Jordan Kahn

After just announcing their third quarter 2011 financial results, Google execs are now breaking down the stats in a live conference call. Starting off with some statistics on their most important new products, Google gives us some interesting numbers on the growth of Google+ and Android during Q3.

Describing the growth in Q3 in one word, “gangbusters”, Larry Page noted the service had grown to 40 million users, with 3.4 billion photos uploaded by users, and over a 100 features introduced in just 90 days. He also talked about plans for Google+ to “transform” the Google experience by baking sharing and identity into all their products saying, “last quarter we shipped the +, now were going to ship the Google part”. He continued:

“The new visual redesign–beautiful, consistent UIs for search, news, maps, translate and lots of other features. It’s only the beginning of that process!”

We also learned some numbers on Android with 190 million device activations, 2.5x user growth in the past 12 months, and $2.5 billion in mobile ad revenue . They also touched on the “Soon to be released” Ice Cream Sandwich release saying, “You wont believe what we’ve managed to get done”.

The company also announced their Google Offers service is now rolled out to eleven cities.

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9to5Google has just received an invitation from Samsung confirming an October 19th date for the Google/Samsung media event originally slated for CTIA in San Diego this week but delayed due to the passing of Steve Jobs. The invitation email confirms reports from yesterday that the event, which will be dedicated mostly to unveiling Ice Cream Sandwich and hopefully the Nexus Prime, would be moved to Hong Kong on the 19th. We’ll have someone on the scene in Hong Kong and to bring you updates as they happen next week.

The Samsung/Google media event has been rescheduled to take place on October 19 in Hong Kong, China at S221 Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. The event starts at 10:00 a.m. HKT with doors opening at 9:30 a.m. HKT. The event livestream will be available at YouTube.com/Android at 10 p.m. EST on October 18 for U.S. media who cannot attend the event.
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Google just pushed out an update to the Google Translate app for Android that brings 14 new languages to the Conversation Mode speech-to-speech feature that was previously only supported in English and Spanish.

Languages included in the update– Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Turkish, Polish, Russian, French, Italian, German, Czech, Dutch, and Brazilian Portuguese. The updates also packs in a few other enhancements including the ability to edit your original speech recording before translating it. Other features include a personal dictionary for custom and unidentified words, and the ability to pinch to zoom the translation.

Tablet users running Android will definitely want to grab the update, as it also includes an optimized UI better suited for larger screens. You can grab the Google Translate update now for devices running Android 2.2 and up (if it isn’t live for you yet, keep checking, it will be soon).

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In what looks like Toughbook tech for tablets, Panasonic Japan has announced a new lineup of rugged, built for business Android tablets.

The two models to debut in the BizPad tablet line include the 7-inch BizPad JT-580VT and the 10.1-inch BizPad JT-581VT. Both tablets, according to TechCrunch, are water-, dust-, and shock-proof, with the 10.1-inch model able to absorb impacts from up to an 80cm fall, and 120cm for the 7-inch.

The BizPad T-581VT(above) sports a 10.1-inch 1024×800 LCD display, built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, a 1.3-megapixel camera, weighs in at 700g. We aren’t sure when the device will be landing stateside, but Japanese users will get their hands on in January of next year.

The 7-inch T-581VT BizPad model (below) packs in 3G capabilities, a 5-megapixel camera, and a 7-inch 1024×600 resolution LCD display, built-in 802.11a/b/g/n, and weighs in at 400g. It’s doesn’t look as pretty as many of the other Android tablet alternatives, or even the 10.1-inch BizPad, but certainly looks like it can handle some abuse. This model will hit Japan in December.

Features included in both devices:

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While the Google Wallet app is still only available to Nexus S 4G users on Sprint, version 1.0-R33v4 brings Offers directly within Wallet, updated UI for the transaction detail screen, and a number of other small enhancements as well as the typical bug fixes.

Google Wallet, which allows users to make payments via Google Prepaid Cards or Citi MasterCard using their Android device at any MasterCard PayPass terminal, will hopefully soon start to become accessible on more devices as new supported hardware gets released this year. You can check out a full list of what’s new in the update after the break.

