Google Inc., seeking to get more of its desktop-computer software onto mobile devices, introduced a test version of its Chrome Web browser for the latest Android operating system.

The browser, first unveiled in 2008, will be available on tablets and mobile phones using the company’s “Ice Cream Sandwich” Android software, Sundar Pichai, a senior vice president in charge of Chrome and applications, said in a blog posting. The company aims to improve the speed of mobile browsing by preloading top search results and enabling users to get the same tabs and bookmarks they have on their desktops.

“Chrome for Android is designed from the ground up for mobile devices,” Pichai said. The software is “focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized Web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices.”

Google’s Android software has taken the lead in the market for smartphone operating system, topping Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Microsoft Corp.’s mobile software. Android handsets accounted for 48 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in the fourth quarter, while the iPhone had 43 percent, according to NPD Group Inc. Almost three in five first-time smartphone buyers chose Android, NPD said.

Shares of Mountain View, California-based Google fell less than 1 percent to $606.77 today. The shares have declined 6.1 percent this year.

Source:http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LZ1AVV6K50XW01-7QOKAI2JVVKUUKTB73IE8AOHV3

Google has launched a new service that the company hopes to help fight the malware in the Android Market. The new tool is called “Bouncer” and it automatically scans the Android Market for any suspicious software that could be harmful to your device if downloaded. Malware has been on the rise for mobile devices in the last year as criminals make their way into the mobile world, following the scores of users that upgrade from feature phones. Malware is a billion dollar business and the criminals have been floating around the Android Market since it launched in 2008.

The Bouncer scans through new apps, as well as older apps already in the Market and also takes a peek at developer accounts to make sure malicious content will not make it onto your smartphone. Once your app has been submitted, the Bouncer software will check it over for known malware information that could cause a smartphone to react to being remotely activated by a hacker. Google said that Bouncer actually takes new apps, downloads them and runs them to test and make sure they do not contain malware.

Google said the software is not really new and that it has been around “for awhile now”. According to reports, the between the first half and second halves of 2011, there was a 40 percent increase in malware content on the Android Market. Google claims that malware numbers were already dropping as more security companies were reporting the amount of malware on the Android Market. The company also claimed that a rise might be from Android apps being downloaded from other sites and that in the Android Market the malware “is declining significantly”. As of October of 2011, the Android Market had over 400,000 mobile apps and that is prime hunting grounds for new malware to be released.

Right now, Google says that almost 70 percent of the mobile apps that are available for download can be done so for free. When the market launched Google actually had a 24-48 hour refund window, but changes that have been made put that window at a much smaller 15 minutes. In 2011, Google also added a PC client for the Android Market making it easier to browse, read about and select apps for your mobile device. Google has also added various categories to sort apps like “Top Developers” and “Top Grossing” apps.

Source:http://www.technobloom.com/google-updates-the-android-software-with-bouncer-to-help-fight-malware/225134/

Saving time and staying current

As a small business owner or a freelance or contract worker, you know that your time and money are valuable commodities in your day-to-day life. If you use software to run your business, you’ve undoubtedly had to deal with incessant updates, installations, and licensing. These complications can cause additional errors and lost data. And as someone who doesn’t have the necessary time or resources, keeping on top of up-to-date software and other technology can cause more problems than it’s worth. But there is a solution.

Palo Software is a startup based out of Austin, Texas that provides that much-need solution. The company specializes in creating easy-to-use web-based apps that make running your business simple. One of the team’s apps, TidyContact, is specifically designed for managing your business contacts. You can import your contacts from LinkedIn, Google, and several other sources and accounts.

While TidyContact is currently in beta mode, Palo Software is continually working on “providing worry-free apps to help you organize, communicate, and share information with your customers and your peers.” So, keep an eye out for new apps in the near future. All apps are hosted on secure servers that are monitored twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Palo Software is safe, fast, and installation of the software is never required.
Unique: no contract

Another benefit that Palo Software offers its users is there are no contracts. You simply pay as you go. So, if you decide it isn’t the right solution for your needs, you won’t have to worry about getting out of a contract. Palo Software understands your basic needs as a small business owner, which is essential software that is easy to use, convenient, effective, and affordable.

Palo Software has a small and strong team of three. Headed by its founder, Ricardo Sanchez, Palo is also run by two advisors with ample experience with technology, software, and startups. While it has started out small, it has the potential to provide realistic answers to difficult questions that many, if not all, small business owners face in today’s economy.

Source:http://agbeat.com/cities/austin/palo-software-simplifies-business-with-easy-web-based-apps/

What began as a side project has gone global after a New Zealand student’s software was picked up by Google and NASA.

