Google has started rolling out the latest 3.4.4 update to the Android Market app, which should automatically get downloaded on your Android device, if it hasn’t already.

The big change being reported here is improved user interface speed. This might not be immediately noticeable on faster phones but slower phones are sure to benefit greatly from it. It also renames the ‘Auto-add shortcuts’ option to ‘Auto-add widgets’ (although it still just adds shortcut icons) and adds any videos in the screenshot carousal instead of separately at the bottom. Read more »

The Prada Phone by LG 3.0 has just been announced in London, and if you think it looks great on the outside with its slim body, metal accents and the Saffiano leather-looking plastic cover at the back, just wait to see how Prada and LG have pimped the look of the Android OS as well.

Prada are very proud with what they have done design-wise to the look and feel of the Android 2.3 running on the Prada 3.0 and it shows. With its redesigned black and white user interface and special custom widgets this smartphone is one of the most customized fashion-oriented smartphones out there. Read more »

Nokia has just announced that they have made the beta version of their Live View app available to their MeeGo smartphone, Nokia N9. The augmented reality app was so far only available for Symbian devices, but it obviously gathered enough interest to warrant its porting to Qt.

As you know Qt apps are compatible with both MeeGo and Symbian and allow easy porting of apps between the platforms. One can’t help but wonder, though, why didn’t the Nokia software engineers write the app for Qt from the beginning. Read more »

Google brought some good news to its Gmail users in the US and Canada. The search giant is extending the availability of the free calling service that Gmail offers by another year.

That means that you will be able to place domestic calls in the US and Canada through the whole 2012 completely free of charge. That’s the second extension of the free calling service as it was initially expected to only last until the end of 2010, which later changed to the end of 2011. Read more »

Frustrated with the malware problem on your Android device? The folks at Microsoft hear ya and so they are willing to offer you a free ‘upgrade’ to a Windows Phone device.

All you have to do is log on to Twitter and share your Android malware story with the hashtag #DROIDRAGE and you could be one of the five lucky winners to get a Windows Phone 7 device. Read more »

After the desktop version of Windows, Android has quickly become the second best place to party for all the malware and Trojan app creators of the world, undoubtedly aided by the popularity and open nature of the platform. 22 of such Trojan apps were discovered at once by a company called Lookout Mobile Security, who then quickly informed Google about them.

These 22 apps, called RuFraud, disguised themselves as wallpaper apps, horoscopes and games. Once installed, they would send unsolicited SMSes to a certain paid toll number, from where the fraudsters get their money and which will then be charged to the user’s monthly bill. Read more »

The Skype app for Android has received an update and the big new feature is the ability to send photos, videos and files across to your contacts.

Skype has also made the auto sign-in and sign-out easier, improved the look and feel of the app, added voicemail improvements and improved the video quality on Tegra 2 devices. Read more »

When I first heard of the recently founded headphone maker Sol Republic, my first thought was if there was any room left on the market for a new supplier of premium headphones. The U.S. market in particular is dominated by Beats Audio – the company with Dr. Dre as its face, followed by several competitors. In a nutshell – it is not the friendliest environment to launch a new product, given the already established competition.

Once I found out more about the newcomer however, its aspirations began to make a lot more sense. Sol Republic (by the way, Sol stands for “soundtrack of life”, not something related to the sun) is founded by Read more »

The HTC Rhyme is now done running laps on our battery test tracks and we bet you are eager to find out how it did. After all, endurance is as important as it gets when you are talking about a droid that aims to win the hearts of the female users out there.

Coming with a 1600 mAh battery and a 3.7″ WVGA screen, the HTC Rhyme seems well prepared for our test. Sure it’s not the juiciest of batteries we have seen since we started the new test, but it’s got one of the smallest displays so far. Read more »

Gameloft has come up with an interesting promotion for their Facebook page. The famous software development studio will give away four of its titles for free, when it collects enough likes on the event’s dedicated page.

So the quicker you go to the Gameloft Facebook page and click the giant LIKE button, the sooner the names of the four games will be revealed. And knowing the quality of the stuff Gameloft usually does, we can bet you won’t be disappointed. Read more »

It was but just the other week we wrote about Microsoft’s My Xbox LIVE app launching exclusively on their key rival’s mobile platform, iOS and now we have another title from the Washington-based tech giants, Kinectimals.

Just six weeks after its Windows Phone counterpart launched, the cuddly cubs are now popping up on iOS too. Read more »

iPhone users have been using One Note on their phones for a while now but with the latest 1.3 update Microsoft has also released a special version for the iPad.

The new version brings features like tabbed user interface, table rendering, improved Windows Live sign-in experience, integrated upgrade option and many more The iPad version features a new UI that takes advantage of the bigger display. You can have text, bullets and add pictures from your photo gallery and the notes are synced with your SkyDrive account and can be accessed through One Note on other platforms. Read more »

For something that they claimed to have stopped developing, Adobe sure is finding it hard to let go of the Flash Player for mobile. After their announcement last month to cease its development they released another update soon afterwards and now we have another one sitting in our Market app.

According to the release notes on the latest v11.1.111.5, it brings performance updates and bug fixes. Delving a little deeper on the Adobe website reveals that the update fixes the video streaming issue on the Samsung Galaxy S II, enables 1080p video playback for Nvidia Tegra 3-based devices and video playback fixes for video decoding. Read more »

Look at what stumbled in front of our camera – it’s a baby Sensation. No wait, it’s the HTC Explorer – a petite droid coming to replace the Wildfire S as HTC’s entry level offering.

We were scratching our heads for a while, wondering what has changed since the Wildfire S, and it turns out there’s quite a bit that’s different. Read more »

We don’t often do accessory reviews, but this one is too interesting to miss. You see, one of the problems with touchscreen smartphones is that you cannot use them with gloves, so you have to pick your priorities in the winter – operate your phone or save your fingers from the freezing cold.

Enter the Isotoner SmarTouch gloves – compatible with your touchscreen phone, those will keep your fingers nicely warm in those cold months. Read more »