IBLOG SPACE

When it comes to releasing a variety of devices that center around a hero, enough devices to stuff an elephant with, so many devices that there’s no way on earth you’ll not be able to find the one that fits your desires PERFECTLY, Samsung has you covered – and with the W999 dual-screen clamshell dual-core Android, even the strangest businessmen will have what they want. You’ve got two OLED 3.5-inch displays, both of them at 800 x 480 pixel resolution, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor under the hood along with Gingerbread, and it’ll cost you something like 10,000 yuan (US $1,570) in its launch country of China – clearly aiming at rich businessmen with massive fingers. Sound like a great deal for you, all you retro flip-out lovers? How about those of you that loved your RAZR but are so very saddened by the fact that the newest edition doesn’t have any flips to speak of? Everyone should be able to appreciate this: the screen on this W999 unit not only flips up and out, it flips back so you ca

RIM’s Porsche Design BlackBerry P’9981 has passed through the FCC, indicating that it may finally be making its way to market. The device looks like a luxury version of RIM’s BlackBerry 9900 series and has been leaked and rumored over the past several months but was not officially announced until October. The P’9981 is passing through the FCC with support for AT&T’s GSM 850/1900 and WCDMA bands II and V. The filing also reveals that it supports Bluetooth, WiFi, and NFC. Previous announcements have confirmed that the P’9981 will sport a 1.2GHz processor, HD video recording, 24-bit graphics, and advanced sensors for augmented reality technology. Love it or hate it, the industrial angular design of the P’9981 is quite striking and will certainly be an attention-grabbing device in your hands. And if that’s what you’re going for, you’ll have to fork over about $2,000 for it. However, an exact date of availability has not been announced yet.

The folks at Rovio are no strangers when it comes to cross-promoting their brand with other gigantic names in the business, this time with Samsung and their Galaxy Note device, showing how even cartoon characters can use this massive in-between the tablet and handset Galaxy Note to cut out images and share them with friends. We already knew that the Rovio crew had released their next chapter in the Angry Birds Seasons series with a new 2011 winter season by the name of Angry Birds Seasons: Wreck the Halls! You’ll see just a bit of information on the Galaxy Note in this short advertisement spot, the real information having already been released in the Galaxy Note itself last month. Have a peek at our  hands-on  and  full review of the Galaxy Note  courtesy of Chris Davies, then note that this means that its the international edition where a USA version has yet to be released. Meanwhile you can pick up the newest chapter of Seasons  in the Android Market  right this second. Also note tha

Ever wondered how some of your favorite iPhone games would look like in real life? Well, you can find out by watching this fun and creative music video from Australian indie pop band Hey Geronimo. The video includes real life versions of Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Flight Control, Cut the Rope, and Plants vs. Zombies. What’s neat is that all the scenes were done with what appears to be a minimal amount of post-production effects. The video also includes clips towards the end to show how some of the scenes were created. For instance, the Flight Control scenes involved a birds-eye shot of a large painted topography with the airplanes done using remote controlled toys. The song itself is also quite catchy and it’s aptly called “Why don’t we do something?” You can download the song via iTunes and if you enjoyed the video, do make sure to find out more about the band, which plans to debut its album in early 2012.

Research firm IDC has published its top 10 systems software predictions for 2012, and it is quite skeptical about the success of Microsoft’s Windows 8 in terms of the number of upgrades. It believes that very few users will choose to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 as the new Metro UI skin offers no value to traditional PC users. Windows 8 is expected to arrive sometime in 2012, likely launching in August on a new batch of PCs and tablets. The next-gen operating system offers the touch-friendly Metro UI for the tablet interface. New tablet owners will thus have Windows 8, but IDC predicts that there will be nearly no upgrades from existing Windows 7 desktop users. “Windows 8 will be largely irrelevant to the users of traditional PCs, and we expect effectively no upgrade activity from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in that form factor.” Upgrades will especially be avoided in enterprise usage, where companies will stay away from any compatibility problems that the new Metro UI might cause to

