Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac. He covers Google for 9to5Google.com, the best gadgets and deals on 9to5Toys.com, and delivers a weekly roundup of EV and solar news on Electrek.co. Sometimes he makes weird electronic music as one half of Makamachine.
Contact Jordan with news tips and long-winded complaints:
Why is the YouTube craze “Harlem Shake” debuting at No. 1 on Billboard this week? YouTube announced today that it is partnering with Billboard and Nielsen to include its U.S. data on YouTube views for a number of music charts including the Hot 100 List. Billboard’s Hot 100, for example, traditionally utilized sales and airplay data, but more recently moved to include data from streaming services such as Spotify and now YouTube. YouTube noted in a post on the Official YouTube blog that the data would also include views from user-generated videos that have authorized audio.
This announcement marks a big step in accurately reflecting how music lovers are finding their new favorite songs. And it builds upon our efforts to share this kind of data with key industry analytical tools like Next Big Sound and BigChampagne, which also help artists succeed both on and offline. Most importantly, we hope this news will excite our users, who have helped us discover some of the biggest stars and songs of the past seven years.
The data will initially be used to influence the U.S. “Hot” charts, including: the Hot 100 List, Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, R&B Songs, Rap Songs, Hot Latin Songs, Hot Rock Songs, and Dance/Electronic Songs.
YouTube announced on its YouTube Partners & Creators blog today that it is partnering with two translation services— Gengo and Translated.net— to allow YouTube content creators to order professional caption translations directly through the site’s video editor. From within the video manager, users can request a translation in one of 36 languages and select a vendor to start the translation process (as pictured above). It’s not entirely built-in to YouTube, as the announcement noted users would be redirected to the “vendor’s website to complete payment.” Once the translation is complete, it will be available on YouTube:
Just click “Start order” next to the vendor you’d like to use. This will then create an order and direct you to the vendor’s website to complete payment. When the translator completes the translation, they’ll send the translated caption directly back to YouTube. Once you approve, the translated caption will now be available for all your viewers!
As President Obama and many others have done in the past, Google announced today that First Lady Michelle Obama would host a live “Fireside Hangout” on Google+ to answer questions submitted by users. The Hangout will take place March 4, and Michelle Obama will be joined by Kelly Ripa to discuss the First Lady’s Let’s Move!initiative.
Three years ago, the First Lady launched the Let’s Move! initiative to unite the country around our kids’ health and create real support for families to live healthier lives. Since then communities across the United States have worked together to share, collaborate on and create ways to improve the health of our nation’s children. This year, the First Lady is using Google+ to celebrate the anniversary of Let’s Move!and to connect with communities on Google+ who are passionate about healthy eating, fitness and parenting.
Google has released a decent update to Google Drive that brings a few new and welcomed features alongside a number of bug fixes and performance enhancements. First, Google will now allow users to stream video files on devices running Honeycomb and higher. The updated app also now features the ability to pinch and zoom inside of the presentation viewer.
While Google didn’t detail all the bug fixes and performance enhancements individually, it said to expect improvements “across the whole app.” The updated Google Drive Android app is available on Google Play now.
What’s in this version:
– Performance improvements across the whole app
– Support for streaming video files on Honeycomb+
– Pinch to Zoom support in presentation viewer
– Bug fixes and other improvements
Analogix, the company behind the SlimPort accessory that allows the Nexus 4 to output HD audio and video via its micro-USB port, today announced the next device to include support for the technology: the LG Optimus G Pro. We noticed SlimPort in the specs when LG just recently announced the quad-core, 5.5-inch, 1080p smartphone, but today Analogix confirmed in a press release it would indeed be a SlimPort-enabled device. The SlimPort technology, demoed by Analogix in the video above, allows users to output 1080p video and audio to any HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA or DVI-enabled TVs, projectors and monitors via its SlimPort accessories. We had a chance to try the technology on a Nexus 4 at CES this year and were very impressed with demos of graphic intensive 3D games running smoothly on the big screen while simultaneously charging the device.
