Thanks to the phenomenal developers over at XDA, it looks like the great Nook Color has received an Ice Cream Sandwich Update. Mind you, it is still very buggy, but several things do work, including:

• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi
• Backlight
• Accelerometer
• Gapps
• SetCPU
• Data Usage Info
• Battery Indicator
• Physical Menu Button
• 3D Gaming
• Touchscreen
• Mounting Via USB
• Screenshots

What does work includes:

• Sound
• Video
• 2D Acceleration
• Other Random Unknown Bugs

This is a great development for any users that have held on to their Nook Colors, especially considering Barnes and Noble has no plans to update the tablet to Ice Cream Sandwich. Check out the source link below for more detail.

Via XDA

It looks like Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab devices will not receive Ice Cream Sandwich. The main reason is that these devices do not have the internal memory or RAM to run Ice Cream Sandwich alongside of Touchwiz. This comes as a real blow to Galaxy S users because the Nexus S runs on practically the same hardware and will be receiving an official update from Google providing it.

Mind you, developers over at XDA will probably figure out an appropriate port or create an AOSP version, but even that will be more difficult now that CyanogenMod dropped support for the Galaxy S devices due to emergency dialing troubles. These are just the things people using devices with custom skins have to deal with nowadays.

Via The Verge

 Paper Camera as you may well know is a pretty cool little camera app that offers a lot of different filters and features to use. Overall, the app manages to do its job very well, and even if Ice Cream Sandwich may make it a little more obsolete because of it’s built in editor, I feel that camera apps like this still have a place. All Google has done is provide a free alternative which hopefully will just encourage developers to try even harder to make their apps standout. Anyways, on to the review.

The app contains twelve different filters. Each of these filters have different sliders for contrast, brightness, and the number of lines in each image. All of this leads to a very detailed experience with many different options. The different filters include:

• Comic Boom
• Sketch Up
• Acquarello
• Old Printer
• Neon Cola
• Con Tours
• Bleaching
• Gotham Noir
• Half ton
• Granny’s Paper
• Pastel Perfect
• Andy Pop

If you want to get a better idea of what each of these filters does, check out the pictures at the bottom. Personally, I found the app very easy to use, although it didn’t necessarily work that well in low light situations, particularly all of the darker effects. Then again, it probably makes sense that Gotham Noir does not work very well in low lit conditions. The end result in that case is usually just a black screen.

It also tended to have some trouble with motion, mainly because the filters did not always look so great when the main object had moved from where it was originally supposed to be. The most amazing part of it all was how easy the app made it to take very simple pictures and make them look interesting. Even simple things, like a Starbucks coffee cup holder on the ground looked pretty cool after applying a simple effect and a little bit of adjustment.

The app also allows you to import photos you have already taken and modify them, but the main issue here in my case is that I did not usually take the picture with a filter in mind, so they did not look particularly good. Perhaps somebody more skilled or artistically minded could do a better job though.

All in all, the app was definitely worth the $0.10 it cost during the Android Market sale, and is probably worth the $1.99 it costs now. The app is also available for iOS, seemingly in the exact same form, for $0.99. The permissions it requires are Hardware Controls: Take Pictures and Videos and System Tools: Prevent System From Sleeping. It saves any pictures to the default camera roll, and the app size is 1.9 MB for Android and 7.4 MB for iOS. Check below for more pictures of the app and all of the filters.

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Intel announced today that they finally have a reference design for phones and tablets that runs Google’s Android operating system. Normally this may not seem like such a big deal, but these devices are running on Medfield. This new processor is actually an x86 chip, meaning that it has a different architecture from ARM chips.

Up till now, x86 chips were simply too power-crazed to use in a mobile device, but apparently Medfield is different. One of the main reasons is that Intel has finally created a System on a Chip (SoC) which contains all of the necessary parts to run a smartphone. As for the reference phone itself, it apparently was pretty smooth running gingerbread, and could easily play Blu-Ray video. Web browsing seemingly also gained from the Medfield chip.

Intel developers also included some dedicated image-processing circuits that meant the camera could take ten 8 MP pictures at a rate of 15 per second. If true, this is absolutely ridiculous as most current smartphone can not even handle one picture per second at 8 MP.