This week IOGEAR has announced three new USB 3.0 devices, each of them with data transfer speeds up to 10 times that of previous generation USB 2.0 devices. What we’ve got here is a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 4-point hub, a Multi-Card Reader/Writer, and an SD/Micro SD Card Reader/Writer, each of them available for under $50. What USB 3.0 allows is improved connectivity and efficiency between computers and peripherals that transfer digital content and create and store it as well – 5Gbps speed at the head of the pack. You’ll be able to send and receive data simultaneously with USB 3.0, each through different data lanes, all while requiring less power than ever before. As IOGEAR notes, you’ll be able to move a 25-30GB HD movie to a media device in 60-70 seconds where the same transfer might have taken more than 15 minutes with USB 2.0. Each of these bits of gear available from IOGEAR works with USB 3.0 and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 devices and connectors – no worries! The IOGEA

Nissan won’t be introducing a new version of its LEAF electric vehicle until sometime in the fall of 2014, but there are already reports suggesting many major improvements to be expected. Among these improvements is a more affordable price and a longer range. But, perhaps more interesting is that the vehicle will also support wireless charging. The next LEAF is expected to be a better electric car in every way, while also being more affordable. A source, speaking with AutoExpress, revealed that Nissan intends to bring down the cost of the batteries and electric components, although he did not specify by how much. Overall performance and range should also see great improvement. Nissan has currently sold only about 15,000 LEAF vehicles throughout the world since it first debuted in December 2010. However, the company has ambitious plans for its electric vehicles, aiming to sell 1.5 million EV models in 2016. It also plans to introduce a special charging system by Summer 2012 that let

The Carrier IQ scandal continues to spiral and now a new class-action lawsuit has been lodged against the company. The lawsuit, filed by three local law firms led by Sianni & Straite in the Federal Court in Wilmington, Delaware, also lists several other defendants, targeting handset manufacturers Apple, Samsung, HTC, and Motorola as well as US carriers AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. The complaint accused the companies of violating the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communications Act, and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The filing asserted that the companies committed an “unprecedented breach in the digital privacy rights of 150 million cell phone users” and that the defendants, namely Apple, Samsung, HTC, and Motorola, pre-installed the Carrier IQ software on its cell phones for AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. The controversy began last week when Trevor Eckhart discovered the Carrier IQ software to be running in the background on his HTC device. He alerted o

This week astronomers have announced the existence of a planet discovered to be in human livable range of star not unlike our sun, with a size 2.4 times that of our Earth and a temperature of approximately 22 degrees celsius. This is the most recent in a line of possibilities for habitable planets in the realm of possibility as outlined by an international team of scientists in a paper by the name of “A Two-Tiered Approach to Assessing the Habitability of Exoplanets” as found at Mary Ann Libert Inc, publishing — these scientists are not the same group that’ve discovered this newest planet, but they’re sure to add the new finding to their list sooner than later. What we’ve got here is Kepler 22-b, a body that is what the Kepler space telescope team says is the closest we’ve ever gotten to discovering a planet that’s like our own – an “Earth 2.0,” if you will. This planet is well within the livable range around the star it circles, the Kepler space telescope currently also studying 53 ot

When you’ve got a jailbroken phone, aka a hacked phone on the Apple iOS mobile platform, you’ve got a lot of freedoms when it comes to illicit applications such as this most recent of the pack: Siri for your iPod Touch or iPhone 4 through an app called H1Siri. What you’re going to get with this app is some developers from China by the name of CD-Team allowing you to use the Siri application and ecosystem to the fullest just so long as your device is both jailbroken and is running the newest version of iOS 5. Sound like an alright situation to you, all you wishers for the personal assistant that’ll let you know where the closest one dollar pop is? You’ll be installing H1Siri in a flash right after you’ve got your jailbreak on, and though that bit may be more than a couple steps when it comes down to it, can you put a price on having the software that at the moment is only otherwise allowed on the iPhone 4S? There are some drawbacks of course, like the possibility that your camera will b

At this point we’ve got to assume that the folks at Verizon had all of this leak and pre-release panic planned for the Galaxy Nexus, because what we’ve been experiencing since the release of the international edition of this world’s first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device is nothing but heartbreak and agony over the release date for the Verizon version here in the USA – that said, here’s the in-store packaging. In what appears very much toreplicate the packaging of the Nexus S, the hero device for Android 2.3 Gingerbread, Verizon’s package has padding inside the top of the box, a simple cradle of red for the device, and all the regular bits underneath. Could this be the sign we’ve been waiting for? What we’re thinking this means, that these leaked shots mean, that is, is a release date that’s more than just imminent. What the most recent rumored dates are include an announcement this week with a release date for this Friday, though it’s still unclear as to what this Friday will inc

