A newspaper in the UK recently published a story that the Google Play Store was about to surpass 15 billion apps downloaded. Google’s last published numbers were 11 billion downloads as of January 2012, so it seemed about the time to hit 15 billion. TechCrunch reached out to Google, and a spokesperson confirmed the Play Store already hit 15 billion apps downloaded “a few weeks ago”.

With Android stomping out market share over Apple, it’s no surprise that the Play Store is closing the gap on the iPhone App Store. Currently the Google Play Store has around 500,000 apps, while Apple has 600,000 apps in their App Store. Meanwhile the Play Store is averaging about 1 billion app downloads per month verses about 1.25 billion from the iPhone App Store. Of course these numbers don’t include other app markets such as the Amazon App Store and other outlets, so it’s entirely possible those numbers could be higher.

Carrier billing is something that’s been around for a while to a handful of carriers for apps and games. And it both convenient and curse at the same time. Sure, you can purchase and app and not worry about paying for it right away, but it can also inflate your phone bill pretty quick.

Now Google has brought the carrier billing feature to select carriers for books, movies and music in the Google Play Store, making it easier than ever to buy more stuff, no credit card required. The list, as seen in the chart above, isn’t all that big, but we’re expecting it to expand in the near future.

Notably missing from the list is Verizon in the US for reasons unknown. But we can suspect it might have something to do with Verizon’s own attempt at an Android app store.

[Google via Google+]

Another very cool feature just added is the ability to “print” to your Android device. Instead of printing out a physical copy or transfering a file to your device, you can send it through Google Cloud Print to any Android 4.0 device with Chrome Beta installed:

Once you install Chrome for Android Beta and sign in, your Android device will appear as a destination in the Cloud Print dialog. After choosing your Android device, a PDF copy of your document will open in Chrome for Android Beta.

Additionally Google also announced Canon is now supporting printers that are Google Cloud Print Ready, in addition to Epson, Kodak and HP that were already on the list.

[Google Chrome Blog]

Google Maps for Android has recently been updated bringing with it some minor changes, but significant nonetheless. Version 6.3 of Maps now promises battery life improvements for Latitude users and location services. So pretty much if you use Maps, your battery life will get a little better. There certainly won’t be anyone complaining about that. There’s also some minor bug fixes in tow, probably to insignificant for Google to detail for us. If you haven’t already updated, the latest version is now available in the Android Market.

[Android Market]

Also in the latest Google Docs version is improved support for tablets running Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich. If there’s anything Android tablets severely lack, it’s dedicated apps that work properly with tablets. Hopefully Google will continue leading the way with tablet-optimized apps and other developers will follow suit.

The latest version of Google Docs is now available in the Android Market and is compatible with devices running Android 2.1 or higher.

In less than a day, the page has received a very welcome response. Just over 13,000 people have circled them at the time of this writing. If you’re an Android developer or just interested in the development side of things, be sure to add them to your circles.

[Google+ via Android Developers blog]

Today Google announced they have ceased development on the app, so don’t expect any new updates. However as an upside, they have open sourced the app, making the source code available to the community at large to modify and use in other projects.

Although it’s sad to see any project sunsetted, we would call this ending a win.

In Google’s most recent earnings call today, we heard the latest numbers for Android, and they remain pretty impressive. There’s now 250 million Android devices worldwide, and more devices are being activated at a rate of 700,000 every day, a number that Andy Rubin announced last month. Total app downloads from the Market have reached 11 billion. In December, the Android Market hit the milestone of 10 billion downloads and celebrated with a $0.10 app sale, it looks like the next billion wasn’t too hard to reach.

Another significant fact was that Google surpassed $10 billion dollars in revenue for Q4 of 2011, a first for the company and an impressive number to say the least. Although Google has not divulged how much of that earning is a direct result from Android, but Larry Page said Google’s total revenue for mobile advertising in 2011 was $2.5 billion.

[via The Verge]

For better or for worse, one thing that differentiates iOS apps from Android is they all seem to look the same. It seems Google is looking to unify the interface across all apps in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. They have just released a new UI and style guidelines site called Android Design. The site is full of best practices for everything from button layout to color palettes.

The new Android Design site is meant to be a guideline, and Google will by no means be enforcing rules Apple-style. However they want to instill a philosophy in developers and designers to only stray from the rules when it makes sense.

Design uniformity would be a welcome addition to Android, some apps have layouts that don’t make sense just for the sake of being different and it can be frustrating. I’m looking at you, Path.

[Android Design via Android Developers Blog]