Google

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Google has announced an update to their Gmail for mobile website. The updates are pretty minor, but we’re grateful for them nonetheless. First off, you can now pull down the message list to refresh your inbox (iOS and Blackberry PlayBook).

Google also included two minor updates: high-res icons and transitions. The high-res icons are pretty, as seen after the break. Lastly, transitions will take place when you tap on a conversation, tap back to the inbox, go to the menu or go back, the view will slide left or right. Check out a few press shots after the break.

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Today ComScore confirmed Google+ has officially hit 25 million unique users less than a month after its public launch. We told you not to worry when Experian Hitwise reported a 3% decrease in traffic for the new social network and today’s report from ComScore confirms our hunch that Google might actually be on the right track.

To put this in perspective, rival Facebook took approximately three years to reach the same milestone, while Twitter took two and a half.  Twenty-five million may be a long way from the more than 750 million current Facebook users, but it is certainly a step in the right direction after similar services such as Buzz have been long abandoned.

Its quite obvious Google is pretty serious about this whole Google+ Facebook/Twitter-killer thing and the incredible rate of growth should be more than enough encouragement to make it a big focus over at the GooglePlex. They have already done so by integrating the service into almost every aspect of their other services from Gmail, which SearchEngineLand notes seems to be tied to Google+ adoption, to YouTube Live integration, and rolling out updates for the Android app to both fix issues and add functionality.

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Have Google+ notifications been unreliable on your Android device? Thanks to a rather hefty update to the Android app last night, Google has now introduced much needed “improved notifications reliability”, among the other dozen or so improvements and fixes included in the update.

Version 1.0.5 of the Google+ app for Android includes some of the enhancements made to the browser version of the service such as grouping new Circle related notifications together, rather than bombarding your notifications bar with each new addition.

The notifications system is said to be more reliable in this latest update, but whether or not it will cure issues users are having with infrequent, outdated, and often non-existent notifications is yet to be seen. Even if you haven’t experienced these issues, we recommend dropping by the Market now and grabbing the 1.0.5 update to take advantage of the other handful of welcomed fixes listed below.

What’s in this version:

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Over the past few weeks, the patent arms race has been accelerating and the latest comes in a Bloomberg story that has old frenemies – Apple, Google and Samsung – locked in a fight for InterDigital’s patent portfolio. Samsung is said to be interested the most in InterDigita’s intellectual property their CEO claims is “stronger” than the 6,000 Nortel patents the Apple-led consortium recently acquired for $4.5 billion. People familiar with the matter tell the publication Samsung has been “approached to make a bid”:

Samsung is looking at the patents along with Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG) and other potential bidders, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. InterDigital, which holds patents related to mobile technologies used to transfer information, said last month that it hired bankers as it considers a sale.

InterDigital’s patent portfolio covers technology for high-speed cellphone networks “now used by the world’s biggest handset makers”, including Apple’s iPhone as well as BlackBerry and Android phones. The portfolio includes 8,000 patents in total and is estimated to be worth $5 billion or more. “To hedge the risk, Samsung could go ahead with bidding, although they may have to pay a big premium”, says  Shinyoung Securities Co. analyst Lee Seung Woo…

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It appears more than a few of the approximately 600 employees currently working at Twitter left the GooglePlex at some point to do so… 13 percent according to a report from AllThingsD.

Among the more notable of Twitter’s 87 ex-Googlers, CEO Dick Costolo, who had a short stint at Google after they purchased his FeedBurner startup, former Senior Product Manager at Google Satya Patel, and their recent acquisition former Products Counsel at the Plex and Head of Music partnerships at YouTube, Glenn Otis Brown.

While the majority of ex-Google employees seem to leave on good terms, one current Twitter staffer, creative director Doug Bowman, explained in a blog post entitled “Goodbye, Google” his frustrations with the working environment and reasons for leaving the company.

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This feels more like the Google Phone that was promised a year and a half ago – which was supposed to hit all carriers.  The carriers would then have to fight on prices and quality of service.

As of today, the Samsung Nexus S is now at Best Buy free with a two year plan on 3 of the 4 big US Networks. Get your Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T Nexus S here.

Now, it almost feels like a new superphone running Ice Cream Sandwich is in the works.
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In January of 2010, Kodak sued  Apple and RIM for infringing on their patent to preview photographs. The lawsuit is still going on, but today Wall Street Journal is reporting that Kodak is currently looking to sell 10% of their patent portfolio, which includes the patent Apple and RIM are bring sued for.

The 1,100 patents include patents covering  capturing, storing, organizing and sharing digital image. WSJ credits the sale to Kodak’s loss in profit over the last two quarters.

Chief Executive Antonio Perez has been using Kodak’s intellectual property as a means of funding the company’s long and expensive transformation. In 2008, Mr. Perez put forth a goal to generate between $250 million and $350 million a year from Kodak’s patent portfolio.

Google is fresh off acquiring 1,000 patents from IBM and is likely still in a buying mood as it battles everyone from Oracle to Microsoft to Apple-by-proxy in the courts.  Apple, who outbid Google for the Nortel patent portfolio is obviously on the offensive.

