WEST COVINA, CA–(Marketwire – Nov 27, 2012) – E FUN, a consumer electronics designer and manufacturer of fun, easy to use lifestyle products, announced today its newest Nextbook Android tablet featuring full access to Google Play, the Nextbook Premium 7SE GP.

Some Android users started to notice the store appearing yesterday; today is the formal launch where it will be available to everyone.

Google says that the store at launch features over 100 UK titles, including Conde Nasts Vogue and Traveller, as well as Hello.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top sellers so far are dominated by tech titles like Computer Gamer and the Official XBox Magazine, although interestingly Crochet Today is currently sitting at number four.

Hipsters or grannies driving the Android tablet market, perhaps to complement early adopting techies.

Add in any smartphone and a lot of kids want devices that can play apps available from Apple’s App store and the Google play store.

But look at it another way: there is content you’ll never find in iTunes or Google Play, like highly coveted Pokémon White Version 2 ($35).

The service allows users to browse and download music, magazines, books, movies, television programs, and applications that were published through Google.

Pocket size and powerful — it loaded Angry Birds in 15 seconds — the MG is built around the Google Play app store.

Expanding the Viddy CommunityWith more than half of all smartphone owners using Android devices, Viddy for Android expands the community of Viddyographers to the tens of millions of consumers using Android based smartphones and tablets while making it easier than ever to share beautiful videos with friends and family.

On the other, these are clearly also competitive plays from Google, to make sure that its Android devices remain desirable purchases in the face of competition from Amazon and the Kindle Fire, as well as Apple and the iPad.

Amazon is selling books and Google is making it up with search.

Android tablets have taken some market share from the iPad in the last year, but with the rise of the cheap Kindle Fire, new Windows 8 tablets and Microsofts big push on content for those, and Apples newest iPad models, this holiday season is very much up for grabs.

If your device happens to be Android powered, then theres good news today as YouTube has updated its app for Android tablets, bringing the raft of changes that were made last week to its iOS apps over to the Google owned operating system.

Apple’s popularity among gadget fans dropping [Asian News International]

ANI

Al Bawaba Ltd

Sydney, Dec.

2 (ANI): Apple, the company that changed the way to listening music and touching mobile phones, is in danger of losing its fans.

After a series of iPhone 5 missteps and delays in delivering products, the company’s popularity is diving and rivals are scooping up disgruntled Apple fans.

The company’s share of the tablet computer market has fallen to its lowest mark, with figures this week revealing consumers flocking to Google.

Apple has also lost the title of smart phone king to Samsung, news.com.au reports.

Apple’s latest blow came in the tablet market after ABI Research found its share fell to its lowest ebb since the iPad’s launch in 2010.

According to the report, Apple iPads made up 55 percent of all tablets in the year’s third quarter, the company found, while Google Android run tablet computers accounted for 44 percent.

ABI Research senior practice director Jeff Orr said that Apple’s launch of the iPad Mini ‘acknowledged’ growing competition from Google tablets but the smaller device has yet to knock them out of the market, the report said.

“It has failed to deliver a knock out punch through innovation, pricing and availability during the most critical selling period of the year,” Mr Orr said.

According to the report, Apple also lost the title of world’s biggest selling smart phone between July and September after Samsung’s Galaxy S III pipped the iPhone 4S to the top spot, being snapped up by an extra 1.8 million people worldwide.

(Credit:Dan Farber/CNET) NEW YORK, Facebook is the social network of the past, and the way it implements advertising doesn’t really work, a Google executive overseeing the search giant’s social networking product said today.

Google+ chief Bradley Horowitz says ads in the Facebook social feed are like sandwich boards — there’s no context.

Bradley Horowitz, the Google vice president of product for Google+, said Facebook isn’t set up in a way that’s compatible with the real world.

Rather, in the real world, there has to be intent.

“In designing Google+, we keep thinking about the real world, the way people actually are,” Horowitz said today during a Business Insider conference in New York.

“Jamming ads and agendas into user streams is pissing off users and frustrating brands too,” he said.

But being able to search for a lunch place when hungry and finding recommendations from friends is much more effective.

