We have seen statues come and go from the grassy hills of  Google’s Mountain View campus.

We have seen Androids toting Ice Cream Sandwiches, Jelly Beans and even hiding in Honeycomb; but never before a Chrome Android statue.

What does this mean?

Paul Wilcox, Android’s Community Manager posted this bizarre image today on his Google + page.

Reading further into the picture, the Chrome Android statue seems to be leaning out of Building 45 at the Android Institute and right opposite the lawn where the statues are normally unveiled.

Further more, Google normally only release Android statues to personify the release of a new version of Android. Could this mean some marriage between the Chrome browser or Chrome Operating System; …

Is Google I/O  2013 set to be the first time we get to see the fruits of the Google/ Motorola marriage? And is the first child destined to be the much vaunted bezel-less Motorola X-Phone? Is this first child destined to bring Key Lime Pie to the masses?

We feel it is! So do the guys over on Droidforums who have posted up some rumoured specs to get us salivating.

So according to the mill the Motorola X-Phone will feature:

• A 5 inch HD screen most likely 1080P, with an edge to edge or almost bezel-free design, so in the hand Motorola will be aiming for the same chassis size as a Galaxy SIII
• The X-Phone will not carry Nexus

…

Sony seem to be living up to their recent statement that they wish to only bring great quality handsets to market and leave the lower priced market to their competitors.

We are still drooling over the Xperia Z handset announced at CES 2013 and now Sony have confirmed the tablet variant, running (and wait for it….),  a Quad Core Qualcomm 1.5Ghz APQ8064 CPU, 2GB RAM, 32GB Storage, a 10.1″ screen at an incredible 1920×1200 (powered by Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine 2)! Camera wise there’s an 8.1 megapixel Exmore R camera out back, NFC, LTE, micro SD. Audiophiles will not be disappointed either with the inclusion of Sony’s S-Force virtual surround sound technology.

Phew.

Now imagine all of this wrapped in …

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has gone live on stage at the Motorola-Verizon event in New York overnight and couldn’t hold back some very exciting numbers. Android activations have well and truly passed the 1 million per day mark, and are now sitting at 1.3 million activations per day, with a total install base of 480 million!

These are great figures and shows the strength of Android beyond any one particular manufacturer. It gives Windows 8 and other OS’ plenty to think about. In fact, it was only 70 days ago we reported on 1 million activations per day and but 17 days beyond that, we reported 900,000 activations per day.

With a strong line-up of Droid’s announced by Motorola last …

Editor’s update: We’re not sure just yet if this model will have the ramped up 2GB of RAM that we’ve seen around the world. We’ve sent an email to Samsung and Telstra to find out more. The SGS3 is currently available for pre-order from Optus and Telstra’s will launch in October. Consumers are also able to pre-order the device from Samsung’s Experience store in Sydney.

Update two: I emailed Samsung about the RAM and the 4G Galaxy S III has 2GB of RAM on-board!

It wasn’t that long ago that our own Josh Berg uncovered Telstra’s plans to introduce a 4G variant of the powerhouse Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Well Telstra have now gone public via Social Media,  with the …

‘Slim carbon beauty’

‘Just a beautiful device to hold’

The Motorola RAZR V is a great mid-range Ice Cream Sandwich device with raw carbon beauty from Motorola. The best thing about it, Mot0rola have mostly left it the hell alone. Join us as we go hands-on with the Motrola Razr V.

WHAT WE LIKED

This part is easy, in fact, I struggled to find anything I didn’t like about the Motorola RAZR V – Motorola’s brand new mid-range Android, running Ice …

Samsung have today announced they will continue the partnership with Dropbox, to provide 50GB free Dropbox accounts to Note II and Camera buyers for two years. This is fantastic news as especially with the Camera you will need every bit of it!

The only issue here is, and the same with the Galaxy S III, the 50GB free is only available to new accounts, meaning if you already have a 2GB free account, you must setup a new email address and new Dropbox account, then jump through a further 8 step process to claim the 50GB free.

No one still knows what Samsung and Dropbox are going to do, at the end of the free period either. Presumably it will …

Samsung are on a roll over at Unpacked 2012. First the Note II and now Samsung announce the 16MP Galaxy Camera!

Of course the most exciting feature is the Galaxy Camera is as we would expect, Android powered. But rather than being an out and out Android device, the camera is simply powered by a modified-to-suit version of Touchwiz with Android. However, this is a Jelly Bean device. Yes, that’s right, Jelly Bean count 2-0 Samsung. Nice.

Specifically, the unit is an Android–powered, Galaxy-branded, 16MP point and shooter.

The device is of exceptional build quality and features a 4.8″ HD display on the rear with access to a raft of Android-powered apps such as Google+, Gmail, Instagram, Facebook, and more …

Editor’s Update: I asked Samsung if the Galaxy Note II was coming to Australia. While we can probably assume that the Note II will come down under, Sammy are being very tight-lipped at the moment. Here’s what they had to say:

Samsung is delighted in the response from consumers in regards to the GALAXY Note 2 following IFA 2012. A decision has not yet been made whether this product will be made available in Australia.

Samsung have finally done it. The successor to one of its wildest success stories is out in the wild. Overnight in Germany at its Unpacked event, Samsung have outed the Galaxy Note II.

Hence we can now confirm some well known specs: the Note II …

Chinese electronics giant Hisense have announced a partnership with Google to bring a sub-$100 Google TV box to the masses.

The so far elusive Android powered Google TV box has been marketed so far by Sony, with the $399 box available only by redemption on certain high-end TV models. But so far, and I checked this in a Sony store last week, they have not landed.

Hisense are supposed to be demonstrating the box live at the IFA event in Berlin from August 29th to September 5th this year, so the final iteration of the product shouldn’t be too far away.

“Hisense adds even more innovation to the growing list of Google TV-powered devices available around the world. We’re working …

Update (Editor’s note): As Graham Bucknell pointed out in the comments below, there appears to be a bit of information on an Australian release. Gizmodo pushed Nikon Australia and got the information that the S800C will set you back around $449-499. It is expected to launch locally on September 27 and I’m sure these things will sell very well. More as it comes.

Nikon have today released the world’s first point and shoot Android powered camera – the S800C. Quite widely rumoured, the unit packs a whopping 16MP and a 10X opitcal zoom with a NIKKOR lense.

What makes it so special, is it runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, has full WiFi support with B, G and N support.

And …

‘T for Terrific – Telstra T-Hub 2 brings Android to everyone.’

When Telstra launched the original T-Hub, there were many owners who initially loved it, but wanted more from it. Sure it could take calls, access some apps such as the White and Yellow Pages and some …