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Motorola Mobility infringed Fujifilm patent, says US jury – must pay $10M damages

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy May 5 2015 - 6:04 am PT
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Motorola Mobility, the mobile phone company sold by Google to the Chinese company Lenovo last year, has been ordered to pay $10M damages for infringing a Fujifilm patent. The patent concerned a method of converting color smartphone photos to monochrome, reports Reuters.

There’s a certain irony to the case, as Google was widely believed to have acquired Motorola in the first place for its patent portfolio, retaining most of the patents when it sold the company … 
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Google+ Collections is now rolling out, new share button appearing for some users

Avatar for Stephen Hall May 4 2015 - 8:36 am PT
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Google+ Collections, a feature that has been widely rumored and speculated to be rolling out today, has started appearing on the Google+ web interface for some. Google has yet to officially announce the feature, but a new “Share” button has supposedly started appearing for some users that suggests that they “Use collections to group [their] posts.” 
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Google engineers take on professor roles in Historically Black Colleges in diversity push

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy May 4 2015 - 7:37 am PT
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The NY Times reports that Google is embedding engineers into Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) in a bid to increase diversity in its technical staff. Currently only around 1% of Google’s engineers are African American, and the company said last year that its workforce diversity was “miles” from where it wanted to be.

HBCUs are higher education institutions established before 1964 primarily to serve the black community, while accepting students of all ethnic backgrounds. There are more than 106 HSBUs in the USA, and Google is so far sending engineers to five of the biggest … 
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Students should be allowed to make Google searches during exams, says UK exam board (Poll)

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy May 1 2015 - 3:59 am PT
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The head of a British exam board has said that students should be allowed Internet access – including the ability to carry out Google searches – during exams. The head of the OCR school examinations board Mark Dawe told the BBC’s Today program that this would accurately reflect the way they would work after leaving school.

“It is more about understanding what results you’re seeing rather than keeping all of that knowledge in your head, because that’s not how the modern world works,” said Dawe.

He compared the idea to the debate about whether to have books available during a test, saying: “In reality you didn’t have too much time [to consult the book] and you had to learn it anyway.”

The Oxford, Cambridge & RSA board’s chief said that while permitting Internet access during exams would not happen in the next weeks or months, it was “inevitable” at some stage … 
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Ford shares more details on Android Auto support, will offer close integration with SYNC

Avatar for Chance Miller Apr 30 2015 - 3:40 pm PT
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Ford was one of the first car manufacturers to announce its intentions to add support for Google’s Android Auto to its in-dash systems. Questions concerning how Ford plans to integrate Google’s solution, however, have remained since the initial announcement. In an interview with Re/code today, Ford CEO Mark Fields clarified some of the details regarding the company’s plans to offer Android Auto (and CarPlay) in its vehicles.


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New custom Google voice actions now rolling out with select partnered apps

Avatar for Stephen Hall Apr 30 2015 - 10:43 am PT
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Google today announced that it’s rolling out the first set of apps that support tie-ins to custom Google voice actions. This means that, yes, you’ll soon be able to say “Ok Google” followed by special commands that will let you interact with your apps in a variety of new ways…
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Opinion: What will Google’s single search result end game mean for content?

Avatar for Stephen Hall Apr 30 2015 - 8:49 am PT
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The Knowledge Graph is a controversial—but now fundamental—part of using Google, and for most casual browsers of the web, it’s nothing but an added convenience. It already does a great job of figuring out which pieces of information are most important and accurate, and gives them to you directly within the Google search page—there’s no need to go digging through countless results to find what you want. I myself even find it useful very often, usually when I’m searching for specific facts. Something like “When was George Washington born?” is a great example.

But I’m also wary of how intelligent it has gotten in recent years, and how much more integral to the Google experience it is becoming. Not only is Google pulling content from crowd-sourced Wikipedia articles, it is now getting smart enough to pull some of the content I’ve written on this website. Knowledge Graph has been known to bring death to many pages hosting all kinds of content, with lyrics websites being the perfect example. But what happens when Knowledge Graph and its Quick Answer box are so smart that you don’t need to browse the web at all?


