BlackBerry Bold Touch brings back the Bold 9000's awesome QWERTY keyboard

Remember the first time you got a good look at the BlackBerry Bold 9000? The handset's keyboard  became a gold standard for physical QWERTY keyboards with .its large keys and easy to feel "fret-like" separation of the letters. Since the release of the BlackBerry Bold 9000, RIM has taken a step backward with its QWERTY keyboards and even the one on the Bold 9700/9780 is more cramped than the one on the Bold 9000. That is why Berry users are very happy to see the BlackBerry Bold Touch (aka Dakota or Montana) feature a QWERTY keyboard that is very similar to the one on the BlackBerry Bold 9000.

The GSM flavored model has a 2.8 inch screen with resolution of 480 x 640 and 287 dpi. A 5MP rear facing camera offers HD recording at 720p, and "Image Stabilization" along with Flash. 8GB of memory comes on the device as well as 768MB of RAM. 32GB of memory can be added with a microSD card.

And for those who want something cool on their new 'Berry, the trim around the keypad lights up. Add that to the outstanding QWERTY keyboard on the Bold Touch, an optical trackpad, support for NFC and it sounds like RIM has a winner here. Considering all of the positive feedback RIM received about the Bold 9000 QWERTY keyboard, putting it on a touchscreen model can only be a positive as it brings easy typing to those who like to use a physical keyboard even on a touchscreen phone.

Best Buy pre-order page for the Motorola XOOM is back

After a couple of false starts, it looks like Best Buy has put the Motorola XOOM on it's site to stay. The Honeycomb powered tablet is being offered with 3G for now but is upgradeable to 4G. The price of $799.99 is listed on the page, but any pre-orders must be done at a Best Buy store.

What you can order online are the accessories for the tablet which includes a dock for the XOOM that costs $49.99. The dock offers a separate speaker for enhanced audio, and features an adapter plate and an AC wall power supply. Other extras include a $39.99 portfolio case and a Bluetooth wireless keyboard. This full-sized QWERTY,  priced at $69.99 is powered by two AA batteries and will work on most of Motorola's Android offerings.

The last accessory offered by Best Buy and available to be ordered online is the HD Speaker Dock for $129.99. With Noise-Canceling technology, sound is improved. The dock also allows your XOOM to make hands-free video chats with the Speakerphone mode.

Of course, there is no sense in ordering the accessories online now unless you go into one of the big box stores and pre-order the Motorola XOOM in person. Anyone planning on spending their Sunday at Best Buy?

L.A. residents get offer from T-Mobile for free myTouch 4G for today only

With T-Mobile a major NBA sponsor, what could the carrier do to celebrate today's NBA All-Star game in Los Angeles? How about offering any L.A. resident a free myTouch 4G (in black, only) with a signed 2-year contract. A tweet sent out by the carrier gives out the details of the offer which is available today only.

Perhaps the rest of the country might consider this to be unfair, but for those in L.A. looking for a 4G phone at a great price, free is hard to beat. In fact, you might consider this offer to be a slam dunk. Of course, there is that little matter about the new 2 year contract, but if you have an upgrade collecting dust, or you are looking for a new carrier, you might as well take advantage of the offer. Oh, one last condition-the free handset can be ordered online only!

Honeycomb ported over to HTC EVO, HTC Droid Incredible and HTC Desire HD

A trio of HTC Android phones have had the Honeycomb SDK preview ported over to each phone. The HTC EVO 4G, Droid Incredible and Desire HD are the three smartphones that were used for this "experiment". While not really functional, it does show some of the new things that Honeycomb has in store for upcoming Android tablets.

It's interesting to see the bits and pieces of Honeycomb as they appear on a smaller smartphone screen. It makes you look forward to seeing how good the OS will operate on the larger 10 inch tablets coming soon like the Motorola XOOM and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Your Android device needs a charge? Here Comes the Sun!

One of the major complaints from those who use handsets loaded with the Android OS is that the battery seems to run out early. Most handset users don't like to carry their A/C wall charger with them, and if they do have the charger, there isn't always a place to plug it into. That is why the Umeox Apollo offers a very interesting option for recharging-solar power. The handset was recently introduced at the MWC in Barcelona.

Two variants are being produced. One model (MTK6573) is made for U.S. users, runs on AT&T's frequencies, and is expected to launch in Q3 of this year. The other model (MTK6516) is designed for Europe and much of Asia and should be released next quarter..

Spec-wise, this phone is already well behind the curve with a 3.2 inch display with resolution of 320 x 480. The Apollo has 1GB of internal storage and does come with a microSD slot. There is a 3MP camera on the back and the device comes with an FM radio.

According to the manufacturer, it will take 2.5 hours of sunlight to have the tank filled for every day usage. On the other hand, going from empty to full will require a fairly hefty 17 hours of sunlight. There is no word on how much the unit will cost.

Best Buy shows an on-line simulator of the HTC Thunderbolt

If you've been waiting for Verizon's HTC Thunderbolt to be released, it looks like things may be getting a bit closer, as the Best Buy site now has an on-line simulator for the phone. It still doesn't give a release date, which has been rumored from last week through February 28th, but keep in mind you can pre-order it with a $50 deposit at their store locations.

