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The Google Play interface introducing Google Play Now your favorite music, books, movies, apps, and games are all in one place that's accessible from the Web and any Android device. Discover, buy and share like never before.

Google, Google, Google galore! Via John Pearce on Oz Teachers. Great resources for all things Google. Now I can see a real use for livebinders.

"Google Plus or Google+ or G+ has now been out and about for roughly a week, and I was fortunate enough to get to play with it quite early on. I know that lots of people haven't as yet, so this is an overview post so that when you DO, you'll have some idea of what you're looking at. (Please note: I don't have any invites to give out and I've tried several different ways to share access already. If/when I do, I'll be sure to let people know via my Twitter feed.)"

"Google released a major new education program today that organizes and manages the way teachers push apps, books, and other learning content to student tablets."

The battle for supremacy in the app store ecosystem between Apple and Google rages on, and we've decided to give you an update on the state of affairs between the two dominant app stores. Keep reading to see where the battles are being fought. Android's proliferation as a platform is widespread news, but has Google Play been able to gain ground on iOS as the main source of commerce for app publishers?

If you watch a lot of online videos for education or research, you'll find VideoNotes a really useful tool. It's as simple as this: sign in with a Google account (VideoNotes uses Google Drive for storage) and then paste in the URL for a YouTube video. Then as it plays you can start making notes on the right-hand side of the screen. The clever bit is that as you click on previous notes you've made, the video will jump to that point, making this a really useful tool for navigating documentaries, study guides and other long, involved videos.

"The Google Chromecast is one of the hot tickets in the tech world right now, and while it has somewhat limited functionality compared to something like an Apple TV, there's a lot to be said for it. It's only $35 for starters, and has cross-platform functionality - though Google's idea of cross-platform is still limited to ChromeOS and the Chrome browser, iOS and Android. That's great news for us however, as with Netflix and YouTube initially - and likely Google Play Music when it finally makes the jump to iOS - supported already, we can get in on the action. So, if you're tempted, keep on scrolling for everything you need to know!"

"Use your voice to give students feedback about their papers in Google Docs. I've only played with this a little bit so far, but I'm really excited to be able to use Kaizena to give my students feedback this year. Being able to add links to resources and reuse those links for other students is so helpful."

Understanding and using Google+ in the classroom.

Have you ever been struggling to take notes while watching videos? Not anymore! VideoNotes, developed by UniShared (www.unishared.com), currently supports Youtube and Coursera videos and works best for the last versions of Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari. It enables you to: - Watch videos and take notes at the same time, on the same screen - Keep the same shortcuts to play/pause your video while writing notes - Automatically synchronize your notes and video. Just click on a line of your notes to jump to the related part of the video. Everything is automatically stored in your Google Drive, to access them everywhere.

How is your sense of direction? Would you be able to find your way out of a tight situation under pressure? Try your luck while you're being pursued here! Pursued is a new bite-sized web-based game by Nemesys Games! We've created an integrated experience with Google Maps to give players an exploration-based thrill ride. "You've been taken without warning and emerge in an unknown place. A friend is trying to help you escape when you call, but you must use your surroundings to figure out where you are before they can pick you up! It's a race against time as you're being pursued by your captors!" Gameplay includes 15 tailored levels and after completion, community levels are also available to create and play for everyone!

"Animaps extends the My Maps feature of Google Maps by letting you create maps with markers that move, images and text that pop up on cue, and lines and shapes that change over time. When you send your Animap to friends it appears like a video - they can play, pause, slow and speed up the action!"

This neat tool from Google, ChartTool is a simple-to-use chart-making service that lets you simply paste in your data and play around with how it looks. It's never been easier to whip up charts that are actually easy to use and update. In fact, embedding these charts on web pages is quite simple thanks to the embed API. You can even make QR codes in just a few seconds and quickly get an embed code to add it to your website. While ChartTool does not create as many of those fancy 3-D charts that Excel does (it still makes quite a few), it likely will be able to in the future. However, if you're in a rush and need to whip up some exact charts without all the fluff, this is the tool for you.

BookTango is an online eBook publishing service which allows you to prepare, format, edit, publish and distribute your eBook to all major online ebookstores including: Amazon Kindle, iBookStore, Google Play, Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Scribd. The basic service is free. Avanced pro include a number of extra services

"Tablets have quickly emerged as a distinct third digital screen in consumers lives that fill the gap between desktops and smartphones. But there are still many open questions about exactly how consumers are using them. We explored tablet search trends earlier this year, but wanted to dig deeper and answer key questions such as: What are the contrasts between tablet use, laptop use, and smartphone use and how are consumers engaging across these devices? What are the most common activities (playing games, searching, reading, etc.) that tablets are used for? What ads are most relevant and useful based on how people are using the devices? "

"Our first phone app, Below the Belt: Sex, Selfies and Cyberbullying, was launched in November 2013 on Google Play. Below the Belt has information on sex and consent, sexting and cyberbullying for young people in Australia, including victims of sexting or cyberbullying and friends who want to support them. As well as providing information about the law in every state, Below the Belt has interactive features young people can use to help navigate the issues."

Martin Dougiamas (@moodler) and Tomaz Lasic (@lasic) hosted a quick demo and call to action for the Mt. Orange School demo site right before Christmas.  As a follow up Tomaz has provided the presentation recording in Elluminate, his slide notes and the full presentation from that day http://www.twitlonger.com/show/7m04ig. The presentation focused on providing an overview of what was currently possible with the Mt. Orange School, Moodle's new demonstration site where you can get a feel for what's possible with Moodle 2.0 and well trained teaching staff.  In additional Tomaz explained that the school site in its entirety is available for download so that users can dive in deeper and play with the settings and features without affecting the live site or causing undue administration. The presentation recording is about 1 hour and the Google Docs presentation has a wealth of information included in it's speakers notes.  Be sure to check out both if you're considering Moodle 2.0 this year.

Play monopoly on a real world, whole world basis. Begin with $3million cash and build your empire. Google Maps interface. Pit yourself against all the other property magnates worldwide.

"Earlier this month, Facebook dropped a bombshell by not only acknowledging that Facebook pages' organic reach was declining but also by telling us we shouldn't expect them to recover. Facebook's VP of Product for Facebook Ads, Brian Boland, went on to explain that this is the new world we live in now, that the same thing happened with search engines before and that we'd better get used to it. It's true that many platforms go through a similar cycle: first, they present a great free opportunity, then more and more people grab it - decreasing the return for everyone until finally, the platform focuses on those ready to pay for play. It happened with Google Search; it happened with Apps (yes, Apple doesn't sell ads but others do - such as coincidentally… Facebook). And now that all social media are publicly-traded company with ambitious revenue targets to reach, it will happen to social media as well. So what does the decline of organic reach on Facebook and social platforms exactly mean on a practical basis?"