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Feeling adventurous? Soon, you will be able to float down the Amazon River — Google Earth Street View style. The Google Earth team is currently on the Amazon River taking images to stitch together in the 360 panoramic view that you know and love. Google has partnered with the Foundation for a Stable Amazon (FAS) to take these images of the river, as well as local communities and forests.

In this first phase of the project, the Google and FAS teams will visit and capture imagery from a 50km section of the Rio Negro River, extending from the Tumbira community near Manaus—the capital of the state of Amazonas—to the Terra Preta community. We’ll then process the imagery of the river and the communities as usual, stitching the still photos into 360-degree panoramics.

After the Earth team is done they will leave equipment for the FAS to continue to take more images. While you wait for the Amazon to become available, you can view Stonehenge and the Whistlers slopes. This is sure to be exciting for Amazon enthusiasts who can’t travel.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R3V9qjzD40]

The $12.5 billion acquisition of handset maker Motorola has spurred an intense debate on the web as to what Google might do with the company and whether or not it could affect Apple negatively. Unfortunately for us tech watchers, neither Apple nor its boss – who’s been on a medical leave of absence since January – have reacted publicly thus far. Heck, even Microsoft voiced its opinion. Taiwan based Next Media Animation took it upon themselves to illustrate how Apple’s head honcho might react to the deal and what it could possibly mean for you and me. The YouTube description teases:

Motorola was once at the forefront of mobile communications, but has lost its way. Meanwhile, one-trick pony Google is desperately searching for a second act.

Check out the full animation embedded above or watch it on YouTube.

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If you haven’t heard by now, Google has shocked many this week with their acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, which still may have to pass regulatory review for GOOG to avoid an unusually high $2.5b reverse termination fee. However, while there might be a few hoping the deal falls through, Microsoft is taking this time to convince smartphone makers the Windows Phone platform is the only “truly open mobile ecosystem”.

President of Windows Phone division, Andy Lees, provided the following statement (via WinSuperSite) following the Google/Motorola acquisition announcement:

“Investing in a broad and truly open mobile ecosystem is important for the industry and consumers alike, and Windows Phone is now the only platform that does so with equal opportunity for all partners..”

This comes after Microsoft announced a deal with Nokia in February that would see Windows Phone 7 become Nokia’s primary OS for smartphones (a deal that appears to give Nokia an unfair advantage over other partners). As a result, Nokia will be working closely with Microsoft and integrating a ton of their own content into the OS including their content and application store, and the Nokia Maps app. The handsets will also receive the Xbox Live, Zune music store, and Bing search treatment from Microsoft.

While the deal isn’t exclusive (allowing Microsoft to partner with other manufacturers and Nokia to make devices powered by another OS), it certainly gives the two companies an unfair advantage over other OEMs considering the Windows Phone platform… and seems to contradict Lees’ statement of the OS being an “equal opportunity for all partners”. Google’s acquisition of Motorola may have a bigger impact down the line depending on their plans for the company… but for the time being the Google/Motorola partnership doesn’t provide any less incentive for new Android partners than the Microsoft/Nokia deal does for potential Windows Phone manufacturers.

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We previously told you that HTC is gearing up to launch a tablet with a stylus later this year. They are calling it the Puccini and it’s said to include a 10.1-inch display plus a 1.5GHz processor, 4G LTE modem and HTC’s Sense interface on top of Honeycomb software. Today, their finance chief Winston Yung indicated that the device might launch at the end of the third quarter or early fourth quarter, reports DigiTimes, quoting the Chinese-language Liberty Times. It’s the first official confirmation we’ve gotten concerning the Puccini launch date and with a fourfold sales increase in China, the Puccini should be off to a nice start.

The company should also benefit from an increase of sales outlets in the country from 650 to about 2,000 by the end of the year. HTC is embroiled in a legal spat with Apple over an alleged patent infringement involving the iPhone. Today, HTC countersued Apple, Reuters reported, charging that Macs and all iOS devices infringe upon their patents, a day following Google’s stunning $12.5 billion takeover bid for Motorola Mobility. Per latest Nielsen survey, HTC is America’s #2 smartphone maker and the nation’s leading Android vendor accounting for a 14 percent of all Android smartphones sold. The company shipped 12.1 million phones in the second quarter for a 104 percent revenue growth year-over-year.

