New in Google Currents: Scan through your favorite categories, editions and breaking news

Keeping up on the news out there can be overwhelming. That's where Google Currents comes in—an app that allows you to discover, share and read your favorite news outlets, blogs and online magazines (what we together refer to as “editions”) on your smartphone or tablet—even when you’re offline. Currents is filled with great editions like The Los Angeles Times, CBS Sports, Android Central, The Guardian, Shortlist, and Forbes. Today, we’re revamping Currents to make it even easier to scan through all your favorite categories and specific editions with just the swipe of a finger. And, we’re using some of the technology behind Search to bring you breaking stories on those celebrity scandals, that fiscal cliff negotiation or hottest holiday gift.

Scan through categories 
We’re now grouping editions into categories to help you keep track of your existing subscriptions and discover new ones. Check out editions related to your interests through categories like Entertainment, Sports, Lifestyle and more. All of your content will be grouped in these categories, accessible from a sidebar. And you can organize your editions in each category with favorites on top.

We’ve also made it easy to quickly browse through top articles from all your favorite editions in a category—just swipe horizontally. If you subscribe to more than a dozen News editions like The Atlantic, ABC News and The Telegraph, you can quickly swipe through the entire category and dive into editions with articles of interest.

 

Scan through editions 
We’ve also made it easier to scan headlines in a particular edition—just swipe vertically. Want to see what’s new in Popular Science? Just swipe through through the headlines. After you view a story we’ll mark it as read, so it’s easier to see new content each time you use Currents.

Scan through breaking stories 
To help you stay up-to-date with the latest news, Google Currents now uses some of the technology behind Search to deliver the hottest breaking stories in categories such as World, Entertainment, Sports, Science and more. You’ll find new articles from hot topics that interest you, while discovering existing Currents editions you can subscribe to. Breaking stories are customized to your country and language—so we’ll only show you relevant news.

Currents optimizes editions to look great on whatever type of device you're using. Now articles shine, with larger images and layouts that are intelligently optimized for your device, whether you're on a phone or a tablet. Check out some of our newest featured partners like Cars.com, Voice of America News and New Scientist.

Back in April we expanded Google Currents internationally. Since then millions of readers around the world have downloaded Currents, reading over 700 publisher editions and tens of thousands of self-produced editions. The updated app is now available for download on Google Play and coming soon to iOS. We hope that today’s updates make keeping up with the latest news fast, easy and fun no matter where you are or what device you’re using.

Install Incompatible Android Apps From Google Play

1.  

Some Android apps on Google Play claim to be incompatible with various devices. There’s a good chance that these apps will run fine on many of these devices – you can bypass this check with root access.
Some apps won’t actually work after you install them, but many will. This also solves problems with games that will install but refuse to play – for example, Gameloft games with the “this device is incompatible” message.

Setup

To perform this hack, you’ll need to root your Android smartphone or tablet. After you do, you should install ES File Explorer from Google Play.

Editing Build.prop

The build.prop file contains a few strings (bits of text) that identify your device model. If you edit this file, Google Play and other apps will think you’re using a different device than you actually are. Be very careful when editing this file – we’ll just be editing a few tiny parts of it. If you edit other parts, you could cause serious problems with your device.
First, launch the ES File Explorer app. Open its Settings screen and enable the Root Explorer and Mount File System options. You may also want to enable the Up to Root option on this screen, so you can easily tap the Up button and navigate to your root directory.

Navigate to the /system/ directory on your device and locate the build.prop file.

You should create a copy of the original build.prop file elsewhere – long-press on it, select Copy, and then Paste it into another folder – say, your /sdcard/ folder.

Now you’re ready to edit the file. Long-press it, select Open As, select Text, and select the ES Note Editor app.

Look for the ro.product.model and ro.product.manufacturer lines. These are the important ones.

Change these lines to pretend your device is another model. For example, to imitate a Nexus S, use these lines:

• ro.product.model = Nexus S
• ro.product.manufacturer = samsung

After making this change, tap the menu button and select Save.

Final Steps

Go into the Settings screen, select Applications, select Manage Applications, tap the All category, and select the Google Play app. Clear its cache and data, and then restart your device

Open Google Play and you should be able to download apps that claim they’re not compatible with your device. Games that detect your device should also work, too – Gameloft games seem to be particularly guilty of this. Some apps may still not install or work with your device for other reasons — for example, Google Chrome won’t work on pre-Android 4.0 devices, and some apps may be restricted to certain countries.