Google, Microsoft, and even Apple make fresh plays to command the attention of consumers' wallets. Also: France to tax Google?
Steven MusilNight Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Google, Microsoft, and even Apple made fresh plays to command the attention of consumers' credit cards.
As expected, the Google unveiled the Nexus One, a new Android phone that offers an inside designed by Google and an outside designed by HTC. The primary interface is a 3.7-inch AMOLED display with five customizable home screens. The Nexus One runs the Android 2.1 OS, and the WVGA display can show 3G graphics. The trackball below the display lets you navigate menus, but also lights up to alert you to new messages.
With the release, Google is trying to gradually reel in Apple by emphasizing open phones that feature open app stores, an open-source operating system, and a variety of sales channels. It's trying to do nothing less than reinvent the way mobile phones are sold in the U.S.
In order to do so, Google must show that consumers are willing to embrace a distribution channel for smartphones that is not controlled by wireless carriers, which will never give up their gatekeeper role over access and pricing of these phones if they are not forced to do so by customer demand. Google will also need to continue to create compelling mobile software that serves as a check on the iPhone.
• Hands-on with the Nexus One • Google stole Nexus, says 'Blade Runner' family
CES happens in Vegas
Meanwhile, in the Nevada desert, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer formally opened the Consumer Electronics Show by unveiling a number of new PCs, including a Hewlett-Packard tablet due out later this year. But Microsoft isn't sharing the specifications of the diminutive slate or its price tag.
Apple too
That rumored Apple event everyone has been jawing about these past few weeks? It's on, and it's going to be a big deal. Sources in the know say Apple is indeed planning a media event later this month at which the company will announce a major new product. The gathering is to be held on January 27 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a space Apple often uses for media events such as this.
• WSJ: Apple tablet shipping in March
Enthusiasts are buzzing over a trick that lets users get access to all of the operating system's controls in one folder.
• Windows 7 has lots of 'GodModes'
Netflix has agreed not to rent new titles for 28 days after they are released. In exchange, Netflix gets more streaming content, and that's the company's future.
Expect to see more gadgets and services for helping consumers cut back on energy use through a networked console connected to the electricity meter and appliances.
