 Welcome to Newsdesk on SiliconANGLE TV. For Thursday, October 18th, 2012, I'm Kristen Folletti. The playground is open for Google and could Apple be gaining more color and a rival NFC solution? We're now joined by SiliconANGLE Newsdesk editor Kristen Nicole to provide us with her breaking analysis on these stories. Welcome, Kristen. Looks like we can add one more event to our social calendar for October. Google has just sent out invites to an Android event in New York on the 29th. So what do you think they're planning to announce at this event? The playground, they're saying the playground's open. They've made it clear that it's an Android event, but there's also a search bar with a little voice microphone. So there's really no telling what this could be. Some speculate it's another phone launch. I think it may have something more to do with search and local location awareness. So if this were a phone launch, what would the phone be? There's word that this might be another Nexus 7 that's coming out. That's, it's not likely that Google's gonna do an entire event around that, unless they just have something that's gonna blow us out the water. There's also word that this may be another Nexus LG phone. So we'll see what's gonna come of this event. Elaborate on your speculations a little bit for us. Sure. So the LG phone that's supposedly coming out of this event could be coming out of this event. I believe it's got an eight megapixel camera. It'll come with a quad core processor. And of course run the latest version of Android Jelly Bean. So from what we possibly know about this rumored LG phone, it doesn't necessarily seem like enough to have an entire launch event around. But like I said, if they've got something new going on, if it is a device launch, then there's probably another service associated with it that's going to be coming out to make the consumer appeal a little bit, a little bit higher, or we could just have an additional service coming out from Google. Do you think we can expect to see Nexus hardware branching out to multiple manufacturers? Could very well see that. Google has teamed up with a couple different manufacturing partners for their Nexus line and some of their other earlier devices. So it's a possibility. The invite that Google sent out says on it, the playground is open. What do you interpret that to mean? It seems like it has something to do with your immediate surroundings. So it could be some ambient technology. It could have something to do with location awareness. It probably has something to do with search. And also the fact that this event's being held in New York and not in California. Of course, the other events going on at the end of this month from Apple and Microsoft, well, Apple at least will be in California. So I'm not sure if this is going to be so much of a product launch being held in New York. Sometimes more of their marketing and media consumer products are announced in New York versus California. So you mentioned briefly, there are several other events taking place this month. We discussed the Apple event, of course, yesterday that's scheduled for the 23rd. What else is going on in October? I heard you mentioned Microsoft. Yeah, Microsoft's got a whole lot coming out this month and it's something that we've, of course, anticipated for months and months and months now. And it's just been building all of this time. And Windows 8, of course, and their Surface tablet all coming out at the end of this month. And there's a lot of expectations around what Microsoft is going to offer. They're supposed to be really changing the game with this release. There's a rumor that Color Labs, a photo and video sharing social network, is about to be acquired by Apple. Color has had somewhat of a tumultuous past. Can you provide us with some background on Color Labs? Sure, the app that came out for iOS and Android shortly after, South by Southwest earlier this year. And it's a photo sharing app that incorporates some location awareness. It's another one of those ambient aware applications that kind of helps you share and interact with users in a slightly passive manner. It also analyzes a great deal of information about the photo you're taking. It can recognize your surroundings, where you are, pick up on some friends that might be in the vicinity and automatically share images on your behalf. So it's along the lines of some of the other social or media sharing apps we've seen come out earlier this year, but it didn't quite pick up steam as expected, considering how much funding went into this app. Pre-launch, it had about 40 million in funding with some All-Star, VCs, and some high-profile folks from the Valley. So the fact that it didn't quite gain attraction that it was expected to is of course a pretty dismal outcome. Why would Apple want to acquire Color Labs? One reason might be this data analysis that the application has in play. As I mentioned earlier on the show last week, earlier this week, Apple really needs to step up their game when it comes to data and looking to the consumers for that input is really going to help them in the future if they're really looking to compete with Google when it comes to mobile. So that's one reason, possible reason, and the other, the team behind Color has also, they've sold a previous application to Apple. The Lala Music app several months ago also came from the same team behind Color. So it seems like there's already some existing relationships there and the technology may be something Apple would be interested in. Colors founder, Bill Nugin, has already stepped down from his day-to-day duties. Is that a sign that the deal is set to go through? It could be. That's what some reports indicate that he's kind of taken a step back and it may be because there's an acquisition pending. There's also been a lot of mixed messages coming from other people on the team. So whether or not the shareholders have voted that this company should be shut down or if they're being acquired, whatever the case may be, it looks like there's some serious stuff going on there. Earlier this week, the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 32 newly granted patents for Apple, the spotlight being on Apple's new Near Field Communication Alternative or NFC technology. This type of technology has been getting lots of attention lately, especially on Android devices. It's that technology where you have the ability to share something with a friend, like a playlist or photos just by tapping your phones together. Can you tell us what Apple's alternate NFC technology entails? It seems to be some kind of technology that picks up on network availability and that's being used to see if your friends are nearby in that area. And from there, you can share information between devices. So it works a little bit like NFC in terms of picking up on those networks that are around and from there, you can share media information between the devices. So as we've seen on the Android platform, applications like Bump leverage NFC to exchange information between devices. So for Apple to come out with this and have a patent for it, of course means potential lawsuits, but it also means a new range of features that Apple could be coming out with considering that they haven't jumped on the NFC bandwagon. Now, does Apple currently have any devices that support NFC technology? Well, with the iPhone 5, a lot of people were hoping to get NFC technology. They figured that it was due, but of course we didn't see that. The iPhone 5 did come out with Passbook. That's Apple's version of not necessarily NFC technology, but a way to interact with certain retail locations and other services in a way that NFC technology is being used for the Android platform. So since Apple does have the Passbook, do you think the iPhone needs NFC to compete with Android devices that already showcase that type of technology? It may or may not. Apple has this new patent that they've just been awarded combined with the Passbook that may offer all of the capabilities that Apple needs in order to provide a full range of alternatives to NFC technology. Well, Kristen, thanks so much for your time today. We appreciate you joining us. You take care. We'll be keeping you up to date as the coming announcements from the October events unfold. And remember, for the latest in-depth coverage and breaking analysis on tech innovation, you can join us daily at Newsdesk on SiliconANGLE.tv.