As just about every major smartphone maker gears up to introduce their own 1080p-resolution Android “phablets,” one platform that apparently won’t be getting larger screens with higher resolutions is Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone 8. According to Bloomberg, HTC (2498) canceled plans to build a large-screened smartphone with Windows Phone 8 “because the screen resolution would have been lower than competing models” – 720 horizontal lines instead of 1080. The company recently released the Android-powered DROID DNA with 5-inch 1080p-resolution display in a svelte chassis and had plans to “claw back share from Samsung Electronics Co.,” with a large-screened WP8 smartphone. But Bloomberg reports HTC concluded large-screened WP8 phones “wouldn’t be competitive against Android devices from HTC, Samsung and others.” While there’s no standardized definition for what is a phablet and

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A little late to the party, U.S. Cellular will be offering the Android 4.1 Update (Jelly Bean) for the Samsung Galaxy S III starting Friday Dec 21.

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Photography app Flock uses your device’s GPS capabilities to link up with your friends and make shared albums for photos you take at the same event. An update to XFINITY TV Player is next, bringing better video streaming capabilities. Finally, we have OverLight - Alpha, a puzzle game that uses lasers and glass blocks to cause chain explosions.

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Research In Motion (RIMM) shares have surged recently following a series of positive reports suggesting RIM still has money to make ahead of its upcoming BlackBerry 10 launch, and that BlackBerry 10 itself may find success despite being written off by a number of industry watchers. Bears rushed to cast doubt on a RIM comeback, however, and now a new report on Monday morning suggests any potential success RIM sees with BlackBerry 10 will likely be short-lived. Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley on Monday issued a note to clients covering RIM’s recent run. He believes BlackBerry 10 could offer RIM some brief aid but in the long term, he doesn’t see the new platform gaining momentum against market leaders.

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Starting tomorrow November 30th, the heavy-hitting drawing/drafting company Autodesk will bring its popular SketchBook drawing app to Android devices. SketchBook Mobile extends your digital sketchpad to your mobile device and offers professional-grade painting and drawing tools in a streamlined and intuitive user interface...

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This week brings us a solid line-up of titles. At the head of the pack is the latest MMO from Spacetime Studios, Arcane Legends. It takes a more action-oriented approach than their previous titles, but it’s just as good as the rest. We’ve also got a few solid games from Miniclip.com, one being a brawler and the other an adorable runner. Additional releases include  a clever image-based puzzler, a dragon breeding management simulation, and the tie-in game three-pack to movie Wreck-it Ralph.

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DOMINANCE: Google's Android software for mobile devices was running on 75 percent of smartphones shipped in the third quarter.

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Google’s (GOOG) Android Open Source Project technical lead Jean-Baptiste Queru on Tuesday announced a minor update to the Android Jelly Bean operating system. The Android 4.1.2 update delivers various bug fixes and improved performance and stability to the operating system, while also bringing landscape support to the Nexus 7 tablet while on the home screen. The Android 4.1.2 update is said to be rolling out now to pure Google devices such as the Nexus 7 tablet and unlocked Galaxy Nexus smartphones. Read

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The security of Google's Android operating system has been under scrutiny in the last few months. Now, a study by German security researchers reveals that some apps in the Google Play market are vulnerable and leak personal data.

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Create your own comics with your photos using today’s leading app. With ComicBook! you can stylize your photos, adding speech bubbles and more to make them look like your own personal comic books. We’ve also got Fontly, a photo-sharing app dedicated to typography, and Infinite Monsters, a side-scrolling shooter that’s all about blasting various beasties.

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Google sent invitations to the press Wednesday for an Android event in New York on Oct. 29. The invitations didn't disclose what exactly would take place, though the tagline, "The playground is open," suggest the event will have to do with Google Play, the recently rebranded Android Market.

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Google’s (GOOG) Android Open Source Project technical lead Jean-Baptiste Queru on Tuesday announced a minor update to the Android Jelly Bean operating system. The Android 4.1.2 update delivers various bug fixes and improved performance and stability to the operating system, while also bringing landscape support to the Nexus 7 tablet while on the home screen. The Android 4.1.2 update is said to be rolling out now to pure Google devices such as the Nexus 7 tablet and unlocked Galaxy Nexus smartphones. Read

