The latest from TechCrunch
- Google Responds To The HTC/Apple Lawsuit It's Not A Part Of
- The TiVo Premiere Has Landed: New Remotes, Wi-Fi Connectors, and DVRs
- Google Handing Out Free Nexus Ones And Droids To Top Android Devs
- G.ho.st's Web-Based Operating System To Shut Down March 15
| Google Responds To The HTC/Apple Lawsuit It's Not A Part Of | Top |
| As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, Apple has filed a lawsuit against device-maker HTC over 20 patents they control. Seeing as the suit is between Apple and HTC, we didn’t reach out to Google for a comment — but they decided to send us one anyway. “ We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it ,” a Google spokesperson emailed us. A little odd that Google would proactively send us a statement for something they’re not technically involved in. But, as we’re all well aware, this suit is much more about Google’s Android operating system than HTC . And it seems that Google is well aware of that too. As we noted earlier, the only HTC devices specifically being called out in the suit are Android-based ones including the Nexus One, the Magic/myTouch 3G, the Dream/G1, the Hero, and the Droid Eris. And in fact, with the Nexus One, Google worked closely with HTC to make the device, and is completely in control of selling it. Still, for whatever reason, Google is not named in the suit — at least not yet. You’ll recall that exactly one month ago, Google decided to turn on multi-touch support for Android users with Nexus Ones. As we noted at the time, Apple was probably not going to be too happy about that . After all, it had been previously reported that the reason Android phones in the U.S. didn’t support multi-touch up until that point was a gentleman’s agreement between Apple and Google when the two were still all buddy-buddy . And now we’re starting to see the fall-out. What’s odd is that these HTC phones have actually supported multi-touch (only one of the many patents Apple is disputing here), but it’s only now after Google just enabled it in the software that we’re seeing the lawsuit — of the hardware company involved. Still, this looks to be Apple multi-punching back. And Google doesn’t sound like it will back down. [image: warner brothers pictures] | |
| The TiVo Premiere Has Landed: New Remotes, Wi-Fi Connectors, and DVRs | Top |
| Finally. We finally have new TiVo models. The TiVo HD XL launched a long year and half ago and the UI is even older. But that's behind us now, the TiVo Premier is here and it's (nearly) everything we need in a DVR. Everything is different: the hardware, the interface, even the remote. (QWERTY!) With the TiVo Premier comes a new interface that's been designed to present web videos just like live TV. But it's not just web videos. The whole system was reworked to allow users better access to their locally-stored content as well. Premiere's search function queries all sources and will find content whether it's on a web video or live TV. Pandora and FrameChannel join Netflix and YouTube as built-in apps. | |
| Google Handing Out Free Nexus Ones And Droids To Top Android Devs | Top |
| Google has just sent out an Email to select Android developers informing them that they are eligible to receive either a Verizon Droid or a Nexus One, as part of its ‘Device Seeding Program’. The criteria for getting one of the phones is to have an application with 3.5 stars or higher and more than 5,000 downloads, which sounds like it could include quite a few developers. In an odd move, Google isn’t actually allowing the developers to pick which device they’re receiving — if you’re in the US, you’ll get a Droid or Nexus One, at random. If you’re in Canada, the EU, Norway, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore, you get a Nexus One. If you’re not in any of those, you don’t get a phone at all (Google explains that the phones aren’t certified in other countries). So why is Google doing this? Android is already having to deal with fragmentation issues , as a large number of users (and developers) have older phones that aren’t running Android 2.0. Now that the Droid, which runs 2.0, comprises a big part of Android’s market share, it’s in Google’s best interest to make sure that Android’s best developers are building software that’s compatible with the latest devices. The free phones also serve as a nice carrot to entice developers to build quality applications. Here’s the Email Google is sending out: Due to your contribution to the success of Android Market, we would like to present you with a brand new Android device as part of our developer device seeding program. You are receiving this message because you’re one of the top developers in Android Market with one or more of your applications having a 3.5 star or higher rating and more than 5,000 unique downloads. In order to receive this device, you must click through to this site, read the terms and conditions of the offer and fill out the registration form to give us your current mailing address so that we can ship your device. You will receive either a Verizon Droid by Motorola or a Nexus One. Developers with mailing addresses in the US will receive either a Droid or Nexus one, based on random distribution. Developers from Canada, EU, and the EEA states (Norway, Lichtenstein), Switzerland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore will receive a Nexus One. Developers with mailing addresses in countries not listed above will not receive a phone since these phones are not certified to be used in other countries. We hope that you will enjoy your new device and continue to build more insanely popular apps for Android! Update: : And here’s a followup statement from Google about the program: A thriving developer community is an important part of creating a better mobile experience for users around the world. We hope that offering devices to developers will make it easier for them to create and test great applications. This is inline with other efforts to support developers, which also includes our Android Developer Labs World Tour and our upcoming participation at the Game Developers Conference. CrunchBase Information Android Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| G.ho.st's Web-Based Operating System To Shut Down March 15 | Top |
| Ghost Inc. , also known as G.ho.st, is shutting down its personal cloud-based services in two weeks, according to an email the company just sent out to users. Ghost cites “changes in the marketplace” as the reason behind the shutdown, but says that the startup will continue to license or sell its technology to larger companies. The service launched its beta last summer after years of development, allowing users to store their files in the cloud. Files were accessed through a web-based desktop environment, which also included integrated tools like Zoho for editing documents. Users could also access their files through a mounted virtual drive in Windows or from their mobile phones. Ghost was previously hosted at G.ho.st, which stood for “Global hosted operating system”. The company later moved to the current domain, Ghost.cc, which has the broader tagline, “Cloud Computing”. Here’s the email the company just sent out to users: Dear Ghost User, We hope you have been enjoying our free Ghost service. Regrettably changes in the marketplace mean that it is no longer economical for us to host the Ghost service and we will be closing down the service on or around March 15. We will instead be focusing on licensing or selling our technology to larger companies. We advise you to migrate ALL important folders, files and emails to another secure place before March 15. You might like to consider Google Docs or Microsoft SkyDrive for files and services such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail for email. Some instructions for migrating data are included below. We are really sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and are very grateful for the fantastic support we had from our community. Note that the message says “on or around” March 15 — hopefully they mean “no earlier than”, but I’d back up my data as soon as possible. It’s also unclear if Ghost’s unreleased services are being shutdown as well (both “Ghost Enterprise” and “Ghost Business” are marked as Coming soon on the site). I’ve reached out to the company for more details. CrunchBase Information G.ho.st Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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