Though it seems like just yesterday that we were first unboxing the HTC ThunderBolt, the first smartphone to roll out on Verizon’s still-impressive 4G LTE network here in the USA, it’s been one year to the day that the network has been active. On the first day the network was officially deployed, it covered an already impressive 39 markets, this eclipsed at this one year marker by the current 190 markets the Verizon 4G LTE network sits in today. While the Verizon LTE network has been their “4G” offering since they originally started promoting the “4G” term, they mention the competition as being less prepared for the eventual oncoming of higher speed networks – sarcasm in tow, of course. When you speak about LTE, you should know that there are currently two networks that are offering LTE speeds on devices – Verizon and AT&T. However, as you may well know, there’s not just one whole heck of a lot of cities that AT&T’s newest version of 4G covers at the moment. While Verizon’s net

Before you even begin to have a freak-out session about how Facebook is going to envelope all your user data without asking, that’s simply not the case here when it comes to this Gowalla purchase – instead Facebook has acquired the Gowalla team and their technologies and you’ll simply be loosing all your information if you don’t save it. Much better option, yes? What Gowalla is, for those of you that’ve not used it in the past, is an app and an ecosystem where you can share your photos and stories in the mobile space (aka on your iPhone or Android device) where people could access it in a whole new way. This was called Gowalla Passport, and like a scrapbook, you could place all your great bits of share-worthy media in there for all to see. Starting today, you’ll have to export all your user data or lose it, as Facebook has picked up Gowalla hook, line, and sinker. This purchase started back a couple months ago when founder Josh Williams and his co-founder partner scott attended Faceboo

Gaming has long been Microsoft’s wildcard: while the company struggles to find its feet with Windows Phone, and faces a difficult tablet market when its Windows 8 slates finally appear, the Xbox 360 continues to sell strongly. Now Xbox TV has arrived to not only reassure 360-owning gamers that they made the right console choice, but broaden the 360′s appeal to a whole new segment. It’s not entirely fashionable to praise Microsoft, especially when it’s over something that, buried in the company’s history books, they’ve tried and failed at before. Smart TV has suffered the usual ignominies and from the usual flaws: sluggish hardware, confusing interface, dawdling internet connections. Now, with Xbox LIVE TV, all the pieces seem finally to be coming together. Microsoft isn’t alone in that, mind. Apple’s television intentions are well-rumored, with the latest batch describing a Siri-powered trio of HDTV sets that use the virtual personal assistant technology to streamline navigation throug

We already know that Sony wants to take over all of Sony Ericsson and bring the mobile devices under its corporate umbrella. The buyout was announced in October and will get Ericsson out of the partnership that has been in place since 2001. The buyout is going to cost Sony up to $1.7 billion to finish. Word is now surfacing that the transition from Sony Ericsson to Sony will happen by the middle of 2012. The tip on the transition time frame comes from a Sony executive that spoke with an Indian newspaper. Sony still plans to sell only smartphones with no feature phones in the mix. All of the phones Sony makes will run Android and will be PlayStation certified devices as well. Sony may have plans for the migration to its brand alone in place, but the deal still needs approval by regulators. I don’t think that a buyout by Sony of its partner in a venture that is only in the sixth spot for handset makers will have much of a problem making it past regulators.

Microsoft is expected to reveal its Windows 8 app store plans this week, detailing how it will challenge Apple’s thriving third-party download ecosystem with its new breed of notebooks, desktops and tablets. The unveil will come at an event on Tuesday, Fox News reports, and is expected to offer free and paid apps along with trial versions and in-app payment systems, just as on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. However, legacy apps for the traditional Windows desktop won’t be supported: instead, the store will offer Metro-style software. Legacy software will show up as a landing page within the store, linked to developers’ sites, while brick & mortar sales of boxed apps – as well as third-party download sites – will still be supported. The Windows 8 Store was confirmed in the pipeline several months ago, indeed the icon – though not the functionality – was present on the Windows 8 tablet we previewed back in September. Microsoft has refused to comment on its exact setup until this

AOC has unveiled its latest product called the e1649fwu. This 15.6-inch LCD monitor uses DisplayLink technology to allow the connection to a notebook or a desktop with a single USB port. That single USB port provides both power and graphics connectivity. The display makes it very easy to connect a second screen to run multiple displays on your machine. The monitor will sell for a reasonable price of $139. It has a resolution of 1366 x 768 at 60Hz. It is very power efficient with a draw of only eight watts of power and it has an integrated stand. That stand can support the monitor. It lacks integrated speakers and sports a 16:9 aspect ratio. The brightness rating for the screen is 200 cd/m2 and the contrast ratio is 500:1. It supports 16 million colors and is energy star compliant. You can pick one up from several online sources and retail stores right now.

