Song “Covers” Uploaded to YouTube Could Land You in Jail For Five Years

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82VtBxeJH3I

Beyonce lip-synching videos are in danger, people! Along with CathyMay15 s Boom Boom Boom and any other YouTube videos that could be contravening the law. If passed, US Senate bill 978 will make the internet a lot less fun.

It's obviously not the first time YouTube has come under fire for housing videos that flout copyright laws, but everyone's getting a little twitchy about this bill. Currently, it's only against the law to upload or reproduce (make a copy of) something copyrighted, like a TV show or a song, but if Congress amends the rulebook and includes performances, YouTube will have a lot of work on its hands, deleting contravening videos.

Website TruthOrTreason points out that the proposed bill also suggests punishment for those who distribute copyrighted performances. So if I were to post a video of CathyMay15 in this post, and more than 10 people view it, I personally could face five years in jail. Whoops.

It's No "Game of Thrones" Finale, but Yahoo Logo-Palooza Ends Tonight

Here are a few choice things I wait for in rapt anticipation:

While "Game of Thrones" is on hiatus after its sensational "Red Wedding" finale, the next episode of "Orange Is the New Black" - which spouse and I are watching two at a time nightly, although I am considering sneaking by day to find out what Pornstache will do to Red.

The new iPhone, which will be unveiled next Tuesday at Apple's Cupertino, Calif. HQ - because I will upgrade to it, my older son will get my old one and my younger son will get his brother's old one as his first phone ever (it's a family of impatience over here).

Whenever anyone says they are "gladiators in suits" on "Scandal" or whenever its star, Kerry Washington as Washington fixer Olivia Pope, gives that long, sad gaze that comes from loving the wrong man who also happens to be President of the United States.

The Oreo version of Google Android - because I like Oreos. A lot more than KitKats.

And even - and I am ashamed to admit this - whatever the next cup-full-of-crazy thing Miley Cyrus gets into.

But, I'll be honest - except for the fact that I have to cover it at the time I would have been watching my daily dose of "OITNB" tonight - I will have to drastically gin up my excitement level over the new Yahoo logo that is set to be unveiled at 9 pm PT.

Doubtless, others have been pre-briefed on this new look, which was last changed a few years ago. But, for the rest of us, over the last month Yahoo has been showing 29 other logos it will not be using to get us all atwitter with expectation.

While I still don't quite get this move from a marketing perspective - it's like having a parade of all the people you decided not to marry before your wedding - there have been some design doozies in the bunch. That might have been the point: Show off all the bad so we will love, love, love the new one.

On that score, mission accomplished!

Such as this one from Day 2 that looks like an air freshener I declined to purchase last week at Safeway:

Or this one from Day 11, which looks like my grandmother, who had excellent cursive penmanship, wrote it (nothing says the future like a handwritten logo from the last century!):

Or Day 20, which resembles what happens when I let those kids of mine play on my computer and they screw up the fonts:

Or Day 28, which is pretty much a flat-out lift of the Yoo-hoo logo, a high-fructose corn syrup beverage I enjoy imbibing from time to time:

Finally, I really don't have one single clue about what's going on with Day 29:

Which, I think, is the goal of the marketers of Yahoo - after this parade of losers, we shall now get to gaze upon the gleaming new spouse that the Silicon Valley Internet giant will be wedded to for years to come. This jazz-hands rollout is very much in keeping with the tenure of new CEO Marissa Mayer, who is trying to generate as much excitement around Yahoo as possible as part of her turnaround efforts.

Presumably, this logo for the new Yahoo will be just the ticket! We'll see - but, until then, I am going to go and see what Crazy Eyes is up to, which is one sure thing to be interesting.

Huawei Doesn't Want BlackBerry

Here's one company that BlackBerry need not consider as it works to narrow down the list of parties interested in buying all or part of its business: Huawei.

Asked if Huawei might consider acquiring BlackBerry or another handset maker to bolster that business, board member Chen Lifang said the company is simply not interested.

"No, we have not considered (an acquisition)," she told reporters in London, according to Reuters. "We want to rely on ourselves."

