Google, Gadgets | featured news

In order to write emails or text messages with Google Glass, you dictate words. The device is pleasantly reliable at transcribing things you say ... unless you happen to have a foul mouth.

Developers making apps for Google's smart glasses have been told they will not be able to display advertising - nor charge for their product... For developers, that controversy could begin with wondering how exactly they will be able to make money from the device.

Alibaba seeks to weaken Google's dominance of the Chinese smartphone market with subsidies and other support for its rival Amos operating system. The firm has set up a one billion yuan ($162m; £105m) programme to support app developers and is offering monthly payments to handset makers for every phone using its platform they sell.

Google Glass, the tech giant's Internet-connected headset, isn't on the market yet. But that hasn't stopped one lawmaker from trying to keep the eyewear off the highways in his state.

Just in case you’re not convinced yet that 2013 is the year of the smart watch, a new report says that Google is developing one of its own to compete against Samsung’s confirmed device and Apple’s rumored iWatch. According to the Financial Times, Google’s Motorola Mobility unit is working on a wearable connected companion for Android smartphone.

Apple Inc marketing chief Phil Schiller attacked Google Inc's "fragmented" Android software and its biggest adopter, Samsung Electronics, a day before the Korean firm takes the wraps off its latest flagship smartphone in the United States.

Android lead Andy Rubin will step down from his position, handing over the reins of Google’s mobile operating system to Chrome lead Sundar Pichai. Google chief executive Larry Page broke the news Wednesday in a post on the company’s official blog, saying that Rubin felt the time had come to move on — albeit within the company.

Google says it's cutting an additional 1,200 jobs in its Motorola division as the unprofitable cellphone maker struggles to compete.

Google’s short-term goals for its Motorola smartphone division are two-fold: clear the rubble on the runway and build for the future. 

Android continues to dominate the battle to be the top smartphone system in the world, thanks in part to Samsung, which reigned as the top phone manufacturer for 2012.