If you are in the market for a new Android tablet and you think that he $199 tablet that is so popular right now is still too experience, check out the new MIPS offering for under $100. The table is the first Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet to be available. The tablet uses an Ingenic JZ4770 APU that uses a MIPS-based XBusrt CPU operating at 1GHz. The tablet has a 7-inch screen, but the firm says that it will offer 8-inch and 9-inch devices soon. The new tablet is in Japan only right now, but it will come to the US and other countries soon. All of the versions of the tablet will have similar features. Those features include WiFi, a USB 2.0 port, HDMI 1.3, and a microSD card slot. The tablet will have 3D graphics using a Vivante GC860 GPU. That GPU will support 1080p video decoding and the tablet has front and rear cameras too. The battery life should be decent with a power draw of only 400mA during active web browsing. There is no indication of when that tablet will come to the US or

An iPhone-sized portable femtocell could make creating a private bubble of cellphone coverage straightforward in homes, offices, hotel rooms and public spaces, offloading smartphones and other mobile devices onto WiFi. The ip.access Advanced Femtocell Concept (AFC) works as existing products, like the AT&T 3G Microcell andVodafone SureSignal, but can hook up to the internet via either a wired ethernet connection or WiFi. Meanwhile, a power-dock keeps the AFC running while it’s bridging your cellphone’s 2G/3G/4G connection to your WiFi router. ip.access suggests production versions of the concept could be battery powered, meaning even greater flexibility in where the palmsized femtocell could be placed. For instance, a hotel or bar WiFi connection could be used, with the AFC bridging that to get smartphones and other cellularly-enabled devices online for voice and data, even if there’s no regular signal available. Integrated GPS could be used – along with auto-setup systems – to aut

Intel is set to toss some new processors out into the market early in 2012. A new roadmap leak has shown that in Q2 2012 Intel will launch the Core i 3000 series processors. The specific month pegged for the launch is April. Previously the chips had been pegged for a March or April launch. The Core i 3000 family of processors will be the first to hit the market using 22nm transistors. There is no word on why March was taken off the table for launching the chips. The roadmap shows several of the Ivy Bridge i 3000 family parts coming in Q2 including the i7-3770K and 3770 in the performance segment. In Q2, the mainstream performance segments will be the i5-3570K, 3550, and 3450 parts along with the 3570 and 3470 in Q3. A full chart showing the specs for the Ivy Bridge parts was also shown. The fastest part on the chart is the i7-3770K clocking in at 3.5GHz and 3.9GHz on boost with four cores. The slowest part is the i5-3330S with 2.7GHz base and 3.2GHz on boost. There are bunches of quad

The rumors have been going around for a while now that Apple was working on a new TV that is an actual TV, not the Apple TV set top box we are familiar with. A new rumor is making the rounds today that comes from supposed sources in the major Japanese firm that is involved in making the TV. According to these sources, the Apple TV will come in three screen sizes. The screen sizes are said to include a 32-inch and 55-inch versions. The third size is a mystery; perhaps a smaller 24-inch screen would make sense. The Japanese sources claim that the Apple TVs will go head to head with the new generation of smart TVs that are coming from Samsung and LG. The sources are also claiming that the new Apple TVs will have Siri integration. The sets will use all new software and respond to voice commands via Siri. Siri is said to be integrated into the TV itself, but the sources also claim that Siri will be able to control the TV via the. The sets are supposed to land in late 2012 and be there in ti

LG has revealed its own attempt at the ultrabook segment, the LG Xnote Z330, with Intel’s Core i5 and i7 processors and more than a hint of Apple’s MacBook Air to the styling. Built around a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 display – that, thanks to LG’s 8mm-thin bezel Shuriken tech, fits into  the space a 12-inch panel would usually demand – the Z330 is 14.7mm thick and 1.21kg, and can run for over 6hrs on a single charge. Inside there’s a choice of Intel’s Core i5-2467M or Core i7-2637M processors, paired with 4GB of RAM and a choice of 120GB SATA 6Gbps SSD or a 256GB SATA 3Gbps SSD. Graphics are courtesy of Intel’s HD GPU, while connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, Intel WIDI, USB 3.0 and a microSD card reader. LG is particularly pushing the Xnote Z330′s rapid boot abilities, with the ultrabook being ready to go in just 7s (resume time). It’ll also shut down quickly too, being off in 9.9s. The company reckons the combination of the speed fettling, the second-gen Intel chips and t

