Angry Birds for Facebook has launched one day ahead of schedule according to NewsCore. The wildly popular game has been in development for more than a year and was supposed to make its debut Tuesday. Instead, the hotly anticipated title launched late on Monday. The Facebook variant features the same game play as the original mobile app along with added social components, new power-ups and exclusive new levels. The game itself is free to play, with a 20-use power up costing $1. Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 500 million times and is reportedly played by 130 million individuals on a daily basis.

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The Motorola DROID 4 is now available from Verizon Wireless for $199.99 on contract. The sleek QWERTY slider features a 4-inch qHD display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4G LTE connectivity, 1GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel rear camera, and it is being billed as the “thinnest and most powerful 4G QWERTY smartphone.” Thanks to upcoming network enhancements, the DROID 4 will also be able to roam overseas, making it Verizon’s first 4G LTE device with global roaming capabilities. The handset is also eligible for double data, offering subscribers 4GB of data each month for $30.

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Samsung’s Galaxy S II smartphone is now available from AT&T for $199.99 with a new two-year contract. The Galaxy S II runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Samsung Exynos processor. It is also equipped with an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video at 30-frames per second, a 2-megapixel forward-facing camera for video chat, 16GB of storage, a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution and support for AT&T’s HSPA+ “4G” network. Its 1,650 mAh battery is rated for up to 3 hours of talk-time or 250 hours of standby. BGR is currently working on a full review of the Galaxy S II, so stay tuned for more.

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The first of Samsung’s GALAXY S II devices to land in the United States, Sprint’s “Samsung GALAXY S II, Epic 4G Touch”, is now available online for $199.99 with a new two-year Sprint contract. The Epic 4G Touch has all of the trimmings you’d expect from a high-end smartphone including a gorgeous AMOLED Plus display, 16GB of storage, a 1.2GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor, an 8-megapixel camera capable of capturing 1080p HD video, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats and support for Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network. We are currently working on our review of the Epic 4G Touch, which we will be posting in the coming days. We can already say the GALAXY S II is among Sprint’s best smartphones currently available, but you’ll have to wait for the full review to find out why. Read

Mozilla on Tuesday finally issued the new public release version of its wildly popular Web browser, Firefox. Version 5 of Firefox wasn’t met with quite the same fanfare as Firefox 4, but the update is a major one nonetheless. Mozilla bills its new browser as being faster than ever with “even more awesomeness,” and we can’t say we disagree. Firefox 5 has received massive improvements aimed at providing speedier performance, and the UI has been redesigned and improved as well. Firefox’s “do not track” feature also works across mobile and desktop platforms now, and Mozilla has improved support for MathML, HTML 5, XHR, and SMIL as well. Other areas targeted by the new build include CSS animation and JavaScript support, and Mozilla has promised more frequent updates so more new features shouldn’t be far off. According to Net Applications, Mozilla’s Firefox browser was used by 21.71% of the global market in May, second only to Internet Explorer’s 54.27% share. Chrome, Safari and Opera rounded out the top-5 with 12.52%, 7.28% and 2.03%, respectively.

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We had heard early rumors, but now it’s official — the 16GB Wi-Fi edition of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook is now available from Sprint for $499.99. If you’re unfamiliar with the specs, here’s a quick rundown of what the tablet has to offer: the PlayBook sports a 7-inch 1024 x 600 WSVGA display, a 1GHz dual-core processor, support for 1080p HDMI-out, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat, 1GB of RAM, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR support. If you’re looking for 4G speeds on the go, Sprint has also said that it expects to launch a WiMAX version of the tablet sometime this summer. Hit the jump for the full press release.

BlackBerry PlayBook with Wi-Fi Available from Sprint on June 5

The much anticipated BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet with Wi-Fi® connectivity and 16 GB of storage will go on sale in all Sprint direct ship sales channels, including Sprint Stores, Business Sales, www.sprint.com and Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) on Sunday, June 5, for $499.99 (plus tax).

