Android and Apple have been going toe to toe over the past two years to see who will the mobile empire king. Last year we saw Android finally show sign's of overtaking Apple due to a surge in the 3rd and 4th fiscal quater. Now it seems Android won't let go of the top spot with its stock price $1,123 and Apple stock price at only $508 per share.

    Many speculate that Apple users are tired of having to buy the lastest hardware to run games and apps. Also Apple users are tired of constant nagging updates which seem to be coming more and more often. While Android is fragmented , the newer devices are more equally powered. This is a big change from the days where the quality of Android devices were too wide spread.

The countdown is over. See our updates below for the IPhone 5 specifications.

There are rumors already circling stating that it’s just going to be called the iPhone 5. Do you think so? We will find out shortly for sure. There have been numerous leaks ahead of Wednesday’s event, from individual components like screen size guestimates and dock plugs to full-fledged prototypes of the iPhone. Of course, all of these remain suspect until Apple makes it official. Some leaks even suggest that there will be new lineups for the Apple iPod but we don’t know for sure until about another hour and a half.

The press conference, which is expected to bring Apple’s next iPhone, takes place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco and kicks off at 10 a.m. Pacific. CNET just so happens to be there and they have created a live blog for you to follow. Click here to see the blog updates. They will also be running live commentary from editors Molly Wood, Brian Tong and Donald Bell beginning at 9 a.m. PT. Some of you may want to see the live feed from Apple themselves but that’s not going to happen. There’s no live video of the presentation itself, which is the usual for Apple’s events so CNET is helping out by blogging it for us all to see.

To all the Apple lovers, what do you expect to see in the next iPhone? What would you like to see? Are you waiting patiently for the event to start? We sure are and we will be following CNET’s blog to get the best details. After you collect all of the information and feel like you need to share your opinion, come right back here and let’s talk about it. We want to know if you were shocked, surprised, excited etc. How does this big event today make you feel?

Source: CNET

[UPDATED]

Here’s what has gone on so far at the live event and what you can expect in the new IPhone 5:

• Name – Iphone 5
• Operating System – IOS 6
• Shipping – Possibly October 5th
• Made entirely of glass and aluminum with a metal backing
• Thinnest and lightest Iphone so far
• 7.6mm thick (18% thinner than the IPhone4)
• 20% lighter
• Retina display with a 4″ screen size
• 1136 x 640 resolution
• Old applications run letter boxed
• 44% more color saturation in the screen
• Ultra fast wireless
• LTE Support – Verizon, At&t and Sprint
• Max 100MBPS download speeds
• Single chip for voice and data
• A6 processor two times faster graphics and CPU, which is 22% smaller and more energy efficient
• Time shifted multi-player
• 8MP camera and a front facing camera (face time over cellular networks)
• Dynamic low light mode for camera
• 40% faster image capture in the camera
• Camera will have panorama mode
• Camera creates up to a 28 megapixel image
• Take photos while recording!!
• 3 microphones
• New, 80% smaller USB connector called “Lightning”
• Apple created adapters to work with the older accessories
• Turn by turn navigating from Siri
• Safari gets full screen mode

Do these specifications make you happy? Let us know how you feel in the comment section below.

Are you one of the consumers still hanging on to that Palm Pre or WebOS device? If so, you may feel like helping the Internals out. They are currently taking donations throughout the next two days. These donations, during what they are calling “The 2012 Web-a-thon,” will be used to support their WebOS Internals with things such as development, testing and many other goodies related to their open source experiments.

Just last year the WebOS community did something very similar and raised a very large sum of $16,699.00. The donations were a great success and helped keep the Internals from having their members pay out of pocket for the tests and other costs they run into while further developing the operating system. If you aren’t sure who the Internals are or what I am referring to I’ll tell you. This group of people use their spare time helping WebOS grow and develop into what it is today. We can refer to them as the masterminds behind WebOS being super fast and functioning the way it does today.

You may be laughing now if you have moved on from WebOS but believe me, there are still users out there who love their devices. We have all seen WebOS struggle throughout the past few years but we also know that they have also performed miracles time and time again. If it weren’t for their users they may not still be here. Those users did not only raised $16,699.00 last year but they are already up to $4,000 so far this year. WebOS and its users are apparently still hanging on.

