Google on Tuesday launched a newly designed search page for mobile devices that incorporates features of Google's search apps directly into the the Web interface and adds easy-to-touch quick search buttons for commonly used mobile/location-based searches.

The new Google.com for mobile devices looks just about the same as it did before, but adds touchable icons across the bottom of the page for "restaurants," "coffee," "bars," and "more." When "coffee" is clicked, for example, all the nearby coffee shops show up under Google Places. When users click "more," a page with nine icons appears, which adds: fast food, what's nearby, shops, ATMs, gas stations, and attractions.

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Chromium-based "social" Web browser RockMelt on Tuesday received an update to Beta 3, which adds about 30 new features and a tighter integration with Facebook which comes as a result of working directly with the popular social network.

"Our goal is to build a browser that makes surfing the web better, easier, and more fun. We couldn't be more excited to work with Facebook to make social a core browser component and to continue the browser revolution," the RockMelt blog said today.

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If you like your security suites to be feature-rich then Kaspersky's offerings have always been worth a look, as most editions come packed with functionality that you won't find elsewhere. Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 (KIS 2012) is a little quieter than usual, though; its release notes show no big additions this time around, just interface tweaks and various engine optimisations. So what does this mean in real life? We took a closer look.

Tweaks and Tucks

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But that's OK, there's no carrier contract to break.

An unlocked iPhone 4 is now available to any American who might want one, but the real demand more likely will be overseas. It is mostly pointless to use an unlocked iPhone within the United States, since the only supported GSM carrier is AT&T -- at least for fast data. But in international markets, there are many more supported networks -- and iPhone already is a hot export item because of the high markup.

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Today, Nokia announced that it had resolved all patent claims with Apple, which will pay on-going royalties to the Finnish phone manufacturer. Apple also will make a one-time payment to Nokia. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees," Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, says in a statement. "This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market."

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The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook isn't instant-on. Don't believe any marketing messaging suggesting it. I had to wait an agonizing 4 seconds when flipping the lid before the Chrome logo appeared -- first bootup out of the box.

Instant On, Instant Setup, Instant Update

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A juror in a drug trial in England will face contempt of court charges for contacting one of the defendants in her trial through Facebook, according to a ripping good story in the Telegraph. Corruption and stupidity compete for space in this episode which also involves a police officer who sold sensitive information to drug dealers for a BMW and Premier League match tickets.

Joanne Fraill, 40, is the juror who allegedly chatted online to Jamie Sewart. Sewart had already been acquitted, but verdicts on other defendants were still being discussed. Sewart also faces contempt charges for asking Fraill for details on the jury deliberations. Both could face jail time if convicted.

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Mimo Monitors, the company best recognized for its USB-powered touchscreen mini-monitors released an equally miniature Plug computer on Monday called MimoPlug.

Based on Marvell's Sheeva plug computer design, the MimoPlug has a 1.2GHz CPU and 512 MB of DDR2 RAM. Like other plug computers using Marvell's design, MimoPlug uses a (4.33" x 2.74" x 1.9") fanless chassis with integrated power supply, and has a single Cat5 ethernet port and USB 2.0 port. Unique to Mimo's platform, however are its storage options. MimoPlug features an SD card slot which comes with a 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB MimoPlug GUI SD card that is partially dedicated to driving the 10" touchscreen mini-monitor with Debian Squeeze and Gnome Desktop. Users also have the option of a MimoPlug with an eSata II port.

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Market-leading IT company Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced Monday that it will be reorganizing its corporate structure to fit with the strategy shift it announced last March. Moving forward, HP is prioritizing three businesses -- hybrid cloud solutions, connected devices, and Management/Security/Analytics software -- and this executive shift is a reflection of that.

Priority 1: Customer-Facing businesses

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Frak, do I have to root every friggin' Android device just to take screenshots?

Last week, while writing my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 first impression review, I had to take photos of the screen with a digital camera. On an iOS device, clicking the power and home buttons simultaneously would have captured the screen. C`mon, Google, must you make screen capture so difficult? There are third-party utilities, including Screenshot ER, which supports Honeycomb. But they require root access -- and, hey, I'm not going to root a tablet I haven't finished reviewing.

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Facebook is reportedly set to go public in early 2012, becoming the latest company to cash in on what seems to be a renewed frenzy surrounding technology stocks. Likely to be one of the hottest IPOs so far, experts believe that the company could reach a valuation of $100 billion.

A recent private sale of a large chunk of shares -- about 100,000 -- gave a valuation of about $85 billion. An IPO and the surrounding buzz would push the valuation even higher, experts believe. The news follows Groupon, which announced its IPO earlier this month, and LinkedIn, which started trading publicly last month.

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Microsoft has released a tool called Microsoft Analytics for Twitter that lets users build their own mini Twitter analytics engine for the Excel 2010 add-in PowerPivot.

This free add-in lets users query Twitter from within Excel 2010 and then build their own dashboard of Twitter statistics with the PowerPivot analytics plug-in. The application has been designed to let users track up to five concurrent search queries including #hashtags, @mentions, keywords, usernames, or any of Twitter's Search Operators, and analyze them with PowerPivot, which includes the ability to gauge the "tone" of a tweet (whether it's favorable or negative) based on customizable parameters.

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Another major move in the mobile processor space took place on Monday as Nvidia, maker of the popular Tegra 2 applications processor for mobile tablets and smartphones, announced it had completed its acquisition of Icera, a wireless modem company specializing in baseband technology for smartphones and tablets.

The $367 million cash acquisition will give Nvidia an applications processor with bundled baseband and RF chips that will give device manufacturers a single option to cover both of their onboard processor needs in a single package. For example, the Icera modem solution called Espresso 450 for smartphones and tablets uses Nvidia's Tegra processors, includes the radio interface layer for Android, and includes multiband HSPA+, HSUPA, and quad-band GPRS/EDGE radios.

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Let me offer apologies for being asleep at the wheel. Somehow I missed the road sign -- or perhaps ran it down -- for Gartner's updated PC shipment forecast, released last week. The analyst firm reduced 2011 PC shipments -- again. Massive slowdown in netbook sales and increased media tablet adoption are major reasons.

For years, the PC market benefitted from strong laptop sales that offset declines on the desktop. But the times they are a-changin.

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The only reason anyone would want to run a Nightly build of a Mozilla product like Firefox is because they want to help provide a test environment for providing that vital early feedback on a product that's so fresh it's completely untested. This early exposure provides the basis on which Firefox, Thunderbird and its brethren migrate towards the first major milestone in a program's life, the alpha build.

When it comes to evaluating these programs, you need a collection of useful tools to help you test and provide the feedback essential for catching early bugs. And Mozilla provides those tools in the form of the Nightly Tester Tools, a free add-in designed specifically for these early, unstable builds. It works with Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey and Songbird.

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