Should we call this a Moniblet? Just like Samsung and others are calling the Galaxy Note a Phablet. According to Engadget it seems ViewSonic will be calling this new lineup “smart business tablet monitors,” and will be showing off a wide array of them at Computex this year in Taipei. We are also hearing they’ll have similar offerings with Windows 8 but I’m more excited about Android tablets of course.

I sure hope this 22-inch Android 4.0 ICS tablet has an impressive screen resolution, a massive battery (or a power cord perhaps) as well as a stand because I won’t be holding it for more than 30 seconds at a time. The idea sounds pretty fun although we can basically do this now by using HDMI-Out on current smartphones and tablets. The difference here is the entire panel will be the touchscreen. The show kicks off on June 5th so we might be seeing this massive tablet sooner than we thought.

Earlier this week during the Google Glass Walk in San Francisco tons of pictured were snapped of the augmented reality headset and we have now received are first look (gallery below) at them not being worn. What does this reveal? A power button on the inside of the frame, a micro-USB port for charging and probably flashing new software, as well as a wide array of color options Google already has on the table. From Orange, black, grey, metallic blue, and even different color aluminum frames too. Orange might be a bit too “loud” for me, but then again you are wearing crazy awesome glasses that will get some head turns either way.

Then another Google+ post shows us not only multiple photos taken with the prototype glasses, but some 720p video capture too. Man, if they wanted to tease every nerd with tons of coverage slowly appearing, Google’s doing a fine job of it. Check out the video below and imagine the possibilities with Google Glass.

[via SlashGear]

The entire team won’t be switching, but an anonymous source says that lead designer Matt McNulty and those responsible for “99% of the code” will be jumping ship. And why not – it isn’t like HP is doing much with WebOS at the moment, after halting all hardware production last year and committing the project to the world of open source. You’ll find plenty of WebOS fans still out there (your truly among them) but there’s just not a lot of interest in its continued development.

What will Google do with Enyo? The obvious answer would be set them to work on improving Android, but there are plenty of other places that their particular skill set could be applied. They could be used for Chrome, in its desktop, mobile or separate OS incarnations, or any one of a hundred Google projects that uses HTML5 on the web or on mobile. In any case, it’ll probably be months at the very least before we start seeing the effects of their work, whatever it turns out to be.

The source goes on to say that it is indeed a 7-inch tablet, lending even more credence to the idea that it’s a copied or reworked version of the $250 MeMO 370T. ASUS’ Tegra 3-powered budget machine has been conspicuously absent since its announcement earlier this year, and NVIDIA recently showed off plans to bring quad-core tablets (with a definite ASUS teaser image) to market at a price of $200.

What’s more interesting at this point is what software it’ll be running. The source was unclear on whether or not the “Nexus Tablet” would be running Jelly Bean, if in fact that is the next version of Android. Google will certainly have some new software to show off at Google I/O, but whether or not it’s ready for prime time is yet to be determined. An incremental update, say Android 4.1 or 4.5, seems more likely.

As always with news from unverified sources, treat this rumor as just that: rumor. We haven’t heard anything about a Nexus Tablet from a source that we’d consider 100% dependable yet. That said, we’re certainly hoping to see something in San Francisco in two months’ time, and hear about Google’s potential plans for expanding the Nexus program to as many as five manufacturers.

NVIDIA’s new KAI isn’t another version of the processor we can expect to see in devices, it’s an entire platform that OEM’s can use to build their tablets. The KAI Platform will enable companies like ASUS (Nexus Tablet) LG, Toshiba and many more to build budget-friendly yet powerful quad-core Tegra 3 tablets in a much quicker time frame, and then release them to the market. When talking about the KAI Platform Mike Rayfield said they are already in the works, and NVIDIA’s customers are building tablets on the KAI platform today.

Another detail they revealed is both a good thing and a bad thing. The Kai will be using a slightly different and cheaper type of DDR3 memory than the Tegra 3 we know today. This will probably result is slightly lower performance, but for $200 I’m not complaining. NVIDIA stated they are currently the only company using DDR3L, and the only SoC (system on chip) manufacturer that is giving their customers the choice on what memory they use on their tablets.

