Google Will Cut 20% of Motorola Workforce

Were you curious about what Google was going to do with Motorola?

The search giant is making its first major move since fully acquiring the company in May, which will be to cut about 20% of jobs at Motorola Mobility Holdings, or roughly 4,000 employees.

A “person familiar with the matter” told Bloomberg Businessweek that two-thirds of the cuts will be outside of the U.S. Google will also close one-third of Motorola’s facilities.

“Motorola is committed to helping them through this difficult transition and will be providing generous severance packages, as well as outplacement services to help people find new jobs,” Motorola Mobility said in an email statement.

Though the matter is still private, the unnamed source said the news will be announced within the coming weeks.

Google’s acquisition of Motorola was its largest ever takeover to date, for which it paid $12.5 billion. The relatively young search giant obtained Motorola’s steep patent portfolio, and made it a stronger competitor against other hardware manufacturers.

Are you suprised to see Google diminishing the Motorola workforce? Let us know what you think of this move in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Siri Rival Google Voice Search Coming to the iPad

Watch out Siri, Google is bringing its Voice Search app to the iPhone and iPad.

As with the Android version, the app taps into Google’s Knowledge Graph function to consider the user’s location and the context of what is being searched.

This means that the app can suggest films at nearby cinemas when users ask “What movies are playing this weekend?” or understand that a search for ‘Rio’ could mean a city, movie or casino.

Comparisons with Apple’s Siri are bound to be made — not least because both apps can respond to direct questions — but in reality Google Voice Search is someway off its Apple rival. After all, Siri is able to search and carry out other functions across the Internet, apps, calendar entries and messages.

The free Google Voice Search app is currently available for Android on the Google Play store but will come to Apple’s App Store in the coming weeks.

If a Google Employee Dies, Spouse Gets Half of Salary for 10 Years

It’s been long reported that Google treats its employees well, from offering them free food and fitness classes to laundry service and car washes. But according to a recent report, Google recently rolled out death benefits to employees, including a generous offer to pay the spouse or partner of a deceased staffer half of their salary for a decade.

The news of these death benefits — which was first reported by Forbes — also comes with “no tenure requirement,” which means each employee in its 34,000 workforce qualifies. It was put into place earlier this year.

This was confirmed by a Google spokesperson that the benefits don’t just stop at salary. The surviving spouse or partner of a deceased employee will also acquire vested stock benefits, and children will receive $1,000 a month until the age of 19. The timeline can be extended if the child is in school full time.

Google said it is taking this approach because it is the right thing to do, ensuring that each employee’s family is taken care of if an unforeseeable event were to occur — even if there is no direct benefit to the business.

Although it might attract more candidates to apply for a position, Google said that is not the reason why it implemented the benefits — more potential hires would just be a side effect.

Do you think more companies should take a similar approach? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Google’s Driverless Car Is Now Safer Than the Average Driver

How safe a driver is your average robot? Safer than your average American, at least by one measure.

Google announced Tuesday that its self-driving cars have completed 300,000 miles of test-drives, under a “wide range of conditions,” all without any kind of accident. (The project has seen a few accidents in the past — but only with humans at the wheel.)

To put that into perspective, the average U.S. driver has one accident roughly every 165,000 miles. Here’s how we got that figure: our average mileage per year is 16,550, according to the Federal Highway Administration; the average length of time we go between traffic accidents is 10 years, according to Allstate. (In particularly safe cities such as Fort Collins, Colo., that number can rise to 14 years — which is still no match for Google’s 300,000 miles.)

The Google project uses Toyota Priuses equipped with a range of cameras, radar sensors and laser range-finders to see other traffic; sophisticated software uses Google Maps to navigate routes. A pair of human drivers are always in the cars, ready to take over in case of any malfunction, although Google says it will now start using just one human per car. The company also just added a Lexus RX450h to its Prius fleet (see picture above).

In the past, the project says its robot cars have driven from the Googleplex in Silicon Valley to Santa Monica in LA, gone “down [San Francisco's famously twisty] Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe” — and that was all announced two years ago.

So Google has good reason to be proud; it is bringing us closer to the day when we’ll be able to sit back, relax and do the crossword during our commute. But the company also admits it has a long way to go.

