In line with earlier reports, Google on Tuesday finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The $12.5 billion merger was approved by regulators in China on Monday after having been given the green light by the United States Department of Justice this past February. Chinese regulators did stipulate terms for its approval, however, namely that Google must continue to make Android open-source and freely available. Former Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down and Google’s Dennis Woodside will replace him as chief executive. “I’m excited to announce today that our Motorola Mobility deal has closed,” Google CEO Larry Page wrote in a letter published on Google’s blog. “Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with

The Raspberry Pi $35 Linux computer, which is equipped with a 700MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, an SD card slot, two USB ports, an Ethernet jack and both HDMI and RCA outputs, will soon feature support for a camera add-on. The current prototype features a 14-megapixel camera that can be connected directly to the Rapsberry Pi through its CSI pins. The team warns that it ”may downgrade the super-duperness of the camera to something with fewer than its current 14 megapixels before release,” however, in order to “keep things affordable, and a sensor of that size will end up pricey.” The add-on is slated to be released later this year and end-user pricing was not disclosed. A sample of an image taken

The United States Department of Justice approved Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility this past February, but the massive deal awaited the blessing of one more major regulatory body before it could go through. This past weekend, China’s Ministry of Commerce followed the DOJ’s lead and granted Google permission to acquire the struggling vendor. China’s MOC did have a condition Google must honor if it moves forward with the deal, however: Android must remain open-source and freely available. Google announced last August that it intended to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, and the deal is expected to close in the coming months.

While I may recommend the iPhone to the majority of people who ask, Android is still my mobile operating system of choice. Google has created a truly amazing and innovative platform, and because it is open-source anyone can tweak it and customize it. Even devices that weren’t meant for Android, such as my HP TouchPad, can run the mobile OS beautifully thanks to dedicated third-party developers. As I spend more and more time with an iPhone, however, I realize that my love for open-source is slowly beginning to fade. While I used to believe open-source would play a huge role in pushing Android ahead of the competition, which it did, I now believe it may end up being the thing