Seth Weintraub

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqiSE-ukmgc&feature=player_embedded]

How do you take a Wi-Fi-only device camping? (No spoiler, just watch!)

via Google Nexus Channel
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Last month, Samsung predicted sales of the Samsung Galaxy S3 to surpass 10 million units sold. Today, Samsung exec J.K. Shin confirmed Samsung reached its milestone.

 Shin Jong-kyun, the president of Samsung’s information technology and mobile communication division, told reporters that the phone has become a 10-million seller after it was first unveiled on May 29 in London. He, however, did not give exact numbers.

This translates into about 190,000 Galaxy S3s being sold every day, and easily ahead of its very popular predecessor — the Galaxy S2 — that reported sales hitting 10 million, five months after it reached consumers.

Samsung began selling the Galaxy S3 in the United States less than a month ago, and it began selling the S3 globally not even a month before that.

As a comparison, Apple sold 35 Million iPhones in its most recent quarter—including older models of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. That is around 388,000 iPhones per day. Samsung obviously sells many lower-end Android smartphones too.

Our GS3 Review is here.

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A trip over to the Google Play Store today yields a very disconcerting message for those who were hoping to get a 16GB Nexus 7. The purchase option has been replaced by a “Sign up to be notified by email when Nexus 7 (16GB) becomes available.”

The Guardian said Google simply ran out of the 16GB version. Mountain View, according to the publication, has none left, while a ramping up ASUS will not have new units until at least a few weeks out.

The 8GB version is still up for sale and expects to ship in three to five days. I guess folks are being old-fashioned and want to keep their media local.

The reason? Overwhelming demand that far outstripped Google’s expectations. It is next to impossible to find in the United Kingdom, and things are hit/miss even in the United States. eBay is already taking advantage by selling the Nexus 7 at premiums up to and over $100.

Welcome to the combination of supply chain logistics/successful products at Google.

[tweet https://twitter.com/googlenexus/status/226427451352428545]

On Google Plus, Google elaborated a little more on the carrier situation:

We’ve started rolling out Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, to Nexus S phones on a number of carriers including T-Mobile, H3G, O2, Rogers as well as Vodafone in most countries, with more to come. Enjoy!

[Foot tapping.]

We just received an invite from Samsung Electronics America to “Save the Date” for a major Galaxy announcement. This business division is not to be confused with Samsung Telecommunications America that handles mobile phones.

What could it be?

We are hoping the Samsung Galaxy Camera lands, but it will likely be a tablet or TV.

SAVE THE DATE

August 15, 2012

10:00AM EST

Please join Samsung Electronics America for a major announcement and unveiling of the newest GALAXY device. An exclusive press conference will take place where full details will be disclosed.

An invitation with details will follow soon.

Thank you.

More as it comes in.
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Google just reported higher-than-expected earnings and revenues following the completion of its acquisition of Motorola holdings. The stock was up 20 points or 3.3-percent in after hours trading.

Q2 Financial Highlights

Revenues and Other Information – On a consolidated basis, Google Inc. revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2012 was $12.21 billion, an increase of 35% compared to the second quarter of 2011.

• Google Revenues (advertising and other) – Google revenues were $10.96 billion, or 90% of consolidated revenues, in the second quarter of 2012, representing a 21% increase over second quarter 2011 revenues of $9.03 billion.
  • Google Sites Revenues – Google-owned sites generated revenues of $7.54 billion, or 69% of Google revenues, in the second quarter of 2012. This represents a 21% increase over second quarter 2011 Google sites revenues of $6.23 billion.
  • Google Network Revenues – Google’s partner sites generated revenues of $2.98 billion, or 27% of Google revenues, in the second quarter of 2012. This represents a 20% increase from second quarter 2011 Google network revenues of $2.48 billion.

  Google International Revenues – Google revenues from outside of the United States totaled $5.96 billion, representing 54% of Google revenues in the second quarter of 2012, compared to 54% in the first quarter of 2012 and 54% in the second quarter of 2011.

