Nokia N900 gets a Gingerbread port, Nexus One stares in disbelief

Add the Nokia N900 to the short list of devices running the latest iteration of the Android OS – 2.3 Gingerbread. The last of the Maemo kind just got an unofficial ROM that, while not perfectly stable, proves that a relationship between those two is possible.

The Nokia N900 Gingerbread port comes courtesy of Alexey Roslyakov, a Russian coder, better known under the nickname DrunkDebbuger. He says a publicly available experimental release should come before the year's end, which means in less than a week. Of course it’s not completely functional at this stage, but cellular data, Wi-Fi and sound are a go and naturally support for the rest of the hardware is being added as we speak.

If being an alpha tester isn’t much to your liking, you can try the stable Android 2.2.1 Froyo release for your N900. Roslyakov says it should be available for Christmas.

The final bit of good news is that there will be some kind of Android release for the Nokia N900 in time for the orthodox Christmas (7 January).

It seems that all N900 owners have made Santa’s Good kid book this year.

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Elliptic Labs set to save your iPad from smudges with 3D gesture-sensing dock (video)

The dream of kitchen computing still isn't here, with many chefs forced to read from archaic paper-based recipe lists or, worse yet, memorize the things. Maybe all we need is a way to interact with our gadgets without getting them all messy, and maybe Elliptic Labs can get us there. Finally. The company has been teasing us with its 3D gesture interface for years now and it looks set to finally show off an actual product, a motion-sensing iPad dock prototype making its debut at CES in a few weeks. The idea is you perch this sucker in your kitchen and it gives you full control whether you're kneading sourdough or mixing meatballs, keeping your tablet streak-free -- and hygienic. That seems like somewhat limited usefulness to us, but check out the video of an earlier prototype below and see if it doesn't make you want to bake some cookies. And, if it does, feel free to bring us some.

My BlackBerry is not working! And I also have a problem with my Apple

What should you do if BlackBerry is completely frozen and not working? Or if you Apple doesn’t boot? Find the answer in the following hilarious video, coming from the “The One Ronnie” show on BBC.

If you consider yourself to be a real geek with a proper sense of humor you should be rolling on the floor laughing about half way through it.

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Gigabyte GSmart Rola is a Dual-SIM smartphone with Froyo

Gigabyte is preparing to launch a dual-SIM smartphone running on Android v2.2 Froyo. It’s called GSmart Rola and it will launch on the bargain 175 euro in the beginning of 2011.

After the decent dual-SIM GSmart S1205 running on Windows Mobile 6.5, Gigabyte is ready to take their dual-SIM business over at the Android camp. The GSmart Rola runs Android v2.2 Froyo but packs barely decent specs – a 3.2-inch resistive WQVGA touchscreen, a 528MHz processor, 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM, a 3 megapixel fixed-focus snapper and a microSD slot.

The Rola’s connectivity however has everything covered – Wi-Fi, quad-band GSM, 3G with HSDPA support, GPS (with aGPS support and digital compass), Bluetooth and even FM radio. We suppose the 3G would be available only on one of the SIMs though.

Gigabyte GSmart Rola will launch in Q1 2011 in selected regions with an expected retail pricetag of 175 euro.

The Loop app lets you create cool music, is exclusive to Nokia N8 and C7

Probably very few people think of a smartphone as a musical instrument – but there’s no reason not to as the new Loop app by Nokia demonstrates. The app is free but it’s exclusive to theNokia N8 and Nokia C7.

Loop is based around beats – there are 10 predefined beats and an option to make your own (for the more talented users). Then you record sound samples and before you know it, you’ve created a song…

The Loop app seems simple to use but with enough flexibility – check out the Forum Nokia blog post for more details on how to use it. And here’s what they managed to whip up:

Of course, the more talented the user, the better the end result – check out the promo video at the bottom, which does a good job of showing both how Loop is used and how good the Loop tracks can be.

