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LG promises Ice Cream Sandwich for swanky new Prada 3

After briefly mentioning it yesterday in its Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade plans, LG spilled more details today on its upcoming LG Prada 3 Android smartphone. Like the Prada and Prada 2 before it, the Prada 3’s calling card is its sleek (0.3-inch), “look at me!” profile. Though relatively minimalist by Prada standards, the handset’s glossy …

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Looking back on Android in 2011

Strap yourselves in. We’re about to hit another Android year at full speed. 2012 is breathing down our neck, which means that CES, Mobile World Congress, and even CTIA are fast approaching. In other words, get ready for an onslaught of new Android announcements. Looking ahead at some of the rumored devices, consumers are in for some seriously powerful smartphones …

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LG details its Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade plans

LG unwrapped more details about its Ice Cream Sandwich software upgrade schedule for existing LG Android smartphones. The news, which popped up today on LG’s Facebook page, confirms much of what we already knew–that Optimus phones like the Optimus LTE and Optimus Black (known in the US as AT&T’s Nitro HD and Sprint’s LG Marquee, respectively) will indeed receive the …

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VW workers win off

To the horror or relief of workers everywhere, a major company has put the kibosh on after-hours e-mail, at least for some employees. A Volkswagen union in Germany has struck an agreement with management under which the company’s e-mail server will stop sending messages to VW-issued BlackBerrys a half hour after a worker’s shift ends, the Financial Times reported this …

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Republic Wireless now unlimited

Earlier this month I took the Republic Wireless smartphone and service for a test-drive. Quick refresher: You pay $199 for an LG Optimus S (a small but sweet Android 2.3 phone), then $19 per month for “unlimited” voice, texting, and data. Why the quotation marks? Republic tweaked the Optimus to use Wi-Fi whenever possible for calls and data, thereby keeping …

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Samsung Galaxy S, Tab: No Android 4.0 for you

Owners of Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone and the 7-inch Galaxy Tab won’t be getting the latest and greatest version of Android. In a blog posting on a Korean promotional site run by Samsung, the company noted that the two devices would not receive the update to Android 4.0, the most up to date version of Google’s mobile operating system. The …

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AT&T gets feds’ OK to buy Qualcomm spectrum

For AT&T, it’s been a week of lose some, win some. The wireless carrier said late Thursday that it now has the green light from the Federal Communications Commission to acquire 700MHz licenses from Qualcomm, in a deal valued at $1.9 billion. The companies expect to complete the transaction, which was originally announced a year ago, “in the coming days,” …

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RIM’s BBM service targeted for name infringement

Research In Motion could once again face a legal fracas over the name of one of its software products. Broadcast measurement firm BBM Canada has taken offense with RIM’s use of the “BBM” shorthand moniker for its BlackBerry Messenger service, Reuters reports. That’s RIM’s software that lets BlackBerry users communicate with one another, and comes pre-installed on many of the …

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