  Foreign Exchange Impact on Google Revenues – Excluding gains related to our foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the first quarter of 2012 through the second quarter of 2012, our Google revenues in the second quarter of 2012 would have been $68 million higher. Excluding gains related to our foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the second quarter of 2011 through the second quarter of 2012, our Google revenues in the second quarter of 2012 would have been $350 million higher.

  • Google revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $1.18 billion, representing 11% of Google revenues in the second quarter of 2012, compared to 11% in the second quarter of 2011.
  • In the second quarter of 2012, we recognized a benefit of $81 million to Google revenues through our foreign exchange risk management program, compared to $4 million in the second quarter of 2011.

  Reconciliations of our consolidated non-GAAP international revenues and Google non-GAAP international revenues excluding the impact of foreign exchange and hedging to consolidated GAAP international revenues and Google GAAP international revenues are included at the end of this release.

  Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, increased approximately 42% over the second quarter of 2011 and increased approximately 1% over the first quarter of 2012.

  Cost-Per-Click – Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, decreased approximately 16% over the second quarter of 2011 and increased approximately 1% over the first quarter of 2012.

  TAC – Traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google’s partners, increased to $2.60 billion in the second quarter of 2012, compared to $2.11 billion in the second quarter of 2011. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 25% in the second quarter of 2012, compared to 24% in the second quarter of 2011.

  The majority of TAC is related to amounts ultimately paid to our Network members, which totaled $2.09 billion in the second quarter of 2012. TAC also includes amounts ultimately paid to certain distribution partners and others who direct traffic to our website, which totaled $507 million in the second quarter of 2012.

• Motorola Revenues (hardware and other) – Motorola revenues were $1.25 billion ($843 million from the mobile segment and $407 million from the home segment), or 10% of consolidated revenues in the second quarter of 2012.

Analysts were expecting:

• Q2 EPS: $10.04

• Q2 Revenue: $8.41 billion

• Q3 EPS Guidance: $10.76

• Q3 Revenue Guidance: $9 billion

Fill release below:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnhJ1841K-8&feature=player_embedded]

I suspect that—a lot like both YouTube and museums— this project will benefit from a great deal of curation.
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[protected-iframe id=”c62da3266b60e784d0c14acb8763ff9b-22427743-13611283″ info=”http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/apps/cvp/4.0/swf/cnn_money_384x216_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=/video/technology/2012/07/17/bst-thiel-schmidt-innovate.fortune” width=”384″ height=”356″]

Thiel is probably a bit of an outlier (understatement), but, from a philosophical standpoint, Google could technically be investing more in R&D.

The problem is, to invest responsibly, there has to be a certain level of confidence that the projects will pay off. If anything, Google has become more responsible and focused on R&D.

Thiel is an avowed libertarian, and he has spoken about the importance of beating inflation (not that Google’s money is under some monster mattress somewhere in Mountain View) before.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95h5p9fYWhc]

In a blog post today, Google Ideas head Jared Cohen described a new initiative to expose violent illicit networks.

• Violent illicit networks represent a trillion-dollar problem that affects every society in the world and claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year. For example, more than 50,000 people have died in the past five years as a result of the ongoing war in Mexico between rival drug cartels. And although data on this subject is scarce and often unreliable, in 2003 the UN estimated the value of the illicit drug market to be nearly $320 billion, greater than the gross domestic product of 88 percent of countries in the world—and that was almost 10 years ago. It’s clear that illicit networks—particularly those that are violent and coercive like drug smugglers, arms dealers and human traffickers—have a devastating human and financial impact on every nation.
• We think Google can help. Eighteen months ago we launched Google Ideas with the belief that Google is in the unique position to explore the role that technology can play in tackling some of the toughest human challenges in the world. Our first area of focus was counter-radicalization; last year we convened the Summit Against Violent Extremism with former gang members, right-wing extremists, jihadists and militants as well as survivors of violent extremism. Among the many outcomes of the summit was a platform that we established as a one-stop shop for tackling violent extremism through formers and survivors.

