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 »

Today at its developer-focused BUILD conference Microsoft is showcasing (currently) the latest major release of its wide-spread Windows OS – dubbed Windows 8. It features a new UI – Metro Style, which looks like an overgrown version of its WP7 for smartphones, improvements on performance, security, privacy and reliability, and more.

Windows 8 tries to substitute what we do with a mouse and keyboard with touch swipe gestures, while at the same time still providing the same experience if you want to go the peripheral way. The new Metro UI features the all-too-familiar live tiles from Windows Phone 7, which are implemented in the Metro UI’s Start Screen. This screen unites all of your live tiles, widgets, apps, people, content and more. It’s basically your main homescreen. Read more »

A Samsung-made tablet has leaked from Microsoft’s BUILD developer conference, sporting what appears to be Windows 8. The device is a demo one intended to be given to devs (exclusively) to begin testing on.

It could be the Samsung Series 7 Slate PC, which was revealed at IFA at the beginning of the month, meaning it will have an 11.6″ capacitive touch display with 1366×768 pixels resolution and 400 nits of brightness and a selection of Sandy Bridge Core i3, i5 and i7 (all should be Ultra low-voltage ones) processors with the generous 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM. The Series 7 Slate PC will feature Windows 7 upon launch and will be upgradable to Windows 8, once it’s let loose by Microsoft. 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 »

Intel’s Atom E6xx series of processors will have Android Gingerbread support and that’s coming in January, 2012. This was uncovered in a video by the world’s largest semiconductor maker, detailing the Atom processor. This means that we may see Android 2.3 ported on all kinds of Atom-based devices like netbooks, tablets and more.

Intel is a high-class player in the CPU business but smartphones are a closed ARM gang and competition will be steep. Not to mention that the timing isn’t exactly perfect as Ice Cream Sandwich is coming in the October/November period Gingerbread will hardly be hot stuff in January 2012. ICS is rumored to bring the best of Android for handhelds and tablets into one awesome OS and it makes more sense for it to be supported instead of Gingerbread. Read more »

Windows Phone 7 could soon receive its Mango update and we mean next week-soon and that it will be available to existing WP7 devices. This was brought on by the popular WP Developer Podcast, claiming next week to be “big” because “Mango will be dropping” along with the final tools for developers.

Now this isn’t a definite confirmation but Lewis and Ryan Lowdermilk are relying on “various sources”. And we should take into consideration that the same WP7 Dev team has given us reliable information before. Read more »

We all thought that Google will be restricting their Music Beta service to Android users but we have been proven wrong. Google has now made the service, which is still in beta, to iOS users as well. There is a catch, however.

The catch is that unlike Android, iOS does not get a native application (not now anyway). It’s available in the form of a web app, which can be accessed from the web browser on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Read more »

The Netflix app for Android has been doing the rounds now, since May this year in fact, but at launch, it only yielded support for a smattering of droids, (a group of HTC’s and the Nexus S).

Compatibility has only slowly been opening up since, but has now come to support a much wider variety of handsets since launch. Read more »

We had our first encounter with Symbian Belle when we previewed Nokia 701, but this one was major enough to deserve its own review. So, we decided to take some time and look at Belle all by itself – after all, it would power all of Nokia’s smartphones sooner or later (including the previous-gen N8, E7, C7, C6-01).

We’ll try to cover the changes in the general user interface and the changes to Symbian’s native apps, but also take a spare a moment to talk about what is still lacking in Belle. Read more »

The BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900 is the latest in a line of all-you-can-eat business-minded berry flagships and, certainly among the best-looking messengers to date.

The Bold Touch 9900 is trying to stay smart by adding a capacitive multi-touch display to its recognizable full-QWERTY and trackpad. The new BlackBerry Bold tries to win some fans among the younger audience, while making sure to retain its corporate focus along the way. 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 »

The reports of MeeGo’s death are greatly exaggerated says Intel’s Vice President, Doug Fisher. And he should know – he’s also the General Manager of Intel’s System Software Solutions.

Fisher also said that “nothing is changing” and reiterated Intel’s commitment to MeeGo. So, MeeGo fans can breathe a sigh of relief, the second backer of the OS isn’t pulling out like the first one did. Read more »