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The new theatrical trailer from Jo Hum Chahein. A new age love story between a young and ambitious playboy and a girl that he finally fall for, starring Sunny Gill , Simran Mundi , Alyy Khan, Achint Kaur & Others.

This past month the folks at LightSuared have had less than an awesome time dealing with the idea that their network had been accused of interfering with GPS receivers of all kinds, and this week after already having sent word out to the world that the whole thing was just a simple misunderstanding, they’ve petitioned the FCC directly to have them affirm their spectrum rights. LightSquared is currently looking into building a new national LTE network using frequencies that sit next to those generally devoted to GPS, and as their petition for declaratory ruling notes this week, they’re living in peace, not bashing each other around. On the other hand, specifically what they’re asking is that the FCC affirm that their rights to use the spectrum outweighs the fact that because GPS receivers are not licensed and do not operate inside service rules, they are not entitled to interference protection. LightSquared here is noting that they’ve done no wrong because the problem is caused, first o

There are a couple of games out there right now that show off the graphics finesse of whatever platform you play them on quite well, and in quite an easily comparable sense when it comes down to it, those being Riptide GP, a jet-ski racing game, and ShadowGun, a 3rd person shooter – today we’ve got these games being demonstrated on Verizon’s LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus. This device is the first to work natively with Google’s mobile OS by the name of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and runs a Texas Instruments OMAP4 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Is it enough to compete with such gaming titans as the ultra-powerful NIVIDA Tegra 3 quad-core processor toting ASUS Transformer Prime, or perhaps the iPad 2 for good measure? What you’re going to see below is a few videos, the first of which will be Riptide GP on the Galaxy Nexus, the second being ShadowGun on that same device, then you’ll be looking at a couple of videos that show off these same games on the two most powerful tablet devices o

Microsoft has announced that it is adding eight new TV channels to Xbox LIVE. The Xbox Dashboard recently got an overhaul with a new more Metro-styled interface along with the addition of new content and video services. The addition today is part of Microsoft’s plan to challenge cable TV and includes localized TV channels for both the US and Europe. The new Xbox Live TV channels include 4 on Demand (C4) and Demand 5 (Five) in the United Kingdom, M6 and MSN Video in France, UFC and VUDU in the United States, ABC iView in Australia, and Dailymotion available in 34 countries globally. Xbox Live was just updated last week with its first wave of new content and video services from YouTube, Rogers on Deman, Verizon FiOS TV, iHeartRadio, TMZ, and MSNBC. Video service outside of North America include SBS on Demand in Australia, Blinkbox in the UK, RTVE in Spain, and MUZU TV in several European countries.

As soon as it became apparent a few years ago that the mobile platform for applications wasn’t just going to be a secondary market, developers around the world pulled out their coding fingers and started typing away, creating games that have since grown to epic proportions: like Angry Birds, for example. In the game you’ve almost certainly played or have seen played in front of or behind you on a bus or airplane at some point, you simply pull back on a slingshot using your smartphone’s touch display and let it loose, knocking down targets. A game as simple as that became so earth-shatteringly popular that the group who made it, Rovio, is creating a television show, has their own shop (and soon line of shops) containing physical merchandise, and they’ve made millions of dollars from the game and subsequent games alone. And it all comes back down to the fact that it feels so RIGHT to play it on your smartphone – wouldn’t you say? What you’ve got here is a case of “why didn’t I think of t

The US International Trade Commission has issued its initial ruling favoring Microsoft in the patent feud with Motorola. The initial determination finds that Motorola’s Android products are infringing four claims of a Microsoft patent. However, a final review and ruling is still required to pass through the full Commission. “We are pleased with the ITC’s initial determination finding Motorola violated four claims of a Microsoft patent,” said Microsoft in a statement today. “As Samsung, HTC, Acer and other companies have recognized, respecting others’ intellectual property through licensing is the right path forward.” This latest ruling adds more pressure to Google’s Android platform and its partners, which have been besieged by patent suits. In a separate ITC ruling yesterday, HTC was slapped with a ban of of its Android devices due to violating an Apple patent. This patent, however, is a system level technology that could implicate the entire Android platform as a whole.

