Merchants can continue to accept payments using Google Checkout until November 20, 2013.

• If you don’t have your own payment processing, you will need to transition to a different solution within six months. To make things easier, we’ve partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer you discounted migration options.

• If you are a U.S. merchant that does have payment processing, you can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy, which offers a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers.

At some point, Google’s brand is going to get tarnished by these closures. How am I going to feel comfortable getting behind a new Google product if I know there’s a better than 50% chance it will close. 

Some of you might have noticed that updating to Google’s new unified Hangouts chat service in Gmail meant giving up the Google Voice calling capabilities that were previously available to users in the US and Canada. We suspected Google had plans to bring the feature back and users currently have the option of reverting back to the old Gmail chat in order to access the feature. Now Google has responded to concerns by promising that “Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls” will return in a future update.

Google’s Nikhyl Singhal had this to say about Voice integration in Hangouts:

1) Today’s version of Hangouts doesn’t yet support outbound calls on the web and in the Chrome extension, but we do support inbound calls to your Google Voice number. We’re working hard on supporting both, and outbound/inbound calls will soon be available. In the meantime, you can continue using Google Talk in Gmail.

2) Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls is just the beginning. Future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly.

Samsung is still in the midst of a recording breaking launch with its Galaxy S4 smartphone, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t life left in its predecessor.

Samsung plans to bring many of the features of the Galaxy S4 to the Galaxy S3, according to a leaked version of Android 4.2.2 obtained by SamMobile, like new voice controls with S Voice, an enhanced lock screen experience, and additional screen modes.

Some features understandably can’t be ported to the older hardware, but its good to see Samsung delivering on its promise to update its second best selling smartphone. Android 4.2.2 is expected next month.

Software isn’t the only update coming to the Galaxy S3, which first debuted in May 2012. TmoNews reports that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will ship with LTE support on T-Mobile starting June 5. Pricing isn’t available for the updated hardware, but the Galaxy S3 LTE goes for $99 on-contract with AT&T or free on-contract with Sprint.

Finally, after months of waiting and a teaser last week that it was on the way, we’ve nailed down a release date on the Galaxy S III LTE. Assuming everything goes well and there’s no hiccups or delays , the Galaxy S III LTE should make its way on to T-Mobile shelves on June 5th. The new model will allow T-Mobile to remove supply of the current S III and replace it with the LTE variant.

Google, one of a number of companies to come under fire for alleged tax-avoidance practices, says that it welcomes debate on how international tax treaties can be reformed so that multinational companies pay the right amount of tax in each of the countries in which they operate.

In a comment piece on the Observer UK newspaper website, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt says he understands the controversy.

At a time when families are having to tighten their belts and funding for vital public services is under pressure, corporate taxation is rightly a hot topic. And as a company that has always aspired to do the right thing, we understand why Google is at the centre of that debate. In the interests of moving the argument forward – away from accusation and toward action – here are three principles we hope most people can agree upon …

First, he says, tax should be based on where profits are generated, not where revenues are accrued. In other words, if a product is invented in the USA by US engineers, the profits should be taxed there even if the bulk of the sales are made overseas.

Second, that companies should merely follow the rules set out by legislation – and that politicians should set the right rules in the first place.

Third, that any reform needs to be international in nature, with all OECD countries agreeing a revised set of tax treaties.

The third point is indisputable: it’s pretty much impossible for any one country to effectively impose unilateral rules on companies based outside those countries. His first two contentions, however, bear closer scrutiny.

If you sell a million units of a product in a country – let’s say, a phone or perhaps some electronic glasswear – is it really reasonable to argue that you should pay no taxes in that country just because the technology was invented elsewhere? Should Google ads sold in the UK to UK companies and appearing on UK websites to generate sales from UK consumers really not be liable to UK taxation because the concept of sponsored search results was devised in the USA?

And while the principle that politicians should make the laws and companies merely abide by them sounds reasonable, it is hardly the case that multinational companies cheerfully and innocently simply pay what the law says they owe. The reality is that companies hire lots of clever lawyers and accountants whose sole job is to figure out legal ways of getting around the rules in order to minimise tax bills.

It is no accident that Google bases its UK sales teams over the sea in Ireland, where corporation tax is 12.5%, rather than in the UK where the rate is 24% – not, it might be suggested, the obvious actions of a company ’aspiring to do the right thing’ …

Following showing off a redesigned three column version of Google+ for the web and new “Auto Awesome” photo editing features at I/O, Google is today bringing some of the new features to its Google+ for Android app.

The updated app, which should be hitting Google Play some time today, will include a number of new photo editing features including the new Auto Awesome effects, auto backup for photos, and other photo editing tools from Snapseed:

• Auto Backup, to safely and privately store your photos as you snap them
• Auto Highlight, to browse a selection of top shots from every set of photos you add
• Auto Enhance, to make subtle improvements to the people and places in your images, automatically
• Auto Awesome, to create fun new versions of your pictures (like animations and panoramas) based on the photos in your library

The updated Google+ for Android app will also offer improved location sharing with a new Locations section that lets you view your friends’ current locations on a map.

