Jake Smith

The Next Web is reporting that the US Government and Google are in talks over a contract that would license Google Apps to the whole US Government staff. The contract totals up-to $50 million dollars. The US Gov is also considering Microsoft’s productivity suite.

Microsoft’s suite could be considered pretty solid, but also pretty bland. Many corporations, and school districts, are currently using Microsoft’s suite. Some would say it’s in a good spot, but when compared to Google it just not up-to par (in my opinion). Many city governments are already using Google Apps.. so let’s call this a fair fight.

The US Government is currently reviewing the terms, and will soon select which company they’d like to side with. At any rate, both companies are probably opening their arms to $50 million, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

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Toshiba has announced their 7-inch tablet this afternoon, which will be available in December for ‘under $400’. The specs for the device are pretty nice:  a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of flash storage, Android 3.2, a 5-megapixel rear-shooter, 2-megapixel front-facing shooter, and 1280 x 800 display.

The little guy is also pretty light — only .88 lb. Check out This is my next’s hands-on above!

Along with the release of Firefox 7 on the desktop, Mozilla has released Firefox 7 for Android. Sadly, the mobile release doesn’t feature as many changes as the desktop, but we’re sure they’ll be more to come. Change log:

1. Improved copy and paste: Copy any site content and paste to other applications, SMS, or text fields
2. Built-in language detection on first run
3. WebSockets API: Powerful tool for Web developers to build responsive Web apps and sites

Hit up the download link after the break: (via Android Central)

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Announced at IFA this year, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 has yet to make its way into our hands, most likely due to on going legal battles. Tonight we have good news however; the Galaxy Tab 7.7 passed through the desk of the FCC this afternoon, giving us pretty nice diagrams of the device. There’s no indication of carrier bands in this instance. We’re sure there’s more to come, but in the mean time check out our hands-on of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 after the break:

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Analyst Experian Hitwise has published numbers saying Google Plus’s traffic has spiked 1269% this past week, since the service opened to everyone. Last week, Plus recieved 15 million visits rather than the on average 1 million.

The traffic spike was most likely helped out by Google’s blunt advertising for Plus. Experian Hitwise’s numbers don’t include mobile users (which probably isn’t much) or users from Google’s black bar. To compliment the amount of visitors Paul Allen has also been throwing out their that the social network is now up to 43 million users. (via ReadWriteWeb)

Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and the Samsung Player at their event this evening. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 features a dual-core processor, 6,100 mAh battery, 8.9-inch Gorilla Glass display, and Android 3.1 w/ TouchWiz. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is available for pre-order right now, and will be shipping October 2nd for $469.

Now to the good stuff: Samsung just unveiled their new personal media player, called the Samsung Player. The Player comes in both a 4-inch and 5-inch version, both featuring Android 2.3.5. The Player 4.0’s specs include a 3.2-megapixel rear-camera, VGA front-camera, and a 4-inch TFT display. The 5-inch version packs similar specs, except, well of course a 5-inch TFT display. Pre-orders begin September 27th, and the device will ship October 16th for $229/$269.

Reviews going up in the coming days, but for now check out some more images after the break:

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Droid-Life has published exclusive shots of the HTC Vigor which shows some pretty impressive specs for the upcoming device. According to a shot after the break, the Vigor is shown having a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch 720p HD display, 8-megapixel rear-facing, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and Verizon Wireless’s 4G LTE.

On the hardware side, the Vigor will feature Android 2.3.4 and Sense 3.5 (ugh). There’s no word on release date, but looks like a nice Thunderbolt successor, eh?

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Google has made a small tweak to their Google News algorithm, which will enable the news aggregator to display featured stories alongside their usual content. A publication can attempt to get their story featured by adding a certain metadata code, and if picked the story will then be recognized by a “featured” tag.

If a publication misuses the tag by adding it to stories more than seven times a week, the algorithm will learn to disregard or sometimes not even recognize the publication. We’d certainly hope they wouldn’t.

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Droid Life has gotten their hands-on exclusive pictures of Motorola’s successor to the Xoom, the Xoom 2. There’s not much in the way of specs, but we do know the device has an HDMI and micro USB port, physical buttons on the back, and a SIM card slot (probably LTE). After the break, you’ll notice that next to the camera is a HD logo. No word in way of carrier. More to come.

One more after the break:

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As noted by Search Engine Land, Google has released a new Product Search page — that actually looks pretty good. The main part of the website is dominated by an oversized image that lists promoted products. Besides the promoted products, the search functionality looks fairly familiar and lists prices and stores to buy from.

The new Product Search is taking the place of Google’s recently released Boutique. Google will be closing Boutique October 12th, and will redirect it to the new Product Search. Google also has implemented a new dress search category (seen after the break) that lets you to select color, price, and brand.

Looks stylish, Google.

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Paul Allen has released the latest number from his algorithm, which reveals that Google Plus has passed 43 million users. While these numbers are unofficial, Allen has been pretty accurate in the past. Allen’s algorithm is based on Plus surnames.

