Motorola deal comes Google

Google has completed its $12.5 billion purchase of device maker Motorola Mobility in a deal that poses new challenges for the Internet’s most powerful company as it tries to shape the future of mobile computing.

The deal closed Tuesday, nine months after Google Inc. disclosed that it wanted to expand into the hardware business with the most expensive and riskiest acquisition in its 14-year history.

The purchase pushes Google deeper into the cellphone business, a market it entered four years ago with the debut of its Android software, now the chief challenger to Apple Inc.’s iPhones.

In Motorola, Google gets a cellphone pioneer that has struggled in recent years. Motorola has not produced a mass-market hit since it introduced the Razr cellphone in 2005. Once the number two cellphone maker, Motorola now ranks eighth with 2 percent of the worldwide market share, according to Gartner.

As had been expected, Google chief executive Larry Page immediately named one of his top lieutenants, Dennis Woodside, as Motorola’s chief executive. He replaces Sanjay Jha, 49, who will stay on just long enough to assist in the ownership change.

Woodside, 43, has spent the past three years immersed in online advertising as president of Google’s America region, which accounted for $17.5 billion of Google’s revenue last year.

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. booked $13.1 billion in revenue during its final year as an independent company.

Nevertheless, Woodside’s background in online advertising is likely to raise questions about whether he is the best choice to oversee a company that specializes in making smartphones, tablet computers, and cable-TV boxes.

The takeover became possible only after government regulators were satisfied that the acquisition wouldn’t stifle competition in the smartphone market.

China removed the final regulatory hurdle by granting its approval Saturday. Regulators in the United States and Europe had cleared the deal three months ago.

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For the historic mission of SpaceX rocket ready to slide

A week ago representatives from SpaceX were in Brownsville fielding questions from residents wanting to know more about the company and exactly what it does.

On Tuesday, SpaceX and its founder, billionaire Elon Musk, showed the world what they can do by launching the first commercial rocket to the International Space Station.

A Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carried into orbit a Dragon spacecraft packed with 1,000 pounds of supplies for the space station.

SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies, is considering a tract in Cameron County for an additional launch site for future flights.

Tuesday’s successful launch marks a first for private industry.

“Falcon flew perfectly!!” Musk, said via Twitter. “Feels like a giant weight just came off my back,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying.

Musk later told reporters: “For us, it’s like winning the Super Bowl.”

Cameron County Precinct 4 Commissioner Dan Sanchez attended the launch at Cape Canaveral.

“When they did the countdown and it ignited, it was pretty amazing. I had never seen a launch. I had never gotten to attend any type of launch of a space shuttle or any other type of rocket. It was a lot more amazing in person then what you see on TV,” Sanchez said.

“I didn’t expect it to be as bright. The whole sky just lit up when the rocket took off,” he said, noting that he was at a NASA observation deck, some 5 to 7 miles from the launch site.

Sanchez is vacationing at Disney World and was able to get an invitation to the launch, which had been scheduled for Saturday but was aborted a half-second before liftoff because of a bad engine valve.

Cameron County is one of three sites SpaceX is considering for the construction of another launch pad. The site under consideration is at the eastern end of State Highway 4, about 3 miles north of the Mexican border. It is about 5 miles south of Port Isabel and South Padre Island.

Cameron County Precinct 1 Commissioner Sofia C. Benavides said she was elated when she heard Tuesday morning that liftoff had occurred.

“I was really happy to hear that,” she said.

Like many people in the Rio Grande Valley, Benavides was disappointed Saturday when the launch was aborted.

“I think while some of the people may have been a little let down the other today, I think everybody is happy to see that everything went well this morning,” Benavides said Tuesday.

About 500 people turned out for a recent public hearing on SpaceX’s proposal to build a launch site in Cameron County. The hearing was May 15 at the International Technology, Education and Commerce Center in Brownsville.

Dozens of people took the microphone and all supported the venture. A few voiced concerns about the wildlife in the area and the maintenance of the highway leading to and from the proposed launch site.

The other sites SpaceX is considering for a launch site are in Florida and Puerto Rico.

Gilbert Salinas, executive vice president at BEDC, said he watched the rocket launch online early Tuesday morning.

“I felt a huge relief, but also a huge, huge level of excitement. … I am hoping that the next chapter in space history will be launching a rocket from the first-ever commercial launch site, which in this case would be Brownsville, Texas,” Salinas said.

Musk refers to his project as the “commercial Cape Canaveral.” His company is working with city and county officials here should SpaceX decide to build such a launch site in the Brownsville area.

In addition to the active launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, SpaceX is currently developing a launch site at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. The company also operates a rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas.

SpaceX is based in Hawthorne, Calif.

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From the Android version OpenSignalMaps found nearly 4,000

If you look at all the different ways people can modify their Android software and all the various kinds of hardware and operating systems, do you know how many different platforms you’ll find? Apparently, there are nearly 4,000 “distinct” Android devices in the wild right now. You read that right – four thousand. You think iOS has that many?

 

That data came from a company called OpenSignalMaps, which has collected information from 681,900 Android devices through its app. So what this means is that of those 680,000+ devices, there are 3,997 that are unique. The most popular one, for example, is the Samsung Galaxy S II, with 61,389 people owning that phone and running the same version of Android.

