Potential Nexus Tablet image leak looks strikingly similar to iPad 1

E. Betters

The Android rumor mill is quick to debate the authenticity of recently surfaced image leaks (above) that have an albeit-slim “Nexus Tablet” association.

The Android Community (via PocketNow) dissected the rendering and concluded the tablet boasts standard buttons and Ice Cream Sandwich-specific apps on the display, which means the leak is a potential Nexus Tablet rendering.

It also features an ASUS-style tablet port, MicroUSB port, USB port, SIM card slot, and full-sized SD card slot. It is worth mentioning the Android Market icon is visible, even though the Google Play Store replaced it last month.

Reports fail to mention, however, that the slate in question looks uncannily similar to a first-generation Apple iPad (right). With that said, the image leak could easily be fabricated with a few spare Android tablet shots and a copy of Photoshop. Oh, and PocketNow’s absent source attribution begs the question of legitimacy.

Read more

Google Art Project expands to 30,000 high-resolution images

Seth Weintraub

“New content, new partners, new countries, new features”

Google’s Art Project is expanding to 30,000 high-resolution images at 151 museums in 40 countries from an initial 1,000 images at 17 museums in nine countries. The project’s goal is to give people access to the world’s great works.

The expanded Art Project embraces all sizes of institutions, specializing in art or in other types of culture. For example, you can take a look at the White House in Washington, D.C., explore the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, and continue the journey to the Santiniketan Triptych in the halls of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi. In the United States alone, some 29 partners in 16 cities are participating, ranging from excellent regional museums like the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina to top notch university galleries such as the SCAD museum of art in Savannah, Georgia.

Even The White House got “Streetviewed”:

Here are a few other new things from the expanded Art Project that you might enjoy: Read more

Google acquires TxVia for help in the online payments department

Seth Weintraub

Google today revealed that it purchased mobile payments company TxVia for an undisclosed sum of money.

we’ve acquired payments technology company TxVia to complement our payments capabilities and accelerate innovation towards our full Google Wallet vision. TxVia is a technology pioneer that offers a fast, flexible and highly reliable payments platform—which we believe is one of the best in the world.

Since 2008, TxVia has supported the management of more than 100 million accounts. They’ve partnered with the industry’s best known brands, and their leadership team has played an instrumental role in defining the fast-growing prepaid card segment of emerging payments. In this time, TxVia has also certified and directly connected to the major payment networks, which establishes a solid foundation for Google Wallet and our partners to drive innovation on a global scale and in a partner friendly way.

Google Wallet has been somewhat slow in adoption due in no small part to the competing Verizon-AT&T-T-Mobile ISIS consortium. Google’s Payments team has also undergone some strife…

Read more

Android distribution update: Over 92 percent of users still on 2.X, Gingerbread still growing. ICS and Honeycomb taking their time

Seth Weintraub

The latest marketshare-ish numbers are in for Android and it seems that people continue to update their phones…to Gingerbread. Almost two-thirds of all Android phones hitting the market in the last two weeks are running Android 2.3.x with a significant share—23.1-percent still on Android 2.2 Froyo. Honeycomb, the Tablet-only fix OS, is at around 3.3-percent, while Ice Cream Sandwich is on a scant 2.9-percent of devices including Galaxy Nexus, Acer Transformer Prime, and newly updated HTC Vivid (along with some custom builds and some unlocked manufacturer phones).

The distribution over time (below) is showing the long haul ICS has ahead of it (and do not forget we are likely going to hear about Jelly Bean at Google I/O in June).

Read more

RadioShack ‘Trade & Save’ app offers old Android device trade-in with free shipping

E. Betters

RadioShack’s “Trade & Save” app is now on Google Play and helps a user determine an old Android device’s worth for optimum trade-in value.

The app will also offer to buy the device, while providing the free prepaid shipping label, in exchange for a RadioShack gift card for use in-store or online. The gift card is sent by mail.

Screenshots are available below.

Read more

Google Maps upgrade now helps non-highway drivers avoid traffic jams

E. Betters

Google announced today that its live traffic pattern service will now include roads, not just highways.

“Starting today, if you’re planning a trip for which you anticipate traffic, you can find out what typical traffic is like on these arterial roads, rather than just on highways,” explained Google Maps Software Engineer Szabolcs Payrits on the official Google Lat-Long blog. 

Drivers can type their starting and ending points into Google Maps to get directions, but they must enable the traffic layer in the upper right-hand corner, and then click “change” in in the legend to view Typical Traffic on regular roads.

Read more