The naysayers were wrong in 2006 — is this Google's latest genius move?

The rumors turned into official news earlier this week. Google has acquired Waze, a social mapping and navigation company. Most industry pundits are aware of speculation that Apple and Facebook also were interested buyers. Google emerged as the winning bidder. I think this solidifies their position as a forward thinking leader in mobile computing.

The computing industry is quickly shifting to mobile computing. Just look at Mary Meeker’s D11 presentation slides showing how the iPad has already overtaken volumes of notebook and desktop PCs (separately, not the combined number). Mobile is now so important that major new services are commonly launched as mobile-only. Waze, Vine and SnapChat are a few good examples.

Google has been a mapping leader ever since it first launched Google Maps. Remember MapQuest before that?  When Google Maps came out the interface was dramatically better! Directions were awesome. Satellite imagery was added. Google started mapping the world’s streets with super fancy cameras to create Street View.

When I was a kid we had none of this. We had paper maps and chicken-scratch directions that someone might give to you over the phone. No GPS, no mobile devices, no nothing. Here we are many years later and the paper map industry is all but dead.

I think we are at the very early stages of Google making money from its mapping assets. Yeah, you’ll see some sponsored ads, but I doubt this is a serious money-maker. It reminds me very much of YouTube, which Google also acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion. At the time people thought Google was insane. They said YouTube could never make any money.

It isn't perfect, but All Access is a step closer than anything else I've found

Like many people this week, I received an email from Google Play as a gentle reminder that my free trial for Google Play Music All Access was about to end, and that the subscription I signed up for will be charged in a couple of days. "Wow, it's been a month since Google I/O?" was my first reaction. Indeed, it has been a month, and now I was faced with the task of evaluating whether or not I was receiving more than $7.99 worth of value out of my pending monthly payment to Google.

I don't listen to a whole ton of music, I'm not too particular about what I listen to and I rarely find myself buying music at all. Before Google released All Access I primarily relied on a mixture of Pandora (well, about 90-percent of the time) along with my own music collection uploaded to Google Play Music. The draw of a subscription service like Spotify or Rdio just wasn't there for me because at about $10 per month I didn't see the value in them -- I wasn't buying much music anyway, so how is this a good deal?

But, at least for now, Google's going to be getting $7.99 per month from me.

Water-resistant, dust-proof phone comes in two colors; preorders start June 14

AT&T (as it was expected to do so) today announced that it'll carry the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, in stores June 21 for $199 with a two-year contract. Preorders start June 14. The Active -- essentially a water-resistant version of the Galaxy S4 that AT&T already carries -- comes in Urban Gray or Dive Blue and sports a 5-inch TFT display with Gorilla Glass and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It's powered by a quad-core processor and has an 8-megapixel camera 'round back.

Along with a more rugged build, the buttons on the front are all physical, instead of a mix of capacitive and physical.

Also on board is Samsung's suite of apps and customizations, same as on the original Galaxy S4, such as Air View and Air Gesture, Smart Pause and a host camera tweaks, such as Erase Shot, Drama Shot and Story Album. It's also got the Multi Window and for true multitasking, and it has the Samsung SAFE Enterprise security suite. The Infrared controller is still there, as well, so you can control your rugged TV in your rugged home with this rugged device.

• More in our Samsung Galaxy S4 Active forums
• Preorder June 14 at AT&T

'Samsung will release our latest mirrorless camera that runs on Google’s Android software,' JK Shin tells Korean press

It seems the Galaxy S4 Zoom won't be the only imaging product on show at Samsung's "Premiere 2013" event in London next week. Co-CEO JK Shin has confirmed to the Korean press that the event will also play host to a next-generation Galaxy Camera device. Speaking with the Korea Times, Shin said "Samsung will release our latest mirrorless camera that runs on Google’s Android software" at the June 20 event. The publication refers to the upcoming shooter as the "Galaxy Camera 2," though it's unclear whether Shin himself confirmed this as the official name.

A mirrorless system would imply significantly improved image quality and some kind of interchangeable lens support, something we've yet to see on any Android camera currently on the market. (Polaroid announced a similar product back at CES, but has been quiet in the following months.) Such a device would address one of our main concerns about the original Galaxy Camera, specifically it's disappointing image quality, considering its relatively high price.

Our interest is well and truly piqued by the prospect of a high-end, mirrorless camera running Android. We'll be live from London next week to test out the "Galaxy Camera 2" and a host of other Samsung devices.

Source: The Korea Times; via: Engadget

'A big surprise' promised for July 4 event in Paris

All the pieces are starting to fall into place for the announcement of Sony's 6-inch Android device, codenamed "Togari." The phone, which is variously rumored to come to market as either "Xperia ZU" or "Xperia Z Ultra" cropped up late last week in a kitten-centric blurry-cam shot. And today Sony itself has given away a glimpse of the device's side, in an invite sent out to French press.

The invite for an event in Paris on July 4 shows what looks like the right edge of the device. There's Sony's trademark rounded power button, a volume rocker, and what seems to be a dedicated camera key. In addition, there's an exposed headphones jack up top, suggesting the "Togari" might not boast the same water-resistance credentials as its 5-inch sibling, the Xperia Z. Besides that, Sony Mobile promises attendees "une surprise de taille" -- a big surprise.  A 6-inch phone would certainly fit that bill.

