Thursday, July 19, 2012
This week the news that hits the ears of many Motorola Fans is that Google has owned their company. Now what we can think of is at least better mobile phones buy Motorola. Google buys the Motorola for $12.5bn (£7.9bn).
The deal helps Larry Page, the Google co-founder who took over as chief executive officer last year, push the web company to better compete with Apple’s iPhone and gain more clout for its Android software as it expands in the hardware business.
It also gives Google, the worlds’ biggest maker of smartphone software, a trove of 17,000 patents to protect Android devices in legal disputes with competitors.
The acquisition, announced last year, had already received approvals in Europe, the US and other jurisdictions worldwide.Motorola Mobility had said in a regulatory filing in February that only Chinese clearance was still required.
“Our stance since we agreed to acquire Motorola has not changed and we look forward to closing the deal,” Google said. The company also confirmed it had received word from Chinese authorities of the purchase being approved.
With the acquisition – the largest wireless-equipment deal in at least a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg – Google becomes a competitor to the other handset makers that make Android devices. In addition to Motorola Mobility phones, the software is used in handsets made by companies such as Samsung and HTC.
As part of the approval, Google needs to ensure that Android software versions are free and open over the next five years, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website.
Google will report to an independent monitor in China on its efforts to comply with terms of the deal approval, according to the website.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Tagging photos on Facebook may get easier now that the social networking company has purchased facial recognition company Face.com.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook is paying between $55 million and $60 million, in a mix of cash and stock, for the like-named startup. (The acquisition price was originally thought to be $100 million.) The acquisition lines up nicely--if not quite as expensively--with Facebook's $1 billion purchase of mobile photo-sharing app Instagram, as well as with its announcement of the Facebook Camera app.
Face.com's facial recognition technology can identify faces even when conditions are poor, such as when lighting is low. Using the company's REST-based API, developers can build apps based on the technology.
