As you will see on the video BELOW!, the Face Unlock feature was easily fooled using a photograph of the user. Not just any photograph but a photograph on a Galaxy Note glossy display taken using its camera. While this points out to the extreme sensitivity of the FaceUnlock feature its also whats causing the problem here. This tells us that unless Google fixes this feature in the final build of Ice Cream Sandwich, unlocking the phone with this feature by an unauthorized user will be only slightly more difficult than swiping on the default lock screen.

Ever since Google announced the new Face Unlock feature in Ice Cream Sandwich, people have been concerned about whether it can be fooled using just a photograph of the user instead of the actual face. One of Google's employees himself commented on this saying "Nope" and to give them some credit. Well, it seems he was wrong.

Video Below!

 

 

 

This week Apple has officially made public a recall program for its original iPod nano model here in the USA citing a rare overheating problem that has recently posed enough of a risk that full replacements will be offered on the whole generation. This is not the first iPod nano 1st generation recall on earth, but it is the first inside the USA. Apple is recommending that users discontinue using their devices immediately and follow along with one of the methods they have got available for replacing the device with another model for free from Apple.

This issue is a battery issue AGAIN! and does not affect any other model iPod or iPod nano from any generation. You have got a couple of options as far as replacing your model with Apple, the first being online with Apple You will notice a list of countries that you will be able to get the recall in, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States as well.

 

 

 

The numbers are finally in from sales of the new Call of Duty game Modern Warfare 3, and as predicted, its Tuesday launch broke the record for opening day sales. On its launch day between the US and Great Britain, Call of Duty newest installment sold 6.5 million units in one day, that breaking the record with 400 USD million worth of retail sales. The previous record holder was, you guessed it, the last version of Call of Duty, this one called Black Ops and having generated 360 USD million in sales on its first day.

Note here that these prices are not being bumped by the cash it takes to purchase one of these games, as each of the last few entries in the game history have all cost 60 USD a unit.

 

 

Google is holding an event on November 16 and has sent out invites for the same. However, the invites do not clarify what the event is actually about. All it says is that "These go to eleven".

 

All facts points that the event could be about Google music service, currently called Music Beta by Google.

 

 

 

Great news for everyone who been patiently waiting for an unlocked iPhone 4S with no contract attached to it. From today the Apple US store will offer you spanking new, contract-free, factory unlocked iPhone 4S.

iPhone4s prices starting at 649USD for the 16GB version. A 32GB iPhone 4S will cost 749USD, while the 64GB will sell for 849USD.

 

 

 

The Motorola RAZR has already launched for the UK and now its USA turn, courtesy of Verizon. The DROID RAZR is now available over at Amazon Wireless for Verizon and is priced at 111.11USD, which is some way off the official 299.99USD Verizon price.

 

Being that today is 11.11.2011 and the price is non-accidentally exactly 111.11USD you can see what Moto did there. We suspect though that the promotion is a limited-time offer and wee will be back to normal tomorrow, so if you have set your sight on the slim Kevlar-coated droid, you might want to hurry up with the order.

 

 

A few months back we heard about the I9100G Galaxy S II which was based on TI OMAP4430 leaked from the Samsung Mobile Singapore FB page.

 

The Device has quietly gone official, with I9100G model name after some investigation we found out that Samsung have quietly posted it on several of their Asian local websites. There was no press release or anything about it.

 

The Samsung I9100G Galaxy S II is pretty similar to the I9100 Galaxy S II model, it just has a different chipset. The new I9100G is based on the TI OMAP4430 packing a 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and PowerVR SGX 540 graphics.

 

 

 

Nowadays, Most mobile phone advertisements are pretty mediocre and do not have much imagination thrown into them. Not the case with Motorola and their ads for the RAZR. 

In this Adv. Motorola is bringing the heavy artillery with the RAZR last piece of marketing. It looks like its been directed by Micheal Bay and Steven Spielberg and sponsored by Google.

Video Below!

 

 

 

Nokia Champagne was leaked earlier today. It was said to run Windows Phone Tango the next iteration of Windows phone OS. Thanks to Scott we managed to get some details about the device. It is now confirmed that Nokia Champagne runs OS version 7.10.8711 which is a build of Tango as confirmed by imWP7 app screenshot.

As  you may have already noticed, the phone was being tested on AT&T network. According to thelatest rumors Nokia is reportedly going to launch Lumia 800 in US on ATT 4G network in 2012.

 

 

Sony announced two new hardware bundles for the PlayStation 3 that will be hitting retail stores next week just in time for the holiday season. With all the holiday feasting and gatherings coming up, the bundles will be arriving at a good time, packing in PlayStation Move accessories and titles that will get you dancing or playing sports in your living room to burn off all those excess calories.

One bundle features the Everybody Dance title and comes with the 320GB PlayStation 3 console plus one DualShock controller, a Move controller, and a PlayStation Eye camera, all for 299.99 USD. Thats about the price you would normally pay for just the console itself. This bundle will be sold exclusively at Target.

 

 

It has just been a day since Apple released the iOS 5.0.1 update that was aimed at solving the battery life bug in iOS 5 that Apple acknowledged last week.

However, even though a majority of the users are reporting an improvement in battery life there are a certain number of users who are still complaining about poor battery life post-update. Apple responded to them with the following statement:

"The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices. We continue to investigate a few remaining issues."

 

 

 

The Final version Nokia Suite application  is available for download over at the official Nokia support page. After a one month beta period the application is out dropping the Ovi nametag and adding a few other goodies too.

Changelog of the application:
• The application has a refreshed look and feel
• The new Support view offers info and help with using Nokia Suite and your phone
• The Support view helps make sure you have enough free space on your phone
• The improved sync log shows you what has changed during syncing
• Software updates for your phone software and phone applications now run more reliably
• Nokia Suite does not anymore run the MPlatform.exe process we have removed that from our architecture. You will see MPlatform.exe still running, if you have Nokia Ovi Player installed on the same PC.

 

Download Nokia Suite

 

 

Well what do you know, you can already order the HTC Rezound from Verizon Wireless. Even though the official launch date is set at November 14th, some users managed to get the phone and make it delivered to their doorsteps.

Maybe its just part of Verizon viral marketing strategy to make the buzz for Rezound before its officially out. In any case, I guess it is worth trying out, presuming you do want the best smartphone HTC has made thus far. Simply keep talking and insisting you want Rezound ASAP and tell them you have heard some users already got their units.

 

 

VoilaLG has officially announced Optimus LTE for Canadian Bell. Needless to say, LG superphone will get a prominent place in the carrier's portfolio as the flagship LTE-enabled smartphone.

This device is the best Android smartphone ever made, even better than the Google Nexus Galaxy for a four reasons:

 

• It has a better screen - 4.5-inch 1280×720 pixels True HD IPS, which is the best phone display evar
• It has an 8-megapixel camera - while the one Galaxy Nexus has counts "just" 5 megapixels
• It is LTE-enabled - though Verizon version will come with LTE
• It has a faster CPU - 1.5GHz vs Nexus Galaxy's 1.2GHz, both are dual-core

 

 

New details on Intel Haswell, the "Shark Bay" platform set to replace Ivy Bridge in 2013, have been revealed, suggesting up to four 22nm trigate cores will be on offer, along with NFC support for mobile devices and significantly reduced boot times. The specs, detailed on a set of internal slides discovered by Chiphell, outline a single "Shark Bay" platform that will cover both desktop and mobile processors, with three levels of Intel integrated graphics GT1, GT2 and GT3 with the possibility of HD-to-HD video transcoding in realtime.

 

 

Having used both Android and iOS smartphones over the years, I have some experience with the autocorrect systems on both devices for typing. The common theme is that both autocorrect systems seem to be out to make us look like idiots much of the time. If you prefer the look of the Android autocorrect bar to the one in iOS, you can turn on an Android-style version on your iOS 5 smartphone.

The autocorrect bar does look a lot like the Android one when enabled, so much so that I half expect a massive lawsuit to pop up.

HOW TO ?

