According to a new study from Analysys International (via TNW), Google’s Android now accounts for more 90 percent of the smartphone market in China. That’s up from 83 percent just last quarter and 58.2-percent in the year-ago quarter. The study also noted iOS dropped from 6 percent to 4.2-percent in the quarter, but it did not include Android knock-off devices that would make Android’s share even higher in the country.
Google just announced it is investing $75 million in renewable green energy —specifically wind energy— in Iowa.
“Today we‘re announcing that we’ve made an equity investment of $75 million in a 50MW wind farm in Rippey, a small town in Greene County, about an hour outside of Des Moines,” explained Google on the official Google blog. ”The Rippey project, developed by RPM Access, is expected to produce enough energy to power over 15,000 Iowa homes.”
The wind farm investment now brings Google’s total investment to the renewable energy sector to more than $990 million. Yeah, that’s almost $1 billion in green energy. Google further revealed it has taken two approaches to “greening the grid in Iowa”:
Back in 2010, we entered into a long-term contract to purchase wind energy from NextEra Energy Resources’ Story County II wind farm. This time, we’re investing directly into a wind project, which has been contracted to sell all of the energy to the Central Iowa Power Cooperative, an Iowa-based utility that will deliver the energy to local consumers. We’re happy to help make more renewable energy available to Iowans and to support the growing wind energy industry in the state.
Amazon just issued a press release to confirm the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD officially ships starting today with the 4G model, as expected, arriving sometime next week. Amazon previously said the 4G model would land Nov. 20. The $299 Wi-Fi model is available now through www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd and will also be available in-store tomorrow at Best Buy and other retailers, including Radio Shack and Staples, in “the coming weeks.”
Amazon issued another press release today confirming that Japanese customers now have access to the Amazon Cloud Drive service. In addition, the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD will officially ship to customers in Japan starting Dec. 19.
Amazon’s full press release is below:
After launching an impressive interactive virtual instrument Chrome web app earlier this month, Google today rolled out its latest Chrome experiment. Created by “some space enthusiasts at Google” using WebGL, CSS3D, and Web Audio, the experiment uses imagery from NASA and a number of other sources to provide an interactive visualization of over 100,000 stars. You can visit the 100,000 stars Chrome experiment here.
100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood created for the Google Chrome web browser. It shows the real location of over 100,000 nearby stars. Zooming in reveals 87 individually identified stars and our solar system. The galaxy view is an artist’s rendition.
According to a report from Geekwire (via Slashdot), Microsoft’s new surface tablet has been a topic of conversation today on the opening day of patent trial between Microsoft and Motorola. The case previously focused mainly on Windows and Xbox 360. Now Motorola’s lawyers want the judge to consider Microsoft’s new Surface tablet, arguing the Wi-Fi-related technology at the heart of the case is critical to the device:
It turns out that Motorola wants the judge to also consider new and future Microsoft products that implement Motorola’s patented technology as he figures out how to set the royalty rates that Microsoft should pay for Motorola’s patents. In a brief filed in advance of the trial, Motorola contends that 802.11 WiFi technologies are critical to Surface, because it doesn’t have an Ethernet port or cellular broadband.
Motorola’s lawyers provided the following statement in the document:
“Microsoft’s new Surface tablet will use only 802.11, instead of cellular or wired connections, to connect to the internet. Without 802.11 capability, the Surface tablet would be unable to compete in the market, because consumers can readily select tablet devices other than the Surface that have 802.11 capability.”… Motorola contends that the judge’s deliberations “would need to account for the likely use of Motorola 802.11 SEPs [standard-essential patents] in future products (e.g., Microsoft’s recently released Surface tablet product).”
As for how much Motorola is asking for, it appears to still seek a 2.25-percent royalty. However, Microsoft’s lawyers argued this figure was “outrageous”: Read more
Today, alongside the launch of Nexus 4 and Nexus 10, Google is officially making the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean SDK available to developers. Included in the release are the lock screen widgets, the Daydream interactive screensaver mode, enhanced support for external displays, and more. Developers can download the Android 4.2 platform from the Android SDK Manager. Google also has an overview of what’s new on its website and an API overview here.
The full release notes from Google (via the Android Developers Blog) are below:
