Newest Android Honeycomb Commercial Brings Fear to Apple?

Remember the Apple Macintosh 1984 Commercial? The one with the woman tossing a sledge hammer through a large movie screen exploding an image of Big Brother. It was made to announce the release of the Mac personal computer. Take a peek at the commercial to refresh your memory.

Motorola's newest commercial to promote their soon to arrive XOOM tablet, with Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS takes a stab at that same Apple Mac 1984 commercial. 


Apple's commercial was meant to be a message from Jobs, "I want to stop the world in its tracks." This commercial was originally a 60 second ad ran during the 1984 Superbowl. It was also seen in movie theaters across the US. One theater owner loving it so much he ran it for a whole month.


The line in the Apple Mac commercial, "And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984" was meant to show that by owning a Mac you would be free of oppression. At this time people were fearing technology and Communism was a looming threat, so owning a Mac would be against that as well as the PC.


In the new Motorola XOOM commercial its saying that '2011 looks a lot like 1984', so therefore it's time for more choices, more speed, more freedom, and to explore, live a free life. Wow, that sounds exciting! Now watch Motorola's ad.

I feel Apple may just fear this ad. It's definitely aimed to confront their original commercial. Although Apple should also look at this as a compliment that Motorola would want to target them directly. All the new tablets coming out will be up against the iPad, which has very strong sales, and I'm sure Apple is quite aware of that.

Motorola Atrix 4G Video Unleashed

Motorola has just released a new video to introduce their newest smartphone, the Atrix 4G, and you are gonna want to view it. It's one very attractive introduction! The Atrix 4G is advertised as the 'Worlds most powerful smartphone.' It appears to be a 'super' phone. The video shows us some docks, one behind a laptop, and the other for a mammoth TV screen that the Atrix can connect to.


I've heard it will be priced at only $150 on a two year contract at Costco and Amazon Wireless. That's a steal for a phone of this caliber if it does live up to all the hype. AT&T should be bringing this out in a few weeks, so we'll soon get a confirmation on price and availability.


Please absorb yourself in the video and images below. It really impressed me as one heck of a smartphone!

Will The Nexus S Soon Be Available in White?

If you love the look of the Nexus S, you're gonna love it even more in white. I think it looks pretty darn impressive!


We've seen images of a white Nexus S, but rumors are now floating around that this may not even be real. It's anyones guess whether this is true at the moment, but I would hope someone wouldn't go through the trouble of painting one just to fool us folks. I believe it looks real, and may soon be available.


The image was sent by a reliable source to the folks at TNW (The Next Web), so we are all hoping to see it soon. Vodofone is expected to be offering this, which means it should be available in the UK and across Europe.

Port Your Own Number With Google Voice

Google Voice number porting is now available for all users. You might just be wondering...what is number porting? I'm glad you asked! Stated simply, it's an agreement that allows telephone numbers to be moved between telecom companies. In other words, like you have a personal plate number registered to your car for life, well, now that mobile number remains yours for life.

Now the cost, its not free like the Google Voice number you may have now, but its not expensive either. $20 will get you Google Voice number porting, and then you must end your current contract with the carrier you are using. It does sound a bit confusing, so please view the short YouTube video at the end of this article.

This is the only number you will ever need, and you can set it up to ring any phone (or computer) you may have, whether it be at home, at work, an Android, iPhone or a Blackberry. It works on landlines too, not just mobiles. So, no matter where you are, the ring will sound.

This service also includes the ability to send free text messages with your computer or mobile data. You can screen calls, and it will transcribe voice messages to text, so you can read them too. (although the transcription isn't the greatest, it needs some work)

So, if you're one to change your carrier often, this gives you the freedom to do just that without having to give all your contacts a new number. Now take a peek at the video.

Printing in a Google Cloud

Were you ever out somewhere with your mobile phone, and just needed to print something? Well, now with Google Cloud Print you can! It's easy to get started, and easy to print with the drop-down menu in Mobile Docs or Gmail.

First off, you will need to be running the latest beta version of Chrome 9.0.597.1 or greater. You may download and install it from here, and just follow the directions to set up your printer. Right now you'll need to be using a Windows PC, but support for Linux and Mac will come as promised by Google.

Have fun printing folks!

Nexus One Update to Cure SMS Bug, But Still No Gingerbread

Google has made an update available for the Nexus One, which is said to fix the SMS bug that has been reported by many Android users. It's only a small patch (550 KB), which will bring your firmware up to 2.2.2, and build number will update from the current FRG83D to FRG83G. This update should be arriving over-the-air to your Nexus One very soon.

Google & Motorola Worked Together to Create the Top Tablet

On one side Google, on the other side Motorola, and when they came together they created one heck of a great Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet...here comes the Motorola XOOM.


What's Google getting out of this you might ask? According to Dave Burke, the engineering manager for Mobile at Google, 'we wanted to work with the most  advanced hardware' and Google believes that's the XOOM.


We already know the XOOM has a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-Core chipset. We also know that many of the new tablets will have this same chipset. It must be the whole package working together in the XOOM that has so impressed Google.

Motorola has stated that more features would be added to the XOOM, both before and after launch. Included in the over-the-air updates, there will be a connected music player. Burke made clear to all tablet manufacturers that they are free to tweak the platform as needed, because of Android's open source code.

Happy Valentines Day Angry Birds

We all love playing Angry Birds, and what better Valentines Day gift from Rovio, than to bring us another Angry Birds Edition similar to the Halloween and Christmas Seasons Edition. This is the most popular Android game (also on iPhone), even for folks that are normally not into games, well, they get addicted too and play for hours.

When is this due out, well, February 14th of course! Check out the YouTube video below to see what Rovio has been working on. I can't wait for this since I've really missed playing Angry Birds. I have finished all the levels, but I did enjoy playing levels over again on a bigger screen this Christmas when my nephew and I rooted his new Color Nook. BTW, can't wait for more tablets to come out either. It's even more exciting to play Angry Birds on a larger touch-screen.

So, you and your Sweetheart get ready to have an Angry Birds competition this Valentines Day. Don't get too wrapped up though, you want to have time for other things...wink!

Android Developer Conference; San Francisco; March 7-9, 2011

Larry Page, One of the 'Google Guys' Takes Over as CEO on April 4, 2011

Wow, welcome to the drivers seat Larry Page! One of the two co-founders of Google is now stepping up to the plate to lead Google into the future. Yesterday when Google announced its 4th-quarter earnings for 2010, it also presented major leadership restructuring.

Eric Schmidt, Google's current CEO will assume the position of Executive Chairman, and beginning April 4th, Larry Page will become Google's CEO. Many years have passed since September 4, 1998 when the two 'Google Guys' emerged onto the scene to found Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin quickly became both rich and famous as Google grew to the number one search engine. Sergey Brin will commit to working on strategic projects, particularly new products. Eric will continue in the background as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

Schmidt is quoted as saying:

"We've been talking about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making for a long time. By clarifying our individual roles we'll create clearer responsibility and accountability at the top of the company. In my clear opinion, Larry is ready to lead and I'm excited about working with both him and Sergey for a long time to come."

Google continues to be a strong money maker at $8.44 billion in revenue for the quarter ending December 31, 2010. (up 26% from Q4 2009) Google's net income was $2.54 billion, which is up from $1.97 billion in Q4 2009.

We'll be waiting to see if this leadership change effects Google's earnings for Q4 2011.