9to5 Staff

If you own a Chromebook, basically a notebook with flash storage preloaded with Google’s cloud-based operating system, you’ll be delighted to know that a new software update is dropping, bringing out new features. Just as Google pushed Chrome 15 to the stable channel two weeks ago, today the company announced a corresponding update for Chromebooks, which as of now include Acer’s AC700, Samsung’s Series 5 and Cr-48 notebooks.

In addition to Chrome 15 features such as a prettified New Tab page with customizable home screens for web app icons, this update adds the new web UI login, supports playback of key media codecs and improves video decode performance.

Additionally, you can now choose your preferred networks and access NTFS volumes. You will also notice new ‘Games’ and ‘Music’ apps by default. Bug fixes, performance enhancements and a bunch of security updates fixing exploits are also part of this Chromebook OS release.

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Looking to distinguish itself from the marketing powerhouse that is Apple and its omnipresent iPhone, carrier Verizon Wireless in October of 2009 begun airing a series of macho-looking commercials for the Droid line of smartphones. Just remember, if you will, the awesome ‘Stealth’ advert or the distinctively anti-Apple ‘iDon’t’ and ‘Pretty’ commercials that explicitly pitched the Droid family as an iPhone-alternative.

Fast-forward two years and the carrier’s advertising still leans towards that same masculine concept. Look no further than a pair of television commercials for the Droid Razr handset, which launches tomorrow. One is highlighting the sexiness of the handset and the other – conveniently titled ‘Payload’ – focuses on its “legendary edge”, thinness, Gorilla Glass display and Kevlar casing, all reinforcing the underlying masculine concept.

You gotta admire the cinematic appearance and the overall polish of these commercials. Go past the fold for an additional Razr teaser.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Sz3Cn101Y]

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From 9to5toys.com:

PC Connection offers the Sony GoogleTV BluRay Player NSZ-GT1 for $199.  9to5 coupon code 9to5Blu10 drops it $20 to $179.99, the lowest price we’ve seen.  Google just updated its TV line to 2.0 which has applications, an easier menu system, HBO co and more. It features support for the Android-based Google TV service, 1080p upscaling, 8GB of built-in storage, 802.11n wireless and Ethernet connectivity, four USB ports, HDMI output, and more.

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What’s a tell-tale sign that the latest tech thing has become sticky? Badges, of course! Be it LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or the latest fad, people want the world to know they endorse a certain piece of technology so they put badges on blog posts and web pages.

Well, Google today made available Google+ badges for your own web site. If you’re all about driving engagement (especially true if you’re a business or a brand with a Google+ page), you may want to proudly feature these on your own web site.

The Google+ badge helps you grow your audience on Google+ and show more recommendations in Google search by letting people add you to their circles and +1 your page, all without leaving your site.

Your visitors will thank you. Not only will Google+ badges turn visitors into advocates of your brand, but will also make it easy for your audience to share and subscribe to your posts. In addition, you get more personal recommendations around the web by connecting +1’s for your website with +1’s on your Google+ page. Want your own Google+ badge? First set up a Google+ page and then customize your badge using this tool.

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Microsoft’s relentless strategy calling for royalties upon Android device vendors over an alleged patent infringement is earning them millions of dollars, but also a few enemies along the way, from Google’s Eric Schmidt to Barnes & Noble (and quite possibly Amazon, set to launch its Kindle Fire tablet November 15). Bloomberg reports that Barnes & Noble is launching a pre-emptive strike by asking the United States regulators to probe Microsoft’s anti-Android strategy:

Microsoft is embarking on a campaign of asserting trivial and outmoded patents against manufacturers of Android devices,” Barnes & Noble said in an Oct. 17 letter to Gene Kimmelman, the Justice Department’s chief counsel for competition policy. “Microsoft is attempting to raise its rivals’ costs in order to drive out competition and to deter innovation in mobile devices.

Over half of all Android devices sold are now under Microsoft’s Android protection. Microsoft issued a statement saying it “would be pleased to extend a license to Barnes & Noble”, underscoring they make their patents available on “reasonable terms for other operating systems, like Android”.