To enable the alternative correction bar you need to download iBackupBot and then backup your device in iTunes. Then you use iBackupBot to find and load that backup you just made. Then go into library/preferences/com.apple.keyboard.plist and open the file up. Then you need to add in a bit of code that says KeyboardAutocorrectionListsYES. After that you restore from your tweaked backup and you should have the new bar. Let us know if this works.

 

Nvidia new Tegra 3 is the next big thing in the world of mobile processors and has everyone excited. But looking away from its impressive spec sheet, we know little of what its really capable of. So to give us a little demo, Nvidia has put up a series of videos on YouTube and we will be taking a look at some of them.

 

First of all, here is a look at the way the five cores function on Tegra 3. Although it is advertised as a quad-core system, there is a fifth companion core designed to handle less intensive tasks. Depending upon the current activity the system automatically switches between the companion core and the performance cores without any special optimization from the software side.

 

 

 

Nokia Research loves its concept phones the flexible Kinetic concept was one of our favorite things at Nokia World last month and for the team 25th anniversary they have produced this, the Nokia GEM. Built around the idea of the entire phone surface being a touch-sensitive display front, sides and back GEM learns from your most common tasks and adapts its default appearance to suit, so if you play games most of the time the phone will usually look like a gamepad.

However, there is also the possibility of resizable QWERTY and numeric keypads, which can be pushed along with the ongoing IM conversation around to the back of the phone while you look up details on the front. The flared upper edges work as an app carousel, shuffled around with a thumb and then dragged to the main display to launch them, and everything is resizable.

Because so much of the body is given over to screen, when you run an app say, triggering the camera with a circle gesture shortcut the whole phone can adapt its appearance to suit. Alternatively, as in Nokia non-functional mockup shown in these photos, you could have browser favorites circling the edges and media playback controls on the top.

 

 

Video Demo Below!

 

 

 

After Adobe announced their plans to stop developing Flash Player for mobile devices, we are now hearing that Microsoft plans to do the same with their own proprietary plugin, Silverlight. Microsoft Silverlight never really managed to gain the same amount of popularity among web developers.

 

But now it seems that will not be an issue for long. Microsoft is on the verge of announcing the next version of Silverlight, with the beta version already having been released back in September. But this will probably be the last version of Silverlight.

 

 

ARM has just unveiled the next gen Mali GPU, dubbed Mali-T658. The GPU is said to deliver desktop-class performance, offering 10 times the processing power of the Mali 400, which is used in the Samsung Galaxy S II.

According to ARM, the Mali-T658, should also offer four times the performance of the Mali-T604, which was previously announced, but is still to enter mass production. Thats the T-604 that is rumored to feature in the next generation Exynos chipsets and we might see in the Galaxy S III.

Video Below!

 

 

There is doubt that Microsoft would be working on the next generation of its gaming consoles the Xbox. The current Xbox 360 has been around for a very long time now and is due for a replacement. Other console markers are set to launch next generation consoles soon. We have previously heard the rumor that the Xbox 720 will be unveiled at Q3 2013.

But this still unconfirmed by Microsoft. A new rumor is swirling today that claims the codename for the next generation Xbox console is Loop. According to the rumors, the Loop will pack a custom ARM-based processor that is a modded Win9 core. The processor is supposed to have assistant cores as well for graphics, AI, physics, sound, encryption and other core services.

 

 

Nokia has confirmed that developers in its Launchpad project will be automatically receiving one of the 25,000 free Windows Phone 7 handsets the company has promised to coders in recent weeks, following up on the original free phone offer back in February. Launchpad members who also got a free E7 join Nokia Developer Champions in receiving either a Lumia 800 or Lumia 710, as well as a rebate on Microsoft App Hub membership fee.

"If you received a Nokia E7 back in February when we announced our new smartphone strategy, you will automatically receive a Windows Phone device. If you are currently a Nokia Developer Champion or a Nokia Launchpad member, you are already eligible, and you will soon receive an e-mail to explain how to get your new Nokia Windows Phone" Nokia

 

 

 

Nokia-developed Maps application that was supposed to bring extra value to the WP smartphones of the Finns is already freed and made available to anyone with an unlocked WP device.

Some helpful members of the hacking community got their hands on the Nokia Maps XAP file and they were kind enough to share it with everyone. The XAP file is all that you need to install Nokia Maps on your non-Nokia WP smartphone, so the app exclusivity seal is really broken.

 

 

Another upcoming HTC smartphone has apparently been revealed, the HTV Ville, a 4.3-inch qHD handset running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset. The Ville will also include HTC Sense 4.0, the company refreshed UI, and include an 8-megapixel camera with a backside-illuminated sensor and support for up to 1080p HD video recording.

There is also said to be HSPA+ and Beats Audio, along with a 1,650 mAh battery. That is all inside a chassis tipped to be less than 8mm thick, though there is apparently no NFC support because of HTC decision to use an all-metal casing.

The HTC Ville will apparently be unveiled officially under a different name, Ville being just a codename at Mobile World Congress in February 2012, alongside the HTC Edge, with a commercial release expected in April. Rumors earlier today suggested that the Edge which is tipped to run NVIDIA newTegra 3 processor and have a 4.7-inch display.

 

 

 

Samsung has released a new color for its Galaxy S II phone to lure the ladies. Samsung flagship device will now come in Pink color, in addition to the existing black and white. A new color will offer choice to the consumer and also a way for Samsung to increase sales, which has sold about 4m Galaxy S II units in South Korea including 850,000 white ones.

 

The Galaxy S II Pink will initially be available in South Korea but we would not be surprised to see the new color option reaching other regions as well.

 

 

 

Apple has reportedly confirmed to developers that it has no plans to bring Siri, the voice-controlled personal assistant service available on the iPhone 4S, to any older device. Arguing that developers would attempt to implement unofficial access to Siri on iPhone 4, iPad 2 and other earlier iOS devices, one coder contacted Apple with a suggestion that it release a paid upgrade for users to get official Siri support, Michael Steeber reports. Apple response was clear on the matter.

"Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue" the reply began, "Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices." The news will come as a disappointment.

“iPhone 4 Users and iPod touch 4th generation users pay a fee of 19.99 to upgrade to a ‘special’ build of iOS 5.0.1 with Siri Final in it, (To avoid hackers hacking Siri onto non 4S devices illegally) **Many iPhone 4 Users and iPod touch 4th generation Users will pay for this special iOS build (5.0.1) which will enable Siri for a fee of $19.99 US dollars” Developer suggestion to Apple

 

 

 

Packard Bell has been out of the US for years now, but the brand is still very strong in the UK. The company has rolled out a new AIO computer today that is hailed as the thinnest All-In-One (AIO) PC ever. It will start shipping this month and is lightweight enough to be toted around the house according to PB. The machine has second-generation Core processors from Intel. It will come in versions with NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel graphics on a 21.5/23-inch screen

The features are the same aside from the screen size. Both displays have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with 5.1 audio capable using Creative THX TruStudio Pc sound and the machine has two 2.5W stereo speakers. It has four USB 2.0 ports, and two USB 3.0 ports. The 21.5-inch version will sell for £599 with the 23-inch version for £699.

 

 

 

Nokia is saying that it will be available, just not from all retailers on day one. Looks like Clove got left out of that list. 

 

Word has filtered through the web that Nokia will be holding back the SIM-free version of its Nokia Lumia smartphone until January 2012.

 

The reports, from online retailer Clove, come at a time when Nokia should be all systems go with its new headline phone, especially since its pinning a lot of its future success on the handset, it does not need any bad press related to launch - especially delays.

 

However the handset itself will still be coming on 16 November it is just you will have to sign up with one of the many mobile carriers that will be offering the phone on contract.

 

 

 

Amazon has just revealed the launch date for their new Kindle range, which now includes the Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G and the Android-based Kindle Fire. Tuesday, November 15 is the day when you will be able to get your hands on one of Amazon shiny new Kindles.

They have also announced that the Kindles will be available in 16,000 locations across the US, from retail stores such as Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Staples, Sam Club, RadioShack, Office Depot, etc. And of course, there is the Amazon online store, if you are too lazy to go out and buy it. The Kindle,Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G and the Kindle Fire will be priced at $79, $99, $149 and $199 respectively.

