Motorola

According to a report from Bloomberg, U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender has ruled in favor (PDF) of Motorola and claimed Apple’s devices infringe on one Android-related patent owned by the company. The ruling is only a partial victory for Motorola’s attempt to receive an injunction on iPhones and iPads, because the judge’s decision will still have to be reviewed before import blocks can be achieved:

ITC Judge Thomas Pender said Apple violated one of four Motorola Mobility patent rights. The patent relates to Wi-Fi technology. The judge’s findings are subject to review by the six-member commission, which has the power to block imports that infringe U.S. patents.

As for the Wi-Fi patent in question (# 6,246,697), Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet told AllThingsD that Motorola refused to license its industry-standard technology on “reasonable terms”:

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Engadget shows us something it pulled from Chinese language forums:

What you see on the right is called the Droid RAZR “Fighter,” and it has a 4.6-inch 720P display much like HTC’s 4.7-inch One and the 4.65-inch Galaxy Nexus.

You will note that it does not have physical capacitive buttons, instead opting for the ICS-y soft buttons. That allows Motorola to push the screen further toward the edges, which is something we complained about in our review.

The smaller bezel and lack of physical buttons allows Motorola to break out a much bigger screen without increasing the footprint…much.

Other probabilities: LTE on board, lots more graphics power, and Ice Cream Sandwich.

Hopefully the Google buyout of Motorola cuts through the blur, but as with all Verizon phones, you will expect that Verizon will have its way with ICS.

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Without any official confirmation, The New York Post reported today that Google is looking to sell Motorola Mobility’s set-top box division as the $12.5 billion acquisition of the company looms.

Google allegedly summoned Qatalyst Partners and Barclays Capital to help shop the asset around. However, the publication’s sources indicated Google is not likely to unload the division, because cable operators are “shunning” Motorola set-top boxes before the acquisition closes.

With that said, one source speculated a possible sale price between $2.5 billion to $4 billion.

More information is available below.

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Apple’s latest cunning move in its Holy Crusade against Android involves getting a court order to force Google, the maker of Android software, to produce documents detailing the Android roadmap and its proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of handset maker Motorola Mobility. It was not immediately clear what data Apple was exactly seeking to uncover. This is notable, because Apple is actually going after Google with this request. It is the first direct in the ongoing legal war considering Apple fought Google by proxy in the past.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner ruled yesterday based on a patent lawsuit Apple filed in 2010 against Motorola that both Motorola and Google must spill relevant information to Apple, as “the Android/Motorola acquisition discovery is highly relevant to Apple’s claims and defenses.” Motorola, of course, opposed the request, offering the following argument.

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

Handset maker Motorola Mobility may have found itself in an uneasy place as both Microsoft and Apple are attempting to block its $12.billion sale to Google, but the company’s marketing department is as vigorous as ever. With this week’s spotlight on the latest mobile developments showcased at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, the Razr-maker published three provocative clips on its YouTube channel.

The videos pit the iPhone 4S-exclusive Siri feature against Android Voice Actions running on three different handsets: The Atrix 2, Photon 4G and Electrify. In each instance, Siri runs notably slower (and therefore less useful) than Android Voice Actions on Motorola’s devices.

Both Android Voice Actions and Siri need a network connection to upload audio samples of spoken queries. The cloud does the rest–speech recognition, parsing your query and beaming down the results. With that said, the performance gap that these clips highlight stems from the faster 4G networking on Motorola’s devices and has little to do with the type of processor, the amount of memory and other hardware features.

Two more clips are right below.

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Handset maker Motorola Mobility, about to be acquired by Google for $12.5 billion, published today a list of devices eligible for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade (it previously explained why device updates are taking so long). The Xoom Family Edition tablet will get ICS in the second quarter. Unfortunately, owners of other devices will have to wait even longer, particularly the Photon 4G, Atrix 2, Atrix 4G and the non-Verizon Xyboard 8.2 and 10.1 that are slated to get ICS upgrades in the third quarter. Worse, many Verizon devices lack windows, including The Razr, Razr Maxx, Droid 4, Droid 3 and Droid Bionic.

This suggests Verizon certification is pushing back the planned ICS roll out for some of Motorola’s high-end phones sold in the United States. International version of the Razr is due for an ICS upgrade during the second quarter of this year. The company re-iterated that “Our engineers and designers are combing through the code and preparing it for you.”

