Élyse Betters

Acer America announced Jan. 5 that it would launch the 10.1-inch budget-friendly Iconia Tab A200, equipped with Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, in the United States for $329.99.

The titanium-gray A200 weighs 1.5 pounds, but the hefty tablet comes with a high-definition multitouch display at 1280-by-800 resolution. Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core mobile processor and GeForce GPU power  the device that features Acer’s Ring interface. With such a large screen, touted processing power and graphics processor, Acer is calling it an ideal gaming tablet.

“Made especially for multimedia enjoyment, the A200 packs hardware and apps for loads of fun,” said Acer in the announcing press release. “The Iconia Tab A200’s fast gaming experience is also supported by a six-axis motion sensing gyroscope, essential for high-precision gaming so actions and animations are more correctly performed.”

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Barnes & Noble reported record holiday sales today for its Nook business, including devices and digital content.

“During the nine-week holiday period ending Dec. 31, 2011, Nook unit sales, including Nook Simple Touch, Nook Color and the new Nook Tablet, increased 70 percent over the same period last year,” said the bookseller in a Jan. 5 statement. “Digital content sales also grew briskly during the same nine-week period, increasing 113 percent on a comparable basis.”

Content sales include digital books, digital newsstand, and the company’s apps business. The retailer of digital media and educational products is doing so well, as of lately, it is even considering a spinoff.

The company announced on Thursday it is embarking on a “strategic exploration” to separate the Nook division. The retailer also wants to report Nook-related sales as a separate business segment, and it is communicating with potential partners to expand the Nook’s presence abroad…

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The latest Android platform versions distributions chart was announced yesterday after the Android Developers’ website collected data for two weeks, and the share results reaped a few surprising figures.

Gingerbread gobbled 55 percent of the share, and Froyo landed at second place with 30 percent. However, according to last month’s results, Gingerbread increased from 50.6-percent while Froyo decreased from 35.3-percent. The statistical difference may be due to Froyo smartphones receiving an upgrade or Gingerbread smartphones seeing an increase in activations over the holiday season. Google recently announced it added 3.7 million devices on Christmas.

Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, is making the biggest amount of noise with these latest results. Ice Cream Sandwich devices -only the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S for now- account for just .6-percent of the share of all of the devices that have called the Android market in the last two weeks.  If that total is near the 200 million that Google announced in November, that means over a million Galaxy Nexus Devices have been activated in the few weeks since release.

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Google searches for “browser” no longer reveal the Google Chrome homepage, because the globally popular search engine decided to apply a penalty against the browser’s website after coming under fire for its sponsored post campaign.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company actively fights paid links and junk content under its Webmaster guidelines. However, earlier this week, SEO Book’s Aaron Wall noticed a Google search for “This post is sponsored by Google” displays over 400 websites written by Google marketing campaigns.

Bloggers were found posting low-quality content related to Google Chrome to promote Google content, and at least one of the posts had a hyperlink to the Chrome download page. Hyperlinks can help a website rise in Google search results through Google’s PageRank algorithm.

According to The New York Times, Google penalized JC Penney, Forbes and Overstock last year due to paid links and similar guidline violation issues. Search Engine Land suggested that Google should penalize its own Google Chrome download page to be fair.

Well, that is exactly how Google responded.

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Google Apps is a Google service that features several Web applications similar to traditional office suites. The services vary per edition but generally include Docs, Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Sites, Groups, Video, and Marketplace. Its popularity among students and educational institutions is rapidly increasing due to enhanced sharing features, accessibility and cost.

Google Apps for Education is just one edition that offers 25 GB of storage space per user for free through K-12 schools, colleges, and universities with up to 30,000 users. Forty-million active users currently use Google Apps, and according to US News & World Report, 61 of the Top 100 schools have switched to the educational service.

“Google Apps offers simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools for educational institutions of any size – all hosted by Google to minimize maintenance and reduce IT costs,” said Google Apps for Education on its website. “Google Apps is provided to educational institutions at no charge, and is hosted on the same enterprise-class infrastructure used by corporate and government customers.”

UC Berkeley announced Dec. 21 that they planned to make Google Apps for Education their new campus calendar and email system. “Operation Excellence” is a cost cutting initiative designed by the university to save $75 million annually. UC Berkeley currently offers their campus faculty, students and staff access to Microsoft software and Adobe Creative Suite free of charge. However, campus officials agreed to convert to Google Apps for Education in January 2012.

