A few months ago we reported that popular Linux build Ubuntu announced that it plans to expand its coverage from just PCs and expand to mobile devices. According to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, the plan is for Ubuntu to eventually be installed on “tablets, phones, TVs and smart screens.” Using Ubuntu will create a seamless integration between various devices, the desktop, the servers and the cloud.

Ubuntu has gotten some mixed responses upon the announcement of its bold plan to go mobile. Some liked it, some were skeptical and others were plain apathetic about it. Ubuntu has been relatively quiet about since the announcement but the progress of its project… until CES when it finally unveiled the Ubuntu smart TV interface. More →

Smartphones may be getting most of the attention in the mobile phone industry because of the amazing features that are constantly being introduced by phone manufacturers. But feature phones are not entirely dead yet. In fact, feature phones are still selling at a very impressive rate.

Nokia has recently announced that it has sold its 1.5 billionth feature phone – a Series 40 model. The company also said that they sell 12 similar phones very second. More →

Samsung hit a huge snag in Europe when Apple successfully petitioned the court to block the sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab in Germany. Samsung is not about to take it lying down so it has devised a way to still sell its product in Germany.

Samsung plans to take advantage of the Christmas shopping frenzy by modifying the design of its new Galaxy 10.1 tablet. The redesign decision was made to avoid being accuse of patent infringement, the case being filed by Apple against Samsung. The redesigned tablet is now called 10.1N but it only sports minor differences with the original/first 10.1 tablet model. More →

The global service outage that happened to the Blackberry network that lasted for several days to a week recently was not just a disaster in terms of service for Research in Motion, the company behind the Blackberry, it also created a huge public relations problem for the company, putting it in an extremely bad light. The people at RIM realizes that this is indeed a big public image problem for the company and is trying to find ways to appease irate Blackberry users. More →

Android tablet lovers will be pleased to hear that Motorola’s Xoom will finally gain the ability to watch Flash videos this month, a feature that is eternally absent from their rival.

Unfortunately it seems that instead of a finished product, consumers may instead receive something that is still “slightly” buggy.

Adobe has just announced that Flash Player 10.2 will be available to download from the Android Market on Friday, March 18.

It’s actually only a beta release for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablets, which will also require Google’s 3.0.1 system update. However, it’s at least a full-fledged upgrade for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) systems. (ZDnet)

Although most geeks probably do not mind a few bugs for the ability to view the entire web, consumers may not be as forgiving with semi-frequent errors while “beta testing” flash upon the Xoom.

While the Xoom is one of the few tablets available that can challenge iPad 2 (at least on paper via specs), Google along with OEM’s need to release mature products to the masses lest they create a bitter taste for new customers.

Hopefully Google, Motorola and Adobe are able to work out all of the bugs out of the beta quickly before the market becomes saturated with tablets running iOS.

Ever since the search engine giant announced their Google Fiber project, cities around the US performed various stunts in order to get Google’s attention.

Google was suppose to announce a winner by December of 2010, but decided to push back the announcement in order to gain more time researching every city who applied.

Although Google has not indicated an official date of when the winner would be announced, it’s probable that the winner will be revealed next month (at least according to an archived blog post). More →

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Why on Earth would Facebook launch a phone with Microsoft jumping in the fray and HP attempting to resurrect Palm in order to take on Apple and Android.

Apparently Micahel Arrington from TechCrunch fame received a tip from a credible source saying that Facebook is about to launch its own mobile phone.

Facebook is building a mobile phone, says a source who has knowledge of the project. Or rather, they’re building the software for the phone and working with a third party to actually build the hardware. [...]

Specifically, Facebook wants to integrate deeply into the contacts list and other core functions of the phone. It can only do that if it controls the operating system.

Two high level Facebook employees – Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos – are said to be secretly working on the project, which is unknown even to most Facebook staff. (via TechCrunch)

Some people are already claiming that this rumor is a farce, with public denials from Jaime Schopflin (Facebook’s spokesperson).

Despite the the apparent absurdity of a Facebook phone (at least to those within the geekosphere), a Facebook phone could potentially threaten both Apple and Google’s reign in the smart phone world (key word is “potentially”). More →

In an effort to remove the chorus of a thousand voices saying the same thing, the Google News team is now allowing users to view news services from the original source, a move that will probably appeal to many news organizations.

Enter “duplicate detection.” Duplicate detection means we’ll be able to display a better variety of sources with less duplication. Instead of 20 “different” articles (which actually used the exact same content), we’ll show the definitive original copy and give credit to the original journalist. (We launched a similar feature in Sort-by-Date and got great feedback about it.) Of course, if you want to see all the duplicates on other publisher websites with additional analysis and context, they’re only a click away.

By removing duplicate articles from our results, we’ll be able to surface even more stories and viewpoints from journalists and publishers from around the world. This change will provide more room on Google News for publishers’ most highly valued content: original content. (Google News Blog)

By highlighting original news sources, blogs and media outlets that break the news will be able to receive the lions share of internet traffic from Google News instead of rival (which could have a greater page rank).

Although this change will probably result in a greater de-emphasis of blogs being highlighted on Google News (to the joy of a few media outlets), it should help Google compete against larger rivals in the future (like Yahoo News).

After releasing a web app that made the native YouTube iPhone app irrelevent, it looks like the boys and girls at Google have (finally!) updated their mobile app with push notifications for Gmail and gCalendar fans.

Ever missed an appointment or important email because you were away from your desk? Now Google Mobile App can help with push notifications from your Google account to your iPhone — an icon badge shows you’ve got new mail in Gmail, and Google Calendar event reminders appear right on your home screen.

We’ve also added spiffy features to get you information faster — when looking for flight info, weather, stock quotes or currency conversion you’ll see answers before you even hit ‘Search’. (Google Mobile Blog) More →

The Wall Street Journal has just launched its premium news content service – the Wall Street Journal Professional Edition. This premium online service provides news coverage and analysis of the Wall Street Journal combined with global business and news sources from Dow JOnes Factiva and Dow Jones Newswires.

The WSJ Professional Edition gives you business and specialized news and information across all major industry, and the hottest discussion trend that matters to everyone.

The Wall Street Journal Pro Edition is a useful tool for analyzing and understanding hottest issues, industries, companies, people and ideas buried deep within news  headlines. The premium service is anchored by leading news and analysis works from WSJ.com. It gives you a new view into key industries as well.

In addition, the premium service also has a powerful search capability.

According to Robert Thompson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones & Company and managing editor of the WSJ, there has no business leaders and professionals given access to the sophisticated, customized service.

“The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition combines the full power of our unmatched global reporting with a unique database.  Users will be able to access this service without being tethered to a clunky terminal, ” said Mr. Thompson.

The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition premium service cost $49.monthly. Existing WSJ subscribers can easily upgrade their subscription at a discounted rate.

The WSJ Professional Edition also allows you to personalize the service to suit your needs. WSJ editor are monitoring and selecting top news and trends across key industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Energy, Media and Marketing, Finance and Technology.  You can customize news alerts and company profiles that are important to you.