Sign up for our Technology Newsletter 
Google Launches Politics Page
January 10, 2012 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
Comments Off on Google Launches Politics Page
Google has launched a political hub site to help the voting public get information, discuss issues and track candidates’ popularity.
On Monday, Google launched an election site designed to not only offer users information but also to give them a chance to provide feedback on the candidates and the issues.
“From the nineteenth century’s pamphlets to the twentieth century’s TV ad revolution, our elections have always been shaped by how we communicate and consume information,” wrote Eric Hysen, a member of Google’s politics and elections team, in a blog post. “Just in time for the Iowa Caucuses, we’re launching an election hub where citizens can study, watch, discuss, learn about, participate in and perhaps even make an impact on the digital campaign trail as it blazes forward to Tuesday, November 6, 2012.”
The election site went live just in time for the Republican caucuses in Iowa. It’s was a pivotal day for the six GOP candidates campaigning in Iowa, with each trying to emerge as an early frontrunner.
.
Is Samsung Flip Flopping?
January 3, 2012 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics, Smartphones
Comments Off on Is Samsung Flip Flopping?
Samsung is apparently rethinking its decision not to bring Android 4 to the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab.
Earlier the company stated that neither device could be updated due to the size of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. The news created a bit of an issue with users sharpening scythes, pitchforks and lighting torches to go on a lynching. Now word on the street is that the company is considering backing down on its decision due to “strong customer demand.”
GoDaddy To Drop SOPA Support
Giant domain name registrar GoDaddy.com has yanked its support from the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act after owners of several websites stated they would take their business elsewhere.
Negative feedback about SOPA from a number of customers forced GoDaddy to take a second look at the legislation, said Warren Adelman, Go Daddy’s newly appointed CEO. Go Daddy has concerns about the free speech and Internet security implications of the legislation, but until now, has worked with lawmakers to address those issues, he said.
“It’s clear to us the bill’s not ready in its current form,” Adelman said Friday. “Looking at this over the last 20 hours, we’re not seeing consensus in the Internet community, we’re hearing the feedback from our customers.”
On Thursday, Reddit user selfprodigy said he was pulling 51 domain names from GoDaddy because of the registrar’s support of SOPA. The same day, Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezburger family of humor websites said said his company would move its 1,000-plus domains off Go Daddy unless it dropped its support for the bill, known as SOPA.
.
Android Hits 10 Billion
December 13, 2011 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
Comments Off on Android Hits 10 Billion
Google said it exceeded 10 billion total app downloads from the Android Market over this past weekend at a growth rate of 1 billion downloads per month.
By comparison, Apple’s App Store passed the 15 billion download mark in July, with more than 200 million iOS devices now being used globally.
Google estimates there are more than 200 million Android smartphones and tablets.
“We can’t wait to see where this accelerating growth takes us in 2012,” said Eric Chu, direct of the Android Developer Ecosystem in a blog post Tuesday.
November 16, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on
Google, which last week created a bit of chaos with the launch of a Gmail application for Apple iOS devices, has decided to put out discontinue its Gmail application for the BlackBerry.
As of Nov. 22, Google will no longer offer technical support to users of the application, nor will it allow people to download it anymore, the company wrote in a blog post.
However, people will be able to continue using it, although Google will put its development efforts on the version of the application for mobile browsers, available at gmail.com.
Apple Loses Court Case
Apple has lost a patent lawsuit against a small Spanish company, allowing the firm to continue selling its tablet computer.
Apple filed the case a year ago when it obtained an injunction from a local court to ban imports of the NT-K tablet into Spain. However, according to court documents, the Spanish court has vacated the injunction, saying that there are no legal grounds to block sales of the device.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the NT-K tablet is made in China and sold in Europe by Nuevas Tecnologias y Energias Catala, based in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia.
The NT-K tablet runs a Spanish language version of Android written by Nuevas Tecnologias’ programmers.
Is Motorola Mobility A Patent Pimp Too?
November 5, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on Is Motorola Mobility A Patent Pimp Too?
Motorola Mobility has received $228m in patent licensing deals.
