Jordan Kahn

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While lack of LTE connectivity in the Nexus 4 seemed to be one of the biggest controversies surrounding the device’s launch, Canadians will at least get to access local LTE networks on the device for now. As discovered by Canadian blog Tekgadg, which posted the video above (via TechCrunch), enabling support for LTE by simply switching the network type in settings seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, the trick, which only supports Canadian networks running LTE Band 4 put o 20MHz, could possibly be shutdown by Google in the near future. Until then, those who want to enable LTE on their Nexus 4 will have to type in *#*#4636#*#* to access the necessary preference pane. TechCrunch has step-by-step instructions, if you’re interested.

[tweet http://twitter.com/googlemaps/status/271338904454578176]

Just in time for Black Friday and the upcoming holiday shopping season, Google confirmed on the Google Maps Twitter account today that indoor floor plans are now available to all Google Maps users on the desktop. Unfortunately, unlike Android users who have access to multi-floor views, Google Maps on the desktop currently only shows the main level of buildings for indoor floor plans:

Currently, desktop Google Maps users are only able to view the main level of buildings available in indoor maps. For Maps users on Android devices, you can see additional levels using the level switcher function on the right side of the map.

Google has a full list of locations with indoor maps here.

Those that updated to Android 4.2 might have noticed a bug that prevents users from selecting December for events like birthdays inside of the People app. Google has now officially addressed the issue in a post on the Android Google+ page by confirming that it plans to fix the bug before December:

We discovered a bug in the Android 4.2 update, which makes it impossible to enter December events in optional fields of the People app (this bug did not affect Calendar). Rest assured, this will be fixed soon so that those of you with December birthdays and anniversaries won’t be forgotten by your friends and family.

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ReutersTV posted this video of Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt speaking at the RAND Corp.’s “Politics Aside” conference in Culver City on Nov. 19. During the 32-minute-long interview, Schmidt discussed Google’s position on free speech, privacy, and described the process of removing potentially inappropriate user-generated content on YouTube.

[tweet https://twitter.com/googlemaps/status/269499168354091008]

As noted on the Google Maps blog, Google continues to update maps with new aerial, satellite, and 45-degree imagery for many cities in the U.S. and abroad. Google’s most recent addition to maps is a new collection of 45-degree imagery for 60 new cities—40 in the U.S. and 20 internationally— in places like Switzerland and Luxembourg. That brings the total number of cities with updated aerial and satellite imagery in Maps and Google Earth up to 164 cities in 108 countries. Google walked through a few of the recent updates, such as the Space Needle in Seattle and Bridges in the Sky art installation in Austria, but also provided a full list of cities with new high resolution imagery (below):
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Just as Google’s new gigabit internet service starts to heat up in Kansas City, last night a new report from The Wall Street Journal claimed Google is currently in talks with satellite TV company Dish Network for a new wireless service. According to the report, which cited “people familiar with the discussions,” Google is just one of many companies Dish is negotiating with in order to potentially roll out a wireless network that rivals AT&T and Verizon.

By gaining some control of wireless spectrum, Google could push to increase Web traffic speeds on mobile devices. Google also could ensure the availability of new services such as Google Wallet, a mobile payments system that currently is blocked by AT&T and Verizon.

However, the report did warn that talks are not advanced and could “amount to nothing”:
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We just received a tip from a reader that Google is beginning to send out emails to Google Play customers who ordered its new Nexus 4 device to inform them the device is currently on backorder. As you can see in the email above, Google expects to ship the device “within three weeks,” and it will credit customers who have to wait with the shipping charges. Google cited “overwhelming demand” as the reason for the delays. We previously reported that initial supplies of the device sold out within minutes of officially going on sale in the U.S. earlier this week.

Adobe just announced on its Photoshop blog that it is making the Photoshop Touch app available to Kindle Fire devices starting today for $9.99 in the Amazon Appstore. Adobe previously had version of the app available for other Android devices on Google Play, as well as an iOS version of the scaled down Photoshop app for Apple’s devices. The new app for Kindle Fire will be available on the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, and the 7-inch Kindle Fire, and Kindle Fire HD models. The app is only compatible with devices running Android 4.0 and up, so it’s not available to first-gen Kindle Fire users.

We have worked closely with Amazon to enable Adobe Photoshop Touch on this device, and are proud to announce that it is available for purchase in the Amazon Appstore immediately for US$9.99… In addition, we are announcing support for the updated 7-inch Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD devices. This means that Photoshop Touch is optimized for both 8.9-inch and 7-inch screens, giving users a great experience on all recent Kindle Fire devices.

According to a new study from Analysys International (via TNW), Google’s Android now accounts for more 90 percent of the smartphone market in China. That’s up from 83 percent just last quarter and 58.2-percent in the year-ago quarter. The study also noted iOS dropped from 6 percent to 4.2-percent in the quarter, but it did not include Android knock-off devices that would make Android’s share even higher in the country.

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Amazon just issued a press release to confirm the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD officially ships starting today with the 4G model, as expected, arriving sometime next week. Amazon previously said the 4G model would land Nov. 20. The $299 Wi-Fi model is available now through www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd and will also be available in-store tomorrow at Best Buy and other retailers, including Radio Shack and Staples, in “the coming weeks.”

Amazon issued another press release today confirming that Japanese customers now have access to the Amazon Cloud Drive service. In addition, the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD will officially ship to customers in Japan starting Dec. 19.

Amazon’s full press release is below:

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After launching an impressive interactive virtual instrument Chrome web app earlier this month, Google today rolled out its latest Chrome experiment. Created by “some space enthusiasts at Google” using WebGL, CSS3D, and Web Audio, the experiment uses imagery from NASA and a number of other sources to provide an interactive visualization of over 100,000 stars. You can visit the 100,000 stars Chrome experiment here.