If the rumors are accurate, the Xperia Z Ultra -- or whatever it's called -- will go up against Samsung's Galaxy Mega, as well as HTC's rumored "T6", also said to be a 6-inch handset. Rumored specs for Sony's 6-incher include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 6.44-inch 1080p "Triluminous" display, an 8-megapixel camera and a thickness of just 6.5mm.

With a similar event scheduled for Germany for June 25, it looks like we won't have long to wait to find out exactly what Sony's bringing to the table.

Source: XperiaBlog

Latest leak shows re-vamped variant of the Droid DNA's international cousin

It looks like HTC's betting big on its "BoomSound" front-facing speaker technology, as images from Chinese site VR-Zone seem to show that the feature's made its way across to yet another upcoming phone, the Butterfly S. The design is almost unchanged from the original Butterfly (that's the international version of the Droid DNA) but there's one interesting addition down below. That's right, the new Butterfly now rocks dual front-facing speakers, just like the HTC One.

According to the source of the leak, the Butterfly S still features a 5-inch 1080p screen, and the rear speaker has been deprecated by the new front-facers. It's speculated that the internals have been upgraded too, and that the Butterfly S will be powered by a Snapdragon 600 chip. (And of course we can clearly see HTC's latest Sense 5 UI on-screen.)

More information is due at an Asian announcement event next Wednesday, June 19.

Source: VR-Zone; via: Engadget

Google makes another move into the enterprise services market

HP and Google have struck a deal to have the PC maker become the latest Google Apps reseller, bundling enterprise management tools along with Google's App suite on its devices. According to a report today by AllThingsD, HP will include new tools on its PC's, printers and other IT devices -- holding together the whole system with hooks into Google Apps, Google's platform for businesses to run email, documents, file sharing and more with one service. It's an interesting move considering HP's historical alignment with Microsoft on the enterprise front, and one that could drive serious traffic over to Google.

Considering HP's recent dips into partnering with Google to not only release Android but also Chrome OS hardware, with more to come, this could be a sign of something bigger between the two companies. While it doesn't like to talk about it too often, Google has continued to make changes and push Google Apps as a great platform for (especially small) businesses to use as an affordable enterprise suite.

Source: AllThingsD

Sprint complaints aside, Dish and Clearwire are ready to make a deal

Despite Sprint's continued protest against Dish's cash offer to acquire as much of Clearwire as possible at $4.40 per share, Clearwire looks to be nearing a decision to accept it. Sources familiar with the matter tell The Wall Street Journal that the special committee at Clearwire assigned with assessing the current offer from Dish will advise the rest of the company's board to push back a Thursday shareholder vote in order to accept Dish's cash offer for the company. Previous arguments from Sprint that the deal is not in the best interest of the company nor is it legally possible given the governance structure demands from Dish (which call for board member appointments as a term) still remain, adding to the confusion. Sprint claims that its previous agreements with Clearwire, and a restructuring of the company in 2008, conflict strongly with the demands Dish has on its offer.

Dish and Clearwire don't seem to be bothered by the potential structural issues of the deal, and have explained as such to Sprint previously. If Clearwire is to accept Dish's offer -- whether it be with revised governance terms or not -- it would have to be for at least 25-percent of the company to make any meaningful difference for Dish's plans to block Sprint's buyout of Clearwire. Sprint needs a majority of the minority shareholders to approve its plan to buyout the rest (49.5-percent) of the company it doesn't already own, something that simply won't happen if Dish controls that majority share.

Let's also remember that Dish and SoftBank are on their final round of offers to try and buy out Sprint in the coming weeks as well, which adds another angle to this whole discussion. Next week is shaping up to be a major decision week for these four companies, with lots of money getting ready to change hands if everything goes Sprint's way.

Source: WSJ

I don't often have to print documents, but when I do ...

Google Cloud Print is pretty handy, letting you print anything from anywhere using Chrome with your own computer and printer. With today's release of the official Android app, you can now print to your Cloud Print enabled printers straight from your Android devices.

Doing so is simple, just open the app and use Android's sharing menu to import whatever it is you want to print. In fact, the hardest part of it all is setting up your computer and printer to work with Google Cloud Print, and that's pretty easy. 

While most of us send files and documents through the Internet in this day and age, having an easy fall back to get paper copy is nice. Grab it from the Google Play link above.

Select cities participating at launch; AT&T and T-Mobile compatible devices welcome

MetroPCS announced today that it is now letting customers bring their own unlocked GSM devices, signaling that it is ready to start the transition to using T-Mobile's network. As was indicated when the merger of T-Mobile and MetroPCS was being finalized, the legacy CDMA network for MetroPCS is going to be quickly phased out, moving customers over to T-Mobile's GSM offering. With the announcement today that customers in Boston, Hartford, Dallas and Las Vegas can bring their own unlocked AT&T and T-Mobile devices to the carrier we can assume things are going according to plan.

The website has a handy tool to let you know if your device will be compatible with the network being offered, but expect pretty much any modern GSM device to fit the bill. Being that this is a limited rollout MetroPCS is only offering SIM cards in-store and not online at this point, but we have to assume it's only a matter of time before this program expands to pull even more people off of the CDMA network.

Source: MetroPCS; Via: TmoNews