When Google’s Eric Schmidt introduced “The New Motorola”

When Google’s Eric Schmidt introduced “The New Motorola” on stage last year, after appointing Googler Dennis Woodside CEO of Motorola, it was made clear that the company would undergo some serious restructuring to fit in more with Google’s corporate values. What was unclear at the time was the volume of jobs the company would be shaving in order to bring the mobile manufacturer to profitability.

Google inherited quite a mess when they purchased Motorola. 18 months of products that weren’t likely to sell particularly well, a relationship with Verizon Wireless that promoted things like locked bootloader and bloatware, and a corporate ecosystem that was too large to succeed in the market today.

Since the announcement of “The New Motorola” there’s been a lot of changes made to try and right the ship. Google employees were put in key leadership positions, rumors of a powerful X Phone coupled with UI changes to make their phones look more like Stock Android, and now two different workforce adjustments. The company has confirmed today that 1,200 jobs have been cut on top of the 4,000 jobs that were cut back in August, with no confirmation as to whether or not more will come after this.

It’s not all layoffs in Motorola land. Recently the company hired Guy Kawasaki to advise on the next steps for the company. Guy made a name for himself as an Apple evangelist early on, but has since moved to support the Android platform as well as Google’s social network. The hope is that Guy’s influence alongside other Google transplants will work to fix the existing pipeline of products and set up a business model moving forward that leaves the company more able to compete with Samsung and Apple in the next year.

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Marvel has been making a big push into selling digital comics for a few years now

Marvel has been making a big push into selling digital comics for a few years now, but for the next two days you can pick up some fantastic Marvel first issues absolutely free.

Announced during SXSW 2013, yesterday Marvel launched the Marvel #1 promotion. Until 11pm ET on March 12, you can download over 700 first issues of Marvel comics. Those digital issues can be acquired using either the Marvel Comics Digital Comics Shop or the Marvel Comics app (available for iOS and Android).

The biggest problem you’ll have with this offer is actually managing to download anything. As you’d expect, it’s very popular and Marvel’s servers are struggling to cope. As the offer only runs until tomorrow I doubt that’s going to change, so you’ll just have to keep trying.

The savings on offer are worth the effort, as typically an issue can cost between $2-$4. Marvel’s thinking is the money they are losing on making the first issues free will be more than compensated for by all the new readers who want to continue reading the issues that follow and will be willing to pay for them.

So, if you do manage to gain access to the store today, you can download free editions of the Avengers, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Fist, Spider-Man, Thanos, X-Men, and many more.

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Google is in the business of extracting as much information as possible

Google is in the business of extracting as much information as possible from the world so they can better target ads for their customers. Many of their ideas for doing this, like Android, are not only great but terribly effective. This talking shoe concept, which was shown off at SXSWi recently, goes a little too far.

Imagine sneakers that could connect to your phone via Bluetooth and feed apps information about how your run is going. They maybe they will pull in GPS data and create some nice graphs about your run. Maybe this information is exciting enough to you that Google will wrap it up in a format that can be easily posted to Google+. It’s even possible that, after a certain number of steps at a certain speed, your phone polls your GPS and Google Local for a good place to stop and get a drink or an energy bar. Sound like ideas that a lot of people would enjoy, right? What’s the one thing that could ruin that entire experience? When your phone uses all of that information to talk to you.

It’s no shock that Google’s Bluetooth-enabled shoe prototypes are all about collecting information and presenting it for both the users and the advertisers. It’s really unlikely that Google is going to get into the shoe business anytime soon — this is more a proof-of-concept. And as far as tech demos go, this isn’t so bad. When you look at how personal area networks and the “internet of things” comes together to grab tons of little bits of data from all over and turn it into useful personal add-ons, shoes that could help you out like this would be great.

The problem with this concept comes in right at the end, where the shoes feel the need to let you know when they are bored, or to congratulate you when you are really active. It could just be me, but I’ve got a feeling that there’s not many people out there who want their robotic shoes to cheer them on.

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There’s a lot of individual services that work well connecting your smartphone to your car

There’s a lot of individual services that work well connecting your smartphone to your car. Automatic hopes to create a unifying experience, by adding features that improve both the person driving the car and the services attached to the car.

The data port on most vehicles is capable of much more than what most people realize. Using a simple Bluetooth adapter for that data port, you can pair your smartphone to your car and access the information that is provided by the onboard computer. This information is useful in certain, specific situations. If you have an app that can turn that information into an app-driven instrument panel, you can access a ton of information. There aren’t many apps out there that do more with the information, which is important in order to be useful to anyone who isn’t just a data addict. Automatic is taking the information and adding context alongside location and mobile data to offer a new user experience.

The Automatic system is pretty simple in concept. The app takes information from you as you drive, and applies logic to determine how you are completing basic tasks. If you accelerate too quickly from the start or slam on the brakes for no reason, the information is collected and analyzed. If Automatic thinks you would get better gas mileage or better performance by driving in a different manner, the app will give you simple notification tones while you are driving. As you continue to drive and adjust how you drive, the idea is that your mileage and performance will improve over time. Combined with external data collection, like how much you pay at the pump each time, you’re provided with a timeline of how well your vehicle is performing.

