Yahoo may be sliding down the search engine totem pole, but the company is doing its best to climb back up, with a new space dedicated to apps. This week, Yahoo added a new “Apps” tab to its search page, giving users a new portal into both the Android Market and iTunes App Store. Results can be filtered by both price and category, with iOS and Android apps aligned in separate tabs. Once you select an app, you can download it by scanning a QR code, sending a download link to your handset, or by simply clicking through to iTunes or the Android Market. There’s also a “trending now” interface, as well as a full list of Yahoo user reviews, displayed directly within the page. Check it out for yourself, at the source link below.

SOURCE via Yahoo

Last year, Microsoft Tag shed its beta skin and stepped out into the wild world of multi-colored barcodes. Now, Redmond has decided to revamp and expand its system, with additional support for both QR codes and NFC capabilities. The update effectively allows businesses and individuals to create their own proprietary Tags or QR codes, while enabling consumers to scan said codes with their Microsoft Tag apps, or NFC-enabled smartphones. The new features are now available on Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry handsets, reflecting Microsoft’s ambitions to dominate a space that has yet to fully develop.

SOURCE via Microsoft

Go ahead and take that holiday and even some time to celebrate because Espoo’s ushering in the new year with the stateside bow of its Lumia 710. This lower-hanging Mango phone, which we first met at Nokia World, has already begun rolling out to markets worldwide in recent weeks and, now, is poised to enter the U.S. brandishing a Magenta banner and $49 on two-year contract price. That’s right, T-Mobile has snatched up exclusive rights to the 3.7-incher, which is mostly unchanged from its initial unbranded incarnation, with the same 800 x 480 ClearBlack LCD display, 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB of storage, 5 megapixel rear camera with single LED flash, WiFi and Bluetooth on board. Naturally, both parties have loaded the device up with a fair share of pre-installed apps like Drive, MS Office, ESPN, T-Mobile TV and Netflix, but you don’t have to let that clutter up your clean live-tiled look — it’s all uninstallable. The mid-range handset also runs along the operator’s HSPA+ 14.4Mbps network, so you’re in store for some heady “4G” speeds should you decide to take the plunge this January 11th when it hits stores.

It’s been a few months coming, but today, Nokia announced that its Lumia 710 handset has finally hit store shelves in Taiwan, ahead of its broader international release. Priced at around €270 (or about $332), the Mango-laced handset will arrive in stores across Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia over the next seven days, before expanding to other global markets “over the coming weeks.” The 3.7-inch device joins the Lumia 800 as Nokia’s latest Windows Phone offering, though it remains to be seen whether or not it’ll make its way to T-Mobile anytime soon, as earlier rumors indicated.

SOURCE via Slashgear

Google, as promised, has begun rolling out an OTA update for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, in response to a curious volume bug affecting many European users. According to Android Central, “several” Nexus users have reported receiving the update, bundled in a package that weighs a little less than 1MB. Early reports indicate that the refresh only addresses the volume issue, though it appears to be rolling out on a piecemeal basis.

SOURCE via Android Central

Is that 2GB of free storage from Dropbox just not enough to house all of your mobile music habits? Don’t fret, as Pogoplug Cloud now offers 5GB of secure space for all your storage, sharing and streaming needs. The service offers Dropbox-esque folder sharing and automatic uploads for all those vacation pictures without time lost to manual syncing. If that’s not enough extra space for your coveted Jericho episodes (and the Season 3 comics), you can spring from the 50GB and 100GB paid plans at $9.95 and $19.95 per month. You’ll also be able to post your cloud activity, should you so desire, to Facebook, Twitter or Google+ via native smartphone apps. All of the aforementioned services are available now via the coverage link below — after you install the free Android or iOS app, of course.

SOURCE via Pogoplug

Now that we’ve seen all the leaks and heard all the rumors, RIM has finally announced the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and Curve 9380, welcoming two new members to the OS 7 family. Picking up where the Bold 9780 left off, the comparatively higher-end 9790 boasts a 2.44-inch touchscreen display with 360 x 480 resolution, and is powered by a 1GHz CPU. The QWERTY-equipped handset also ships with 8GB of onboard memory and features a microSD slot that offers up to 32GB of additional space. The Curve 9380, meanwhile, is an all touchscreen affair, with a 3.2-inch, 480 x 360 display and a five megapixel camera. RIM hasn’t offered any other details on the 9380′s specs, though the company did specify that both devices will offer NFC and augmented reality support, and will come pre-loaded with BlackBerry Messenger, Documents To Go Premium, and BlackBerry Protect. No word yet on pricing or availability, though RIM says to expect a launch “over the coming weeks.”

SOURCE via The Verge

Has a Windows Phone app just popped the cork on a new Nokia handset? It very well may have, based on the above image. Extracted from the “I’m a WP7″ app and first identified by the folks over at WP Central, this screenshot purports to reveal a Nokia device codenamed “Champagne” — a rather delectable moniker that, until now, wasn’t even on our radar. At this point, little else is known about this mystery phone, though according to WP Central, it’s running Windows Phone 7.10.8711 — suggesting, perhaps, the presence of Tango, the Mango successor for low-end devices. Could this be a mythical, LTE-equipped Lumia 900 / Ace handset for Verizon Wireless? Could we see it at this year’s CES? Only time will tell, but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.

SOURCE via Wp Central

We knew that the Lumia 800 would be making its way to the UK sometime in November, but today, that timeline has become slightly more specific. We’ve just received confirmation that Nokia’s “first real Windows Phone” will indeed be available within the UK on November 16th, just a day before Samsung unleashes its Galaxy Nexus handset to British users. Last month, the company confirmed that the device would be priced at €420, though there’s no word yet on what that price tag may look like in sterling. As always, we’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.

Microsoft is ready to take the plunge into mobile modernity… at its own pace. During a recent interview with All Things D, Windows Phone President Andy Lees revealed a few details about Redmond’s future crop of handsets, which will apparently include both LTE capabilities and dual-core processors. The exec confirmed that LTE-equipped devices are indeed in the pipeline, but declined to specify whether they’d hit the market this year or next.

Turns out, Microsoft wants to wait until current LTE networks prove capable of supporting more power-efficient smartphones. “The first LTE phones were big and big [users] of the battery,” Lees said. “I think it’s possible to do it in a way that is far more efficient, and that’s what we will be doing.”

Lees was similarly opaque about Microsoft’s plans to incorporate dual-core CPUs into its mobile lineup, saying only that they’re on the way. According to him, however, even single-core Windows Phones can hold their own against the dual-core competition: “They’re all single core, but I suspect that they will be faster in usage than any dual-core phone that you put against it, and that’s the point.”

Lees went on to wax Panglossian about Microsoft’s strategy, claiming that the absence of LTE and dual-core processing doesn’t necessarily mean that his company is behind the times. “I think that what our strategy is to put things in place that allow us to leapfrog, and I think that’s how we’ve gone from worse [sic] browser to the best browser,” he explained, “and I think the same is true with hardware.”

SOURCE via All Things D