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Google launches Password Alert tool to detect sign-ins, protect against phishing

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Apr 29 2015 - 7:48 am PT
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Google today is launching a new tool called Password Alert that will allow users to keep track of sign-ins on their account with notifications and change their password if necessary. The new tool comes in the form of a Chrome extension and allows users to easily change their password if a fraudulent sign-in attempt is detected.
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Google Play Services 7.3 brings support for multiple Android Wear devices at once (Video)

Avatar for Stephen Hall Apr 28 2015 - 1:28 pm PT
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Google has—finally—officially announced Google Play Services 7.3 (which first surfaced a couple of weeks ago), bringing several important new features to the company’s Google-powered app support package. Most importantly, the update brings new Android Wear APIs allowing multiple wearables to be connected to a single phone…

Multiple wearable devices can be connected to a user’s handheld device. Each connected device in the network is considered a node. With multiple connected devices, you must consider which nodes receive the messages. For example, In a voice transcription app that receives voice data on the wearable device, you should send the message to a node with the processing power and battery capacity to handle the request, such as a handheld device..

The update also brings the addition of nutrition data to Google Fit, as well as “improvements to retrieving the user’s activity and location, and better support for optional APIs, there’s a lot to explore in this release.” Check out the goofy and entertaining announcement video below, and learn more over at Google’s Android developers blog:

Developer gets Android Wear (partially) running on the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2

Avatar for Stephen Hall Apr 27 2015 - 8:09 am PT
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Samsung made a very bold attempt at entering the now-somewhat-established smartwatch space—long before the current market leaders—with the launch of their Galaxy Gear devices, but none of these wearables ever made very much of an impact. And since these devices came several months before Android Wear even existed, they ran Samsung’s proprietary Tizen operating system, which many users have agreed is notoriously clunky and unintuitive.

Now, a developer on the XDA-Developers forum has started work on porting Android Wear to the Galaxy Gear 2, and it looks like the OS is already partially functional…
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Android Lollipop finally rolling out to Sprint LG G2, T-Mobile Galaxy Note 4

Avatar for Stephen Hall Apr 27 2015 - 7:03 am PT
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It seems as if almost every day another Android device gets updated to Lollipop, and today is no exception. Both the LG G2 from Sprint and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 from T-Mobile should start receiving the Material Design-filled goodness starting today.
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Google says it has seen a ‘decline in Nexus’ during recent months

Avatar for Chance Miller Apr 23 2015 - 2:49 pm PT
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During the company’s earnings call for the first quarter of 2015, Google CFO Patrick Pichette made a comment concerning its “other revenues” stream. The “other revenues” category consists of revenues from the Play Store and now Google Store, and it’s one of the company’s smallest sources of money. But Pichette noted that while revenue from “other revenues” was up 23 percent year-over-year to $1.8 billion, revenue was down 3 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2014.


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Google announces Q1 2015 earnings: $17.3 billion revenue, $3.6 billion net income

Avatar for Chance Miller Apr 23 2015 - 1:11 pm PT
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceQKErGALV8

Google today has posted its earnings for Q1 2015. The company reports revenue of $17.3 billion, which is up 12 percent compared to the first quarter of 2014. Net income for Q1 2015 was $3.68 billion For the first quarter of 2015, the company also reports earnings per share of $6.57. Google CFO Patrick Pichette cites momentum of its mobile advertising business as a reason for its strong performance.


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9to5Toys Last Call: Moto X 2nd gen. $250, Galaxy S6 Edge (unlocked) $800, Galaxy S6 battery case $20, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Apr 23 2015 - 11:39 am PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Motorola Moto X 2nd generation 16GB (unlocked): $250 shipped (Reg. $400)

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge 32GB (factory unlocked): $800 shipped (Reg. $1,000)

ZeroLemon Galaxy S6 2800mAh Battery Case $20 Prime shipped w/ code (Reg. $30)

 

Enter to win a Huawei Watch for free at 9to5Toys Specials

Dell (CRM3120-1667BLK) 11.6-Inch Chromebook: $190 shipped (Reg. $250)

Refurbished 11.6-inch Chromebook (model CB3-111-C670): $140 shipped (Reg. $200)

Amazon Gold Box – Bowers & Wilkins P5 Headphones in black $190 shipped (Orig. $300), more

GoPro HERO4 Black 4K Action Camera $400 shipped (Reg. $500)

Review: Moleskine’s new myCloud Smallpack offers plentiful storage in a tidy design, $150 giveaway

More new gear from today:

Motorola SURFboard SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem (refurb): $40 + $5 shipping (Orig. $100)

More deals still alive:

Seagate 1.5TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive $50 shipped (Reg. $70)

New products & more:

Droplet smart buttons remind you to get things done without a barrage of notifications

What analysts expect from Google’s earnings call later today, and how to listen in

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 23 2015 - 5:11 am PT
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Re/code has a roundup of what analysts are expecting from Google this afternoon, when the company announces its Q1 earnings and provides at least a little guidance on the future.

