The H.265 video codec, also known as High Efficiency Video Coding or HEVC, is being designed to replace the current H.264 standard used for high definition and Full HD (1920×1080) video encoding and decoding. The Joint Collaborative Team, a collaboration effort between the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and ITU-T, has just achieved a “committee draft” in a meeting in San Jose.

The new video standard is expected to provide a huge difference in data transmission and streaming efficiency compared to the previous one, with one of the speakers present at the meeting suggesting a 67% improvement.

H.265 will be designed to support new, still to be created video delivery and streaming technologies from day one, including devices working at 4K and Ultra HDTV (also known as 8K or 4320p) resolutions. Just to put things in perspective, the Ultra HDTV definition contains about 16 times the amount of pixels present in a 1080p video stream.

Before appearing on the market as a proper video standard, H.265 will have to achieve two more milestones: the draft international standard meeting is expected to be held within six months from now and the final standard ratification should arrive in January 2013.

In its decision, the European Commission said that it approved the combination of Google and Motorola “mainly because it would not significantly modify the market situation in respect of operating systems and patents” for smartphones and tablets.

Google posted up its own blog post announcing the merger approval, stating:

As we outlined in August, the combination of Google and Motorola Mobility will help supercharge Android. It will also enhance competition and offer consumers faster innovation, greater choice and wonderful user experiences.

That doesn’t mean that the European Commission is giving the combination of Google and Motorola a blank slate. In the press release, Joaquín Almunia, Commission Vice President, stated, “… the Commission will continue to keep a close eye on the behaviour of all market players in the sector, particularly the increasingly strategic use of patents.”

Later on Monday, the US Justice Department announced its own approval of the deal. It stated, “The division concluded that the specific transactions at issue are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics.”

The Google-Motorola merger still has to be approved by regulators in China, Taiwan and Israel before it becomes official.

The suit was originally filed in 2010 and alleged that “the case and antenna design has led to a substantial degradation in signal quality and dropped calls when the phone is used in a normal and foreseeable fashion by users.”

Customers that purchased an iPhone 4 will be able to redeem their payout from www.iPhone4Settlement.com when the site goes live. Apple will also alert affected customers via email by April 30th. Anyone that bought an iPhone 4 before Friday should be eligible though There’s no word if that applies to customers who have already accepted a free case from Apple.

According to the study, webmail usage declined by -34% for the 18-24 demographic, and by -31% for people between 12-17. The only group that saw much growth was the 45-54, where webmail growth saw a 15% increase, which shows a marked increase in luddism in that segment – or in all the other segments, depending on how you look at it.

Email clients existed long, long before the likes of Hotmail and others made it possible to access your mail account from any browser. This offered considerable advantages at the time, since it ensured that you were looking at exactly what was in your inbox at that moment, but many of those advantages have disappeared over the years. Since most smartphones are always connected to the network, email clients are just as effective as webmail was in the days of old, even if you’re a long way from home. Still, what looks like progress to people who have grown up on Hotmail might seem like a regression through the eyes of more ‘experienced’ users.

All of this shouldn’t be taken to mean that people are sending fewer e-mails – far from it. In fact, the study found that email is actually benefiting from the growth of mobile. Mobile email saw tremendous growth in the last year. What all of this does mean, however, is that the business models of businesses like Gmail and Hotmail are at stake.

Plenty of people are still using their services. The problem is that they aren’t accessing them from the web, and they aren’t seeing the ads that bring in the money. Having more users sending more email than ever before might sound like a good thing, but it actually becomes a liability for companies when those users rarely, if ever, log into their webmail client and see their ads. Maybe it’s time for the return of ads in the text?

According to a report that was published today in the blog 9to5Google, the search giant is developing a product called Google Glasses that will have a built-in heads-up display. The device, which supposedly resembles a pair of Oakley shades, is said to have an integrated transparent display for one eye and a built-in front-facing camera. The latter could be used for augmented reality applications. The device would use speech and head tilting for text input and control.

9to5Google suggests that the Google Glasses product could soft-launch with a pilot program later this year, making the product available to a select number of testers. This would follow the model of the Chromebook launch, which was preceded by the Cr-48 test unit.

