Samsung Galaxy S III receives its first OTA update

The Galaxy S III went on sale just a few weeks ago and it's already started receiving its first over-the-air update. We got it on our unit, too and were eager to see what was changed.

As it turns out, not that much. Samsung has only listed "improved stability" in the change log for the OTA update. And with the Galaxy S III being pretty stable to begin with, it's hardly surprising that the user experience hasn't changed dramatically.

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Sony Xperia miro gets officially unveiled on Facebook

Apparently, Sony's Facebook counter, which we told you about a couple of days ago has reached its magic number, so here is the object of all the anticipation. Meet the Sony Xperia miro - the company's latest mid-range Android smartphone with a solid knack for social networking.

  

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Sony Xperia tipo and tipo dual are entry-level ICS droids

Sony surprised everyone when they announced the Xperia miro and the surprises keep coming - the company also announced the entry-level ICS droids called Sony Xperia tipo and tipo dual. What's unique about the Xperia tipo dual is that it's the company's first dual-SIM device.

  
Sony Ericsson Xperia tipo

The Xperia tipo is a compact phone (103 x 57 x 13 mm, 99.4g) and features a 3.2" HVGA TFT screen with scratch-resistant mineral glass. It will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich at launch, and is powered by an 800MHz processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7225AA chipset).

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More images of the Apple iPhone 5 surface

Four images of what are reportedly two Phone 5 units just surfaced, showing the new design with aluminum back panel to all of us once again. The pictures also confirm a smaller dock connector, a 3.5 mm headphone jack placed at the bottom, a front-facing camera above the earpiece as well as a different camera and LED flash module.

   
The possible iPhone 5

The devices go all "the Dark Knight Rises" with an all-round black design, going as deep as the external antenna of the device. Even the Apple logo on the back is colored black.

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LinkedIn says to provide extra security layer

Social networking website LinkedIn Corp said it will provide an additional layer of online security to its members following last week's data breach, while adding that stolen passwords were not published with corresponding email logins.

Some cyber security experts had earlier said LinkedIn did not have adequate protections in place, and warned that the company could uncover further data-losses over coming days as it tries to find out what happened.

Late on Tuesday, the company said all member passwords were now "salted" -- a technique that greatly increases the time and computer power needed to crack an encrypted password.

The company, which has more than 160 million members on its site, said there had been no reports of accounts compromised by password theft.

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Amazon, Google lead rush for new Web real estate

An unprecedented land grab for new Web addresses began in earnest on Wednesday with fierce competition for new internet real estate including .app, .blog and .web from applicants hoping to break the near-monopoly of the .com top-level domain.

The ambitious plan to liberalize internet addresses attracted 1,930 applications, almost half of them from north America, with Web giants Amazon and Google applying for dozens of domains including .cloud, .buy and .book.

The liberalisation of top-level domains beyond the fewer than two dozen in existence - dominated by .com, .org and .net - is intended to stimulate competition and innovation by giving organizations more control over their Web presence.

Critics say the new suffixes are unlikely to catch on, and some trademark owners have complained that the move is causing them unnecessary expense - at $185,000 per application plus running costs - to defend their online turf.

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PayPal eyes TV shopping with Comcast, Tivo

PayPal, eBay’s online payments business, is online, heading offline and hopes to be on your TV soon.

PayPal announced partnerships with Comcast and Tivo on Tuesday that aim to get viewers shopping during commercial breaks, pauses and at the end of shows. The projects are in development stages right now, but the goal is to have the services up and running later this year.

“The living room, in particular the TV set and the DVR, is the last leg of the stool,” said Scott Dunlap, vice president of emerging opportunities at PayPal.

The Comcast partnership is developing small banner ads that will pop up near the bottom of the TV screen that will let viewers use their PayPal accounts to donate to a non-profit, contribute to a political campaign or get coupons for discounts at retailers.

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Taiwan's HTC boosts patent bank; not worried over disputes

The head of Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp, embroiled in patent battles with Apple Inc and others, said his company had completed the purchase of U.S. graphics chipmaker S3 Graphics, arming itself with more than 200 patents.

Patent spats with Apple forced HTC to delay the launch of one of its flagship devices in the United States, once its biggest market, and modify others to comply with a ruling by the International Trade Commission (ITC). Apple has since filed at least two other complaints, including one last week alleging HTC was still infringing the patent and demanding emergency action against 29 of its devices.

But HTC CEO Peter Chou dismissed concerns that such disputes have any long-term impact on the company, arguing that investors and analysts misunderstood the situation.

"Patent lawsuits haven't caused any actual damage to HTC," he said in an interview on Wednesday. "Only the Street is worried for us, we're not worried ourselves. We hope the disputes will get more reasonable in the future."

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