 

 

 

The white N9 is simply gorgeous and is priced at 699 EURO by the Finnish online store Verkkokauppa. Mind you, this is the price for the 64GB model and sadly there is no word on specific date of arrival. All we know is it's going to be ready for direct purchase by the end of the year.

 

 

Pre-Order Link

 

 

 

The official announcement from Adobe:

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.

 

Adobe is now focusing their development efforts on:

• Applications for mobile

• Expressive content on the desktop (in and out of browser)

• Increasing their investments in HTML5 in general

It seems Apple and Microsoft were right in placing their bets on HTML5 instead of Flash. And it seems even Adobe, the owners of Flash have realized this now. This is good news because now the growth of HTML5 will be even faster and in the end that will be beneficial for everyone.

 

 

 

 

Swiftkey, which along with Swype is one of the best virtual keyboards out there, has finally started adding multi-touch support. Still in Alpha, the Android application is still being tested out but we are hoping the beta release will be launched in few weeks.

 

Here is what Swiftkey folks had to say at itsVIP track site:

We have made improvements for rapid typists. We now properly support multi-touch so you should not get accidentally repeated letters or accidentally missed letters when typing at speed with more than one finger. If you could try this out and in particular look out for issues with long-press keys, alternative character selection or keys where the highlighting gets stuck. We are particularly interested in results from tablet users touch typing as well as phone users with two thumbs.

 

 

Apparently those developers over on XDA have managed to combine fan-favorite ROM, MIUI with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This MIUI ROM in particular takes the merged ICS framework from GalnetMIUI 1.11.2 and a pinch of CM7 for the ATT Galaxy S II and presto! An almost fully functional MIUI Android 4.0 ROM for the Samsung Galaxy S II on ATT.

 

If you are hoping to see some Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich UI elements keep in mind this is still very much MIUI. While this is technically a ROM with the Android 4.0 firmware, all the UI and core apps are still MIUI.

 

XDA Link

 

N9 owners are already starting to get a notification for the update that was promised to them back at Nokia World. The PR 1.1 release brings in a host of performance improvements and many new features. The total number of enhancements sits at the cool 308, so this update should dramatically improve the user experience of the MeeGo flagship.

The general performance of the Nokia N9 is said to be improved and there are tune-ups to the visuals of the platform. The popular Swype keyboard has now been backed into MeeGo, while the lockscreen got music controls.

The 8 megapixel camera got color filters, while multitasking reportedly got even better, thanks to the improved memory handling. And the nifty feature that lets you close apps instead of sending them to the background by swiping down is now enabled by default.

PR1.1 Features:
- Low power mode enhancemens, battery charging and silent profile are now shown in there.
- Tons of NFC and connectivity improvements.
- Performance enhancements.
- Visual tuneups (e.g. toolbar has a shadow now).
- Splash screen has been taken to wider use.
- Color management is less nervous than before (neutral sRGB space color palette is now used always, except in clearly outdoor situations, when oversaturation is applied to adjust how eye desaturates content in brightness).
- Lock screen music controls has been added (It’s in the top of the screen and at least I’m pleased with how nicely a nuance the controls look. Currently playing song is on big friendly letters, replacing clock when you are playing music).
- Swype keyboard has been added.
- Keyboard switching is very smooth with swipe gesture.
- Battery notification was tuned for 1.1 and should come every 2 minutes while in call, every 5 minutes when display on and every 30 minutes when display off.
- Turning device to landscape is supported allover UI it seems.
- Double tap was re-tuned a bit for 1.1. It’s a bit more reliable again.
- Tons of exchange fixes
- Facebook starts faster and has tons of fixes in both 1.1 and 1.2. I’d say it’s bearable in 1.1.
- wifi in general has been improved by leaps and bounds in 1.1.
- Magnifier works in 1.1 much better than in 1.0.
- Swipe-to-close is enabled by default in 1.1
- Top status bar lag has been fixed
- Browser has been improved heavily for 1.1, but not on the UX front. 1.2 has some feature improvements.
- LED bug that has been fixed for 1.1.
- 1.1 also includes a battery charging indicator in low power mode (LPM)
- A lot of work has been put to better interoperability of BT with cars
- pulseaudio issue has been fixed

How-to Video Below!

 

 

 

Its no secret that Mozilla has been working on a mobile OS since the summer, but now the developers have actually something real to talk about and not just plans.

The web based operating system will carry the name Boot 2 Gecko and you can see early sketches of parts of the interface. Currently, Mozilla devs are testing proprietary, single-vendor stacks with new APIs for camera, SMS and telephone capabilties and more being built.

 

As you can see from the draft above, the UI ideas so far are not drastic at all. One of the most interesting one is to hold-and-swipe an icon to start the app itself, like on HTC Sense 3.5 lockscreen. Another feature worth mentioning is the ability to have either physical or software buttons for variety of actions like for example a menu or back buttons.

 

Football fans all over the world, rejoice! Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, one of the best football manager games around, has hit the Xperia Play exclusively. Other dorids wil have to wait a bit before they can get in on the action.

As you might expect from the Pro Evolution Soccer series, the 2012 edition has been licensed by UEFA. As a result, the game features the UEFA Champions League, The UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup.

 

 

We heard a while back that Windows 8 would support multi-touch via the trackpad. Sure, there is some stuff you can do right now, but the promise made by Microsoft and Synaptics has been deferred for the most part. But they have put up a video that shows just how you can expect to interact with Windows 8 and Metro using a multi-touch trackpad.

The concept is called Synaptics Gesture Suite (SGS) and works surprisingly well for some gestures switching between app with a horizontal swipe, docking apps to the screen, using tabs in Internet Explorer all seem highly usable and cool.

 

 

 

If you have been waiting for a sleek and powerful droid with a touch of Kevlar to hit the shelves, its time to take out the checkbooks. The Motorola RAZR has just become available in the UK stores and you can get one right away. The unlocked version of the smartphone costs about £455 after taxes, which seems about right for the kind of package you get.

If the SIM-free price is too steep for you, you may want to wait for O2 to release the Motorola RAZR later this month. The carrier will gladly subsidize the handset for you as long as you agree to sign a long-term deal.

Its yet unclear if the other major UK networks will be launching the Motorola RAZR, but it seems unlikely that they will miss on the hot droid.

 

 

 

 

The Launch date for the upcoming Nvidia quad-core ASUS Transformer Prime tablet has been push back to Early December.

keep in mind this supposedly has something to do with the device debuting with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and not Android 3.2. Apparently, Google needs a little more time to prepare and by "prepare" we mean wait for the launch of the Galaxy Nexus which we are sure Google is wanting to be the premier device to show-off ICS to the world.

 

 

Barnes and Noble has just announced an upgraded version of the widely popular Nook Color. Unassumingly called the Nook Tablet, it uses the same 7-inch VividView IPS LCD screen with 1024x600 pixels resolution. It has nearly 180 degrees viewing angles and is fully laminated for minimal reflections and glares.

The Nook Tablet uses the Nook Color body, but has a completely different core a TI OMAP 4430 chipset with a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, a PowerVR SGX540 GPU and 1GB RAM. The internal storage is 16GB, expandable via microSD card slot. The new hardware means that HD video playback is easily possible with the Nook tablet.

Barnes&Noble Tablet runs on a highly customized version of Android v2.3 Gingerbread and comes with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, etc. integration. The Nook Tablet will compete directly with the Amazon Kindle Fire and costs 249 US. Barnes&Noble is already taking pre-orders, while the first units will hit the retail stores at November 18.

 

 

HTC Edge, HTC first and probably one of the world first cellphone powered by a quad-core processor. Information from a reliable source paints Edge as a premium handset incorporating the latest mobile technologies for the most part.

 

The 4.7-inch Edge will allegedly be slightly over ten millimeters thick, and appears to be very much the successor to the just-unveiled Rezound, as it should feature the same 720p resolution, 1GB of RAM, and backlit eight-megapixel camera with 28-millimeter, f/2.2 lens. The major improvement, then, would be Edge supposed AP30 Tegra 3 CPU from Nvidia, which offers 1.5GHz Quad-cores to Rezound two. Internal storage will likely be bumped to 32GB, while the Bluetooth radio should hit version 4.0. Naturally, Beats Audio enhancements would be part of the package.