The simulator shows some information about the phone, such as 360 degree overview of where the power button, earpiece and camera are located (like you couldn't figure that out yourself?), as well as how to use the software, streaming video, and camera. Under the 'discover more' section it will guide you on how to download and install apps though the Android Market, connect to a Wi-Fi network, use Google Maps for driving directions, setup and pair with a Bluetooth device, add and remove desktop widgets, and how to setup the Wi-Fi Hotspot. All of this is pretty basic stuff, as nothing too advanced is shown, but at the end it does list all of the phone's specifications.

It's still not a release date, which is what everyone is waiting for at this point, but there are also listings on the Best Buy site for the Thunderbolt's screen protector and purple soft-shell case.

Windows 8 tablets running on ARM chipsets might be coming as soon as the holidays

Microsoft has reportedly set aside about a 1000 strong army of engineers to work on Windows 8 powered by ARM chipsets, instead of the x86 Intel architecture, a first in history. Moreover, the Redmond-based software giant is now working with one goal in mind - to put Windows 8 on a tablet as soon as possible, and, if rumors turn true, will be ready with the touch-optimized UI of Windows 8 on tablets for the holidays this year, or early into 2012. Steve Ballmer even demoed some of it at the CES show last month.

While the advantages of moving Windows to ARM-based silicon are numerous, mainly in the performance/battery life ratio, Microsoft needs to move even faster, so as to ensure at least some presence in the tablet world. By this year's holiday season Honeycomb slates and iPads will be everywhere in our homes, and the tablet would have received enough critical mass of popularity for Microsoft to swoop in and grab some share with its robust driver and legacy software support. Even with the iPad enterprise adoption it is still raking in about $100 per device in access and license fees to its corporate software.

Excited about Windows 8 on ARM-based chipsets? We'll be when we hear what battery life can Microsoft give us. Windows 7 was sped up because of Vista's lackluster acceptance, and now Microsoft is moving even faster with Windows 8 as the competition is threatening to marginalize it altogether if it doesn't move along.

Motorola ATRIX 4G gets the root treatment before even landing on your porch

We got a tip from the popular AT&T developers designgears that over at the venerable XDA-Devs modding community they have set up a separate thread for the soon-to-be-released Motorola ATRIX 4G to discuss its root, created together with Getafixx, and tested on a retail model as well.

Wait, what? It's not even out yet, and it has already been rooted? Now that's dedication, why do manufacturers bother to lock the device anyway. Some of the early preorders of Motorola's first dual-core handset are supposed to be arriving today, as we reported.

Now not only you will be the first to own a dual-core handset on a major US carrier, but you can now also be the first to own a rooted dual-core phone, if potentially voiding warranty is not one of your worries. You can find the tutorial here.

NEC MEDIAS E-04C takes the crown of the world's thinnest Android phone

Leaked on a Japanese blog two days before its official release on the NTT DoCoMo netowrk, the NEC MEDIAS E-04C has one very impressive feature - it is the thinnest smartphone to date, with just 0.3" (7.7mm) of waistline.

And it is just days since the thinnest smartphone in the worlsd - the Samsung Galaxy S II - was officially announced, and weeks after we previewed the previous thinnest - the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc - so wake us up when we can fold these around styli.

The device is running Android 2.2 Froyo, and still manages to pack in a 4" display, as well as an NFC chip for mobile payments and the like. There aren't any other spec details at this point but this leaked booklet of the NEC MEDIAS E-04C, but February 24th is fast approaching, so we will know more at the grand unveiling in Japan. From the booklet below it certainly seems that there will be both a black and a white version of the world's thinnest smartphone.

If this is what's hiding inside NTT DoCoMo's Spring portfolio, there are sure to be other surprises that we will reveal to you as they get unveiled.

A minor WP7 update to arrive in the next few days

An unconfirmed report claims that a minor WP7 update, which will open the door for the first major refreshment of the platform, is to come as soon as February 22, which is tomorrow.

The rumour states that this update won't bring any additional features to WP7, but will be needed for the first major update of the platform, which is popularly known as NoDo. As you most probably know, it is set to bring copy-and-paste and CDMA support to Microsoft's mobile OS.

The NoDo update is expected to grace the WP platform in the second week of March.

T-Mo: Samsung Galaxy S 4G coming on February 23 for $199.99

A previous statement coming directly from T-Mobile claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S 4G is to arrive with a $149.99 price tag, but now the updated T-Mo press release says this refreshed version of the Samsung Galaxy S is to cost $199.99 on a two-year contract after a $50 mail-in-rebate.

This updated info is no doubt disappointing, but here comes the good news - online retailer Wirefly is doing what it does best and offers the very same handset for $139.99, while RadioShack has it for $149.99.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4G is set to appear on February 23, and it will be the first phone on T-Mo's HSPA+ network to support theoretical speeds of 21+Mbps. For more info, hit this link for our hands-on with the device.

Honeycomb ported to the Google Nexus One, still an early build

One of the guys at XDA-Developers decided to practice his rooting skills on the Google Nexus One, and the result is one very early Honeycomb build for the HTC handset.

As can be expected, plenty of features are not working right now - among them making and receiving calls, text messages, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, sound, camera and so forth - so this version's target group seems to be developers rather than end consumers.

