IBLOG SPACE

Skyrim fans that have an iPhone or iPad need to get ready to buy the latest app from Bethesda and Prima. The companies have announced the launch of an interactive map application that will help fans of the videogame explore the massive world without getting lost. The giant interactive map is free to download. Some of the goodies that you will probably want do require in-app purchases. Map includes a world map of Skyrim and all nine capital cities at no cost. There are over 160 interior maps, 350 primary locations, 200 secondary locations, and another 1000 points of interest. All of that content requires in-app purchases. You can toggle the points of interest on or off and the map has 3200 percent zoom so you can see all the details. Players can also add their own custom points of interest. The application has a fully integrated search function to make it easy to find things you want to visit. There are also screenshots of all nine capital cities along with the primary and secondary loc

We have talked about Looxcie wearable cameras many times over the years. These cameras look sort of like giant Bluetooth headsets and record video from the wearer’s point of view. The company has now announced a collaboration with Taser, the maker of Taser devices police officers use to subdue bad guys without having to shoot them. The collaboration has resulted in a device called the Axon Flex. The Flex is a small camera that clips on the side of the ubiquitous Oakley shades that many police officers wear today. The product is set to be available in the first quarter of 2012 and supports real-time video recording and streaming from the officer’s point of view. The camera system will sell for about $700 and is specifically designed to work with the Oakley Flak Jacket sunglasses. There will be additional mounting options as well including a collar mount, epaulette mount, and a mount for a baseball cap or helmet. An optional extended controller has a 12-hour battery life and has a buffer

RIM has released BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 for its 7-inch tablet, finally adding much-needed features like a native email app and social networking integration, as well as turning your BlackBerry phone into a remote control. The free upgrade is available today, bringing with it select Android app compatibility; RIM says the BlackBerry App World is also being updated with “a range” of Android apps that will work with the PlayBook. Although the PlayBook was first put on sale in April 2011, RIM opted to release the tablet without its own email abilities. Instead, users who wanted on-device email access had to tether the PlayBook to their BlackBerry smartphone; otherwise the only way to access messages was through the browser. RIM’s motivations were seemingly speed to market and an attempt to spur handset sales as well, but the strategy backfired. That’s been addressed now with OS 2.0, which also brings a new Print To Go app, a boosted on-screen keyboard with better prediction and auto-co

Samsung has offered up the official specifications for a pair of new smartphones ahead of Mobile World Congress. The two new devices are the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 and the Galaxy Mini 2. Each of the smartphones appears to be aimed at folks shopping in the lower-middle end of the smartphone realm. As things happen in the smartphone market, the devices are expected to show up at various carriers under different names and will launch in Europe first. The Galaxy Ace 2 has 800 MHz dual-core processor under the hood with 4 GB of internal storage. The smartphone has a 1500 mAh battery and rocks a 3.8-inch WVGA display. The smartphone will run Android 2.3 and is expected to hit stores this spring sporting a Navy blue battery cover. The Mini 2 has lesser specifications with an 800 MHz single-core processor. It will have a 1300 mAh battery and 3.27-inch HVGA screen. It will have a yellow-gold back. The Mini 2 will also run Android 2.3 and will land in France this March. The Ace 2 will land in UK s

Apple’s iPhone 4S will arrive on China Telecom come March 9, the Chinese carrier has confirmed, priced from free with a select contracts. Already available on China Unicom – with a somewhat disastrous launch that saw Apple’s stores freeze sales of the coveted handset after queues turned violent – the second carrier will begin taking reservations for the smartphone from March 2. The further push in China is part of Apple’s ongoing growth strategy, the country being a huge opportunity to boost the company’s already impressive sales. The brand has strong customer recognition in the country; in fact, delays in launching the iPhone 4S and the growth of grey-market demand for the smartphone were cited by some as the root cause of the unrest seen at its launch. China Telecom currently has around 130 million subscribers, though the carrier isn’t predicting how many it expects to see pick up an iPhone 4S. Similarly, sales figures for China Unicom are also yet to be released. All three capacity

