Google teams with Verizon and promises a family of Android mobile devices

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, left, and Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. Credit: Verizon

In the face of the iPhone's popularity, Verizon Wireless and Google Inc. said they are forming a partnership to create new smart phones using Google's Android operating system and the Internet firm's applications.

Verizon said it expects to unveil two new Google phones this month, but said those initial entries would be just the first part of a "multiyear roadmap."

The partnership of the two technology heavyweights -- the nation's largest wireless network and the online search leader -- comes as the fight for dominance in the mobile smart phone market grows increasingly contentious.

A spat between Google and technology rival Apple Inc. has escalated in recent weeks over Apple's refusal to allow customers to use Google Voice, the company's telephone application, on the popular iPhone. Google told the Federal Communications Commission that Apple rejected the app for competitive reasons, but Apple denied that, saying it is still studying Google's application.

AT&T, the sole wireless carrier for the iPhone, added fuel to the fire last month when it complained to the FCC that Google Voice blocked calls to certain areas, raising the possibility that Google could be in violation of FCC rules.

Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Lowell McAdam told analysts today that the company would support Google Voice. "You either have an open device or not, and this will be open," he said, adding that Google Voice would be available when Verizon's first Google devices come out.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt gave plaudits to Verizon for its willingness to adopt Android, which, unlike Apple's system, is an open development platform over which Verizon would have less control. That decision, Schmidt said, was "enormously surprising given the history and the old-line nature of telcos.

"At Verizon, somehow the leadership has decided to embrace a different philosophy which works very well with the Internet," he said.

-- David Sarno

Bathroom scale goes Wi-Fi

This body scale puts your weight online. Credit: Withings.

Here's maybe the best reason yet to make sure your Wi-Fi connection is secure from snoopers.

A French technology company, Withings, has introduced the first-ever bathroom scale with Wi-Fi capability. And if that wasn't enough, it also has an iPhone app.

All you do is step on the scale, and your weight shows up on a personal Web page (hopefully, that's secure too) or the phone screen where you can compare it to past readings. You can even get a graphic showing weight loss -- or gain -- over time.

This could perhaps bring on a new wave of smashed computer screens, or broken iPhones from them being thrown across the room.

The Wi-Fi Body Scale also measures body mass index and recognizes up to eight users, so the whole household can join in.

The price: $159.

In a press release, a Withings official declared that the company strives to make products "that make everyday life better."

Well, in this case, it would depend on the day.

-- David Colker

Netgear offers a networked hard drive for the masses, with a caveat

The tech industry is gradually persuading Americans to set up home networks, but it's had a tougher time selling consumers on the idea of storing all their data on a single device within their homes. The appeal of "network-attached storage" boxes and "home media servers" has largely been confined to the earliest of early adopters, even as the software to centralize and back up data has become increasingly user friendly. Today, Netgear makes a new bid to sell NAS to the masses, offering the $229 Stora. Its features and price are impressive, but I'm not sure Netgear has come up with a compelling new argument for consumers to go this route. That's because Hollywood isn't ready to play along.

The idea behind a NAS is that it makes all of your digital photos, music and documents available to any device in the home that's capable of displaying them. The emergence of networked TV sets and Blu-ray players means that a NAS can serve content into your home entertainment center, not just the computers scattered around your home. Granted, putting all of those files in one place could have disastrous consequences in the event of a disc failure, but it also makes it easier to back up all that data.

The Stora comes with a 1 terabyte drive ...

Gadgets that used to be cutting-edge

Funny thing about technology: It's only new for a short while. Then, what was once the hottest gadget on the block begins to look like something you'd find in the corner of a barn.

Our friends at the Chicago Tribune posted a cool retrospective photo gallery called "High-tech once upon a time." The page contains 13 black-and-white shots of the coolest gadgets from yesteryear.

For example, check out the "miniature" camcorder from 1986, pictured to the right. Not so small when you put it next to a Flip Cam.  (And is that guy wearing overalls?)

Or Sony's Video Walkman -- retro, yes, but we think we'll stick with the iPod Touch.

Gear-heads should take a moment to pay their respects to their elder gadgets. After all, we'd probably have no DVDs or Blu-rays without Ken Ingram's Magnavox video disc player.

Not that those will be around much longer, either.

-- Mark Milian

Follow my commentary on technology and social media on Twitter @markmilian.

Photo: Tribune archive

New Samsung digital camera has screen in front for self-portraits

Who needs friends to help take pictures when you have the new DualView camera? Credit: Samsung.

Think of it as the digital camera for the lonely.

Samsung today debuted a camera with a view screen on the front as well as on the back. And why would people want this DualView camera, as Samsung calls it?

To take pictures of themselves.

"The growing popularity of social networking sites has given rise to the self-portrait," Samsung said in its news release, "with many consumers turning their digital cameras on themselves."

Many of us who have used social networking or dating sites can relate, holding a camera at arms length in front of ourselves while snapping a picture. The results are seldom pretty, but usually better than camera shots taken in mirrors, complete with flash that makes it look like the person was caught in an inadvertent pyrotechnics display.

The DualView is supposed to eliminate those hassles, but at a price. The basic model will carry a suggested retail price tag of $300 when it goes on sale next month. An enhanced model, with larger back display will be $350.  

-- David Colker

A nice, solid recession can be good for consumer electronics

First, the bad news: Sales of consumer electronics are expected to drop nearly 8% in 2009, the industry's first decline since 2001, when the events of 9/11 left most Americans stunned. It's also the biggest decline since 1975, if you exclude 2001.

