iPad World

Club Penguin is no hybrid chocolate bar.

It’s a browser MMO about cartoon penguins and their snowy online world of mini-games and igloo decorating. It’s a giant; a business boasting 150 million registered accounts and 10 to 15 million active monthly users. And a portion of those pay £5 every month.

Lane Merrifield created it for his children.

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Google+ is taking over the Earth — well, Google Earth, anyway. The search giant rolled out the latest version of Google Earth today, and while it boasts much improved graphics, the big enhancement to take note of is its integration with the company’s Google+ social networking and identity service. Now users can share their virtual travels with friends and with Google as well, thanks to Google+, which slowly seems to be insinuating itself into every corner of Google’s world — literally.

Now that it has inked a deal with Microsoft to become the default search engine on Windows Phone-based handsets in Russia, Yandex is bolstering its mobile technology with an acquisition. The Russian search giant has purchased SPB Software, the mobile software outfit responsible for, among other things, Shell 3D, a popular Android home-screen replacement app. No purchase price was given, though sources put it at about $37 million.

When Google acquired Motorola Mobility, the search giant insisted other Android manufacturers had nothing to worry about. It would run Motorola as an entirely separate unit, granting it no special privileges. During a Wednesday evening interview at AsiaD, Google mobile chief Andy Rubin reiterated this claim, saying the company didn’t buy Motorola for its hardware, but for its patents.

“I’m focused on delighting a lot of consumers, but there are other folks focused on putting me out of business,” Rubin said, suggesting that Motorola’s patent portfolio will be a potent weapon … Continue Reading

Though its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility will put Google in the business of making smartphones, the search giant says other manufacturers of Android-powered handsets have nothing to fear. Motorola Mobility will be given no advantages over any other Android hardware partner.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said the company won’t allow its new ties with Motorola to spoil relations with its existing partners.

“The Android ecosystem is the No. 1 priority, and that we won’t do anything with Motorola, or anybody else by the way, that … Continue Reading

With Margo Georgiadis leaving her gig as COO of Groupon to return to Google as president of its Americas business, the search giant has given Dennis Woodside, the executive currently in that position, a new role: Overseeing the integration of Motorola Mobility. By far the largest acquisition in Google’s history, the purchase of Motorola Mobility brings with it a groaning board of integration challenges. But according to Nikesh Arora, Google’s senior vice president and chief business officer, Woodside is prepared for them. “He wanted a new and exciting challenge,” Arora told Bloomberg. “We wanted a capable pair of … Continue Reading

As mediation talks between Oracle and Google move into their second day, the chances of an accord being reached are looking increasingly unlikely.

According to reports, the companies’ CEOs, Larrys Ellison and Page, are still at an impasse over how to settle Oracle’s patent-infringement lawsuit against Google over the use of Java in its Android operating system.

The latest sticking point: A recommendation from Oracle’s damages expert arguing the company is owed more than $2 billion for copyright infringement and $201.8 million more for patent infringement.

That’s significantly less than the … Continue Reading

The ongoing feud between eBay and Craigslist over the size of the e-commerce giant’s minority stake in the online classified Web site has finally drawn the attention of the U.S. Justice Department. Reuters reports that the agency is looking into allegations that eBay used its Craigslist board seat to gather intelligence that could be used to launch a rival service.

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group is striking out in a new and unexpected direction. The company said Thursday it has developed a mobile operating system and that the first smartphones to use it are already headed to market. The Linux-based OS is called Aliyun and is reportedly capable of running Android apps as well as Web-based ones created with JavaScript and HTML5. It also features cloud-based email, Web search, GPS, and the ability to synchronize and store call data, text messages and photos in the cloud.

The first device to run Aliyun, … Continue Reading

Copiepresse, the consortium of Belgian newspapers that successfully sued Google for copyright infringement, is crying foul today after the search giant removed its member sites not just from Google News, but from its main search index as well. Google claims the move was necessary to comply with decision in the copyright infringment case, but the consortium claims it is simply retaliation over the copyright infringement suit.