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Today on their Search Blog, Google announced a new layout for sitelinks under Search results. The new update brings an expanded look for sitelinks — showing the title, URL, and a snippet of text from the site. Instead of eight sitelink results, a site can now have twelve.

Sitelinks will now be full-size links with a URL and one line of snippet text—similar to regular results—making it even easier to find the section of the site you want. We’re also increasing the maximum number of sitelinks per query from eight to 12.

Sitelinks will also be using a similar algorithm to regular search results, to provide a higher-quality list of links. The update will be rolling out to users over the next couple of days.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdT3eKdto4w&feature=player_embedded]

Historypin, a user-generated map displaying historical data of nearby locations (previously only available on Android devices), is now available as an iOS app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Created in partnership with Google by not-for-profit We Are What We Do, the app allows users to add their own historical photos by pinning them to a map, capturing historic moments as they happen, and creating replicas of historical images. The images are then shared with users requesting data for a specific location….

Historypin uses Google Maps and Street View technology to reveal the user-generated photos and data related to historical events that happened close to your current location. It does this by “overlaying them onto the live camera view”…essentially aiming to give you a live snapshot of what your surroundings looked like in the past.

Simply holding your phone up in the street will provide you with relevant nearby images. Selecting one of the images allows it to be overlaid onto the iPhone’s camera view. You can then fade between the image and your live shot for comparison, as well as pull up stories and data related to the image and your current location.

Full list of features and some shots of the app in action after the break…

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GigaOm is reporting that many companies were in the race to buy Motorola Mobility, including Microsoft. GigaOm contributes this as one of the reasons why Google made the purchase for such a high price, so other manufacturers couldn’t hurt their ecosystem even further with IP lawsuits.

The reason Motorola didn’t go with Microsoft was due to the fact Microsoft only wanted the company for its patents, rather than running a hardware business.

Talks between Google and Motorola began five weeks ago, reports GigaOm. Their sources say CEO Larry Page and Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha were talking directly and only a few other executives were brought in. Also, Android co-founder Andy Rubin wasn’t bought into the talks until recently. The deal Google has struck gives the company 17,000 current patents and 7,500 patent applications.

Who.is of Android.me

Discovered by TechCrunch, Google now has control of the Android.me domain — either by nicely asking or forcing. Of course, Google could be on their way to making a whole new product around the domain (maybe a central hub?), but we don’t think that will be the case. It’s more likely Google just wants control, which is understandable.

We here at 9to5Google are no strangers to Chrome Experiments, sweet little snippets of code that highlight the many advances Google’s been adding to its browser. Take, for example, a tech demo where you write your message and have the band in a music video dance it out. Today, Conceivably Tech points us to another interesting showcase that highlights the efficiency of Google’s WebGL support in Chrome.

WebGL is for the web what OpenGL stands for on your desktop, a standardized way for web developers to tap the power of your graphics card directly, by embedding an OpenGL code right inside web pages. The WebGL Water demo runs smoothly full screen on my 1.6GHz Core i5 MacBook Air and the water ripple effect, particles and lighting effects have to be experienced first hand in order to be fully appreciated.

The code runs best in Chrome due to the use of the OES-texture-float extension, which is currently only available for Chrome. If this is a sign of things to come, soon we will be able to run complex visualizations and shiny 3D games right inside our browser.

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Newsweek Technology Editor Dan Lyons makes some great points this morning regarding Google acquiring Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. First he talks about TechCrunch MG Siegler’s remarks that Google made themselves “look like huge asses in retrospect”. Lyons pretty much says Siegler’s opinions were just foolish. Lyons also makes an interesting point that Google most likely didn’t actually want the Nortel patents, they were just driving up the price for Apple and Microsoft with their PI (3.14 billion) bid.

And today it all makes sense. Google just sandbagged its rivals. The whole thing was a rope-a-dope maneuver. Google never cared about the Nortel patents. It just wanted to drive up the price so that AppleSoft (those happy new bedmates) would overpay. Today, with the Motorola deal, Google picks up nearly three times as many patents as AppleSoft got from Novell and Nortel. More important, Google just raised the stakes in a huge way for anyone who wants to stay in the smartphone market.

