Hasta La Gadget!

TechCrunch has confirmed reports that Lenovo is buying Motorola Mobility from Google. This is the division within Google that the company purchased in 2011 for $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility will go to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.

Of that $2.91 billion, $1.41 billion will be paid at the close of the deal. $660 million will be comprised of US cash and $750 million in Lenovo ordinary shares. The remaining $1.5 billion will be paid in the form of a three-year promissory note.

Google will maintain ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio. Lenovo will still receive 2,000 patent assets and the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark.

According to a separate report published by Reuters, Lenovo is being advised by Credit Suisse Group while Lazard Ltd advised Google on the transaction.

“As part of Lenovo, Motorola Mobility will have a rapid path to achieving our goal of reaching the next 100 million people with the mobile Internet. With the recent launches of Moto X and Moto G, we have tremendous momentum right now and Lenovo’s hardware expertise and global reach will only help to accelerate this,” said Dennis Woodside, CEO, Motorola Mobility, in a released statement.

According to our source, Google wanted to dump the asset for some time. The company had to hold off selling the division for tax reasons.

Motorola Mobility’s performance has yet to live up to its purchase price. Since Motorola split and its consumer division went to Google, it has been a constant source of red ink. Motorola lost quite a lot of money: $248 million in the last quarter alone. Google sums this well, noting that the loss was “-21% of Motorola Mobile segment revenues.” Motorola lost $192 million in the year-ago quarter, so the trend here isn’t positive.

Google previously sold off the cable box division of Motorola Mobility for $2.4 billion.

This comes just weeks after Google purchased the hot hardware startup Nest. Since then, Nest’s role in the budding conglomerate that Google is turning into has been widely speculated about. With Motorola gone, Nest’s superstar team that includes many former Apple engineers seemingly has an empty playground.

It seems this complete’s Lenovo’s quest for an established cell phone business. It was rumored back in October that the company submitted a bid for BlackBerry. That deal clearly didn’t pan out.

Simply buying its way to the top worked for Lenovo in the past. In 2005 Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal computer division for $1.25 billion. That purchase alone caused Lenovo to be the world’s third-largest computer maker. But, using the established brand, Lenovo scaled the PC division to become the largest shipper of PCs in the world. In the last months of 2013 Lenovo overtook HP.

Just last week, Lenovo announced a plan to buy IBM’s x86 server business for $2.3 billion.

As the dust settles on this deal, it’s clear that Google took a large loss on its venture with Motorola Mobility. Google acquired an established brand with a vast portfolio of patents, a mature distribution system and a knowledgeable manufacturing arm. Even after pouring money and resources into the historic American brand, Google couldn’t make lemonade with Motorola. Maybe Lenovo, the now-leader in personal computers, will have better luck.

More as we get it.

BBM will soon be available for Android phones running Gingerbread. This is a shockingly brilliant move which allows BBM to fully compete in developing countries where BBM is already an established brand, but current smartphones are still running the legacy operating system.

As Chris points out at Engadget, despite being generations old, Android 2.1.x Gingerbread still powers 21% of Android phones. A lot of those devices are located in emerging markets where new messaging apps, like WhatsApp, Line, and Facebook Messenger, are quickly gaining in popularity. Recent numbers suggest that BlackBerry cannot count on consumers in these markets, or any market for that matter, to jump on the BBM ship by buying one of its smartphones, so the company is making it available on competitors’ hardware.

As the current version of BlackBerry sinks into obscurity, a new BlackBerry is emerging. For better or worse, this version seems a bit more lean and focused. Today’s update to BlackBerry OS 10 feels like a company clearing its current product pipe as it moves away from the cut-throat consumer hardware market.

A public beta will be released prior to the full launch in late February.

Hello, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Charleston. We’d like to meet you. After you guys shovel out your unenclosed garages and de ice your homes, please drop us a line so we can see what amazing hardware you’re working on in your cities and, in addition, get featured on our regular hardware TCTV show, Makers. We’ve been running around the East Coast and SF for a while now. It’s time to see what the South is bringing to the hardware table.

You can get in touch with me by emailing john@techcrunch.com with the subject line “SOUTHERN MAKERS.”

