IBLOG SPACE

Back a few months ago there was a discovery made by an intrepid developer inside Android’s Honeycomb OS in which changing the LCD density to a smaller value than the tablet it was running on had revealed a smartphone interface for the otherwise tablet-sized OS – one day after the USA-based Galaxy Nexus has been revealed here in the USA and our pal Michael Crider from Android Community has discovered that essentially the same thing happens in reverse with Ice Cream Sandwich. What Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is meant to do for the Google mobile OS is create one single OS that works just as well for handsets as it does for tablets, but until now we’ve got less than an adequate look at what this means for larger screened devices. As Crider shows here, it’s a rather interesting experience that everyone should have. On the other hand, heed his warning: what Crider’s done to achieve this result is to unlock and root his device first, then mess around in the guts. If you do this, you’ll lik

This week we’ve learned two very important facts regarding the most infamous web browser of all, Internet Explorer: first that Microsoft intends to auto-update all of their older versions for users to the newest IE version 9, and second that Google Chrome 15 is now the most popular web browser version in the world. Though when you add up all the users using ANY version of Internet Explorer, you find that it still dominates this planet by a long shot, it’s still rather interesting that any one browser has taken the lead over the ultra-dominant browser made so fantastically giant by its pre-installed status on Windows-toting machines worldwide. So what’s your excuse? This isn’t a new question and certainly isn’t one I’ve not asked my own family when they used to use Windows-based machines, so I’d like to put it back out there today to see how we’re all feeling about the situation. In the time between when AOL was the dominant internet provider in my area up here in mid-Minnesota and now,

This month Verizon is picking up contracts left and right, with a $3.6 billion purchase of AWS spectrum at the start of December and a $315 million purchase of Cox Communications 20 MHz Advanced Wireless Services this week. Though this agreement does not include Cox’s 700 MHz spectrum licenses, Cox Wireless customer accounts or any other assets at all, Cox and Verizon Wireless will becoming agents that sell each other’s commercial and residential products and services through each of their own sales channels. This agreement is expected to join up with the $3.6 billion agreement from earlier this month which includes Bright House Networks, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast. What we’re looking at here is a team up of epic proportions, ladies and gentlemen, with Verizon only getting bigger in the very near future and throughout 2012. Cox on the other hand has this past month announced that it would no longer sell its Cox Wireless service but would in fact continue to provide the same service

Facebook’s Timeline feature went live worldwide earlier this week, in both your regular browser and in the Android and mobile web versions, but beware, once you activate the stream of memories, there’s no going back. The new version turns your Facebook profile into a history lesson spanning all the years you’ve been active on the site, and while the social network has been at pains to point out the range of privacy settings, one big option is conspicuously absent: the ability to turn it all off. Developers and early adopters who have tried Timeline using the pre-launch test workaround were able to deactivate the page and return to the regular profile layout, but that option has disappeared since the official launch. Those turning on Timeline now have seven days to preview and tweak what details, photos, likes, interests and videos are included on the page, before it automatically goes live. As for Facebook’s help pages, there’s no reference given to turning off Timeline. In fact, the o

The saga of Carrier IQ and its tracking software installed on untold numbers of mobile phones on carriers in the US continues. Senator Al Franken started his investigation into carriers by sending out letters demanding to know what major wireless carriers were using the software for, how many handsets had the software, and what was done with the data. Some responses have returned and the number of handsets running the software is scary. The response Franken received back from some of the larger carriers were disturbing to those concerned about privacy. In the response to Franken’s inquiry AT&T admitted that it had Carrier IQ installed on 900,000 handsets that were in consumer hands. However, AT&T claims that it only collects data from about 575,000 of those handsets. Sprint, on the other hand, has 26 million handsets on the market running Carrier IQ software. The carrier maintains that while it has been using Carrier IQ since 2006 it only collects details on network and device

