"We had a great quarter" says Larry Page, CEO of Google. Google has made $9.72 billion in revenue, an increase of 33-percent from Q3 2010. GAAP net income is $2.73 billion versus $2.17 during the same period last year. Google also reported $9.02 billion in revenue last quarter, with $2.51 billion in net income. Not bad, Google.

Analysts were expecting Google to earn $8.74 per share this quarter on a revenue of $7.21 billion, representing a more than 30-percent growth from last year. With these estimates, Google have blown away those expectations on both revenue and EPS, as non-GAAP EPS this quarter weer $9.72. Google has had a very active quarter, the acquisition of Motorola, and the public launch of Google's social networking site, Google+.

Google presently employs 31,353 full-time employees and has $42.6 billion in cash. Google's sales and marketing costs doubled from $661 million in Q3 2010 to $1.2 billion this quarter. Research and development costs went from $994 million to $1.4 billion. One of the more interesting items on the ledger... a $500 million charge from the Justice Department regarding pharmaceutical ads. Wow, spare change considering they have $42.6 billion in cash - hey Google, can I have a loan?

Apple's iPad has enjoyed nearly no competition, until Google unveiled Honeycomb. But even that, is not enough to stop the tablet juggernaut. Google and its manufacturer partners have as of yet to announce official sales figures for Android-powered tablets, which leave everyone else to just guessing. Android developer Al Sutton has reminded everyone, with a little bit of math, we could get quite the estimate on just how many Honeycomb-powered tablets are in the wild.

What is that number? Roughly 3.4 million. This number is based on Google's latest platform versions states, a fortnightly updated breakdown of what proportion of devices use each Android version - and the official activation numbers which were announced as part of Google's financial results yesterday. Google CEO Larry Page claimed 190 million Android devices had been activated in total. THis leads us to the platform stats, with 1.8-percent of Android devices that have accessed the Android Market within the 14 day period up to October 3, 2011 were running Android 3.0, 3.1 or 3.2 (in contrast 38.2-percent are running 2.3.3 Gingerbread or higher).

If we dab a little magic on these numbers, we come to the 3.4 million tablet figure. But there is a note here, since Google's platform numbers are based on access to the Android Market, only those tablets that are officially Google certified (which have to meet Google's criteria to include the official download score) are being counted. Of course, there are many more tablets in the wild sporting alternative versions of Android and using third-party app stores, such as Amazon's AppStore for Android, with these tablets not being counted in the total number.

OCZ have launched the Deneva 2 and Intrepid Series mSATA SSD lineup for OEM clients. The small form factor drives are designed for a wide range of embedded applications such as slim servers, tablets, dual drive notebooks, and network security devices. They are set to deliver superior performance over hard drives while meeting the stringent reliability, security and cost-saving needs of enterprise storage environments.

Embedded system designers require small format, cost-effective SSD solutions that do not compromise performance or reliability. OCZ mSATA SSDs, unlike standard drives, are much smaller with no outer housing, making them an easy to deploy storage solution for mobile computing, boot modules for virtualization applications, or HDD caching, allowing for high capacities, high performance, and low power consumption in a very compact form factor.

Ryan Peterson, CEO of OCZ Technology Group says:

KINGMAX, a world renowned leading brand of DRAM and flash memory has just unveiled the worldwide first one TB-class SSD, 1TB 2.5-inch SATA II SSD, which leads SSD in an exciting new direction. KINGMAX have applied unique patented packing technology to implement the 8 Stacked Die technology for 1TB SSD. Cheng Qian Zhang, Senior Vice President of KINGMAX said:

Now for the good bit, specifications! The new drives come in a bunch of sizes, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512GB and of course, 1TB. They are all on the SATA II 3Gbps interface, feature NCQ/Trim commands and feature varying levels of performance:

With Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus to be hopefully unveiled this week at Samsung and Google's event, Australian's are waiting patiently to see what's going on with the as of yet announced device. News has hit the Wi-Fi Alliance site that the GT-i9250M and GT-i9250T have arrived. Specification wise, we still have nothing, but it does suggest that the smartphone could be offered by both Vodafone and Telstra when it arrives.

Usually, with the latest smartphones, one of the carriers gets some form of exclusivity for either a few weeks, or permanently. But for a handset that is bound to be the biggest competitor (and potential leader) of the iPhone 4S, I'm sure both Telco's are willing to compromise.

Ausdroid has been a good little reporter and has the following information for us all:

Nokia's World event is being held in London in a little over a week, on October 26 and details are starting to play peak-a-boo with the Internet. What exactly is leaking you ask? Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 "Mango" device, which Pocketnow and GSMArena both coming across ads for the device that is carrying the moniker, Nokia 800.

