Images of a new BlackBerry 10 device, codenamed ‘London’, has been leaked to the internet via Crackberry.

Previous leaks of a BlackBerry 10 (back when it was still BBX) showed a Blackberry London device that looked similar to the BlackBerry Porsche P’9981. It should come as no surprise that the BlackBerry London has been slated for a UK release with two other codenamed devices, ‘Laguna’ and ‘Lisbon’ set for a US release.

And what about the processing power? So far, it seems RIM is contemplating TI and Qualcomm 1.5GHz dual-core processors. BlackBerry 10 devices are expected to be released later on this year.

[Crackberry]

USB 3.0, the successor to the current USB 2.0 standard which hasn’t yet been universally implemented as the new standard will be made available on smartphones and tablets either by the end of 2012 or early 2013.

USB 3.0 will allow for faster data transfer speeds than what is currently possible for smartphones and tablets. “What takes 15 minutes will roughly take 1 minute and 10 seconds,” Ismail said, chief technology officer of the USB Implementers Forum during the Consumer Electronics trade show in Las Vegas. The 3.0 technology can typically  transfer up to 5Gbps but will be limited for smartphones and tablets as it will require more power which “does not fit the profile of mobile phones”.  So instead, users will be left with about 800Mbps, which is still faster than USB 2.0.

Charging of smartphones and tablets using USB 3.0 will also be faster as more power will flow than USB 2.0.

[ComputerWorld | image via MaximumPC]

A tweet from the ChevronWP7 account explains that the team has “sold out” of all 10,000 unlock tokens it had agreed on with Microsoft. As a result of this, there are no unlocks being provided via the ChevronWP7 tool at the moment. It is up to the team now to decide if they will like to re-order some new unlock tokens from Microsoft to continue with the service they provide.

[ChevronWP7 (Twitter)]

A few weeks back, a potentially OS breaking bug was discovered on Windows Phone 7. The bug disables the Messaging Hub for WP7, disabling all messaging services it controls.

Khaled Salameh, the discoverer of the bug tweeted: “MS Security Team contacted me today, they’ve confirmed the WP7 SMS Bug and found the rot cause, a fix is currently under testing”. For the unaware, the bug is activated when a specific (still undisclosed) string of text sent to the WP7 messaging hub. For a video of the bug in action, see the bottom of this post.

[Khaled Salameh (Twitter) | via WPCentral]

iPhone Hacks has posed a set of instructions to recalibrate your iDevice’s home button delayed responsiveness.

So if your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch home button lags, follow the steps below:

1. Launch a default iOS application. eg. Stock, Weather. (The source states to use a default app. It could work with any app launched).
2. Press and hold the home button until ‘slide to power off’ appears.
3. Release the power button and hold the home button until ‘slide to power off’ disappears from the screen.

That’s it! Your home button should be recalibrated.

[via iPhone Hacks]

SkyDrive is Microsoft‘s free cloud based service that offers 25GB of online storage to users. An app for SkyDrive has finally been made available to Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) and iOS (version 4.0 and above) users.

The SkyDrive app can be downloaded from the Windows Phone Marketplace or iTunes App Store. If you’re unable to download the app from the link, check back in a few hours as the app may still be rolling out to all users.

Functionality for the WP7 and iOS apps include the ability to:

Browse your entire SkyDrive—documents, photos, any and all of your files

Being able to see all your folders and files (of all types) is important for SkyDrive power users, as it helps facilitate sharing and file management.

Share any SkyDrive folder or file with one or more people

Pick a file of any type, or even a folder, and share it with as many people as you like. This uses the same “Get a link” mechanism as SkyDrive.com does—you can give the recipients view-only or view-and-edit permissions to your file.

Manage your SkyDrive

Organizing your folders and files just the way you like it is now possible  with the SkyDrive app. Create a new folder for a new project or photo album, or  delete old files or folders that you no longer need.

SkyDrive for Windows Phone

SkyDrive for iOS

[Windows Team Blog]

When the string of specific (undisclosed) characters are sent to the Windows Phone app hub, the device automatically reboots and after restarting, the app hub fails to open (see video below). The only work-around to getting the app hub working again will be to hard reset your Windows Phone device. Of course this means losing valuable data on your device.

The bug doesn’t appear linked to any security issues, but more to do with the way text messages are handled in WP7. Of course WinRumors and Khaled Salameh (who discovered the bug) are keeping the string needed to disable the app hub a secret. They are ” in the process of disclosing the bug to Microsoft“. Let’s hope Microsoft provides a fix as soon as possible for Windows Phone users before those with less pure intentions discover this bug.

[WinRumors]

Microsoft has released an Xbox Live app for iOS devices. If you’re an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch user with an Xbox 360, this is an app for you.

With this app you can stay connected to Xbox Live via your iPhone. It allows you to:

• Read and send messages to friends
• Manage your friends list, invite new friends
• Read and Edit your full LIVE profile (name, bio, motto)
• Change your avatar features/items with the avatar closet
• View and compare your achievement progress with friends

The app is free and can be downloaded in the App Store via this link. Screenshots can be found here (flickr).

This is a nice move by Microsoft, considering it released its Xbox Companion app exclusive to Windows Phone 7 devices.

[Major Nelson]

Continuing from last week’s list of emoji icons available for Windows Phone 7 devices, here is part 2.

These emojis may appear differently on non Windows Phone 7 devices (or not at all). They also work when messaging via Windows Live Messenger. See part 2 of the list below:

[Windows Phone Blog]

update: The app has now gone live and can be downloaded unto your device via this Marketplace Link. Some reports claim you must be running the 7740 update for Windows Phone 7.

If you’re both a Windows Phone and Xbox 360 owner, Microsoft has some early holiday presents for you tomorrow (December 6th).

The first being the announced Xbox 360 Dashboard update, and now a Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone to match.

The Companion app will allow users to “find, learn more about and control content from popular entertainment services on Xbox LIVE.”

The companion app, powered by Bing, will be free in the Windows Phone Marketplace but there is no word whether it will be available for the US only or worldwide.

Major Nelson posted details of the app on his blog:

Xbox Companion search powered by Bing. Search the unified Xbox catalog for movies, TV shows, music, games and apps using the Windows phone. View a detailed unified results page across all content providers. You can see recently played games and apps and browse the Zune video catalog

Using the Xbox Companion app you can learn more details about the movie, TV show, music or game that is playing on your console. You can also get friend activity (friends online, friends with beacons, friends who have recently played), achievements and related items.  You’ll also be able to select a search result, and launch a movie, TV show, game or app on the connected console as well as play, pause, fw, rw the playing video or music on the connected Xbox,initiate media purchase and navigate your Xbox console with Windows Phone using the Xbox Companion.

See screenshots of the app here (flickr).

[Major Nelson Blog]