BlackBerry PlayBook delivers a professional-grade, consumer-friendly experience that redefines the possibilities of mobile computing. This ultra-portable tablet, measuring less than half an inch thick and weighing less than a pound, looks and feels great. It features a vivid 7-inch high-resolution display that is highly-responsive with a fluid touch screen experience. It also offers industry-leading performance, uncompromised web browsing with full Adobe Flash support, true multitasking, HD multimedia, advanced security features and out-of-the-box enterprise support.

Customers that have a BlackBerry smartphone can also benefit from BlackBerry® Bridge™, a unique feature that allows the user to wirelessly and securely connect their BlackBerry smartphone, running OS 5.0 or higher, to the BlackBerry PlayBook over Bluetooth®. The secure connection allows the user to access their BlackBerry smartphone’s email, address book, calendar, memo pad, task list, BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger™) and browsing functionality using the large display on the tablet.

BlackBerry Bridge is available as a free download on BlackBerry App World™ and will be supported on BlackBerry smartphone data plans from Sprint for no additional charge.

BlackBerry PlayBook features include:

7-inch 1024×600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touch screen
Ultra-portable at less than a pound and less than one-half inch thick: 0.9 lbs (425g) and 5.1″ x 7.6″ x 0.4″ (130mm x 194mm x 10mm)
1GHz dual-core processor
BlackBerry® Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
MP3, AAC and WMA audio playback
Support for high resolution video playback (H.264, MPEG4, WMV)
1080p HDMI output
Two 1080p HD cameras for video conferencing and video capture – 3 megapixel front-facing and 5 megapixel rear-facing
1 GB RAM memory
16 GB internal storage
GPS, Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), 6-Axis Motion Sensor (Gyroscope), Digital Compass (Magnetometer)
Stereo speakers and stereo microphones
Wi-Fi® (802.11 a/b/g/n) connectivity
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR support
In addition to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with Wi-Fi, Sprint and RIM are working together on the BlackBerry 4G PlayBook tablet.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.

The day has finally arrived for those eagerly awaiting the arrival of Research In Motion’s first tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook. The 7-inch tablet — which is also the first device to run the company’s QNX-based software — is aimed at consumers and professionals alike, with a blend of speed, security, and functionality. You know what we think about the device, but we’re curious to know if you have any big plans for the PlayBook. Hit the jump to vote in our poll, and let us know if RIM’s tablet is going to be a part of your technology portfolio!

Finnish mobile giant Nokia has quietly made its business-centric E7 handset available to U.S. consumers. Released overseas in early February, the Symbian device packs a 4-inch, polarized, AMOLED display with a 640 x 360 pixel resolution, peta-band WCDMA radio, quad-band GSM radio, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, 16 GB of on-board storage, 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording and dual-LED flash, HMDI connector, and 1200 mAh battery. The E7 is available from Amazon.com for $649, or Nokia USA for $679.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Read [Nokia] Read [Amazon]

Mozilla announced on Tuesday that the final release version of its Firefox 4 Web browser was available for download. Within its first 24 hours of availability, the browser was downloaded over 6 million times. Microsoft’s latest browser release, Internet Explorer 9, was downloaded 2.35 million times in its first 24 hours of availability. Version 4 of the popular Firefox Web browser features a variety of enhancements including a redesigned UI, improved tab management and faster performance. Mozilla’s Firefox browser is the second most popular browser in the world according to market share tracker Net Applications. Firefox held a 21.74% global browser share in February, behind Internet Explorer’s 56.77% and ahead of No. 3 browser Chrome, which has grown to 10.93% in a very short period of time. Both Internet Explorer and Firefox have seen their shares decrease over the past year, while Google’s Chrome browser and Apple’s Safari browser have gained popularity. Hit the break for a video highlighting Firefox 4′s new features.

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Microsoft on Monday announced the availability of its next-generation desktop Web browser, Internet Explorer 9. “The best experience of the Web is on Windows with Internet Explorer 9,” said Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft’s corporate VP of Windows Internet Explorer, in a statement. “Today, the Web can unlock the power and performance of the best PC hardware through Windows and Internet Explorer 9. Websites also can act more like applications within Windows 7, with features such as Pinned Sites.” Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser is one of the oldest still available, having launched in the dark ages of the Internet. Thanks to its inclusion on nearly all Windows computers sold, it is also still the most popular browser by a wide margin. Market share tracker Net Applications shows that IE’s browser market share sat at 56.77% in February. The next closest browser, Mozilla’s Firefox, owned 21.74% of the market. Hit the break for the full press release and download IE9 via the read link.

