TECH NEWS: Google settles pharmacy ad probe for $500 million!!

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gadgets.ndtv.com / Associated Press / August 24, 2011.

Google Inc. has agreed to pay $500 million to settle a federal investigation into the Internet search leader's distribution of online ads from Canadian pharmacies that were illegally selling prescription and non-prescription drugs to American consumers.

U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha (nuh-ROH'-nuh) in Rhode Island disclosed the agreement on Wednesday. The settlement means Google will not face criminal prosecution for accusations it improperly profited from ads promoting Canadian pharmacies that illegally imported drugs into the United States.

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http://gadgets.ndtv.com/shownews.aspx?id=GADEN20110182704&Sec=NEWS&nid=128738

   

TECH WORLD: The siege of Android: How Google lost the OS war!

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Rohin Dharmakumar, Forbes India / ibnlive.in.com / Posted on Aug 18, 2011 at 01:44pm IST.

 

Vidyanand Kamat/Forbes India.

In a narrative beginning in 2016 and ending today, Forbes India recalls how the once irrepressible Google lost the mobile OS war.

Black Forest

August 12, 2016: In spite of glowing reviews, it may be too late for 'Black Forest', version 9.0 of Google's Android operating system (OS), to turn Google's ship around. In the last 12 months, Android's market share among smart devices has fallen from 35.4 per cent to a shade below 20 per cent globally. It is now just a few percentage points ahead of BlackBerry's BBX OS, while Microsoft Windows Phone and Apple iOS are both significantly ahead.

But as Andy Rubin, the man in charge of Android at Google, got off the phone in his office at Mountain View, California, even those per centage points seemed ephemeral. He had been talking to the head of Samsung's mobile devices division in Suwon, South Korea. "I hate to say this to you, Andy, but it is now becoming untenable for us to support both Android and Windows at the same time," he had said.

In less than two months, Samsung would announce that all of its smart devices would run exclusively on Windows. Though Android's relative share vis-a-vis Microsoft Windows had been falling steadily since 2012, it still accounted for nearly 30 per cent of all Samsung smart devices.

Win-kia

September 21, 2015: Research firm Gartner today announced that Microsoft Windows Phone had become the largest smart device OS globally. "Aided in large part by Nokia's volumes in Asia and Africa, and by increasing adoption by device makers, Windows has surpassed our own expectations," said the firm in a report.

The Microsoft-Nokia alliance, dubbed 'Win-kia', has surprised most analysts since its launch in late 2011. Though nowhere comparable in power to the Microsoft-Intel ('Win-tel') collaboration, Win-kia has been credited with upending the mobile OS playing field in just a few years.

While Nokia's wide range of phones and deep distribution and retail experience in emerging markets allowed Windows Phone to capture a large part of the entry and mid-level smartphone market, Microsoft's carrot-and-stick approach had done the trick with other device makers.

Each Android-run smart device meant royalties of $7-9 to Microsoft, insisted its suited, hard-nosed lawyer army. The only way to bring that down, they would say, is if the manufacturers committed to using Windows on a certain percentage of devices. The more the commitment, the less the royalty.

Already burdened under royalty payments ranging from $11-15 per device to Apple, Oracle and a bunch of other big and small companies, most manufacturers quietly acceded.

The Tipping Point

June 13, 2014: The Independent Mobile App Developers Association (I-MADA) is miffed at Google. "Google has quite clearly failed to step up and shield small developers from frivolous lawsuits, as a result of which much of our money and efforts is being spent on court cases instead of developing better apps," said the body in a press release today. According to the statistics attached, Android developers attracted nearly 60 per cent of all patent infringement lawsuits.

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http://ibnlive.in.com/news/the-siege-of-android-how-google-lost-the-os-war/176669-55.html

TECH NEWS: Google to Buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion!

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By: CNBC.com with Reuters / Published: Monday, 15 Aug 2011 | 7:58 AM ET.

Google said it will buy wireless phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings for about $12.5 billion in cash in a move to bolster the adoption of its Android mobile phone software.

Google said it would pay $40 per share, a 63 percent premium to Motorola Mobility's Friday close on the New York Stock Exchange. Motorola Mobility shares jumped 59 percent in premarket trade on Monday. Shares of Google were 2.5 percent lower in pre-market trading.

Google, maker of the Android mobile phone operating system software, has been forging ahead in the smartphone market, but has been hampered by a lack of intellectual property in wireless telephony.

Earlier this month, fresh from losing a bid to buy thousands of patents from bankrupt Nortel, Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond blasted Microsoft, Apple and "other companies,'' accusing them of colluding to hamper the increasingly popular Android software by buying up patents.

Google said the deal will close by the end of 2011 or early in 2012 and that it will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/44143172

Google doodles India's 65th Independence Day!

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ibnlive.in.com / Posted on Aug 15, 2011 at 10:15am IST.

New Delhi: A sketch of Delhi's Red Fort takes guard on the Google home page on the occasion of 15 August 2011, India's 65th Independence Day. The Red Fort has an important place in the history of Delhi and that of India. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, the fort was built in 1648 during the reign of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. It remained a focal point in the struggles for the throne of Delhi ever since.

