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Google News and Weather update finally brings the app out of the stone ages

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Google has just updated their News and Weather app in the Google Play Store after a rather long period of dormancy. The app has finally been brought into modern times as it has gotten a full redesign that’s akin to the Material Design language Google showed off at IO earlier this year. It takes full advantage of Google’s cards layout that has gotten so popular as of late.

Overall functionality is still quite similar to before. News is different depending on which country you select, you can easily switch between different topics, and the weather (which is one of the first things you’ll see when opening the app) can be set manually or by location. News is directly mirrored from Google News on the web so if you are a fan of that service then this is basically a much better way to access it on the go.

I’m having a bit of difficulty determining whether there’s still a place for this app. We have Newsstand now, and Google Now helps fill in the gaps and provide automatic weather updates right to your notification bar. But if for whatever reason you don’t fancy those alternatives and prefer a no-frills way to get a quick dosage of news then rejoice and head to Google Play for the download.

 

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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24 Comments

  1. Can someone provide an .apk? Thanks. I can’t get the app from the playstore.

    1. same here. Not available in my country…..USA

    2. Android Police have an article with the APK attached.

      1. What is an “active” though?

        1. Article. Context.

    3. droid-life has the apk too

  2. Yeah I definitely feel like they should have just dropped them, does anyone still use these?

    1. I’m guessing this is for the AOSP crowd since we already have Google Play Newsstand. Who knows?

    2. I’d hope people have stopped using these apps.

    3. I still use it simply because it does not use cards (or did not, not that I’ll be updating). Cards are great for some things but not for displaying a list of news headlines. I can tell in an instant whether or not I want to read a number of articles because I don’t have to skip over stupidly large pictures and harder to read large title fonts which show only 2 on a screen at a time.

  3. Not available in my country … The United States…

    1. Slow roll out as usual. All of my devices are compatible and I live in the US. Keep waiting, it should be available to more people soon.

    2. I’m getting the same

  4. There’s a Google Weather? LoL!!

  5. What happened to Google currents? And how can I get the google news as a google now card?

    1. Currents and Play Magazines were combined into Play Newsstand.

  6. Yup not available in USA according to LG g3

  7. While I don’t care about the news, the weather looks nice and it’s something I’ve been missing from Google Now.

  8. I live in North Carolina & it states Not Available In Your Country. Hmm

  9. I just checked last week to see if it had changed in the last 4 years. Finally!

  10. Using this app for the longest time. Wish i could change the theme. I liked the dark theme of the original app

  11. ‘Incompatible with your device’ – Galaxy Note 3. And most of the otherposts here tell me it’s not availa in USA – not a problem for me as I’m in UK – but I think this sort of thing out to be made clear on the download page at the store. It says requirement is Android 4.0 and up. No mention of particular device and location requirements. Or maybe mention it in the article? Quentyn Kennemer looks to be USA based, so where did he get it from?

  12. I’ve used Newstand twice and didn’t like it. The weather Google Now gives me is always different to my other weather apps. Yet this I use every day!

  13. What the f? Not available in America? That’s a new one! What gives?

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