Motorola's Droid 3 is a nice addition to the Android smartphone family Verizon Wireless began selling in October 2009, according to this eWEEK review. With a new keyboard, an eight megapixel camera, and Android 2.3 (“Gingerbread”), this device is “the best of the Droids yet.”

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Oracle released a new version of its free virtualization software, now offering an easy way to clone virtual machines (VMs). VirtualBox 4.1 also includes a memory limit increase to 1TB for 64-bit hosts, guest support for Windows Aero, a new UDP networking tunnel for interconnecting VMs, and support for SATA hard disk hotplugging, among other cited new features.

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Attachmate's SUSE business unit announced a partnership with Xamarin, which formed to support the open source .NET clone “Mono” after Attachmate jettisoned the Mono team in May. The agreement grants Xamarin a broad license to all IP covering Mono products, including Mono for Android, and calls for Xamarin to provide technical support to SUSE customers using Mono-based products, says SUSE.

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Techsol released two Linux-ready, computer modules incorporating ARM9-based, 454MHz Freescale i.MX233 and i.MX283 system on chips (SoCs). The TSCM-233 is based on the i.MX233 SoC and offers 64MB of DDR RAM, while the similar, Ethernet-enabled TSCM-283 is based on the i.MX283 and includes 128-256MB DDR2 memory, and both are available with optional I/O boards and display subsystems.

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WinSystems announced a family of environmentally sealed panel PCs that feature Intel Atom N270 processors plus CompactFlash or hard disk storage. The PP65 devices come with 12.1-, 15-, 17-, or 19-inch resistive touchscreens, VGA outputs, gigabit Ethernet, plus multiple USB and serial ports, the company says.

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SeaMicro says it has packed more Intel Atom processors into a new device it claims is the most power-efficient x86 server on the market. The SM10000-64HD has 384 N570 chips, 1.5 terabytes of DDR3 memory, up to 64 SATA hard disks or solid state drives, and from eight to 64 gigabit Ethernet ports, the company says.

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BCM announced a Nano-ITX motherboard that includes a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and supports dual displays. The NX450N has Mini PCI Express and CompactFlash slots, two SATA ports, gigabit Ethernet, plus an optional TPM (trusted platform module), the company says.

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During a Jul. 14 earnings call, Google executives shared plenty of good news — including quick adoption of the Google+ social networking services. But there could be trouble in paradise, with developers defecting from Android to Apple's iOS, claims the mobile analytics firm Flurry.

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Asus released a netbook that comes with an unusually large 12.1-inch screen and — at least in some markets — Ubuntu Linux. The Eee PC 1215P includes a dual-core Atom N570 processor, 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, up to 2GB of RAM and 320GB of hard disk storage, six hours' battery life, and optional Bluetooth, the company says.

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Kootol Software Ltd. has sent “a notice” to Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Twitter, and several dozen other tech companies regarding a soon-to-be-awarded patent on a “core technology” apparently involving social networking. Meanwhile, legal attacks by “patent troll” Lodsys are causing small app developers to withdraw from the U.S. completely, according to a July 15 roundup by London's Guardian.

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In a preview of a demonstration at the upcoming Black Hat security conference, a security researcher has demonstrated how browser extensions can be used to compromise Chrome OS. WhiteHat Security specialist Matt Johansen reported spreading a note containing malicious code via the ScratchPad extension.

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Kontron announced a “Starterkit” evaluation platform for COM Express Type 6 modules. The Kontron COM Express Starterkit Type 6 includes an ATX carrier board with four USB 3.0 and dual DisplayPorts, among other I/O, plus a choice of ETXexpress-SC module (quad-core 2.1GHz Intel Core i7) or microETXexpress-OH (dual-core 1.6GHz AMD G-Series) modules.

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Adobe has released a beta of Flash Player 11, touting 64-bit support across Windows, Mac OS, and — after a year-long hiatus — Linux. The software includes a new set of low-level APIs for GPU (graphical processing unit) acceleration, H.264/AVC and H/264 compression technologies, cross-platform vector printing, a secure random number generator, according to the company.

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An Alaskan company is now taking orders for a laptop computer that sports dual 17-inch displays, each with 1920 x 1080 pixels. gScreen's “SpaceBook” comes with a Nvidia GTS 250M discrete graphics processing unit, a 500GB hard disk drive, a DVD drive, and a choice of Intel Core i5 or i7 processors.

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Sprint is offering the Motorola Photon 4G, its latest Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” phone, for $200. Available July 21, the Photon 4G is equipped with a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, offers a 4.3-inch qHD display, and has an optional, Atrix-like “HD Station” dock — without the earlier laptop-like format — to expand the display.

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