This means that manufacturers can decide to use high-performance and higher cost DDR3 memory inside their tablets at a slightly higher price point, or settle for a slightly lower yet still powerful alternative to offer devices even cheaper than the competition. This will allow the KAI platform to produce extremely budget-friendly quad-core tablets, as well as performance minded more powerful ones too. In closing NVIDIA said we can expect to see the first KAI $200 quad-core Android 4.0 tablets on sale “this summer.” That Google Nexus tablet by ASUS is looking more and more realistic by the minute.

According to sources this tablet will most likely be 7-inches as expected, but has been undergoing a few small changes otherwise it would have been possibly released this month. DigiTimes reports that around 600,000 ASUS/Google tablets have been ordered and will see production, arriving sometime in June. This puts it right in time for Google I/O in late June (we’ll be there live) so hopefully that will give us additional details.

Google nor ASUS has confirmed any of these reports, and for now these rumors are still just flowing out of the supply chains. With recent talks of NVIDIA’s new KAI budget-friendly quad-core processor this could end up being what we see next month. A 7-inch quad-core Google Play Nexus tablet made by ASUS and sold in the Google Play Store for the awesome price point of $199. If initial sales look promising that 600,000 device order might get filled quite fast. Stay tuned for more details and hopefully we hear more as Google I/O approaches.

[via PocketNow]

This opens an entirely new window for both the developers, and the consumer. I could really see this being useful with multiplayer games like NOVA 3, or MMO’s but this also will come in handy with TV, Magazine subscriptions and many other instances. Just think if Gameloft offered us $4.99 a month subscription access to every single game from them on Android, I’d probably do that occasionally.

This isn’t just for magazines and games either. Developers can also use in-app subscriptions to sell access to bundled products, game levels, music and video content, value-added services, and tons of other digital content or services. Developers can get started today by checking out the In-App Billing Documentation and implement these subscriptions right now. This is a pretty large change that should bring some neat options to the Android community, so long as developers don’t go too crazy with subscription pricing. Hit the via below for more details.

[via Android Developers Blog]

The rest of the player are almost the definition of also-rans. Symbian and Blackberry are neck and neck at 6.8 and 6.4%, respectively. The combined share of Windows Phone 7 and the older Windows Mobile devices is just 2.2% – even unaffiliated Linux is beating them. Every smartphone software platform aside from Android and iOS is showing dramatic losses since last year.

When it comes to individual manufacturers, Samsung rules the Android roost with 45.4% of shipments. (This jives with Gartner’s similar report.) Incidentally, that gives them 26.8% of the total smartphone market, edging out Apple with 40.8 million Android smartphones shipped in the first quarter of this year.  Other Android manufacturers were not articulated in the report. Year over year Android gained 22.9% of the market, growing considerably faster than Apple in the same time period. Don’t let it go to your heads, Android fans – Google still has a long way to go in the tablet market.

So, why the buy? The purchase is certainly an “acq-hire”, the acquisition of a company primarily for its employee talent. (Google did something similar with Digg founder Kevin Rose and his team.) But what does Google need with industrial design? They’re a web and software company, and have always said so! Well, that’s being called in to question.

Beyond the obvious addition of Motorola, and in spite of Google’s assurances that the two companies will be kept at arm’s length, it’s impossible to deny that Google is getting further and further into the hardware space. Google is intimately involved with the development of each Nexus and developer device, even down to the shape of the hardware. Google is investing in next-generation form factors in Project Glass, and will need some talented hardware designers on the team to make it a reality.

The Occam’s Razor (RAZR?) conclusion is that Google wants Maaike Evers and Mike Simonian to beef up Motorola’s design department. There’s no way of verifying that, but we can certainly hope.

[via TalkAndroid]

The interface is certainly more attractive, if somewhat dismissive of the actual text and comments on a particular G+ post. The experience is something like Flipboard for a social network. Even without a tablet app, it’s a notably faster and more aesthetically pleasing experience than the native clients for Twitter or Facebook. The old icon-based homepage has been condensed into a collapsing sidebar, not unlike the latest version of Spotify.

