Google Launches 'Newsstand' Android Reading App

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Mix Google Play magazine store with the two-year-old Currents magazine app, stir gently, and you get Google's Newsstand Android reading app that supports publications' paywalls, the Gigaom.com Web site reported.

The Google app launch will offer more than 1,900 free and subscription-based content sources, including paywall publications The New York Times, Financial Times and Wall St. Journal, according to the Gigaom.com post. Present Currents and Google magazine users will have to upgrade their apps to benefit from Newsstand.

The move is intended seriously to challenge Apple's mobile magazine and newspaper store, Gigaom.com reported.