Google has fired back at Microsoft over claims the search company bypasses privacy systems in Internet Explorer, arguing that its rival’s P3P policies are “widely non-operational” and incompatible with today’s web use. Microsoft had suggested that Google did not observe the so-called “self-declaration protocol”, or P3P, which demands sites present a machine-readable version of their privacy practices. However, in a statement by senior VP of communications and policy, Rachel Whetstone, Google says Microsoft’s system is outdated and over-involved, and more importantly breaks features like the Facebook “Like” button. “Newer cookie-based features are broken by the Microsoft implementation in IE. These include things like Facebook “Like” buttons, the ability to sign-in to websites using your Google account, and hundreds more modern web services. It is well known that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing this web functionality” Rachel Whetstone, senior VP of

LG can’t stop announcing phones ahead of MWC 2012, and next up is the LG L Series, a trio of Android devices spanning price and spec points, and borrowing liberally from design language seen on the PRADA Phone 3.0. The LG Optimus L3, L5 and L7 mark the debut of the company’s so-called L-Style design language, wrapping a choice of 3.2-, 4- or 4.3-inch touchscreens respectively. The Optimus L3 opens the range, with the smallest display and a design intended to be easily held and operated in a single hand. Like all of the L Series phones, it has a textured back cover that’s meant to feel like leather, squared off lines and a dash of metal. It’s the only model with an “old” OS, too, running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The LG Optimus L5 and Optimus L7 each run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, some of the first LG devices to get the new version out of the box. There’s a 1,500 mAh battery but otherwise LG is keeping detailed specifications close to its chest. Availability is tipped for the first

Pokemon Black and White continue to sell through at impressive levels, even though the hardware they were released on has been usurped by the Nintendo 3DS and, shortly, the PlayStation Vita. Of course, though, the formidable Nintendo franchise has kept its strength because of its continuous churning out of new titles, and it appears the next game announcement may be coming soon. The director of the Pokemon Black and White titles, which are the most recent in the franchise’s storied RPG history, said in a recent interview that fans should keep a close eye on the weekly Japanese TV show Pokemon Smash. He reiterated this point in a post on his Twitter account. This was in direct response to a question about when the newest entry in the series would be revealed. Since the launch of Pokemon Black and White on the Nintendo DS, there have been additional Pokemon games, but many fans, even the most hardcore, only care about games that are directly connected to the traditional RPG franchise. Th

The yellow-skinned Fox cartoon series has kind of fallen out of favor in recent years, but Electronic Arts is planning to release a new mobile app based on The Simpsons that it expects to be a big cash cow moving forward. Or, as Mr. Burns might say, “Excellent.” The company is developing the app as a freemium title, meaning players can download it for free and will then be suckered into paying money once they get hooked. The publisher went all out for the mobile game, which is titled The Simpsons: Tapped Out. It will feature voices from the same actors who provide voices for the show. The setting is that Homer accidentally sets off a nuclear explosion that wipes out Springfield, and then players are tasked with the monumental job of rebuilding the city. Players will need to buy doughnuts with real-life money to increase their rebuilding efforts. The game is set to debut on iOS. There’s no launch date yet, but EA is enthusiastic about its prospects. “We want this to be one of the bigges

A few lucky people have already managed to get their hands on a PlayStation Vita, including us here at SlashGear, a handful of contest winners, people who work in the industry, etc. But the device doesn’t officially go on sale in the US until Wednesday, and in preparation for that Sony has made a bunch of last-minute tweaks to the Vita’s operating system so all the early adopters can take full advantage of what the device has to offer. Of course, you’ll still have to download the firmware update when you take it out of the box, but that has become an expected part of any new console purchase, hasn’t it? Nevertheless, once you connect to the Internet and have everything ready to go, here’s what you can expect from the Vita’s latest update: for starters, a new Maps app has been added to the home screen, and the camera app has been enhanced to allow for video recording. Previously it only offered still shot photography. In addition, firmware update 1.61 includes integration between the Pl

