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Google is reportedly in a hurry to unfreeze Ice Cream Sandwich.

The company is hoping to take away a little heat from Apple by trying to roll out its next of version Android before the iPhone 5 debuts, says AppleInsider.

Dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich, the next flavor of Android was initially slated to appear toward the end of the year. But Google has apparently been working hard to push up the launch date, with the first devices aiming to reach consumers as early as October, according to Boy Genius Report.

Citing information from a "source with knowledge of Google'… Read more

Android tablets will win over more customers but continue to play second fiddle to Apple's iPad, according to some recent reports and forecasts.

Apple's tablet will dominate the industry for the next 10 years, predicts Needham analyst Charlie Wolf. In a research note released Friday, Wolf is eyeing an 85 percent share for the iPad this year from nearly 100 percent in 2010.

Although that number will gradually shrink each year over the next decade, Apple will retain its lead. And by 2020, the company will still account for a 60 percent slice of the tablet market, predicts … Read more

An IHS-iSuppli analyst believes Android and the cadre of tablet makers that use Google's operating system won't catch up to Apple's iPad and iOS anytime soon.

Wayne Lam, senior analyst, competitive analysis, at IHS, spoke to CNET on Monday, in the wake of a research note about the iPad's design advantages over tablet suppliers that use Google's Android operating system.

In the note, Lam said that Android tablet manufacturers still can't match the design efficiency of Apple's iPad, due to, among other things, the fact that Apple controls both the operating system and … Read more

Texas Instruments and Google are hooking up on Ice Cream Sandwich, the next version of Android that will run on both phones and tablets.

Though TI has been a player in Android phones (most notably the Motorola Droid series), it has been largely absent from Android tablets, which are populated with Nvidia's Tegra chips mostly. That is expected to change with Ice Cream Sandwich, however, which will finally fuse the phone and tablet versions of Android into one.

Ice Cream Sandwich will allow developers to create apps once. The operating system, due in the fourth quarter, will be smart … Read more

Boy Genius Report says it's received "exclusive" word from a source on just what we'll find in the next version of Google's Nexus smartphone.

With the third iteration of the Nexus possibly to be named the Nexus 4G, BGR is calling it an "absolute beast."

The new Nexus will be powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz CPU, either a Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 or a low-power 28nm Krait-based Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, says BGR. If true, those specs run counter to earlier reports that the new Nexus would be outfitted with … Read more

Over the weekend, tech Web site TechHog posted, and subsequently removed, what might be the first look at the third Nexus handset.

The image showed a phone that had no carrier branding or logo, but the speaker at the top resembled recent HTC models. As BGR points out, the image has a little bit of Photoshop trickery and may not be an actual device. However, TechHog has since posted a different, albeit similar image of a phone. The difference here is that there now appears to be room for buttons across the bottom, possibly something that lights up when the phone is powered on.

If there's one thing I've learned covering Android for more than three years now it's that smoke often means fire. More often than not, Android rumors eventually pan out, and my gut tells me this could be the third Nexus handset. Toss in the fact that the tech blog was asked to take the post down, and this feels more right than wrong. … Read more

In addition to announcing the ultrathin UX and Eee PC X101, Asus showed off a new product called the Padfone at Computex that combines the power of a smartphone with a tablet.

Similar in concept to the laptop dock for the Motorola Atrix 4G, the Padfone consists of a 4.3-inch Android smartphone that can be used alone or docked in a tablet. The latter provides a larger 10.1-inch screen with speakers and acts as an extended battery, but the processing power, Internet connection, and content all come from the smartphone.

Asus didn't offer up many more details about the Padfone, but according to Engadget Mobile, the company dropped some clues to indicate that it would run Ice Cream Sandwich and hopes to ship by Christmas.

… Read more

Some things are fun to look forward to. The promise of ice cream is certainly one of them. The mere mention of a trip to the ice cream store gives everyone within hearing distance a delicious idea to focus on no matter what they may have been doing before. Suddenly thoughts drift to favorite flavors...and indecision: one scoop or two?

The answer, of course, is two. The Cook's Essentials Double Ice Cream Maker gives those making homemade ice cream two delicious options. The double-barreled kitchen gadget makes two separate batches of ice cream with each container holding .75 … Read more

Google gets serious about putting an end to fragmentation at its 2011 I/O conference with the official announcement of the next generation of Android: Ice Cream Sandwich. At the same time, the tech giant adds another layer of complexity to its big picture with another big push behind Chrome OS with the announcement of a series of Chromebook devices. Will Android and Chrome OS end up going head to head or can we all just get along? We try to find the answer to that question, plus get hands on with Google's new movie rental and cloud music … Read more