Google Leans on Motorola With Hardware Push

　　As Google Inc. GOOG +1.86% pushes deeper into hardware, the Internet search giant is pulling Motorola Mobility closer even as it tries to assure device partners that the phone maker won't have an unfair advantage.
　　After spending $12.5 billion to buyMotorola MSI +0.89% last year mainly for its patents, Google is forming tighter connections with the cellphone manufacturer, even debating whether it could be used to produce products like Google Glass, the company's wearable computer.
　　The highly anticipated Moto X smartphone unveiled Thursday, the company's first phone to be produced under Google's guidance, shows that the process isn't a straight line. The phone doesn't, for instance, feature the latest version of Google's Android operating system.
　　The effort is a tricky balancing act for Google, whose Android software has become the leading smartphone operating system largely because it was open to multiple device makers. A growing commitment to the hardware business risks upsetting relations with those partners. But it also provides a hedge as a growing percentage of Android devices are made by Samsung Electronics Co., 005930.SE +0.94% which is working to develop its own operating system.
　　Already Motorola is helping with other hardware projects at Google. Dennis Woodside, Motorola's chief executive, said the company's supply chain head Mark Randall is helping Google think through manufacturing issues for Google Glass and one day might handle production outright.
　　"It could someday be an opportunity," Mr. Woodside said.
　　Google agreed to buy Motorola two years ago when its handset manufacturers were beginning to be entangled in patent disputes around the world with iPhone maker Apple Inc. and others. It was Google CEO Larry Page's biggest acquisition to date. One year into the turnaround, Motorola's market share has declined while its losses have grown.
　　Motorola's share of the global smartphone market has shrunk to around 1% in the first quarter of 2013, down from 3.8% at the end of 2011, according to tech research firm IDC.
　　There were culture clashes as well.Andy Rubin, who led Android operations for eight years at Google until this March, supported keeping Android as an open platform and opposed embracing Motorola more closely, people familiar with the matter said.
　　Some Motorola workers who had developed close relationships with Google employees while working on products before the acquisition found their emails went unreturned after the takeover, the people said.
　　Those tensions were felt during the development of the Moto X, which Motorola's new bosses from Google singled out to develop as its flagship device. Developers of the phone were able to work closely with other parts of Google, but when they sought help from the Android team they often received no response, people who worked there said.
　　There were significant concerns that the Chrome Web browser app wouldn't be able to come preinstalled on the Moto X, because developers couldn't get information they needed from Google as to how it would function on the device, said a person familiar with the project. The problems were eventually sorted out, however, and the Chrome app is the preinstalled browser on the Moto X.
　　Not having a strong relationship may have prevented Motorola from incorporating the latest version of Android, said two people familiar with the matter. Motorola executives say the Moto X will soon receive the software through an over-the-air upgrade. Google's Nexus, a tablet made by Google, will be the first device to ship with the new Android. It was available for pre-ordering July 30.
　　"It's not like we were equally disadvantaged—we were more disadvantaged," one former Motorola employee said.
　　When Mr. Rubin stepped down as head of Android in March and was replaced by Sundar Pichai, who is also the head of Google's Chrome and Apps business, the move signaled to those inside Motorola that the relationship with the Android team would improve.
　　Google declined to make Mr. Rubin available for an interview. In an interview this week, Motorola CEO Mr. Woodside rejected the notion of a bad relationship between the companies under Mr. Rubin.
　　He chalked up Motorola's inability to get the latest version of Android on its new phone to bad timing and said it shows that the company is independent from its parent.
　　"The relationship is good," Mr. Woodside said. "I don't believe there were issues there."
　　Mr. Woodside has spent much of the past year overhauling Motorola and tying it closer to Google. About 70 Google employees have moved over to work for Motorola, taking roles in engineering, marketing and general business functions.
　　Steve Horowitz, Motorola's senior vice president of software engineering, was formerly a Google executive responsible for the creation of its Android operating system software. Lior Ron, a former Google product manager, helped lead the development of the Moto X.
　　Mr. Woodside and most of the rest of the team are based in Sunnyvale, Calif., about a 10-minute drive from Google's headquarters in Mountain View. The CEO said he doesn't expect to lay off any more employees.
　　Mr. Woodside, Google's top U.S. salesperson before getting his current job, acknowledged he isn't a hardware expert. To improve his knowledge, he has met with Motorola engineers who have schooled him in matters such as cellphone acoustics.
　　"It's been a self-education process," he said.

