Citing sources close to Microsoft, TheNextWeb, claims that the Windows 8 public beta is set for release in February 2012.

There’s nothing set in stone so, you know, don’t hold your breath until we hear something official. Still it doesn’t seem that unlikely as Windows 8 is expected in 2012 anyway and the MWC 2012 is a big event, a fitting place for presenting a converged desktop/mobile OS. The next iteration of Microsoft’s OS will be the first to be designed to work on both desktops and mobile devices like tablets. Read more »

In case you feel like you’ve been here before, you’re not wrong. Audiophiles who like to share audio files will remember Napster making a name for itself in 1999 and the early 2000′s and subsequently bowing out again by 2002, only to come back from the dead in 2003.

It now looks as though the music service won’t be cheating death a second time around however. Read more »

It looks like our privacy doesn’t really exist in today’s world of modern technology with the recent Carrier IQ logging scandal and the one with the iPhone 4 tracking every movement you make a while back.

Scary, indeed. And to make matters worse, in a recent press conference Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has made a statement about iPhone, Blackberry and Gmail users saying they are simply “screwed”. Read more »

YouTube received a more polished design yesterday that focuses the user’s attention on the channels he/she follows and adds a video feed that reminds slightly of a twitter feed. The new homepage consists of a predominating gray background, bigger video thumbnails and a cleaner video watch page.

The redesign comes with a fresh homepage that has a dedicated channel bar on the left, displaying the ones you’re subscribed to, trending, popular, music-oriented and entertainment ones, and ones that YouTube suggests to you based on your viewing activity. Read more »

After the releasing its controversial video on the web mocking Apple’s iPhone 4S and its fans waiting for its launch alike, Samsung has now stick its finger deeper in the wound and has decided to continue pouring salt in it by launching yet another clip.

This time the Korean manufacturer targets more at the missing 4G LTE feature of the iPhone 4S rather than its size or brand-obsessed fans. This doesn’t mean Apple fans are going to like it though. Read more »

If you thought only the iPhone has over-heating battery issues then here’s something to take you out of your state of delusion. A Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket managed to get its battery so hot that it ended up melting the battery contacts.

As reported by the owners’s friend on xda-developers forum, he heard a sound, felt a burning sensation on his leg and as he pulled the phone out he could smell something burning. Read more »

Get your studs out and put your favourite kit on, because FIFA 12 comes out today on the Android Market, assuming you own a PLAY that is.

Yesterday we spoke with EA Mobile’s Andrei Lazarescu and Alexandru Ruse alongside Sony Ericsson’s Tim Harrison (Head of Content and Marketing) to talk not only about the latest iteration of FIFA, but the PLAY as a mobile gaming device and its place in the mobile market as it is today, 8 months on from launch. Read more »

The Huawei U8860 Honor is probably the biggest mystery of all the smartphones that have come to our office. Not only is Huawei still to make a proper name for itself as a smartphone manufacturer, but the Honor also comes with a custom UI that we saw for the first time.

As it turns out, the interface is pretty nice and the Honor has enough power to run it smoothly. It’s not perfect, but perfect doesn’t really live in this price range. And as you’ll see from the video in a bit, the Honor is not only a solid smartphone, but it also has plenty of tricks up its sleeve. Read more »

Yesterday, Nikon announced the newest addition to its lineup of dedicated flash units for digital cameras. The SB-910 Speedlight comes to succeed its former flagship, the SB-900, bringing a new simplified UI (similar to that of the SB-700), improved thermal cut-off (where the flash will charge slower, rather than turn off altogether, when a certain temperature is reached) and AF assist for multi-point AF.

The SB-910 also recharges quicker than its predecessor (3s on alkaline batteries and 2.5s on NiMH batteries). Read more »

It’s the first day of December and naturally this means that Christmas is getting closer and closer. An ideal opportunity for Rovio to release the Christmas update to Angry Birds Seasons.

Carrying the name “Wreck the Halls” this Angry Birds Seasons update brings even more cheer and good times than before with new, 25 pig-bashing levels garnished with gingerbread cookies, bells, candy and Christmas glittering lights. Read more »

Without a doubt there’s more than meets the eye in the latest version of Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which is due to hit a handful of smartphones in the coming months.

Except the code optimizations and plethora of new features, below the creamy surface of Android 4.0 Google developers have had some fun. What’s more, they want you to have fun, too! Read more »

The story of the Samsung Galaxy S II for Vodafone UK and their GPS issues came to a happy ending as the carrier quickly found the cause and issued a fix. The customized firmware that was distributed with the Galaxy S II on Vodafone had some bugs that caused the GPS inside the smartphone to hunt forever before it acquires a lock (if it manages to do so at all).

Vodafone acknowledged the issue last week and yesterday released a fix that should get rid of the problem. Read more »

Box.net is getting pretty aggressive – after the recent Sony Ericsson deal, now LG are getting 50GB of free cloud storage too. Owners of Android-running LGs who install Box on their phones between November 30 2011 and March 31 2012 will get the extra storage for free (50GB up from the usual free 5GB).

It’s not a limited time offer either, like the HTC/Dropbox offer. You get to keep your 50 gigs for as long as you have the account. There’s still some fine print though. Read more »

Infinity Blade is hardly known for its immersive gameplay or engaging storyline, but it has always been the game with arguably the best graphics in the mobile world. Well, now we have its successor in the App Store and things are looking better than ever.

After all, what’s that use of having the beast of a chipset that is the Apple A5 under the hood if you are not going to make it sweat. Read more »

The Nokia 710 is close to launch and so Nokia has released a new video for the device. The video is actually quite similar to that of the Lumia 800 and part of their ‘The Amazing Everyday’ campaign.

The video is very basic and instead of doing anything fancy chooses to talk about some of the salient features of the device, such as the interchangeable back covers, the integrated social networking services, Nokia Maps with the Nokia Drive feature for turn-by-turn voice navigation and the 5 megapixel camera. All of this is matched by snazzy music in the background. Read more »