Tag: google

Google $3.2 Billion Nest Deal Now Official

Google said in a regulatory filing this morning that it had closed its acquisition of Nest on Feb. 7.

Nest has always been on Google’s radar. Google Ventures, the company’s startup investment arm, was one of the Nest’s early investors. Google was previously rumored to be building a Nest thermostat competitor, and there were even leaked screenshots of a smart thermostat app built by Google called “EnergySense,” which would let you control the temperature from a smartphone or Web client.

Google is pretty famous at this point for acquiring vast amounts of data on its users, as well as sharing that data. Co-founder of Nest, Matt Rogers, said in a Q&A on the company’s blog, “Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services.” He goes on to claim that will not change.

Nest uses complex technology to solve a problem that lots of people have on an everyday basis. That’s what Page wants to do with Google. He wants to use complex technologies to come up with simple solutions for complex problems that huge masses of people have — like controlling their climate of their homes in an energy-efficient way.

A quick finalization of the deal was expected after the Federal Trade Commission fast-tracked its approval last week.

February 12, 2014
Tim Cook : Google Was Not Committed to Motorola

There’s plenty to talk about with the sale of Motorola to Lenovo, from what it means for the future of the American Smartphone manufacturer to the reasons Google bought them in the first pace, and everyone seems to have an opinion, including Apple’s CEO Tim Cook.

“I wasn’t surprised,” said Cook in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “Google gets rid of something that’s losing money, something that they’re not committed to.” Cook went on to state that becoming a company that melds hardware, software, and services together is quite difficult and that Google obviously hasn’t quite gotten proficient in this arena, which makes “Apple so special.”

The CEO further took dig at Google’s Android OS, calling the experience on its tablets ‘crappy,’ because the app is nothing more than a stretched out smartphone app.

When asked if Apple will do a larger screen iPhone, Cook responded, “What we’ve said is that until the technology is ready, we don’t want to cross that line. We want to give our customers what’s right in all respects – not just the size but in the resolution, in the clarity, in the contrast, in the reliability. There are many different parameters to measure a display and we care about all those, because we know that’s the window to the software.”

Other comments from Cook revolve around Google’s acquisition of Nest, stating that he and Apple both feel that buying large companies simply for the sake of “being big” and buying them is not what Apple wants or believes in. They are not against buying a large company, they simply care more about buying one that is fit right for them.

February 8, 2014
Google Dodges Fine with EU Antitrust Deal

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Google has clinched a settlement in its high-profile case with European Union antitrust regulators to address concerns that it is abusing its dominance in online search.

EU Antitrust Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said that he’s “strongly convinced” the new proposals sufficiently address the competition concerns, marking a major milestone in the three-year-old case. “This is an important step forward,” he told reporters in Brussels.

Google had been accused of giving favourable treatment to its own products in search results. The company said it looked forward to resolving the matter.

As FT reports, on the European Commission’s side, there is still going to be a final approval process. The groups that filed the original complaint against Google will be consulted, but it will not be a formal “market test”. The commission will monitor whether Google sticks to its promises.

The agreement means the world’s dominant search engine has avoided a process that could have lead to a fine of up to $5 billion, or 10 percent of its 2012 revenue. It must stick to the deal for the next five years. Google has a market share of about 90 percent of Internet searches in Europe, compared with around 70 percent in the U.S.

However, Google may still face a second EU investigation, this time into its Android operating system for smartphones, with potentially bigger risks for the company.

February 5, 2014
Samsung and Google Sign Global Patent License Agreement

Samsung Electronics and Google Inc. further extended their partnership with a global patent cross-license agreement covering a broad range of technologies and business areas.

“This agreement with Google is highly significant for the technology industry,” said Dr. Seungho Ahn, the Head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Center. “Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes.”

This new agreement covers Samsung’s and Google’s existing patents as well as the ones that will be filed over the next 10 years. This agreement allows Samsung and Google to get access to each other’s patents portfolios, which might lead to focus more on product innovations than on filing lawsuits.

“We’re pleased to enter into a cross-license with our partner Samsung,” said Allen Lo, Deputy General Counsel for Patents at Google. “By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation.”

