After the launch of Google Now for iOS (check out our full review), Google’s charge on Apple’s mobile platform continues with the little, but important piece of code that allows developers to open links from their apps in Chrome instead of Safari.

The new feature is dubbed iOS links and iOS developers can utilize it to open links in Chrome; something that Google has been doing with its YouTube, Maps and Gmail apps for quite a while now. Read more »

Sad that it’s been a while since Vertu put out a phone? Well, you can try a 24K gold BlackBerry Q10 instead. It comes from Goldgenie, which has a history of turning BlackBerrys into gold (Apple products too).

Anyway, the BlackBerry Q10 has a 24K gold-plated bezel and a 24K gold panel below the QWERTY keyboard. All other specs of the phone remain the same, except that the packaging has been upgraded to a snazzy wooden box. And it’s heavier, but Goldgenie gives no concrete numbers about that. Read more »

One of the few exciting things we saw at CES this past January was the announcement of Nvidia’s new Android-running handheld gaming console codenamed SHIELD, powered by its new Tegra 4 chipset.

While not much has been heard of SHIELD or Tegra 4 since, a recently-spotted benchmark in AnTuTu reveals that the SoC is not only still alive and kicking, but has the potential to be a real contender when it comes to next generation mobile performance. Read more »

Phablets are heating up and a relatively unknown Chinese maker Vivo wants in. Yesterday it announced the Vivo Play with a 5.7″ 1080p display and a quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipset. Unlike most unknown Chinese markers, Vivo isn’t trying to sell its device for a low price – it’s asking 2,998 yuan ($490) for it.

The Vivo Play certainly has an impressive set of specs – the 5.7″ 1080p (386ppi) screen obviously, but also Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean running on Snapdragon 600 clocked at 1.7GHz with 2GB of RAM (same chipset as the HTC One). Annoyingly it won’t leave Android pure but will saddle it with “Fun-touch” UI that has an iOS-like flat structure. Read more »

We have been hearing about Windows 8.1 for quite some time now. Known originally as Windows Blue, the next update to Microsoft’s desktop operating system is soon expected to be available as a public preview.

Speaking at the Wired Business Conference in New York City, Windows chief Julie Larson-Green revealed that Microsoft will be releasing a public preview of Windows 8.1 in its upcoming Build conference in June. A final version of the OS is expected to be released near the end of the year, as we had originally heard. Read more »

Thanks to a couple of screenshots that leak-focused Google Operating System blog got hold of, we can now take a glimpse of what the redesigned Maps service will looks like.

The Maps design refresh is in line with Google’s new design language that we first saw in Google Now. Evidently, the left sidebar is now gone and is replaced with cards that show different pieces of information and navigation options. Read more »

The new Nokia Lumia 928 is this close to being officially announced but for now Nokia has out up a teaser page on the site with a video that demonstrates the video recording quality difference between the 928, the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S III.

The video is shot on the ‘The Hurricane’ roller coaster in New York through two Lumia 928, one recording the roller coster going around the tracks and one that is on the roller coaster itself. The video then goes on to show comparisons with the other two phones, by freezing the frames at convenient points. Read more »

If you happened to install the YouTube ‘app’ on your Windows Phone device, you’d have been disappointed to learn that it was nothing more than a link to the mobile version of YouTube and not an actual app, such as the one you’d find on Android or iOS.

Microsoft has now updated the app and now it behaves the way it’s supposed to. First of all the app has been redesigned and now sports a completely redesigned UI. You can now access your videos, playlists and subscriptions from within the app and also pin them to the Start screen as a Live Tile. Read more »

One of the main gripes people have with Rovio and its games is that progress isn’t synced from one device to another. The company has listened and as a result has introduced Rovio accounts yesterday.

Signing up for an account requires just an email address and that’s it. Once you’ve registered you can set up your games to sync between your phone and tablet for instance. Sadly, not all of the Rovio titles are supported just yet. Read more »

HTC is allegedly working on a couple Windows RT Blue powered tablets, which are codenamed R7 and R12. The “R” in the title indicates that the slates will be running on the latest Windows RT Blue edition.

The HTC R7 is rumored to sport a 7″ full HD display and a 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor along with 2GB of RAM. Read more »

Viber has just been outed for Windows and Mac PC’s, bringing the popular cross-platform VoIP service to desktops.

If you’re looking for an alternative to Skype, Viber now gives users the ability to place calls not only to other mobile users, but also to desktops. Read more »

The time has come for the Galaxy S4 to share the faith of many gadgets before it and have its internal exposed in a glorious teardown moment. This time around, Samsung’s flagship was taken apart by Techrepublic‘s Bill Detwiler.

Unsurprisingly, given to the new hardware found in it, the Galaxy S4 sports a redesigned interior, compared to the Galaxy S3. As it turns out though, thanks to the user-removable back cover, it’s quite easy to get to the main internal circuit board. Read more »

Rovio has released a new app for the Angry Birds classic game for Windows Phone. It contains over 100 new levels and is available for every Windows Phone-powered handset out there.

The new Angry Birds app is compatible with Windows 7.5, 7.8 and 8.0-based phones, even those with 256MB of RAM. It comes with Xbox integration for WP8 version. Read more »

The latest rumor suggests Samsung has a new camera-centric smartphone in the works – the Galaxy S4 Zoom, which will feature a 16MP camera sensor.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom will be less powerful than the Galaxy S4 flagship. It will pack a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED screen and run on a dual or a quad-core processor. Read more »

It’s been six months since Microsoft launched Windows 8 for the masses and yesterday the company shared that it has already reached a significant milestone – 100 million sales.

The 100 million sales mark isn’t groundbreaking, as the software giant has been selling Windows 7 at a similar rate. Even Microsoft acknowledges there’s room for improvement. Read more »