Anyone that’s been to a department store in the past two weeks has noticed that Halloween decorations and costumes were only shadowed by the overwhelming Christmas and holiday products taking over the shelves. We here at The Flickcast are taking that as a cue to start our famous Holiday Gift Guide leading up through the holiday shopping season.

One of the main categories for most guys (and gals) this holiday season is something to go along with their nifty iPod or iPhone. That’s where the world of Apple sound and science fiction find a nice home in Speakal’s new iKurve starship-like docking station & speaker station.

The image above gives you the money shot of how cool this space-age looking speaker can really be. It’s not just for looks, however, the device also has some pretty great features that will make this the only docking station and sound system you’ll need moving forward.

You can currently get this bad boy in black at Speakal’s website for $79.99, with a bunch of different colors on the way later down the road. Check out the complete list of features for this guy after the jump, and grab it while its hot this holiday season!

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If you have a shiny new iPhone 4S as some of us do here at The Flickcast and you’ve experienced less-than-stellar battery life, this will be of interest to you. There’s been a few reports around the Internets, and elsewhere, that the iPhone 4S’s battery life leaves something to be desired.

Sure, it could have to do with the fact that it features a faster processor or that Siri is a bit power hungry. Or, as was postulated by the folks at iDownloadBlog, it could be the iPhone 4S’s Time Zone service that’s causing the problem.

Reportedly, a bug in iOS 5 (which ships on all iPhone 4S units) forces its location tracking feature to remain active much more than necessary which drains the phone’s battery far more quickly. Users can manually turn off the automatic time zone setting by going to Settings > General > Date & Time. Once there, toggling “Set Automatically” to “Off.”

We’ve tried this “fix” on a couple of our own devices and so far it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. That said, and this is in no way scientific, we tend to get pretty much the advertised battery life on our iPhone 4S units. So, maybe it’s actually a hardware problem on some units and not software after all? Or, perhaps it’s a carrier issue as our iPhone 4S units are all using Verizon and not AT&T?

Whatever the issue, Apple is usually pretty fast to issue a fix for these problems so expect to see one sooner rather than later. In the meantime, let us know if you try this “fix” and what your results are, if any.

Even though most of us who upgrades to Apple’s new iPhone 4S are loving our new devices, according to reports there’s a potential threat to our happiness lurking just under the surface. Now, before you get too worried, this “threat” requires a specific set of circumstances most users will never encounter.

However, if  you happen to leave your iPhone 4S in a cab, for example, the person who finds it can potentially access your address book, appointments and more by using Siri, even if your iPhone 4S is locked with a passcode. That’s right, even if it’s locked.

However, all is not lost and there’s a simple fix for this issue. To prevent someone from accessing Siri and your info while the iPhone 4S is locked, simply go to Settings> General> Passcode Lock. Once there toggle the option for “Allow access to Siri when locked with a passcode” to Off.

The iPhone 4S will now require the the phone to be unlocked before it allows access to Siri. There, problem solved.

Don’t you wish all problems could be solved this easily?

Even with all the hype and attention Apple gets for its product launches (yes, we love the iPhone 4S and iOS 5), we can’t forget the other smartphones out there. In fact, one of the most popular “other” operating systems, besides Apple’s iOS, powering some of the most innovative smartphones is, of course, Google’s Android platform.

Now Google has taken the wraps of of its brand new version of Android, known as Android 4.0 or “Ice Cream Sandwich” during a press event in Hong Kong yesterday. The software was revealed next to the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus, a smartphone we’re looking forward to checking out.

Android 4.0 combines many of the tablet features already available in Android 3.x (Honeycomb) with the smartphone features available in Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It will power both tablets and smartphones, and it offers several enhancements.

Some of these include the ability to unlock an Ice Cream Sandwich device using face recognition. Android 4.0 also has a new cleaner “Roboto” typeface and an extensive UI makeover.

The lock screen in Android 4.0 can be used to quickly unlock the phone or launch the camera, and users can also access notifications directly. “Back,” “Home” and “Menu” are now part of the Android virtual user interface and hardware buttons are no longer needed.

We could go on about the new OS but instead, we’ve gonna let Google’s own video tell the story. Click through for it after the break.

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For those of your doubting the demand for the new iPhone 4S and decrying it’s inevitable failure, we say it’s now time for you to stop hating Apple and realize that they know precisely what they’re doing. How can we be sure?

Apple has just announced that the company sold over 4 Million iPhone 4S handsets during the first weekend they were on sale. You can count some of us here at The Flickcast in that number too — especially Mr. Ullrich, who seems to get all the cool toys.

That’s more than double the amount when the iPhone 4 was lunched last year. Additionally, Apple says that over 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, and over 20 million have signed up for iCloud.

Apple is planning on launching the iPhone 4S in more than 90 countries by the end of the year, and has launched the device in 7 countries so far. So, you can imagine what its eventual sales figures will be.

Can you say astronomical? We can. And so can Apple.

Click through for the full press release from Apple. Have you picked up your iPhone 4S yet? If so, what’s you favorite feature so far?

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If you were one of the people disappointed by Apple’s recent iPhone 4S announcement, lack of an iPhone 5 announcement and sure the company was starting a downward spiral because of user backlash against the lowly iPhone 4S, fear not. It seems Apple is gonna be just fine.

The company has confirmed that they have sold over one million iPhone 4S devices in the first 24 hours. That beats the previous record holder, the iPhone 4, which sold just over 600,000 in one day when it launched.

Of course, sales numbers for the iPhone 4S are helped by the fact that the device is available on three US cell phone carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) instead of just one like the iPhone 4 was at the beginning. Still, that doesn’t take away from the impressive sales figure.

So, to those of you talking about how Apple “disappointed” people with “just” the iPhone 4S announcement and started discussing the company’s imminent downfall now that Steve Jobs is gone, all we can say is “Suck it.” Apple isn’t going anywhere. Deal with it.

Check out Apple’s official press release is after the break.

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At an event held this morning at Apple’s Cupertino campus, newly minted Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled what many were expecting: a brand new iPhone. Dubbed the iPhone 4S, the device is cosmetically very similar to the current iPhone 4 but features a host of internal improvements which may appease fans eagerly awaiting an iPhone refresh.

In addition, Cook announced the release data for iOS 5, the software that powers Apple’s lineup of devices including the iPhone and iPad, as well as updated iPods with price cuts and an intelligent assistant, dubbed Siri, which enables user to verbally interact with their iOS devices.

Here’s the highlights of today’s event:

• Apple made the iPhone 4S official. It features the same Retina Display but features Apple’s dual-core A5 processor and a dual-core graphics chip.

• The iPhone 4S battery can provide 8 hours of 3G talk time, 6 hours of browsing time on 3G and 9 on Wi-Fi, 10 hours of video playback or 40 hours of music playback.

• Apple has redesigned the iPhone 4S antenna to switch between two antenna to send and receive. Hopefully how you hold the device won’t matter now.

• The iPhone 4S features HSPA+ 14.4 support, though Apple isn’t branding it as “4G.” It’s also a world phone, so one device will support CDMA and GSM/WCDMA networks around the globe. That means it will work on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint networks in the U.S.

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