To make a donation, head over to the WebOS Internals site support page to . If you know someone who loves WebOS, please share the news with them. You never know who may be willing to help and every little bit counts so why not? Do you have a WebOS device? Were you one of the people who donated to their 2011 web-a-thon? If so we would like to know! If you aren’t a member here yet and just stumbled upon this article, join here to give your input.

Source: WebOSNation

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PPCGeeks is a site for smartphone owners (including Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry, WebOS, and iPhone) with discussions, reviews, news, links, downloads and much much more. We have several helpful members in the forums who are willing to help you with questions you may have. If you are not a member yet and just now stumbled upon us, what are you waiting for? Join the forums now by clicking here.

#1 Android (Google Inc.) — 104.8 million units, 68.1 percent share (46.9 percent a year earlier)

#2 iOS (Apple Inc.’s iPhone) — 26.0 million units, 16.9 percent share (18.8 percent a year earlier)

#3 BlackBerry (Research in Motion Ltd.) — 7.4 million units, 4.8 percent share (11.5 percent a year earlier)

#4 Symbian (mostly used by Nokia Corp.) — 6.8 million units, 4.4 percent share (16.9 percent a year earlier)

#5 Windows (Microsoft Corp.) — 5.4 million units, 3.5 percent share (2.3 percent a year earlier)

#6 Linux — 3.5 million units, 2.3 percent share (3.0 percent a year earlier)

#7+ Others — 0.1 million units, 0.1 percent share (0.5 percent a year earlier)

The figures are a great reminder not only of the most popular devices but they let us keep up with what operating system is being used the most or the least. These are all important factors when it comes to knowing where the current operating systems stand as well as the development of newer technology. The figures show the developers of each operating system and device that they are either doing great, good or have more hard work to do. They can do the math! For you and I this means that we get to, as we always have, learn more with each new device and operating system while having fun at the same time. Surely these numbers come as no surprise to you, right? Let us know what you think!

Source: ABC / HTCPedia

Samsung Galaxy S II handsets not tied to a specific carrier no longer have to wait for their Android 4.0 upgrade. According to a tweet from Samsung’s UK Twitter account, unlocked Galaxy S II phones can now download and install the software, known as Ice Cream Sandwich. Orange and T-Mobile customers with a Galaxy S II in Europe remain on Android 2.3, but Samsung says these will “follow as soon as possible.”

SlashGear caught the tweet and notes that the Android 4.0 upgrade can be found through Samsung’s Kies software. Here in the U.S., carriers typically push the software over the air after they’ve tested and tweaked the platform. For that reason some people purchase unlocked handsets, with the reasonable thought that these would be among the first to see updates. Unfortunately, with the Galaxy S II that hasn’t been the case as some carrier models already received Android 4.0.

Along with the updated Google Android software, Samsung has added a Face Unlock feature; similar to that found on stock Android 4.0 devices, such as the Galaxy Nexus. Also included is Samsung’s latest TouchWiz user interface to correspond with Google’s own software updates. It appears that Samsung is pushing the updates out ahead of a May 3 product launch event; likely to be the Galaxy S III.

Source: GIGAOM

But now it appears that apps with no permissions pose a new threat, gaining access to sensitive personal information without authorization. Leviathan Security Group researcher Paul Brodeur explained in a blog post earlier this week that he created a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that “no permissions” apps still have access to the device’s SD card, handset identification data, and files stored by other apps.

On the SD card, Brodeur’s app yielded a list of all non-hidden files, including photos, backups, and external configuration files. Brodeur said he found that OpenVPN certificates were stored on his own device’s SD card.

“While it’s possible to fetch the contents of all those files, I’ll leave it to someone else to decide what files should be grabbed and which are going to be boring,” he said.

He then fetched the /data/system/packages.list file to which apps were installed on the device and scanned the directories to determine whether sensitive information could be read from those directories. He said during testing that he was able to read some files belonging to other apps. “This feature could be used to find apps with weak-permission vulnerabilities, such as those that were reported in Skype last year,” he said.

Lastly, Brodeur’s app was able to gather the handset’s identification information. Without the “PHONE_STATE” permission, applications can’t read the device’s International Mobile Equipment Identity or International Mobile Subscriber Identity. However, the Global System for Mobile Communications information and SIM vendor IDs could still be read.

“Though this app uses buttons to activate the three different actions detailed above, it’s trivial for any installed app to execute these actions without any user interaction,” he wrote.

Brodeur said he tested the app on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread.

Source: Steve Musil/CNET