We didn’t just grab the new Verizon Galaxy Nexus yesterday, we picked up the official accessories too, so whether you’re concerned about power-hungry LTE or just want to treat your new toy while you’re still in the honeymoon period, there’s probably something for you. For most it’s the extended battery ($49.99) that will hold most appeal, an NFC-enabled 2,100 mAh Li-Ion pack offering an extra jolt of runtime at the expense of a slightly bigger phone in the hand. In fact, you get 250 mAh more than the regular Galaxy Nexus LTE battery – itself 100 mAh bigger than what’s supplied with the slimmer HSPA+ version – though given how power-hungry 4G is we’ll take anything we’re given. We’ll have feedback on exactly how much extra runtime the extended Galaxy Nexus battery grants after some testing, but the good news is that we’ve found it actually makes for a slightly more comfortable phone in the hand thanks to the extended rear cover. Unfortunately it won’t fit into the battery compartment in

A newly discovered comet dubbed Lovejoy has survived an unbelievably close pass by the sun. The comet actually survived a pass through the sun’s corona on December 15. The comet came within 87,000 miles of the surface of the sun. The temperatures in the corna can reach 2 million degrees Fahrenheit according to Space.com. Lovejoy was not expected to survive the brush with the sun and was being observed by scientists and was expected to be completely destroyed. The NASA solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft followed Lovejoy on its path through the corona, expecting to see the comet’s demise, and surprisingly saw Lovejoy streak back out into space. Scientists were so convinced that the comet was going to be vaporized that some were shocked and elated when the comet survived. Lovejoy has a core that is about 660 feet wide and is in a class of comet dubbed Kreutz sungrazers because of the orbit that brings it very close to the sun. The comet was discovered by an Australian amateur astronome

Klipsch has some of the best speakers for all sorts of uses that you will find on the market today. The company has announced its latest gadget called the Gallery G-17 Air AirPlay Speaker. This speaker is Apple AirPlay certified and promises very impressive sound. The speaker connects to your wireless network for AirPlay compatibility. It allows you to control your iTunes music using an Apple smart device like the iPhone. The speaker uses Klipsch’s famous horn-loaded technology in a thin speaker for better sound. The speaker is in a thin cabinet with a minimalist design that is glossy black in color. I am not a fan of glossy finishes since they tend to gather dust and fingerprints. The G17 is designed to be wall mounted or placed on a table or desk using the included smoked glass base. The speaker is 17-inches long but makes big sound. It will work with just about any iPod on the market along with the iPhone and iPad. The biggest downside is the price at $549.99 each.

One of the most famous art museums in the world is the Louvre in France. The museum is famous for more than its art collection; one of the most noticeable landmarks is the glass pyramid out front. The museum and Nintendo are working together on a project that allows the visitors to the museum to use the Nintendo 3DS for guided tours of the exhibits. The museum has traditionally offered audio guides to people that visit the museum if needed. The 3DS rollout is part of a plan to step up digital device use at the museum. Nintendo is providing the museum with 5,000 of the consoles as part of a partnership with the museum. Each of the little consoles will be loaded with various itineraries that will cater to specific groups and desires. There will be a kid’s itinerary and hundreds of different recorded commentaries in seven languages on the art and other works on display at the museum. Nintendo developed the content for the museum with the Louvre in editorial control. I am sure that Nintend

Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus has gone under the knife – or the screwdriver at least – to bare its silicon guts in the now-traditional post launch teardown. While we’ve already seen what’s going on inside the HSPA+ version of the Samsung smartphone, ZDNet‘s breakdown of the LTE model shows there are some big differences when you get past the 4.65-inch Contour Display and 100mAh bigger battery. We’d already noted the shifted, smaller microSIM slot in our hands-on with the Verizon Galaxy Nexusyesterday, but there are also radio differences to handle the CDMA/EV-DO/LTE functionality. For instance, Silicon Motion’s FCI FC7780 Dual-band CDMA EVDO transceiver makes an appearance on the Verizon phone’s motherboard. Story Timeline Samsung Galaxy Nexus Teardown reveals glass and display fused, low soldering on Nov 29th 2011 Verizon Galaxy Nexus announced for sale [UPDATE: Off-contract pricing included] on Dec 14th 2011 Verizon Galaxy Nexus on sale now for $300 on Dec 15th 2011 Verizon Galaxy Nexus

