Apparently, waiting until the last minute is not something Android devs know how to do. They like to get their homework done early. The Samsung Galaxy S III is supposedly already rooted, before it even launches. A dev named Chainfire just posted information on how he and his team achieved root on the Galaxy S III by working through a leaked insecure kernel code. Feel free to hit up the source link for more details.

Man you guys are fast!

Source: XDA

There is an impressive new product being developed by a company called Insert Coin. It is an adaptive and customizable home screen for Android Tablets and they call it Chameleon. The product concept looks pretty impressive, and could definitely be worth it when it is finally finished. At the moment, the company is trying to get funding through the online entrepreneurial website, KickStarter. If you pledge $5 bucks or more they will put you on their list to try it out when they finish it. Here's just a few things it is capable of.

• Chameleon helps you do things faster, bringing the most relevant information and apps up front. So you don't have to dig around.
• Chameleon is super easy to customize. You can quickly set up Home Screens, Widgets, and App Trays, all with a few gestures.
• Chameleon is integrated with Android. We kept what was working and improved the rest. The result is an Android Tablet experience that is as unique as you are.

Check out the video above and the source link below to find out more.

Source: Kickstarter

The wait is almost over for those anxiously awaiting Android 4.0 for their Motorola smartphone and/or tablet. The Droid RAZR crowd will get the first taste of the cold treat in Q2 while the Droid 4 and Bionic owners will have to wait a little longer and are looking at a roll-out in Q3. As you can see, the rest of Moto's line-up is receiving the update in Q3, but the Photon 4G comes in at the end of the line with a Q4 release. That's quite a long wait, but the good news is the handset will at least see the update.

Thanks Captmilk for the tip!!

Pre-Orders for both the blue and white version of the Samsung Galaxy S III are showing up from several Amazon retailers now. The prices start at $779.99 for the GT-i9300 16GB MARBLE WHITE FACTORY UNLOCKED GSM i9300 S3 version. The GT-i9300 16GB PEBBLE BLUE FACTORY UNLOCKED GSM i9300 S3 version is going for $829.99. It's important to note that these are the GSM unlocked versions of the phones, and they will supposedly become available June 1st. Be sure to pick up your pre-orders ASAP by clicking on the links below!

Source: S3Forums.com via Amazon SGS3 Blue Pebble Version and Amazon SGS3 White Version

It looks like the court system is starting to get fed up with all the Apple vs. the World lawsuits as well. The United States District Court of Delaware just ordered the two parties to come together to work out a settlement in the ongoing patent disputes. Earlier in the year we got word that Apple and Samsung were voluntarily working toward some type of settlement agreement, so it makes sense that Apple should work out something with HTC as well. The talks will happen on August 28th, and will be moderated by Magistrate Judge Sherry R. Fallon.

Just to be clear, this is in reference to the same lawsuit that is currently holding up the HTC One X and the EVO 4G LTE in customs. Supposedly, HTC has a software workaround that should allow the phone to pass through U.S. Customs, but for now that has not been worked out. Hopefully, HTC won't have to wait until August to launch these two phones.

Source: TheVerge

Samsung continues to push all the latest and greatest tech into the Android mobile space. From flexible screens to 4 gigabit 20 nanometer low power DDR2 memory. Wait, what was that? A 4GB gobble gobble choo choo train? Essentially yes. The new chip would be a small, low power, screaming fast 2GB RAM chip for mobile phones. Most high end smartphones today are running with 1GB RAM and the question "how will it impact battery life?" will inevitably come up. According to the South Korean Company that will not be an issue, quite the opposite actually. Samsung claims the next crop of devices will have even better battery life. When asked what the extra memory will do, they responded "it will help the market to deliver advanced devices that are faster, lighter and provide longer battery life than today's mobile devices."

Sounds good to us. Faster, lighter, better battery life? We're sold. The new chip is reportedly 20% thinner than previous 2GB offerings, which in turn will allow handset manufacturers to continue producing very sleek and slender devices. Samsung says the new chip will begin shipping later this year, which means we could potentially see handsets sporting the new RAM by the end of the year, but you shouldn't hold your breath. Getting the chip into hardware and testing takes some time, so a more realistic timeframe would be early 2103, but we sure would like to be proven wrong.

Source and image: Endgadget

If you have seen the "will it blend" series, this is a whole new take on demolishing perfectly good pieces of tech for your enjoyment. How long can Sammy's Galaxy Tab 10.1 stay on a 500 degree grill? Watch and find out.