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ASUS announced on its Facebook today that the Transformer Prime would receive a firmware over-the-air Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update starting Jan. 12. Somehow this is even before the Motorola XOOM, Google’s reference tablet? Perhaps this will ignite a war among Tablet makers to get their devices up to Ice Cream Sandwich first. Bring it on!

“Eee Pad Transformer Prime received excellent reviews and great demand when it launched in December 2011,” said the company in a Jan. 3 Facebook post. “ASUS strives to create the best products and provide the best service for our customers, and will be releasing an FOTA update for the Transformer Prime shortly.”

The version 8.8.3.33 update will also improve the camera’s focus, the touch screen’s fluidity and experience, and the APK capabilities in Android Market. 
ASUS also used Facebook to address concerns related to GPS and bootloader on the Transformer Prime.

The consumer electronics and product manufacturer said the Transformer Prime is made from a metallic unibody design, so “the material may affect the performance of the GPS when receiving signals from satellites.” ASUS elaborated and claimed the device is “not a professional GPS device, and signal performance can be easily influenced by factors.” The factors listed by the company include weather, buildings, and surrounding environments.

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Google launched a revamped homepage, but it is still in the trial phase and only a limited number of users have access to the new design. Meanwhile, some experts and lawmakers are claiming Google’s recent face lift intends to promote more of the company’s businesses without cluttering the homepage.

The website’s redesign has undergone various changes since its initial debut over a month ago. The current version omits the black menu bar that runs horizontal along the top of the website, and it is now replaced by a gray Google logo. Upon clicking the new graphic, seven services under the search engine appear with an option to view 13 more services.

The core seven services in the trial design are Google Plus, Search, Images, Maps, YouTube, News, Gmail and Documents. The “More” tab below the vertical menu reveals options for Calendar, Translator, Mobile, Books, Music, Offers, Wallet, Shopping, Blogger, Reader, Finance, Photos, and Videos.

Google users can also change the background image of their homepage with the trial design, and they can access iGoogle or their Google Plus notification center and Settings options from the main search page.

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David Lawee, Google’s mergers and acquisitions chief, recently attended a GarageGeeks event at a rusty garage in a Tel Aviv Jaffa port to meet with Israeli startup owners seeking cash for ventures.

GarargeGeeks is an “Israeli based not-profit physical and virtual space for innovative and creative people to introduce, network, expose, create, brainstorm, innovate and build,” according to its website. “People that take part in the activities come from different disciplines such as electronics, software, mechanical, art, design, music, hacking and gaming.”

The organization essentially holds monthly events to promote building non-commercial projects and introduce local businesses to multinationals while located in Israel’s Holon Industrial Zone. The event’s garage is a 100-square meter space with machinery tools, electronic components, software developments and raw project materials.

“I’ve met about 100 Israeli companies in two days and that’s, like, super-efficient,” said Lawee to Bloomberg between corporate conversations at the speed-dating-style event. “When you make a connection with an entrepreneur who’s really excited, whether you do a deal with him or not, that’s kind of the juice of the job.”

Two weeks later, Google initiated a funding program for Israeli entrepreneurs as part of a recent acceleration in United States’ technology companies backing startups in late 2011.

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LG Electronics is poised to unveil the first Android smartphone with Intel’s Medfield SoC at the Consumer Electronics show next month.

“Intel’s chief executive Paul Otellini will release Intel’s first Android smartphone using our own platform at the CES,’’ said Intel Korea chief Lee Hee-sung to The Korean Times on Friday.

However, when contacted today, spokespersons for both companies refused to publically confirm the report, according to AndroidOs.

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Google celebrated its 1oth anniversary in Canada by doubling its staff and indicating hopes to have an even larger presence in 2012.

The company currently has 300 employees in four Canadian offices, in Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Montreal. Google’s global headcount was listed at 32, 353 in the third quarter of 2011.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine first moved north in 2001, and Head of Mobile Advertising Eric Morris was one of the first Google Canada employees to start work for the  North American sect.

“Canada is one of the fastest growing markets for Google and it’s one of our big bets corporately,” said Morris. “It’s a market that Google is very committed to and investing in heavily in terms of resources and growing very, very quickly.”

In 2002, according to Morris, Google projected that 70 percent of Canada’s population would be online by 2017. Canada reached 79 percent in 2010.

“In 2010, 93 percent of households with three or more people, as well as those with at least one member under the age of 18, had home Internet access,” reported a recent Canadian Internet Use Survey. “By contrast, 58 percent of one-person households had home Internet access.”