Which makes sense. Huawei has done very well for itself pursuing that strategy. Today, it's the third-largest manufacturer of smartphones by volume, after Samsung and Apple. And it has claimed that title by building devices for Google's Android operating system. So why would it bother with BlackBerry? It clearly doesn't need it, or the company's new BlackBerry 10 platform, which seems to have lost its bid for third place in the smartphone OS wars to Microsoft.

As Lifang said, "In manufacturing mobile phones, we have made very good progress."

On Chrome Web Store, Real Games Mix With Mario Knockoffs

We've heard it over and over again (and arguably for good reason): Nintendo does not make games for platforms it does not control. So, imagine my surprise yesterday when I stumbled across a dozen or so Mario games on Google's Chrome Web Store.

These games are no more real than that Rolex you bought for $15 in Times Square - they're unlicensed, generally low-quality knockoffs, taking advantage of the openness of Google's browser, which just turned five. Many of the store's new native desktop apps look like snazzy cousins of the apps you might find in the Google Play Store on Android; however, in Chrome's Web app store (I know, these product names are all confusing), it's still the Wild West.

In addition to the fake Marios, a cursory search of the Web app store yesterday turned up knockoffs of many other popular franchises: one for Fruit Ninja, two for Crash Bandicoot, four for Doodle Jump, nine for Candy Crush Saga and 10 for Sonic the Hedgehog. A source with knowledge of the store said Google investigates unauthorized apps if the content owners report the offending apps to the company.

These fakes mix with real apps, like Rovio's official Angry Birds Chrome Web app, and to separate the good from the bad, users have to check the developer's website name. For example, one of the Candy Crush Saga knockoffs lists as its website candycrushsaga.blogspot.com, which is not one of King's sites. The official site for that game is candycrushsaga.com.

I asked a Nintendo spokesperson if the company was aware of the Mario knockoffs, and she returned the following generic statement from Nintendo of America:

Nintendo video games are offered only on Nintendo systems such as the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Applications on the Apple or Google marketplaces that purport to be Nintendo video games are not legitimate and users who download these applications may expose themselves to spyware or other malicious software [...]

Wait, malicious software? Yes, it's possible, as 80,000 users learned last year by way of a fake Bad Piggies Chrome app. According to security company Barracuda Networks, that's the number of users who installed a bogus Bad Piggies and got some "aggressive adware" to boot. Bonus!

The Nintendo statement continued, "Nintendo actively monitors the unauthorized use of its intellectual property, and will continue to seek removal of any unauthorized content in these marketplaces."

Taking these specific games out of the Chrome store won't completely neutralize potential security threats posed by current or future games, of course. But the very thing that makes the store work - a search, discovery and recommendation-focused design that makes these games and services more accessible to Chrome users - may mislead gamers who don't think to look too closely.

"We remove apps from the Chrome Web Store that do not comply with our terms of service," a Google spokesperson said. Some of the Mario games I mentioned in my emails to the company have now disappeared from the Chrome store, but here is a screenshot of how they were showing up for me in the store's main trending section yesterday.

Apple Won't Introduce New Apple TV Box Next Week, Will Upgrade Software

There are very, very good odds you're going to hear about new iPhones at Apple's event next Tuesday.

But if you're looking for a new Apple TV, you're going to be disappointed.

Despite speculation about new Apple TV hardware on the way, Apple won't be unveiling any new boxes next week, according to people familiar with the company's plans.

That said, the company will be tweaking the software inside its Web TV box. Apple has already said that it will be bringing its new iTunes Radio service to Apple TV. And it has been adding new content partners, including Disney and HBO, throughout the summer.

Expect to hear about more changes next week.

Sources said that one new feature in the works will let people who've bought content from Apple play that stuff on other users' Apple TVs, via Apple's Airplay system and Apple's server. So if you bought a TV show or movie from Apple's iTunes store, you could watch it at a friend's house by calling it up on your iPhone and telling your friend's Apple TV to start streaming it. (The files wouldn't need to be stored on your iPhone or iPad)

You could have previously accomplished this by getting your friend to log out of their Apple TV box and then logging in with your own credentials. But that's awfully cumbersome - particularly with Apple's minimalist Apple TV remote. And you can already do a variation on this, though not as elegantly, with some Apple TV apps like HBO Go.

