Google Opening First Retail Store In October

Is it Google's turn to open up shop? After all Apple, Microsoft and Sony have their own retail stores across the world. Instead of setting up shop in its home town of sunny California, Google plans to open up its first retail location in Essex, England on October 7 with more to follow. Google will call its retail store the "Chromezone" store which will be designed in Google themed colors with similar hip employees as Apple's and Microsoft's have inside their own respective retail stores. 

With that much money, Google has said that opening up a few retail stores of its own is only a part of a pilot program. As we know, Google loves experimenting. It isn't clear what Google plans to sale, if anything at the Chromezone, but it wants to educate consumers with hands-on experience on its Chromebooks and Chrome OS while supposedly also selling Chromebooks made by Samsung and Acer, as well as accessories such as headphones. 

Google + Open For The Public

 

Google +, Facebook’s new competitor, went public yesterday to the happiness of people around the world. Ironically, within 3 hours Facebook rolled out a new update to its own social network service that received an enormous negative response.  Google + has been in beta testing for the last 3 months and touts its ability to have group video calls (Facebook does not offer this), ‘group’ sharing, and many more features.

Motorola Mobility Acquired By Google

An unexpected major purchase has been announced today by Google that it has acquired Motorola Mobility, one of the biggest mobile phone maker in the world, for a mind blowing $12.5 billion. Google has plans to "supercharge" the Android ecosystem out of this purchase. Google CEO, Larry Page, had this to say:

The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences. I am confident that these great experiences will create huge value for shareholders. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.

Google's Free Music Streaming Service Goes Live

Google has released all kinds of new goodies today at their I/O keynote today in San Francisco, this time Google has announced a new music streaming service called Music by Google. It's currently in beta and on invitation only basis. The whole point of Music by Google is to let you upload your music collection to Google's cloud storage and then you will be able to stream and listen to your music online and on your Android device using the Android Music app, for free. Songs that you've already fully played will be cached on your device and will be available for offline listening. Possibly the best thing off all is the ease of use, users will be able to directly upload their music library straight from iTunes or any music folder. What are you waiting for? Go request a Music by Google invite, it's free! 

Google Announces Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS

Here it is in all its glory, the new Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and it never looked so delicious. Google has also announced that is will put an end to Android fragmentation, meaning the new Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS will run on every single Android device from phones to tablets, even computers and everyone will always be up-to-date with the latest Android updates no matter what. Just like every current iOS device made by Apple. Google said it wants only one OS to run Android devices from now on, and that will be the new Ice Cream Sandwich. Google has made a great move that will be very beneficial to its customers by laying down strict rules for manufacturers that all new devices must be capable of running the latest version of Android for the first 18 months after they go on sale. Expect the Android Ice Cream Sandwich to fill your Google OS running devices in Q4 of 2011. 

Google Chrome 11 Released

Google has released Chrome 11 with a few important bug and security fixes along with a new icon and text-to-speech functionality. You should already see this faster looking colorful ball sitting in your dock by now since Chrome updates itself automatically. Just to make things stick though, you should go to your Chrome's tool bar - About Google Chrome, and hit restart to finish the update. That's if you're using a Mac. 

White Nexus S Found In The Wild

This is the real deal, a white Nexus S sporting an AT&T 3G bands and it's fully unlocked and officially real. Engadget managed to get some quality time with the white Nexus S from Google and Samsung and it looks like it's running Android 2.3.3, a.k.a Gingerbread. Aside from the AT&T bands, the white Nexus S has a textured back that makes gripping much better as well as a fingerprint-less experience. Head on over to Engadget for more pics and a bonus hands-on video.

Guess How Many Apps Are Available For The Motorola Xoom

A mere 50 native apps built to run on Google's Android 3.0 for tablets. The Motorola Xoom was thought to be the iPad killer before it was released into the market of Android tablets. The iPad launched with more than 1,000 native apps on day one while the Motorola Xoom only had 15 Honeycomb-native apps available for download when it first launched. Interest in the Xoom has not grown much since it was released and that shows in the amount of native apps built for its Android 3.0 operating system. The iPad has of more than 65,000 native apps behind its back compared to the 50 native apps currently available for the Motorola Xoom. So, did you make the right choice?