We recently got a peak at the pricing of Intel’s mobile Ivy Bridge lineup and now the pricing for the Ivy Bridge desktop CPUs have leaked. This next-gen family of processors is based on the new 22nm 3D Tri-Gatearchitecture and the leaked Intel roadmap earlier this month revealed that the processors can be expected to arrive in the second quarter of next year. The wholesale pricing leaked gives a good idea as to which next-gen processor falls in line with the current-gen Sandy Bridge processor. The pricing ranges from the lower-end Core i5 models starting at $184 to $332 for the Core i73770K that sports an unlocked multiplier for overclocking. Most of the pricing for the new models fall right in line with current-gen models, except for the Core i5-3570K, which is priced at $225 compared to $216. Intel also continues to offer energy efficient “S” and “T” models without a premium on pricing. Most models are expected to be available in April with the dual-core Core i5-3470T expected in May

The recent explosion of Apple’s iPad 2 factory operated by Pegatron in Shanghai, China is now being linked to a build up of fine aluminum dust. This is the same culprit in the Foxconn factory explosion earlier this year, where aluminum dust particles in the iPad 2 polishing workshop combusted. The last Foxconn explosion killed 3 workers and injured 15. This time’s explosion did not cause a fire but it injured 61 workers with 23 having to be hospitalized for observation. The China Labor Watch, an independent not-for-profit organization that works with unions and labor groups to assess factories in China, released a statementabout the blast. “The blast in Riteng is a result of aluminum dust in the workshop where iPad cases are polished,” said CLW in its statement. “A similar blast happened in the same workshop of a Foxconn’s factory in Chengdu, killing 3 workers and hurting another 15.” CLW also emphasized that “there is a sharp contrast between the strong performance of Apple and the po

Starting in the year 2012 and in the month of January, Facebook will be starting the flood of ads in their main news feed with a trickle: one sponsored ad in your main feed per day at the start, with these ads appearing as normal posts save for the small “Sponsored” tag in the comment line. Users wont be able to opt out of seeing sponsored ads in their main news feed, and mobile news feed stories MAY be in the works for 2012 as well. It appears that a few sites from all walks of life such as Inside Facebook and TechCrunch have received confirmation from Facebook that these changes will appear, again, at the start of 2012. There’s almost certainly no way this action, in whatever set of forms it ends up showing up in, will receive heavy backlash from Facebook users and defectors alike. Facebook will be pushing this project as a value-added adventure where advertisers show off their awesome wares through your friends activities, much better than traditional banner ads, for example. On the

If you’re in the market for a new Honda Civic, you might want to wait for next year’s model as the company is planning a major upgrade for the Civic sedan in 2013. the announcement follows after a year of weak sales on the current model, which also racked up poor reviews, ranking near the bottom of its category in Consumer Reports. The current Civic has been criticized for a decline in interior quality and for a choppier and noisier ride. It failed to received the “recommended” status that was bestowed by Consumer Reports to previous Civic models. However, Honda doesn’t attribute this to a drop in quality but claims that it is due to competitors catching up. Honda also blames this year’s low sales on the natural disasters in both the earthquake in Japan and the floods in Thailand that caused an inventory shortage. Tetsuo Iwamura, chief executive of Honda in North America, revealed in an interview today that the new 2013 upgraded Civic model would go on sale late next year and that it w

Not that we ever though Google would really abandon its best buddy in the world Mozilla, but the news that Firefox would lose 84% of its revenue certainly came as a shock to us as it was reported earlier this month – it appears now though that this disaster for the big red panda was a false alarm, Google renewing their contract for a further three years. Kind of reminds you of Jurassic Park, doesn’t it? Financial terms were not disclosed, but the Silicon Valley nonprofit software makers whose most famous product is the web browser itself are certainly high-fiving one another today as Google remains the default search engine for the browser. The last agreement made that was announced to be expiring this November was made all the way back in 2008. Mozilla then penned an agreement to have Google be the default web-search sitting in the corner of their browser for three years, until now when, once again, they’ve signed for a further three years. Meanwhile Google maintains that their own we