However, fixes are surely on the way, and it's refreshing in itself that a handset released in March 2010 can receive some Honeycomb love.

geohot promises to hack Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY, requests support for his court battles

One household nickname in the root community is geohot (real name George Hotz), and that naturally means that some manufacturers like Sony and Apple are not very keen on this talented developer.

Actually, Sony has brought him to court for his PlayStation 3 jailbreak, but not all companies are frowning down on his efforts - one such example is Brandon Watson, WP7 director, who has challenged him to root Microsoft's mobile platform.

To show that he stands by his principles, geohot has publicly announced that he will be "first in line" to get the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY and root it:

"In fact, I want the opposite reputation set, that the more a company tries to abuse the legal system, the harder we rally back. I will be the first person in line on the launch date of the Xperia Play, and itching to get my hands on the Next GEOHOT Project."

He is also pleading for popular support in his court battle against Sony. Hit the source link to read his rant against the Japanese manufacturer.

AT&T to launch Personal Hotspot with iOS 4.3?

Verizon iPhone 4 owners have been lucky when it comes to wireless tethering as the Personal Hotspot feature is exclusive to iPhone 4 owners on Big Red's network. AT&T, however, might be preparing to launch Personal Hotspot for its users as well. The carrier reportedly agreed to provisioning the feature for iOS 4.3 beta 3 for a developer.

The update will be made publicly available with iOS 4.3, which is rumored to come out at the end of the month. The feature might put even more pressure on AT&T's network as it allows for up to 5 devices to wirelessly tether to the iPhone. Currently, Verizon charges an extra $20 a month for Wi-Fi tethering and AT&T will probably introduce a fee as well. In comparison, users who chose to jailbreak their iPhone have the option to use the MyWi app, which mimics the Personal Hotspot functionality and comes at a one-time charge of $20.

Great task managers for Android

So you have this fancy new Android smartphone that you just can’t get enough of. You're texting and tweeting and browsing and downloading and pretty much anything else that’s imaginable. While you are using your smartphone nonstop, you might have noticed that your battery drains rather quickly. In fact, you could probably go as far as saying that the battery life sucks big time. This is because every little thing you do, every application that you open on your Android smartphone continues to run in the background even when you aren’t using it. If you want to know what applications are the best when it comes to helping improve your Android’s battery life, read on.

The best and easily the most popular task killer is appropriately named Advanced Task Killer. Aside from being very easy to use, it is very effective. What this app does is list everything that is running on your phone’s background. Everything listed has a green check mark next to it which means that app will be closed when you press the “kill selected apps” button. If you want something to continue running in the background, such as a streaming music app like Pandora, just uncheck it. Moreover, there is a setting that will kill applications automatically. It’s simple, effective and won’t cost you a dime.

Another popular app that can greatly improve your battery life is called Juice Defender. Fortunately, this is another free app although there is an optional Ultimate Juice add-on that will run you a few bucks. For now, let’s just focus on the basic app. Truth be told, this app isn’t very basic at all. There are a few different task manager levels to choose from such as aggressive and extreme. Juice Defender does such things as turning off data when you are not using it. Trust us when we say that goes a long way in improving your battery life. The app will actually show you in the notification panel how much of an improvement you can expect to see. This is a highly recommended app.

Advanced Task Manager is another great app worth considering. Don’t let the name or the logo fool you, this application is from a different developer than Advanced Task Killer. The main purpose of this app is to save battery life, speed up your phone, free up memory and of course kill tasks. It has been downloaded a few hundred thousand times for the cost of nothing. Some other nice features include the killing off apps when the screen shuts off, one-click kill widget, quick uninstaller and even support for Android 2.3 (for when anyone not using the Samsung Nexus S gets it). Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Advanced Task Killer	Juice Defender	Advanced Task Manager

The name advanced gets used a lot for these types of applications, and that holds true for another solid battery saver called Advanced Battery Improve. This application takes features that make others so successful and blends them into one package. When you first open the app, you will notice a list of everything that is running in the background, similar to Advanced Task Killer. It will also turn off things such as data when the phone isn’t being used. The developers boast that the app will improve battery life as much as 30%-50%, so give it a try. It is also free.

Advanced Battery Improve	Android Booster	Super Task Killer 2011

There are plenty of other applications to consider. You might also want to try out Android Booster and Super Task Killer 2011, all of which are free. Some paid apps worthy of some serious consideration are System Panel App/Task Manager and the Pro versions of Advanced Task Killer and Advanced Task Manager. However, the four that we detailed above should suit your phone nicely and get the job done. So take that new fancy Android phone of yours and text, tweet, browse and download a way because now you know what applications to download to make your battery life suck a lot less. Tell us what you think of these applications in the comments below!

Nokia Search for 7 competition gives you location clues to win one Nokia E7 each day this week

The Finns are ramping up their marketing efforts after the official launch of the Nokia E7 QWERTY slider two weeks ago. You can read all about it in our preview here.

In the Nokia Search for 7 competition, you are given clues online as to how to find the whereabouts of a Nokia E7 handset each day of the week. Whoever tweets first the virtual location at @WOMWorldNokia, will go home with a brand spanking new Nokia E7 phone. Considering the hefty pricetag, that might be the only chance you would actually get it.

Hit the link below for today's clues, there is still time before the third one sets in.

