I had a comment today from one of our readers, who was a bit upset with the editorial posted by Owaeis N., exploring his opinion of why the Motorola/Google alliance is bad for Android. As a counter-point, we’re going to explore the other side of that argument, and take a look at why this is a good thing for Android and its users.

It was rather shocking news that Google intends to buy up the Mobility portion of Motorola. The initial emotional reactions were pretty much as expected.

Google acquires Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion and it's for good.

Some people were angry that Google could do something like this to “hurt” Android, while others saw the business logic behind it, especially where patents are concerned. I would argue that this move, which has already been approved in all jurisdictions, will not harm Android, but in fact the complete opposite.  Let’s look at the many facets.

The intended purchase is of Motorola Mobility, which is a spinoff company of Motorola created almost a year ago.  This branch of the larger company operates, obviously, the mobile arm of Motorola. Under Google’s direction, Motorola Mobility will still exist as its own company.  They have no plans (as yet) to abandon their own Motoblur interface, or to change how they are doing business, or how they will design their phones.

1. Protection against Apple-Microsoft alliance

What some people forget is that Motorola was a pioneer of the cell industry, and as such they have over 20,000 cellular patents under their belt, many of them that conflict with Android. Google will have ownership of all of the Motorola cellular patents, which gives them quite a big shield against further litigation involving Android. As we have seen, Apple, Microsoft, and others have all come looking for a piece of the Android pie and will stop at nothing to destroy their competition if possible. We all know supreme overlord of Fruit, Steve Jobs, would have loved to see Android buried and all those users suddenly become iSheep. The big one, though, is Oracle, who holds all the Java patents.  In case you didn’t know, Android is built on Java. The results of the Nortel auction are something that’s still being looked at by regulators, and if those results are favorable for the unholy alliance that bought those patents then Google will need as much ammo as it can muster.

2. Faster Android updates

It’s been argued, also, that with Google side-by-side with Motorola, other handset makers like Samsung, LG, Huawei, and others will be at an unfair disadvantage. I say not so.  Android will remain an “open” platform, just as it has been. With Ice Cream Sandwich we’re starting to see an end to the fragmentation issue at last, too. ICS merges all versions of Android into a common OS that can be used on any number of devices. It’s possible that Motorola handsets may be the first ones to get OS updates from here on out, which really won’t be a big change over how things work now. We’ve already seen Moto favoritism with the Xoom and the original Droid.

3. Brighter future of Google TV

Motorola is a longtime leader in home entertainment, and Google is looking to revamp Google TV before it gets swept under the rug. As a Google TV owner myself, I love the service. Sure there are tons of things I would love to see happen, and with the acquisition of Motorola, it’s possible that Google will be able to draw on some very creative people to help with that project as well.

Finally, Android is Google’s cash cow. Sure they don’t charge for the OS itself, but Android allows Google ads to get pushed out to millions and millions of people through apps and the browser.  Google is not going to do anything that prevents Android from getting on as many handsets and tablets as possible, the world over.  Android isn’t going to crash and burn because of this deal.  In fact, I believe it can only make Android a stronger force in the mobile world, and Larry Page seems to agree.

Just for fun, you can check out this animation of the deal done by NMA (Next Media Animation)

Google gets final approval from China to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion (image via TechnoBuffalo)

Chinese authorities have now cleared Google to purchase Motorola Mobility provided some conditions are fulfilled, Google is required to keep its Android operating system free and open for at least five following years – Google has willingly agreed upon the terms.

Google’s CEO Larry Page announced last year that the acquisition was being made to protect Android against the threats being posed jointly by Apple and Microsoft as Motorola Mobility brings along a big pool of 17,000 patents to Google’s lap.

There has been a hot debate on the acquisition as it brings Google in direct competition with its Android licensees like Samsung, HTC, LG and others and poses a threat to their position in market but big G has been rejecting them by promising that the company would keep operating independently, as a result there have been strong opinions in favor as well as against the deal. Google has already put his executives in charge of Motorola Mobility including Dennis Woodside as the CEO.

Update: According to Google, the deal would be closed as quickly as early next week – way ahead of this year’s I/O.

“The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order,” an HTC spokesperson said. “We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.”

So what is it that HTC has apparently done? Back in 2011, an ITC (International Trade Commission) Judge ruled that HTC had violated an Apple patent for a UI function that allows a user to tap on a phone number displayed in an e-mail or webpage, and have that number link to the phone’s dialer. HTC began moving on the issue, creating a workaround solution that did not violate said patent. However, they didn’t move fast enough for the ITC. Current shipments are now being held until HTC can resolve the issue with customs. As a result, no further shipments of those devices can come into the country, meaning the May 18th release of the Evo 4G LTE will be delayed. As a result, Sprint has removed the device as “coming soon” on their site. The ban does not include refurbished devices, which can still be brought in to replace defective handsets.

