Open up your mind and say, ahh...

While it doesn’t take much for Google to make headlines, this week’s news that it filed applications to operate a video service in Kansas City was much more than your average “Hey look what Google did” story. From the release of Google TV to its recent YouTube redesign to the way it’s been courting professional talent for its YouTube channels, Google has been steadily inching closer to the world of cable TV and shifting its content-delivery strategy from America’s computers to America’s living rooms.

You might remember how Google got caught up in the Kansas City market to begin with–over two years ago, cities across the country jockeyed to become the test market for a high-speed Internet service called Google Fiber. One even went so far as to rename a city landmark after the tech giant. In the end, Kansas City was selected as the lucky community, but was the high-speed Internet offering a Trojan Horse for Google to break into the cable TV business?

The company is keeping a tight lid on its plans; in an email to the Kansas City Star, Google spokesperson Jenna Wandres wrote, “We’re still exploring what products will be available when we launch Google Fiber.”

Google’s application is a bit more revealing, however, stating that it “will utilize national and regional video headend facilities to send IPTV” or Internet Protocol Television, the method AT&T uses to deliver cable programming with its U-Verse service.

But whether Google is merely dipping its toes in cable’s television waters or planning a big splash, the company’s experimentation with various ways to provide video will likely pay off, says Steve Rosenbaum, the author and entrepreneur behind the video curation platform, Magnify.net.

“If you look at what they’ve done, they’ve decided to explore video from all sides, which is very smart given their resources and the shifting sands of content delivery. So they’ve purchased Motorola Mobility to be in the set top box business, they built and deployed Google TV, they’re funding content through YouTube originals. It’s all very smart because some of it will work, and they’ll get a ton of earnings in the process.”

But having the hardware and the broadband is only half the battle. Google also needs eyeballs, which means it will also need access to sportscasts and other high-quality programming that viewers still rely on cable television to provide. To secure that, Rosenbaum says the answer is simple:

“Show up with bags of cash. It’s not a whole lot more complicated than that. Rights owners know that Google is trying to shift the playing field. And there’s a long history between cable and the leagues and movie studios. Those negotiations haven’t always been warm and fuzzy, but in the end, both sides came out okay. So for Google to ask a major licensor to give cable a head-on competitor, they’ll have to more than make it worth their while.”

Image: Flickr user gbaku

MSN Launches msnNow News Service. Microsoft’s news and entertainment network MSN is launching an editorially curated service that will map “breaking news trends from Twitter, Facebook, Bing and BreakingNews.com.” msnNOW could give MSN an edge over other big news portals like Yahoo and Google’s News, and bears some resemblance to magazine app Flipboard’s Cover Stories feature. The service will work across platforms, on PCs, smartphones and tablets. –NS

–Updated 6:25 a.m. EST

Google May Launch Jelly Bean In June. Google may launch its latest mobile OS, Android 5.0 codename Jelly Bean, as soon as this June. According to suppliers who’ve got DigiTimes’s ear, the OS will be focused on, but possibly not exclusive to, tablets. In context Motorola, Google’s new buy, says the current 4.0 edition won’t hit many phones for up to a year.  –NS

Facebook Launching Verified Accounts. Facebook is changing its real name policy to allow pseudonyms, will also allow celebrities with high follower counts to get themselves a verified account. Unlike on Twitter or Google+, you can’t ask to be verified, you have to be “chosen,” TechCrunch has learned from Facebook. –NS

Apple Responds To Contact Privacy Concerns. In response to a letter from Congress, Apple has said it is changing its App Store policy to require that apps ask users permission before accessing address book data on their devices. This comes after news broke that social network Path, (and other apps too, it turned out) had been uploading member’s contact list data without their consent. Apple previously noted the uploads were in violation of exisitng policy. –NS

–Updated 5:30 a.m. EST

Image: Flickr user Denise Cross

Yesterday’s Fast Feed: Congress Quizzes Apple On Path, Google Updates Wallet With Partial Fix, Zynga Posts Q4 Loss, Apple May Cuts iAd Prices, and more!