Taking a 3D image with the LG Optimus 3D

Ah, the LG Optimus 3D! The first phone capable of displaying 3D content glasses-free, a device we got to hold and play with at MWC. Also something that we'll be telling stories about to our grandchildren one day. Or maybe not. Anyway, currently glasses-free 3D on phones is more or less of a mystery even for more advanced folks. That's why in the craziness called Mobile World Congress we stole a second with the dual-lens 5 megapixel camera on the Optimus 3D to give you a basic idea of how shooting videos and images looks like. Pretty simple, it turns out, just like everything great in life. The 3D switch allows you to select between traditional 2D and the new 3D shot mode. Photos can then be viewed right on the screen, which uses the parallax barrier to give you the depth effect. Check out the camera interface and all the details in a quick video demo below!

Skype possibly coming to AT&T devices in the future

Skype has hinted that video calling may be coming to AT&T devices in the future shortly after announcing their joint venture with Qik that is focused on improving the quality of video chat on capable networks.

Skype and Qik’s joint venture is aimed at integrating their technologies to try and improve Qik’s video calling performance on T-Mobile and Sprint while trying to develop a version of Skype capable of running over Verizon’s new LTE network. Leading the discussion at MWC over the weekend was Skype’s head of consumer product management, Rich Osterloh.

When asked about Skype and a future with the AT&T network, Osterloh said “let’s watch out for some announcements there.” So really he didn’t give us too much, but he definitely didn’t say a future partnership with AT&T was out of the question. Hopefully this joint venture will greatly improve video calling for everybody because it is no secret how poor the quality is over mobile networks. Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Android app doubleTwist now features media streaming over Wi-Fi

Interested in a different way of showing off the photos and videos, that you took yesterday, with your Android-powered smartphone? How about streaming them to your HDTV straight from your device? Now you can by using AirSync, a newly introduced feature to the doubleTwist media player for Android.

The neat application enables streaming of video, audio, and photos from your smartphone to a Wi-Fi enabled computer or a gaming console by basically turning your Android device into a small, user-friendly media server. DoubleTwist's AirSync feature also allows you to wirelessly sync the files from your iTunes library with the media found on your Android smartphone once you install the desktop version to your computer.

We would just like to note, that 1080p video streaming may not be as smooth as you would expect it to be, as it would be pushing the boundaries of your home Wi-Fi connection. AirSync is available on the Android market as a paid upgrade to the free doubleTwist media player.

T-Mobile wants WiFi calling on Windows Phone 7

While speaking at the Mobile World Congress over the weekend, T-Mobile brought up their hopes of bringing their successful WiFi calling capabilities to other platforms in the future, including Windows Phone 7.

Currently, this Wifi calling capability is available on a bunch of handsets including some Android-powered smartphones. While speaking at the MWC, T-Mobile said that roughly 5 million of their 34 million users are taking advantage of this feature.

Joshua Lonn, T-Mobile’s Director of Product Development, said they would like to bring the WiFi calling service to Windows Phone 7 as well as expanding it to all of their Android devices in the future. T-Mobile has several Android devices, but only one WP7 at this moment in time. More Windows Phone 7 devices are surely on the way, however. Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Motorola XOOM won't support Flash at launch

We have a bad news for all these folks who were planning to visit a Verizon store on February 24, buy the Honeycomb-powered Motorola XOOM, return home and watch Flash content on their newly purchased powerhouse of a tablet.

And if you can't see the bad news, here it comes - Big Red officially announced (kind of, actually) that the Motorola XOOM won't support Flash at launch. Oops.

You can read the "announcement" if you take a closer look at the poster on the Verizon site teasing the Motorola XOOM tablet - at the bottom left corner it says with a small print "Adobe Flash expected Spring 2011".

This seems to be a reference to the upcoming Adobe Flash Player version 10.2, and it's a pity that the soon-to-be Motorola XOOM owners won't be able to taste Flash support in the coming weeks. As of now, we have no info why Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is not present on the Motorola tab.

For a long time, Androiders around the world were quite happy to sneer at their iOS counterparts, saying that the iDevice owners were unable to enjoy the web in the way it should be enjoyed, but it seems this problem is to haunt the upcoming flagship Android tablet - the Motorola XOOM - at least for some weeks.

Are you going to buy the Motorola tablet on February 24?

Apple working on new, more energy-dense batteries

Apple's mobile devices have been generally known for having a pretty good battery life. Nevertheless, the guys at Cupertino are in the works of developing their next latest an greatest invention. Judging by a newly-published patent, which is titled "Increasing Energy Density in Rechargeable Lithium Battery Cells," Apple is attempting to increase the time between charges of their battery cells without the bigger footprint of a bulkier battery.

The new technology involves the implementation of the so-called "multi-step constant-current constant-voltage (CC-CV) charging technique," which will increase the energy density of the new battery cell. More efficient batteries will also allow making them smaller, resulting in a better use of space within the electronic device.

It is still unknown which one of Apple's upcoming devices will introduce the new technology to the market, if any ever will anytime soon. Lets just hope that the new batteries will be immune to self-combustion.

Leading GSM operators announce support for a single NFC standard, to be launched in 2012

There are not many people who express doubt that NFC is part of our high-tech future, and that's only confirmed by the fact that a huge number of leading GSM operators have announced their support for the global interoperability of this service. Furthermore, it's expected that we will see a commercial NFC launch in "select markets by 2012".

