02/13, 5:25pm
DOJ next to OK Google-Motorola and adds Nortel
The US Department of Justice in a brief said it had approved both Google's acquisition of Motorola, the joint purchase of Nortel patents by Apple, Microsoft, RIM, and others, as well as a similar Novell patent sale. Antitrust regulators in both cases had decided it was "unlikely" that the deals would hurt competition. It was partly reassured by Apple, Google, and Microsoft all promising to license standards-based patents based on FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms.
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02/13, 4:00pm
RIM director Martin justifies slow turnaround
RIM director Roger Martin in an unusual interview with the Globe and Mail defended RIM's decision to hold for years before bringing in a new CEO. He saw there being no option for an outside CEO until RIM had groomed one from the inside, with outsiders being "morons from the outside" who would inevitably gut the BlackBerry designer. Martin went so far as to liken the departing Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis to the late Steve Jobs, insisting that only the two were talented enough and that RIM couldn't afforded an involuntarily exodus.
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02/13, 3:05pm
Amazon only other tech firm in top five
Apple has taken first place in a Harris Interactive poll on corporate reputations. The company scored a quotient of 85.63, giving it enough to beat out last year's winner, Google, which in the new poll has claimed second place with 82.82. Remaining companies in the top five include Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Kraft Foods.
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02/13, 1:40pm
EU gives full approval to Google-Motorola
As anticipated, the European Commission on Monday approved Google's $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola. The approval was without conditions after the EU body decided that it wouldn't hurt smartphone competition or patent issues. Commissioner Joaquin Almunia was aware there was a chance Google might abuse patents to shelter Android, but he promised legal action if that was the case.
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02/12, 7:25pm
Samsung tablets outsold by Apple in home turf
Industry insider estimates have claimed that the iPad 2 has reached the million-unit sales mark in South Korea. The milestone came after a late November 2010 launch and 700,000 iPads shipped just in 2011, leaving the remaining 300,000 to have been sold in two and a half months' time, the Korea Herald said. That number could be higher, Korean media thought, since many had bought iPads even before official approval.
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02/12, 7:05pm
YouTube Google TV gets update
Google's big Google TV news, or part of it, may have been detailed early in news on Sunday. The Android TV platform's YouTube app is being updated with a much stronger emphasis on channels ahead of original content plans. Matching up is a new discover feature that lets viewers find content by the category rather than just the channel.
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02/12, 3:25pm
Google Experience Center would target Project X
An investigation into Google's public records has hinted that the company is planning large expansions that would be incubators for multiple secret projects. The Mercury News sleuthing found that Google was spending over $120 million in construction around its Montain Vew headquarters for both public and private work. Secret projects would reportedly play a part, including for the Android@Home wireless audio device and Google's well-known but still secretive Project X labs.
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02/11, 10:35pm
Google Wallet prepaid cards go down for now
Google quickly reacted to mounting Google Wallet security issues by putting a temporary freeze on new prepaid cards. While at least some existing users could keep paying with theirs, Google was preventing new uses as a "precaution" before it could get a surefire fix, Wallet VP Osama Bedier said in a post Saturday. He nonetheless insisted that Google Wallet had multiple security layers, ranging from its own PIN code requirement to an auto-wipe of local Wallet data if the phone is rooted after the Android app is installed.
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02/11, 1:40pm
Apple lawsuit vs Samsung expanded
An expansion upon what few details have been available from Apple's new Samsung lawsuit has suggested that it reaches more at the core of Android and less at Samsung's specific actions. Along with accusing Samsung of violating a newer unlock gesture patent than what was covered in Germany, a second patent for a "universal interface" for retrieving data appeared to Florian Mueller to accuse Samsung of violating Siri-style searches, where stitching together keywords presents just the immediately needed results. While Android on a base level doesn't do this, it would prevent Google from providing a narrower search method in Android.