Nokia‘s ambitious and expensive launch promotion for the Lumia 800 has fallen flat, according to European market research, with only a little over 2-percent of those surveyed saying they firmly intended to buy the new Windows Phone. The results of the Exane BNP Paribas poll prompted the brokerage firm to cut its quarterly sales estimates for the Lumia 800 to 800,000, Times of India reports, down from previous expectations of around 2m units. “With only 2.2 per cent of surveyed buyers firmly intending to purchase the Lumia,” analyst Alexander Peterc wrote, ”Nokia’s first flagship Windows Phone is … far behind the current blockbusters, Apple’s iPhone 4S and Samsung’s Galaxy S II.” The new Lumia is in fact expected to under-perform in relation to Nokia’s last high-profile mainstream device, the 12-megapixel N8. That, Peterc highlights, sold between 3.5m and 4m in its first quarter. Exane BNP Paribas questioned 1,300 consumers in the Lumia 800′s initial five markets earlier this month, the

The number of apps and services in smartphones today that use GPS for locations and more is staggering. We take GPS location for granted until our devices can’t get a fix thanks to trees or location. Qualcomm hasannounced new support for GPS and Russian GLONASS navigation satellites for its Snapdragon S2 and S3 processors. Qualcomm is calling the ability to use both networked dual-core navigation. The ability to use both GPS and GLONASS satellites means that the location services are more accurate and the user is more likely to get a fix than using one system alone. This dual connectivity is supported on the Samsung Galaxy S II. The ability may not be activated on all handsets though. Qualcomm does note that you will need to check with the carrier to see if the GLONASS capability is activated. The Snapdragon processor knows when to turn on the GLONASS capability so battery power isn’t wasted. The accuracy using both networks is increased to 2 meters. Qualcomm also notes that you can ge

The US fleet of aerial drones has been hit with a virus in the past that was very hard to remove. The virus was actually in the computer systems where the drones are controlled in the Predator and Reaper drone issue. A lost NATO stealth drone has been in the news a lot lately after it was captured in Iran. That drone wasn’t shot down; Iranian scientists claim they were able to trick the drone into landing where they wanted it using a GPS hack. The Iranians used software that spoofed GPS coordinates, and that spoof tricked the RQ-170 Sentinel into landing on its own without the Iranians needing to hack the controls. Before spoofing the GPS coordinates, the GPS signal was jammed on the drone, forcing it into autopilot. Gizmodo reports that the military has known of the potential to spoof GPS and cause a drone to land in this fashion since 2003 and has never addressed the issue. There has been no confirmation outside of a supposed Iranian scientist that this GPS hack was what brought the

We have been hearing a bunch of rumors on what the future brings for the iPad lately. The rumors so far are pointing to a thicker iPad 3 with very high-resolution retina display and possibly a smaller iPad in the 7.85-inch range. A new part has surfaced on a Chinese iPhone site called TVC-Mall that is for an iPad. The catch is that the part has a design that is different from what the original or iPad 2 uses. This has raised suspicion that the part may be for the iPad 3. Granted the part could be something else altogether, so we are taking this with a healthy dose of skepticism. The internal iPad cable is reportedly for the microphone inside the tablet. It has some short turns in the design where the cable in the iPad 2 has a pair of 90-degree bends. The rumor fans out there are thinking that perhaps the new cable is for the iPad 3 and needed different bends to work with the high-resolution screen that is expected to be thicker than the current iPad. This could just be a mislabeled par

This may be one of the most bizarre things I have read about YouTube and Google. Granted you need a giant grain of salt with this, but if the implication is true, this is wrong on so many levels. Universal Music has been trying to kill pirates of its own artists’ work and stop piracy in general and has taken to some extremes in the fight. For instance, it has been trying to kill MegaUpload using censorship in the US for a while. Some musicians got together and recorded Mega Song in support of MegaUpload and Universal Music has been trying to force YouTube to remove its video for a while. The catch is that Universal doesn’t own the copyright to Mega Song. A new court filing from Universal that hints it has a deal with YouTube that allows it to request the takedown of anything it doesn’t like on the video service. The key paragraph in the filing reads: Your letter could be read to suggest that UMG’s rights to use the YouTube “Content Management System” with respect to certain user-posted

