First Android store, Androidland, opens doors in Melbourne

Androidland, the first store dedicated solely to the Android experience, has opened doors in Melbourne, Australia, with the major participation of Australians telecom Telstra and with the backing of Google and major vendors. It’s been in the making since July, but opened for business just recently. The idea behind the store is to showcase and educate. It offers the full experience and even augments it with Gingerbread smells and other neat little touches like a big-screen Angry Birds gaming. Of course, it’s mostly about checking out the latest tablets and smartphones, to have that valuable hands-on experience, which could easen up a transition from another platform or a feature phone for users.

The store occupies 154 feet and is planned to be open in the next six months, and it could stay longer if customers accept it warm enough. But probably the most important thing about the store is the human factor with employees ready to explain and help with all things Android. Now, this is just an experimental project and we wouldn’t see it as nothing near the Apple Store level of customer support and retail, but it’s definitely an interesting venture.

More information's:
http://www.androidcentral.com/androidland-worlds-first-android-store-melbourne

Androidland:

Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus Black Friday release possibility

Verizon may not release the Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android ICS smartphone, until just after Black Friday. The G-Nex may launch on or around Black Friday, the Razr went on pre-order October 27th and the Rezound is expected to be released between November 10th-14th.

Android Market soon to offer millions of tunes

The soon to open Google Music Store might be one of the worst kept secrets in the industry. A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times said that Google's answer to iTunes was close to launching and Andy Rubin mentioned that the opening of the service would be coming shortly at last week's AsiaD conference in Hong Kong.

Another sign that the Google Music Store is close to opening

A huge sign that the Google Music Store is about to open reveals itself when you go to the Google Music landing page at music.google.com. From your phone, you are presented with a link (which currently is not in operation) to the Android Market where you can, "Get songs from your favorite artists in Android Market, including hundreds of free tracks." The link, when it is up and running, is set up to take you to https://market.android.com/music.

The link on the top of the page that says "Get Android App" sends you to the Google Music Beta app which offers a limited free trial, but does not allow you to purchase tunes from the Android Market. Longer than expected negotiations with the record labels is holding this feature back. The app allows you to store up to 20,000 songs for free and lets you access them from any Android device running Froyo or higher. You will also be able to create your own playlist and listen to your songs even when offline.

Right now, it is available only in the U.S. and it requires Flash to be installed. If you want to start your music collection now, some free tunes are available from the service. Add all of this functionality to a brand new Google Music Store, and it looks like iTunes will have some tough competition.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich Will Feature Built In Screen Capture

We have already heard of some of the new features that will be available to Android users in the latest version of Google’s mobile OS, Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which will be unveiled later today at the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Now it would appear that one feature, that many Android users have been wanting for a while, will come in Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the ability to take screenshots of your device’s screen. This feature has been available to Android users via third party applications, and some manufacturers handsets also support the feature, like HTC, but it will be built into Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and you will be able to take a screenshot by pressing the power and volume buttons at the same time.

More information's:
http://androidcommunity.com/ice-cream-sandwich-will-include-built-in-screen-capture-20111018/

Android Ice Cream Sandwich Leaked: