There can be little doubt that the low-cost computer universe has begun to accept Chrome OS into its life, especially given today’s confirmation by Intel that a new generation of Chromebooks will be working with Haswell. This is Intel’s 4th Generation core technology, and as Intel and Google have made clear, it’s expected that this […]
Intel has just announced a new line of Chromebooks that run on Haswell. Chromebooks have previously run lower-powered processors like ARM and Atom, though the Pixel did break the mold by running on a dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Core i5. Upcoming Haswell Chromebooks include new iterations from Acer and HP, along with Chrome OS newbies ASUS and Toshiba. Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome and Android, came on stage to say that Haswell will offer superb battery life without compromising performance. At first glance, the Acer Chromebook on stage is a slim and light affair, while the HP model sports a larger display. Intel even showed off a special ASUS Chromebox that serves to be an extremely lightweight PC. As you might expect, there’s no announcement of pricing or availability just yet, though we did hear we’ll see them “over the coming months.”
Update: The New Acer Chromebook and the HP Chromebook 14 pages are now live. So far, we have the most details about the Chromebook 14, which will arrive sometime this holiday shopping season for $300. It will have a 14-inch, 1,366 x 768 display and 16GB of built-in storage with HDMI, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. Unusually, too, it will be available in an array of punch colors, including “Snow White,” “Ocean Turquoise” and “Coral Peach.” Find the full press release embedded below.
Filed under: Laptops, Google, Intel
Source: Chrome Blog
Google receives takedown requests of all sorts, copyright holders request the internet search giant to block URLs that contain pirated content. The BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Ltd actively sends such requests to Google, according to an estimate, it requested Google to remove more than 30 million URLs last year. Google has complied almost every time, but in one of its recent notices, BPI wanted to get infamous torrent website, The Pirate Bay’s, homepage blocked from search results. Google has refused to comply.
Its not that Google has a soft spot for The Pirate Bay, it has refused to comply based on a technicality. URLs that contain pirated content are immediately removed, no questions asked, but this is not the case with TPB’s homepage. The homepage itself doesn’t contain any links to pirated content, regardless of that fact that TPB is one of the most notorious torrent websites on the internet. So even though BPI’s takedown request claims that thepiratebay.sx infringes rights of “The Music,” TPB’s homepage only links to a music category, it doesn’t contain any links to pirated music. Google sees that, and based on this technicality, it has refused to block The Pirate Bay’s homepage from appearing in its search results.
Google Refused To Comply With Pirate Bay Homepage Takedown Request original content from Ubergizmo. 
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So you say you’re in the market for a new tablet, but you’ve found the customizations available with the Motorola Moto X smartphone to be the bees knees? You may be in luck – there’s a tip from a very, very brief set of words exchanged between Engadget and Dennis Woodside this week that suggests […]
Motorola’s not just pinning its hopes on the success of its new smartphone, the Moto X, it’s also going after tablets. As CEO Dennis Woodside told Engadget at the company’s Fort Worth facility, “That’s something we are working on, but [there’s] nothing specific to talk about right now.” While we’re sure this new Moto tablet X will be a far cry from the company’s past Xoom and Xyboard efforts, it’s not clear if the device will be available to consumers through Moto Maker, the company’s made-to-order site. But with Woodside and other Motorola’s execs insistence that customization is the way forward, chances are you’re likely to see the in-the-works slate arrive with various configuration options. There’s also a likelihood Motorola could release a phablet-sized Moto X. Woodside said the company also plans to explore other form factors that incorporate “some of the design cues, as well as technologies, from the Moto X[.]”
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way: Motorola had picked the date for its Fort Worth, Texas facility’s dedication ceremony first. But then Apple went ahead to claim the date and stole the day’s spotlight with its new iPhone reveals. No matter, as the gathering of press, factory workers and bold-faced names — Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and Texas Gov. Rick Perry — seemed minorly preoccupied with the major news of the day. We were in the midst of Nokia’s old manufacturing plant, after all, now the birthplace of all custom-made Moto X’s and there was the spirit of American manufacturing to celebrate.