Corss-posted from 9to5Mac.

A new extension called Start Google Plus brings functionality of Twitter and Facebook to Google+. The extension not only allows you to post to all three social networks, but puts Twitter and Facebook into your Google+ stream too.

Another cool feature Start Google Plus offers is the ability to import your Facebook photos. SGP is available on Chrome and Firefox. Check out a few photos of the extension after the break. (via Lifehacker)

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If you are a mainstream Chrome user like I imagine most of you are, the first stable version of Chrome 13 is now available for auto upgrade.  Why upgrade?

Google Instant Pages prefetches links so that page load times increse dramatically.  Linux and Windows users will now also get a print preview (Linux before Mac?! oh ChromeOS :P)

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To manually upgrade, go to about Chrome and hit the upgrade button (below):
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Today Google started rolling out the calling feature that previously only allowed North American Gmail users to make phone calls to landlines and mobile phones to 38 new languages.

Last year, we made it possible for those of you in the U.S. to call any mobile phone or landline directly from Gmail and starting today, we are making this available to many more of you who use Gmail outside the U.S. by offering calling in 38 new languages.

Purchasing calling credit has also been made more accessible and can now be acquired in four currencies including U.S. dollars, Euros, Canadian dollars, and British Pounds. Also starting today, the feature will no longer include connection fees so you “only pay for the time you talk”.

In addition to the announcement, Google also confirmed they will be lowering rates in over 150 locations. You can check out a full list of rates on the Google calling rates page here.

The Gmail calling feature will start to roll out to in the new languages over the next few days. Keep an eye out for a small green phone icon in your chat list within your inbox.

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Stunning 45-degree views are now available in Maps for more places in the US and abroad.

Never content with resting on its laurels, Google have been iterating their products at a pace faster than ever before. Here’s a quick overview of some of the noteworthy changes we spotted in Google’s popular services, such as Docs, Tasks, Chrome Web Store, Blogger and Maps. The latter now features breathtaking 45° imagery for many more US cities (full list here), including international locales, such as Córdoba, Spain. If you haven’t yet seen highly detailed aerial photography in action, definitely give it a try now by checking out the Córdoba, William P. Hobby Airport or the Houston Ship Channel 45° views from all four directions.

Chrome Web Store, the Google-ran online repository of web apps, now supports more markets, having added sixteen new countries for 31 countries in total. In-app payments in web apps distributed on Chrome Web Store are also a go-go: Google confirmed paid transactions in web apps will be available to users in twenty countries “later this year”. Zyngas of this world will love it, that’s for sure. More features in other services right below the fold.

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Last week we told you about the boys over at GTVhacker porting Honeycomb to the $99 Logitech Revue. Forum member cj-000 has now posted instructions for the recently released beta, which, be forewarned, is said to be full of bugs and “not meant to be widely used”.

Here it is everyone, Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) BETA On the Logitech Revue.This is BETA, it is not meant to be widely used and has bugs. If that’s something you don’t care about and would like to risk it anyway, install the update. Also, If you want to help Logitech and Google out buy another Revue ( preferably from logitech.com ), at $99 its worth every penny.

Installing the beta isn’t for the easily frustrated, involving copying the update to an external USB drive, connecting it to your Revue, and following a number of key presses to access the device’s recovery menu. Forum poster cj-000 also warns you may “notice some crashes”.

Original GTV poster Zenofex notes you may want to try the secondary USB slot on the back of the Revue if you are having issues with your initial installation attempt. You should also keep in mind forum posters who have attempted the update warn certain USB drives seem to cause errors during installation.
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If you deemed the nearly 20 million smartphones Samsung shipped in the June quarter an impressive figure, brace yourself for even more extraordinary achievement in the second half of 2011 as DigiTimes reports that Samsung “has placed orders for 30 million touch sensors used to make four-inch AMOLED screens”. Suppliers Chunghwa Picture Tubes and others are said to be the prime beneficiaries of Samsung’s booming smartphone business. Of course, Samsung sources touch sensors from other suppliers so their final order may well exceed the quoted figure. As evident in the below chart from Asymco’s Horace Dediu, the Korean company’s been growing at an exponential rate, eclipsing Apple’s 142 percent annual growth in iPhone shipments.

The company, however, all but displaced Apple, which just toppled Nokia to become the world’s leading smartphone vendor. Being the leading Android backer, Samsung’s success has helped the Google operating system reach more than 50 percent platform share of all smartphones, more than double the iOS share of 19 percent, per latest Canalys survey. That said, it’s entirely plausible that this year Samsung could overtake Apple and become both the world’s leading smartphone vendor, while Apple remains the industry’s leading player in terms of revenues and profit. Also notable, a  gap between Samsung and market leader Nokia is narrowing fast…

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In a report from the WSJ, a new study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh used facial-recognition technology in combination with data from Facebook accounts to successfully identify one-third of volunteer participants.

In the study, researchers used PittPatt software and a webcam to snap photos of volunteers who would later be identified via their publicly available Facebook profile pictures. Raising considerable security and privacy concerns, however, was the fact Professor Acquisti was also able to correctly predict the first five digits of a participant’s Social Security number in approximately 27% of cases (those are determined where you are born and when).