But if this makes it that much easier to watch "Pain and Gain" with your pals, then that's a good thing. And if that makes you less inclined to buy a $35 Google Chromecast and treat that as your Web TV device, then that's good for Apple.

No comment from Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr.

Google Merges European Operations To Square Up To Regulators And Rivals

Legal Notices In iOS 5 Hint at Future Apple Navigation App

There's been a long-standing rumor that Apple is at work on big mapping/navigation project for iOS. The company hasn't let much slip about its plans, but public job postings paint the picture that Apple's been assembling a team for just such a mission. Now an eagle-eyed user of the iOS 5 developer release spotted something curious in the operating system's legal notices, adding more ammunition to the case for a new Apple mapping app.

Notices include those dealing with the offerings of at least nine companies with ties to mapping and navigation. Though some of them provide data for Google's map services as well, there are distinct entries here that look like they're the result of new agreements that Apple has made itself.

Among the companies, Waze deals in crowd-sourced traffic data. We heard that Apple was interested in just that sort of technology, relying on information gathered from users to provide real-time congestion information. That association is likely to be the closest thing to a smoking gun we're liable to come across at this point.

While Apple is still using Google data for Maps at this point, it seems that it's setting itself up for a future where it will have the resources to offer its own mapping solution; we just don't know how long that will take.

Google takes on Facebook with the Google+ project

New social network announced by search giant

Google has just announced its new social networking platform, the Google+ project - its most blatant attempt at Facebook's throne to date.

Google+ is live now, as an invitation only "Field Trial", and the blog post announcing its arrival isn't shy in stating why this could be your social network of choice (without mentioning the F-word at all, you understand):

"The problem is that today's online services turn friendship into fast food - rapping everyone in 'friend' paper and sharing really suffers," it reads.

"It's sloppy. We only want to connect with certain people at certain times, but online we hear from everyone all the time.

"It's scary. Every online conversation (with over 100 'friends') is a public performance, so we often share less because of stage fright.

"It's insensitive. We all define 'friend' and 'family' differently - in our own way, on our own terms - but we lose this nuance online."

Ouch. Take that Zuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwnJ5Bl4kLI

Google+ puts you in control of groups, called Circles, so as you can always control who sees what content that you put online.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeMZP-oyOII

The Big G is also aware that you may be boring you social networking pals by talking about subjects that do not really interest them. To solve this, it has created Sparks within Google+, where you can create groups of people and sections for specific interests.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRkAdTflltc

Hangouts looks like being the Google Skype killer that we'd heard rumoured. It allows you to join in a video chat with a group of your friends (no limit is stated - but the demo video shows a maximum of six people in one conference) all within the browser.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tku1vJeuzH4

Google+ doesn't forget Android either, there's location tagging and instant uploading of your pics on hand - as well as a group chat platform called Huddle.

In fact, the Google+ app is already in the Android Market - with a promise that it'll be App Store bound soon too.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA22daAstNg

As we said, it's invite only at the moment - although if your Gmail user, be on the lookout for one.

"Online sharing needs a serious re-think, so it's time we got started. There's just one more thing -really the only thing: You." the blog post reads.

"When your invite arrives we hope you'll join the project. But it's entirely up to +You."

You can ask Google to keep you updated on the invite front over at plus.google.com, or even take a tour of the platform's features. You'll need a Google ID mind.

We'd love to be a fly on the wall at Facebook HQ right now.....

Google+ or Google nonplussed? Let us know using the comments below.

"Just a Reflektor" Brings You and a Smartphone Into Arcade Fire's Latest Video

The band Arcade Fire has come out with another interactive music video designed to inspire and provoke, push the limits of Web technology, and make your laptop fan work in overdrive.

"Just a Reflektor" combines a Web browser, webcam and smartphone to include the viewer's point of view in the video, with the phone (or mouse) used to control what's illuminated. It's a neat way to make the experience of the video more visceral.

Like the band's "The Wilderness Downtown" before it, "Reflektor" was made using Google technology, specifically the Chrome browser, which it requires.

The short film was written, directed and produced by frequent Arcade Fire collaborator Vincent Morisset, and filmed in Haiti. Credits include the Google Creative Lab, the company's internal imaginative product marketing agency, and UNIT9.