EU And US Approve Google-Motorola Deal. Google has approval from the European Union and the U.S. Department of Justice to complete its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Google’s newfound hardware toys puts in a plum position to battle on with rival Apple. –NS

iPad 3 Rumors: 4G Runners, 8-inchers. Sources have told the Wall Street Journal that Apple’s next iPad will run on AT&T’s and Verizon’s 4G networks. They’ve also heard from suppliers that Apple is testing a smaller iPad model with a 8-inch screen, that could compete with the Kindle Fire and Samsung’s line of 7-inch Galaxy Tabs (the newest of which Samsung announced yesterday). –NS

Hulu’s Original Series Premiers. Barely a week after Netflix launched “Lillyhammer,” its first original series, Hulu has premiered its own original show, “Battleground.” If Netflix wanted to break the TV model of releasing a show a week, Hulu, consistent with its existing content, wants to stick to a Tv-like weekly schedule.

–Updated 5:45 a.m. EST

Image: Flickr user dailylifeofmojo

LAS VEGAS — For the past several years, almost every smartphone, tablet or other mobile device has used a microprocessor based on the computer chip technology of U.K.’s ARM Holdings.

That has finally changed with the unveiling at CES of the first mass-market smartphone that packs Intel technology, and it definitely won’t be the last.

So how does ARM feel about the new competitor encroaching on its effective monopoly? Pretty nonchalant, actually.

At least that was the impression we got from Jeff Chu, ARM’s director of consumer client computing, when he spoke the Mashable at the show. Chu for the most part shrugged off Intel’s official entry into mobile computing, noting that vast swaths of the mobile ecosystem have been optimized for ARM.

“We have 50+ processors on the market today that are in hundreds of phone models and hundreds of different tablets, with a billion apps running on them,” Chu said. “You’re bringing something different in there — does that make sense or not? Will they have apps? Maybe. Can they win on some benchmarks? Maybe, depending on how you spin it. But does it make sense to make that change?”

Breaking ARM

Chu’s right when he says the mobile world of today all ARM, all the time. ARM doesn’t make chips per se — it licenses its chip architecture to chipmakers such as Samsung and Nvidia, who then make customized processors for the likes of Apple and HTC. Intel’s architecture, known as x86, is made strictly by Intel, and the company’s chips power every Windows PC shipping today.

Moving the x86 architecture over to smartphones is something Intel tried to do before, and failed. The company had big plans for its Atom line of low-power processors, but they never gained traction. This time, though, Intel has real partners in the form of Lenovo and Motorola, with the first device officially announced, the Lenovo K800, and Android phone coming to China in the spring.

I got a chance to spend some time with the K800, and I was impressed how it rendered high-res graphics smoothly in a Call of Duty-style game. However, Intel itself admitted it had worked directly with the game creator to optimize performance for the phone, and it’s not known if games made generally for the Android platform would run as well.

“What does x86 then bring coming down into the phone market?” Chu asks. “They’re not bringing in low power consumption. They’re not bringing in a new level of sophistication. What is it they’re bringing in other than it’s x86?”

Performance Questions

Intel would argue that it’s performance. During Intel CEO Paul Otellini’s keynote, he showed multiple graphs that appeared to show Intel’s mobile chip (codenamed Medfield) outperforming competitors on browsing, javascript and graphics. Some independent tests appear to support the assertion. The specs don’t worry Chu, however.

“I think they showed a similar chart with Moorestown (a chip that was part of Intel’s previous stab at the mobile market) a couple of years ago,” Chu says. “It’s hard to really say what it is because there’s no detail in there. But you can pick different benchmarks. It’s like car commercials — greater power than X, Y and Z, and greater gas mileage than A, B and C.”

The Other Battlefront: PCs

Although Chu is aloof about Intel’s first smartphone, he lights up when talking about ARM-based chips taking a bite out of x86 in its traditional category — Windows machines. Microsoft had announced last year it was developing the coming new version, Window 8, for ARM devices, and announced a number of partners at CES 2012.

“The interesting thing is the PC space,” says Chu. “The advantage of ARM ecosystem moving into the PC ecosystem is it’s bringing in new entrants, new competition, low power consumption, always-on always connected mindset and the competition associated with it. You’re bringing all of that into a space that’s been highly uncompetitive for a while.”