Barnes & Noble on Monday unveiled its Android-powered tablet device named Nook Tablet and priced at $249. The product launch came in spite of a March patent dispute with Microsoft concerning Android’s handling of navigation and rendering of web site content. The Windows maker filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission in Washington, seeking to block imports of the Nook readers.

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When Nvidia’s mobile roadmap leaked back in January, smartphone and tablet makers were ecstatic about a powerful chip code-named Kal-El, a nod at Clark Kent’s (aka Superman) alter ego on the planet Krypton. Yesterday the graphics giant officially launched the Tegra 3 processor, mentioning in a press release Asustek’s Eee Pad Transformer Prime as the first tablet to run the quad-core chip.

First benchmark of the Asus tablet indicate a twofold jump in performance, courtesy of the new Nvidia chip. HTC is expected to debut the first smartphone with Tegra 3 chip early next year. Specs-wise, the chip is a screamer (AnandTech concurs).

It’s got four ARM Cortex A9 processing cores that reach speeds of up to 1.3GHz (1.4GHz in single-core mode). Its GeForce graphics processor has twelve cores for three times the graphics performance of Tegra 2 and supports gee-whiz features such as dynamic lighting, physical effects, high resolution environments and 3D stereo.

Despite all this oomph, power consumption is 61 percent lower: Tegra 3 can continuously render HD video for up to twelve hours on a single charge. Another interesting design feat: The chip features a fifth processing core clocked at just 500MHz which takes over whenever possible, for handling undemanding tasks.

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This helps reduce batter consumption when browsing the web, checking your email, playing music and other light tasks. Nvidia will release one new Nvidia chip each year and they are already working on the fourth-generation Tegra, code-named Wayne, that should be ten times faster than Tegra 2. But how does the current Tegra 3 chip fare to rival offerings, especially to Apple’s A5 chip? More on that plus a bunch of eye-popping video tours after the break…

The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime is the world’s first quad-core tablet with Tegra 3.

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Google chairman Eric Schmidt has issued yet another public challenge to Microsoft’s Android protection initiative said to be worth an estimated $444 million from license agreements alone during fiscal 2012. The executive and Google’s former CEO on Wednesday sent a message of support to its Asian partners at a local forum in Taipei and launched an attack on Microsoft’s aggressive Android tactics, per Taiwan News report:

We disagree with Microsoft that anyone needs to pay Microsoft a royalty fee for products they didn’t build. I want to emphasize that Google built these products, not Microsoft. We tell our partners, including the ones in Taiwan, that we will support them.

During his first-ever Taipei visit, Schmidt had a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou and is scheduled to meet with the region’s technology leaders, including HTC’s Cher Wang Asustek’s Jonney Shih. Just a day earlier, Schmidt reinforced Google’s stance that Android will remain royalty-free.

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Last week’s certainly been a bumpy ride for Google’s Gmail team as they suffered a public relations blow over the release and subsequent pulling of a sub-par native Gmail app for Apple’s iPhone. Yesterday, Google wrote on the Apps blog it would cease development of the native Gmail app for the BlackBerry OS and focus its efforts on the mobile version:

We will end support for the Gmail App for Blackberry (installed native app). Over this past year, we’ve focused efforts on building a great Gmail experience in the mobile browser and will continue investing in this area.

The company will stop supporting and developing the native Gmail for BlackBerry app beginning November 22, 2011. A support note sheds more light and advises BlackBerry owners on how to prepare for the switch.

The search giant also released a new version of the Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange tool that contains new command line options, detailed migration reports, pre-migration diagnostics and the ability to choose the specific type of IMAP server from which you are migrating data, which the company says “improves performance”.

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Christmas time is approaching and you know what that means, yes? That’s right, an all-new tablet experience, courtesy of your favorite online retailer Amazon which recently produced their inaugural tablet, the Kindle Fire. They think it’s big enough a deal to justify a press release reminding us once more that an all-new Kindle family – which includes the $79 Kindle, the $99 Kindle Touch and the $149 Kindle Touch 3G e-readers and the $199 Kindle Fire tablet – is coming to over 16,000 retailer locations across the United States, including places such as Best Buy, Target, Walmart and more.

