With Microsoft’s work with Ford and GM’s recent partnership with Google on the Chevy Volt, it’s looking like automakers are teaming up with various Internet giants. How will the unions play out? Read more »
Research firm Gartner has published the latest quarterly smartphone numbers, and it’s easy to see why the honchos at Google are all smiles at the I/O conference this week. Android grew an impressive 8% of smartphone market share this year, moving it into fourth place overall. Read more »
The 3G auction in India has raised a whopping $11 billion by selling licenses to some of the country’s major telecom carriers. But I think the big winners of India’s 3G buildout are going to be Apple, RIM and Google. Read more »
Microsoft said it would support Google’s newly released, open source VP8 video codec in the next version of its web browser, Internet Explorer 9, contradicting some earlier statements that claimed it would only allow HTML5 video playback via H.264. Read more »
Google roll out of its open source WebM Project will offer a high-quality video codec to compete with industry incumbent H.264, but it will be relying on a long list of software, hardware and encoding partners including Adobe and ARM to help push the format forward. Read more »
Google’s developer conference today in San Francisco is offering a range of announcement across the company’s products. Here’s your quick guide to the news, which we’ll be updating Wednesday and Thursday. The freshest news is at the top. Read more »
Google has tweaked its App Engine platform as a service to make it palatable for business customers. Today at its developer conference Google launched App Engine for Business, but Google still has a ways to go before it can offer a truly competitive platform. Read more »
Google announced today that it’s open sourcing it’s VP8 video codec as part of a new project called WebM. The move is supported by Mozilla, Opera and Chrome, as well as Adobe and virtually all leading encoding and video platform vendors. Read more »
For years, companies that wanted to launch pay TV services had to invest heavily to do so. But now the acceptance of IP video services could provide a way to reach a large and growing audience without a huge upfront ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Every weekend, I try to collate some of the best posts and articles I’ve read on the web and share them with all of you, but for the past few weeks I’ve been remiss in my duties. Here are some links that are worth reading. Read more »
General Motors is the latest to recognize the power of Google’s Android mobile operating system. On Tuesday GM and Google announced that they plan to connect the automaker’s in-vehicle communications system, OnStar, with phones running on Google’s Android operating system. Read more »
The growing anti-Apple alliance between Google and Adobe is likely to extend beyond mobile devices and apps, however. One collaboration that is surely in the works, even if its not ready to be announced this week, is the integration of Flash into Google’s new Smart TV ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google has made an offer of $68.2 million in cash to buy voice and video over IP company Global IP Solutions, which could enable the search giant to offer video chat through Android mobile phones and other devices. Read more »
Google and GM plan to connect the automaker’s in-vehicle communications system with phones running on Google’s Android operating system, GM announced Tuesday. It all starts with a beefed up app for the Chevy Volt that will use Google tech for location-based services. Read more »
This week’s Google i/O developer conference has been sold out since early March, but the keynotes will be available to everyone through a live stream hosted on YouTube. Expect Google to open source VP8, announce its Google TV platform, dance tango with Intel and more. Read more »
TV apps — interactive, web-like applications meant to “enhance” the TV viewing experience by supplementing programming content with additional material and activities — are evolving quickly from a novelty feature on some Internet-enabled HDTVs and a few cable systems to a standard capability. Their rise is driven by rapid growth in the number of Internet-connected devices in consumers’ living rooms, growing consumer familiarity with mobile apps and strategic competitive forces that influence video service providers. In this report, we look at the market dynamics, key players, and provide forecasts for the market, including network-connected televisions, embedded app marketplaces, app downloads, paid TV apps, and revenue from the sale of paid apps to consumers, which will grow from $10 million in 2010 to $1.9 billion by 2015. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
AT&T and Verizon Wireless have thus far been able to stay far above the brutal battleground that is the prepaid space. That will change, though, as smartphone sales continue to ramp up and mobile data traffic ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
No matter if you consider Google’s shuttering the Nexus One online store a success or failure, the Android platform is growing at an astounding rate. Google’s tells us that 65,000 Android phones are shipping every day. Let’s compare it to two of its biggest rivals. Read more »
Apple’s success in mobile computing can be attributed to consumers who want fewer choices, according to a Forrester report released today. The report calls the proliferation of mobile apps “curated computing” and said it’s computing’s future. If true, it will change the industry significantly. Read more »
