Clint Boulton

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) July 12 announced an upgrade to its Android Market client for Android smartphones that allows U.S. users to rent movies and purchase books right from their handsets, and includes a spruced-up user interface. U.S. users with Android 2.2 smartphones and later will be able to rent thousands of movie titles from their handsets […]

Combating spam in email messaging is a normal task for Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) across its Gmail application and Google Apps suite, but who knew it could be useful for shedding unwanted calls? Google has added global spam filtering for its Google Voice phone management application, which lets users route all their landline, work phone and cell […]

If you’re interested in the background and social construct behind Google+, you really need to read Paul Adams’ post on why he left Google, where he designed what would form the core behind Google+ Circles. Unlike Facebook, where the default broadcasting is one-to-many, Google+ Circles let users select who they want to friend, follow or […]

XPRT Front This unassuming device weighs 5.1 ounces. It measures 4.7 inches long and 2.4 inches wide to fit comfortably in the palm of the hand. Side View The XPRT is a half-inch thick—chunky by the standards of the slim Nexus S 4G or Samsung Galaxy S II phones. Chalk up the extra thickness to […]

Google+ is getting changes in the early going, but what will they be? Google+ overseer Vic Gundotra, a popular vice president of engineering for the company, piqued the interest of the new social network’s users July 11, promising changes would come this week, a mere two weeks after its launch. While Gundotra’s comment is intended […]

AT&T (NYSE:T) July 11 said it would begin selling the HTC Status, which runs Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system, for $49.99 with a two-year contract July 17. The HTC Status, available for viewing and preorder here, is considered a “Facebook Phone” because its key feature is a dedicated Facebook share button that sits […]

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) confirmed it has purchased Punchd, a maker of loyalty cards for keeping customers coming back to patronize local businesses. Punchd launched in 2010 to provide loyalty cards intended to boost user engagement between shoppers and stores, restaurants and other businesses. Punchd Co-Founders Reed Morse and Grantland Chew “whipped up the first prototype in […]

Growing like a weed. Racing like a comet. There are a lot of ways one might describe the trajectory of the Google+ social network, which launched to limited field testing June 28 and has been opening and closing its access ever since. What is hard to do is nail down a user number for long. […]

Google July 12 said it is rolling out its Google Offers local deals beta service in New York City and San Francisco following a successful launch in Portland. Google Offers, the search engine’s Groupon clone, offers local discounts for goods and services via e-mail alerts. The service will be paired with the Google Wallet mobile […]

Oracle vs. Google Oracle in August 2010 sued Google for patent and copyright infringement over Google’s use of Java in its open-source Android operating system. Oracle, which purchased Sun Microsystems and renamed it Oracle America in January, accused Google of infringing seven Java patents and other copyrights. The latest argument is over how much Google […]

Some 35 percent of U.S. adults now own smartphones, with 35 percent of smartphone owners using an Android phone, compared with 24 percent of users claiming to use either Apple’s iPhones or Research in Motion’s Blackberry handsets. The metrics-culled by Pew Research from a poll of 2,277 adults and conducted April 26 to May 22a-represent […]

Google+ has more than 5 million users in the United States alone during its first two weeks of existence, according to a couple of creative calculations by early users of the fledgling social network. Open June 28 to limited field-testing, Google+ is Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) major bid to bite into the massive growth and influence of […]