In my original Windows Retailer evaluation

　　More than nine months into the terrific revamping known as Windows eight, a clear vision of its core is lastly beginning to emerge. The baked-in apps happen to be streamlined and Windows eight.1 looms, ready to polish the quite a few rough edges found within the original release with the operating program. But Microsoft alone can’t enhance what's really the beating heart of Windows eight: The Windows Store.
　　Windows eight revolves around the Windows Shop. Every single Live Tile that glimmers on the modern-style Begin screen is definitely the iconic representation of a Windows eight app-and you'll be able to only snag Windows eight apps in Microsoft’s own Windows Shop. Because the Windows Retailer goes, so goes the Windows eight encounter.
　　How, exactly, will be the Windows Retailer doing? The clear indicators are mixed. Windows RT devices can run only modern-style apps, not desktop apps, and they’re tanking really hard. But app submissions picked up steam around the time of Microsoft’s Construct conference, culminating inside the shattering of your one hundred,000-app barrier in early July, and they’re nonetheless going (somewhat) robust.
　　That is a terrific milestone for Microsoft, but it’s still paltry when compared with the approximately 1 million apps in Google Play and 900,000 apps in Apple’s App Store. So it is a great time for you to take the pulse with the Windows Store again: Is 100,000 apps enough to keep a body content? As I did last February, I spent days scouring the Windows Shop and taking notes in 5 key categories: games, music apps, video apps, social apps, as well as a catch-all “other” category-to see how effectively Microsoft covered each. Here’s how they all measured up.
　　In my original Windows Retailer evaluation, I noted that the game selection was an early highlight-and it has only gotten stronger since February. The amount of readily available apps has tripled in that time. Whilst the roughly 13,500 available games don’t hold a candle to the vast Android and iOS libraries, there's more than adequate to help keep you distracted for months to come. A lot of them are ports from other platforms, but, hey, they play just as nicely on Windows.
　　Actually, they play so nicely that we’ve had two separate roundups of killer Windows 8 games, with incredibly little overlap. Should you open the Games tab inside the Windows Retailer and sort by "noteworthy," you will uncover dozens and dozens of high-quality titles. (I’ve been playing Royal Revolt nonstop lately.) Microsoft Studios in certain has released a bevy of bodacious games like Pinball FX2, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, as well as the Gunstringer.
　　Speaking of which, two games from Microsoft Studios-Skulls in the Shogun and Halo: Spartan Assault-aren’t just a blast-they’re also far-reaching, letting you play with gamers on Windows Telephone and Xbox Live at the same time as with fellow Windows Shop shoppers. That sort of cross-platform expertise is definitely an exciting tease from the potential of Windows 8 gaming inside a One particular Microsoft kind of world. Here’s hoping it continues.
　　That’s to not say that all is effectively in Winny’s world, however. As talked about, whilst the Windows Store game choice is impressive, it cannot examine to the selections for iOS or Android-you will not discover any mobile Walking Dead games or Grand Theft Auto ports here.

Report: Microsoft Surface Smart Watch Will Launch in 2014

　　It looks like Microsoft may be close to completing its own Surface-branded smart watch.
　　Sources inside the Redmond-based company told AmongTech that prototypes of the smart watch are reportedly already being used by some Microsoft employees.
　　SEE ALSO: How Microsoft Could Rebrand Itself [PICS]
　　Those same sources indicated that the watch will be available in a number of different colors (red, yellow, black, grey, white and blue), and that the watch will be made out of Oxynitride Aluminum. Oxynitride is 80% transparent, however, it is four times harder than glass.
　　The Surface watch will reportedly come running an adapted version of Windows 8, and will have its own built-in radios so it can be used independently from a smartphone.
　　News of the Surface watch comes on the same day more rumors have surfaced about Apple’s purported iWatch. According to a new report, Apple is “aggressively” hiring engineers to work on the watch.
　　Both Apple and Microsoft’s smart watches are rumored to be coming late next year.
　　What do you think about the new smart watch frenzy? Would you be interested in owning a smart watch created by Apple or Microsoft? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The largest addition with this release is undoubtedly

　　Microsoft nowadays released an update to OneNote for Windows RT and Windows eight, adding Office 365 help and creating the on-screen keyboard dismissible. You are able to download the new version now straight from the Windows Retailer.
　　The largest addition with this release is undoubtedly the ability to sign in together with your Workplace 365 account. This signifies you may now easily open your function notes.