But wait, there's more bad news for the industry. While some gadgets remain hot in the cold economy -- as Jim Barry of the Consumer Electronics Assn. explains in the video above -- Americans are shunning big-ticket items in favor of bargains, or refusing to buy altogether.

Forget upgrading to a $2,000 computer. Even the digerati are toting slim netbooks and boasting how little they paid for them (often less than $200). Consumers are no longer snapping up those jumbo-sized flat-screen digital TVs like there's no analog tomorrow. Instead, they're going for smaller, more affordable sets. And digital cameras? No need. Already got 'em. In fact, each U.S. home nearly bursts with more than two dozen electronic devices on average, according to the Consumer Electronics Assn., an industry group.

So what's the good news? Barry, who's worked in consumer electronics long enough to remember the bad ol' days of the 1970s, says adversity is the mother of invention.

"In the late '70s, we had the oil crisis, high unemployment and stagflation," he said. "But we also saw the introduction of the VCR, the Apple IIe, the first home game consoles and the beginnings of phone deregulation. It was a period of innovation that really kicked off the digital age."

Any guesses on what revolutionary technologies this recession will give birth to?

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

FCC asks Apple, AT&T, Google about App Store's rejection of Google Voice

Credit: Alexander F. Yuan / Associated Press

The Federal Communications Commission today sent letters to Apple Inc., Google Inc. and AT&T Inc. seeking further information about Apple's refusal this week to allow the Google Voice app -- which enables users to re-route their phone calls through Google -- to be sold through the company's App Store. 

The letters, which asked that the three companies each answer a series of detailed questions about their part in the situation, were sent by James D. Schlichting, the acting chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and suggested that the agency was attempting to determine whether the rejection of Google Voice was a fair move on the iPhone maker's part, and whether AT&T had anything to do with it.

Among the questions to Apple: "Did Apple act alone, or in consultation with AT&T, in deciding to reject the Google Voice application and related applications?"

And to AT&T: "Are there any terms in AT&T’s customer agreements that limit customer usage of certain third-party applications?"

The letters invoked two pending FCC proceedings, one relating to exclusive relationships between handsets manufactures and wireless carriers -- as AT&T and Apple have -- and another regarding consumer ability to freely access a variety of services with their cellphones.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment. Inquires to AT&T were not immediately answered. But a Google spokeswoman said the company would respond to the FCC's questions and supply requested information.

-- David Sarno

Follow my variable-rate stream of tech and culture-related musings at @dsarno

Could this be the end of electric power cords?

From the time of Thomas Edison, scientists have been trying to develop a system that would send electric power through the air without wires.

Now a Massachusetts company, WiTricity, says it will have just such a system on the market in about 18 months. The company, which has been developing its technology based on the work of MIT physicist Marin Soljacic, made the announcement at the prestigious TEDGlobal conference that ended Friday in Oxford in the U.K.

The company showed how a transmitting unit, which could be placed in a wall, could power a television set several feet away. The chief executive of the company, Eric Giler, also showed how the system could wirelessly charge a G1 cellphone equipped with an antenna unit so small it could fit inside the phone case.

An iPhone was part of the demonstration, too, but that phone's innards are so closely packed that the antenna had to be attached to the outside of the case.

Giler said the WiTricity system works on something called resonant magnetic coupling and is safe for humans. And on an environmental note, he said it could not only eliminate power cords but also tons of batteries used yearly to power household devices.

WiTricity showed a version of the technology in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Intel also is working on a wireless electricity system.

-- David Colker

Photos: Top, Eric Giler, chief executive of WiTricity, shows a cellphone that charges without the use of a  power cord. Credit: BBC. Bottom, a wireless electricity system uses a unit embedded in a wall to supply electrical power to devices in the room. Credit: WiTricity

Cannabis App passes 1,000 paid downloads; SoCal developers stoked

L.A.-based software engineers Devin Calloway and Julian Cain are also medical cannabis patients. And they're looking to "harvest change."

Over the last several months, Calloway, 24, and Cain, 32, matched their programming talents to their political passions to put Cannabis up for sale on iTunes. The price? $2.99. 

Cannabis is a geolocation-based iPhone app that allows users to quickly find the nearest medical marijuana dispensary as well as weed-friendly doctors and lawyers, all with a few quick touches.

The app has sold more than 1,000 units, and its founders said they planned to put 50 cents of every purchase -- or 17% of the proceeds -- toward establishing a nonprofit organization dedicated to media outreach for the pro-pot cause.

The idea behind the app is to "use technology to empower the medical cannabis industry and the global hemp movement," Calloway said.

In California and other states, the substance is legal with a doctor’s prescription but remains illegal under federal law.

Calloway is a founding member of ajnag.com -- that's ganja backwards -- which stands for Activists Justifying the Natural Agriculture of Ganja. According to Calloway, the website was the first comprehensive online map of...

HD Radio goes portable

New this week: the first portable HD radio that can be strapped to your arm or tossed into your pocket like an iPod or mp3 player. And at about $50, the Insignia NS-HD01 is the cheapest way to get HD radio, which offers far better sound than normal FM or AM.

But will anyone care? The HD radio technology, announced amid much hype in 2004, has failed to capture a mass audience, even though about 2,000 stations nationwide -- including nearly 20 in the Los Angeles area -- are equipped to broadcast the digital format.

Maybe all that was needed to give HD a push was the introduction of a relatively inexpensive unit that can be worn to the gym or otherwise on the go. But this device from Insignia (BestBuy's house brand) is limited in that it's only a radio and can't play mp3s. Also, it's a bit bulky compared to the super-slim portable players that are available now.

But those are only first impressions. Soon to come: a full-fledged review.

-- David Colker