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Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 on) has overtaken Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x) for the first time, with 28.4 percent of active Android devices now using it against 27.5 percent for ICS …
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Last month Google announced it was dropping ‘web’ from its Google Web Fonts brand and today made their robust font collection available to download for the desktop via sync with SkyFonts.

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When you stage a debate on Google Glass between a self-described technology evangelist and a man who believes that current technology trends are debasing culture, things are likely to get interesting … especially when the discussion begins with the question of the etiquette of wearing the gadget at a urinal.

Check out The Next Web‘s conference video below of a conversation between Glass enthusiast Robert “I will never live a day of my life from now on without it” Scoble and British entrepreneur and privacy advocate Andrew Keen …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcRZeRyUq1k

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Google made available today an introductory video to Glass featuring a brief tutorial on how to navigate its controls.

Using Glass certainly doesn’t seem to come naturally, but the controls are basic enough that Glass should be fairly easy to learn.

It seems the more of this kind of thing I see, the more I want to try Google Glass for myself, which is probably exactly what Google is trying to do.

Google announced today on its Google+ Developers Blog that it will be working with app and site developers to integrate what it is calling “app activities” into search results. In other words, when searching for an app or site through Google search such as SoundCloud, users will now be greeted with a section to the right of search results showing related SoundCloud content that’s popular among Google+ users. Google is initially teaming up with music and movie apps Deezer, Fandango, Flixster, Slacker Radio, Songza,SoundCloud and TuneIn but plans to add more soon as the feature begins to roll out on desktops in the coming weeks.

Below Google compares the current search results for Fandango to the new improved results page with app activities:
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Robert Scoble isn’t mincing words on Google Glass. He thinks it will be big, big, big. His review after having Google Glass for two weeks reads like he’s had an epiphany and the only thing preventing these from ruling the universe is Larry Page’s inability to price these things as low as $200. His 6 points:

1. I will never live a day of my life from now on without it (or a competitor). It’s that significant.
2. The success of this totally depends on price. Each audience I asked at the end of my presentations “who would buy this?” As the price got down to $200 literally every hand went up. At $500 a few hands went up. This was consistent, whether talking with students, or more mainstream, older audiences.
3. Nearly everyone had an emotional outburst of “wow” or “amazing” or “that’s crazy” or “stunning.”
4. At NextWeb 50 people surrounded me and wouldn’t let me leave until they had a chance at trying them. I haven’t seen that kind of product angst at a conference for a while. This happened to me all week long, it is just crazy.
5. Most of the privacy concerns I had before coming to Germany just didn’t show up. I was shocked by how few negative reactions I got (only one, where an audience member said he wouldn’t talk to me with them on). Funny, someone asked me to try them in a bathroom (I had them aimed up at that time and refused).
6. There is a total generational gap that I found. The older people said they would use them, probably, but were far more skeptical, or, at minimum, less passionate about the fact that these are the future, than the 13-21-year-olds I met.

It is important to keep in mind the context of his perspective. He’s a uber-geek who spends his life immersed in technology. Some people will find the idea of wearing a computer on your face unsettling and there undoubtedly will be backlash. The wow factor will wear off and they will have to produce some value. Right now image and video taking are the key apps. As Scoble mentioned, other apps are coming fast and furious.

And, no, I don’t believe they won’t be $200 (unless there is a subsidy like phones). If Google is charging developers $1500/pop, there is no way Google can make them for $200, at least in the near future.

All of those disclaimers aside, I really do see a lot of opportunity for Google here. They’ve thought forward and this bet on the future of technology is going to change things.
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looks like root is easy too: reboot-bootloader gives you fastboot oem unlock. There is fun to be had here…

— Liam McLoughlin (@Hexxeh) April 26, 2013

Update: A post from Google employee Dan Morrill clarifies that, although the original developer claimed a “root is easy”, the process developers are using is actually a ‘fastboot oem unlock’. Rather than exposing a security exploit, Google has actually intentionally left Glass open for devs to tinker with, as further explained by Googler Stephen Lau:

Not to bring anybody down… but seriously… we intentionally left the device unlocked so you guys could hack it and do crazy fun shit with it.  I mean, FFS, you paid $1500 for it… go to town on it.  Show me something cool.

