Nexus Twitter contest begins: 10 Galaxy Nexus phone giveaways in 10 days

If you want to get yourself a free Galaxy Nexus via Google, here’s your chance. The Twitter contest mentioned earlier has now been detailed by the official @GoogleNexus Twitter account, and they’ll be giving away one phone every day for ten days. You must be following the Twitter account, reply with “@googlenexus,” and live in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, or South Korea to be eligible.

As in previous Nexus competitions, entrants will have to answer either a puzzle, a photo challenge or an essay question. Puzzles should be answered as soon as possible if you want to win, since they’re first-come, first-served, but other winners will be chosen by Google judges. You may only enter once for each day, and multiple entries may disqualify you. The first question will be posted tomorrow at 9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, with the following days at these times, also PST:
November 12, 2011 9:00 AM
November 13, 2011 3:00 AM
November 14, 2011 3:00 PM
November 15, 2011 12:01 AM
November 16, 2011 9:00 PM
November 17, 2011 12:01 PM
November 18, 2011 6:00 AM
November 19, 2011 9:00 AM
November 20, 2011 6:00 PM
November 21, 2011 3:00 PM
Google didn’t mention whether they’d be sending out Verizon phones only in the US, or whether international unlocked or HSPA+ versions would be available. OF course, since we still don’t know when Verizon is planning the Galaxy Nexus launch, winners might get their phones well before anyone else in the US. Puzzle answers should be awarded fairly quickly, but essay and photo challenges may take some time – a full list of winners will be announced on December 5th. You can read the full rules here.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus training starts at Verizon

Verizon still hasn’t announced an official release date for the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Nexus, much to the chagrin of lots of Android fans wanting their Ice Cream Sandwich fix. But some leaked internal shots show that Verizon’s retail employees are beginning to receive training on the Galaxy Nexus, as well as a crash course on Ice Cream Sandwich. The Galaxy Nexus release can’t be too far away.

Previously, Verizon’s training for its high-end phones has predated the retail release by at least a couple of months – see the HTC Thunderbolt and Droid Pro for comparison. Since the Galaxy Nexus was only officially revealed last month, that would make a November release a very fast turnaround indeed – if, in fact, it is slated for November. The DROID RAZR and HTC Rezound are also mentioned in the training, which is a good sign as far as timeframe is concerned.
The latest leaks out of Verizon indicate either a November 17th, November 21st or after Thanksgiving. At this point we’ve seen so much back and forth and hearsay that your guess is as good as ours, but Google did promise that the international release would follow the European debut on the 17th. The consensus is that Verizon isn’t exactly bending over backwards to promote the Nexus, with the DROID RAZR and the HTC Rezound both launching within a week. Get the lead out, Verizon – we’re screaming for Ice Cream.

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Report: most free anti-malware apps are almost useless

Malware is a growing problem for Android, both within the Android Market and without. But when it comes to free applications, it looks like users aren’t getting a lot of help. According to a security report from AVTest in Germany, nearly all the free anti-malware apps are almost completely useless, with many failing to detect even a single threat in a test environment. Their results after testing seven popular free apps are below – it looks like users are getting exactly what they pay for.

The most worthless apps (relatively speaking, anyway) were Creative Apps’ Antivirus Free, GuardX Antivirus, and LabMSF Antivirus beta, all of which failed to detect a single threat on the tested smartphone. BluePoint Antivirus Free, Privateer Lite and Kinetoo Malware scan all fell in at less than 10% detection rates. Only Zoner AntiVirus Free scored even vaguely respectable numbers, detecting just 32% of threats after a manual scan. To reiterate: the best free ant-malware app detected less than a third of the threats after testing. The most popular app, Antivirus Free (one of the 0% results) has been downloaded more than a million times.
The state of anti-malware and anti-virus on Android may be pretty sad, but it’s not that surprising. After all, Android just passed its third birthday, and with almost 200 million users worldwide, it’s a prime target for hackers and thieves. Security will get better as Google and others learn how to plug up the current vulnerabilities. That said, an experienced Android user is far more likely to have personal information stolen via a security vulnerability (like HTC’s Sense issues a while back) than an app download – so long as he or she remembers never to install an apps from an untrustworthy developer or publisher, especially if it’s a non-Market download. For a more in-depth look at the security report, you can download the PDF here.
[via ZDNet]

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Google set to start the next Google Nexus giveaway

In case you’ve missed it or aren’t following along, today is a great day for Android fans to start following @GoogleNexus and @Android on Twitter. It appears Google is about to start the next giveaway for the Galaxy Nexus. While you’re at it you might as well follow @Androids too. They have just tweeted that we should all stay tuned to learn how we can win our own tasty treat.