To drive that point home, some very Springsteen-ish tunes were pumped over the loudspeakers as we all patiently awaited the end of Cupertino’s product showcase and the start of Motorola’s “we can too make it in the USA” toldja moment. I even half-expected Miley Cyrus to jump onstage with an assortment of teddy bears brandishing raver-hued Moto X’s. She didn’t and an Americana Twitter-trending hashtag moment was missed. Still there was one exceptional and unscripted highlight waiting in the wings. It wasn’t CEO Dennis Woodside nose-thumbing at those unnamed rivals that said US-based production could and would never happen. Nor was it Schmidt’s patriotic pledge to the Texas facility: “This is a bet we’re taking on America … on Texas [and] on this incredible workforce that’s assembled here. We think this is a very, very safe bet.” No. It was the moment Woodside presented Gov. Perry with a Moto X — designed with Texan colors — and Perry, in response, unceremoniously spiked his iPhone to the floor below. Yes, the moment is caught on tape.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Google’s big list of open source projects just grew by one — the company has introduced a new online learning platform called MOOC.org. Despite the name, it’s not a website about cows — MOOC stands for “massive open online courses,” and it’s a product of the marriage between Mountain View and edX, an educational website by MIT and Harvard. However, while edX only features free courses from affiliated universities, MOOC.org will accept material submitted by other institutions, governments, businesses and even individuals. In short, just about anyone can pitch in — edX’s president even revealed that they want the site to eventually become the “YouTube for MOOCs.” The companies have yet to reveal how they’ll screen submitted courses for quality and how contributors can earn money, but we’ll likely find out when the site launches in mid-2014. Self-motivated folks eager to learn will have to hang out around libraries, campuses and TED talks until then.
[Image credit: University of Salford, Flickr]
Source: mooc.org, Google Research
Ever wonder how Motorola’s stateside assembly of the Moto X compares to giants such as Foxconn? Well, now you can go on a digital tour of the facility via Google Street View — that is if our extensive gallery of up-close-and-personal photos doesn’t do it for you. Google and Motorola have introduced the new virtual destination to celebrate the Fort Worth factory’s official launch, so anyone with internet connection can check out where the company assembles the 100,000 phones it ships each week. And if you’re tired of looking at sterile white factory walls, you can always use Street View to coo at animals, climb lofty buildings and conquer mountains instead.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Source: Motorola
Google did promise to pay out up to $7 million as well as get rid of a bevy of information and data that they picked up via unsecured Wi-Fi networks through the use of their Street View cars, where among them include user passwords, emails, and other kinds of miscellaneous information. Just when the folks at Google thought that that’s that, along comes the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that has denied Google’s attempt to dismiss wiretapping claims in a class action suit that concerns the current debacle.
Google’s legal eagles came from a viewpoint that what they did could actually be exempted from being classified as a wiretap, considering how data that is transmitted over Wi-Fi happens to be an electronic communication which can be easily accessed by the general public. The judges’ panel did not share the same viewpoint as Google, however, and said, “Wi-Fi transmissions are not ‘readily accessible’ to the ‘general public’ because most of the general public lacks the expertise to intercept and decode payload data transmitted over a Wi-Fi network.” Apart form that, the court also ruled that data transmitted over Wi-Fi is unable to be classified as audio most of the time, hence it would fall “outside of the definition of a ‘radio communication.’”
Wi-Fi Sniffing Could Be Classed As Wiretapping, Google Told original content from Ubergizmo. 
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If you’re anything like us, you’re wondering just how well Motorola’s Fort Worth factory is coping with demand for Moto X smartphones. The answer? Well enough, thank you: CEO Dennis Woodside just told Reuters in an interview that the US-based plant is shipping about 100,000 Moto X units each week. While that’s nowhere near the millions of units that Apple or Samsung would ship in a similar space of time, Woodside notes that the factory is still ramping up. Current numbers also don’t reflect sales, since only some devices already have buyers. We’d add that Motorola is targeting just a handful of countries versus the global scale of its rivals. It’s doubtful that the company’s Fort Worth production will ever come close to that of manufacturing hubs like Shenzhen, but there’s early signs that the American factory is here to stay.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Source: Reuters
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