Seth Weintraub

The full list is over that the Google Blog but I know two that will be of particular pain to me. One, Google Reader (and likely eventually Feedburner along with it) will be sorely missed.

• We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.

In recent years the service has been demoted to far down the dropdown menu at the top and Google wonders why readership has dropped off?

Also Google purchased Snapseed last year to likely help out with some Instagram-type of features on Google Plus. It is now shuttering the Mac and PC Apps.

• Beginning today we’ll no longer sell or provide updates for Snapseed Desktop for Macintosh and Windows. Existing customers will continue to be able to download the software and can contact us for support. We’ll continue to offer the Snapseed mobile app on iOS and Android for free.

More death and destruction at the Google Blog.
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The WSJ posts a letter sent to Android partners:

Dear friends,

In November of 2007 we announced the Open Handset Alliance with 34 founding members. Today, I’m grateful to the over 85 OHA members who have helped us build Android and drive innovation at such an incredible pace. The Android ecosystem has seen tremendous growth since the launch of the very first Android device in October 2008. The volume and variety of Android devices exceeds even my most optimistic expectations – over 750 million compatible devices and counting!

At its core, Android has always been about openness – the idea that a thousand brains are better than one. Just as the ecosystem has grown, so has our team at Google. I am incredibly proud of the phenomenal group of people that spend their days (and nights) building the Android platform and services. Just look at last year…a lean yet incredibly ambitious team released Jellybean with Google Now, launched Google Play in many languages and countries and collaborated with several partners to build three new Nexus devices to help drive innovation in the ecosystem.

Today, the success of Android combined with the strength of our management team, gives me the confidence to step away from Android and hand over the reins. Going forward, Sundar Pichai will lead Android, in addition to his existing work with Chrome and Apps. Hiroshi Lockheimer – who many of you already know well – plus the rest of the Android leadership team will work closely with all of our partners to advance Android and prepare the platform for new products and services yet to be imagined.

As for me, I am an entrepreneur at heart and now is the right time for me to start a new chapter within Google. I am amazed by what we have accomplished from those early days (not so long ago!), and remain passionate about the power of a simple idea and a shared goal – an open source platform freely available to everyone – to transform computing for people everywhere.

Thank you for your support,

– andy

What’s Rubin doing next at Google? I’m thinking AnDrones.

Related articles

• Andy Rubin leaves Android for new role at Google, Chrome’s Sundar Pichai to take over (9to5google.com)

Try your luck here…

I clicked the second it went live…Then after 5 minutes of a spinning wheel, this:
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Bloomberg has some more tidbits on the Galaxy S4 which will be released at the Radio City Music Hall tomorrow:

The phone will sport a 5-inch screen, slightly larger than the one on last year’s S3, according to two people familiar with the product. The U.S. version will use Qualcomm Inc.’s quad-core chip, giving the phone more processing power to handle multiple tasks at the same time, they said. In other markets, it will rely on Samsung’s “octacore” eight-core chip, the people said.

The use of the Qualcomm chip in US versions of Samsung phones in the past over its own chips is usually because of the built-in LTE features of Qualcomm’s chips. But sure “more processing power” works as well.

Galaxy S4, which runs Google Inc.’s Android software, also will have a higher-density, 13-megapixel camera, up from 8 megapixels in the S3, according to the people. The upgrade would put the new Samsung phone well ahead of Apple’s iPhone 5. That device has a dual-core processor, a 4-inch screen and an 8- megapixel camera.

Interestingly, the Eye scrolling stuff we’ve heard about might not be ready for launch and might be enabled down the road.
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With a little  Ludwig van to boot.
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As we mentioned in October: A new YouTube channel created by Daniel Kellison (who co-created “The Man Show”, was the original producer of “Jimmy Kimmel Live’, and a producer of “Late Night With David Letterman” and “The Late Show With David Letterman”). Called “Jash”, the channel will feature separate channels with stars Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, and Reggie Watts.

Looking forward to some funny videos here like the below:

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We’re waiting for some better videos, but Google revealed some third-party (and first-party if you include Gmail) apps for Google Glass at SXSW today. As you can see in the demos, the companies have really thought about the apps people will use on their head and Google has been thoughtful about the way they are going to interact.

