Weekly Knowledge Dump: Tech News for 8.19.11

The Weekly Knowledge Dump is the weekly tech column that gives you the biggest news in the tech world for the past week, plus a guide to all of the interesting but non-news stories from the past week. It’s like backing up a dump truck of knowledge to your brain.

Google Buys Motorola Mobility

Shocking, right? Google announced this week that they were going to buy Motorola Mobility, Motorola’s mobile electronics division. That’s an important note, since a lot of stories about the merger seem to be leaving out the detail that Google is buying a part of Motorola, not the entire company. Most pundits are saying that Google did this for two reasons. The first is because Motorola invented the cell phone and thus has a massive patent portfolio that they can use against Microsoft and Apple. The second reason is that they want the ability to have complete control over Android and the phones it ends up on, much like Apple controls the iOS experience. They can’t do that if they have to work with partners who don’t have the same business interests as Google.

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HP Has Only Sold 25,000 TouchPads

According to All Things Digital, the sales of HP’s TouchPad has been dismal. The report cites several sources as saying that of the 270,000 units that Best Buy ordered from HP, only 25,000 have been sold. Best Buy even erected large, stand alone displays in their stores to promote the TouchPad over Android tablets and the iPad 2. Oh, and that 25,000 figure doesn’t even include the number of tablets that were returned. Apparently some Best Buy stores haven’t sold a single TouchPad. That’s right- zero sales. Best Buy also wants HP to take back the remaining stock of TouchPads so they don’t have them taking up space in their warehouses.

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HP Kills WebOS

Speaking of WebOS…hot on the heels of the terrible sales figures leaking out, HP announced that they were killing the WebOS line at the end of the quarter. As of now, they haven’t announced any plans for the future of the OS, but they are said to be considering licensing it out to other hardware makers or even selling it outright. It was just over a year ago that HP acquired Palm, the company who created WebOS (as well as a the PDA) and announced a grand vision of stuffing WebOS into everything from printers to refrigerators.

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Fusion Garage Announces Grid Tablet and Smartphone

When one OS dies, another is born. Fusion Garage, the company behind the infamous JooJoo tablet (née CrunchPad), announced two new products this week. The first is a 10-inch tablet named the Grid 10 and the second is a smartphone named the Grid 4. The names come from the new operating system that the devices run, Grid OS. Grid OS is based on Android and can run any Android app without modification, but it uses an interesting new homescreen to differentiate itself from the competition.

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Bonus: Interesting Dispatches from the Past Week

Here is a small selection of interesting articles that aren’t really news, but are still worth reading anyway:

• Why Rounded Corners Are Easier on the Eyes by Anthony (UX Movement)
• Beware of Juice Jacking by Brian Krebs (Krebs on Security)
• Nintendo’s pressure to make iOS games by Marco Arment (Marco.org)