Android

With the US being a part of the second wave of Moto G launches, we’ve now learned being in the later group has an intrinsic benefit. According to Motorola SVP Mark Randall speaking to Omio, “Wave 2, products that we ship after Christmas will start with KitKat…Wave 2 is in the US, there’s South East Asia, and other countries.”

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A quick public service reminder for all you Sprint fans this morning as the HTC One Max hits store shelves this morning beginning at $149. Unfortunately, the surprise $149 price tag is for new customers only with existing Sprint subscribers forking over $249 for the chance to own HTC’s newest One device.

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According to a new report from Bloomberg, Samsung plans to take the curved display technology it used to make its recently launched Galaxy Round smartphone one step further with a new Galaxy device next year. The device will apparently feature a curved display that “wraps around the edges” forming a three-sided screen:
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Chalk this story up with a grain of salt but a new report indicates LG pushed for an alternative name for the Nexus 5. According to a Chosun IIbo, a major Korean newspaper the manufacturer wanted to name the device the “Nexus G.” The Nexus G nomenclature would fall more in line with LG’s current line of smartphones ala the Optimus G, G2, G Flex and G Pad. Anyone see the pattern, anyone?

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AT&T Galaxy S 4 owners take note as the Android 4.3 software update is en route. The update weighs in at a hefty 719MB and includes support for Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch, KNOX enterprise security and all the newness that arrives with Android 4.3.

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Google today announced it’s adding a handy new feature to its Google Flight Search tool that allows users to find and book flights. Now, when viewing a flight on Google Flight Search on the web or your mobile device, you’ll be able to hit a small star icon that will save your flight to a “Save Flights” section. The tool will be nice for times when you don’t want to immediately book a flight but might want to view or book it at a later time. Saving the flight will make sure you can easily do so from a new Saved Flights section on any device:

When I’m signed in to my Google account on my mobile phone or tablet, and find a flight option I’m interested in  I click the star button to add it to my saved flights list… I can then access my saved flights on any device at any time by clicking the star icon on the Flight Search home page.

Your saved results won’t be static either. That means when returning Google will make sure your save flights have up to date pricing and any changes that might have occurred to the flight itinerary. You’ll notice the new save button in Flight Search on both the desktop and mobile starting today. 
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After a nearly eight year battle stemming from a lawsuit brought on by authors accusing Google of digitally scanning books without permission, a judge has now officially sided with Google and dismissed the case. Reuters reports:

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan accepted Google’s argument that its scanning of more than 20 million books for an electronic database, and making “snippets” of text available for online searches, constituted fair use.

“In my view, Google Books provide significant public benefits,” Chin wrote.

The ultimate decision was essentially that by scanning snippets of books to use with Google Books or in search, Google was providing more benefits to the authors than disadvantages. The judge is also quoted as calling the service “an essential research tool” that creates new income for authors and lets users discover content. GigaOM got the following statement from Google, but the Authors Guild is yet to speak out on the decision:
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ISIS, the mobile payment joint-venture backed by three of the nations largest carriers is now officially live nationwide. After numerous delays and a testing phase in just two markets, the mobile payment system is live for AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon customers.

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Motorola’s world may be concentrated on the release of the Moto G this week but Big Red is working to shift some attention back to the Moto X. The carrier is offering a $50 promotion on customized orders through Moto Maker until November 18th.

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As the Samsung, Apple patent damages trial opened yesterday the Android giant began singing a different tune. According to a live blog by Howard Mintz from the San Jose Mercury News, Samsung attorney Bill Price didn’t continue the company’s long-standing claim that the case mostly centered on “rounded corners,” instead his argument focused on the specific amount the company owes its chief competitor.

Representing Samsung, attorney Bill Price countered in his own opening remarks, “Apple is simply asking for much more money than it’s entitled to.”

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Google announced via its Android Google+ page today that the Google Now service has been updated with three new card types: news, website updates, and TV and movie recommendations.

The news topics card shows recent articles from news sites across the web on select topics. The website updates card can monitor your favorite sites and let you know when new content is available on those sites (like a new post on your favorite Google news site). The last of the new cards is the “what to watch” card, which can recommend movies and TV shows you might enjoy.