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But how sweet is the latest advancement in personal caretaking robots? This creation, known affectionately as Romeo, says he will functional enough to assist humans with their chores later this year. At least, that’s what his creators programmed to say in a YouTube video designed to show the progress they’s made in the last couple years. The Romeo project was introduced when it was little more than an idea and a dream, and now there is a working prototype. The bot has a fully functional voice box with English text-to-speech capabilities, however it does not have the ability to walk. Yet. That’s kind of important if you’re designing a robot that wants to handle all of your housework. And that is in fact the goal of Romeo. Researchers want him to be able to open and close doors for you, bring you a drink, or take trash to the nearest waste receptacle. It’s the kind of stuff we all wish we had someone – or

Moneto has announced that is has expanded its flagship Near Field Communication (NFC) platform to Android, and has added support for six Samsung Galaxy S devices. This is in addition to the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S, which were already supported by the company. The moneto platform is different than other “virtual wallets” because it uses a special microSD card, allowing it to function even in devices that don’t have built-in NFC hardware. The microSD card also contains 1 GB of storage so users don’t have to give up their card slot when it comes to storing movies, videos, music, etc. When it comes to paying at a point-of-sale register, the functionality is just like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus or other NFC-endabled devices. The difference is that moneto requires users to use a special prepaid card. By contrast, Google Wallet, for example, has a partnership with Citi that allows select credit card customers to link their existing account for seamless payment. And in the

Even if you, like me, have no interest in professional basketball, chances are you’ve heard of New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin. The Harvard graduate-turned pro baller has swept the nation with his zero-to-hero story and his masterful skill at the sport. The problem is that no one really even gave him a second look before, including the people at 2K Sports, which prides itself on providing the most sophisticated sports simulation video games. Lin was given a mediocre rating in the latest edition of NBA 2K12, meaning he just kind of blended in with everyone else in the game. The publisher, however, has released an update that brings his score up and makes him a more formidable force on the virtual court. Being recognized in such a way that the background coding is changed in a video game is one of the most flattering things that can happen to a professional athlete. The update doesn’t exactly give Lin star power or even bring him to the top of the Knicks roster, but that’s mainly becau

This week the folks at ZTE and NVIDIA have announced their first collaboration: a smartphone by the name of Mimosa X, complete with Tegra 2 and an Icera modem. For those of you that don’t remember, NVIDIA acquired Icera in mid-2011 and this combination is a first for several reasons. This device has a 4.3-inch display at qHD 960 x 540 pixel resolution screen, Dolby sound, and a launch date inside the second quarter of 2012. And it’s going to launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This device comes with the ability to access the TegraZone, an application store in which the games for the most part only work with Tegra processors. The smartphone has advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP), Dolby sound, and digital living network alliance (DLNA) compatibility. Inside you’ve got 4GB of built-in storage, there’s a microSD card slot for 32GB more, and of course you’ve got HD video recording and playback. The back facing camera will be 5 megapixels, there’s two microphones for noise ca

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which is the official organization for setting and maintaining Bluetooth standards, has just granted approval for the Nokia Lumia 719 phone. This comes as somewhat of a surprise since Nokia itself hasn’t yet confirmed the existence of the device, even though rumblings about it began last year. The Lumia 719 will of course be the latest in the growing collection of Windows Phone-powered Nokia phones. According to the Bluetooth SIG website, the Nokia 719 will be a “versatile, well-designed smartphone offering users easy and seamless to make the most of every moment, every day” (sic). The description goes on to mention built-in Facebook and Twitter integration, a 5-megapixel digital camera, HD video recording, and other features that pretty much sound like the Nokia Lumia 710, the flagship entry for the Lumia brand. So the question remains exactly what the 719 will bring to the table. The Bluetooth SIG listing mentions availability for Asia, South Ame