“With SlimPort, LG is able to deliver unprecedented functionality at a lower cost, because of its streamlined design and standard USB connector,” said Dr. Ramchan Woo, division leader/smart phone platform division of LG Mobile Communications Company. “SlimPort unleashes content from the Optimus G Pro smartphone, making it a snap to share and enjoy videos, games, photos and more on any screen.”
HTC executives are live on stage at the company’s New York press event and, as expected, just officially unveiled the much rumored Android flagship smartphone known as the HTC One, and we’re already receiving a lot of the official specs while we watch execs announce the 4.7-inch, 1080p device on stage.
The HTC One will come with a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 2300 mAh battery, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE, and, as previously hinted, some major improvements to camera specs compared to previous generation HTC devices. HTC also said the device would be available in 32GB and 64GB (in silver and black) variants, and it will begin shipping to customers in late March.
On top of specs for the device, we also got a look at new “BlinkFeed” feature in the next-generation of Sense that seems to borrow a lot from Windows Phone’s live tiles. HTC also partnered with ESPN to stream content into the new BlinkFeed feature.
HTC BlinkFeed: A personal live stream right on the home screen At the centre of the new HTC One experience is HTC BlinkFeed. HTC BlinkFeed is a bold new experience that transforms the home screen into a single live stream of personally relevant information such as social updates, entertainment and lifestyle updates, news and photos with immersive images so that people no longer need to go to separate applications to find out what’s happening.
HTC offered more details on the One’s new 8-megapixel “UltraPixels” camera that brings major improvements to low-light performance and optical image stabilization. HTC said the upgraded camera provides “enhanced 360′ panorama, time sequencing and object removal,” as well as an “ultra-wide angle front-facing camera” with 1080p capture and other camera upgrades:
To enable this innovative camera experience, HTC developed a custom camera that includes a best-in-class f/2.0 aperture lens and a breakthrough sensor with UltraPixels that gather 300 percent more light than traditional smartphone camera sensors. This new approach also delivers astounding low-light performance and a variety of other improvements to photos and videos. In addition, the perfect self-portrait or video is just a tap away with an ultra-wide angle front-facing camera which supports 1080p video capture. Multi-axis optical image stabilisation for both the front and rear cameras also helps ensure video footage smoother whether stationary or on the move. HTC UltraPixel camera adds many other features and effects such as enhanced 360′ panorama, time sequencing and object removal.
As for availability, HTC said the device would be available through 185 mobile operators in over 80 regions starting with the first rollouts in March. That will include T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T in the United States. Pre-orders for the device are already open through HTC’s website.
On top of officially announcing the launch of Outlook.com today, Microsoft is making the rounds with the press by offering some stats on the newly launched service. While announcing the service has grown to 60 million active users in just six months of the limited preview release, Outlook.com Senior Director Dharmesh Mehta told Bloomberg that a third of those users are ex-Gmail customers. The news follows the launch of Microsoft’s latest Google smear campaign with a series of “Scroogled” ads depicting security and privacy concerns related to Google scanning users’ email to display ads.
While free e-mail isn’t a huge money-maker — Mehta said Outlook.com carries about 60 percent fewer advertisements than Microsoft’s previous Hotmail product — the Redmond, Washington- based company considers it critical to gaining and retaining consumers. Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, has been losing users of its Windows operating system to smartphones and tablets such as Apple Inc.’s iPad.
According to Mehta, roughly 20 million of Outlook.com’s users have switched from Gmail and now use the service as their “primary free e-mail account.” There is of course no real way of knowing how many users have actually decided to make the switch, and how many of those users are continuing to use both accounts. As for the Scroogled campaign, Mehta shared that Microsoft is spending “tens of millions” on many TV, online print, and bus ads in the US, as well as TV ads in Europe slated to debut in the coming weeks.
Samsung announced today on its website that it is officially launching a Wi-Fi-only model of its Android 4.1 Galaxy Camera lineup after originally making the device available in LTE and HSPA+ flavors at launch. By all accounts, this appears to be the same 4.8-inch, 16.3 megapixel device we played with before (minus the 3G/4G connectivity).
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd today launched the Samsung GALAXY Camera (Wi-Fi), the newest addition to the GALAXY Camera lineup. Like the original GALAXY Camera, the GALAXY Camera (Wi-Fi) combines high performance photographic features with Android™ 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS and dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity, making shooting, enjoying, editing and sharing images from a single device easier than ever before.
