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Two of the major US carriers today announced they would be pushing back availability of the Samsung Galaxy S4 citing inventory challenges on Samsung’s end. First, T-Mobile late last night informed customers that it would be delaying the launch of the device until Monday, April 29th. The carrier originally planned to have the device available through its online store today. T-Mobile’s statement cited delays with “inventory deliveries,” and a press release from Sprint shortly after confirmed carriers are experiencing “unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung.”

Sprint initially planned on making the device available on April 27, but now will only be taking orders online with supplies in brick and mortar stores “as inventory becomes available.”

Sprint is excited to launch the new Samsung Galaxy 4.  We had planned to launch this next generation of the award-winning Samsung Galaxy line-up on Saturday, April 27. Unfortunately, due to unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung, we will be slightly delayed with our full product launch.  Sprint is one of Samsung’s largest partners and we are working closely with them to launch in all Sprint channels as soon as possible. We expect to make Galaxy S 4 available at www.sprint.com and Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) as planned on Saturday with Sprint retail stores and other channels receiving devices as inventory becomes available.

Earlier today the unlocked variant of the Galaxy S4 found its way to eBay at a cost of $739.

As for Verizon, it had originally quoted an online release date of April 30th with shipments sometime in May and is yet to make an announcement regarding delays. The nation’s other major carrier, AT&T, is planning on making the device available in-store on April 27. You can check out 9to5Google’s full review of the Galaxy S4 here and we’ll keep you posted if there are any further announcements regarding availability.

Update: Following Google’s acquisition, Wavii has shut down its service and pulled its iOS app.

Google has purchased natural language processing engine Wavii for more than $30 million, according to TechCrunch.

The acquisition has several similarities to Yahoo’s recent purchase of Summly, which Yahoo integrated into its iOS app just yesterday, as both start-ups focused on parsing text from content and delivering summarized snippets of information.

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Wise Tivi has introduced an Android-based HDMI stick that brings apps, web browsing and gaming to your HDTV.

Among its features include access to YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and Vimeo, as well as Android web browsers like Chrome and Firefox which support the Adobe Flash protocol.

Wise TiVi is currently accepting funding on Indiepogo and expects to ship this July.

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via phandroid.com

Google appears to be readying a Google Now web interface for the company’s Siri-like voice search with Google’s homepage as the intended destination.

It’s no surprise that Google would bring its voice search to the web, as it already offers the service on Android and plans to bring it to iOS (Google Search for iOS currently offers real-time voice search but doesn’t support Google Now cards), and tends to have a cross-platform approach to its services as opposed to Apple’s ownership approach to its services.

Sure, Apple does have limited iCloud functionality on Microsoft’s Windows operating system and allows users to manage iCloud from a nicely designed web interface, but Apple only offers Siri on the iPhone 4S and 5, as well as the iPad mini, iPad 3 and 4, and latest iPod touch, though the upcoming release of OS X 10.9 could bring Siri to the Mac just in time to compete with Google Now on the web.

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Google has rebranded its font collection Google Fonts, which debuted in February 2011, dropping the ‘web’ from Google Web Fonts while still boasting its catalog of over 600 free, open-source fonts optimized for the web.

Google has also simplified the web interface with a more modern design, which allows users to view font examples in various formats, including word, sentence, and paragraph.

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Google not only escaped criminal prosecution in Germany after its Street View cars were found to be capturing private wifi traffic, but it has now pretty much walked away scott-free as the Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information fined it just €145,000 ($190,000).

The pointless fine (reported by Engadget) could probably be paid with the change found buried in the seats of the Streetview cars …
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Google is heading toward 1 Billion Android users and two million in the next few years. Imagine if Google could harness a few tenths of a percent of that to give to charity. That’s the idea behind the One Today project. It’s a social giving project which is invite only at the moment but one ramped would seem to have a powerful affect on giving, if Google can get people involved.
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via nytimes.com

Google released its earnings report from Q1 2013 today.

