Founder, Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek/DroneDJ sites.
Seth Weintraub is an award-winning journalist and blogger who won back to back Neal Awards during his three plus years covering Apple and Google at IDG’s Computerworld from 2007–2010. Weintraub next covered all things Google for Fortune Magazine from 2010-2011 amassing a thick rolodex of Google contacts and love for Silicon Valley tech culture.
It turns out that his hobby 9to5Mac.com blog was always his favorite and in 2011 he went full time adding his Fortune Google followers to NewGeekGuide.com and adding the style and commerce component 9to5Toys.com gear and deals site. In 2013, Weintraub bought one of the Tesla’s first Model S EVs off the assembly line and so began his love affair with the Electric Vehicle and green energy which in 2014 turned into electrek.co.
In 2018, DroneDJ was born to cover the burgeoning world of drones and UAV’s led by China’s DJI.
From 1997-2007, Weintraub was a Global IT director and Web Developer for a number of companies with stints at multimedia and branding agencies in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Madrid and London before becoming a publisher/blogger.
Seth received a bachelors degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California with a minor in Multimedia and Creative Technology in 1997. In 2004, he received a Masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art’s ITP program.
Hobbies: Weintraub is a licensed single engine private pilot, certified open water scuba diver and spent over a year traveling to 60 cities in 23 countries. Whatever free time exists is now guaranteed to his lovely wife and two amazing sons.
More at About.me. BI 2014 profile.
Tips: seth@9to5mac.com, or llsethj on Wickr/Skype or link at top of page.
According to @evleaks, Motorola’s Moto X phone will drop to $99.99 on a two year plan in Quarter 4 (which starts at the end of September). In addition, those wood grain backs will make an appearance and cost an extra $50, making the kit still $50 cheaper than buying one now, so you might want to heed our advice and hold off for a little while.
Also, I’m now in love with the wood-grained backs. Mahogany on black please.
As expected, the Moto X is now at the Verizon Wireless store and at Best Buy for $199+2 year commitment in any color so long as it is black or white.
We’re expecting this device to come down in price over the next few months so waiting might be an option
Where to get a Verizon Moto X: Best Buy, Verizon
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Google co-founder Sergey Brin and 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki have split -by @LizGannes http://t.co/I0d5Gu68CB
— AllThingsD (@allthingsd) August 28, 2013
It’s never fun when personal matters become issues for a company but founder Sergey Brin owns a lot of voting stock in Google and a split in his family could send a lot of his $22.8B in wealth and power off to parts unknown. According to AllThingsD, wife Anne Wojcicki had a prenup. so a risk to Brin’s voting share of the company would seem to be minimal. The couple is reportedly still married though living in separate residences.
The report goes on to say Brin is now with someone else he met at Google.
Wojcicki’s sister, Susan, is SVP of advertising and commerce Google (and one of the original Googlers and provided the garage where Brin and Page got their start) so there’s even more stickiness to deal with if things do get sticky.
A novel new use for Google Glass: In the operating room, a surgeon does an operation wearing Google Glass and shares the procedure real time with his colleagues and students in a far off classroom via Google Hangouts.
“It’s a privilege to be a part of this project as we explore how this exciting new technology might be incorporated into the everyday care of our patients,” said Dr. Christopher Kaeding. “To be honest, once we got into the surgery, I often forgot the device was there.”
Google Glass has a frame similar to traditional glasses, but instead of lenses, there is a small glass block that sits above the right eye. On that glass is a computer screen that, with a simple voice command, allows users to pull up information as they would on any other computer. Attached to the front of the device is a camera that offers a point-of-view image and the ability to take both photos and videos while the device is worn.
It seems like only last week Doctors were using iPads for surgeries.
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Microsoft is still going with its Scroogled ad campaign (though by the production value, they aren’t investing much). Dubbed ‘misleading and intellectually dishonest’ this campaign has tried to paint Google as a company without scruples but in playing sloppy with facts, does the opposite.
This particular ad focuses on schools. Microsoft recently offloaded all of their unsold Surface RTs to the education market for reduced fees. They have a Bing for Schools search engine which doesn’t show ads in the results. Google’s search engine does but its other education products don’t.
As for Google, they say there are no ads for Students,Faculty and Staff in their Free Apps for Education product.