There’s a purchase out there today that you really aught to pay attention do, ladies and gentlemen, that being Apple’s purchase of Israeli start-up SSD maker Anobit, creators of storage products already found in devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air. This group has apparently gathered together to speak about how they’ve been payed aproximately $500 million USD to be purchased, this according to Israeli newspaper Calcalist. In addition, the Prime Minister of Israel himself sent out a Twitter update which welcomed Apple to the country, congratulating them on their first acquisition in the country. Apple will use Anobit’s technology as they have been in future iterations of their mobile devices, flash chip technology being significantly less expensive to them when they literally own the company producing the hardware. We’ll see how this affects the amount of flash memory available in future devices – hopefully we’ll be seeing 128GB iPhones inside 2012 – sound good to you? Neit

When the decision came down to approve the .XXX domain name this year for the web, there was madness and anarchy, clamoring to either get that perfect porn-related name for ones self or to block the enemy from doing so – this is now set to continue through 2012 and beyond as ICANN (the authorities on such things) have approved the expansion of generic top level domains, this allowing groups to create such gems as .coke, .derp, and .whatevertheywant. Companies will have to pay a healthy sum for such rights as these, dropping no less than $185,000 USD for the application process alone. When you’re starting up your own business and want it to be represented online, the first place you really aught to go is with a .COM. After that, it’s all out in the open – until now of course, where not just such things as .NET and .ORG are out there. There’s been a limited set of Top Level Domains up until now including .US and .CA amongst many, many others, but starting in January of 2012, ICANN will b

It appears that the folks over at Patently Apple have found themselves in possession of a lovely cornucopia of newly won patent applications created by Apple over the past however-many years, this including such gems as the second generation iPod Shuffle and the ability to switch between applications during a call on the iPhone. As per usual, these patents don’t necessarily point towards anything that’ll be released in the near future, and in the case of the iPod Shuffle certainly weren’t meant to be kept under wraps for long, but each are interesting to glance upon to know the process. As you’ll find here first of all, Steve Jobs name still remains very much engrained in the guts of these transactions. The first of these applications details a button which allows the user to switch apps on their iPhone while they remain on a call. This application shows that you’ll be able to finger tap the application switch icon on the same screen as their phone dialer, then switch back with a “Touc

When it comes to mergers of a grand scale, there’s no lack of ambiance around the most recent: Nuance Communications Inc has announced just today that it has signed and agreement to acquire no less than Vlingo for a power combination of voice assistant and natural language understanding solutions for everything from TVs to phones to tablets to PCs and smart cars. This “$5 billion market opportunity” as they say will work to attain the masses hungry for such abilities since you-know-who incorporated Siri into their iPhone 4S earlier this year. Is this the combination the rest of the mobile world needs to keep the voice assistance ball rolling? Everyone appears to be high-fiving one another in both companies as they see this combination as a killer contribution to the future of smart devices on the whole. As Mike Thompson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Nuance Mobile says: “Inspired by the introduction of services such as Apple’s Siri and our own Dragon Go!, virtually every

Sony has admitted it made a mistake with how PSP games were handled, dropping the ball when thePS3 arrived, and insists that it will not make the same mistake the the PS Vita. “”In the past we launched PSP and then shifted our attention to PS3 when that came on the horizon, which we now concede was a mistake” Sony worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida told the official PlayStation blog, “so with PS Vita we are working on this huge range titles and planning ahead for a constant supply of excellent games.” “Generally we look three years ahead when we work on games” Yoshida says, with Sony having a “fairly firm plan” to take it up until 2013. The PS Vita went on sale in Japan over the weekend, selling 321,000 units in its first two days. Meanwhile, Yoshida was at pains to point out that Sony will not be pushing augmented reality onto PS Vita gamers unnecessarily, despite AR being a key part of what the handheld was designed to support. The company has demonstrated its SmartAR technol

Myriad, the company behind the Alien Dalvik runtime that allows native Android apps to run on iOS and other platforms, has launched Myriad Alien Vue, intended to put apps on TVs and set-top boxes. Compatible with existing sets and STBs, rather than demanding a new smart TV box, Alien Vue comes with an app store and support for features like multi-screen playback and cross-platform TV/smartphone/tablet viewing. Initially there’s support for Android apps intended for Google TV, which itself was recently updated to Android 3.1 and began offering Android Market access. There’s also HTML5 app compatibility, with apps including YouTube, Netflix and Twitter. As with the other Alien Dalvik implementations, part of the magic is that apps require no modification, despite not actually running on an Android-based device. Meanwhile, tablets and smartphones can then be used as remote controls and portable interfaces for what’s going on on-screen, as in the video demo below. Myriad Group is targeting

