Gadgets

Looks like 2011 is shaping up to be the year of Android for electronics manufacturer HTC.

In a conference call Friday morning, the company reported a massive 93 percent increase in 2010 revenue over 2009, as first reported by PC World. 2010 sales weighed in at a respectable 24.67 million units, up 111 percent from 2009.

“The year 2010 was a breakthrough year,” CEO Peter Chou said in an earnings call Friday.

Visit a Starbucks and you can now forget about cash or cards: Just flash your phone to pay.

Starting today, iPhone, iPod Touch and Blackberry users will be able to pay for coffee and coffee-themed products in 6,800 of Starbucks’ own stores and in 1,000 Starbucks outlets in Target stores. The scheme has been tested since last year in a handful of stores, and is now available nationwide.

The app doesn’t bother with complex in-store machinery or NFC or RFID chips in the phones, for obvious reasons.

Open source software enthusiasts might see another version of Android as soon as this summer.

A new Android OS version, codenamed Ice Cream, is scheduled for a release some time in June or July says Pocket-lint, citing “multiple sources familiar with the matter.” Pocket-lint’s sources say Google will announce Ice Cream at its I/O developer conference this May in San Francisco.

Update 2 p.m. PT: The Wall Street Journal claims it has confirmed that Verizon iPhones will be in stores end of January.

U.S. iPhone users frustrated with AT&T’s frequently dropped calls, limited geographic coverage, delayed delivery of iPhone tethering, elimination of unlimited data plans, poor customer service, and alleged cooperation with warrantless wiretapping by the NSA may soon have an alternative.*

Verizon yesterday sent out invitations to a Tuesday, Jan.

LAS VEGAS — After a long day of running around, meeting with companies and covering press conferences, there was one demo being held at the CES pre-show known as Digital Experience that had everyone relaxing (if only a little) by night’s end. That moment of temporary bliss was provided by HumanTouch, which was showing off some impressive iOS functionality on its flagship AcuTouch 9500 massage chair.

LAS VEGAS — Iomega’s SuperHero dock backs up your iPhone as it charges. It sounds like an ideal, portable alternative to backing up when traveling, or for those who hardly ever hook up their iPhone to a computer. And it is, kinda.

The SuperHero looks like a slightly oversized Apple Universal Dock, and charges the phone as normal. The backup comes courtesy of a 4GB SD-card.

A new Trojan horse aimed at Android devices has recently surfaced in China.

Named “Geinimi,” San Francisco firm Lookout Mobile Security says the Trojan is “the most sophisticated Android malware [the firm has] seen to date.”

“Geinimi is effectively being ‘grafted’ onto repackaged versions of legitimate applications,” most of which have been games, the firm says. The apps are then sold in Chinese third-party Android app markets.

Apple can’t stick to its own rules with the gigantic iOS App Store.

The company recently approved an iPhone camera app that carries a special feature: the ability to snap a photo by pressing the physical Volume button rather than tapping the touchscreen. Oddly enough, about four months ago Apple banned a top-selling iPhone app for including the same “volume-snap” functionality.

In August, Apple rejected the photo app Camera+ when it included a volume-snap feature, because changing the behavior of the iPhone’s external hardware buttons was strictly prohibited.

“Your application cannot be added to the App Store because it uses iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion,” Apple told Camera+ developer Tap Tap Tap in its August rejection letter. “Changing the behavior of iPhone external hardware buttons is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.”

Following the rejection, Tap Tap Tap hid the volume-snap feature as an Easter egg inside the app and hinted that it could be enabled by visiting a URL in the Safari web browser.

Gadget Lab’s speed-loving editor Dylan Tweney likes to run barefoot. Or at least he did, until the problems of loping shoeless around the trash strewn streets of San Francisco became obvious. The foot-shaped, glove-like Five Fingers shoes from Vibram are one option, but an even more minimal concept comes from designer Frieke Severs.

The Footsticker is a flexible plastic membrane that sticks to your skin like a, well, like a second-skin.

Want one of those fancy, prehensile Gorillapod tripods but don’t have the cash to buy them? Well, we have good news. Good news, that it, if you have a rather well equipped tool-kit, containing some specialist items that cost more than the Gorillapod itself.

The guide comes from the ever-useful Instructables and user Matth3w.