Flipboard for Android

The APK is hosted over at the XDA Developer Forum. After some testing, we can confirm it working fine on the G2X running CM9, HTC Desire on stock ROM as well as the Acer A500 running AOKP. Forum users have reported that the app works fine on most Samsung devices, as well as the HTC One series, so it shouldn’t give you much trouble. However, a few users have also responded to say that they have some force close issues on Honeycomb tablets. Download the file for yourself, give it a go, and see what happens. In order to install, you’ll need to enter you settings, application, and check the box for “allow unknown sources”. From there, download the APK file and install as you would any other app. No root is required. If you’re interested in the other software enhancements from the GSIII, the same developer is working extracting S-Voice from the device, as well. Keep an eye on the source link for further information as it develops!

Flipboard for Android Picture Gallery

14. Beach Live Wallpaper

Beach live wallpaper

If you love beaches then this is the perfect 3D wallpaper for you. Beautiful palm tree in front of ocean moves when breeze blows. Clouds and sea eagles are adding to the beauty as a boat travels in the ocean and dolphins jump off the water. Full version has many customization options including the ability to change boat type, number of clouds, dolphins and seagulls; speed of clouds and waves can also be changed in addition to other effects. You can buy full version for $0 .99 or get the basic version for free.

Paid  |  Free

13. Galactic Core Live Wallpaper

Galactic core live wallpaper

Galaxies and milky ways have always been an attraction for nature lovers. Many of us would be ready give up anything for a chance to visit a milky way. But how about installing the Galactic Core live wallpaper instead? It is a real looking galaxy with a bright galactic core at its center. The developer has designed it in a way that it gives a 3D look when you swipe between the home screens. The basic version is free but if you decide to pay a $0.99 price for the paid version, you’d be presented with a whole lot of customization options including alternate visual themes and sensitivity options.

Paid  |  Free

12. Asteroid Belt Live Wallpaper

Asteroid belt live wallpaper

Asteroid Belt is a live wallpaper from far space with a belt of asteroids revolving around the sun or whatever star it is. Like most of the others, the free version doesn’t allow any customization options but if you pay $0.99, you’d be able to control the speed of asteroids, change background themes and customize it in other ways.

Paid  |  Free

11. Silhouette Live Wallpaper

Silhouette live wallpaper

It’s a very beautiful scenery of sunset with silhouetted trees and amazing clouds. It will be a perfect wallpaper for you if you love sunset. Free version is functional but you can always buy the full version for $0.99 to get customization options such as changing background colors, color transition based on time of the day, change direction of wind and others.

Paid  |  Free

10. Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper

Thunderstorm live wallpaper

Thunderstorm is a very nice wallpaper showing thunderstorm and lightening; rain is also included. Free version is fully functional but paid version for $0.99 has many customization options including rain, number and colors of clouds, summon lightening when touched and color change with the time of day.

Paid  |  Free

9. Night Shadow Live Wallpaper

Night Shadow live wallpaper

Night Shadow has amazing night scenery with stormy clouds, trees and flying birds. Free version is fully functional with a lot of customization options; both foreground and background views can be changed; clouds can be hid or showed; cloud speed can be changed; birds can be hid. When the screen is touched, beautiful particles fall on ground; their look, lifetime and quantity can be changed. You can get Night Shadow from Google Play store for $1.30 or fall for the lite version for free.

Paid  |  Free

8. Blue Skies Live Wallpaper

Blue skies live wallpaper

This beautiful wallpaper takes one to fly above the clouds. It gives a very calming and mind relaxing affect. Wallpaper flips according to phone orientation. The paid version of Blue Skies includes many customization features a you can set the cloud count, wind speed, camera speed and background images. Appearance of beautiful balloons can be adjusted with the arrival of messages. Paid version of this wallpaper is for $0.99 and the lite version is for free but lacks any customizations.

Paid  |  Free

7. Snowfall Live Wallpaper

SnowFall live wallpaper

Snowfall presents you with a very smooth snowfall along with the beautiful scenery of palm trees and clouds. Free version is functional however you can buy the full version for 0.99$ to get more features. Some of the customization options include enabling Christmas lights, change density of snow and santa sightings.

