Rumor: Google preparing its own MP3 store

Android users have a lot of options when it comes to music. Amazon’s MP3 Store has become a de facto Android music platform, and there’s plenty of 3rd party stores and apps that offer paid and free song downloads. Google’s going head-to-head with Amazon with its cloud-based Google Music, but according to the New York Times, they may be after a more direct sales model with a full-on MP3 store.

Google’s no stranger to direct media sales. Google Books has been selling free and paid books for over a year, and the Android Market now rents movies and other videos to phones and tablets. But several music executives (all, apparently, without names) say that Google is preparing its music store for a launch very soon. The store would be integrated with Google Music Beta in the same way that Amazon’s Cloud Player and Apple’s iCloud are already working
The search giant has been down this road before. Google wanted to introduce a music locker service earlier this year, but negotiations with music labels broke down. If they’ve finally secured the rights from from the musical powers that be, as Amazon and Apple have already done, Android could finally have an integrated music store. It’d be almost impossible for anyone to catch up with iTunes, at least in the short term, but the competition would certainly be a plus.
Could a Google MP3 store be yet another announcement at the upcoming Nexus Prime/Ice Cream Sandwich event in Hong Kong? Keep an eye on Android Community Tuesday night to find out.
[via Cnet]

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Verizon sends free dock back with delayed XOOM LTE upgrades

OK, so that one-week turnaround for the Motorola XOOM 4G upgrade was a little optimistic… at least as optimistic as the idea that the upgrade itself would come in the spring of this year. Customers who sent their tablets in to Verizon are seeing significant slowdowns in getting their LTE hardware back into their hands. But the company sends along an extra goody by way of an apology: a free XOOM desktop dock.

The official Motorola accessory is coming in to appease the long, long wait for the 4G upgrade that’s been promised to XOOM owners since the very start. It’s pretty good extra to receive – I can attest to the quality of Motorola’s official docks personally. The standard dock is currently going for $49.99 at retail, meaning that patient Verizon XOOM owners are pretty far ahead on the deal.
If you’re not familiar with the XOOM’s dock, it’s your standard charging cradle, plus a 3.5mm audio-out port for listening to your tunes. Note that this isn’t the Speaker Dock with a small built-in amp and HDMI out – that one’s a more expensive version. In a strange move, neither dock includes a USB-out port for syncing with your computer.
What say you, XOOM upgraders? Is the free dock worth the wait?

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Google’s Android team joins the rest of us on Twitter

If you’re reading this and you’re even a casual user of Twitter, you probably want to hit this link up right away. Google’s Android development team has just created its own Twitter account, @Android. Just an hour after their first message, they’ve already over 4,000 followers – and it’s growing fast.

Google’s most impressive feat of the day might have been securing that short and sweet Twitter handle – try signing up for a new account today and getting a snappy username. Twitter has been known to work with celebrities and companies for marketing purposes, and since Google’s as big as it gets in the tech world, we’re sure they came to some kind of amicable arrangement. The @Android avatar is currently the official Ice Cream Sandwich statue chilling out on the Google Campus.
The account only has two tweets at the moment, but you can bet they’ll be highlighting the latest and greatest in the Android world soon enough. For a more in-depth look at the inner workings of the Android dev team, be sure to check out the official Android Developers Blog. Oh, and while you’re at it, add Android Community as well – our Twitter handle is almost as good as the official one: @Androids.

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HTC Hero S available today from US Cellular

The new HTC Hero S from U.S. Cellular is finally for sale and can be yours today. First leaked as the HTC Kingdom or the Design 4G we quickly learned the full specs of the Hero S. It was then leaked along with the Motorola Electrify as headed to U.S. Cellular. They have silently launched the device and can be purchased starting today.

U.S. Cellular officially announced the Hero S last month, along with the Wildfire S and the HTC Flyer tablet all coming soon and that was the last we heard. Starting today, you can head over to uscellular.com and snag the HTC Hero S for just $199 (after a $100 MIR). This device may not be the biggest and best smartphone available but it’s an excellent option for those using U.S. Cellular.
The HTC Hero S is positioned as a nice mid to top end device being faster than the original EVO, but slower than new dual-core phones. With the Hero you get a 4.0″ qHD 960 x 540 high resolution display, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, HTC Sense UI all running with a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm single-core processor. With a 5MP camera on the rear and 1.3 front for video chat this is overall a great buy. Perfect for those that don’t need the biggest and best and just want a great smartphone that is well designed, sleek, and up to date thanks to HTC. Let us know if you plan to pick one up, or if you opt for the dual-core ELECTRIFY.
[via US Cellular]

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HTC’s new Bluetooth Conference Speaker matches your Aeron

Well what do we have here? The FCC has outed yet another gadget bound for American shores, but this one’s of a decidedly more corporate flair. The HTC Conference Speaker popped up in the Commission’s database today with some scintillating details. The Bluetooth accessory can work with any mobile phone and should you have a matching set, it’ll work together.