So how are there so many? “One complication is that custom ROMs can overwrite the android.build.MODEL variable that we use for the device model,” the company noted. As a matter of fact, “A staggering 1,363 device models appear only once in our database.” If you drill down to the main factor, the main version number, Android seems to be more fragmented than ever. The most common version of the OS is Gingerbread, but even as the #1 version, it’s only powering 55.4% of devices.

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Activision: Settlement of the lawsuit over 'executive leave from EA

The settlement announced Wednesday in Los Angeles does not end the war between Activision and dozens of former "Call of Duty" developers who claim they have been cheated out of millions in bonuses for the game.

Activision had sought $400 million from Electronic Arts, claiming the company met secretly with Jason West and Vincent Zampella while they were still under contract to work on "Modern Warfare" projects.

No details on the settlement were revealed, with the companies releasing only a joint statement that they "have agreed to put this matter behind them."

Activision fired West and Zampella in January 2010 after the release of "Modern Warfare 2," and they formed a new company, Respawn Entertainment LLC, which is developing games for Electronic Arts. The pair sued Activision in March 2010 seeking more than $36 million in bonuses, but the Santa Monica, Calif., gaming company said the pair were fired for insubordination and handed over company secrets to Electronic Arts.

West and Zampella were high-ranking executives at the Infinity Ward studio that produced several successful "Call of Duty" games.

Activision has sought access to details about Respawn's work for Electronic Arts on a new game that has not been revealed. Activision claimed the pair had discussed creating a science-fiction shooter intended to challenge the "Halo" franchise, but instead of delivering that game gave it to Redwood City-based Electronic Arts.

The settlement does not affect the upcoming trial over claims by West, Zampella and 40 other developers over the "Modern Warfare 2" bonuses. Activision has indicated the potential damages could exceed $1 billion.

Robert M. Schwartz, an attorney for West and Zampella, said Activision's claims against Electronic Arts only comprised about 10 percent of the issues to be raised at trial.

Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle on Wednesday refused a request by Activision to delay the trial on the developers' claims, which is scheduled to begin May 29.

Attorney Beth Wilkinson, who was hired to lead Activision's case earlier this month, had requested a monthlong delay to prepare for the trial, which will feature dozens of witnesses and thousands of pieces of evidence.

Wilkinson told the court Tuesday that Activision has paid $42 million in bonuses to "Modern Warfare 2" developers suing the company but that did not constitute a settlement.

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Issue: Google working on Music deauthorization

Over the past couple of days, Google Music users discovered that they once they hit the 10 device authorization limit they were restricted from removing devices. Users quickly found out that Google had changed the deauthorization number to four devices a year, bad news for those who frequently flash ROMs or move to different devices. Now Google has issued a statement regarding the change, saying they’re working on the problem.

Google acknowledges that the new method is an issue for people who are authorizing and reauthorizing the same device, but the service treats new ROMs and wiped software as a new device. At the same time, the change comes after a request from the record labels “in an effort to limit abuse.” The company goes on to say that it’s working on a method that will hopefully satisfy both music partners and users.

In the meantime the “old” policy is in effect, so you can deauthorize as many devices as you want until Google works around the problem. Right now there’s no time frame for when Google will update its policy on the matter, but it notes that the support page will be updated with more information when it becomes available.

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GeForce Grid, Cloud Games Without Lag obviously has announced NVIDIA

GPU manufacture NVIDIA today announced GeForce Grid, a cloud gaming platform capable of “streaming next-generation games to virtually any device, without the lag that hampers current offerings.” The tech leverages NVIDIA’s Kepler-based family of graphics processors to deliver low latency gaming over the cloud. A single Grid instance can simultaneously encode up to eight game streams, allowing providers to scale efficiently with less overhead in regards to power and costs.

What’s under the hood? A Grid GPU boasts 3,072 CUDA cores — the same as NVIDIA’s flagship GTX690 card. It also includes 8GB of VRAM, with memory and shader performance clocking in at 320 GB/sec and 4.7 TFLOPS, respectively. The wattage rating comes in at a respectable 250W — reasonable when you consider how much power the card is packing.

Impressively, with the Grid tech, NVIDIA says server power-consumption per game stream has been reduced to about one-half that of previous implementations. Under ideal conditions, the Grid platform reduces server latency to as little as 10 milliseconds. According to NVIDIA, “gamers will feel like they are playing on a gaming supercomputer located in the same room. Lightning-fast play is now possible, even when the gaming supercomputer is miles away.”

OnLive competitor Gaikai will be one of the first providers to deploy the new tech. Additionally, several industry figures and developers have praised NVIDIA’s latest effort.

“Cloud has the potential to deliver an even more powerful experience in the future by enabling ultra-high-end GPUs like the GeForce GTX 680 to stream ultra-high-quality graphics such as those made possible by UE4 to a huge range of devices, well beyond console capabilities. The result will be that more people can enjoy EPIC’s games on more devices at higher quality,” said Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney.

“It is exciting to watch how cloud gaming is becoming mature and gives better and better user experience — and NVIDIA’s GeForce GRID technology is example of it. We are looking forward to see how cloud computing using this technology will change the future of gaming and the overall gaming experience and how it will affect consoles and PCs,” said CD Projekt RED lead programmer Bartlomiej Wronski.

Many have questioned the viability of cloud-driven gaming platforms in the past, but it goes without saying that NVIDIA’s Grid tech looks to be a game-changer. Going forward, it’ll be exciting to see how the platform evolves.

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