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Google TV might not have received a Honeycomb update as of yet, but Android developers can now at least begin porting their Android apps with the final release of the Google TV add-on for the Android SDK.

While the impending Honeycomb update will essentially run Android apps with little or no tweaking, the Google TV add-on allows devs to access to TV specific APIs such as accessing channel guides. However, as Android Community notes, the majority of apps won’t be displayed in the watered down version of the Market which will land on Google TV with Honeycomb. The scaled back Google TV Android Market will filter out any apps that rely on touchscreen controls.

As of yet there is only an emulator for Google TV available to developers running Linux, but OS X and Windows support is said to be coming. You can download the finished Google TV add-on for the Android SDK here.

A couple weeks back Google TV’s director of Content, Donagh O’Malley, claimed the update Honeycomb could come “within the next three or four weeks”.

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If you’ve ever wanted to run Android apps on your PC, you’ll definitely want to check out BluesStacks App Player, which is now in alpha and available as a free download here.

BlueStacks is currently only Windows compatible (Mac version coming soon), and is limited to around 36 apps. Ten apps will come pre-installed including Bubble Buster, Pulse, Bloomberg News, Drag Racing, and six others. You can then install 26 more, as well as sync apps directly from your Android handset.

According to CNET, the app’s run in a “full-screen virtualized version of the Android” OS. However, if the Windows machine you’re running isn’t touch based, expect the touch controls mapped to mouse gestures to be a little sketchy. Either way, this is definitely the best option yet for running Android apps on your PC and the company plans on making it a lot better soon.

A BlueStacks App Player Pro (a paid version) is also going to be made available soon, bringing with it the ability to access premium apps such as Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, and Cut The Rope, as well as install an unlimited number of apps. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more about BlueStacks App Player Pro. Until then, you can take a look at an early build of the BlueStacks App Player in action below.

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What’s so special about this photo of an Apple retail store? Other than the touching memorial to Steve Jobs, the image was apparently snapped with Google’s yet to be unveiled Nexus Prime.

Discovered on Picasa via Google+ user Chris Yerga (who works on the “Android team at Google) and Google engineer Roman Kirillov, the images originally posted here and here have since been removed.

We don’t learn a whole lot from the EXIF data. First, it looks like the device might be branded “Galaxy Nexus” rather than Nexus Prime. It also lists a 0.041 second (1/24) exposure, and f/2.75 aperture. While the images were resized by default to 3-megapixels by Picasa, we know the device is rumored to sport an 8-megapixel full 1080p capable camera.

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Bizztrust is essentially a customized version of Android created by the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) and Fraunhofer trade group specifically to bring BlackBerry-like business class security to Android users.

With Bizztrust for Android installed, applications are then installed into one of two partitions– “work” and “personal”. Users can quickly swipe between either partition using an onscreen toggle baked into the UI. Of course, a business’s IT team will control anything installed on the “work” partition, while the end user will have full control of their “personal” partition. Any content installed on the work partition is also automatically scanned before a user is granted access to the company network and any transferred data is automatically encrypted. If an issue is detected prior to the user joining the network, any apps related to the issue will be disabled.

Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi of CASED says Bizztrust “significantly improves the security of today’s mobile terminals at no cost to user-friendliness.” If successful, this could be a huge hit to RIM’s quickly decreasing market share which still greatly relies on business users, as the Blackberry’s security features are often its only selling point.

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Wondering what that space inspired YouTube logo is all about? As part of the YouTube EDU program, Google today announced YouTube Space Lab, a new initiative and competition encouraging students to create concepts for science experiments that can be performed in space.

In partnership with Lenovo, NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Space Lab was created essentially as a one stop shop for students and teachers interested in learning about space.

Perhaps the most important section of the YouTube Space Lab is “The Competition”. Open to users 14-18 years old, the basics of the comp is to encourage kids to create a science experiment that can be carried out in space. To enter, you create a YouTube video explaining the experiment (you don’t actually have to perform the experiment in your submission) and upload it to the Space Lab. Examples of submissions can be seen here and here.

