After years of being embroiled in a number of lawsuits, on multiple continents, Apple and Google have announced that they have reached a settlement regarding patent litigation.
The two companies have agreed to dismiss all current lawsuits between Apple and Google's former Motorola Mobility unit, and have even said they'll work together on patent reform...
Google has just announced its brand new Android Wear platform for powering wearable devices like smartwatches and handset maker Motorola is already showing off its first Android Wear-driven device, a smartwatch dubbed Moto 360.
Billed as a "modern timepiece," the device indeed is designed much like classic timepieces and sports high-grade finish that oozes premium quality.
The Moto 360, of course, runs Android Wear and includes Google Now integration, Android notifications, apps like weather, sports scores and more. It does gestures, too. "With just a twist of the wrist," Motorola writes, you can see who’s emailing or calling, what time your next meeting is or a friend’s latest social post...
Both Apple and Google are believed to be working on wearable devices right now with plans to release them before the end of the year. And while we've seen zero physical evidence of Apple's iWatch project, some photos of an alleged Google smartwatch prototype just surfaced.
Android Police has posted photos of what appears to be a Motorola-branded smartwatch in an early development stage. The site says the device would have debuted with the "Google Watch" moniker as part of the Nexus family, but believes Google chose to go a different route...
When news hit earlier this week that Google had agreed to sell its Motorola Mobility unit to Lenovo for $2.9 billion, it surprised a lot of people. Not only was the sale price some $10 billion below what Google paid for Motorola 3 years ago, but Lenovo? Where'd that come from?
According to a recent Fortune interview with Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yan, that was the plan all along. Yan says that his company has been eyeing Motorola since before Google came along , and it has major plans for it. Lenovo wants to become the #1 smartphone-maker in the world...
Well this is an interesting turn of events. It appears that Google has decided to sell its Motorola Mobility arm to electronics giant Lenovo for $2.91 billion. The deal is said to include the entire Motorola division and some 10,000 of its 17,000 patents.
If the deal gets approved, Google would be selling Motorola for far less than the $12.5 billion it paid for it back in 2011. It looks like it's holding on to some of Motorola's IP though, and retaining licenses to its other patents, so it wouldn't be a total loss...
Apple has a problem. It's not a problem that pertains to its high-end iPhone 5s, and it's not even a problem with the mid-range, somewhat superfluous iPhone 5c. It's actually the iPhone 4S that is an issue for Apple. Sitting at the bottom of the company's smartphone range and being offered for peanuts if not free, the iPhone 4S was previously thought of as a rather capable budget handset. And it still is.
The problem that Apple now faces is that all those cheap Android phones that we've all laughed at over the years are starting to get a bit big for their shoes. In fact, some are downright great handsets, with one in particular doing its best to shake up the way we think about smartphones and what we should be paying for them.
I am, of course, talking about the Motorola Moto G...
Google-owned Motorola's Moto X smartphone with always-on Google Now functionality launched on August 1, but has failed to gain much traction as pundits deemed its $200 on-contract asking price a lot to pay for what is basically mid-range hardware.
It's also considerably disadvantaged price-wise compared to Google's just-released Nexus 5 with Android 4.4 KitKat, which retails for $349 unlocked. However, Motorola's been rumored to be working on a low cost Moto X variant called Moto G from the onset.
Indeed, today the company issued press invites for a media event on Wednesday, November 13. According to a teaser on Motorola's web page, the low-cost Moto X will be in fact marketed under the Moto G moniker...
What's more important, smartphones shipped or smartphone profits? That question is at the heart of a debate over competing figures used to bolster Samsung or Apple. A day after a Samsung-friendly market research firm claimed the South Korean firm shipped three times as many phones, new figures show Apple profit higher than most of its rivals combined.
Sales of 33.8 million iPhones during the last quarter earned more than the mobile units of Samsung, LG, Nokia, Huawei, Lenovo and Motorola all together, according to a Wednesday report. The report also ignited a new debate over how corporate figures can be twisted to fit any preconceived notion - such as Apple's losing battle against Android...
After an appeals court last month lifted the injunction which has prevented Apple from offering push notifications for iCloud email in Germany, the handset maker Motorola (now owned by Google) wasted no time and was quick to post an interesting iCloud migration tool in the hope of appeasing to iPhone owners who may be switching to a Moto X flagship.
The handy web-based application is part of the Moto X customization tool called Moto Maker.
It's designed to allow for easy migration of your iCloud contacts and calendars to a Google account. As Android is deeply integrated with Google's services, authorizing an Android device to use a Google account automatically makes underlying calendars, contacts and other data readily available...
A lot (some?) of people partially base their purchasing decisions on reviews and comparisons of consumer products by Consumer Reports, an influential U.S. monthly published by Consumers Union since 1936. It also irked Apple fans over milking the iPhone 4 over Antennagate meme for all it was worth.
In turn, Consumer Reports lost some of its credibility and luster, especially after it changed its mind and backtracked on its original 'can't recommend the iPhone 4' stance.
Today, the publication is back at it again, having put Apple's new iPhones through their paces. Even though it loved the iPhone 5c and came away impressed with the iPhone 5s's improved camera and Touch ID fingerprint scanning, Consumer Reports still thinks Motorola's latest Droid handsets are a better buy versus the new iPhones...
Nobody reviews hardware more exhaustively than chip gurus over at AnanadTech - for these guys, no detail is too small and nothing escapes their scrutiny. When the publication set out to review the Galaxy Note 3, it shamed Samsung by spotting some tweaked code which artificially inflates the device's scores on popular benchmarks by anywhere between twenty to fifty percent.
Not only did it provoke a reaction from Apple's marketing head honcho Phil Schiller, the discovery has prompted AnandTech to really scrutinize other device makers. Shockingly enough, turns out most Android OEMs pad their results by increasing CPU/GPU clock speed during benchmarking to make them look good.
So, who are the cheaters? Almost everyone, except Apple and Motorola. Samsung, HTC, Asus, LG and many others are all dirty and guilty of gaming the benchmarks.
If that's not the biggest wake-up call the benchmarking industry has ever seen, I don't know what is. I myself feel dirty even blogging about this, but the numbers don't lie and that's the sad state of things. Just who are the cheaters? Go past the break for the full disclosure...
Google may have become the first convicted patent troll, after a federal jury Thursday fined the internet giant $14.5 million related to licenses held by Motorola. The Seattle-based jury upheld Microsoft's claim that the Google-owned Motorola demand $4 billion to license Wi-Fi and video patents that were supposed to be available under fair and reasonable terms.
The finding comes just a week before Apple's appeal of a similar claim against Motorola is to be heard. This week's judgement against Motorola opens a legal can of worms for both Google and Motorola, according to one keen patent observer...