Seth Weintraub

If you want to learn what happened behind the scenes in the tumultuous world of Motorola in the past decade, Chicago Mag does an excellent in-depth feature of the company that is awaiting approval of its sale from Google to Lenovo. Some excellent bits:

Meanwhile, in arguably one of the worst decisions ever made by a major corporate CEO, Zander struck a deal with his Silicon Valley friend Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple. Together their companies created a Motorola iTunes phone, the first phone connected to Apple’s music store. “We can’t think of a more natural partnership than this one with Apple,” Zander said at the time. Named the Rokr, the phone launched in the fall of 2005. Jobs, who introduced it, called it “an iPod Shuffle right on your phone.”

Ouch, a Shuffle…
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From 9to5Toys.com:

Today’s Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day is the HP Chromebook 14 in Red or Turquoise refurb for $199.99 with free shipping. That’s $129.01 off the list price and the lowest we’ve ever seen this Chromebook which includes 200MB of free 4G wireless for life thru T-Mobile with the ability to get more data at T-Mobile’s rates. The 4-lb machine features 14-inch/1366 x 768 display, 4GB RAM/16GB Storage amd 1.4GHz Haswell processor.

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I’ve made the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active on AT&T my daily driver for a month now to see how its durability and physical buttons handled the long term punishment without a case or trying to treat it nicely. Here are some observations.
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It feels like just last month, TMobile CEO John Legere accused Verizon and AT&T of “raping” (ugh) its customers and that “the fuckers hate you”.

In a complaint filed today, the Federal Trade Commission is charging mobile phone service provider T-Mobile USA, Inc., with making hundreds of millions of dollars by placing charges on mobile phone bills for purported “premium” SMS subscriptions that, in many cases, were bogus charges that were never authorized by its customers…

The FTC alleges that T-Mobile received anywhere from 35 to 40 percent of the total amount charged to consumers for subscriptions for content such as flirting tips, horoscope information or celebrity gossip that typically cost $9.99 per month. According to the FTC’s complaint, T-Mobile in some cases continued to bill its customers for these services offered by scammers years after becoming aware of signs that the charges were fraudulent.

More in the PDF

Update: T-Mobile has responded publicly to the complaint saying it is being singled out…
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I was debating which Android Wear watch to get at Google I/O between the Samsung Gear Live and the LG G Watch. Sadly what won out overall was probably the look of the Gear Live (which looks like a Tizen-powered Gear 2 minus the camera and a few other minor details). Samsung’s offering also has heartbeat monitor and a higher resolution OLED display but LG has a bigger battery and LCD display (which didn’t help much with outside viewing from my brief usage).

I’ll say what everyone else was saying: We’d all rather have the Moto 360. But those come later this summer – which ends in September. Both the industrial design and the almost round face put the Moto 360 in another league but will probably put it in another price league as well. Both LG and Samsung will come in around $200.

How was the experience with the Samsung Gear Live?
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There is both a lot happening at this year’s Google I/O and very little, depending where you look.  Obviously, if you are a developer who builds Android and even web apps, you are a kid in a candy store. If you are looking for new hardware, there isn’t much that wasn’t out there already.  Neither Google co-founder took the stage this year after successive years where Sergey Brin led the introduction of Google Glass (which is all but absent this year) and Larry Page led an epic Q&A last year.

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I missed out scooping the Google Glass skydiving unveil at Google I/O 2012 because I didn’t believe my source. He knew about the entire thing, but it was too unbelievable for me to post. I’m posting this late word from my source because I think there is a small chance that Google announces it tomorrow (by posting late, it hopefully won’t go mainstream and I don’t look like an idiot when it doesn’t happen).

According to the source, Google has some biomedical superstars working in its X Lab on some cutting-edge micro bots that can detect things like certain kinds of cancer. These bots are small enough (the size of blood cells) to fit through human capillaries, yet they can detect diseases in the blood and can trigger an RFID reader, which in turn talks to a watch – perhaps a device running Android Wear. I was told this technology is at least 2 years from being a real product (and likely more when you consider FDA and public outcry). This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of nanobots circulating human bloodstreams, with scientists working on the idea as far back as 2009.

The bots would circulate in your blood stream, and when they went through your wrist (under your watch), the watch would be capable of reading the status (cancer/no cancer etc.).