“To provide the best experience we can, we’ll need to master snow-covered roadways, interpret temporary construction signals and handle other tricky situations that many drivers encounter,” writes Chris Urmson, the driverless car team’s Engineering Lead, in a blog post. “For now, our team members will remain in the driver’s seats and will take back control if needed.” (Mashable.com)

Mark Zuckerberg’s Sister Is Now a Google Employee

In what may make for awkward family get-togethers, Mark Zuckerberg‘s sister, Arielle, is now a Google employee.

The younger Zuckerberg is presumably making the move as part of Google’s acquisition of Wildfire Interactive, which was announced on Tuesday. Arielle’s blog lists her occupation as junior product manager for the social media marketing firm. Arielle previously offered constructive criticism of her brother’s company’s site overhaul last fall.

Arielle’s not the only Zuckerberg sibling in the business. Randi Zuckerberg, former director of marketing for Facebook, left the company last August to pursue other projects. Randi is an executive producer for Silicon Valley, a Bravo reality TV show that is raising hackles in the Valley for bringing Hollywood voyeurism to tech. Randi tweeted about the move on Tuesday, alluding to the fact Arielle’s not the only Zuckerberg at Google:

Randi Zuckerberg
@randizuckerberg
Congrats Wildfire! There are officially now more Zuckerberg family members working for Google than Facebook! #awkward ;)

Zuckerberg also has another sister, Donna, who was born in 1987. (Mashable.com)

Twitter clocks half-billion users

PARIS—Over 500 million people are on micro-blogging site Twitter and Americans and Brazilians are the most connected, according to a study by social media monitor Semiocast released Monday.

Twitter surpassed the half-billion mark at the end of June, with the United States accounting for both the most users and largest number of “tweets” or short messages of no more than 140 characters posted on the site.

The Paris-based monitor carried out the study by analysing data like time zone, geolocation and language available for the social networking site’s total 517 million accounts.

The US accounted for more than 141 million of Twitter users, with Brazil ranking second with 41 million after seeing its number rise by 23 percent since the start of the year. Japan came in third with 35 million users.

Americans also posted the highest number of Twitter messages, with 25.8 percent of all tweets hailing from the US.

Japan came second accounting for 10.6 percent of all tweets, making Japanese the second most common language on Twitter after English.

The study found Jakarta to be the most active Twitter zone, with 2.4 percent of all tweets originating in the Indonesian capital.

The popularity of Twitter continued to soar in the Arab world following the site’s key role in the “Arab Spring” revolutions last year, with Arabic now the site’s sixth most common language. (Inquirer.net)

Goodbye, Gmail Video Chat. Hello Google+ Hangouts

If you enjoy video chatting over Gmail the way you’ve been doing it since 2008, better wave your last goodbyes to your buddy list.

Starting Monday, and continuing over the next few weeks, Google is going to be replacing Gmail video chat with Google+ Hangouts. “Unlike the old video chat, which was based on peer-to-peer technology, Hangouts utilize the power of Google’s network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality,” reads the explanatory blog post written by the Gmail team.

“You’ll be able to chat with all the same people you did before — and, in fact, with Hangouts you’ll now be able to reach them not only when they are using Gmail, but also if they are on Google+ in the browser or on their Android or iOS devices.”

The search giant is eager to promote the use of its social network, and has in the past attempted to blur the lines between users of Gmail, Google Maps and other Google services. If you’re logged into any of them, the company says, you’re logged into Google+.

Nefarious network-boosting purposes aside, Google Hangouts is clearly a superior technology. In our experience, Gmail video chat had a tendency to stutter and occasionally quit — a quality shared in the past with iChat video, but not with Apple’s Facetime, Skype or Google Hangouts.

Hangouts also scales a lot better, making it much easier to add new people to the meeting. Audio is spectacularly good at long range. It’s likely the best choice for a company looking for a free alternative to Cisco Telepresence, for example.

And then there’s the feature that the Gmail team hints at in its blog — the ability to add moustaches, beards, halos and other personal decorations — not to mention cat and dog masks — which will appear to follow you throughout the chat.

Are you sad to see Gmail video chat go, or excited to see how Hangouts can boost your Gmail experience? Let us know in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Google Glass Will Have Automatic Picture-Taking Mode

Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed one of the features of Google Glass — the upcoming headset/eyewear device the search giant is developing — in an email to followers today.

