Samsung Transform Ultra

The Samsung Transform Ultra has a 3.5-inch HVGA touch screen and 1GHz processor

The good: Like its twin on Boost Mobile, the Samsung Transform Ultra has an uncluttered Android Gingerbread interface, a front-facing camera, and a fair price tag.

The bad: The keyboard on the Samsung Transform Ultra could rise a little higher, and camera quality could be improved.

The bottom line: Folks looking for a phone with a QWERTY keyboard will find in the Samsung Transform Ultra a reliable midtier device, though $20 more could nab you an even better phone.

It's rare for parent carrier Sprint to show a handset after one of its MVNOs, but that's exactly the order of arrival for the Samsung Transform Ultra, which first debuted on Boost Mobile in early October, about three weeks before the handset became available on Sprint.

Lenovo 10.1-inch Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with 1.6GHz Tegra 3 by year's end

You wouldn't think a giant like Lenovo would stop at just three (or four) Android tablets now, would you? In fact, a little birdie has informed us that said Chinese company will release a new 10.1-inch tablet by the end of the year, and unsurprisingly, Ice Cream Sandwich along with NVIDIA's Tegra 3 T33 are on the menu. Other features include 2GB of speedy 1,600MHz DDR3 RAM, a standard USB host socket (covered by a not-so-elegant pop-out flap), a back-facing camera of unknown resolution, a "Special Fusion-Skin Body" and, most interestingly, a fingerprint scanner that apparently doubles as an optical joystick on the seemingly flat backside -- only time will tell whether this layout makes sense. Our source hasn't spilled any info on the dimensions and weight, but judging by the photos in our gallery, this 1.6GHz quad-core slate should be significantly thinner than the IdeaPad K1 or LePad sitting underneath. As always, you'll hear from us as soon as we find out more.

Android Tablet Wars? The Evolving Tablet Spectrum

Android tablet devices are still struggling to define themselves in the marketplace. Unlike Apple's iPad, which has established a niche based on strong brand identity, its Android rivals are still a generic blur. Will they be distinguished by design specs or by the online stores they are associated with?

Android's tablet-form evolution is not purely a consumer-market issue. How this marketplace develops will have a major impact on Android use in the workplace. This in turn will help shape how IT at small and midsized businesses (SMBs) respond to tablet devices, mobility, and "the consumerization of IT."

Android Wars and Stores
Triggering the debate is the debut of the Nook Tablet. As noted by columnist M.G. Siegler at TechCrunch, this release coincides with early reviews of the Kindle Fire. What these devices have in common is not just that they are inexpensive Android tablets, they also both aim to leverage their association with bookstores--that is to say, with large-scale content providers.

This double development comes amid the ongoing struggle of Android tablet devices in general to gain a firm identity in the marketplace. Another TechCrunch columnist, Matt Burns, characterizes the current trend as the "PC-ification" of the Android tablet segment.

LG DoublePlay: Twice Your Android Smartphone Fun?

Android smartphones come in all shapes and sizes. But in most other ways they're very similar. Therefore bigger screens, higher-resolution cameras, and faster processors tend to be the hardware tweaks that manufacturers use to try to differentiate their newest model from both their competitors' and their own smartphones. LG's Android-powered DoublePlay takes another tack. Its unique hardware signature is dual touch displays.

The LG DoublePlay ships with Android 2.3.4 (a.k.a. Gingerbread). It is not clear if an upgrade path to Android’s latest OS, 4.0--dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich--will be available. T-Mobile’s official response is a vague "we are actively working with OEM partners to ensure that a number of eligible T-Mobile devices are upgraded to Android 4.0 in the coming months." Upgraded OS or not, the LG DoublePlay's modest screen size, display resolution, and single-core 1-GHz processor should not deter you from considering it as a combination work and play smartphone. The device combines several features, including a few unique ones, to make it an appealing choice for just about anyone.

Android Phones Seeing 'Malware Epidemic'

Mobile phones running on Google's Android operating system are experiencing a "malware epidemic," with the amount of malicious software having risen nearly fivefold since July, according to a post by the security research division of Juniper Networks.

More than half of the smartphones sold worldwide in the third quarter of the year use Android software, the research firm Gartner said this week. And as the platform grows, so do its malware woes. Cybersecurity firm McAfee reported in August that Android had become the number-one target for malicious software.

October and November are expected to see the fastest growth of malware in the history of the Android operating system, according to the post by Juniper Global Threat Center. This comes after a fourfold increase in Android malware from 2009 to the summer of 2010, the company said. By Juniper's count, that means Android malware has increased a stunning 427% from July 2011 to November 10, 2011.

Juniper said hackers have become more sophisticated in the malware they create for Android, writing malicious code that allows them to take control of the phone, spy on victims and send premium-rate text messages - which can cost $2 to $3 each - from a victim’s phone to the hacker, who collects the money.

Juniper said malware on Android devices has become widespread because Google’s method for policing its mobile app store is less stringent than Apple’s system for keeping malware out of its mobile app store.

"There is still no upfront review process in the official Android Market that offers even the hint of a challenge to malware writers that their investment in coding malware will be for naught," the report said.

Malicious applications in the Android market can be removed after the fact if someone discovers it and reports it, Juniper said.

"But how many unsuspecting people are going to download it before it is identified as malicious and removed?" the post said. "This is precisely what is playing out in the mind of mobile malware developers today."

A recent report by the malware testers at AV-Test.org found that most free Android malware scanners did a poor job of detecting malicious software. "[T]he circulation of obviously near to useless security apps endangers those, who trust them and install apps from 3rd party app markets without further suspiciousness," read AV-Test's report, according to ZDNET.