Nokia Siemens Networks is opening a brand new facility in Silicon Valley to work on testing and implementing new technologies based on the emerging 4G LTE standard. The company will allow manufacturers and software developers to test their products on high-sped mobile broadband networks and receive analysis on how those products are performing in an LTE environment. This is the latest mobile lab owned by Nokia Siemens Networks. The company also owns facilities in Finland, France, and South Korea, as well as another one in the US in Dallas. The new lab, which hopes to bring in all major players in the mobile market, is geared to help advance the world of high-speed mobile content so the entire industry can take full advantage of the immense power that LTE can provide. The new tool that allows mobile product engineers to test their performance on such a network will be officially unveiled at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Spain. Nokia, which carries the umbrella under which Nokia S

This week the British High Court has ruled that The Pirate Bay website and its users have been and continue to engage in “large-scale copyright infringement”, this very possibly leading to a requirement that UK internet providers ban the site outright soon. Should your website “actively promote copyright infringement” you may be facing the same fate in the near future as so-called piracy continues to be an issue throughout the western world amid crackdowns on sites such as Megaupload for uploading and sharing media illegally. Members of the British music industry are currently pushing the government to require that The Pirate Bay be blocked by UK internet providers entirely, but appear to be completely oblivious to the storm which erupted just weeks ago after the SOPA and PIPA bills were judged by the social web. At a time in which sharing and the legal and illegal cloud storage and distribution of media are being hotly contested, this move is certainly going to feel the heat of the we

In an app coming to the market relatively soon for both iPhone and Android, Georgia Tech researchers have reduced the price of realistically typing Braille on a smartphone from $1700 plus the cost of the phone to essentially free. The $1700 is a basic figure which spoken by Post Doctorate Fellow Mario Romero of the School of Interactive Computing working on the project and mentioning how much a smartphone-connected Braille keyboard costs on average. What the app BrailleTouch will be doing is offering the same functionality with a set of simple gestures and 6 buttons on-screen that allow for accurate and simple typing of Braille characters. This app was created for touchscreen interfaces in a world where a blind person’s ability to see through touching has been rapidly reduced by the oncoming storm of the flat, buttonless display. What you’ll see in the video here in this post is Romero demonstrating the application on an iPhone plus a bit of an explanation for why it needs to exist. Ha

Nokia Siemens Networks and Qualcomm are teaming up to introduce a new HSPA+ Multiflow technology at next week’s Mobile World Congress. The enhanced broadband technology promises to double current 3G HSPA+ data speeds by allowing mobile devices that are close to the edge of one mobile base station to connect with a second base station simultaneously. Currently, devices can connect only to one base station at a time. According to Nokia Siemens Networks, enabling simultaneous transmission of two data streams will not only double data speeds but will also make for more efficient use of network resources and can even offer 50 percent faster response time compared to existing HSPA+ networks. Network operators can upgrade to the new technology through a software update, however, mobile devices will require new hardware. Nokia Siemens Networks will demonstrate the technology at MWC using its own commercial base stations while Qualcomm will be providing the the prototype USB dongles. The demo w

Moral outrage over privacy, tracking and where exactly our personal details end up has been very much in fashion in recent weeks, with Google, app makers and others variously accused of taking advantage of us gullible, innocent users. Congress, the FTC, privacy watchdogs and journalists are each competing to see who can foam most dramatically at the mouth; developers and companies, meanwhile, each struggle to raise the bar when it comes to groveling, heartfelt apologies. Yet few are talking about the root causes of the privacy morass: ignorance, arrogance and entitlement. Ironically, many of Google’s most recent problems stemmed from the search company’s attempts to make privacy agreements more approachable. The firm’s profligate approach to public betas had left it operating eighty, ninety different products, each of which had brought its own impenetrable policy. Google moved to harmonize them, or at least the majority, into a single document, and in doing so brought some of the less