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Google is taking on Amazon Prime with a shopping service later this year. You know this. TechCrunch is filling in some of the blanks today with more details like pricing (free for Googlers, $4.99 for beta testers, and a final target a little below Amazon’s) and some more beta stores like BabysRUs, Targét, and Nob Hill Foods. Also, don’t tell anyone about it because it’s a total secret! Google HR e-mail below:

Hi,

As you may have seen, there was a leak last night about Google Shopping Express, including several very specific product details. Our PR team is working to quiet this down, but we need your help — please don’t add fuel to the fire by discussing or even confirming Google Shopping Express. If you are contacted by a member of the press, please follow normal procedures and refer them to press@google.com.

But wait, you asked me to ship to my home to help you test … so what about spouses and roommates? We trust your judgement. If your roommate writes a tech blog or works for a company in this space, please don’t ship it home. But if you feel it’s safe, then by all means, we still really need your help dogfooding this.

Get free same day delivery with Google Shopping Express

After weeks of testing, we’re now excited to open Google Shopping Express to every Googler in the bay area including temps, vendors and contractors.

Save yourself a trip to the store and stock up at places like Target, Nob Hill Foods, Babies “R” Us and more. Googlers who sign up early for a free membership will receive free same day delivery for one year! Non-members pay $4.99 per delivery per store.

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The Verge is the first out the gate with its HTC One review. I found this passage in its conclusion prescient, which mirrors my initial reaction when trying it last month.

In my quest to find the perfect Android phone, I’m still left wanting. I want the One’s hardware, but I want the Nexus 4’s software and promise of timely updates — I’ve said for a year that HTC should offer stock Android phones, and I’m still convinced the company could save itself with the One plus pure Android. I also want a better camera — the One isn’t bad, it’s just mediocre, and I’ve seen better from Android phones. For now, the list of Android phones worth buying is two items long: the Nexus 4 and the One. Personally, I’d buy the One if I had to choose right now, but with the Galaxy S 4 coming in just a few days, I’m pretty lucky I don’t have to choose right now.

The reviews here aren’t retail units. We have a review of one of these on AT&T (for better or worse) coming soon. That means battery life results (we’re not sure how accurate a test they gave it with 2 days) and other variables might change.

As for the 4Mega‘ultra-pixel’ camera, it seems to be a risky tradeoff. Great low-light performance in exchange for the crispness of those extra pixels.

My question to HTC is: Will you ride Sense into obscurity/bankruptcy or give your users the option to use a recent unadulterated Android OS? With the S4 and Google I/O looming, the decision to put so much effort into features that users don’t want is puzzling.

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As Monday rolls across the globe so does an awesome new Doodle from Google. Celebrating Douglas Adams, author of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the Doodle shows a control panel from the book/radio series/movie. From Wikipedia:

Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English writer, humorist and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a “trilogy” of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Adams’s contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy‘s Hall of Fame.^[1]

Adams also wrote Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff (1983), Last Chance to See (1990), and three stories for the television series Doctor Who. A posthumous collection of his work, including an unfinished novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002.

Adams became known as an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, and also as a lover of fast cars, cameras, technological innovation, and the Apple Macintosh. He was a staunch atheist, famously imagining a sentient puddle who wakes up one morning and thinks, “This is an interesting world I find myself in—an interesting hole I find myself in—fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!” to demonstrate the fallacy of the fine-tuned Universe argument for God.^[2] Biologist Richard Dawkins dedicated his book The God Delusion (2006) to Adams, writing on his death that “Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender.”

Don’t panic.

Billboard is reporting that Google has signed up Warner Music to its music subscription service to go up against Spotify and perhaps Pandora when it is released later this year, according to reports. Warner being the first to sign up would be interesting, because it was the last to sign up with Google Play in October. Stephen Bryan also held out for almost a year after rival record companies signed deals to sell downloads on Google’s music store that launched in 2011.

Warner Music Group has struck a licensing deal with Google for two music services the technology giant is launching later this summer, according to executives familiar with the agreement. Google will offer two distinct subscription services – one through its YouTube online video property and another via its Google Play platform.

Executives at Warner, which is the first record label to commit to Google’s proposed music service, declined to comment. A YouTube spokesman issued the following statement: “While we don’t comment on rumor or speculation, there are some content creators that think they would benefit from a subscription revenue stream in addition to ads, so we’re looking at that.”

Google is also in deep negotiations with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and other labels to nail down an agreement similar to the one it now has with Warner.

Fortune reported earlier today that the deal would spill through its YouTube division, but Billboard said it would be both YouTube and Google Play. Personally, I’ve never had problems streaming just about any music I was looking for for free from YouTube.