Microsoft Announces Global Availability of Internet Explorer 9

AUSTIN, Tex. — March 14, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of the latest version of the world’s most-used browser with the release of Windows Internet Explorer 9 in 39 languages at an event at the SXSW Interactive conference. Internet Explorer 9 is Microsoft’s most-downloaded browser beta of all time, with more than 40 million downloads, and it has already has gained more than 2 percent usage on Windows 7. Already more than 250 top sites from around the globe are taking advantage of the capabilities in Internet Explorer 9 to deliver differentiated experiences to their customers, with many featured on http://www.BeautyoftheWeb.com. Together, these partners reach more than 1 billion active Internet users on the Web.

“The best experience of the Web is on Windows with Internet Explorer 9,” said Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president, Windows Internet Explorer, at Microsoft. “Today, the Web can unlock the power and performance of the best PC hardware through Windows and Internet Explorer 9. Websites also can act more like applications within Windows 7, with features such as Pinned Sites. In less than a year, Internet Explorer 9 went from early preview to final release with the help of hardware partners and the Web community.”

Top Sites and Designers Take Advantage of Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 9 is designed to bring sites front and center through Windows 7, enabling a more immersive, more beautiful Web experience. Features such as Pinned Sites and Jump List enable people to put their websites directly on the Windows 7 Taskbar, as though they were native applications, and then to quickly and easily perform tasks related to those websites, such as check their inboxes, change the music station, accept friend invitations or see breaking news.

In addition to 250 top sites, more than 1,000 other sites and designers are taking advantage of these new features with Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7. These sites include not only the largest sites on the Web, such as Facebook and Amazon, but also leading experiences from across the Web and the world.

• In social and information networking, Internet Explorer 9 partners include category leaders such as Facebook, Twitter and WordPress — the No. 1 global blogging platform — in addition to leading professional networks in the U.S., Europe, Russia, Korea and Latin America.
• In e-commerce, partners include not only the leading worldwide shopping site, Amazon, and the No. 1 worldwide auction site, eBay, but also the leading site in the emergent “daily deals” space, Groupon.
• Video and streaming partners include three of the top five video-on-demand sites in the U.S. — Hulu, Break.com and Dailymotion — and leading Internet radio sites Slacker, Pandora internet radio and Jango. In addition, partners include top global broadcasters CBC and CTV in Canada, Wat.tv in France, and CNN in the U.S.
• News website partners in the U.S. include the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Huffington Post, as well as dozens of leading news sites globally across all major geographies.

“What people care about on the Web is their sites, not their browser. That’s why Internet Explorer 9 is about making those sites shine. The browser is the theater, and the sites people visit are the play, and that is what Internet Explorer 9 makes better — your favorite sites,” said Ryan Gavin, senior director, Windows Internet Explorer, at Microsoft.

eBay is the world’s largest online marketplace and a leader in mobile commerce. With pinning and Jump List features in Internet Explorer 9, everyone’s favorite eBay experiences are just a click away. “eBay’s integration with Internet Explorer 9 is like having a storefront on your desktop,” said Robert Chatwani, senior director, eBay Internet marketing. “We’re pleased that new functionality within Internet Explorer 9 allows us to innovate and bring new experiences to our customers, making shopping and selling on eBay more engaging than ever.”

Pandora Internet radio is announcing a new dynamic Jump List for Internet Explorer 9. Tom Conrad, chief technical officer and executive vice president of product for Pandora, said, “This new feature allows our listeners to have immediate access to their personalized Pandora stations right from the taskbar with Internet Explorer 9, which will make for an easy-access listener experience.”

Partners such as Gilt Groupe are already seeing early results indicating that Internet Explorer 9 customers who pin the Gilt homepage to their taskbar show a higher purchase rate than those on other browsers. “While results are early, customers using Internet Explorer 9 appear to purchase more per order when compared to earlier versions of Internet Explorer and other browsers. Given that our business model is providing dynamic new shopping experiences online every day, the value of Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7 is potentially very exciting to us and our customers,” said Chris Maliwat, vice president of product management, Gilt Groupe.