The brushed aluminum Conference Speaker works a lot like the wired speaker phones you’ve seen adoring huge tables in soulless corporate meeting rooms: connect it to your Bluetooth phone and it’ll use multiple microphones and a large speaker to simulate a meeting. While a single Conference Speaker only supports mono audio, you can connect two at the same time to hear quarterly updates and TPS reports in stereo. Pressing the center button automatically pairs the speaker with any matching speakers in the immediate area.
The speaker lasts for ten hours on a charge, so unsightly cables won’t deface your expensive mahogany finish. If you use the Conference Speaker for music playback it’ll last you for eight hours. There’s no word on a price or release date, but expect it pretty soon, since accessories take a lot less wrangling to get into the public’s hands.
[via Wireless Goodness]
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Google Translate now supports 14 languages, Gene Roddenberry approves

Google wowed onlookers last January when Google Translate for Android added a Conversation Mode, allowing English and Spanish speakers to speak into the app and hear instant voice translations. Amid some other big news today, Google has taken the Conversation mode out of Alpha and now works between fourteen languages. Unfortunately, both Klingon and Vulcan have been snubbed in the first round.

Conversation Mode now supports Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish, and of course, Spanish and English. New improvements to the app allow you to correct any mistakes in your native translation before having it spoken aloud. You can even zoom in on translated text to easily share it with other around you. Other small improvements, like an adapted Honeycomb interface, are welcome.
Check out the official video below:


The Google Translate app is available for Android phones running Froyo or above (which is almost everyone at this point) and is a free download in the Android Market. In addition to the new Conversation languages, it now does standard text translation in over sixty languages from Urdu to Latvian. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Siri can translate in as many languages as you want, so long as you only want English.

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HTC recruiting event October 24th in Mountain View, looking to hire developers

Do you love Android and wish you could land a dream job developing for a company like HTC? Well this could be your chance. This month HTC is holding basically a job fair but they are calling it a developer recruiting event. On the 24th and 25th in Mountain View, CA the event will last 1 hour and HTC will be looking to fill various developer jobs in their Android and mobile teams. They want to meet and see some local talent and this could be the perfect opportunity for many of you developers out there.

HTC has plenty of positions available for Android and mobile and are looking for a few developers to head to Seattle, Washington. “Design your future with HTC” is the tagline they are using here, sounds nice huh? HTC is the worlds leader in Android and Windows mobile phones and the #2 smartphone maker in the entire US. Some of the positions available in Seattle are:
-Android Development Engineer
-Software Development Engineer
-Software Development Engineer in Test
-Product Manager & Business Intelligence Program Manager

Sound like a deal to any of you developers out there? All those custom kernels and tweaks you’ve contributed to the Android community could come even more in handy working with the likes of HTC. For full details, instructions and to register for the event feel free to click here. Samsung recently hired CyanogenMod leader Steve Kondik, could we see something similar in the coming weeks from HTC? Sure would be interesting so stay tuned.
[via Eventbrite]

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Google announces third quarter financial results, revenues of 10 billion, more

The Google 2011 quarter 3 earnings call is currently under way as we speak. You can follow along at the YouTube Webcast and they’ve posted the full financial results for Q3 and the year in general. Google, you are some rich dudes. Sifting through the notes just released today it appears things are still moving along just fine for Google. Revenues from Q3 2010 to now has increased 33% year over year, and this quarter alone they’ve brought in around 10 billion in revenue. Sounds nice right?

“We had a great quarter,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google during the webcast as he continued to mention some of the numbers from this quarter, and year over year as we mentioned above. Another comment from Larry is regarding ICS and he said “You won’t believe what we managed to get done in this release”. I for one can’t wait and I’m sure I’ll be thrill with what we see just as he states. Earlier this year Google announced they were activating over 550k Android phones daily during the Q2 earnings call so I’m hoping we see a similar comment today. Most likely it will be around 650,000 or even 700k with the continued growth we’ve seen recently. However, Larry did mention Android now has over 190 million activations globally.
Last we heard Google Application downloads had exceeded 3 billion and we can expect to hear an even bigger number later today as the earnings call continues. Larry page goes on to mention that Google+ has been doing exceptionally well, especially now it is open to the public and they have over 40 million active users with over 3.4 billion photos uploaded to the new social network site. Another interesting note is the employee headcount. On a worldwide basis, Google employed 31,353 full-time employees as of September 30, 2011, up from 28,768 full-time employees as of June 30, 2011. Who wants to work for Google?
For the PDF on earnings, the webcast, and full details head to investor.google.com

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Ice Cream Sandwich Sculpture lands at Google headquarters [Video]

Now that the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Galaxy Nexus event is officially re-announced for October 19th, we are already starting to see signs of that tasty Ice Cream. Google headquarters in the same fashion as usual have already landed their newest landmark — the Ice Cream Sandwich sculpture right on the front yard of Google HQ. Check it out below!

We’ve seen this plenty in the past and comes as no surprise although they’ve neatly lined it right up with announcement today that was just posted and linked to above. Check out the details of the last sculpture as Honeycomb arrived at Google’s building 44, or even the FroYo one we saw a while back wrapped in plastic.
Who is ready for some Ice Cream Sandwich? I know I am, that is for sure. We here at Android Community will be LIVE at the Samsung Google event in Hong Kong where Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will officially be announced so be sure to stay tuned right here for all your coverage. As soon as we get some more pictures and a video of the newest member of the Google sculpture family we will be sure to update.


[via Google+]

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