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Korean website ETNews (translated) published a story Dec. 23 claiming Samsung will use a quad-core processor for the Galaxy S III, and the company is working to include 3D technologies – not just 3D displays, but also 3D photo/video recording, and integration with 3D TVs.

This latest 3D rumor comes within a month of other reports that claimed Samsung was readying an improved version of the Exynos dual-core chip to enable next year’s devices with 3D stereoscopic displays and ultrahigh resolutions.

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LG’s latest smartphone collaboration with Italian luxury fashion label Prada — the LG Prada 3.0 — launched in South Korea today and will sashay over to most Asian and European countries in January.

Fashion-conscious, tech-savvy geeks in North America are next in line for the designer accessory, according to an LG Newsroom press release (translated), but there is no word on its release date, carrier or cost.

As for the glitz and glam of this fashionista device, Prada worked “hand-in -hand with LG to deliver the world’s most stylish smartphone, tailored to a discerning, fashion-conscious audience.” The smartphone’s official website elaborated and said the back cover’s Saffiano leather was implemented to be reminiscent of Prada’s leather goods.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsJtzPng5U&feature=player_embedded]

Google accelerated advertising for its social network by showcasing Jim Henson’s The Muppets in a new commercial about the Google Plus Hangouts feature.

The Muppets performed an impromptu band session as they rocked out to a cover of  “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie through a Google Plus Hangout. Google explained that Hangouts are the “best way” for users to say: “I’m online and want to hangout!”

A Hangout lets users “chill with friends that are scrolling the web,” “use live video chat,” or “coordinate plans.” In other words, the feature is essentially a hyped-up video conferencing capability through Google Plus. The multi-person video chat tool allows up to 10 participants to hang out for free.

Google recently released a trio of new television commercials that promote its social network by featuring Hangouts with the Muppets, NBA announcers, Steve Kerr, Spero Dedes, Bill Walton, Kenny Smith, and Jon Barry. This is not the first time Google collaborated with the The Muppets to advertise one of its products. There was another Muppets Hangout Nov. 7, and the search engine giant celebrated the 75th birthday of Muppet creator Jim Henson by forming an interactive Muppets’ logo for Google.

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Google renewed its search bar collaboration last week with Mozilla, effectively keeping Firefox in business, and the transaction has caused a Chrome engineer to come forth and defend the alliance.

According to The Mozilla Blog, Google paid just shy of $300 million per year to be the default choice in Mozilla’s Firefox browser. The total amount is almost $1 billion, a large leap from its previous arrangement, due to competing interest from both Microsoft and Yahoo.

Chrome engineer Peter Kasting spent Christmas Eve posting a Google Plus “rant” to discuss how misunderstood the transaction is amidst a firestorm of media reports that accuse the search engine giant of funding a web competitor.

Referencing MG Siegler’s Google Plus post on the matter, Kasting felt compelled to respond.

“People never seem to understand why Google builds Chrome no matter how many times I try to pound it into their heads,” wrote Kasting. ” It’s very simple: the primary goal of Chrome is to make the web advance as much and as quickly as possible. That’s it.”

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Halfbrick Studios’ “Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots” application is available today on Amazon as a free download for Android Devices. The temporarily discounted game is largely the same globally popular Fruit Ninja, but this version features the French furball from the last couple of “Shrek” movies.

The app initially debuted on Amazon Nov. 25 and normally costs 99-cents. The game currently has 70 customer reviews and a 4.5-star rating through the Amazon Appstore.

Users can “experience a new twist on classic Fruit Ninja gameplay” by choosing from Desperado or Bandito modes and getting encouragement from Puss in Boots. Gamers can also customize their blade (or claws), and post their high scores to become “the ultimate Puss in Fruits,” according to the app’s description.

The Amazon Appstore is only available to customers located in the United States.

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The United States Patent and Trademark office delivered a final rejection to Google at the expense of Oracle.

According to Groklaw, the USPTO issued the rejection Dec. 20 in the reexamination of Oracle’s U.S. Patent No. 6,192,476. Each claim of the patent was subject to reexamination, including Claim 14, which was the only claim asserted by Oracle in the litigation.

The USPTO rejected 17 of the 21 claims in the patent of discussion, including seven of the patent’s independent claims. Any response by Oracle seeking an appeal or reconsideration of this action is due Feb. 20.