In the past, according to PlusHeadlines, Allen has been startlingly accurate:

• July 4th – 1.7 million users
• July 9th – 4.5 million users
• July 12 – 10 million users
• September 9th – 28.7 million users
• September 22nd – 43.4 million users

43 million users is certainly great for the young social network, but in comparison Facebook announced today that they get about 500 million users on a busy day. They’ve got some catching up to do. via The Next Web

Verizon has just announced the Pantech Breakout 4G LTE, which is available available right now. The Breakout is available for $99 on two-year contract, making for the first low-cost 4G LTE to hit the market. The specs are nothing spectacular, but pretty good for $99 combined with LTE. The phone features a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, microSD support with an 8 GB card included, a 4-inch 480×800 display, Gingerbread, 5-megapixel rear-shooter, and VGA front-facing shooter.

Of course the elephant in the room is that you can get just about any high end Android LTE phone at Amazon for almost free with a two year plan.

A couple more shots after the break:

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Google announced on the Gmail blog this afternoon, the ability to use the multiple sign-in feature on their mobile Gmail site. Multiple sign-in is currently a feature many of us enjoy on our desktops, so it’s great to see it land on the mobile platform too. You can switch between multiple accounts at the bottom of the page.

A feature we really like is that you can have multiple bookmarks to sign-in to specific accounts. For instance, a “personal” bookmark can sign-in to your personal email and a “work” bookmark can sign-in to your work email.

Also made available on mobile Gmail is email signatures and auto-reply. Just like the iPhone, and many other devices, if you respond from mobile Gmail it can have the signature “Sent from Gmail mobile” if you so choose — you can also pick something else. Auto-reply, or vacation responder, will let people that email you know when you’ll be able to reply. Check it out on your iPhone or Android device!

No, we did not photoshop that arrow in. In an effort to push Google Plus, which just went into public beta today, Google is now literally pointing to the Plus link with an arrow. Also, below the search box you will find a link to signup. With Google’s 1,100,000,000 pageviews a day (according to Website Outlook, so we’re not sure how accurate that really is) they’re bound to bring in some traffic. What are you waiting for; sign up!

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(Not an ad, The +1 button and recommendations will appear at the bottom of display ads.)

In October, Google will make the ability for AdSense publishers to incorporate +1 buttons into display ads public. For example, if someone sees an ad that offers something they enjoy, they can click the +1 button to share with their friends they like it. If their friends and contacts are logged in, they will see their friends who have +1 the ad (as seen above).

This new addition to advertising is bound to spark much more relevance in ads, and actually make them more enjoyable for users. Users can see what their friends enjoy, and in the end they will probably like it too. As always, if AdSense publishers don’t want a +1 button on their ad, they can opt out.

Google has posted more information on their Android Developers Blog this afternoon shedding more light on prepping Honeycomb apps for the release of Ice Cream Sandwich. Ice Cream Sandwich is due out in the coming months, as confirmed by Eric Schmidt. Google outlines the main problem that needs to be addressed is that Honeycomb apps are set to be on a larger screen, and since Ice Cream Sandwich will be on smaller screens there needs to be changes.

So, if you’ve developed a tablet app on Honeycomb, it’s important that your app do one of two things: prevent installation on smaller screens or (preferably) support smaller screens with the same APK.

Obviously, you could choose to only have your app run on a larger screen, but in most cases we’d imagine you’d want it compatible on both a small or big screen. We’ll save you from getting the code from us, so we’ll direct you to Google’s full post.

As noted by Digital Reader, the Amazon Appstore has begun to roll out to more countries worldwide including UK, Canada, South Africa, Venezuela. The Appstore offers a wide variety of Android apps, for those of you who don’t find the Market enough. To install the Appstore on your Android device, hit up this link. I think it’s safe to say that most countries are now on the list.

Let us know how it goes.

Samsung has just unveiled the webpage for the Galaxy Tab 8.9, which reveals pricing and more specs for the unreleased tablet. The 16GB Wi-Fi only tablet will be going for $469, and the 32GB Wi-Fi only going for $569. Specs for the device are a 8.9” WXGA (1280×800) display, Android 3.1, 3-megapixel rear-facing shooter, 2-megapixel front-facing shooter, Wi-Fi, and a 6100mAh battery. Currently, the Tab comes in a Metallic Gray.

Interestingly, the 8.9’s price is $30 less than the 10.1’s. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 will be hitting Best Buy stores Thursday, so make plans to hop in line. Check out a few more shots after the break:

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TechCrunch is reporting that Google Wallet will most likely launch tomorrow, citing the above document being sent to partners. Google said Wallet was on its way in the summer, yet we never saw it. Friday, Google also released a teaser for Wallet (seen after the break) that teased the payment service as coming soon. As it says above, Wallet is launching September 19th, most likely to coincide NFC World Congress which kicks off in France tomorrow.

Google Wallet is partnering with MasterCard, Citi Bank, Sprint, and First Data. Wallet will first be available in San Francisco and New York, using NFC and the Wallet app to be able to pay for goods from merchants. Stick with us tomorrow, and we’ll give you all the official details.

Teaser after the break:

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LG has teased their unannounced LU6200 this evening, which features spectacular specs close to the rumored HTC Incredible HD. The LU6200 (we’d prefer a nicer naming scheme) is rumored to be packing a 4.5-inch 720P HD display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, Gingerbread, LTE, 8-megapixel back-facing shooter, 1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter, and NFC. Pre-orders are rumored to start September 26th. (via Engadget)

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Google has posted their first Google Wallet ad on their YouTube page, featuring Seinfeld’s George Constanza. Constanaza and his exploding wallet have found out why they need the new payment service. But seriously Google, when’s this going to launch? (via TechCrunch)