Samsung has reportedly abandoned attempts to hound the iPhone 4S with 3G patents it holds, conceding that Apple is covered for their use of the cellular technology through their use of Qualcomm chipsets. The decision was revealed in the latest batch of legal sniping at the Mannheim Regional Court in Germany this morning, patent expert Florian Mueller reports, though Samsung also filed against Apple over a further four patents while the Cupertino company fired back with six suits of its own. Update:  The changes aren’t so clear-cut after all; more details after the cut. Samsung’s attempted use of 3G patents to cow Apple has been a particularly controversial strategy. Back in September, Apple accused its rival of manipulating open telecom standards, arguing that Samsung had in effect cheated in its handling of the 3G ratifications by failing to disclose that it held patents in certain technologies while simultaneously pushing for them to be included in the final standards. In fact, Apple

Samsung has sent its Galaxy Note for the States across the pond and it carries model number SGH-I171. The device is apparently different than the international version of the Note that we are familiar with already. Whereas the international version gets the Exynos processor in dual core flavor, the US version is getting a Snapdragon. That Snapdragon is still a dual-core unit and snapdragon chips have been used on other Galaxy devices for the US already. Apparently, the Snapdragon chip handles the 3G HSPA+ networks that T-Mobile and AT&T operate better than the Exynos processor. The US version does have 4G LTE radio inside as well. The LTE version of the Note went official in November. The US tablet will run Android like the international flavor and the big 5-inch screen makes it a cross between a tablet and smartphone. This will be an interesting form factor device for those that want to have one gadget that isn’t too big for a smartphone and isn’t too small for tablet duty. The Su

This has certainly been a year of hacks in the tech world. The biggest of all the hacks was the only on the Sony PSN that left millions of people wondering if their credit card data had been stolen. The PSN service was down for weeks before all the details came out and some claim Sony knew the scale of the hack before it announced it to customers. Details are now surfacing that the servers of Square Enix have been hacked, and 1.8 million user accounts were compromised. The hack was reported yesterday and Square Enix said that the hacker might have gained access to one particular server. The game company took its websites in Japan, and the US down while it looked into the severity of the attack. The result of the investigation found that a million users in Japan and 800,000 more in the US had accounts compromised. The good news is that the accounts that were hacked hold no credit card details. The only data in the accounts were person details like name, email, addresses, and phone numbe

Dell has ditched consumer netbooks and confirmed it has no plans to launch new budget ultraportables based on Intel’s upcoming Cedar Trail platform, shifting attention instead to ultrabooks. All of the company’s existing 10-inch netbooks have been removed from sale, Llliputing spotted, with would-be shoppers pointed to the Inspiron 14R instead. Business buyers hoping for a netbook can still find the Latitude 2120 for sale, though with prices starting from $469 they’re unlikely to find much favor among general consumers. Better, then, to wait for what Dell has up its sleeve next; the company confirmed to The Verge that its general netbook days were over and Intel’s Cedar Trail chips wouldn’t change that. Instead, “thin and powerful is where it is at for us” Dell marketing director Alison Gardner told the site, with models in the vein of the XPS 14z being the direction the PC company is looking to. Dell’s first ultrabooks are expected to show up in Q1 2012, meaning a CES reveal in early

Apple has again turned to Samsung for production of its iPad 2 and iPhone 4S processor, with a 1.6m square foot production facility in Austin, Texas, responsible for churning out the dual-core Apple A5 chipset. The $3.6bn production line only reached full capacity this month, Reuters‘ sources claim, with the bulk of the output going to satisfy Apple’s endless hunger for processors. The rest of the Samsung facility is at work producing NAND flash memory chips. Neither Samsung nor Apple would comment on either the production facility nor the nature of their supplier relationship. However, this certainly isn’t the first time the two have worked together on mobile processors; Samsung produces – and in fact co-designed – the Apple A4 single-core chip found in the first-gen iPad and the iPhone 4. The new facility – and its freshly-recruited workforce of 1,100 – is responsible for 40,000 silicon wafers per month. Supply to Apple began earlier in the year, though it’s only now that the line, c

Japanese gamers will be able to get their hands on a new limited-edition PS3 in a gold hue with a special design on the top starting on March 1, 2012. The limited-edition PS3 is gold and has a white drawing and some other styling cues on the top to celebrate the odd-looking game One Piece Warriors. Apparently, the game is very popular in Japan. The drawing on the top is apparently of Luffy’s hero from the game, and the indentions are meant to look like engraved charts. The gold isn’t shiny; it’s a matte surface. There will be custom themes that can be downloaded of the PS3 as well. The system also includes a matching wireless controller. The special-edition console will sell for 38,170 yen with tax included. The modem number is CEJH-10021. Sony has given the console the official name One Piece Pirate Warriors PlayStation 3 gold Edition. It has a 320GB HDD inside, and it comes with the game. The console will not play PS2 games.