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This afternoon, Google has updated its Google+ app for Android with a couple of new features and enhancements (via Droid Life). First off, the app now supports Android Beam. This feature will allow for users to share photos from within the Google+ app to other devices via NFC. The app also now supports DayDream. This is feature, which has been available in some third-party apps for a while, is essentially a screensaver for devices while they are being charged or placed in a dock. Now that the Google+ app supports this feature, it will work with pictures stored within the app.

What’s New:

• Photos now supports Android Beam, so you can share photos via NFC
• Photos also supports Daydream, so you can view your pics in screensaver mode when charging or docking your device
• Individual photo details are now available in the drop-down menu
• Opening “Locations” will automatically refresh your friends’ locations on the map

This update is a staged rollout, which means it may take a little while for it to rollout to every device. Keep an eye on the Play Store to see if your device has received the update.

In addition to updating its Android app, Google has also enhanced cover photos on the web version of Google+. Now, cover photos will show the entire image, as opposed to just a select portion. Photos are still the same size, so you don’t need to change anything in order to enhance your profile. 

After announcing a new Google Play for Education store back at Google I/O in May and opening up a pilot program and app submissions in June, Google announced today Google Play for Education has now officially launched for all. In the video below, Google’s Shazia Makhdumi gives an in-depth walkthrough of the new service and notes that Google Play for Education will be the company’s mobile strategy for the 25M students/faculty currently on Google Apps, 3000+ schools using Chromebooks, and over 700,000+ YouTube EDU users.

The Google Play Education store will at first be only available on three tablets: Nexus 7 (a 7” tablet) available today, and the ASUS Transformer Pad (a 10” tablet) or the HP Slate 8 Pro (an 8” tablet), both available early next year. It will allow schools to search for content by subject matter and grade level and provide content that has been recommended by other educators. Instead of using credit cards, teachers will be able to purchase bulk quantities of apps and charge licenses against a balance from the school’s purchase order. The Google Play for Education service will also allow school’s that use Google Apps to instantly distribute an app to multiple devices in a school by setting up a Google Group.
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Sprint just hit the airwaves with a short press release confirming the arrival of the HTC One Max for this Friday, November 15th. The device will hit Sprint shelves for $249.99 with new line or eligible upgrade and two-year service agreement or $25.00 per month with Sprint’s One Up early upgrade plan. The One Max features a 5.9″ 1080p display, 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, LTE, Android 4.3 with HTC Sense, 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal memory.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VunSqD1MOjE&w=520&h=420]

The Moto G news train continues this morning with the very first commercial already hitting YouTube showing off the customizable backs, display, processor, and Android 4.3 with “guaranteed upgrade.” In total, the sixty-second spot doesn’t show us a whole lot we don’t already know and only mentions “exceptional price” without mentioning the actual dollar amount.

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Motorola’s Moto G announcement just ended as the company truly introduced something very aggressive and perhaps exactly what the smartphone market has needed for a very long time. There’s little question that a lot of customers are turned off by the high price of today’s smartphones and that’s exactly the mindset Motorola is aiming to change. The company hopes to convince customers that aggressive pricing featured with specs that match “high-end” smartphones don’t require a $500+ price tag.

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Motorola’s Moto G announcement is going down and the company is making no bones about wanting to produce a smartphone that is affordable while providing a premium experience. Motorola has done exactly that and there’s little question they are making some aggressive moves that dare I say will be called…”game-changing.”

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Motorola’s live-stream announcement of the Moto G is taking place as I type these very words, but a special announcement for Moto X users was just announced. Dennis Woodside, CEO of Motorola since its acquisition by Google in May of 2012 just told the world his company will be updating all Moto X devices to Android 4.4 KitKat in a “matter of weeks.”

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN-zIbFk2JM]

Motorola’s set to kick off their Moto G announcement in just a few minutes and you can catch the stream from Sao Paulo, Brazil live on YouTube. Motorola, now a Google company will of course use YouTube for its live-streaming and we’ve got the link embedded above so keep your eyes on 9to5Google as we break down all the Moto G news.