Google, Smartphone | featured news

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’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.

Google is trying to create an experimental wireless network covering its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, a move that some analysts say could portend the creation of dense and superfast Google wireless networks in other locations that would allow people to connect to the Web using their mobile devices.

Motorola engineers working on a handset to be released next year, that parent Google hopes will provide more potent competition for devices like Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy phones.

Google Maps have found their way back to the iPhone. The world's most popular online mapping system returned late Wednesday with the release of the Google Maps' iPhone app.

Hurricane Sandy may have stopped Google's Android event, but it couldn't stop the Google website. There will be no swanky event in downtown New York City, but Google's Android team has taken to a blog post to announce the latest Android devices, including the long-rumored Nexus 4 phone made by LG and Nexus 10 tablet made by Samsung.

Google wants smartphones and wearable computers to be integrated instead of intrusive, allowing us to ask them to do things without ever lifting a finger... If people are discussing the migratory patterns of monarch butterflies over dinner, for instance, phones will be able to hear that and present a map, she said. Or when you meet someone, your glasses could show you the person’s LinkedIn profile and your last e-mail exchange. “It’s the integration of the digital and physical worlds so no longer are they two relatively separate spheres where you have to make the connection between them,” Ms. Maes said.

Google objected to Taiwanese PC maker Acer's development of a smartphone that is powered by a rival mobile operating system, the launch of which was delayed this week.

Nokia and Microsoft Corp took the wraps off the struggling European company's most powerful smartphone on Wednesday, in what may be their last major shot at reclaiming a market lost to Apple, Samsung and Google.