The reference tablet ran Ice Cream Sandwich, and seems to run very well, although that is probably largely in part because of Ice Cream Sandwich as opposed to just the Medfield chip. A big part of the reason this chip can compete on battery life is that it’s made with 32 nm technology, which is more efficient than most x86 processor running based on larger tech. By 2013, Intel claims they’ll decrease it to 22 nm, which should make an enormous difference, although probably will also increase the cost significantly as well. Regardless, it will be interesting to see what part Intel will play in the processor market.

Via Technology Review

It looks like any new versions of the N8, C7, and C6-01 will be shipping with Nokia Belle. Nokia Belle is a pretty massive update to Symbian belle which, as you can see above, changes the look of the device a lot. The update will include more flexible widgets, six homescreens, Meego-like icons, and an “Android-style” notification bar.

The new phones should arrive in China first, and then move out to the rest of the world. Current owners of the above devices will have to wait until February 2012 or so before they start receiving updates. It is also interesting that Nokia decided to get rid of the Symbian name, as it demonstrates the fact that they are slowly dropping support for the platform.

Via Slashgear

Luckily for Mozilla and any Firefox users, it looks like Google is willing to renew the original contract for another three full years. This was a big deal for Mozilla, because 84% of their revenue actually came from that little search box. Basically, every time a user searches using that box, Mozilla receives some money. It probably is more complex than that, but that is the general idea.

This also shows some real class on Google’s part as they seem to want Chrome to beat others solely on merit, and not because of money issues. The whole ordeal probably means good things for a completely separate venture involving Google and Motorola as it means that other Android vendors probably will not be thrown under the bus, at least not yet.

Via Slashgear

The International Trade commission has officially ruled that basically all HTC devices with Android are banned from being imported into the United States. The ban does not actually begin until April 19th, 2012. Before you get worried that the government will keep vendors from selling all of your favorite HTC phones and tablets, this is actually a pretty minor detail, and HTC insists that they already have a workaround ready. Also, this only covers devices running up to Android Froyo 2.2 so if your phone has gingerbread then it probably will be alright. More importantly though, the violation is really on Android as a whole, so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the end.

Via Slashgear, XDA-Developers

It looks like AT&T has finally officially realized that the merger with T-Mobile was just not going to happen. After facing large anti-trust concerns and trying to divest assets in order to make the deal happen, AT&T finally gave up. This now means that T-Mobile will receive some new pocket-money, which adds up to about $4 billion. This is about $3 billion of straight cash, and another $1 billion worth of spectrum. Not only that, but AT&T will also now have a roaming agreement which lets devices that either company officially supports run on the other. All in all while some may argue that it was a terrible idea to give up with the spectrum crunch coming, AT&T themselves accidentally admitted that the merger would destroy competition.

Via TmoNews

QP Optoelectronics has announced that it will show off a brand new product called the LightPad at CES that depending on price could really increase the functionality of smartphones. Basically, it looks like the the LightPad will have a pico projector and a full keyboard. The screen you can see above is an 11″ rear-projection screen, but the peripheral also supports up to 60″ when front projecting.

It looks like the screen will not be a touchscreen, which means that the large screen sizes would primarily be useful for watching videos and presentations, along with full-screen typing. The platform supports iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7 which means that the LightPad can be used by almost anybody with a smartphone.

Via Engadget

The Nexus S will be receiving an update to Ice Cream Sandwich today, which marks the first official version of Ice Cream Sandwich to be released for a non-Galaxy Nexus. Only the GSM models will receive the update for now, although I’m sure updates for CDMA models (that’s you Sprint customers) will be coming very soon. The update should roll out in batches, so if it does not arrive today you should not worry too much.

While you’re waiting, Google also included a link to a site that will give some tips to users about the differences between Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich.

Via Google (Twitter)

PRADA and LG have teamed together to create what can only be called the PRADA Phone by LG 3.0. This is the third time LG has teamed up with PRADA, and seems to be the best so far as the phone actually looks pretty nice. It features some good hardware that most designer phones do not, meaning this is the designer phone for the consumer market.

 The phone comes with a 4.3″ version of LG’s NOVA display which can reach 800 nits of brightness (that is a lot), with an 800×480 resolution. It has a 1.3 MP front facing camera, along with an 8 MP rear camera that supports 1080p. On the inside it has a dual-core TI OMAP4430 processor clocked at 1 GHz. It also has 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. It will of course also have a microSD card slot so you can easily expand on that memory. The phone will even have NFC inside, making one of the few phones to date to carry the technology.