January 27, 2014
Google To Face Hefty Fine For SimpleAir Push Notification Patent Infringement

SimpleAir is seeking $125M in damages from Google after a jury found that push notification services in Android infringe on a SimpleAir patent, the company said Tuesday.

The accused services are the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) services. The services are used by Google to process and send instant notifications for Android applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail.

It’s worth noting that Google isn’t the first company to run into trouble with SimpleAir. Microsoft, Apple and even Blackberry all have licensing agreements with the company, after all.

Because the jury did not agree on how much to award in damages, a limited second trial will be held to determine the amount. SimpleAir said in a press release that it will seek US$125 million, though it did not specify how it had calculated the amount.

[modal heading=”Press Release” text=”Press Release” size=”btn-medium”]Federal Jury Finds Google Infringed SimpleAir Patent January 21, 2014 03:45 PM Eastern Standard Time MARSHALL, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SimpleAir announced today that a federal jury returned a verdict that SimpleAir’s U.S. Patent No. 7,035,914 is infringed by Google. The verdict was reached on Saturday, January 18, 2014, following a week-long trial presided over by the Honorable Rodney Gilstrap, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas. “We are grateful for the jury’s hard work in this case and pleased with their verdict” SimpleAir had alleged that Google’s push notification services for the Android smartphones and tablets infringed five claims of the ‘914 patent. The jury agreed unanimously on all counts of infringement and also found unanimously that each claim was valid. The validity of the patent had previously been confirmed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office during a Reexamination proceeding that concluded in February 2013. The accused services are the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) services. The services are used by Google to process and send instant notifications for Android applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the amount of damages to award for Google’s infringement. The damages issue will be decided by a separate jury in a limited second trial. SimpleAir will seek damages in excess of $125 million for Google’s infringement in the damages retrial. “We are grateful for the jury’s hard work in this case and pleased with their verdict,” said John Payne, who is the lead inventor and majority owner of SimpleAir. “There was a lot of information presented to the jury and they did an exceptional job figuring out what mattered and what didn’t. We look forward to addressing the issue of damages in the second trial and hope the jury in that trial will be as dedicated as this one was.” SimpleAir is an inventor-owned technology licensing company. The company holds eight issued U.S. Patents and several pending patent applications in the areas of wireless content delivery, mobile applications, and push notifications. SimpleAir has licensed its inventions to many leading technology companies. SimpleAir is represented by Greg Dovel, Jeff Eichmann, and Simon Franzini of Dovel & Luner LLP and by Calvin Capshaw, Elizabeth DeRieux, and Jeff Rambin of Capshaw DeRieux LLP.[/modal]

January 23, 2014
Bump and Flock Will Shut Down On January 31

Google acquired contact and file-sharing app Bump back in September. Bump co-founder and chief executive David Lieb said the company was “thrilled” to join Google, citing similar passions for sharing information between people and devices. We’re not too sure he’ll feel the same way now.

Bump and Flock are no more and will stop working and be removed from Google Play (and the App Store) on January 31st, 2014. The reason for this decision: Lieb and his team are now “deeply focused” on new projects within Google and don’t have the resources or time to devote to innovating on either product.

The app allows iPhone and Android users to “bump” together two phones to share contact details and files between devices. Later versions also allowed phone users to “bump” phones with desktop computers.

In September 2011, the company announced it had 50 million downloaders and 10 million active “bumpers.” Just less than a year later, more than 600 million photos were shared by “bumping” phones. Later it released an iPhone-only version photo-sharing app dubbed Flock (not to be confused with the social browser of the same name).

January 1, 2014
Google Celebrates the Last Day of 2013 with a Doodle

Google’s doodle for today, is the last doodle that you will see in 2013. The doodle features numbers 2 0 1 and 3 on the dance floor with the number 4 waiting along the side. The word Google is seen sandwiched between two speakers, with the second O replaced by a disco ball.

The Doodle showcased today is not interactive, unlike other Doodles. However, Google has included an option below the search bar that says: “What did the world search for this year? Remember the moments of 2013“, once you click on the link it will give you various options like: What did the world search for in 2013? and also gives you an option to look around the top 100 stories of 2013.

