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Google - Motorola Mobility is a done deal
Google first announced plans to purchase Motorola Mobility last summer and has been jumping through regulatory hoops ever since. U.S. and European governments approved the deal in February and China did the same over the weekend. CEO Larry Page announced today that longtime Googler Dennis Woodside and current Motorola Mobility Sanjay Jha will step down. What the deal means for you and me is kind of unclear. Obviously, Google is behind the Android operating system, which works on smartphones by Motorola as well as numerous other companies. So will Google make it so that the Motorola phones work better than those by other companies? And in so doing, will the whole open ecosystem of Android get kind of smashed up? CNET says that’s been on people’s minds:Google has made it clear that Motorola will operate independently from its own operation, and the search giant/Android maker will not show any favoritism. However, according to reports, China was not so convinced of that, and forced Google to agree to keep Android open and free for a period of five years to ensure it didn't change its stance and give Motorola preferential treatment.On the other hand, no competitors seemed opposed to the deal:
J.K. Shin, Samsung's mobile head, said back in August that he was pleased with the acquisition, and believed that it "demonstrates Google's deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem."
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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Dragon flies into space!
You go to sleep, everything’s normal. You wake up, there’s a flying space Dragon. Yep, the era of commercial space travel began at Cape Canaveral at 3:44 a.m. today with the launch of Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket containing the Dragon capsule. It’s headed for the International Space Station to deliver a half ton of supplies. From the Orlando Sentinel:At a post-launch press conference, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk compared the moment with the time in the 1990s when commercial interests took over development of the Internet, and dramatically accelerated the pace of development and made it accessible to mass markets. "I hope and I believe this mission will be historic in marking that turning point towards a rapid advancement in space transportation technology," said Musk, a South African-born entrepreneur who became a billionaire through helping found the Internet service PayPal, then started a space business in 2002.Elon Musk is 40 by the way. Just 40. If you’re 40 or over, how many private spaceships have you launched? If you’re under 40, better get on that? Either way, my point is, feel terrible about yourself. If this all goes well, it will be a big step forward in the post-Space Shuttle era of space travel.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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Google has two weeks to do some ‘splaining to Euroregulators
Oh Google and Europe. Sometimes I think it’s going to be just like in the movies and at the height of their loud, screaming argument, they’ll just start totally making out. European regulators are giving Google a couple of weeks to provide substantive reasons why it’s not abusing its power as the dominant search engine on the market. It mostly has to do with whether and how Google gives preferential treatment to its own products in search results. At issue, according to the BBC:- The manner in which Google displays "its own vertical search services differently" from other, competing products. - How Google "copies content" from other websites - such as restaurant reviews - to include within their own services. - The "exclusivity" Google has to sell advertising around search terms people use. - Restrictions surrounding portability of advertising content which prevents "seamless transfer" to other non-Google platforms.Now, Europe is much more protective than the US, more likely to favor a heavy regulatory hand, but these charges have been made against Google here too. Would a big ruling against the company, or an overhaul on Google’s part, change Google As We Know It? Don’t answer! Rhetorical question!
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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Microsoft: the comeback kid? Or something?
