Thank God: Moto XOOM To Be “Google Experience Device”, Lack Moto Blur.

For everyone worried that Motorola’s fabulous XOOM tablet would be marred by a rumored update that would bring the MotoBLUR UI — You can be at ease. It isn’t happening. Motorola confirmed the information with IntoMobile, stating that the Moto XOOM tablet was a Google Experience device and that it would showcase Android 3.0′s (Honeycomb) best traits and features.

To clarify, Motorola XOOM is a Google Experience Device and the first tablet to incorporate Android 3.0 Honeycomb. As such, Motorola Mobility has worked closely with Google to develop and optimize the Honeycomb OS on XOOM, and has no plans to customize the software with MotoBlur.

To those wondering why a “pure” Android experience is so strongly lusted after — stock Android devices receive updates faster, are rooted sooner, and generally fair better to new features. While rooting is more of a niche desire, getting the latest and greatest updates is certainly not. And with an untouched Android experience, we can be sure that the Moto XOOM will be one of the staple Android tablets through 2011.

Recent Revealing Of “Proprietary” Oracle Source Code Not As Bad As Originally Thought.

The we had earlier concerning some pretty embarrassing examples of proprietary Oracle source code residing within Android source files may not be as serious or damaging as once thought. But Ars Technica’s Ryan Paul highlights that (1) the source code brought up by open source enthusiast and tech patent lawyer, Florian Mueller, is from a third party entity that included in Android’s Open Source Project repository. Second, much of the code in question is available from Sun’s website free of charge. With both of those points highlighted, the previous “wow factor” is quite as astonishing. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how it affects the current, ongoing lawsuit between Google and Oracle.

Be sure to check out Ars Technica’s full, detailed explanation on the matter.

4.2.1 Untethered Jailbreak Upon Us, Maybe, Probably? SOOOOOON!!!

The Chronic Dev Team have shown us a sweet arse demo on the twitters that shows an 4.2.1 untethered jailbreak. This is something that was given as a Christmas present ETA, but with no luck. So here we are – a few weeks later and we at least get a demo. This is a great effort from @0naj, @p0sixninja and @pod2g. And if you’ve been following the tweets you’ll know there is a minor bug where the WiFi icon doesn’t show up. That’s not such a big bug, is it? They still have to pack it all pretty like and get the minor bugs worked out before mass consumption. But for all those stuck with a tethered jailbreak at 4.2.1, your days are gonna get a whole lot Apple USBless… We’ll definitely let you know when the tool is released.

Video after the break…

Fail: 37 Android Source Files Labeled With Proprietary Oracle Code.

It’s a bad day to be a Google and avid Android distributor (such as your typical cellular carrier), as tech patent aficionado Florian Mueller, has found some rather startling finds whilst trudging through mountains of Android source code. In relation to the ongoing Oracle/Google lawsuit involving Android and it’s apparent patent infringement of Java, Mueller has found 37 Android source files contain blatantly stolen code from Oracle as they are labeled with:

PROPRIETARY / CONFIDENTIAL” and “DO NOT DISTRIBUTE” by Oracle / Sun

Google obviously already knows the code is there. The carriers and other distributors of Android devices, however, aren’t likely to be all that thrilled. Let us not forget that Motorola and HTC have already been hit with patent infringement lawsuits for some of Android’s (and Google’s) little Java-copying issue. Looks like Google’s defense just got a much heavier load to pull…

Excited For iPad 2′s Cameras? Don’t Be.

One of the bigger omissions with the first generation iPad was the lack of any camera. So when rumors began surfacing that the iPad 2 would remedy those problems, people begun discussing how awesome the iPad 2 would be both as a tablet and decent point and shoot. Those stories of excitement will likely drown in a sea of sorrow I’m affraid, as 9to5Mac has stumbled upon some new verbiage in the latest iOS SDK. In it, there is mention of the iPad 2′s cameras. Specifically, we’re looking at a 1-megapixel rear-facing and VGA front-facing shooters — not exactly worth the excitement or useful if you ask us. But hey, something’s better than nothing, right?

Other interesting news gleaned from the latest SDK seems to debunk previous rumors that the iPad 2 would have a higher resolution screen. Either way, the official announcement isn’t too far off now. Anyone care to weigh in on the revealing of sub-par cameras?

Spotify Signs Deal With Sony. More Labels Still Needed For U.S. Launch.

The quest for Spotify music streaming services in the U.S. just inched a little closer to reality today. Sources of AllThingD’s Peter Kafka have stated that Spotify just recently closed a deal with Sony in the U.S. market, finally putting to rest countless rumors over the last several months indicating such a deal was actually being hammered out. While good news for Spotify hopefuls, the road is still long and treacherous. Sony is but one label in a country with 4 major ones controlling most of the mainstream music market. Other things to consider that can/will hold up a Spotify U.S. launch date include the costs associated with marketing, advertising, further deals with smaller business labels, etc. But hopefully now that Spotify has a foot in the door, other labels will follow Sony’s lead.

Mozilla Bans Skype Firefox Toolbar.

If you like Skype and you like Firefox, it might be a time to forge ahead with a new partnership — at least for the near term. Today, Mozilla announced that they were blocking the Skype toolbar on all versions of Firefox due to it’s extreme crash-prone nature. This past week alone Mozilla claims to have tied over 40,000 crash logs to the toolbar/plugin alone!

The current shipping version of the Skype Toolbar is one of the top crashers of Mozilla Firefox 3.6.13, and was involved in almost 40,000 crashes of Firefox last week

While I’m not a fan of plugins in large numbers due to the fact that they slow down the browser, many other people are. I can certainly understand people being a bit peeved of being unable to use Skype’s in-page calling whenever and wherever. Skype understandably, can’t be too happy either. Though the company hasn’t officially spoken on the matter yet. We’ll let you know if/when they do.