Some of the most popular stories include, Nexus 5, iOS 7, HTC One, Windows 8.1, Samsung Galaxy S4, BlackBerry 10, Xbox One, iPhone 5s, PlayStation 4 and alot more.

December 31, 2013
Chrome Updates the Web Store Policy Keeping Chrome Extensions Simple

Google has updated its Chrome Web Store policy to keep Chrome fast enough by restricting the extensions on the web browser.

This new policy from Google will start implementing today. With this update, Google is aiming towards extensions that have a single purpose, which is narrow and easy-to-understand. The multi-purpose extensions can crowd the browser UI and slow down the web browsing experience.

The blog from Erik Kay (Engineering Director) notes, a simple and speedy browsing experience has been part of the core principle of Chrome since the beginning. It further notes that Chrome will not use any toolbars as more toolbars reduces the capabilities of the browser. Users would have more control over features they add to their browser. For more information check out the source link below.

[Chromium]

December 21, 2013
Winter Solstice: First Day Of Winter in the Todays Doodle

Google has always been creative with the doodles, we have seen a variety of them on different occasion. For today, Google has released a new Doodle on its homepage to celebrate the First Day of Winter, also known as Winter Solstice.

December 21 is the shortest day and the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This is called the winter solstice, which usually occurs on either December 21 or December 22. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year as the sun reaches its southernmost point in the sky. Further, the sun begins moving northward, making the days longer for those in the northern hemisphere.

Countries like America will only see the daylight for 9 hours 32 minutes. Whereas, in Iceland the sun rises at 10 am and the sun sets at 4:49 pm and in countries like Alaska there is not sunrise.

The animated Doodle, created by German illustrator Christoph Niemann, shows a scarf being knitted into the shape of Google’s logo.

December 21, 2013
Google Fined $1.2 Million By Spain For Violating Privacy Laws

Spain on Thursday fined Google for breaking the country’s data protection law. The charge by Spain authorities claim Google for combining personal information from its many different online services and also failing to inform users clearly on how Google uses their data.

Earlier, Google’s new privacy policies were questioned by six European countries, but Spain is the first of them to charge Google with a fine. Spain fined Google €900,000 which is $1.2 million for violation of data protection laws.

The AEPD has found that Google does not give users enough information about which data collected and for what purpose uses, combines those obtained through different services, preserved for an indefinite time and impedes the exercise of the ARCO rights

“Inspections have shown that Google compiles personal information through close to one hundred services and products it offers in Spain, without providing in many cases the adequate information about the data that is being gathered, why it is gathered and without obtaining the consent of the owners,” said the Spanish Agency for Data Protection in a statement.

However, this is not a huge amount for a company like Google, but it is not about the money here. Google will probably have to make privacy policies that will work for every country’s law and not target on any individual’s privacy.

December 20, 2013
Google Maps Now Available in 25 More Countries
Anyone who has used Google Map Navigation will probably know how important it can be at some point or other. Be it searching a good place for a meal or searching the way to home from an unknown place, Google Maps has helped in most cases.

While, some people enjoy using Google Maps Navigation others do not have access to it yet. This will soon change as Google has added 25 new countries to take an advantage of this features. Here are the countries which recently got access to Google Navigation:
- Andorra
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Burundi
- Central African Republic
- Croatia
- Djibouti
- Gabon
- Guadeloupe
- Haiti
- Lesotho
- Libya
- Maldives
- Mongolia
- Puerto Rico
- Republic of Congo
- Samoa
- Serbia
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- Togo
- Tonga
- Tunisia
- Vanuatu
- Zambia
The Google Maps Navigation is now available on approximately 100 different countries. However, few countries like Algeria, Bahrain and Russia do not support the navigation in all regions. The company says’s they are trying to bring the Navigation Beta to more countries gradually. Google Maps Navigation (Beta) requires at least Android OS 1.6 and comes included as part of Google Maps for Android v3.2 and higher. For more information you can check out the source:

[Google]
December 14, 2013
YouTube Will Now Allow Live Streaming For All Verified Channels

YouTube is no doubt one of the most visited website on the internet today. The company announced the Live Streaming feature last year itself but it was not available to everyone by then. YouTube claims to have seen creators across music, gaming, sports and more categories using the power of live videos and creating an amazing experience for their audiences.

