AT&T, Verizon, RIM get serious about security for mobile devices

As commonplace as smartphones have become, it's about time that carriers and manufacturers start getting serious about mobile security. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Verizon is currently working with Lookout, a San Francisco-based company known for remote backup and geolocation apps for BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices, while RIM has recently announced a little something called BlackBerry Protect, which promises to lock or even wipe a misplaced phone, pinpoint the thing on a map, and make regularly-scheduled wireless backups. Hit read more for details.

Samsung sells 9.3 million Galaxy S devices, within reaching distance of its lofty goal

With just over a week left in the calendar year, the Korean giant has racked up 9.3 million sales of its Android superphone globally and actually expects to sneak past the mythical 10 million mark just before the champagne glasses start clinking. The Galaxy S has also scored a win in its home market of South Korea, where its two million units sold so far leads the 1.8 million iPhones sold since the series debuted in November 2009.

Gmail's free voice calls will be available through all of 2011, still only in the US

While the rest of the world has yet to taste the sweet elixir of free voice calls from its email supplier, US-based Gmailers are having their fun extended for a whole new year. Back in August, Google made it possible to dial up voice numbers in the US and Canada for free from anywhere in the world, and now, in the true holiday spirit of keeping users happy and advertising dollars flowing, Google promises to keep that service free through all of 2011. 

Nexus S gets its first update over the air

We don't know what it fixes yet, but we've gotten some tips -- and we're now seeing it on xda-developers -- that Nexus S handsets in the field are getting blessed with their first software update, build GRH78 (up from GRH55) with an official version of 2.3.1. Not everyone has it yet (we don't on ours), so as usual, this would seem to be getting sent out on a rolling basis. 

Update: The full text of the update is "This system update from Google contains important bug fixes plus the latest version of Maps." It's 1.9MB -- so yeah, don't expect much!

Update 2: By the way, it appears that the "checkin" trick is actually working to force this update (it usually doesn't). Just dial *#*#checkin#*#* from the dialer and you should get the update notification. Have fun!

TOYOTA UNVEILS REVISED VITZ (YARIS) 2011 (Photo gallery)

Toyota has unveiled a revised version of its Vitz hatchback. Better known as the Yaris in North America, it is likely that we will see the updated car on our shores in the near future. hit read more for details.

Video : Google Sends The Nexus S On A Mission To Space - Literally

Google obviously has some grand ambitions for Android, its mobile OS that is now being activated on 300,000 devices per day and has a forthcoming release called Honeycomb that will take on the iPad. But even that isn’t enough — now Google wants to bring the green robot to an entirely new market: the final frontier (read outer space). Hit read more for details and videos taken from the phones from above the planet.

Pakistani IT firm's Smartphone App ranks number one in the world!

Khaleej times reports that Photo editing software developed by a Pakistan technology firm Five Rivers became the best selling paid-for application for the Blackberry, the firm said on Wednesday.

Lahore-based Five Rivers said its Photo Editor Suite had hit the top spot across all sectors on Blackberry’s AppWorld store.

Hit Read more for details.