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02/10, 3:50pm
USA Today breaks down mobile app ratios
An escaped USA Today presentation has uncovered some of the real results of mobile news app downloads. GeekWire's copy showed a wide gap between downloads for the iPad and Android tablets: at over 2.9 million downloads, the iPad version had more than seven times the downloads of Android, which had 390,000 combined. The ratio on Android was heavily skewed by the Kindle Fire, which at 260,000 downloads had managed twice as much interest as every other Android tablet combined.
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02/10, 1:25pm
EU seen as likely to approve Google buy as US
Two insiders claimed Friday that the European Commission was likely to approve Google's acquisition of Motorola. In sync with talk of a likely US approval, Reuters understood that the EU regulatory body would greenlight the deal in "unconditional" form. The EC had reportedly decided that the takeover wouldn't be anti-competitive.
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02/10, 12:50pm
Blurry, mysterious Google device spotted at FCC
Google is readying to release a so-called "next-generation personal communication device," as revealed by FCC documents. The files don't reveal much, other than that both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios are onboard and the company is getting ready to begin testing 102 of the devices in various regions in the US. The hardware is listed as being in the prototyping phase and employees in LA, Mountain View, Cambridge, and New York will test them at home.
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02/10, 11:20am
Stoppage likely to continue for weeks.
Iran is apparently proactively censoring selected Internet sites. Reports out of that country claim that the government there is blocking access to Google, Yahoo, and Gmail, It is also preventing access to sites using the secure Https protocol, effectively preventing any online banking services.
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02/10, 11:00am
Chrome 18 widens GPU usage
Google in the same breath as the Chrome 17 final release has also posted a beta release of Chrome 18. The new version swings attention to graphics and now hardware accelerates 2D elements using HTML5's Canvas spec, a common part of more advanced websites. Animations and action-sensitive websites should see the most benefit.
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02/10, 5:10am
EPIC says new Google policy in breach of FTC deal
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has sued the Federal Trade Commission for failing to stop Google from initiating recent changes to its privacy agreement with users. According to a brief statement from Epic, Google’s new privacy policy is in violation of an agreement that the FTC reached with Google in March last year following the Google Buzz privacy debacle. EPIC argues that the new policy changes do not give users the an opt in or out option as it agreed to do.
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02/09, 11:40pm
Eolas sees web patent lawsuit claim tossed
Eolas' attempt to patent the "interactive web" may have been dealt a permanent blow after a jury in the normally patent lawsuit-friendly town of Tyler, Texas ruled that the patent was invalid. The decision negated both any attempts at claiming damages and also negated three future trials. The rejection came in part after testimony from the spiritual creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, as well as individual creators whose work predated that of Eolas owner Michael Doyle.
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02/09, 7:35pm
Google wireless audio may come through silence
Google's apparent decision to make its own wireless audio system appears to have come after stopping at least some activity with accessory makers, according to Electronista sources. Now said to have based its work on the Android@Home technology shown at Google I/O last year, the company had been talking to accessory makers building up to the May event but grew silent not long after. The silence might not necessarily have been ubiquitous, but it suggested that Google had taken the reins to make a product of its own.
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02/09, 6:40pm
Bug allows users to create new PIN
Yet another Google Wallet vulnerability has been spotted, just one day after security researchers published details of a similar issue that only affects rooted devices. The latest vulnerability is claimed to affect all Android devices, however, including those running stock software.
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02/09, 6:35pm
Onkyo's latest speakers get Wi-Fi WPS setup, DLNA
Onkyo has introduced a pair of bookshelf speakers that are special in that they have built-in Wi-Fi and DLNA support for streaming audio files from a local network. The setup part of the equation is kept simple too, as the only way to connect them to a network is through Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) and a dedicated button. The GX-W100HV speakers can also connect using traditional inputs such as optical and RCA.
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02/09, 6:25pm
Motorola says Android too linked to hardware
Motorola was unusually critical of its likely future acquirer Google late Wednesday in an interview. Senior enterprise business VP Christy Wyatt claimed to PCMag that Google made timely Android OS updates difficult because of its tendency to target each major release against a reference phone like the Galaxy Nexus. Since the initial release only supported that hardware, no other Android partner could get started on drivers and other code they needed to get moving.