Similar technology is already well documented and in recent years has become closer to something Google could actually use in a product. Ray Kurzweil, futurist and director of engineering at Google, described his vision for nanobots that could enter our blood stream in a piece he penned for The Guardian back in 2007:
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=772b0vbLCiY&feature=youtu.be]

The Detroit Borg does a nice and thorough 4K unboxing/review of the Asus PadFone on AT&T.

TL;DW Excellent phone, tablet a little clunky.

My take: The hardware to make this able to dock a phone seems like more effort/space/cost/etc than just making a separate tablet. If OSes had better “continuity” and carriers would just sell buckets of data across all devices, there would be no need for something like this. Until that time, this will definitely hit a niche market. 
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tusk1ca6JMM&feature=youtu.be]

Google and Autism Speaks will be announcing a partnership designed to house the sequencing of 10,000 genomes and other clinical data. The database, which would be the largest of its kind, would be open to anyone who wanted to access it. WSJ’s Shirley Wang and Autism Speaks co-founder Bob Wright join Lunch Break with Tanya Rivero. Photo: Google / Autism Speaks

Strangely, LG just released a preview video (above) and some information on the upcoming G3 case called the Quick Circle, which we’ve seen quite a bit of leaks around already. The case has a circle opening similar to the way the HTC M8 or Samsung Galaxy S4 and 5 have special cases that give quick looks to important information. The Quick Circle looks a little bit more robust however.

Users can check the time, place calls, send text messages, take photos, listen to music or get an update of their health directly from the circular window.

More stylish than traditional rectangular-windowed smartphone cases, LG’s QuickCircleTM Case comes in five eye-catching colors: Metallic Black, Silk White, Shine Gold, Aqua Mint, Indian Pink. The case is designed to protect the side edges of the G3 and provide the best “grip-ability” while maintaining the G3’s original sleek lines. To accentuate the beauty of its circular design language, Smart Lighting emits a soft, white, circular glow inside the window whenever the case is opened/closed or a call/text message is received.

“The smartphone ecosystem is constantly evolving ― no longer are cases just for protection from the elements and bumps and drops,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of the LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “They’re the perfect accessory to build in extra features that add more value to a mobile device. With QuickCircle Case, we’ve exceeded the baseline by making it customizable to better fit users’ needs.”

The interface looks a bit like a watch, which LG is also expected to launch soon, possibly at the same event. The G Watch will run Android Wear, Google’s wearable platform.

We’ll be on hand next week when LG announces the G3, though frankly, there appear to be few surprises left.

Press release follows:
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It appears that Samsung has a Tablet event slated for June 12th in New York City. The focus? Color,Tabs?

The venue is Madison Square Garden Theater which seats about 5K people so there should be lots of room. Can’t make it to NYC? Don’t worry, Samsung will be streaming it live on their YouTube Channel.

In case an 8.3-inch display wasn’t your size, LG has three more sizes of G Pad to choose from as of today. The new models come in three sizes and will likely come with similar specs to LG’s highly-touted 8.3-inch model.

Highlights of LG’s new G Pad Series tablets are:

● G Pad 7.0: Designed to be held in one hand, LG’s smallest tablet is an on-the-go entertainment hub that delivers both portability and power.
● G Pad 8.0: With its 8-inch display, LG’s mid-sized tablet offers an immersive multimedia experience and smooth multitasking.
● G Pad 10.1: With the largest display and battery, LG’s 10.1-inch tablet provides endless hours of entertainment and fun.

LG didn’t offer much more in the way of specs, ship date or pricing but expect that news to come soon.

Me? I’d probably wait for the Google Play or “Silver” version because the generic Android flies on the 8.3.

Press release and another shot follow:
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It is just a landing page so far but it appears google is looking to sponsor some innovation in a place that is near and dear to its heart: Power conversion. The Website Littleboxchallenge.com opened up today challenging inveters to reduce the footprint of power inversion.

Why does Google care? All of those servers in its data center use DC power which is often changed from AC that is brought through power lines.

It is also how solar DC gets changed into AC for transport something that makes it relevant to the energy event going on right now sponsored by president Obama

https://twitter.com/google/status/464824065149399040
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Google started competing in the same day delivery space in May and is now opening up two more fronts in the war to get deliveries to your house the same day as you order them.

