Samsung Electronics announces the latest addition to its Android powered Galaxy portfolio, the Galaxy S Advance, which features a sleek curved design with dual-core performance.

The Galaxy S Advance strikes the perfect balance of style and performance. Powered by a dual-core 1.0 GHz processor and HSPA 14.4 Mbps connectivity, the Galaxy S Advance delivers great versatility and a highly responsive interface for easy multitasking – allowing smoother screen transitions, faster image processing, plus enhanced Web download and browsing.

The Galaxy S Advance features a 4.0” Super AMOLED display which provides the stunning visuals Samsung Galaxy smartphones are renowned for, displaying photos and videos captured with the device’s 5MP camera in unparalleled colour and vivid clarity.

Running on Android Gingerbread and featuring Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, the Galaxy S Advance enables users to stay connected through Samsung’s Hubs range, including Music, Reader and Game Hubs. Samsung’s cross platform communication service, ChatON, is also provided, bringing together into a single community by using phone numbers instead of usernames and passwords, allowing for easy instant messaging, group chatting and sharing content in multiple formats to make messaging simpler and more intuitive than ever.

The Galaxy S Advance also features Find My Mobile, a unique lost-phone management system that ensures secure phone data encryption enabling customers to trace their lost phone directly via the Web or even delete the device’s data remotely – ensuring personal information remains safe.

Samsung Galaxy S Advance Product Specifications:

* All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

Wide Wi-Fi® Support: Galaxy Nexus by Samsung supports multiple Wi-Fi® standards, including 802.11 a/b/g/n, to make it easier to connect almost anywhere.

Sharing with Android Beam™: The built-in near-field communications (NFC) capability allows zero-click sharing between NFC-capable devices. You can share contacts, websites, YouTube™ videos, apps and more without having to launch an application or click through a menu – simply place the two devices next to each other to share content with Android Beam™.

Official Facebook Blog:  “Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story. Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you’ll have 7 days to preview what’s there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it. 

You can learn more about these new features by taking the quick tour available at the top of your timeline. If you want to get timeline now, go to the Introducing Timeline page and click “Get Timeline.” Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your home page.

Orginially published on Thursday, December 15th, 2011: We recently announced our plans to introduce Facebook Timeline, an entirely new kind of profile.

Timeline gives you an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments. It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run.

Starting today, timeline is now available everywhere.

Get timeline today

To get timeline, simply go to the Introducing Timeline page and click “Get Timeline.” Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your profile.

Starting today, timeline will also be available on Android and m.facebook.com.”

Smart Tools has come up with a great line of apps that turn your Android into a measuring device.

Smart Ruler  lets you place a small item on your screen and use the onscreen ruler to take the measurement.

• Smart Distance  uses your camera and an estimate for one reference figure in the photo to calculate distance.
• Smart Measure  does the same for effective distances from 1-50m. Great for amateur surveyors or even golfers!
• Smart Protractor  lets you either measure an angle in touch mode, or you can use plumb mode where you can check slope or level with a virtual weight attached to the protractor.
• Sound Meter  lets you measure the decibel level using the microphone.
• Metal Detector  uses the magnetic sensor in the phone to see if the Electromagnetic field (EMF) values change, indicating the presence of metal or other electronic devices.
• Smart Compass  uses the magnetic sensor to show a compass on the screen. So if you want to try your hand at traditional orienteering instead of GPS geocaching, you can too.
• Speed Gun  extends Smart Distance to turn your phone into a speedometer!

All are available in Lite versions that provide the basic functions, Pro versions with more and a paid Pro bundle called Smart Tools  that adds additional functionality.

It`s been an exciting few months since we announced Google Voice. The feedback from early users has been terrific, and the requests for invites have been flowing in. We started sending invites a few weeks ago and will keep sending them daily.

At the same time, we continue to improve the service and address your requests and feedback. Among the most requested features are tools to make placing outgoing calls from your Google Voice number easier. So today, we’re pleased to announce a Google Voice mobile app for Blackberry and Android.

Previously, to place a call using Google Voice, you had to dial your own Google Voice number from your cell phone or use the Quick Call button online. With this new mobile app, you can make calls and send SMS messages with your Google Voice number directly from your mobile phone. The app is fully integrated with each phone’s contacts, so you can call via Google Voice straight from your address book.

From the mobile app, you can:

• Access your voicemail: read message transcripts, follow along with “karaoke-style” playback of messages, read SMS messages sent to your Google Voice number (even if your phone doesn’t receive SMS messages) and access your call history
• Place calls that display your Google Voice number from your address book, the app dialer (Blackberry) or the native dialer (Android)
• Send SMS messages that display your Google Voice number
• Place international calls at low rates

You can download the app from the Google Voice mobile site at m.google.com/voice. It’s also available in Android Market — just search for “Google Voice.”

And for those of you who don’t have a Blackberry or an Android-powered device, we have a mobile web version of the Google Voice site (accessible by typing www.google.com/voice into your mobile browser) that allows you to access Google Voice features.

You’ll need a Google Voice account to use the mobile application. Currently, Google Voice is only available in the U.S. If you’d like to check it out, request an invite here.

Vincent Paquet, Google Voice Team and Marcus Foster, Google Mobile Team

Source: Official Google Blog