Inbox space for everything, and no ads
Google Apps offers up to 30GB of storage per user, powerful spam filtering and a 99.9% uptime SLA. All hosted by Google – there’s no cost, and no ads for students, faculty or staff.
So, uhh, back to the drawing board?
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iFixit did their ritual teardown of an AT&T Motorola X phone this weekend and found pretty much what you’d expect from the Flextronics-manufactured, $199/2 year plan AT&T version.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SwX20DB-A8&feature=youtu.be]
Findings:
Google now has a landing page of a closed beta of a novel new system of monetizing tutoring over Google+’s Hangouts conveniently called Helpouts. The service was first reported a month ago. The idea is pretty simple. If you have a skill area that you think other people can benefit from, you sign up as an expert. Then on the other end, people who need tutoring in that area find an expert in that area that is online for the right price. Google takes care of the transactions. IT will be
I know people who do their counseling and tutoring over Skype or iChat already, so there is certainly a need in this area.
But the devil will be in the details. Reputation building and scoring will be important as well as keeping it clean from porn (or segregated if that’s what Google wants). Right now Google is inviting people who might be interested. I’m keeping an eye on this one – I hope it makes it through Google Purgatory.
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According to the Wall St. Journal, Dr. Dre’s Beats may be considering buying back HTC’s share of the business.
The maker of the popular Beats by Dr. Dre headphones is looking to buy out its Asian partner and bring in a new investor that can provide it with fresh funds for growth, people familiar with the matter said.
The moves come as the founders of Beats Electronics LLC—music mogul Jimmy Iovine and American hip-hop producer and artist Andre Young, better known as Dr. Dre—are broadening the company’s business from headphones to include speakers, audio systems in cars and consumer electronics and a soon-to-be-launched online streaming music service.
It isn’t mentioned in the article but with the much larger Beats partner HP now making Android tablets and possibly phones, there might be some conflict in Beats branding land. HTC is obviously having some issues financially so maybe the smaller guy is getting edged out and is more willing to take the money and run.
Having listened to a variety of Beats phones and headphones, I haven’t noticed an appreciable improvement in performance, especially for the price. The Beats Pill was one of the best portable bluetooth speakers I’ve listened to however.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpGUV6ZrYFw&feature=youtu.be
Today, HTC unveiled their new “Change brand platform”, a long-term strategy that celebrates HTC’s disruptive impact on the mobile industry over its 17-year history.
Robert Downey Jr., who plays gadget superhero Tony Stark, has signed a two year contract to not only star in but also ‘shape the creative direction’ of the campaign, following such high profile celebrity creative directorial successes as Alicia Keys at Blackberry and Intel’s Will.i.am collaboration.
A teaser is above and the campaign, which will begin”putting change at the core of HTC’s brand by offering a variety of unique interpretations of the HTC acronym”. The full videos will start rolling out August 15th.
Extending the interpretation to consumers, a word randomizer app hosted on HTC.com allows people to identify the most outlandish possible interpretations of HTC, building on the variety of permutations first introduced in the ad campaign, including “Here’s To Change”.The brand platform will roll out in three phases with the initial advertising campaign highlighting HTC’s brand with a playful take on what it means to different people. The second phase will feature executions which highlight how HTC innovations—like BlinkFeed, Video Highlights and BoomSound—have changed the face of the mobile industry. Ad spots in the third phase will focus on how HTC products empower individuals to drive change in their own lives.
Is there any chance in the world that Tony Stark runs anything but stock Android? No, there is not.
Press release follows:
From 9to5Toys.com:
Amazon is currently running a significant sale on Samsung Chromebooks, knocking $30 off the price and yielding a price of $219.99 with free shipping. We reviewed the Samsung Chromebook and found it a very capable ChromeOS device, especially for its then current $249 price. Amazon reviewers feel the same way, giving it 4/5 star reviews.
It is also the lowest price we’ve seen since Best Buy had the refurbished version for $170 (you can still pick up the refurb for $200 at Best Buy/Cowboom).
Do the price cuts mean new models are on the horizon?
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“We are actively working with Google to bring Hulu Plus to the platform,” Hulu rep Meredith Kendall said. “At Hulu, we’re constantly innovating to provide our users with access to their favorite TV shows anytime, anywhere, on any device.”