While Samsung noted the Wi-Fi-only variant would be more affordable than previous Galaxy Camera releases, Samsung did not give any details on pricing or availability in its press release.
According to a tweet from Mobile-Review.com’s Eldar Murtazin (via SamMobile), Samsung is looking to introduce its much-rumored Galaxy S IV on March 14. Earlier reports suggested a March 15 announcement, but according to Murtazin, who has been accurate with Android-related product information in the past, Samsung has an announcement scheduled for one day earlier in New York City. That would mean the announcement would come roughly two weeks after Mobile World Congress 2013 wraps up in Barcelona.
Samsung’s Galaxy S IV is rumored to include an 8-core Exynos 5 Octa CPU, 4.99-inch Super AMOLED HD display, 2GB of RAM, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD videos at 30FPS, 2-megapixel front-facing camera with 720p HD video, and Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.
As noted by Android Central, Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra yesterday made some comments about the quality of cameras in upcoming Nexus devices. While Google’s Nexus lineup has never been known for having the best cameras, Vic promised in the comments of a photography-related Google+ post that Google is committed to making improvements to the cameras in future Nexus phones.
Gundotra’s original post questioned if he should bring his DSLR in addition to his Android phone and Google Glass on an upcoming vacation. When asked by a commenter whether a future Nexus could replace a DSLR, Gundotra responded:
Google recently made some updates to its Google Takeout service to allow users to download even more types of content from both Blogger and Google+. As noted recently on its Data Liberation blog, Google is now allowing users to download each of their Blogger blogs as an Atom Xml file. It is also adding more ways to download data from Google+, including the ability to download your posts as HTML files and your Google+ Circles as JSON files. Google noted that it can also just “export a single blog or page of your choice.”
Google rolled out the official YouTube app for Wii U in November, allowing users to browse channels and categories from the GamePad and view the video in 1080p on their TVs. Today, as previously announced, Google is rolling out its new Google Maps and Street View solution for Wii U owners with the Wii Street U app available now on the Wii U eShop. The app allows users to view street view and 360 degree content and easily navigate Google Maps using the Wii U GamePad:
With Wii Street Utm powered by Google, you can step into Google Street View with an immersive experience that will make you feel like you’re actually there! View a 360 degree Google Maps Street View of locations all over the world using the Wii Utm GamePad controller’s motion controls. Jumping to a location is easy—just use the GamePad touch screen to type in an address or location and start exploring, or instantly travel to over 70 fascinating, hand-picked locations around the globe.
HP already has an Android product or two with its printers, but Readwrite.com reported on Wednesday that sources have confirmed HP will soon introduce an Android device in the form of a high-end tablet running a NVIDIA Tegra 4 chip. The report claimed that HP is also looking into launching an Android smartphone:
The tablet has been in the works since before Thanksgiving and sources say it could be one of the first tablets to ship with the Tegra 4. NVIDIA’s latest mobile chip was just announced during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January and it features some impressive specs, but we have not seen many devices adopt it yet.
Sources also say that HP is currently exploring the launch of an Android-powered smartphone, but recent comments from CEO Meg Whitman indicate HP will not offer a mobile phone this year.
We heard rumors in 2011 about the company being open to Android straight from CEO Meg Whitman. Today’s report hinted the device has been in the works since before November and could be ready to ship as one of the first Tegra 4 devices as early as Q2 2013: Expand Expanding Close
We previously told you about an upcoming movie called “The Internship” starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, where the two compete for an internship at Google. The two stars sat with Conan O’Brien on Wednesday in a live hangout to promote the film and début the official trailer. As you can see from the full-length trailer above, it appears the majority of the movie will take place at Google’s campus. The Internship hits theatres on June 7.
Ever wonder what Google did with all of those extra Nexus Qs? Presenting the Nexus 4 charging dock. Up until today, Google’s Nexus 4 wireless charger wasn’t actually available to purchase—despite being announced and detailed alongside the device as far back as October. Google has finally made things official for the wireless charging pad, at least in the U.S., with Google Play now accepting orders and shipping the device to customers “in less than one week.” The design clearly looks like it came from the same team as Google’s Nexus Q, but hopefully it’s able to stick around a little longer than the now discontinued streaming orb.
