Internal emails reveal Google’s desperation over Skyhook’s Android deal with Motorola
May 10, 2011 No Comment
While Skyhook’s lawsuit against Google has been ongoing since September, we’ve yet to hear the latter’s side of the story to fight back anti-competition claims. That’s all changed now that a Massachusetts state court has published a collection of internal emails from Mountain View, shedding some light on the reasons behind Motorola’s — and apparently Samsung’s as well — abandonment of Skyhook’s XPS location service on its Android phones. In particular, soon after the deal was announced in April 2010, an Android product manager became worried that such a deal would pull more manufacturers away from Google’s Location Service, thus jeopardizing the company’s ability to maintain and improve its location database through continued data collection. “That would be awful for Google,” wrote the manager. Fair enough, but here comes the juicy part of the story: in the following month, Google informed Motorola that it wasn’t happy with the way Skyhook blends location data from WiFi, GPS, and cellular signal. Or in Google’s words: this is data “contamination.” Despite Motorola refuting such concern, a week later it informed Skyhook that Google had told Moto that its choice for a third-party location service, “renders the device [ Droid X ] no longer Android Compatible.” It’s not exactly clear what this compatibility issue is, but it’s believed to be the ultimate reason that forced Motorola — being a close pal of Google — to drop Skyhook’s XPS in favor of Google’s Location Service. If you’re still not feeling sorry for Skyhook, then note that last month Google called this “a baseless complaint” and a “thinly veiled fishing expedition” for internal Google documents and emails. Funnily enough, one email quotes an Android manager saying it was obvious to phone manufacturers that “we are using compatibility as a club to make them do things we want.” Question is: which direction will the club swing now that the two companies are battling it out in court? Internal emails reveal Google’s desperation over Skyhook’s Android deal with Motorola originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 05:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Internal emails reveal Google’s desperation over Skyhook’s Android deal with Motorola
May 10, 2011 No Comment
While Skyhook’s lawsuit against Google has been ongoing since September, we’ve yet to hear the latter’s side of the story to fight back anti-competition claims. That’s all changed now that a Massachusetts state court has published a collection of internal emails from Mountain View, shedding some light on the reasons behind Motorola’s — and apparently Samsung’s as well — abandonment of Skyhook’s XPS location service on its Android phones. In particular, soon after the deal was announced in April 2010, an Android product manager became worried that such a deal would pull more manufacturers away from Google’s Location Service, thus jeopardizing the company’s ability to maintain and improve its location database through continued data collection. “That would be awful for Google,” wrote the manager. Fair enough, but here comes the juicy part of the story: in the following month, Google informed Motorola that it wasn’t happy with the way Skyhook blends location data from WiFi, GPS, and cellular signal. Or in Google’s words: this is data “contamination.” Despite Motorola refuting such concern, a week later it informed Skyhook that Google had told Moto that its choice for a third-party location service, “renders the device [ Droid X ] no longer Android Compatible.” It’s not exactly clear what this compatibility issue is, but it’s believed to be the ultimate reason that forced Motorola — being a close pal of Google — to drop Skyhook’s XPS in favor of Google’s Location Service. If you’re still not feeling sorry for Skyhook, then note that last month Google called this “a baseless complaint” and a “thinly veiled fishing expedition” for internal Google documents and emails. Funnily enough, one email quotes an Android manager saying it was obvious to phone manufacturers that “we are using compatibility as a club to make them do things we want.” Question is: which direction will the club swing now that the two companies are battling it out in court? Internal emails reveal Google’s desperation over Skyhook’s Android deal with Motorola originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 05:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Scaled Composites and Northrup Grumman’s new Firebird spy plane: pilot optional
May 10, 2011 No Comment
Scaled Composites is best known for creating commercial spaceships for Sir Richard Branson, but it turns out the firm can construct more conventional flying machines, too. The company has joined forces with Northrop Grumman to build the Firebird, a flexible new plane that’s a veritable surveillance Swiss Army knife. Part Predator UAV and part traditional aircraft, the Firebird can take to the skies with or without a human at the controls as it combs the earth for enemies of the state. What’s more, the airframe’s HD video and infrared cameras, radar, and communications gear in the fuselage are able to gather info simultaneously to find the bad guys, and those payloads are easily swapped for other equipment through a universal interface. It’s scheduled to strut its intelligence-gathering stuff during a military exercise in a couple weeks, and if all goes according to plan, it’ll become another terrorist tracking tool in the U.S. arsenal. Video of the brand new bird in action is after the break. Continue reading Scaled Composites and Northrup Grumman’s new Firebird spy plane: pilot optional Scaled Composites and Northrup Grumman’s new Firebird spy plane: pilot optional originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 06:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Scaled Composites and Northrup Grumman’s new Firebird spy plane: pilot optional
May 10, 2011 No CommentScaled Composites is best known for creating commercial spaceships for Sir Richard Branson, but it turns out the firm can construct more conventional flying machines, too. The company has joined forces with Northrop Grumman to build the Firebird, a flexible new plane that’s a veritable surveillance Swiss Army knife. Part Predator UAV and part traditional aircraft, the Firebird can take to the skies with or without a human at the controls as it combs the earth for enemies of the state. What’s more, the airframe’s HD video and infrared cameras, radar, and communications gear in the fuselage are able to gather info simultaneously to find the bad guys, and those payloads are easily swapped for other equipment through a universal interface. It’s scheduled to strut its intelligence-gathering stuff during a military exercise in a couple weeks, and if all goes according to plan, it’ll become another terrorist tracking tool in the U.S. arsenal. Video of the brand new bird in action is after the break. Continue reading Scaled Composites and Northrup Grumman’s new Firebird spy plane: pilot optional Scaled Composites and Northrup Grumman’s new Firebird spy plane: pilot optional originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 06:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Graphene-powered web could download 3-D movies in seconds, give MPAA nightmares