Franco Bernabe, Chairman, GSMA and CEO, Telecom Italia comments on NFC:

"NFC is perhaps best known for its role in enabling mobile payments, but its applications go far beyond that. NFC represents an important innovation opportunity, and will facilitate a wide range of interesting services and applications for consumers, such as mobile ticketing, mobile couponing, the exchange of information and content, control access to cars, homes, hotels, offices car parks and much more."

To avoid fragmentation, the operators behind this agreement (among them are América Móvil, Axiata Group Berhad, Bharti, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT Corporation, MTS, Orange, Qtel Group, SK Telecom, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor and Vodafone) have come to the conclusion that they must accept a single NFC standard, which will allow the end consumer "to benefit from NFC services around the world, regardless of operator network or device type".

Bernabe states:

"By uniting around a single standardised approach to mobile NFC and by collaborating across the entire ecosystem, our industry will continue to develop the compelling services that customers demand."

It's calculated that the total payment value for NFC globally will reach more than $150 billion (more than €110 billion) by 2015, and this only demonstrates how much it's to grow in importance in the coming years.

Do you plan to be an early NFC adopter?

Desktop-grade eye candy on your mobile thanks to Series 6 PowerVR GPUs

Next level of graphics and video are getting closer to our pockets. Imagination Technologies' Series 6 PowerVR GPUs have been announced to deliver anything from twenty to a hundred times as much kick as their predecessor – the “humble” Series 5 GPUs.

The first SoC to include the Series 6 PowerVR GPUs is going to be the Nova 9600, announced by ST-Ericsson. It is said to be capable of delivering HD video at the amazing 120 frames per second, as well as powerful enough to capture and reproduce high-quality 3D video renderings.

Powering devices such as the Apple iPhone 4, the Nokia N900, and Sony's upcoming next generation portable entertainment system, the Series 5 GPUs are considered one of the best you can get in a mobile device nowadays. Such leap of performance, claimed by the expected beast of a GPU, would rival even today's premium, desktop-grade graphic cards, while being easy on the battery at the same time.

Sprint's HTC 7 Pro is gearing up for an official announcement this Thursday?

Sprint has been somewhat relatively low key of late with handset announcements, but if you’ve been itching to experience Windows Phone 7, then you may want to keep an eye out on Sprint’s Twitter account come Thursday.

With Windows Phone 7’s first major update scheduled to roll out some time within the first half of this year, which brings forth support for CDMA devices, it looks promising that we may finally see an official announcement regarding the HTC 7 Pro. Over in Europe, it already has started to infiltrate some markets, but we haven’t heard much about its relationship with Sprint for a while now.

Surprisingly, Sprint’s Twitter account posted a message indicating that a new handset is scheduled to be unveiled come this Thursday, February 24th. In all likelihood, it would more than likely point to the official announcement of the HTC 7 Pro – especially when this thing has been talked about since October. We’ll find out!

New ad for the HTC Thunderbolt takes us Back to the Future

Still waiting for a precise launch date for the HTC Thunderbolt? Verizon's first 4G handset is about to get released and another new ad has been spotted for the device. Similar to the scene in Back to the Future when Doc Brown grabs the two cables and plus them in just in time for the thunderbolt to hit the clock tower and generate enough power to send the DeLorean back to the correct time, the ad for the HTC Thunderbolt suggests that this is the first handset powerful enough to work on Verizon's 4G network.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop sells all his Microsoft shares

Nokia's investors and devoted fans were reasonably concerned when Stephen Elop was appointed the new CEO of Nokia. After all, he was a former employee of Microsoft, and possessed 130,000 Microsoft shares valuing US$3 million. The concern was that Elop was implanted with the intention of guaranteeing a Windows Phone 7-Nokia collaboration.

Nokia devotees shouldn't be concerned. Stephen Elop is in the process of selling off all of his Microsoft shares. He explains that when he first moved from Microsoft to Nokia, he was legally prohibited from selling his shares. He started to sell them off, but was again prohibited during the negotiations between Microsoft and Nokia.

Elop has made it clear that he is selling all of his Microsoft shares. In fact, he has purchased 150,000 shares in his new company. Elop assured the media that "We made sure the management team was involved in the process, and of course the board of directors of Nokia are the only ones that can make this significant of a decision about Nokia."

But beyond Stephen Elop, what do you think about a Nokia-Microsoft collaboration? Will Symbian be missed, or is Windows Phone 7 a good match for your Nokia device?

Verizon iPhone 4 unlocked to work with other CDMA networks

Verizon and AT&T are desperately struggling to differentiate their iPhones from one another. One criticism that AT&T has leveled against the Verizon iPhone 4 is its incompatibility abroad, given that it's a CDMA device. Now, employees at China Telecom have announced that they have successfully unlocked the CDMA iPhone to work on their network.

Last week, employees of the Guangdong branch of China Telecom blogged that they were working on cracking the Verizon iPhone 4. Then on Tuesday, the 'Apple Lab Team' announced that the "CDMA iPhone 4 has made its first call in China". While it might not be what Sprint customers were waiting to hear, it's encouraging to know that it can be done.