Google faces renewed attention from the US Federal Trade Commission this week, as the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee reiterates demands for the search giant to be investigated over potentially unfair practices. “A key question is whether Google is using its market power to steer users to its own web products or secondary services and discriminating against other websites with which it competes” chairman Senator Herb Kohl and panel member Senator Herb Kohl wrote to the FTC today, Bloomberg reports, with the company’s behavior being seen to “warrant a thorough investigation by the FTC.” The fresh attention will come as a disappointment to Google, which may have hoped that an placatory appearance by chairman Eric Schmidt last month before the subcommittee might have swayed its opinion. Schmidt was careful to downplay Google’s role as a potential antitrust threat, pointing out that technologies like Apple’s Siri would present “a competitive threat” to its own business. That was Sc

AMD has outed its latest A-Series desktop and notebook processors, with a thirteen-strong line-up of new dual- and quad-core Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). The new chips offer up to four x86 cores paired with up to 400 Radeon graphics cores, with dedicated HD video processing and AMD Steady Video, providing real-time smoothing and stabilization for jerky clips. Meanwhile, there are also the first ever unlocked APUs for overclocking enthusiasts. The integrated graphics on the single APU chip can also be bolstered by a standalone AMD Radeon graphics card, delivering up to 144-percent more performance when the A-Series is paired with an HD 6500 Series GPU. There’s also Internet Explorer 9 integration for Steady Video, offering smoother streaming video playback. As for unlocked models, the AMD A8-3870K and A6-3670K APUs can be overclocked by up to 500MHz for the CPU and 200MHz on the GPU. AMD’s first new A-Series desktop APUs will begin showing up in commercial systems and as standal

Archos has unveiled a new internet tablet in the UK. The tablet is called the Archos 70b internet tablet. It sells for £179.99 and runs on the Android Honeycomb OS. The 70b is a new and enhanced version of the older Archos 70 internet Tablet. The new 70b has a 1.2GHz processor and it has access to the full Android Market. Update:  The Archos 70b Internet Tablet will drop in the US next month, priced at $199.99. Full Market access gives you access to all 300,000 apps on the Android Market. The tablet has a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600, which is a higher resolution update to the original tablet screen. The 70b has 512MB of RAM onboard allowing for better multitasking and a smoother web experience. The 70b tablet will also get WiFi and 3D graphics acceleration. It comes with some apps on web browser and email integrated. Other features have HDMI output and microSD connectivity. That HDMI output will let you shoot content out to your TV.

Last month Apple made a recall notice public for the first generation iPod nano players. Apparently, there was an issue with the entire generation that could lead to overheating. Apple will be offering all owners a replacement unit. That would seemingly hint that the first gen units will be replaced with the new sixth generation units. It’s time to start digging around in the drawers around your house and find those old units for a free upgrade. The recall was only on the first gen nano, all other versions of the nano are the same. Users have previously reported long delays getting their replacement nanos. New updates are suggesting the hardware is the latest nano model. It would be hard to replace all first gen units with other first gen units. Apparently, Apple did have some refurbished units lying around. Perhaps the plan was to get the recalled units in and fix them for an exchange supply. Serial numbers on shipping replacements resolve to the newest models.

T-Mobile USA owner Deutsche Telekom has gleefully set out exactly what it can expect from AT&T as its break-up fee, after the collapse of the acquisition deal this week. AT&T was originally to pay $39bn for T-Mobile USA; now, with regulators frowning on the deal, the carrier will be forced to cough up what Deutsche Telekom describes as a “record high break-up fee” of $3bn in cash and “a large package” of AT&T’s AWS spectrum. A long-term US-wide UMTS roaming agreement is also mandatory. “This is one of the highest payments ever agreed between two companies for the termination of a purchase agreement” Deutsche Telekom said in a statement about the break-up fee. While the cash will be welcome in the company’s bank account, it’s the AWS spectrum AT&T is forced to hand over that could really be the prize: a package consisting of spectrum in 128 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs), including 12 of the top 20 markets. “Both companies are in agreement that the broad opposition by the

