It looks as if Microsoft’s lawyers are going to be pretty busy these days.  Recently Microsoft has realized that Google’s Android OS infringes on many of Microsoft’s software patents.  While Microsoft has declined to say how the Android OS specifically infringes on their patents they did say they believe that elements from both the user interface and underlying operating system are in violation of its rights.  This is in keeping with the Windows maker’s campaign to leverage patent claims over Linux, Amazon, Xandros and GPS developer TomTom.  While lawsuits are not yet being discussed this is hardly a small time matter.  Longtime Windows Mobile partner HTC has already decided to purchase a license from Microsoft that covers its Android devices, like the HTC Tilt, to reduce the risk of a possible lawsuit from Microsoft.

While it would be pretty crazy for Microsoft to sue one of its biggest and most important hardware manufacturers for patent infringement HTC is taking no chances by purchasing the Microsoft license.  It is rather unfortunate that HTC has to pay Microsoft royalties in order to use Google’s operating system these recent developments may be more of an indictment on Google than the other mobile device manufacturers. 

By forcing their Windows Mobile/Windows Phone partners to purchase a license to run Google’s Android platform Microsoft is leaving open the option of a lawsuit with Google itself down the line.  While this is a rather unfortunate turn of events for other companies such as HTC it is a nasty necessity if they want to utilize the Android platform without further possible lawsuits from Microsoft.  The cost of the Microsoft licenses far outweighs the potential damage that could be caused by a lawsuit for patent infringement.

Europe’s first carrier of the Nexus One is all set to start offering the superphone from Google for free with a two year contract.  Preorders for the phone are already being taken and the new mobile device is set to hit store shelves on April 30th. 

While the release of the Nexus One Vodafone is a little bit anticlimactic with the release of the Incredible in the United States I am sure that there are a few Brits out there that have been waiting for a while to get their hands on one of the Android devices from Nexus One. 

There will be varying levels of contracts available for British subscribers.  The Nexus One is expected to be available for an 18 or 24 month contract with prices starting at 25 pounds per month.  Also, it looks like there will be 1GB of 3G data allowance that is included with a 1GB WiFi allowance via BT Openzone hotspots.  While these are not exactly the best price plans I have come across it is hard to complain when you can get this great mobile device for no money up front.

For all of the smartphone junkies in Britain this announcement that the Nexus One is set to launch in the UK on the Vodafone network will come as pleasant news.  Google has been a little slow in rolling out some of their top end Android devices in the UK but have finally come around to releasing one of their most popular devices with the Nexus One.  This great handheld device will surely attract more customers to the ever growing Android market and is poised to help Google continue its growth in the mobile device community.  Maybe the HTC Pure will show up next.

As you may or may not have known recently there has been a controversy going around that claims the Nexus One display is not up to the resolution that it claims.  Many users of the Nexus One have been reporting blurry screens that should not happen with an 800×480 resolution screen.  There may be some reasons why this is the case that are detailed in this article.  Here are some of the highlights of what the author says might be the cause for these irregularities.

*The AMOLED display of the Nexus One has an unusual arrangement of pixels known as the PenTile Matrix developed by Nouvoyance. Each pixel consists of a double-width blue or red subpixel element and a green subpixel element.
*The PenTile display uses a series of local filter operations and subpixel positioning to approximate a standard RGB-striped LCD display.

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*The actual hardware resolution of the Nexus One display is 480×800 pixels, but no pixel contains all three colors. If you remove the signal processing noted above, the total effective resolution of the display is actually 392×653.

*The actual resolution may be negligible if the what you see is pleasing but here is where it gets tricky. Your eyes have 20x more rods (more numerous, more sensitive but don’t detect color) than cones (color sensitive) which means your eyes are better at detecting intensity/luminance transitions than detecting color/chrominance transitions. Because of the pixel arrangement and signal processing required by the display of the Nexus One display, your eyes will see the colors as bright, vivid and pleasing while text is blurred.
*With this unique PenTile pixel arrangement, you also have twice as many green subpixels and red and blue subpixels that are twice as large as the green subpixels. This arrangement can produce color fringing that is visible around the edges of text if you look closely enough.

*According to the CEO of Nouvoyance, the color fringing can be eliminated by tweaking the PenTile display driver hardware and that the color fringing seen on the Nexus One may be not be apparent on other devices because of these tweaks.