To accomplish so, tap on the A lot more Notebooks drop-down menu in the left pane, tap the plus button that says “Add a operate or college account to find out a lot more notebooks,” and sign in together with your operate or school account. You ought to see a list of lately made use of notebooks seem in the left pane; tapping any of them must open it.
　　Subsequent up around the list is often a modest but vital tweak towards the way OneNote’s touch keyboard functions. Whilst the function has generally allow you to kind anyplace, Microsoft has finally admitted that “you don’t wish to type.”
　　Because of this, it is possible to now dismiss the on-screen keyboard so you can see the whole screen for reading. In Windows 8 and Windows RT, the on-screen keyboard shows up any time you tap into a text box and goes away when you tap outdoors. Tapping “outside” in OneNote implies tapping into any empty space.
　　Some could see this as a minor detail, but it’s really quite important inside the touchscreen planet that Microsoft has suddenly found itself in. Tweaks like this one particular make the distinction between an excellent app as well as a good one particular.
　　Although they are the only two improvements Microsoft chose to highlight, the app has received a bit far more within this release. The complete changelog is as follows.
　　In building Windows eight, Microsoft made a significant bet that adding touch capabilities to personal computers would assist revive an sector that was having eaten away by smartphones and tablets. But Inventive Tactics president Tim Bajarin, writing more than at Time, says his study has found that creating touch such a vital part of individual computers was a really serious strategic error on Microsoft’s aspect. The cause, he says, is the fact that Computer users are so utilized to applying mice and keyboards that they see no benefit to touching their screens to acquire function completed. So even though touch interfaces make excellent sense for smaller sized, portable devices like smartphones and tablets, they make tiny sense for personal computer systems which have larger displays and that already come with trackpads or mice.
　　“While adding touch input to screens is not a bad issue, people today becoming in a position to adapt speedily to touch as a main type of user interface input on larger PCs will not come about overnight,” Bajarin writes. “Early on, Apple’s scientists studied the kinesiology of arm movements in connection to keyboards and mice, and concluded that implementing any gestures into the user interface worked finest via a trackpad. The corporation also determined that picking the hand up in the keyboard region and moving it to touch the screen was unnatural, and factored that into the final choice to add gestures towards the Magic Trackpad alternatively.”
   http://www.windows7retailbox.com/microsoft-office-professional-plus-2010-full-retail-pack-p-3547.html

McAfee: Malware hunts for South Korean military secrets

　　Hackers who wiped tens of thousands of PC hard drives in South Korea earlier this year also appear to be targeting the country's military secrets, according to a report.
　　A study by McAfee Labs said the group has created malware which scanned systems for keywords including "weapon", "US Army" and "secret".
　　It said that once a computer's contents had been catalogued, the attackers could "grab documents at will".
　　South Korea has played down the threat.
　　Its defence ministry told the Associated Press news agency that it was technically impossible to have lost classified reports because the computers on which it stored military secrets were not connected to the net.
　　A spokesman for the Pentagon said it planned to review the report.
　　Social network
　　McAfee said the attacks were part of a long-term spying operation dating back to at least 2009 which it called Operation Troy because the name of the ancient city repeatedly appeared in the hackers' code.
　　It began investigating the group following an attack in March which caused data held on PCs used by several banks and TV networks to be deleted.
　　Although the security firm said that the malware used to wipe the disks was distinct from that used to hunt for the military secrets, it said there were so many similarities between the two that it believed they must be created by the same team.
　　It traced the spying effort back to at least 2009 when it said the hackers managed to place an exploit on a military social networking site. It added that it believed the code was also spread through the use of "spear phishing" - email or other messages masquerading as official communications which were designed to fool specific individuals into handing over logins and other sensitive information.
　　The report said that once the malware was in place it searched the infected systems for "interesting" documents.
　　To do this it scanned for a variety of Korean and English-language keywords.
　　The study lists dozens of examples including "tactics", "brigade", "logistics" and "Operation Key Resolve" - a military exercise involving both South Korean and US forces carried out every year. McAfee said it had opted to withhold other "sensitive" terms at the request of US officials.
　　The report explained the software then flagged which computers appeared to have the most valuable contents and uploaded copies of their directories to the attackers' servers.
　　It said the hackers were then able to pick and choose which files to download in order to keep network traffic to a minimum, helping them avoid detection.
　　McAfee also warned that it had discovered a version of the spying malware which had the ability to destroy data in a way similar to the one used against the civilian targets.
　　"This capability could be devastating if military networks were to suddenly be wiped after an adversary had gathered intelligence," it said.
　　"There was at least one limitation, however. We found the malware of February 2011 could wipe its targets only if it was detected that it was being debugged or analysed by a security product."