Copying a post he had shared to followers of Project Glass on Google+, Brin said he was trying out a new feature of the product that automatically takes a photo every 10 seconds. Brin said he had the mode engaged while he was driving in Montana, with the device sending all the pics to his Google+ account via instant upload.

Browsing the images later, Brin picked one he thought best captured the beauty of the Montana landscape. The image has just 512 x 384 resolution — less than a megapixel — though that that’s probably not an indication of Google Glass’s capabilities. It could be an aspect of the auto-photo mode, using lower resolutions so storage isn’t taxed that much. Here’s the photo:

In the message, Brin emphasized that Glass allowed him to take pictures as he drove without distraction. He also talked about the vision of Project Glass. “We started Project Glass believing that, by bringing technology closer, we can get it more out of the way,” he wrote. “Whether you’re exploring a new city, hiking in the woods, or playing with your kids — Glass allows you to enjoy and share life’s moments without being tied down by technology.”

It appears only attendees of Google I/O who signed up for Google Glass received the email. On the Google+ post, however, Brin encourages followers to leave a comment and provide feedback on the project. He also promises that Google has some “great things” coming the next few months. He’ll have a tough time topping his spectacular skydive at the I/O conference.

Although it was first reported Google Glass would go on sale before the end of 2012, Brin himself has said it’ll be ready for consumers by 2014. Developers who were interested in receiving one of the prototypes were asked to commit to paying $1,500 for each one, though that figure has no bearing on what the retail price will be.

What do you think of the latest news about Google Glass? Does automatic picture taking sound like a feature you’d use? Share your thoughts in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Google Stops Taking Orders for 16GB Nexus 7

Demand for Google’s 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet seems to have well exceeded the tech giant’s expectations.

Last week, Google posted a message to its online store saying that shipments of the 16GB model were delayed one to two weeks. Now, the store has stopped taking orders altogether.

Those who want to purchase the $249 version of the tablet are told to sign up to be notified by e-mail when it is back in stock.

The 16GB version is also sold out at GameStop, Kmart, Sam’s Club, Office Depot, Staples, B&H, Best Buy in Canada and, according to The Guardian, Tesco in te UK. The only place to get the device online at this point may be eBay.

Google is still accepting orders for the 8GB version however, which costs $199.

The 7-inch, Asus-built tablet, which began shipping earlier this month, is the first to run the latest version of Android, codename Jelly Bean. It has a 1280×800 HD display (216 ppi) and a quad-core processor. It has received widely positive reviews from the press — our own Peter Pachal called it “the Android media tablet the Kindle Fire was supposed to be.”

Are you in the market for a Nexus 7? How are you planning on getting your hands on one?

Source: Mashable

Google Puts Social Twist on Ramadan Traditions

Google is making religion digital for the month of Ramadan with its launch of Islamic-geared YouTube channels and Google+ Hangouts.

For the duration of holy month — when practicing Muslims fast from dawn to sunset — a YouTube channel will broadcast live daily prayers from Mecca.

Another YouTube channel will be dedicated to special religious programming about Islam as well as Arabic soap operas. Google’s official blog reports the channel will make more than 50 Ramadan shows available the same day they air on television.

Studies have shown that the rate of viewing Arabic soap operas has historically risen during Ramadan. Google’s launch of the new channel may help capitalize its marketing with the large global audience during the month.

Additionally, Google+ will host a series of 30 Hangouts featuring celebrity chefs with their favorite Iftar (the sunset meal that breaks the fast) recipes, doctors with tips for eating healthy during Ramadan, poets discussing religious literature and even actors discussing their favorite religious shows.

This is the first time Google has implemented Ramadan into its social platforms.

Image courtesy of Flickr, mishox. Source: Mashable

Google Acquires Sparrow, Team To Focus on ‘New Projects’

Google has acquired iOS and Mac email client Sparrow, with the team behind the popular app heading to Google to work with the Gmail team.

“We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience,” Dom Leca, CEO of Sparrow, said in a statement on the company’s website. “Now we’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.”

In the note on Sparrow’s site, Leca also thanked the app’s users who have provided support and feedback and said, “While we’ll be working on new things at Google, we will continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users.”

A Google spokesperson told Mashable, ““The Sparrow team has always put their users first by focusing on building a seamlessly simple and intuitive interface for their email client. We look forward to bringing them aboard the Gmail team, where they’ll be working on new projects.”