Paid  |  Free

6. Midnight Scene Live Wallpaper

Midnight scene live wallpaper

A gigantic full moon on the sky, a witch’s house in the foreground and the birds from the magic world is what you see on Midnight Scene live wallpaper when you install it but there a lot of customization options made available for free and would totally change the look of the scene. You can view the gigantic moon from behind the graves of a graveyard that’s probably ruined by the witch; combine it with the orange sky if you’d like to see the witch’s night burning in the heat. Choose to view or hide the clouds and fog or totally hide the animations; the customization options are pretty sophisticated. Oh, did I forget to mention that the magic spell falls on the ground when you touch the screen? Midnight Scene is not capable of adopting phone orientation automatically, you need to set the orientation to landscape or portrait mode from the settings section. Full version is available for $1.30 and a free lite version is also there for you to try it out.

Paid  |  Free

5. Night Fall Live Wallpaper

Nightfall live wallpaper

It’s a wallpaper of a beautiful landscape under the sky and the full moon rising above it. Free version is fully functional with many customization options. You can change foreground silhouette, size of the moon, twinkling of stars, number of stars and rotation speed of skyline. Free version is fully functional but it has ads, you can get rid of them by getting the paid version for $1.49.

Paid  |  Free

4. Sun Rise Live Wallpaper

Sun rise live wallpaper

Sun Rise is a scene of a beautiful morning, it’s my personal favorite as its cool and pleasant looks make me smile particularly when I wake up in the morning look at my phone. It starts with clouds flying on the sky, then the sun rises slowly and a beautiful rainbow appears for a short time. Some birds also fly across the sky, they get scattered when you touch them. Paid version of this wallpaper is available for $0.80 and has many customization options like rainbow appearance can be set with SMS arrival or randomly; direction and speed of birds and clouds can also be adjusted. In case you don’t want any customizations, the free version is for you.

3. My Beach HD Live Wallpaper

My Beach HD live wallpaper

My Beach HD live wallpaper

My Beach HD is a very nice live wallpaper to make up your mood in summer. It presents a beautiful view of a private beach with sophisticated 3D graphics. The view on your private beach would change depending upon the time of the day transitioning from morning to night and night to morning. My Beach HD is editor’s choice on Google Play and is available for $1.99. Through the settings pane, you can customize the label on the signboard; make a plane fly by; lit the fire on the beach and a lot more.

My Beach with fire at night

My Beach with pink shade

My Beach HD works great in both landscape and portrait modes, switching between the home screens changes the camera view. A free version is also available in case you are ok with the default settings and don’t want to customize it.

Paid  |  Free

2. Autumn Live Wallpaper

Autumn live wallpaper

Autumn live wallpaper is another one that’s my personal favorite; it’s a beautiful visualization of a real autumn. Red, yellow, green and brown leaves fall from the trees, their speed and quantity can be adjusted manually. The direction of the falling leaves changes according to the orientation of the phone. There are four beautiful background options available, each of which has it’s own unbeatable beauty. The animations are very smooth and don’t put much burden on your phone’s RAM or make it any slower. Unfortunately there’s no free version available, the paid one is for $1.44.

Paid

1. Season Zen HD Live Wallpaper

Spring Zen HD live wallpaper

Spring Zen HD live wallpaper

Season Zen HD is editor’s choice on Google Play and why won’t it be when it has the most impressive graphics we’ve ever seen in any live wallpaper. It uses your phone’s resources in an efficient manner to provide you with the sophisticated graphics; you won’t find any performance overhead in most cases. Season Zen HD is available for $1.99 with four seasons and ability to customize almost any aspect of the wallpaper. The Free version has the same high quality graphics but it comes with the spring season only which is the best one in my opinion as you can see in the two screenshots above.

Season Zen winter scene

Season Zen with butterfly

Season Zen is a scene of a Bench in the peaceful Sakura Park as viewed by a bird from above its nest. The bird’s eggs in the nest and the falling cherry blossoms make you feel the spring season from a birds eye. Through the customization options, you can make a beautiful butterfly appear; pick a gently flowing brook or change the colors and combinations of the eggs. Season Zen HD is well optimized for the portrait and landscape viewing and works great on any device supporting live wallpapers.

Paid  |  Free

Which one is your favorite?

Samsung Galaxy S III

10. Popup Play

Samsung has put the 4.8″ inch screen real estate to good use by allowing popup play for videos. Popup Play allows video playback in a small window that stays on top of any other programs you are running. Windowed UI is usually specific to desktops but they make sense with the increasing screen sizes. Who would like to pause a movie to write a reply to a text message?

9. Free 50GB Dropbox storage

Every Samsung Galaxy S III customer gets a free 50GB storage on Dropbox when they install the app. Users would be able to avail the storage for two years. However, there’s no explanation about what happens when two year period expires.

8. Flipboard

Flipboard is arguably the most amazing social news app for any smartphone which was only available for iPhone so far. Samsung Galaxy S III comes packed with the only Android version of Flipboard. So far it is exclusive to Samsung Galaxy S III but according to the developer, it’d soon be available for other Android device as well.

