Google just pushed out a major update to its iPhone search app, bringing out a completely reworked interface and several new features, including beautiful full-screen image search, faster autocompletion and searching, the new in-line search option (finally!), the redesigned home screen with services shortcuts, handy tabs to filter down your search results and what not… Read More
Earlier today, Google CEO Larry Page took to company blog to break the big news: having obtained necessary approvals from watchdogs on both side of the Atlantic, the search giant has finally closed its $12.5 billion acquisition of the ailing handset maker Motorola Mobility in a move meant to “supercharge the Android ecosystem”.
The transaction will close by May 23 and is rumored to see Google laying off up to one-third of Motorola staff.
Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha is stepping down (not unexpected) and will be replaced by Dennis Woodside whom Apple tried to poach last year. The new CEO already promised “fewer, bigger bets”, meaning Motorola should streamline its portfolio to focus on a select few hero devices.
So, Googlerola is alive and the search giant is now officially a handset maker – one sitting on an enormous pile of patents. In fact, the search Goliath is now in a position to directly fight Apple’s allegations against Android makers.
Taking it all in, we analyze what repercussions – if any – this development potentially poses for Apple and its ongoing legal spat against major Android backers such as HTC, Samsung and, yes, Motorola… Read More
Google’s Chrome has beaten Microsoft’s market-leading Internet Explorer to become the world’s leading web browser, according to research firm StatCounter.
Chrome has been on the rise since its September 2, 2008 release, steadily chipping away market share from Microsoft’s product which has been losing ground for years now.
For the week ended May 13, 2012, Google’s product has managed to match Internet Explorer on a global scale for the first time… Read More
Google has today launched a new app, Google Schemer, which may just make us all that little bit more active and, hopefully, happier to boot.
Let’s get this out of the way first: no, we had never heard of Google Schemer, either. In typical Google fashion, Schemer appears to be some sort of beta that is open to everyone, and promises to suggest things to do, or Schemes, based on what you have told it you like. Interestingly, it can also use the weather, time of day and location as metrics for deciding what to recommend. Piqued your interest?
Now that Google Schemer has found its way off of Android and on to iOS, things are beginning to get interesting… Read More
With one in two in the United States now owning a smartphone (was 40 percent of mobile subscribers in 2011), app downloads are on the rise, too.
Compared to last year, the average smartphone consumer in the U.S. now has 41 apps on their home screen, a 28 percent increase from 32 apps in last year, according to a Nielsen study released this morning.
Here are the top five downloaded apps across the iOS and Android platforms… Read More
Color me skeptical, but I’m still scratching my head over over a surprising report by Macquarie analyst Ben Schacter which has it that Google’s Chrome browser is coming to iOS some time during the June quarter of this year or, if not, then “definitely this year”.
If true, this would be a big news as Chrome ended 2011 within spitting distance of market-leading Internet Explorer. Heck, it even overtook Microsoft’s product to become the world’s most popular browser for a day and is certainly expected to become the top browser this year.
The big question is, will Apple allow Chrome into the App Store and let Google own all the searches? Bear in mind that the search giant currently pays Apple an estimated 60 percent revenue share for the searches done through Safari’s search box… Read More
The search giant Google is reportedly looking to replicate Apple’s Game Center with a native Android app of its own.
Despite the ongoing patent war waged between Apple and a bunch of Android backers over the look and feel of iOS software, Google is reportedly looking to simply copy Game Center.
The search firm needs own social gaming service so Android gamers have a central place to connect with each other, check out leaderboards, scores and challenge friends.
And if their other products are anything to go by, Google’s thing is likely to feature deep integration with Google+, their another social thing… Read More
Are you one of the few people left still using Google’s social networking service? If so, you’ll be happy to hear that the search giant has just released a major update to its Google+ app for iOS.
No, the update doesn’t bring about any major new features. But it does include a revamped UI, which looks a lot cleaner than the previous version, and a few other nice improvements… Read More
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission was said to be investigating claims that Google was illegally bypassing privacy settings in Safari. The Mountain View company was caught using a loophole in the browser to allow it to track users’ online activities without their consent.
If confirmed, the FTC was expected to slap Google with a hefty fine. And it certainly looks like that will hold true, as Bloomberg is out with a new report claiming that the Trade Commission is about to slap the company with reparations worth millions of dollars… Read More
Giving credit where credit is due, Apple now properly acknowledgeds use of crowd-sourced map tiles from OpenStreetMap for its $4.99 iPhoto photo management program for the iPhone and iPad.
The proper attribution has been discovered in yesterday’s iPhoto 1.0.1 maintenance update, tucked away in legal text found under the Apps section in device Settings.
With that off our backs, we wonder when will Apple make an iOS-wide switch from the Google Maps backend to its own mapping solution… Read More