Working on new projects will mean not a lot of time for the team to work on the existing iOS and Mac apps. While Sparrow indicated that they will continue to make the app available and provide support for it, no new versions of the app are likely to be released.

Sparrow is a minimalist mail application for Mac that simplifies and streamlines your traditional mail experience. Originally started as a side project rather than a full-on business, when it launched in 2010, the app was downloaded 42,000 times in just five days -– indicating that there was a huge market for a new simplistic email client.

Google has struggled with its Gmail app for iOS. The company likely brought the Sparrow team in to help improve its Gmail experience on iOS and Mac, as well as potentially Android and PCs.

Source: Mashable

iPad vs. Nexus 7: Which Wins in a Tablet-Destruction Derby?

Google’s latest and greatest Android tablet — called the Nexus 7 — is a slick, lightweight and easy to use device according to early Mashable tests. It’s lightning fast, a great video player and costs much less than the new iPad. Then again, the iPad which is widely seen as the tablet world’s gold standard, comes with super-sharp retina display and has that cool Apple cache.

But which device is more durable?

 

To find out, SquareTrade, an independent warranty provider, just put the Nexus 7 and new iPad through a series of three destructive tests. All three scenarios were modeled after easily encountered real-life foibles. First, the devices were dropped from chest height, then from tabletop height and finally they were dunked in a bathtub.

All three tests are captured in the freshly uploaded YouTube video above. The Nexus 7 proved to be the more hearty tablets in all three instances.

When dropped from chest height, the Nexus 7′s screen appeared fine although it suffered some minor scuffs to its black backing. The iPad’s backing didn’t come out much worse for wear but its screen cracked big-time. Dropped from table height, the Nexus emerged with small dings but remained largely intact. One corner of the iPad sustained major damage (in both drops, it seemed to fall onto one corner) but this time its screen was unscathed.

But the most surprising result came from SquareTrade’s underwater test. The iPad’s visual display and touch screen continued to work after submersion, but all audio functionality disappeared. The Nexus 7, however, came back to dry land working totally fine.

How much abuse to think a tablet should reasonably be expected to withstand? Do the results of this video surprise you? Share with us in the comments.

Source: Mashable

Nexus 7 holds up better than iPad in drop, water-dunk tests

Computerworld - Drop and dunk tests of both the new Apple iPad and the Google Nexus 7 show the Google device is more resilient.

The tests are described in a 2:50 YouTube video produced by SquareTrade, a company that offers third-party warranties for electronics.

In the video, two separate drop tests onto concrete show the iPad came out in worse shape than the Nexus 7 with damage to the glass front of the 9.7-in. iPad both times.

In the dunk test into water in a bathtub, the Nexus 7 survived intact, with video and sound still working, while the iPad lost its ability to play sound.

In the first drop test, both devices were dropped at the same time onto concrete from about five feet, about chest high. In the second drop test, both were slid off a concrete bench to a concrete sidewalk from about two feet.

In both drops with the two devices, the 7-in. Nexus 7 got scuffs to the rear with no glass breakage, while the iPad suffered front glass damage with minor scuffs on the metal back.

In the dunk test, both devices were dropped for a few seconds into water while they were running. The iPad came out with touch capability and video still working, but no sound. The Nexus 7 had video and touch controls after the water dunk, as well as sound. "Wow, that's impressive," a tester says in the video after hearing the sound still working on the Nexus 7.

On its Web site, the company offers a two-year warranty for the $499 iPad, (16GB version with Wi-Fi only) for $99, with no deductible. A two-year warranty for the Nexus 7, priced new for $199 is $18.99, but no information was provided about the amount of the deductible on the site's quote tool.

The SquareTrade warranties for iPad are described as providing protection from "drops, spills and more."

SquareTrade said in the video that nine out of 10 of its tablet claims are due to drops and spills. Also, one in three reported broken tablets have cracked screens, the company said.

Source: Computerworld

Endangered languages get a Google protection plan

MEXICO CITY—Google on Tuesday unveiled an online information exchange platform to try to give some extra lasting power to more than 3,000 endangered languages.

Called endangeredlanguages.com, it is out to help improve the exchange of digital source materials in languages spoken by small numbers of people, from Navajo in the United States, to Aragonese in Spain, to Koro in India and Burunge in Tanzania.