“Instead of sandwich boards… we revert back to the fundamentals of fulling the need the user has.”.

Horowitz added that Google doesn’t “have to make payroll by jamming users with ads” on Google+.

Nicholas Carlson of Business Insider interviews Googles Bradley Horowitz.

(Credit:Shara Tibken/CNET) As Nicholas Carlson, the Business Insider editor interviewing Horowitz pointed out, Horowitz was essentially making an argument for Facebook to expand into search.

Search has been a pretty hot topic for Facebook in the past few months.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has said that Facebook is “pretty uniquely positioned to answer a lot of questions people have.”.

It’s sort of “friend mining” — as CNET pointed out recently — extracting specific answers to a question by mining the immensely data rich social graph.

When asked if Google+ will ever incorporate ads, Horowitz said it would do so if there’s an effective way to add them without upsetting users.

Its most recent attempt is Google+, which was launched last year to help it better compete with Facebook and other social networking sites.

Google said in September that 100 million people are using Google+ each month, and it said it now has 400 million total users.

That’s still well below Facebook’s user base but is a significant milestone for the new social network.

Horowitz declined to provide updated numbers today but said the figures from September are “stale.

” He added that Google+ is succeeding where Google’s other social networking attempts failed largely because of the support of Chief Executive Officer Larry Page and other executives at Google. “Larry has done something amazing,” he said.Google+ is designed around “Circles” that allow users to group people within their social sphere into different categories. It also includes a video chat feature dubbed “Hangouts,” as well as other features. Horowitz noted that Google+ currently is “foundational layer” for Google’s other products — the “identity, relationship, and interest system for Google.

” What it wants to be, he said, is the go to place for people go to wish their friends happy birthday, much like Facebook is today except “uncluttered.

Today it was announced that Google has purchased online marketing firm Incentive Targeting.

By running it in conjunction with a solid online marketing strategy, you get to cover much more ground.

Prior to its acquisition, Incentive Targeting had raised $3.98 million in funding.

The Incentive Targeting Team says on its site, When we founded Incentive Targeting in 2007, we set out to do for retail couponing what Google had done for online advertising: make it simple, relevant, measurable, and effective.

The firms Series A round of more than $2.5 million came in 2010, putting a length of time between the purchase and its last infusion of cash.

In its announcement of its acquisition, the company noted that it had set out to do for online coupons what Google had manged to do for online advertising, making the category simple, relevant, measurable, and effective.

And, we can now work towards that vision as part of a company that improves the lives of hundreds of millions of people every day.

At the Boston Globe notes, Google has purchased a company from the Cambridge area before.

Incentive Targeting allowed retailers to reach out directly to individual customers, targeting based on purchase history and other factors.

How the company may fit into Google remains to be seen, but it could find a home in its now parent companys Shopping product.

A security bug in Google Webmaster Tools has given users access to old accounts and websites that theyre no longer supposed to be able to access.

The problem was discovered earlier today and reported on several SEO blogs and news outlets including (first, we believe) by Dave Naylor and was discussed pretty heavily by search marketers on Twitter.

We asked Google late Tuesday afternoon to comment on the bug reports, but have not received a reply.

Whats happening in some, not all, Webmaster Tools accounts is that users are finding themselves with sudden access to accounts that they once had access to, but no longer do; we.e.

That bug is presumably giving a lot of power to individuals that shouldnt have it power to deindex, disavow links, unverify the current/legitimate webmasters access, and even redirect sites to other verified domains in the users account.

The bug isnt affecting our Webmaster Tools account, so heres a screenshot from Dave Naylors account showing several verification changes that re opened access to old accounts/websites.

There are reports that the same (or a similar) bug is affecting Google Analytics, and State of Search reported that some blocked connections in Google Talk have also been unblocked.

Search result links now open a frameset with a Google Videos header at the top, and the original player page below it, similar to the way the Google Images search results are presented.

Digging up important messages from a constant barrage of emails can be daunting.

But Google+ Circles — the tool that allows you to group people by relationship or category — can help you filter and prioritize your inbox.