This is all pretty interesting stuff and for what it is worth I still think the Nexus One is a great device blurry screen or not.

With roughly 50 smartphones and tablets currently running Android, Google made the biggest splash in the Android market with the release of the Nexus One.  Of course, the Nexus shows up very favorably in the Google search engine results for certain keywords compared to the Android and other competitors.  Not a coincidence.

The first thing you’ll notice when using a Nexus is that it is BLAZING fast.  The touchscreen WVGA is not only sleek in appearance, but the AMOLED display and D1 video give you one of the best screen displays on the market.  Combined with 512 MB of RAM, WiFI, GPS, 3.7 inch 16M color capacitive AMOLD touchscreen, and trackball navigation, you have a real threat to the Blackberry and iPhone.  While its first version will undoubtedly go through growing pains, and it indeed has, it has seen incredible success in the initial months following its release.

The only real criticisms are that the soft keys below the display are somewhat unresponsive, the camera interface is somewhat clumsy, and there is no voice dialing.  These are all very minor features, and Google will be sure to correct them in the next release.   I would be surprised if they do not add FM radio, a hot-swappable memory card, and flash support in the next version as well.

The Nexus One carries a lot of expectations, which exist with any new Google product release, but with their first foray into the cell phone market, there are bound to be mistakes.  We predict that it will take them a few years to truly master the cell phone industry, and by then we will all be civilians at a Google-run government and worshippers at the Church of Google, spanning the entire globe and controlling every gadget and piece of technology known to man.

Google has been in the news recently regarding their Buzz, which is a social network that is accessed through Gmail.  The big deal was the fact it the user had to opt out of the program or feature if they did not want their information to be made public.  This was a very can do something for most users, since they did not realize that they needed to do this.  Based on numerous complaints, Google decided that they would make some changes to the way in which Buzz was used.  However, this must have been a little bit too much too late.  A class-action lawsuit was filed in the United States claiming that Google breached people’s privacy.

Buzz was designed so that it could interface with Gmail as well as Google maps on you PC and your cell, like the Nexus One.  It would actually pinpoint on the map where you were, as well as display the address and other information about the location you were at.  Unfortunately, it also made this information public.  The lawsuit actually can affect over 31 million Gmail users and as of yet there has been no statement issued by Google about the pending lawsuit.  They have made some changes to that you are able to block anyone from being able to follow you without your permission.

This week we have also heard about the instances of security related problems in regard to using social networking.  There was a website that was put up that actually would be able to inform you that your location, because of your profile being public, is actually an invitation for would-be burglars to rob your home.  The creators of the websites say that they have done this in order to bring awareness to the fact that our public profiles can actually give information about our whereabouts, as well as being able to see what we Twittered and Buzzed to your friends.  Both of these situations has brought to light many issues surrounding personal security and privacy.  The important thing to remember is to make sure that your profile is made only available to those that you wish to see it as you use your unlocked cell phone.

Google announced on February 9, 2010 that they have a brand-new product called Google Buzz. This is going to let you be able to chat with your friends through integrating with your Gmail. You will be able to share all of your favorite pictures video clips links and many more things. This application is also going to be able to utilize the new update of Google maps as well. There are so many times that we are out and about and we just want to tell her what we are doing. We also want to let everyone know where exactly we are. With Google buzz for your mobile cell phone, you will be able to tag your location. This will let people see additional information about some of the places that you are visiting.

You will be able to access the buzz from your iPhone 3GS or android browser that will let you be able to create your buzzing. Just like your buzz from the Gmail, it will have a following features so that you can keep up with everyone you follow. It will also show you nearby information about other people that you may not follow that are close. Because it also utilizes the map features, you will be able to see postings about particular can places that you may want to go. This is great feature if you are interested in a restaurant, but one see what other people are saying. Because this is based more on location than actual spot on a map, your friends and family will be able to see exactly where you may be. So you can let someone know to make sure that they order the seafood bisque or because they know that you are just around the corner, you can meet up for a cup of coffee.

To be able to start using the Buzz for cell phones, you just need to go to buzz.google.com right from your phone. Right now it can only be used with the iPhone or the android. Google and their Nexus One is hoping to be able to make it available for other platforms in the future.