Google will upload videos from the summit to the YouTube channel and on Twitter via @googleideas and #infosummit2012.

This is an interesting wing of Google, where former CEO Eric Schmidt plays a big role (Cohen and Schmidt are co-authoring a book). Ideas has not yet bore any fruits other than goodwill, but it has some potential to create some real change.

For a profile on Cohen, check out a Fortune post I wrote a few years ago.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzBVOoz_vZE]

The big news this week at Google is that one of its highest profile and longest reigning employees left to go lead a competitor, Yahoo!. While Yahoo is ostensibly gone from Search, it is still playing in the Maps, Location, Email/Calendar, news aggregation, Mobile, and many others in the same fields as Google. Make no mistake…Yahoo and Google are competitors.

The choice of candidate for Yahoo is as good as it could have gotten (and much better than most envisioned in Ross Levensohn), and it seems like a stellar selection considering the Yahoo Board’s last few choices.

As Mayer told Charlie Rose in 2009, she puts an extremely high price on the value of the people at a company and after having been at Google for 12+ years, that is where most of the good people she knows now work. Google’s employees are also aware that Yahoo is going to be spend a lot of money on talent changes as Mayer starts her tenure tomorrow, so those not happy at their current situation know where to call.

Google has been in a fight over recent years to retain talent from employees that head to Apple, Facebook, or Twitter. But, I think this is a different league of problem that will reach high into Google’s Org chart.

I also think Yahoo is still screwed.

The NYTimes has the story:

• The appointment of Ms. Mayer, who was employee No. 20 at Google and was one of the few public faces of the company, is considered a surprising coup for Yahoo, which has struggled in recent years to attract top flight talent in its battle with competitors like Google and Facebook.
• Ms. Mayer, 37, had for years been responsible for the look and feel of Google’s most popular products: the famously unadorned white search homepage, Gmail, Google News and Google Images. More recently, Ms. Mayer, an engineer by training whose first job at Google included computer programming, was put in charge of the company’s location and local services, including Google Maps, overseeing more than 1,000 product managers. She also sat on Google’s operating committee, part of a small circle of senior executives who had the ear of Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Mayer has been on the outs for some time at Google, and she did not show for Google I/O this year. She moved up the food chain from being Google employee No. 20 and first female engineer. Mayer’s rise took her from engineer to project manager to Director of Consumer Web Services to VP of Search Products and User Experience, and finally to Location in a broad shift. She was also on the very influential “Operating Committee” of high ranking officers.

However, she was not promoted as one of Larry Page’s seven business heads when he re-took over the company last year.

[tweet https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/224968460139114496]

Mayer is on Walmart’s board of directors, and she briefly dated Google CEO Page who said:

“Since arriving at Google just over 13 years ago as employee #20, Marissa has been a tireless champion of our users. She contributed to the development of our Search, Geo, and Local products. We will miss her talents at Google.”

Mayer said,

“I am honored and delighted to lead Yahoo!, one of the internet’s premier destinations for more than 700 million users.  I look forward to working with the Company’s dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and advertisers all around the world.”

The press release is below. 

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…For the first time ever, two-thirds of new phone acquirers are buying smartphones.

Smartphone use is exploding in the United States, while PC sales are dropping. If 66 percent of mobile phone buyers purchase smartphones, and 36.3-percent of them get the iPhone, then that means almost a quarter of all phones bought in the U.S. are iPhones. That also means 36 percent of the purchased phones run Android OS.

More from Nielsen, including the incredibly skewed graphic, is below—which gives Symbian, Palm and Windows 7 devices almost the same amount of “fill” at 2.8-percent as Apple’s 34 percent.

