You have to hand it to Google. Even though it’s a fight between their Android OS and Apple’s iOS for dominance of the smartphone, they do come up with the better names for their software releases.

Apple pretty much sticks to numbers, with iOS 5 being the latest, while Google is now at Android 4.0 — which has the much cooler name of Ice Cream Sandwich. It is about that very delicious-sounding Android release we are talking today.

HTC has announced via their Facebook page that an Ice Cream Sandwich update will be available for some of its devices by the end of March. First in line to get the update will reportedly be the Sensation, Sensation 4G and Sensation XE. Then, a little later, the Sensation XL.

The Rezound, Vivid, Amaze 4G, EVO 3D, EVO Design 4G, Incredible S, Desire S and Desire HD will all be updated “later this year.”

So HTC users, how does this make you feel? Are you excited for some Ice Cream Sandwich action?

For those of you loving Google’s Chrome Browser on your desktop or laptop computers and who also have an Android-powered phone, this is a great day. Why? Well, as you can probably guess from the headline above, Google has announced the first beta release of the Chrome Web browser for Android-powered smartphones and tablets.

“Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Chrome and Apps, wrote on the company’s blog.

Chrome for Android is available immediately as a free download in the Android Market. It is compatible with smartphones and tablets running Android 4.0 or later. As I user of Chrome on Mac OS X I can only hope they release a version of Chrome for the iPhone. Although, knowing Apple’s reluctance to share, I won’t hold my breath.

If you want to see the Chrome browser for Android in action before your decide to try it yourself, check out the video from Google after the break.

Continue Reading →

Call of Duty Elite is a service that allows the most hardcore Call of Duty players to lose themselves in some pretty advance stat tracking and multiplayer progression. Now those gamers have even less of a reason to spend any time away from their account with the launch of the iOS app for the service.

The new app will be free for all registered users, and is available on all iOS platforms today. An android version is going to be hitting soon as well.

Immerse yourself in Call of Duty® wherever you go with the Call of Duty® ELITE mobile app. Evaluate your multiplayer progress with in-depth stat analysis. Formulate new strategies based on your recent performance and remotely incorporate edits to your loadouts. Push your changes directly into Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 so you’re always ready to play.

Check out a list of features and some screen shots after the jump.

Continue Reading →

It’s a funny thing the video game business (and most technology businesses for that matter). When a game first comes out it’s often the cutting edge of gaming design and graphics and, if popular, almost impossible to find. And then time passes and a new game rises to take its place with the old one left in a pile, all but forgotten.

That’s not the case these days, however, at least with some games. Some games, if they’re popular enough, go on to be ported to the iPad, iPhone and Android-powered devices. That’s exactly what happened with the PS2 hit game Grand Theft Auto 3, which is now available for Android and iOS devices.

Just like in the version we all new and loved ten years ago, in the game you take it to the streets of Liberty City to complete a variety of missions with a large cast of seedy characters. Rockstar Games says players can count on hours of gameplay, updated graphics, HD quality and gameplay that has been optimized for touchscreen devices.

We’ll be the judge of that. Right now. Grand Theft Auto 3 is available in the Android Market and in the iTunes App Store now for $4.99.

When I first heard about the Amazon Kindle Fire, as a fan of Amazon and its earlier Kindle models, I was hopeful. In fact, I put down my $199.00 as soon as the company started taking orders.

Then, it arrived and with a mixture of excitement and anticipation, I opened the box and got my first real look at the Fire. Sadly, my excitement turned to disappointment as I put the Kindle Fire through its paces. Sure, it has some nice features and makes ordering content from Amazon extremely easy, but in many other ways it came up short.

In the end, even at $199.00, I decided it wasn’t for me and sent it back to Amazon for a refund. Apparently, I am not alone as reports have been coming it hat many others have been doing the same thing.

Fortunately for those still using the Fire, Amazon is set to address some of the concerns with an upcoming software update for the Fire. “In less than two weeks, we’re rolling out an over-the-air update to Kindle Fire,” Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener told The New York Times in a recent interview.