Google plans to close its online retail store for the Nexus One handset in the U.S. and instead pursue the mobile operator retail model it uses in Europe with Vodafone. A failed experiment? Perhaps, but at least now Google won’t be competing with its partners. Read more »
A decade ago, scientists would collect data over a period of years, upload that data to a supercomputer, then wait for the opportunity to run it during a scheduled time. The process took months — or even years. Now, thanks to cheap processing power and the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A leaked build of Android 2.2 shows benchmark gains of up to 450 percent for Android applications. With a JIT compiler for Android’s Dalvik VM, even older Android handsets could see better performance. This and fragmentation reduction efforts are expected at next week’s Google I/O event. Read more »
The talk about Verizon and Google teaming up to make an Android tablet is fun to watch. Kevin pointed out something that I had forgotten from the CES this past January. Verizon was showing a tablet at the CES that runs on its LTE 4G network. Read more »
While the word that Verizon and Google are collaborating on a tablet to compete with the iPad came out of left field, I can’t say I am surprised. This partnership can produce a killer tablet, but certain criteria must be met to be competitive. Read more »
Every 15 years or so, the IT world undergoes a tectonic shift. Technological forces collide and grind against one another, creating an upheaval that leaves the landscape irrevocably changed. The latest such shift is currently underway: the transition to computing as a service, also known as ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
First the Verizon Nexus One fell through, and now comes word that Sprint will not be offering Google’s flagship phone, either. There are better Android handsets out there anyway, so this is not a big loss. Strangely, an surely mistaken tip has Sprint getting the iPhone. Read more »
With Sprint reportedly not planning to allow the Google Nexus One on its network, is the Nexus One even more of a failure than before? Not really, because Sprint has nothing to gain by supporting the Nexus One. Sprint’s decision won’t hurt Google Android either. Read more »
Google says it’s willing to accept its shortcomings on social and bring in a “Head of Social” to set the right course. The company has hired an executive recruiter to fill the position, and is currently in the process of casting its net widely. Read more »
Last month’s launch of the iPad marked a period of excitement in which seemingly every online video vendor announced its support for the Apple tablet. And just as there were a string of vendor announcements around the iPad launch, as companies like Brightcove, Encoding.com, mDialog and […] Read more »
More Google Android phones were sold during the first quarter of 2010 in the U.S. than iPhones. Customers of Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. carrier in terms of subscribers, can’t buy an iPhone, but they can choose from a wide range of different Google Android smartphones. Read more »
Android is the hot smartphone platform currently, and that means the competition has it squarely in its sites. HTC has been the target for Apple and Microsoft, but Android is the definite victim. The Microsoft agreement HTC signed may have a long-term affect on Android. Read more »
Google’s upstart smartphone OS has taken the industry by storm. Sure, Android isn’t the biggest phone platform, but with 60,000 handsets shipping daily, it’s become a force to be reckoned with. Want proof? A sure sign of success for a product is the point when competitors ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The e-book industry is dominated by Amazon and Apple, but the game will change later when Google launches its online e-book service, Google Editions. The company will allow users to download books in multiple ways, opening another front in the ongoing war of Open vs. Closed. Read more »
A cluster of recent announcements, launches and other maneuvers indicate that energy-efficient ARM chips could be headed from mobile devices to the data center. Read more »
Every web portal would love to be the dominant and trusted provider of information about local businesses. What are the chances of an open collaborative database for places? According to industry experts, such a database is a long way off. Read more »
If you have a smartphone, it’s a safe bet that there’s an ARM-based chip under the hood. Why not Intel? For the same reasons you wouldn’t stuff a V8 engine into a Smart Car; it’s overkill and it would deplete the gas tank in a hurry ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
One of the best things about using a touch-optimized Tablet PC is the ability to surf the web by touch. That’s if the browser supports it, of course. The Chrome extension chromeTouch turns that browser into the best browser on a touch Tablet bar none. Read more »
It was just a few years ago that Adobe’s Flash revolutionized video publishing by enabling media companies to reach a vast number of consumers with a plugin that ensured a consistent rich media experience across multiple operating systems and browsers. Now, Brightcove might be at the […] Read more »
Google spent $145 million buying nine companies in the first quarter of 2010. And it seems the company is looking to open its wallet even wider as it continues its shopping spree. That is good news for web startups. Read more »
Given all of Google’s energy projects over the past three years, I thought it’d be helpful to create a timeline of events for when Google has launched a clean power or energy efficiency project. Read more »
