Perhaps one of the better known OEMs for adding its own flavor to Android, Samsung says it has plans to beef up its software division in order to drive sales of its hardware. Kang Tae-jin, Samsung’s senior vice president of the Media Solution Center told Reuters in an interview : “The message we’re getting from the top is to raise software capability, and buy rather than build, if needed.” Assumedly, the deals would be further in-line with acquisitions like mobile cloud content service provider mSpot, a company Samsung acquired in May. Samsung used technology from mSpot to add to its Music Hub, which saw a major revamp around the same time that the Galaxy S III was announced earlier this year. Similar acquisitions look to be on the way.

The acquisitions would of course be executed by Samsung in order to better position its software in the market. Samsung adds heavily onto Android with its custom TouchWiz user interface, allowing it to compete with not only other Android OEMs, but also Apple. Like it did with mSpot, Samsung could also acquire larger companies to add to its smaller software features, and from the sounds of it, that looks like what the company is headed to do. Kang went on to say: “We want to grow the Music Hub to rank in the world’s top four services within three years in both revenue and subscriber numbers. And to shorten the time, we’re ready to do more acquisitions, if needed.” A service like Pandora, who is currently in a bit of financial trouble, sounds like a great choice. 
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Following the release of its new YouTube for iOS app, Google just announced an updated version of its YouTube for Android app this afternoon. The update includes a new UI along with video pre-loading for Froyo and Gingerbread devices. The pre-loading feature allows users to not only save battery and bandwidth but also load videos for later while experiencing a spotty connection. Video pre-loading has been available for Android 4.x devices since last summer.

Furthermore, with the update, users can add videos to their YouTube TV queue to allow for more organized viewing and “more channels to pick from on the Channel store.” You can check out the full change log below, or give the update a spin for yourself by downloading it from the Play store: [Google Play via Google Plus]

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Thanks to a new addition to Google’s Takeout service, YouTube users can now download all of their videos in one fell swoop. For those unfamiliar, Google’s Takeout service, which is a part of Google’s “Data Liberation Front,” allows users to download key data hosted by Google in one file. Data includes Google Docs, chat history, Picasa albums, and now YouTube videos. To download videos from Google Takeout, you simply visit the source link we provided below and begin downloading the videos in a few simple clicks without any transcoding whatsoever. How nifty! [Takeout via Data Liberation Blog]

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Update: As you can see to the right, Google Closed at close to 750, its highest mark ever.

Heading into the afternoon, Google’s stock price hit a record high of $748.90 at around 12:30 p.m. EST. Today’s record beats out Google’s previous record of $747.24 set in November of 2007, after which Google’s stock quickly fell. However, over the last month, it has been shooting upward, perhaps fueled by Google’s continued Android growth, solid ad sales, and  possibly some performance issues with Apple’s new Maps solution. At any rate, Google’s team is most likely celebrating their accomplishment. Who knows, it is still early in the afternoon, so maybe another record will be broken. [Google via BGR]

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Are you ready for the latest breakdown of Android’s performance ahead of Apple’s iPhone 5 event tomorrow afternoon? Android boss Andy Rubin just announced this evening that 500 million Android devices have been activated to date, which follows Eric Schmidt’s announcement of 480,000 devices last week. Rubin reiterated Schmidt’s announcement, claiming 1.3 million Android devices are being activated daily (70,000 of which are tablets). Last week, we calculated Google could hit a whopping 1 billion devices activated in a year’s time at its current growth. Tonight’s announcement was definitely interesting timing.

[tweet https://twitter.com/Arubin/status/245663570812100608]

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Are you ready for some more Motorola news? Motorola and Intel are holding a media event Sept. 18 in London, and we now know what is being revealed. According to Pocket-lint, which confirmed the news with Motorola at the New York City event this afternoon, Motorola and Intel will unveil the Motorola Razr M in the United Kingdom. It will pack an Intel chip, rather than a Qualcomm chip that the United States variant has. Being in separate markets, the device will also be rebranded. However, it will rock the same overall design. This will be Intel’s first dive with Motorola, which will use a variant of the Intel Medfield chip. The partnership was announced at CES 2012 in January, and we have seen several leaks since then. I am sure the U.K. folks will be ready to grip the “edge-to-edge” design. Pricing is not yet known (we are assuming close to $99); but hey, Sept. 18 is not too far off and you bet your extra dollar that we will have you covered. Check out the Razr M’s full specs from our event coverage this afternoon.

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Samsung may have received the tipping point of technology lawsuits recently, but the South Korea-based technology firm is ready to deal them out too. Yonhap News reports this morning that Samsung’s display sector has filed documents in a South Korea court, in hopes of gaining an injunction on LG display for allegedly using display technology that was leaked from Samsung. The technology is said to be leaked by eleven Samsung employees, who were fired in July from the firm for leaking display technology to its rival. Samsung now believes that LG has stolen the technology and is now using it in its display technology.

