Apple’s official iCloud.com website is now live for developers as part of a new beta phase of the service. The website is complete with web applications for Calendar, Contacts, Mail, iCloud for Pages, iWork and Find My iPhone. It also currently has a look and feel very reminiscent of iOS, which we like. We already know that Apple will offer iOS users 5GB of free iCloud storage, but the Cupertino-based company also revealed the official pricing for those who want a bit more storage. Users can sign up for an additional 10GB of storage (15GB total) for $20 per year, 20GB of additional storage for $40 per year, or 50GB of added storage for $100 per year.

On Thursday LG’s Park Jong Seok, head of the mobile phone business, announced that his company is cutting its full-year smartphone sales forecast by 20% and now expects to sell 24 million smartphones in 2011, down from its earlier forecast of 30 million units. According to Bloomberg, Park noted that the mobile phone business is “slowly” improving but couldn’t provide a firm time on when investors would see improvement on the company’s balance sheet. “It’s hard to give an exact timing, because there are so many market variables, and the situation changes quickly,” he said. Park expects LG to sell 1.7 million units of its new Optimus 3D smartphone by the end of the year and said “we want to differentiate ourselves with good hardware such as the 3D model by taking advantage of what we are strong at, like displays.” On June 4th, LG’s CEO, Koo Bon Joon, said that his company would have a difficult time turning around its troubled handset business during the second quarter. The company’s phone shipments were down 10% year-over-year during the first quarter of 2011, while phone sales were down 14.3% quarter-over-quarter and 9.2% year-over-year.

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According to the analytics firm StatCounter, Google’s Chrome web browser now has a 20.7% grip of the web browser market — seven times more than it had just two years ago. The boost comes at the cost of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser, which now has less than a 50% hold on the market. Mozilla’s Firefox web browser has a 28% share of the browser market, down from 30% two years ago, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer share fell to 44% from 59% two years ago. According to Reuters, StatCounter gathers its data from more than 3 million websites with more than 15 billion page views.

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We’re big fans of Verizon Wireless’ Novatel Mi-Fi 4510L 4G LTE hotspot, and now you can pick one up for just $49.99 with a new two-year contract — a $50 savings over the original launch price. If a hotspot isn’t quite your style, Verizon is also offering Novatel’s USB551L 4G LTE USB modem for just $19.99 with a new two-year contract. We’ve been blown away by Verizon’s 4G speeds, and we’re told the sale will only last until July 18th, so be sure to check these out if you’re in the market for a new mobile broadband product.

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If you just picked up a brand new Motorola DROID X2, here’s a deal you may want to take advantage of. The “Essentials Pack” for the DROID X2, which includes an HDMI cable, a multimedia station with HDMI-out (and an included wall charger), a navigation/music vehicle mount and a vehicle car adapter, is now available for $19.97 — a $30 discount. If you still have a DROID X sitting around, the whole kit should work just fine with that, too. Hit the jump for a link to Verizon’s website to take advantage of the deal.

Thanks Scott!

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Looking for a Honeycomb tablet? Not a fan of the XOOM? You’re in luck. The gang over at TmoNews have been sent in the above screen shot that indicates T-Mobile’s G-Slate, Android 3.0 tablet will be hitting store shelves Wednesday, April 20th. The device sports the oh-so-sexy NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, and has it’s twin cores running at a full 1,000MHz. The G-Slate impressed us at CES back in January, and we’re hoping to get our hands on a fully-baked retail unit ASAP.

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Right on queue, Amazon has announced a new, cloud-based, music storage service dubbed Cloud Drive. The new offering will allow users to store up to 5GB of music in Amazon’s new, online locker and playback uploaded tracks via their Android smartphone, Android tablet, Mac, or PC. Users that purchase a complete album via Amazon’s MP3 store will automatically be upgraded to 20GB of storage, free of charge, and tracks purchased on Amazon are automatically uploaded to the cloud; purchased tracks do not count towards your storage quota. Stored music can be played-back using the Cloud Player for Web or Cloud Player for Android software (available in the Market now) and additional storage plans starting at $20 per year (we know some of you have large music collections). Congratulations Amazon, you are officially the first to market. The full press release is after the break.

Introducing Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud Player for Web, and Amazon Cloud Player for Android

Buy anywhere, play anywhere and keep all your music in one place

Start with 5 GB of free Cloud Drive storage – upgrade to 20 GB free with purchase of any MP3 album

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the launch of Amazon Cloud Drive (www.amazon.com/clouddrive), Amazon Cloud Player for Web (www.amazon.com/cloudplayer) and Amazon Cloud Player for Android (www.amazon.com/cloudplayerandroid). Together, these services enable customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC, wherever they are. Customers can easily upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive for free.

