Project Ara

Google shocked us all on Wednesday when it announced that it had sold Motorola to Lenovo less than two years after it was acquired, but the search giant is holding onto certain parts of the company.

Not only will it keep the vast majority of Motorola’s massive patent portfolio, but it’s also maintaing a firm grip on the Advanced Technology and Projects group, which is responsible for the Project Ara modular phone.

DoubleTwist, the company that has long been helping Android-powered devices work harmoniously with iTunes, today released a new Android app that lets users rip songs from iTunes Radio. Called AirPlay Recorder, the app essentially turns your Android device into an AirPlay receiver, then records all the audio that you play through it.

But is it legal?

We’ve been waiting for Google to bring Google Now to the desktop via Chrome for over a year now, and today the feature finally appeared in a new alpha version of the browser, called Chrome Canary.

Now is baked into Chrome’s new notification center, and functions just like its Android counterpart, providing users with real-time weather updates, sports scores, and travel information. Not all of its Cards are available on the desktop yet, but we expect that to change by the time it is ready for its public release.

Samsung’s Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for the Galaxy Note 3 made its debut a little earlier than expected today when it started appearing on handsets in Poland. The software is compatible with the Snapdragon-powered Galaxy Note 3 with the “SM-N9005” model number, and it’s being distributed via Samsung’s KIES application for Mac and PC.

Lenovo has today kicked off its CES announcements with the unveiling of its first Android-powered all-in-one PC. It’s called the N308, and it boasts a 19.5-inch HD+ display with a 1600×900 resolution, a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor, and up to 500GB of internal storage.