Performance appears to be snappy for the most part, and the phone features a very heavily customized version of Android 2.3. Apparently an Ice Cream Sandwich update will come at some point next year, another sign that this phone is meant for more typical consumers than solely the wealthy. The phone has a plastic back as leather would wear too quickly, but this leads to a slightly non premium/designer feel from it, even if it’s probably more functional that way. Check below for some more photos,

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Via Slashgear

It looks like Nokia has finally made their foray back into the US market, and their first phone will be the Nokia Lumia 710, on T-Mobile. This is a cheaper smartphone meant for more budget minded consumers than the Nokia Lumia 800, but still is a pretty nice phone for the price. It will come in at $49.99 with a 2 year agreement, and we were unable to find the non-contract price.

The phone features a 3.7″ LCD screen, which will have an 800×480 resolution. The screen will also have Nokia’s ClearBlack display technology which provides for very deep black levels on the display. Other internals include a single core Qualcomm processor clocked at 1.4 GHz, 512 MB of storage, and a 5 MP camera with LED flash.

The Lumia 710 will ship with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, and will have several apps which represent varying degrees of bloatware including Nokia Drive, MS Office, ESPN, T-Mobile TV and Netflix. Mind you, these are all uninstallable and Nokia Drive is actually a very nice turn-by-turn navigation app. It will feature the company’s 14.4 Mbps HSPA+ technology, which is the second slowest version of its 4G although it is still plenty fast in most cities. Is it a flagship phone by any means? No, but it still looks to be a great phone for the price, especially given that WP7.5 really does not require the dual core processor that Android does to be smooth. Check out more pictures below.

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Via Engadget 

So some pictures recently came up about the new Sony Ericcson Arc HD, or the Sony Ericcson Nozomi depending on who you talk to. The phone will be Sony Ericsson’s long awaited first dual-core phone, featuring a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with a Adreno 220 GPU. The phone will have a 720p (1280×720 resolution), 4.3″ LCD screen. When you are not using the screen, the phone also has an HDMI port which should easily output 1080p video onto the television of your choice. Otherwise, the phone has a whopping 12 MP camera (remember, megapixels aren’t everything).

Sadly, the phone will not have any removable storage, and instead should come in both 16 GB and 32 GB varieties. It also will have the typical 1 GB of RAM which is plenty for the Android Gingerbread 2.3.5 that the phone will come with. It also will use a MicroSIM instead of the typical full sized SIM card. Here’s to hoping this phone will actually come to the US, check out the rest of the photos below.

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Via GSMArena

 So it looks like Verizon has announced a newer version of the LG Revolution, which should carry the name LG Spectrum. The specs are almost identical to the LG Nitro HD except with the Verizon version of LTE as opposed to the AT&T one. This means that the phone will have a 1.5 GHz Dual-Core processor (the Nitro HD’s was a Qualcomm APQ8060 CPU), a 720p screen, an 8 MP camera that features 1080p video recording, and of course LTE. It looks like LG is trying to capitalize on the LG Optimus LTE they released in South Korea here in the US by partnering up with different carriers.
Via PocketNow

Before anything else, please appreciate that this is only a rumor, and may very well turn out not to be true.

It looks a reader over at Phandroid has received a letter from NCIX (an online retailer in Canada) saying that they would not receive their Transformer Prime in time for the holidays due to Wi-Fi issues that Asus wanted to fix before sending out the tablet. Apparently they sent out the following e-mail to all of their customers who pre-orded the Transformer Prime:

 “Unfortunately, we just received word that the ASUS Transformer Prime has been delayed worldwide and will most likely not be available before Christmas. ASUS feels the WiFi range does not currently meet their standards and has delayed all shipments worldwide. At the moment there is no ETA and no information on available quantities on the first batch.”

As somebody who was considering trying to pick up this beast of a tablet this is certainly dissapointing news, but it certainly will be easier to fix the problem in house than deal with a lot of frustrated customers returning and exchanging tablets.

