From the Verge’s live blog of the Google keynote at MWC:
For the wealthy, Schmidt says technology is only limited by “what we deem ethical.”
Call me crazy, but I don’t want Google — and especially not Eric Schmidt — deciding what’s ethical. Yikes.
Category: Google
The Problem with Android
[Google’s Android boss man Andy] Rubin said that the biggest problem for Android on tablets is “there’s no organized way for consumers to recognize it as a viable platform,” and that Google wants consumers to see its tablets as part of the broader Android ecosystem. “The educated consumer realizes it now that they’re either picking the Apple ecosystem or the Microsoft ecosystem or the Google ecosystem… we’re going to do a better job at making people understand what ecosystem they’re buying into.”
On Fraudulent iOS Apps
Recently there’s been a dramatic rise in the number of fraudulent apps getting attention — even top sales positions — in the iPhone and iPad App Store. Some scam apps are copy-cats that duplicate as closely as possible the name and icon of popular games in order to confuse consumers and get them to buy a scam app instead of the real thing. This costs the consumer money for the scam app and developers money for the lost sale. Others scam apps appear to be byte-for-byte copies, stolen whole-cloth and offered for sale side-by-side with the original. This still costs the developer money for the lost sale, and while consumers get a functioning app, it’s likely not one with any support going forward. Still other scam apps rip off the copyright of a popular brand (like Pokemon) for bogus apps that do nothing but cheat customers out of their money.
‘Not Tracking, Just Lying’
Google Tracking iPhone Users
To get around Safari’s default blocking, Google exploited a loophole in the browser’s privacy settings. While Safari does block most tracking, it makes an exception for websites with which a person interacts in some way—for instance, by filling out a form. So Google added coding to some of its ads that made Safari think that a person was submitting an invisible form to Google. Safari would then let Google install a cookie on the phone or computer.
Motorola and Ice Cream Sandwich
Motorola has just updated its large chart with its Android 4.0 upgrade plans, including specifics on what part of the upgrade process each phone is at and rough availability dates by region. Unfortunately, it looks like there’s going to be quite a wait ahead, as most of the company’s phones still have a long way to go before they get updated: only the Xoom Family Edition, Atrix 2, Atrix 4G, Photon 4G, Xoom 2, Xoom 2 Media Edition, and the international variants of the RAZR, Xyboard 8.2 and Xyboard 10.1 have estimated release dates, and all of the updates are slated for Q3 of this year (other than the Xoom Family Edition and the RAZR, which are given a Q2 estimate).
The Verge Reviews the Droid 4
I can’t decide if Sean Hollister’s voice is amazing or super creepy.
That said, the Droid 4 looks disappointing.
Search DuckDuckGo From Safari with TextExpander
Jason Rehmus’ idea is so good and so simple, I’m ashamed I didn’t come up with it.
Setup DuckDuckGo with Safari Omnibar
While I disliked Google before it was popular, it’s hard for me to argue that Chrome is a damn good browser on the Mac.
Thankfully, the Safari Omnibar plug-in 1 brings the best feature of Chrome — the unified address box and search field to Mac OS X’s native browser.
The Omnibar includes Google, Google Image and Wikipedia search by default. Adding DuckDuckGo is simple, however:
- Right-click in the Omnibar, and select “Edit Omnibar Search Providers…”
- Add a new item. I assigned the trigger “d” to DuckDuck Go. In the URL field enter:
http://duckduckgo.com/?q={searchTerms} - Click Done, after deciding what to set as the default.
It’s that easy to get away from Google’s search engine and their browser. Happy non-creepy searching.
Options
The biggest mistake here is the idea that there’s something, anything Google could do in order to turn Android into a business like the ones Apple has created. There isn’t.
‘One Size Fits None’
Motorola: Blame Carriers for Android Fragmentation
Chris Ziegler, from an interview with Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha:
We also talked about OEMs’ perennial press to skin the operating system — a trend that looks poised to continue in Android 4.0 — which developed into a full-blown conversation about the conflict between the mythical “stock Android device” and the realities of business between manufacturers like Motorola and carriers. “Verizon and AT&T don’t want seven stock ICS devices on their shelves,” he said, insisting that he “has to make money” and that there simply isn’t a way to profit on a device that isn’t differentiated. “The vast majority of the changes we make to the OS are to meet the requirements that carriers have.”