Samsung have undertaken less than subtle ways to continue its fight against Apple in Australia. They’ve set up a temporary shop in Sydney just outsides Apple’s own shop and are offering Samsung Galaxy S II droids for $2.

Sounds like a great deal, right? It is, but there’s a catch. Even so, the line to the Samsung store is reportedly longer than the line to Apple’s store. Read more »

App Player alpha for Windows is a newly released piece of free software from developer BlueStacks. Designed to run on Windows PC’s and tablets, it allows you to run Android apps on your Windows computer or tablet, with no modification to the original app.

App Player lets you run apps windowed or full screen and with their Cloud Connect service, you can share software between your Android and Windows devices easily. Read more »

You know that here on the GSMArena Blog we like throwing cool video your way every now and then and this Playstation 3 ad is just that.

It promotes Sony’s gaming console in a rather extraordinary way by gathering all the iconic PS3 game characters like Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series and Kratos from God of War. The list goes on and on, but you should really get this video playing by now. Read more »

The team at WebpageFX have compiled a heap of statistics pertaining to the competitive nature of of today’s smartphone app stores and how they vie for dominance in a crowded smartphone market.

As you’ll see this includes all the big hitters such as the App Store, Android Market, Blackberry App World and Nokia, Palm and Windows Phone 7′s application directories as well. Read more »

The Kindle Fire might have been the star of the Amazon show that just ended, but it wasn’t by any means the only major announcement. Along with the Android-based tablet came three eReaders, two of which have touchscreen control.

We got the new Kindle, which gets rid of the QWERTY keyboard and is 30% lighter at 170g and 18% more compact than its predecessor. What’s most important about it though is its price – it’s just $79 dollars. The only catch is, this price is valid only for the ad-supported Special Offers version (where that is available). If you don’t want any adverts on your homescreen you will have to part with $109 for the new Kindle. But there’s more. Read more »

Remember that Italian Samsung store that had its decor feature some unmistakable iOS icons? Sure, you do. It seems Samsung were rather quick to act on this one and fixed the whole thing by sticking the letter S (as in Galaxy S) over the Apple icons.

Well, I find the whole situation rather funny and had I seen the store in person I would have Facebooked the hell out of the wrong background just for the fun of it. But I bet funny it is not to the people who worked at the store and became the laughing stock of the Internet community. Read more »

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 »

Apple’s implementation of Intel’s Light Peak technology is going places. Intel has now announced that they will be bringing the technology to Windows-based computers as well, with companies like ASUS and Acer joining the bandwagon and getting their products ready for a 2012 launch.

Being the same essential technology, Thunderbolt on these other devices will work the same way as it does on the new range of Mac computers. It will have the same specifications and features that Apple touts for its new range of Macs and will work with the same set of accessories. Read more »

The boys over at lifehacker.com have waded through the full 3 hour keynote from Microsoft’s BUILD event and condensed all of the must-see features of Windows 8 down into a handy 8-minute video.

Of course if you want the full-fat 3 hour long version, the Microsoft team will no doubt have it available on the BUILD microsite soon. 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 »

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 »

Today our Facebook page reached the 100,000 milestone and we thought it would be a good time to stop for a second and thank you guys for all the support. And the fact that cool 100,000 of you have expressed their support for us in the past year and a half is only a part of the story.

It’s also because of you, our loyal readers that we are now one of the largest cell phone websites worldwide – our servers are now serving close to 6 million pages per day. According to the independent internet statistic company Alexa, recently we even managed to become one of the top 500 websites globally. Read more »

LG is bringing the big 3D guns to IFA this year – they will be showcasing a couple of things, both centered at the Optimus 3D. The first is a technology that will convert any 3D game into a stereoscopic 3D game.

LG has also given an Optimus 3D to six National Geographic photographers, who will produce the first 3D images and video for National Geographic. Read more »

Facebook has often been chided in the past for disregarding its user’s privacy but over the years they kept adding more options to further protect your data from those whom you don’t want to share it with. But today they have released what is perhaps the biggest update that brings a host of new options, taking privacy to a whole new level.

First of all, you can now change who can see your profile page information from your profile with a simple drop down menu. You can also see how your profile will look to others, whether they are your friends or not. Read more »

Skype will buy the GroupMe messaging service in order to expand its group messaging capabilities and gain points on the mobile battleground. People close to the deal say that the chat giant will cash out the whopping $85 million although Skype itself hasn’t yet disclosed this information officially.

GroupMe is a very young company, started in 2010 and has around twenty employees. During the course of its first year it earned around $11 million in funding from the likes of Betaworks, First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst and more.

Skype CEO Tony Bates has said that he’s been in talks with GroupMe for a few months, around the time Skype was in negotiations with Microsoft, which is currently acquiring Skype for $8.5 billion. He has also said that Skype will keep GroupMe as a standalone brand, located in New York City, and look for points of integration with Skype’s service portfolio. The ultimate goal for Skype is to get to 1 billion active users and the company believes this would be done with the mobile ecosystem, where GroupMe would be a great asset to Skype.

Skype faces many rivals on the mobile ground, including BlackBerry’s Messaging, soon-to-be officially launched Apple iMessage service and third-party cross-platform apps like WhatsApp and Viber, and let’s not leave out Facebook’s Messenger out of the equation.

We’re yet to see the fruits of Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype and now those GroupMe will bring to both companies.

Via | Source