 

Edge may also see the rollout of new or improved HTC content services, such as the previously tipped HTC Listen music store, HTC Read bookstore, and HTC Play gaming hub, the HTC Watch movie portal will reportedly begin to offer HD fare. Additionally, Edge could be one of the first Sense 4.0 devices.

 

 

Last Thursday a massive storm kicked up on the surface of the sun. The result of the storm was a gigantic and very powerful solar flare that was classified as X1.9 making it among the most powerful that the sun can produce. The flare was so powerful that 45 minutes after the flare erupted, radio communications on Earth were disrupted.

Scientists say that the area that the solar flare originated from is still active and is being watched. There is a big chance of more powerful storms being produced in the region. The region that is being observed is massive at about 50,000 miles line and several times wider than the Earth, the area is called AR11339.

NASA has several spacecraft pointed at the Sun looking for such events. Later on, the same day there was another big storm on the sun that resulted in a coronal mass ejection that headed towards Venus. Our sun is currently in the most active range of its 11-year cycle that will end in 2013. Check out the video below captured by NASA spacecraft to see the storm in action.

 

 

 

To celebrate the four new Windows Phones that are coming in the US for this yearr holiday season, the Redmond company has built an actual massive six-story-tall Windows Phone. And they have shot a cool time-lapse of putting it together.

Video Below!

 

 

HP has outed the HP Wireless TV Connect, the company WHDI-enabled media streaming box that can funnel 1080p HD 2D and 3D content to your HDTV. Hooking up to your TV via HDMI, the Wireless TV Connect promises "virtually no latency" in comparison to rival systems, as well as super-straightforward setup.

 

 

 

We have seen wireless TV transmitters before, of course, but high-resolution and zero wires generally do not play nicely. HP reckons its system is good enough to handle smooth Full HD, however, and supports not only video content but application mirroring, so that you can squirt your browser over to your TV and surf more comfortably from the couch.

 

 

Last week ATT announced the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket for its newly developed high-speed LTE network. And now those LTE beasts are on sale on the carriers website with special online discounts.

 

There is another good piece of news. ATT has also confirmed that both LTE devices will get Ice Cream Sandwich in the first months of next year. The exact date is yet unclear as Google has to roll-out the OS to manufacturers to develop for their devices and then they need to pass the ball to carriers for further testing and release.

 

 

 

The good news is that less hardware means cheaper devices and with Nokia aiming at entry level and mid-range devices for Mango this will make for cheaper handsets. Microsoft no longer requires the device to have a camera, compass, gyro, or front facing camera. That lack of a gyro might make gamers unhappy since it could affect motion sensing accuracy.

Standard hardware includes hardware controls for start, search, and back. The display needs to be a WVGA 800 x 480 unit and the screen must be a capacitive 4-point multi-touch. Mango devices must also support data via WiFi and cellular networks. Minimum RAM needs to be 256MB and storage has to be at least 8GB or more of flash. The smartphones must also have an accelerometer and A-GPS.

 

 

While Siri is one of the most appealing features of the new iPhone 4S. Still, it is a very interesting first step into a world where we interact with computers using our voice and in the short term, it can lead to some silly videos.

Thats probably not a fair fight though, as the iPhone 4S is packed with the latest technology. So, how does Siri work when it is talking to Siri?

Video Below!

 

 

Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser. Firefox includes pop-up blocking, tab-browsing, integrated Google search, simplified privacy controls, a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

The latest version bumps the release number to 8 and takes it one step closer to matching IE 9 and Chrome in who can have the higher version number. This latest release contains many fixes which you can see in the list below:

• Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default
• Added a one-time add-on selection dialog to manage previously installed add-ons
• Added Twitter to the search bar
• Added a preference to load tabs on demand, improving start-up time when windows are restored
• Improved tab animations when moving, reordering, or detaching tabs
• Improved performance and memory handling
• Added CORS support for cross-domain textures in WebGL
• Added support for HTML5 context menus
• Added support for insertAdjacentHTML
• Improved CSS hyphen support for many languages
• Improved WebSocket support
• Fixed several stability issues

 

 

 

The last time HTC commented on the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade situation they left everyone in doubt as to how they will go about doing it, if at all. However, the latest bit of information from the company makes things a lot clear.

As we had guessed before, the phones that will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich will mostly be high-end devices released like the Sensation. Here is the Official HTC Anouncement!

 

 

HTC knows how excited our fans are to get their hands on Google latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, so we are thrilled today to announce the first wave of HTC phones that will receive upgrades: We can confirm the brand new HTC Vivid, on sale beginning today, is upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich. In addition, Ice Cream Sandwich is coming in early 2012 to a variety of devices including the HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation XL and HTC Sensation XE, as well as the HTC Rezound, HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and HTC Amaze 4G through close integration with our carrier partners. We are continuing to assess our product portfolio, so stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about HTC and Ice Cream Sandwich.

 

 

Skitch is the well-known image annotation and editing app that has long since been a staple on the Mac platform. Skitch i Presented in a simple and intuitive interface, Skitch lets you do everything from drawing a stupid mustache on a friend photo to quickly doing a mockup of a website. I always wondered when Skitch would be available on platforms besides Mac, but I never dreamed it would show up on Android FOR FREE!

Evernote and Skitch

Skitch was recently acquired by Evernote and, shortly thereafter, became available for Android users. Evernote combined with Skitch makes for an awesome way to stay organized and productive. Rather than relying solely on text, you can grab a snapshot, add some arrows, text, and other annotations, and post it to Evernote for later review. You can even use Skitch to create a new note if you don’t feel like typing or need to express yourself graphically.

Using Skitch on Android

Once you install the Skitch app, you have easy access to it from the Share menu in just about any other Android app. This share menu is one of the powers of the Android platform and it really shines when using Skitch. It means you can easily grab a snapshot of a scene with your camera, instantly edit a screenshot, annotate a file from your SD card, or basically Skitch up any image that appears on your device’s screen.

Primary Controls

Once in Skitch, you have a number of primary controls available across the top of your device:

• Home – Return to Skitch home screen.
• Crop – Cut your image down to size.
• Trash - Select and delete individual elements you’ve added to your image, or just erase everything and start over.
• Undo/Redo - You will be using this one a lot. Undo your last change, including your last undo, which allows you to undo your undo.
• Share - This is basically your Save button. Your bread and butter in the Skitch app. Share your completed image with the world using whichever apps will support images on your device (PicPlz, Flickr, Gmail, etc).
• Evernote - Instantly create and save your annotated image to Evernote in one click.

Editing Controls

Your editing controls are across the bottom, underneath your image:

• Color/Pen Size - Change the color and thickness/size of your drawing tools. Everything from your drawing pen to your font size is affected by this setting.
• Pen - This allows you to draw and sketch random lines in your Skitch. What is awesome about this tool is that, once you draw a line and raise your finger, it smooths out the line for you. This is extremely helpful if you don’t have the steady hands of a surgeon and/or are using a very fine pen size in your image. The Pen tool can draw both opaque lines and translucent lines like a highlighter in case you want to see through your pen strokes.
• Arrows - This is probably the most well-known feature of Skitch. This allows you to point things out within your image for emphasis, provide direction, create diagrams, and more. You can also just have fun with excessive use of arrows all over your image.
• The Finger – It’s not what you think. This selection tool gives you the power to move things around in case you weren’t able to place something exactly where you wanted it. Not only can you move stuff around, but this same tool allows you to select one or more objects by drawing a line around them. Once selected, you can go back and modify color and size of objects as well as delete them entirely.
• Text - You guessed it! Use this tool to type random text on your image. This tool obviously helps with mock-ups, diagrams, annotation, and helps when creating lolcats.
• Shapes - This final tool allows you to draw rectangles, circles/ellipses, and straight lines. If you truly want a perfect circle or square, just get as close as you can and Skitch will fix it for you automatically.

