Google slashes Moto 360 price to $165 on Google Store

Google is giving Moto 360 a major price cut. The company is selling the Android Wear smartwatch for $165 with free shipping on its online Google Store.

The latest price of the watch is $85 less than the original price of $249.99 while Amazon and BestBuy are offering the watch at $179. The $165 price is only for standard leather black and stone grey model and customers will have to pay more for other customized models. Motorola launched the Moto 360 smartwatch last year and now it is being reported that the company is working on Moto 360 successor that is codenamed Smelt and will feature 360×360 display.

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Google Partners With Ford, GM, Toyota, Others on Self-Driving

 

Internet search company Google Inc has begun discussions with most of the world's top automakers and has assembled a team of traditional and nontraditional suppliers to speed efforts to bring self-driving cars to market by 2020, a Google executive said on Wednesday.

"We'd be remiss not to talk to ... the biggest auto manufacturers. They've got a lot to offer," Chris Urmson, director of Google's self-driving car project, said in an interview.
Those manufacturers, he said, include General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG.

"For us to jump in and say that we can do this better, that's arrogant," Urmson said. Google has not determined whether it will build its own self-driving vehicles or function more as a provider of systems and software to established vehicle manufacturers.

Google's self-driving prototype cars, he said, were built in Detroit by engineering and specialty manufacturing company Roush.

GM is open to working with Google on self-driving cars, Jon Lauckner, GM's chief technology officer, said on Monday.

Urmson's expectation that the first fully autonomous vehicles will be production-ready within five years mirrors the view expressed a day earlier by another Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Motors Inc.

Musk, who spoke Tuesday at the Automotive News World Congress conference, said he expects the lack of clear federal regulations covering self-driving cars could delay their introduction until 2022 or 2023.

Urmson, however, said his Google colleagues "don't see any particular regulatory hurdles."
Google has been briefing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the chief U.S. auto regulator, "from early on in our program," Urmson said. "The worst thing we could do is surprise them."

Urmson said Google is developing and refining self-driving systems and components with such auto parts suppliers as Continental AG, Robert Bosch [ROBG.UL], ZF [ZFF.UL] and LG Electronics. Google's prototype cars use microprocessors made by Nvidia Corp , a Silicon Valley chipmaker that also supplies Mercedes-Benz and other automakers.

Continental said it began discussions in 2012 about supplying parts for Google's self-driving car. Google asked the German supplier to provide tires, some electronics and other components, according to Samir Salman, chief executive of Continental's NAFTA region.

Google shortly will begin deploying a test fleet of fully functioning prototypes of its pod-like self-driving car, which dispenses with such familiar automotive parts as steering wheel, brakes and accelerator pedal. While each of the Google prototypes will have a "test driver" on board, the cars have no provision for human intervention in steering or braking.

Urmson suggested the no-frills look of the Google prototypes, a far cry from the opulent appearance of the self-driving F015 concept vehicle unveiled last week by Mercedes, does not necessarily reflect the final design for production.

He described the Google prototype as "a practical, near-term testing platform" that will evolve over time.

"Airliners today don't look like the Wright brothers' flyer" of 100 years ago, he said.
Urmson said self-driving cars represent a "transformative" moment in the evolution of transportation, an opportunity to extend motoring to blind, elderly and disabled persons who otherwise could not drive.

"You're really changing the relationship you have with transportation. You're changing what it means to get around."

Regarding Google's desire to partner with traditional automakers and suppliers, Urmson said Detroit is more innovative than is sometimes acknowledged. Automakers are "doing something incredibly complicated."

"You look at a car ... and people forget just how much magic there is in that thing."

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Google Now Launcher for Android 4.1 and Higher Devices Brings Lollipop Material Design

 

After updating the Google Search app to version 4.1 last week, the search giant has started updated the Google Now Launcher for Android with the latest Material Design elements.

Now users with devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to Android 4.4 KitKat can download the updated Google Now Launcher, allowing them to experience some of the elements of Google's latest Android 5.0 Lollipop - though these elements are very few and don't even include the Lollipop onscreen navigation bar.

The updated Google Now Launcher includes changes such as the Search bar on the home screen and app drawer now has a white theme like Lollipop. The Google Now swipe-side menu has also been added, and few animations are also similar to Lollipop OS.

Last week, Google updated the Google aka Google Search app to version 4.1, bringing the all new 'Now cards' settings page, improved 'Ok Google' Detection settings, slightly revamped Material Design-like elements, and support for nine new Indian languages.

Later in the week, the app teardown by Android Police revealed new findings speculating possible integrations in the future such as audible notifications, Project Hera, third-party integration and more.

One feature that that went live silently was noted in the report. In the updated app, Google tweaked the Google Now launcher ability to interact with users. The launcher has been improved to work as an overlay representing interactions, regardless of which launcher or application is active. This is different from the older version, where speaking the key phrase 'Ok Google' with any other app in the foreground would immediately launch Search, sending the current app into the background.

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