Mercedes-Benz wants drivers in the not-too-distant future to do all their calling, texting, Web searching, and video streaming with Google Glass. No, that’s not a premise for an outlandish Onion news story -- that’s reality. “Not only do they have a functioning prototype, they’re working with Google to make it a reality,” Wired writes of the luxury car company.

Surprising no one, Google’s recent Gmail redesign has email marketers crying foul, The Wall Street Journal reports. “When the search giant overhauled its free email service … it set up algorithms to automatically siphon the flow of airfare offers and spa deals away from users’ main inboxes and into an easily bypassed ‘Promotions’ folder,” WSJ writes. Worse still, “For Gmail users that do visit those Promotions folders, the first items they see will often be ads sold by Google.”

For the second time this year, Google’s app marketplace has denied Microsoft’s YouTube application for the Windows Phone. Why? “Apparently, because the app violates YouTube’s terms of service, even though the two companies collaborated on the app,” Forbes reports. In a blog post, Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel David Howard alleges that Google is merely making up reasons to block the app.

Beating Apple and other top gadget makers to the punch, Samsung will reportedly debut its first wristwatch smartphone next month. “The [so-called] Galaxy Gear  will be powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system and go on sale this year to beat a potentially competing product from Apple,” Bloomberg writes, citing sources.

This fall, CNN is preparing to relaunch its entire digital network, including CNN.com and all CNN digital platforms. “The channel is preparing to launch a redesigned site that not only looks different to users, but has a completely new back-end system that its editorial producers can utilize,” Mediabistro’s TVNewser blog reports. “The focus will be on photos and video … and there will be much more color.” 

Lenovo’s combined smartphone and tablet sales have overtaken PC sales, the company revealed in a first quarter earnings report, this week. “Yes, you read that correctly -- the world's largest PC vendor is now a mobile-first company, unlike previous title holders such as HP,” Engadget remarks. Lenovo also reported a record $8.8 billion in revenue and $170 million in profit. 

Insisting he has a successful business on his hands, Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia said this week that the online video start-up would be profitable with only a few hundred thousand subscribers. “It stands in sharp contrast to a standard mentality of burgeoning tech companies to pursue growth at the expense of the bottom line in order to carve out their reach,” CNet notes. 

Facebook is reportedly developing its own PayPal-like payments service. “The product, sources say, would allow any shopper who has previously provided Facebook with their credit card details to make purchases on partnering e-commerce mobile apps without entering billing information,” AllThingsD reports. Thrillist’s ecommerce site JackThreads is reportedly a pilot partner. 

In our age of tweeting, content snacking and media multitasking, Henry Blodget thinks journalism has entered a “golden age.” Yes, the man who was permanently banned from Wall Street for securities fraud thinks that journalism is just fine. People are consuming more information than ever before, as Blodget notes. The quality of that information, one might argue, is another story. 

Apple has reportedly acquired TV and video app Matcha.tv. Before it was recently shut down, “Matcha.tv was an iOS app that provided a comprehensive overview of everything that’s available to watch via cable TV providers … streaming video services … and digital video stores,” Venture Beat reports. “And while Apple hasn’t been very specific about its plans to revolutionize the TV industry … buying this service could suggest Matcha.tv’s technology is in line with those future TV plans.”