Carrier IQ has landed in an ocean of hot water for the alleged tracking and intercepting of keystrokes that the software is said to perform. It has been found that many of the more popular mobile phones and smartphones on the market are using the Carrier IQ software. While the company claims that the responsibility for the data stored falls on the carrier and not with it, the company is still under investigation by European regulators. Regulators in Europe are looking into the software to ensure that the company isn’t violating the privacy of users. PCWorld reports that the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection has sent a letter to Apple to ask if the company is using the software. The data protection office wants to be sure that the customers and users of smartphones are aware of how their data is collected and used. Other regulators investigating the use of the Carrier IQ software include the UK Information Commissioner’s Office and the European Consumers Organization. The UK org

T-Mobile just got its own flavor of the HTC Flyer last month even though the tablet crossed the FCC back during the summer. The tablet is a nice little gadget that has been around for a while. The device has been making do with an old version of the Android OS for a while now. HTC Flyer users in France at the HTC-hub have reported that the software update is now rolling out OTA. The update that most people are seeing is specifically for the 32GB WiFi and 3G version of the tablet. There has been no indication that the WiFi only version is getting the update yet. The update brings the machine to software version 3.55.405.1 and it’s large. The download is 210MB so a WiFi connection would be a smart place to download. We have also heard that folks in Holland are also getting the update as well. If you find the update is available be sure and let us know how it works and where you are located. This is a nice little early Christmas gift for fans of the Flyer tablet.

Samsung may have been reasonably magnanimous in its defeat of Apple’s US preliminary injunction attempts, but the Korean company’s execs haven’t lost their fighting spirit even if it’s generally only wheeled out when off the record. “If we win in Paris as well, that’s truly a big blow to Apple … We are ready to aggressively sell the Tabs” a Samsung exec told the Korea Times on condition on anonymity, while CEO Choi Gee-sung has confirmed a $200m legal fund has been put aside to field Apple’s courtroom attacks in 2012. Apple had sought to block sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US and Australia, claiming the Android tablet overstepped the mark when it comes to aesthetic similarities between it and the iPad. Courts in each country disagreed, however, with the US judge denying the injunction and an Australian appeals court overturning one there. A reluctance to negotiate or settle looks to have increasingly been Samsung’s strategy as tensions between it and Apple grow. The Cuper

Sony’s PS Vita handheld with ship with limits on multitasking preventing web browsing while a game is running in the background, as well as on how many PlayStation Network accounts can be used with a single unit, new information ahead of the console’s launch has confirmed. The company confirmed to AV Watch that, at least at launch, although gamers will be able to temporarily leap out of their current play and check their friends list, music and Twitter, they won’t be able to browse the web. That could well change later on, with a firmware update, the company says. However, whereas smartphones can usually multitask between all functionality, Sony points out that expectations of a gaming-centric device are difference: the resources needed for playing games themselves are given priority. As for PlayStation Network (PSN) access, a NeoGaf forum member spotted a Sony Japan FAQ indicating that only one account may be set up at any one time on a PS Vita unit. That’s the same as on the existing

When you rely on your computer, each day to work and play few things can ruin your day more than a crash. A new feature of Windows 8 has surfaced that looks like a very cool way to ensure if your rig does crash you can be up and running again quickly. The feature is called Windows 8 Storage Spaces and requires two drives to work. If the computer user has two drives, the user will be able to select 2-way mirroring from the fault tolerance menu. When the user has a machine with three drives inside there will be a 3-way mirror solution. The solution allows the user to have the same data on all of the drives. That way if one of your drives fails the other is ready to run right away. The three-way solution will keep you going even if two of the drives fails. Other things that we can glean from the screen shots include that the user can tell the computer how much capacity the Storage Space can have. The users will be able to assign a drive letter to their storage drives and name the spaces a

