The international version of the Nokia Lumia 710 dropped by our office following the US-bound one and we’re ready to share our first impressions of it. The first thing we noticed was the extra large box – bigger than the boxes most other phones come in – but the contents are pretty standard.

As for the phone itself, it was a pleasant surprise. The Lumia 710 sits slightly lower on the ladder than the Lumia 800, but it has the same hardware inside along with a screen with the same size and resolution. Read more »

Google+ is going to add a simple edit tool for your future picture uploads, giving you the option to make captions to them.

Those of you familiar with meme captioning of pics should know what we’re talking about. Read more »

HzO WaterBlock is a technology that utilizes invisible vapor coating that wraps around your device’s innards.

HzO’s protective nano-sized molecules protect the device’s electronics, like processor, RAM, radio chips and more from moisture. Read more »

You’ve probably heard that there’s an Apple event scheduled for January 19, this Thursday. The invite they sent out promises “an education announcement” and the rumor mill says that Apple will be unveiling new tools and a platform to create and publish eBooks, with a strong focus on interactive content.

According to Steve Jobs’ biography, digital book publishing and its use in education was a pet project of Apple’s former leader and in a couple of days we might see the results. To quote the biography, textbook publishing is a “$8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction.” Read more »

The Wikimedia foundation, which is the company behind Wikipedia, along with XDA-Developers and Reddit have joined the anti-SOPA protests. The three companies will be blacking out their websites tomorrow, 18 January for a whole day in an attempt to spread the word about the Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as S.O.P.A.

This was first announced by Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales and later got officially confirmed on by Wikimedia. An appeal from Wikipedia will be replacing every English page of the website.

According to Wales more than 25 million people will be affected by the Wikipedia blackout and that will be the best way to spread awareness of the mountain of problems for the freedom of the Internet this Act is going to introduce, should it pass. Read more »

Overused internet memes aside, market analysts NPD have crunched the numbers on US physical copy video games sales during 2011 to bring us the best selling titles of last year.

The results are combined across all platforms (including PC), but can you guess which ones made it into the top 10? Read more »

After all the hype it’s come to this. In Icons’ Tandy Cheung has ceased the production of the Steve Jobs action figure, which was announced just a few weeks ago. The reason? Immense pressure from Apple’s lawyers and Job’s family.

And although the creator of the 12-inch figurine says his actions haven’t violated any laws, as Apple suggested earlier, he chose to respect the wish of Steve Job’s family to stop the production and distribution of the doll. Here is his full statement. Read more »

When Apple announced that they will be having an education announcement on Thursday in New York, the general consensus was that they will be announcing digital textbooks for their iOS devices, particularly the iPad, which is becoming increasingly popular in schools and colleges.

However, according to some new information from Ars Technica, that may not be the only thing that they will be announcing on Thursday. According to their sources, Apple will also be releasing tools for creation of ebooks, which Ars dubs it as the “GarageBand for books”. Read more »

With a loyal following numbering north of a million users, there is no doubt that CyanogenMod is among the premier aftermarket Android ROMs out there. One of the latest ideas regarding the future of the project is likely to make it even more attractive as it involves a proprietary store for root apps.

According to the CyanogeMod team member Koush, a proprietary app store would enable the CM team to take a small cut from developers who showcase their apps there, which will be used for paying for server and hardware maintenance. Read more »

With a $99 price tag, the HP TouchPad was a hot enough commodity. The latest CyanogenMod update however, is bound to make the slate even more desirable by bringing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to it, thus making the dreams of many of its owners a reality.

The port is not completely finished yet with the front-facing camera and the video playback not being functional for the time being. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S III is right around the corner, but the new versions of its predecessor just won’t stop coming, folks. A WiMAX flavored variation of the Android smartphone is about to hit the shelves of Japan’s wireless carrier KDDI in a few days time.

Specs wise, the smartphone is closely related to Read more »

Yes, you read right. Nissan, the car maker corporation, has created a protection case for the iPhone 4S, called the Scratch Shield.

But, you see, Scratch Shield isn’t your ordinary protective case, because not only does it protect your iPhone from possible injuries — it also heals itself afterwards from any mild scratches. Read more »

The INFOBAR CO1 is part of a 5 smartphones lineup announced yesterday by Japanese carrier KDDI au.

It is the most interesting in the lineup and offers a heavily overhauled UI based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread (iida UI), colorful looks and hardware numpad to go with its touchscreen display. Read more »

The ChronicDevTeam courtesy of member @DHowett, iOS developer, has a video showcasing an untethered jailbreak on an iPhone 4S, running on iOS 5.0.1.

This sort of a jailbreak solution has been available on A4-powered iDevices but, up until now, it had its ups and downs on the A5-powered iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. Read more »

Smart watches that pair with your phone and let you view and access select functions of your phone seem to be the coolest thing in the world of mobile accessories at the moment. Motorola recently launched the Android-powered MOTOACTV that works as your music player and also logs your workout sessions.

Now Sony too has joined the fray with their smart watch called, well, SmartWatch. It has a 1.3-inch multi-touch OLED display that lets you access your phone functions such as calls, messages, music as well as social networking applications such as Twitter and Facebook. Read more »