“I never expected it to take off like this,” said University of Waikato student Paul Hunkin.

“It started off as little afternoon project and it’s gotten reasonably popular.”

Hunkin might downplay his success, but NASA called the software an “innovative solution”.

The computer science doctoral student created ClusterGL to connect multiple screens to form one huge image for the university’s display wall in 2008.

“The problem that you have when you want to make a really big wall of screens is that you need to use lots of computers, but computer programmes are usually written on one computer, so it’s quite difficult to spread them over a multiple of computers,” said Hunkin.

“My system lets you take any normal program and split it up to run across as many screens as you want.”

Hunkin was talking to Google about another project while applying for their Summer of Code internship, but when he mentioned ClusterGL they jumped on the idea.

“It turns out this problem is something a lot of people have.”

Google offered Hunkin the internship and paid him to further develop the software for their own curved display walls called Liquid Galaxy.

The Liquid Galaxy consists of several screens in a circular arrangement which run Google Earth in parallel for an immersive virtual experience.

After catching the eye of Google, the program is now being used globally, including at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre.

Hunkin hit headlines around the world in 2010 after he created a programme called “Bid Bot” which trawled through auction site Trade Me looking for rare items to bid on for just $NZ1.

While the Tauranga-local brushes aside his unexpected success calling it “nice points on my CV”, the future looks bright.

“I’m in the final bit of finishing a PhD and then I’ll look for a real job. Google would be an interesting place to work for, but the industry is evolving so rapidly. I’ve spent a bit of time in Silicon Valley, there’s some very interesting work happening out there.”

Source:http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/kiwis-software-wows-google-nasa-20120111-1pump.html

Software written by a University of Waikato computer science student has found its way to Google and NASA and is being used at the Johnson Space Center.

Computer science doctoral student Paul Hunkin’s software ClusterGL was created for the university’s display wall in 2008 and joins multiple computers together to make one huge display screen.

After catching the eye of Google earlier this year, the program is now is being used around the world.

Hunkin says there are five computers behind the Waikato display wall, with each computer controlling four screens. ClusterGL turns a display wall into one giant screen, by letting a single program on one computer control all monitors.

While the Waikato display wall is relatively small, ClusterGL can scale to let you have a display wall made from a handful to hundreds of monitors.

“I was talking to Google about another project I was working on and happened to mention ClusterGL. They have these curved display walls and thought ‘this will be brilliant for what we want’.”

Google offered Hunkin a Summer of Code internship where they paid him to further develop the software for their own curved display walls.

“ClusterGL was designed to work on a flat wall like the one we have at the university. Google’s involvement was to make ClusterGL better and work on a curved geometry.”

After releasing the software to the public, NASA saw the program and are now using it in the Johnson Space Center.

“NASA saw one of Google’s curved display walls and bought one of them. I was pretty surprised to hear they were using it considering it started out as something that I put together one a rainy Sunday afternoon,” says Hunkin.

Bid Bot, another program created by Hunkin which drew global media attention last year, works by scouring TradeMe every evening looking to bid on and buy newly-listed items for $1. After scouring TradeMe, Bid Bot would pick the rarest item and after a successful auction, tweet what it had bought.

Source:http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED1201/S00002/waikato-students-software-picked-up-by-google-and-nasa.htm

Software patent wars have always existed: companies fought them (or paid up), sometimes quietly, sometimes making a big fuss. However, something has changed over the last year or so: people started getting directly affected by software patents (ask anybody wanting a Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia for Christmas 2011…). Lately, two things came to my attention: Google acquired 200 patents from IBM. But, more interestingly: Google hasn’t filed any patents over the last several months.
This can be confirmed by looking at Google’s own patent search.

Why not? This is certainly a very fair question. A slowdown could have been something understandable — a complete halt, however, is definitely more interesting.

Really, how many “processes” can you really patent? Getting a patent through is a long, drawn process which requires tons of paperwork and money. Maybe they just got stuck — it happens to people, and it can happen to companies too. Maybe it just so happened that they reached a point where they just couldn’t make up new ways of implementing auto-completion, or suggesting translations to words.

Reading through Google’s own filed patents, you end up reading a lot of obviousness, a few really obscure things, and not much more. This is something that software patents simply cannot help: with software, what you are really “inventing” is processes, and you cannot really go very far.

The (non-existent) list of patents filed by Google over the last 7 months
So, maybe — and I say maybe — Google is going a different direction: maybe it’s acquiring existing, half-meaningful patents from existing vendors, and the transfer of patents from IBM is only the beginning.

