LG Nexus 5 is finally official, runs Android 4.4 KitKat!

The leak storm is finally over, Google has just made the Nexus 5 official. The latest Nexus smartphone is manufactured by LG. It rocks a 4.95″ LCD display with 1080p resolution, which adds up to a pixel density of 445 ppi. The good news keeps on coming with the addition of Gorilla Glass 3 for enhanced screen protection.

Inside the Nexus 5 is a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset with four Krait 400 cores and Adreno 330 GPU. It’s definitely not a slouch with 2GB of RAM and Android 4.4 KitKat at the driver’s seat.

In a traditional Google manner, internal storage options are either 16GB or 32GB with no microSD card slot to be found. Below the back cover sits a 2,300mAh battery, which isn’t exactly the largest we’ve seen on a 5″ smartphone. However, it does support wireless charging, which is cool.

At the back, there’s an 8MP with OIS and LED flash. The camera uses a 1/3.2″ sensor and an f/2.4 aperture. The camera module protrudes a bit from the rear casing with a LED flash below it. At the front, there’s a 1.3MP camera for video calling, too.

The LG Nexus 5 measures 137.84 x 69.17 x 8.59mm and weighs just 130g.

On the connectivity side, the LG Nexus 5 has it all – penta-band 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, A-GPS, NFC and even.

The Nexus 5 will be available in the US and Canada in North America, the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy in Europe, plus Australia, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India).

The 16GB version of the Nexus 5 is priced at $349 / €349 / £300, while the 32GB versions are $400 /€400 / £340. Sales start tomorrow, November 1 from the Google Play Store. Other than the Play Store, you’ll be able to grab one from Sprint, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack.

By the way, the Play Store will also sell accessories for the Nexus 5 – bumpers and QuickCovers.

Update: Boy, that was quick. The US Play Store is reporting that the 16GB Nexus 5s are sold out just a couple of hours after the launch. If you managed to snag one, it should ship by November 8.

Both 32GB versions (Black and White) are still available, but who knows how long this will last. Hopefully, the other retailers will have more units available.

Google Play Store 4.4 to bring new navigation UI design

Google is prepping some new changes for the upcoming version 4.4 of the Google Play Store app that will bring it in line with other Google apps on your Android device.

You may have noticed that some of the Google apps, such as Play Books, Play Movies, Play Music, Play Games, Maps, Gmail and YouTube, have a slide out drawer on the side that have tabs for navigation. It’s only natural then that the Play Store app also gets the same treatment.

Android Police have managed to get their hands on work-in progress UI screenshots of the upcoming 4.4 update that showcase this new UI. Options such as My apps, My wishlist and Redeem that were previously under the action menu are now housed in the drawer and the action menu now only has Settings and Help options. Sure, it’s not that big deal but it helps bring some UI consistency across Google’s own apps.

Android Police also says that Google will probably do a complete revamp of the design and what we see here is just a work-in-progress but that is just a rumor for now.

Google Play Gets Sleek Makeover on Android!

Buying new apps, books or music with your Android device may look a bit more swanky now, as Google announced the roll-out for a sharp new look for it’s Google Play store.

“The new design focuses on bigger images that jump off the page,” the company writes on the Official Android Blog. “Similarly themed content is grouped together so you can hone in on a magazine to read or an app to try.”

The redesigned Play Store is now available for Android phones and tablets running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or above, and it’s noticeably sparser and larger.

Content is grouped together more closely, and Google has integrated more recommendation-based products to take advantage of the smaller display real estate. Most importantly, it’s much easier to go through checkout on the mobile device, allowing for a speedier purchase of games, books and video.

While roll-out has begun today, it’s important to note that it may not reach your particular phone model for the next few weeks. Still, the new look makes Google Play much prettier and more practical to use.

Google’s Play Store May Soon Get a New Design!

Google’s been awfully busy these past few weeks, but it seems that between sunsetting Reader(and pissing off most of the Internet in the process) and rolling out new services like Google Keep,the company has been working on a redesigned version of the Google Play Store for Android. That’s what the folks at Droid-Life claim, anyway. They appear to have obtained and installed the unreleased 4.0 version of the Google Play Android app ahead of a wider release.

The Play Store’s current mobile design first rolled out in July 2012, and while Google has seen fit to rebrand and tinker with a few things since then, more than a few bits look essentially the same as they did back then. If this is the real deal (and I strongly suspect that it is), then Google Play is about to get quite a facelift. Gone are the gloomy blacks and dark grays that used to permeate the app.

This new version returns to a lighter color scheme that’s highly reminiscent of the old Android Market days. On the whole, the new app also looks much cleaner and more spacious than the Play Store that so many of us have gotten used to.

It’s not hard to see some similarities between the updated Play Store app and the Google Now design — there’s a more pronounced focus on bigger images and italicized text. What’s more, individual app listings are separated into little cards rather than being displayed in a more traditional list, yet another sign that Google’s Play Store developers are cribbing UI flourishes from Google Now. If anything, the unification of design between these two services makes me wonder just how far Google plans to go here. After all, Google Now and the Play Store are cornerstones of the Android experience. It wouldn’t be a huge shock to see the next version of Android take a similar approach to aesthetics.

At this point there’s no firm word on when (or if) this update is slated to go live, but it’s very possible that Google could wait until I/O to officially pull back the curtain on a redesigned Play Store app. In the meantime, major mobile players like Facebook are exploring ways to bypass the Play Store completely and push new updates to users, so here’s hoping Google pushes the update out before others follow suit.

Temple Run 2 for Android now available on Google Play Store!

Temple Run 2 is one of the most awaited games of the year and the good news for all the folks with an Android smartphone out there is, the game has now officially launched for the Google OS and is available for free in the Play Store.

Temple Run 2 has been redesigned with new graphics and new environments. The new obstacles should help make the game more interesting and there are added powerups. Apparently, each character in the game has a special power now, while the number of achievements has been increased to make the game even more addictive.

Temple Run 2 can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.