Seth Weintraub

Google is giving Ol’ St. Nicholas a run for his money this holiday season because it ALSO knows what people want for the holidays. Rather than getting mail in the North Pole however, Google gets its data via its popular search engine. In data from its Trends platform, it has determined the top trending toys, devices and apparel searches on Google Shopping. An overview from the Commerce blog:

• Game consoles and tablets continue to be the top gifts trending on Google Shopping, but wearable technology such as the “fitbit” is also on the rise this month.
• Certain retro toys are making a comeback this season. Thanks to the new movie “Ouija,” searches for “Ouija boards” are up 300% since October. And queries for “Barbie Dream House” and “My Little Pony” are up as well compared to last month. ⁶
• Cold-weather staples, such as “Hunter boots” and “Canada Goose jackets,” are among the most popular apparel searches, up 46% and 140%, respectively, since October. But “jogger pants” are the newcomer gift this season, up 39% from October. ⁷

But the most important data they pulled, especially if you are a clueless father like myself, is the top 10 Kids’ gifts list. Without further ado, in order:

1. American Girl

2. My Little Pony

3. Paw Patrol

4. Lego Friends

5. Ouija Board

6. Peppa Pig

7. Shopkins

8. Nerf Guns

9. Barbie Dream House

10. Zoomer Dino

Any of this hitting home?
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Amazon just upped the Cloud Photo storage ante with free unlimited Cloud storage for Photos for its Prime customers.  The Amazon Photo service, which has apps for iOS or Android and is native to Amazon’s Fire products including its recently announced Fire stick, will no longer be capped for Prime customers.

Introducing Prime Photos. Your cherished memories are safe in Amazon Cloud Drive and accessible anywhere you are. It’s like having a virtual album of every one of your photos that you can access at any time, no matter which device you use.

According to TechCrunch, a Mac app is in the works but for now the web uploader works as well.

Prime is Amazon’s all-in-one premium service which allows free streaming music, 500,000 free eBooks, free Netflix-like TV service, free 2 day shipping on goods and services bought at Amazon. It is $99/year but grabbing a 30-day free trial 1 month before the holiday shopping season starts isn’t a bad idea. Folks who don’t want to fork out the $99 can get a 5 GB of free storage on Amazon Cloud Drive which is the equivalent to up to 2,000 photos.

More on Prime, below:
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I’ve been an iPad Air user for a solid year. Sure, I’ve tried tried and reviewed other devices, but my go-to device for reading at night, some light work on the train or plane and just brain dead playing Facebook/Twitter/G+/Reddit/Email/Video chatting has been the Space Gray iPad Air 16GB.

Before the Air, I had used both of Google’s Samsung Nexus 10 and Asus Nexus 7 (2012) tablets and found them OK devices. The Google I/O version Nexus 7 power supply broke about 8 months in and I didn’t bother getting it fixed. The Samsung Nexus 10 was actually an under-rated device, in my opinion, probably mostly because the initial software wasn’t as polished as it should have been.

So with the Nexus 9, Google has had a long time to get its software right, and I shouldn’t have gotten déjà vu when I started using the Nexus 9, right?…
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Amazon jumped the gun on the release of what appears to be two new Moto 360 products, both named after expensive booze. First, you have the Champagne (read: Gold) Moto 360 face and strap which will, according to the site, set you back $300.

No sir, I don’t like it.

On the other hand, the new Cognac strap ships at the same $249 price as current band/face combos and is definitely easy on the eyes. No word yet on standalone price.

Both are given a launch time of 1-2 months so maaaybe before Christmas? At time of writing, both were taken down by Amazon but not before someone gave them a 5 star rating. Screenshots below…

Amazon cache (1) (2) (3) via DROID LIFE

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Google invited some journalists to a location near its New York office today to look at its new Nexus products. On display were the Nexus 6, Player and 9 with plenty of accessories. I asked some questions, I took some notes I played around a little bit.

The Player:

• You’ve seen the video and there wasn’t anything new on display though I have to say the Material Graphics looked great on what I believe was at least a 70-inch display
• I talked to the product manager who told me that some of Google TV devices would be upgradable to Player. It was up to the OEM and hardware specs. I imagine Sony among others will update some of their products. I’m not as sure about the other “players”.
• Sony is again all in on Android Player all of their Smart TVs and set boxes (outside of Playstation) will be Players
• Many more OEM announcements will be coming at CES (we’ll be there!)

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LG just dropped an TSMC-built octo-core NUCLUN bomb on us this evening. The smartphone and electronics manufacturer announced its own, long rumored ARM processor which will go into its phones later this year.

NUCLUN (pronounced NOO-klun) was designed using ARM big.LITTLE™ technology for efficient multi-tasking capabilities. The AP employs four 1.5GHz cores (ARM Cortex-A15) for high performance and four 1.2GHz cores (ARM Cortex-A7) for less intensive processing. The number of performing cores can be adjusted based on the requirements of the task for maximum processing power or maximum energy savings. NUCLUN is designed to support the next generation of 4G networks, LTE-A Cat.6, for maximum download speeds of up to 225Mbps while retaining backward compatibility with current LTE networks.

“NUCLUN opens up a new chapter in LG’s history of innovation in the mobile industry,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “With this in-house solution, we will be able to achieve better vertical integration and further diversity our product strategy against stronger competition. NUCLUN will give us greater flexibility in our mobile strategy going forward.”

The processor will debut in a Korean model phone and along with its 8 cores will carry LTE cat 6 capabilities on die. The LG Liger which leaked today is also expected to have the NUCLUN processor, if indeed these aren’t actually the same phone.