So two monopolies in electronics are being shattered: Intel’s on PCs and ARM’s on mobile devices. What are you looking forward to in the coming months and years in both categories? Let us know in the comments.

BONUS: Intel Technology on Display at CES

The first photos of Motorola’s next big Android 4G LTE release, the Droid4, have surfaced, just one day after the handset manufacturer’s super-thin, super-light, 4G-sporting Motorola Droid Razr went on sale at Verizon.

The biggest difference between the Droid Razr and the Droid4 is the slideout QWERTY keyboard. According to Droid Life, which obtained the images, the Droid4 also boasts a 4-inch Super AMOLED Advanced screen, a non-removable battery and two cameras, one of which (presumably an 8-megapixel) is capable of recording 1080p video. The device runs Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread).

The dimensions and processor have not yet been identified, although we can expect the former to be thicker than the Droid Razr, and the processor to be at least as good as the 1.2 GHz dual-core processor that the Droid Razr uses.

Motorola has unveiled its newest smartphone, the Droid Razr, calling it the “world’s thinnest 4G smartphone.”

The phone is 7.1mm thin, features an 8 MP rear camera, and has a 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM. It has a 4.3-inch super AMOLED advanced QHD display and is powered by Android Gingerbread.

“Droid Razr by Motorola combines style, performance and the power of Verizon Wireless’s 4G LTE network into one innovative device,” said Marni Walden, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, in a statement. “These are two iconic brands that separately symbolize the best technology available today. The combination will provide an unsurpassed wireless experience for customers.”

The device will be available in early November for $299.99 with a new two-year Verizon contract.

Motorola revealed the new phone at a joint event with Verizon in New York City Tuesday afternoon. You can follow along with the rest of the event here.

Google and Apple continue to eat up more of the smartphone market, while RIM and Microsoft continue to lose ground.

According to new data from comScore, 82.2 million people in the U.S. owned smartphone as of July 2011, a full 10% increase from April 2011. During this time, Google and Apple were big winners. Google is the market leader with 41.8% market share (up from 36.4% in April), while Apple is #2 with 27% market share (up from 26%).

The news isn’t as bright for RIM, Microsoft or Nokia though. RIM’s BlackBerry was the big loser, as its piece of the smartphone market dropped from 25.7% to 21.7% in just three months. Microsoft also experienced a drop from 6.7% to 5.7%. Nokia’s Symbian OS, which is on its way to retirement, dropped from 2.3% to 1.9%.

comScore also reports that 234 million Americans 13 and older use some type of mobile device, whether it’s a smartphone or not. Among the entire smartphone market, Samsung is the leader with a 25.5% share of U.S. mobile subscribers. LG and Motorola are next with 20.9% and 14.1% respectively. Apple is forth with 9.5% of the total market, an increase of 1.2% since April. RIM rounds out the top five at 7.6%.

Among these 234 million mobile Americans, more of them are using their phones for a variety of tasks. A full 70% of U.S. mobile subscribers are texting, up 1.2% from April. 41.1% use their phones for web browsing (up 2%) and 40.6% have used a downloaded app (up 2.8%). Social networking (30.1%), playing mobile games (27.8%) and listening to music (20.3%) are all up as well.

It’s tough to predict what will happen to the mobile market in the next few years. One report asserts that Windows Phone will overtake iOS by 2015, though we highly doubt that possibility, even with Nokia switching to WP7. For now though, Apple and Google are in a comfortable position, and it doesn’t look like there are any challengers ready to knock them off their perches.

Hey, Android partners, did you miss out on giving your two cents about Google’s proposed takeover of Motorola Mobility? Well, now here’s your chance.

Someone has created an Android Press Release Generator that funnels your thoughts into a blandly positive template. The one-sentence statement offers several variables on word choices, but they’re all synonyms. The punchline is that the real quotes actually seem to be based on the generator.

Point made, some anonymous prankster. The only thing you left out was that other press release quote mainstay: “We’re really excited.”