Long before the Chromebook Pixel was released, I, and surely many other Chromebook users, begged Google to create a high-end laptop that would allow technology professionals to use the Chrome OS to its fullest. To really give it a run against our high-end MacBook Pros and PC workstations, Google would have to throw more than the repurposed netbook hardware that OEMs like Samsung, Acer, HP, and others were giving this operating system.

Google’s Pixel is that high-end machine, but does it stack up where it needs to? First, the good:
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Samsung does some great ads. This is not one of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIEfNaNCkKM

Samsung teased last week that the upcoming event would live streamed to Times Square and beyond.

Specs for the device seem to be a 4.99-inch 1080p display, quad-core Exnos 5410 1.7GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, and a PowerVR SGX 544 MP GPU. Add to that a 13-megapixel shooter. We heard these specs before—and having a 5-inch 1080p display seems to be what 2013 is all about.

https://twitter.com/Faryaab/status/308204123877154816

We’ll be on-hand at the event in a few weeks. In the meantime, we have these commercials to get us by.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E_Mv-uKPwc&feature=player_embedded

Wacom already makes tablets…sort of. Its Ciniq second pen displays are high-end stylus pads that are actually second screens for a Mac or PC using ‘Wacom pad’-enabled applications. Today, however, it teased something bigger on Twitter:

Dreaming of a powerful mobile tablet made for creative people? Wacom has one coming.

— Wacom (@wacom) March 1, 2013

Wacom also makes its Bamboo Paper app for Android. As far as apps are concerned, Adobe’s suite of Touch applications including Photoshop is available only on Android and Apple’s iOS. So, it seems like a pretty sure bet. 
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Florian Mueller reports that a U.K. Judge in the Samsung-Apple case has now taken on a role as an expert witness for Samsung in another trial. The judge in question, Sir Robin Jacob, will provide expert testimony for Samsung in an upcoming trial. Mueller notes this is legal because he wasn’t really a judge when he handed down his especially harsh verdict to Apple.

As Wikipedia explains, he “retired from the Court of Appeal in March 2011” to become a professor, but under Section 9 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, ex-judges can still be invited to sit on the bench. On that basis, Sir Robin Jacob handled the Samsung v. Apple case that made headline news around the world because it appeared that Apple filed frivolous lawsuits. In a ruling on Apple’s first attempt to comply with the publicity order, Sir Robin Jacob even noted a “lack of integrity”.

For someone so concerned with “integrity” it is utterly unusual to issue a high-profile and extreme ruling in favor of a particular party (Samsung in this case) only to be hired as an expert by that same party in another dispute. But that’s what has happened here, and I wonder how certain people in Cupertino feel about it.

Here’s where it gets sad/hilarious: Florian Mueller is an expert in taking after-trial money from companies involved in trials or “lack of integrity”, as he calls it. Oracle was forced to disclose that it paid Mueller during his “independent” coverage of the Oracle vs. Google trial last year. Indeed, Mueller has a long history of paid lobbying for companies like Microsoft and others that you can read all about at Groklaw, The Verge, and other places.

*Slow Clap* Florian.
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(Click to enlarge, credit: NBBJ)

The fine folks at NBBJ furnished us with this monster rendering of Google’s new 1.1-million-square foot ‘Bay View’ campus. Google has a long-term lease on the property from NASA. The scope of work includes integrated new construction, interiors, and workplace design. This will be Google’s first build-to-suit construction project. Both Google and NBBJ have high expectations for sustainability and healthy, creative work environments, and they will explore innovative materials and processes for construction.
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AllthingsD is reporting that Android head Andy Rubin is flatly denying knowledge of a retail store in Google’s future.

As for whether Google as a whole might need retail stores, “Google has no plans, and we have nothing to announce,” he said.

I reported last week that Google had plans to open retail stores within the year, and this, according to a quick ping of that same source, is still on. When asked about Rubin’s comments, I was told that Rubin wasn’t being forthcoming or AllThingsD misquoted him. After my report, AllThingsD’s sister company, the Wall Street Journal, also reported that Google would open retail stores.

Google spokesperson Jay Nancarrow declined to comment.

It should be noted that the retail program is being born (we’re told) out of Google’s (X) labs under Sergey Brin and not out of the Android group, and the two groups aren’t always in full cooperation. For instance, while Google’s Glass uses a derivative of Android as the base OS, it doesn’t use Google’s own voice recognition service. It instead opts for a service from Vlingo that was recently acquired by Nuance.

Perhaps this should be looked at under the same lens as Rubin’s “We [Google] aren’t making hardware” statements that were followed by the announcement of the Android hardware division and subsequent purchase of Motorola.

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