It’s become a bit of a familiar refrain: Microsoft may have slipped way WAY behind Apple in terms of brand power and innovation and coolness but it’s not yet ready to be loaded into a coffin and lowered six feet under. At least if you listen to Microsoft. CEO Steve Ballmer says he expects 350 million Windows 7 enabled devices to ship this year. “It makes Windows the most popular single system,” he said at a conference in Seoul. And he’s talking big about the future, as Windows 8 (which I may call Octowindows) is released this fall and Microsoft prepares to get into the tablet market. Now, Apple has obviously been crushing it in the tablet market, where the iPad threatens to become the noun of choice to describe tablets, in much the same way Aspirin, Frisbee, or, uh, Google has. But it’s not only the Redmond Kool-Aid (there’s another one!) drinkers saying this, it’s analysts too. Sayeth Bloomberg:More than 103 million tablet devices will be sold in 2012, with sales tripling to 326.3 million in 2015, according to Gartner Inc. Apple is set to account for two-thirds of the market in 2012, Gartner estimates. The company’s share will drop to 46 percent by 2015, while Microsoft’s will climb to 11 percent.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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Sidecar app reinvents the phone call or something
Everyone’s going bananas this morning for a new app called Sidecar. Either you’ll remember this memo post as the moment you first heard the term that changed your life or this is the last you’ll hear of something that got somewhat overhyped. Sidecar offers free calls over VOIP, not just to other people who have the app but anyone who has a phone in the United States or Canada. It also offers a bunch of other features that enhance the overall phone call experience. One of those features is See What I See. Stephen Levy writes about it in Wired:It’s a live-streaming, real-time video feature in the early stages of an ascendancy that will ultimately change what we watch. Sidecar understands that while FaceTime is cool, it’s much more interesting for people to share their surroundings than unflattering views of their own sorry faces. So the See What I See feature offers streaming video from the camera on the back of the phone.Free app. The company, in the glorious tradition of tech startups, says it will figure out how to make money later on. I’ll go ahead and start the clock now and will be taking bets as to how long it is before Google buys this thing.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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Serve and Zynga want to give you a tiger
Serve, which is basically an Amex pre-paid credit card, will offer virtual world cash rewards, redeemable in Zynga’s FarmVille game, for real world dollars charged. To kick off the promotion, you can Like the Facebook page for Serve and earn yourself a FarmVille tiger. What a tiger is doing on a farm is not explained, but I certainly hope there will be virtual deer and antelope for sale since those tigers need to be fed. The deal, being announced today, will focus on FarmVille at first then expand to other Zynga games like CityVille and CastleVille. According to All Things D:First, FarmVille fans that visit the Serve farm will be prompted to plant a virtual Serve Money Tree on their farm. Then, they can register to receive a Zynga Serve co-branded prepaid card in the mail. Next, they’ll have to link the card to a bank account, debit card, credit card, or cash using a GreenDot MoneyPak. And, once all the steps are completed, then they will be able to use the Serve card anywhere American Express is accepted.And there you have it, money does grow on trees. Spend it as you please, which, I guess, means buy stuff for your virtual farm.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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Bemilo wants you to hold the reigns of your child’s phone access
Bemilo is a new service being offered to UK parents that gives them remote access to their kids’ SIM card. Customers of Britain’s Vodafone network can now use Bemilo and choose when their kids can text, browse the Internet, and make phone calls. The system was designed to help cut down bullying texts, phone usage during school, and browsing that could cut into valuable teen sleep time. From the BBC: “According to a survey of 2,000 parents conducted by Bemilo, 40% of children from eight to 16 who own a mobile phone are sleep deprived, and 25% have been subjected to mobile phone bullying.” Having the SIM card installed lets parents monitor and control the phone through a website. Texts and browsing history are also viewable - that fact alone might be enough to scare some teens out of bad habits. The site also lets parents choose numbers that can always get through in case of an emergency. No word on if/when Bemilo will make the jump across the pond.- |
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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Kinect Schminect: Leap 3D sensor launched
Good news for fans of video games, computers, and waving your arms around: there’s a new option for motion-sensitive gaming that is both cheaper and reportedly much better than the Kinect. From CNET:With the unveiling today of its Leap 3D motion control system, a San Francisco startup called Leap Motion has, well, leapfrogged the state of the art in this young field, giving users the ability to control what's on their computers with hundredth of a millimeter accuracy and introducing touch-free gestures like pinch-to-zoom.It operates with a USB stick and some dedicated software and goes on the market early next year for $70. It’s similar in concept to the Kinect but is not targeted exclusively at gaming:
Leap, by comparison, can sense motion down to the most subtle movements of a finger, which the company says is 200 times more sensitive than anything else on the market. The system creates a "three-dimensional interaction space" of four cubic feet and is more precise and responsive than a touchscreen or a mouse, and just as reliable as a keyboard. That means everyone from game designers to surgeons to architects and engineers may soon have a host of revolutionary applications that will soon be coming their way.
