21 December 2012

FTC Antitrust Inquiry Against Google Shelved Until January

F.T.C. Pushes Antitrust Inquiry Against Google Into January - NYTimes.com: "Google was prepared to start the holidays early this week, by settling its antitrust dispute with federal regulators without a harsh punishment. But in shelving its inquiry until January, the Federal Trade Commission has put stronger penalties back on the bargaining table, people briefed on the investigation who were not authorized to speak publicly about it said Wednesday. For two years, the F.T.C. has been looking into whether Google abuses its market power by favoring its own services over rivals in search results. Google and the agency had been planning to sign a settlement this week that would have said Google would change some of its behavior but that would not have been subject to court action. . . . But the people briefed, and others close to the negotiations, said the agency was unlikely to take a second look at one of the major issues — Google’s dominance in specialized search, like travel and local reviews — because the legal hurdles remain high. Google has long said that it does not believe it has broken antitrust laws and that the agency’s case against it is weak. Jill Hazelbaker, a Google spokeswoman, said that it continued to cooperate with the F.T.C. but declined to comment further. . . "

US Office Rejects 2nd Apple Patent
New York Times
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has dealt a blow to Apple in its legal battle with Samsung Electronics over smartphone patents, declaring that a patent that helped Apple win $1.05 billion in damages against Samsung in a jury trial should ...

Google to sell part of Motorola for $2.35 billion
USA TODAY (blog)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is selling Motorola Mobility's TV set-top business for $2.35 billion, lightening the load that the Internet search leader took on earlier this year when it completed the biggest acquisition in its history. ... More than 20 ...

Apple devices upgraded to iOS 6 spike 29% after Google Maps release
Los Angeles Times
A company that serves up advertisements for thousands of Apple mobile apps has seen a 29% jump in the number of devices running iOS 6 since the release of Google Maps for the iPhone. As you may recall, iPhone users that updated their devices to the ...

Google planning cheaper Nexus 7, report claims
CNET
Needless to say, a Nexus 7 priced below $150 and eventually going to $99 would make Google'stablet even more competitively priced against the $329 iPad Mini -- even allowing for the high-quality build that Apple typically achieves with its tablets ...

Seeking Labor Compliance, Apple Suppliers Curb Overtime For Factory Workers
Forbes
It alone employs around 1.5 million workers at several facilities in China, though not all work onApple products (some may be assembling an Amazon smartphone) . One practice that Applewants to curb in its supply chain is excessive overtime that could ...

Apple Suppliers Bring Jobs Back to Taiwan
Wall Street Journal (blog)
On the same day that Apple Inc. jolted the tech world with the announcement it will manufacture some Mac computers in the U.S., another piece of tech news slid by largely unnoticed: Two of Apple's Taiwanese suppliers were also planning to bring jobs home.

Wall Street Journal (blog)

Google puts businesses' interiors inside search results
CNET
Launched in September, Google Business Photos presented Google Maps users with 360-degree panoramas of the inside of businesses, a handy tool for scoping out the interior of a business before going there in person. However, the images were often ...

Patent Office to Review Apple's Document-Scrolling Patent
Wired
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has ruled that a patent that's central to the epicApple v. Samsung intellectual property lawsuit is subject to reexamination, which could lead to portions of the patent — but probably not all of it — being ...

Wired

Google Maps puts iPhone back on track
Boston Globe
So thanks, Google, for serving up a fine new navigation app for Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The giant search company created the original map app for the iPhone, but was ousted when Apple decided to go it alone. Clearly Apple didn't want to get its map ...

Quickoffice + Google Apps = better document conversion and an
By Ariel
Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Director of Product Management, Google Drive Since the Quickoffice team joined Google a few months ago, we've been working to make it easier for you to work with your legacy Microsoft Office files -- both by ...
Official Google Enterprise Blog

Google Launches Free Quickoffice iPad App For Google Apps For ...
By Frederic Lardinois
Google just announced that it has launched a free version of the Quickoffice for iPad app for all of its Apps for Business customers. The app lets you view, edit and create Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files ('97 – '10) and uses Google ...
TechCrunch

As Google Health Flatlines, Drchrono Picks Up The Slack With ...
By Ingrid Lunden
When Google Health first went live in 2008, the service held a lot of promise for people looking for a reliable and convenient way of centralizing their health records, and then matching them up with other resources like drug information and doctor ... are at least two other providers out there already offering to important Google Health data into their own systems: MyMediConnect has been around for about a year and accepting Google Health records; and Microsoft has its HealthVault.
TechCrunch

Apple Maps: 3 Times More Likely to Get You Lost Than Google
By Chris Taylor
For iPhone users, Google Maps is back. The revamped app, launched last week, is being downloaded in the tens of millions. As a result, iOS6 activations are on the rise. And Apple finally has the breathing room it needs to overhaul its much ...
Mashable!

Google Apps for Business users receive Quickoffice for iPad as a ...
By Zachary Lutz
If Google recently caught you off-guard with its announcement that Google Apps would move to a $50 per user model, perhaps some free software will help.
Engadget

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