When it comes to social networking none of the musicians out there today do it as well as Lady Gaga. She is the most followed person on Twitter and has a Facebook fan page with tens of millions of users. The official Gaga Facebook and Twitter pages were recently the target of attacks by hackers. Attackers posted messages that appeared to be coming from Gaga claiming to give free iPad 2 tablets to the users of the sites. The links with the posts sent the users to a website that collected personal details, which was apparently part of a phishing scam. The attacks are thought to have been specifically targeting the singer’s accounts because they used “monsters” which is what the singer calls her fans. One of the messages read, “Monsters, I’m giving away FREE ipad2′s to each one of you in the spirit of the holidays :)” Web stats show that 100,000 visitors to the web page followed the link. Gaga isn’t the only social networking artists that has been targeted by attacks. BBC reports that Mar

Barnes & Noble has slammed shut the loophole allowing NOOK Tablet owners to install third-party apps, pushing out a new firmware update – v1.4.1 – that closes the door on all but the retailer’s own, approved software. Described as making “minor system enhancements” to the Android-based ereader by B&N itself, the software significantly limits the general usefulness of the NOOK Tablet for those wanting to do more than basic reading and browsing. The Ebook Reader found that existing apps side-loaded onto the NOOK Tablet are still present and functional after the v1.4.1 firmware has been installed. However, attempting to run a package installer for a new app prompts an error message saying only software from B&N’s NOOK Store can be loaded. That basically means that those who keep up to date with the latest firmware are stuck with Barnes & Noble’s selection of around 2,000 apps, rather than the many thousands generally available. The absence of Android Market access was frus

Chevy has pulled the wraps of the new Sonic RS sporty small car ahead of the official introduction at the North American International Auto show. The new RS version of the Sonic is aimed at younger drivers looking for a car with style that is still cheap to own and operate. The Sonic RS has a turbocharged engine at 1.4L displacement putting out 138HP and 148 lb-ft of torque.

Microsoft has released two new apps for the iOS platform, Microsoft Lync 2010 for iPhone and Lync 2010 for iPad, targeted at enterprise users with an Apple gadget in their pocket or bag. Both free downloads – though requiring a Lync Server or Office365/Lync Online account in order to actually function – the two apps offer instant messaging, audio conferencing and VoIP calls while on the move. Real-time availability updates are given, as well as single-touch Lync conference call participation to avoid having to punch in lengthy passcodes. There’s also transport layer security (TLS) and perimeter/internal network protection, neither of which demand a VPN, for increased data security. Although of little interest to non-enterprise customers, the new smartphone and tablet apps are a sign that Microsoft’s software teams are taking Apple’s iPhone and iPad market penetration seriously. The company obviously has its own tablet strategy in the pipeline, with Windows 8 expected to show up on mode

Star Wars: The Old Republic is launching today and is one of the coolest MMORPG games I have seen in a long time. Any Star Wars fan will want to check this game out. The game launches officially today and last night many gamers around the world lined up to be among the first to get their hands on the game. Anything Star Wars related often means that geeks will be dressed up and apparently, that happened last night in major cities like NYC, Paris, London, and Austin. The new game is a story driven MMO that allows the fans of the franchise to start their own saga in the Star Wars universe. The game is from EA, BioWare and LucasArts. It has high quality voice acting, full story lines, and lots of personal choices for the player to make that will have consequences. The MMO is set a thousand years before the Star Wars movies. Players can choose to join with the Galactic Republic or the Sith Empire. There are eight Star Wars characters to choose from with a Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggl

EA Games has kicked off its App Store games sale, offering dozens of iPhone and iPad apps for under a dollar as the company prepares for the holiday season. Titles in the promotion (which has started with a £0.69 sale in the UK, and is expected to spread to the US imminently) include  FIFA 11 ,  Mirror’s Edge  and  Transformers: Dark of the Moon HD  on the iPad, as well as  Need for Speed Undercover ,  SimCity Deluxe  and  Ultimate Mortal Kombat  on the iPhone. Check out the full list after the cut. While EA Games’ deals do offer a few bargains for would-be iOS gamers, the company has a more strategic ambition in mind than simply offering holiday cheer. Apple’s App Store team goes on vacation for eight days over the Christmas period, during which time the download store’s various charts are frozen. Developers who have secured a place on those charts – by suddenly selling thousands of copies of $0.99 games, for instance – can expect a huge surge of sales when a new batch of iPhone, iPad

Google has announced that it has made a new $94 million investment in clean solar energy. The investment will go into four different solar projects that Google is having built by Recurrent Energy near Sacramento, California. With the new investment, the total that Google has spent on clean energy so far is $915 million. The new $94 million investment is the first in the US that Google has made that is designed to create energy for the grid instead of panels mounted on individual rooftops. All together, the four solar projects can create 88MW of power, which is enough electricity to power 13,000 homes. Google invested in the new projects along with investment firm KKR and Recurrent energy. The remaining money needed to fund the four projects is being provided by SunTap Energy. SunTap is a new venture that was formed by KKR for solar project investments in the US. Google plans to continue investing in clean energy in 2012.

Apple‘s acquisition of flash memory specialist Anobit has apparently been finalized, reports from Israel suggest, with the NAND controller company’s tech used to boost capacity, performance and reliability of storage in future smartphones, tablets and notebooks. Initially rumored earlier this month, the Anobit buy has now gone through for roughly $400-500m Calcalist reports. Apple could also use the buy to set up an Israel-based R&D center, it’s suggested. Although neither company has yet officially confirmed the deal, Israel’s Prime Minister seems to have decided it’s all legitimate enough to comment. “Welcome to Israel, Apple Inc. on your 1st acquisition here” the official Twitter feed said earlier today, “I’m certain that you’ll benefit from the fruit of the Israeli knowledge.” Anobit’s speciality is its “Memory Signal Processing“ (MSP) tech, signal processing algorithms that promise “a dramatic improvement” in speed, longevity and system cost in addition to various complex erro

Microsoft’s Windows Phone team has lost another top-tier exec, as the company’s General Manager for Developer and Marketplace, Matt Bencke, has been quietly moved to the Xbox LIVE team. Bencke’s role changed at the end of November, ZDNet‘s sources claim, preceding Windows Phone chief Andy Lees being apparently “benched” for over-promising and under-delivering; the shift could be a sign that Microsoft is looking to move Windows Phone – or its marketing, at least – into the Windows division. That, insiders have speculated, is the first part of the process for closer integration of Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Although unconfirmed by Microsoft – and indeed the company refuses to comment on it – one belief is that the two platforms will merge their respective app stores, the Windows Phone Marketplace and the Windows 8 Store. However, it could also go further than mere marketing, and Bencke’s transition to the other team might be another step down the road to significant integration of the

There is no shortage of geek modes of transport to get you around town with as little energy expenditure as possible. Not long ago we talked about the Honda compo concept scooter that would do the job and is easy to pack into the trunk of a car. A new project has turned up on Kickstarter that will get you around in geeky style. The project is called spnKIX Wearable Mobility.

I really like cars, especially sports cars. I really like geeky tech products to and when tech and geeky products meet, I tend to go Pavlovian and drool on my keyboard. The latest tech/car mashup is the Flash Rods Mercedes SLS Hard Drive. It’s not quite as geek as the Back to the Future HDD we saw from Flash Rods last year mind you, but I think the car is cooler in SLS form. Inside the 1:18 scale replica of the SLS is a 2.5-inch 500GB HDD. Generally, the cars that Flash Rods use start out as toys like Hot Wheels cars or other brands. This particular SLS version has a hood that opens and the gull wing doors actually work. The USB port for connecting the thing to your computer is set into the back of the car. You can order one of these up in Black, Red, or Silver for $250. That’s not such a bad price if you are a big fan of cool storage devices. This would certainly look better sitting on your desk than a normal external storage device.