On a tech explainer page that breaks down the various effects used in the video, the band highlights technology including the JavaScript Library three.js, WebSockets and the open-source TailBone project.

"Just a Reflektor" is also open source.

Google Videos Application for Android Coming Soon?

Google announced its movie service at GoogleIO where the company and its service would allow for rentals through the Android Market. El Goog also promised device support and it appears that a Google Videos application has surfaced on the Android Market just to be quickly yanked.

The application was available for a short time in the Android Market but those who were lucky enough to grab it report that "it doesn't work on phones yet". While its appearance in the Market is a pretty solid indication of things to come there is no certain information about an availability date. Check out the video of the app in action below:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaOhLpsoCA0

Google+ for iPhone coming within days

Dedicated iOS app on the way

Google's Google+ for iPhone app should be landing in the App Store within the next 2 weeks according to the big G, after confirming that it has submitted the app to Apple for approval.

The new app, which only works for those who have access to the new closed beta service, promises to give Google+ users the chance to catch up on their new found friends and the social network from a dedicated app rather than just the mobile website currently available.

Googler Erica Joy made it very clear in a post on Google+:

"For my iPhone using friends: the Google+ iPhone app has been submitted to the App store (no not today, sometime prior to today) and is awaiting approval."

Of course there is no guarantee that Apple will approve the app as is. Many question whether or not the Cupertino-based company will allow the app to upload photos in the background, something no other app to our knowledge does.

The Android version of the Google+ app gives you full control over the new social network as well as offering other features like automatically adding people to your Contacts book and letting you "Huddle", two other features that might not make it to the iOS version.

Are you looking forward to the iPhone app? Let us know.

No Internet? No Problem: YouTube Getting Ready to Let You Watch Videos Offline, on Your Phone.

YouTube streams more than six billion hours of video a month. Soon it will let people watch some of those videos even if they're not connected to the Web.

Next month, Google's video site will let viewers save clips on their phones and other mobile devices for up to 48 hours, so they can watch them when they're not online.

The videos will still be free, and Google will run ads on the clips, which will be available via its mobile apps.

That's a big change for the eight-year-old company, which has previously required a live Web connection to watch its videos (though there are plenty of workarounds).

YouTube announced the move in a blog post published late last night, and started telling its partners about its plans via email, as well; YouTube said it will allow uploaders to opt out of the offline option.

The practical benefit for YouTube viewers is that they'll be able to watch videos in places where they've previously been unable to do so, like planes or cars.* This should presumably boost overall viewing for the site, which already generates more than a quarter of its views - that's more than a billion views a day - via mobile.

If so, that may put more pressure on YouTube's ad rates by opening up more inventory.

Here's the text of YouTube's post announcing the move:

We're always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we'll launch a new feature on YouTube's mobile apps that will help you reach fans - even when they're not connected to the Internet.

This upcoming feature will allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is unavailable. So your fans' ability to enjoy your videos no longer has to be interrupted by something as commonplace as a morning commute.

This is part of our ongoing updates to give people more opportunities to enjoy videos and channels on YouTube mobile. Check out the YouTube blog when this launches in November for more details on how this will work for viewers.

* I'll check, but I don't believe the move is relevant to Google's Chromecast gadget, which is designed to work in conjunction with mobile devices, but which relies on an Internet connection to play content on your TV. UPDATE: That's correct.

The Latest From Chrome and Android at Google Launch Event

Google will show off the latest in its Chrome and Android lines this morning.

It's no secret that there should be a new Nexus 7 - in fact, Best Buy already has the tablet on sale in 16 gigabyte and 32GB configurations.

Android itself is due for a modest update, as well, going to version 4.3 with improvements in Bluetooth and tweaks other areas.

We're also expecting something called "Chromecast" from Chrome, which will offer another way to get content from a mobile device on to a TV.

Earlier:
9:06 am: Sundar Pichai, SVP of Android, Chrome and Apps, takes the stage.

"At Google I/O, we talked about the fact that we are living at a pivotal moment in computing," he says. "Laptops, tablets, phones, televisions - it's a multiscreen world.

"Our goal is to deliver an experience that is seamless."

Pichai says, "Between Android and Chrome, we have a solution for all the computing devices that users have in their lives."