Not into hardware or not ready to show off your product? Join us at our Atlanta and New Orleans meetups instead.

In late February, TechCrunch is heading to Atlanta and New Orleans, and we’re looking for a handful of undiscovered startups. If that’s you, and you’re comfortable pitching to 1,000 people and a panel of judges, apply below. If not, you could still apply and we’ll help you along.

General admission tickets are also available for $5 and grant the holder a couple of beers and entrance into what will surely be a fantastic night. Buy them below.

We’re excited to get out of the cold Northeast and visit New Orleans and Atlanta. Two years ago, Matt, Jordan and I hit Atlanta and, with the help of the amazing Dave Moeller of CodeGuard, held our biggest meetup to date at the SweetWater Brewing Company. This time there will be a pitch-off competition, too. Hopefully there will be another gigantic TC Rice Krispies treat.

Participants interested in competing in the pitch-off will have 60 seconds to explain why their startup is awesome. These products must currently be in stealth or private beta.

Office hours are for companies selected for the pitch-off. These 15-minute, one-on-one talks will be held on the day of the event. We’ll hear about your company, give feedback, and talk about the best pitch strategy for the 60-second, rapid-fire competition. Think of us as Adam Levine on The Voice.

We will have 3-5 judges, including TechCrunch writers and local VCs, who will decide on the winners of the Pitch-off. First place will receive a table in Startup Alley at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt NY; second place will receive two tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt NY; and third place will receive one ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt NY.

See you there!

Atlanta tickets

New Orleans tickets

The new Pebble Steel (which starts shipping today) has a lot in common with its predecessor, but it also comes with a software update that makes any and all Pebbles into essentially new devices, so the overall experience of owning one is actually quite different, and (spoiler alert) much improved.

Basics

• 5-7 day battery
• 144×168 e-ink display
• 56g (1.97 oz)
• Waterproof to 5ATM
• RGB LED
• Metal case with leather and metal band
• MSRP: $249
• Product info page

Pros

• Glass-covered display
• Improved looks
• LED light has lots of potential uses

Cons

• Expensive, given functionality is the same as the $149 original Pebble
• Proprietary lug design, incompatible with standard watchbands

Design

There’s no question in my mind: The Pebble Steel is heads and tails a better designed device than the original Pebble. The steel construction feels much more durable and substantial when worn, and yet also manages not to add too much weight to the device overall. Both color options are attractive (though I prefer the PVD-treated matte black colorway) and the decision to include both steel link and leather bands (only the leather was included with the review device) in the box is a very nice touch that provides options for dressing the Steel up or down depending on your needs.

Both bands are comfortable and have a quality feel, and the case for the Pebble is much-improved too, thanks to a smaller surrounding bezel and the upgrade to materials, including a Gorilla Glass face that makes the display easier to read and also better protects the screen itself. Also, the LED is completely hidden on the bottom left of the bezel when not in use, which makes for a nice and clean look.

If there’s a failing to the design, it’s that Pebble has opted to go with a proprietary three-pronged lug design to hold the watchstrap, which means that you can’t use off-the-shelf standard bands. Swiss watchmaker Swatch does the same thing, which limits your choice to only what they offer. It’s annoying, but it also provides a potential revenue source for Pebble down the road so I can understand why they opted to go that route.

The vaguely eighties retro vibe the watch gives off is reminiscent of Braun and Sony ID from a heyday of steel and angles, however, and it marks the first time I can honestly say I’d wear a Pebble without the smart features, which is no light praise since I’m a bit of a watch snob.

Features And Software

Users of the original Pebble won’t find much new here in terms of features, but the addition of the Pebble appstore with SDK 2.0 marks a huge improvement in the software ecosystem. Many of the apps available were out before, but now they’re centralized in the appstore, which appears on both the iOS and Android Pebble companion apps.

Browsing and discoverability in the software store reminds me of what it was like to find apps for iOS and Android in the early days of both of those software marketplaces: there’s a lot of scrolling, and some limitations in terms of organization of content, but overall it’s still much better than the process has been. An app manager for shuffling software to and from your device, and for inputting login credentials and altering other settings also makes a big difference in terms of improving usability of third-party software.