According to the report, Samsung is hoping to gain damages of 1 billion won (US $880,514) for each 18 confidential technologies for its OLED displays and 21 other details on the matter that were allegedly leaked. Samsung released a statement on the matter, saying “LG Display has consistently acquired our OLED technologies and other business secrets by inducing our researchers to transfer.” There’s no word on when the case will enter the court, but you bet we’ll be following the story. [Yonhap]
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Amazon has a media event planned for Sept. 5 in Los Angeles, and what the company might unveil may be coming into full view thanks to new rumors. The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon that Amazon is currently developing an ad-supported Kindle Fire, according to sources “involved in discussions on the device.” The new ad-supported Fire is said to be cheaper than the current $199 model, which could be a sure-buy for customers wanting to purchase a tablet on the cheap. Amazon will allegedly display an ad for a product or service when the device  awakens to make up for the discount and potentially make some big bucks. Specs were not given in the report.

The Wall Street Journal is not set on whether the ad-supported Fire will be unveiled at next week’s event. However, what seems to be an almost sure bet is that the Kindle Fire 2 has begun to come full-circle over the past few days. We got a look yesterday at alleged press shots for the tablet, toting a webcam and mic for video chatting. Of course, nothing is for sure until Amazon steps on stage next week, and you bet we will have you covered. [WSJ]

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If you are one of those heavy-downloading types, you will be happy to learn this evening that Google Play was updated with a new “Recommended for You” section. It is straightforward and works close to how Genius does on iOS, providing recommendations on apps that Google Play thinks you should download. The section can be accessed via Google Play’s different categories; offering up suggestions from what is popular with similar users, +1’d by your Google+ friends, and apps that are popular in your area. Find something on the list you don’t like? You can easily get rid of it from the recommendation list with the hide button. Find something you do like? Well…you know the rest. [Android Central, Image via Droid Life]

This afternoon, The Verge posted a purported image of Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire that is set to be announced next week. The Verge posted two more images of the upcoming Fire to follow up this evening. They rock the same notch at the top, which appears to be a microphone, along with a camera for video chatting. Furthermore, you will notice the Skype instance being run on screen, which we assume is just downloaded form the Amazon Appstore. Other than the camera and mic, all looks to be similar to the original Kindle Fire that was released last fall.

It is not clear at this point if Amazon will release a 7- and a 10-incher, as several reports have mentioned. It looks like we will just have to wait and see at Amazon’s media event Sept. 5, which we will be covering in full. And hey, while on the subject, Amazon revealed earlier today that it “sold out” of the popular Kindle Fire. It is looking like a good time for the Kindle brand, huh? You can see the charger image below: [The Verge]

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At its Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple announced it was moving to its own mapping solution in lieu of Google Maps —a platform the company has used since 2007. According to a report by Reuters this evening, Amazon looks to make a similar move for its upcoming second-generation Kindle Fire. Moving away from Google Maps, Amazon will reportedly team with Nokia to offer maps on the tablet.

Amazon is expected to introduce the second-generation Kindle Fire at its event next week. It is rumored to feature a GPS chip that will make mapping capabilities possible, thus making sense for a partnership. We assume Amazon ditched the idea of Google because of Mountain View’s direct competition in the market. Google offers a $199 Nexus 7 tablet, priced competitively with the Kindle Fire, but since the Kindle Fire is a custom version of Android, it seems a little odd that Google would be left in the dust. However, business is business. Microsoft announced earlier this summer that it was ditching its own mapping platform for Nokia maps in Windows 8. Amazon wants some of that Nokia Kool-Aid. We will be covering next week’s event to let you know what is official.

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In an update this evening for the Google Search for Android app, the folks in Mountain View included some goodies for the Jelly Bean-exclusive Google Now. Users can now see movie showtimes, receive important emergency alerts (storm warnings, etc.), and set their favorite sports teams from a list of 140 to get the latest scores thanks to the latest update. Furthermore, if you are a Korean user, you will be happy to learn that the oh-so creepy voice-search platform has received an update for your language. Go check out the new cards and report back! (Note: Some of them will need to be manually turned on through the settings menu.) [Google Play via +Android]

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It was rumored earlier this year that Google looked to sell Motorola’s set-top box and television equipment business. Google is continuing its plans to sell, as Bloomberg reported this afternoon. The Mountain View-based company has hired firm Barclays to look for buyers. Google is said to be looking for up to $2 billion in the deal, but the sale is in its very early stages so the exact terms are not clear.

Since Google and Motorola’s $12.5 billion deal went official this summer, Motorola has gone through several changes company-wide. The most notable change was when up to 4,000 employees were laid off…on top of 30 of Motorola’s 90 facilities worldwide being shut down. Furthermore, there have been several executive changes as the company looks to get back into creating some serious mobile devices. Selling off their television business may help them reach that goal with extra cash in hand. [Bloomberg] 
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Getting the show started at IFA 2012, Samsung announced before its event later this evening new SD and microSD cards complete with some serious speeds. There are several versions available, ranging in different speeds, from 16GB of storage all the way up to a hefty 64GB card that can pack 80MB/40MB per second on the SD version and 70MB/20MB per second on the microSD version. The new cards will be available mid-October. You can check out the complete graph explaining the different speeds and sizes, below:
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