The only time the HP TouchPad sold well was when the tablet went on $99 fire sale shortly after it was discontinued. Back when the original TouchPad was announced we had also heard that there would be another flavor of that tablet called the TouchPad Go with a 7-inch screen. That tablet crossed the FCC for approvals and was spied online a couple times. The TouchPad Go never came to market after the normal version of the HP tablet failed so miserably so quickly. The fact that the Go showed up online a few times and crossed the FCC meant that at least a few of the tablets had been made and were floating around. One of those landed on eBay recently with a starting price at $1500. The tablet didn’t last long before someone had the auction pulled due to a trademark or copyright claim. It’s not clear who did that, but HP is a likely candidate. The folks at the-digital-reader also say that the seller contacted them and said he was trying to sell the tablet outside of eBay. I wonder who might

Samsung, Toshiba and Lenovo will lead the Windows 8 on ARM platform, according to the latest supply chain leaks, with Microsoft putting Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA in the driving seat for choosing their development partners. The three chipset companies have each selected two partners from the tablet/notebook industry at Microsoft’s instruction, Digitimes‘ sources claim, one major collaborator and one minor. Qualcomm is believed to have picked Samsung and Sony, with the Korean company’s strengths in component manufacturing – including displays, memory and other elements – singling it out for attention, along with the fact that it already has a solid presence in the tablet market. Texas Instruments selected Toshiba as well as also opting for Samsung. Finally, NVIDIA is said to have gone for Lenovo and Acer, with Lenovo selected as major partner for its heft in the Chinese market. Conspicuous by its absence is ASUS, despite the fact that the company is already believed to be wo

ASUS has begun teasing some of the official accessories for its Eee Pad Transformer Prime, with one of the most interesting, the folding Transformer Prime Sleeve, getting a new video demo. Intended to both protect the touchscreen of the Tegra 3 slate, as well as allow it to be propped up for easier multimedia consumption or typing, ASUS’ system differs from Apple’s Smart Cover design with some more complex folds. Whereas the iPad 2 Smart Cover simply rolls up, ASUS’ cover flexes into a more complicated 3D shape to prop the Transformer Prime in place.  Two locking tabs slot into the same securing holes as the battery-toting keyboard dock section does, meaning you can’t use both accessories simultaneously, but then given the keyboard also protects and props up the screen that’s not likely to be a limitation.

Dell has been trying its hand in the Android tablet market and so far has only been able to make a slight rustle in the category. The company launched an Android tablet with a 5-inch screen called the Streak 5 and it also has the Streak 7 with a larger 7-inch screen. The Streak 5 was discontinued in August of this year. Dell has now quietly discontinued the Streak 7 as well. Dell didn’t offer an official statement on the tablet being discontinued or anything seemingly official to fans of the tablet. It apparently simply removed the listings from its website and left the former Streak 7 page with a note saying that the Streak 7 was no longer available online. With online being spelled out, it would seem whatever inventory is left will only be available in some stores, but even that isn’t specified. The Streak 7 had a very short life only hitting the market in January 2011. T-Mobile has a 4G version of the tablet, I’d bet that version is pretty much the only one left to find if you want

For a long time Firefox from Mozilla was the second most popular web browser right being Internet Explorer from Microsoft. Over the last year, Mozilla has been hit hard in the browser wars with key workers leaving the firm and it has been struggling with some issues that have seen users of Firefox defect to competing browsers like Chrome. Two of the biggest blows to Mozilla were the loss of a key manager Mike Shaver that left for greener pastures and the loss of a key revenue stream. Mozilla has had a contract in place with Google making the search giant its largest financial backer. A search partnership with Google was the largest source of income for Mozilla. That partnership was set to end in November. That one partnership with Google was generating 84% to 86% of all the revenue that Mozilla earned. At this point, there is still apparently a chance that the Google search deal will be renewed. Mozilla is paying the situation close to the vest and will only offer vague responses like

GM’s fire problems with the battery-powered Volt may have been only the latest of the car company’s headaches around its earth-friendly vehicle. General Motors is apparently set to miss its conservative first year sales targets by 20-percent, the  WSJ  reports, with around 8,000 of the 10,000 expected to be sold set to leave the forecourt before 2011 is through. The reason for the shortfall is simple, dealers say: the Volt is just too expensive. “We’re getting a lot of interest, we’re just not getting a lot of buyers” one GM dealer told the newspaper, referring to the $41,000 price tag of the electric car. “Customers come in, they are wowed by the display, the quick acceleration. It’s just going to take a while for the American public to accept the price.” Now, though, it seems the public will also have to stomach the Volt’s patchy safety record. General Motors has moved swiftly to reassure early-adopters that the fire risk to the car is negligible, even going so far as to offer to buy