The new method for viewing past notifications is excellent, and the archive strikes a good balance between fitting a number of updates on screen and providing enough info that you recall the full missive. Apps are listed under the main menu, which isn’t entirely painless in terms of navigation, but the limit of eight apps/custom watchfaces means you never have to scroll too far to find any. That eight app limit is a pain, however: It’s like Sophie’s Choice trying to figure out whether you want the app that controls your Philips Hue lighting system or the one that offers on-wrist package tracking.

It doesn’t help that there are new partner apps making their debut today, too. The Foursquare, Yelp, GoPro and ESPN apps were available for testing, and while I don’t have a GoPro and I don’t care all that much about sports (which is good because I couldn’t get the ESPN app to load anything beyond a sample screen), the other two location-aware apps really demonstrated how much potential Pebble has for app developers.

Click to view slideshow.

Foursquare allows you to view nearby spots and check-in directly from your wrist, with a refresh feature triggered by flicking your wrist. The Yelp app uses a wrist flip to trigger discovery of a single local spot to recommend, but it also provides listings of nearby places organized by venue type, complete with star ratings and up to three reviews you can actually read through on your wrist. Both are great examples of how to intelligently build software for Pebble (or any smartwatch), by focusing on features that make sense on the wrist and leaving the rest to the smartphone.

Other highlight apps for me include Huebble, which provides wrist-based control over your Philips Hue lighting system, and Twebble, which is a full-featured Twitter client on your wrist. The Pebble appstore has around 1,000 apps currently, with over 6,000 devs registered, and overall I was impressed at the quality of software. Other platforms have launched with an abundance of throwaway apps, but those in Pebble’s marketplace seem to at least mostly attempt to provide genuine utility.

Performance

The Pebble Steel had performed well, basically as I’ve come to expect from my original Kickstarter edition Pebble. Sometimes the Pebble pre-release software and appstore crashed, but that’s to be expected, and it’s probably the reason Pebble says the appstore is still “coming very soon” rather than launching today. It’s early to tell with absolute certainty, but battery life seems to be in keeping with its predecessor as well.

If you haven’t picked up a Pebble in a while and you’re an iOS user, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how infrequently it asks for renewed permission to communicate with your phone. The LED notification light isn’t currently being used for much, but it does change from orange or red to green while connected to the power cable to let you know when the device is fully charged. The cable is another minor annoyance, since it’s proprietary and magnetic like the one that shipped with the first version, but also features a different connector design that nullifies any chance at backwards compatibility.

Overall, though, the Pebble Steel improves on the original in all the hardware aspects where it felt like it could’ve used a bit more time in the oven, and leaves relatively untouched the software stuff that the startup got right.

Bottom Line

The Pebble is most definitely an evolutionary product; in many ways, it’s like the iPhone 5c to the iPhone 5, except with an upgrade to materials rather than a move somewhat down market. But that might also be just what Pebble needs in terms of spurring more mass market interest, while avoiding the perception that they’re punishing early adopters by putting out massively updated hardware.

In the end, the Pebble (Steel or otherwise) is still the best smartwatch available. After using the Steel, it takes the crown as my new favorite device in that category, however, since the materials used and the construction quality really make it feel like a brand new piece of equipment. Pair that with the appstore and quality software from marquee partners, and I’m confident Pebble can keep its smartwatch crown for at least a little while longer.

Great news for the dozens of remaining BlackBerry fans. The latest platform update adds a bunch of little tweaks to your Z30, Q10, and Q5 including an FM radio. Why wasn’t the FM radio enabled from the start, you ask? Great question, friend. Let me answer with this question: Why didn’t the Playbook launch with native email support? Because BlackBerry!

At this point it’s clear that BlackBerry isn’t exactly sunk, but rather is  treading water as its boat sinks to the ocean floor.

Under new leadership, BlackBerry is quickly reorganizing to focus heavily on enterprise services. Updates to consumer products will likely quickly become a thing of the past as the company shifts engineering talent to new ventures.

Along with enabling the FM radio, update 10.2.1 also adds a new incoming call screen, picture passwords and an offline reading mode. Users can download the update here or through their phone.