We talk about a lot of iPhone speaker docks around here, and generally, they are crammed with digital amps and other electronic whatnots. This iPhone stand is different because it is an acoustic stand with no electronics that uses a horn like some sort of demented trumpet to increase the sound from your iPhone. The device is called the Trumstand. You slip your iPhone into the dock holder, and that s-curve tube picks up the music from the speaker on the bottom of your smartphone and shoots it through the bends until it comes out of the horn opening like an old crank record player. There are two versions of the Trumstand with one offering gold plating and the other in sterling silver. I would like to hear this and see what it sounds like. The s-curve in the design is supposed to increase the bass output of the music. The device is made in Japan by a firm called Pleiades. What do you think about this, would such a strange design sound good?

We have been hearing a lot about the Sony PS Vita over the last few months leading up to its Japanese launch. The little portable console will launch here in the US in early 2012. In Japan, the launch has already come and Sony is reporting robust sales of the device. We had heard previously that the console had sold out in pre-orders in Japan. Sony has officially offered no sales numbers so far. The tip on the Vitas it has sold totaling 321,000 in the first two days of sales alone comes from research firm Enterbrain. That would put the Vita about 50,000 units behind the 3DS sales numbers for its first two days of sales. However, the sales of the 3DS dropped significantly after the first week. The Vita could fare better though; one of the key issues with the 3DS has always been the lack of games for the console. The Vita has a much stronger line up of games for launch with 24 titles in all. The Vita did sell well in comparison to the old Sony PSP with Reuters reporting that the PSP sold

Dell has officially unveiled the Streak Pro D43, a touchscreen smartphone for the Chinese market that runs the Baidu-Yi platform on specs that would please many an Android buyer. Fronted by a 4.3-inch 950 x 540 qHD Super AMOLED touchscreen and toting a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor inside its vaguely Nexus-esque chassis, the Dell Streak Pro offers easy access to the well-used Baidu network of services in China. Baidu-Yi was developed especially by Baidu for domestic Chinese smartphones, built on top of Android but replacing much of the original Google software with the network’s own alternatives. There’s Ting music, Baidu Maps instead of Google Maps, the Baidu Yue ereader, and – perhaps most importantly – Google search has been stripped out and replaced with Baidu search. That adds up to a device that’s far more focused and suited to the sort of use Chinese customers might be intending, even though it’s not – in its current form at least – ready for primetime outside of the count

Netflix has inked a deal with the BBC that will see the UK TV company’s content available to streaming customers in the UK and Ireland come 2012. Both current and classic shows will be on offer, including Torchwood ,  Spooks  and  Fawlty Towers , mimicking the current deals Netflix has in the US and Canada. The streaming movie and TV show provider announced back in October that it would be launching a UK and Ireland service come early 2012. Exact timescales haven’t been confirmed, but the company has been busy signing deals with content owners such as MGM ahead of its launch. BBC content will be available on connected TVs, tablets, game consoles, computers and phones, as well as using standalone STBs such as the Roku range also expected to land in the UK next year. The BBC already offers UK users iPlayer access on smart TVs and mobile devices, for streaming catch-up access to recent shows, but back-catalog content is limited.

Seagate has completed its $1.4bn acquisition of Samsung’s hard-drive business, taking on production as well as research & development of traditional platter-based discs while Samsung focuses on flash memory. Announcedback in April, the deal will also see Samsung provide NAND flash to Seagate for use in the company’s SSDs and hybrid SSD/HDD drive line-up. “Samsung employees joining Seagate include a number of senior managers and design-engineering employees from Samsung’s Korea facility,” the two companies have confirmed, “who will focus on development of small form-factor products for the mobile compute market.” The exact nature of those SFF products is unclear at this stage. Hard-drives currently found in Samsung’s line-up will, in some cases, continue to be available with the same branding for the next 12 months. Those with Samsung drives still under warranty will continue to be covered for that period, of course. However, moving forward Seagate has slashed its warranty period on

iPhone and iPod touch users running older versions of iOS have found themselves blocked from downloading software from Apple’s App Store, owner complaints have revealed, with no official fix in sight. The issue, widely reported in Apple’s support forums, affects devices running iOS 3.1.3 and leaves them unable to grab free or paid apps, rate software, view official screenshots or send details to others using the “tell a friend” option. Complaints seemingly began after a December 16 update, leaving owners able to update the apps they currently have installed but not acquire any new ones. The timing of the issue could well prove frustrating to owners and developers, with Apple’s holiday “lock-down”fast approaching. App Store staff take an eight day break from Thursday this week, during which point no new apps are added and the various charts are frozen. That can mean big rewards for any developers lucky enough to get their software in those charts in time, which often means cut-price dow