A selection of winning submissions will have their experiment conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and also broadcast live on YouTube. Then, whoever is crowned the “global winner” will receive a trip to watch their experiment blast off in the rocket in Japan, or take cosmonaut training in Russia when you’re 18 years of age. The winner will also receive a trip to Washington, DC and a ZERO-G flight experience, and a Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook. Winners will be selected by a panel of scientists and experts, including Professor Stephen Hawking.

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According to a tipster (via Phandroid), the image above is an internal presentation on “smartphone evolution”, which shows Samsung’s Galaxy S roadmap and stops with an image for the yet to be announced “Galaxy S III” in 2012.

The image clearly shows specs for the device including a 4.6-inch SuperAMOLED Plus HD display, dual-core 1.8GHz Exynos 4212 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 12-megapixel main camera. Of course the report also notes the obvious– the device will be thinner and lighter than the S II, but also mentions the overall design will be altered to avoid further design related litigation (with Apple). Other notables mentioned in the report include NFC and LTE capabilities, and a W750 BSI CMOS camera sensor.

Surprisingly, the device will apparently keep it’s four hardware buttons, which wouldn’t be required for the Android Ice Cream Sandwich build it’s expected to run.

This document could very well turn out to be a fake, as we have no way of confirming it at this point. If it turns outs to be real, it will be pretty impressive to see specs on smartphones approaching those of entry-level notebooks as early as 2012. 

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Motorola has begun sending out invites for an upcoming October 18th media event that most are speculating will be Razr related. However, it might be a little more than just speculation, as Motorola also dropped the teaser vid above with imagery clearly hinting at the Razr.

The video was uploaded with the caption “four reasons to get excited”, leading many to believe we might actually get a look at four new products.

We’re not sure exactly how to read into some of the imagery. The “42” could simply be a reference to the device being the ultimate answer to everything. Thisismynext thinks the bullet imagery in the teaser vid is a hint at the kevlar casing spotted on the Motorola Spyder (Droid Razr?). That device is a 4G LTE capable, includes a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, HD front facing camera, supports 1080p video recording via n 8-megapixel main camera, and runs Webtop. There’s a good chance we might get a look at Spyder or similar variant on the 18th.

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Verizon and Samsung have put out a press release this morning announcing the Samsung Stratosphere (Galaxy S variant), a business minded Epic 4G looking handset slated for an October 13th release.

If you’re business user that just cant seem to abandon the physical keyboard, the Stratosphere is probably one of your better options. As the first 4G LTE capable smartphone with a slide-out landscape QWERTY keyboard, it packs in a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, 5-megapixel main camera and 1.3-megapixel, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The QWERTY keyboard is definitely not the only feature that makes the Stratosphere ideal for the business user. Samsung also built-in Cisco’s “enhanced B2B-enabled connectivity services”,  Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, and support for Global Address List (GAL), device and storage card encryption, remote wipe, and complex passwords.

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UK users are waking up to a ton of new content courtesy of Google and, specifically, courtesy of the YouTube rental service previously only available in the U.S. and Canada.

With over 1,000 titles to choose from, the service will offer 48 hour retails ranging from £2.49 to £3.49. It’s of course available via the “Movies” link in the upper right of YouTube, but is also accessible through Google TV, Android tablets and certain smartphones running Honeycomb.

From the Official YouTube blog:

We’ve got some cracking films to keep everyone entertained through the upcoming winter months and beyond. From blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs, to new releases such as Hanna, Fast Five, and Red Riding Hood, and even British classics like Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels…

UK customers can head over to youtube.com/movies to check it out. 
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With those Ice Cream Sandwich screenshots this morning, and all the Nexus Prime hype, it was only a matter of time before we got our first look at the Google super phone on video (via Gadget.ro). We don’t learn a whole lot from the video, but it’s a nice first glimpse at ICS running on the Prime.

Unfortunately, Samsung and Google have postponed their October 12th media event, pushing the unveiling of the Prime back to an unspecified date. We’ll keep you posted, but until then check out the video above and the latest rumored specs here.