This is roughly the same number of places you can find Nook from Barnes & Noble, including the new $249 Nook Tablet. Amazon’s been warming up for a tablet launch over the past few weeks. In August they announced new magazine and video deals, spun off the Kindle Fire brand into a separate company and launched Newstand for its tablet, for example. The $199 Kindle Fire goes on sale next Tuesday, November 15, just like the rest of the new Kindle family.

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When Google launched the Catalogs iPad app in August, some dismissed it as a nice-to-have program that won’t however appeal to mainstream users due to its limited selection. But Google said from the onset that new partners will be added at due date and today they announced on the Retail Advertising blog the doubling of their collection of catalogs.

Google catalogs now includes more than 100 brands and 300 individual issues “from the catalogs you love”, including Williams-Sonoma, Sephora and Nordstrom. Also among the new offerings: The Intimates & Loungewear category that includes products from Bare Necessities, Fredericks of Hollywood (pictured above), Spanx and Hanes.

Six new categories have been added, including Outdoor Adventure, Toys, Gadgets, Gourmet and Athletic & Sports. You can also use the Catalogs web interface to create a collage of your favorite items from across many catalogs and share your visual shopping list with others.

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Mozilla, an open-source non-profit behind the Firefox browser, today released Firefox 8, a major new version with Twitter search built-in (supporting English, Portuguese, Slovenian and Japanese, with more languages to come in due time), HTML5/WebGL improvements, the master password feature to protect all saved user names and password on Android and other under-the-hood tweaks. Here’s one of the better: You can now tell Firefox to load tabs on demand so it performs much faster when you restore windows with many tabs (Options > Preferences > General). Firefox 8 also disables add-ons installed by third-parties without your permission and lets Android users add site shortcuts to their home screen.

Interestingly, Firefox can now be downloaded bundled with Bing search over at a brand new URL firefoxwithbing.com. What’s the benefit? According to the blurb, “When you get the latest version of Mozilla Firefox with Bing, you’re bringing the ability to help make informed decisions right to your browsing experience”. Firefox 8 is available for download in more than 70 languages for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. Accompanying the Firefox 8 release, Mozilla also updated its email client Thunderbird with the Lightning 1.0 calendar feature, better attachment handling and accessibility, updated Search and Find shortcuts and bug fixes.

Per October 2011 desktop browser usage share stats from Net Applications and StatCounter GlobalStats, Google’s Chrome mostly and Apple’s Safari marginally have been growing their respective share of the market at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, both on a downward spiral. Chrome is tied in a neck-to-neck race and within spitting distance of Firefox. In fact, Chrome is on its way to become second most-used browser within the next few months. A look at our current logs here at 9to5Google paints a dire picture for Firefox which accounts for 15.82 percent of all visits. This is less than half the 35.81 percent of visits coming from Chrome, which surfaced as the leading browser in 9to5Google logs (Safari is #2, Firefox is #3 and Internet Explorer conveniently ranked fourth).

A snapshot of  9to5Google.com logs reveals browsers readers use to access the site.

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Martha Stewart, a biz magnate, television personality, author and magazine publisher, stopped by the Googleplex and sat down for a chat with Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of location and local services. Martha, which hosted Mayer in her studio last December, wasn’t just returning a favor to an old friend. From the set up and post production, it’s clear Google wanted the world to know about Martha’s Googleplex tour which conveniently served as a launchpad for her newest book titled “Martha’s Entertaining: A Year of Celebrations”.

Google even pushed a blog post on the event, explaining that the book shares Martha’s “favorite recipes for the holiday season and the most memorable and fun experiences of her career”, although Martha’s visit fits perfectly into Google’s Author@Google initiative. And, she’s an early Google+ adopter. It also ties nicely to the hundreds of millions of dollars Google’s been spending to cozy up to Hollywood. Mayer hosting Martha in an Oprah-like setting for a one-on-one session about the intricacies of gardening and shopping. What’s next, a Google-sponsored talk show?