Nokia's codenamed "Sea Ray" hasn't really been an icon-clad secret from Nokia, with CEO Stephen Elop showing off the device in June during a presentation. The device takes after Nokia's MeeGo-powered N9, but with a few changes. The full curved glass facade of the N9 has been replaced to accommodate three buttons, with a plastic unibody enclosure still remains.

The N9 wasn't a budget phone by any means, at 475 EUR for the 16GB model, and 534 EUR for the 64GB model, it is still priced well within the parameters of the premium market. So, if the Nokia 800 has to succeed as Nokia's first Windows Phone-powered device, the price is definitely going to be something that will be a large dot point next to the phone.

Google are shutting down Google Buzz, its non-started Gmail-based social network that paved the way for such things as Google+. Google VP Product Bradley Horowitz wrote today in an announcement post on the Google Blog:

Old Buzz content is still ok, and will be visible on users' Google profiles, users will also have the ability to export their data from Buzz before it becomes unavailable. This should be in a few weeks. Google is also shutting down some other social products such as Jaiku and iGoogle social features, not only that, but Code Search and a program that gives academic researchers API access to Google Search results.

I was a first-adopter of NVIDIA's Stereoscopic 3D technology, 3D Vision and loved it. However, I quickly realised that 120Hz gaming was far better than the (at the time) hit-and-miss 3D technology. NVIDIA have today announced next-gen 3D Vision 2, which sports a new set of active-shutter 3D glasses and 3D LightBoost, a display technology meant to enable brighter visuals by letting more light seep in through the goggles.

The new 3D Vision 2 glasses have 20% larger lenses than their predecessor, and also feature a thinner, more flexible composite frame that's meant to block more light from the sides and top. This time around, wearing headphones should be more comfortable (one thing I did not like with the original 3D Vision goggles and my Logitech G35 headset). Battery life is meant to be "very similar" and prices haven't changed. $149 for the 3D Vision Wireless Kit with a receiver, or $99 for the glasses on their own without the receiver.

3D LightBoost is only supported by some new displays and laptops, but what does this mean? It means that the LCD panel features a faster backlight that allows the 3D glasses to be kept on longer. The way this works is because the 3D Vision goggles work by rapidly opening and closing shutters so the user's left and right eyes always see different frames. 3D LightBoost goes one up by brightening up not just the images on-screen, but also the user's surroundings.

While many will take these numbers with a grain of salt since they came direct from Intel, it's not hard to believe how strong performing Intel's Sandy E is up against its old aged X58/LGA1366 predecessor, and with the (quite disappointing) benchmarks out on Bulldozer, it only puts AMD in an even dimmer light.

Intel has shared some internal test results of its soon to be launched Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition processor; a six cored / 12 threaded beast clocked in at 3.3GHz with 15MB of cache. The results were directly compared to the top dog in Intel's current flagship platform, the Core i7 990X EE, which runs a stock clock of 3.46GHz.

A breakdown of all the results can be read via the source link below, but to summarize here, the i7 3960X looks to be about 15% quicker on average. Its best improvement was actually seen in 3DMark 11's Physics test where it bested the Core i7 990X by 36%. And throughout the tests there was one particular standout attribute; its memory benchmarks where it left the 990X for dead over and over and scored up to 111% better in some instances.

Right from the get go Windows 7 was looking strong out the gate and allowed Microsoft to take a quick U-turn away from the rocky road they travelled down with Vista, but it's been Windows XP that has retained the biggest impact in the OS world for MS all this time.

However, if the latest consolidation of data from StatCounter is accurate, the first half of this October has seen Windows 7 actually overtake XP in becoming the primary operating system of choice worldwide. The data was collected from over 3 million sites in total and it was discovered that Windows 7 now has a market share of over 40%, which is up from 39.04% last month.

Windows XP is still going super strong, though, with a 38.62% market share. Meanwhile, Vista continues to dwindle in third place at a far distant 11.18% market share. Trailing behind Vista in fourth is Apple with Mac OS X at 7.3%, then in fifth sits iOS at 1.1%.

Sony's motion-based gaming accessory for the PlayStation 3, Move, has shipped more than 8.3 million units worldwide. Gabe Ahn, developer support engineer for Sony Computer Entertainment America has said that software wise, there have been more than 7 million Move-based games shipped in North America alone. By the end of 2011, there will be more than 80 games available, and Ahn also said that SCEA expects continued growth through the remainder of the year.

