It’s official: Motorola Mobility is now a subsidiary of Google. The proud new owner has said that it plans to continue running Motorola as a separate business, but Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha is stepping down to make room for Dennis Woodside, the Googler who will now head up the division. Google will continue to offer Android software free of charge…
Read more »
For the past few years Google has offered partners early access to upcoming versions of Android so they could build a sort of flagship phone or tablet. Up until now Google has always worked with one company at a time, producing devices including the HTC Nexus One, Samsung Galaxy S, and Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphones and the Motorola XOOM tablet….
Read more »
Google is rolling out an update for Chromebook users that adds tight integration with the recently launched Google Drive online storage service. If you’re running Google’s “dev channel” software on an Aceer AC700, Samsung Series 5, or Cr-48 Chromebook, the latest update will add Google Drive integration to your file manager. That means you should now be able to save…
Read more »
Most US wireless carriers charge a pretty penny for data plans. But once upon a time Google imagined a world where smartphone customers would pay just $9.99 per month for unlimited data. The Verge has been poring through documents from a court battle between Google and Oracle, and spotted a document outlining Google’s 2006 proposal to subsidize the cost of…
Read more »
Remember when Google launched Gmail and promised you’d never have to delete an old email message again? The company offered 1GB of free storage space at a time when few competitors in the web-based email business were offering more than 10MB. And Google has added a little more space for Gmail users every day since then. Flash forward a few…
Read more »
Google is selling smartphones again. The company opened up a Devices section in the Google Play Store. Right now the only device available is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone, but you’ll notice that “devices” is plural… suggesting that additional phones or tablets could follow. The one device that is available for purchase is a pretty good deal. Google is offering…
Read more »
MIPS-based processors don’t get a lot of love these days, but there are a handful of Android tablets on the market with these low power chips. That includes the Ainol Novo 7 and the Skytex Primer Pocket. Unfortunately, they can’t run all Android apps, because apps written using the current native developer kit for Android don’t support MIPS architecture. But it…
Read more »
Google has rolled out an updated version of its Chrome web browser which lets you access a list of currently open browser tabs on any device. In other words, you can surf the web while eating breakfast at home, and when you get to work you can fire up your web browser and see a list of all the web…
Read more »
Google Chrome OS is an operating system designed to support one app: a web browser. Up until now, that’s meant the only thing you see when you turn on the computer is a web browser, and even when you want to watch a video or access files stored on your computer you’ve done that in a browser window. But for…
Read more »
Google has been offering an Android emulator as part of its Google Android software development kit for years. It lets developers test Android apps using a desktop computer without copying the apps-in-progress to a phone or tablet first. But up until recently the emulator was painfully slow. Last week Google released a new version with native x86 processor support, which…
Read more »
Bluetooth headsets changed the way many people use cellphones. Instead of holding a brick of metal or plastic up to your ear, you can keep your phone in your pocket while you talk. Now Google is unveiling a project that could bring the same sort of hands-free operating to smartphones, complete with maps, video chat, and all the other visual…
Read more »
The Google TV isn’t exactly a runaway success story in the US. While Google had high hopes for the platform which could bring internet video, search, and apps to television sets, only a handful of TVs and set-top-boxes with the software have hit the market. In fact, due to sluggish sales, Logitech killed off its Google TV box in November….
Read more »