Back in July, Google launched its in-app payments for developers in the US to use. We reported in August that the in-app payment API from Google was going to be rolling out internationally to support developers in other countries that want to make money from in-app purchases too. As of yesterday, the in-app payment API from Google is now available outside the US. Google has rolled the API out to 17 more countries. The countries that now have access include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The API allows the developer to take payments through the apps they sell on the Chrome Web Store. The API can also be used to take payments on apps sold on the developer websites. The API is said to be easy to use, and it has a large user base of people that already have Google wallet set up. The transaction fees internationally are the same as the fees are in the US

Google has been working with its driverless cars for a long time now. These cars use a lot to technology and other hardware attached to them to be able to navigate and drive itself and passengers around with no human input. Google has now been awarded a patent on some of the tech used in the driverless cars. I think driverless cars like this is the only way we will ever really combatdistracted driving. That said, I don’t want to see automated cars become mandated. The patent awarded has to do with the method the car uses to change from human controlled to driving itself around. Google sees applications for the technology the patent covers in things like driving tourists around and sending cars that need repairs to the shop. The patent is called Transitioning a Mixed-mode Vehicle to Autonomous mode. The patent app outlines sensors used to identify when the vehicle stops on a so-called landing strip, then a second set of sensors take over and receive data that tells the car where it is p

ASUS has thrown open UK pre-orders for the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, offering the Tegra 3 based Android tablet for £449 ahead of shipments beginning in January 2012. Only the 32GB WiFi model will be sold in the UK, bundled with the battery-toting keyboard dock, while those unwilling to wait for a quadcore can also get a discounted original Transformer to tide them over. The original Transformer is now just £299 for the 16GB model, slate-only, while the 16GB bundle with the keyboard dock is now £399. The 32GB Transformer – again, slate-only, is now £349. Promotional pricing will last until December 30. For most, though, the lure of the Prime will be too much to ignore. The 10.1-inch tablet has a high-quality IPS+ display, WiFi a/b/g/n, quadcore NVIDIA processor, an 8-megapixel main camera with 1080p Full HD video recording, and of course that special dual-battery capability. The internal battery on the Prime is rated for 12hrs alone, but the keyboard-dock adds a further 6hrs to that. A

Sony isn’t planning to kill off the Sony Ericsson brand until mid-2012, the company has said, but it seems the fat-trimming could have started already. The Sony Ericsson logo has been pulled down from the company’s corporate HQ in London, spotted by UK analyst Ben Wood, with only a pale blue shadow hinting at the halcyon days gone by. It’s not clear whether this is a temporary sign issue or an indication of a more long-term change, though given Sony’s plans for the company it seems more likely to be the latter. The building Sony Ericsson’s corporate team occupies is rented from a Middle Eastern investor and the company is only ten years into a 25-year lease; that can be broken in late 2016, it’s suggested, meaning it’s likely that the premises will be used for some other purpose until that point even if Sony/Sony Ericsson have no plans to continue the current team there. Sony announced plans to buy out Ericsson’s share in Sony Ericsson back in October, in a deal worth €1.05bn ($1.47bn)

Apple has rolled out iTunes Match for international users, offering those in the UK, Canada and other countries the chance to replicate their music collection in the cloud. After a premature – and quickly yanked – start earlier this week, the system is now live in numerous locations, priced at £21.99 in the UK and CA$27.99 in Canada. As we’ve already seen in the US, iTunes Match is Apple’s streamlined approach on cloud music storage. Rather than uploading all of your existing music, a potentially lengthy process depending on your broadband speed, iTunes Match scans your collection and pairs songs up with its own original copies in the cloud, at 256Kbps (even if the originals were lower – or indeed higher – quality). That music can then be streamed to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac, meaning less time syncing and more time dancing at your desk at work, on the bus or in the privacy of your own lodgings. The iTunes Match app is available in iTunes; more details on how to use it here.