“We’re excited to take this leap forward in the digital experience,” said Bill Carr, vice president of Movies and Music at Amazon. “The launch of Cloud Drive, Cloud Player for Web and Cloud Player for Android eliminates the need for constant software updates as well as the use of thumb drives and cables to move and manage music.”

“Our customers have told us they don’t want to download music to their work computers or phones because they find it hard to move music around to different devices,” Carr said. “Now, whether at work, home, or on the go, customers can buy music from Amazon MP3, store it in the cloud and play it anywhere.”

Store Music for Free

Customers automatically start with 5 GB of Cloud Drive storage to upload their digital music library, and those who purchase an Amazon MP3 album will be upgraded to 20 GB of Cloud Drive space. New Amazon MP3 purchases saved directly to Cloud Drive are stored for free and do not count against a customer’s storage quota.

Adding Music to Cloud Drive

Amazon’s easy uploading process makes it simple for customers to save their music library to their Cloud Drive. Files can be stored in AAC or MP3 formats and will be uploaded to Cloud Drive in the original bit rate. Customers can hand-pick particular songs, artists, albums or playlists to upload or simply upload their entire music library.

Cloud Player for Web

Customers who have a computer with a Web browser can listen to their music. Cloud Player for Web currently supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari for Mac, and Chrome. Cloud Player for Web lets customers easily manage their music with download and streaming options. Customers don’t need to worry about regularly updating software on their computer to enjoy music, and Amazon MP3 customers can continue to use iTunes and Windows Media Player to add their music to their iPods and MP3 players.

Cloud Player for Android

Cloud Player for Android is now bundled into the new version of the Amazon MP3 App; it includes the full Amazon MP3 Store and the mobile version of Cloud Player. Customers can use the app to play music stored on their Cloud Drive and music stored locally on their device. Features include the ability to search and browse by artist, album or song, create playlists and download music from Cloud Drive.

Secure Storage

Customers never need to worry about losing their music collection to a hard drive crash again. Files are securely stored on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and each file is uploaded to Cloud Drive in its original bit rate. Customers can buy music anywhere and know that their MP3s are safely stored in Cloud Drive and accessible from any device.

Store More than Music

Cloud Drive allows customers to upload and store all kinds of digital files; music, photos, videos and documents can be stored securely and are available via web browser on any computer. In addition to the 5 GB of free storage, customers can purchase storage plans starting at $20 a year for 20 GB.

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Apple watcher Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray on Tuesday revealed NPD Group data showing estimated Apple computer shipments in the U.S. for the first month of the company’s 2011 fiscal year. According to NPD Group’s numbers, Mac sales were up 20% year-over-year in January and shipments are on pace to reach 3.6 million units in the quarter. Wall Street is expecting global Mac sales to grow 22% year-over-year, and Munster believes Apple will meet expectations. Conversely, NPD shows that U.S. iPod sales declined 10% in January compared to the same month last year. Apple is expected to unveil a refreshed MacBook Pro line very soon, and strong demand for its popular MacBook Air laptop line should result in strong sales for the remainder of the quarter.

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Today via a blog post, social networking site Twitter announced an update to its Android client to version 2.0. The new code offers a modified interface along with a handful of feature improvements and additions, including:

• Use without having to sign-in
• Single window layout
• @mentions are now included in the replies tab
• Autocompletion of usernames
• Universal search

The update is sitting in the Android Market, waiting for you to download it. Go take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

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Today, via a press release, AT&T announced one addition and one change to its smartphone data plan offerings. First, the addition. AT&T will now offer a mobile hotspot plan that will provide users with 4GB of monthly data to use via their handset or while connected to their handset as a hotspot. The plan will be available February 13th and will retail for $45 per month. Second, AT&T is revising the data allowance on its smartphone tethering offering. Previously, users could pay $20 per month for the ability to tether their smartphone to their computer; no additional data was provided for this fee, you simply shared your 2GB monthly allowance with your computer. Now, those who pony up the $20 will be given an additional 2GB of bandwidth (for a total of 4GB monthly) to play with. Not bad AT&T, not bad at all. Customers who are already enrolled in the tethering plan will receive a text message from AT&T around February 13th alerting them of their newly increased data pool. Hit the jump for the full press release.