Other new features include the ability to initiate a Google+ hangout directly from the main menu, a ringtone/alert option for new hangouts, suggestions for people who may be in your real life social circles, and (yes!) editing posts from the mobile client. The redesign takes some getting used to – if you’re more of a fan of textual interfaces, then the updated app probably won’t appeal. That said, the vast majority of early responses seem positive. While you’re there, why not add Android Community to your circles?

This isn’t a full ROM, just the update file for the 4.0.2 software on Verizon’s LTE flavor of the Galaxy Nexus. In order to run the IMM76K update you’ll need to be on the stock software – any other release or the various leaked versions of 4.0.4 will not work (root and custom recoveries are OK). Just reboot into recovery mode and flash the update.

Reports are coming in that the update is live on Verizon’s servers as well, so you could try the good old manual update through your system settings. Of course most carriers send out these updates in waves, so don’t be surprised if you get a null response. In either method you’ll be running the current version of Android for the first time in over six months - congratulations! Changes include a few interface tweaks (especially on the power menu), bug fixes and new radios.

Device Specifications and Information

Device Info

Device Name : GALAXY Nexus 4G [Verizon]

Manufactuer : Samsung

Carrier : Verizon

Announced Date : December 14, 2011

Release Date : December 15, 2011

Also Known As : Nexus Prime

Display

• Screen Size : 4.65 Inch
• Resolution : 1280x720
• Screen Type : Super AMOLED

Dimension & Weight

• Height : 5.33 Inch
• Width : 2.67 Inch
• Depth : 0.37 Inch
• Weight : 150 Grams

Battery & Power

Battery Type:
• Lithium Ion

• Battery Capacity : 1850 mAh
• Talk Time : NA
• Stand By Time : 150 hours

Software

Android OS:
• 4.0.x

Audio Playback:
• AAC
• AAC+
• AMR
• MID
• MP3
• WAV
• WMA

Video Playback:
• h.264 / AVC

Messaging:
• SMS
• MMS

Hardware

CPU : OMAP 4460

CPU Clock Speed : 1200 Mhz

Core : 2

Ram : 1000 MB

Internal Storage : 32 GB

Front Facing Camera :

Camera Resolution : 5 MP

Camera Features:
• Auto focus
• Flash
• 1080p Video Recording

Sensors:
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light
• Proximity

QWERTY :

Cellular Network

Network Technology:
• CDMA

CDMA Band:
• 900
• 1900

Device Connectivity

Wi-Fi:
• 802.11b
• 802.11g
• 802.11n

Bluetooth:
• Bluetooth 3.0

Location Features:
• Compass
• GPS
• Cellular location
• Wi-Fi location

FM Radio :

NFC :

[via Phandroid]

We’ve covered this lawsuit pretty extensively although didn’t want to bore you all with too many details. You can find more coverage from the links below also. As of today, after a week of hard deliberation by the entire Jury they have finally found that Google has not infringed on any of the patents brought forward.

After Oracle initially won over the jury and was looking good in the first stage of the trial today everything changed. Now the jury has been dismissed and the third stage of the trail, where they were to decide on the damages payable to Oracle by Google has been canceled as a result. While the judge still has some work to do, as well as briefings with both parties this has to be a huge relief to Google. We are hearing from multiple sources an appeal will most likely be filed, but that is to be expected in cases of this magnitude. Stay tuned for more details.

[via SlashGear]

eBay has made tons of tweaks and improvements to make selling and buying on Android even easier. Not only that but for those listing, and often relisting auctions that has been overhauled as well. Another important addition is the new best offer notification — something users have been asking about for quite a while. Here’s the full change log for those interested:

– Best Offers and Best Offer notifications
– Access to Wish and Custom lists in My eBay
– List, relist and revise Parts & Accessories items (US)
– List, relist and revise items in Canada, France and India
– Share items on Facebook, Twitter and SMS
– Improved Item View design
– Lots of other new features and improvements throughout the app

Now when you search an auction and are on the item page you can scroll to the bottom and hit share to bring up the usual and popular Android share options for Gmail, SMS, Email, Twitter, Facebook and whatever else is in your list. Sadly nothing about the app feels like Android. While the design and user interface is decent, nothing matching Android’s design elements — except for maybe the search bar up top but even it feels clunky.