According to Herdener, the update will improve multitouch performance on the device and will also enable a feature that allows users to edit their usage history on the tablet. That’s all well and good but it won’t address the physical problems I had with the device such as the lack of a volume control and the placement of the on/off switch which, it seems, is designed to be in exactly the wrong place no matter how you hold it.

As a fan of Amazon and their earlier Kindle devices, I’m going to keep an eye out for the next version of the Kindle Fire. Maybe 2.0 will be the magic number.

With the popularity of smartphones like the iPhone and myriad of Android-powered handsets, one of the things users love to do is take and share photos with friends and family. One of the best apps for doing this when using the iPhone is Instagram.

This app allows you to take a photo, manipulate it if you choose and then upload it to your photo stream for all to see. People can then subscribe to your photo stream and view your photos on their devices. Or, you can upload them to Twitter, Facebook or Flickr.

It’s extremely popular on the iPhone (many of us here use it, in fact) but so far, it’s only been available for iOS devices. Apparently, that’s not going to be the case much longer.

Speaking during the LeWeb conference in Paris this week, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed that an Android version of the company’s popular iOS application is coming soon. ”We have two people working on Android now,” Systrom said.

I know what you’re thinking. Two people doesn’t sound like very many. However, keep in mind that the whole company probably isn’t that much bigger and has been exclusively an iOS app since launch.

No launch date was forthcoming from Systrom but we expect to see the Android version of Instagram sometime early next year.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most revolutionary video games of all time. Grand Theft Auto III changed the way people played games, offering an open world that was just as fun to explore as it was to progress through the game. GTA also changed the perception of games, showcasing more mature game play a themes that resonated with the public at large.

So to celebrate the event, Rockstar is releasing the game for the mobile marketplace this winter. This new release is the full, open world game that took the world by storm in 2001. Not only is the game hitting phones and tablets, but it also going to be sold for the low, low price of five bucks. That is a great deal for a great game.

Grand Theft Auto III is not the first GTA game to hit the app store, Chinatown Wars was ported over last year. That game, however, was in the top down perspective and was always meant to be a side note portable game. The opportunity to have the full and complete version of the classic third game is potentially groundbreaking for phones and tablets.

Check out a list of compatible devices after the jump.

Continue Reading →

As owners and users of all sorts of Apple gear, we understand that others who don’t “get it” could misunderstand our love for all-things Apple. So, in the interest of presenting some counter-points to our Apple fanboy/girl nature, we’ve got this video from Samsung that sheds some light on those that don’t use Apple’s gear.

The video pokes fun at the Apple faithful and how we buy whatever Apple is selling, regardless of how good (or bad) it is. This video is actually an ad for the Samsung Galaxy S II, which is billed as the free thinker’s alternative to Apple’s iPhone “sheep.”

Of course, the add fails to mention that Apple’s most recent iPhone, the 4S, has pretty much flown off shelves and is the biggest selling smartphone of all time. I guess that point didn’t make it past the ad guys and gals at Samsung. Why mention the truth, right?

It’s always fun when those at the bottom pick on those at the top. Let the fun continue after the break.

Continue Reading →

Even though they seem to, at times, be mostly in the business of making their customers angry, Netflix is still one of the best places to get your movie and TV content from. In fact, their streaming service is one of the most popular available.

One of the ways Netflix is going to keep that service popular, and growing, is with updates to it and the applications that make it possible. That’s just what they’ve done this week with the user interface for their Android application.

The company explained that the revamped UI now displays twice as many movie and TV titles, with larger cover art, and that users can easily swipe through titles to find additional content.

“In the last 12 months we have seen a threefold increase in how long Netflix members are watching on their tablets,” Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt said. The company also said they wanted to introduce the redesigned UI in time for the release of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet.

Netflix said the update will be available for iPad users “in a few weeks.” The update is free and is available now in the Android Market.

Click through for the full press release from Netflix.