Now, Google wants the rest of the world to take advantage of Live Streaming. YouTube will now soon allow all verified accounts and accounts with good standings to use the Live Streaming feature. You can check if you have access to this feature by visiting the account feature page or simply by checking if it is available on the video manager. Users can also launch Google+ Hangouts directly on YouTube streaming live.

The Live Stream feature might bring in a flood of videos as it gets available to everyone. For now, YouTube says this should be available in next few weeks.

December 13, 2013
Gmail for Android Gets Updated With Universal Attachment, Vacation Responder and More

Smartphones are full of applications, and almost every morning we get an update for one or other applications. Following the tradition, Google today updated its mailing application for Android, Gmail is now updated with some more features.

Gmail application for Android has now got additional useful features. Today’s update add features like Vacation Responder, which can be set using the application from the mobile itself and will notify everyone who sends you an email that you are out on an vacation. Furthermore, Google has also added an universal attachment feature which will allow users to attach any kind of file through email(documents, PDFs, zip files).

Other features include enhanced performance of the application on low memory devices. Google has also update the application adding an option to print your emails, but this option is however available only to users on Android KitKat. The update is spreading gradually, so be patient for your turn.

[Gmail]

December 12, 2013
Now You Can Create Your Own Google Street View, Even With a Smartphone Camera

Google’s Street View has shown us various places closely, and it seems now Google wants us to see even more places. In order to capture images for the Street view, Google uses various techniques one of them is called the trekker. We saw the trekker(image below) when Google launched Street view for the Indian Monuments.

However, Google wants people to now submit there own Street View, which means users can now now take multiple pictures of the place they like and put in Street View. To get started, users just need to create photo spheres using Android phone or a DSLR and then share them on Views, which is a special section made for these kind of images. After that, users simply need to connect them on a map.

We are excited to see the different types of Street View experiences that everyone will contribute. For example, this feature can now enable environmental non-profits to document and promote the beautiful places they strive to protect. It also opens up a new tool for photographers to showcase diversity in a specific location — by times of day, weather conditions or cultural events — in a way that Street View currently doesn’t cover.

Evan Rapoport, Product Manager, Google Maps & Photo Sphere, shared a self made Street View for a location visited in a vacation. The Street View shown below is made with help of a Nexus 4 and DSLR.

Views: Dunluce Castle Stairway by Evan Rapoport

For more information check out the source below.

[Google Blog]

December 10, 2013
Scroogled: Do You Hate Google Chromebooks ? May Be Not, But Microsoft Does

Microsoft’s Scroogled(anti-Google) campaign might not be loved by everyone, but that does not stop the company to do even more. After the launch of Anti-Google merchandise the company is now targeting the Google Chromebook.

Microsoft, has something new for viewers in its Scroogled campaign. Microsoft hates Google Chromebooks and wants you to feel the same. We all know the merits and demerits of a Chromebook, it does not work on most of things when offline, cannot run Microsoft Office and few more applications. Microsoft released a video highlighting these facts, but is it worth the hate ?

Check out the video below:

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wAgB5J1gSQ”]

What do you think ? Windows 8 or Chromebook ? it is your choice completely, as these videos can not change the mind of a person who wishes to buy a Chromebook. Somehow, this video is another attempt from Microsoft which is not liked by people.

Just few days back, the Scroogled campaign got famous with a video featuring the famous Pawn Star Rick Harrison. The video shows a lady trying to sell her Chromebook in the Pawn shop in order to get a ticket to Hollywood. Rick Harrison says, ‘When you are not connected(to the internet), it pretty much is a brick’. You might want to watch the video below:

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y2mqoDjQXI”]

These kind of advertisements are not new for Microsoft, remember the less talking, more doing? Microsoft targeted iPad in its Windows 8 advertisement. What do you think of these ads from Microsoft ?

December 9, 2013