We certainly knew Motorola’s Droid Bionic was on its way to Verizon, but a price was uncertain until now. Android Central has found Verizon’s unreleased Droid Does product page for the Bionic that shows the 4G device at $299 on a two year contract. Ouch! Still no release date, but we’re shooting for early August. Make sure to check out the specs after the break.
Google has released an update to their calling feature inside of Gmail, allowing users to make multiple calls. If you’re on a call and make another call, the current call will be put on hold and you can switch between the calls with the resume button. Even better, when getting an incoming call while on another you can put the current call on hold.
This new feature works on voice, video, and phone calls. If a call is placed to a physical phone number there can only be two calls at once. How long until you can conference calls and do everything else a phone can do? Bye bye telephone!
In order to grow their social network, Google has put together a ‘celebrity acquisition plan’ reports CNN. The plan revolves around Google adding a verification process to Google+ for celebrities, keeping out the impersonators. This is very similar to Twitter’s ‘verified account’ feature many celebrities and public figures have taken advantage of.
Besides celebrity accounts, Google has been working hard on getting businesses to join their social network. Google opened up a registration for companies interested in getting a company page just a few weeks ago. Perhaps presence of celebrities and businesses will grow Google+ to new heights.
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Wall Street Journal is reporting Google is winding down their Labs website – a site where users can test new products. Last week, Larry Page said Google would put “more wood behind fewer arrows”, meaning they wouldn’t put as many resources behind smaller products. Some might consider Labs a smaller product. WSJ notes some popular Labs products:
Many popular products had their start in Google Labs, including Google Alerts, which send people email updates when the search engine indexes websites containing certain information or news; Google SMS, which allowed people to do a search on their mobile device by texting their query to “Google,” or 466453; and Google Maps, one of the most important Google assets, also got its start in the labs site, in 2005.
For those of you who use Labs this is a sad day … this is a new Google.
In order to acquire more patents, Wall Street Journal is reporting Google is in talks with InterDigital regarding an acquisition. In past weeks, Google lost the bidding war against Nortel, which would of landed the company numerous amounts of patents. Currently, Google has a small portfolio of patents which could lead to lawsuits over Android. For Google, the only logical thing is to acquire more. As CNet notes:
“We continue to be optimistic about the prospects for the company under its current business plan,” Terry Clontz, InterDigital’s chairman, said in a statement. “That said, over the past year we have seen the value of intellectual property rise substantially as major players in the mobile industry increasingly understand the strategic and economic value of this type of asset.”
As of now these talks with InterDigital are preliminary and no price has been set. Apple is also rumored to be involved.
The Galaxy S II has seen much success in Europe, and we’ve seen leaks pointing to its arrival in the great states. During a South Korean media event yesterday, Samsung’s chief of mobile business division confirmed our suspicion, saying the phone will land in August. Will we see the European version or the ‘Samsung Within’?
The latest Chrome Canary and Dev build now features updated multiple profile support, which was once a rough feature. As you can see in the screenshot above, you can have a number of profiles which can be switched between each other easily and feature their own icon. Profiles don’t have to be linked to a Google account and when signing into another profile you no longer have to restart Chrome. This is a neat little feature we hope makes its way into ChromeOS. To try it out, visit about:flags and enable multiple profiles.
If found in their data center’s servers, Google will now notify you if you have malware running on your computer when making a Google Search. Google announced the new feature today, and hopes to use their vast wealth of information to make this effective. Google explains:
Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers. After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software, or “malware
Obliviously this won’t pick up every single piece of malware out there, but it’s a nice little addition to an already great search platform.
Undergraduate students from universities across the U.S. and Canada spent a week at Android Camp, Google’s “Android Development 101” course. The program was somewhat like an internship. Students, most of which who are in school for computer science, spent the week at Google’s Mountain View campus and got hands-on help from engineers. Students were assigned teams and began to hammer away at creating an Android app. Google notes a few of the applications developed:
At the end of the week, each group presented its application to other Android campers and Google engineers. Applications spanned a variety of categories: recipeBEAR provides people with a list of meal recipes based on ingredients they have on hand; Blazin’ Contacts uses QR codes to automatically collect contact information from a large group of people and input it into your mobile device; OnTime combines Google Maps with the device’s alarm to help people gauge how much time they’ll need to arrive somewhere; The Shake Race, as you may imagine, was the most entertaining of the bunch—group members demonstrated the game by shaking their Xoom Tablets furiously to race their characters across the screen.
