How Android is taking over the mobile world. Bonus: Infograph!!

For all that we hear about Android taking over the iPhone and other competing platforms, we never see any good physical representation. It’s usually text, followed by more text, stuffed with…you guessed it…text. So when a handy dandy infograph comes along (by the way, I love infographs), it’s cause for celebration. With all that said, hop on past for a lengthy infograph showing how Android is taking over the mobile sphere, and perhaps the world…

Use Tango to video chat between iOS and Android!

Good news for Android users — Tango makes video chatting super easy on your green robot-loving device. The app allows cross-carrier/continent video calls, breaking down barriers. What’s even cooler, however, is that it also allows cross-platform video chatting. You see, their’s a Tango app for iOS as well. If you’re rockin’ an iPhone, find a friend with Android and yak your heart out.

Of course, the best part of it for Android users is you can video chat over 3G, 4G, and WiFi. So there’s really not ever a reason to answer that video call, now is there? iOS users are out of luck for 3G video calls unless of course you go the jailbreaking route. It appears that video calling is finally (years and years after the fact) starting to gain mainstream acceptance. Have you fallen into the trap yet?

AMD 6850 and 6870 officially named, sit down for some camera time.

Hmmm, fresh, shiny graphics cards. The 68xx-series is hardly a surprise. We’ve known about them and seen them several times before already. Alienbabeltech has gotten their hands on a slew of review units and is currently putting them through their paces. Once the embargo is lifted, we’ll finally get to see what AMD’s been hard at work on over the last year. Speaking of which, these are the first GPU’s from AMD’s ATI brand that will feature AMD branding. As you may recall, AMD put the official kibosh on the ATI brand many weeks back. They’re going for a more unified front. Hey, whatever floats their boat, right?

All I know is the holiday season is going to be mighty interesting with the cards AMD has on tap. Anyone holding out for some new AMD silicon? On that note, we have a date to look forward to: October 22nd. Check out a couple more pics waiting inside…

10.7 to get touch layer, new iOS elements, and revamped “quick look”.

Wednesday’s “Back to the Mac” keynote is but a mere 36 hours away. The chief subject will of course be OS X. With iOS taking all the limelight the last 12-18 months, it’s nice to see Apple returning to their desktop roots. While we’re on that subject, rumors of a revamped UI and replacing the aged “Aqua” look that dates back pre-Tiger were supposedly coming with Snow Leopard. As we all found out, however, the UI refresh didn’t happen. But 10.7 looks like it could be the playground for Apple’s UI designers to stretch their legs once again.

Unconfirmed reports from a source of MacStories has pegged OS X 10.7 (Lion?) with several new UI features. Namely, the death of Aqua (at the very least, a mild touch up) include redesigned scrollbars that will supposedly take design cues from iPhone scroll bars — minimalistic is key. On top of Aqua-less scrollbars, the super springy rubberbanding effect that made iOS popular at it’s birth will make the jump across to the desktop.

Two other major talking point is Quicklook and touch. As far as Quicklook — gone are the translucent black windows. In their place will be a new white background with popover support in the searchlight menu. With as popular and well versed as Apple has become with touch-based input and iOS in general, incorporating that into OS X is a given. The only question is “when”.

Again, these reports are unconfirmed and honestly, are along the lines of what many already suspect — some form of UI redesign is going to happen. And until Wednesday, it’s a crapshoot. While I actually like Aqua as it is in 10.5 and 10.6, some of the rumors do sound mighty tasty.

Will 10.7 finally be the death of Aqua?

Droid X SE gets spied.

This, friends, looks to be the Droid X SE. Whether or not that added “SE” verbiage means “Special Edition” or not is still unknown. Besides a new, silver face, a reported 1.2GHz processor ups the ante from the previous 1.0GHz brain. Screen size, resolution, and other internals are also believed to be the same as the original Droid X. It shouldn’t be too much longer until we find out. Though I thought you wouldn’t mind a little brain fodder to munch on this evening. Was I right?

**Bigger shot after the jump…

RIM PlayBook to feature 5,300mAh battery, 64GB option…

Are you excited for the RIM PlayBook? It’s a big undertaking by RIM for two reasons. (1) It’s the company’s first tablet and (2) it will be the first showcasing of the new QNX OS that will supposedly work it’s way across RIM’s lineup. For now, however, RIM’s basket is plenty full. The tablet market is quickly becoming saturated with what seems like a new Android tablet (or two) daily. Apple will be releasing a 2nd generation iPad in the not too distant future, and RIM’s consumer-oriented image is already not so hot. On top of it all, Apple just announced today their 4th quarter conference call to which the iPad consisted of $2.8 billion in revenue. To say RIM’s battle is uphill is an understatement.

Of course, new slides and information thanks to RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie on-site at the GITEX conference in the Dubai have given us two more juicy bullet points to add to the PlayBook’s…um…playbook: 64GB model and a 5,300mAh battery. The 64GB model is a no brainer — if you want to be relevant in a media-centric society, you have to put some storage on the device to lug it around. The battery is just as important — too small of a battery will kill the usefulness of the PlayBook if you have to constantly babysit an outlet.

Besides the shiny new lust for a new mobile/tablet OS, is there any other legitimate feature that is drawing your towards the PlayBook?

Intel lowers prices on six more processors.

One good thing about Intel having soooo many processors available is that only a few actually sell really well. While that’s not necessarily good for the manufacturer, it’s an awesome deal in the making for consumers. The rest end up being extra fluff that eventually gets price chopped several months into their lives. And that’s precisely what Intel has done today, quietly chopping six processors down in price. The most intriguing of the price drops center around the Core i5 550 ($138–>$117), Core i7 640LM ($332–>$311) and i7-660UM ($317–>$289).

The remaining three Pentium-based processors include the Pentium E3400 ($53–>$42), Pentium E5700 ($75–>$64), and Pentium E6700 ($86–$75).

Not too shabby for the more budget conscious, now is it?