Two things coming today: A new Android device, a new Chrome device.

By the end of 2013, consumers are going to buy more tablets per year than personal computers. How is Android doing? More than 70 million activated so far.

Almost one in two tablets sold worldwide is based on Android.

A year ago, 20 billion applications downloaded on Google Play. Today, 50 billion. And, revenue per user is up 2.5x in a year. In that year, Google Play has gone from half a billion apps to 1 billion apps.

Pichai: We've worked closely with Asus - the CEO, Jonney Shih is here. The Nexus 7 accounts for more than 10 percent of tablets sold. In Japan, it was the single highest-selling tablet in the holiday season, accounting for 45 percent of sales.

Android exec Hugo Barra hops on stage. We can see he has a tablet in his back pocket.

It's tiny and thin. Barra: It's 2 millimeters thinner, with the same display size but reduced side bezels of 3 mm on either side. And it's 50 grams lighter. "It's a much more comfortable grip, and of course, it fits easily into your purse or jacket." It has the same soft touch with added gloss.

It has higher resolution - from 216 pixels per inch to 323 per inch - the highest of any in the market.

It can show a 30 percent wider range of colors, and has stereo speakers, with Fraunhofer virtual surround sound.

Even more specs: 1.2 MP front camera, 5 MP rear camera. 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro, 1.8x CPU, 4x GPU, doubled system memory to 2 GB. Dual band Wi-Fi, BLuetooth 4.0, 4G LTE for any U.S. network. HDMI, NFC, wireless charging. Some extra power compared to the original - 9 hours of HD video and 10 hours of Web browsing.

And it's shipping with Android 4.3, the new version of Jelly Bean.

It has multi-user support with restricted profiles that give control over content and apps at a user level (for example, for parents).

Now Barra is showing off a jigsaw puzzle app on his tablet ... scintillating demo material.

The app hides all the purchasing functionality and only exposes content to the restricted profile that has been approved.

And supporting OpenLG ES 3.0 to support graphics in games.

Here's Ina Fried's dedicated post on the Nexus 7.

Barra says they're going to show car racing with "jaw-dropping visuals." These demos are always a little strange because we're watching them projected on a huge screen, not the tiny tablet.

As a lady shoots people while riding a motorcycle amid lens flares, Barra says it's all rendered in real-time in native 1080p resolution.

Plus, there are new DRM APIs to restrict content access, which Barra says he's "thrilled" about. Really? Oh no, he's actually "thrilled" that Netflix has designed for it. Their new app supporting Android 4.3 is already available.

So when is Android 4.3 coming? They're pushing an update over the air today.

Barra switches over to talk about native Google Apps to show how they look on a tablet. They've redesigned Google Docs, with support for offline spreadsheet editing, etc. Chrome now has "print-quality" text and 15 percent more screen space. It also includes automatic translation.

The new Google Maps includes an "Explore" feature. Barra is gushing about how the layout is "awesome" especially at such a high resolution. And lastly, Google Hangouts - it also includes screensharing so people who are video-chatting can watch each other edit docs on their tablets.

Google Play product manager Ellie Powers shows how tablet apps are featured, and says hundreds of games have added the Google Play game services shown off at Google I/O. She demos some games and leaderboards. For instance, a game that looks like Mario Kart on jet skis now features responsive splashes on the windshield, and a game with a guy jumping across rooftops, parkour-style, has the shadows on the buildings change as you shift perspective.

Google Play will have a textbook section starting in early August, she says, with books from all five major textbook publishers. It'll include purchases as well as rentals for up to an 80 percent discount.

The prices are $229 for 16GB, $269 for 32GB and $349 for unlocked LTE. The first two will be on sale on July 30 at Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart, etc. The 4G model will be available "in the coming weeks," as will international launches in countries like the U.K. and Germany.

After a kind of odd Nexus 7 commercial about a kid with braces giving a speech in front of his class and then Googling "how do I ask a girl out," Pichai is back. He's talking TV. He says every single month more than 200 billion videos are watched in the world. And Netflix and YouTube combined have 49.4 percent share of all peak downstream Internet traffic in America. And lots of that is happening on non-TV devices.

A product dude whose name I didn't catch says Google's goals for TV are: "Make it fast and easy to set up, with nothing new to learn, and it works across platforms and devices."