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As expected, the European Commission cleared Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of handset maker Motorola Mobility following a short period of back and forth between the Internet giant and European regulators. A statement issued by the European Commission said the transaction was approved “mainly because it would not significantly modify the market situation in respect of operating systems and patents for these devices.”

The Justice Department should approve the transaction this week, if the Wall Street Journal is to be trusted. When it finally goes through (and that’s a when at this stage, not an if), Google will gain control of Motorola’s extensive patent portfolio and use it to deflect Android patent attacks by Apple, Oracle, and Microsoft. The Commission noted it would continue to keep a close eye on “the increasingly strategic use of patents.” As you know, Apple is pressuring European Union regulators to establish consistent royalty fees for patents deemed essential to wireless standards.

Google’s Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Don Harrison wrote on the official company blog that Google is now “just waiting for decisions from a few other jurisdictions before we can close this transaction.” He maintained the company line that the deal will “enhance competition and offer consumers faster innovation, greater choice and wonderful user experiences.”

Motorola reported an $80 million loss in the holiday quarter and shed 800 jobs. It is also embroiled in a nasty patent fight with Apple that saw the latter sue the former in the United States over Qualcomm patent license after Motorola won a brief injunction of 3G iPhone and iPad sales in Germany.

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While we already heard from the WSJ that United States regulators are going to approve Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Reuters is reporting today that European regulators are going to do the same. Getting an approval from both areas would be significant, and it would push the $12.5 billion buyout announced in August closer to sealing the deal.

After Europe and the U.S., Google will still have to get approval from China, Israel, and Taiwan. Chinese regulators have until March 20.

Google acquired Motorola Mobility for its large array of patents. There have also been reports that Google will use Motorola Mobility’s expertise in hardware to build its own Google hardware. WSJ reported yesterday that Google is developing a streaming home-entertainment system.

U.S. regulators will approve the acquisition next week. It is only a matter of time before the merger officially goes through.

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In a new report from the Wall Street Journal this evening, the publication said the Justice Department is set to approve Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility as early as next week. This approval will give Google a good size push in to completing the acquisition.

The U.S. Justice Department is poised to clear Google Inc.’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter, giving Google a powerful armory of technology patents to deploy in the smartphone wars.

However, antitrust enforcers in the U.S. and Europe remain concerned about Google’s commitment to license Motorola patents to competitors on fair terms, those people said, and will closely monitor Google’s use of the patents. The European Commission has set a Monday deadline to decide whether to approve the acquisition.

Google is set to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, and it is doing so to primarily add Motorola’s large array of patents to its arsenal. Google is currently working to get approvals in Europe, too. A new report surfaced yesterday claiming that Google was going to send letters to European groups in order to smooth over the approval process. We will keep you updated.

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Hoping to continue gaining the necessary approvals it needs to acquire Motorola Mobility, Google is reportedly planning to assure wireless standards companies that it will license Motorola’s patents fairly. Bloomberg reported that Google will send the letters within the next day, and it will be signed by a Google lawyer to different groups.

The letter, to be signed by a senior Google lawyer, is likely to be sent within the next 24 hours, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the decision isn’t yet public. The move would come after a deadline passed for Google to submit remedies to the European Commission, which is evaluating the plan to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Bloomberg said that one of the groups Google plans to send a letter to include the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. Google will make such moves to help smooth over the acquisition.

One of the reasons Google is thought to buy Motorola Mobility is mainly for its large array of patents, which it will most likely license out if the deal goes through to gain more revenue. Google hopes that the acquisition continues for obvious reasons.

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Motorola announced in a blog post today its all-in-one fitness band is about to get a new update. Motorola said it would detail more as the launch date of the update comes closer, but it did reveal that the MOTOACTV would gain support for up to 40 new activities, including: yoga, Pilates, dancing and martial arts. Motorola will also roll out an online hub —where users can track fitness progress—at the time of the update. The MOTOACTV band will push the fitness information over Wi-Fi, so you can then setup competitions among friends.

Just as a refresher: Motorola announced the MOTOACTV at an event in October along with the Droid RAZR. The MOTOACTV can track your every move, play music through an FM radio, and can even store up to 4,000 songs. The 8GB version retails for $210 and the 16GB version retails for $300. Stay tuned, as Motorola said there is more to come.

