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Your next Android phone won't have as many pre-installed apps
If you never use Google Play Games, Google Play Books, Google+ or Google Newsstand, than good news: none of them will be installed on your next Android phone. The suite of apps used to be mandatory for any manufacturer that wanted to sell a device with essential apps like Google Play and Gmail, but new partner guidelines have taken them off of the required pre-install list. Put simply, this means there will be just a little more free space on the next Android smartphone you buy. And if you do use those apps? They're still available -- you'll just have to download them from the Google Play store to use them. [Image credit: Shutterstock]
Rolling Stone archives hit Google Play Newsstand this week
Have you ever felt the need to dive into the history of music, movies and other pop culture? Well, you'll soon be able to do so with the help of Rolling Stone and Google Play Newsstand. The magazine is set to add its archive of decade-spanning content to the digital repository tomorrow, and some of it will be available free of charge. Three to four articles from each of the back issues can be read inside the app or on the Rolling Stone site at no cost. Later on, the plan is to bolster relevant content with the addition of sound and video. The magazine claims its archived issues do quite well, especially during certain events, and this gives readers another way to access it. For Google, the partnership shows off its reading platform with material from a popular weekly publication, which sounds like a win-win to me.
