Google is launching a new app called One Today. The purpose of the app is to donate $1 a day to a cause. Right now the app is in limited pilot, and an invite only. It’s only available on Android, but when you click on the invite button, it asks you which mobile platform (Android, iOS, Blackberry, or Windows) you would like to receive an invite for. This would suggest they are going to bring the app to those platforms at a later time. To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, continue reading past the break for some examples of what you can donate to: » Read the rest
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Google steals Samsung’s VP of Marketing to work for Motorola
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tagged Google News, marketing, motorola, Samsung, strategy
We just reported on Google’s and Motorola’s secretive and super forward-thinking X Phone, and part of that story was about the heavy emphasis that Google is willing to put into marketing the device. In the story, we heard that Larry Page told Motorola that he is willing to allocate a significant amount of funds into marketing the X Phone. Well, now we know where a portion of those funds are going: to Brian Wallace’s salary. Google just nabbed Samsung’s Vice President of Marketing, Brian Wallace, who helped push Samsung into the Android success story that it is today. Wallace spent the last year working at Samsung and is responsible for the passive-aggressive (and highly successful) “The Next Big Thing Is Already Here” campaign that took swings at Apple’s most devoted fans. Before that, Wallace worked for over ten years at RIM, where he tried to help the struggling Blackberry maker make a turn around. Today, Brian Wallace will sit at the helm of Motorola’s marketing strategies, and hopefully will push the fledgling company back into the powerhouse territory where it used to reside. Let’s hope this all ties into the thickening plot of the Google/Motorola Super X Phone.
Source: All Things D
Google pulls Nexus 4 factory images and binaries from its developers site
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tagged Factory Image, Google News, Nexus 4
Some hawk-eyed hackers noticed something strange this morning: the factory images for the Nexus 4 seem to have disappeared from Google’s developer site. A factory image is a file that allows you to restore your device completely to stock in case something goes wrong while hacking and tinkering with your device. Interestingly, the Nexus 7, Nexus 10, and Galaxy Nexus factory images are all still available to download, indicating that the Nexus 4 factory images were deliberately pulled by Google to make some changes to the core code. Could it be that Google is trying to completely disable the recently discovered 4G antenna? We hope not. It’s anyone’s guess really, what Google is up to. Anyone have any good theories?
Source: Google Developers
Google News gets revamped for tablets with new interface and gesture support
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tagged Google News, Nexus 7, tablets
Google News is an extremely popular source for news articles, with Google citing 6 billion pageviews per month to linked articles. And with the growing popularity of tablets like Google’s own Nexus 7, it would only make sense for some adjustments to be made for those to conform to each other. According to Google, that’s exactly what’s going to happen over the next few days, too. The Google News site will be redesigned to better fit tablet sized screens, with a more spaced out layout for articles and gestures to find new articles and switching between sections, for example. It will also feature the “Explore in depth” feature that allows you to look at similar stories to a specific article.
All in all, definitely something to look forward to if you frequent Google News. At first it will only be available to US users, however, and it’ll take a few days to roll out to all users. Check news.google.com to see if it’s working for you on your tablet.
source: TechCrunch
New Google+ feature rolls out today: Google+ Communities
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tagged Google News, google plus, New features
Lately Google has been cranking out important updates and improvements to many of its products across all of its platforms (Android, IOS, Gmail, etc). Today we see yet another improvement coming out of the Mountain View company, this time in connection with its quickly growing Google+ social network. The company announced on its blog today that it will be rolling out a new feature within Google+ called “Google+ Communities”. Google+ Communities act as a hub around which people with common interests can gather, discuss, debate, trade ideas and more. In essence it functions in many ways like a Facebook “group”, but catered toward specific interests. The communities are arranged by topics (photography, surfing, Android, music) so people of a like-mind can flock together, make new friends, network and more.
Google Chairman Highlights Success Of Android Platform, Claims “1.3 Million Android Activations” Per Day
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tagged Google News, motorola
Motorola is already seeing a heavy hand from Google as Chairman Eric Schmidt is giving the keynote at the Motorola event today. He continues to highlight the success of the Android ecosystem by confirming there are “1.3 million Android activations” per day in reference to Android smartphones, while adding Android tablets are also growing at a tremendous pace.
Looks like Google is saying any remaining or lingering doubts about Android’s success can now be put to rest.
Samsung granted temporary stay of ban on the Galaxy Nexus
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tagged apple, galaxy nexus, Google News, Samsung
Last week we reported that Apple had won an injunction against Samsung effectively blocking sales of the Galaxy Nexus. It’s clear that this action has frustrated and angered many people in the Android community. However, it seems as if Samsung’s protests have paid off as the U.S. Court of Appeals has now granted a temporary stay of ban until July 12, awaiting a response from Apple on the matter.
It’s safe to say that Google’s not out of the woods yet on this one, so stay tuned for more updates on Samsung and Apple‘s latest tango.
source: bloomberg
Google Play Store Gets Magazines, TV Shows and More
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tagged Google IO 2012, Google News, Play Store
Google announced some huge improvements to the Google Play Store at Google I/O today. Magazines and TV shows have been added by the hundreds, along with some big improvements on the App side as well.
Google Developers Live: All Development, All the Time
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tagged develop, Google I/O Developer Event, Google News
Google announced some great news for developers today ahead of the upcoming Google I/O Developer Conference. It turns out Google doesn’t think a couple of days a year is enough to keep developers informed and productive, so they’re launching Google Developers Live, a year-round resource giving access to Google’s knowledge, tools, and people.
Read On…
Google reports strong 1st quarter earnings for 2012
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tagged financial earnings, Google, Google News
With reports lately about Google making significantly less per Android device versus iOS devices and their recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility, it’s good to officially hear that Google is still financially strong and their 1st quarter earnings report for this year is proof of that. Google reported revenue earnings of $10.65 billion for quarter 1 of 2012, which is an increase of 24% compared to a year ago. In fact, Google earnings have been growing steadily for the past 2 years. Cost-per-click rates were down 12% from a year ago, but other than that, Google seems to be quite content with their latest financial update. Here is what CEO Larry Page had to say about it:
“Google had another great quarter with revenues up 24% year on year. We also saw tremendous momentum from the big bets we’ve made in products like Android, Chrome and YouTube. We are still at the very early stages of what technology can do to improve people’s lives and we have enormous opportunities ahead. It is a very exciting time to be at Google.”
There you have it, people. Google is not going anywhere anytime soon and I, for one, am glad to hear it.
source: Google








