Samsung – the famous South Korean smartphone manufacturer – claims it has sold more than 300 million phones in 2011. Till today only Nokia has ever managed to sell such a big number of devices in only 12 months.

At the first glance, 300 million seems to be a huge number, and some of you may think Samsung has probably exaggerated or mixed up something. To tell the truth, that was what I first thought when I read about this. 300 million Samsung phones worldwide… too many! But then I remembered about the Samsung Galaxy S2, which was released in April 2011 and stays one of the most popular smartphones up to now, leading most of top charts. It’s armed with the most powerful features available at the current market, it’s fast, it’s cool and it’s popular.

Several months ago Samsung announced that the Galaxy S2 had reached 10 million sales much faster than any other phone, even Apple’s iPhone. However, we should remember that 20 million iPhones were sold only in the third quarter of 2011, and the sales of the new iPhone 4S have reached 4 million in only three days, so it’s not that the S2 has no competitors at all.

But anyway, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that at least three of Samsung’s phones always find their place in almost all top 10 smartphones’ charts (in the “Best phones of 2011” chart of cnet.co.uk, for example, you can see the Galaxy Ace and the Galaxy Nexus, and the Galaxy S2 is the number one).

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is on its way now, and the Galaxy Nexus has received a lot of good reviews; this makes me think that in the coming 2012 Samsung will sell even more smartphones than this year. What do you think, which will be the next number for Samsung? 350 million? Or even more?

As we approach the release date of the Galaxy Nexus, talk of this ‘game-changing’ new phone is increasing in amplitude - as it always does of course. Google ‘Galaxy Nexus’ and you’ll find it crops up almost twice as often as ‘Motorola RAZR’ - which wouldn’t have anything to do with the search engine giants collaborating on the former by any chance would it? It would be safe to say that the Nexus is one of the most hotly-anticipated phones of the year.

But why all the excitement? Surely the blogosphere should still be dominated by the swathes of Apple fanboys not quite done fussing over their brand new iPhone 4S handsets? One factor may be that Nexus phones are tailor-made by Google to suit the needs of their Android operating system. If any phone is going to guarantee that your apps don’t lag, it’s a Nexus. It’s easy to see this in the spec: a processor on par with that of the Samsung Galaxy S2 and twice the memory of an iPhone 4S means Google certainly aren’t underestimating Android’s requirements.

The phone’s high-end technical specification might be enough to do it for some, but most of us are more excited about the operating system. Given Android’s increasing popularity with smartphone users, it’s no surprise that the first phone to use Android 4.0 is creating such a buzz. Succeeding Honeycomb as the latest confectionary-based OS (don’t ask - no really, just don’t), Ice Cream Sandwich promises a major overhaul of the OS, one which Android fans - let’s call them fandroids - can’t wait to get their hands on.

We shan’t bore you with a list of all of the improvements featured in ICS – they’re out there elsewhere on the web if you really want to see – but it can be summarised as a fusion of phone and tablet technology. The new OS is designed to be used without requiring any physical buttons, so handsets can shed the excess bulk and maximise screen-size at the same time. The new tabbed web browser means users can have up to sixteen tabs open at once – so that’s one for work, and fifteen for Lolcats. The OS also implements a built-in photo-editor, drag-and-drop style folders and facial recognition software. The Nexus is going to be the closest smartphone yet to a pocket-sized computer.

And finally, for the real fandroids out there, the Galaxy Nexus is going to be easy for users to modify themselves, known as ‘rooting’. Unlike HTC and Motorola, Samsung haven’t taken action to block users from rooting Nexus phones, meaning that users can edit the user interface of their Android phone - not just altering it aesthetically, but also functionally.

So, to return to the original question – why all the fuss? Well, c’mon. Who wouldn’t be excited over a top-spec phone with a brand new operating system that’s fully customisable to each user? Google’s mantra to give power to the user is what will revolutionise the way we use web-based technology. The Galaxy Nexus is a bold new step in the right direction.

Change your Android homescreen without needing root!

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I am planning to get the Droid Bionic on its release day. I currently have an Original Droid 1 (OG) and my contract expired a few months ago. I have been paitently been waiting for the release of a 4G dual core phone for Verizon.

There were rumors that the Bionic was supposed to land in June or July and I got really excited to upgrade. After it was rumored that the bionic would not be released until September I was disappointed. I wanted to upgrade and was annoyed by all the delays by Motorola. I searched for other new phones to be released and found out about the Samsung Galaxy 2, HTC Vigor, and Nexus Prime were all dual core phones and were coming out in the near future.

I was thinking of getting the Samsung Galaxy 2 but rumors are out today that it won't be available for Verizon.  The Nexus Prime is also just in rumor phase and it supposed to be realeased in October but even if it is, there is no guarantee that it will be on Verizon. And for the HTC Vigor..I haven't even seen a picture of this device.

With that being said let me also say the Bionic will be a beast of a device. I am really excited for it for a few reasons.

1) First Dual Core 4G LTE device
2) awesome battery life
3) speed

Let me know what upcoming phone(s) you are planning to get in the comments.

Lately I was unable to send emails using the gmail app on both my Android phone and Xoom tablet. They happened at different times but happened after installing a rom or updating to a newer software version. I presume this problem is pretty widespread.

I tried re-syncing as well as deleting my gmail account and re-adding. Nothing worked. Finally I tried going into settings -> manage applications -> gmail. I selected clear data and voila, it worked!

Note: once you clear data any emails in your outbox that were not sent will get deleted. You should copy the text or try saving the email before clearing data.

Is all the 4G talk confusing? I created this chart comparing the 4G services by all the major cell phone carriers. Let me know if you have any questions or need additional information. I'll be updating regularly...