Motorola Mobility, which is in the process of being bought by Google, confirmed in its accounts that in June 2010 the firm signed a licensing deal with an unnamed company for which Motorola would receive $175m and future royalties. Those future royalties stacked up to an impressive $228m in just the nine months leading up to 2 October 2010.
Google’s attempt to buy Motorola’s handset division was generally regarded as a move to acquire the firm’s considerable patent portfolio. Motorola’s handset division is widely credited with being one of the major contributors to the development of mobile phones and while the firm’s smartphones might not be as fashionable as devices from Apple, HTC or Samsung, it clearly has patents that can bring home the bacon.
Although Motorola did not disclose the name of the other party in its licensing deal, there is a better than average chance that it is Research in Motion. The two firms came to a “long-term, intellectual property cross-licensing arrangement involving the parties receiving cross-licenses of various patent rights” in June 2010.
Blackberry Delays Update
October 31, 2011 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics
Comments Off on Blackberry Delays Update
Last week at its BlackBerry DevCon conference, Research in Motion tried to get developers excited about the upcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 mobile operating system, to spur developers to create applications for RIM’s BlackbBerry PlayBook tablet, released last spring to poor reviews and low sales. But yesterday, RIM wrote in a blog post that it was delaying the release of the PlayBook 2.0 OS “until we are confident we have fully met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers, and users.”
PlayBook OS 2.0 was originally promised for October 2011, but RIM has now set a target of February 2012. To meet the new February 2012 release date, RIM said it was dropping a key feature originally promised for PlayBook OS 2.0: its popular BlackBerry Messenger instant-messaging service.
Developers were looking forward to the promised October PlayBook 2.0 OS release in hopes it might spur sales of the poorly selling tablet, especially as the original timing would have taken advantage of the holiday sales season that will also see the release of the unified tablet/smartphone Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system and a bevy of new smartphones using Microsoft’s recently released Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” operating system, in addition to Apple’s strong-selling iPad and new iPhone 4S, both featuring the recently released iOS 5 operating system.
The PlayBook OS is based on the QNX operating system that RIM bought in spring 2010 to be the basis for its tablets and, sometime in the 2012-13 timeframe, be the basis for a new operating system for its BlackBerry smartphones. Last week, RIM said that it will provide a unified tablet/smartphone operating system called BBX, based on the QNX/PlayBook platform. It said that applications developed for the PlayBook OS would be compatible with BBX, but did not make the same promise for BlackBerry OS apps.
RIM’s Troubles May Not Be Over
October 27, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on RIM’s Troubles May Not Be Over
Law firms in the United States and Canada are considering possible consumer lawsuits against Research In Motion Ltd for last week’s BlackBerry outages, which for three days crippled email and messaging for tens of millions of users around the world.
Consumer lawyers say they are investigating whether customers have common claims against the BlackBerry manufacturer and might be able to band together in a single lawsuit.
While the outage did not rise to the level of seriousness comparable to a dangerous medication or tainted food, it inconvenienced and angered customers. Frustrated BlackBerry users, turning to blogs, message boards, Twitter and Facebook, complained about losing important emails and missing meetings last week.
Law firms are considering breach-of-contract or consumer-fraud claims, attorneys said.
A breach-of-contract claim could argue the company failed in its obligations to provide service and could include carriers for BlackBerry service as additional defendants, said attorneys exploring litigation against RIM.
Google Search To Add Default Encryption
October 25, 2011 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
Comments Off on Google Search To Add Default Encryption
Google is implementing over the next few weeks default encryption using SSL on searches for users signing in with their accounts, the company said Tuesday.
The move comes over a year after Google made SSL the default setting for Gmail, and also unveiled an encrypted search service.
“As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver,” Google’s product manager, Evelyn Kao said in a blog post on Tuesday.
The encryption is expected to be particularly useful for people using an unsecured Internet connection, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot in an Internet cafe, Kao added.
With Google search over SSL, users get an end-to-end encrypted search channel between their computer and Google. The secured channel helps protect search terms and search results pages from being intercepted by a third party, Google said in a description of SSL search.
Over the next few weeks, users will be redirected to a secure search site when they are signed in with their Google Account. The change encrypts search queries and Google’s
results page.
Users can also navigate directly to the secure search site if they are signed out or don’t have a Google Account.