Ballmer’s information because it continues to be

　　Microsoft will hand over its most up-to-date edition with the functioning procedure, Windows 8.one, to OEMs in late August, Microsoft’s Home windows internet marketing main told its partners on Monday morning.

　　Speaking at its Around the globe Husband or wife Convention (WPC), Tami Reller, corporate vp and main promoting officer for Home windows, claimed that Microsoft would make the RTM (release to producing) variation of Home upgrade to windows 8 pro pack to OEMs by late August. Microsoft did not say when Home windows eight.one could well be introduced to individuals in its ultimate variety, but background indicates that Microsoft really should at the least be on target to ship by October.
　　Microsoft’s WPC, as its identify indicates, is Microsoft’s opportunity to converse its roadmaps to its companions; Microsoft began its spouse software about twenty years ago. In accordance to main govt Steve Ballmer, ninety p.c of your revenue Microsoft realizes “in some way, condition or form” is generated with the partners Ballmer resolved now as portion of a 3.5-hour keynote handle.
　　In mixture, all those partners experienced “quite a fantastic year,” Ballmer stated, with all of its associates rising six.5 % about past yr, on foundation sales of $650 billion.
　　Ballmer’s information, because it continues to be, was that Microsoft has reinvented alone as a gadgets and solutions firm, in lieu of just a application firm. “Windows has constantly been more a tool than a piece of software program; it defined a class of machine called the Personal computer,” he reported, whether they be, tablets, all-in-ones, convertibles, and much more.
　　Ballmer claimed that Microsoft’s associates can be revealed how Microsoft has improved in the cloud, particularly how Microsoft straddles the general public and private cloud; “big data,” together with how Microsoft strategies to share Bing research information with developers and supply general public knowledge to personal clouds with all the Azure Information Market; how Microsoft’s social initiatives straddle a variety of products and solutions; and cell, particularly how Microsoft supports its own products from alone and many others.

Dell has sold "hundreds of thousands" of XPS 10, Latitude 10 Windows 8, RT tablets

　　Even as sales of the iPad and iPad mini may be leveling off from their previous meteoric growth, they still number in the millions for each quarter. According to a company exec, Dell can't make the same claims for its tablets running Windows 8 and Windows RT.
　　While you probably know the Guardian newspaper for being one of the sources of the NSA leaks and the subsequent notoriety of leaker Edward Snowden, it also reports other, less inflamatory, tech news, such as a recent interview with Dell global VP Sam Burd.
　　In the piece, Burd acknowledges the sales figures for the company's recent tablets running Windows RT and Windows 8. According to Burd, sales of the XPS 10 and the Latitude 10 have been in the "hundreds of thousands," which the Guardian frames in a negative light by saying the exec "admitted" the numbers and said they were "only" hundreds of thousands.
　　Of course, this is another sign that Windows-based tablets haven't seen explosive sales numbers, but Burd didn't sound the death knell for Dell's slates yet, arguing for a brighter future based on the figures: "I think that's pretty exciting when we look at the ramp [in purchasing] that we expect from corporate customers."
　　Indeed, the corporate market, which is much more comfortable with the Windows ecosystem than the iPad's or Android, could be Microsoft's saving grace in the tablet world (and, by extension, those manufacturers, like Dell, who are building Windows tablets). However, Burd is talking about a few years before Windows 8 could make up a third or more of the tablet sales volume (by which time it will likely no longer be Windows 8, but that's another story).
　　Maybe that's why Dell is looking into alternatives, as its core sales of desktops and laptops are predicted to slide and tablet sales haven't made up the difference. Burd says the company has started exploring wearable computers, which means someday soon there might be a Dell smart watch competing against an Apple iWatch.
　　Are the sales numbers for Dell tablets in line with what you would expect? Should the company be happy or concerned with those figures? Let us know your thoughts in the Talkback section below