By Greg Mills
Since I live in Kansas City, Kansas, site of the coming Google 1 Gig Internet service, I have tried to keep my ear to the ground on developments. Getting information from Google about what they plan reminds me of the black hole at Apple R&D. “The Wall Street Journal” reports Google plans to offer phone and cable TV as well as super fast Internet when they finally get around to launching the project.
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By Greg Mills
With the implosion of HP and perhaps the beginning of the end of that storied company and the resignation of Steve Jobs, tech writers have had their hands full lately. There are other interesting developments in the news that ought to be mentioned.
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By Greg Mills
When Google moved to buy Motorola they proclaimed that the purchase was to counter Apple and boost the patent portfolio behind the Android OS. They also maintained their intention to keep Android OS open source and support the various handset makers that have built the hardware behind the success of Android.
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By Greg Mills
The patent war against Android has taken an interesting turn. Motorola Mobility has declined in market cap valuation to the point Google snapped it up in an acquisition described by both sides as amicable. According to the “Wall Street Journal,” the oldest of the handset companies, with a deep patent portfolio, sold for US$12.5 billion. Google intends to allow Motorola to continue business but with the Motorola patents in house, Google hopes to hold off Apple.
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By Greg Mills
While much has been written about the Apple vs Android patent war going on in courts and trade commissions around the world, there hasn’t been nearly as much written about Oracle’s suit directly against Google over using Java code without a license. Apple has chosen to attack all the handset manufacturers in separate actions rather than going after Google, head on. Both points of attack are beginning to have some effect, if the level of retoric coming from Google is any indication.
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Posted by Greg Mills
In the wake of the US International Trade Commission ruling that Android handset maker HTC has infringed on Apple patents, a number of interesting things have happened. First, the stock of HTC has taken a beating. The market is keen on the possibility that HTC and the Android OS may be in trouble. HTC has tried to shore up its stock valuation by buying up their own stock.
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Posted by Greg Mills
The auction to sell 6000 Nortel patents is over and Google, make that Android, lost. Google offered US$900,000,000 early on, but was out bid by Apple, Microsoft, RIM, Ericsson, Sony and EMC which joined a consortium to buy the patents. Each of the members of the group contributed to the winning pot for rights to certain patents or a paid up license to use certain patent.
Read MoreAccording to Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was not as clear as media reports said he was on bringing a version of Google Desktop to Mac OS X. “I’m the one who asked [Schmidt] the question at his talk about whether we’d expect a Mac version of Google desktop, and I have to say I didn’t read his response at all the way the Reuters reporter did,” O’Reilly writes.
Read MoreGoogle plans to release a version of Google Desktop for Macs, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on Friday. Schmidt did not set a timetable for a Mac version of the tool, saying it had to be rebuilt from the ground up for Mac OS X.
Read MoreThe Web is abuzz with speculation that Google is planning to introduce a Web browser. Google recently hired one of the main developers of Java, the lead developer on Avalon (Microsoft’s code name for the Longhorn user interface), and four developers who worked on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The company has even registered the domain name Gbrowser.com, and recently held a Mozilla Development Day at its campus.
Read MoreGoogle has reduced the price range for its initial public offering to between US$85 and $95 per share, and lowered the number of shares being sold by company executives. “The changes cut the value of the company by almost 30 percent — to $25.8 billion — compared with the high end of its initial pricing range of $108 to $135 a share,” reports CNET News.com. “Selling shareholders now stand to raise as much as $1.9 billion by offering 5.5 million shares.
Read MoreGoogle has set the price range for its initial public offering, putting itself in line to raise as much as US$3.3 billion. “The search giant set a price range of $108 to $135 a share,” reports CNET News.com. “Based on those per-share numbers and the expected issuance of 24.6 million shares, the search giant hopes to raise between $2.7 billion and $3.3 billion. That would make it among the largest-ever IPOs.
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