Okay, so it’s not as impressive as learning to play the piano but some of us have tin ears and Loop is one of the few options to venture into music making. The app will handle things like timing and pitch for the sound samples automatically, so no need to worry about that.

When you’re done, you can set the track as a ringtone, share it on Facebook and there’s even a dedicated site – www.loopapp.net – where you can check out other people’s work and vote for your favorites.

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All-touch notebook Acer ICONIA priced at 1500 euro, could be yours in a just over a month

If you are hoping to maybe someday replace your conventional laptop with one packing not one, but two touchscreens you might want to limit your Christmas spending and save a few bucks instead. Acer has announced the launch date for their Acer Iconia hybrid in Spain and it’s set for the 28th of January.

Of course other countries might get it sooner but I don’t expect serious time frame differences. The price is set at the whopping €1500 euro, but you didn’t really expect a specs sheet like that to come on the cheap, did you? After all we are talking an Intel i5 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a built-in 3G module and HDMI port. Well that and a couple of HD (1366 x 768 pixels) touchscreens.

Are you sold on one yet?

Netbook Cr-48 specs revealed, Google kills 25 netbooks in a video

There are two ways to tear down a Cr-48 netbook – the right one and the rough one. One user has already disassembled the first Chrome device and the insides are pretty much the same as I suspected.

But Google took the tear down to a whole new level. It destroyed brutally 25 Cr-48 netbooks in some crazy ways and shot the entire thing on video. Watch!

Watch the first trailer of Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third movie in the Autobots/Decepticons saga, but it’s the first one we are going to see in 3D. The first trailer is live and I’m giving it to you right now.

Just don’t expect to see some action or the main characters. The video is just a teaser, rather than a full-length action-filled trailer.

As most of you already know, Megan Fox has left the project (sigh!), but she was quickly replaced by the Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. She has no previous experience on the big screen, but I guess it doesn’t take much acting talent to play Sam Witwicky’s girlfriend.

Jason Statham’s girlfriend and Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Anyway, the worldwide premiere is on 1 July next year and we are yet to see tons of trailers with some real action.

Roundup: All you need to know about Chrome OS, its first laptop and future

It was more than a year ago, since Google announced Chrome OS and presented its concept about the future of the netbooks. Following the Nexus S announcement on Monday, Google held another event yesterday – showcasing the latest in Chrome OS development.

Google is starting its Pilot program and its participants will receive the first Chrome-running netbook – Cr-48. It has no Fn keys, no Caps Lock, no optical drive and no spinning hard-drive either. But you get 12-inch netbook with Wi-Fi, 3G, an oversized touchpad and a webcam. The Chrome OS boots about 10 seconds on the Cr-48 and resumes from sleep state instantly.

The Cr-48 promises excellent battery life – 8 hours of work or 7 days in standby mode. Unfortunately, the Cr-48 netbook will be available only to the participants in the Pilot program and no one else.

There is also one more thing to know about the future Chrome-running netbooks – they won’t be able to dual-boot with Windows OS. I suppose either the flash storage won’t be enough to host another OS or there will be some explicit restriction.

Another thing that is left out is the Caps Lock key. There will be a dedicated Search shortcut instead. I don’t mind that, but I’m sure lots of users will do. Google claims it’s doing this to improve the comments’ quality, but I believe nothing will fix the behavior of some commenters.

Samsung and Acer have confirmed that their Chrome netbooks will be released in summer 2011 – those will be for mass consumption unlike the Google’s Cr-48.

And now let’s see what to expect from the Chrome OS.

What is Chrome OS?

First of all the Chrome OS is completely cloud-based operating system that works within a (Chrome) browser. You can run it on any Windows or Mac computer or use it on a dedicated netbook (such as the Cr-48). The Chrome OS is the Google vision for the future of always-connected netbooks.

Chrome OS

So basically if you want an ultra-cheap, but capable netbook – a Chrome-based one should be your choice. In any other case you can run the Chrome OS within your browser, so no one could criticize Google about requirements, policy, etc.