“It is an open, on-line platform where anybody can get on and start sharing materials in those languages which are in danger of being lost,” said Miguel Alba, Google’s Mexico marketing chief.

“Today there are around 7,000 languages spoken around the world, but half of them are expected not to survive to the end of this century,” Alba said.

It is hoped that the languages will get an extra dose of energy as users share texts, videos, photos and audio files.

“Generally languages that are threatened are being abandoned by their own speakers as they are not seen as positive and speakers instead opt for another language seen as more economically or socially advantageous, said anthropologist Francisco Barriga.

But if users see their languages reflected positively in world media they may start taking stock more seriously, of all that can be lost, Barriga said.

Source: Inquirer.net

Jelly Bean Is The Safest Version Of Android, Still Behind iOS In Security Stakes

Although Android certainly trumps Apple’s iOS when it comes to reach, versatility, and number of devices available, one area in which Google’s mobile operating system has always struggled is security. Malware on the platform has been steadily increasing over the past year, and with security one of the main concerns of consumers, it’s essential the Web company does its level best to combat the problem.

Of course, when you’re running an open-source platform versus a closed-source one, you’re always fighting something of a losing battle in keeping it secure. While iOS reputation as a safe ecosystem remains all-but unblemished, the reports of malicious outbreaks on Android have been relentless, and although most can stay safe by downloading apps solely from trusted sources, the sheer number of cases is certainly cause for alarm.

Thanks in part to the Nexus 7 tablet, Android Jelly Bean 4.1 has been an almost permanent fixture in the tech news sphere since its announcement at Google I/O, and the new firmware certainly appears a lot slicker and more advanced than Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. As well as Google Voice Search, there are a number of new goodies, and those having tried it out on several devices have mostly reported it as being a welcome improvement.

While it’s probably a little early to brand Jelly Bean as the best version of Android hitherto, it does appear to be the most secure, as ArsTechnica reports. It’s the very first version to include address space layout randomization (ASLR) protection, and when this system -  which involves randomizing numerous data structures within Android’s makeup – is married with data execution prevention, it helps shield its users from potential hacks. Said system was introduced with ICS, although since it didn’t randomize any locations, it wasn’t particularly effective.

The combination effect of ASLR and DEP, according Charlie Miller, principal research consultant for security firm Accuvant, is that attackers will have a much more difficult job writing exploits. Having said that, iOS has had this new Jelly Bean feature fully in place for the past 16 months, and with code signing technology to boot, it’s still considerably safer than its Google-made counterpart.

Still, with Android having taken many a public flogging with regards to its security, at least this is a step in the right direction.

Source: Redmondpie.com

Want the New Nexus 7 Tablet? It’s Out of Stock Virtually Everywhere

Eager to get your hands on Google’s brand new Nexus 7 tablet? You may be in for a wait.

Just a few weeks after the search engine giant unveiled the sleek and powerful Nexus 7 during its Google I/O annual developer conference, it’s been hard to find since hit shelves on Friday. The paucity of supply seems to indicate strong demand, however it’s possible that Google is deliberately under-stocking the model to create a buzz.

Retailers such as Staples, GameStop, Best Buy in Canada and Sam’s Club have already sold out of the 16GB ($249) device. Even the Google Play store touts a message that the Nexus 7 will ship in one to two weeks, revealing a backorder for demand.

Although Google has exclusively been selling its less-expensive 8GB ($199) model through its own online store, it also appears to be on backorder. It’s unknown at this time when retailers will carry the 8GB model or when any version of the Nexus 7 will be back in stock.

In the weeks leading up to the launch, consumers have jumped on pre-orders via Google and other retailers, so some should be receiving the device any day now.

Anticipation surrounding the first tablet that will run on Android’s next-generation Jelly Bean mobile operating system has been massive. As the first 7-inch tablet with a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and optimized for watching movies, playing games and reading e-magazines, it has been touted as a potential Amazon Kindle Fire tablet killer. But the question remains if Google can get consumers to buy e-books, music and movies on its own Google Play platform.

To get things started, the device comes pre-loaded with the 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon and issues of various publications including Popular Science and the Food Network. It also comes with $25 credit to use in Google Play.

Did you try to get the Nexus 7 this weekend? Do you plan to pick one up soon? Let us know in the comments.