Motorola has laid its cards on the table over Ice Cream Sandwich, admitting that some of its phones actually get worse if updated. And if yours is one of the phones Motorola judges not to be improved by the update — no Ice Cream Sandwich for you. “We work very closely with Google and cell …

The new Nokia Lumia 900 is hard as nails — literally. The screen can not only survive having nails hammered into it, it can even be used in lieu of a hammer when there’s some nailing that needs doing. Nokia set out to prove the toughness of the Lumia 900’s screen by heading down to the hardware validation lab with …

The Samsung Galaxy S3 doesn’t go on sale until 30 May — or 29 May if you head down to the Samsung store in London’s Westfield shopping centre in Stratford — but here’s how to get a taste of it right now. The full ROM has leaked over at Android Police, so if you have a rooted Android phone running …

The Sony Xperia U is out in the UK this week, with British network Three shouting that the dual-core smart phone is available to buy online now, and can be found in all high street mobile shops as of tomorrow. Three’s offering the 3.5-inch Xperia U for £180 on pay as you go, if a contract is more to your …

We’re still awaiting the Kindle Fire on these shores, but already comes word that Amazon is preparing a much bigger version to launch this summer. DigiTimes reports the book pusher is working on a 10.1-inch version of the Android tablet, to take on the iPad. This bigger Fire — the hardback to the existing model’s paperback — is expected to …

On your marks, get set… Note! An Olympic version of the Samsung Galaxy Note has jumped the gun ahead of this summer’s London 2012 Olympic Games. The special edition Galaxy Note tablet and Galaxy Y smart phone are offered by O2. They come with a Union Jack design on the back cover, and a chance to win a trip to …

Not everyone craves a cutting-edge smartphone. For many, a simple device with which to make voice calls and send quick texts will do. Virgin Mobile’s latest wireless plan directly targets this type of cell user. Called PayLo, for $40 per month the service offers a bottomless bucket of voice minutes, messages including texts and e-mail, and 50MB of Web access. …

So hang on. Just two days before Apple and Samsung are due to sit down and start settlement talks over their ridiculous patent wars, Apple has tried to ban the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. Poor form. The Californian company filed for a preliminary injunction against the Samsung device, Foss patents reports. Samsung has already got around these bans …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung Galaxy S III is a looker 3:54 It’s official, Samsung’s next superphone is destined for T-Mobile and AT&T. At least, that’s what industry interest group the Bluetooth SIG seems to think. Apparently the body has approved T-Mobile and AT&T flavors of the mighty Galaxy S III. Phone blogs Gotta Be Mobile and Unwired View both …

Now playing: Watch this: Sprint’s new HTC Evo 4G LTE 3:46 After a week-long delay caused by a patent spat with Apple, HTC’s Evo 4G LTE will finally begin shipping to Sprint customers later this week. The carrier made the announcement on a company blog this afternoon: Customers who preordered HTC EVO 4G LTE…Your wait is almost over! Sprint expects …

Open Garden wants to help you share your Internet connection with every Wi-Fi-enabled device within 20 meters. The San Francisco-based mobile startup, which launched today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, lets users create a large mesh network that allows all the Open Garden-enabled devices to automatically share Internet access and bandwidth, according to a TechCrunch report. Essentially, what Open Garden …

If you bought the Sony Tablet P, you may have been left wondering if its odd shape would hamper any upgrade to Android Ice Cream Sandwich. (As if anyone needed another hurdle.) And when its bigger brother, the Tablet S, got the upgrade almost a month ago, you could be forgiven for feeling left out in the cold. Worry no …

Apple and Samsung have kicked off settlement talks that could see the two companies ending the bitter patent war that’s raged for the last year, the BBC reports. A US judge has ordered the two firms to play nicely and try to make friends, following months of legal action that’s seen Apple and Samsung aggressively suing each other. Apple accuses the Korean …

Chinese regulators have given Google the green light to take over Motorola, The Wall Street Journal reports. Along with the antitrust regulators in America and Europe giving the rubber stamp a few months ago, Google is all set to swallow up the US mobile company. The $12.5bn (£7.9bn) deal is expected to go through early next week. One rather big …

AutoDesk isn’t exactly a household name, but I’m continually impressed by the quality of free apps it offers. One of the latest free apps, which came out earlier this month, renders everyday objects in 3D on your iPad, a fairly nifty feature. These aren’t the wonky 3D images that seem to fly off the screen; I’m talking about rendered images …