Settings of Note

Skitch does not have many settings, but the few available are extremely important in order for you to get the most out of your Skitching. Well, if you do happen to have the steady hands of a surgeon or just want to go totally freestyle, you can turn this setting off. The default is for all tools to use the same color and brush settings, but you can make things more flexible by turning on the Per-tool settings option. Finally, the Screen-relative tool sizes option will make sure that, no matter what your zoom is, all your tools draw lines with consistent sizes.

 

Download [Android Market]

 

Looks like Costco gearing up to sell the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, according to this inventory screen we just received. Price is slated at 289.99 USD. But like anything else of this nature, it is not official until its official.

 

 

 

But we would note that only a Verizon version is listed here we are still unsure if there is going to be an HSPA version available in the US anytime soon. But importing will always be an option.

 

 

 

If you own an electric vehicle, you want to know where all the charging stations are. Thanks to the new iPhone and Android app CarStations, you can do that easily with the help of your smartphone.

Created by California rancher-come-programmer David Raboy, the free to download application helps EV drivers find their charge anywhere in the world, from shopping malls to business parks to camp grounds. At the moment, CarStations lists over 1,700 electric car charging stations with more being added daily by both the company and its growing community of EV drivers. The app integrates Google Maps, while filtering for the right type of station at the tap of a button. Additionally, the companion website CarStations.com gives drivers a "robust desktop option" for trip planning.

 

 

It looks like Belkin has a handy gadget for iPhone users on the way that will really let you take advantage of the upgraded 8-megapixel optics on that shiny new iPhone 4S for group photos and self-portraits. The device is called the Belkin LiveAction Camera Remote and it has just made a visit to the FCC.

The Belkin LiveAction Camera Remote lets you take both photos and videos with your iPhone remotely, featuring a dedicated button for each function. It also packs a small stand that you can detach to prop up your iPhone to just the right angle, but its hard to tell how secure it would be given its small size.

 

Case-Mate, which we usually know for their fancy mobile phone cases, released a new tough protective solution called TANK, for consumers who have a "rough and rugged lifestyle.

The new case is one of very few such products that pass U.S. Military Specifications for sand/dust, shock/drop, wind/rain and vibration.

 

Video Below!

 

 

The Microsoft Kinect has anounced some very interesting uses that are not at all what most of us first envisioned when the controller landed for the Xbox 360 and gamers. Microsoft would be offering a SDK for businesses to make apps that would use Kinect for things in the business world.

The Kinect for Windows SDK has now hit beta 2 and you can download it right now to play with. The SDK still supports the Kinect on machines running Windows 7. It offers APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking. The SDK allows devs using C++, C#, and Visual Basic via Visual Studio 2012 to access the capabilities of the Kinect.

 

 

We already anounced before that the LG Optimus 3D will get the Gingerbread update later this month. What we have not said is that it will bring some other goodies aside from the latest available version of Google mobile OS.

The forthcoming update will be based on Android 2.3.5, and will also include such enhancements as 2D and 3D video editing, 3D to 2D conversion and higher bit-rates for 3D videos. Moreover, faster HSPA+ (up to 21Mbps on the download side) is also said to be included with the upcoming firmware.

 

 

 

It appears that Motorola has had a bit of a leak this week in the form of not only some packaging but in the device itself, the device being one called Motorola Corvair, an Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet that acts as a television controller. Besides that, the source of this leak, Nilay Patel of The Verge, notes that the device is in testing with cable companies right now.

 

 

The devices true abilities remain somewhat of a mystery, but what seems clear is that it will be a media controller with large displays in mind.

 

 

It seems Battlefield 3 has stolen Call of Duty thunder, But Activision is not going to give up, So here comes another trailer for the game.

But this is no ordinary trailer. It features live-action video with notable actors such as Sam Worthington, who plays a veteran gamer and Jonah Hill, who plays a newbie.

 

The video is actually pretty well made and not as cheesy as such videos usually tend to be. There is even a cameo in the end by American basketball player, Dwight Howard.

 

TRAILER BELOW!

 

In the ongoing patent battle between Motorola and Apple, the latest round went in favor of Motorola, as the German court granted a formal injunction against Apple that could result in Motorola asking to ban Apple products that violate their patents from selling in Europe.

Looking at Motorola statement, it seems that the company will probably not be doing anything as such. They instead seem more interested in licensing Apple their technology and moving on with life. Here is the official statement from Motorola.

As media and mobility continue to converge, Motorola Mobility's patented technologies are increasingly important for innovation within the wireless and communications industries, for which Motorola Mobility has developed an industry leading intellectual property portfolio. We will continue to assert ourselves in the protection of these assets, while also ensuring that our technologies are widely available to end-users. We hope that we are able to resolve this matter, so we can focus on creating great innovations that benefit the industry.

Apple statement, on the other hand, seems to suggest that their products and business in Germany are in no real danger, at least at the moment. Here's their official statement.

This is a procedural issue that has nothing to do with the merits of the case. This does not affect our ability to sell products or do business in Germany at this time.

 

Its been a good five months since the first time we heard a rumor about a dual-core handset by Sony Ericsson. By the time the Nozomi name popped up in late August, we were seriously anxious to catch a glimpse of the upcoming Android powerhouse.

Well, folks, here it is after months of expectation, we have the first live shots of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Nozomi LT26i out in the wild and, boy, it looks like it has been well worth the long wait.

 

In terms of specs, not much is known at the moment. The smartphone is rumored to pack a dualcore CPU, clocked at 1.5GHz and a gig of RAM. The device 4.3-inchscreen is bound to be a thing of beauty with its 1280x720 pixels resolution. We still do not know the capability of the camera units of the Nozomi

 

 

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is currently available on Amazon and its a much improved and updated version to its predecessor. This puts the Galaxy Tab count up to a handful of slates, only if you consider the Galaxy Note a tablet. This news is afterSamsung announced the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plusto all of the masses a couple of weeks ago.

Under the hood the tablet carries some more than adequate specs, which include a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, HSPA+ and Wi-Fi connectivity, 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash on the back, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, the same 7-inch 1024×600 pixels capacitive touchscreen, and Android Honeycomb 3.2 when the device powers on.

 

 

Star Wars will be re-released in 3D format in theaters starting in 2012 today trailer being final proof. It started as a rumor after George himself hinted at a release of the films in a 3D format after having first seen AVATAR in 3D, saying that the technology had finally caught up with his vision for a 3D presentation of the saga. Now we have got the first 3D trailer for a big-screen release.

What you will see come February 10, 2012 will be the first installment in the full 6-film series, The Phantom Menace.

Video Below!

 

 

This week it was revealed by none other than NXP that they were the ones that have been in the Nexus S from Samsung powering its NFC component and will also be in the Galaxy Nexus, they therefore providing the NFC for both Google hero devices. This is not a gigantic deal for those of you that just want your devices to work, not caring about whats deeply embedded in the devices to make them work so spectacularly, but for the Android need-to-know crowd out there, you will need to know this: the same NXP PN65N solution used in the Nexus S will now be used on the Galaxy Nexus.

Take heed, Android lovers, because not only will this component be working with you for NFC for your Google Wallet, but with the brand new Ice Cream Sandwich feature known as Android Beam. You can find out more about Google Wallet in our hands-on look of the application that came out for Nexus S a few weeks ago and Android Beam in two separate places. We first found out about Android Beam at the introduction to the Galaxy Nexus in Hong Kong last month, then just last week we published a Q and A session with several Android authorities that had them speaking a bit more in-depth about the possibilities with the service for developers in the field.

 

 

 

Facebook-oriented smartphones were practically invented by HTC with their ChaCha and Salsa devices aimed at the prevailingly young Facebook audience. Now, though, Motorola wants in on the fun as well and have come up with the Motokey Social a touch QWERTY candybar for those with Facebook running in their veins.

 

The Motokey Social, like the other two Facebook phones on the market, features the special blue Facebook button on the bottom left, which is used for easy sharing of content. Other than that its a fairly budget phone sporting a 2.4-inch QVGA TFT display, modest 64MB RAM and 128MB ROM.