The Guangdong team blogged that the "Windows version of Greenpois0n didn't work...[but] A switch to the Mac version of Greenpois0n was a success." We're anything but surprised that one of the first off-Verizon CDMA iPhone calls was made in China. Jailbroken phones, iPhones in particular, have become the norm.

While the iPhone 4 has been available to both China Unicom and China Mobile, both GSM networks, China Telecom (CDMA) has been unable to use even jailbroken iPhones. Now, we may see an influx of jailbroken Verizon iPhones making their way to China, at least until an official version is made available. When the CDMA iPhone 4 does make its way to China (officially), it will need a SIM slot in order to comply with Chinese standards.

Verbatim keyboard for iPad/iPhone is shipping to retailers

This is for you, road-warriors and space-conscious students: Verbatim is now shipping their new Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard for the Apple iPad and iPhone. The slim, sleek, and foldable keyboard will give you the intuitive comfort of a full keyboard, without taking up the valuable space in your bag.

The mobile keyboard includes a leather carrying case, to keep it safe, even at the bottom of your backpack. There is also a pop-out stand for your iPhone, which can be stored within the keyboard for protection. Verbatim's keyboard runs on 2 AAA batteries, which are also included. The inclusion of standard batteries means longer life on a single set, but a rechargeable battery option would be nice.

Perhaps the best features of the keyboard are the shortcut keys. From these shortcuts, you can control your iTunes, just like you might on a desktop keyboard. With this kind of ergonomic and compact keyboard, you just might find yourself writing papers and emails on your Apple device from now on.

You can purchase the Verbatim Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard for US$79.99 from Amazon.com and Fry's Electronics, as well as other major retailers in the near future.

Ad for Motorola XOOM turns human into pod

Motorola has brought back the science fiction tinged adventure that it used with the original Motorola DROID. This time, the manufacturer is promoting its Honeycomb flavored tablet, the Motorola XOOM. This ad showed up on You Tube this afternoon.

On Verizon's web site for the device, it says in big letters "Grab it and it Grabs you". Want to know what happens when you grab the XOOM? Find out by clicking on the play button below.

As clock strikes 12 on the East Coast, Samsung Epic 4G will get Froyo

At 9pm tonight on the West Coast, Sprint will start sending out an OTA upgrade for Android 2.2.1 to owners of the Samsung Epic 4G. Now, users of the device will finally be able to install Adobe Flash Player 10.1 once the upgrade is downloaded.

Among bug fixes on the upgrade, one will improve the function of the phone's GPS. And besides being able to support Adobe Flash, the Froyo upgrade will allow Samsung Epic 4G users to store certain apps on a microSDcard, freeing up some space on the handset.

If your Epic 4G does not show the upgrade at 9:01 pm PST, don't panic or call Sprint. Android 2.2.1 will be rolling out to the device over a 4 day period.

Adobe to send out Flash Player 10.2 to Motorola XOOM owners within weeks of launch

Earlier today, we reported that in fine print, Verizon's web site showed that Adobe Flash 10.2 would not be on the Motorola XOOM until Spring of 2011. With the tablet expected to launch on February 24th, that is quite a few weeks without Flash for a device that is supposed to have high-end specs like dual-core processors and Android 3.0. Flash is one of the things that high-end Android tablet users have to differentiate themselves from the Apple iPad.

The good news is that apparently, Motrorola XOOM owners won't have to wait terribly long for their upgrade. On the Adobe Flash blog it says, "Adobe will offer Flash Player 10.2 preinstalled on some tablets and as an OTA download on others within a few weeks of Android 3 (Honeycomb) devices becoming available, the first of which is expected to be the Motorola Xoom." So the players involved are all working on it and while it might feel naked to be walking around with a tablet like the XOOM without having Flash, it is looking more and more like a very temporary situation that will be resolved quickly.

The Windows 8 tablet interface to feature live tiles similar to WP7

We wrote that it is very likely Windows 8 to appear on tablet firsts, and then on desktops and the like, maybe even in time for the holidays. After digging a bit around this, we found some clues that a developers' beta might appear as soon as September.

Windows 8 is slated to fulfill Microsoft's vision of "three screens and a cloud", and will rely heavily on cloud services. There is to be dual-interface overlay, depending on what is Win 8 running on, and the tablet UI, codenamed Mosh, is speculated to feature big live tiles, similar to what Windows Phone 7 offers.

The other interesting tidbit is that Windows 8 may have a dedicated gaming focus and feature a flexible 3D interface, as well as a Windows Marketplace app store. Microsoft is working with NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Intruments to tailor its "riskiest bet" as Steve Ballmer called Windows 8 for running on the frugal ARM-based chipsets. Given Dell's leaked roadmap for outing a Windows 8-based tablet in Q1 of 2012, Microsoft is already hard at work with manufacturers as well.

If Microsoft does it right, this could throw a wrench in the wheels of the racing cars that Apple and Google are riding towards mobile and cloud dominance. A "tiled" UI for devices like Nokia Windows Phone, plus Windows 8 running for long hours on a tablet that can support most ports and software you throw at it, plus Windows 8 with fancy 3D UI and gaming focus for desktops, all linked up to Microsoft's cloud - all really sounds like a sea of change and a risky bet, but it might very well pay off in 2012, which will be the 5th year since Apple disturbed the mobile universe with the iPhone. Enough time for major players to react and adapt. Provided that Apple sits still, of course, which is highly unlikely.