Consensus estimates are for net revenue of $14.12 billion, a 16 percent uptick year over year. Currency winds could drag down the numbers.

Google isn’t expected to reveal much information about its future plans, but analysts expect at least some degree of clarity in three areas, says the piece … 
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Google pushes mobile web apps forward, launches new ‘Spotlight’ page to feature them

Avatar for Chance Miller Apr 22 2015 - 6:55 pm PT
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Earlier this week, Google began rolling out Chrome 42 with support for website notifications and an improved “add to home screen” function. With those two new features, Google is clearly making a big push towards web apps on both the desktop and mobile. Now, Google has launched a new Spotlight page to highlight some of the best mobile web apps.


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Jonathan Rosenberg temporarily leading Google’s robotics division

Avatar for Zac Hall Apr 22 2015 - 12:37 pm PT
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<a href="http://9to5google.com/tag/how-google-works/" target="_blank">Rosenberg & Schmidt promoting their book “How Google Works”</a>

 

Jonathan Rosenberg has been tapped to temporarily lead Google’s robotics division replacing James Kuffner, according to The Information.

The report cites sourcing claiming Kuffner’s appointment to replace Andy Rubin last year was never intended to be permanent with Rosenberg being the division’s next boss. CEO Larry Page is expected to continue searching for a permanent head of the robotics division in the meantime.

Android’s co-founder Rubin led the robotics division from late 2013 to late 2014. Rosenberg’s appointment now makes the third head of Google’s robotics team in less than two years. Subscribers can read the full report here.

Google Glass 2.0: New patent gives us the most likely depiction we’ve seen yet

Avatar for Stephen Hall Apr 22 2015 - 8:54 am PT
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Google is hard at work designing the next hardware iteration of Glass, but not many details have surfaced regarding what the next generation be capable of nor what it will look like. Patents are definitely not the most reliable source of “leaks,” but sometimes they can give us a good overarching idea of the direction a company might be headed. A new patent published recently gives us yet another peek at what the next Google Glass might look like, and this looks more believable than anything we’ve seen up to this point…
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Google’s Mr. Jingles dresses up to celebrate Earth Day

Avatar for Stephen Hall Apr 22 2015 - 6:58 am PT
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Apple may be making its leaves green, but Google is celebrating Earth Day too. They’ve of course changed the homepage logo into a Google Doodle, but Mr. Jingles—the Google+ notifications mascot—is also dressing up to celebrate.

As we told you yesterday, clicking today’s new Google Doodle will take you to an “Earth Day Quiz” that… tells you which animal you’re most like. It’s a “totally scientific and 1,000% accurate personality quiz,” Google says.

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Google shares Earth Day 2015 quiz that asks, “Which animal are you?”

Avatar for Chance Miller Apr 21 2015 - 8:08 pm PT
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To celebrate Earth Day 2015, Google has added a quiz to its search engine for visitors. By clicking the Earth Day themed Google Doodle, users are directed to a search results page with a quiz at the top. The quiz claims to answer the question, “Which animal are you?”

Google writes on its Doodle explanation page:

You can search Google for answers to all kinds of animal questions: What does an aye-aye eat?Where do narwhals live?How long is a toco toucan’s beak? And this Earth Day, you can turn to Google for the answer to something that you’ve always needed to know: which animal are you???

Clicking on this year’s Earth Day logo (or searching for “Earth Day quiz”) presents one of the Internet’s favorite pastimes: a totally scientific and 1,000% accurate personality quiz. Take the time to answer a few questions to determine and share your Earth Day animal. And, of course, you’re only a search away from learning more about nature’s precious pals and interesting inhabitants (fyi: kakapo is the heaviest parrot).

Happy Earth Day to you today and everyday,

The Earth Day Doodle Crew

The quiz consists of 5 questions and allows you to share your results to social media at the end. Take it here and tell us what animal you are when you’re done. Apparently, I am a honey badger….


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WSJ: Google to launch wireless network as soon as Wednesday with pay-by usage model

Avatar for Chance Miller Apr 21 2015 - 5:04 pm PT
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Google’s oft-rumored U.S wireless service could be unveiled as early as Wednesday, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The report corroborates earlier rumors that the key selling point of Google’s network will be that users will only pay for the amount of data they actually use each month.


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