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02/09, 6:20pm
Devs call for action
Mozilla and several other browser developers have voiced concern over the dominance of WebKit-based browsers, notably Safari and Chrome. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) co-chairman Daniel Glazman suggests programmers have begun to disregard alternative browsers, such as Firefox and Internet Explorer, when optimizing website compatibility.
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02/09, 4:55pm
Google may tap Android at Home for own speakers
Google may be making its own wireless audio system and dipping into its own hardware, an apaprent leak uncovered Thursday. The unnamed system, purported by the Wall Street Journal to have been in the works for years, would share at least music throughout the home. It would be sold directly under Google's brand, including the speakers, but could talk to other hardware and could use a phone or tablet for control.
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02/09, 1:25pm
Apple hits symbolic stock value
An exceptional run on Apple stock over the past few days has made Apple's stock value worth more than either of its two most direct rivals combined. A comparison has shown that, as of mid-day Thursday, Apple's market cap of about $456 billion was greater than both those of Google ($198.9 billion) and Microsoft ($256.7 billion). As noted by AppleInsider, Apple was taking advantage of both Google missing targets and bruising its share as well as Microsoft's historic inability to excite shareholders.
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02/09, 4:40am
Google to take on Dropbox in cloud-storage market
Google is said to be close to launching its own cloud-storage service that is set to compete with Dropbox. The tip-off was offered to the Wall Street Journal, which says that it has talked to ‘people familiar with the matter.’ The long-rumored service dubbed 'Drive' will offer users the ability to store all types of files and make the sharing of those files simple by allowing them to stream a video directly from the cloud, for example.
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02/08, 10:25pm
Google working quickly to fix bug
Researchers at security firm Zvelo have released details surrounding a Google Wallet vulnerability that is claimed to leave a user's PIN data exposed. Engineers were reportedly able to develop a crack that quickly determines a user's four-digit PIN, which serves as an essential security layer to prevent the NFC system from transmitting card data without authorization.
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02/08, 7:50pm
DOJ may OK Google-Motorola with conditions
The Department of Justice is leaning towards approving Google's takeover of Motorola, insiders leaked Wednesday. It wasn't clear what the motivating reasons were in the Wall Street Journal tip, but the approval could be publicized as soon as next week. Regulators would mostly be watching to see if Google abused the patents it would get with Motorola to attack competitors.
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02/08, 6:25pm
Company expands patent litigation
A Texas court is finally ready to hear arguments in a high-profile patent lawsuit that names tech giants Google, Amazon and Yahoo among a list of defendants. The companies are attempting to defend themselves against a suit filed by a patent holding company, Eolas Technologies, that accuses the group of violating several patents related to "interactive web" technology.
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02/08, 5:05pm
Chrome 17 comes with hint of Chrome OS updates
Google wrapped up and posted the finished version of Chrome 17 for the desktop on Wednesday. The new browser update takes site prerendering beyond just search results to include autocompletion. If the autocompletion in the address bar is headed towards a likely web address, the browser will start loading content in the background to speed up the perceived load time. It can give the impression that favorite sites load almost immediately, Google suggested.
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02/08, 9:35am
Sprint gives more details of LTE, iPhone in call
Sprint in the wake of its fall results expanded its LTE plans and also touted the iPhone as a better option for its network than Android. The carrier now planned to add its original WiMAX city, Baltimore, to the cities getting LTE-based 4G by mid-2012. Sprint's home area of Kansas City was also new and would see a total of six cities getting the new network.
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02/08, 7:50am
Sprint owes big subscriber turnaround to iPhone
Sprint on Wednesday revealed a huge upswing in subscriber additions through its inaugural quarter of iPhone sales. It sold 1.8 million iPhones during the fall, 40 percent of which went to people new to the network. Apple's device was almost single-handedly responsible for returning Sprint to performance it hasn't seen in years: at 1.6 million net new subscribers, it saw the most adds since 2005 and had set a new high for its customer base at 55 million.