DIMENSIONS
-76pi x 53.05(T) (mm) COLOR
-Black WEIGHT
-130g DC INPUT
-5Vdc/1.8A DC OUTPUT
-5Vdc/1.0A CHARGING TIME
-Approximately 4 hours
While Nike originally confirmed it would bring an Android app that syncs with the Nike Fuelband out in summer 2012, the release window has come and gone. It appears Nike has now confirmed that it stopped development on the app and will instead focus on developing the existing iOS app and web experiences. Nike’s official twitter account confirmed the news today, followed by a comment from the company to DroidLife:
To deliver the best experience for all Nike+ FuelBand users, we are focusing on the FuelBand experience across iOS and nikeplus.com, where you can sync your activity, set new goals, and connect with friends. At this time, we are not working on an Android version of the mobile app.
While the app has already existed for iOS devices for quite some time, and Nike has a good relationship with Apple through the company’s Nike+ apps for iPods, it doesn’t seem likely that Apple is keeping the Android app from being released. Nike has many of its Nike+ related apps already available for Android on Google Play.
The Atlantic Cities (via BusinessInsider) pointed us to an interesting simulation that shows how Google’s driverless vehicles could make intersections more efficient. The animation above came from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, and they imagined an intersection manager helping to direct the flow of computer-controlled cars passing through the intersection.
we won’t need traffic lights at all (or stop signs, for that matter). Traffic will constantly flow, and at a rate that would probably unnerve the average human driver. The researchers have modeled just how this would work, as you can see in the animation below. You have to admit the patterns are mesmerizing even if the whole idea still seems far-fetched. The yellow cars pausing at the intersection in this simulation are old-timey human-driven vehicles that haven’t yet caught up with the future
Those human-driven cars would have to wait for a signal that would be optimized based on what everyone else is doing. And the same would be true of pedestrians and bike riders. Stone says the system is designed to have flexibility under the assumption not all decisions would be made by computers alone.
Google is no stranger to inviting big names in politics and the entertainment world to take part in live hangouts with supporters. President Obama has already joined in Google+ Hangouts with a live-streamed interview going down last year, but today Google announced that Obama would once again take to Google+ this week. Following this week’s State of the Union address to Congress, President Obama will answer questions via a live Google+ Hangout on Thursday at 4:50 p.m. EST.
Much like the Fireside Hangouts held by Vice President Biden and Domestic Policy Director Cecilia Munoz over the past few weeks, the President’s Fireside Hangout will include a group of people who regularly discuss important issues of the day online. During the conversation, the selected participants will ask the President their own questions—but we’d also like to hear from you before the Hangout. To let the President know what’s on your mind, head to the White House YouTube channel and submit a video or text question.
Google noted that you will be able to watch the President’s State of the Union address on YouTube tomorrow at 9 p.m. EST.
Google announced today on the Google Developers Blog that it would now allow users to add Drive-enabled Chrome web apps to the Create menu in Google Drive. While users could previously select from one of Google’s own apps such as Google Docs or Sheets, a new “Connect more apps” button will now allow users to install apps from the Chrome Web Store’s Drive collection of apps. Once an app is installed, users will then be able to launch the app from the Create menu and open Drive files directly in the app (as highlighted in the image below):
After first introducing its Hangouts feature in Gmail as a replacement for the old video chat feature in July, Google announced today it is finally bringing the feature to users in India. Not only can users do the usual 1:1 video chat they are used to, but they will also now be able to chat with up to nine people and access more of the Hangouts features we are familiar with from Google+.
Over the last few months, we’ve been rolling out updates to Google+ Hangouts to make it easy for you to connect with friends and family no matter where you are. Today we’re excited to bring Hangouts to all of our Gmail users in India… To give Hangouts a try, just click on the hangout button at the top of your chat list in Gmail. You can also schedule a hangout with Google Calendar, and use the Google+ app for Android and iOS to hang out while you’re on the go.
