Lenovo Buys Motorola

A week ago, Lenovo purchased Motorola Mobility from Google. They purchased it for a steal at $2.91 billion.

This will be quite an amazing change for Lenovo. You see, Lenovo is not a big company when it comes to phones — at least in North America. Worldwide, they are number five. It’s interesting that Lenovo bought Motorola and not some other mobile phone company. Motorola is an amazing company and Lenovo will definitely take advantage of their expertise when it comes to the smartphone market.

There are two possibilities that may come out of this transaction:

1. Lenovo uses Motorola to compete in the North American market. This allows them to create an even larger technological monopoly and increase sales tenfold. The only thing they have to do is create a smartphone that can either make it or break it for the company. They need to do something revolutionary — a change in the ideal “smartphone.”
2. Lenovo uses Motorola their knowledge of the smartphone to create their own under their own name. From assumption, Motorola will continually build phones under their name, but if Lenovo decides to enter the North American market and they want to make a Lenovo smartphone that can compete, they will definitely need Motorola.

According to articles and extensive videos (including the one after this paragraph), Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility only. This doesn’t include all the patents that was included in the sale of Motorola in 2012. That could mean that Lenovo, Motorola and Google are becoming allies than enemies. Could Lenovo be working with Google? Maybe after this purchase, they can start thinking about other deals, like making a Chromebook with Lenovo as the manufacturer. Interesting, right?

Here’s the video:

He points out some great details about the deal that went on.

Let’s just hope for the best for all the companies in this situation because they are all great companies.

Keep Chewing!

Tech Highlights of CES 2014

CES 2014 was amazing! I can’t believe that it’s already over!

There are so many things to talk about from CES 2014, much of it being about the technology leaps that each powerhouse company took on their products. Here are my favourites from the show.

4K TVs, UHDTVs and Curved Display

Seriously, we cannot seem to get enough of this. Television sets are once again becoming significant in the living room. Remember when there was a downfall in television sales because the Internet took the world by storm (I don’t remember either, but it felt like it). At some point, people were less likely to watch and use their TVs and much rather just sit down and use their PCs. Of course, that doesn’t mean TV is dead. With the latest display resolutions, possible future standards and other unique capabilities TVs will get (I’m talking about Smart TVs), I’m sure we’ll be back sitting on our couch watching the latest episode of the Big Bang Theory.

GAMING

I can’t stop talking about gaming! CES 2014 became a gaming hub this week, with companies like Sony and Valve showing up at the party. Sony revealed Playstation Now, a game stream service for their consoles and Valve opens up the information about the Steam Box, specifically about all the companies that will be making their own Steam Box with their own specifications and modifications. Razer also revealed Project Christine. It’s a modular design PC that makes it easy for the average consumer to change and switch out any hardware. Oculus Rift also made a big splash at CES 2014 with other makes of their already awesome device. 2014 will definitely be a gaming year. Definitely!

Wearables

Wearable technology also took off this year. Although wearables like the Samsung Galaxy Gear and the Pebble came out last year, the attention towards the idea has only increased a during CES 2014. Intel and Sony are getting into the game, with Intel’s idea of wearables already in the works and Sony’s Core revealed in their keynote. Although the presence of wearables in this year’s CES was weak and disappointing, the technology surely has gotten a lot more attention than before.

Google Chromebook

I didn’t really talk much about the Google Chromebook only because I’m not really a big fan of it, but nonetheless they made a statement at CES. Dell and Toshiba wanted to tell the world that they’re putting their full support on this young project. The Chromebooks are nothing compared to what we currently have, but I guess that’s the point. It’s not for everyone, but it can be for someone.

Playstation Now

I’ve been waiting for Sony to talk about their plans for Gaikai since they bought it. Playstation Now is their online cloud streaming service for the Playstation consoles. They’re planning to start a closed beta and hoping to open the service this coming summer. I can’t wait!

The Consumer Electronic Show was a success! Everyone enjoyed the information, previews, sneak peeks and reveals. It was a great way to celebrate technology at its finest.

Keep Chewing!

Things to Expect For 2014

Technology always changes. It’s a known fact. Remember when CDs used to be the rave? Now, CDs are only good for, things that I can’t name at the moment. Our music became digital, software became downloadable online and movies are also becoming more popular in the digital format. I can say that the CD is the floppy disk of our generation.