On top of this performance data, Automatic is aware of emergency situations and responds accordingly. In the event that you are in an accident, the app will send emergency messages to contacts you have setup, as well as any emergency responders. Since the app runs on iOS, your location is sent to everyone so you are easy to find. Outside of emergency situations, Automatic is aware of where you have parked and allows you to share that information with your contacts. The team behind automatic has plans for an Android version of the service, but right now is only developing for iOS. Android is expected to be available in the fall, though only for specific handsets.

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As Andy Rubin, the father of Android, steps down to pursue other Google-based projects

As Andy Rubin, the father of Android, steps down to pursue other Google-based projects, and Chrome lead Sundar Pichai will step up to handle his existing workload as well as instructions to “double down” on Android. It’s pretty natural to assume that there will be some cross communication between Android and Chrome, but how far will that really go?

Imagine the world that we would live in if Android and Chrome OS played together. Android apps running in Chrome tabs, background updates for Android that happen without interrupting the user, and everything in the cloud. There’s plenty of reasons to want this merger to happen, and there’s more than enough talent at Google to make it happen. The line between these platforms has always seemed pretty thin anyway, especially since they are both made by Google. If you take a step back and look at the two platforms from the ground up, however, you’ll see that there’s more than a few necessary differences.

Android grew in popularity by being something open source that any company could pick up and make their own. The Android platform focused on easy sharing and enabling location-aware devices that made your mobile tasks easier. The specific focus there was enabling the user to be able to do more on these tiny pocket computers. Along the way, this design has changed shape a bit, but the overall focus hasn’t changed.

This is wildly different from Chrome OS, which aims to remove as many layers as possible between you and the web. Hassles like file systems, apps, and having to be concerned about the way your computer is behaving are seen as distractions. Chrome OS isn’t about being more productive with a more powerful machine, it’s about being more productive by removing distractions.

In order to see a real merger here, Pichai would have to embark on the same journey he did with Chrome. The browser needs to be something that requires no thought from the user, and in many ways that is exactly what Chrome is. If you apply that same logic to Android you would be looking at an OS where version number is irrelevant. Everything is always up to date, and the hardware is never something you have to think about because it is always something that “just works”. Android is pretty far from that luxury right now, especially since they are part of an aggressive ecosystem whose primary focus right now is delivering the best features.

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Like most smartphone releases, details surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S4

Like most smartphone releases, details surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S4 are pouring in from every direction just before the official unveiling this evening. More information about the international (or at least the Chinese) variant of the phone have popped up, this time bringing higher quality photos, components details, and videos of the headlining features for Samsung’s next flagship Android smartphone.

There’s been no shortage of whispers surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S4 and its suspected innards, though the sheer volume of rumors breeds doubt that most of them are true. Samsung’s Galaxy line has grown popular enough that the first wave of renders and specs that “leak” are often little more than wishlists from fans eager to see their favorite manufacturer deliver the best possible product for the coming year. The Galaxy S4 is upon us nevertheless, and while it may not have a lock on being the best phone of 2013, what we know about it so far assures that it will be a highly sought after handset.

 

From previous leaks of Chinese models and a sneak peak from Samsung earlier in the week, we know that the front of the Galaxy S4 will be nearly identical to its predecessor. The Galaxy S3 is hands-down the best selling Android phone to have ever been made, so it would be silly to mess with that design if you don’t have to. Today more images and video emerged, giving expectant fans a nearly completely look at what seems to be a variant of the GS4.

There are some subtle differences to the casing, since the 4.99-inch screen is a slight increase over the 4.8-inch found in last year’s Galaxy S3. The increase in size is matched by a drastic increase in resolution, bringing the often rumored 1080p SAMOLED+ screen to replace the previous 720p screen. The added screen size and extra 500mAh found in the battery make the GS4 an imperceptible 5 grams heavier, but will also be a full millimeter thinner than the Galaxy S3.

As if the display and battery weren’t impressive by themselves, it’s being reported that the Galaxy S4 will pack a tri-core PowerVR 544MP3 GPU alongside the previously unearthed sort-of-but-not-really octo-core processor. The Exynos Octa has eight physical cores, split between four Cortex-A15 and four Cortex-A7 cores. The big.LITTLE setup here is designed to allow the more powerful cored to handle any heavy lifting that needs doing, while the less powerful cores handle low power tasks like garbage collection. This is the first Android phone to deploy this setup, and while the concept suggests that there will be significant gains in battery life there’s yet to be any significant real world testing.

Samsung won’t win the hearts and minds of the world on hardware alone, and just like last year it looks like the company is stuffing their TouchWiz flavor of Android with a ton of features that you can only find on their phones. We’ve heard plenty about the ability to use your eyes to control the phone, and now there’s a video of one such behavior in action. If you are watching a video on the Galaxy S4 and you look away from the screen, Samsung’s Smart Pause will pause the video without any commands from the user, and will begin playing again once your face is detected by the front facing camera. Like many of Samsung’s features, SmartPause is likely something that you’ll have to activate and it is unlikely to work in apps like YouTube and Netflix.

