Mike Beasley

This is not the promo card for an awful ABC sitcom

Today Sprint announced a new offer that allows up to ten “framily” (that’s friends+family) members to share a common plan. The “framily” plan (yes, they’re really calling it that) offers unlimited talk and text for up to ten people, even if they don’t live in the same household, as required by many previous family plans. Each member of the “framily” will also get 1 GB of data each as long as they don’t roam onto another network.

Unlike old family plans, “framily” plans allow everyone to get a separate bill sent to their homes. As you add more people to your group, the bill drops by $5 for everyone, and goes as low as $25 per month if you have seven or more “framily” members. The plans will be available in Sprint retail stores starting on January 10th.

T-Mobile’s John Legere somehow managed to sneak into a party thrown by arch-rival AT&T for its developers at CES tonight. Though he told Re/code that he was only there to see a performance by Macklemore (riiight), the “un-carrier” CEO—clad in his trademark magenta “T”-shirt (sorry)—was soon escorted from the facility by un-amused security.

Legere has made himself out as AT&T’s biggest fear in recent weeks, mocking his nemesis on Twitter without reservation. AT&T certainly isn’t helping their own case with new attempts to lure away T-Mobile subscribers by offering up to $450 in credit. Legere seems to have another trick up his sleeve, though, and has teased that the fourth phase of his “un-carrier” initiative will be revealed at CES this week.

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The latest version of Picasa includes an additional bit of software called Google+ Auto Backup, as reported by Google Operating System. The new software can be used to automatically backup photos and videos from user-selected directories to your Google+ account. Interestingly, the app has nothing to do with the Picasa service, even though it ships exclusively with the Picasa app.

The app can save unlimited 2048px photos to your account, or upload full-quality versions at the expense of Google Drive space. It can also intelligently copy media from storage cards and other devices that are attached to the system. Furthermore, the app can be configured to backup all media to a designated location on the local hard drive, putting all of your backed-up media in one convenient place.

You can get the Google+ Auto Backup app by downloading the latest version of Picasa.

Editor’s note: As noted in the graph above, the numbers in this article refer only to the commercial channel, as NPD does not measure direct sales. Some of the language below has been updated to clarify this point.

A new release from the NPD Group indicates that notebooks running Google’s Chrome OS have gained significant ground in the past year. According to the statistics, over one-fifth of all laptops sold in 2013 were running the free software. Of course, it should be noted that the numbers presented don’t take built-to-order machines or direct sales into account, instead relying on sales of pre-configured options, but even so, this impressive figure is still very good news for Google.

In fact, when considering all computer sales, including desktop and notebook form factors, Chromebooks have still gained a pretty sizeable chunk of the market. Last year Chromebooks took home a measly 0.2%. This year, however, the number comes in closer to one-tenth of the market at 9.6%.

While that may not seem like much next to the 34.1%  of all computer sales held by Windows-powered notebooks, it’s over five times better than Apple’s sales for its entire MacBook lineup combined. It now seems that Google—not Apple—is in the best position to someday knock Microsoft from the top of the notebook computer market.

Google has updated its Google Play Music app for iPhone with several new features and a refreshed UI for iOS 7. The app was first released last month but had not yet been designed for the latest version of iOS.

Besides the updated interface, the app includes support for “I’m feeling lucky” radio stations, the ability to search for music and create stations by genre, and auto-playlists.

iOS users can grab Google Play Music for free on the App Store.

What’s New in Version 1.1.0.988

– UI updated for iOS7

– Added support for I’m feeling lucky radio

– Auto-playlists (including Thumbs Up playlist) added to playlist view

– Genre radio stations added for All Access users

– Added ability to search for genres

Thanks for the tip, Isa!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFrjrgBV8K0]

The New York Times reports that Google has just acquired Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm that created machines such as Petman (seen in the video above) and other mechanical terrors wonders that look as close to something out of the Terminator movies as we’ve seen yet.

https://twitter.com/arubin/status/411737161642168320

The buyout comes on the heels of the revelation that the company is planning a move into the robotics industry with Android co-creator Andy Rubin at the helm. Boston Dynamics’ resources and engineers will make an invaluable addition to Google’s growing collection of robotics experts.

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Google could potentially design its its server processor chips in-house some day, according to a new report by Bloomberg. The move would be an interesting one, as Google has typically relied on Intel chips to power its servers. Any major changes are likely several years down the road, but just the idea that the company could switch is a pretty big deal.

Google is considering creating these processors based on designs by ARM, Bloomberg notes. ARM designs are used by many companies for designing in-house processors, including Qualcomm and Apple. Those companies primarily build mobile phone processors, but using ARM technology in a server isn’t a huge technological stretch.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has joined Microsoft, Twitter, Apple, Yahoo!, Facebook, and other giants in the tech industry in calling for a reform of the NSA’s surveillance tactics. Earlier this year it was revealed that the National Security Agency was using information from these companies and more to monitor citizens across the nation without warrants.

The companies allegedly involved in the “PRISM” program denied turning over any user data to the government, but a leaked NSA slidedeck (seen above) seemed to imply the opposite.

The new collaborative campaign, called Reform Government Surveillance, cites five driving principles in its drive to curb excessive government spying:

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Google is looking to make its mark on the world of robotics, and Android co-founder Andy Rubin is just the man to do it, reports the New York Times. Rubin helped start the company behind the Android operating system before being bought out by Google, and now the company has tapped him as the lead engineer in its move into robotics.