Should you be worried? Not if you trust Google’s stance on privacy… Addressing the privacy concerns highlighted by the study, a Google spokesperson told WSJ:

“We’ve said that we won’t add face recognition to our apps or product features unless we have strong privacy protections in place, and that’s still the case”

Google recently acquired the facial-recognition technology and will more than likely be integrating it into various Google products including Google+ and Google Goggles. A Google spokesperson had this to say about the acquisition:

“The Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition team has developed innovative technology in the area of pattern recognition and computer vision. We think their research and technology can benefit our users in many ways, and we look forward to working with them.”
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The Guardian is reporting Chrome has overtaken Firefox as the #2 browser in the UK. Chrome now has 22% of the market and Internet Explorer, which is currently first, holds 45%. In fourth, Safari has 9% of the market. (via web metrics firm Statcounter) Chrome’s success is due in part to TV advertising. Chrome is Google’s first product advertised in the UK.

Also today, Net Applications is saying Safari now has 8% market share worldwide. (via MacDailyNews) Check out the graph below:

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Googler Matt Cutts has posted to Google+ while running the San Francisco marathon. The post of his time, as seen in the image above, has already received over a 160 reactions. Keep on truckin’ Matt!

As promised in their latest horrific earnings report, Logitech has lowered the Revue GoogleTV box to just $99.  That’s $200 less than it was yesterday, though sales had it near $150 in the past.  Best Buy has dropped the price as well.  Other retailers have yet to drop their prices, though that is expected to change soon.

Sony is also deeply discounting their GoogleTVs as well, though they haven’t made a formal announcement on the matter.

Google is expected to roll out a Honeycomb update for the Logitech/Sony GoogleTV by the end of summer which will give the device the ability to run apps on the big screen, a simplified interface as well as numerous other optimizations and improvements.  Via 9to5toys.com

Press release follows:
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To add a new social experience, Youtube Live has been integrated into Google+ Hangouts reports GigaOm. In the past, Hangouts users could watch Youtube videos together, but today, they can now watch Live events Youtube hosts on occasion. Past events include concrets and speeches from the Whitehouse. Want to give it a try? Follow the directions below.

• Start a Hangouts session in Google+ and invite your contacts to join you.
• In a separate browser tab, head over toYouTube.com/Live and select a live stream of your choice
• Copy the YouTube video I.D. of the selected live stream. Not sure how to find it? Just click on theshare link below the video. You’ll get to see a link like http://youtu.be/XXXXXXXX – the cryptic code after the slash is the video I.D.
• Switch back to hangouts, open the video tab and search for the I.D.
• Click play, and you’re all set.

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Google today released a new bottom-floating toolbar for Internet Explorer and Chrome users (no Firefox?) called Google Related.  They explain it like this:

Google Related is a browsing assistant that offers interesting and useful content while you are browsing the web. For instance, if you’re browsing a page about a restaurant in San Francisco, Google Related will assist you by displaying useful information about this restaurant such as the location of the restaurant on a map, user reviews, related restaurants in the area, and other webpages related to San Francisco restaurants — all in one place.

Whenever you’re navigating to a new page, Google Related will look for interesting related content and, if available, display it in a bar at the bottom of your page. Google Related can display categories such as videos, news articles, maps, reviews, images, web sites and more. To preview a listed item or see additional items, just use your mouse to hover over different categories in the bar. For example, when you hover over a video link, the video pops up in a preview box and you can play the video directly on the page.

This is an interesting move that will likely get a lot more clicks through Google…if it catches on.
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Anticipating Android backers will face legal hurdles as Apple now has the upper hand in its case against HTC (here and here), Google has stepped up and bought more than a thousand IBM patents for an undisclosed sum. The news was first reported by the blog SEO by the Sea and picked up by The Wall Street Journal. The search company might use IBM inventions as a leverage against pending lawsuits that indirectly involve its Android software.

Google failed to outbid the Apple-led consortium which paid $4.5 billion for Nortel’s treasure chest of more than 6,000 patents covering wireless technologies, among them crucial inventions related to fourth-generation cellular networks. The new patent deal is in line with Google’s focus on snapping up patent portfolios left and right in creating a “disincentive for others to sue Google”, as noted on their official blog back in April. The 1,030 granted patents Google bought from IBM cover varied technologies, including…

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While we’re not quite sure how they did it, the boys from GTVhacker have ported Honeycomb to their Google TV. Photographed above is Honeycomb running on a $99 Logitech Revue, where you can see the Market is now available. In their forum post, user zenofex says they’ll have more information in the next few days. Also discovered — Google TVs are now showing up in device listings on the Market website (photo after the break). We’ll let you know when there is more information.

As you may know from our twitter, we now have a way to run Honeycomb (Android 3.1) on ANY Logitech Revue. Heres a screenshot of the market/dashboard, we’ll have more info in the next few days.

New update includes:
Adbd
Android Market
Improved Media Player

via Phandroid

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