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As 9to5Google reported last October, the search Goliath appears to be on a spending spree since 2011. Having reported holiday quarter earnings, the company filed its 10-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. The document, available online at the agency’s website, specifies that Google spent $1.9 billion dollars acquiring 79 companies throughout last year.

The sum includes cash and stock and is nearly double the $1 billion they spent on 48 acquisitions in the previous year. For the entire 2011, the number of full-time employees at the company ballooned 33 percent to 32,467 Googlers. Just do not count on the company satisfying its appetite for acquisitions anytime soon, as the filing reads:

Acquisitions will also remain an important component of our strategy and use of capital, and we expect our current pace of acquisitions to continue.

So, has Google put its acquisition money to good use?

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If you are after an Ice Cream Sandwich tablet you now have exactly two options: the ASUS Transformer Prime which got the update last week, or the Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi that just got ICS, according to Motorola.

Note that only the Wi-Fi version gets ICS.  The 3G/LTE versions are coming shortly —we are assuming— due to radio issues.

It is still impressive of ASUS/embarrassing for Google/MOT that ASUS beat the Android tablet reference design to ICS.  The press release is available below…

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A smartphone reference design by Intel.

Handset maker Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Google, and is subject to approval from regulators in the United States and Europe, said at CES 2012 yesterday that it would release fewer phones in 2012. The company also announced a multi-year strategic mobile partnership with Intel to make Android smartphones powered by the chipmaker’s struggling Atom platform.

According to Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha’s roundtable meeting with reporters at CES yesterday, Motorola no longer sees value in dispersing its efforts by flooding the market with countless devices:

A lot of products that are roughly the same doesn’t drive the market to a new place. […] I made this decision independent of what the others will. We’re doing what we think is the right thing.

Motorola issued a warning last week on fourth-quarter results, and the company said numbers would come in below the $3.9 billion that most analysts expected. As for the Motorola-Intel partnership…

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The MotoACTV was announced in the fall and is flaunted as the ultimate sports watch for those who are active. It ships with Android 2.3 and a custom skin on top, and one would not think the wristwatch could ever be rooted. However, like every other Android device out on the market, the MotoACTV was rooted with Revolutionary’s zergRush exploit. The root enables full Android 2.3 on the wristwatch. As you can see above with the Angry Birds start screen, users can even access the Android Market with the help of CyanogenMod. (via The Verge)

While we do not know if this is exactly useful, it is cool -nonetheless- seeing a tablet user interface run on a 1.6-inch display. The MotoACTV 8GB version is available for $209 on Amazon, and the 16GB version is available for $299. Check it out in action after the break:

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Skype today updated its Android client with the ability to share videos and images over 3G cellular networks or WiFi hotspots. According to a blog postannouncing Skype for Android version 2.6, the company also improved battery life while the owners of devices using Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Xoom and Acer Iconia Tablet, will notice better video quality on a bigger canvas. Additionally, the app now supports video calling on new devices, including the HTC Amaze 4G, Motorola Droid 4 and Motorola Droid Razr. Skype 2.6 for Android is a free download from Android Market.

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The answer to the question of “what would happen if you slapped a keyboard on the back of a Droid Razor” just showed up for a brief moment on Verizon’s DroidDoes website.  The Droid 4 “only” has a 4-inch screen compared to the RAZR’s 4.3″ but pretty much everything else lines up the same.  Perhaps more importantly, yes, that is a 5 row keyboard (4 rows is for suckers) and of course the speedy LTE comes along too. DOES below.
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Motorola Mobility this morning scored a major win in Germany as the Mannheim Regional Court ruled against Apple in one of the patent infringement lawsuit that the maker of the Razr phone filed against the Cupertino firm in April of this year. Interestingly, Motorola’s counsel Quinn Emanuel also beat Apple’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Samsung products in the United States and is representing Motorola in another Apple lawsuit involving iCloud.

As part of the ruling, first reported by the FOSS Patents blog, Motorola won an injunction against infringing Apple products, meaning the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, the original iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G. The court decision follows a default judgment against Apple last month, scheduled to be discussed again in early February.