There’s a brand new Apple mobile device on the way by the name of iPad 3, and based on the tips, rumors, and leaks that have been sent out thus far tied with features we simply expect will be inevitable, we’ve got what we expect is a pretty accurate picture of what this next generation device will be. The most recent rumor is one that shows the hardware upgrade from the outside in, it including a more tapered design across the back with a same sized display on the front along with a larger camera lens hole. Though this hole might simply mean it’ll have a nicer lens and a slightly modified set of contents, it’s possible that the changes begin with an upgraded camera rating and a sleeker yet more powerful battery. Based on the information we’ve got so far, the next iPad will be modified to a degree that will have case and skin makers having to create all new templates, while apps on the whole will be able to function – but will also benefit from being modified to handle a much more pixel

In an interview with CNET, Google’s Senior VP and head of Chrome, Sundar Pichai, made some exciting promises on the future of Chrome for Android. The beta browser optimized for the mobile Android platform wasreleased just two weeks ago and is available only for Android 4.0, but has already reached 500,000 downloads. The general response to Chrome for Android has been positive although there’s still much room for improvement. Google is good at taking feedback and quickly tossing out updates and this will certainly be the case according to Pichai. He is confident that the browser will improve by “leaps and bounds” over the next year. Although Pichai didn’t give too many specifics, he did mention that the browser will be getting the option to view desktop versions of webpages along with full-screen browsing and an automatically hiding Omnibar. Flash, however, will not be supported, an issue that’s been attributed to Adobe’s unwillingness to update Flash support for Chrome on Android.

Nokia has touted before that its Lumia 800 Windows Phone is made from the same material used in real life jet fighters, but NokNok has now put that claim to the test. Since taking the Lumia 800 for an actual nose dive in a jet wasn’t an option, the team instead threw the device into a MACH 5 wind tunnel. And yes, it survived and phoned home just fine after the extreme test. You can watch the video after the cut. MACH 5 is considered “hypersonic,” which is five times the speed of sound and generally translates to about 3000 miles per hour in aircrafts. The Nokia Lumia 800 impressively survived the extreme pressures from the test, suggesting that your important data on the device will surely survive a jet fighter nose dive or a catastrophic tornado even if you don’t. The test really supports Nokia’s image for quality built hardware and its very first Windows Phone is indeed not only gorgeous but one very tough cookie. But perhaps it’d be more fun if NokNok threw in a couple other phones

Can you imagine a world where every physical object around you is somehow connected to the internet? A world where your toaster warns you about inclement weather, your digital camera suggests when it’s best to go out for a shoot, and your musical instrument connects you with other same-level musicians in your area. This initiative is so called “The Internet of Things” and a new company called Evrythng has plans to really start pushing the envelope in this arena. Evrythng is a startup founded by Niall Murphy and Andy Hobsbawm and is backed by Niklas Zennstrom’s Atomico Ventures. In their own words, the company is in the business of “Digital augmentation that activates digital identities for physical objects.” The aim is to create a secure platform that allows any and all objects to have an online presence. Manufacturers or third parties can create unique identifiers for physical objects that are then tied to an online profile. For instance, a used bike may have an online identifier that

Developer and musician Stephan Vankov has revealed his newest project: one that comprises of both software and a device which connects your computer to any surface which then acts as an instrument. Your computer reads impulses sent through the device which have come from your hands or whatever else happens to be hitting the surface the device is attached to, and instrument sounds are fed back. You can turn your desk into a piano, the hood of your car into a drum set, and more! This setup is in its most basic form a reconfigurable MIDI controller. The entire system comprises of a Piezo microphone with integrated suction cup or velcro strips and a powerful software interface. This system is velocity-sensitive and highly responsive, complete with low-latency performance and the ability to work with all software that accepts MIDI Note messages. Some examples of software you can use with this setup if the included software is not to your liking are Cubase, Ableton Live, Pro Tools, VST plug-