HTC may have been banned from importing some of its smartphones into the US, but the company is still describing the outcome of its patent suit with Apple as a success. The US ITC “declared an actual victory for HTC” the company told the FT, because out of the ten infringements Apple alleged, only one was found to be valid. Meanwhile half of the claims on a previous ruling have also been rejected. “This decision is a win for HTC and we are gratified that the commission affirmed the judge’s determination on the ’721 and ’983 patents, and reversed its decision on the ’263 patent and partially on the ’647 patent. We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. The ’647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon” HTC investor statement HTC has until April 19 to comply with the decision of the ITC, which either means modifying offending products or ceasing import of them by that point. It seems from the company’s reaction to t

Samsung has officially confirmed the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade schedule for its current line-up of smartphones and tablets, promising that the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note will see Android 4.0 in Q1 2012. Eight devices are listed as in line for upgrades, including the Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy R smartphones and the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. Specific timescales for each model – as well as carrier variants – will follow. However, the original Galaxy S is not on Samsung’s list for a shot of ICS next year, which will come as a disappointment to buyers of the best-selling smartphone. Samsung had the first play of Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Nexus, Google’s third official Android device and a flagship for v4.0 as well as new features like Android Beam, the NFC-based information transfer system. What remains to be seen is how quickly carriers can work with Samsung to have new versions of the OS delivered to their variants of the Galaxy

Shortly after prevailing over Apple in a legal battle over the the overturned ban on its Galaxy Tab earlier this month in Australia, Samsung has vaulted to the top of the mobile market, overtaking Apple to take the top position in the country’s mobile market, according to a press release from IDC today. The Korean electronics giant is taking some impressive steps, no, more like leaps with this move into the next calendar year. Kudos to them, now only if the Galaxy Nexus launch was handled better, instead of having tempted us with waves of rumors after rumors, just saying. According to IDC, Android now holds 49% of the entire smartphone market share in Australia, with Apple’s iOS following close trailing behind at 36% market share. IDC market analyst Yee-Kuan Lau offers the following explanation that “While Apple’s iPhone shipments slowed down in preparation for its new iPhone 4S launch in New Zealand, Samsung led the smartphone market for the first time with some of its flagship models

Well, Nokia has just sent out press invitations confirming its plans for an CES press event at the Las Vegas convention center. From the looks of it, the phone company is slated for a presentation the afternoon of January 9, the day before CES formally starts, and the focus is clearly going to be oriented towards something Windows Phone-esque, as the press invitation depicts the (surprise, surprise) Windows Metro UI tile theme. On the press invitation, Nokia says to “Join our press conference and get the latest news from Nokia, hear from some of the leading minds in the industry about the future of smart devices and applications and witness stunning demos of Nokia technology in action.” Really, Nokia? Can you be any more generic than that? Although we’re guessing that it’s going to be somehow Lumia-related, just saying. Nokia hasn’t done a huge amount lately, having been overshone by the likes of the plethora of Android devices (and I’m looking especially at you, long-awaited Galaxy Ne

What do you get when you combine two technically cool, existing services? Well, you get to shop for electronics by your voice, if those two services were Apple’s Siri technology, and Wolfram Alpha’s knowledge base. A new feature announced by Wolfram Alpha allowing its users to browse through Best Buy’s electronics data provides iPhone 4S Siri users with another novel way to shop and compare products by using none other then their voice. That’s a seriously cool mashup, I’d have to say. Apple has noted that it will be gradually expanding the capabilities of its Siri voice assistance service of Apple’siPhone 4S, but enhancements from the sources Siri calls upon, in this particular instance, the Wolfram Alpha knowledge base, can also add to Siri’s vast ability bank. Furthermore, Wolfram Alpha reports that it is has been leveraging data from Best Buy’s public API platforms to query the retailer’s vast database of 35,000 products. According to Apple Insider, users can “search for a general p