Continue Reading →

Once the dominant player in the mobile and web content delivery space, Adobe’s Flash has seen quite a backlash against it in recent years. In truth, tt was always kind of a pain, at least for me, made websites look pretty ugly and often hogged system resources on my Macs to the point of crashing the entire system.

But the beginning of the end was probably Apple and then CEO Steve Jobs’ staunch refusal to include Flash on any of its iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad. At the time some commented that Apple was making a big mistake in not including Flash on its devices. Now it looks like those people may have to reconsider their opinions.

According to reports, Adobe says it will “no longer adapt” the once-dominant program for handling multimedia and animation on computers and mobile devices. In an email to developers Adobe added that it will “continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.”

Previously, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs led the opposition to the program, which he said in 2010 was “unreliable, vulnerable to hacking, a battery hog, and gave Adobe too much power over the services that could be offered on mobile devices.” Besides, power over mobile devices was his job, not Adobe’s. I kid, I kid. Much love to Steve.

At the time, Apple, Google, and Microsoft said they preferred an open system: the pretty cool and easy to use HTML5. However, in spite of this, Flash survived and was incorporated on Google Android and BlackBerry smartphones — until now. Although, having used a few Android phones with Flash enabled, it was still pretty much a POS.

However, now it looks like even Adobe has seen the proverbial writing on the wall and has decided to end mobile Flash and concentrate on HTML 5. Smart move. A bit late, but smart nonetheless. Now let’s hope they end up killing Flash altogether and we never, ever have to see it again.

I don’t know about you but it seemed like I used to have several Barnes & Noble stores in my neighborhood and now I need to drive quite far to find one. Not that that really means anything. Amazon doesn’t have any stores at all and they’re doing pretty well.

The above only goes to illustrate that you don’t necessarily need a solid business model to launch a tablet these days. Heck, look at Motorola and RIM, they did it. So, if follows that Barnes & Noble, a company that already has eReaders and such like Amazon does, would try their hand at a full tablet as well.

In fact, they just announced one today. And, judging from the specs and the early word on the street, they seem to have done a pretty good job. The company took the wraps off of said Nook Tablet during a press event in New York City this morning. Here’s the major specs:

• Screen: 1024 x 600 “laminated, no-air” 7-inch IPS LCD
• Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Processor: 1GHz dual-core TI Omap 4
• Platform: Customized version of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Internal memory: 16GB
• microSD card expansion slot: up to 32GB cards
• Integrated microphone
• Battery life: 11 hours reading, 8-9 hours video (with wireless off)
• Price: $249
• Availability: Pre-order now, ships November 17

Continue Reading →

Did any of you own a Motorola RAZR? I’m sure you did. Back in 2005 it was the coolest phone to own.

It was skinny. It was light. It had cool glowy blue buttons. It was on all the carriers. It was the phone to have. At least if you were a tech-crazed high schooler, like myself back then.

It seems that Motorola may not have done it again with the newest addition to the RAZR, but the new Motorola Droid RAZR, as it’s being dubbed, is still a really neat phone.

Sporting 4G, a 1.2 GhZ dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 32 GB of storage, 12.5 hours of talk time, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p recording, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display strengthened with Gorilla Glass and Kevlar fiber, and at only 7.1mm thick, the Droid RAZR is now the thinnest 4G phone on Verizon. And because of the kevlar, the phone will be protected against spills and other nasty accidents.

You know what else is made of kevlar? The Batsuit. I’m officially calling this one the Batphone. This thing is cool.

The phone will also be compatible with the rest of Motorola’s line of devices, including the Moto Webtop and the brand new MOTOACTIV, a pretty nifty fitness watch that was also announced today. Only downside to this phone seems to be that it’s running Gingerbread, and not the upcoming version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.

Motorola’s announcement comes just hours before Samsung announces their newest version of their Nexus line, which will be exclusive to Verizon AND will have Ice Cream Sandwich. So the Motorola Droid RAZR certainly has some competition.

You’ll be able to pick up your very own Batphone, I mean Motorola Droid RAZR, in early November exclusively for Verizon Wireless.