The Amazon Kindle Fire gets listed in the same column as the rest of the Android tablets, but it’s worth remembering that it’s a highly customized version of Android and works differently than the rest. Take the silent auto-updates for example – the Fire will install the latest available firmware version 6.2.1 without asking, which will break root and make the tablet immune to SuperOneClick rooting.

The update does bring several goodies, the most valuable of which is probably the ability to remove items from the homescreen carousel. Read more »

Touchscreen is cool, but touchless is even cooler. And if a small company XTR3D has its way, we might be getting more of the touchless experience from our TVs and smartphones really soon. XTR3D has developed a Kinect-like system that recognizes your gestures and uses them to control various devices.

There’s no need for remote controls or touching the actual device, you just wave your hand and, for example, the next channel comes up or the volume increases. The XTR3D technology also allows hands-free operation of your smartphone, which sounds really convenient for use while driving. Read more »

Asus delivered on their promise to make the Transformer Prime available on 19th December and users who placed a pre-order on Amazon.com got their shipping notifications over the past couple of days. The quad-core tablet is now on its way to its first US adopters and just as rumors, takers aren’t in short supply.

The other major retailer that will sell the Transformer Prime in the US, Best Buy, is also expected to start shipping the first orders this week, so units should arrive in time for Christmas. Read more »

Now that Google has officially released the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich we are going to see it on a lot more devices. A couple of days ago we saw it running on the original Xoom and now the developers on xda-developers have managed to get it working on the Samsung Ace too.

I use the term ‘working’ loosely here because the ROM is far from being stable or even usable. Which explains why even before you start reading about it you can see the words “Only for developers!” and “IT CAN KILL YOUR PHONE!” being written on top of the post. Read more »

Gmail mobile just added a solid dash of fun to the user experience, folks. The freshly announced Scribbles feature enables you to quickly put together simple drawings via a lightweight interface, which is embedded right into the email composer – a sharp and fun way to express yourself in a different way than the conventional smileys.

The feature is currently available for Read more »

So, you’ve got yourself a cool new droid with a beefy GPU but then you find out that GTA 3 was optimized for common Androids and their paltry graphics. Luckily, it turns out that the game supports much better graphics, you just need to enable them through slightly unconventional means.

It’s as simple as replacing the right file with a customized one and you can get much improved visuals from the game if your phone’s GPU is up to it. There are a couple of more before/after pics after the jump. Read more »

For all the features that iTunes offers, it’s still one of the least convenient ways of managing the content of your iDevice. Its performance is hardly spectacular, its usability is mediocre and its inability to upload files to a single device from multiple computers is downright baffling. Enter CopyTrans – a third party app that promises to allow uploading content to your iPhone/iPad/iPod without the hassle of the official Apple software.

Compatible with all iOS versions, CopyTrans lets you drag and drop single files to your iDevice. It works with music tracks, videos and even apps now so chances are you’ll only need iTunes rarely. There’s no need to sync the whole library either, so transfers are much quicker and convenient here. Read more »

You know what’s a byword for Christmas? Presents. And Google likes to give them to its employees come Christmas and this years’ is no exception.

As a “Thank you for your hard work throughout the year”, every Google employee in the company’s offices in London and Zurich has received a special Christmas gift in the form of an exclusive Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Read more »

Facebook has updated its iOS application, introducing the newly introduced Timeline profile interface to the Apple platform. The social giant has released an update of its app for the iPhone allowing it to have a taste of the latest and greatest it has to offer.

Right now Timeline isn’t available to the other major iDevice – the iPad, but Facebook says it’s “coming soon”. Still, iPad users will get a few extra features with the new update. Read more »

What are you supposed to do if you are a nice old man with not much to do for 364 days of the year and have 3.7 billion appointments on the 365th? You get an iPhone 4S and use Siri to organize the whole thing, of course.

Or at least that’s what Apple want to make you believe with the latest video ad of its smartphone. And no matter if you like the iPhone 4S or not, you have to admit that the clip is pretty darn good. Read more »

We all know how popular the Angry Birds game is. And back at Nokia World when the S40-running Asha 300/303 were announced to come with the popular pig-bashing game pre-installed, fans of the platform loudly rejoiced.

However, it was not clear whether Angry Birds would run on older S40 devices. Well, worry no more – it works and it’s good to go for you to try out. Read more »

Things are not going well for netbooks. After sales started spiraling downwards, hardware makers slowly started opting out of this segment. We saw last month that Samsung could be considering dropping netbooks altogether and concentrate on Ultrabooks and now Dell has come out and announced the same.

When the company’s Inspiron Mini was found to be missing from their site, The Verge contacted Dell on the matter. This is when they learned that Dell does not plan to sell them anymore. They also said that the “thin and powerful is where it is at for us”, hinting at the growing Ultrabook segment. Read more »

Hackers and modders have already figured out ways around Apple’s encrypted servers to bring the iPhone 4S‘s previously exclusive voice assistant Siri to Apple’s older i-devices.

Now however it looks like Apple might have undergone a change of heart, or at least allowed a lapse in security. There are still no official plans from Apple to bring Siri to the iPhone 4, but there are clues in iOS 5.0.1 that could give 4 users some Siri goodness via other means. Read more »

The third member of AT&T’s rather impressive LTE lineup made it to our office. The HTC Vivid surely has presence – even when dressed in a stealthy black color scheme. With a massive 4.5″ screen and a solid metal back, the smartphone cannot help but be noticed.

Now on with a look at the spec sheet. The HTC Vivid packs Read more »

It’s been just a day since Google released the Android 4.0.3 update and the folks over at xda-developers have managed to get it working on the original Motorola Xoom already.

While this may sound like exciting news, it’s still pretty much a work in progress, which means things are not working quite as well as they should. The camera is not working and there is a green overlay from time to time. Read more »