Also: Netflix finally goes social in a big way; Samsung spent more on advertising last year than Apple.
From Page’s note:
Fast forward to today. The pace of innovation has never been greater, and Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world: we have a global partnership of over 60 manufacturers; more than 750 million devices have been activated globally; and 25 billion apps have now been downloaded from Google Play. Pretty extraordinary progress for a decade’s work.
Android chief Andy Rubin moves to other Google projects while Sundar Pichai takes over [ALL THINGS D]
Page explained the shift as part of the maturation of Android, saying Rubin had taken the project from an independent startup to being acquired by Google to now being the operating system for more than 750 million activated devices globally.
But the transition brings back the perennial question of Google’s two operating systems, Android and Chrome OS, which are coming ever closer as Google has started making touchscreen laptops.
Thanks to new law, Netflix adds Facebook sharing features [HILICON VALLEY]
In a blog post on Wednesday, Netflix explained that customers will be able to choose whether to link their Netflix and Facebook accounts. By default, the video sharing will only appear on Netflix, but users can choose to also broadcast the video history on Facebook. Users can hide individual videos by clicking the “Don’t share this” button.
The social features will be rolled out to all U.S. users by the end of the week, Netflix said.
In the smartphone race, money talks for Samsung [FORTUNE]
In 2012, Samsung spent $401 million advertising its phones in the U.S. to Apple’s $333 million, according to ad research and consulting firm Kantar Media. The onslaught—including ads that poked fun at Apple while dubbing Samsung devices “The Next Big Thing”—has helped Samsung open a huge lead in the global smartphone race.
Pebble teardown [iFIXIT]
Update: We did not initially find hardware evidence of Bluetooth Low Energy support, but the engineers at Pebble got in touch to clarify things. Their RF module does in fact support BLE, and they assure us that a firmware update to support this feature is forthcoming.
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