Android

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RPX Corporation has announced that its subsidiary RPX Clearinghouse LLC has agreed to buy about 4,000 patents held by the Rockstar consortium for $900 million. This is the majority of the patents acquired following Nortel bankruptcy, the market operation behind the creation of the consortium, which includes Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Ericsson and Sony. The transfer of so many patents to RPX Corporation could score at least a truce in the tough war fought in recent years using software and hardware patents as weapons.

The Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch (Photo courtesy Motorola Mobility. All rights reserved)

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Google announced the Android Wear platform, a version of the Android operating system optimized for wearable devices. The first applications are watches, which of course will not only serve to provide the time but will be tiny portable computers. The first models to be put on the market in a few months are the Moto 360 by Motorola and the G Watch by LG.

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Google has announced the sale of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for a total of $2.9 billion. $1.41 billion will be paid at the end of the agreement, $660 million in cash and $750 million in Lenovo shares. The remaining $1.5 billion will be paid over the next three years. Google bought Motorola Mobility in August 2011 for $12.5 billion.

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Google has announced the creation of the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA), a coalition that aims to bring you the Android platform in cars. This alliance includes the car manufacturers Audi, GM, Honda and Hyundai but also the processors manufacturer NVIDIA. The OAA intends to bring together the know-how of the various companies that form it to create a common platform to drive innovation to make technology in the car more secure and intuitive for everyone.

The Android logo (Image Google)

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Google has decided to open the counteroffensive against the Rockstar consortium, which in October 2013 sued Google and its partners Asus, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung and ZTE for alleged violation by Android of some patents owned by the consortium. According to Google, Rockstar’s lawsuit has placed a cloud on Google’s Android platform; threatened Google’s business and relationships with its customers and partners, as well as its sales of Nexus-branded Android devices.