 

 

Much excitement surrounds Activision Call of Duty game franchise with the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 title set to be released on November 8. But somehow, in the hustle and bustle, some retail stores, including Kmart, have accidentally sold the discs early, with one ending up on eBay for more than $1,700. Although purchased legitimately, playing these discs before the release date could get your Xbox Live account banned.

Microsoft is warning users to not play the Modern Warfare 3 game before the release date. Xbox Live Director of Policy and Enforcement Stephen Toulouse had initially sent out a tweet yesterday giving everyone the "OK" to play these legit copies that were accidentally released early, but after double-checking with Activision, Toulouse tweeted another message, warning against doing so.

"clarification: dblchk’d with Activision. Mw3 pre-release play not authorized. So pls be patient. Playing early may impact your account!"

 

 

The 1.4GHz quad-core CPU that powers the Asus Transformer Prime sure sounds promising, but the real question is how much of a performance boost it brings. And, as it turns out, the answer is a lot. About two times, to be specific.

As it turns out, the Tegra 3 chipset is not all talk and no action that thing is blazing fast. The Transformer Prime score appeared in the results browser of the AnTuTu benchmark and its more than twice higher than that of the Tegra 2-powered Motorola Xoom.

Even the Ice Cream Sandwich-running Galaxy Nexus barely achieves 60% of the Transformer Prime score. And you should not forget that the Samsung smartphone needs to handle lower resolution than the Asus tablet.

 

 

The Samsung Galaxy S II is certainly one of the snappiest smartphones around, but its not like you can too fast a CPU. Thats why the XDA community stepped in and pushed the clock speed of the CPU T-Mobile version of the smartphone to the mind-blowing 1.8 GHz.

The exact CPU frequency that was achieved is actually 1.836 GHz, but thats nit-picking. Whats really important is that the kernel used to achieve this kind of speed is publicly available and you try it on your Galaxy S II, if you dare.

 

 

The flagship Apple Store has been getting a revamped glass cube up top that we saw in renderings back in August. The new cube is much better looking than the old cube and has less visible hardware thanks to a reduction in the number of panes of glass the cube uses. The original glass cube used 90 panes of glass and the new one uses only 15.

 

The cube has been getting the install for a while now and the 5th Ave Apple Store is set to open today at 10am. However, the crew that was working in the store has finished their work and the first pics of the cube in the flesh have now turned up thanks to a reader at MacRumors. The new cube looks really cool.

 

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Font
Among the first new features championed by Google at the Hong Kong media event was a brand new typeface for Android in the shape of the easy-to-read "Roboto." Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich System Bar and Action Bar.

At the launch event, Google showcased a host of virtual buttons that appear at the bottom of the screen in some apps and allow users access to areas of the device like phone and contacts.

These are located in the System Bar present in all apps and enables you to navigate instantly to Back, Home, and Recent Apps. Virtual buttons are present across all apps, but can be dimmed by applications for full-screen viewing.

You can also access the contextual options for each app in the Action Bar at the top of the screen.

 

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich voice control
Android 4.0 introduces new voice input engine, You can dictate the text you want, for as long as you want. After dictating, you can tap the underlined words to replace them from a list of suggestions.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich multitasking
Multi-tasking has also been given a boost and with ICS it's easier to see which apps you've been using recently. If you decide you're done with using one, you can easily flick it away to close.

Google says it has made multitasking "even easier and more visual" on Android 4.0. The Recent Apps button lets users jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. The list pops up to show thumbnail images of apps used recently tapping a thumbnail switches to the app.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Face Unlock
Perhaps the most 'Star Trek' of all the new Android 4.0 features is a new piece of functionality called Face Unlock which, as the name suggests, unlocks your handset based on facial recognition tech.

You can also do more without unlocking. As in iOS 5 you can jump straight to the camera. You can also pull down the notifications window.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Home Screen folders
Like iOS before it, Android is now getting home screen folders too. You can group apps or shortcuts together and, as with iOS, you can do this just by dragging icons on top of one another.From the All Apps launcher, you can now drag an app to get information about it or uninstall it should you wish.

 

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich notifications
Notifications have also been improved. On larger devices - tablets - the updates appear in the System Bar, while on phones the notifications roll down from the top of the screen as before.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich favorites tray
On phones and other "smaller screen devices", there is now a customisable favorites tray. You can put anything you want here apps, folders, shortcuts - whatever you want check out this screen:

 

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich widgets
As in Honeycomb, you can now resize widgets on phones too. As in that OS, the widgets in 4.0 are designed to be far more interactive, enabling you to flick through appointments, play music and more.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich data
Android 4.0 includes new graphical displays so you can see how much data you're using and how much you have used over Wi-Fi or cellular. You can also see the amount of data used by each running application.

Warning levels can also be specified, as well as determining how much background data apps can use.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich camera
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich also brings some much-needed improvements to Google camera UI, which the company says it has been working on with Samsung.

ICS devices, and the newly announced Samsung Galaxy Nexus in particular, will have 1080p video, zero shutter lag, a new picture-stitching panorama mode, easier sharing and Instagram-esque filters.

In the panorama mode, you can start taking the picture and then move the camera. The phone assembles the full range of continuous imagery into a single panoramic photo.

 

"When taking pictures, continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, and decreased shot-to-shot speed help capture clear, precise images," says Google. "Stabilized image zoom lets users compose photos and video in the way they want, including while video is recording. For new flexibility and convenience while shooting video, users can now take snapshots at full video resolution just by tapping the screen as video continues to record."

 

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Apps & Beam

The People app does what many manufacturers have been doing on Android for ages bringing together various social networking feeds into one place, This offers richer profile information, including a large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates, and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks.

The Calendar app has also been updated to bring together different calendars, while the email app can now autocomplete responses and is able to store oft-used replies.

The web browser is also improved especially in terms of speed and now allows up to 16 windows. You can now sync it with Google Chrome and the browser supports offline browsing it can save versions of web pages you choose.

There is also a new NFC-based app called Android Beam, which allows two phones to exchange a wealth of information, just by holding them together.

 

The European Commission has called for an investigation into Samsung with allegations that Samsung has used FRAND licensing of patents against Apple. If Samsung loses the case, this could potentially force the completely withdrawal of all complaints it has against Apple. According to FOSS Patents, the FRAND patent holder can ask for reasonable compensation but the patent holder is not allowed to overcharge or try to kill products as long as the user is willing to sign an agreement.

Apple has filed many countersuits against Samsung and some of those are FRAND related. The European Commission investigation into Samsung was confirmed today. The investigation is looking into patents that Samsung holds that are "essential to wireless communications." Samsung says that it will cooperate fully with the investigation. A representative for the EC points out that the investigation isstandard procedure and not something special in this instance.

 

 

Google has updated two of its Android apps, Google Reader and Google Docs, making them look more Ice Cream Sandwich-like.

The first of the two apps looks pretty much the same as the previous version, featuring very few changes: there is the fancy swipe left/right navigation and the ability to share articles via Google+ (rather than Google Buzz).

 

 

 

Apparently Sony Ericsson is working on a new flagship handset that will rock a 720p screen (1280 by 720 pixels) a la Google Nexus Galaxy. Whats more, the forthcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc HD is said to come with a full HD video recording support, hinting us it will also sport a dual-core processor.

Release date is unknown at this stage, but judging by the company previous launches, it will use the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to show the world what they got.

 

 

 

In the micro four thirds and similar range of cameras, you do not get an optical viewfinder instead, you get a little LCD in the viewfinder window if you get a viewfinder at all. Many just use Live View on the rear LCD.

Sony has a new tiny screen that will be used inside some of its cameras like the NEX series and possibly inside DSLR cameras. The tiny little OLED screen is only 0.7-inches wide and is called the ECX322A. The coolest part about the screen is the serious resolution it offers with 1280 x 720 allowing the viewfinder to offer 720p HD resolution.

 

 

Yesterday Motorola unexpectedly dropped their announcement of the XOOM 2 family of tablets and the only thing they mentioned about pricing and availability was that the tablets will hit UK and Ireland in mid-November.

