Hasta La Gadget!

Not everyone gets to walk behind the tech industry’s velvet ropes. So when Motorola opened the gates to its Fort Worth, Texas facility — the place where custom Moto X’s are made — we were there to bring you an inside look. And in the interest of getting you even more intimately acquainted with the Google company’s assembled in the USA smartphone production hub, we have something almost as good as being there: a behind-the-scenes video tour. So, what are you waiting for… an invite? Head past the break to glimpse phase one of this whole new Motorola and see Governor Rick Perry spike an iPhone 5.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google

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The European Union’s antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, told a news conference today that the commission had deemed Google’s recent concession offer insufficient. According to a Reuters report, Almunia has written a letter directly to Eric Schmidt demanding that the company “present better proposals”, following the antitrust inquiry into Google’s search and page ranking behavior. “After an analysis of the market test that was concluded on June 27, I concluded that the proposals that Google sent to us are not enough to overcome our concerns.”

These changes, which would be enacted in the next five years, included more labelling of links that promote Googles own search services (like shopping), along the lines of showing that they are promoted placements. There would also be more graphical separation of the above links — again, like how you see promoted ads in the search results page. The company would also offer the ability for rival search sites to tag their results so that Google would be unable to improve its own search offering by indexing those pages. Given other recent issues between Google and some European countries, the proposals also touched on offering a way for publishers to control exactly what part of their content is used in Google News.

The search giant’s proposals were handed to the European Commission back in April, following its three-year investigation, with the regulator involving both Google’s rivals and third parties in its decision-making process. We’ve reached out to Mountain View for comment and will tell you more when we hear it, and you can check out some of those rejected proposals at the More Coverage link.

Update: Google spokesman Al Verney added that the company would continue to work with the EU on the matter. “Our proposal to the European Commission clearly addresses the four areas of concern.”

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: Reuters

During the winter, Sun Valley is known for its skiing. This time of the year, however, it’s quickly becoming a tech hotspot as some of the industry’s top execs gather together at the annual Allen and Co media conference. Among the attendees is Google’s Eric Schmidt, who brought along a mystery Motorola phone and couldn’t resist showing it off. While Schmidt couldn’t “comment on the nature of this phone,” according to Variety’s Rachel Abrams, it certainly didn’t stop him from giving everyone a sneak peek. Multiple images of the device, which appears to feature a carbon fiber-like back and sleek curves, popped up on Twitter from the likes of Gary He and Taylor Wimberly. As it doesn’t match the leaked pictures of the upcoming Droid Ultra or Maxx — but carries an uncanny resemblance to the leaks and FCC diagrams we’ve seen of the X already — we’re guessing this is the legendary smartphone in the flesh; and judging by Schmidt’s willingness to flaunt it, it’s quite likely that we won’t have to wait much longer before we see even more of it. There’s one more shot of the device from the top past the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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There’s a Google exec speaking at a tech conference, and that means one thing: more Android statistics. At Dive Into Mobile today, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt confirmed that the company is now seeing 1.5 million Android activations per day, which is up from 1.3 million per day last fall and 1.4 million as of last month (seemingly an uptick after a short period of slower growth). Schmidt also says that the company remains on track for one billion total devices by the end of the year, which would be a sizeable increase from the 750 million that CEO Larry Page confirmed in his most recent statement last month. Schmidt further notes that the key to that future growth — or reaching the “next five billion people looking to get connected,” as he puts it — will be the $100 price point, something he suggests they’ll quickly get to.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google

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If you thought that Mark Zuckerberg’s aspirations ended at commanding your smartphone, then think again. The Facebook chief has teamed up with a raft of other tech heavyweights including Eric Schmidt, Marissa Mayer and Elon Musk to form FWD.us, a political lobby group designed to promote tech-friendly causes. The first issue it wants to tackle is immigration reform to make it easier to woo foreign engineering talent, but it also has designs on scientific research, education reform and job creation. Evidently, these people still have spare time even after their stressful day jobs.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: FWD.us