Google: “Nexus One Too Old And Slow For Ice Cream Sandwich”. Hackers: “Challenge Accepted”.

With all the new eye candy, animations, and of course actual features packed into Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, it’s not too shocking to hear phone once thought as still apt are now being relegated to the “legacy” column. Case in point: the original Nexus One. When speaking with The Telegraph, Hugo Barra of Google confirmed that the Nexus One was simply too old (read: underpowered) to run the upcoming OS update.

Sad to see the original “Pure” Google phone rendered obsolete in such a way. But let’s be real. The Nexus One is old and has actually had a pretty good run. Not to mention, we’re positive the Android hacking community won’t have too much trouble getting Ice Cream Sandwich ported and optimized for the Nexus One’s aging bits.

LTE Motorola XOOM Now Available.

The wait has been long and the path bumpy, but Motorola and Verizon have finally got the last few troublesome ducks in order. The LTE equipped Motorola XOOM is finally shipping. Granted, you could have picked up a 3G-only XOOM many months back as Motorola promised a quick and speedy hardware mail-in upgrade process. Unfortunately, that whole ordeal is far from spotless itself.

With that said, if you tested your patience you can finally pat yourself on the back. The LTE XOOM (32 GB only) can now be had from VerizonWireless.com and Motorola’s online store for $499 when signed with a new 2-year contract ($649 off-contract).

Specs remain the same as the original 3G XOOM: Dual-core 1 GHz Tegra 2 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 10.1″ display, and Android (Honeycomb) 3.2. Any takers?

We’ll admit. The addition of LTE form the factory is worthy of ownership — without signing a 2-year contract. If you’re thinking of going the subsidized route, please, wait a couple more months. Quad-core hardware will begin trickling out and you’ll be kicking yourself (and your year-old tablet) when that happens.

Complete Nokia World Highlight And Recap.

Will Nokia successfully relaunch their future and survive the onslaught of Android and iOS? Was siding with WP7 the right choice? (Some of) these questions can be answered just after the break as we take a look at three new WP7 powered, Nokia designed handsets. Grab a brew (too early?) and get to it…

[Update] PSA: EA Doesn’t Take Care Of Battlefield 3 Users

If you happened to have popped your Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360 here at GS Headquarters) you have probably noticed you were only able to play for a couple minutes. I was able to throw the game in around 5:20pm here on the West, and it took an hour of EA servers failing. Then finally at 6:19pm I loaded my first game. And here we are, an hour and a half later and it has failed again. The picture above is what I constantly see, unless the game freezes up trying to phone EA’s servers. Exiting to the Dashboard is the only cure, at least for me.

How about you guys? You having any problems? From what I can see on my friends list, no one is making past “Menus.”

Update

It seems that everything is up and back to normal. I seem to be having some glitches here and there, but it is definitely 100% better – than not playing. It also could be just that the East Coasters went to bed. lol

Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.1 ROM Ported To Nexus S.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich isn’t supposed to hit the masses until next month when Google and Samsung watch their Galaxy Nexus grace the hands of geeks around the world. But leave it to Android enthusiasts/hackers to beat manufacturers and carriers to the chase. A talented Android hacker by the name of “Beezy” tirelessly pieced together parts of the emulator within the Android 4.0 SDK and god knows what else to get a nearly perfectly functioning Android 4.0.1 ROM up and running on an now “old” Nexus S. Getting the ROM on your own Nexus S is as simple as navigating to this download (zip file) over here and going through the normal process of wiping/installing from zip in recovery mode.

Of course, what makes this ROM different than the rest currently floating around out there is that pretty much everything works. Still, hesitation is understandable. If you’re feeling a bit leery and not quite ready to hit the ground running just yet — Who wants a bricked phone? — be sure to hop past the break and check out a nice, long 10-minute video thoroughly detailing the Android 4.0.1 ROM in question.

See you on the other side…

Nokia Searay/Sabre (Lumia 800/710) Specs Sheets Leak Ahead Of Reveal.

If there’s one thing Nokia can’t do (besides make their own OS) it’s keep things a secret. Here we are still 24 hours to go before they take the wraps off of their WP7 packing Searay and Sabre (Lumia 800 and 700) and we’ve already got specs and full shots of the hardware. The Searay/Lumia 800 is the higher end of the two and features a 1.4 GHz single-core Snapdragon processor, 16 GB (rumor) of storage, ~3.7-3.9″ display, and a (rumored) 8-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture. The Sabre/Lumia 710 will make use of the the same 1.4 GHz processor but make due with a slightly smaller 3.5″ display, 8 GB of storage, and 5-megapixel shooter. Both phones will reportedly pack 512 MB of RAM.

Current rumors have pegged European availability sometime in November, meanwhile the projects for the U.S. are a bit more grim, pointing to a release drifting into early 2012.

The full details will be revealed tomorrow at Nokia world, 4am (EST).

Separate shots after the break…

Review: Otterbox Commuter Case For iPhone 4S.

In the world of tough cases (specifically iPhone cases), no name is more synonymous with “tough” than Otterbox. The company puts out some seriously robust stuff. With Apple’s latest iPhone 4S the overall design is the same. Still, it gives case manufacturers a chance to freshen up their line. Hop inside to see if Otterbox’s Commuter case is still the king of tough…