Google has revealed a pleasant surprise to all its android fans in it's I/O keynote late last month. Jelly Bean is Google's latest android version that comes packed with a wealth of features and enhancements that are likely to attract even more fans to the android ecosystem. I use the word ecosystem because Android can no longer be treated as just a mobile OS, it has rather grown over the years to be the 2.0 version of iOS ecosystem.
Google's online store -that is Google Play- now offers all your entertainment needs from apps to music, books, magazines and even movies and TV Shows. Some regard it as an itunes store clone, but Google Play's features beg to differ. For starters Google understands cloud computing better than Apple, offering storage space of up to 20,000 songs in the cloud at no cost whatsoever and the ability to stream them online or download for offline usage. The service is compared to Apple's iCloud and iTunes Match, which at best will allow you to to store copies of the music locally on your PC to be fetched anytime from their cloud even if they weren't purchased from the store, but the service costs $24.99 a year and you can't even stream the music you buy from iTunes as iCloud only allows you to download to different devices. Same thing with TV shows and movies, you are unable to stream any videos that you purchase from the iTunes store, unlike Google Play, which allows you to stream on your PC, tablet or phone. Perhaps the only limitation that stands in the way of Google Play is content, which they don't seem to have much of, but as with any young online store, the collection grows by the day. Another limiting factor is of course the availability of the store in the U.S. only and even though that can be solved by hiding your IP Address, it is still considered to be a disadvantage.
In part 2 I will be giving my views on Jelly Bean and comparing it iOS 6.
No comments:
Post a Comment