In the end of things, Google is earning 3 times the patents than they would have in the Nortel deal, but for three times the price. One last word from Lyons:

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The web is abuzz with the news that Google is snapping up Motorola Mobility in a deal valued at $12.5 billion. And while there are concerns that Google is pursuing the deal purely for the patents, CEO Larry Page said in a blog post that the agreement will let them “supercharge the Android ecosystem” by fending off patent threats from Apple, Microsoft and other companies. In addition, he dropped hints of “wonderful user experiences” in a nod at tightly integrated devices that Apple famously builds.

Now, conventional wisdom has it that the transaction will put other Android backers in an uneasy position as they get to compete with Motorola on an uneven playing field. Not to worry, Boy Genius Report has reactions from major Android backers that appear to be upbeat about the deal. For example, J.K. Shin, president of Samsung’s Mobile Communications division says:

We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem.

The publication quoted similar statements by executives from HTC, LG and Sony Ericsson that Google published on their site. On the other hand, as noted by Business Insider, Android backers cannot be satisfied with the outcome of this time, regardless of their voice of support. TIMN wonders what this deal means for the future of Motorola products and the level of Google’s involvement in product development. So far, this is about intellectual property. Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha revealed in a conference call discussing the Google deal that his company controls a rich patent portfolio of 17,000 issued patents and 7,500 patent applications filed, indicating that Google will use this patent war chest as a powerful leverage against legal pressure from rivals Apple and Microsoft.

Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond said this in the call:

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After a shocking announcement this morning from Google regarding a $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, most are already discussing what this means for the future of Android. However, a report from WSJ claims their sources are reporting Motorola has an “unusually large” 20% reverse termination fee in place that would see Google paying $2.5 billion if the deal falls through.

The report claims this might be proof Motorola is worried the acquisition could be the subject of antitrust regulators who are already investigating Google for its ability to abuse its market lead. However, Google execs noted in a conference call with financial analysts this morning that they aren’t worried about the deal being seen as anti-competitive in nature.

Why would the deal fall through? The report points to potential legal hurdles in Washington, similar to those that allegedly stopped a Groupon acquisition from happening. Google is already the subject of an antitrust probe related to their purchase of ITA software, and continues to be in the middle of intense legal battles with rival smartphone makers.

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Google has made its decision to acquire Motorola Mobility public this morning, announcing the acquisition worth $12.5 billion via The Official Google Blog (that’s $40 per share, 60% higher than the company’s closing price as of Friday):

Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide—with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day—through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries. Given Android’s phenomenal success, we are always looking for new ways to supercharge the Android ecosystem. That is why I am so excited today to announce that we have agreed to acquire Motorola.

This is obviously being looked at by most analysts as a move by Google to beef up their patent portfolio in the midst of the smartphone patent wars. It appears Google plans to continue running Motorola as a separate company, meaning the brand itself isn’t in jeopardy as of yet. However, this could easily be Google’s first step in the direction of gaining more control over the manufacturers that run Android. Even with Android making huge strides in recent months, Apple continues to dominate the smartphone market with their unique approach of building both hardware and software to compliment one another (at the same time as keeping the intellectual properties related to their products under one roof).

Google and Motorola will be holding a press conference at 8:30 ET. Grab the live webcast here. A snippet from the official press release below, if you’re interested. We’ll keep you posted as more info becomes available.

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Combination will Supercharge Android, Enhance Competition, and Offer Wonderful User Experiences

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA and LIBERTYVILLE, IL – AUGUST 15, 2011 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

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Social postings from Twitter, Youtube, and Flickr have appeared in Google Search for quite awhile, and with the launch of Google+ it was only a matter of time until public Google+ posts were appearing too (as seen above). Google announced via their blog Friday that public Google+ posts are now available in Search.

Note, ONLY public posts will be appearing — private posts will not. To see this feature you will need to have a Google+ account and be logged in to your Google account.
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ABI Research analyst Jeff Orr is reporting that Android tablets captured 20% of the iPad’s market share this past year. Orr lists high prices and fragmentation as to why it wasn’t more.

Many vendors have introduced media tablets, but none are separating themselves from the pack to pose a serious threat to Apple. In fact, most have introduced products at prices higher than similarly-configured iPads. Apple, never a company to be waiting for others, has introduced its second-generation iPad media tablet while keeping product pricing unchanged.

