Editorial: What Google Buying Motorola Mobility Means for You

As you've likely heard, Google is buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in cash. They're doing so to "supercharge Android," but after listening to the conference call, this acquisition is more about patents than it is about hardware; but that's good for you, the consumer, because as you might have heard, Android's future has become a bit uncertain because of the bevy of lawsuits against Android and Android partners.

Motorola Mobility has around 17,000 patents. And now, Google will gain those patents (as long as this acquisition meets regulatory approval), which will be of huge value when it comes time to deal with patent lawsuits. Since all Android partners are in a similar boat when it comes to Android hardware and software, having Google take ownership of such a robust portfolio of patents means that the future of Android is much more secure.

What does this mean in terms of actual device releases? You might notice, once this deal closes, that device releases from Motorola are quickened, and that the resulting devices are a bit more advanced, as Android engineers work directly with those of Motorola to couple software with hardware. But at the same time, Google won't work to make Motorola the number one purveyor of Android hardware by giving it a lot of extra attention; doing so would alienate Samsung, HTC, LG, and the many other Android OEMs, which are incredibly valuable to the Android ecosystem.

In terms of carriers, look for Verizon to benefit the most, as their line of Droid devices are made mostly by Motorola.

So wrapping things up, this acquisition doesn't too much for the consumer. Motorola Mobility will continue to operate as a separate entity from Google. At most, it means that Android is definitively here to stay, and we might see some faster release cycles from Motorola in upcoming quarters.

HTC Pico Photos Emerge

Bearing a striking resemblance to the still-unannounced HTC Glamor (which we think is destined to be a device targeted at fashion-conscious women), the HTC Pico has appeared on XDA.cn, bearing a friendly blue casing which might imply that the device will ship with a variety of color choices. Specifications of the HTC Pico are nearly identical to the Wildfire S. That means it'll ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a single-core 600MHz CPU and 384MB of RAM, powering a 3.2" HVGA 480x320 touchscreen. There's a 5MP camera on back, with a 1230mAh battery for power. The 900/2100MHz 3G frequencies tell us that the Pico is likely slated for a European release, at least initially. 

Motorola Photon 4G's Bootloader Gets Unlocked At XDA-Developers

Hackers celebrate as independent developers have finally succeeded in unlocking the bootloader, on the hard-to-crack, Motorola Photon 4G. The full procedure is now live on XDA-Developers, and so far, things seem to work just fine.

The process is sadly not something we'd recommend for beginners, as you'll have to know how to use RSDLite and have some basic knowledge of the standard fastboot procedures, since this is a Motorola device. The thread does a very good job in giving us all a simple step-by-step procedure though, so if you're good with following instructions, you'll probably be ok.

This unlock is exclusive to the Motorola Photon 4G, so make sure you don't give the procedure a try with any other Motorola device until XDA-Developers, or any other trusted source gives us a green light.

HTC EVO 4G's Gingerbread Updated Now Rooted Via Revolutionary

If the only reason you chose to keep your HTC EVO 4G on Froyo was to keep it rooted, wait no more, as the recent OTA update to Gingerbread has already been rooted. The guys at Revolutionary have recently confirmed that the EVO 4G with version 2.16.0001 Hboot is now supported by their root, so head on over.

Make sure you read all of these instructionscarefully before you decide if you'll to move over to the dark side, though the procedure seems to be simple and straight forward. Obviously you're more than likely already aware that what ever you do with your device is your responsibility as there are no warranties that the service will work perfectly, nor are their any warranties for your device if something goes wrong.

ASUS Eee Pad Slider shows off its specs, may launch in September

ASUS' Eee Pad Slider is fast becoming just as mythical as the flying horse the company's named after. We've had several encounters with potential release windows for the slate, only to see it continuallycreep back into fall. Well, judging by a recent report from Notebook Italia and the tab's new product page, it looks like we may actually see a September launch for the 10.1-incher -- in Italy. Contrary to prior rumors, the company will be offering the Slider in two storage configurations -- 16GB and 32GB at potential €479 ($400) and €599 ($550) price points, respectively. We've also got a slew of official specs for the Honeycomb-based device, which should ship with Android 3.1 installed, with a promised 3.2 upgrade to follow. The QWERTYfied tablet packs a 1280 x 800 WXGA display, dual-core 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of memory, 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, USB 2.0, mini-HDMI, microSD card reader, WiFi and Bluetooth. The company's also thrown in one year of "unlimited ASUS Web Storage" for your cloud computing needs. Will the electronics maker finally commit to a concrete launch for the Slider? We'll find out in a month's time.