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02/07, 11:15pm
Google may make Motorola license patents fairly
A pair of sources claimed Tuesday that Google was about to send a formal pledge to standards bodies that it would license and Motorola's standards-based patents fairly if its $12.5 billion takeover of the phone designer was approved. An official letter would go out within the next day, Bloomberg said, to groups like Europe's telecom agency ETSI. Google wouldn't directly confirm the message, but through spokeswoman Niki Fenwick claimed that Motorola already had been licensing on fair terms and wouldn't change.
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02/07, 3:00pm
Google Voice gets quiet but major update
Quickly following on the heels of Chrome for Android, Google has also posted an update of Google Voice (Android Market). The new version now has an interface in line with Android 4.0. Tablet owners also now have a click-to-call feature to hand over calls: the option passes a phone number off to a phone associated with Google Voice to start the conversation on a more natural device.
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02/07, 1:40pm
Chrome beta for Android gets our early test
Google answered one of the longstanding calls among Android users by putting out a beta version of Chrome for mobile (Android Market) that we've had an opportunity to test. The app borrows the extra tricks of the desktop browser to run faster than the stock Android browser as well as simplifying its use. When on Wi-Fi, it can pre-cache pages in the search results to load them faster, and the engine itself was visibly faster on a Galaxy Nexus in our own testing, not to mention somewhat more responsive to scrolling and multi-touch zooming.
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02/07, 12:30pm
ReDigi wins initial injunction case
ReDigi, a company that wants to sell 'used' digital music, has successfully dodged a preliminary injunction filed by EMI last month. Capitol Records, who owns EMI, argued that the service would infringe copyrights as there would be no guarantee that the seller would delete the copy of the digital track being sold. The US district judge in charge of the case, Richard Sullivan, ruled (PDF) for ReDigi, but did state the case raised a number of technological and statutory issues.
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02/07, 9:35am
Garnter paints bleak picture for Windows in Europe
New Gartner data breaking down European computer market share has shown poor results for almost every computer builder outside of Apple. Continent-wide, both market leader HP as well as Acer, Dell, and Toshiba were all dropping market share. Only ASUS (up 1.5 points) increased share based solely on its own merits among the top five; Lenovo's gain was inflated by its acquiring Medion last June.
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02/07, 7:50am
RIM talks App World growth relative to rivals
RIM's Developer Relations VP Alec Saunders made aggressive claims about the state of BlackBerry App World at his company's DevCon Europe keynote on Tuesday morning. He contended that the store was the second-most profitable mobile app store after Apple's own and that Android lagged behind significantly. Along with having more overall paid downloads than the normally larger Google shop, BlackBerry titles typically made about 40 percent more revenue than their paid Android counterparts.
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02/06, 4:45pm
Google outs Solve for X site for global problems
Google has just launched a new website dubbed 'We Solve for X' that aims to encourage visitors to read about and discuss 'radical' technology for solving global problems. The problems and their likely solutions would affect billions of people. Radical, Google wrote, would refer to the proposed solutions that resemble science fiction.
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02/06, 4:15pm
Google begins laying down fiber optic cable
Despite a recent setback over some wiring issues, Google on Monday announced it is now laying down fiber optic cables as part of its Google Fiber project. The area in question includes Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Once complete, Google promises data speeds as high as 1Gbps, or much higher than even most commercial fiber rollouts.
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02/06, 3:50pm
Google HUD glasses may follow Chromebook idea
More information has been gleaned from a tipster to 9to5google regarding Google's upcoming HUD glasses. The prototype version reportedly resembles Oakley's Thump Pro sunglasses and get a front-facing camera that records info for augmented reality apps. The prototype was also said to have an integrated flash.
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02/06, 3:40pm
Google denied appeal on mail shwoing patent issue
Google on Monday lost an appeal trying to keep an incriminating e-mail out of Oracle's lawsuit over Android patents and copyrights. The court rejected Google's view that engineer Tim Lindholm's message, which told top staff that they needed a Java license for Android, was subject to attorney-client privilege. Lindholm had been talking to regular Google employees and not lawyers, the federal appeals court said, making it a valid part of discovery.
