Google Once Asked Steve Jobs to be CEO!
What if Steve Jobs was the CEO of Google? So many things may be different. Would we have iPhones, iPads? Would Blackberry own the mobile market? Would we even have Android devices?
All of these questions may have strange answers if Steve Jobs would have said Yes when Google asked him to be CEO. In an interview by Bloomberg TV in a their documentary called “Game Changers”, we learn that Sergey Brin and Larry Page had once discussed the CEO position with Mr.Jobs, among 12 or 13 other interviewees.
In the end, Eric Schmidt was the man, and a great choice he was indeed!
Google Nexus 2 gets Android 2.3 Gingerbread
More details are surfacing on Google’s latest hush-hush incarnation of its own-brand smartphone, the Nexus Two. The reportedly Samsung-designed follow-up to last year’s Nexus One has been tipped to be the first handset on the market to come running Android 2.3 – or Gingerbread, as the kids call it.
The updated Gingerbread OS is rumoured to include an updated user interface, improved social networking capabilities and access to an Android music store, although Google remains tight-lipped on whether the handset even exists.
From what details have been leaked so far, the Google Nexus Two looks and feels a lot like the Samsung Galaxy S, with a 4″ AMOLED touchscreen and a black gloss plastic shell. New additions include the now compulsory front-facing camera for all those video calls you’re itching to make.
The Google Nexus Two is expected to get its big debut at a Samsung press event in New York on November 8th. More details when we have them.
Nexus Two does exist ?
After going most of the year with very little noise on the Nexus One’s successor — a phone Google has never committed to making, by the way — we’ve gotten a handful of conflicting rumors about this thing in the past few days. Let’s take a swipe at the buzz that’s circulating this week:
- British publication City A.M. says the Nexus Two is a Carphone Warehouse exclusive, will be released in time for the holidays, and probably won’t be made by Samsung.
- Android and Me is convinced that the Nexus Two will in fact be a Samsung product, will be announced at its November 8th press conference, will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (assuming 3.0 is Honeycomb), and will be available on multiple carriers. Read more
Latest Cyanogen nightly adds FM radio to Nexus One
In the latest “hack an FM radio onto that Android device” news, Cyanogen has added FM radio to the Nexus One. In the latest changelog of the Cyanogen nightly build, the notes state that the changes include:
- Common: Stable shot camera mode – Cyanogen
- Common: Dual-mode snooze (long press dismiss) – Evan Charlton
- Common: Compose SMS/MMS via search button long press – Wes Garner
- N1: FM Radio support
- N1/DS/Hero – Slightly better Gallery3D orientation fix – Jonas Larsson
- N1/DS – Kernel 2.6.35 based on Pershoot’s repository
- Supersonic – Kernel 2.6.34 courtesy of Toast and Madcoder
You heard it here, folks. If you’ve got a rooted Nexus One, the infamous “developer phone”, and you either:
A) Haven’t updated your CyanogenMod build to the latest nightly, or
B) Haven’t tried out CyanogenMod at all,
Be sure to hit up the xda-developers Nexus One development forums for more info.
Logitech Google TV launch : The extras
Obviously the star of the show at the Logitech Google TV event in New York was the Revue set top box that will transform your HDTV into an all singing, all dancing internet-powered media station, but there were a few other little launches that are definitely worth a mention.
First up is the Logitech Mini Controller which is a compact companion for your Google TV set top box, quite literally handy if you don’t fancy using the supplied, and rather large, keyboard. Read more
T-Mobile G2 review
It’s been a long road to the T-Mobile G2 (and this review). Just two years ago, Android made its entrance into the smartphone market with the G1, a partnership with the fourth-place carrier, and a lot of promises about keeping things open. Since then we’ve seen the likes of the Droid family, Google’s Nexus One, and the powerhouses that are the Samsung Galaxy S line — to name a few. Yes, the Android landscape has become more than just a little crowded. But of those many, there are few who leap beyond what we’ve come to expect from the Google-backed enterprise into the realm of the top tier. For all the Android devices you can purchase, only a few rise above the noise. At a glance, the G2 looks like one of those handsets — designed and manufactured by HTC (and known as the Desire Z in Europe), outfitted with a (nearly) stock build of Android 2.2, and equipped with T-Mobile’s new HSPA+, which the carrier claims can offer network speeds nearly equivalent to 4G. So is the G2 the sum of its parts — the pure Android experience you’ve been waiting for — or does it fall short of the hype? Find out below in the full Engadget review! Read more
Sizes And Pricing for Sony Google TV Family Leaked
Many of our readers out there are pretty excited about the Sony Google TV. We’ve written about it nearly a dozen times and it’s basically a television with an Intel processor and the ability to fully surf the web (including flash sites). There is other compelling features in the service, including access and search video services and direct integration with select service providers. Some of you may secretly cross off days on the calendar till its debut on October 12th. However, your bank account also wonders what the hit will be when you fold on the impulsive desire to get that Internet TV in your bedroom or your den.
Did you notice our title said Sony Google TV family? Yes, that’s because there will be a few models initally available to choose from. It looks like Sony will be offering 4 different Internet TV’s – 24′, 32′, 40′, and 46′ models: Read more
Google Goggles: Now viewing on the iPhone
Google Goggles has finally made its way to the iPhone, almost a year after Android users first got in on the photo tagging fun.
Goggles lets you search for things using your camera, instead of text, or your voice. For example, point it at a book cover and you will get links to buy the book, read reviews or info – all the usual stuff you’d get if you typed the book title into the search engine. Read more
Internet Explorer falls below 50 percent global marketshare, Chrome usage triples
According to Stat Counter, Microsoft’s browser has officially fallen below the 50 percent market share mark to 49.87 percent. Firefox holds relatively strong at 31.5 percent and Chrome is soaring with 11.54 percent having only launched just over 2 years ago.
In Europe, IE market share has fallen to 40.26% in September this year from 46.44% in September last year. While in North America IE is still above 50% at 52.3% followed by Firefox at 27.21% and Chrome at 9.87%. The rise of Google Chrome in North America has also been impressive and in June it overtook Safari for the first time.
Expectedly it’s the geeks and early adopters that appear to be driving Chrome’s growth. One reader highlights that fact by revealing that out of 55,000 visitors to his site from Hacker News (an entrepreneurial/early adopter community), only 1.13 percent were using Internet Explorer.
Android is number one OS among US phone buyers over the last six months
Android’s exponential growth has today been illustrated by Nielsen’s statisticians who present us with the above chart of recent US smartphone purchases. It shows that over the six months leading up to August 2010, 32 percent of American new phone buyers had grabbed themselves a device with Google’s OS on board, which is comfortably ahead of RIM at 26 percent and Apple at 25 percent. These results corroborate NPD’s figures on the matter — which peg Android at 33 percent of new US purchases — and reiterate the idea that Android is headed to a place whose name starts with D and ends with omination. One more chart showing total market share can be found after the break (hint: BlackBerry still reigns supreme overall).
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