The Google logo at Google headquarters in Mountain View.
The Google logo is shown during a news conference at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California January 5, 2010.Reuters

Google has announced the launch of its new app, Newsstand, which will now replace Google Currents and Play Magazines on Android smartphones.

The Newsstand app is said to be very similar to Google Currents. For those users who have been using the Play Magazines app, the new app will eventually be updated. The app will coexist with Google Current, for now.

Newsstand app offers over 1,900 free and paid newspapers and magazines, along with the option to add RSS feeds to customize the content of the app.

The app is also said to format articles for the smartphone, preserving images, videos and other media. The caching feature will also let the users read their favourite sites and magazines while being offline, reports the Official Android Blog.

The bookmarking feature in the app will let the users store their favourite articles and posts and read them when they have the time. The Newsstand app also sports a recommendation feature that will suggest certain articles and posts based on the user's previous readings.

The Newsstand app is available in the Google Play Store and weighs 6.6MB. The app requires Android 2.2 OS and later to run.

The Newsstand App video can be viewed below:

[Video courtesy: Google Play/Youtube]

Google Drive Update Announced

Along with the Newsstand App, Google has also announced an update to Google Drive for smartphones and tablets.

The upcoming update will include new editing features within the app. Unfortunately, besides introduction to new editing features, the app still lacks the editing flexibility provided by the Google-acquired QuickOffice third-party app.

Following are the features which will arrive with the update:

-Access to find and replace features.

-Table management and named styles.

-Tablet user will be able to view files in two column layout.

-Renaming scanned images and docs before uploading on the cloud.

The update for Google Drive is not yet available and will start rolling out in next few days, reports Android Community.