He thanks third-party publishers and name-checked EA, Activision, Capcom, Konami, as well as upcoming titles like BioShock Infinite and Ninja Gaiden 3 as examples of continued support for the Move controller. Ahn also stressed the diversity of games available for Move, from hardcore shooters such as Killzone 3 and MAG to more casual games like EyePet. Ahn also showed off a clip on "the future of gaming", which featured a Move player with a head-mounted display turning his world into an augmented reality version of Resistance.

In the demo, it shows a player gunning down Chimera in a parking lot with his Move controller and sharpshooter setup. The clip is not totally serious, but it points toward a hypothetical potential of the Move interface. Ahn said "it could be Resistance 4, it's a very cool concept". Very cool indeed. He continued saying that there are four key requirements for a good game interface, expressivity, precision, immediacy, and intuitiveness.

A U.S. Judge has said that Samsung's Galaxy tablets infringe on Apple's iPad patents, but also that Apple might have a problem establishing the validity of its patents. These comments are from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, which came on Thursday in a court hearing on Apple's request to bar some Galaxy products from being sold in the US. Apple and Samsung are currently duking it out in 10 countries with more than 20 cases currently on-going.

Just yesterday, an Australian court barred the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold in Australia. In April of this year, Apple sued Samsung in the US, saying that the South Korean-based company's Galaxy range of smartphones and tablets "slavishly" copies the iPhone and iPad. Fast-forward to July and Apple filed a request to bar some Samsung-branded products from sale in the US, including the Galaxy S 4G smartphone and Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA have both opposed Apple's request, saying that a ban on Samsung Galaxy products would hurt their holiday sales. Apple must now show that Samsung infringed on its patents and that its patents are valid under the law. Judge Koh also stated that she would deny Apple's request for an injunction based on one of Apple's so-called "utility" patents. She did not say whether she would grant the injunction based on three other Apple "design" patents.

Jailbreak iOS 5 on iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad and iPod Touch using Redsn0w 0.9.9b5 is now available and for those of you who wanted to upgrade to the fresh-out-of-the-oven iOS 5, but not lose your jailbroken app goodness, as well as all of those hacks and tweaks you've fallen in love with, today is your day.

There were rumors that iOS 5 would stop any of these types of hacked upgrades, but people still want their stolen apps and games, right? Maybe it's just tweaks and hacks to the original iOS 5 that you're after, but everyone is different. Of course, there are some jailbreak apps that just don't work with iOS's default software. SBSettings for example, bringing control of your iDevice's vital features using a simple activation method.

The iPhone Dev-Team has released a tether-jailbreak (which means you'll require it to be connected to a computer when the phone turns on, every time) which is explained below:

A top Research in Motion official has apologized for the extended outage that is limiting service for many BlackBerry users worldwide. RIM still have no idea when the service will be fully restored. RIM's Chief Information Officer, Robin Bienfait, has said "You've depended on us for reliable, real-time communications, and right now we're letting you down". This was posted on RIM's website. He added:

The outage could not have come at a worse time, with RIM losing ground against smartphone kings Apple, Samsung, HTC and others. And to make things worse, RIM is scheduled to host a key developer conference next week. RIM has said that a failure of core switch led to the initial outage earlier this week, but then got worse as redundant backup systems did not kick in as anticipated. The outage effected North America in the first 24 hours which was due to its efforts to manage the backlog of email in its systems.

Apple's iPhone 4S launched today in Australia and yesterday Telstra released their plans for the hotly anticipated Apple handset. Now we have all of the plan details, monthly amounts, data caps, SMS, call plans, outright pricing, everything you need to know as an Australian iPhone 4S potential customer. If you're after an iPhone 4S and want it outright, you're looking at $799, $899 and $999 for the 16, 32 or 64GB phones, respectively.

Now, onto the plans. Optus' offerings are below, it doesn't seem too bad looking at the $79 cap which includes $900 worth of calls, 3GB of data and $0 per month for the 16 and 32GB iPhone 4S's.

Vodafone is identical, offering the same amount of calls and data at a $79 cap plan.

Apple is rumored to be launching a cloud-based movie service before the end of the year, if not, early 2012. The Los Angeles Times has reported that Apple Representatives have been meeting with various movie studios to finalize a deal that would allow consumers to purchase movies through iTunes and stream them to any iOS-based device. The news comes just after talks of the first movies from a multi-studio venture known as Ultraviolet being launched this week.

Ultraviolet will allow consumers to purchase a DVD or Blu-ray and gain access to digital cloud-based copies they can then watch instantly on their Internet-connected TVs, smartphones and tablets. Ultraviolet web-only purchases, without discs, are expected to arrive in 2012. The Los Angeles Times didn't cite iCloud specifically, but when it says that Apple plans to "put movies in the cloud", there's no guessing required. What is unclear though, is whether the movies and TV shows would be simply downloaded to iOS devices, or streamed in order to save storage space.

