eric schmidt

Eric Schmidt admits talking to Google Glass can be weird

At least one Google executive acknowledges that using the company's interactive eyewear can be kind of odd.

Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who spoke Thursday at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said that talking to Google Glass is the "weirdest thing," according to a report from Reuters.

He noted that people will need to develop new etiquette for the product, which can record video and relay information that only the wearer can see.

"There are obviously places where Google Glasses are inappropriate," he said, according to Reuters.

Schmidt also said apps offered to Glass … Read more

Google's Schmidt to Colbert: I don't understand the Internet

To hear someone from Google claim they don't understand something is like hearing a fundamentalist religious believer suddenly declare he has celestial doubts.

There was something, therefore, stunningly heartwarming about Eric Schmidt's appearance on Tuesday night's "Colbert Report."

In a previous appearance on the show, Google's executive chairman had tried to be funny. This time, he allowed Colbert to be the comedian -- which was a good decision.

Instead, Schmidt took the opportunity to thrust his new book "The New Digital Age" at the cool, ironic world and offer a little hope.… Read more

Google execs' 'New Digital Age' resists cyber-siren song

When two executives at the world's most optimistic technology company write about humanity's digital future, you might expect a book brimming with excitement about the wonders to come.

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen offer plenty of that, but what makes "The New Digital Age" worth reading is the correspondingly healthy dose of pessimism. The book, released today, ultimately is persuasive in making the case that people can steer technology so it helps us more than it harms us.

The book, with straightforward writing and compelling details, seeks to predict what happens as today's online population … Read more

Google Glass for everybody a 'year-ish' away

Google Glass is the latest hot technology getting daily buzz, but it won't be coming to stores soon and it won't be cheap. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt addressed the question of when consumers might be able to purchase the digital eyewear during an interview with the BBC: "It's fair to say that thousands of these will be in use by developers over the next months, and then based on their feedback we will make some product changes, and it's probably a year-ish away."

During Google's first-quarter earnings call last week, CEO Larry Page rather cryptically addressed … Read more

Julian Assange's secret chat with Google's chairman

Eric Schmidt met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in secret in 2011, according to the transcript of a wide-ranging discussion published late Thursday by the document-leaking organization.

The transcript of the meeting, which occurred while Assange was under house arrest in the U.K., was published just days before the scheduled release of Schmidt's new book, "The New Digital Age," on Tuesday. The book's co-author, Google Ideas director Jared Cohen, was also present during the discussion, according to the transcript.

The interview, offering an intimate look into the thought processes of two of the tech world'… Read more

Google's Voice Search and the thirst for conversation

Google's engineers are known for tackling difficult problems, grand challenges like driverless cars. But the grandest challenge for Google has always been search. Fifteen years into its evolution as a company, Google's brain in the cloud is becoming much more conversational and smarter.

The best evidence is Google Glass, for which speech input is the primary interface. "Voice recognition is good enough that you can talk to these things," Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said about the Glass user experience. He believes that making conversational queries with Glass and other devices will make Google's search engine … Read more

Google still wants Apple to use its maps, Eric Schmidt says

The Apple Maps fiasco may have died down, but Google still wants its mapping program to be default on iOS, said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt, speaking today during an AllThingsD mobile conference, declined to say why Apple decided to go with its own mapping system rather than working with Google as it had in the past. But he said his company is still pushing Apple to use Google Maps as the primary navigation tool on iOS.

"We would still really like them to use our maps," Schmidt said. "It would be easy for them to take … Read more

Facebook Home on Android? Good stuff, says Eric Schmidt

NEW YORK -- Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt enthusiastically supports what Facebook has done on the Google Android OS with its new suite of apps called Home.

Speaking at All Things D's Dive into Mobile conference here Tuesday, Schmidt reiterated the statement Google put out after Facebook launched earlier this month, defending the company's use of its open-source software to layer a new Facebook-centric experience on Google Android smartphones.

Some people, including Microsoft's head of Windows Phone Terry Myerson, have publicly speculated that if given the choice Google would try to take the Facebook Home app suite … Read more

Eric Schmidt: Motorola's new products are 'phenomenal'

The Android handset market may be very competitive, but Motorola's new products are "phenomenal," said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt, speaking today during the AllThingsD mobile conference in New York, declined to specify what devices Motorola is building but said people should think of the products as "phones plus."

"What I'd advise to do with Motorola is wait and see with the next generation of technology," Schmidt said. "It's very, very impressive."

Google bought Motorola in 2011 for $12.5 billion, but the combined company has yet to release … Read more