This new program is going to be annual for college freshman and sophomores. Sign-ups for next year’s camp will go up in November.
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Michael Dell hosting a hangout
GigaOm is reporting that Michael Dell, Dell’s CEO and chairman, wants to use Google+ Hangouts for customer service. Michael Dell has used Hangsouts more than a dozen times to connect with customers, showing he’s a fan of the service and he yesterday said on Google+:
I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?
As of now Google+ is in an invite only beta, so this idea couldn’t be executed yet. But this is certainly some good thinking.
Rooted OS Cyanogenmod has hit 506,046 users according to its stats page. The half-million number comes from 378,4440 official installs and 127,606 unofficial installs. With the amount of Android phones out there, we’re pretty surprised at how low this number is. The top devices include:
- HTC Desire 70,630
- HTC EVO 4G 39,654
- Motorola Defy 28,956
- Nexus One 26,707
- Motorola Droid 21,335
What HiFi is reporting that Android has surpassed the iPhone as the top smartphone in the UK, coming from a market research group called Kantar Worldpanel. The growth is due in part to first time smartphone users, not necessarily those switching between platforms. In June alone, Android rose almost 35%, while the iPhone fell almost 12%. We’re assuming much of Android’s success is from the Galaxy S II, who has seen tremendous sales in Europe as well as Android’s numerous, cheap, offerings.
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Android Central has received more information regarding the Epic 4G lookalike headed to Verizon. The QWERTY slider appears to be running Android 2.3.4 and now it also appears that this device will be a LTE phone – as seen on the top right of the device.
Like the Epic 4G, this one will sport a 5-megapixel back camera and 1.3-megapixel front camera. The QWERTY keyboard has a few differentiating factors from the Epic 4G: an internet shortcut key and the movement of the Fn and Shift keys. This device will likely launch on Verizon soon under the Galaxy S branding. Another shot of the phone, below:
Verizon has launched a sign-up page for their upcoming Motorola LTE phone, the Droid Bionic. The Bionic was announced at CES in January, but had some flaws that needed ironing out. On the sign-up page Verizon says the phone will be available this summer (which is half over already). We reported August 4th could be the launch date — could this still be the case? Head over to Verizon to sign-up and get updates, or just stick to 9to5Google.
This is my next has received exclusive photographs of a Samsung Galaxy S II-esque phone with all the markings (literally) of a Sprint phone. While seeing much success across Europe, the Galaxy S II has yet to hit the U.S shores, but we are expecting it, or a varient, soon. The device photographed above is expected to be Sprint’s version of the Galaxy S II, packing a 8-megapixel camera and the texture that the Galaxy S II currently has. There is also word that the phone in the shot above is running Android 2.3.4. This is my next mentions that this device could be called the Samsung Within, instead of Galaxy S II. Whatever the name might be, all we want is this beautiful piece of hardware.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cWYZculurU]
Can Google’s search UI get any better? Yes!
Google Operating System is reporting Google is testing an infinite scrolling feature on their search page. As you can see in the video above — the navigation bar, the search box, and the search options sidebar stays fixed at the top as the user continues to scroll down. Google is also testing a new page preview UI, requiring you to hover over the magnifying glass to see the preview.
Sprint is now offering the Nexus S 4G for $99 on a two year contract. The Nexus S 4G packs Android 2.3, 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, NFC technology, 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen, and 16GB of built in memory — making this arguably Sprint’s best phone. You may also be interested in HTC Evo 4G and HTC Evo Shift 4G, which are also available for $99.
