Video : Google rolls out NFC-equipped Places business kits

The company's embedded near-field communications chips into each and every one of these "Recommended on Google Places" window stickers, which you'll be able to trigger with a shiny new Nexus S -- just hold your handset up to the black dot, and voila, your phone gets a "tag." Google's now distributing the signs on a trial basis to Portland, Oregon businesses as part of a larger Google Places kit, though it doesn't explain how (or if) they'll be able to program the chips. Find the sign-up form at our more coverage link, or watch a Nexus S doing its thing after the break.

LG commits to upgrading Optimus Ones to Gingerbread

Well, we've got to hand it to LG for quickly doing the right thing here by keeping people informed and ultimately making the best decision for its customers. Just two days after a Facebook spat that suggested the Optimus series of midrange Android handsets wouldn't be getting Android 2.3 Gingerbread thanks to a seemingly made-up 1GHz processor requirement, they've reversed the decision, saying that "all" of the models that fall under the Optimus One guise (presumably including the Vortex,Optimus T, Optimus S, Optimus M, and Optimus U) would be getting upgraded. Here's the full statement:

"LG will upgrade all Optimus One smartphones currently using the Froyo OS to the next version of the Android OS, Gingerbread. Details of the upgrade schedule will be announced locally in due course. We sincerely apologize for the confusion and misunderstanding that was caused regarding this issue."

Windows Phone 7 in trouble?

 There are no official data in public domain on sales of Windows Phone 7 yet. As you might remember, when the iPhone is launched, within weeks you tart getting figures of the high number of sales the phones generate. Sometimes even in days. No such data is avaiable for Windows Phone 7 (WP7 from now on). Does this mean that the platform is in trouble? Well not really but it does have some indications. Hit read more for details.