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Google yesterday launched Google+ Pages, a blogging platform for businesses and brands. In addition to Google’s own pages, dozens of top brands have joined Google’s initiative by creating official pages on the Google+ network. And with Direct Connect, people can search for pages directly at Google.com, simply by preceding their query with the plus sign, and even automatically add Google+ pages to their circles from Google Search.

But one thing is strictly not allowed: Promotions. Google will not tolerate giveaways, contests and other promotional content on Google+ pages. TechCrunch pointed at the Google+ Pages Contest and Promotion Policies which specify that you may not run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions directly on your Google+ Page:

You may display a link on your Google+ Page to a separate site where your Promotion is hosted so long as you (and not Google) are solely responsible for your Promotion and for compliance with all applicable federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations in the jurisdiction(s) where your Promotion is offered or promoted. Your Promotion must not be run or conducted in a way which conflicts with the +1 Button Policies, Google+ Privacy Policy or Google+ Pages Additional Terms of Service. Google has the right to remove your Promotion content from Google+ Page for any reason.

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It’s  s a plussy day, indeed. Google today launched Google+ Pages, a blogging platform of sorts for businesses and brands. Setting the example, the company’s YouTube team just announced in a blog post a brand new Google+ page dedicated to all things YouTube. Available under a user name +YouTube, it’s the official “place to discover, share and talk about some of the most compelling videos on the web”.

They are inviting you to circle +YouTube “to stay in the loop on viral videos, trends, Hangouts and more”. If you’re a Google+ users, what better way of staying on top of all the latest from news to music to live streamed events than have those updates right in your Google+ feed?

Google Maps also has its own page that promises to share news and feature announcements, tips and tricks, member spotlights, Hangouts with the Google Maps team and interesting images in Maps. Gmail too  has a Google+ Page here so circle it for updates from the Gmail team, including launches, tips and tricks and what not. They will even re-share your own cool Gmail tips provided you mention +Gmail when posting.

Matter of fact, Google is rolling out dedicated Google+ Pages for its seventeen properties today, including Chrome, Zagat and Google Brasil pages (circle them all here). And that’s not all because Google promised “a couple more Google pages coming in the next few days”. On a final note, Direct Connect is working for those pages so you can just search for page’s name (for example, +youtube, +gmail, etc.) at Google.com to be immediately taken to the brand’s corresponding page.

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Vivid Entertainment, the maker of dirty movies you’ve been keeping secret, today said it will release a dedicated Google TV app on Android Market which will provide access to their wealth of sexually explicit content through Android-powered set-top boxes. In addition to streaming your own tongue-in-cheek clips through the Plex app, subscribers to vivid.com now also get to stream short clips at no additional cost using this app, which has been a year in the making.

In case you’re not already familiar with it, vivid.com hosts adult movies, celebrity sex tapes, XXX parodies of popular superheroes, educational videos and other content. This is interesting. Apps like this one yet again highlight the key difference between Google’s relaxed treatment of the screening process versus Apple’s curated approach to mobile app development. Sex sells and Google is well aware of the fact. While its rival Apple does allow certain adult apps in the App Store – mostly softcore material such as the Playboy app and match-making programs – high-end pornography of this level is unheard of on Apple’s platform..

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HTC Rezound, one of the devices that will be upgradeable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Taiwanese handset maker HTC published on its Facebook pagea list of eight devices that will get the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012:. The following phones will be upgradeable to Google’s new software: The Vivid (which went on sale last week via AT&T), Sensation, Sensation XL, Sensation XE, Rezound, EVO 3D, EVO Design 4G and Amaze 4G. This is just the first wave of devices as the company takes another look at its product portfolio to determine other devices that could be eligible for the Ice Cream Sandwich treatment. It’s a welcome change seeing Google, carriers and handset vendors are working together to address the fundamental problem with Android fragmentation. At the very least, people who purchase a high-end Android devices should have confidence that it will be supported throughout the lifetime of their 24-month service agreement.

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Google and Disney Interactive Media, a division of The Walt Disney Company charged with heading their interactive entertainment operations, are to announce a major deal today, spending millions of dollars to bring original Disney shorts to YouTube.

