You’re familiar with the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), right? They’re the lot who help moms and dads ensure that their kiddies only get their grubby mitts on age-appropriate content. Recently, the ESRB’s reach extended into the mobile space, but it turns out that Apple and Google aren’t down with the ESRB’s handy dandy ratings system. Despite being invited to the party, the two tech behemoths with matching app purchasing portals are quite content with their existing controls, thank you very much. Of course, the fact that the ESRB relies on developers to complete a detailed questionnaire instead of reviewing every app itself (not unlike existing Android Market and App Store protocols) might have something to do with Cupertino and Mountain View’s reluctance to jump on the bandwagon. Looks like parents wanting to keep their kid’s devices free from inappropriate content will have to remain vigilant without the ESRB’s help.

SOURCE via Giga-Om

What sorts of mysteries does the Samsung Galaxy Nexus hold? Only the folks at iFixit and their trusty screwdrivers know for sure. Thankfully, the site is willing to share. Check out a teardown of one of the year’s most eagerly anticipated smartphones. Thrill to the 1.2GHz dual-core processor, marvel to the five megapixel rear-facing camera and be astonished by the NFC antenna in the source link below.

SOURCE via iFixit

Another quarter has come and gone, and you know what that means: Nielsen ratings are out again. The latest batch of numbers doesn’t reveal anything wildly new, but they’re still just as telling nonetheless: 44 percent of mobile subscribers in the US use a smartphone in the US. Of those, 71 percent are in possession of an Android device or an iPhone. Additionally, 56 percent of all phone purchases during the third quarter were smartphones. And — this probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone — at a decisive 42 percent, Android remains the number one smartphone OS while Apple is still perched firmly on top as the leading manufacturer (28 percent). Check out the source link below for more of the tiny details.

SOURCE via Nielsen

Still tempted by the fruit of another? If you’re looking Microsoft’s way, but aren’t quite ready to toss your adoration for iOS or Android aside, the coders in Redmond are giving you an alternative to quitting cold turkey. By visiting http://aka.ms/wpdemo on one’s iOS or Android browser, you’ll be immediately tunneled into an emulation of Windows Phone 7.

SOURCE via Microsoft

It’s been a long time coming, but the PlayBook has finally been rooted. Devs neuralic, xpvqs and Chris Wade have been hard at work and have finally discovered a persistently exploitable hole that enables unfettered root access to the PlayBook. The culmination of their efforts, DingleBerry, hasn’t been released just yet, but it should be hitting the series of tubes in the not too distant future. Obviously having super user access opens a world of posibilities to developers, but there are some immediate advantages too. For one, with DingleBerry the creators were able to re-enable web access to Hulu — not only bypassing the lack of an app, but skipping the usual requirement of a Plus account for mobile consumption. Head on after the break to see the hack in action. Read more…

Now that we’re officially in the throes of holiday shopping season, NVIDIA’s rolling out a promotion of its own, though sadly it doesn’t involve any steep discounts. The outfit just announced a special edition GPU: the GTX 560 Ti with 448 CUDA cores, running at 1.46GHz, a 732MHz graphics clock and 1.25GB of GDDR5 memory charging ahead at an effective rate of 3.8GHz. Other features include support for three-way SLI, DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI. Those specs place it snugly between the current GTX 560 Ti with 384 CUDA cores, and the higher-end GTX 570, which packs 480. If this seems like a puzzling move, it is indeed the first time NVIDIA’s bothered with a limited holiday edition card, though in conversations with reporters the company made it clear its new hardware is meant to dovetail with the arrival of games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City. If you’re shopping for a gamer (or, you know, yourself), it’s available now for $289 in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Russia and Nordic countries through companies like ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte, among others.

Check out the reviews at Anandtech, TOm’s Hardware, Hot Hardware, PC Perspective, and Hexus

Ken Block had a busy summer. The exhibition driver spent the season frolicking around the globe with a few friends and putting on Gymkhana shows as part of a world tour. The event showed up in just three cities; Los Angeles, Vienna and Melbourne, and gave a handful of lucky Block fans a show worth remembering. But with so few shoes spread across such a wide distance, that left plenty of the driver’s faithful out in the cold. Ever the publicist, Block crafted a video for those who couldn’t make it out to breathe the tire smoke.

The result is three shows crammed into less than six minutes of footage. There’s plenty of sideways Ford Fiesta action as well as airborne motocross riders, scantily clad ladies of multiple nationalities and at least one gold tooth as part of the clip. One very famous Segway also makes an appearance or two. Hit the jump to see the full clip for yourself.

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