Press release and more images follow:
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For those who want to jump into the Nexus 9, nows your chance. Amazon has the order page up a full day early and is accepting orders now. The Nvidia Tegra K1 2.3GHz 8.9 inch tablet with QXGA 2048×1536 display just blew up Geeklab benchmarks pulling it even with Mac Pros from 2012 in some tests. It also features high end 8MP camera on the back and selfies come in at 1.6MP. The whole package weighs in under a pound and  it also includes blistering fast AC wifi with MIMO.

Google reported Q3 2014 earnings today that didn’t quite meet analyst expectations. Sales rose 20% to $16.52 billion in the quarter. Profit was $6.35 a share. Analysts’ expectations were $16.59 billion and profit of $6.54 a share.

“Google had another strong performance this quarter, with revenue up 20% year on year, at $16.5 billion,” said Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google.  “We continue to be excited about the growth in our advertising and emerging businesses.”

It will be interesting to see what Google has to say for themselves when they talk earnings at 4:30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_WJFqQx65Y

The call will be live, above.

Press release follows:
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As is tradition, Google now has a Loli statue in its Android statue garden commemorating the 5.0 L release of Android. Via +AlexRuiz.

Update: Here’s the video unveil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTxTLyLUjP4&feature=youtu.be

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In a clip that would probably freak out our recent ancestors, Corbin Davenport has managed to port Windows 95 over to the Samsung Gear Live via ADosBox emulator. Is it stable or useful? No. but it is interesting to see what you can do. Who will be first to run Mac OS 8?

Davenport also Minecraft, and old school PC shooter Doom (below):
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Just this weekend the Nexus 9 walted its way through the FCC and now the HTC-built Nexus tablet is making the leaked image rounds.  Interestingly, the back material looks similar to that of the rubber on the Samsung-built Nexus 10 which is now 2 years old.

Together with the Nexus 6/X, which is also making the rumor rounds including our own exclusives and some new Benchmarks, we’re expecting a launch event in the next week or so. Stay tuned.
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A fun snippet of an interview by the Montreal Gazette where the Google Chairman was promoting his book and talking privacy and Canadian Google Offices:

CP: What’s your current smartphone?

Schmidt: Motorola Razr X. As you know, Motorola is in the process of being sold to Lenovo but this is in fact the phone that I use.

CP: You were a noted BlackBerry user, what made you switch?

Schmidt: Well, I need to carry this. I still like BlackBerrys but I’m afraid they missed a set of transitions that were very important and the new CEO is trying very hard to recover. But the fact of the matter is that Android and iPhone are driving the market now.

Later, at his speaking event with the Empire Club of Canada, Schmidt admitted he still does carry a BlackBerry in addition to his Motorola phone.

Contrast this with his former nemesis at Microsoft Steve Ballmer who is making the Los Angeles Clippers Basketball team use Microsoft products.

As for the Moto Razr X, we can only assume he misspoke since he’s been seen often with a Moto X (above).

It is hard not to look at the design of this and think Samsung is skating to where the (i)puck was.

Some folks have found their iPhone 6 and especially the 6 Plus didn’t handle being sat on or in too tight of pockets well.  So Unbox therapy put together a very simple bend test which the iPhone 6 didn’t handle very well sadly.

To be fair, they just ran the same test on the Galaxy Note 3 and it appears it handles the bending a lot better with its less malleable plastic back and thicker body.

For the record, I tried this earlier with an old S4 (with a worn out back plate and no battery) and it also held up well besides the back cover coming off.

Will this be a thing?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8jEi-g9hHI

T-Mobile Android devices have had Wifi calling for some time so I’m not posting my whole review of the new $25 CellSpot here (tl;dr: Get it, no brainer). But I did use a LG Flex to test out the handoffs and it it did work well. So there’s that.

More importantly, I was grilling T-Mobile on if the Nexus 4 (which I have) or Nexus 5 (which they sell) would be supported for Wifi calling. The bad news is that neither phone is currently supported. That goes against their “Wifi calling works on every smartphone they sell” policy but the Nexus is a special case with software controlled by Google so there is at least an excuse.

The good news?
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Tips and my own inbox confirm that Motorola is sending I/O attendees out their Moto 360 Smartwatches right now! Will they make it before Tim Cook and Co announce their own entry into the smartwatch field? I suppose it depends on which part of your FedEx carrier’s route you are on.

Toshiba upped its already solid Chromebook game today with the aptly-named Chromebook 2 laptop. With an optional 1920×1080 pixel display, Haswell processor, 4GB of RAM, HDMI AV out and AC/Bluetooth 4 wireless, it ticks most of the boxes on what you’d want on a high end laptop. It even claims 11.5 hour battery life and new forward facing speakers designed with help from Skullcandy.

It comes in starting at $249 for the 720P 16 Model and is set for release on Oct. 5

Spec sheet follows:
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Samsung just announced the Galaxy Note 4 in White, Black, and a Zune Gold and Hello Kitty Pink. Color taste aside, the update looks to be a solid one across the board.

Quick notes on standout features:

• LTE Category 6
• Latest Google Android OS (L)
• Design: Metal Frame, stronger glass
• Weight: 176g, 8.5mm thin

Quad HD 2560×1440 display

Snap note expands on Note’s bility to take notes, this time with a camera and some smart software.

The Galaxy Note 4 also offers an improved Fingerprint Scanner, to secure personal data and the world’s first UV sensor in a mobile device.

Our Galaxy Note 4 hands-on video:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVdljRoD8ME]

Hit the Press release below for full details
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