HP TouchPad might hit shelves in April

HP's TouchPad is worth a look just because it features HP/Palm's beautifully simple webOS in its third iteration, but up until now the wait for it just seemed too long – the tablet was announced at HP's Think Beyond event with a launch date of "this Summer." The TouchPad however will start selling in April, way ahead of the summer months, while late March is when the tablet will start shipping out, a Digitimes report claimed based on "sources from HP's upstream component partners." While you should take this with a grain of salt, it does coincide with recent statements from HP's own Leo Apotheker about the need for more urgency when it comes to bringing innovation to the market.

Now that must be the effect of global warming on the early arrival of summer, but we won't mind seeing the dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon-powered tablet hit shelves in April! The HP TouchPad will not only feature the new tablet version of webOS, but will also be able to easily synchronize with phones like the HP Pre 3 and the HP Veer. The tablet will initially come in a plain Bluetooth and Wi-Fi version, but later versions will add mobile data connectivity including 4G.

The TouchPad roll-out is crucial for HP's presence on the tablet market. The company expects to ship around 4-5 million tablets in 2011, a milestone that will make webOS known in the tablet market. Will it succeed? With an early launch chances are much higher.

Xbox Kinect hacked to work with iOS devices

At the Mobile World Congress 2011, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer was thrilled to demonstrate the integration of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect. Using your Windows Phone 7 device, you can have a secondary interface beyond the Kinect sensor and your television. No, it's not the most practical interface, but it's a fun concept.

Now, Supertouch and Frog Design have stolen a bit of the spotlight, by enabling iOS devices to be used in a similar capacity. Supertouch enabled iOS devices to control the balls in Xbox Kinect Dodgeball, just like the Windows Phone 7. Wielding your iPhone or iPad, you can control where the dodgeballs are hurled at your opponent.

Frog Design has also thrown their hat into the ring, adapting the Human Tetris game for iOS as well. One player strikes a pose to match an approaching cutout, while the other chooses the shapes on their iOS (or Windows Phone 7) device. So does this strike a blow at the growing appeal of Windows Phone 7? Probably not, but when companies compete, the consumer always wins.

QR codes by JAGTAG allows feature phones to take action on bar codes too

JAGTAG is a barcode scanning company which is the maker of QR Codes, a way for all phones to receive multimedia content after snapping a picture of the bar code.

It's not all that innovative - you take a picture of the bar code and MMS it with your feature phone to a JAGTAG provided number if you are on Verizon or AT&T, or email it if you are on another network. JAGTAG then reads it on its servers, and returns back to your inbox the content it is supposed to represent.

Still, if you don't have a QR code scanning app on your smartphone, or have a feature phone, that is a relatively easy way to get your barcode game on. Plus JAGTAG is optimizing the multimedia content for your specific brand and model, if needed. Marketing campaigns can go wild with QR codes, knowing that feature phone users can read the bar codes too now.

Minecraft coming to iOS, Android version in the works

If your love for pixels steals precious days/months/years (insert a relevant period) of your life and you're fine with it, you will be more than glad to find out that the immersive world of pixelized mining adventures called Minecraft is coming to iPhones and iPads later this year. What's more – an Android version is also in the works for this year. Don't know what Minecraft is? You'd better check out the indie PC sensation before your friends murder you. Okay, you most probably know that it is a retro-looking first-person game about building your very own shelter in imagination land to protect you from the zombies attacking at night. What you might not know is the fact that it was by large made by a single person called Markus Persson who made with almost no budget what big gaming studios make with hundreds of thousands.

The game was one of the most successful last year and the success meant more funding. Finally, Persson got more people involved and now the newest recruit to Persson's team is Aron Neiminen, who will port the game to Apple's ecosystem. While there is a number of unofficial ports for iOS, this will be the first official one. It will include select features relevant to the mobile form factor and will eat up even more time of your life. But you won't be alone – there is more than 1.3 million registered users who voted with their dollar to participate. Not bad for a one-man creation, right?

Motorola ATRIX 4G $129.99 at Walmart until Thursday, $149 at Amazon

The 3rd party retailers have done their share of hand-wringing and clawed back up to full $80 from the already decent $199.99 AT&T is selling the most powerful phone to hit a US carrier for.

The dual-core Motorola ATRIX 4G can be had for just $129.99 at Walmart Wireless, if they can lock you into a two-year contract before Thursday, and $149.99 at Amazon Wireless. Of course, you have to purchase at least a $59.99 talk plan plus a $15 minimum data plan, or, if you want to use the dock, you have to shell out $45 a month for the Data Pro 4GB and tethering plan.

The 4G capable device will set you back $499.99 if you want the laptop dock, which is the price of the dock sold separately as well, so obviously AT&T and Motorola are trying to make it really hard to purchase just the dock.

The Motorola ATRIX 4G just got its root treatment yesterday, so you will be armed with all prerequisites of a great Android experience - high-resolution screen, powerful dual-core chipset, low price and... a laptop dock, if you are so inclined. Stay tuned for our review of the ATRIX 4G very soon.