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More troubling news for Research In Motion (RIMM) as the company continues to struggle ahead of the launch of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform: Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. has chosen to drop RIM as its smartphone supplier. Bloomberg reports that the U.S. government consultant with a staff of roughly 25,000 will instead switch to iPhones and Android-powered smartphones. The switch was confirmed by Booz Allen spokesman James Fisher. Booz Allen has already begun issuing new devices to some workers according to the report, and Fisher said employees who use their own BlackBerry handsets will no longer have access to corporate email once the switch is complete. A RIM spokesperson noted to Bloomberg that the company still has more than 1 million

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Qualcomm on Tuesday announced the Snapdragon software development kit for Android during the Uplinq Developers Conference. The SDK will allow mobile developers to access next-generation technology such as blink and smile detection, burst camera mode, surround sound recording, sensor gestures and indoor locations, to enhance their applications on devices equipped with a Snapdragon S4 processor. “The most powerful applications in mobile are those that are tightly integrated with the underlying hardware,” said Rob Chandhok, president of Qualcomm Internet Services and the company’s senior vice president for software strategy. “Qualcomm is always striving to enable developers and device makers to differentiate their offerings via the unique capabilities found in its industry-leading Snapdragon mobile processors. With the Snapdragon SDK for Android, developers

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Earlier this week, Microsoft Israel released an automation app for Android named on{X}. As you can see from Microsoft's promo video above, the app works in conjunction with the recently launched on{X} website and allows users to remotely program their Android phones to respond to certain situations. You do this by selecting from a list of pre-made recipes or writing out your own recipe using a JavaScript API. A recipe is a conditional trigger that requires a certain action to activate it. This action can be anything from picking the phone up, to getting a text message. So, for instance, you could write a recipe that opened a specific webpage whenever you unlocked your phone or one that told your camera to turn on whenever you phone was put into landscape mode. On{X} gives you access to almost all of your device's sensors and functions, and you're really only limited by your javascript programming skills.

Keep reading...

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Microsoft is planning to release both iOS and Android variants of its Office suite of products this fall, a new report says. The date matches closely to when the company is expected to release Windows 8 and the new version of Office.

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Verizon Wireless on Monday confirmed that the DROID RAZR, RAZR MAXX, HTC Rezound, and DROID 4 will receive global roaming capabilities later this summer, enabling the handsets to access voice and data services in more than 200 countries, Droid-Life reported. “Customers will see a notification on their device when the software update is available for their device,” a Verizon spokesperson said. “After the software update, customers will be able to take their smartphone overseas and use voice service in more than 220 countries and receive data in more than 205 countries.” While the carrier didn’t give a specific timeline, there is a possibility the update may be included with the smartphone’s upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich updates, which are also slated for

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Google has focused a great deal of effort over the years on making its Android operating system more attractive. Android partners’ first attempts at tablets were lackluster to say the least, and while Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich have revamped the user interface, they still leave much to be desired for many users. Luckily, Android users have the option of completely customizing their devices with various home screen replacement apps, and a nearly endless number of custom ROMs. These alternatives cannot compete with Chameleon, however, an Android home screen replacement app like no other. Chameleon replaces the standard Android home screens and app launcher with a custom layout of widgets and apps that deliver users a wide range of information. The

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NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang previously mentioned that more Tegra 3-powered tablets would be coming to the market this summer, starting at the low price of $199. At the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting last week, vice president Rob Csonger revealed Kai, a plan to democratize its quad-core Tegra 3 system-on-a-chip. NVIDIA is looking to offer tablets that are more powerful than Amazon’s Kindle Fire, but that will be offered at the same low price point. “Our strategy on Android is simply to enable quad-core tablets running Android Ice Cream Sandwich to be developed and brought out to market at the $199 price point, and the way we do that is a platform we’ve developed called Kai,” he said. “So this uses

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BGR reports that Microsoft is planning to launch Office for iOS in November this year, with the source claiming first-hand knowledge of the software running on an iPad. With the app's splash screen referring to it as "Office for iOS", the source also speculates that the app may also be coming to the smaller screens of the iPhone and iPod touch. In addition to its iOS effort, Microsoft is also said to be bringing Office to Android-based tablets in the same timeframe.

Microsoft had indicated soon after the launch of the original iPad that it was investigating the possibility of bringing Office to the platform, but ultimately stated that it had no plans for such an effort. The Daily has since claimed several times that Office for iPad is in fact in the works, reporting in February that it had even had hands-on time with a prototype of the app.

Photo of claimed Office prototype app running on an iPad (Source: The Daily)
Microsoft denied the claim, but The Daily continues to stand by its report. Suggesting that there may have been a misunderstanding somewhere, Microsoft stated that the situation would become "clear in the coming weeks". No such clarification has yet surfaced, however.

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