Hey now, hey Nokia, don’t dream it’s Ovi… Yes, our pun sense is a-tingling at the news that Ovi is over. Nokia is changing the name of its apps, media and software services, rebranding its app store, maps, email and more. The new name? Nokia. Ovi services such as Ovi Maps and Ovi Mail will …

LG has just taken delivery of the first shipment of Optimus 2X handsets in Australia, and they sent one over to us, fresh and hot out of the oven, for a chance to unbox it. In case you’ve forgotten this little beauty, the Optimus 2X is officially the world’s first dual-core smartphone (according to the Guinness Book of Records) and …

Samsung Galaxy S owners who’ve been impatiently waiting for the Android Gingerbread upgrade can rest a little easier now. The smart phone will be ready to accept Android 2.3 later this month. Funnily enough, Samsung has kept pretty quiet about last month’s failed upgrade attempt where Google pulled the plug on the Galaxy S update due to “an issue”. UK …

PBS KIDS Video for iPad. When the PBS for iPad app debuted last year, I bemoaned the lack of any PBS KIDS content (other than previews). Well, I will bemoan no more: PBS Kids Video for iPad is a brand new app that streams–you guessed it–video for kids. Specifically, it serves up over 1,000 clips from shows like “Arthur,” “The …

Talk about good news/bad news. Last week, the long-awaited Netflix app for Android finally arrived–but only for five phones. If you own, say, an HTC Thunderbolt, Motorola Droid 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab, or other incompatible device, the waiting game goes on. Or not, if you’re tech-savvy enough to root (that is, jailbreak) your device and fiddle with some settings. Over …

In five years, industry experts are predicting the death of physical media as we move towards digital downloads of movies, books and music. The WD TV Live Hub is one of our favourite media players, but it’s still not perfect. (Credit: Western Digital) While the digital download industry has yet to really hit in Australia, one of the main problems …

Samsung’s new 3D TV service allows UK viewers to stream free 3D content via the Smart Hub platform built-in to the latest Samsung TVs. The electronics giant’s new app — Explore 3D — gives owners of Internet-connected 3D TVs access to a variety of on-demand content including films, music videos, documentaries and 10 IMAX films. First announced in April, Explore …

A recent scientific study suggests that bees are significantly disturbed when mobile phones are used in close proximity to the furry critters. The study may shed light on why the bee population is in decline globally. As bees can communicate through sound, the experiment at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology observed any changes to the noises the insects made …

By the end of this year, users of Google Android smartphones should be able to sink their teeth into the next version of Android OS: Ice Cream Sandwich. But what does this upgrade really mean for smartphone users? I was at the Google I/O developer conference this week in San Francisco, where Google announced a brand new OS upgrade for …

When is an app store not an App Store? When it’s an Android Market, an Ovi Store or an Amazon Appstore. An alliance of companies that provide mobile apps is challenging Apple’s trademark of the term “app store” — and now they’ve brought their fight to Europe. Microsoft, Nokia, HTC and Sony Ericsson threw in their lot to challenge Apple’s …

ViewSonic is set to unveil the industry’s first 7-inch Android Honeycomb tablet at month’s end, according to sources cited by tech site Pocket-Lint. ViewSonic’s current ViewPad 7 tablet runs Froyo. Josh P. Miller/CNET The ViewPad 7x will debut on May 31 at the Computex computer show in Taipei, Taiwan, Pocket-Lint reported, and will be a follow-up rather than a replacement …

Editors’ note: This is a guest column. See Richard Bennett’s bio below. The National Broadband Plan delivered to Congress by the Federal Communications Commission last year recommended the licensing of 500MHz of new spectrum to mobile broadband providers, including 120MHz currently held by local TV broadcasters. The nature of the incentive auction that would enable willing broadcasters to transfer this …

Amazon may soon launch a tablet, judging by comments made in an interview with Consumer Reports, which is essentially the US version of Which?. Asked whether Amazon was working on a tablet, chief executive Jeff Bezos said “stay tuned”.  As for the threat to Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader posed by tablets such as the iPad, Bezos said: “We will always be …

Sharp’s Android-powered Aquos SH-12C 3D-capable phone will launch in Japan next week. The SH-12C includes a 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor, a 4.2-inch 3D touchscreen, and dual 8-megapixel cameras. The 14mm-thin SH-12C is capable of high-definition video recording and has a built-in HDMI port for connecting the phone to a big screen. The 540×960-pixel screen isn’t too far off the resolution of the iPhone 4‘s 640×960-pixel …

Motorola Clutch +i475 Motorola Motorola has added three new phones to Boost Mobile’s offerings today with the Motorola Clutch + i475, the Motorola Theory, and the Motorola i412. The Clutch +i475 is an update to the Motorola Clutch from a couple years ago. The new Clutch has a larger display while still maintaining that candy bar design with a full …