Tag: Google

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Steve Ballmer wants Microsoft to regain “Evil Company” Title by threatening Android.

In recent Interview with The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that there are licensing fees for Android.

WSJ: Are you trying to protect Windows or do you see Windows Phone 7 as a big revenue opportunity in and of itself?

Mr. Ballmer: No, I see it as a big opportunity. There’s the sale of the device, there’s potential for search revenue on top of that and commerce revenue. There’s potential for subscription revenue from various entertainment or productivity experiences.

Job One here will be selling a lot of phones, and if we sell a lot of phones, good things are going to happen.

WSJ: You’re still charging a license fee for the software.

Mr. Ballmer: Sure.

WSJ: Is that difficult in an environment where Android is free?

Mr. Ballmer: Android has a patent fee. It’s not like Android’s free. You do have to license patents. HTC’s signed a license with us and you’re going to see license fees clearly for Android as well as for Windows.

Since Google is not charging any licensing fees, then who is?

Well, Microsoft is currently going after Motorola for making Android phones. Motorola currently does not making any phones based on Windows Phone 7 platform.

Microsoft had signed “Patent deal” with HTC over Android. Some pundits “cheered” this move as a way for HTC to fend off Apple on the ongoing lawsuit.

Microsoft is poised to regain the “Evil Company” title with this move if only if the consumer cares about the issue. Unfortunately some influential Tech-Elitists are not saying anything much about Microsoft asserting “ownership” over Android and Linux.

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Where’s The Outrage? Microsoft is going after Motorola for Android.

Fortune reports that Microsoft is going after Motorola for Patent violations related to Android. Apparently Motorola won’t be going the Windows Phone 7 way in favor of Android. It is obvious that Microsoft is losing the grip and going lawsuit happy.

Anyone remembers that HTC signed a “Patent deal” related to Android with Microsoft? I really thought that Android is an Open Source Project led by Google. How can Microsoft asserting Patent right to someone else’s product?

Well, Microsoft has been claiming that another Open Source Project named Linux is violating their Patents. Novell was quick to “collaborate” with Microsoft. Linus Torvald disagrees.

There are a lot of people who feel disgusted with Apple suing HTC, and a lot of them cheered when HTC signe a deal with Microsoft. What is wrong with this picture? It is just like defending a castle from attacks by surrendering to another enemy with a bigger army. You still lose!

Shame on you, Microsoft. Is this how you innovate?

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Google Voice in Gmail, Receiving calls.

I spend most of my time out of my office, working on various projects. It would be nice to have the ability to receive calls on my computer using Google Voice. Google now makes it possible.

To enable receiving Google Voice calls in Gmail, check the box next to Google Chat in the list of forwarding phones.

Now I can be somewhere else to receive calls without having it to ring the office phone. I could forward it to my mobile phone, but sometimes the signals are non-existent. Care to guess which mobile network I’m with?

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Google Voice in Gmail, Oh Yeah!

Google has just made Google Voice even sweeter on Wednesday August 25th, 2010. Now Google Voice users can receive and make calls from Gmail. Providing the microphone and speakers are available. Notebook users should have little problems with the requirements.

You need to install “Video and voice plug-in” to enable this feature with your browser. Video and voice plug-in requires Windows XP+ or Mac OS X 10.4+ or Linux.

Google is slowly rolling out this feature to Google Voice users in the United States. So be patient.

Head to Google Voice.