Lastly, after updating you’ll have the ability to access Google’s new intelligent related hashtags feature:

Last week we talked about how most feeds are rather flat. You can swipe through stuff that’s been shared with you, but it’s really hard to read more about a particular topic. We introduced related hashtags as a way to fix this problem, and today we’re bringing them to the Android app. These Google-added tags will appear at the top-right of individual posts (#GoogleIO2013, in this example), and tapping on them will reveal streams of relevant content:

It’s always a dangerous claim to make, especially around tech journalists who like nothing better than to put such claims to the test. Sonim probably still regrets the time they invited BBC journalist Dan Simmons to try breaking their ‘unbreakable phone’: he did, and he did.

But LG is indeed claiming that its latest 5-inch OLED phone display – which looks similar to that in the Optimus G Pro – is not only flexible, but also unbreakable …

Google, while stopping short of using the word ‘unbreakable’, has also hinted at much tougher displays on the way from its acquisition Motorola, with CEO Larry Page saying “When you drop your phone, it shouldn’t go splat.”

Manufacturer focus on the robustness of phone screens has undoubtedly been increased by the popularity of drop-tests, where consumers can see for themselves how well a phone is likely to fare when it slips from the hand or falls from a pocket.

An FCC filing spotted by Dutch site TabletGuide.nl (via Engadget) suggests that Google may be working on a new streaming media player to replace the Nexus Q, the device Google announced, shipped to pre-order customers free of charge and then withdrew from the market.

The Nexus Q was a $300 device that streamed only a limited amount of content to a TV, so was a tough sell against alternative approaches like an Xbox or Apple TV box. There are unfortunately no clues as as to how this new device might differ from the Q.

With much of its information obscured it’s hard to say what Google has planned for this new device revealed by its FCC filing, but the model number at least indicates someone has a sense of humor. Called an “H840 device” and rocking the model number H2G2-42 (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – 42, the ultimate answer to the question of life, the universe and everything) it has WiFi of the 802.11 b/g/n varieties, but that’s all we know for sure.

Project Orphelia, a thumb-sized drive that turns any display with an HDMI port into an Android PC, is to start shipping in July at a price of around $100, reports PCWorld. It’s similar in form factor to a USB key, and simply plugs into any modern TV or monitor.

The first units will be offered to developers, with consumers expected to be able to get their hands on one around August.

While the portability of the device is appealing, you’re still going to need a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to do anything useful with it, raising questions as to how well it can really compete with a tablet or ultrabook. But Dell says it is working on a “keyboard-like technology’ to go with it, and the ability to get the big-screen experience on any TV set for around a hundred bucks may sway some.

Dell is also pitching Ophelia to enterprises as a pocket-sized thin client, Dell’s executive director of cloud client computing Jeff McNaught said.

A set of features will allow IT administrators to manage and secure the device. For example, it could be wiped clean if it is lost. The feature set, called cloud client manager, will allow system administrators to see where users are and what they are doing with Ophelia.

“We want to make sure when we release the product that it’s perfect. The enterprise is one market we understand.”

The device runs Wyse thin client software, allowing it to connect to virtualization platforms from Citrix, Microsoft and VMware.

Sprint has been working with Google to expand support for Google Wallet on its devices and has added the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 to the list of compatible devices.

Both the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 are widely considered leading Android smartphones currently so this should create a solid platform of support for Google Wallet.

Google Wallet allows users to make purchases by placing their phones near receivers built for NFC (near field communication) and supports Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.

(via AndroidGuys)

Samsung has proven almost effortlessly that the 5-inch smartphone has its place in the hands of the masses as it is on track to selling 10 million handsets in its first month, The Korea Times reports.

The company has plenty of room for sales to exponentially grow upward, possibly past their own already high expectations, as the smartphone that has taken the Android world by storm has yet to actually launch on Verizon in the States.

Verizon seems readily positioned to launch the Galaxy S4 as it announced earlier this week that it plans to sell the Samsung smartphone a week sooner than expected.

Samsung’s co-CEO Shin John-Kyun says the company expects the Galaxy S4 to be the fastest selling smartphone in the company’s history.

“We are confident that we will pass more than 10 million sales of the S4 next week. It is selling much faster than the previous model S3,” Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-Kyun told reporters at an industry forum in Seoul, Thursday.

We got our hands on the Galaxy S4 last month for a review and gave it flying colors.

Verizon isn’t the only boost Samsung should expect coming its way. Google announced at its I/O developer conference that it will sell a “pure Google experience” variation of the Galaxy S4 running stock Android 4.2 starting June 25th on its Play Store website.

This variant of the Galaxy S4 will be appealing to fans of the Samsung hardware who also want to experience Android the way its makers see it.

The device is both carrier- and bootloader-unlocked which offers a great deal of flexibility to users who want to tinker with the software on the device.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 smartphone launched in South Korea on April 26 and internationally the following day. For perspective, it’s predecessor Galaxy S3 took over 50 days to reach the 10 million sold mark.