Google also announced (via TechCrunch) that it is rolling out a bandwidth slider for users with slow Internet connections and an audio-only mode:
1) Bandwidth slider. At the top right of every hangout is a new slider that lets you adjust your bandwidth preferences in real-time. This makes it easier to keep hangouts going, even in areas with poor connectivity.
2) Audio-only mode. Choose this mode to send and receive audio only, and thus, significantly reduce your bandwidth requirements. Other participants will only see your profile picture, but they’ll hear you loud and clear.
There have been rumors of an upcoming Optimus device from LG, dubbed the “Optimus G Pro”.
Official press material for the device leaked last month alongside some specs that included a 5-inch 1,920-by-1,080 display, 1.7Ghz Snapdragon S4 processor, and a 13-megapixel camera. Japanese carriers recently confirmed that device, but today PhoneArena posted images and specs for an Optimus G Pro variant with a 5.5-inch display.
Apart from the slightly larger display on the device pictured above, which could be headed to United States and European Union markets, the majority of the specs for the device are the same as previous leaks.
According to the report, the device will include a 5.5-inch 1,080-by-1,920 full HD IPS-LCD screen, LTE, 2GB of RAM, a 13 megapixel rear camera, 1.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor. Other specs include a 3,140-mAh battery, microSD card slot, 32GB of onboard storage, and slim port for HDMI out.
There’s a good chance we’ll get our first official look at the device next month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Update: Some of Microsoft’s new ads appear to have made their way onto YouTube. Microsoft also has a dedicated site at Scroogled.com where it is running the campaign. The company is also going after Google search shopping results calling it “nothing more than a list of targeted ads” and suggesting users try Bing. Another video below.
Microsoft ran its “Googlighting” ad campaign last year, attempting to convince users to pick Hotmail and Office 365 over Gmail and Google Apps. With Microsoft recently unveiling its latest versions of Office and the online Office 365 service, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the company is about to revive its smear campaign with ads outlining the “consumer-privacy pitfalls in Gmail.” The ads will apparently promote Outlook.com while focusing on the methods Google uses to display ads in Gmail. One of the images for an upcoming ad, according to the report, will include the tagline “Think Google respects your privacy? Think again.”
Microsoft also told the publication that it will spend seven figures on the new Gmail campaign. WSJ explained: Expand Expanding Close
As first reported by AllThingsD earlier today, Yahoo! has now confirmed that it will enter a partnership with Google to make the company one of its contextual ads partners. CEO of Yahoo and former Google employee Marissa Mayer picked up ad executive Henrique De Castro from Google last year, and rumors of a possible ad partnership between the two companies have circled since around that same time. While the previously rumored partnership that would have seen Google take over Yahoo’s lower-cost ad business didn’t pan out, Yahoo said in its statement that it would now use Google’s AdSense for Content and Google’s AdMob services “on various Yahoo! properties and certain co-branded sites.”
The video above came from developer Francois Beaufort, who posted a link to the video that shows what appears to be a Google-made Chromebook with a 2,560-by-1,700-pixel display and touchscreen. The video was quickly taken down, but it was later re-posted by Android Authority.
The leaked video originated from slinky.me. It’s an agency that has apparently done earlier work with Google. CEO Victor Koch later confirmed that the company’s servers were hacked. While there isn’t any solid evidence that this is indeed a new Chromebook that Google is working on, Beaufort claimed it is now in testing and known as the “Chromebook Link.” The 2,560-by-1,700-pixel touchscreen display spec also originated from Beaufort. The video referred to the device as the “Chromebook Pixel,” and it includes the tagline “Designed by Google. Down to the last pixel.”
There is good reason to be skeptical of the video. First of all, as pointed out by Computerworld, slinky.me appears to be behind a number of other unofficial/fake videos promoting Google products (like this one for Chrome). Making things worse, CEO Victor Koch tagged Beaufort and Google cofounder Sergey Brin in his confirmation of the leak, which doesn’t seem like the type of thing a legitimate advertising company would do in the situation.
There have been rumors in the past that Google has plans for touchscreen Chromebooks to be produced in-house, but Google and Slinky have not commented on the leaked video.
Samsung 
HP already has 