Digitimes has just reported that Apple’s rumored 7.85-inch iPad is slated to be going into production next year, in late 2012. Electronic parts manufacturers talking to Digitimes believed that Apple has been staggering the release of a second model, and considering launching the iPad 3 towards early spring, but shipping a smaller model before the fall, leaving the summer as the potential launch target date. Previously detaliled production plans sees both AU Optronics and LG Display tapped to make the new screens for Apple’s tablet. In a release today, Digitimes reports that Apple is likely to launch a 7.85-inch iPad prior to the fourth quarter of 2012 in addition to a new iPad scheduled to be released at the end of the first quarter, according to sources in the supply chain.” Readers, how likely do you think this would be? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below. Although there are multiple sources that have claimed the coming launch of this never-before-seen mode

Earlier today we reported that Apple’s iOS 5.0.1 update today was the first iPhone 4S firmware build that’s both official and has an accessible encryption key for its main file system, thus meaning that browsing the device’s main file system with your PC is now possible. From a later tweet by iOS hacker @MuscleNerd, it seems that Apple has made a Siri port legally possible with today’s iOS 5.0.1 update by offering open access to system files that were previously encrypted. MuscleNerd, a figurehead in the iOS jailbreaking and hacking community, tweeted today that the iOS 5.0.1 update from today made iOS 5 on the iPhone 4 “(to clarify: wide open for inspection from a Mac/PC…not wide open security wise :) Can get Siri files and such without piracy)”. Previously, to legally run Siri, one would have to have access to an iPhone 4S unique identifier, and the key would need to be rotated every 24 hours to avoid being detected. If a large enough number of these devices start calling on Siri fro

Bill Gates today squelched all rumors (that have surfaced in the last week or so) that he was considering a return to being the head of Microsoft. During an interview with Fairfax Media in Australia, Gates stated that “I made the transition to work full-time on the [Bill & Melinda Gates] Foundation, and that’ll be what I do for the rest of my life.” Well, folks, I guess that’s it. The Microsoft co-founder (and once richest man in the world) will not be returning to the helm of the software company he built from the ground up. However, Gates stated that he’ll continue to to act as an advisor to Microsoft, since he has left the software giant to be involved in full-time philanthropy with his foundation (named after him and his wife) in 2008. “I’m part-time involved with Microsoft, including even being in touch this week to give some of my advice but that’s not going to change – the foundation requires all of my energy and we feel we’re having a great impact.”, he said. We wonder how

Coming off the release of Timeline worldwide this morning, Facebook has also announced Timeline’s launch on both the mobile web (at m.facebook.com) and the Android Facebook app, downloadable from the Android Markethere. This ties in to Facebook’s strategy to permeate not just the desktop environment, but also the ever-expanding mobile market with their new user interface for profiles, which was originally announced this early fall in September. Facebook describes Timeline as a “Mobile timeline (that) starts with your unique cover photo. As you scroll down, you’ll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened, back to the day you were born. Photo albums and other posts are horizontally swipeable, so you can quickly view multiple photos or posts inline without leaving timeline. You can also swipe through the views at the top of your timeline to navigate to your map, photos, subscribers and more.” Also, user posts now appear in several different ways on your mobile timeline. Pho

For those of you on the developer tip, you’re more than likely already working on the update that goes by the number 5.1, but for us lowly peasants, there a new build of 5.0.1 out there today for the iPhone 4S that goes by the name 9A406. This update is only one character away from the previous build 9A405 and apparently has somewhat of a hidden yet gigantic change in its guts. As iOS developer/hacker MuscleNerd noted earlier today: this is the first iPhone 4S firmware build that’s both official and has an accessible encryption key for its main file system, this pointing directly at your ability to browse the device’s main file system with your PC, no trouble! What this potentially means for hackers and lovers of the possibility that they might get the iPhone 4S experience for themselves alike is that Siri MIGHT be able to be accessed without committing what you and I might call piracy. Siri hacks might become even more abundant than they’ve been thus far, a true field day perhaps on t