Although the reports are still highly speculative, the concept of smart glasses is intriguing. There are someexisting products in this space, but they aren’t easy to purchase and are definitely not priced for a mainstream audience.

Taking full advantage of the opportunity afforded by the leap year, the release will just hit Microsoft’s previously announced “late February” date. Redmond has no comment (yet) on whether the event will be Webcast.

Releasing the Consumer Preview of a desktop operating system at a conference for cellular communications might seem strange. But with Windows 8′s tablet ambitions and the leaked information that Windows Phone 8 will probably use the Windows 8 kernel, this is a desktop operating system that won’t be confined to the desktop.

The blog post stated:

As we build out Google Fiber, we’ll be taking thousands of miles of cables and stretching them across Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Each cable contains many thin glass fibers, each about the width of a human hair. We’ll be taking these cables and weaving them into a fiber backbone—a completely new high speed infrastructure that will ultimately be carrying Kansas Citians’ data at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today.

At first, we’ll focus on building this solid fiber backbone. Then, as soon as we have an infrastructure that is up and running, we’ll be able to connect Google Fiber into homes across Kansas City!

The project has experienced some delays since it was first revealed in March 2011. Google originally announced it would begin to sign up customers by the end of 2011 and launch the service in early 2012. There’s still no exact word from Google on when the 1Gbps internet service will launch or how much it will cost for its subscribers.

It’s taken a few years but today, Google is finally starting to offer up a version of its Chrome web browser for Android users. Today, the Android Market released a free beta versionof Chrome for Android. This first public beta is limited to owners of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) devices. That includes the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

The YouTube video shows off one of the features of Chrome for Android: the ability to sync up to Chrome on your PC to get the same bookmarks and even view the same browser tabs on the mobile version. You can even send pages from the PC version of Chrome to the Android version and read those pages online or offline.

The developer’s page for Chome for Android reveals more about the web browser, including word that it supports opening an unlimited amount of tabs. Google states, “To switch between tabs, flip through them on your phone the way you would fan a deck of cards, or swipe from edge to edge.” It also has a feature called Link Preview that allows its users to zoom in on links so they can be sure to click on the right one.

Chrome for Android also has a feature called Find in Page that lets its users search for a specific word on a web page and then see where that word appears on that particular web page. The Incognito mode will allow users to surf the net without having to worry about storing any history files or caches on their mobile device.

There’s no word on when Google plans to release Chrome for Android for older Android operating systems.

The video above will give you a demo of everything, but here’s the text version for reference.

Tapping and holding a letter on your keyboard will provide you with accented versions of that letter.

Tapping and holding a symbol will provide you with alternate symbols. For example, the dollar sign will offer up a handful of other currency markers.

Tapping the “123″ numbers key and sliding your finger to the number you want will type the number and immediately return you to the letter-based keyboard.

Tapping and holding the delete key will delete text faster. In some instances, the speed will increase incrementally with the amount of time you are holding the key.

Tapping and holding anywhere there’s editable text will engage the magnifying glass mode so you can move the text cursor around.

Tapping and holding the .com button in Safari will offer up shortcuts for .org, .net, .edu, and more.

Tapping and holding the back button in some web browsers (and the iPad version of Safari) will let you view your browsing history.

Tapping and holding a link in your browser, an email, or anywhere else, will provide you with additional options other than just navigating to that link. The same goes for email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and other linked information.

Tapping and holding on a photo, other media, or static text will allow you to quickly copy that media. This works in most apps.

Tapping and holding an icon on your home screen will allow you to move or delete the app. If you double-tap your home button to bring up the multitasking drawer, you can also use tap and hold to allow you to quickly quit apps that are currently running.

Tapping and holding a location in the maps application will drop a pin on that location. Tapping and holding that pin will allow you to move it, although you can just tap and hold a new location and that pin will move there automatically.

Pressing and holding your home button will activate voice control or Siri, depending on which feature your device supports.

Pressing and holding the power button will allow you to turn your phone off.

Pressing and holding both the power button and home button for several seconds will force-restart your phone. A quick press of each will take a screenshot.