Get the latest eBay for Android from the link below and get to selling all that stuff you’d otherwise throw away. Oh and don’t expect it to work too great with a tablet either. We are still waiting on a tablet optimized app from eBay.

[via eBay]

Of course, ASUS was already headed in that direction – the much-anticipated MeMO 370T was equipped with a 7-inch screen and a Tegra 3 when last we saw it. Rumor (so far unsubstantiated) has it that this $250 model has been scrapped, and possibly replaced with Google’s much-rumored Nexus Tablet. With even more rumors indicating that Google will expand to more than one manufacturer for its next developer hardware, we’re essentially left with a lot of information and no knowledge.

Given the slide above spotted in a recent demonstration, Kai might be a reference design, a completed concept machine intended for manufacturers to copy and modify. The practice is common with chip suppliers like Intel and Qualcomm, and every new graphics card is based on a reference design. We’d have to wait and see if manufacturers took the bait, but that tablet in the slide looks an awful lot like a generic ASUS design…

[via SlashGear]

This week the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted multiple patents to Google over their augmented reality glasses currently known as Project Glass — although Google’s own Larry Page called them Google Glass today, since there’s only one piece of glass for now. Their patents show they might have one on each side in the future though. Possibly having a map displayed on one side, while navigation directions are on the other. According to Engadget they’ve been granted patents for the design, the device controls on the right side, and even a sensor on the nose bridge alerting the device when the glasses are in use and more.

Then the folks from ArsTechnica reported on patent #8,183,997 being issued to Google today titled, “Displaying sound indications on a wearable computing system.” This technology will use and integrate speech-to-text features that will allow incoming speech messages to be displayed on-screen. They mention specifically this being used for people hard of hearing or the Deaf.

Looking through most of the reports it doesn’t seem that Google’s actually used the word glasses in most of these patents. Instead they are wearable computers, head-mounted devices, lens frame attachments and things of that nature. Interesting stuff indeed and we can expect to hear and see plenty more about Project Glass in the coming weeks and months.

Contrast this with Google’s Data Liberation Front, which allows users to more or remove any and all data from pretty much all of Google’s major services. Of course Google’s not exactly innocent when it comes to privacy – their recent privacy policy changes drew near-universal ire, and organized an Internet-wide campaign to change user settings. Even so, people trust Google more in general than they do Facebook.

Quote Page:

From a user’s perspective, you say … I’m joining Facebook. I want my contacts. In Google, we said, fine. You can get them from Google. And the issue we had is that then Facebook said, no, Google, you can’t do the reverse.

But undoubtedly what Page is referring to is Facebook’s lack of interoperability with Gmail, an issue that starts and ends with Facebook. Months ago the social network decided to disable its ability to connect users with members of their Gmail contact list, though the answer given was less than satisfactory. Perhaps now that Google is in the social networking business with Google+, we have out answer.

[via VentureBeat]

I think I’d have that same grin on my face if I’d just snapped a photo and then shared it with all my colleagues in a matter of seconds too. Before speaking at Zeitgeist for the Beyond Talk session Larry Page started off with Project Glass. Calling them Google Glass, because there is only one, and not glass on both sides. Here’s what he had to say while using his very real — working version of the glasses.

“These are obviously Google Glass, it’s only Glass because it’s only on one side. It’s still in a bit of an early stage but I’m really excited to be able to have one. And to have it working. … It doesn’t yet show me all of your names, but I’m really glad that you’re all here.” – Page

It really is neat to see them working and you can see the images flickering right on the glass while in use. He appears to snap a quick photo using a side-control touch sensitive area on the top of the device near his temple, then hits another button to share it with his friends and co-workers. Whether he actually did all that we won’t know, and I don’t see the picture on his Google+ page but I’d love to get a look at it.

