If you are an Android user that uses SoundHound the app has been updated with a couple new and cool features. The best of the features is called LiveLyrics and it will help you figure out what the words to your favorite songs are. I know we have all listened to a song a hundred times before realizing we were singing it wrong in the car.

LiveLyrics is a cool feature that will show you the correct lyrics to any song playing, even is the song is not at the start. The lyrics scroll up the screen in real-time along with the tune so you can sing along. That is a very cool feature to have.

The other feature makes sharing the tunes you like much easier. You can share tracks and comments on the tracks you like on Twitter and Facebook at the same time. The new features are in version 2.7.4 of the app.

Valve has today announced that they are pushing the release of their new DotA 2 forward considerably and now are hoping to get a beta released launched "as fast as possible”. Valve are now going to take the current version of Dota 2, which has The International set of heroes, and release a beta version as soon as possible to more players.

Valve explains:

"Our original plan was to spend the next year or so in beta, adding new features and slowly growing the number of heroes until we reached a level of parity with Dota 1, at which point we’d release Dota 2 to the world” - ”But the feedback we’re seeing everywhere is that people just want to play it, even though there’s still a ton of heroes yet to be implemented. We’ve also seen that the folks who are already in the beta are chomping at the bit to show everyone else some of the fun games they’ve ha ... Read more »

Earlier in the week we saw some photos and some of the specifications on the new LG Optimus EX, now some official press photos of the device have been leaked along with some more specifications.

The LG Optimus EX will come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and processing is provided by a dual

core 1.2GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor plus a ULP GeForce AP25 GPU.

It also comes with a four inch WVGA IPS display and a five megapixel camera with auto-focus,

which can record full HD video in 1080p, plus 1GB of RAM and 8GB of built in storage plus a microSD

card slot.

The LG Optimus EX is he ... Read more »

Details of a new patent from Microsoft have been revealed which show a new interesting smartphone design, that will feature detachable accessories, which you can see in the photos below.

As you can see from the figure below, the device is a slider phone, and the slider part of the device is where the various interchangeable accessories are placed, like a keyboard or a gaming controller.

Other accessories listed in the drawings reveal that an additional battery and a second display could also be placed into the interchangeable slot, it seems like a pretty cool idea.

There are no details on whether this device will ever go into production, we hope it does as it looks interesting from the drawings.

Source ... Read more »

Google has been expanding its services more and more recently, attempting to get the Google Brand into as many different areas as possible, and now it would appear that Google may have its own cellular service in the works.

The photos below are of a Google branded SIM card, which has turned up in Spain, and the SIM card is apparently being tested on the Google Nexus S, as you can see in one of the photos belows the mobile carrier is identified as Google_ES (Google Spain).

It isn’t clear as yet whether Google intends to launch its own cellular service, or if they intend to team up with one of the large mobile carriers to launch a Google branded mobile network.

A new Android credit card payment SDK has been developed for Android by Card.io that takes the pain way from having to type credit card details on your Android smartphone to make a payment.

To make a payment using Card.io simply hold up your credit card to your phones camera and within the blink of an eye payment is sent, with no typing required. Watch the 30 second video after the jump to see just how quick the process is.

The Android SDK can be used by developers to include the simply payment features within their applications. Following on from the already available iOS Card.io SDK. For more information jump over to the Android Market to download it and have play. Card.io never saves the credit card data and everything within the process is full encrypted.

Source: ... Read more »

The other day we heard that the new Samsung Galaxy Note would be launching in the UK in November, the news came from the guys over at Clove, but now it would appear that the Samsung Galaxy Note may land in the UK next month.

We just got an email from the guys over at Mobot, who have spoken to Samsung, and apparently the official word from Samsung is that the Galaxy Note will become available in the UK at the end of October, start of November.

The Samsung Galaxy Note looks like an interesting device from what we have seen so far, it features a massive 5.3 inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and will come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

There are also two cameras, with a front facing 2 megpaixel camera for video chat and a rear facing 8 megapixel camera, processing is provided b ... Read more »

The latest Android smartphone from LG which is headed to MetroPCS, is the LG Esteem, which is a 4G LTE enabled device and it will come with a 4.3 inch LCD display plus Android Gingerbread.

Other specifications on the LG Esteem include a rear facing 5 megapixel camera and a front facing 1.3 megapixel camera for video chat, it will also come with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

The LG Esteem will also come with 512MB of RAM, and a 1500 mAh battery, and it is expected to retail for $349.

Source Android Central, Phandroid

With Windows 8 every user will receive their own SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud based service for storing your documents and application data. Using the combination of both Windows 8 and SkyDrive you will be able to sync your personal settings across a number of Windows systems and be able to access it from a web based browser if needed.

Enabling yo to also access photos and documents that are securely stored in the cloud via Microsofts SkyDrive service. Watch a couple of videos after the jump showing you how this new features will be able to help you access you data and user settings from any Windows 8 system or tablet.

The new SkyDrive features will allow you to synchronise your profile, app settings, and other data across multiple computers, store your photos, documents, and files online so you c ... Read more »

We have already seen some photos of the new Samsung Stratosphere which is headed to Verizon Wireless, and now some new product shots of the device have been leaked, which could mean the Samsung Stratosphere is about to launch shortly.

What we know so far is that the Stratosphere is an LTE smartphone, with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, and it is rumored to come with dual cameras, with a five megapixel camera on the back and a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front.

We have also heard that it will come with a 2GB microSD card pre-installed, and will probably come with Android Gingerbread, as soon as we get some more information we will let you guys know.

... Read more »

If you like a good first person shooter (FPS) game but find the use a guns a little boring now, a new FPS game currently in development called Warco allows you to engage in the action using a video camera to shoot the action rather than a rifle.

In Warco instead of securing bases or capturing strongholds or flags, the game provides various scenarios each with its own objectives along the line of  story leads. Which you then need to capture in the most compelling way using your trusty video recorder, without getting shot or injured. Watch a demo of the new Warco game after the jump.

Warco is being developed by Tony Maniaty, an Australian journalist who’s experienced with reporting from war-torn areas. He’s teamed with filmmaker Robert Connolly and games studio Defiant Development. The idea of the new game is definitely different but I not sure how a multiplayer mode would work.

The Motorola Atrix 2 will come with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, and it looks like it will

come with a 1GHz OMAP 4 processor and 1GB of RAM, plus and 8 megapixel camera.

Head on over to This is My Next for lots more details and photos on the new Motorola Atrix 2.

Sprint has added another Android smartphone to their range with the launch of the Motorola Admiral, which the company has announced via a YouTube video which you can see below.

The Sprint Motorola Admiral will come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and features a 3.1 inch VGA display plus a QWERTY keyboard, processing is provided by a single core 1.2GHz processor.

The Sprint Motorola Admiral also come with a 5 megapixel camera which can record HD video in 720p, and it is also designed to be rugged as it features dust and shock protection.

There are no details or pricing or availability as yet.

Source Ubergizmo

This week its been unofficially reported by statistician Paul Allen that Google+ may now have passed the 43 million user mark. Allen the founder of the Ancestry.com uses a unique method of estimating the number of users currently within the Google+ ranks by using uncommon user names.

In the past Allen’s predictions have proved very accurate, and he reports there were approximately 37.8 million users on Google+ as of this morning, up from 28.7 13 days ago.

Allen has upped his estimates to 43 million to account for non-Roman surnames, as well as private user profiles, both of which are overlooked by his surname counting model. Here is a quick list of previous estimates by Allen:

• July 4th – 1.7 million users
• July 9th – 4.5 million users
• July 12 – 10 million users
• September 9th – 28.7 million users
• S ... Read more »