The Ultraviolet system is interesting as it introduces a new digital system for customers, without ditching the old business model. It would also [hopefully and potentially] curb piracy, as there are many, many iOS users who are happy with paying for things through services such as iTunes. People familiar with the matter also stated that even though studios were launching Ultraviolet, they are willing to partner with Apple for the new venture, with talks of customers being able to access their Ultraviolet-stored content through Apple's cloud-based service.

This news bit is short and sweet, and doesn't add to your love handles, just in case you were wondering. iCloud gives you 5GB of free storage, not bad, eh? Well, Box.net are actually offering [for the next 50 days], iOS users the chance of grabbing 50GB of free storage. Free, that means $0. Not only is the deal bloody amazing, but there is no fineprint. No asterisks, no buts, nothing. Most of these types of offers expire after a certain amount of time, or are only open to fresh, new users, but this one is neither.

It is open to anyone and everyone and lasts forever. 50GB of free storage for iOS users thanks to Box.net, nice one!

This promotion starts at midnight tonight and runs for only 50 days, so get your free space in the cloud by following these steps:

Windows 8's UI has undergone some changes as Microsoft received a bunch of feedback due to its developer preview of the upcoming OS last month, where they pledged to respond with a number of changes. Firstly, the app displayed within the Windows 8 App Screen can now be organised into groups, rather than the alphabetical arrangements (as shown in the image below).

Apps can now be displayed at a higher density, which means cramming more content into the same space. Enterprise users will have the ability to customize their companies' Start screens and unify them across the networks, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me. There's still no word on whether administrators have the ability to opt out of Windows 8's Metro Ui tile-based interface, in favor of the "old-school", Windows 7-esque Desktop app, which is a highly requested feature.

There are many changes Microsoft are baking into Windows 8 and its great to see them so open with their users and implementing them so quickly. Take a look at the Building Windows 8 blog for an absolutely mammoth read, its very detailed and very awesome.

24 hours ahead of the official US launch and iFixit have ripped apart Apple's latest poster boy, the iPhone 4S. Inside we find a few details that future iPhone 4S users might want to know, such as the iPhone 4S having a half a watt-hour extra juice inside compared to the iPhone 4. This would be partially responsible for the 4S's improved 3G talk time, but the thanks could also go to the updated Qualcomm MDM6610 dual-mode baseband.

The iPhone 4S also sports an improved vibrator (hehe, hehe) motor found in the CDMA iPhone, iFixit also say that the touchscreen panel uses the same connecting points as the older GSM iPhone 4 instead of those found in the newer CDMA model. There are also markings on Apple's A5 processor that confirm what we've all been sitting around the rumor mill with, the amount of RAM included in the iPhone 4S.

Apple's A5-sporting next-gen iPhone was rumored to have 1GB or RAM, but it is now officially confirmed to be just 512MB of RAM. Markings on the A5 chip itself (E4E4) confirm the processor contains two 2Gb dies, 4 gigbits is equivalent to half a gigabyte, or, 512MB. iFixit gives the device 6 out of 10 score for repairability, the same as the iPhone 4 received, due to the use of pentalobe screws, thanks, Apple.

We've been talking about this for a while... but now it seems a concrete date has been set. Google and Samsung have sent invites to various people, tech sites, etc for the rescheduled Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) event. Google and Samsung plan to unveil Google's next-generation mobile OS, Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as Samsung's next smartphone, Galaxy Nexus (possibly named Nexus Prime) on October 19, in Hong Kong. The timing coincides with the D Asia conference and would start at 10PM Eastern time.

If you can't make it, don't sweat; there will be a live stream for those of us unable to attend. I would suggest organising maybe a towel for all the drool you'll do over your keyboard. Originally, the event was meant to be last week, but as we reported a few days ago, it was delayed out of respect for Steve Jobs. In the US, the new Galaxy Nexus/Nexus Prime should arrive around the date of November 3, and could be a Verizon exclusive, at least in a version with LTE-based 4G.

The new Nexus handset is set to be quite the smartphone, not only packing Google 4.0/ICS, but it's expected to be a heavy modification of the already great Galaxy S II HD LTE with the same ultra-dense, 4.65-inch, 720 screen bent into the same curve as the Nexus S. It may even sport a crazy 1.5GHz dual-core processor, either Samsung's Exynos or a TI OMAP chip, it should also sport NFC for short-range wireless features such as Google Wallet.