Updated 2: Founder of the Cydia jailbreak store @saurik provided some clarification on his earlier tweets, informing us that he did not use fastboot oem unlock:

Actually, my device’s bootloader is still locked: I did not use fastboot oem unlock, and in fact that would not have been useful without the source code to the Glass kernel, which was not made available until this morning. I relied on a race condition in the adb restore process, a bug that existed in Android 4.0 (and even Android 4.1). As the Glass ships with Android 4.0.4, the bug was easy to exploit. This exploit was not one that I found, to be clear (unless you count “using Google” ;P): I pulled apart an implementation by@Bin4ryDigit, and adapted it for use on Glass (which required very small modifications to the backup; the entire process of learning the exploit and fixing it took 2 hours).

Saurik later published an article explaining some of the ins and outs of the potential for writing apps for Glass and the exploit he originally took advantage of.

Have you been wondering how long until developers crack into Google Glass to provide full root access and start creating some interesting mods? It appears we might not be too far off with Google intern on the Chrome OS team and hacker Liam McLoughlin confirming on Twitter that a root might be easier than many people think (via selfscreens).

McLoughlin first tweeted that, “There’s a “debug mode” option on Glass that appears to enable ADB access. I got a shell on my Glass :D (no root yet!).” Shortly after it appears he also figured out a root method, tweeting, “looks like root is easy too: reboot-bootloader gives you fastboot oem unlock. There is fun to be had here…”

He isn’t the only one working on a root for Google Glass, hacker @chpwn tweeted today that founder of the Cydia jailbreak store @saurik is in the process of unlocking his Google Glass and Saurik later confirmed:
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We already knew that future generations of Google’s Glass headset would include prescription frames and lenses in addition to rumors of the company working with trendy designers to make the frames more fashionable. Today we get a hint at some of the ideas Google is floating around for future iterations of the hardware via a patent application published today by the US Patent & Trademark Office and first spotted by UnwiredView.

As highlighted by the patent drawing above, Google’s idea is to use see-through displays in order to make Glass look more like an ordinary, traditional pair of sunglasses. Google describes the invention as “A near-to-eye optical system includes an optically transmissive substrate having a see-through display region and a repeating pattern of diffraction elements:
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Google announced some new handy features for Drive on its official Google Drive Blog today. To make it even easier to quickly see who you are collaborating with inside a file in Drive, Google has added profile pictures in addition to names at the top of the web app. Hovering over the new profile pics will let you see details and add users to circles on Google+:

Now when you open a file in Drive, you’ll see the profile pictures of other viewers at the top instead of just their names, making it easy for you to do a quick scan of who else is in the file. You can hover over a photo to see details about the viewer and add them to your circles on Google+ — all without ever leaving Drive.

Google is also providing easy, one click access to starting group chats with both new features rolling out to users in the next couple of days. Google also confirmed it will be adding support for new files types soon, such as Google Sheets.

In other news, I’m going to intern for Google in a few weeks.

— comex (@comex) April 24, 2013

Former notable iOS jailbreak developer Comex announced on Twitter that he will be heading to Google for an internship position.

Comex previously interned for Apple, but left the company after failing to respond to an email to renew his contract with the company. It is also notable amidst a time where people are speculating that Apple is losing people resources to competitors such as Google.

Comex, whose real name is Nicholas Allegra, developed a notable Jailbreak.me hack that could jailbreak an iOS device via a simple website.

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Following in the footsteps of Apple and Google attempts at the set-top-box market, Amazon is planning to release a set-top-box, according to Bloomberg. 

They say the box will plug into TVs and give users access to Amazon’s expanding video offerings. Those include its a la carte Video on Demand store, which features newer films and TV shows, and its Instant Video service, which is free for subscribers to the Amazon Prime two-day shipping package. The Amazon set-top box will compete with similar products like the Roku, Apple TV and the Boxee Cloud DVR, along with more versatile devices like the Playstation 3 and the Xbox. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.

The device is reportedly being developed in Amazon’s Cupertino based labs and could launch this fall. The project is reportedly being spearheaded by a former Apple and Cisco employee:

The project is being run by Malachy Moynihan, a former vice president of emerging video products at Cisco (CSCO) who worked on the networking company’s various consumer video initiatives. Moynihan also spent nine years at Apple (AAPL) during the 1980s and 1990s.

Perhaps this future product is the reason that Apple and Amazon have no deal for Amazon content streaming on the Apple TV.

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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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