Sony contemplating a dual-screen Android tablet, as well as Windows one with a sliding keyboard

Sony seems to be hedging its mobile bets this year - at the MWC last week its joint venture with Ericsson introduced the Xperia Neo, Xperia Play and Xperia arc (our hands-ons here) Android phones. On the tablet side of things, Sony is said to work on an intriguing design, codenamed S1, which will be running Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

The Japanese obviously have picked up steam, though, since they have decided to simultaneously work on another two interesting design decisions. the first one is called internally the S2, and looks like a big sunglasses case, round sides and all. Open it up, and it reveals two 5.5" displays, separated by the hinge and screen bezels, which are a platform for porting dual-screen options to Honeycomb - showing your email inbox on one screen, and the body of the highlighted email on the other, for example, among many others in the works by Sony.

The slate also features 3G connectivity, and is supposed to be another platform for Sony's Qriocity on-demand entertainment media. The report says Sony is a bit miffed by the idea internally, and this might never take off commercially for the rumored $699, but at least the company is waking up to Android, after it slept for the entire 2010. Here is a sketch of it below, which might imply a controlled leak to gauge reactions, judging from the fact that something like this can be drawn by a 3-year old.

The other tablet has much more chances of seeing the light of day, since it will be part of the VAIO series. A Windows-running tablet with 9.4" display is in the works, which will feature a sliding keyboard, similar to what the Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series is offering. Pretty good idea, and if Sony throws in an Oak Trail chipset that lasts 6-8 hours running Windows, it might even have a greater chance of success. Hopefully it will receive a tablet-friendly Windows 8 version as well. The Windows tablet is supposed to appear for the holidays this year in a $799 reincarnation, which once again reaffirms our observation about the "Sony premium".

iPad 2 may be delayed until June according to analysts cited by Bloomberg

According to Yuanta Analysts cited by Bloomberg, the launch date of the next generation iPad may be delayed until June 2011 because of design changes, which resulted in "production bottlenecks".

Vincent Chen and Alison Chen, the analysts behind this report, didn't go into details what kind of changes were made, but the bottom line is that these setbacks in production ensure it is likely that the iPad 2 won't be launched in April. According to their report:

"Our checks suggest new issues are being encountered with the new production and it is taking time to resolve them. As a number of Android 3.0 tablets are being launched in April and May, the delay in iPad 2 shipments may give the Android camp a brief window of opportunity."

It's further claimed in this report that if a delay does occur, the forecasted shipments of iPad 2 units for 2011 will decrease from 30.6 million to 23 million.

The next generation iPad is said to be thinner, lighter and faster. Moreover, it's almost certain that the yet unreleased Apple tablet will have a front-facing camera.

FCC probing Verizon on thousands of failed attempts to dial 911 during the snow storm in January

Verizon has received a letter requiring it to explain, investigate and, in the future, avoid the events that led to thousands of unsuccessful attempts to connect wireless callers to the 911 emergency service. The probe reads:

"The FCC has received reports that during the snowstorm that hit the Washington D.C. region on January 26, 2011, approximately 8,300 wireless 9-1-1 calls to the Montgomery County Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), routed over the Verizon network, were not connected, and an additional 1,700 wireless calls to the Prince George's County PSAP were not connected. I know that you will agree that any 9-1-1 call which is not connected can have serious consequences, but the large number of missed 9-1-1 calls on January 26 is truly alarming. I therefore request that Verizon provide an explanation of the causes of this and similar failures, provide Verizon's assessment of the possibility of occurrence in other locations and describe what actions Verizon is taking to prevent recurrence of these problems."

Then it goes to explain how the culprit were a few trunks maintained by Verizon (not Verizon Wireless) that connect wireline, wireless and VoIP calls to the Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) of the respective counties. One of these trunks went down at 5:45pm on January 26th, and, for some reason, Verizon's system started automatically shutting down the other thirteen wireless trunks, until the whole channel for connecting wireless calls to the PSAP was out of service by 8:45pm that day. A similar thing happened with the Prince George's County PSAP.

The issue in question is that Verizon didn't notify the PSAPs that they can't connect calls to them, although the trunks are supposed to sound alarms when they go off. It was the PSAP representatives that got in touch with Verizon around 11pm to say nobody is connecting people's 911 emergency calls on the Verizon network. Fifteen minutes after that the trunks were restored back into service.

"We are particularly concerned that this problem may be widespread across Verizon's footprint. We therefore request that Verizon investigate the extent of the problem across its network and provide the following information by March 10, 2011:", continues Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, asking in a nutshell whether this has happened before in other places throughout the nation, and what will Verizon do about it.

Sounds like a nice little PR storm brewing for Big Red, we will keep an eye on the developments.

Apple rallies employees for secret meeting, probably ahead of media event

Retail employees at Apple were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement in anticipation of an all-hands meeting later in the week, possibly before an upcoming media event, according to AppleInsider. Employees who didn't sign the agreement were – of course – to be excluded from the meeting. There could be two products behind this meeting – a new MacBook Pro or the next-generation of the iPad. But the new lineup of MacBook Pro notebooks is expected to be released this Thursday on the very birthday of Steve Jobs. So the only option left is the iPad 2, an announcement well worth of media attention.

This would prove wrong recent rumors about the delay of the next-gen iPad, but would match Apple's strict one year product cycle. It was around this time of the year in 2010 when Apple announced its revolutionary new iPad. So even though this is still just a rumor, you might want to wait up just one more week before getting a new tablet - could be well worth it.