The company claims the 10.1-inch XOOM 2 will go for £ 379.99 while the 8.2-inch XOOM 2 Media Edition will cost you £329.99

 

 

After the XOOM 2 tablets announcement earlier today, Moto has reveiled the launch date for the Droid RAZR for Verizon Wireless. The hotly anticipated launch is goint to take place on 11 November 2011 at 11.11 AM. Motorola said that it will be launching the RAZR exactly at this date on 11.11 AM sharp. No Joke!

 

 

Video Demo Below!

 

 

The next Kindle Fire ereader tablet in Amazon line-up is likely to use an 8.9-inch touchscreen display rather than a 10.1-inch panel as originally expected, sources in the supply chain have revealed. While we have heard talk of a pair of tablets one small, the 7-inch Kindle Fire shipping in little over a week time, and one large, potentially arriving toward the end of the year since the beginning of the Amazon rumors say the retailer has switched to a smaller screen and pushed a 10.1-inch version further back down the roadmap.

LG Display and CPT, both suppliers of the 7-inch LCD in the Kindle Fire, will apparently also be supplying Amazon with its 8.9-inch screen. They are reportedly already preparing production to meet Amazon demand.

 

 

Apple Siri personal assistant service for the iPhone 4S is back online, with users having experienced network outages of the voice-controlled system yesterday reporting that it is now functional again.

 

Yesterday, users across the US found that Siri was unable to answer their requests, citing a network connection problem, although their iPhone 4S did indeed have a data connection.

While Siri interface is on the iPhone 4S, and the service can interact with some of the apps, data and multimedia stored on the smartphone, the heavy work processing spoken commands and figuring out what to do with them actually takes place in Apple remote servers. Because of that, Siri demands a network connection to those servers, even if the commands relate to solely local content.

 

 

 

HTC officially unveiled the HTC Rezound at a dedicated event it held in New York today. Leaked numerous times before, the HTC Rezound with Beats Audio is the company new Android flagship. The Verizon-exclusive smartphone will be the first US droid with Beats Audio and will come with LTE support.

The HTC Rezound runs Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread with Sense 3.5 on its 4.3-inch 1280x720 pixels display and HTC promised that it will be updating it to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012.

 

The Rezound will be the first smartphone with a 720p screen to hits the big Red, and is the only one on the market to boast a pixel density of 342 ppi.

 

 

Full Rezound Soecifications

Powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Scorpion processor and sporting 1GB of RAM, the HTC Rezound should not have any issues in the performance department. Storage is covered, too, with 16GB of on-board storage and a 16GB micro SD card included in the retail package.

 

At the back the HTC Rezound sports an 8MP f/2.2 camera capable of shooting 1080p video. To improve its low-light performance, HTC has blessed the Rezound with a dual LED flash. Naturally, there is Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi radios on tap as well.

 

Promo Vid Below!

 

 

 

Streaming media service Plex has launched a Google TV version, putting its IPTV content on the latest version of Google smart TV platform. All of the channels from the Android version of Plex are present, and the company says the majority of content will play, even with Google TV limited transcoding support.

 

The one omission is the remote control functionality, which means you will not be able to control your laptop playback from the Google TV interface. Considering that was really intended to turn an Android phone into a remote.

 

 

It appears that the Android Market is going to grow another checkout option. The PayPal support that we have been hearing about for quite some time now is finally going to land in Android official app repository.

The evidence for this was found in the source code of the latest Android Market app, which repeatedly mentions PayPal. And if the code is already there we guess Google will be putting it to use quite soon.

Adding another checkout option will certainly increase the reach of the Android Market and allow more people to shop from it. Here is hoping it comes in time for the Holiday season shopping spree.

 

 

Oh this LG Ice Cream Sandwich story just keeps getting better and better and this time, we really do mean the story is getting better. As of early this morning LG Mobile has taken to their official Facebook page and attempted to end the Ice Cream Sandwich update rumors for the Optimus 2X.

"LG is currently in the process of planning the ICS OS update for the LG Optimus 2X as well as other LG high-end smartphones. Detailed information on the ICS OS update schedule for specific models will be announced, once the ICS OS is publicly released by Google."

There you have it, not only will the Optimus 2X receive the Ice Cream Sandwich update, so will "other LG high-end smartphones." Given the close relationship between the Optimus 2X and its Americanized counterpart, the G2x, we continue to hope that LG will provide T-Mobile users with the Ice Cream Sandwich update.

 

HTC is set to launch its first Beats Audio enabled device for the US market in just a few hours time, but press shots of the phone, the HTC Rezound, have already leaked. The Rezound is expected to pair its upgraded audio with a sizable 720p HD display a first for HTC along with LTE, something the leaked renders from Pocketnow partially confirm.

There is also tipped to be a 1.5GHz dual-core processor running Android, while dual cameras of unknown resolution are also onboard. Going by European Beats Audio devices, like the HTC Sensation XE andSensation XL, we are expecting a decent set of Beats-branded headphones in the box; we could even see some custom headphones, as certain Sensation XL markets will get, making it into the mix.

 

 

 

Google has made no secret about Google+ being a connecting point between its several brands and services, today example being a tiny YouTube player in the social networking site as well as a couple of Chrome extensions that make the browser itself a portal to the G+ site. What you see below this paragraph is an example of what you will get if you hit the brand new YouTube slider that will appear in the upper right of your screen while you are browsing Google+. As for the Chrome extensions, you will be able to get a Google +1 button right beside your URL bar, then a notification red square that will link you back to Google+ right beside that.

Its beginning to look a lot like Google+ is going to be my hub for basically everything I need to access during the day, and a whole lot of other bits and pieces that I definitely do not need to be checking out all day. To access such a thing, on the other hand, you have only to locate the tiny slip of paper in the upper right-hand corner of your Google+ interface and mouse-over it. It will pop out and you will be able to enter a few keywords. Press play and a playlist will pop up in a new window. You can control the videos from there or from the slide-out controller that still sits in the window you where in in the first place.

 

 

Apple iOS 5.0.1 beta not only promises to address the iOS 5 battery life issues many owners have experienced, but also fixes some of the more vocally complained about problems for the iPad and iPad 2. Original iPad owners discovered that the full release of iOS 5removed the gesture support present in the beta version, something which has now been added back in with iOS 5.0.1.

Meanwhile the much discussed security flaw on the iPad 2 affecting the official Smart Covers has been addressed. Users found that, with either a Smart Cover or indeed a simple magnet, along with some button presses in a specific combination, the iPad 2 lock could be bypassed and access granted to whatever app was active when the tablet was last secured.

 

 

 

The analysts from Nielsen have just published their report on the smartphone market in the US and revealed that Android is still the most popular platform there. 43-percent of all US mobile subscribers now own a smartphone and 43% of them have a device running the Google OS.

The 43% market share represents a 4 percent points increase compared to the Android result in Q2. In fact, Android is the only platform to gain ground over the past three months in the US.

In second place, iOS is not doing too bad either, managing to retain its 28% market share. Thats despite the fact that Apple did not release a new iPhone in Q3, so the Cupertino-based company should have every reason to be optimistic about the Holiday season.

 

 

That certainly did not take long. The Samsung Galaxy Note only went on sale on Friday, but we already have a working root solution for it. There are some nice text and video tutorials as well, so if you are not too committed to your warranty you might even try it yourself.

A fully charged Samsung Galaxy Note, a microUSB cable and a Windows-running PC with a working data connection is all thats needed to gain full control over your Galaxy Note.

 

If you are looking for a new browser for your smartphone, the latest version of Opera Mini is now available. The new version for the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, and Java-enabled phones is Opera Mini 6.5. If you are using a Symbian S60 smartphone, the browser for you is Opera Mobile 11.5. The big upgrade in these browsers is the ability for the user to track data use.

 

The idea is that by having the browser track your data use, you can stop huge data bills from your phone company. Opera claims that the new version of the browser can save you up to 90% of data use. The browser is fast enough that Opera claims you can surf without 3D and still enjoy your smartphone. The browser tracks both total data use and temporary use.