This second hypothesis is the one I like the best: with Microsoft actually making money from Androoid (!), maybe Google is preparing a new strategy in terms of patents — a strategy where filing patents is not the priority.

This is supported by the fact that acquiring existing, granted patents gives Google an immediate weapon to defend themselves from Microsoft — and anybody going after Android for that matter.

Maybe Google is preparing a patent alliance that will effectively defend them — and Android — from the competition’s attacks.

So, why has Google not filed a single patent application to the USPTO for 7 months now? We shall see.

Source:http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/google_stopped_submitting_patents_USPTO_why

GRC-Pirk Management has disclosed the measures used for green performance reporting to insurance companies. Computer-modeling techniques are used to simulate the Key Performance Indicator “KPI”scoring schemes established by insurers.

The computational software was developed in association with the U.S. EPA apps-for-the-environment www.findgreengarage.com program to promote state and local green businesses. The Google software locates eco-friendly shops and displays their greenhouse gas reduction rating.

Shop owners and managers are now able to use greenhouse gas reduction rate scores to predict the KPI score used by an insurance company. By utilizing non-intrusive data acquisition from utility suppliers, performance scores can be computed without intervention. An insurer’s performance score can pack a big wallop and knowing what indicators make up the score is essential, according to GRC-Pirk.

Green metrics computer-modeling is now capable of coming within 5 percent of an insurer’s KPI scoring system without the use of proprietary and confidential information, such as how long it takes to repair a car, how many cars can be repaired within a specific time frame, or how much it costs to undertake specific repairs.

Source:http://www.bodyshopbusiness.com/Article/95361/new_software_simulates_insurance_green_scoring_systems.aspx

Google has apparently pulled an application which represented itself as Siri, Apple’s revolutionary voice command software, from the Android Marketplace.

Siri imitators have swarmed the Android marketplace since Apple launched their latest handset, the iPhone 4S. This particular app was taken down, however, because it represented itself as Siri, in violation of an Apple copyright.

The app, which went live in the Android Market on December 28, was produced by Official Software. Google removed the application from the Android Market just hours after appearing, according to The Next Web. More than one thousand people downloaded the app before it was removed.

Google does not filter its app store, so software producers can upload just about any application to the Marketplace. Though Google was quick to act in this situation, such a system raises the risk of copyright breaches.

Source:http://www.tapscape.com/google-pulls-fake-siri-app-from-android-market/

WANdisco, the Silicon Valley and Sheffield-based software developer, is aiming to go one better than IT giants Apple and Google.

While Apple uses the names of big cats like Snow Leopard as codenames for new releases of its OS X operating system, Google has gone for desserts, calling the most recent versions of its Android operating system Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich.

But WANdisco – whose chief executive, David Richards, was born in Sheffield – has decied to use the names of Sheffield pubs.

So, the latest versions of its award-winning uberSVN software, developed at its offices in Electric Works, on Sheffield’s Digital Campus, will be known as “Blake” – after the Blake Hotel in Blake Street, Walkley.

WANdisco holds the Made in Sheffield Mark, which can only be used by companies committed to producing high quality products, developed in an area covered by the Sheffield postcode district.

The software was developed in the city to add additional functions to WANdisco’s Subversion software, which dominates the software development market and is used by blue chip corporates around the world, including most, if not all the Fortune 1,000 companies, Goldman Sachs, Barclays Bank and BT.

Subversion allows software engineers in offices around the world to collaborate on projects, by ensuring they are all working on the latest version of the software products they are developing.

By adding uberSVN, WANdisco also allows software engineers to use of a range of commercial development, debugging, testing, quality assurance and distribution tools.

UberSVN also incorporates a social networking facility and allows them to communicate with the system using Smartphones and tablet computers.

Source:http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/city_software_firm_goes_one_better_than_apple_and_google_1_4073427

gShift Labs, the creator of a patent-pending Search Engine Optimization (SEO) software system announced today a solution for marketers struggling to interpret organic search results in the wake of recent Google security changes. While making search more secure for end users, the Google SSL search encryption prevents 8-20% of organic keyword phrases from showing up in analytics reports that marketers depend on for managing SEO strategy.

In its update release today, gShift’s industry leading software, Web Presence Optimizer™ now equips users with automated filtering tools and page rank reports which, combined with Google Analytics, will provide insights into keywords currently “Not Provided.”

Users of Google Analytics have limited options to filter the (Not Provided) keywords. It is possible to see the “entry” or landing page from the (Not Provided) keyword, as well as the organic keyword phrases that are currently driving organic traffic to the page, from which some insight can be gained.