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02/05, 11:25pm
PS Vita on smooth track according to Sony
Sony in its results call Friday was confident that the PlayStation Vita was selling well so far. Having moved slightly more than 535,000 units in its first three weeks, according to Media Create data, company CFO Masaru Kato didn't see "any problems" with results so far. The comment came even after shipments had dipped to just over 18,000 in January and had been mostly steady since.
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02/05, 11:00am
Google takes Apple director Simon Prakash
Signs that Apple and Google are honoring laws barring no-poaching deals may have surfaced this weekend after new tips that Google had hired away one of Apple's veterans. VentureBeat understood that Simon Prakash, Apple's senior director for product integrity, had been hired away to work on a "secret project." He would reportedly start on Monday.
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02/03, 7:00pm
Offers reviews as well as link to download
Yahoo has launched an app filtering tool to its search engine. Yahoo's main page now gives a user a tab for Apps as well as the traditional Web, Images, Video, Local and More. With it, users can get app only search results and filter them for either iOS or Android apps.
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02/03, 5:30pm
Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, Nexus S 4G degraded
(Update: Google follow-up An investigation into Google's supported device has revealed that Google has quietly demoted the CDMA version of the Galaxy Nexus. The Verizon model, and possibly the upcoming Sprint version, aren't listed anymore as supported hardware, Droid-Life said. Google now claims "no CDMA devices are supported" and has also pulled the Nexus S 4G and Verizon-edition Motorola Xoom from the list.
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02/03, 4:30pm
Canalys Q4 and year-end 2011 shows change of guard
A Canalys wrap-up of 2011 smartphone share painted an overall picture that kept Apple and Google in front, but also provided clearer pictures of Windows Phone. Android was just short of an absolute majority at 48.8 percent, while the iPhone held 19.1 percent. Nokia's Symbian and RIM's BlackBerry still held on to the double digits at 16.4 percent and 10.5 percent each.
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02/03, 3:35pm
Crittercism shows app crash comparison
Crittercism has conducted a rare study of app stability that implied iOS apps might crash more than Android versions, although raising questions. Covering the top three quarters of popular apps downloaded in the first half of December, it found that iOS apps were slightly if noticeably more likely to crash. The relative gap diminished as researchers delved into less popular titles, although the sheer number of apps that crashed went up.
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02/03, 2:00pm
US near federal Android use
A handful of new tips have hinted that the US government's custom Android work is going beyond just military use. After soldiers, federal agencies and contractors would get the devices, CNN heard. The platform would be locked down enough only to store the documents at first, but it could be cleared send them over the cellular network in a matter of a "few months" if the sources were right.
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02/03, 1:10pm
Tech, opt-ins withheld Foursquare auto check-ins
Foursquare product head Alex Rainert disclosed in a quick interview Friday that the app would be getting automatic check-ins over time. He explained to Business Insider that the team had wanted people to check in simply by going to a location but that it was matter of "technical restraints" and design. The Radar feature for iOS 5 users was a step in that direction, according to Rainert.
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02/03, 12:30pm
Nokia may see market dropping Symbian faster
A potentially major rumor has Nokia accelerating the death of Symbian as a smartphone platform. The company has officially planned for a transition through 2013, but the Register heard only one new model, a sequel to the N8, was still in the works. Existing owners would get the Belle update, but every other project on the OS had supposedly been cancelled.
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02/03, 9:15am
EU denied request to stop Google policies
The EU's Article 29 Working Party, which represents data protection rules, has sent a letter (PDF) unsuccessfully trying to persuade Google to temporarily stop implementing its unified privacy policy. Under concerns that the changes may affect much of Europe, the coalition of national and continental regulators wanted a "pause" so that there wasn't any confusion over privacy rights, according to chairman Jacob Kohnstamm. The Article 29 group also said Google would need to talk to France's data regulator CNIL as its main contact for questions.
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