Via: AndroidTablets

Previously, we reported that the HTC EVO 4G LTE, (the Sprint version of the HTC One X), was delayed from a U.S. launch on May 18th by U.S. Customs because it supposedly infringed upon one of Apple's patents. We later reported that the delay may not end up that bad after-all because Best Buy sent out an email indicating the launch would happen on May 23rd instead. Unfortunately, today's news alters that significantly. Best Buy sent out a new email, which backtracks from their original statement. Now they indicate that the phone will be delayed indefinitely, with an unknown release date. The phone is now back in limbo, because Sprint has no idea how long the Customs process will take.

Source: AndroidCentral

The big news of the day is now officially out. Facebook's IPO was launched and priced out at $38, with a valuation set at $104 billion. Mark Zuckerberg himself rang the NASDAQ bell to start the trading day off with the big announcement. But, of course, he and the rest of his team at Facebook couldn't just do it the old fashioned way. They are code-junkies and hackers, after-all. So, they did things a little differently. One was pretty simple. Without a word, he rang the bell remotely from his company's headquarters (normally new IPO's will go to New York to ring it in person, although not always, so he was not the first to do this). Second, and this it where things get more interesting... beforehand, his team of engineers at the HQ found a way to hack the remote NASDAQ button, so that at the exact moment he hit the button to ring the bell, it would post the story to his Facebook timeline to let his friends and subscribers know. Here's a quote from the TechCrunch article with a few details,

During lunch, some us started talking about how cool it would be if the second Mark rang the bell, a story would post to his timeline to let his friends and subscribers know.

I was so excited about this idea that when I got back to my desk, I posted on Facebook: “We should totally hack the button so it pushes an open graph action, “Mark Rang the NASDAQ bell”.

The first person to comment? Zuck: “It would be epic if you pulled that off.”

I got to work that night.

The hack was successful. The IPO went off without a hitch, breaking several records. And the rest, as they say, is history...

Here's the full official press release for the IPO:

Facebook Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering

MENLO PARK, Calif., May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on May 18, 2012, under the symbol “FB.” Facebook is offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders are offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.

In addition, Facebook and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 63,185,042 additional shares of Class A common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Goldman, Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Allen & Company LLC, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities are serving as book runners for the offering. RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities are serving as active co-managers.

... [Read More]

Samsung-Galaxy-S3.jpg

You want to know how the SGS3 sales are going?.....Well worry not my friend. According to the Korea Economic Daily, an undisclosed Samsung executive shared that Samsung's followup to its previous fastest selling phone has already racked up nine million pre-orders around the world.
That is almost half way through the 20 million the SGS2 sold in February. While we still wait in the US, the rest of the world will enjoy this great device with some quad core awesomeness. All in all, the SGS3 is well on its way following in the footsteps of its predecessor. Good job Sammy...


Source:Korea Economic Daily
VIA: Reuters

All four major cell phone carriers have now signed on to the U.S. federal government's Wireless Emergency Alert system. That new new wireless SMS based emergency alert service is set to go live this month. The new service will cover 97 percent of active mobile users, with a "point-to-multipoint system" that targets at-risk subscribers. The service will include alerts from the National Weather Service, FEMA, FCC and Department of Homeland Security. It works by sending location-based messages of 90 characters or less to nearby handsets in the event of an imminent meteorological or other threat. The mostly opt-out service will also accommodate AMBER and Presidential alerts.

Thanks for the tip, Str8Aro!

Source: Engadget

There are a couple of pieces of new intel that may be a bright spot for HTC. Their newest problem is that two of their most popular new flagship devices, the One X and the Sprint version of that, the EVO 4G LTE, have been held up by U.S. Customs because of an ITC import ban from December due to an infringement on a patent from Apple. We shared this with you previously, but new info has come to light suggesting that HTC may be able to get buy afterall, and bring the phones to the U.S., even if they will be a little bit late.

First, according to a new report from SlashGear, these two HTC phones actually do not infringe upon the Apple patent. Apparently, HTC purposefully excluded the feature from the U.S. version of these phones that would cause any infringement in the first place. Apparently, the International version still has the infringement, but for some reason the phone is being held up at U.S. Customs to make sure the issue is resolved.

The second bit of news, seems to indirectly confirm the first bit of news. Best Buy recently sent out an email to Sprint customers who pre-ordered the HTC EVO 4G LTE. In the email, they indicated that the phone has been delayed, but that it will now arrive on May 23rd, instead of May 18th. This is a mere 5 day delay, and seems to point to the likelihood that the phones will make it through Customs afterall. You can see a picture of the email above.

Thanks to our tipster, RobKort, for the Best Buy part of this story!

Source: SlashGear and AndroidCentral