May 10, 2011 No Comment
Graphene , is there anything it can’t do? Researchers are already trying to put it in processors , fuel cells , and batteries — now your internet connection might get ten-times faster thanks to the silicon successor. Researchers at UC Berkeley have created tiny, one-atom-thick modulators that could switch the data-carrying light on and off in a fiber-optic connection much faster than current technology. In addition to running at a higher frequency (the team believes it will scale up to 500GHz — modern modulators run at about 1GHz) the smaller, 25-micron size means thinner cables could be used, reducing capacitance and further boosting speeds. Labs have already crossed the 100 terabit threshold and graphene could push that even higher, yet we’re still stuck staring at a buffering screen every time we try to Netflix Degrassi . Continue reading Graphene-powered web could download 3-D movies in seconds, give MPAA nightmares Graphene-powered web could download 3-D movies in seconds, give MPAA nightmares originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Graphene-powered web could download 3-D movies in seconds, give MPAA nightmares
May 10, 2011 No Comment
Graphene , is there anything it can’t do? Researchers are already trying to put it in processors , fuel cells , and batteries — now your internet connection might get ten-times faster thanks to the silicon successor. Researchers at UC Berkeley have created tiny, one-atom-thick modulators that could switch the data-carrying light on and off in a fiber-optic connection much faster than current technology. In addition to running at a higher frequency (the team believes it will scale up to 500GHz — modern modulators run at about 1GHz) the smaller, 25-micron size means thinner cables could be used, reducing capacitance and further boosting speeds. Labs have already crossed the 100 terabit threshold and graphene could push that even higher, yet we’re still stuck staring at a buffering screen every time we try to Netflix Degrassi . Continue reading Graphene-powered web could download 3-D movies in seconds, give MPAA nightmares Graphene-powered web could download 3-D movies in seconds, give MPAA nightmares originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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You might not remember Ryan Palser by name, but you’ll surely recall the good gent’s homemade Fallout 3 plasma rifle . He has since stepped his game up to bigger and badder video game weapon replicas, and has just completed the construction of the first of his forthcoming army of Portal laser turrets. Thankfully, Ryan has been sporting enough to build the older version of these human eviscerators (not the upgraded Portal 2 turrets, phew!), giving us at least a small chance of survival — provided we have the right gear , of course. See the laser-equipped, GLaDOS-approved, 38-inch tall turret next to its maker after the break, or hit up the source link for some gorgeous photos of its construction. Continue reading Portal turret replica has real laser, insatiable bloodlust Portal turret replica has real laser, insatiable bloodlust originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 03:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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An unnamed, undressed dual-GPU prototype of AMD’s latest in southern-island graphics cards surfaced over the weekend. Flaunting twin Bart chips with 1,120 stream processors a pop, this card totals up at 2,240, with each GPU packing its own memory for a total of 2GB of GDDR5. Although PowerColor is staying tight lipped on specs and official name until Computex in June, two DVI ports, double mini DisplayPorts, and one HDMI-out paint obvious similarities to the existing Radeon HD 6870 . One last notable difference? The unknown soldier is powered by two eight-pin PCIe connectors, as opposed to the HD 6870′s six-pin variant. We’re probably looking at the latest in the Radeon HD 6800 series, we’ll know for sure in about a month. Powercolor expected to unveil double-barreled Radeon at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Pioneer’s AVIC-ZH09 GPS navigation systems take augmented reality on the road
May 10, 2011 No Comment
While it may not be the first GPS navigation system we’ve seen sporting augmented reality , Pioneer’s latest in-dash series may offer the first built-ins to bring AR to the open road. Using a windshield-mounted camera, the AVIC-VH09CS and AVIC-VH09 stream live footage to a 7-inch in-dash display, adding layers of pertinent information to real-time video. Among other things, the AR-capabilities provide visual cues that alert drivers to the changing of upcoming traffic lights and the exact distance of the next turn. Both systems sport a USB port, SD reader, CD and DVD drives, and Bluetooth. Pioneer will let them loose in Japan later this month for an as of yet undisclosed amount, but it looks like American drivers will just have to keep rolling with plain old reality for now. Pioneer’s AVIC-ZH09 GPS navigation systems take augmented reality on the road originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 May 2011 21:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s not quite official but there’s little doubt that Google will launch its Google Music service at its big I/O event later today. While the Wall Street Journal couldn’t get a Google spokesman to admit it, Peter Kafka over at All Things D got Jamie Rosenberg, Director of Android Product Management, to spill the details a bit early. Google’s service will essentially mimic the functionality of Amazon’s Cloud service , albeit without the ability to sell songs direct to consumers. Ouch. Unfortunately, Google’s plans to launch a more feature-complete service were derailed when discussions with the labels broke down . According to Rosenberg, “A couple of the major labels were less focused on the innovative vision that we put forward, and more interested in in an unreasonable and unsustainable set of business terms.” So, rather than putting the service on hold, Google will launch its music service with the ability to store up to 20,000 of your own songs for free which you can then stream over the web or to your Android phone or tablet. Amazon’s service, by comparison, offers just 5GB of free storage for about 1,200 songs stored at a mediocre bitrate. Google will also best Amazon with a feature that automatically creates playlists. Google expects to rollout the service to its US users within “weeks” while beta invites should go out later today. Keep it right here because we’ll be bringing you the announcement live . Google Music to stream 20,000 songs for free, launches at I/O later today originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 02:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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