AT&T Details Pricing, Launch of AT&T Mobile Hotspot App Coming February 13

Application Provides Additional 2GB of Data, Bundled with AT&T Data Pro

DALLAS, Feb. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T* today announced select smartphone customers will soon be able to connect multiple devices from their smartphone – via Wi-Fi – thanks to the new AT&T Mobile Hotspot application. The feature will first be available February 13, beginning with the in-store launch of the HTC Inspire™ 4G. Bundled with the AT&T Data Pro plan, customers will benefit from a total of 4GB for $45 per month.

In addition, also on February 13th, to bring AT&T’s smartphone tethering plan in line with the AT&T Mobile Hotspot offer, AT&T will automatically add the additional 2GB of monthly data usage to smartphone customers already on a tethering plan – at no extra charge. Customers will incur the same $20 monthly fee they’re accustomed to paying, only now they’ll receive an extra 2GB of data each month.

AT&T Mobile Hotspot details include:

• Connectivity for multiple wireless devices to AT&T’s mobile broadband network
• 2 GB of data usage for $20 a month, bundled with AT&T’s Data Pro plan ($25 / 2GB)
• The combined AT&T Data Pro plus AT&T Mobile Hotspot will provide 4GB for $45 per month
• 4GB applies to collective use among all devices
• Overage fee of $10 per gigabyte

“Our customers want to connect as many devices as possible to the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, which is getting faster with 4G,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.

“We want to extend the benefits of an additional 2GB to smartphone customers on our tethering plan. This delivers more value today for the price they’re already paying – and that’s what our customers want.”

Customers will receive a text message from AT&T – as soon as February 13 – once the additional 2GB has been auto-added to their plan.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.
4G speeds delivered by HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul. Available in limited areas. Availability increasing with ongoing backhaul deployment. Learn more at att.com/network

Ever wonder just how many transactions social networking site Facebook handles in 20 minutes? No? Us either. However, a recently published report from analytics company Democracy UK — that describes exactly what happens in the aforementioned period of time on the site — has piqued our interest. On average:

1 million links are shared, 1.32 million photos are tagged, 1.48 million event invitations are sent out, 1.59 million wall posts are published, 1.85 million status updates are posted, 2.72 million photos are uploaded, 4.63 million messages are sent, and 10.21 million comments hit the site.

All of that, and more, happens every twenty minutes. Yikes. The published report also mentioned that Lady Gaga was the most Liked celebrity — Justin Bieber ranked an anemic 9th, just below the 8th place celebrity… Lil Wayne?

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Both Zach and I have bought no fewer than five Roku XDS units as holiday gifts this season. So it comes as no surprise to us that Amazon has slashed $20 off of the device’s price now that our Rokus are all wrapped, mailed, and committed. The online retail giant has quietly reduced the price of the 1080p streaming media player from $99.99 down to $79.99. The Roku XDS offers full Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu Plus compatibility, as well as a host of other streaming options thanks to an online channel-store available to all users. Procrastination literally just paid you $20. The XDS is currently listed as “temporarily out of stock,” but if time is not of the essence, you can still go ahead and order yourself Roku’s high-end offering at the new, low price.

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Although it has been available in a beta version for the past several weeks, BlackBerry Desktop Manager 2.0 for Mac had yet to be given an official release date by maker Research In Motion… that is, until today. RIM has made version 2.0 of its desktop suite for Mac official. The update brings with it Wi-Fi music syncing, a new device switch wizard, and the ability to import and sync both photos and videos with iPhoto and iTunes. Desktop Manager 2.0 clocks in at just north of 40MB and is available as we type. Hit the read link to download the new goodies.

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The gang over at PreCentral.net have done some tinkering with a Palm Pre 2 running webOS 2.0 and have managed to gain access to the mobile operating systems on-screen keyboard. While the performance of the keyboard was described as “a little buggy,” it does give us hope that HP is working on a full-touchscreen device that was designed for the company’s latest mobile OS iteration. If you’re interested to see what the keyboard looks like in action, hit the jump… a video is waiting for you.

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Here’s a bit of good news for Android enthusiasts: as of December 1st, 83% of Android devices are now running OS version 2.1 or higher. The numbers, which come directly from Google’s developer analytics, show the progress the Big G is making in getting the wide-variety of handsets in market updated to newer code. As you can see from the above chart, the majority of handsets are now running Google’s latest mobile OS version, Android 2.2. While the nature of the mobile market will always be prohibitive to 100% of in-market devices on a single OS version, it is nice to see the lion’s share of handsets on a more recent, modern code — a favorite party-line of Android detractors is to call the platform “fragmented.” Hit the read link to check out the full article.

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