store, it shows a section called “Special Offer on Great Games.” The site has listed games such as FIFA 14 by EA Sports, Final Fantasy, Venture Towns and more. FIFA 14 can be downloaded for free while one can download Venture Town for Rs 73 after an 85 percent discount. Final fantasy is also available at 50 percent off for a limited time period. Users can download Radiohammer for Rs 62 after a 66.7 percent discount. The section also offers discounts on in-app purchases. For instance, Hay Day users can receive 180 diamonds for only Rs 182, which otherwise costs Rs 462. You will also find some cool freebies within games such as Bejeweled Blitz by EA, which feature in-app purchases.

A report earlier this week, revealed that Google had kicked started its birthday sale in Australia by offering sales on games, books and movies. A little digging and one will find similar deals on books on Play Store. However, the company hasn’t highlighted these deals in one place. You will find books such as The Cell by Robin Cook and The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort on discount.

While Google has helpfully put all the games on sale in one page, there’s no such curation for the other sections. So we suggest you take your time exploring the Google Play Store and if you have created a Wishlist, now would be the time to see which of those apps and games are on sale.

Nokia X hacked to run Google Play Store

The Nokia X has been hacked to run the Google Play Store and key Google services. Image courtesy: XDA developers forum

NEW DELHI: Nokia X, the recently announced series of smartphones that run a heavily modified version of Android, has been hacked to run the Google Play Store and key Google services. 

While Nokia has replaced key APIs and services, including Google's Maps and applications marketplace, with its own apps and Microsoft's services, an XDA ddevelopers forum member has posted a way to root the Nokia X so that it could run the Google launcher, Play Store and other Google apps, including Gmail and Maps. 

One of the reasons why the apps work is that Nokia has apparently left the application framework untouched in order to allow apps from third-party app stores work on the phone. 

Nokia has mentioned on its official SDK page that the phone will be able to run around 75%Android apps without any modifications. Developers only need to make changes if their apps use Google services for push notifications, maps or in-app payments. 

It's worth pointing out that rooting the phone will void its warranty. Also, unlike Android, Google's own suite of apps are not open source, so technically, it's not legal. 

With the Nokia X series, the handset giant is targeting the budget segment - just above its Asha series and just below the Windows Phone-run Lumia series - trying to leverage Android's app ecosystem, which is comparatively richer than Windows Phone. 

It is also worth noting that Nokia's handsets division has been acquired by Microsoft and the transaction will be complete in a few weeks. It's not clear if Microsoft will continue with the X-series as it runs an OS developed by its arch rival, Google.