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BGR claims to have got their hands on Nexus Prime specs from a “trusted source”. While many of the specs including a 4.65-inch 1280 x 720p Super AMOLED display seem accurate, we are on the fence about others such as the 5-megapixel backside camera. The report also mentions curved glass for the display, which was shown in the latest teaser video (image above), and a 9mm thin design. It also seems to confirm the device will be branded “Samsung Galaxy Nexus”, rather than its Nexus Prime codename, and be landing exclusively on Verizon in the U.S.

Some of the specs mirror those rumored in the past including a TI OMAP 4460 dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, HSPA/LTE capabilities, NFC support, and a 1,750 mAh battery.

The report also claims to have confirmed the device will be a “pure Google experience” and not run TouchWiz or any third-party customizations on top of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) when it’s unveiled next week.

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Google has just pushed out an update to the Google Docs app for Android, bringing with it a ton of enhancements specifically for tablets.

The update includes a completely redesigned UI with a three-panel view (above) better suited for the larger screen. Using the three-panel view, you will now be able to see filters and collections on the far left, all of your documents in the middle, and information about the selected document on the right. The document details panel on the far right provides you with a thumbnail preview of the document and who currently has permission to view and or edit it.

Also new in this version is an “improved sharing experience” with autocomplete, portrait and landscape modes, and improved video playback.

The update is available in 46 languages to all tablet wielding Android 3.0 users now from the Android Market.

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The image above is a courtesy of Google+ user Joe Lancaster. He took the freeze frame from Samsung’s Nexus Prime teaser video released this morning and created this graphic indicating what he think’s is a hint at the device docking into a tablet of sorts.

It’s of course possible he is reading into the “something big is coming” and “perfect combination” slogans in the video a little too much. The “perfect combination” could easily be referring to Samsung and Google’s partnership.

Perhaps the most evidence comes from the three gold pin connectors visible in the video and image that many have speculated could be connected to a new landscape docking system. Essentially, the theory is the Nexus Prime would dock into and power tablet or laptop-like accessories, something like the Asus Padfone.

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According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins just approved Google’s $700 million purchase of travel data company ITA Software Inc., only after Google agreed to certain conditions.

What are the conditions? Google will have to provide travel data to rival search-engines and also allow government review of any complaints raised related to unfair practices regarding the acquisition and resulting services.

The tech acquired by Google through the ITA purchase just went into a new travel search service launched in select cities early last month.

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Google announced on their LatLong blog this morning that, since being first introduced in 2005, Google Earth has now been downloaded over one billion times. This number includes downloads on the desktop client, as well as mobile apps and the Google Earth plug-in.

As part of the celebration, Google has put together OneWorldManyStories.com, a collection of stories from Google Earth users using the technology in interesting ways. The site is essentially just a Google Earth map with pins highlighting stories others have submitted related to their experiences with the technology. You can also use the timeline below the map to explore how users have utilized Google earth over the years or click “Share your Story” to share your own experience. You’ll of course first need to install the Google Earth Plug-in if you haven’t already.

Congrats Google Earth!

Visit www.OneWorldManyStories.com to learn about people like Professor David Kennedy of the University of Western Australia, who’s used Google Earth to scan thousands of square kilometers in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Professor Kennedy has discovered ancient tombs and geoglyphs dating back at least 2,000 years, all without leaving his desk in Perth. Architect Barnaby Gunning, after the April 6, 2009 earthquake near L’Aquila Italy, encouraged his fellow citizens to start rebuilding the city virtually in 3D.

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Samsung has just released the teaser video above showing what most people are assuming is our first official glimpse at the Nexus Prime. While there is no way to confirm for sure if this is the Prime, it’s pretty obvious leading up to the Mobile Unpacked conference where most expect Google and Samsung to unveil the device. The commercial also notes “Another perfect combination is just around the corner”, which is an obvious hint that Sammy and Goog have been working on something together.

For the most part the commercial (above) doesn’t actually show off a device, but we do get a quick glimpse at the end showing what appears to be a smartphone with a curved display. There are also some noticeable pin connectors shown on the side, which could possibly be for a dock of sorts.

Below is a freeze frame from the video showing the curved display. Of course the blue accent line accompanying the device in the video probably makes the curve seem a little more exaggerated than it actually is.

We’ll be bringing you updates as they happen from Samsung’s Mobile Unpacked 2011 event on October 11th.

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