Samsung Galaxy S3 specs leaked, look impressive

What do a 1.5 ghz quad core exynos processor, a 1080p screen, and a ceramic back have in common? Well, their new home will reportedly be the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3, the successor to what many heralded as 2011's best phone, the Galaxy S2.

Motorola Atrix 3 leaked

Remember how the Motorola Atrix 2 was rumored to have a 720p display, LTE, and a quad core processor? Well it looks like we'll be seeing these specs on an Atrix, just one iteration too late. These leaked photos are of none other than the Motorola Atrix 3, with specs such as a 3300 milli amp hour battery, a quad core plus one Tegra 3 processor, 720p display, Ice Cream Sandwich, and last but certainly not least, LTE.

Why isn't Samsung using the Exynos for more phones

The release of the Galaxy S2 was special; not only was it the thinnest phone on the market by a large margin, it also featured the powerful Exynos processor, still one of the most powerful processors available in a smartphone today. But the release of the S2 in the United States brought a troubling trend, for while two of the four releases contained the Exynos, the other two featured the higher clocked but less powerful Snapdragon processor. And unfortunately, this trend has manifested itself again, for arguable the fastest phone in existence, the Galaxy Note, has been crippled again in the United States with the addition of yet another Snapdragon processor.

The reasons for this are unclear; it may be that more consumers in the U.S. look directly at the clock speed rather than the actual capabilities or real world performance of a phone than perhaps in Europe.

Whatever the reason for this troubling trend, we implore Samsung to avoid the Snapdragon in the future and stick with its home grown Exynos.

When is large too large

The iPhone's screen comes in at 3.5 inches.

The Motorola Atrix's at 4.

The Galaxy S2's at 4.27.

This is my list of recent phones. An upward trend in screen size is a visible, if not mostly enjoyable fad. But when is enough truly enough? Scores of people gawked at the unbelievable large size of the Galaxy nexus, at 4.65 inches. But that does not even compare to the Galaxy Note, whose monstrous 5.3 inch touchscreen has even those with large hands asking the same questions.

When is a large phone too large?

Chrome for Android finally released

After years of breathless waiting, Google finally announced and released the beta version of Chrome for Android. Unfortunately, it is only available for android 4.0 at the time of this writing, so the number of phones or tablets is pretty limited at this point.

Pirate Bay's founders convicted, get a year in IKEA

It's not quite IKEA, but it's pretty darned close. It's Swedish prison, which features soft lighting, hanging lamps, wood paneling. The doors are locked by prisoners, not the guards. There are no fences to prevent escapes. It seems to me that the Pirate Bay's founders are actually being rewarded for their crimes.

My new life plan is to move to Sweden, commit some sort of fraud, and spend the rest of my days in a 4 star hotel.

Another reason why you shouldn't buy the iPhone 4S

When speaking to someone over why they bought their iPhone 4S, invariably Siri comes up. And most of the time, people who have android fans have to concede that point to the iPhone. After all, most of the "replacement Siris" are buggy and lack the wealth of features that Siri has. Previously on the site, we mentioned iris, an alternative to Siri. At the time, iris was buggy as well. But over the past few months, I am happy to report that Siri has met her equal, and with the rapid development of iris, may well pull ahead.

AT&T Galaxy S2 ROM comparison

Over the last few months I have tried out four different ROMs for my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S2. In this article I will rank them by which ones I thought were the best overall.

1. SHOstock ROM

In first place is SHOstock ROM, and it is just a phenomenal ROM overall. It comes with an overclocking kernel, a separate, modifiable TouchWiz launcher (providing support for multiple themes), battery life improvements, a reworked notification bar, and ICS transitions.

Grade: A

2. Unnamed ROM

Unnamed ROM is about as close as you can come to stock TouchWiz 4.5 and still call yourself a ROM. Notable changes include better performance, automatic overclocking to 1.6 ghz, a modded notification bar, and the ICS boot animation. Unfortunately, battery life issues hampered this ROM's overall appeal.

Grade: B+

3. CyanogenMOD 7.1 (Latest stable build)

CyanogenMOD is on the opposite side of the spectrum. It's array of improvements is too long to list in this article, but since CyanogenMOD does not provide its own launcher, and instead relies on ADW launcher, which has more than a few bugs on the GSII, my experience was unfulfilling.

Grade: B

4. MIUI

MIUI is a beautiful ROM. I will give it that. But it is hampered by a myriad of bugs, including the home and search buttons not working.

Grade: C-

Marco Rubio backs down on his support for PIPA

Marco Rubio, freshman senator from Florida, recently withdrew his support for the controversial Protect IP Act, a bill that he helped to pen in response from growing criticism from the general public. He had this to say on the subject

I have decided to withdraw my support for the Protect IP Act. Furthermore, I encourage Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor. Instead, we should take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet.

  Keep it up people. Tell congress, don't censor the internet

Want Android 4.0 on your AT&T Galaxy S2? Here's how to get it

OK that was a slightly misleading title. What I'm about to show you will give you ICS, but it will look nothing like ICS. It will still be, however, running Android 4.0. You will be installing the GalnetMIUI ICS build, which will give you all the features of MIUI and the satisfaction of owning an ICS phone.

Make sure you followed our previous guides on rooting your Galaxy S2. We are not responsible for your tomfoolery.

Download the ROM here

Copy that file to your device in a place that you will be able to find it. Disconnect your phone from your computer. I almost forgot, backup your device NOW, before it is too late.

Boot into recovery mode by holding the power button as well as both volume buttons, and when clockworkmod boots up, wipe all user data as well as the cache. Select install file from zip, then select the file you placed on your phone. Go to reboot, and select.

Once the device boots up, you will notice internet is not working. Go into settings, system, mobile network, access point names, and you will see a small dot. Touch it. Internet will now work.