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This is cool, but…Pro Tip: Going is still significantly better.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx30f6XV-Bk]

Android Police noted that Google’s Nexus 7 tablet has an interesting, unbeknownst capability—until now. On the left side (so opposite of Apple):

A curious owner of the device started doing what any totally rational person does with a brand-new tablet: expose it to magnetic forces. The results yielded an as-yet hidden feature in the Nexus 7, in the form a magnetic smart cover sensor. Simply take a magnet and put it up against the front or back of your Nexus 7 along the bottom left-hand side while in portrait mode with the display on and the above happens.

Case makers take note!
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AT&T just announced that you can get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy SII in Garnet Red online on July 15th and they wil start showing up in stores two weeks later on July 29th. Other than Red, the SIII will be identical to the one we reviewed last month.

[tweet https://twitter.com/sethbloom/status/223414133683527681]
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[protected-iframe id=”c19d2937b392badf873cb923e56317bd-22427743-13611283″ info=”http://live.wsj.com/public/page/embed-4A016153_4896_4081_9C06_21387BF6B924.html” width=”512″ height=”288″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”]

We were big fans of the Nexus 7, but sometimes it is good to hear what the older generation has to say. Walt Mossberg, the highly influential product reviewer for the Wall Street Journal, had his go with the Nexus 7 and came away recommending it. He said it beats the iPad in some key areas.

Google’s tablet is a better choice than the iPad for people on a budget; for those who prefer a lighter, more compact tablet that’s easier to carry and operate with one hand; and for those who prefer Google’s ecosystem of apps, services and content to Apple’s. Despite some drawbacks, I found it a pleasure to use.

How does it stack up against the Kindle Fire?
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehZ7fYDVtiY]

Love this from Wired:

“Google prevailed on a substantial part of the litigation,” read Google’s brief. “[Oracle] recovered none of the relief it sought in this litigation. Accordingly, Google is the prevailing party and is entitled to recover costs.”

Moreover, $2.9 million of that amount included copying and organizing documents. Google juggled a mind-boggled 97 million documents during the case.

After a year of pre-trial wrangling and six weeks in court, Oracle walked away with next to nothing. Judge and jury decided that Google was liable for lifting nine lines of code and two test files, but otherwise, they sided against Oracle. Last month, Judge William Alsup ruled that Google owed Oracle exactly nothing for lifting those small pieces of code.

This reminds me of the guy who beat up an armed robber and made the man clean up his own blood (video above).
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TL;DR: Pass.

This phone is exactly what you think it is: a throwback to last year when HTC made thick phones, while Verizon loaded phones with crapware (O.K., that’s still happening). I have to wonder what happened behind the scenes with the HTC-VZ relationship. Did HTC say to Verizon, “You want to do WHAT with our One phones? Errr, here—have this instead of the One.”

I mean, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T each released the next generation of thin, svelte One series smartphones with big, beautiful displays. They are critically acclaimed! The Incredible 4G’s 4-inch display would have been passable, if it had a body like the HTC One S, which I am still in love with. This phone is so thick (.46 inches) that you almost expect it to have a slide out keyboard (Droid 4 with a keyboard is only microns thicker).

This…this is like the Rezound Jr., which is not entirely bad…for a 2011 grenade phone.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VczxbsigfIs&feature=player_embedded]
First hands on at I/O

Make no mistake; the Nexus 7 is a game changer. Google has. hit. it. out. of. the. park. this time. I have no doubt that Google’s first Nexus Tablet will be the best-selling 7-inch tablet this summer and might actually give the iPad a run for its money if marketed well and in enough places.

Frankly, as did many in the audience at Google I/O, I knew a lot of what was coming beforehand. A 7-inch Jellybean tablet from Asus was rumored for months. The devil is in the details, however…

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YzD33Zb1MI&feature=youtu.be]

Google supports the Declaration of Internet Freedom:

Celebrate freedom. Support a free and open Internet.
More than any time in history, more people in more places have the ability to make their voices heard.
Just as we celebrate freedom, we need to celebrate the tools that support freedom.
Add your voice in support of a free and open Internet.

Happy 4th.
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