Thanks to a couple of screenshots that leak-focused Google Operating System blog got hold of, we can now take a glimpse of what the redesigned Maps service will looks like.

The Maps design refresh is in line with Google’s new design language that we first saw in Google Now. Evidently, the left sidebar is now gone and is replaced with cards that show different pieces of information and navigation options. Read more »

One of the main gripes people have with Rovio and its games is that progress isn’t synced from one device to another. The company has listened and as a result has introduced Rovio accounts yesterday.

Signing up for an account requires just an email address and that’s it. Once you’ve registered you can set up your games to sync between your phone and tablet for instance. Sadly, not all of the Rovio titles are supported just yet. Read more »

The time has come for the Galaxy S4 to share the faith of many gadgets before it and have its internal exposed in a glorious teardown moment. This time around, Samsung’s flagship was taken apart by Techrepublic‘s Bill Detwiler.

Unsurprisingly, given to the new hardware found in it, the Galaxy S4 sports a redesigned interior, compared to the Galaxy S3. As it turns out though, thanks to the user-removable back cover, it’s quite easy to get to the main internal circuit board. Read more »

It’s been six months since Microsoft launched Windows 8 for the masses and yesterday the company shared that it has already reached a significant milestone – 100 million sales.

The 100 million sales mark isn’t groundbreaking, as the software giant has been selling Windows 7 at a similar rate. Even Microsoft acknowledges there’s room for improvement. Read more »

Lead CyanogenMod developer and creator Steve Kondik has made an important announcement that will make Galaxy S4 owners leap with joy. The custom ROM project is currently available in an experimental, nightly build for the T-Mobile version of the Samsung flagship smartphone.

Kondik also unveiled that CM10.1 is coming for the international GT-i9500 model in the near future. Its development has been postponed for a little while since the team doesn’t have an actual unit to fiddle with. Read more »

Undoubtedly, one of the coolest camera features Android 4.2 Jelly Bean brought was the Photo Sphere. Shooting a full 360-degree panorama both horizontally and vertically allows you to capture everything surrounding you, Street View style.

Sadly, so far you could only view the Photo Sphere images on either Google+ or on another droid running Android 4.2. Not anymore though, as the Google+ Platform API has been updated to allow web developers include Photo Spheres they’ve taken or from around the web on their own website. Read more »

Following yesterday’s IDC analysis report for tablet shipments in the first quarter of the year, DigiTimes reckons that combined Apple and Samsung will ship close to a total of 110 million slates in 2013.

The news comes from a Taiwan-based TFT-LCD panel maker, who has received a massive order from both companies, as well as smaller Chinese manufacturers, who sell the “white box” Android tablets (the cheaper, low-margin ones). Read more »

The original Angry Birds, the game that made Rovio famous, is now available on the Windows Phone app store. And if that wasn’t good enough, the game is free for a limited time.

Despite being available for Windows Phone 7 for a long time, Rovio failed to include all of the updates that it launched for the game’s iOS and Android counterparts. The new version fixes this and is available for both Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8. Read more »

According to a preliminary data from the IDC, the tablet market is set to skyrocket in 2013 with a very promising first quarter. The data is still preliminary, but IDC expects to see a 142% jump in tablet shipments this quarter with a total of 49.2 million units shipped – more than all of 2012′s first half.

Apple continues to be at the top of the tablet sales chart for Q1 2013, managing to ship 19.5 million units, which secured it a 39.6% tablet market share. Year-over-year growth for the company is impressive as well at 65.3%, but not nearly as impressive as the rest of the tablet manufacturers. Read more »

Even though it came last to the party, Windows 8 is already starting to make an impact. 3 million tablets powered by the Microsoft OS have shipped in the past quarter, capturing 7.5% of the slate market.

The information comes from a report by research company Strategy Analytics who suggest that the number could be even higher had Microsoft expanded the availability of its Surface lineup quicker. Read more »

The purported Motorola Phone X might be called simply “Google X” as an AnTuTu score card suggests. The card, which emerged today, gives us a glimpse of what to expect from the first Google flagship designed by Motorola.

Additionally, the benchmark reports that the device is running Android 5.0.1. This gives everyone a tiny bit of hope that the next Android iteration would be ready for prime time at Google I/O 2013 in May. Read more »

The conundrum with the HTC logo on the One smartphone is now over – it can indeed be turned into a third capacitive button thanks to a custom kernel.

XDA developer tbalden has found a way to map the company’s logo, and has shared the kernel with all HTC One users willing to get their hands dirty. Naturally, you need to get your One unlocked, rooted and then swap your stock kernel with the modified one. Read more »

Today is a special day for the Google Maps team as Street View has become available in 50 countries with the launch of the service in Hungary and Lesotho.

As it also happens, Google is also releasing its biggest Street View update ever, expanding the coverage in France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore and Thailand and updating over 563,270 kilometers with new imagery. Read more »

According to a trusty source inside Google, Android Key Lime Pie is going to be delayed by 2 to 4 months, and won’t make it in time for the Google I/O 2013 conference.

The report comes from GadgetTronica, who mention that the reason for the delay isn’t so much in the development of the OS update, but rather Google trying to give OEMs a chance to get as many of their phones to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean as possible. Read more »

A Foxconn employee has sent a tip to news outlet China Business reporting that Apple has rejected between 5 and 8 million iPhone handsets “due to appearance of substandard or dysfunctional problems.”

The source of the information doesn’t specify what’s the iPhone model and what exactly was wrong with the units, so its hard to say whether there’s a problem with the aluminum casing or the hardware innards of the devices. Read more »