Android

The deal is finally done. Motorola Mobility is officially part of the Google empire. After over a year in the making, Google was able to acquire Motorola Mobility for the price of $40 per share, or about $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility will continue to operate as a separate business entity and as a licensee of Android, but Google still says the purchase will allow it to really catapult its mobility business. Job security for Motorola Mobility's staff is uncertain, however. Rumors of significant layoffs are swirling, which would further support the theory that Google is more interested in the Moto's patents than in entering the hardware business. Whether or not we'll see layoffs or perhaps a Moto-branded Nexus is still unknown.

Check out the official press release...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that the acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) has closed, with Google acquiring MMI for $40.00 per share in cash.Read more

Rovio earlier this week confirmed that it bought the IP for the game Casey's Contraptions. The company's founder and CEO Mikael Hed revealed to Finnish TV channel Yle on Friday that the game will have an educational element and revolve around Alex, a curious young boy who loves to build things.

"The quality pressure is high. We want to maintain the high standard Angry Birds fans have come to enjoy," Hed said. "Amazing Alex" is scheduled to be released this summer on iOS and Android, then "extending to further platforms rapidly after that," the CEO previously said.

David Novak is an internationally syndicated columnist. His column, the GadgetGUY, appears in over 120 newspapers around the world each week, enjoying over 3 million in readership. The GadgetGUY has his pulse on everything related to new gadgets, computers, camcorders, car tech, cameras, gaming, TVs, computers, wireless devices, media devices, cell phones, home appliances, wearable technology, sports science, power tools and gadget news.

Verizon has recently given us a good glimpse of the smartphone landscape for late summer and early fall this year, staring the Samsung Galaxy S3. The lineup will include more than one Verizon flagship smartphone, and all of the details push Verizon way ahead of the pack in terms of offerings.

Beginning with the Samsung Galaxy S3, we know that it will definitely be offered by Big Red, we just don't know when. It's assumed by many industry analysts that Summer is the magic season for this stellar gadget to hit shelves.

And while we're on the subject of Android smartphones, there are several Motorola RAZR models due to hit Verizon in the coming months, one of which will most likely be the Motorola RAZR HD, with a larger and clearer display.

The full-steam vendor HTC ain't puttin' on the brakes either. They might actually be the star of the Android show this time around. It is being reported that HTC will have a major flagship device hitting Verizon shelves in the fall. It's said to feature a whopping 5-inch 1080p HD display, a new chipset that includes a quad-core Krait CPU and an Adreno 320 GPU, HTC Sense 5 and a Scribe pen. This sounds a lot like a competitor of Samsung's Galaxy Note.Read more

New reports are suggesting that a new "Facebook phone" is being developed by HTC, reminiscent of the Chacha and the Salsa. The first reports of this phone were leaked back in 2010, but were retracted when Facebook denied that it was working on its own smartphone with hardware and software partner HTC. The handsets that were thought to be Facebook phones ended up being unveiled the following month as the HTC Chacha and HTC Salsa, but consumers weren't terribly interested in mid-range Android phones with a dedicated Facebook sharing button. Rumors resurfaced this past November before dissipating, but now the reports seem a little more authentic.

Recently, industry sources reported that Facebook and HTC are jointly developing a smartphone. The device will be a customized Android smartphone launching in the third quarter of this year. The report draws a number of comparisons between the secret Facebook phone project and HTC's previous efforts with Google on the Nexus One, suggesting that because Samsung has taken over as Google's Nexus partner, HTC is looking elsewhere for branded Android projects. Sources also claim that Samsung has likely been tasked with building the next Nexus phone, though no additional details are available.

The Facebook phone currently under development is said to have a "platform exclusive to Facebook," enabling deep integration of Facebook services and providing a variety of custom functionality. No details have been shed regarding how the device might handle private user data.Read more

Kickstarter, financial and marketing backers of some brilliant tech inventions, is showcasing their latest winner, the Pebble ePaper Smartwatch. Allerta, the company that developed the product, posted their idea on a Kickstarter page less than a week ago and has already become the most funded project of all time on the site. If you're not familiar with the way Kickstarter works, they allow users to make small and large donations toward projects they want to back. The company's initial goal was to raise $100,000, however in the past six days, the project has accumulated a whopping $3.6 million.