7. Direct Call

While you are writing a text message to a friend, you can hold on for a moment to put your phone against your ear and a call would automatically be placed to the friend. Traditionally you could tap the call button from the messages app which took only a moment but Samsung saved you that moment. Direct call is a true example of how much Samsung cares about minor things which make our lives easier.

6. Smart Stay

There couldn’t be a better way to save battery life than Smart Stay as it turns the screen off as soon as you start looking away. You look back on the screen and it’s turned on automatically. Smart Stay is a huge improvement over the traditional proximity sensor which turns the screen of a smartphone off when it is held against a ear during an active call. Sure, keeping track of the eye balls all the time would keep consuming some power most of the time but it is a good trade off as display is the most power hungry part of any Android phone.

5. AllShare Play

Samsung Galaxy S III has its own flavor of AirPlay mirroring. It can mirror its entire screen on your HDTV to share videos, games and anything that resides on the phone. AllShare Play is done over wifi using Play Dongle sold separately. The phone can even work as a controller to the presentations on the big screen. The mirroring can be done on multiple devices to provide an ideal attraction for enterprise.

4. Face Recognition

Samsung didn’t limit it’s facial recognition technology to provide a vague screen lock but has rather expanded it beyond expectations. The best use isn’t made with the Buddy Photo Share, there are other places too. The face recognition function is connected to your social networks so you can tap on a face in a photo from your camera roll and go directly to his facebook profile.

3. Voice Recognition

Samsung Galaxy S III has got improved voice recognition. S Voice understands 8 different languages. You can give your phone a name and every time you call the name, the phone will wake up.

2. S Beam

S Beam is the name given to NFC content sharing capabilities of Samsung Galaxy S III. In order to share a file, say a photo, just touch the backs of two Samsung Galaxy S IIIs with the photo open on one and it will pop open on the other one, it’s really that simple. No more connecting of bluetooth or the hassle of emailing the photos to the phone next to you. Samsung’s implementation of NFC file sharing is superior to any alternatives because of its speed. A 10 GB movie would take only 3 minutes to transfer from one phone to other and for a 10MB music file, the sharing time is just 2 seconds. S Beam uses wifi direct for transferring the files and NFC to pair.

1. Buddy Share

Buddy Share is a feature available in Samsung Galaxy S III which allows the phone to automatically send the pictures to your friends and family. When you capture a picture, the phone will recognize the participants with its facial recognition capabilities and automatically send the pictures to each of the person it recognizes. Unlike Direct Call, Buddy Share would save you hours of work you spend sorting photos and emailing them to your friends and family one by one.

One of the features which truly speeds up the way you use your phone is Direct Call. When you are writing a text message to someone and at some point in conversation, you decide to call him, you just take the phone to you ear and the call will be placed automatically, without even a single tap on the screen. I never expected Samsung to care about saving our minor seconds but they actually matter, especially for a fast paced person like… umm a blogger! How about you?

Galaxy SIII

• S.Voice: Understands 8 different languages, and accents.
• Smart Stay: Tracks eye movement to keep your screen turned on as long as you’re watching on.
• Personal assistant software.
• Direct Call. Raise the device to your ear to make a call.
• Wake up your device by talking to it. Say, “Hi, Galaxy” or set a custom greeting. Can use up to 4 different ones.
• Buddy Share: smart sharing via NFC.
• Popup Play: Place videos in a movable window to multitask while watching video.

Now, since you’re surely curious, here’s the official spec sheet:

• Android 4.0 with TouchWiz 4.0
• 4.8-inch 720 x 1280, HD Super AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 2
• 1GB RAM
• 1.4GHz quad core processor (international); dual core Snapdragon S4 (North America)
• 16,32,64GB of storage
• 1.9MP front camera; 8MP rear camera
• 2,100 mAh battery
• Wireless charging

As for when you can pick it up? International release will be at the end of May, with a North American release in the summer. No announcement of carrier partners or pricing, yet.

Samsung Galaxy S III anagram game

After a nonstop series of rumors, Samsung went official to announce Galaxy S III for May 3rd launch without any further details. But they have themselves started a confusing marketing campaign by tweeting “Destination: tgeltaayehxnx” which is also a URL to a countdown timer expiring in about 5 hours from now. Don’t get confused, this is just an anagram game, not the countdown to Galaxy S III launch. We are not sure but there should be some details revealed during the course of the game.

It appears some monkeys have dived into the source of tgeltaayehxnx.com to find out some interesting bits of the game “Click on the letters in the correct order to reveal your real destination”, “Following technology blindly often gets you nowhere.” and “discover how Samsung is about to challenge the way you view the Galaxy once more.”. I’d better stick to the rumored specs instead of banging my head with this anagram nonsense.