Last Updated on September 2, 2015 by Mathew Diekhake
After observing many changes over the last four weeks, I’m confident in saying that the big “G” have some big plans for Google Play books. They’ve made some major changes, some of which are confusing, and to make matters worse, they seem to have reverted backwards since the last update.
The reason I say that is because if we go back to around December 11, they released an update that lets users upload their own books that were saved on the Android device memory. This could be taken from anywhere, and it didn’t have to be within the store. For a reference on how this works, it is similar to the “music locker” feature.
According to reports they could be about to get rid of this. Although that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to us now, we can only go on what we are told. This version here will still give you access so there is no better time to get started before it’s too late. If we hear anything and remember to update this with the news we will do our best to make sure we get that done.
Inside will also be a guide to Android KitKat. You will be able to find this under “Quick Start”. It can also be read when not hooked up to any internet connection, so there is nowhere you can’t catch up on the gossip, as long as you have the handset or a Nexus tablet with you.
Towards late November saw GPB accepting all pre-orders for books. Electronic reading should boom like the rest of the mobile sector is at the moment. During 2013 saw this service expand out to extra countries that didn’t have it yet.
The only downside with Google Play books 3.1.17 is that it will need Android 3.0. That means that all the folks who elected to stay on the Gingerbread firmware will have no choice but to give this one a miss until further notice. Chances are it will continue to sway in the same direction, even though as time goes on Android have been known to open things up to older handsets, and not close the door to more. Just don’t expect that to happen in this case. It would be a good idea to upgrade to the minimum firmware requirements if you want to use it.
Download Google 3.1.17 here.