If you’ve ever followed @GoogleNexus you’ll know they’ve done this for every Nexus device released starting with the Nexus One. With puzzles and all sorts of different tasks the world of Twitter (and now Google+) can win their very own Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
No details just yet, but I must warn you guys that Google makes us work and work hard for their giveaways. Like I mentioned above we can expect to see some riddles, math equations and a few different puzzles that surely wont be easy. At least we have a chance to win though right? Again, make sure you’re following @GoogleNexus for the latest tweets.

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ASUS Transformer Prime caught in the wild [Gallery]

Whoa, if you’ve been wanting to see more pictures of the just announced ASUS Transformer Prime quad-core tablet then you are in for a treat. It was just made official rocking the new NVIDIA quad-core Tegra 3 processor and we had plenty of press photos, but now we have real live pictures of this beastly tablet in the wild so enjoy the full gallery below.

First off, these are no average blurry photos. Instead we have some awesome pictures showing us plenty of details regarding this awesome new quad-core tablet.This first photo shows how beautifully thin this thing really is. Compared to the iPhone 4 and the DROID RAZR it’s looking pretty sleek. All that power packed into that small package just screams “Buy me now”, as if the specs didn’t have us all thinking that already.

We have a full gallery of awesomeness here. with pictures comparing it to the original Transformer and even showing off the new keyboard dock too. I wont say much more and instead will just remind you all of the specs on this slate, then let you enjoy the gallery of photos. The Transformer Prime rocks the new NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, with 1GB of RAM, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, front and rear cameras, aluminum body design, micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports and more all packed into a beautifully thin frame at just 8.3mm (0.33″) and weighs less than any other 10″ tablet currently on the market. 

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DROID RAZR Battery is removable, If you dare

When the new Motorola DROID RAZR was first announced we all quickly learned that the battery was not removable. The back of the device was attached for good, making users unable to remove or swap the battery should they choose. This isn’t a huge issue but many weren’t happy to hear the news. Not to mention the modding and dev community relies on battery pulls somewhat often — I’ve had a few of those moments myself. Lucky for us a loyal reader has just received his shiny new DROID RAZR and tore it down himself to find that the back actually does come off, it just takes a little effort.

We have plenty of photos in the gallery below but in case you missed it the RAZR also received the iFixIt teardown treatment this morning. Sort of revealing what we now have pictures of ourselves. Only they imply you need a machete (or a Dozuki) to open the smartphone while our tipster only used his fingernail and a little bit of arm strength.
Have a look at some notes on how our tipster was able to pop the back off of his/her RAZR with just a bit of effort:

“Hi, I saw that there was an area along the top of the phone where my fingernail could fit, so I wondered if I could actually take the back off, and yes it did come off after just a bit of careful pulling around each of the edges. There are snaps along the whole perimeter as well as glue across most of the battery inside connecting it to the back panel, so you’ve got to be careful since I’m not 100% sure if any part of the back would break if you bend it too much. The back is bendable though, and the Kevlar seems to keep it shape no matter how much you bend it.
The battery underneath is taped in with electrical tape and has a plastic piece over the connector to the phone, so I don’t dare go further than this, but just so you guys know, the battery could be taken out if you really wanted to…” – Figglsticks45

