The HTC Explorer is one of the strongest soldiers in the Android squad dispatched to storm the low-end and as such it’s no wonder that it’s getting some special attention. Its manufacturer just released a cool video promo of the affordable smartphone, which does a pretty good job of summing up its key features.

The HTC Explorer isn’t a smartphone to impress you with a gazillion megahertz CPU or an umpteen megapixel camera – that’s a task for the Sensation to handle. With the little one it’s all about simplicity of use, intuitiveness and easy personalization that will attract new smartphone adopters. Read more »

The i-dotting and t-crossing is complete and Adobe released the latest versions of their Flash Player and AIR. Available to desktop operating systems and compatible mobile platforms, Adobe Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 promise a dramatic improvement in performance.

The new releases finally enable 3D hardware acceleration, which should allow much more demanding applications to run smoothly even on mobile platforms. Android users will probably benefit the most from that, but some low-powered portable computers will get the chance to do Flash properly, too. Read more »

Microsoft launched the first Zune player back in 2006 as a competitor to Apple’s wildly popular iPod. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the Zune was never the success it may have hoped for and although it managed to amble along for five years, reinventing itself several times along the way, everyone knew it won’t be around for much longer.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that they will no longer be producing the Zune players. From here onward, it will only exist in the form of a software and service for Microsoft’s desktop and mobile offerings. Read more »

You read correctly, we heard rumblings of such peculiar goings on for a little while prior to this post, and this is just adding to the rumor mill.

Purportedly the iPhone 4S is to play as guinea pig for the iOS build of BlackBerry’s Messenger service and now we are hearing through the grapevine that Android users might get in on some BBM action too. Read more »

The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S just arrived in our office and it promised to stay around for a full review. What’s even better is that we got the latest and greatest Xperia smartphone in two different flavors – white and black.

The arc S is actually pretty similar to its predecessor, but for a couple of key differences. On the hardware side of things you get the higher processor clock – 1.4GHz, which should improve performance even further, while on the software side the Xperia arc S offers Android 2.3.4 out of the box. Read more »

In about 24 hours the recently appointed Apple CEO Tim Cook is going to hit the stage at Apple’s Campus in Cupertino and, as the invitation for the event suggests, he is going to talk iPhone.

Over the last couple of weeks the Internet has been overflowing with rumors about how many iPhones will the company actually announce. Although the invitation that Apple sent out suggested that only one phone will be revealed, there are is compelling evidence that we should expect two separate devices coming later in the fall.

Read more »

Surely the news from a few days ago about Nokia working on a Linux-based OS to replace the S40 UI was really good stuff. Unfortunately, the rumored Meltemi project is not an S40 replacement.

As it turned out, the Meltemi is the codename for the Windows Phone project, so the Meltemi is actually no news. Here is why: Read more »

Probably not many of you are aware of this, but October is the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month both in the Europe and in the US and in order to show its commitment to the issue, Samsung Netherlands in cooperation with KPN telecom starts selling special Pink Ribbon editions of the Galaxy S Plus and Ch@t 335.

Both handsets will feature white back panels with the special Pink Ribbon logo, showing support to patients with Breast Cancer and hopefully increasing the awareness of the disease, which is not fatal if caught on time. Read more »

Nokia bet the house on the Microsoft deal, so they’re trying to make sure all goes well once their first Windows Phone 7 handset launches. They are reportedly talking to app developers, trying to lure them in and expand the app catalogue of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

Microsoft is also trying to grow the developer base for WP7 through promotions of their own, so devs can cash in on the incentives from both companies. Read more »

So, there is a new firmware update for the LG Optimus 3D available. Its version is V10K and is intended for all unlocked devices in the Europe Open region.

The update does not update your Android version up to Gingerbread, but brings the promised 2D to 3D conversion feature for games. Read more »

The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY owners are in for a real treat as the manufacturer just announced that its gaming smartphone will be getting four top titles for free. The four popular EA games that you can get if you happen to own an Xperia PLAY are Dead Space, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Need for Speed Shift and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit.

That’s a first-person shooter, a third person shooter and a couple of racing games, all of the highest quality. To get them you just head to the Game Launcher and start with the downloading. Needless to say, you will be better if you use a Wi-Fi network for that. Read more »

We have seen screenshots of the redesigned Xbox 360 dashboard before that uses the slick new Metro UI but now a video has leaked that gives us a nice little tour of the interface and all the various menu options that we can expect to see when the update is released this fall.

The video is low resolution and a bit blurry. Moreover there is no audio and the text is all in French so it’s basically like watching a French movie with no audio and subtitles. Read more »

The team at WebpageFX have compiled a heap of statistics pertaining to the competitive nature of of today’s smartphone app stores and how they vie for dominance in a crowded smartphone market.

As you’ll see this includes all the big hitters such as the App Store, Android Market, Blackberry App World and Nokia, Palm and Windows Phone 7′s application directories as well. Read more »

If you’re of a certain age, you will have fond memories of a little console called the Nintendo 64. Being able to play with three friends in local multiplayer on Starfox 64 (aka Lylat Wars for you Europeans and Aussies), Mario Kart 64, Golden Eye and the wealth of other titles that helped make the transition from 2D to 3D all those years ago was a blast.

For some, you might still have a working N64 in your attic, but for others unable to relight their retro-gaming fire so easily, N64oid has a solution. Read more »

It seems Amazon may have started a tablet price war with its $199 Kindle Fire (or was it HP?). Either that or Best Buy suddenly realized that the HTC Flyer was way too expensive, because they have announced a $200 price cut on HTC’s premier tablet (for the Wi-Fi only version).

This brings the price of the 7-inch tablet down from the lofty $499 to a more palatable $299. For that price you are getting what is arguably one of the best 7-inch tablets around. Read more »