Many partners are announcing special offers for Internet Explorer 9 customers that will be available in the coming weeks, including the following:

• Slacker. A free monthlong subscription for customers who pin the Slacker site to their taskbars
• Groupon. $5 in Groupon Bucks when making a first purchase from the Internet Explorer 9 Jump List
• Hulu. A free month of the Hulu Plus subscription for users who pin Hulu
• eBay. Offering coupons or eBay Bucks for bids or purchases made using the Internet Explorer 9 pinning and Jump List features
• Gilt. A series of product bundles for customers who make purchases of specified amounts via the Jump List

Fast Is Now Beautiful: Internet Explorer 9 With Hardware Acceleration

The new version of Internet Explorer takes advantage of the power of modern Windows PC hardware to improve all-around Web browsing performance. It is the only browser with hardware-accelerated HTML5 spanning all graphics, text, audio and video. Internet Explorer 9 harnesses the power of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), unlocking 90 percent of the PC’s power that went previously untapped by Web browsers.

Developers can now build faster, more immersive websites that feel like native applications using HTML5, as well as runtimes such as Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, both of which will take advantage of the hardware acceleration in Internet Explorer 9 in their next versions.

“Internet Explorer 9 has moved the bar in hardware acceleration, enabling Flash Player to tap into the GPU and creating a win-win situation for our mutual customers who want fast, rich content experiences,” said Paul Betlem, senior director, Flash Player Engineering at Adobe. “With Internet Explorer 9 and Flash Player taking advantage of the GPU, we continue the collaboration with Microsoft to further optimize performance. Both companies are also working closely to advance and streamline controls for managing Flash Player privacy and security settings in Internet Explorer 9.”

“The next-generation Web is here today with Internet Explorer 9, accelerated by AMD’s incredible computing platforms — our award-winning AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units with DirectX11-capable graphics and AMD Radeon graphics cards,” said John Taylor, director of Client Product and Software Marketing, AMD. “The next generation is defined by immersive gaming, rich video and fast, compelling, application-like experiences, validating the fact that GPU compute power and the ability to remove barriers between the CPU and GPU are highly relevant to the day-to-day computing performance that consumers expect and demand.”

“Thanks to how Internet Explorer 9 taps into the power of the GPU, the Web is now more visual, more immersive and more powerful with NVIDIA GeForce. We are incredibly excited that consumers can now experience their favorite sites re-imagined and accelerated. It’s a whole new Web,” said Drew Henry, general manager, GeForce Business Unit, NVIDIA.

Improving Privacy and Security Online

Because the Web is increasingly less secure and private, Internet Explorer 9 is designed to be a trusted browser because it contains a robust set of built-in security, privacy and reliability technologies that keep customers safer online.

In December, Microsoft introduced Tracking Protection in Internet Explorer 9, which puts people in control of what data they are sharing as they move around the Web, by enabling consumers to indicate what websites they’d prefer not to exchange information with. Consumers do this by adding Tracking Protection Lists to Internet Explorer 9, and partners such as PrivacyChoice, TRUSTe, Abine and Adblock Plus have already published these lists.

Malware is now the No. 1 risk to people’s security online, and Internet Explorer 9 provides the first Download Manager with integrated SmartScreen malware protection. The browser also introduces SmartScreen download reputation, a groundbreaking browser feature that uses reputation data to remove unnecessary warnings for well-known files and show more severe warnings when the download has a higher risk of being malicious. Studies show that Internet Explorer 9 blocks 99 percent of socially engineered malware attacks, five times more than Firefox and 33 times more than Google Chrome.

Raise Expectations for a Better Web

Partners from around the world are re-imagining their websites using the capabilities of Windows and Internet Explorer 9, creating new experiences that make the Web feel as native as PC applications. The result is a more beautiful Web experience.