Obviously these are just an early prototype but they appear to have a physical dedicated camera button for snapping photos, but hopefully that will all be voice controlled on a final version if they ever see their way to the market. We’ve seen hands-free photos taken with Project Glass, so it might have both options. Around to the side seems to be a touch-sensitive area for swipes and gestures but at this point it’s really anyone’s guess.

If you’d like to see them in action on Google’s CEO Larry Page himself then have a quick glance at the video below. Enjoy it while it lasts, and don’t get too jealous (I know I am). Hit the timeline links below for additional coverage of Project Glass. I want it now!

[via SlashGear]

From Google CEO Larry Page:

…I’m excited to announce today that our Motorola Mobility deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone. We all remember Motorola’s StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. And as a company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google.

Page also confirmed that current Google SVP Dennis Woodside will take over as CEO of Motorola Mobility. Woodside’s experience with Google is primarily in advertising, increasing Google’s revenue in the American ad market by 75%, and he’s apparently been instrumental in the months-long acquisition process. Woodside’s experience in the mobile field, and in hardware in particular, is unproven.

Google has insisted for some time that Motorola will operate as an independent company after the acquisition, though the appointment of a Google inside man to the company’s highest post casts doubt upon that. After all, Jha led the company through the “DROID” era, literally saving it from disaster. Those hoping for a true first-party manufacturer for Android have been disappointed in the last few months as Motorola has kept its dogged dedication to Blur and other “skins”, and refused to unlock bootloaders against carriers’ wishes.

Will Motorola be Google brand in paperwork only? Plenty of pundits have speculated that the purchase was for Motorola’s impressive patent portfolio, something that Page alluded to with his references to the StarTAC. It’s unlikely that we’ll see a portfolio of Nexus-style devices, though one or two many be incoming as Google changes its strategy. We’ll be keeping a close eye on these corporate bedfellows in the coming months – it’ll be interesting to see if anything comes out of Google I/O in July.

While Facebook’s stock is starting to dive hopefully good things will be headed their way. This weekend the founders of Karma announced the acquisition on their company blog, stating that Karma will continue as it always has and from here forward they’ll be joining the team at Facebook and will be bringing their passion to the social site.

So what does all this mean? Clearly Facebook is doing plenty with all that money they’ve recently received — Not to mention Mark secretly got married this weekend. With Instagram, Lightbox, and now Karma all joining forces at Facebook hopefully they’ll really get cracking on the Facebook for Android application. It still needs some serious help. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook snatches up even more companies in the coming months so stay tuned.

Here’s the quick explanation, which is the same route that Motorola sadly took here. If the upgrade to Android 4.0 ICS won’t “improve” the device, they won’t be updating it. That’s the gist of their blog post. Devices like the DROID X2 (powerful dual-core smartphone) won’t be getting updated, and neither will the DROID 3. I could understand them not upgrading an older device like those with only 512 MB of RAM (although Google did this just fine) but to not be updating a phone as new as the DROID 3 and claiming it won’t “improve” the phone is just upsetting.

You may be wondering why all devices aren’t being upgraded to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Here’s the deal. We work very closely with Google and cell phone carriers for every software update. And, obviously we want the new release to improve our devices. If we determine that can’t be done—well then, we’re not able to upgrade that particular device.

Now that Google’s finally got all the approvals for the Moto buyout hopefully something will be changing soon, but I have some serious doubts. The same blog post by Motorola has a link to their upgrade timeline, that seems to only list phones with 1GB of RAM getting the update, so that could be their thinking. Sadly since their bootloaders are so locked down developers can’t easily get into the mix and help out Motorola owners so for now users might be out of luck. I could understand if these phones weren’t capable of handling Android 4.0 ICS, but they are perfectly capable just like the Nexus S.

What does everyone think of Motorola’s latest comments? They are vague and I don’t think “improve” was the right word in this case, since we all know ICS improves devices all around. Sigh!

[via Motorola]