100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood created for the Google Chrome web browser. It shows the real location of over 100,000 nearby stars. Zooming in reveals 87 individually identified stars and our solar system. The galaxy view is an artist’s rendition.

Google just announced on the Official Gmail Blog that Gmail users would have new options when searching within their inbox starting today. Users can now find emails by size by searching for “size:5m” or “larger:5m”, for instance, to find emails larger than 5MB. Google is also rolling out new date search operators, including: “older_than”, “newer_than”, and exact match.

We’re always looking for ways to make it faster and easier for you to find your messages using search in Gmail. So starting today, you can now search emails by size, more flexible date options, exact match and more… These changes go hand in hand with other recent enhancements to search such as the improved autocomplete predictionsand a field trial for instant results from Gmail, Google Drive and more as you type.

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Yesterday, we told you about the updated YouTube apps for Google TV and Android that bring a new synced experience, but today Google announced two other big new features for Google TV: Voice Search and PrimeTime.

On the Official Google TV blog, Google walked us through the new features that will roll out to LG devices first starting this week. The most notable new feature is the addition of voice search, allowing users to not only perform Google searches with their voice, but also open apps, press play on a YouTube video, or speak a command, such as “CNN”, to navigate directly to a channel.

Google also explained that questions, such as “how to tie a bow tie,” would bring up instructional videos on YouTube. Part of the new voice search experience is a new visual search results page:

Try “search movies with Jeff Bridges” and see results in our new, more visual search results page.

Google is also introducing a new app called “PrimeTime” in the update that is essentially a rebranding of the old TV & Movies app it added last year:
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According to a report from Geekwire (via Slashdot), Microsoft’s new surface tablet has been a topic of conversation today on the opening day of patent trial between Microsoft and Motorola. The case previously focused mainly on Windows and Xbox 360. Now Motorola’s lawyers want the judge to consider Microsoft’s new Surface tablet, arguing the Wi-Fi-related technology at the heart of the case is critical to the device:

It turns out that Motorola wants the judge to also consider new and future Microsoft products that implement Motorola’s patented technology as he figures out how to set the royalty rates that Microsoft should pay for Motorola’s patents. In a brief filed in advance of the trial, Motorola contends that 802.11 WiFi technologies are critical to Surface, because it doesn’t have an Ethernet port or cellular broadband.

Motorola’s lawyers provided the following statement in the document:

 “Microsoft’s new Surface tablet will use only 802.11, instead of cellular or wired connections, to connect to the internet. Without 802.11 capability, the Surface tablet would be unable to compete in the market, because consumers can readily select tablet devices other than the Surface that have 802.11 capability.”… Motorola contends that the judge’s deliberations “would need to account for the likely use of Motorola 802.11 SEPs [standard-essential patents] in future products (e.g., Microsoft’s recently released Surface tablet product).”

As for how much Motorola is asking for, it appears to still seek a 2.25-percent royalty. However, Microsoft’s lawyers argued this figure was “outrageous”:
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Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q12

Gartner is out with its quarterly report for worldwide mobile device sales by vendor and OS for the third quarter. While reporting an overall 3 percent decline in mobile phone sales, the smartphone category hit 169.2 million units in Q3, a 47 percent increase from the year-ago quarter. While Apple is still third to Samsung and Nokia for total mobile device sales, Samsung and Apple remain the top smartphone vendors collectively, capturing 46.5-percent of the market. Meanwhile, Nokia slipped from No. 3 smartphone vendor in Q2 to No. 7 in Q3. This made room for RIM and HTC behind Apple and Samsung in the third and fourth positions.

With sales of 23.6 million units in the third quarter for Apple (up 36.2-percent year-on-year), Gartner reported Samsung has widened its lead on Apple with almost 55 million smartphones in the quarter and strong demand for its Galaxy line. Samsung once again takes the top vendor position for smartphones with 32.5-percent of the market:

Samsung’s mobile phones sales continued to accelerate, totaling almost 98 million units in the third quarter of 2012 (see Table 1), up 18.6 percent year-on-year. Samsung saw strong demand for Galaxy smartphones across different price points, and it further widened the gap with Apple in the smartphone market, selling 55 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2012. It commanded 32.5 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2012.

As for the race between Android and iOS, Gartner’s numbers show Android increased its marketshare nearly 20 percentage points in the quarter to 72.4-percent of the market, up from just 52.5-percent in the year-ago quarter. In comparison, Apple now accounts for 13.9-percent of the market, down from 15 percent last year, but Gartner expects that to change in Q4 thanks to the continuing iPhone 5 roll out:
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Today, alongside the launch of Nexus 4 and Nexus 10, Google is officially making the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean SDK available to developers. Included in the release are the lock screen widgets, the Daydream interactive screensaver mode, enhanced support for external displays, and more. Developers can download the Android 4.2 platform from the Android SDK Manager. Google also has an overview of what’s new on its website and an API overview here.

The full release notes from Google (via the Android Developers Blog) are below:

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Google is out today with its latest Transparency Report where the company officially reports the number of requests it receives from government organizations to remove or hand over data. Today’s update to the report includes data for government requests from January 2012 to June 2012 and shows requests for access to user data have steadily increased.

For the United States, Google received 7,969 requests during the time period, of which 16,281 user accounts were specified. Google also explained that it sometimes received “falsified court orders asking us to remove content.”

This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise. As you can see from the graph below, government demands for user data have increased steadily since we first launched the Transparency Report. In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.

The report showed that requests around the world for the removal of content also continued to increase:
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