Notably, Google’s consolidated revenues increased 31% over Q1 2013 with $14 billion gross income.

“We had a very strong start to 2013, with $14.0 billion in revenue, up 31% year-on-year,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “We are working hard and investing in our products that aim to improve billions of people’s lives all around the world.”

Google reported $3.35 billion net revenue, which is nearly half a billion up from $2.89 billion during the same quarter last year.

The company reports $50 billion in the back at the end of Q1 2013.

Cash – As of March 31, 2013, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $50.1 billion.

The company’s effective tax rate came in low at 8% following a tax credit mandated by legislature in Congress.

Income Taxes – Our effective tax rate was 8% for the first quarter of 2013.

Google CEO Larry Page mentioned during the conference call to investors that the company’s opportunities primarily exist in Chrome, YouTube, and Android, in that order. It believes more “connected TV’s” will allow the company to directly connect with consumers via relevant advertising more easily.

The company had praise for its marketing team, citing doubling its retail foot print thanks to more availability of its Chromebook in Best Buy.

Google discussed its success with commercial advertising via YouTube, announcing 325,000 Super Bowls worth of ads have been consumed.

When asked about Andy Rubin’s responsibilities after being pulled from heading Android, Larry Page reiterated that the company has yet to make that announcement and had no plans to make news in that regard today.

Regarding Glass, Larry Page admitted the price tag for early adopters is certainly high, but stepped short of calling it a luxury price and stated the company wasn’t prepared to announce a consumer price tag.

Press release below:

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Today, Google has announced that it is integrating Google+ comments into its Blogger blogging service.For example, comments from Google+ users regarding a Blogger post will actually show up in the comments on a Blogger blog post.

Now when you’re browsing your blog’s comment threads, you’ll see activity from direct visitors, and from people talking about your content on Google+. For example, if there’s a public Google+ discussion about one of your blog entries, those comments and replies will also appear on your Blogger blog. This way you can engage with more of your readers, all in one place.

With Google’s recent moves to unify its products, this change is notable as it integrates both Google+ and Blogger in a seamless, sensible fashion…

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Google has rolled out two new features to mobile search that allow users to find results faster…

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Google will add Provo, Utah, to the list of cities set to receive its ultra high speed Google Fiber Internet service.

Austin, Texas was revealed earlier this month to be joining Kansas City as host to Google Fiber.

The announcement by Provo Mayor John Curtis will be live streamed at 3:30 PM EST.

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Henry McCracken over at Time has done us all a favor by collecting various data sets that illustrate the state of iOS versus Android.

The data ranges from device marketshare to revenue from app downloads, which presents some stark differences between the two platforms.

We unpack the results below.

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We brought you the best quotes here:

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt talks Android activations, Chinese government, social change, and privacy

Check out the full video via AllthingsD
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vetiQ9JFRws#!

Last week, we reported that the Explorer’s Edition of Google Glass would begin to ship out next month. However, today, units became available for pick up. Google Glass users Matt Abdou, Brandon Allgood and Cecilla Abadie have posted some photos on Google+.

The Google Glass packages include one power cord, two visors, one carrying bag and the actual Google Glass hardware.

Interestingly, Matt Abdou uploaded to footage of himself GoKarting while wearing Google Glass. While he does seem to adjust Glass near the beginning in the video while driving, the glasses seem to stay on well and the video quality is up to par with what you would find on a common smartphone. Yesterday, we reported that the camera is capable of shooting 720P footage. The sensor comes in at 5 megapixels.

Another unboxing video follows:
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via skattertech.com

Since acquiring Motorola for $13 billion last May, Google has been expected to launch a Motorola smartphone running stock Android, but the most recent Google-branded Nexus 4 device was made in partnership with LG.

Motorola’s design chief Jim Wicks tells PC Mag, though, that Google and Motorola have been working closely during that time on multiple devices running stock Android with less overlay that we should expect later this year.

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Google Chairman Eric Schmidt spoke to AllThingsD‘s Dive Into Mobile 2013 conference this morning:

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