It is from the ramparts of the Red Fort that the Prime Minister of India delivers his Independence Day address to the nation.

An distinctive feature of the Red Fort today is the fluttering Tricolour atop. But the Indian flag is missing from the Google doodle for August 15, 2011.

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TECH ALERT: App for Google Android smartphones secretly records calls!

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Josh Halliday, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 August 2011 18.34 BST.

A 'Trojan app' for Google’s Android smartphones can record users’ calls, researchers have found. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters.

A mobile application for Google's Android smartphones can secretly record users' phone calls and transmit them to malicious hackers, security researchers have found.

Once downloaded by a user, the app – which the researcher has not named, but seems to have a name relating to "System Messages" – surreptitiously stores a recording of the user's incoming and outgoing calls to the phone's memory card, according to the New York-based security experts CA Technologies.

In a blog post unveiling the finding, researcher Dinesh Venkatesan said the so-called "Trojan app" is one of the most invasive they have ever uncovered. He also warned that there is an increasing trend targeting smartphones using Google's Android software, which allows developers to submit apps with little vetting.

Google had not returned requests for comment at the time of publication.

Venkateskan wrote on the researcher's official blog: "In one of our earlier blogs, we have demonstrated how a Trojan logs all the details of incoming/outgoing calls and call duration in a text file.

"This Trojan is more advanced as it records the conversation itself in 'amr' format [which is optimised for recording speech]. Also it has many other malicious activities that we have seen in many of the earlier malware incidents targeted for Android platform."

The app, which was not named by the researchers for security reasons, asks users' permission to intercept outgoing calls and record audio before it is installed. Once downloaded, all calls the user makes will be logged on the phone's memory – which can potentially be accessed by the app's makers. The sound is filed in a folder called shangzhou/callrecord, suggesting that its author is Chinese.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/02/mobile-app-google-android-security

TECH NEWS: Google’s Street View in new privacy scandal: Report!

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DPA / The Hindu / SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2011.

It has previously been alleged that Google’s Street View cars were collecting personal data from unsecured wi-fi networks - AP.

Google collected the unique identifying addresses of computers and mobile phones that used wi—fi networks whose data was logged by the company’s Street View vehicles, technology website CNet.com reported Monday.

The report represents a further privacy problem for the US—based web search giant, after a government audit last year in Germany revealed that Google’s Street View cars were collecting personal data from unsecured wi—fi networks, including email addresses and phone numbers.

Google said that the information had been accidentally collected and claimed to have initiated strict protocols to prevent a recurrence.

CNet said that the new privacy lapse highlighted another loophole in Google’s system.

Street View cars were meant to collect the locations of wi—fi access points, a widely used method to help smartphones figure out their location in the absence of strong cell—phone or GPS signals.

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http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article2295983.ece?homepage=true

TECH VIGILANCE: 'Google Earth can help fight illegal mining in Goa'!

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July 20, 2011 / IANS, Panaji / DC.

If used effectively, internet search engine Google's software Google Earth can help pinpoint and curb illegal mining in Goa's hinterland, noted environmentalist Madhav Gadgil said on Wednesday.

Gadgil, a Padma Bhushan awardee, was speaking at the concluding session of a two-day seminar on environment here.

"Mining activity can be monitored easily using the Google Earth software. This is one way you can keep check on it using satellite imagery," Gadgil said.

The veteran green activist and academic said that the marriage of Goa government's unique mapping of the entire state using satellite imagery during the formulation of the state's futuristic Regional Plan 2021, with the clever use of Google Earth could help locate illegal mining as well as excessive mining in existing leases.

"The Regional Plan's mapping shows the area covered by mines and the leases. It should help locate where illegal mining is going on," Gadgil said.

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http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/sci-tech/others/google-earth-can-help-fight-illegal-mining-goa-901

TECH NEWS: Google going social as profit soars!

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• July 15, 2011 
• AFP 
• San Francisco / DC.

(File photo) Picture for illustrative purpose only - AFP.

Google on Thursday released blockbuster earnings figures along with word that more than 10 million people have already joined its freshly-launched online social network.

Google stock prices climbed more than 12 percent to $594.90 after release of the earnings figures by executives who effused about Google+, YouTube, Android and other products promising even better days ahead for the company.

"If you look at the arsenal we are building it is really quite formidable," Goggle chief financial officer Patrick Pichette said during an earnings conference call.

Google reported that its profit climbed to $2.51 billion in the recently-ended fiscal quarter on record-high revenue of more than $9 billion.

"We had a great quarter, with revenue up 32 percent year-on-year for a record-breaking over $9 billion of revenue," Google co-founder and chief executive Larry Page said on the call.

Slightly more than half of Google's revenue, $4.87 billion, came from outside the United States, the company reported.

Paid "clicks" on Internet ads at the heart of the Mountain View, California company's money-making machine were 18 percent higher than in the same quarter last year.