He holds up what looks like a little USB stick, and says it's called Chromecast. It's running a simplified version of Chrome OS. It plugs into the HDMI port on a TV.

Let's say you want to watch YouTube on your TV, he says - you'll go to that site on your phone/table/PC and see a "Cast" button on the screen. When you do that, it's pulled from the cloud and played directly on the TV. Your device doesn't push the content, it comes direct from YouTube.

For the demo, Rishi Chandra comes onstage. In the past, he's the guy who demoed Google TV.

Interestingly, this TV effort is built around Chrome OS, where the previous Google TV was built on Android.

Here's Ina's pullout story on Chromecast.

Oops, and I missed her Android story. She's a busy lady.

"If you know how to use YouTube on your phone, you know how to use YouTube on your TV," Chandra says.

He adds, "Even in sleep mode, the videos continue to play. We don't drain your battery."

But, he says, "we recognize that not everyone has an Android phone. And we need a solution that works for everyone. Let's pretend my wife has an iPhone (heh)." It works the same.

The Cast button can also be used to bring a video back to the phone - if you click it, you can switch to your phone screen and the video will keep playing from the place you left it.

This also works for Netflix. This is the third Netflix callout of the presentation - unusually strong support for a single partner.

Chandra plays the "House of Cards" credits, which are in my opinion possibly awesomer than the show. This demo is to show that you can direct the content from any device that's connected to the Chromecast on the TV.

In this game of dueling remote controls, you can control content between an iPhone, a Nexus 7 and a TV. It's not exactly clear to me how this is coordinated - perhaps it's just the fact that they're on the same Netflix account.

This can also be used for Google Play Music and Pandora, Chandra says. The "Cast" button - which is a little rectangle with arcs in the corner - shows up there, too.

And lastly, a beta feature: You can project any Chrome tab from the browser to the TV.

"We'll project what's on your local device right onto the television - not the entire desktop or the URL bar, but what you want to look at." Chandra keeps emphasizing that the TV is the best screen in the house with the best speakers in the house, so it's ideal for content.

This will work with most Windows and Mac laptops as well as Chromebooks.

Developers won't need to build a new app to work with the Google Cast SDK, which is out in developer preview today.

Actually, the Pandora integration is still under development.

It will retail for $35 and can be ordered today from Amazon, Best Buy and Google Play.

And it will include three months free of Netflix (another Netflix plug/tie-up!) if you buy now.

That concludes the presentation. Bye for now!

Google's Sundar Pichai: One in Two Tablets Is Running Android

Though the iPad seems to get all the attention, Google's Sundar Pichai said that Android is now running on half of the tablets being sold, with more than 70 million Android tablets having been activated.

"Google has made tremendous strides," Pichai said, speaking today at an Android and Chrome event in San Francisco.

To keep things growing, Google on Wednesday is launching an updated version of the Nexus 7 tablet built for Google by Asus. The new black design is thinner, lighter and has a smaller bezel than the first Nexus 7.

It adds a higher-density 1080p display, which packs 323 pixels per inch.

A 16 gigabyte Wi-Fi model will be available for $229, while the 32GB model will sell for $269.

Google is also announcing an unlocked LTE version of the tablet that works with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. That version will sell for $349 and be available in the coming weeks.

The original Nexus 7, Pichai said, accounted for 10 percent of all Android tablets.

Google is also hoping to get more students interested in the Nexus and other Android tablets with a new textbook store. The section of Google Play, which will debut in early August, features the ability to rent or buy textbooks, and will have content from all five major educational publishers.

Android Gets a Modest Update, Adding Improved Bluetooth and Other Niceties

As part of its event on Wednesday, Google announced that the Android operating system is getting an update.

Version 4.3 of the software, still part of the Jelly Bean family, includes support for kids' accounts, which Google has dubbed "restricted profiles." The new Android update also adds support for Bluetooth Smart (a.k.a. Bluetooth Low Energy) as well as OpenGL ES3, the latest version of the 3-D graphics standard.

The first device loaded with Android 4.3 will be the redesigned Nexus 7 tablet that Google announced earlier on Wednesday (and which Best Buy pre-announced even earlier).