Continue reading past the break for more background information on the Oracle vs. Google patent claims.

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(Image via The Dropbox Blog.)

The Dropbox Blog announced version 2.0 of its Android application Thursday. The free service lets users bring photographs, documents, and videos anywhere and share them easily, and now it completely redesigned its Android app while including many new features.

“Want to make sure a file is always on your phone?” asked Dropbox in a statement on its blog, regarding the service’s new Favorites feature. “Star it for quick offline access.”

Bulk upload is another highlight in the newly updated app. Users can “select multiple photos and videos to be uploaded in the background,” according to the service’s press release.

File renaming allows  -like it sounds- users to rename files and folders. Single-tap access lets users access any file or folder with a single tap. Moreover,  improved gallery view and exportation from local storage and stability improvements were all revealed as new features within the update.

The app also showcases Ice Cream Sandwich support, as it is “optimized for the newest and tastiest Android release yet.” Numerous bugs were also corrected in the second version.

Continue reading for more information on how to obtain complimentary storage space as a student. 

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Google's evolving Earth Day logo throughout recent years. The logo signifies the company's interest in green energy.

Google is ending 2011 with a green bang.

The technology giant made an investment that brought its total renewable energy investments to more than $915 million. Google announced this morning that it is injecting $94 million into four solar photovoltaic projects established near Sacramento, Calif. The portfolio projects are being built by solar development company Recurrent Energy.

“We’ve already committed to providing funding this year to help more than 10,000 homeowners install solar PV panels on their rooftops,” announced Recurrent Energy in a statement. The development company also released energy details through its press-release concerning expected electricity generation:

The four solar PV facilities included in the transaction will provide 88 MW of power to SMUD   and were the first to be awarded as part of the utility’s feed-­in tariff program (FIT) introduced in January 2010…The projects are expected to generate nearly 160,000,000 kWh in their first year of operation, which is roughly equivalent to offsetting the electricity consumption of more than 13,000 average U.S. homes.

The facilities serve the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.  Construction on three of the area projects will finish in early 2012, with the fourth completing later in the year. Global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., through a new venture called SunTap Energy, is co-investing in the projects alongside Google.

“The investment is a clear demonstration of solar’s ability to attract private capital from well-­ established investors like Google and KKR,” said Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy, in the blog post.  “This transaction provides an example of the direction solar is headed as a viable, mainstream part of our energy economy.”

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British Telecom is suing Google over  six alleged infringements that affect its services in a plethora of areas, including Android Market, Google Maps, Google Search, Google Music, Google Places, Google Offers, Google Plus and location-based advertising.

According to Florian Mueller’s news blog Foss Patents, the lawsuit was reportedly filed in the U.S. district court for Delaware.

BT is seeking damages and an injunction, and its complaint indicates Google refuses to pay. The second sentence of paragraph 21 in the action states: “BT brings this action to recover the just compensation it is owed and to prevent Google from continuing to benefit from BT’s inventions without authorization.”

Google contacted the Wall Street Journal Dec. 19 and issued a statement regarding the recent patent infringement allegations.

“We believe these claims are groundless and we will vigorously defend ourselves against them,” said Google to WSJ.

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Google Plus announced a “goodie basket” of functional features and big improvements for the upcoming New Year on its Official Google Blog today.

Bradley Horowitz, vice president of Google Plus product, posted the blog and claimed the new features were on everyone’s wish list.

The first feature mentioned is “Pump up (or down) the volume,” and through the addition, Google will enable users to fine-tune their streams.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VRakr5BgkB0]

“When viewing the stream for a particular circle, you’ll now see a slider at the top that lets you adjust how posts from that circle should be blended into the main stream,” wrote Horowitz in the blog post. “That way you’ll never miss a post from that special someone, and you can tweak these settings to form your own ‘perfect stream.’”

The first big improvement discussed in the blog is “More useful and attractive notifications,” and with it, Google offers sneak previews to allow users efficient social content navigation…
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Google landed in the top 5 places to work in 2012, alongside fellow technology giants Apple and Facebook, according to a new Glassdoor survey.

The fourth annual Employees’ Choice award highlights 50 of the best workplaces. The findings are measured through company employees’ survey responses on Glassdoor.com.

“The reviews are in,” said the career community website in its Dec. 14 press release. “Employees have spoken, revealing the best companies to work for in 2012; and, they love working at some of the biggest tech, science and management consulting companies in the nation…
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