The ruling involves the European Patent 1010336 (B1) – the European equivalent of the U.S. Patent No. 6,359,898 – which covers a “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system” and was declared essential to the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) standard. This is the first “substantive ruling” as the injunction is “preliminarily enforceable” against Ireland-based Apple Sales International in exchange for a bond unless Apple wins a stay, FOSS Patents explains. How can Apple fight back?

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Verizon Wireless allowed CNET to photograph the carrier’s upcoming Droid 4 and Xyboard tablet designed by Motorola. The Droid 4 looks very similar to the current Droid RAZR — a device we loved — and also in a way represents the Droid 3. CNET calls the Droid 4, “essentially the Droid 3, but with an LTE connection.” Verizon wouldn’t go into details over specs, but Droid-Life has leaked plenty over the past few weeks. The device will reportedly have a 4-inch touchscreen, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 5-row slide-out keyboard, front camera (specs unknown,) and an 8MP rear camera. Count on this device being a Droid RAZR with a keyboard.

Next, Verzion’s next tablet offering, the Xyboard has also been in the rumor-mill these past couple of months. The tablet, offered in both an 8- and 10-inch variant, is a successor to Motorola’s Xoom, which was the first to device to ship with Google’s Android Honeycomb. Verizon once again wouldn’t go into details about the tablet, but here’s what we know so far..

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Last week (ending today), Amazon had a pretty incredible Penny Pincher sale where it offered just about every Android and otherwise phone (except Apple’s iPhone) for a penny with a two year plan.  That’s what we call a game-changing, evening of the field.  Sure, carriers and the plans matter, but if every phone is free, you can get a pretty good idea which are the most sought after phones in the “price not being an option” category.

From our Amazon Affiliate account we can see just how many of each phone our readers picked up, thereby getting a pretty good sample of what are the hot phones out there.  Here are some stats:

• – >90% of phones were Android (not surprising from a Google site)
• – Motorola Droid RAZR and Sprint’s Galaxy SII were the big winners (well done readers!)
• – Verizon was the dominant carrier with the top selling (RAZR), and 3 of the top 5 phones.
• – Samsung Galaxy SII was 3 of the top 6 and the number one seller overall across all carriers
• – We’re aren’t sure why*, but 9 of you bought Motorola Bionic’s giving Motorola the second place prize (*We love the RAZR and aren’t sure why one would pick a Bionic over a RAZR).
• – HTC was #3 with the Rezound having an impressive showing  and the Thunderbolt getting picked up 5 times (again, not sure why you’d pick a Thunderbolt over a Rezound at the same price). HTC on AT&T was a poor showing with none of the new Amaze 4Gs showing up.  In fact, with the Titan, HTC sold more Windows phones on AT&T than it did Android.  The EVO wasn’t as popular as you’d expect on Sprint with the Galaxy S II selling a whopping 9 times as many units on the carrier
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Overall, no huge surprises, especially at the top, though we’re somewhat surprised that Sprint’s Galaxy SII beat both of AT&T’s combined.  Toward the bottom, we started seeing some unlocked Nokias (5 C6’s) Windows Phones (3 HTC Titans, 3 Samsung Focus Ss) and a few BlackBerry Bolds.

The big question is: How will the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon upset the line?  Whatever the outcome, Verizon is already the clear winner with the RAZR and Rezound (and Bionic) already topping many granted  holiday wish lists.

Fuller results below:
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From the world of non-tablet Android devices, both Motorola and Sony have products launching in the UK including the Sony Tablet P and Motorola’s MotoACTV. You can grab the foldable 5.5-inch dual screen Sony Tablet P starting today, while the MotoACTV fitness-focused device will go up for sale on Thursday, December 1.

As for the Tablet P, expect a Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, Android 3.1 on Wifi model, and Android 3.2 on 3G models. We haven’t got our hands on the dual screen experience as of yet, but we know other dual screen devices like Nintendo’s DS line rely on software designed specifically for the display setup.  Unfortunately at £500 (about $750) for the 3G model, we’re not so sure there will be a market for the Tablet P. The device is available now through Dixons and local Sony Centre stores.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Moto ACTV, it is essentially an iPod nano/Nike+ competitor allowing you to track fitness stats like calories burned as well as sync and monitor the stats online. It also includes GPS features, and the ability to transfer calls to the bundled SF700 headset/biometric sensor. The Moto ACTV will be available to UK customers later this week on December 1 for £249.99 through fitness apparel retailer sweatshop.co.uk.

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