motorola

Should you wait for the mythical Motorola X Phone?

With the Samsung Galaxy S4 finally getting into the hands of some consumers, we must once again return to that persistent question that smartphone and gadget lovers never stop asking: what's next?

With word that Apple won't be releasing any new hardware until the fall and the HTC One and Galaxy S4 just released, the answer seems to be "not much" -- at least not for the next few months.

However, dancing on the far edges of the horizon in this summer's blockbuster smartphone void is a magical unicorn of a device whose legend grows stronger and more far-fetched with each passing day -- and with each hyperbolic comment loosed from Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt's lips. I am speaking, of course, of the mythical Motorola "X Phone."… Read more

Court sides with Microsoft over Motorola patents used in Xbox

In a closely watched case, a federal judge has determined that Motorola is entitled to millions -- not billions -- of dollars in compensation for Microsoft's use of certain standard-essential patents.

U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled Thursday that Microsoft should pay Google's Motorola Mobility unit $1.8 million a year in royalties for use of wireless and video coding patents it used in the Xbox and its smartphones.

Motorola had demanded Microsoft pay royalties of $4 billion for use of patents that are part of the H.264 video and 802.11 wireless standards, which is … Read more

Motorola phones will still be banned in Germany, rules court

Motorola phones will continue to face a ban on their sales in Germany.

On Thursday, the Munich Higher Regional Court rejected an appeal by Google-Motorola to lift the injunction of its Android phones. In May 2012, a German court ruled that the company had violated a Microsoft patent over SMS, ordering a sales ban against its phones in Germany. Google appealed the ruling, but the court was unswayed.

Dubbed "Communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardized interface," the patent in question relates to text messaging.

"We are gratified the court has affirmed the District Court'… Read more

ITC tosses Motorola's legal complaint against Apple

The U.S. International Trade Commission today ended Motorola's case against Apple, which accused the iPhone and Mac maker of patent infringement.

In a ruling (PDF), the ITC said that Apple was not violating Motorola's U.S. patent covering proximity sensors, which the commission called "obvious." It was the last of six patents Motorola aimed at Apple as part of an October 2010 complaint.

That complaint was part of a larger legal effort by Motorola against Apple that also involved patent lawsuits in several U.S. District courts.

The decision follows a long series of determinations, … Read more

Motorola's $271M Q1 loss drags on Google's results

Google's Motorola business continues to struggle in the competitive mobile market, posting a loss of $271 million in the first quarter and hurting results at its parent company.

Excluding items, Motorola lost $179 million.

In the year-ago period, Motorola's last report as an independent company, the mobile-devices and TV set-top box manufacturer posted a loss of $86 million. In the fourth quarter of 2012, Motorola's loss totaled $353 million.

Its revenue, meanwhile, came in at $1.02 billion, down from $3.08 billion in the year-earlier period and from $1.51 billion in the fourth quarter. BGC … 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

Hacker celeb 'Mudge' joins Google after DARPA

Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, who was hired three years ago to be a project manager at the U.S. Department of Defense's research and development division known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has announced via Twitter that he's returning to the private sector with Google.

In his new role at Google, The Security Ledger reports, Zatko will be working in an unspecified role with Motorola Mobility's Advanced Technology and Projects division, reporting to Regina Dugan. Dugan is also new to Google, hired last month away from her position as director of DARPA.

Given what … Read more

Justice Dept. approves Google's $2.3B sale of Motorola Home

The U.S. Department of Justice has given its blessing to Google's sale of the Motorola Home set-top business to Arris Group for $2.35 billion.

Announced Friday, the department's approval was the last regulatory hurdle that the deal faced. The broadband technology provider, which is expected to use the acquisition to enhance the networking equipment it offers to cable providers, expects the deal to close by Wednesday.

Google inherited the unit when it purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion last year. The unit makes set-top boxes used by cable providers to deliver video, but Google was … Read more

Judge chastises Apple, Google over patent litigation

Apple and Google's Motorola Mobility are doing everything they can to keep their patent litigation going, a district court judge has charged.

In an order released earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Scola said that he believes Apple and Motorola "have no interest in efficiently and expeditiously resolving this dispute; they instead are using this and similar litigation worldwide as a business strategy that appears to have no end." According to Bloomberg, which was first to report on the ruling, Scola said that the companies are not properly using the court's time and … Read more