Older Nexus 7 devices will get the update, as will the Nexus 4, Galaxy Nexus and some other Nexus devices. The Google Play versions of the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One will get the update soon.

Netflix will be among the first software makers to take advantage of the new update, using it to power 1080p streaming video.

A new Google Play Games app - available from the store and included on the new Nexus 7 - is designed to serve as a destination for Android gamers with leaderboards, achievements and other features often found in such hubs.

FTC Finalizes Google Standards-Essential Patent Deal

The Federal Trade Commission today finalized its settlement with Google over the company's alleged misuse of the standards-essential patents it gained as part of its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2011. The final order requires Google to license those standards-essential patents on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms, and prevents the company from using them as a weapon against rivals by seeking product injunctions and importation bans based on them.

Browser extension brings Facebook stream to Google+

So many social networks...such little time

Developer Crossrider has released a tool that allows you to integrate your Facebook stream into the Google+ dashboard.

Whilst not quite being perfect Facebook/Google harmony, it is as close as you can currently get to unifying your split social networks under one roof. Now all we need is Twitter added into the mix and things will really get exciting.

The Google+Facebook Chrome extension was created in a day using the Crossrider developer framework. It is a clever JavaScript framework for creating quick cross browser extensions. For those who fancy giving it a go themselves and possibly integrating Twitter into Google+, read here.

Expect having to grant the application full access to your Facebook account to deliver updates, not the most secure of options admittedly, but is necessary if you want to use it. The need to constantly notify your friends, fans and public of your thoughts and feelings can now be done twofold, both on Facebook and Google+, all from one browser.

For those struggling to remove themselves from a deep Facebook addiction in order to start a new one with Google+, it looks like the chrome extension is the best option. The day will come however, when a choice between the two needs to be made. Judging by the speed that Google+ has been adopted, that day might come sooner rather than later.

Article: RSS via Pocket-lint

Google's Chromecast Lets You Watch TV on the Web on Your TV. Guess Who Doesn't Like That?

One of the cool features of Google's new Chromecast device: It lets users move whatever they can see on their computer's Chrome Web browser onto their TVs.

One group of people who might not think that's cool: TV executives, who are still trying to draw a distinction between things you watch on your computer and things you watch on your TV.

For example: Chromecast's mirroring capability poses an issue for Hulu. The video website has tried to restrict user's ability to watch its free Hulu.com service on TV screens; instead, it sells the ability to watch Hulu on a TV as part of its $8 a month Hulu Plus service.

Hulu says it is working with Google to bring a Hulu Plus app to Chromecast, and when it does it will be an "optimized" viewing experience.* And not all of Hulu Plus's content is available on free Hulu. But a lot is. So in theory, that should make Hulu Plus a harder sell for Chromecast customers.

Google may also hear from HBO, which is fine with people watching its HBO Go service on big screens - but only with the explicit approval of the pay TV channel. For instance, HBO prevented Apple TV users from streaming its programs from its iPads and iPhones until February; last month, Apple added a dedicated HBO Go app to Apple TV.

Of course, anyone with any common sense, who doesn't work in legal or biz dev at a large entertainment company, knows that it's silly to argue that something that's on one screen shouldn't be on another. And anyone who wants to buy a cable and connect their laptop to their TV could already do this.

Which is exactly what Ossama Alami, a manager in Google's developer relations group, told my colleague Liz Gannes when she asked him about the issue today.

There is one solution for content owners who don't want people using Chromecast to fling stuff to their sets, Alami noted: Stop distributing their stuff on the Chrome browser. Not that he's suggesting they should do that.

It's worth noting that this move comes as Google is floating the notion of an "over the top" pay-TV solution, and talking to content owners and networks about licensing their stuff. And it comes after Google has already irked some content owners with earlier versions of Google TV, supposedly because Google didn't work hard enough to keep pirated content off of those devices.

You'd think that if Google were serious about its latest TV push, it would take extra care not to ruffle the TV guys' feathers. So maybe it doesn't think this is a ruffle-worthy issue. Or maybe it just doesn't care.

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Only tangentially related: Google's first ad for Chromecast is pitch-perfect. Shows you what the product does and different use cases for it, in realistic settings (check the clutter in some of these TV rooms - these look the kind of places real people live, and watch TV, in).