Of course, as technology changes, our society changes. The world changes either for the better (email, social connection through the Internet) or for the worse (terrible websites, unnecessary activities) and we need to adapt to it. Personally, I’m still waiting for the hoverboards from Back to the Future, but that seems farfetched (yet achievable).

One of the technological feats that will change the world, specifically this year, would be the implementation of the robotics in our daily life. Amazon is trying to push their idea of using drones to deliver purchased merchandise to the home of the customer in 30 minutes or less. Think of it as delivery pizza – but with a four propeller machine instead of a human. It’d be nice to have a drone for yourself but you’d have to have some kind of next level security clearance just to learn how to fly one. Amazon thinks it will benefit not only the company as a whole but also the customers. I don’t know – it seems unsafe and difficult to set this idea up. AI technology has to be completely revolutionary just so that the drone can navigate. Also, building a mass of these drones will not be a walk in the park.

Wearable technology will also be popularized. Google started with this trend with Google Glasses. I still think a person wearing a pair will look like an idiot. However, if they can implement this into normal prescription glasses, I might give it a shot. Watches are also becoming technologically advanced. The Samsung Galaxy Gear and the Pebble are big competitors in this market, although I’m sure Apple will make some sort of “iWatch” and send it out and every single Apple lover will get one. Once again, Apple gets their money and everyone has a useless, hardware and software proprietary device.

Gaming will also change this year. Valve and their infamous Steam Box are rolling out this year, according to Steam. There has been no announced release date. Instead, Valve said “2014” and that’s it. This means that both the PS4 and the XBOX One will have another competitor in the contest (face it, the Wii U can’t really compete). There are so many games that are anticipated this year like Watch Dogs and Destiny. Watch Dogs has been delayed to a later date, but Destiny has be destined to be released on September 9, 2014. I cannot wait for Naughty Dog to start talking about the next installment of Uncharted.

2014 is going to be a wonderful year for technology (and gaming). The power of computing will definitely continue to evolve and progress. All we have to do is watch out.

Who knows, maybe we’ll finally get Half Life 3?

Keep Chewing!

Dear Google

Dear Google,

Why are you trying to shove Google+ down our throats? I mean, seriously, we don’t like Google+. Maybe a few people may like your Google+, but truth be told, I don’t think it can compete with the leading social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Also, why the heck did you change your commenting system on YouTube? First, you change the rating system from stars to likes and dislikes. Then, you put advertisements on each video. Now you’re, once again, shoving and choking us with Google+. The fact that there are over 20,000 people actually signing a petition to ask you to change back the commenting system should be enough of a sign.

Please fix your freakin’ system with YouTube. What the heck is this?

Monkeys? Is that why your servers are terrible? Because monkeys manage it? Seriously Google.

I understand that you’re trying to get Google+ off the ground. What you’re doing — is not working. At all.

For a guy who just wants to watch YouTube videos, comments do not matter much to me. I’m more of a guy who’s just there for the video. Sure, comment wars are entertaining, but I didn’t go to YouTube for that.

Also, fix your servers! Your advertising servers are better than servers you have for the actual video.

I do, however, like your search engine. Keep up the good work on that.

Love, the Internet.

Keep Chewing!

——

I haven’t done a rant in quite a while, and I believe this situation is definitely worth writing about. I hope you enjoyed the rant!

Android’s KITKAT 4.4

Android recently announced that their next version of Android for all Android phones will be KITKAT 4.4.

As much as everyone would have thought it would be Key Lime Pie, or some other dessert name that begin with “k”, it seems fair that it would be KitKat. Think about it…

Nestlé is already a household name, and the fact that they’re using a very popular chocolate bar just amps it up even more. Plus, it’s kind of katchy (Ba-dum tssk). Anyways, I can’t wait for it to come out. I only hope that it will improve my phone’s battery life because right now, it’s not as good as I expected.

Also, I love how they purposely mocked Apple with a commercial of their own. Thank you Android!

Keep Chewing!

Google Turns 15!

Happy birthday Google! You’ve been a great search engine ever since you went popular!

Let us celebrate Google for turning 15! It’s now an internet giant!

Congratulations Google!

Keep Chewing!

Google’s Geek Calendar

I’d expect this from Google.

I’ve been using this for a while now and I plan to use this in the future on special geek holidays. It’s Google’s Geek/Nerd Holiday. It’s a great calendar to use, especially if you’re like me. I just wished they had like an application or plugin that uses this. That would be awesome.

Google’s Geek/Nerd Holidays Calendar

Keep Chewing!