Samsung‘s Mobile Display division has taken some time off from creating rollable, bendable AMOLED panels to throw together a concept video of what the transparent, flexible tablet of the future might look like. According to the clip, our smartphone will unfold to also do duty as our tablet, with the transparent sheet being used to frame photos, enable augmented reality style translation and geo-location services, and show gesture-controlled digital magazines. Of course, we’re a long way from an actual production version of what Samsung is speculating about – for a start, all the non-display tech has to go somewhere – but the Korean company is expected to launch its firstflexible-display AMOLED products in 2012. Tipped to be used in both phones and tablets, the most likely implementation is perhaps a hybrid of the both, such as the seamless folding screen MID/phone prototype the company revealed earlier this year. Samsung isn’t the only company to be considering flexible displays as a p

Microsoft’s December 6 Xbox 360 Dashboard update will also bring a new smartphone app, Xbox LIVE for Windows Phone, turning your handset into a remote control and info terminal. Bing-powered content search will browse through movies, TV shows, music, games and apps, Microsoft’s Major Nelson confirms, all from the smartphone screen, as well as showing your own recent activities. That will include your recently played games, as well as any apps you’ve used on the Xbox 360. There’ll also be access to the Zune video catalog, with extra detail on the movie, TV show, music or game currently playing through the console. Microsoft has baked more friend activity support into the WP7 app, including the ability to see which friends are online, which friends have beacons, and see a list of friends who have recently played, in addition to showing achievements and related items. You can invite friends to join you in a game, directly from the smartphone app. Finally, there’s support for remotely cont

Microsoft has detailed its challenge to cable TV, with a roadmap of Xbox LIVE streaming content for the Xbox 360 including Hulu Plus, Netflix and the BBC, as well as the Kinect-powered voice control that will be used to bypass the traditional remote. Beginning as part of the Xbox LIVE Dashboard update for the 360 that rolls out tomorrow, the dozens of TV channels, streaming services and other content providers will join gaming and other internet services on the console. More details of content deals after the cut. “The power of Kinect combined with the intelligence of Bing search is turning your voice into the ultimate remote control. With Bing on Xbox, you can use your voice to effortlessly find the games, movies, TV shows and music you want and discover the best offerings on Xbox LIVE, by simply saying what you’re searching for. You say it, Xbox finds it” Microsoft Just as Apple is rumored to be  planning for Siri  on its own TV hardware, Microsoft’s Kinect sensor will be used as a m

Samsung and Google began rolling out the Galaxy Nexus volume bugfix late last week, though it seems not all users of the Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone have yet received it. The update, ITL41F, hit our UK Galaxy Nexus on Saturday morning, but other owners have taken to Twitter and Google+ to complain that they’re yet to see the amended software. Has your Galaxy Nexus been fixed yet? The new software build addresses an issue with the way the Galaxy Nexus handles the 2G 900MHz band, with volume levels fluctuating wildly and the volume control itself unresponsive. Those lucky enough to get consistent 3G coverage may not even have seen it affect their device, but others in more patchy 3G areas have found the Galaxy Nexus’ usefulness for voice calls severely impacted. The update process itself is straightforward, with the fix measuring 960kb and being installed during a prolonged restart. When our Galaxy Nexus booted back up, 44 applications were “optimized” to run with the new build version

Carrier IQ has come out fighting amid the ongoing controversy around alleged cellphone tracking and covert customer data collection, claiming information gathered from users amounts to little more than crash logs. While security researchers originally claimed Carrier IQ was gathering text messages as well as location data, in fact “the content of the SMS is never stored and never transmitted” company marketing VP Andrew Coward told theRegister. Instead, it’s claimed only certain keypresses are tracked to spot errors in a carrier’s network. Responsibility for what data is collected and stored rather than passing straight through Carrier IQ’s systems – and indeed loading the Carrier IQ software onto the phone you might be using – lies with your operator. “What the video is depicting is the application printing out what are known as bugging logs. It’s a way that applications keep a temporary record of the things they were doing so if anything were to break, a developer could go and read t