“This procedure is okay if you know how to use Google Analytics as you would need to add filters and advanced segments. This is not something that is completely at your finger tips-it also has some gaps,” says Krista LaRiviere, Cofounder and CEO, gShift Labs. “Our Google Not Provided Keyword Insight Report will provide marketers with the confidence that organic search is still the major way people discover your product or service.”

LaRiviere explains that certain keywords have not “dropped”-they are merely hidden inside the (Not Provided) category. Only using gShift’s SEO software can you understand the exact page that is ranking and for which keyword phrases. Based on the known keywords for which a web page ranks, gShift correlates keyword ranking data and goal conversions to provide deeper insight into a marketer’s (Not Provided) keywords.

“Many gShift users are agencies that love to use our SEO software to produce very clean and data-rich end of the month SEO reports,” says Chris Adams, Cofounder and CTO, gShift Labs. “As we learn from this initial insight report, gShift web presence experts will be looking at newer and better ways to crunch the statistical data so that we can uncover more insight and build that into our software.”

Source:http://www.promotionworld.com/news/press/111216-gshift-labs-seo-software-offers-marketers-not-provided-google-analytics-insight-report

On Wednesday, Logitech announced to launch the latest Google TV software, and the software is mainly used for Google TV set-top box (Revue). “The main update includes more entertainment options, such as access to Android Market, faster and more comprehensive search and browse the performance, simplify user interface, as well as to the logitech media player improvement”, logitech company household digital vice President and general manager, Ashish Arora explained.

In December 2010, logitech and Google roll out together to carry Google TV operating system of streaming media Revue set-top box, this kind of equipment was going to use the amount of video content on the Internet, and especially for television screen made optimization. But because of the lack of Google software support, and most mainstream television network and its kaput, cause Revue in market performance of very bleak.

Many people think that the logitech set-top box is a faulty stroke in calligraphy or painting, even the logitech company CEO Guerrino De Luca before also says, this product is a mistake, make the logitech pay a high price, and clearly his company temporarily not going to launch follow-up equipments, unless Google make clear the sticking point of the product.

But this time, logitech is poised to release updated, I wonder if it has found a solution.

Source:http://www.batterycentury.com/news/2011/12/08/logitech-will-release-the-new-google-tv-software/

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt today distanced his company from Carrier IQ’s software, even as he described the technology as a keylogger. Schmidt’s comments came at an Internet freedom conference in the Netherlands.

A Reutersstory from The Hague quotes Schmidt as saying that Carrier IQ’s software is a keylogger that “actually does keep your keystrokes.”

“We certainly don’t work with them and we certainly don’t support it,” Schmidt said.

It was not immediately clear whether Schmidt’s description of Carrier IQ as a keylogger was based on independent knowledge of the software or on recent claims by security researcher Trevor Eckhart.

Eckhart in November released a report in which he described Carrier IQ’s software as a keylogger that could be used by wireless carriers to do extensive and surreptitious tracking of mobile users.

Eckhart’s report raised a firestorm of controversy and resulted in several lawsuits against wireless carriers and handset makers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, HTC, Samsung and Apple. It has also prompted calls from lawmakers for an investigation of Carrier IQ’s software by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Carrier IQ and the carriers themselves have insisted that the software is used only for network diagnostics and quality of service purposes. Carrier IQ has emphatically denied that its software is a keylogger.

A handful of security researchers who analyzed Carrier IQ’s software agreed with the company and said it does not appear to be as nefarious as initially feared.

Schmidt’s comments, therefore, are likely to again spark debate over just how intrusive Carrier IQ’s software really is. Handsets based on Google’s Android operating system were among those identified by Eckhart as carrying carrier IQ software.

Schmidt today made it clear that Google itself has nothing to do with the controversial software. “Android is an open platform, so it’s possible for people to build software that’s actually not very good for you, and this appears to be one,” Reuters reported.

Carrier IQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Schmidt’s comments.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222532/Google_s_Schmidt_calls_Carrier_IQ_software_a_keylogger

Google says it has a software fix for the volume bug that some U.K. users (the U.S. release is due for December) have reported on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) device.

“We are aware of the volume issue and have developed a fix. We will update devices as soon as possible,” Google said in a statement on Wednesday.
Users have seen the volume on Galaxy Nexus devices drop randomly, for no apparent reason. The bug appears to be seen on devices running on the 900MHz 2G band.
Earlier, a YouTube video (below) seemed to point to the problem possibly being hardware-related. A Galaxy Nexus in bootloader mode was affected when another phone — one on the 900MHz band — was brought near.