What a stark contrast to when GoogleTV was released and Hulu blocked, yes BLOCKED, Google TVs from accessing Hulu content. Yes, a few years makes a big difference and Hulu has since gotten comfortable on set top boxes, but I think the model where Google puts content owners in control has struck a chord with content distributors. They are 100% in control of what goes on Chromecast.
“Here’s how you put your content on a Chromecast. They are $35 and going to be everywhere. Do what you want” works.
Vimeo, HBO, Redbox, and many others are also jumping on board.
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Just a quick note that we’ve moved our comment system to WordPress. You can log in with your WordPress, Twitter or Facebook accounts and you will need manual approval by mods the first time you comment (so prepare to wait a few minutes/hours). Previous stories will continue to contain previous comment archives.
Why didn’t we go to Disqus or Livefyre? If it was only comments, we probably would have. But we’re building something kind of cool behind the scenes with WordPress and this is just the start.
As always, we read and appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Sometimes you want to know how much money you made on Google Adsense ads, but don’t have time to go look at your phone/tablet/computer. Fret not, Google Glass wearers. As SearchEngineLand points out, there is a Google Glass Adsense app that can be sideloaded onto Google Glass headgear to do just that. Developer Chad Smith announced the App, which is hosted at Github.
The Glass AdSense App will show you pageviews, clicks, click through rate and earnings for today, yesterday, last seven days, last thirty days, this month and last month. You can refresh the stats as often as you like and of course, you’d need to “pin” the card to your timeline so that you can access it.
Google just seemingly ‘cast’ its Google TV project to the curb. As a much simpler version of GoogleTV, the leaked Chromecast allows you to do what you can now do on Google TV: pushing content from both Netflix and Youtube to your TV. Unlike Airplay, the Chromecast stick allows the original device to turn off or go to sleep. It functions as a standalone streaming device, awaiting orders from an iOS device, Android device, or Chrome browser on a PC, Mac or Chromebook Pixel (strangely, other Chromebooks need not apply).
Google has also baked in iOS support, which will allow users of both platforms to control Netflix or Youtube. You can also broadcast a tab in the Chrome Browser.
Google Play music and movies can also ‘cast’ to the best speakers in your house as long as those are connected to your TV. Pandora is coming soon.
It will be available from Google Play, Amazon and Best Buy as well as other retailers. We’ll have a review up as soon as possible.
Everything you’ve heard is true. Hugo Barra came out on stage to introduce the new improved Nexus 7 1080P today. As you probably already know, just about everything was updated hardware-wise. It is way smaller/thinner, yet has better specs all around.
Fun facts:
16 GB is $229.99, 32GB is $269.99. The LTE version will be $349
.
Sadly, there are no more secrets left to reveal here. We’d already seen the Best Buy circular and inventory system and we knew the specs which include Android 4.3 and $230-$270 price tag for 16GB and 32GB. But now you can, well, buy them. People should start getting them before the end of the month. Unless they come sooner.
Here’s Best buy’s spec list:
Enjoy your media on the go with this Google Nexus 7 tablet, which features a 7″ 10-finger capacitive touch screen with IPS technology that simplifies navigation and delivers vibrant images. Wi-Fi makes it easy to surf the Web.
Here’s the gallery from Best Buy:
It is showing up also at PC connection
Also, Droid-Life notes that it’s at Sam’s Club too.
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Something we didn’t see coming! Google subsidy Motorola announced at today’s Droid event that the new Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx, and Droid Mini smartphones would be powered by an in-house System-on-a-Chip (SoC). The new “X8” 8-core processor has a dual core CPU, a quad core GPU and a separate processor for “natural language processing” and it rounds out with computing core to control them all.
Motorola Droid 8 core thing, confirmed 8960 Snapdragon S4 Pro (8960Pro), NLP and Contextual thing could be off die or on Hexagon, digging.
— Brian Klug (@nerdtalker) July 23, 2013
Brian Klug from Anandtech says that the CPU is a Qualcomm Snapdragon.
Motorola says this processor will double graphics speed and boost CPU by about 25%.