Intelligent machines aren’t a big new idea at Google—the company has been working on self-driving cars for years now—but some say that the search and advertising company’s foray into robotics R&D could point to an attempt to one-up Amazon’s recently announced army fleet of flying delivery drones. As we pointed out last year, Google has been developing a same-day package delivery system as one possible use for self-driving vehicles. Rubin has said that he sees opportunities for improvement in a variety of markets through the use of robots.

Whatever these machines end up being used for, Rubin is a solid choice to lead the development. Before he helped create Android, Rubin was a robotics engineer with experience in both hardware and software. While the decision to put Rubin in charge seems like an obvious one, Google has not yet committed its robotics lab to any specific division of the company. It’s likely that Rubin will work independently of the team in charge of autonomous vehicle technology.

As Rubin builds his team of engineers and Google searches for the perfect place within the company to foster its budding interest in robotics, one thing is certain: with the company’s resources and Rubin’s leadership, Google is poised to create more than a few remarkable improvements in countless industries.

Earlier this month, developers poking around the Android source code discovered that Google was preparing to add support for RAW photo capabilities to its mobile OS.  Today, Google has revealed that Android’s photography software was in fact updated with the ability to capture and store RAW images as well as support for burst mode photography. These changes to the Android base are not yet available to third-party developers, but the company has announced that the necessary APIs to take advantage of these new features will soon be available, allowing any developer to improve their app’s photography capabilities.

The recently-released Nexus 5 already takes advantage of the technology behind burst mode when creating HDR images. However, the quality of the camera has been a sore point for some Android users, including 9to5Google‘s own David Beren. Google has promised “insanely great” cameras in upcoming Nexus devices, though, so it’s not a big stretch to assume that these software enhancements are laying the groundwork for even better mobile cameras in the future.

As for third-party developers, a few have already started improving on the Nexus 5’s camera software on their own without official support from Google. It seems that Google is now preparing to give all Android developers even more to work with in the area of photography.

(Businessweek / Peg Korpinski)

Eric Schmidt revealed today that he has figured out how to end war and conflict across the globe. His solution? Drop millions of smartphones into other countries instead of going to war. Nope, really, that’s his plan.

According to the executive, raining down smartphones on Iraq or Afghanistan could have dramatically altered the course of history and prevented war in both countries. He suggests that the United States “could have airdropped a million into Afghanistan or Iraq as a thought experiment.”

We can only thank Eric Schmidt for selflessly suggesting a deep, thoughtful solution to global conflict, which could in no way financially benefit his company (which holds a smartphone OS marketshare majority). Yeah… we’re not really expecting the Department of Defense to offer Schmidt a job anytime soon.

Google announced via its Android Google+ page today that the Google Now service has been updated with three new card types: news, website updates, and TV and movie recommendations.

The news topics card shows recent articles from news sites across the web on select topics. The website updates card can monitor your favorite sites and let you know when new content is available on those sites (like a new post on your favorite Google news site). The last of the new cards is the “what to watch” card, which can recommend movies and TV shows you might enjoy.

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Google has just sent out invitations for developers to attend a two-day hackathon. The event will give Glassware developers a chance to see and test an upcoming release of the Glassware Development Kit. The hackathon will take place on November 19th and 20th at Google’s San Francisco Basecamp.

Due to limited space, only a few applicants will actually be able to attend the event. The announcement will also be recorded and posted online following the event, so anyone unable to attend will still be able to get any information they might be interested in.

The full email is included below…

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-VFC9AQM1k]

As we reported previously, Google has just publicly launched a new platform for getting real-time help with any problem you might be facing. Helpouts is a new video chat service that lets you talk one-on-one with experts in a variety of fields such as art, fashion, healthcare, and gardening.

Some of the Helpouts are free while others will cost per session or per minute, depending on the topic and the expert. The chats are powered by Hangouts, but only involve two parties—you and your instructor. The instructors can set times that they are available for a Helpout, and users can book a session in advance. Instructors credentials, certifications, and experience are listed right on the booking page and users can leave reviews of their sessions.

It appears Google will at least partly be allowing providers on Helpouts manage their own experts. For example, TakeLessons, one of Google’s partners providing music lessons on Helpouts explained out it will offer services by tapping into the experts already using its own service:

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Here we go again… It seems Google has slipped yet another as-of-yet-announced device into its KitKat promotional materials. You’ll likely recall that the Nexus 5, which was released earlier this week, was accidentally included in a video promoting Android 4.4 earlier this year.

Now Google has featured what appears to be an 8-inch Nexus tablet on the Android website. The image appears on the “apps and entertainment” page, which shows off some of the first- and third-party applications available for KitKat. The header image for the section about the Google Play media store shows a woman using a tablet that looks a little too big to be a Nexus 7, but too small to be the aging Nexus 10. The body design (specifically the bezel size) doesn’t match up with existing Nexus tablets either, so it’s pretty clear this is not one a tablet we’ve seen before.

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In 2016, Google plans to open a brand-new one-million-square-foot office in London. We’ve already seen some images of the planned headquarters, but yesterday some fantastic new images were published that detail even more of what Google is planning to do with the massive campus.

The office will house a 20,000-square-foot bike shed, a public promenade, swimming pools, a rock-climbing wall, and more. There’s probably some work space in there, too, but details on that aren’t as plentiful. Quartz describes Google’s goal with the new office as an attempt to “make an office so you never want to leave.” It certainly sounds like Google is well on its way to accomplishing that goal.

You can find more images of the campus plans below.

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