Samsung UK has joined Google in saying a software fix was on the way. However, the company has halted shipments of Galaxy Nexus devices until the problem is resolved.
Google’s claims of a software fix for “Volumegate,” as it is being called, brought forth cries of BS from some, but Lee Johnston, a systems engineer put out a very eloquent explanation of how the issue IS hardware-based, but can indeed be fixed.

“What we have here is indeed a hardware issue, in that the radio interference is coming in through the radio hardware.

“However things like this can be fix fairly easily in software. It’s called debounce.

“When you monitor an electronic input like the buttons on a phone there is always noise and flutter even when you just press the button. If testing by Google has shown that they just need to turn up the debounce time (the time which an input must exceed for it to be determined to be a genuine press) then it will more than likely just work and no one will ever see ti (sic) again.

“Like I said I deal with this kind of thing every day, it’s not a big deal as long as your debounce time is not excessive. But noise happens down on the order of 1 to 40 ms, real inputs when you press a button last from 100 or 200ms if you tap the button, up to seconds if you hold it down.
“This is nothing like Apple and the iPhone 4 antennae problems that could not be fixed in software. I’m sure everyone will see in due time, the problem will be fixed, and the dust will blow over.

“And people will be saying ‘wow, I was wrong, Google rocks!’”

The debounce theory makes sense because what is happening is, essentially, that the itterference is causing the device to believe the volume rocker switch is being actuated. By changing the debounce, this can be prevented.

Interesting how he brings up Apple, since Apple always said “Antennagate” was faux, but those of us with a little common sense and the ability to hold things in “the wrong way” know it wasn’t.

Source:http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/10943769-google-claims-it-has-software-fix-for-galaxy-nexus-volumegate-bug

Michael O’Brien, vice president for information technology at Journal Communications, would prefer not to have the employees of the Milwaukee media company use Microsoft’s Office software any more.

He has installed Google Apps for Businesses, which provides word processing, spreadsheets, email and calendar software, for 400 people and said he planned to “convert” 900 more.

Because Google Apps performs many of the same functions as Office, but through a Web browser instead of local software, it is cheaper to own and operate than Microsoft’s desktop software, he said. An additional 1,400 people will be giving up their Microsoft email, documents and spreadsheets for Google in December.

O’Brien said he was also seeing a difference in behavior. Many people can look at and work on the same content together, and access their memos and calendars from lots of different Web-connected devices. So people are starting to work together by sharing documents that are stored in the cloud. Even at this early stage, he said, “it started to change us.”

What’s happening at Journal Communications is one small win for Google and its cloud computing challenge to Microsoft’s lucrative office division, maker of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. But more than four years after Google Apps for Businesses made its debut, the question remains how much of a dent Google is making in Microsoft’s business.

Microsoft says Google’s efforts are hardly noticeable. But Google executives say that more and bigger companies are signing up for the cloud service.

Possibly more important to Google is the way that Apps helps Google build social networks inside business. If successful, it would be a threat to Microsoft’s biggest division and would create another inroad in its struggle with Facebook to dominate users’ online lives.

“Businesses are inherently about people and relationships,” said David Girouard, who runs Google’s Apps business. Predictable things, like figuring out the supplies needed for manufacture, were “not the minimum to play,” he said. “You need to have a social system, where a guy can introduce an idea about a new supplier, and he gets input from a lot of people quickly.”

Though Girouard said that 5,000 businesses a day signed up with Google Apps, few big companies have done so, most likely because some people do not entirely trust a cloud-based service, they like Microsoft or do not want to force employees to learn a new system. So Google does the next best thing and is focusing primarily on smaller businesses. Google maximizes the appeal of documents, calendars and spreadsheets at a cost of $50 a person a year. Many companies say that is 50 percent to 80 percent cheaper than Office. Google has the deep pockets to go slow since its search-related businesses bring in over $30 billion.

But Microsoft has deep pockets too. Its Office division revenue alone is $5.6 billion.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/google-enters-microsoft-offices-turf-with-mixed-results/articleshow/10813650.cms

Google Inc. is entering the online music market almost a decade too late to pose a threat to Apple Inc., the largest seller of songs on the Web.

The service, scheduled to be unveiled at a Google event in Los Angeles today, will let users store songs online and listen to tracks on multiple devices, people familiar with the matter said. Apple opened the iTunes store in 2003 and made popular the legal downloading of music from the Internet.