More importantly, it will allow these new phones to “always be listening” without draining the battery. Speaking of battery, did you hear that the new Droid Maxx has 48-hour battery life? Head over to the event roundup for all of the details. Image via Verge
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Just got word from our Motoleaker with the latest in X Fon news. As of now, only Sprint, Verizon and AT&T are major carriers confirmed to carry the device in the US. T-Mobile (perhaps because it already subsidized the similar-specced Nexus 4?) hasn’t yet finalized any deals with Motorola for the device.
The X phones will begin shipping to carriers in August and should be ready for back to school. The price is cheap enough for the carriers to subsidize the complete upfront cost, though it isn’t certain if they will or not. $300 is the current number being thrown around as the unsubsidized price (Again, like the Nexus 4).
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Seems apt. via Reddit (yes it has circled the web 9000 times)
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So HTC isn’t doing too well in the lucrative high end US smartphone market (or anywhere really). What to do? Reorganize!
If I were running the show, I’d move everyone in the Sense division into a new division called “Keeping the latest stock Android updates on all of our phones” and start up a new division called, “Make sure all of the carriers subsidize our Google Play devices so that customers can afford them”
Sadly, I’m not in charge and HTC CEO Peter Chou has appointed Jason Mackenzie to head US operations
“Effective immediately, in addition to his current duties in supporting me with global corporate strategy, [President of Global Sales] Jason Mackenzie will lead HTC America,” HTC’s chief executive, Peter Chou, told employees in an internal email Sunday. “[President of North America] Mike Woodward will lead Emerging Devices, a newly established business unit that will focus on innovative new HTC products and global distribution strategies.”
Mackenzie seems like a fine fellow, but it’s clear that it’s HTC’s strategy, not its org chart, that’s in need of a rework. Whoever is in the “Let’s make Facebook Phones” mindset needs to be shown the door.
What has to be incredibly frustrating to HTC is that while they were off making stupid gimmick Facebook phones and pissing off Google (after pioneering the G1 and Nexus One), Samsung swooped in and stole HTC’s early lead in Android devices by simply making things that people want and marketing them aggressively.
Giving people different bosses isn’t going to change that and its hard to imagine HTC’s fortunes getting any better (even though they make the best Android handset on the market).
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+Fabio Santos is ahead of the game when it comes to weekly circulars. According to the G+ user, Best Buy’s weekly circular features this week’s big hardware announcement from Google, the new Nexus 7 tablet. The specs (1920×1200 display) and price seem right in line with what we’re hearing, but available Tuesday before Google has a chance to announce it on Wednesday? That seems a bit premature. As pointed out by Android Central, this could be next week’s circular, putting the Best Buy release date at June 30th.
The severity of the Master Key vunerability (bug #8219321) Bluebox Security discovered has been disputed and folks often are willing to look past theoretical vulnerabilities until a widespread zero day goes public. The original claims were that 99% of Android devices were vulnerable but that has since come down with patches and Google updates. Still, with manufacturers and carriers unable to see the long term value in quick (or any) updates to their phones, a huge amount of Android users are out there, unpatched.
(Bluebox has a scanner in the Play store to determine if your Android device is still vulnerable)
Enter Saurik, the developer/hacker/violinist responsible for the Cydia Jailbreak repository for iOS and Substrate for Android, who this morning, posted an exploit and a fix (as well as a wonderfully-detailed bug #8219321 writeup) for Android devices that are unpatched. In true jailbreak fashion, the exploit runs from a Mac or PC and in a few steps gives your su/Root access to the infected phone/tablet. While it isn’t as plug and play easy as recent iOS jailbreaks, it is easy enough for anyone who wants to root their unpatched phone to do in a few minutes.
No vulnerability exploit would be worth its salt if there also wasn’t a fix attached and this is no different. Folks who just want a fix that their carrier/manufacterer won’t supply can also use this to make sure they aren’t vulnerable.
We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will report back if we hear anything.
Tweeted out earlier. A Facebook Home type of overlay that doesn’t suck (or require root) would certainly be nice.
The X leaks keep coming in. Evleaks/Unlockr appear to have the first press shots (besides the ones on the invite and all of the ones Eric Schmidt showed off).
AndroidPolice also tweeted out a AnTuTu benchmark (below) which verifies our “Ghost” codename scoop earlier this year.
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