Just a few weeks ago when the international edition of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was released, we were just thunderstruck over the idea that Adobe Flash Player was nowhere to be found – not on the phone or the Android Market – what we get to see today, on the other hand, on the day of the release of the Verizon version of this handset, is an update to that app and a free download on the market, right in the nick of time. This should come as no surprise, at least that the download would be available eventually, but as users will tell you: it’s nice to see that Adobe wasn’t just breathing smoke. This Ice Cream Sandwich compatible version of Adobe Flash Player 11 is essentially the same as it was yesterday before it was available for download on Ice Cream Sandwich devices. It’ll work just fine for you and yours and as always, it’s a free download on the Android Market. Now as far as making this download available here and now for Ice Cream Sandwich instead of some weeks ago we’re not aware

During RIM’s conference call to discuss its fiscal Q3 2012 earnings report, the company revealed that its major platform transition to BlackBerry 10 will be delayed. New devices running the new QNX-based BlackBerry 10, such as the rumored BlackBerry London, will not reach the market until late 2012. RIM also hinted that the BlackBerry 10 device would be dual-core and support 4G LTE. The company believes that this highly integrated dual-core LTE platform is needed for the phone to succeed, but that the selected processor best fit for the job will not be available until mid-2012. As a result, the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones will not arrive until the second half of 2012. RIM believes that its BlackBerry 7 offerings will be strong enough to tide them through, but it leaves them without an answer to the new developments that are sure to come from the iOS and Android platforms in early 2012. Additionally, RIM announced that its CO-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will be getting pay

This year’s nearest to the cup winners of the 2012 Car and Truck of the Year event have been announced, they starting out with the Ford Focus, the Hyundai Elantra, and the Volkswagen Passat on the Car side of the battle. In the Truck category you’ll find no less than the Honda CR-V, the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque (which I think should also get the most unnecessarily long name of the year award for all vehicles), and the BMW X3 (which is suitably short in name, of course). These three cars and three trucks were decided upon after much whittling was done across the masses of vehicles eligible for the prize this year. The people who do the whittling are 50 independent journalists in a jury taken from the United States and Canada. The three in each category will be voted upon on January 9th so all can see which vehicle wins the ultimate ribbon that says “you rock” this then leading to super sales across the country. The winning vote will take place during the North American Internationa

RIM released its fiscal Q3 2012 earnings report today and although the numbers are dismal, the company remains chipper about what lies ahead. Profits fell to just $256 million with a revenue of $5.2 billion, just shy of the projected $5.6 billion for this quarter. These numbers are down from $329 million in profit from the previous quarter and $911 million from the previous year. BlackBerry devices shipped 14.1 million units worldwide, which is up 33 percent from last quarter, an improvement likely due to the recent introduction of a slew of new BlackBerry 7 devices. Customer reach is now at 75 million, increasing 33 percent from last year, while revenues were up 24 percent from last quarter. The company is still struggling to move its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which shipped only 150,000 units this quarter. Earlier this month, RIM had announced that it would be taking a $485 million hit for its stockpiled PlayBooks to account for the reduced pricing. The global service outage in Octo

The saga continues to unfold in the matter of the data-mining finger-tap-recording application known as Carrier IQ, the one that just a couple of days ago the FBI was accused of using for “law enforcement purposes,” and today we get a response from that bureau on whether they actually did or did not. What the FBI is saying today is that no, of course the FBI would never do such a thing. In fact, they’re saying that they’ve never even requested information from Carrier IQ in the past, much less have they gotten any. Watch as this conversation unfolds on video, courtesy of who else by Senator Al Franken himself! For those of you new to this Carrier IQ party, the story is that this application sits on one whole HECK of a lot of smartphones out there today and records keystrokes on your device without you knowing it, sending that information then to the carrier your device is affiliated with. This is a real app and it’s really out there working right now — not everyone has it on their devi