Google’s new challenge to Apple escalates the rivalry between the two companies, already locked in a fight for smartphone users and mobile-advertising customers. The Internet- search giant also faces budding competition from Amazon.com Inc., which has bolstered its music-download and storage service, and Spotify Ltd., whose partnership with Facebook Inc. has buoyed U.S. membership this year.

“They’re coming into this market rather late in the game, where there are large, established players,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in San Jose, California. “You can say it’s a saturated market.”

Google, the owner of the biggest Internet search engine, has expanded into music, television and movies to bolster sales of devices running its Android mobile software. The company, based in Mountain View, California, is also seeking rights for its Google+ social-network users to share music with each other, people familiar said.

Randall Sarafa, a spokesman for Google, declined to comment.

Sony, Vivendi, EMI

On the eve of the debut, Google reached an agreement with Sony Corp.’s music unit, a person with knowledge of the situation said yesterday. Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and EMI Group Ltd. have already signed on, said two people with knowledge of the plans, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Songs will cost 99 cents to $1.29, though Google may offer discounts, said one person.

Warner Music Group hadn’t yet reached an accord with Google because of pricing and piracy concerns, two people familiar with the matter said earlier this week.

Apple first unveiled its iPod music player in 2001, and in 2003 started the iTunes music store, offering songs for 99 cents apiece. The company, which makes its own hardware and the software that runs it, has benefited in the past decade as consumers shifted from CDs to online music services. Apple’s iTunes service works on its own devices, such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad tablet, as well as personal computers from other manufacturers.

Android Versus IPhone

Google fights back in the smartphone market by letting multiple phonemakers customize the Android system. T-Mobile USA Inc. introduced the first phone powered by Android software, made by HTC Corp., in October 2008, more than a year after Apple’s iPhone debuted.

Android garnered 53 percent of the global smartphone industry in the third quarter, making it No. 1, according to Gartner. Apple’s iPhone software had 15 percent.

Still, Google may have a harder time narrowing Apple’s music lead, given the longer head start and how established iTunes has become. ITunes customers have downloaded 16 billion songs, and the store had $1.5 billion in revenue in Apple’s most recent quarter.

“They have to overcome the No. 1 incumbent in this area,” said Mark Little, an analyst at research firm Ovum in London. “That’s not an easy company to grab share from.”

Amazon, Spotify

Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, offers MP3 song downloads from the major labels with a service that began with a public test in 2007. Amazon also unveiled a storage service for users earlier this year.

Music provider Spotify, helped by its partnership with leading social-networking service Facebook, is emerging as another online-music alternative. Since its start in the U.S. in July, Spotify has grown to about 2 million subscribers who pay $5 to $10 per month for a premium service, according to Ken Parks, chief content officer for the London-based company.

Another startup, Rdio Inc., will offer free song streaming without advertising. Users of the free service are granted a limited amount of music each month and access is available only for listening on computers, San Francisco-based Rdio said last month.

The new online store won’t be Google’s first effort in music. Earlier this year, the company rolled out a service that stores song libraries and playlists, and suggests music based on listeners’ collections. That offering lacked the ability to purchase songs directly from Google after some labels stymied the effort, Jamie Rosenberg, director of digital content for Android, said at a conference in May.

Web Reach

Even if it takes a while for Google to secure an agreement with Warner, whose artists include Green Day and Madonna, the company’s reach on the Web may help it succeed. Google’s network of websites had the most visitors worldwide in September with 1.1 billion, according to ComScore Inc. Microsoft Corp. sites had 914 million, and Facebook was No. 3 with 770 million.

“I doubt they’ll meet with immediate success,” Valdes said. “If they fail, it will take a while for that to become evident because they have enough presence to make at least slow progress for some time.”

Source:http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LUQ6A51A74E901-3FNQS98RSFRB008JI5GKDDTK1F

Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software ran on more than half of all smartphones sold in the third quarter as consumers snapped up handsets made by Samsung Electronics Co., said researcher Gartner Inc. (IT)
The Google system accounted for 52.5 percent of smartphone sales, more than doubling its share from a year earlier, Gartner said in an e-mailed report. Even as some consumers delayed purchases to wait for Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s latest iPhone and other models, smartphone sales by volume grew 42 percent, it said.
“Android benefited from more mass-market offerings, a weaker competitive environment, and the lack of exciting new products on alternative operating systems,” Roberta Cozza, an analyst in Gartner’s European unit based in Egham, England, said in the report.
Smartphones gained one percentage point from the previous quarter to 26 percent of all mobile-phone sales. Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)’s Symbian handsets lost almost 20 percentage points from a year earlier to account for 16.9 percent of smartphones as the company shifted to Microsoft Corp. Windows Phone software on models scheduled to ship this month. Samsung, provider of the Galaxy line of Android smartphones, became the biggest smartphone maker for the first time.
Wait for Promotions
“The entry-level Android smartphones are getting better and better,” Cozza said in an interview. “This lower end is really what will be driving more growth next year.”
The global mobile handset market gained 5.6 percent in the third quarter to 440.5 million phones, Gartner said. It slowed from 35 percent growth reported a year earlier and 16.5 percent in the previous quarter. Nokia retained the top spot with a 23.9 percent market share, climbing from 22.8 percent in the second quarter. Samsung, LG Electronics Inc. (066570), Apple, and ZTE Corp. rounded out the top five vendors.
“The rate of growth in smartphones has definitely slowed down in Western Europe and the U.S.,” Cozza said in the interview. “The fatigue in demand is partly due to the economic uncertainty, but consumers also want to wait until the fourth quarter to get more from the promotions and new devices that are available now.”
Smartphone growth slowed from 74 percent in the second quarter although China and Russia continued to grow strongly, Cozza said. Gartner forecasts 50 percent growth in smartphones for the year and 11 percent growth in the handset market overall. The company is revising its European forecasts downward as smartphone sales declined 19 percent in Italy and 8 percent in Germany from the second quarter, Cozza said.
RIM’s BlackBerry
Nokia’s smartphone share fell to 16 percent from 20.9 percent in the second quarter, putting it in second place behind Samsung, which had a 20.9 percent smartphone share, according to Gartner. Apple was third with a 15 percent share.
BlackBerry handset maker Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) declined 4.4 percentage points from a year earlier to 11 percent of the smartphone market in the quarter.
RIM unveiled two more smartphones based on the BlackBerry 7 operating system today. The BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 will compete for holiday sales with Nokia’s Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, as well as Apple’s iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
“Continued pressure is impacting RIM’s performance, and its smartphone share reached its lowest point so far in the U.S. market, where it dropped to 10 percent,” Cozza said in the report.

Source:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/global-third-quarter-mobile-handset-sales-rose-5-6-gartner.html

Google chairman Eric Schmidt pledged to support the globalization process of local software and content beginning next year in a meeting with President Lee Myung-bak on Monday.

As part of a project called “Korea Go Global,” Google will offer a local software developer support program for it to gain global competitiveness, according to Google officials.

As an exemplary case, the U.S.-based software giant will pick some projects out of a pool that could contribute to the development of software in Korea and support them with development funds as well as mentoring services.

Google will also use its popular video sharing and uploading platform YouTube to spread Korea’s premium “hallyu” contents. Cheong Wa Dae said earlier that creating a K-pop-only channel on YouTube was among the discussion topics.

“We’re very committed to Korea,” he told reporters, adding that being committed meant providing investments, partnerships and benefits.

“The government is interested in working with us and making sure our partnership is really strong.”

Involving its widely-talked acquisition of Daum Communications, the country’s No. 2 portal, Schmidt said, “We can’t talk about any acquisitions.”

Following his meeting with the president, Schmidt met with Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, stressing the firm’s Android mobile platform’s superiority over Microsoft’s Windows platform.

“Android is used all in Korea,” said Schmidt. “We think it’s a much better choice than Microsoft.”

In a closed meeting, Schmidt also stressed that the Android’s open platform will remain free-of-charge despite concerns that Google may turn it into a paying system with the recent takeover of Motorola Mobility, said KCC spokesman Lee Tae-hee.

The Google chairman arrived in Seoul in the day for a two-day visit to discuss cooperation between his company and Korean electronics and telecommunication companies.

Earlier, he met with chiefs of the three telecom firms ― SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus ― one after another, pursuing cooperation in smart wallet and near-field communication technologies.

Schmidt thanked SKT for the fast spread of smartphones running on its Android mobile operating system in the country and the two parties agreed to also work together in mobile commerce and social networking services.

“There were multiple exchanges in opinions regarding the direction to develop in information communication technology between our president Ha Sung-min and Google’s chairman Schmidt and the two firms will devise cooperation measures involving the Android platform in the future,” said an SKT official.

KT chairman Lee Suk-chae and LG Uplus’ Lee Sang-chul also discussed the NFC and mobile wallet services with Google, with KT and Google suggesting joint work ― using Google’s advertising solution and KT’s smartphones and Internet protocol televisions ― in the mobile advertisement sector.

Google’s chairman is also scheduled to meet Samsung Electronics’ vice chairman Choi Gee-sung and LG Electronics’ representative. Schmidt will also hold a separate press conference on Tuesday.

