Motorola's Mobility Unit in China has confirmed a plan to lay off 800 employees after two months of silence, according to Tencent. The company will make three rounds of cuts at the end of May, July and September.

The ability to record and transmit data on the fly is not new, thanks to digital phone and tablet technology, but Google is raising the stakes by soon allowing users to snap photos and video discreetly via special glasses that operate by voice command.

In a rare interview a day before Samsung Electronics's launch of a new flagship smartphone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller on Wednesday played down the expected competition from the device. He also discussed how he believes products that run Google's Android software, such as Samsung's phone, are inferior to Apple's iPhone.

Google is cutting loose another 10% of its Motorola Mobility workforce - which means 1,200 employees at the smartphone maker face redundancy. The move comes after 4,000 jobs in the Motorola wing of Google's biz were axed in August 2012.