Lenovo acquires Motorola from Google for US $3 billion

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Lenovo has bought Motorola Mobility from Google for US $3 billion. This latest shocker is the latest chapter in the story of Motorola Mobility, a company that was bought by Google in 2012 and that union produced two smartphone models that diversified the Android smartphone landscape. Google says that it thinks Lenovo has what it takes to scale Motorola to a global company which makes sense since Lenovo is already currently a top-three player in the Chinese and Asian smartphone market. Lenovo recently became the leading PC manufacturer, it will be remembered that it similarly purchased IBM's computer business and built it into multiple product lines.

Lenovo gets the Motorola brand, trademark portfolio and access to 2,000 phone and mobile patents which Google will still own. Can Lenovo propel Motorola to the next level as it did the ThinkPad line of notebooks? Who is the big winner in this transaction and what are the repercussions for Google's own mobile device play? Stay tuned as more news unfolds.

First look at Samsung's TabPro and NotePro slates from CES 2014

It's no secret that Samsung is shooting for a big enterprise and BYOD play, it's KNOX security solution has been a huge part of recent model releases and now it has a bevy of 'Pro' focused tablets and notes that have a higher-spec than the consumer versions.

The TabPro models appear in 12.2-inch, 10.1-inch, and 8.4-inch sizes and are expected to come in both WiFi and LTE enabled versions. TouchWiz on these devices is running the new Magazine UX, which at first glance looks a lot like Windows 8. The NotePro slate comes in a 12.2-inch version and seems to be a variant of the TabPro. Is a business oriented Android tablet something that will excite the knowledge workers? That remains to be seen, but Samsung seems confident these are the tools pro users will want.

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Photos by Alex Davies - Shot with a Sony CyberShot RX10 courtesy of Sony Canada

Video shows what Apple's iOS in the Car experience could be like

iOS in the Car is Apple's move to integrate iOS and while it was announced last year at WWDC, we've yet to see a clear demo of how it could actually work, until now. App developer Steven Troughton-Smith has released a video (above) showing a simulation of iOS integrating with an 800 x 600 display. While there are murmurings that iOS in the Car is undergoing some organizational issues, this video shows promise since it is a feature that is already available (but not enabled) in the current build of iOS 7.

Source: MacRumors

Olympus adds the STYLUS TG-850 to its line of sporty cameras

Olympus just announced the Stylus TG-850, an advanced rugged compact designed to expand outdoor shooting capabilities in the most challenging environments. The STYLUS TG-850’s super wide-angle 21-105mm 5x optical zoom lens — the widest lens of any rugged camera* — plus a 180° flip LCD monitor and shockproof*, waterproof, dustproof, crushproof and freezeproof construction, makes it the perfect companion for explorers looking to capture every angle of their adve

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