The iPhone is great at so many things, but we bet you never thought you could use it to park your car. And we are not talking about the distant future – we are talking here and now, thanks to Valeo and their iOS app.

The app integrates with the Park4U system which can be found on many of the recent cars from Lincoln, Ford, Audi, and Volkswagen and lets you control the acceleration and brake of your car remotely. Since Park4U basically does the rest for you, that’s all you are going to need to slot your car into the parking slot, using nothing but your iPhone. Read more »

We already knew that Windows 8 is super smooth on a tablet with quad-core Intel CPU, but that’s hardly a surprise now, is it? What’s more interesting is if Microsoft’s new OS will remain buttery smooth when given less powerful hardware as that will be the usual case with tablets, who need to maintain reasonable power consumption.

So here we have a couple of hands-on videos for you, showing Windows 8 running on an AMD Fusion and Nvidia Kal-el-powered slates. The first of those is a netbook-meant chip with one of the lowest power demands among x86 CPUs, while the other is an ARM-based chip, which is even more economical (even though it’s quad-core). Read more »

Microsoft has just released a new ad about the upcoming Mango update of its Windows Phone smartphone platform. This one is targeted more at developers than users, but it is still a nice way to learn why it’s worth picking WP 7.1 for your next smartphone.

Microsoft has kept the video short and simple, but that hasn’t made it any less impressive. Read more »

Google has just announced a new version of their Goggles app for initiating searches with camera photos. Version 1.6 brings a cool new opt-in feature, which works in background to analyze every image you take and gives you notifications of anything it recognizes in it.

So now you don’t actually need to start the app and then shoot something to start a search – you just run the camera as usual and your Android smartphone will inform you if there’s anything recognizable in your photos. Read more »

HTC were touting the Sensation XE as the first Beats audio-featuring smartphone, but it turns out that it’s not. Thanks to the ever helpful XDA-developers community, the HTC Desire HD got its own Beats-enabled ROM way before the Sensation XE market availability.

The Desire HD ROM in question is based on a leaked Runnymede ROM, so you can be sure that the audio tweaks it brings are authentic. Read more »

HTC just added another device to the support list of their bootloader unlocking web tool. The Flyer is the third HTC droid to embrace custom ROMs with the blessing of its maker after the revision of the company’s bootloader policy.

So, if you happen to own an HTC Flyer and you always wanted to customize it beyond what the HTC Sense could offer you, hit this link and follow the simple instructions. According to HTC, though, unlocking the bootloader itself might void your warranty (you should double-check to be sure) so only proceed if you really need it. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy S II is just about to hit US shores and we just got its first video ad. It’s quite different in style to the ads released in Europe, going for the more serious tone this time.

Now we are not sure anyone needs convincing about purchasing the Galaxy S II at this point. The handset took its sweet time crossing the Atlantic, so most users have probably made up their mind already. But some publicity never hurt anyone’s market prospects so we can see Samsung’s point. Read more »

As far as hardware mods for the Apple iPhone 4 go, this is one of the coolest we have seen. And the considerable boost in the exterior is achieved by modifying just the apple logo at the back.

Thanks to the UK-based company iPatch, you will be able to make that logo glow, just like it does on the MacBook lineup. And you won’t be sacrificing anything in terms of thickness or usability. Read more »

Today Nokia introduced a new application for their Symbian smartphones, designed to make them easier to use when you are driving a car. Called Nokia Car Mode, the standalone app features an optimized user interface simplifying the access and use of Nokia Drive (voice-guided car navigation with Nokia Maps), traffic updates, music and voice calls while driving.

Nokia Car Mode also supports the MirrorLink standard, which lets your smartphone integrate with supported car’s audio, video and navigation systems. Thanks to MirrorLink you can control your smartphone via the car dashboard and use the handset’s navigation on the car display – it’s as cool as it gets, really. Read more »

Sony introduced its new Walkman Z line of Android-running PMPs at the IFA last week, but back then they gave us very little information about it. Well, now we have the complete specs sheet, the estimated release date and the pricing information, so the puzzle is almost complete.

The 4.3″ Sony Walkman Z will start spraying its Gingerbread magic across Japan from December 10th. It will come in three versions with regard to available onboard storage – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, which will be priced at ¥28,000 (~$360), ¥33,000(~$430), and ¥43,000(~$560), respectively. Read more »

Panasonic introduced the first Android-running addition to its Toughbook lineup of elements-defying devices at the annual Defence and Security International exhibition that started today in London.

Curiously, Panasonic chose to leave the 10.1″ tablet nameless for the time being and it didn’t provide the most detailed specs sheet for it. Still, we know it comes with a XVGA touchscreen, which remain perfectly legible even in bright sun and supports stylus input (an active stylus is included in the package). Read more »

T-Mobile might have another Samsung device join the Galaxy S II at launch. A version of the tablet supporting the T-Mobile 3G frequency just got the mandatory FCC clearance ahead of its US launch.

Of course, the FCC sketches aren’t enough to give us a full run-down of the T-Mobile Galaxy Tab 10.1 specs, but it’s pretty safe to guess that it will be identical to its European sibling. The 4G marking at the back (see image below) couldn’t mean anything else, but HSPA+, as that’s as good as it gets on T-Mobile. Read more »

As far as news from the electronics business go, it doesn’t get much more exciting than this. If the latest bit of online rumor is true (and given that it comes from Korea Economic Daily that’s quite probable) we are just a week away from seeing the first Windows 8-running tablet. And the first tablet with a quad-core CPU. And the first Windows device with an ARM processor. And the best bit is, those aren’t three different devices.

According to the industry source that went all chatty in front of the Korean newspaper, Samsung will manufacture the slate that will be given to developers at the upcoming Microsoft BUILD event next week. It will be running the software giant’s newest OS and will rely on NVIDIA’s Kal-El chipset. Read more »

Yesterday was a big day for Twitter as the company confirmed that the number of active members has exceeded 100 million. That’s a whopping 82% increase compared to the beginning of this very year.

The total number of registered users on Twitter wasn’t quoted, with the last revealed figure of 200 million dating from a few months back. What’s quite impressive though is that 50% of those 100 million active users log onto the 140-character network daily. Read more »

The Google offices in Seoul were raided by the antitrust officials in South Korea. The company is suspected of conducting anticompetitive behavior with its Android smartphone platform, Reuters reports.

The complaint was filled by NHN Corp and Daum Communications Corp, who say Android smartphones have Google’s search engine installed as a default navigation tool and are “systematically designed” to make it virtually impossible to switch to another option. Read more »