Google wants to replace your wallet with its Wallet (but you still pay)

Google new NFC-enabled services, Wallet and Offers, are ambitious, but getting all of the pieces to work together will be difficult.

FORTUNE -- At yesterday's Google Wallet/Offers launch event in New York, Google (GOOG) laid out a very compelling case for using NFC-enabled Android phones to make payments at physical merchants. The company trotted out launch partners including the Container Store, Subway, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and Walgreens (WAG).  On the backend, Google MORE

Andy Rubin gets Danger back together at Google to work on Android hardware

Cell phone hardware innovators are gathering at Google. That could mean big changes for Android.

FORTUNE -- Matt Hershenson and Joe Britt, two legendary figures in mobile phone development, have suddenly resurfaced as part of the team building Android. Their hiring signals a big change at Google, showing that the company is getting just as serious about the hardware of phones — and this goes well beyond flip vs. candybar -- MORE

Review: T-Mobile Sidekick 4G

There's no going back.

I'm sure somewhere deep inside of Google (GOOG) headquarters, Android head Andy Rubin has been checking out the new Sidekick 4G by Samsung.  Rubin, of course, headed the Danger outfit that designed the original Sidekick before they were purchased and destroyed by Microsoft in 2005.  Today, after ridding itself of Microsoft's Sidekick, T-Mobile is launching the Android based Sidekick 4G.

As a Danger Sidekick user from 2003-2007, I MORE

Review: T-Mobile's G-Slate 9-inch tablet tweener

The form factor isn't the only factor.

I've been playing with T-Mobile/LG's 8.9 inch Android 3.0 tablet for the better part of a week and I think it is an interesting piece of hardware.  This is the first time I've played with Honeycomb, Google's (GOOG) tablet OS, extensively so it took a bit of getting used to.

There are plenty of things wrong with this tablet and I'll get to those below. MORE

Google's choice: Employees or Wall Street

Employees.

Google (GOOG) stock took a huge hit last week following its earnings call, dropping and incredible 47 points or 8.26% from closing the day before.  That's $15B in market cap and its biggest one day loss since the 2008 Bear market.

Google surpassed revenue expectations by a significant margin and missed consensus EPS by mere pennies, so why did the stock get hit so badly?

Cowan's Jim Friedland notes,

Google's Q1:11 revenues exceeded expectations. However, MORE

Google sends YouTube copyright violators to school

Drivers Ed for Copyright violations.

In a move to thwart copyright violations on its YouTube Subsidiary, Google (GOOG) has instituted a new Copyright Violations Schooling program along with new policies for users who are found to have violated YouTube's copyright rules.

It is probably exactly what you expect: When YouTube gets a report of a copyright violation, the video is removed and the uploader has to watch the "school" video below, which goes into detail MORE

Google reports Q01 2011 earnings

Larry Page's first as Google (GOOG) CEO.  We're on hand live.

Revenues of $8.58 billion a 27% increase over first quarter 2010 revenues of $6.77 billion. Paid Clicks Up 18%; Cost Per Click Up 8%:

4:35PM: Larry Page dropped in to say everything is going as planned, specifically the Executive switchover.  Also thanks Jonathan Rosenberg who is usually on these calls but announced his resignation last week..

4:40: CFO Patrick Pichette seems very excited about MORE

Sprint cozies up to Android with Market carrier billing

After offering Google Voice, the carrier now will let you make Market purchases against your monthly bill.

Joining AT&T (T) and T-Mobile (ahem), Sprint (S) will now allow Android users to buy Android Market items and have them charged to their monthly Sprint bill.  This theoretically simplifies purchasing and removes the barrier to entry for paid Apps for some Android users.  Google remarked:

We believe that Direct Carrier Billing is a key MORE

ComScore: Google rules the Tube

That nearest competitor is now AOL, which is one-third its size.

The latest comScore Internet video numbers published today show Google (GOOG) and its YouTube subsidiary out in front in visitors sessions and minutes per viewer.

Google Sites had the highest number of viewing sessions as it neared the 2 billion mark, and highest time spent per viewer at 276 minutes, or 4.6 hours.

Back of napkin math shows that 82% of U.S. MORE

GOOG Earnings Thursday: Analyst forecast roundup

Analysts are publishing their forecasts for Google's Q1 2011 earnings.

Thursday's earnings call will be the first under new CEO Larry Page and analysts are expecting to get some guidance on the direction of the company.  Overall the outlook is positive with expectations of Google (GOOG) beating guidance and the Street.

Interestingly, there isn't much talk about the ITA purchase, which has now gotten Federal approval.

Here we go...