Price: £1.49

The original PlayStation classic has made its long awaited debut on the Android platform and my word is it brilliant. Destroy as many cars as possible and collect points along the way. It’s completely over the top and violence is at a premium here.

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Copy

Price: Free

Despite there being a large number of cloud storage accounts already, Copy benefits from being a very simple way of keeping your files in the cloud, without needing to go through a convoluted menu system. There’s free storage for new users and competitively priced storage packages if you need extra.

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Guidebook

Price: Free

If you’re attending a new event, then Guidebook might be the perfect app for you. The app includes downloadable guides to some of the biggest events all around the world with new events being added on a daily basis. It’s also ideal if you need directions to a certain event.

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Sound Search

Price: Free

Google’s own Sound Search is a direct competitor to the likes of SoundHound, but it’s less of an app and more of a widget instead. Through the app/widget you can identify any song played on your TV or computer that you don’t recognise and the Sound Search will automatically give you the details of it.

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ReadItToMe Pro

Price: £1.79

ReadItToMe Pro reads out your incoming callers, SMS messages and various notifications you get sent to. It’s surprisingly accurate and you can also reply to any incoming messages with your voice. Best of all it even understands text speak for people who feel full words aren’t good enough.

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Play Music All Access

As well as having a complete redesign, the Play Music app will now include its very own streaming service to rival that of Spotify. Although the All Access service will only be initially launched in the U.S for $9.99 per month, or $7.99 for early adopters, it’ll enable users to gather their various music playlists in one place. Google has been quick off the mark getting many big name publishers onboard to make it something that both Spotify and Rdio will really need to keep an eye on.

Hangouts

Another area in which Google has looked to make big changes to is with its various messaging platforms. Hangouts looks to bring all these together, providing a single place to stay in contact with everyone. The app itself lets people share messages, photos, videos and video chats across Android and iOS devices. The downside to the app is that it doesn’t support SMS messaging, as of yet, but it’s an area which Google are looking to cover soon enough.

Google Play Games

If you’re a big fan on gaming on your phone and tablet, then you’ll want to check out the new Google Play Games service. You’ll now find achievements and leaderboard support added to some of your favourite games and there’s even new multiplayer features for you to take advantage of. More games will be looking to implement the Play Games service in due course.

Galaxy S4 with stock Android

Perhaps the biggest shock of the night was to see the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 running stock Android. The device will be sold directly from the Google Play Store with a price tag of $649. There’s no news on UK availability or pricing as of yet.

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What did you make of Google I/O 2013? Were you left disappointed with the lack of Android 4.3 and KLP news? Leave your comments below!

An industry expert has claimed that the Android platform is “beginning to lose focus and becoming too fragmented.” iCreate magazine Editor Jon Gordon states that “while there’s no questioning the huge range of customisable features of Android devices, the out-of-the-box experience often doesn’t live up to expectations, and users have no choice but to look for third-party alternatives.”

As Samsung continues to push its own apps in what could be seen as an effort to distance itself from the Google-owned platform, Android users aren’t always getting everything they might be hoping for.

The open-source nature of the platform means that there are a plethora of third-party apps on offer from Google Play, and while iOS users seem to get the best apps built-in to their devices, Android users can often find better alternatives on the Store.

With manufacturers adding their own user interfaces to their devices and different devices running different versions of the OS, many predict that the platform will continue to struggle to offer a universal experience to all users.

“The Android platform is expanding at such a rate that there was always going to be some level of fragmentation between different manufactures and devices,” states Android Magazine Editor Andy Betts. “However, Android offers levels of customisation and usability that will never be achieved on any other platform, meaning people can tailor their device to work how they want it to.”

For anyone looking to improve the functionality of their phone or tablet, Android Tips, Tricks, Apps & Hacks offers a huge range of tutorials and guides to show you how to unlock the full potential of their device.

Whether you want to get more from the built-in apps, use your smartphone to help you in your everyday tasks, root your device to completely change the way it works or just find the best apps to improve your phone or tablet, this book will help.

Android Tips, Tricks, Apps & Hacks Volume 6 is on sale now from the ImagineShop, and all good newsagents priced £9.99.

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Although that figure doesn’t necessarily mean that each one of these units was sold, it does indeed show the popularity of the phone all over the world.

Samsung are hoping to reach a total of 10 million shipments by the end of May, which will make it the fastest selling Galaxy phone in history.

Android 4.3 or Android 5.0?

We’re almost guaranteed to see a new installment of the Android OS announced at Google I/O 2013, but no-one is sure on what version will be announced. Some predict a large update entitled Android 5.0 with the code name of Key Lime Pie, while others see Google announcing a small incremental update sticking with the code name of Jelly Bean.

Google Babel

The rumours surrounding Google’s fabled messaging platform, Babel, have been getting more common in the past week, with many now believing the new messaging platform will simply be incorporated in to Google+ Hangouts, rather than a standalone app available for download.

Nexus 7 2.0

What everyone really wants to see at Google I/O 2013 is the announcement of a new series of Nexus devices. It’s thought that a new iteration of the Nexus 7 will be announced, featuring a better screen, bigger battery and a cheap price tag. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a first look at a follow up to the Nexus 4 and perhaps a revamped version of the Nexus 10 to boot.

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Whatever is announced, Google I/O is set to be a fantastic event and we can’t wait to see what they’ve in-store for us.

Gingerbread still remains the most common on the market, but we’re seeing a rise in devices getting a long awaited update to Ice Cream Sandwich.

There’s no news on which devices will run Android 5.0 when it’s announced, but if previous launches are to go by, we’ll see just a few devices getting Key Lime Pie straight away.

Take a look at the link below for a closer look at the stats.

There’s no direct news on pricing, as of yet, but Samsung has promised a gradual worldwide release for the Tab 3 in due course.

£1.32/$1.99

Co-op games are few and far between on the Google Play store, but Magicka is a superb example of how addictive they can be. Get together some mates and blast your way through this wizards and monster based adventure.

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Swype

£0.65/$0.99

After a lengthy beta trial, Swype has finally made its long awaited debut on Android. The keyboard lets you seamlessly glide each letter instead of manually typing. It’s definitely up there with the likes of Swiftkey.

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Stick Cricket Premier League

Free

Everyone’s favourite cricket series is back and is still as addictive as ever. This time around you need to build your own team of players and face off against some of the best teams from around the world.

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OrSaveIt

Free

The OrSaveIt app looks to help you adjust your spending behaviour and save up for something you really want. Through the app you can add different saving goals and get regular updates on how much you’ve saved recently.

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Robird

£1.31/$1.99

If you’re a massive fan of the Holo theme, then you’ll definitely want to check out this brilliant Twitter client. As well as offering full access to your Twitter account, you can also sync it with TweetMarker.

Download here

The above screenshot was originally shown on Japanese blog Rbmen, and shows the supposed name, OS details and the AnTuTu benchmark of the Google X phone.

Obviously we’re taking the details with a pinch of salt, but if correct, the Google X phone looks set to be one of the very first to get the next Android OS update.

We will update with further information when we know more.

For those who have yet to take a look at it yet, Home replaces the default Android launcher, providing you wih quick access to your profile and the posts your friends and family have made. Problem is, it doesn’t work very well and the reviews left for it have been a mixed bag to say the least.

Just over 12,000 people have left reviews for the app, with over half of them giving Home an awful one star rating. The main complaints hint at the clunky user interface, performance on battery life and that certain features just don’t work.

Have you been using Facebook Home? If so, how are you finding it? Let us know below!