SkyFire 3.0 Released For Android, Gets Social. #skyfire #android

A few weeks back, the desktop-based social browser titled “RockMelt” was released. The goal was to make sharing things online easier, more streamlined, and more fun. Over the last few weeks, I’ve come to find it quite handy in many situations. And in much the same way, SkyFire 3.0 for Android is aiming to make the mobile browser a lot more social as well.

The biggest social upgrade in SkyFire 3.0 is a universal “Like” button that is tied to your Facebook account allowing extremely quick sharing on the largest social networking website. Other features include OneTouch Search (quick searches performed on Amazon, Digg, Facebook, Google, Twitter or VideoSurf), FirePlace Feed Reader (Facebook feed reader basically), and “Popular Content”. The latter of which is pretty handy for those who not only search the internet, but meander as well. Click the Popular Button on the Skybar to instantly comb through the hottest articles according to Facebook’s 500 million+ users.

We’ll be trying it out soon. In the meantime, hop inside to see a video of SkyFire 3.0 in action.

T-Mobile Expands HSPA+ Coverage to 8 More Cities. #tmobile #hspa+

U.S. GSM Carrier T-Mobile announced today 8 new markets that can take advantage of their super speedy HSPA+ network.

• Detroit, Michigan

• Grand Junction, Colorado

• Harlingen, Texas

• Lafayette and South Bend, Indiana

• Montgomery, Alabama

• Roanoke-Lynchburg, Virginia

• Youngstown, Ohio

Living in a small town myself, it’s nice to see cities such as South Bend, Indiana make the cut before quite a few other, much larger cities. With that said, I invite T-Mobile HSPA+ users new and old to post their speedtest screenshots in the comments. Let’s see what T-Mobile is really giving us.

Opera Beta Moves Into Version 11, Extensions in Tow. #opera

Fans of the Norwegian-based Opera browser have something new to play with today. Version 11 beta 1 has officially hit the interwebs. Besides the obvious speed increase, the biggest feature currently on the table is Extensions. Yes, other browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and more recently Safari, all already make use of Extensions or “Plugins” — basically mini programs/scripts that run in the browser.

One other intriguing feature that Opera is debuting with Opera 11 beta 1 is Tab Stacking. The name is pretty self explanatory. You put one tab on top of another.

Fancy a look? Hop inside for a demo video…

Android 2.3 #Gingerbread Part 1 Now Rolling Out in Small Batches. #android

Today’s a good day to be a Nexus One owner, for you can fuel your day on the pent up excitement that maybe, just maybe, you’ll be one of the first batch of N1 users to get the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) update. Now mind you, this is a pretty hefty update so it has been split into two parts. Part one merely prepares you phone for all of the actual UI upgrades and feature additions that 2.3 offers. The second part probably won’t come for another week or so — at least until December 6th (a date in which Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, is rumored to be unveiling Android 2.3 Gingerbread).

Ironically, the image above comes from Twitter user @Macintosh.

If you get the Android 2.3 Part I update, let us know how it goes for you!

Update

Sorry to get you excited…we were wrong. The update is nothing more than 2.2.1 patches amd bug fixes. Keep playing the waiting game…

(Anyone have some coffee they can share with Chuck?)

Scrabble Lovers: 2,000 Free Codes for #iOS devices. [Contest]

Fancy a good challenging game of Scrabble? The folks at EA Mobile would like to let you in on a little not-so-secret secret. They’re giving away 2,000 iTunes redeemable codes to download Scrabble for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad for simply liking their Facebook Fan page. Afterwards, fill out the short form and be on your way to brain-stumping goodness. Likewise, if Twitter is more your style, follow @EAMobile, fill out the same form, and enjoy the same game.

Who doesn’t like free stuff, especially free, entertaining stuff?

Thanks, Jorge

Android 2.2.1 for Droid X Leaked! #android #droidx

Several days back, an image popped up online showing a Motorola Droid X supposedly running Android 2.2.1. Since such screenshots are easy to fake, we didn’t touch it. Why get your hopes up if it turned out to be fake? Well, as it turns out, it was actually real. And now, it’s available for all Droid X owners to download compliments of My Droid World. With that said, there isn’t any backup plan by way of SBF files in case something goes wrong quite yet. It shouldn’t be much longer until we see said files released, however.

In the meantime, those interested in being one step closer to Android 2.3 can point their browsers to My Droid World and get to downloading Android 2.2.1 for the Motorola Droid X.

Samsung Touts 600,000+ Galaxy Tab Sales Worldwide. #galaxytab

Things are looking pretty good for the “iPad Killer” aka Samsung Galaxy Tab. Samsung just announced sales figures for the first month of sales. And while they’re not exactly “iPad killing”, 600,000 units moved is nothing to sneeze at. On top of that, 40,000 units have sold in Korea since the devices recent November 14th launch. It’s hands down the best selling Android tablet to date.

Hopefully Samsung is quick to update their Galaxy Tab line to Android 3.0 — the famed “tablet version” of Android. It is in version 3.0 that numerous enhancements to UI, functionality, and under the hood tweaks will make Android much more optimized and enjoyable to use on these larger-screened tablet devices. Until then, it looks like the Galaxy Tab is doing plenty well on its own.