If you’re the sort of person who follows technology news across multiple websites, you may be seeing a story about how Google has finally out-done the rest of the browsers in the world with their magical fantastical Chrome browser version 15. What you might not be seeing as clearly is that though this version of the browser has beaten Internet Explorer version 8.0, it’s still out-done by the the Microsoft-made browser on the whole. Those users who do not update their browsers when they should – aka your mother and father and your uncle Bob, they are the ones ruining the fun for the team at Microsoft. The folks at StatCounter are making the claim here that at the end of November of 2011, Chrome 15 made the monumental task a reality: beating out the newest version of Internet Explorer. This is the first time this has happened in quite a long time, and certainly will have the Internet Explorer team re-thinking their current method of updating their customers to the newest version of their

Now there’s a new way to control and navigate your Roku set-top box. Roku has released its official remote control app for your iPhone that goes beyond what the Apple Remote app does for the Apple TV. It offers not only traditional remote control capabilities but also provides a visual browser, letting you flip through channels directly on the iPhone without having to look up at your TV. The Roku remote app for iOS works on all models of the set-top box, from the original through the current year’s redesigned models. It can also be paired with multiple Roku boxes and works by connecting your iOS device to the box on the same network and then signing in with your Roku account. All existing services, such as Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, and Netflix can be accessed via the app. You simply touch-and-swipe to navigate and you can also rate channels and add or remove channels from your set-top box directly from the app. If you have the Roku 2 or Roku LT boxes, you’ll just have to make su

Earlier this week, Microsoft capitalized on the Android malware issues of late by offering free Windows Phonesto Android users that shared the virus “horror stories” they’ve experienced on Google’s platform. The call to action via Twitter used the hashtag #droidrage and got quite a response, now with more than 3,200 respondents. Windows Phone evangelist Ben Rudolph first initiated the challenge, offering those who shared their Android malware stories and upgrade to a Windows Phone. The top 5 most compelling stories would get the upgrade. Microsoft’s senior Director of Windows Phone communications, Bill Cox, reported that the challenge has received more than 3,200 responses. However, it’ll be difficult to tell which ones are legitimate and which ones fabricated for the sake of a free phone. Nonetheless, the timing wasn’t great for Microsoft as reports had just surfaced this week of a text messaging vulnerability on the Windows Phone. Due to the way the Mango operating system handles mes

Earlier this week week there were some pretty harsh accusations passed down regarding LightSquared and their GPS disruption in government tests – what we’re hearing from the CEO of LightSquared today is that they’re both baffled by the accusations and have done nothing but nice things for bunnies and kitties since they were born, basically. What mister Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of LightSquared, notes today is that not only have they had the legal and regulatory right to use their spectrum “for eight years over two administrations,” they’ve found that the testing mentioned in the reports from earlier this month did not come from their own spectrum, but from from GPS devices looking into spectrum also licensed to LightSquared. All that make sense to you so far, all that make it alright to have disrupted the GPS of poor defenseless little navigation machines across the nation? It’s not quite so simple as that, folks, and as Ahuja notes, the team at LightSquared has been working to fix the problem

Apple may be considering expanding its support for third-party accessories for iPhones and iPads. In a patent application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office this week and discovered by AppleInsider, Apple looks to be developing a new system that would detect an external device and then recommend compatible apps for it in the App Store. The patent filing is titled “Method and System for Locating an Accessory and an Application for Use With a User Device” and involves a system that can identify a variety of apps that can be used with a connected device. It could also recommend a range of hardware accessories that could work with particular apps that are already installed. The recommended hardware accessories could include game controllers, external speakers, and wireless headsets. Kiosks at a store can connect to a user’s iPhone to analyze it for a list of compatible accessories and provide the location of those accessories inside the store. Apple would also provide links to

The Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus, Google’s next hero device for it’s newest mobile operating system version Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, has been released today and pumped up by none other than the big G’s Senior Vice President of Mobile Andy Rubin, with the rest of the countries yet to receive such a privilege listed as well. We’ve got our own hands-on and unboxing of this device up in the archive already, and your humble narrator himself has a similar situation going on over at Android Community, so you’ll have no excuse but to grab that device for yourself once you realize how unabashedly awesome it is. That said, the waiting continues for the rest of the world citizens who don’t have this device in stores yet. Rubin today let us know that you’ll be able to pick the Galaxy Nexus up complete with 4G LTE capabilities from Verizon or your local Best Buy, Costco, or Radio Shack store. You’ll be able to pick this device up in Canada, the UK, Germany, Italy, Korea, and Japan rig