Viacom vs. Google Court Battle Heats Up; the copyright fight being waged by Viacom against Google will move into a crucial stage on Friday, when both companies are expected to file motions for summary judgment. (CNET) Clicker Redesigns Its Online Video Guide; with a web site […] Read more »
The tech industry is all abuzz over the Apple lawsuit claiming HTC is infringing on 20 of Apple’s patents. While commonly felt that Apple is really hitting Google over the Android platform, it may go deeper than that. Apple may be scared of the Chrome OS. Read more »
Google has introduced a nifty app that allows users to search contacts and other data by drawing letters on the screen of their phones. But it’s available only on handsets running Android version 2.0 or later, which means a lot of users are being left behind. Read more »
Google for the past three years has been trying to upend the enterprise market’s leading software suite, Microsoft Office, with its cloud-based Google Apps. With cloud services now being widely adopted in the enterprise, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s offering is starting to pull ahead. Google […] Read more »
“‘I’d like nothing more than to apologize in person to everyone we’ve let down, but as you can see, many of our users are rarely home at this hour,’ said Google cofounder and president Sergey Brin,” in a spot-on spoof from The Onion. Read more »
Another small step for empowered and open access to energy data. Search engine giant Google announced on Wednesday that it has released the API (application programming interface) for its energy tool PowerMeter. Opening up the API means that gadget makers can now freely integrate with PowerMeter […] Read more »
Smartphones are very sophisticated gadgets, and it is not always clear what is at fault when things go wrong. Getting the problem resolved can be a frustrating experience. Here are some suggestions to help tame the beast that is the non-working smartphone. Read more »
Another small step for empowered and open access to energy data. Search engine giant Google announced on Wednesday that it has released the API (application programming interface) for its energy tool PowerMeter. Opening up the API means that gadget makers can now freely integrate with PowerMeter […] Read more »
A senior Google executive has said that if the European Union continues to push the search engine to modify the length of time it keeps Street View images of European cities, it may decide not to produce any further photos for the service in Europe. Read more »
AT&T’s CEO says that the carrier handles half of all data traffic generated in the U.S. Being a good samaritan, I abandoned my iPhone to ease the 3G network. Did you know you can port away a number and get a new one for the iPhone? Read more »
It’s pretty amazing that raw Twitter posts already show up by default right on Google search results pages. Today at the Search Marketing Expo, project managers from the three major search engine gave insight into their companies’ approaches to the quickened pace of the web. Read more »
The bloom on Bloom Energy has begun to fade, and questions are rising about the fuel cell startup’s competitiveness against existing forms of power. At $7 to $8 dollars per watt, Bloom’s fuel cell capital costs have trouble matching those from some distributed generation systems such […] Read more »
Today, we’ve become dependent on multimedia, which, in many cases, are a crutch for those who don’t have the time or just don’t want to bother to write effective site content. This is a bad idea. Read more »
Apple has filed a lawsuit claiming HTC is infringing on 20 patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, hardware and architecture. But the lawsuit likely is a tactic to slow the remarkable momentum Android has picked up in recent months. Read more »
Would anyone think seriously about making a Google Phone, based on Android, and removing Google search? You would think not, but then you don’t understand the business of phones. AT&T is releasing its first Android phone, without Google search. It’s basically the Yahoo Phone. Read more »
Google today announced it’s acquired the web photo editing tool Picnik. Picnik was self-funded and said to be profitable for more than a year based on premium services. This falls right into line with Google’s recent string of buys of companies started by its former employees. Read more »
This week I read some interesting, some bizarre, some funny but mostly mind stimulating articles. Here is a short selection that includes a must read post about the rise of narrative in social networks and a fascinating presentation by graphic designer Nicholas Felton. Read more »
Google has launched a new feature in Street View that allows users to navigate through a virtual 3D panorama of a location using photos that have been uploaded through Panoramio and Flickr. The feature is similar to Microsoft’s Photosynth, but is available to anyone with Flash. Read more »
An Italian court found three Google executives guilty of privacy violations for a video uploaded to the company’s site, focusing attention on a key question: Is Google a service provider or a media company? And if it’s the latter, what responsibility does it have for content? Read more »
Google’s Android experience varies by handset and not just because of different hardware. Four Android versions are available, but one report says Google is planning to get all devices on version 2.1 soon. There’s pros and cons to the solution — is it too late? Read more »
If I had a dollar for every phone rumor I’ve seen, I could buy several of these Verizon Nexus Ones that have hit the FCC. Detective work indicates the phone is a CDMA version of the Nexus One, due to hit Verizon at some point. Read more »
For years, at various times, tech giants such as Microsoft, Google and Apple have all been referred to as “benign monopolies.” Companies usually earn that moniker when they take on a certain dominance. But it’s worth remembering that dominance also introduces trends that are not benign. Read more »
As more people pick up smartphones, carriers, application developers and phone manufactures need to keep one thing in mind. Speed matters when it comes to adoption. But speed is a double-edged sword because as faster networks are deployed, the data tsunami swamping carriers grows. Read more »
European regulators have told Google that it needs to take a number of steps to make its Street View service comply with privacy regulations, including warning people more obviously when they are going to be filmed and shortening the amount of time the images are kept. Read more »
My favorite time of the week is here for the 77th time! That’s the time I get to share the happenings at my home office, Mobile Tech Manor (MTM). Gmail was updated in a good way, and a couple of new programs entered the Manor. Read more »
When Google announced its Chrome OS initiative last June, we entered a waiting period until the second half of this year. But now reports indicate that Acer is prepping a Chrome OS device sooner than that. Here’s why I think those reports are likely accurate. Read more »
PeerPong has reportedly raised $2.8 million for social search. The service which isn’t open to the public yet, describes itself as “an easy way to connect with the right Twitter users to get direct answers fast.” Read more »
Microsoft plans to deliver three chassis designs for Windows Phone 7, which is due out late this year. But it’s the first chassis — which will support big-screen, touch-only devices — that will be key as a new wave of connected devices come to market. Read more »
In a ruling that could have broad implications for video hosting sites that operate in Italy, three Google executives were found guilty of violating privacy laws yesterday for a video that was uploaded to Google Video by one of its users. Will this be overturned? Read more »
Security services firm ZScaler is out with its “State of the Web” report for Q4 of last year, which presents views — many of them graphical — of the changing habits and patterns of web users. While some results are predictable, there are a few surprises. Read more »
PocketGear today acquired Handango, which was founded in 1999 and became a pioneer distributor of smartphone apps. The pick-up underscores just how dramatically the space has evolved in the last few years thanks to the emergence of Apple’s App Store and other distributors. Read more »
Smart meters have been undergoing a bit of a consumer backlash lately — and that could open the door for alternative ways to bring energy data to homeowners. Certainly the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal entity setting smart grid standards, seems to want […] Read more »
In the last week at least four major newspapers have each run their own original reporting about the hacking that led Google to threaten it may significantly alter its business in China (which it hasn’t). But the anonymously sourced stories don’t paint a clear picture. Read more »
Turns out we’re not the only ones speculating about what Google might do with ON2 Technologies, the video encoding company it finally acquired late last week after months of negotiations with shareholders. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has published an open letter to Google this weekend, […] Read more »
Following a string of acquisitions, new product development and vendor chest pounding this year, the cloud collaboration wars are shaping up to be a key competitive battleground. Cloud collaboration has now expanded well beyond the core of e-mail communications, giving users have more choices than ever. Read more »
