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On May 22, 2012, Google finally announced that their $12.5 billion bid for acquisition of Motorola Mobility* had closed. This was following approval by the European antitrust regulators earlier in the year and, finally, approval by the Chinese Government.

On the Google blog last year, CEO Larry Page wrote that

“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.”

As part of their agreement to allow the acquisition, the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Bureau has stipulated that Google must agree to keep their Android mobile operating system available to hardware makers for the next five years. Android has been made available at no cost since its debut in 2007, and Google agreed to the Chinese Governments terms, saying that Android will remain an open operating system.

One of the major aims of the acquisition was to give Google access to Motorola Mobility’s patents, in the face of Microsoft and Apple’s threats to sue Google over patent infringement. Google states the purchase of Motorola Mobility was a way to protect the Android ecosystem.

There was much support in the electronics community for Google’s commitment to defending the Android system, including from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, HTC and LG.

This purchase closes the hardware gap between Google and Apple. Previously they both had mobile and desktop operating systems, but until this acquisition, Google had no hardware.

This is but only one battle in the war between Google and Apple – tomorrow, 6 June, is the proposed launch date for Google’s latest update of Google Maps. Brian McClendon , Google’s vice president of Maps and Earth services, will make an appearance at this event and will illustrate all the features new Google Maps has to offer.

This surprise press release is timed for less than one week before Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where they will unveil their iOS 6 firmware , featuring an Apple developed maps service, an important feature of which will be 3D view.

With the new 3D mapping software, Apple devices will no longer need Google’s mapping service – although Google’s own dimensioned mapping software could be rolled out to all Android devices.

It is likely that this is only the first in removals of Google components on Apple devices, with Google’s Motorola acquisition, and Apple creating its own rival software.
*Motorola Mobility Holdings is one of the two entities that resulted when Motorola split its business in 2011.Motorola Mobility focuses on mobile phones and tablets, while Motorola Solutions focuses on business and networking technologies.

The Gartner report, on the Hype Cycle 2009, is the latest in the annual series to showcase the hottest technologies of the year and how they are trending.

The reports outline two visual representations for technology maturity – the Hype Cycle and the Priority Matrix. These graphs can help businesses understand a snapshot picture of technology at that moment, and advise about which technologies to adopt and which to reconsider.

The one below, is the ‘Hype Cycle’ (source:reuters)

Cloud computing, one of the hottest emerging technologies of the year, refers to a simple concept – operating off  a shared ‘cloud’ rather than a hard-drive.According to Gartner it is at the height of it’s expectations, but still in it’s early stages with lots of opportunities to be identified.

Other hot topics include the issue of data-centre cooling, which I discussed earlier this year when it was said that 2 Google searches was as environmentally un-friendly as boiling the kettle.  This is apparently on the downward trend of expectations (here referred to as Green IT). With increased concern for the environment booming across first world countries, ‘do no evil’ Google is pouring money into data centre R&D, but it is no longer causing ‘hype’.

Social networking and web 2.0 seems to be well past the highest phase of expectations (according to Gartner), but on the slope of enlightenment, which is odd considering the fact that hype for one of the biggest social networking tools, Twitter, continues unabated, and it hasn’t even yet fulfilled its business potential.

Search-wise, video search seems to be in the ascendency, a ‘technology trigger’.

Jackie Fenn, the report’s lead analyst, gives this overview:

Technologies at the Peak of Inflated Expectations during 2009 include cloud computing, e-books (such as from Amazon and Sony) and internet TV (for example, Hulu), while social software and microblogging sites (such as Twitter) have tipped over the peak and will soon experience disillusionment among corporate users.

A story ran in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning talking about how a guy used the "Find my Iphone"  from Apple to track down his iPhone after it was stolen.

I am not sure of the authenticity of this story, but I love that this could be possible, and also hope that it serves as some disincentive to this kind of theft in the future.

Apparently, the fellow had lost his iPhone at a Lego convention (no judgement here), and then logged onto Apple’s me.com, and tracked it down to a nearby neighbourhood. As he kept refreshing, so the story goes,  he could see the iphone target moving up the street and around the corner, and so him and his three mates chased it down.

Apparently the thief very nicely gave it back – obviously not some tough drug dealer being cornered by three geeks.

I doubt Apple would be encouraging anyone to use this technology for Vigilante reasons, (not every thief would be so friendly or apologetic I am sure) but it certainly makes for a fun story and great PR for them (as if they need anymore).