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Android remains the dominant OS in China’s exploding mobile marketplace

Android remains the dominant OS in China’s exploding mobile marketplace, but there’s a downside to its popularity. Chinese app stores are packed with apps that harvest user data. Many of the offending apps are hauling off everything they can get their hands on, not just data that’s related in any way to their functionality.

According to the Data Center of China Internet’s analysis of the top 1,400 apps, roughly 66% are phoning home with private data. The Center also found that 34.5% of apps are guilty of full-on pillaging, uploading everything from address book entries to phone call and SMS messaging history. Around 15% of these apps are even making calls and sending texts — and that almost always means the user is incurring an unexpected cost. Pilfered data doesn’t end with what’s in your phone either: many apps want to know where you are. That’s fine if you’re using a location app like Foursquare, but nearly a quarter of the apps DCCI found tracking user locations don’t have any reason to do so.

Compounding the problem is the fact that almost all of this unsavory data collection takes place without users being notified. That’s not a huge surprise when you understand that the Chinese Android ecosystem is a bit like a lawless frontier town.

Low-cost Chinese smartphones ship with heavily-modified Android ROMs and users frequently don’t install apps from Google Play. Instead they turn to the same unofficial sources that routinely pop up in reports about the prevalence of Android malware in China, or download .APK installers directly from developers, both of which do an end-run around Google’s security measures.

The big reason unofficial distribution channels are so popular in China is that Google Play doesn’t support paid apps there. With users already accustomed to paying for apps from outside sources, there’s no reason to believe that the vast majority would have many concerns about installing any kind of non-Play app.

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One of the great and terrible things about Android

One of the great and terrible things about Android is the level of control that is available to the user. Your smartphone is as secure as you are, and as long as you don’t go poking around in thing you don’t understand you’ll be fine. Facebook’s most recent update upsets this general rule, and the end result could be disastrous.

The easiest way to keep your Android smartphone safe is to use it with the out-of-the-box settings — there are plenty of ways you can leave yourself vulnerable to attacks on Android if you do anything else. Rooting your phone can expose you to software attacks, but that usually requires a fair bit of know how. The Android software utilities include the ability to install apps from unknown sources. This feature is great for installing apps that are being beta tested, or apps that aren’t available in the Google Play Store. Facebook has decided to take advantage of this ability through an update to their app.

Facebook’s Android app is pushing an update that bears an oddly technical message. The app explains that you will be able to download new updates as they are available right through the app. The language is a little funny, prompting you to install the latest build, and Facebook has such confidence in their app’s ability to deliver the download that there’s a retry button just in case. This update happens over WiFi, which Facebook touts is a feature for some reason. There are two big issues with this method of updating that have nasty implications for Android users.

The first issue is a fight between Google and Facebook, which may cause the app to be removed from the Play Store at some point. Google has a check system that verifies apps that are installed through their service are only accessing the parts of your phone that you have given permission to access. This goes back to Facebook’s behavior in the past, where they have grabbed contact data from Android phones but refused to share their data back with Android.

The second issue, and perhaps the most significant, is how the app updates are installed. Users will need to have the ability to install software from unverified sources.

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Samsung’s Galaxy S4

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 — the company’s flagship smartphone for the 2013 — has been announced and unsurprisingly the handset bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor. If you take a closer look, however, you’ll find there’s more than a couple of differences between the Samsung Galaxy S3 $189.99 at Amazon Wireless and the new Galaxy S4.

For the purposes of this compare, we’re going to be focusing on the US variants of both Galaxy smartphones. We’ll be looking at the Verizon Wireless variant of the Galaxy S3 as well as the S4.
“This year we put a four on the box”

For most phones out there, a year’s worth of technology evolution shows itself in some not-so-subtle ways. If you look at Motorola, HTC, or LG, it’s usually not hard to point at the phones in a lineup and tell which phone is the older generation. Design evolution is just as important to most companies as hardware iteration, but you’ll find no such glaringly obvious distinctions between the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S3. Samsung’s design has survived a full generation, much in the same way that Apple maintains their design for “s” variants of their hardware line. Unlike Apple, there’s a lot more than a spec boost between these two phones — but more on that later.

The Galaxy S4′s physical updates are nearly imperceptible when seeing the two phones laying side by side. Samsung’s latest flagship is ever so slightly heavier and just barely taller and wider, but also manages to be a full millimeter thinner. The jump from the 720p 4.8-inch screen to the 1080p 4.99-inch screen marks a significant increase in quality as well as a slight increase in overall size. Despite having a larger battery and a bigger screen, the Galaxy S4 is still lighter than its predecessor.

There may not be much difference looking at these two phones with the screen off, but turn them on and the power under the hood is sure to show you which is the Galaxy S4.

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