But just as Gmail’s spam filter quite effectively winnows out a lot of junk mail, Google Voice (Google’s universal call forwarding/voicemail service) offers tools for discarding these unwanted calls before they ring through.

You can quickly find emails from people youve grouped together in Circles based on their roles in your work or personal life.

To begin filtering your Gmail messages via Google+ Circles, log in to your Gmail and click the down arrow adjacent to your Circles.

Just click on Inbox in the left nav bar (to bring up the inbox style menu) and choose Priority Inbox, which will group at the top of your inbox all unread messages with yellow arrows.

Click on one of the Circles you created to view all of the Gmail messages youve received from individuals in that particular group.

Google+ Hangouts are essentially online video chats for up to 10 people.

Use it to promote your business with photos, videos, news, links to Hangouts, and more.

But you might not know they can improve collaboration with the addition of a digital whiteboard and sticky notes to visualize and track your teams progress.

The free app lets you and your colleagues create, move and comment on virtual sticky notes on a virtual whiteboard, all while a video chat is in progress.

Symphonical sticky notes can help you organize brainstorming sessions, group tasks, individual action items and more.

Log in to Google+ and launch a Hangout with your Google contacts, or anyone else you invite by email who is also on Google+ and has installed the Hangout plugin.

Create your survey from question templates (choosing between types such as multiple choice, checkbox, scale, or text answers), then either post it in a Google+ Hangout or distribute it via email.

Editing documents and presentations with your co workers doesnt have to involve a lot of emails back and forth if you use Google+ Hangouts new Google Docs feature.

But there are lots of them, and we’re not just talking about Microsoft Office equivalents such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, or Google Analytics.

It lets you create, comment on and revise multiple documents in real time with your colleagues, while you simultaneously do a video chat.

Youll see a list of Google Docs and a list of video chat participants below.

Use the list on the left hand side of your Hangout to toggle between the documents youre group editing.

Whether youre throwing an office party or planning a networking event, make sure everyone is invited by using a tool called Google+ Events, which was launched this summer.

Next, click on the Create Event button and add your details such as event title, a start time and an invite list.

You’ll get a list of alternative times, each with a Schedule This button to click for the time you choose.

From there, choose a background design and add a map and directions using Google Maps.

You can send the invitation to people in your Google+ Circles, as well as individual email addresses from your Gmail contacts list.

You also can share event photos with fellow attendees during and after the event with Google+ Party Mode.

Not only can you see and hear up to ten participants, but you can collaborate on Google Drive documents, share your screen, or run third party apps.

Related: How the New Google+ Local Tab Could Influence Local SEO
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TweetTweetIt is thought that the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli said that are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Last week, F Secure released its 40 page Q3 2012 Mobile Threat Report (PDF) and of course the talk of the town was Android malware.

The report reveals that during Q3 a whopping 51,447 unique malware samples were detected and that the surge is likely due to the continued high growth in Android smartphone adoption, particularly in China and Russia.51,447 new bits of unique malware for Android sounds scary especially since that is the number for a 90 day period.

A separate 18 month analysis by Juniper Networks published on October 30 revealed that free Android apps were 401 percent more likely to track users’ location and 314 percent more likely to access a phone’s address book than paid for apps.

But, hold on, we are dealing with statistics here In F Secures clarification  it actually points out that of the 51,447: 28,398 were malicious samples and 23,049 were potentially unwanted software (PUA) samples.

Heres what you have to know: out of the 51,447 samples discovered by the security firm last quarter, 28,398 were malicious samples, 146 of which came from Google Play, and 23,049 were potentially unwanted software (PUA), 13,639 of which came from Google Play.

For example, one of the PUAs listed by F Secure is AccuTracking GPS Tracker a program designed to turn a phone into a GPS tracker.

It has had between 100,000 and 500,000 downloads and has received over 200 reviews on Google Play.

Google quietly announced the addition of an online magazine reader this week, which works within its Google Play media and applications store.

One user wrote we are glad the service is finally on android we pay $7.99/month for each of our 10 trucks full real time tracking with history, speed alerts to management, and geofence this is by far the least expensive option to track fleets of trucks it is a bulletproof great service.

