Motorola rolled out a handful of products, including the Droid Xyboard 10.1 — a tablet they’re hoping will compete with Apple’s iPad. (Getty Images)
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Motorola Mobility is laying the groundwork for a Google invasion of the living room.
Beyond just smartphones, the $12.5 billion pending Motorola acquisition will hand Google control of one of the top makers of cable set-top box technology.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, there was no outward talk of the union, which is expected to happen in March, but the technology Motorola is showing off here in Las Vegas has clear implications for Google and its TV ambitions.
Motorola’s Televation box, which allows cable subscribers to view their service on Wi-Fi connected devices like tablets in the home, got a boost this week with the announcement of a trial run in a few of Comcast’s cable markets.
Motorola is also working with Time Warner Cable on a set-top box hub for the home that will have capabilities similar to Televation and will enable cable viewing on up to six TVs in the home.
The set-top box technology holds clear potential for Google TV, the company’s Web-connected operating system for smart TVs.
Motorola also touted its new Razr smartphone, a product line Google showed interest in when it sent Chairman Eric Schmidt to its launch in the fall.
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This may not come as a surprise, but the biggest draw at CES was Justin Bieber.
The teen heartthrob was mobbed by hundreds of fans when he popped up at the Tosy robotics booth.
The Vietnamese company hired the 17-year-old Bieber to promote its mRobo real-life transformer, which is a mobile speaker that turns into a dancing robot.
When the machines turn on us, we have now have Bieber to blame.
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Last year, 3D TVs were all the hype; this year it’s going to be 3D phones and tablets.
MasterImage, one of the companies that delivers 3D technology to movie theater screens, was at CES to extend its technology to more devices.
Roy Taylor, an executive vice president, is keeping partnerships under wraps for now, but he said 3D phones will take off in the second half of this year.
The tablet technology is still limited and so is the content optimized for such viewing.
However, MasterImage is building a 3D movie store for smartphones.
The Hollywood-based company has the ear of the studios and expects to deliver some 1,000 movies, including a demo of “Titanic.”
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Google’s latest version of its Android software is finally available in tablets — just not in US stores.
China’s Ingenic Semiconductor showed off its new line of Novo7 tablets powered by Google’s Android 4.0 operating system, dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” at CES yesterday.
The Novo7 tablet is physically a bit clunky compared to rivals, but the price is right at around $100.
However, Ingenic’s CEO Qiang Liu told The Post he’s still looking for US retailers to carry the tablet.
Coby Electronics was also there to showcase its line of upcoming tablets — among the first to run Google’s next-generation operating system.