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TECH WORLD: Google Transit launched in Chennai, Hyderabad!

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RAMYA KANNAN / tHE hINDU / CHENNAI, July 14, 2011.

A scrrenshot of Google maps.

Currently, information on local bus services available

This is bound to be good news for those who use Google Maps to figure out their way around the city and who are determinedly faithful to the public transport system.

Google Transit, the search giant's application that gives users access to public transport systems embedded on Google maps, was launched in Chennai and Hyderabad on Wednesday. Currently, only information pertaining to local bus services is available.

Google Transit can be accessed on maps.google.co.in by clicking the train icon (indicative of public transport). As usual, with the maps feature, you can plot the route between point A to point B by choosing the ‘Directions' option.

A car and a train icon appear side by side; clicking on the train icon, you get a list of bus services from the start point to the destination, and approximate journey time.

It also provides the frequency of services, according to Manik Gupta, Head, Maps and Local Products, Google.

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http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article2224821.ece

TECH WORLD: What the Internet hides from you!

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DEEPA KURUP / The Hindu / BANGALORE, July 9, 2011.

Is personalisation of Web search leading to an information dystopia?

The word ‘googling' has, in our Internet age, become a somewhat acceptable verb for searching for information on the World Wide Web. The ‘naïve' Web users that we are, we believe that the ‘10 blue links' that pop up in response to our queries are fairly sacrosanct; that is, your search results are no different from mine.

However, critics allude to a growing information dystopia on the Web. Most famously, at a TED talk this year that went viral on the Web — where else — Eli Pariser spoke about what he calls the online “filter bubble”. In his recent book, titled The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You, Mr. Pariser makes a compelling argument against search personalisation, a strategy that is widely believed to be the future of Web search.

Web personalisation is fairly ubiquitous. For instance, micro-blogging site Twitter offers a personalised recommendation service, both for who you may want to follow and what you would like to see. But Pariser's observation is far more important, and disturbing. He uses a compelling example to present the invisible shift in information flow on the Web by comparing search results encountered by two friends.

When they searched for the phrase ‘Egypt' (at the height of the Egypt revolution), one found links to the political crisis and protests in Tahrir Square, while the other found his search page full of tourist information on the country

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TECH WORLD: Google suffers major blow in Nortel patent loss!

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July 4, 2011 ./ IANS, Toronto / DC.

Google, which initiated the bidding war for precious Nortel patents in April, has suffered a huge blow with an Apple-led consortium walking away with 6,000 patents for $4.5 billion last week.

The bidding process for 6,000 patents and patent applications began in April, with Google offering a $900-million stalking horse bid.

Apart from Apple, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM), Microsoft, Ericsson, Sony and EMC make up the winning consortium.

According to analysts, the patent auction is a big blow to Google as the search engine was willing to pay any price to beef up its bank of patents, which is the smallest among major wireless players.

As Google is also involved in more than 45 patent lawsuits, the biggest against any major player it wanted Nortel patents badly to protect itself against such lawsuits in the future.

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TECH WORLD: Zuckerberg now richer than Google founders!

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• June 30, 2011 
• PTI / DC.

Mark Zuckerberg - AFP.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's personal fortunes have soared, thanks to investment fund GSV Capital's recent stake in the social networking site which has put the Harvard dropout at a worth higher than Google founder Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Earlier this week, GSV Capital Corp bought 225,000 shares in Facebook at an average price of USD 29.28 each. This stake values the popular social networking site at about USD 70 billion. Based on the new investment, Zuckerberg in turn is worth approximately USD 18 billion, a report in Time magazine said. "With the new valuation, Zuckerberg has one-upped Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, whose fortunes are estimated to have dropped," the Time report said.

This estimate makes Zuckerberg the third-richest man in the technology sector in the world, only behind Microsoft's Bill Gates and Oracle's Larry Ellison. While Gates is estimated to be currently worth USD 56 billion, Ellison is the world's fifth-richest billionaire at USD 39.5 billion.

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GOVERNANCE Vs. GOOGLE: India asked Google to block content critical of government

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Vinay Kumar / The Hindu /  NEW DELHI, June 28, 2011.

The company logo is displayed at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. File photo - AP.

Number of content removal requests from the country up by 123 per cent

Are Indians allowed to use the Internet to criticise politicians and officials? If Google's latest ‘Transparency Report' is any indication, the police in some States don't seem to think so. In the last six months of 2010, law enforcement agencies across India asked the web search company to remove YouTube videos and a blog “that were critical of Chief Ministers and senior officials of different States.” Google says it did not comply with these requests.

In all, Google received 67 content removal requests from India between July and December 2010, covering a total of 282 items. Six of these requests were from courts and the rest from the executive, police and others.

The search engine said that 22 per cent of removal requests were fully or partially complied with, and the rest declined. It also received 1,699 “user data requests” from the government — euphemism for the police wanting a peek into the search and usage habits of targeted individuals — and complied with 79 per cent of these. However, no details were given.

Even Democratic Governments too act like Autocratic ones!

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http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2142480.ece