The security company does admit that the app is not malicious in itself but it does introduce a potential risk for misuse with malicious intent.

In summary, if youre an Android user, stick to the Google Play Store when looking for apps to download and install.

Now these could be real, dangerous apps which can steal banking information or send premium rate SMS messages.

Our assumption is that Google Play isnt serving any of those 146 samples today and that Googles security mechanisms have flushed them out.

Google Play allows the user to sample any content before they purchase.

However 146 malware samples from the official Android app store is 146 samples too many.

The app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play.

But it is a far cry from 51,447 unique samples mentioned in the executive summary of the report.

This means most users, at least in countries where Google Play is available, wont ever see these malicious apps.

SOURCES F Secure TAGS AndroidGoogleMalwareSecurity NEXT: Researchers fool Googles Android malware Bouncer by fingerprinting it.

Google Ventures has taken an eclectic approach, investing in a broad spectrum of companies ranging from medicine to clean power to coupon companies.

Miner said Google Ventures has invested in a handful of companies that are working to break open the mobile enterprise opportunity left by RIMs troubles.

Every year, it typically funds 40 50 “seed stage” deals where it invests $250,000 or less in a company, and perhaps around 15 deals where it invests up to $10 million, Maris said.

The California company announced this week that it will create biofuels that will cost $1.50 a gallon at a new 10 million gallon processing plant that will take around $50 million to build.

LACKING SUPERSTARSSome of its investments include Nest, a smart thermostat company; Foundation Medicine, which applies genomic analysis to cancer care; Relay Rides, a carsharing service; and smart grid company Silver Spring Networks.

Last year, its portfolio company HomeAway raised $216 million in an initial public offering.

Still, Google Ventures lacks superstar companies such as microblogging service Twitter or online bulletin board company Pinterest.

Google Ventures is investing in Cool Planet Energy Systems, a company aiming to produce cheap biofuels in its first commercial processing plant, according to reports.

It also recently recruited Kevin Rose, a savvy investor and popular entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley start up community, which should unlock a greater number of deals for the venture firm.

“Larry has repeatedly asked us: ‘What do you think you could do with a billion a year?’” said Maris, referring to Google chief executive Larry Page.

We don’t get calls from [Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette] saying, Where’s our money.

PARIS (AP) — European news organizations bleeding money and readers are trying to avoid extinction by asking governments in France, Germany and Italy to step in and charge Google for using their content in its search results — something the Web giant has always done for free.

It said making search engines pay for directing people to news websites was like “asking a taxi driver to pay for taking a customer to a restaurant”.

Google Search is the most used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services.

The dispute underscores a fundamental question facing media agencies around the world: Who should benefit from links to online content that is costly to produce and yet generates a fraction of the ad revenue that once allowed newspapers to flourish.

Six years ago, then French President Jacques Chirac unveiled plans for Quaero (Latin for “we search”) as the answer to US dominance of the Internet.

The multi platform search and operating system was supposed to work with desktop computers, mobile devices and even televisions.

This week, implicit threats hovered over a meeting between current French President Francois Hollande and Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman.

Hollande demanded Google reach a deal with publishers over the copyright dispute and also address the French taxes it escapes by basing its European headquarters in Ireland.

Google essentially reiterated a point it made in a recent letter to French publishers: Paris’ latest attempt to impose itself would force readers to “Anglo Saxon” sites based in countries with more favourable copyright laws, such as Britain and Ireland.

Google’s post meeting statement said the discussions dealt with “the contributions of the Internet to job creation and the influence of French culture in the world.”.

Adding to the pressure on Google in France, a French newspaper reported Wednesday that French authorities are threatening Google with a 1 billion euro tax bill and investigating alleged financial wrongdoing.

Google France denied being notified of such a tax bill and said it will “continue to co operate with the French authorities.”.

Government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud Belkacem wouldn’t comment on the report in the weekly Canard Enchaine, except to say that if there were a tax probe, it would be covered by laws on fiscal secrecy.

French publishers, along with counterparts in Germany and Italy, are hoping Brazil will be the proof that there is a successful way to confront Google.