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Monday, May 21, 2012
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What’s old is still old, and you’ll pay a hefty price for it.
Have you heard the next MacBook might be made of liquid metal. And the new iPhones might have larger screens. Oh, and are you still talking about Apple TV rumors, because that’s sooo January. Those things are like a sure thing by now. People make their livings off of whispering about Apple product, but if you’re fed up with it all, maybe you should pay a visit to Adam Goolevitch. He makes his living in Apple’s past selling and restoring vintage Apple computers. Cult of Mac talked to Goolevitch:My first Lisa 1 I bought from a former Apple developer for $800 USD when I was 21 years old. At this time, it cost $1.57 Canadian dollars to buy 1 US dollar. This Lisa subsequently sold for $10,000 USD on eBay; almost 16,000 CAD. That was the down payment on a house that my brother and I bought together. Over the years, I have restored eight Lisa 1 computers, about 25 Lisa 2s, some Apple IIs, and many early Macs.Even if you don’t know what a Lisa 1 is (it’s a pre-Mac Apple computer from the 80’s, by the way), doesn’t it make you feel a little better knowing that it exists? There’s no speculation about whether the next Lisa will have a color monitor or a touch screen. The answer is no, the next Lisa will always live in the past, and it’s going to stay that way.
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Monday, May 21, 2012
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Beverly Hills is the most musical city in America. Where does your town place?
The blog Music Machinery has posted a list of American cities based on how musical they are. Paul Lamere figured out the hometowns of 50,000 top U.S. musicians and sorted out how many came from each city. Then he figured out the ratio of musicians to 1000 people in that town. Here's the complete, very long, list. Beverly Hills, California (of all places!) came in first. San Francisco was number two. Nashville took the third spot. And if you're in Fremont, California, I'm sorry.- |
Monday, May 21, 2012
Most Commented
33
Is this what the iPhone 5 looks like?
Monday, March 7, 2011
With iPad 2 now announced, it's time to look ahead to the iPhone 5 (because that's what happens). Rumors currently circulating indicate that the...
13
Don't text at the movies and CERTAINLY don't complain about getting kicked out
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX reeeeeally doesn't want you to text during movies. They recently kicked a woman out for doing so. She called and...
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Beverly Hills is the most musical city in America. Where does your town place?
The blog Music Machinery has posted a list of American cities based on how musical they are. Paul Lamere figured out the hometowns of 50,000 top U.S. musicians and sorted out how many came from each city. Then he figured out the ratio of musicians to 1000 people in that town. Here's the complete, very long, list. Beverly Hills, California (of all places!) came in first. San Francisco was number two. Nashville took the third spot. And if you're in Fremont, California, I'm sorry.- |
Monday, May 21, 2012
0
Sidecar app reinvents the phone call or something
Everyone’s going bananas this morning for a new app called Sidecar. Either you’ll remember this memo post as the moment you first heard the term that changed your life or this is the last you’ll hear of something that got somewhat overhyped. Sidecar offers free calls over VOIP, not just to other people who have the app but anyone who has a phone in the United States or Canada. It also offers a bunch of other features that enhance the overall phone call experience. One of those features is See What I See. Stephen Levy writes about it in Wired:It’s a live-streaming, real-time video feature in the early stages of an ascendancy that will ultimately change what we watch. Sidecar understands that while FaceTime is cool, it’s much more interesting for people to share their surroundings than unflattering views of their own sorry faces. So the See What I See feature offers streaming video from the camera on the back of the phone.Free app. The company, in the glorious tradition of tech startups, says it will figure out how to make money later on. I’ll go ahead and start the clock now and will be taking bets as to how long it is before Google buys this thing.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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