Nothing like an SEC filing to shed light on the ins-and-outs of deals. Motorola Mobility, which is in the process of being acquired for Google for $12.5 billion , filed a proxy statement explaining how the bid went down, including how Motorola got the search engine giant to sweeten the deal by $3 billion. The filing chronicles the play from initial talks in July, to acceleration to get a deal done in August as Google's need for patents grew more intense.

One of the regular memes has Apple iOS and Google's Android mobile operating systems as the only platforms that matter in mobile. With some 70 percent of the market combined worldwide , it's an easy case to make. But that's the near-term view. The long view could paint a different, rosier picture for the platform of Microsoft and, yes, even the embattled Research in Motion. At least, if you believe a new prediction from researcher IDC.

Great news, Netflix/Android phone owners! Netflix, which has fought to navigate the rough waters of security and digital rights management to put its service on more Android phones, upgraded its app to support content playback on all Android 2.2 and 2.3 devices. That means Netflix users who use "Froyo" or "Gingerbread"-based phones can get their TV and movie content from their handsets enjoying content on the go.

Amazing. Google acquired Zagat , a niche content company nearly as old as myself whose little red pocket-sized booklets of restaurant reviews I can remember devouring 15 years ago. What's so amazing about this? It's a consolidation of workflow tools. Google, which makes easily a dozen or so search and collaboration tools I use to do my job picked up a company whose content I read yo fortify my knowledge of working in eateries. On a less personal note,

For several months, pundits and folks with grudges versus Google's Android operating system have speculated that the provider of the world's leading smartphone platform has a heavier hand in the release of its platform to open source than it led us to believe. Google didn't do itself a favor when it withheld its Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" platform from open source development . That called into question just how "open" Android really is . Check out that bombshell above,

At Google I/O back in May, executives for Google's Android platform proudly announced they were working on a way to provide regular platform updates for Android smartphones for 18 months - when the hardware makes it possible. Android Product Manager Hugo Barra said the group was formed to "create guidelines for how quickly Android devices will get updated after new platform releases.

While there's no question Google's bid for Motorola was predicated on the company's huge intellectual property war chest of 17,000 patents )7,500 pending(, some say the phone maker sold its quality patents. Others argue it doesn't matter. While it's become something of a he-said, she-said, it highlights an interesting dichotomy in legal strategy. Thanks to a broken software patent system,

Even pundits who formerly thought Apple Television - as in a fully integrated box with a Web browser that flings content across iPhone's, iPod touches and iPads, as well as Macs - are beginning to warm to the idea the company Steve Jobs reinvigorated has to try to conquer the complex home entertainment market. In his Monday post, Jean-Louis Gassee noted : Imagine a true plug-and-play experience. One set with only two wires: power and the cable TV coax. Turn it on,

You can add Google Offers , the fledgling daily deals service available in San Francisco, the Bay Area, Portland and New York City, to the short list. Google this past week began touting this Offer for the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan: Clicking through shows me this deal, worth 80 percent off: That's some kind of deal, though Google has a long way to go before catching Groupon or LivingSocial in this increasingly commoditized local deals market.

Google has taken its +1 button to the consumer masses, allowing users to install the +1 Chrome extension to begin +1ing favorite Webpages and sites right from their browser. Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, posted a link to the +1 button extension from the Chrome Web Store on Google+ late last night: As of 8 .a.m. EDT Sept. 1, it's already got over 6,600 users. I installed it this morning ,

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt held forth on many things at the MacTaggart lecture to the Edinburgh International TV Festival August 26 , including a session in which he regaled reporters with tales of Google TV. While he acknowledged that Google TV is still a beta product for early adopters, he was enthusiastic about the Web TV platform's future,

Java Founder James Gosling has left Google, where he was definitely not helping the search engine with its patent infringement case versus Oracle . A Google spokesperson told me: We thank James for his contributions to Google and the technology industry at large. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors. My eWEEK colleague Darryl Taft got the scoop via e-mail from the Java God himself ,

NPR's Andy Carvin scored a fascinating question and answer bout with former Google CEO and current Executive Chairman, who spoke at the Edinburgh International TV Festival April 28. Carvin asked Schmidt , who more than once admitted dropping the ball when it came to addressing the search engine's years-long social software deficit, how Google justifies its strict "common name" policy when revealing legal name identities could put people at risk. For quick context,

Google Chrome is the most voice-enabled browser in the free world, as the company propelling it continues to weave voice throughout its core applications via Chrome. The search engine August 25 switched on the ability to let users speak search queries into their computer microphone to look for places and get directions for Google Maps . The move comes two months after Google launched Google Voice Search for the desktop via Chrome , and works the same way as that tool.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904875404576528981250892702.html There is a lot being written about Apple CEO Steve Jobs stepping down from the company he built, was subsequently exiled from, and restored to fairy-tale-like glory. Prodigal son, indeed. I'm going to leave the eloquent waxing about Jobs, who is sadly ceding the reins to COO Tim Cook due to health reasons, to others with far more experience following Apple. And far more emotionally invested in it .

I realize this blog is called Google Watch, not Apple Watch, so please bear with me. I've come to the point in life that when I buy household or consumer electronics machines I tend to take care of them. When they break early, they tend to collect dust, unless it's a coffee machine or some other gotta-have-it gadget. I don't perceive my daughter's iPod touch 4 as a coffee machine, though she forcefully disagreed. And so came the impasse in March,

Leave it to a venture capitalist to cut through the clutter of punditry, follow the money, and point to the next possible direction for Google if it succeeds in buying Motorola Mobility $12,5 billion this year or the next . Writing for Xconomy , Morgenthaler Ventures' Rebecca Flynn outlines an insightful scenario where she sees Google's bid for Motorola as a play to offer free phones to consumers, making the money up in mobile search and other ads. This is, of course,

Facebook's poaching of Googlers has been going on since about 2005 or 2006, but it really came to a head in March 2008 when the social network revealed that it had lured Google's chief ad executive Sheryl Sandberg . Sandberg, who would eventually lure her former ad comrade David Fischer from Google, has been the COO ever since and has been kicking tail, with the company's social ad business taking off. After Sandberg joined, scores of Googlers followed.

Google Maps has many layers but it's just gotten perhaps one of its more important layers since traffic patterns: weather. This makes total sense. People often use Google Maps to plot travel courses for pleasure and business. One of the main factors that influence travel is weather, so the lack of this layer on Google Maps has actually been a glaring hole. The new Google Maps weather layer displays current temperatures and conditions around the globe. To use this layer,

I was going to write about how Motorola Mobility's latest legal setback versus Microsoft , but because I woke up in a better mood I'm going to talk about the idea that Google could go after T-Mobile to add a carrier to the mix. As my eWEEK colleage Wayne Rash noted , the Federal Trade Commission still hasn't decided to approve the license transfer; the DoJ is looking at antitrust ramifications of the proposal and the class-action lawsuits are mounting. By and large,