In other words, it appears Motorola really doesn’t want us inside this RAZR thin phone. Our source here notes that they’ve glued the back on quite well and it took more than a few tries to get the Kevlar coated device apart. Once inside, you’ll notice the battery cover actually has rivets or snaps and will nicely click back into place just as any other battery cover. Only they’d rather users not try, apparently, as they’ve been clear in more ways than one that getting into this device will result in a warranty break by you. We didn’t see any VOID if removed stickers on the inside, but the manual had a few. We aren’t going to encourage our readers to try this but sometimes you must do what needs to be done, right?
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• New DROID RAZR commercial: it's only for Batman (goandroid.co.in)
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• Motorola DROID RAZR confirmed for November 10th retail release (goandroid.co.in)

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LG Optimus LTE headed to AT&T as the Nitro HD

We’ve seen a few leaks and videos of the LG Optimus LTE but today we have a little treat, and that is this 4G LTE 720p packing smartphone is headed to AT&T as the LG Nitro HD. It was spotted in the wild back in September and was just recently launched on Bell Canada. With Bell sharing the same frequencies as AT&T we had a feeling it was coming soon, but this gives us even more confirmation.

We’ve heard rumors of a LG phone rocking a 1280 x 720p HD display since way back in May when we first saw the codename for the Optimus LTE (P930) but now that its officially here I’m sure you’ll want a refresh on the specs. The LG Optimus LTE rocks a 4.5″ 1280 x 720p HD display, a powerful 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage and a fat 1830 mAh battery to keep things running. Here’s a quick video showing off the Optimus LTE (aka Nitro HD for AT&T).
LG Optimus LTE


We also have an 8 megapixel camera on the rear and a 1.3 MP front camera for video chat like we’ve just seen in the video above. Clearly he makes a mistake as the screen is 720p and not 760 but we’ll cut him a break, technology moves fast. One important thing to note is the 1280 x 720p panel is what LG calls their “NOVA” technology and its said to be much brighter, sharper, and clearer than the Pentile Matrix used in the upcoming Galaxy Nexus. Once this hits the market here in the US we’ll be sure to get one in for review as soon as possible and will definitely be checking out that HD display.
[via Pocket Now]

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Google Maps update brings Live Events to Google Places

Google is at it again today with another quite fancy update to Google Maps. While this might not be as big as 3D buildings or transit navigation in some of the recent updates they do have a cool new feature for those that like to get out and have some fun in the town. Today Google’s update adds a notification to Google Places for live events going on nearby. So your next trip to San Fransisco you can quickly and easily find something fun to do.

Along with the live events we also have a small change where Google has removed the “post to Twitter” option while reviewing places. We aren’t sure what brought about that change, but no more tweeting from Google Places while writing a review. The new live events feature is currently just a BETA and is available now for a few select cities and more should follow shortly.
Currently Google is only offering this new update in New York, San Fransisco, Paris, Zurich, and London to the list of “live events” in the Places page. Users should be able to find events going on based on their location. Should be a great feature for this holiday season as the Christmas events start lighting up the night sky’s. Give this new feature a try and let us know what you think.
[via Android Market]

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Adobe pushes last major Flash update to the Android Market

Earlier this week Adobe announced plans to abandon Flash on mobile platforms, to much weeping and gnashing of teeth. They still intend one more major release, Flash Player 11.1, and it’s available in the Android Market now. The 11.1 update brings bug fixes and stability to the Android version, including a particularly nasty audio problem on the Samsung Galaxy S II.
11.1 will be the very last version update, unless Adobe changes its mobile strategy. Smaller bug fixes and security updates will follow, and a good thing too, since Flash is historically insecure. But there will be no more features added to Flash for Android, since Adobe has decided to focus on its AIR platform and HTML 5. The move has drawn ire from Flash developers and derision from Apple advocates, who recall the extremely public spat between Steve Jobs and adobe over iOS’ lack of Flash support last year.
The move came after a major restructure at Adobe, which saw hundreds of employees laid off. In this economic environment, Adobe simple doesn’t have the resources to pursue as many software vectors as it did before. (I note however, with a distinct lack of surprise, that the price on the Adobe Creative Suite hasn’t dropped in these lean times.) According to a former Flash manager, a lot of the issues Adobe faced came from a late start, after underestimating the iPhone and Android’s impact on the smartphone market.
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