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Google Buys Lift Labs, Maker of Tremor-Canceling Smart Spoon

Lift Labs Smart Spoon

As proven again and again, Google is genuinely interested in the wellbeing of people suffering from various diseases. By buying Lift Labs, the maker of a tremor-canceling spoon that minimizes the symptoms of some neurodegenerative diseases, Google X gives Parkinson sufferers a reason to hope.

Google X, the search giant’s research lab specialized in moonshots, acquired Lift Labs in the hope that it would help expand its involvement in the biotech industry. The acquisition was announced on Google+ by Lift Labs: “We have news — we’re excited to be joining Google[x], Google’s moonshot factory. We will continue to sell our Liftware system, and Google will enable us to reach even more people living with Parkinson’s or essential tremor who could benefit from using tremor-canceling devices every day.?” Google X later confirmed the deal.

The Liftware system the startup referred to in its announcement is actually a tremor-canceling spoon equipped with sensors that detect such reactions and cancel them by up to 70 percent. Needless to say, people with Parkinson’s disease or essential tremor could benefit a lot from using such devices.

Mountain View isn’t interested only in helping patients cope with the symptoms, but also in preventing diseases, altogether. At least that’s what Baseline, one of the Google X project focusing on the study of the human body, suggests. Calico, another Google X project, looks to find the secret of immortality. I doubt it that if found, such secrets would be shared with the common folk, but at least it’s nice to see that Google gets involved in this field, as well.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is the one who spends more time on such moon shots. This last acquisition might have been stimulated by the fact that Brin’s mother suffers from Parkinson’s and Sergey himself has a genetic mutation that increases his chances of developing the disease.

After buying Lift Labs, Google will obviously allow them to continue to function. On top of that, Google will use its own technology that, along with Lift Labs’, will enable the exploration of additional ways in which neurodegenerative disease patients could be helped.

This is an example that should be followed by companies that have left the impression that they’re only after our money, and don’t care that much if we’re suffering or not.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the smart fork that prevents you from overeating, and the smart contact lens developed by Novartis and Google.

Google’s Project Wing Drone-Based Delivery System Gets Tested in Australia

Google X Project Wing Drone-Based Delivery System

It seems that Amazon is not the only company interested in delivering goods with the help of drones, as the recently tested Google X Project Wing suggests.

Self-driving cars will soon be joined by autonomous drones that take over the skies to deliver either shopped goods or packages vital for disaster relief. Earlier this month, a 5-foot wide, 2.5-foot high drone that’s part of Google X Project Wing delivered candy bars, dog treats, cattle vaccines, water and radios to two farmers in Queensland, Australia.

Google X’s Astro Teller pointed out in a interview with the BBC that the delivery of goods is not the only scenario these drones could prove useful for: “Even just a few of these, being able to shuttle nearly continuously could service a very large number of people in an emergency situation.”

Teller also expressed the final goal of the drone-delivery program: “What excited us from the beginning was that if the right thing could find anybody just in the moment that they need it, the world might be radically better place.”

Watching the self-flying vehicles take off is all but something ordinary. The drone is positioned vertically, with its tip facing upwards, and with the help of its four electrically-driven propellers it takes to the skies. Once it reaches an altitude of 130 feet to 200 feet, the drone changes its orientation to the horizontal position necessary for flight.

An interesting fact is that the combined weight of the drone and of the package to be delivered cannot exceed 22 pounds. Should the drones be used for commercial purposes (a thing that’s currently banned in the U.S.), they won’t be able to deliver video game consoles or hefty computer parts. As a joke, a commenter on The Verge said that the drone would, in theory, be capable of delivering two babies. It was about time those gorram storks were replaced by some modern tech!

Assuming that these drones are not excessively noisy, I wouldn’t mind if the deliveries of small objects was done using them exclusively. The next logical step of Google would be to use such drones for providing Internet. After all, I don’t think that Mountain View bought drone maker Titan Aerospace for nothing. One thing is certain, though, Google won’t stop here with its self-flying vehicles.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Google’s Project Tango 3D mapping smartphone, and Google’s acquisition of artificial intelligence company DeepMind.

How Lenovo’s Purchase of Motorola Changes the Android Scene

lenovo-google

After two years, 17,000 patents, and $12.5 billion, Google is calling it a day with its experiment in Motorola Mobility after announcing its sale to Lenovo.

lenovo-googleMany people assumed from the beginning that all Google wanted from Motorola Mobility was their treasure trove of 17,000 patents and are first in line to say “I told you so,” but that is only partially true.

Google’s deal to sell off Motorola to Lenovo for $2.9 billion actually provides many benefits for both companies as Google is maintaining ownership of “the vast majority” of patents acquired in the previous deal as well as the advanced research division of Motorola.

This deal could have far reaching implications, not just for Google and Lenovo, but for all players in the Android landscape.

Lenovo may be the biggest beneficiary.   Many people in the United States have no idea that Lenovo even makes Android phones, but they are in fact the 4th largest smartphone manufacturer in the world—behind Apple, Samsung, and Huawei—they just have a basically non-existent footprint in the US.  Through this deal they acquired not just licensing for the rights to use Motorola’s patents (which will remain in Google’s portfolio), but the rights to use Motorola’s branding for their products.

This gives Lenovo a major foothold to previously untapped markets besides access to one of the richest patent portfolios and ownership of the Moto-X, which has become one of the best reviewed phones ever.

Whether or not Lenovo decides to stick with Motorola’s current lineup and strategy remain to be seen, but it would be a smart move to continue what Google started.  Lenovo doesn’t claim any initial intentions to make any drastic cuts in employees or programs.  Lenovo Group Ltd. Chairman and Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that they intend to grow the Motorola brand “not just in the U.S. and Latin America, where [the brand] is strong today. We will also introduce the Motorola brand in other markets so we can have decent growth.”  If this is handled anywhere similar to the way they handled their acquisition of IBMs “Think” brand, then we can expect Motorola to see a prominence it hasn’t had for quite some time.

Many people are calling Google the loser in the deal, since they are re-selling the company just 2 years later for $9.6 billion less than they purchased it for originally, but this is not a clean cut parting of ways.  First of all—as I already mentioned—Google is keeping most of the patents they acquired in the original deal as well as Motorola’s advanced research division, which is where many of Google’s crazy ideas have come from, such as the modular modifiable smartphone—project Ara—and a plethora of fancy security devices such as passwords that are ingestible or tattooed.  This section will feel right at home under the mysterious and bizarre Google X program.

We also can’t discount the impact of the Moto-X and Moto-G.  Google was able to use Motorola to prove that low cost, bloat free, Android phones could be a big sensation.  We can’t ignore the impact of the statement made by these devices when we look at the insane 10 year patent sharing agreement Google recently arranged with Samsung.  Google effectively proved that their way was best for Android, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more OEMs following suit.

The biggest loser in this whole situation may be HTC.  The Taiwanese company has been fighting to establish branding and gain market share for the past few years, but now that the Motorola brand is buffeted by the well-oiled assembly lines of Lenovo, that uphill battle may have gotten a lot more vertical.  Not to take all the wind out of their sales, though.  The HTC One was widely considered the Best smartphone of 2013 in a close battle with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Moto-X.  2014 will be their last chance to gain what competitive advantage they can, because the market is about to get a lot less forgiving.

As always, we will wait and see how things develop, but it’s undeniable that this could be considered an earthquake in the ever shifting terrain in the world of Android manufacturers.

Sources: CNET, WSJ, Mashable

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