And it portrays TV-watching as a great thing to do with people you like. These people are "constantly directing their attention away from one another," but what they're mostly doing is having fun, with other people.

Smart.

*Google is also describing the current version of Chromecast as a "beta" version. Of course, "beta" can be a long-standing condition at Google.

New Nexus 7 Packs Quite a Pixel Punch, Landing a Blow at Apple

While Apple watchers are still waiting for an iPhone-style Retina display to make its way to the iPad mini, Android lovers got such a screen with the redesigned Nexus 7.

The second-generation Nexus 7 is capable of showing full HD content, thanks to a screen that shows a whopping 323 pixels per inch - well into the territory of screens where the individual pixels are too small to be recognized by the human eye from a reasonable reading distance.

Numbers aside, that means that the Nexus 7 can show movies in full 1080p high definition, a feat Apple's iPad mini can't match.

While the larger iPad has a greater-than-HD Retina display, it uses a totally different type of screen technology from the iPhone, and the mini is still in the less-than-Retina category. The Nexus 7, meanwhile, uses a similar display to the iPhone - part of what allowed Google and manufacturing partner Asus to make the device so thin and light.

Managing to secure such a screen - and to pack it into a relatively low-cost device - was no small feat.

Google's Hiroshi Lockheimer said the company has been working for quite some time with Japan Display - the company that makes the screens, which are known as LTPS (low-temperature poly-silicon) displays.

But in managing to incorporate such a screen, Google now has a strong selling point over both the iPad mini and other Android tablets with lower-resolution displays.

"They are using a lot of high-end technologies in an entry-level device," said DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim.

Shim said that Apple may be able to start producing later this year the components for a Retina-level iPad mini, but said volume shipments of such a device won't come until the first few months of next year because of the challenges of producing such a display.

Android and Chrome head Sundar Pichai said that, even at its $229 starting price, there is still room for retailers, Asus and Google itself to profit from the product.

The other big coup of the Nexus 7 was managing to create a single LTE model that can sell unlocked and work with carriers around the globe. In the U.S., for example, the same Nexus 7 can be connected to the networks of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.

Pichai said that is part of the company's aim with its Nexus devices, and that doing so will help the cellular-equipped model be more attractive to retailers leery of having to stock multiple different products.

Android tablets now account for 30% of the market?

If you were to tell us that Android tablets would eventually become the dominant choice for consumers one day, we wouldn't be surprised in the least bit. That said, it would be easier to believe if there were a better selection of decent Android tablets available to go against themarket leading iPad 2. Well, apparently quality doesn't mean all that much because according to the latest report from Strategy Analytics show Google's OS now taking up 30% of the market's tablet sales.

Not long ago, the Apple iPad had the market all to itself and stood alone with 93% of the market as Android tablets struggled to get a foot in the door with less than 3%. Fast forward to today and Android's strength in numbers is beginning to repeat its success the same way it took over the smartphone world. The OS still has a long way to go to genuinely compete with the likes of the iPad but the number of sales aspect is beginning to wane. Or so it seems.

Comparing the likes of the iPad 2 and Android tablets is simply unfair. There have only been two different iPad models, both as high-end as possible when released and the majority of Android tablets are stuck in 2009. With the exception of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Android tablets are nowhere near the beauty of the iPad 2. Given that you can grab an Android tablet for significantly less than the cheapest iPad, the number isn't as surprising as it sounds. That said, most of those cheaper Android tablets likely have questionable build quality, a lower version of the OS, and probably a no-name brand.

The one decently built, cheaper, Android Honeycomb tablet that seems to keep flying off shelves is the Asus Transformer. It's definitely a chunkier tablet but those who have grabbed the device seem to be very happy with it. Asus is now shipping over 400,000 Transformer tablets a month, which may just be a spec on Apple's radar, but is nonetheless impressive for a tablet that's only $100 cheaper than the iPad 2.

One also needs to consider that this is just one analytic firm's numbers and said numbers may be dramatically different from another firm's findings. That said, this is really just the beginning of Android tablets taking off, if you believe these numbers or not. With the rumored Nexus tablet that's still in the back of our minds, things could get very interesting in the coming months.

Article: RSS via IntoMobile