Google is in a showdown with the French government over proposals to make search engines pay a charge for each link to French newspaper content.

For example, if a Google search about the French president, François Hollande, returned a list of articles by the newspapers Le Figaro or Les Echos, Google would have to pay a commission fee for displaying those links.

Unlike in Europe, the Brazilian publishers have not turned to their government to act as a mediator or impose a tax as part of their dealings with Google.

Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes most peer reviewed online journals of Europe and America’s largest scholarly publishers, plus scholarly books and other non peer reviewed journals.

“Newspapers live off advertising revenues, like Google. They’re our competition and they have billions and billions in revenues globally,” said Ricardo Pedreira, executive director of Brazil’s National Association of Newspapers.

Still, Pedreira is not convinced Brazil is a good model for European nations.

Carlos Castilho, a media critic and TV journalist, writing on the press watchdog website Observatorio da Imprensa, argued that the boycott was a backward strategy, because “news is everywhere today and to surround it with walls of copyrights is like trying to dry ice.”.

The growth of search engines as a way to find information is affecting news organizations in different ways.

Editors claim the search engine is benefiting from advertising opportunities that are being lost to their sites.

Print news was suffering in the United States and Europe long before financial crises took hold in recent years, its business model eroded by television and the Internet.

As print advertising revenues have declined, more media organizations are trying to boost circulation and earn more through subscriptions, including charging for online content.

The New York Times is among the most prominent news organizations with a website paywall.

The Associated Press and Google have a long standing business agreement that includes Google licensing of AP content as well as joint efforts to improve news products and services.

European publishers have seen less rapid change in readership patterns as a result of the Internet and have been able to stave off the dramatic losses that gutted American print journalism.

Still, competition has grown fiercer and profits slimmer with the onset of the European debt crisis.

In France, the once iconic newspaper France Soir went into liquidation in July.

In October, dapd, a major Germany news agency, filed for bankruptcy protection.

German publishers already are getting some government support: A measure is headed through the legislature to force search engines to pay for links that include excerpts of content.

And in Italy, publishers say they are willing to risk leaving Google if the search engine refuses to pay, citing a study that indicates that clicks from Italian readers would drop by 6 or 7 per cent — “a very low percentage,” said Isabella Splendore, lawyer for the Italian Newspaper Publishers Federation.

The European publishers insist they are not trying to keep readers from getting information, but that they deserve compensation for use of their intellectual property.

But Jeremie Zimmerman, of the French Internet liberty group the Quadrature of the Net, described engaging in the dispute with Google as “idiotic.”.

“It shows that the industry hasn’t understood anything about the Internet and is fundamentally conservative about its future, and defending private interests rather than adapting to technology,” he said.

Emma Llanso of the Washington based Center for Democracy and Technology said that, at least for now, the dispute among governments, Google and publishers is a loss for readers.

“When we’re looking at the free flow of information online, how much relevance do national boundaries have?”.

We think we are seeing a lot of national governments struggling to think of what they want it to be.

___ Associated Press writers Bradley Brooks in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Frances D’Emilio in Rome contributed to this report.

Google has continued its focus on public service projects today by announcing a new AMBER alerts project in conjunction with The National Center For Missing And Exploited Children.

AMBER Alerts let you know when a child has become missing and gives you all of the specific details so that you can keep an eye out, or if youve already seen something.

Heres what Google had to say about it:If you’re using Google Search or Maps on desktop and mobile you’ll see an AMBER Alert if you search for related information in a particular location where a child has recently been abducted and an alert was issued.

Google Search provides many options for customized search, using Boolean operators such as: exclusion , alternatives , and wildcards .

By increasing the availability of these alerts through our services, we hope that more people will assist in the search for children featured in AMBER Alerts and that the rates of safe recovery will rise.

AMBER Alerts will provide information about the abducted child and any other details about the case as they become available.

Additional details could include the make and model of the vehicle he/she was abducted in or information about the alleged abductor.

Heres an example of what youll see from the new initiative:The fact that this is so integrated into Google users daily experience is only going to help the association find these missing kids.