Today a report has come from a set of anonymous “Asian reliable sources” that the iPhone 5 will be announced and released in September or October of 2012. This News comes from Macotakara where a tip also leaks that this schedule will be kept for several years afterward, a new iPhone per year. Hardware has separately been tipped to be released around that time frame in rumors for the next Apple product in a more general way, so we’re thinking its either an actual iPhone or a well-orchestrated ruse to point away from the truth! The idea that the next iPhone will be released in the Autumn of this year, 2012, is not that hard to imagine when you recall the rumors that lead up to the release of the iPhone 4S. As the iPhone has had an update to its 4th full generation after an update to the last incremental update to the 3rd, this next release will likely be not only called the iPhone 5, but will include larger changes to the hardware than the difference between the 4 and the 4S. On the othe

An entrepreneur and former HP and Honeywell software professional, Nandan Rajan, has taken it upon himself to create a new kind of ATM-like vending machine that helps the disadvantaged find jobs. This Automated Job Machine or AJM makes it easier to connect illiterate youths in developing areas with available jobs. Rajan currently only has one AJM in operation that sits in Sampige Road in Malleswaram. Many illiterate youths migrate to the city there seeking jobs, but are often times cheated by agents that claim to find them jobs. In contrast, Rajan’s service is completely free. Job seekers provide Rajan with details such as name, address, skills, photograph, and a thumb impression. This data is then saved onto a barcode card that the job seeker can swipe on the machine to find matching jobs. Compatible jobs are read aloud by the machine, a great help to the illiterate job seekers that normally would not be able to read job postings. Often times job postings for maids, gardeners, plumber

Hot off the news that Safari’s privacy measures for users had been bypassed by Google last week, Microsoft is joining in by noting that their Internet Explorer web browser’s privacy controls had been modified in a similar manner. Protection tips have been offered up by Microsoft and they’ve taken this opportunity to push Google into the mud once more as they continue to defend themselves against privacy naysayers. Microsoft has reportedly contacted Google to ask it to “commit to honoring P3P privacy settings for users of all browsers.” What you’re about to see is a bit of information from Microsoft on what they’ve found in what Google is doing to bypass their own security measures. You’ll find the term P2P which stands for Platform for Privacy Preferences, an official recommendation that the World Wide Web Consortium uses to summarize their own privacy policies. Microsoft is noting that they will be investigating what changes they’ll need to make to their products as the P3P specificat

Google may be taking a page from Apple’s Siri voice-controlled assistant feature for its future Google TVs. A patent application newly unearthed by Patently Apple reveals that Google is developing a Siri-like interface for Google TV that will introduce a variety of capabilities involving voice commands remotely sent to Google TVs via Android devices. Users would be able to speak commands to their Android smartphones or tablets via an app that would then control their Google TVs. Through these Siri-like voice commands, users can browse and search for content, change channels, and ask when a certain show will air on Google TV. Since the system relies on Google’s cloud infrastructure, commands can be sent even while the user is outside of their house, unlike with traditional remotes. For instance, you can turn on your TV and set it to the right channel as you’re on your way home. Or, you can have the TV turn on automatically once it detects via GPS data that you’re a 1/4 mile to your hous

The folks at Panasonic have released information about an Android smartphone that’ll be as slim as it is waterproof, with full high specifications in tow. This device goes by the name Panasonic ELUGA and is another way of saying “elegant user-oriented getaway.” With a massive 66% of the phone’s body dedicated to display, the entirety of the device being waterproof, and the whole unit weighing in at 103g total, we’ve got to expect that this will be a force to be reckoned with in 2012. This device has a 7.8mm profile, a “D” shape to slide in and out of a pants pocket with ease, and an 8 megapixel camera on the back with no bump above the surface. This device has a tiny 123×62.0×7.8mm frame, is protected by international standard IP57 water and dustproofing, and will survive 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. Dust then is 75 micrometers or less in diameter/no harmful deposit protected for up to eight hours – desert style! The ELUGA has NFC Near Field Communication capabilities inside,