“I love the Web for the kinds of joyous experiences it can create!” said Ze Frank, who is launching new features within the social gaming site, Star.Me, in coordination with the Austin event. “HTML5 is a huge step forward for the browser because it brings the Web back to a unified platform for creation. By integrating HTML5 into Internet Explorer 9 and hardware accelerating the browser, Microsoft has signaled its commitment to pushing the Web forward, and that is certainly worth celebrating.”

“HP and Microsoft have a long history of bringing meaningful innovations to our customers. Today, we celebrate with Microsoft the launch of Internet Explorer 9, a new milestone in enabling faster and more visually compelling Web experiences,” said Tony Prophet, senior vice president of operations, Personal Systems Group, HP. “Internet Explorer 9 is really an outstanding browser, and we’re pleased to make it available on most of our consumer PCs.”

“At Dell, we are focused on driving cutting-edge innovation in our consumer devices, and Internet Explorer 9 is the first browser to offer a richer, more immersive Web experience on our hardware,” said Michael Tatelman, vice president and general manager of North American Consumer sales for Dell. “We know customers will see — and experience — the difference, and we’re delighted to be working with Microsoft designers and developers around the world who are building this new, more beautiful Web.”

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Verizon is set to officially unveil its LTE launch plans in just a few minutes. Ahead of that scheduled announcement, the company has gone live with its 4G, LTE website, which includes details on launch markets (38 cites, 60 airports), available devices (currently two data sticks), and a handy service locator (so you can see if you’ll be covered). The LTE network, along with the LG VL600 and Pantech UML290 4G data-sticks will all be available starting on December 5th. Hit the read link to check it out for yourself.

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You can go ahead and pity / envy UK mobile subscribers. If it wasn’t hard enough already, Vodafone has just thrown two more premium handsets into the fray to choose from. If you hit up Vodafone’s official UK website, you can now start placing orders for the gargantuan HTC Desire HD or the solidly-built Nokia N8. The HTC Desire HD is the European equivalent of the Sprint HTC EVO 4G (minus the 4G) found state-side. The phone sports a 4.3-inch WVGA display, runs Froyo out of the box and is powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU. If this handset tickles your fancy, you can pick it up at most Vodafone retail outlets, or optionally online. According to Tech Radar, Vodafone have confirmed the following pricing and plan details:

The HTC Desire HD is available free on £35, 24 month price plans and customers buying the device online will get 900 minutes (compared to 600 offline) unlimited texts and 750MB (500MB offline) of mobile data,” the company added. Buying online will also give you 5MB of European roaming data in your bundle

If HTC is not your cup of tea, the Nokia N8, might be of interest. The N8 is the first Symbian^3 handset to hit the market. The phone has garnered mixed reviews (ours is coming soon), but has gone down well with the Nokia purists. The phone is free when signing up for a £30-a-month two year service agreement. The Nokia N8 is available in lime green exclusively to Vodafone subscribers; we’re still not sure if that’s a good thing.

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Yesterday, Apple announced that its iPhone 4 smartphone would be available for purchase in China beginning on September 25 at 8:00 AM. The device will retail for CNY4,999 (~ $745) for a 16 GB model and CNY5,999 (~$894) for a 32 GB model. Apple also noted that China Unicom will also be selling the device and could provide subsidies with a new 2-year contract.

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If you’re a T-Mobile BlackBerry user, and have no plans of jumping off the BlackBerry or T-Mobile bandwagons, listen up. T-Mobile has just announced, via Facebook, that they will be launching the BlackBerry Curve 3G on September 8th. The device runs BlackBerry OS 5 (but is BlackBerry 6 ready), has Wi-Fi, 3G, and a 2 megapixel shooter. The handset will retail for a mere $80 on a 2-year contract and will be available in grey and purple. There you have it.

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The Motorola Charm, a pudgy little Android handset we first heard about in July, is now available for purchase on T-Mobile. Here is a quick recap of what the Charm is working with: quad-band GSM, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, 3 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, and 2.8-inch touchscreen display; the device will also be sporting Motorola’s MOTOBLUR UI overlay. The full-QWERTY, candy bar shaped phone can be yours — in a red cabernet or golden bronze — for just $74.99 with a 2-year contract. The two links are after the jump.

Read [Caberet] Read [Golden Bronze]