A new Chrome Extension called GTools+ allows you to customize Google+ to your liking. The extension features many customizations — like moving Chat to the Google Bar, adding an unread counter for Gmail and Reader, language translation for posts from your foreign friends, and the ability to keep the Google Bar at the top of the page when you scroll down. GTools+ is available on the Chrome Web Store. All of GTools+’s features:
- Unified Google bar, your personalized menu is possible on all Google services! - Stick the Google+ bar always on top when you scrolling - Prevent open in new tab or window when you click on link inside the Google+ bar - Change the position of the chat for put in the Google+ Bar - Change the color of the notification bubble in the Google+ bar - Right click on the extension icon for go to the options page fastest - Add a translation link in the context menu (auto detect the post language) - Add notification for Gmail and Reader in the Google Bar. - Edit the color of any notification bubble.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting Amazon will be selling a tablet by October, to compete with Apple’s iPad. While the details are sketchy as of now, WSJ is saying the tablet will have a 9-inch screen and will run Android. Oddly enough, the tablet will not feature a back camera. Lastly, Amazon won’t be building the tablet themselves, but will outsource to a manufacturer in Asia.
Amazon’s tablet will have a roughly nine-inch screen and will run on Google’s Android platform, said people familiar with the device. Unlike the iPad, it won’t have a camera, one of these people said. While the pricing and distribution of the device is unclear, the online retailer won’t design the tablet itself. It also is outsourcing production to an Asian manufacturer, the people said. One of the people said the company is working on another model, with Amazon’s own design, that could be released next year.
There will also be two eReaders before Christmas, one touch and one at a significantly reduced cost. Along with the tablet in October, there is word that we can be seeing another tablet designed by Amazon themselves in 2012.
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TechCrunch is reporting that Google is hiring numerous amounts of lawyers in order to acquire more patents. Currently Google only owns 701 patents, a very small number for such a large company. In contrast Microsoft was awarded 3,121 patents just last year. Google will continue to get slammed with lawsuits if they don’t acquire more patents.
On its Job page, Google is listing six open positions involving patents . TechCrunch points one out:
For example, the strategic patent licensing and acquisitions manager evaluates and values potential patent acquisition and licensing opportunities, and negotiates these deals (a.k.a. finds more patents for Google).
Perhaps Google will go after Richard “Chip” Lutton Junior, the chief patent counsel that just left Apple yesterday.
While most apps size up well on most of Android’s tablets and larger smartphones, the Android team has announced a new feature that will allow users to size apps that won’t quite fit their screen. Any Android app on the Market that doesn’t target a larger screen through code will get this new feature.
To enable this functionality, developers need to add one line of code: android:xlargeScreens=”true”.
If a larger screen target can’t be found, Android will enable the feature in the bottom right of the device. Users can either select “stretch to fill screen” or “zoom to fill screen”. Since larger 1080P Google TVs run Android, this is a great feature to have. Also, does this help or hurt Android fragmentation?
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmZ7hYY24U]
Regardless of your politics, this is interesting. Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich talked with a group over Hangout — taking questions and even asking them. Among other topics, Newt talked space to the debt ceiling, and someone was nice enough to post a video recap. This is an incredible tool for politicians to use, and we expect more to hop on as the election nears.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pbo-d62ivY]
Google has announced that a new Android Market is coming to Android phones. Along with an overall redesign, the new Market will be receiving a Book and Movie tab. The updated Market is available for phones running Android 2.2 and up, and will be rolling out in the coming weeks.
Movies will be available in the U.S. for $1.99, where they can be downloaded right on the Android phone. We assume Books will be priced book-to-book, like almost all e-book stores. Movies and Books will be linked to your Google account, so all of your Android devices will be in sync. Check out screenshots after the break.
The new Android Market will be rolling out in the coming weeks to Android 2.2 and higher phones around the world. You don’t need to do anything – the update is automatic on supported phones. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll also be able to download the Videos app, rent movies, and buy books once you receive the new Android Market.
AT&T announced at a media event today that Sony’s Xperia Play will be available on their network. AT&T didn’t give an exact date or pricing, but said that the Play will land on its shelves by the end of the year. AT&T’s Xperia Play will be running Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, making it the second 2.3 phone on AT&T’s network alongside the Status (OK, that’s sad). Also, AT&T’s Xperia Play will bring support for 21Mbps HSPA+ 3G and a new “Stealth Blue” color option. No word if AT&T will change up pre-loaded games from the Verizon/international versions.