As Samsung’s own money-losing business in flat-screen TVs heads from LCDs to the OLED market quicker than a jackrabbit, Samsung is thinking about spinning off it’s LCD unit to act of its own accord. This move will create a new entity by the name of Samsung Display Company and will, Samsung hopes, make it much more competitive in the smashingly popular world of HDTVs. This move has not yet been approved by shareholders, but given that the 2011 operating loss for the company’s LCD business was nearly $900 million, we can’t imagine why they wouldn’t consider such a thing. This spinoff would take place on the first of April, which assuming is not an April Fools Joke would both change the way Samsung goes about working with the industry, but would come before a full switch over of focus in development. This move also may come as a bit of a shock when you consider that last month a $940 million dollar deal with Sony was completed by Samsung which picked up their share of the LCD panel busine

This week at the games portal the world knows best as a comic, Penny Arcade, Valve’s own Gabe Newell spoke on many things in an interview, perhaps most interestingly of all on experiments he’s been doing with wearable computers. It’s not that long ago, he noted, that what was called the “wearable computer” was a growing industry, or at least a possibility for a market sometime in the future. Since those days, whenever those days may have been, law suits were filed for exploding computer body suits, nothing solid ended up really coming together during the popularity wave of the wearable computer, and they all but fizzled out – but they still exist, he insists, and they’re about to be better than they ever were before. In the interview there was of course lots of chatter on games and the future of the Valve system itself and how it functions, but in a question regarding “inputs or outputs that you’re experimenting with,” Newell bore fruit. The wearable computer solutions Newell speaks of

The game known as Temple Run is only 6 months old and is already one of the most downloaded games in the history of iOS* – and it’s time for the Android version. Believe it or not, one of the top search terms in our system right this minute is none other than “Temple Run Android”, so we’ve decided to do a bit more digging than we normally would for a game release. What’s turned up is a promise by the folks responsible for the Temple Run game, developers from Imangi Studios, that the release date will be dropped nowhere else but their own Facebook Group. This game is being screamed and hollered for in basically every Imangi forum and game search board on the web at the moment, and the developers at Imangi are assuredly working as hard as they can to get the game out to the public. If you follow any and all of the Twitters of the developers and the Imangi official stream, you’ll find that they’re attempting to update information on other games as well, but nothing will beat down the fact

This week the fact that a illegitimate clone of the game PokeMon Yellow (the special Pikachu edition, that is) is busting up the charts in the iTunes App Store charts for most popular download. While the game might download decently, you should note that the vast majority of people who have fallen for the promise of a PokeMon mobile game have found the game to not work in the slightest beyond the start screen. The same is true of Android with any app you download at the moment with the PokeMon name on it: Nintendo has not yet brought the game to the market, so whatever you’re downloading – it’s not the real deal. The process you must go through to get an application uploaded to any official app market today does not include an extensive copyright infringement search, so it is left up to the companies who hold the rights to said games to find them and file a complaint. Much in the same way we spoke recently about how YouTube would not be able to function if it had to check each video fo

This week the analysts at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech have released a study which showed, amongst other smartphone statistics, that the iPhone 4S release’s change to Apple’s pricing structure has kept the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS at pre-4S sales levels. This study also showed such revelations as the idea that over half of the population in the UK current owns a smartphone of some type and Apple having a massive 29.1% market share while Windows Phone 7 sits at a tiny 2%. While Android’s share is unlisted in the study, it does trump Apple – but consider how well the single phone with several iterations (the iPhone) is doing, one must take it all into perspective. This same study shows the USA to have a much closer race going on with Apple having an unbelievable 48.4% share of the market with smartphones compared to Android’s 42.6% – that’s an undeniable set of numbers when you consider the fact that there’s really nothing left over for anyone else. What this study’s most interesting, again,