Google gets into retail

Google says it's defending its online advertising empire with the unveiling of its own brand mobile phone, reports BBC News.

It is the first time Google has designed and sold its own consumer hardware device. Google says the Nexus One represents the next frontier in the company's $20 billion core business - selling advertising through search.

"It's all about the mobile Web, and advertising is their bread and butter," says analyst Michael Gartenberg. "It's the latest salvo from Google on the wireless industry. The landmark news here is that Google is now a consumer electronics retail company," adds Gartenberg.

The flat, familiar, two-dimensional television image at the centre of home theatres is about to take on the lifelike illusion of depth. At least that's the way the future looks through the spectacles of Hollywood studios, TV networks and consumer electronics manufacturers as they prepare to start a massive effort to bring 3D from the silver screen into living rooms, says USA Today.

"2010 will be the year in which 3D is brought to the home," says DreamWorks Animation CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg. He's committed his studio to make 3D versions of all of its future movies.

Discovery, Sony and Imax say they'll jointly create the first full-time 3D cable channel, which could be available as early as the end of this year. It initially will be heavy with science and nature programmes from Discovery and Imax. The mix will change as the partners produce, and license, 3D versions of general entertainment movies and shows.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is on a tear. It has appeared in the Google Nexus One and a Lenovo laptop all in a span of about 12 hours, says CNETNews.

Previous Qualcomm silicon powered the T-Mobile G1 - the first phone to run Google's Android OS - that was announced back in September of 2008. "We...have a very long and successful history with Google," said Luis Pineda, senior VP of marketing and product management at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

Snapdragon should come in handy for applications such as Flash Player 10.1, which is coming to Android and will run on the Nexus One. Adobe's Adrian Ludwig calls it "a very high performance chip" and he demonstrated in a video how it would handle the graphics on National Geographic's Web site.