Eric Schmidt: Google won’t thwart Facebook Home
Google won't do anything to thwart Facebook's recently launched Home software for Android devices if it becomes explosively popular, according to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.
Home, which became available for download April 1, alters Android's look and feel but isn't a full-blown fork of the OS.
Google would not take negative actions toward Home, such as removing it from the Play app store, Schmidt said Tuesday during an onstage interview at the AllThingsD Dive Into Mobile event in New York.
"It would be counter to our public statements, our religion," he said. "The answer is no. It's called open source. They read the manual, they read the rules and adhered to them." Read more...
Eric Schmidt, Ben Horowitz, And Othres Share Thier Thoughts On the Current State Of Tech IPOs
Wealthfront, a startup that has been disrupting the investing and personal finance space, is debuting a new video tonight that is definitely worth a look. The video features content from Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz, Qatalyst CEO Frank Quattrone, and Benchmark Capital partner Bill Gurley and features their perspectives on recent tech IPOs and their significance to the industry.
Some of the highlights include lessons learned from the last bubble, what to expect from this new wave of tech IPOs and why going public is great for companies. For example, Schmidt gives his advice for employees of companies going public: he recommends taking your time and being careful about selling stock so that you actually make money and don’t just incur a heavy tax liability. Read more...
Eric Schmidt to cash in $1.45bn Google shares
Google chairman Eric Schmidt plans to sell off $1.45bn (£914m) shares in the company - a move that represents his biggest annual disposal in the company.
According to a regulatory filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 17 February, the one-time chief of the Chocolate Factory will cut his share ownership of the company by about 0.7 per cent over the coming year.
At the end of 2011 Schmidt, 56, owned around 9.1 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock, or a 2.8 per cent chunk in Google. The chairman plans to offload 2.4 million shares of Class A common stock. Read more...
Google’s Schmidt says devices, apps need to be friends
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told an audience at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the future of technology will be getting all the electronics in our lives to friend each other.
Schmidt, speaking before a standing-room-only crowd at the show in Las Vegas Tuesday afternoon, said devices aren't living up to their full potential unless they're connected. That ecosystem includes devices, operating systems, applications and content.
"Computing devices without a network are lonely," he said. "You really want to be able to walk into your house and, through your Android device, have all the devices in your house adjust because you've walked in. The TV should know that you've come in and turn on to your favorite show."
And the growth of that digital ecosystem is the future that Schmidt envisions.
"Think of these as peer-to-peer devices that talk to each other," he added. "It should become seamless." Read more...
Google planning its own Nexus tablet
You didn't really think Google was going to let Amazon hog all the Android tablet glory, did you? In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sea today, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said that the company planned to sell a tablet "in the next six months" that would be "of the highest quality." Schmidt did not provide any further details of what would set the tablet apart from other Android tablets such as the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Google has experience releasing its own devices through its Nexus-branded series of smartphones. The latest such smartphone, Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, was the first to feature the Android 4.0 operating system, nicknamed "Ice Cream Sandwich." The Galaxy Nexus also features a 4.65-inch HD display screen with 720p resolution, a 5MP camera that can shoot video at 1080p, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, and 1GB of RAM. Read more...
Google’s Schmidt strikes Carrier IQ off Xmas card list
Google chairman Eric Schmidt has criticised Carrier IQ and added that the company doesn't work with the controversial software maker.
"Android is an open platform, so it's possible for people to build software that's actually not very good for you, and this appears to be one," Schmidt said, according to Reuters.
Late last month an Android app coder published what he described as conclusive proof that millions of smartphones were secretly monitoring key presses, the mobiles' geographic locations and messages sent to users. Read more...
Google’s Schmidt calls Carrier IQ software a keylogger
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt today distanced his company from Carrier IQ's software, even as he described the technology as a keylogger. Schmidt's comments came at an Internet freedom conference in the Netherlands.
A Reutersstory from The Hague quotes Schmidt as saying that Carrier IQ's software is a keylogger that "actually does keep your keystrokes."
"We certainly don't work with them and we certainly don't support it," Schmidt said.
It was not immediately clear whether Schmidt's description of Carrier IQ as a keylogger was based on independent knowledge of the software or on recent claims by security researcher Trevor Eckhart. Read more...
Finally! Eric Schmidt Joins Google+
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has finally gotten the message and joined Google+. The former Google CEO wrote his served on Apple's board of directors until 2009, when the competition between Android and iPhone became a major conflict of interest).
I recently criticized Google's management for not eating its own dog food and using Google+. At the time, Schmidt didn't even have a Google+ account. Only two Google executives -- SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai and SVP of Social Vic Gundotra -- were active users of Google+ (at least in public -- it's important to note that additional Google executives may have been more active privately).
Since that article, several Google executives have started posting publicly to Google+. They include SVP of Search Alan Eustace and SVP of Ads Susan Wojcicki, and Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora. Read more...
‘Stop throwing your computing heritage away – ignore Alan Sugar,’ Google boss tells UK
The UK gave the world some of the most important technological innovations of the last two centuries but it's now squandering its computing heritage, according to Google boss Eric Schmidt.
Speaking at the 2011 Edinburgh TV festival, Schmidt - the former CEO of Google and now its chairman - said the UK is wasting its technological talents.
"The UK is the home of so many media-related inventions. You invented photography. You invented TV. You invented computers in both concept and practice (it's not widely known but the world's first office computer was built in 1951 by Lyon's chain of tea shops!) Yet today, none of the world's leading exponents in these fields are from the UK," Schmidt said as part of the conference's annual MacTaggart lecture. Read more...
Google gives in: Schmidt to face US antitrust grilling
Google has agreed to have Eric Schmidt answer US politicians' concerns that the company is running an anticompetitive search and ads monopoly.
Schmidt will testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights in the Fall.
He will appear after the committee's Senators Herb Kohl and Mike Lee had sent a strongly worded letter to Google in June asking that the company's two senior execs appear before their committee. Read more...