Los Angeles

A Re/code piece on Google’s Shopping Express service says that the company is investing $500M to expand the service beyond San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City and roll it out nationally.

The service lets shoppers buy things from local retail stores through Google, which then delivers them to consumers from the physical retail store on the same or next day.

A source familiar with the company’s plans says senior Google execs have set aside as much as $500 million to expand the service nationwide …

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T-Mobile has just sent out invites to its latest Uncarrier event. The fifth iteration of John Legere and company to shake-up the mobile industry will be held on June 18th in Los Angeles. The invite doesn’t offer any direct details as to what we can expect at the event, but does tease that T-Mobile doesn’t “play it safe and sound.” One possibility this time around, is that T-Mobile is partnering with some sort of music streaming service, hence the “sound” tease. AT&T is currently partnered with Beats Music, while Sprint is with Spotify. That would leave Rdio and Pandora as possibilities for T-Mobile.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJdpRJ873r8

It might not be as interesting as Google’s floating barge project that will see the company bring interactive technology showrooms to cities in the US, but Google has just opened a number of temporary retail locations leading into the holidays.

The pop-up locations are dubbed Google Winter Wonderlabs and Google’s new site describing the retail experience lists locations for New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Sacramento.

Google is using the stores to let customers try out and purchase the Nexus 7, Chromebooks, and Chromecast (no mention of Google Glass), but it also has a “Snow globe” room that lets people create slo-mo videos with animated snow fall and “Play Zones” with various product demos set up. 
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If an existing Google Glass Explorer has sent one of their three invitations to you, the good news is you no longer have to travel to Google’s offices in NY or LA to collect your gadget in person.

For the first round of Explorers, Google had insisted on personal collection so that a member of staff could talk them through the product and assist them with setup. Those accepting invitations now are being offered a 45-minute one-to-one on Google Hangouts … 
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Google just announced on the official Google Mobile Blog that it is releasing a Google Offers app for iPhone. The app is available on the App Store now for United States users, which is just in time to take advantage of today’s Netflix deal that offers movie theatre tickets for $1 to new subscribers (free one-month trial available here). Google outlined the available cities and some features for the iPhone app below:

Cities available (US only): Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, NYC, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Oakland / East Bay, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, St. Paul, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington D.C.

• Instant savings, just around the corner: Quickly discover offers near you in map view or search for deals by category to easily find the right deal for you.
• See & use the deals you want, when you want them: All of your purchased and saved offers are tracked in “My Offers,” for easy access from your iPhone or online.
• Savings made simple: Instantly redeem most offers with your iPhone, without having to print vouchers.
• Never miss a great deal: Get notifications when new deals are available or when a deal that you’ve purchased or saved is about to expire.

OnLive showcased its cloud-based gaming platform on LG’s G2 Google TV sets today during the E3 conference in Los Angeles.

The company highlighted its Universal OnLive Wireless Controller with the LG G2 TV, and then detailed its “growing library of hundreds of top-tier, console-class video games on-demand” with demos available for every title. The sneak peaks allow up to 30 minutes of free gameplay, so players can give any title a complete test-drive. From there, gamers can buy “a la carte” or subscribe to OnLive’s PlayPack subscription service for unlimited on-demand play. Of course, OnLive games are also accessible on almost any Android, iOS, etc., tablet or smartphone with a broadband or Wi-Fi connection thanks to its cloud service.

“It’s always been our mission to make top-quality gaming accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said OnLive’s founder and CEO Steve Perlman in a press release. “OnLive adds no cost to LG Smart TVs, but delivers a full console-class experience. We’re excited to make on-demand top-tier gaming an integral part of the living room entertainment system on LG’s state-of-the-art TVs.”

Perlman previously announced on the official Google TV Blog in January that his cloud-gaming platform would launch on Google TV as an application.

OnLive revealed its social features for Google TV called “OnLive Viewer” at this year’s Consumer Electronic Show, but it elaborated today and said account holders can watch millions of gamers play live, capture videos of their gameplay, and share exploits with Facebook friends. Additional social functions enable OnLive users to exclusively watch, interact, and chat with friends in the new MultiView mode.

The LG G2 Series comes equipped with the Google TV platform, the L9 dual-core chipset, and full HD 3D. LG’s Google TV model is the first smart TV set to integrate OnLive on-demand gameplay.

The full press release is below.

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According to a report by Jason Stern at MuscleWeek, the iconic Gold’s Gym in Venice, Los Angeles is set to close in 2014 after 45 years of operation. This would normally not be reported; however, Stern confirmed with the gym’s former owner, Ed Connors, that “Google has bought the building and the surrounding real estate and Los Angeles DUI attorney businesses with grand designs on walling off the streets and creating a SoCal campus to rival its Mountain View ‘university’.”

The worst-kept secret at Gold’s Gym in Venice is that the gym is closing its doors for good when its lease expires on June 30, 2014… Publicly, the gym management continues to emphasize (perhaps ‘misrepresent’ is a better word choice) that Gold’s Gym isn’t going anywhere, but for those in the know, it has become painfully clear that the clock is ticking down to zero…The result: Google Plus. Gold’s Minus.

Google has not confirmed its plans, but there were rumors last year that the company purchased the building home to the landmark Gold’s Gym location.

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A report from GigaOM today noted Google is requesting permission from the Federal Communications Commission to test an unknown “entertainment device.” The trials will take place in the homes of Google employees, and see tests of the mystery device connecting to home electronic equipment over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to test it on home networks in real world situations. Other than that, there is not much we learned from the Google’s filing with the FCC from December (below).

We told you about one yet to be unveiled product we heard Google has in the works with our recent story about the company’s wearable glasses with a heads up display and computer interface. We will have much more on those this coming week…

Google is requesting the trials take place with up to 252 devices from Jan. 17 to July 17 in various locations including Mountain View, New York, Cambridge, Mass., and Los Angeles. Google’s description of the mystery product from the FCC filing is below:

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AT&T started rolling out LTE in California’s San Francisco market earlier this month, and now the company is moving south to Los Angeles. The Samsung Skyrocket with LTE capabilities that I am testing (great phone, by the way) started detecting LTE connection around the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) area. The speeds in this instance are not as fast as they are (yet) in other markets, but they are in line with the LTE speeds seen in San Francisco last week. In addition, they certainly beat HSPA+.

The speeds I am seeing in L.A. are around what is shown in the image above: 18mb/s up, 5mb/s down.

An AT&T spokesperson told 9to5Mac:

We’re continuing to expand our 4G LTE coverage nationwide. As part of our rollout, we’re regularly testing and turning up parts of our network, including in additional markets, so some customers with LTE devices may already see faster speeds.

Therefore, LTE in L.A. has not officially been announced, but now we know it is definitely in testing around the areas of L.A. This testing likely means an official rollout soon. As testing progresses, we should see LTE in more areas of L.A.

Let us know if you spot any LTE connection in unannounced regions.

Update: CNET also has reported seeing LTE in LA

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Hop on board an American Airlines flight this holiday season and your pilot will be wielding an iPad as a flight bag replacement but you – a first-class passenger –  will be treated with a Galaxy Tab 10.1 to keep you entertained. Keen on bringing balance back to the force, the airliner teamed up with South Korea-based Samsung to offer the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on their premium cabins onboard certain transcontinental flights. Here’s the sales line:

Sit back, relax, and let the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 take you to the movies or catch up on your favorite shows. The new device enables a unique viewing experience, featuring a bold and vibrant LCD, with brilliant colors and crisp definition.

Go past the fold for a list of flights serving some Galaxy Tab in-flight entertainment.

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