 

If you are tired of the iPad charger hogging an extra slot on your wall socket or one of the USB ports on your MacBook, then Twelve South has just the device for you. Called the PlugBug, this neat little accessory snaps on top of any MacBook charger and lets you charge both your iPad and MacBook simultaneously.

 

Of course, its not just limited to the iPad and the standard USB port will allow any device that supports USB charging to be charged from it but the iPad will benefit the most from it due to its hunger for power that can only be satiated with a powerful charger and with 10 watts and 2.1 amps on tap, the PlugBug has all the power it needs to provide the fastest charging experience on the iPad.

 

Video Below!

 

 

Google has released its official Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, promising faster access to messages, better visibility of important emails, and a UI thats designed from the ground up for a touch interface. As expected, the app supports push notifications and sounds, along with full inbox search, and on the iPad there is a split-pane view which shows both inbox and message preview.

Auto-complete of email addresses from Gmail contacts is supported, along with your iOS device Contacts, and there is attachment support as well. Some of the features we are used to from the desktop browser are present too, like Priority Inbox for those content to let Google flag up their most important mail, threaded conversations and the usual bevy of archiving, labelling, starring, deleting and spamming tools.

 

 

Sky Go will finally be landing on Android, a company spokesperson confirmed. The online television service was only available for PC, Xbox and iOS so far, but the world most popular platform is about to join the list.

The company did not commit to a specific date, but it mentioned that the Android version "will be launching in the coming months,". Previously, Sky said that it was hoping to bring the app to the Google platform this year, so maybe we will get to see Sky go in the Android Market in December.

 

 

As promised, Apple is expanding the iPhone 4S availability. Their latest and greatest was released on October 14 in seven countries, followed by 22 new countries on October 28.

Currently, the iPhone 4S is already available in USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The iPhone 4S gang is now being expanded throughout Hong Kong, South Korea, Bulgaria, Albania, Armenia, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal and Romania. The official launch in these countries will be on November 11, while the pre-order campaign will start on November 4.

 

 

 

The first trailer for the much-anticipated Grand Theft Auto V has been revealed, with the action again taking place in California in the fictional city of Los Santos. Rockstar games began teasing the title last month, prompting a huge batch of leaks and rumors about just exactly what we could expect.

Among the rumors, we have heard that you will be able to play as multiple characters, though talk of Rockstar using Los Angeles rather than its fictional counterpart obviously has not panned out. We are also yet to see the final line-up of cars you will be able to drive.

 

 

 

We already know that the latest version of Android is coming early in 2012. Several devices have been announced to get the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update in "early" 2012. We have already been though a QA on Android ICS previously that you can check out if you have questions on the OS. Google is now getting some of its own apps ready for ICS to hit early next year.

Yesterday a new update to the Android Market started to appear called v3.3.11. There was some scuttlebutt that claimed the new update did not work well on Honeycomb devices so be warned. The new update brings tweaked settings like the ability to download auto-updates over WiFi only to save your data allowance on big updates. Changes also include a tweaked UI and more.

Along with the update to the Android Market to get ready for ICS, the Google+ app is also getting an update. The update for Google+ is available now and offers improvements for battery life, changes to navigation, improvements for notifications and support for Google Apps users. The screen shots that we have seen show the Galaxy Nexus nav buttons at the bottom.

 

Back in February of this year Reuters story that quoted the CEO of ST-Ericsson as saying that the company is ready for Nokia whenever they want to make a Windows Phone. A few months later, in May, the CEO of STMicroelectronics told Forbes in an interview that Nokia will release a Windows Phone running on the ST-Ericsson U8500 chipset and that over the course of 2012 Nokia will release about 12 Windows Phones, each running on a more advanced version of the U8500.

 

In July, In an interview with Louis Tannyeres, Chief Chip Architect at ST-Ericsson, he said "The NovaThor U85xx family will definitely support Window Phone."

 

Here is the sparse press release from ST-Ericsson site:

 

NovaThor platform to enable Nokia to extend Windows Phone devices to new price points and geographies

Geneva, Switzerland, November 2, 2011 - Nokia has selected ST-Ericsson as a supplier for future devices it plans to introduce based on the Windows Phone mobile platform.

"We are pleased to have been selected by Nokia as a key partner for Windows smartphones, in line with our goal to be present in all segments and major operating systems," said Gilles Delfassy, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. "Our NovaThor platforms continue to gain traction as they enable customers to bring great smartphones to the market."

 

This announcement is huge, because Windows Phone will finally get dual core support, LTE.

 

 

A company called Picitup launched a cool Android app called iOnRoad, touting it as "too smart to run on the iPhone." Thats a bold statement, but its justified with the fact that iPhone multi-tasking capabilities are pretty limited to what Android is offering.

The application relies on the smartphone camera and sensors to detect vehicles in front of the vehicle, alerting drivers when they are in danger iPhone can handle that part alone. The problem is when you run iOnRoad in the background, when for instance you also use a navigation application thats something that will turn off iOnRoad on the iPhone. And thats the way Picitup envisioned its app to work, mapping objects in front of the driver in real-time and calculating the user current speed, while running in the background.

 

Get iOnRoad for Android For FREE

 

Then as the vehicle approaches danger, an audio-visual warning pops up to warn of a possible collision.

 

 

Asus decided to delay its smartphone/tablet product, Padfone, until February 2012. Yep that unfortunately means the device I talked about for couple of times in the past will not be available for the Christmas shopping season.

I guess the reason is that the Taiwanese company will not have time to properly "implement" the new version of Android, which tablet "version" will be released in early December. Related to that, Asus will start shipping the upcoming Eee Pad Transformer Prime with Honeycomb on board, offering the Ice Cream Sandwich update shortly afterwards.

 

Nokia 600 was announced in August and was expected to hit the shelves before Q3 ended, but that obviously never happened. We got no official comment from Nokia about the delay and now it appears that the phone has been cancelled.

All pages dedicated to the Belle-running Nokia 600 are now gone from the Nokia servers and even the Nokia developer website has no mention of it. Videos, featuring the Nokia 600 have been removed from the Nokia YouTube channels and if we had not actually seen the announcement we would really be inclined to believe that the phone never existed.

On November 2 The official Nokia Facebook channel confirms the fact:

"The thing is, after careful consideration, we have decided not to ship the Nokia 600."

 

We just got news that the HTC Sensation XL has started selling in the UK. The Beats audio-packing droid is already available SIM-free, as well as on a contract if you do not mind committing your future to Three.
Off contract the 4.7-inch HTC Sensation XL costs about £480 including taxes, which makes it one of the most expensive droids on the market. Of course that was to be expected given the Beats headphones that are included in the box and the huge screen. Not to mention the promising 8 megapixel camera with bright F/2.2 lens.

Alternatively, Three UK will give you a Sensation XL for free as long as you agree to sign a two year contract worth at least £34 per month. That would give you 500 "any time, any network" minutes, 5000 texts and 1GB of network data each month, so its not too bad a deal either.

 

 

The ongoing legal battle between Samsung and Apple took a new turn as Samsung legal team has demanded Apple to hand over iPhone 4S firmware source code and agreement details that Apple has struck with major Australian carriers.

 

The source code will allow Samsung to assess potential patent infringements whereas subsidies offered to iPhone, Samsung counsel claim give little cash to operators to shop around for other manufacturer devices, including Samsung.

 

Samsung last month filed a lawsuit against iPhone 4S alleging infringement of three wireless telecommunications related patent.

 

 

After Nokia previewed its upcoming Kinetic device prototypes with flexible displays, Samsung wants to make sure it gets a share of the spotlight too. The company showed off its own flexible display technology at CES 2011, and is now ready to declare that it aims to start shipping them in 2012. The first batch of flexible displays will be for smartphones only, but Samsung plans to put larger counterparts in tablets later on.

This new technology will unlock an entire new world of mobile devices. Perhaps one day not too long from now we will see a cell phone you can roll up and slide into a bag, but thats only the beginning. Nokia already had a UI of its own prepared specifically for flexible displays. To control the contents on screen, you would bend and twist the device in certain directions. Some say this could be the biggest change for mobile user interfaces since Apple multi-touch technology was introduced in 2007.