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The Amazon Appstore was updated today to version 2.6.53 today adding a rather amazing new feature that allows for users to “test drive” apps before shelling out their hard earned money. No downloading. No installing. No purchasing. Just click, and immediately begin playing.
This feature was originally introduced almost a year ago on Amazon’s desktop site, and gave users the ability to try out potential Appstore purchases directly from their web browsers. Today, over 5,000 apps in the Appstore have been given this new functionality, and if you’ve updated and don’t see it appearing in your Appstore just yet, be patient, as only a handful of devices support the Test Drive feature as of right now.
Of course, the usual stability improvements and the previous download bug that was preventing some users from downloading large apps on a 3G/4G connection have all been patched up. With this new ability to try out apps before you buy and bookmarking apps for later, I have to say, I like where Amazon is going with their Play Store alternative. Your move, Google.
Thanks, Mark!
This is awesome. I don’t really ever use Amazon’s website for my Appstore needs, so I never bothered with the Testdrive there. But being able to try out an app without worrying about what it’s going to do to my device, hell yes.
I hardly use the Amazon appstore either.
I’m not sure that it will work as a preview for how it will operate on your device, though. If it’s like the website feature, it will be a virtual app, with most of the back-end work running in “the cloud” (hence no download or install). I could be wrong, though.
This is way better than that refund version. So many issues have came up from that. Now just how long is the Test Drive? I mean, if it’s a 5 minute preview…
The button isn’t even showing up on my Galaxy Nexus. Yes, I updated the app.
Mine either. I don’t think Galaxy Nexus is one of their supported devices just yet =/
How about fixing the app so it works properly on the Galaxy Note and everything isn’t so tiny?
I noticed that a lot with the Galaxy Note.
I think if/when Samsung updates that phone to ICS some of those UI issues will be fixed.
No go on the MO’ PHO, same as pre-update.
The Amazon Appstore? Really? You might as well cover news about updates to Samsung Apps or whatever they are calling it. Who cares what Amazon is doing now? People only cared about the Kindle Fire because it was cheap, not because of Amazon’s forked version of Android or their app store with fewer apps.
Still no news on UK availability though????
I just hope that it fixed the Amazon Appstore issue with draining my battery like crazy that they introduced about 2 patches ago. But after a day of using the new version, it doesn’t seem like it helped and maybe it is draining even more battery than before. Ugh!
If this will work for FAOTD it would be very helpful in knowing if the app is worth getting or not