As if we didn’t have enough benchmarks on Android to begin with, here comes another one. Futuremark, makers of the popular 3DMark benchmark for PCs, have announced that they will be making a version for Android.

According to the press release, it seems 3DMark for Android will be targeted mostly towards the Android tablets and will help gauge their gaming performance. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy S II is getting updated to Android Gingerbread 2.3.6. Three UK have also confirmed 2.3.6 for the original Galaxy S but it won’t come before January.

We’ve received a report that the Galaxy S II has already received the 2.3.6 update via Kies software. The first reported country to receive the update is Mexico but users elsewhere around the globe should receive it soon I guess. Read more »

If you visit the Samsung Apps store on your Galaxy device regularly, then you know every now and then you are treated with a freebie from Samsung, which otherwise you’d have to pay for. This week’s special is ‘Need for Speed Hot Pursuit’ racing game from EA.

Usually one would have to fork $6.99 for this game but for a limited time this game is available free of charge to Galaxy S II owners. Read more »

RIM has refreshed the Curve series with two new types of Curves – the QWERTY 9360 and the QWERTY-less touch-based 9380. Today we have the QWERTY fella at our office.

As usual we spent some times taking a few quick shots, unboxing and user interface demo video. Read more »

The other day we reported a curious bug in the UK versions of Galaxy Nexus, which caused the device to change the volume on its own due to interference with radio frequencies on the 900MHz band. Although it is widely believed that the fault lies in the hardware (probably due to poor EMI shielding) Google has now come out and said that they will be issuing a software update for it.

Here is the full statement from Google regarding the matter: Read more »

Google’s apps for iOS so far have ranged from mediocre to downright lame. A lot of them were just the mobile versions of their mobile site with a slight redesign to fool the users into thinking they are using a proper app and not just a mobile site. But their latest Google Search app changes all that.

The redesign makes the app look completely different and unlike most of their other iOS apps, completely awesome. The best part about it is that it finally feels like a proper app and not just another tab in Safari. Read more »

Nokia Maps v3.08 is now available for download to Symbian Anna and Belle users and is bringing along some goodies you might want to check out.

First off, Nokia Maps now offers four homescreen widgets, also live traffic services, weather service, improved Drive navigation and more. Nokia Maps already offers lifetime free-of-charge voice-guided navigation across 100 countries with downloadable maps and everything. Read more »

Steve “Cyanogen” Kondik has announced that his extremely popular ROM series CyanogenMod will be coming to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 when his group upgrades their ROM base to Android Ice Cream Sandwich in version 9.

The CM9 (7 is for Gingerbread and 8 for Honeycomb) is already in the works and the CM team expects the first stable versions to arrive early next year. Read more »

The first ever buyer of the first every official Ice Cream Sandwich phone was a certain Alex Ioannou in the UK. He seemed rather happy with his purchase in the picture that was tweeted from Samsung UK’s Twitter account.

Unfortunately for him, his happiness was short lived because when he switched on his new Galaxy Nexus, he discovered he had gotten something that he hadn’t really paid for. Read more »

Unlike the last time when the Nexus S was announced, Google released just one video so far for the Galaxy Nexus. But now that the phone has launched in the UK, we’re suddenly seeing a whole bunch of videos dropping in on YouTube on the Google Nexus account.

These videos cover a large portion of the phones features, from the new Android Beam, to the Panorama mode, Face Unlock, etc. There is also a new ad, which for once, shows actual people doing normal things with their phone instead of robots doing some weird things. To watch all of these videos, click more. Read more »

The latest version of Nokia Maps, 3.08.203, has just graduated from Beta and is now being seeded to Symbian-running smartphones around the globe. You can get it right now from the software update tool on your device or via the Nokia Suite.

The new Maps app brings a beautiful little weather app to help you plan for the day by the hour or give you a handy five-day overview. It also comes with live traffic routing info in the Drive start screen, a cleaner UI and easier-to-read search results. Read more »

IDC queried devs that use the Appcelerator platform and has some very interesting stats to share. The Nokia/Microsoft dual effort to attract developers is paying off – Windows Phone comes out as the third most desirable mobile platform to develop for (a big thing, considering WP7′s limited market share).

Also, Amazon’s new Kindle Fire is stirring things up in the Android tablet world, overtaking the Samsung Galaxy Tab in the US as the Android tablet most devs are interested in working for. Read more »

Adobe has just unleashed its range of Touch Apps on Android for all the creative people out there who want to use their tablets for more than just content consumption. These apps will be a key component in Adobe’s upcoming Creative Cloud service that will be released next year, that will allow sharing and viewing of the content created using these apps on multiple devices.

The range of apps includes the Adobe Photoshop Touch, which is meant for image editing. Read more »

Yesterday, the Wi-Fi-only model of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 received the Android 3.2 Honeycomb update.. Unfortunately, instead of making things better, it made them worse. The update caused devices to lose Wi-Fi connectivity and since this is the Wi-Fi only model we are talking about here, that actually means a complete loss of Internet connectivity.

Other problems caused by the update include loss of Bluetooth connectivity and failure of the display auto-rotate function. Read more »

Free app of the day is one of the best parts of the Amazon appstore and today it offers one of the best bargains in its history. QuickOffice Pro is one of the most functional office applications around and thanks to Amazon, you can download it for free today.

Of course, most droids ship with a document-editor preinstalled nowadays, but not all of those are better than the QuickOffice Pro, so it could serve as a decent upgrade, too. There is a reason why the app normally costs a penny under $15. Read more »