The New York Times has the story:

The deal, set to be announced on Monday, is small on its surface: Disney Interactive Media and YouTube, a division of Google, will spend a combined $10 million to $15 million on original video series; those shorts will be produced by Disney and distributed on a co-branded channel on Disney.com and YouTube. The channel will also include amateur video culled from the torrent uploaded to YouTube daily.

The channel will also stream amateur video and Disney television shows. The Mickey Mouse house will sell the advertising inventory and share some of the revenue with YouTube. The report does not outline the scope of the programming Disney is willing to put on YouTube free of charge as they also rely on the revenue from cable partners.

It will be the first time the media conglomerate would take advantage of the YouTube phenomenon, which they’ve been ignoring successfully in favor of their own online assets. By the way, Disney Interactive lost a cool $300 million in the last four quarters and a comScore-measured traffic to Disney.com dropped from 17.9 million in June to 12.7 million in September. The deal is also interesting because Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs was Disney’s largest individual shareholder.

That the media giant turned to Google is an indication of YouTube’s growing influence and the billions of eye balls glued to their screens can’t be wrong. The majority of YouTube views come from non-English audience, a Google spokesperson told GigaOM. The company is also rumored to launch a YouTube channel dedicated to the popular South Korean pop music (also known as K-Pop), chairman Eric Schmidt hinted in a Seoul meeting today.

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From 9to5toys.com:

PC Connection Express offers the Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc Player with Google TV, model no. NSZ-GT1, for $199.99. Coupon code “Deal10Blu” cuts it to $179.99. With free shipping, that’s $20 under our mention from two weeks ago and the lowest total price we could find by $9, although most merchants charge $200 or more. It features support for the Android-based Google TV service, 1080p upscaling, 8GB of built-in storage, 802.11n wireless and Ethernet connectivity, four USB ports, HDMI output, and more. This device is currently being updated to the new GoogleTV 2.0 with Apps and more.

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YouTube, Google’s popular video sharing site, is more popular overseas, in non-English markets, than in the United States, United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries. According to an exclusive GigaOM finding, the majority of YouTube views come from non-English audience. A company spokesperson told the publication:

Sixty percent of all video views on YouTube come from users who select a language other than English as the site’s display language.

Google’s been rolling out localized YouTube sites at a rapid pace lately. The site is currently available in 51 languages, including IsiZulu and Afrikaans which are used in South Africa. YouTube’s popularity has been rising steadily as the site attempts to break away from the clearing house of kitten videos to the premium entertainment destination.

Google is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into content deals with Hollywood majors and independent filmmakers. The site has aired interesting documentaries for free, including ‘Life In A Day’ produced by the Scott brothers. They are also live streaming rock concerts, sport events and other live performances, including important world events such as the Mecca pilgrimage. Google also promised scheduled YouTube channels in 2012.

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Tomorrow marks the annual Islamic ritual of the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia and Google will for the first time live-stream the pilgrimage on YouTube at www.youtube.com/hajjlive. Mecca, a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia, sees its nearly two million population nearly double every year during Dhu al-Hijjah.

Thanks to the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information’s YouTube channel, millions around the world can experience and comment on the live stream of the ancient ritual. Google wrote in a blog post over at the official YouTube channel:

Earlier this year, we worked with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information to broadcast Islamic prayers live during Ramadan from the Holy Mosque in Mecca for the first time. In continued cooperation with the Ministry, we’re now able to live stream the Hajj on YouTube for the first time.

The stream goes live on Saturday, November 5, at the aforementioned URL.

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Google Calendar can now suggest best times for you in order to make it easier for a group of people to pinpoint the event time which suits everyone, the company wrote Friday in a blog post. The new feature is aptly named ‘Suggested Times’ and is accessed by clicking the ‘Suggested times’ link when creating a new calendar event, which will present upcoming times where all participants are available.

For example if you want to create an hour long meeting with Kara, and she already has an hour long meeting at 3pm, then times like 2pm and 4pm will be suggested.

This feature is accessible with a screen reader and you can use keyboard for navigation, Google underscored.

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