Photo: LeWeb

After failing to garner consumer interest for nearly two years, the fate of Google Glass is now in the hands of former Apple executive Tony Fadell. The Glass Explorer program is also being shut down on January 19th, which means it will be impossible to buy the $1,500 headset commercially.

Fadell, whose claim to fame at Apple was leading the development of the original iPod, joined Google last February when Nest was acquired for $3.2 billion. Now Google Glass is being moved out of the experimental Google X division and placed under Fadell’s leadership.

The development of Glass hasn’t been halted, but the move signals the trouble Google has had gaining momentum with the project.

If the average Android phone made a baby with a Kindle, it would look like the YotaPhone 2. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

LAS VEGAS — I’ve seen pictures of the bizarre YotaPhone, a premium Android/e-ink smartphone from Russia, but when I first held it at International CES this week, I realized it’s something you have to use to understand.

With everyone but BlackBerry seemingly copying the iPhone’s design these days, the YotaPhone (now in its second generation) stands out as something strikingly unique. It features a 1,920 by 1,080-pixel, 5-inch LCD display on one side, and a responsive e-ink screen on the other.

It’s not something you’ll ever see out of a company like Apple, but you have to give the YotaPhone kudos for being an oddball.

It’s easy to point a finger at Xiaomi, the Chinese phone maker that clearly draws a lot of… inspiration from Apple. And there’s Samsung, of course. But there’s another copycat offender out there that’s almost just as bad, if not worse: Lenovo.

The Chinese manufacturer has a new phone coming out called the Sisley S90. Excuse the fact that the device looks just like an iPhone 6; its website is basically a carbon clone of Apple’s.

The K900, Lenovo’s latest smartphone.

In what will probably end up being the most random buyout of the year, Lenovo has bought Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion. Google will maintain ownership of Motorola’s patent trove, which Lenovo will license.

Hugo Barra, former vice president of product management for Android, has left Google to take a VP job at Xiaomi, a Chinese company that makes high-end smartphones running Android. Barra’s departure has been confirmed by Google, and while the move is interesting enough, the circumstances within Google surrounding the exit are particularly sensitive.