If Google and manufacturers can become competitive in pricing, which to their credit we are seeing, and less fragmentation — which Honeycomb seems to be addressing, Android should be off to the races. (via CNet)
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Jack Halprin, currently lists his employer as Autonomy where he was the Vice President, eDiscovery and Compliance.

But we’ve heard from a source in the know that he’s made a move to Google and will be in charge of Google’s management of electronically stored information (ESI) for both legal and information governance purposes in their Apps/Postini wing.  His background includes “managing social media for legal and governance purposes, defensible processes for managing discovery, proportionality, and the reduction of eDiscovery costs” –which will certainly help Google prepare companies who are moving infrastructure into Google’s Cloud offerings.

This follows Google’s Enterprise’s pickup of Matthew Eichner, who now manages Global Enterprise Search, earlier this year.

Halprin provides the following background in his Linked in Profile:
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This morning, Acer announced the Iconia A100 Tab A100.  The 7″ Android 3.2 tablet is the first to run Honeycomb at that size.  The screen is a Galazy Tab-like 1024×600 16:10 TFT with a 75-degree viewing angle.  The body is a bit on the beefy side  for a 7-incher at .5-inches thick and .92lbs.

All of that heft doesn’t get you as much battery life as you might expect.  The battery is a very cellphone-like 1520mA and is rated for around 5 hours of web surfing and slightly less for HD Video.  It also runs Adobe Flash 10.3 which will tax its speedy 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor.

On the backside is a big 5MP shooter with Flash.  The front side has a 2MP video conferencing camera as well.

It also has a home button which seems to indicate that Acer didn’t get Andy Rubin’s message about “no buttons”.  That’s OK, some people like buttons.

The biggie here is the price.  With a retail target of $329, this product will likely be aimed at consumers who don’t feel comfortable spending $500 and up for a tablet.  As with the Iconia A500 tablet before it, that price will likely get discounted so we’ll be looking at a mid range Honeycomb product in the mid $200 range.

This will compete well with Barnes and Noble’s Nook, the HTC Flyer and the original Samsung Galaxy Tab.  It also appears to be aimed at moms who can throw this in a purse and hold it in one hand and while on the go.

Gallery and Press release follow:
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Android Police and RootzWiki have both obtained exclusive shots of Google’s next version of Android, Android 4.0 dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich. Interestingly, RootzWiki says there aren’t many changes, but a couple of UI — mainly everything’s Blue.

• Blue Themed – Like our site (Change theme on bottom) 
• Camera has built in panorama mode
• Will launch with Google Shopper and NFC Enabled devices will be able to utilize those features
• Gmail is all rethemed
• Will be available for the Nexus S

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Google today announced that the Google Plus platform is also a gaming platform.

Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life.

That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences. Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don’t.

Facebook stalwart and Google fundee Zynga is already on the list having built an app called Poker.  So are Bejeweled and Angry Birds(below).

As an added bonus, google today announced the Google+ Developer Platform so that other game makers can build their wares into the Plus platform.
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Tab for Google+ is an app available on the Mac App Store that brings Google+’s web functionality to the Mac desktop. The app is available for free and offers just about every feature plus.google.com offers — except Hangouts. Upon logging in via your Google account, you’ll be greeted with the main sections of the app: Streams, Photos, Circles, Profile and Notifications.

The sections follow suit with the functionality of the website. Streams and Photos curates content from the people you’re following. Circles allows you to see your list of circles and the content coming in from each specific one. Lastly, Notifications let’s you know what’s going on with your account.

Of course, this application won’t replace Google+’s website, rather it’s just a nice app that sits in your applications bar to view while you work. Perhaps if the website is more your thing, check out Google+ for Mac which is essentially just a browser window. We’re hearing the developer is working to make it native though. Check out another screenshot after the break:

Download Tab for Google+ — Download Google+ for Mac

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Some rather nice new updates have begun rolling out to lucky Chromebook/Chrome OS users this week with a number of welcomed features including a 32% faster resume (in most cases), instant Netflix streaming, Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader app, Print to Docs with Google Cloud Print, and various business-related features.

While the update of course brings the usual “bug fixes and improvements”, it also includes features aimed at education and business users. One of the more notable features is the Citrix Receiver Tech Preview app which is now available to Citrix users via the Chrome Web Store. This will allow you to “access desktop software such as Adobe® Photoshop® directly from your Chromebook”.

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