This is the second time that Schmidt, the owner of the world’s most popular search engine and mobile platform, has visited Korea. His first visit was arranged in 2007, however, the status of Google has changed remarkably since then.

Source:http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111107000898

A Google patent lawyer has claimed that Microsoft only turn to patent infringement cases when their own products see less than expected success in the market.

Tim Porter, a patent lawyer working for Google, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Microsoft’s previous attacks on Linux are examples of its broader corporate strategy to benefit from competitors’ products after their own products cease to do well.

“When their products stop succeeding in the marketplace, when they get marginalized, as is happening now with Android, they use the large patent portfolio they’ve built up to get revenue from the success of other companies’ products,” he said.

Microsoft views the patent royalties it seeks from Android vendors as part of a natural evolution of a new industry, though Porter disagrees with this.

Patents on software weren’t allowed until the late 1980s, and even then the concept worried Bill Gates, who in 1991 wrote that “the industry would be at a complete standstill” if software patents were allowed. Gates worried that, “some large company will patent some obvious thing, enabling the company to take as much of our profits as they want.”

Source:http://mybroadband.co.za/news/quick-news/37729-google-microsoft-are-patent-trolls.html

Software giant Microsoft’s Office 365 director Tom Rizzo has accused Google of “spooking customers” by canceling products too quickly and not offering to support them for long after their cancellation.

In a recent blog post, Rizzo wrote that “…In attempting to speed products to market, Google has rolled out poorly planned products and racked up a long list of failures. There was Buzz, Google’s answer to Facebook, that exposed private Gmail contacts and ended with a privacy lawsuit settlement, and Google Wave, with a long list of issues, which prompted TechCrunch’s article calling it “…worst of email and IM together: unproductivity.”

Blaming Google’s product strategy, he added it is clear that Google is not in tune with the market needs and does not have a product roadmap and clear vision for productivity for their business customers.

Calling Google’s product management process similar to cooking spaghetti, he wrote, “Google releases experimental products and tracks adoption to determine whether to continue providing them. Its products are like spaghetti, Google throws them up against the wall to see if they stick.”

According to him, the burials of products may be convenient for Google, but is not good for businesses, “For Google Apps customers, the Google Scheduled Release track gives business a one-week window to prepare and adopt the latest changes to Google Apps after announcement, but businesses need planning and predictability.”

Rizzo goes on to accuse Google for their cancellations, “It is clear that Google’s product management practice is haphazard and non-committal, resulting in its deliveries often falling short of expectations. Before finally re-releasing offline capabilities, Google stopped investing in Gears, its previous offline product, and removed its support in Chrome 11. This confused many users and caused concern. Ultimately, Google failed to deliver what customers need in offline capabilities, provided empty promises over a one-year period, and then released offline solutions that were even worse than the original product.”

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/software-services/Microsoft-exec-blasts-Googles-product-strategy/articleshow/10593720.cms

The Google TV platform that delivers a special kind of entertainment experience which can be found on Sony Internet TV, in addition to the Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc player. Just what does the latest version of Google TV deliver? For starters, it will not only deliver all that the current Google TV has, it will also throw into the mix the Android Market to satisfy your lust for more apps. At launch, you will be treated to hundreds of apps, where many of them have been specially designed and optimized for TV use.

This particularly exciting update will roll out to all connected Sony Internet TV devices as early as next week, so do keep a keen eye out if you fall under the “receiver” category.

This update is said to deliver a simpler and cleaner interface, alongside the mandatory “improved performance” which is often associated with any software update. Not only that, Google being Google has also injected this update with better search functionality to all currently installed Sony Internet TV and Sony Internet TV Blu-ray owners. Apart from that, future consumers of Sony Internet TVs and Blu-ray Disc players will also be on the receiving end of the update during the initial start-up installation.

Steve Haber, EVP, Sony Electronics says, “Connected experiences are a pillar of Sony’s value to TV consumers and Sony Internet Television powered by Google TV certainly brings ‘smart’ connectivity to the highest level. We very much look forward to the possibilities the Android Market will create for customers to personalize their experience. Users will enjoy the new features that this update brings to their interactive engagement with home entertainment programming, either through Sony Internet TVs or Bu-ray Disc players.”

During launch, original Sony applications will also sport TrackID that will be able to search and identify music heard on TV broadcasts, packaged media or streaming video. Not only that, Sony Select will also offer a curated collection, where it highlights featured applications to consumers in an easy-to-browse manner.

Source:http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20111031/sony-software-update-google-tv-platform/