In the Los Angeles area, shoppers in Culver City, Inglewood, Marina Del Rey, Santa Monica, Venice, West Los Angeles, and Westwood can now shop from some of their favorite retailers like Costco, Guitar Center, L’Occitane, Smart & Final, Staples, Target, Toys“R”Us/Babies“R”Us, and Walgreens. In the coming months, we’ll be expanding delivery to other parts of Los Angeles, Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista and West Hollywood.

In New York, we’re starting with service to the entire island of Manhattan with Babies“R”Us, Costco, Fairway Market, L’Occitane, Staples, Target, and Walgreens. We’re also working to bring Shopping Express to shoppers in Queens and Brooklyn in the coming months.

9to5Google first heard last year that Google looked to take down Amazon Prime with its own same-day shipping service, and the project began in the Google X incubator headed by cofounder Sergey Brin. We also heard somewhat wild information on the program: Google, in the long run, plans to use self-driving cars and flying drones as means of delivery. 

Just like last year, the Mini looks to be a miniaturized version of the original, but omitting the extra image sensor and probably sporting a lower resolution and size display. Since one of the biggest problems we had with the M8 was its tall size, this might actually serve as a better option for those without Andre the Giant hands. [tweet https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/462950003053297664]

From 9to5Toys.com:

Chromebooks are inherently great deals with their free 100GB of Google Drive space ($48 value) for 2 years on new models often a great incentive to buy alone. But we’ve found some additional savings around the web. Not sure about making the switch to a Chromebook? Have a free Ebook that can help make the transition:

Like any device, Chromebooks have their advantages and their disadvantages.

Chromebooks are Google’s take on the laptop. They run a slimmed-down operating system optimized for getting on the web with just the Chrome browser and Chrome apps. If you can do everything in your browser with web-based services and online storage, you can switch to a Chromebook.

Many Chromebook users haven’t actually “switched” to a Chromebook — they’ve purchased a Chromebook as an additional device, not one that replaces their current computer entirely. A Chromebook is the simple laptop you pick up when you need to browse the web, watch videos, type emails, write documents, and do other things you can accomplish in a browser. But let’s assume you actually want to switch to a Chromebook.

Offered Free by: Makeuseof.com

The Acer Chromebook Deals:

• Haswell 720 Acer Chromebook 11.6-Inch, 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD, HDMI port, USB 3, 8.5-hour battery life: $149.99 Refurb or $199 new at Amazon shipped (few bucks more for 32GB Storage).
• Same as above Acer 11.6″ Chromebook 2 GB 16 GB | C720-2802 Official Acer eBay Outlet Store: $149.99 shipped
• Acer 11.6″ C7 Chromebook 2GB 16GB Chrome OS Celeron (Refurb) | $139.99 C710-2856 Official Acer eBay Outlet Store
• Acer C710-2856 11.6″ Chromebook Intel Celeron 847 1.1Ghz 2GB RAM 16GB SSD (Refurb) $119.99  shipped at Newegg

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Not enough space?

Google owns the biggest building by square footage in New York City, the 111 Eighth Avenue building previously owned by the Port Authority and one of the most wired buildings in the world. Google finalized the $1.9B purchase at the end of 2010 and has continued to also occupy office space in the Chelsea Market building across the street.

The WSJ reports (paywall) Google now…

wants to expand further in the city, launching a search for enough space to hold more than 3,000 employees, according to several real-estate executives familiar with the hunt.

The Internet firm has been in discussions with several landlords about leasing at much as 600,000 square feet in Manhattan—about half the size of the Chrysler Building. A space that large would represent a roughly 80% expansion for the company, which first established a small outpost in New York in 2000.

What’s interesting about this expansion plan is that Google hasn’t even filled out its Chelsea offices, still leasing many offices out to other companies and data centers that signed leases before the 2010 purchase.

Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia announced today that Aereo users will be able to watch and record live television using Google’s Chromecast starting on May 29th. Aereo users, who can already watch live broadcast television over their phone, computer, tablet, or connected TV for $8/month, are anxiously awaiting a Supreme Court decision that would verify whether or not the service is legal.

In the meantime, Aereo users are able to stream local airwave content over IP to their computers and mobile devices.

With the addition of Chromecast, users will have a new way to watch Aereo on their television, through the Aereo app for Android. While it wasn’t announced, the iOS app could also add Chromecast support at a later time.

It isn’t certain why you’d pay $8/month for access to the same channels on your HDTV that you can pull in with a $22 antenna but those who are already paying for the service will find the added feature beneficial. The DVR functions could also serve beneficial.

Press release follows:
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