The Pebble Smartwatch is compatible with iOS 5 and Android 2.3 or higher. The device features a 1.26-inch 144 x 168-pixel black and white ePaper display with a backlight, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, four control buttons, a vibrating motor and a three-axis accelerometer. The Pebble is able to receive call, email and message notifications and can control music from Spotify, iTunes and Pandora on iOS and Android devices over Bluetooth. The watch's capabilities can be expanded through a variety of apps, and users can even create their own apps using an SDK.Read more

First introduced as the Satarii Star, a movement-tracking dock concept, the product is now being introduced as the Swivl. This gadget can accommodate devices from iPhones and Androids to pocket camcorders, and also features a vertical tilt functionality on top of its 360-degrees of horizontal movement.

Star Rating:
Cost: $179.99
Where to Buy: Swivl

This $179 dock rotates and follows whatever object you put in front of it, assuming that object has the portable marker attached. An iPhone app is out for the device, which can remotely trigger recording from the marker, and it has the ability to lock focus during capture. Read more

Sprint has announced an entry-level Android-powered device, the ZTE Fury. This little gem features a 3.5-inch capacitive display with a 1GHz single-core processor and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The Fury is also equipped with a 5-megapixel rear camera, a microSD slot, 4GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and the usual suite of preloaded Sprint apps.

"We realize that there are a lot of choices in the market when it comes to choosing the right cell phone that fits the needs of both a working parent and their family," said David Owens, Sprint's vice president-Product Development. "Providing affordable, Android-powered devices, like ZTE Fury, in our lineup helps give families the tools and information to better manage their wireless usage while still providing the style and functionality they need to keep up with their busy lives."

The ZTE Fury is available now for $19.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.Read more

Let me ask you a question. How do you communicate the most? In today's society (especially where children are concerned) one of the most common forms of communication is via text message. Because of this, both children and adults are easy targets for, and potential victims of cyber-bullying. Here to help is Word Bully, an app from Iconosys that helps combat cyber-bullying.

It works like this: Word Bully allows a parent/guardian to customize a filter for profanity, vulgar or threatening language, and other offensive communications. This is all done with the protection of password-enabled access for the parent/guardian. If a message is sent with this type of language it is automatically sent to the parent/guardian's phone stating what was said.Read more

Google plans to continue the trend of naming Android OS's, in alphabetical order, after deserts, according to a report from The Verge. First there was Cupcake, then Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread and finally Ice Cream Sandwich. The next major Android build will be named Jelly Bean. Even though Google has not officially acknowledged the next version of Android, it is believed that "Jelly Bean" could be released as soon as this summer, even though Ice Cream Sandwich is on only 1% of all devices.

The Verge claims that "Key Lime Pie" will come after Jelly Bean, however no details surrounding the OS were provided and no launch time frame was supplied beyond speculation that Google will launch Key Lime Pie in 2013.

Jelly Bean seems like a lock after the Mobile World Congress. That being said, Key Lime Pie seems as likely a name as any other, since there aren't that many desserts starting with the letter K. Google's the kind of company that thinks these things out in advance, so it's certainly possible that they've got several names lined up for future releases.

More interesting is how the version number of Android will progress in "Jelly Bean" and beyond. Google tends to save full numerical updates for major overhauls, which both 3.0 Honeycomb and 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich exhibit. Compare these to 2.1 Eclair, 2.2 Froyo and 2.3 Gingerbread, all of which were evolutionary updates. Hence, "Key Lime Pie" will most likely be Android 6.0.Read more

Motorola is giving business users a reason to trade in their old smartphone for a new Android-based device. Beginning today, the company is offering up to $200 cash back for your old device when a Motorola Business Ready smartphone is purchased.

To make it easy, Motorola will give you an instant online quote so you'll know exactly what your trade-in is worth - and they'll also provide a pre-paid shipping label to send your device in. Payment can be expected within four to six weeks of receipt.

In addition, Motorola Mobility will be offering MotoAssist IT - a service that gives business users access to IT professionals who can help you set up accounts, transfer contacts, and more.

The new program is available now at www.motorola.com/switch.