Via Phandroid

UPDATE: It looks like the US version of Asus is saying that the tablet will come on time and ship to stores on the 19th as already planned, hopefully this was just a rumor and not a sign of things to come.

Via Slashgear

HP has finally made their decision on HP WebOS’s fate. It looks like they’ll be pulling a quasi-google and compelely open-sourcing the platform, but “with the resources of HP behind it.” The rest of the post is basically a lot of praise for WebOS and its developers. Will this reignite WebOS in the world? Well unfortunately because it can be difficult to write drivers for phones, this may only work to a certain extent. While I like the move as far as open-sourcing goes, it really was HP’s only choice at this point. And let’s face it, it would be really cool to see WebOS running on a phone with a 4.3″ screen even if you’re not a fan yourself.

Via HP

Qualcomm announced a couple new models of it’s dual-core S4 Snapdragon processor. The two new chips will come with the bland names the MSM8625 and the MSM8225. The two chips will be dual cores processors, with a max recommended clock speed of 1 GHz. They will also have a 3G modem integrated into the SoC. They also will use the Adreno 203 GPU.

These chips may not seem revolutionary at the moment, except for the fact that they are made to be software compatible with the MSM7x27A and the MSM7x25A. Both of these chips come in fairly entry-level phones which are sold at relatively cheap prices. This way, manufacturers can upgrade their entry smartphones pretty easily to contain glorious dual-core processors in them and increase the user satisfaction with such devices immensely. They should arrive at some point in the first half of 2012.

Via Slashgear

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at a conference in the Hague which Google hosted to talk about internet freedom. Schmidt had some pretty bad words for Carrier IQ (CIQ) and seemed to validate the things that Trevor Eckhart discovered. He went as far as saying that the program actually is a keylogger, among other things. This would also hint that much of the recent news about how CIQ is not a keylogger is most likely false, as Schmidt seems like a pretty trustworth source about his own company’s operating system.

Schmidt also points out that there really is nothing Google can do about the situation given that company’s Android platform is open-source. At one point he said, “Google is an open platform which means people can make software for it that’s not very good for you.” Now that we know almost for sure that CIQ intrudes heavily into your private personal life, please take the moment to head on over to a development site like XDA or Rootz-Wiki and look around for how to get rid of CIQ on your phone.

Via Telegraph

 So the Toshiba Excite has now got a release date of sometime during February 2012. The tablet will feature a 10.1″ display with a 1280×800 resolution. It will also have the pretty powerful TI OMAP-4 dual core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz. Remember that there is an inherent tradeoff by getting a tablet with this processor which is that normal tasks and things requiring processing power will run better than a Tegra-2 tablet, and it supports high-profile 1080p video (Blu-Ray quality). The issue though is that it has no access to the Tegra Zone, where some of the best tablet games are. It’s a tradeoff, neither is necessarily better or worse, just depends on people’s needs.

The tablet will be a tiny 7.7 mm thick, and have a rear-facing 5 MP camera along with a 2 MP front facing camera. It should come in 16 GB and 32 GB options. It looks like a nice brushed aluminum back, and will have both MicroSD and MiniHDMI ports. It will probably have to come in at a lower price-point to beat out the likes of the Transformer Prime, although Toshiba arguably has more brand recognition among the general public than Asus at this point.

Via Slashgear

So it looks like some more details have turned up about the new LG Optimus Pad LTE, which will be one of a select few tablets that will be able to run on LTE. The tablet will apparently show up in stores (no news on exactly where, probably Korea first and then elsewhere) before the end of 2011.

The tablet seems to have an 8.9″ TFT (That basically means LCD) WXGA touch screen display with a 1280×768 resolution. It should come with a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Processor, 1 GB of built-in memory, a MicroSD slot that supports up to 32 GB, dual-camera’s for 3D video recording, an 8 MP rear facing camera, and a 1.3 MP front facing camera. It will ship with Android 3.2 Honeycomb, but hopefully and Ice Cream Sandwich update will come soon after.

Since the original source was in Korean, I would venture to say that it actually comes with 1 GB of RAM, and perhaps it actually comes with two 8 MP cameras on the back for 3D. Mind you, that is a complete guess. Also, LG only recently released the update to 3.1 for the original G-Slate, so keep that in mind if you decide to go shopping. All in all though, it looks like a nice tablet.

Via Pocket Droid