This is something like 99% non-Android related, but it’s not often that we get to mix celebrity and tech and just couldn’t help ourselves.  Many of you have probably heard that Kim Kardashian is marrying Kris Humphries of the New Jersey Nets this weekend…maybe?  Well, if you had not, just know that they will reportedly head to Google Executive Chair Eric Schmidt’s lovely Montecito estate to tie the knot.  The former CEO won’t be one of the 500+ guests, so we’re doubting there will be any green robots running around or pictures of him with a Blackberry to be had (yes, that seems to be happening quite frequently).

Interesting note on how rich this man is – he purchased the home in 2007 from Ellen DeGeneres for $20 million.  Back in January, his stock in Google was valued at over $300 million.

Check out the full spread of his digs after the break.  

I’m sure that many of you have been following along with Apple’s insistant pursuit of innovation destruction through a series of patent lawsuits against companies like HTC and Samsung.  Since they have clearly started falling behind the world that is Android in the innovation department (just look at iOS5), they have decided that they will take everyone to court.  While they may have billions of dollars in the bank to do such a thing, Android and the phone manufacturers that use it now have Google on their side to help out.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt told press in Tokyo today that they plan to aide HTC, so that they don’t “lose.”

“We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations,” he said. “I’m not too worried about this.”

You’ve got to feel a little better about this situation now that Google has stepped up to the plate to help out its partners, right?  There is no telling how long it could take for all of this to shake out, but from everything I’ve read over the last few days, there are a lot of torn opinions on the HTC-Apple situation.  Most of the Apple analysts are assuring everyone that HTC is finished and that their products will be blocked from being imported, but there are plenty that would firmly disagree with that take.

Personally, I’d be embarrassed if I was an Apple employee.  I fully understand that companies aren’t in the “but we need lots of good competitors!” business and are instead in the “we’d be better off without you so that we can rake in the cash” business.  But taking every single one of them to court because it seems like you can no longer keep up is just pathetic. /fanboy.

Sound off!

Via:  CNET

Cheers @chasm31!

During his keynote speech today at MWC, Eric Schmidt helped clarify what the future version of Android will end up being.  There has been a lot of talk on whether or not Honeycomb would be available to phones or if the version to follow Gingerbread would simply pull certain parts out of its tablet brother.  According to Schmidt, they will essentially be “combined”…

“We have OS called Gingerbread for phones, we have an OS being previewed now for tablets called Honeycomb. You can imagine the follow up will start with an I, be named after dessert, and will combine these two.”

We heard rumors back in January that this version of Android would be called “Ice Cream Sandwich“, but only the “i” part was confirmed today.

So what should we expect?  The polish and feel of Honeycomb but on a smaller scale?  Will this just mean that phones and tablets can use apps without error?  Hopefully we find out at Google I/O in May.  Oh, and did I mention we’ll be there covering the whole thing?

This is completely non-Android related, but stories like these are something to marvel at.  As many of you know by now, Eric Schmidt stepped aside as Google CEO to take on a new roll with the company as Executive Chairman and to let co-founder Larry Page give head honcho status a shot.  The man led the search engine giant through the last decade, making it one of the most recognizable names in the entire world in a variety of fields.  He has done a hell of a job, which has now become even more obvious after hearing about his decision to sell off some of his stock.

This week, Schmidt filed for permission to sell about 5.9% of his Google stock which adds up to about 534,000 shares carrying a value of roughly $329 million.  Talk about a chunk of change right?  Except the mind-boggling part isn’t that number, but the fact that he still owns another 8.6 million shares which if you do the math on, makes him well, insanely wealthy.  Actually, “insanely” doesn’t even do it justice.

Again, I know this isn’t Android-related, but when you see numbers like this that are so difficult to comprehend, it was tough to pass up on.  And I apologize if that ruined your weekend.  Anyone want to start up a search engine company?

Via:  Bloomberg, TheDroidGuy