Google Sells the Samsung Galaxy S4 as their next Nexus Device
It is too bad that Google has no way of creating their own smartphone hardware by owning or buying a hardware company.
The S 4 with Android 4.2 “feels really awesome,” will cost $649.
Instead, Google seems completely happy to continue to push the hardware of a company that is running away with the Android Brand and Android Smartphone Market. Samsung is also starting to banish any mention of Google from it’s Galaxy devices.
This is a very odd move and at a price point, because the phone comes factory unlocked, that won’t make a big splash in the market.
If Samsung were smart about their brand, they would not let this be called a Galaxy device.
Google Hangouts
Great video by The Verge on Googles new plan of attack for hangouts… and then it happens at 5:37. Google announces they are moving away from an open standard to their own proprietary code base for their communication platform. Google always champions “open” but rarely is when it is something the company takes seriously. Some examples could be their custom software that runs in their custom data centers on their own custom servers, or their search algorithm, or the lack of ability for people to have an easy and friendly non-google search engine indexible google+ url initially.
I guess this just goes to reiterate the point made in the video that Google is actually considering hangouts to be a core property.
Rooting exploit could turn Google Glass into secret surveillance tool
A hacker has already found a major security flaw in Google Glass.
Using an exploit discovered seven months ago to root smartphones running Google’s Android operating system, it takes him less than five minutes to hack the new device. From there, he can install a customized operating system that silently monitors everything the device sees or hears.
Later on in the article it says:
Glass, by contrast, has no form of screenlock, making it possible for someone with even brief access to a headset to make persistent changes.
I think Google Glass is good for Google because Google is in the business of user data collection and advertising. I do not believe this project / product is good for users.
Google decides to go "openly-proprietary" with Chrome's render engine
Google just announced that their browser, Chrome, will be transitioning away from Webkit to a new render engine called Blink.
