Category: google (Page 4 of 4)

Google to enter the ebook market this summer

May 4, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

If the Wall Street Journal is right, Google could be launching its ebook store as early as this summer. You may remember the Google ebook store, Google Editions, from all the problems it had last year. Publishers were far from supportive – they were actually combative – and it didn’t seem like any progress was in sight.

It seems things have turned the corner, though. Google Editions will reportedly launch with somewhere between 400,000 and 600,000 titles. Hey, Amazon, remember how good it felt to be on top? With that many titles Google would be a top-notch competitor against both Amazon and Apple’s new iBookstore.

The most interesting news, though, will be whether Google Editions kept any of the original, consumer-friendly stipulations in contract. Will we be able to print? How about that copy/paste feature?

Source: WSJ

Digital Media, ebooks, google, News

ebooks ebookstore editions google wsj

I’ll have what Carol Bartz is having

May 2, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has had some…interesting…things to say about the future of the web and her company’s competition with Google. This latest tidbit, which comes courtesy of a BBC interview, is a real humdinger.

According to Bartz:
Google is going to have a problem because Google is only known for search…It is only half our business; it’s 99.9% of their business. They’ve got to find other things to do…Google has to grow a company the size of Yahoo every year to be interesting.

What’s that now, Carol? At the risk of sounding the Google fanboy, I’m willing to call this lady nuts. Completely bonkers, actually. No sane person can honestly say Google lacks diversity. The company is reaching into every aspect of web-connected living, or life as some call it. HP just dropped Microsoft in favor of Google’s OS for tablet devices and let’s not forget that Google as a search engine is the juggernaut of the industry. That says nothing of the other services Google provides. In case, like Carol Bartz, you’ve forgotten what that portfolio looks like, you can check out a full list of products here.

If that still doesn’t have you convinced, consider this chart from the NYT comparing the endeavors of the world’s great tech empires.

google, News, Websites

google quotes statistics yahoo yahoo ceo

Google’s Nexus One won’t get those 3G bug fixes

April 22, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

The Nexus One has been a mixed bag for Android users. A lot of people really seem to love it. Steve Wozniak, Apple’s Steve Wozniak, called it his favorite gadget earlier this year. That’s awfully high praise coming from such a prominent Apple figure. For others, though, it’s been an unending mess of bug problems without any fixes. There have been display problems, software problems, hardware malfunctions, and the notorious 3G issues in which the Nexus One can’t seem to hold a 3G connection.

Well guess what – it’s not being fixed. That’s correct. The official Google stance is sorry, but you’re screwed. Here it is in geek speak:

I’ve seen some recent speculation on this thread about an OTA to improve 3G connectivity and I want to give you an update on the situation.
While we are continuing to monitor user feedback regarding the 3G performance on the Nexus One, we are no longer investigating further engineering improvements at this time.
If you are still experiencing 3G issues, we recommend that you try changing your location or even the orientation of your phone, as this may help in areas with weaker coverage.

That’s from the official Google support forums. It’s amazing that they’ll market and sell a smartphone to a bunch of nerds and then ask if anyone had thought of moving to improve reception. Wow.

google

3g bugs google phone nexus one nexus one 3g bug nexus one dropped 3g nexus one support support

Google buys up a server tech company

April 21, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Hardly a day passes when Google isn’t buying some new startup or a service that has just exploded into mainstream popularity. Late yesterday the news broke that the search giant had just purchased yet another company, but this time it was a name I’d never heard: Agnilux.

After the implicit “who the hell is that,” I dug around to see what I could find. It turns out Agnilux is a server hardware development company, some are guessing a chip developer, that’s packed to the gills with former TiVo and Apple employees. Agnilux was also founded by former employees of P.A. Semi, another chip developer that Apple bought in 2008.

It suffices to say Google is getting a lot of talent in this little-known acquisition. The TiVo ties have raised questions about Google TV, but as far as anyone knows it’s just one guy in Agnilux that came from TiVo. Still, when we don’t much, it seems like anything could be reasonable.

Computers, google, News

acquisitions agnilux Apple google server chip server development server hardware TiVo

Google: Desktops will be irrelevant in 3 years

March 5, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Google Europe boss John Herlihy told an audience at the Digital Landscapes conference this week that desktop computers would be irrelevant in three years. His statement falls right in line with comments made by CEO Eric Schmidt, reinforcing the company’s focus on mobile computing and the cloud.

“In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs,” said Herlihy. Google believes that’s where the rest of the world is headed, which is why we see so much focus on Android and even Chrome OS. The company believes that cloud support will enable smaller devices to handle all the computing we’ll need.

What he’s really talking about is entertainment devices. It’s not like desktops are going to disappear, you’ll just be highly unlikely to find one in someone’s home that’s been manufactured in the last three to five. Hell, that’s unlikely now. My parents just had their desktop die and being that they haven’t asked me about getting another one, I’d assume they won’t.

From desktops we’ll go to laptops. Yes, even your beloved lappy will be going the way of the Dodo at some point, making room for smaller, entertainment centric devices like the iPad.

Photo from fOTOGLIF