Boy, was this first hour of the Google IO packed with news. We already told you about the major Honeycomb and Android Ice Cream Sandwich updates, so now let’s talk about the new Movie Rental and Google Music services that the company launched today.

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The Sony Ericsson Developer Blog recently published details including a step by step walk-through showing code-savvy users how to build and then flash their own custom Linux kernels onto their Sony Ericsson Android devices.

Building on feedback taken from forums such as XDA, the walk-through aims to help users get around troubles such as building and flashing your own custom image (if you are into that sort of thing). Read more »

Today Nokia has released the dedicated LinkedIn app for free for Symbian smartphones. It’s the social network for professionals and business contacts out there.

It’s a full-featured app, which allows you to send/receive messages, invites for new contacts and browse profiles. Read more »

If you’re a customer of T-Mobile in the US you’re in for a treat. As of tomorrow (the 11th) T-Mobile are looking to reinstate their free calls over Wi-Fi service.

Great news assuming you have a compatible handset. At present Wi-Fi calling eats up your plan’s minutes but this revised service will allow you to make calls for free! Read more »

T-Mobile’s G2, or HTC Desire Z as we know it on our side of the pond, will be getting an official OTA update to the latest Android version – Gingerbread – much like its European cousin.

Improvements included are some UI refinements, a 3G/4G indication in the place of the “H” at the notification bar, improved text input and power management (we’re guessing Power saving mode here). Read more »

The HTC Wildfire S is a great little device. It feels sturdy in its aluminum body and it looks really fresh with its cool paint job. It also brings along the much-needed better display and latest Android version to make it a true upgrade over its predecessor.

The Wildfire is probably the hottest mini around these days and boasts some serious specs for its size. It’s got a 600MHz processor, 512MB worth of RAM, 3.2” HVGA (320×480) display Read more »

The Nokia Reader is an application for receiving RSS news feeds on Symbian^3 devices and is part of the Ovi Notifications Support Package (ONSP). It just received an update, which improves overall performance and fixes the bugs in the previous version.

The list of improvements include connectivity, a bug that forced the user to re-enter his/hers Nokia Account credentials and force stop issues, which needed a reinstall of the previous version. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy S II says “Hej” to its Swedish fans – it’s available in stores now. Unlike its siblings that are on sale in other countries, this one has dropped the Samsung logo from the front and I for one think it looks better.

The press release also promises an NFC-enabled version of the Galaxy S II in the summer. Read more »

Ah, the LG Optimus Black. It’s a sexy looking device with a sleek slim body and features the brand new NOVA display, which we recently reviewed.

While our review is in the works, we’ve prepared a couple of videos just to whet your appetite a little. Here’s the UI demonstration first. Read more »

Sony Ericsson announced yesterday its fresh newborns to the Xperia family – the Xperia mini and Xperia mini pro. In spite of being mini and cutesy, the two new phones are not exactly joking around and are here to be taken seriously, both sharing powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM and HD video recording.

But not everything is about what’s under the hood. Looks count too and the first live shots of the brand new Xperia’s are here for you to see. Read more »

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Mini is the next generation mini smartphone by the company. Dubbed as “the smallest phone to shoot HD video”, this fella is a crowd-pleaser with a 3-inch scratch-resistant Reality display, Android 2.3 Gignerbread, 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM, a 5MP camera with 720p video recording – all of it packed in a shell that’s a whisker under 100g.

Here goes the first official video ad of the XPERIA Mini. You will notice how the four-corner UI has evolved accommodating more shortcuts in the upper two corners. Read more »

Sprint and Motorola unveiled two new Motorola QWERTY bars today, dubbed XPRT and Titanium. The first one will be available 5 June from Sprint for $129.99, the details on the Titanium will be revealed at a later time.

The Motorola XPRT is a CDMA QWERTY messenger, running on Android 2.2 Froyo. It has a capacitive multi-touch display, sporting a 3.1” diagonal of HVGA (320×480) resolution. It also has a 5 MP auto focus camera. It will be available 5 June on contract from Sprint for $129.99 for new customers or a new two-year plan for existing ones. Read more »

Google Maps for Android 5.4.0 has been released today. It brings a unified search history, enhanced details for businesses on the map and a means to report wrong map information and missing places.

The first change means that your maps searches will be saved to your Google account so that you can access them on other devices such as on your computer or another Android phone or tablet. This is a good addition as it facilitates our everyday use of Google Maps without the need to go through every address anew after switching devices. Read more »

Processor manufacturers are in this never ending race to produce faster and less power consuming chips for various devices and platforms. Whether it’s RAM or CPUs, we all like things to go quicker and be easier on our pockets.

And don’t worry, this trend will continue going for now. Intel has introduced a new 3D transistor design which will be implemented in the upcoming family of Ivy Bridge processors. As a result of this new 3D design named “Tri-Gate”, Intel will be able to produce smaller and faster chips which are going to be widely implemented from servers and desktop computers to laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Read more »

Uh, okay – I hadn’t seen that form factor in a while. Leaked specs and images show a communicator-like LG Genesis with a clamshell form factor, two screens (one internal and one external), a hardware QWERTY keyboard and Android.

This phone was originally called LG enV Pro and was headed to Verizon… Read more »