DIGITAL LIFE

Buying a smartphone for somebody else is no different than buying any other gift, except for the pesky carrier data plans and limited availability of many devices. Luckily, both the Samsung Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S are available on multiple carriers, and that makes comparing them much easier. You aren't forced to go to only one carrier, although that wasn't the case with previous iPhone versions.

Galaxy Nexus finally went on sale Dec. 15 at Verizon, and it's $300 on contract with a bonus data deal available for a limited time from Verizon's Web site. That $300 is the highest price you can expect to pay for a subsidized smartphone in the U.S. right now (only exception is the 64GB version of iPhone 4S). It's also on par with Verizon's other flagship phones. Droid Razr, HTC Rezound and the 32 gigabyte version of iPhone 4S.

Astronomers are eagerly awaiting the collision of a recently discovered gas cloud with the giant black hole at the center of our galaxy in 2013. Such a cosmic event has never been seen up close, and it will help scientists better understand exactly what happens when gas and light fall into a black hole.

Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus makes a great holiday gift because it is very portable, super fun to use and has a great feel without being too heavy or bulky.

The wish of the anxious Android fans was fulfilled on Dec. 15 (Thursday) as Verizon began selling the long-awaited Android 4.0-powered (Ice Cream Sandwich) Galaxy Nexus. The handset sells for $299 with a 2-year Verizon contract. No doubt, it will get scooped up like hot cakes as the smartphone is being touted as an iPhone killer but the billion dollar question is - is it really worth buying?

The most wanted Android smartphone, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), will finally hit Verizon Wireless stores on Thursday (Dec. 15) and will sell for $299.99 with a two-year contract. The Verizon version of Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be available in Verizon stores across the US and online starting from 1 a.m. EST.

Apple will open a research and development center in Israel that will focus on semiconductors, the Globes business daily reported on Thursday.

The highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Nexus will finally hits the U.S. market as Verizon Wireless announced Wednesday that the first 4G smartphone to run on Android 4.0 will go on sale Dec. 15. The smartphone is priced $299.99 with a new two-year Verizon contract and will be available in stores and online.

Rumor mill has been buzzing about the next generation iPad, dubbed iPad 3, especially about its release date and specs. Apple has not yet announced the release date of iPad 3, which is not surprising because the company is famous for its secrecy. But the question remains - will the new iPad be able to defend its turf and fend off challenges from its formidable rivals?

Countless rumors on iPhone 5 are circulating around the world, including those about its features and release date. But leave aside iPhone 5 for as moment and imagine that Apple's going to release iPhone 6 - what features do you think it will boast of? Difficult to imagine? Not for MrFreeSpot, who has hit upon a novel interpretation of the word application.

So many tablets came out in 2011, it was easy to miss one that was actually pretty solid. Many were overpriced or underperformed, but the Asus Eee Pad Transformer and Lenovo IdeaPad K1 are nice tablets that are available for $400 or less. The IdeaPad K1 can be found on Amazon for $350 and the Eee Pad Transformer is $400.

Galaxy Nexus and HTC Rezound would both be excellent choices as gifts if you can afford the $300 on contract price. That's assuming the Galaxy Nexus will cost as much as the Rezound because, like the Droid Razr, it will be one of Verizon's flagship smartphones. As great as the Rezound looks on paper, unless the Nexus comes out with a higher price tag, Nexus would be a better gift.

Apple's iPad 3 is rumored to be launching in February, but the holiday season is here now, so perhaps you should pick up a brand new Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 instead. While we can only speculate on what features the iPad 3 will have, we know exactly what we are getting with the Xyboard 10.1.

A three-page contract, which resulted in the creation of Apple Computer Co. and was signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, was sold at an auction for $1,594,500 on Tuesday. At a Sotheby’s auction in New York City on Tuesday, about 20 people attended the bidding of the document. Six bidders were on telephone and online. Finally, it went to a telephone bidder Eduardo Cisneros, the CEO of Cisneros Corp.

Apple fans are complaining about iPhone 4S' half-baked Siri, the personal, voice-controlled, intelligent assistant, prompting everyone to wonder when the technology giant will unveil iPhone 5 and what improved features it will carry.

An exploding star discovered just hours after it exploded has provided key information for understanding how the universe expands and what kinds of stars create certain types of supernovae. Published in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Nature, two new studies have used data from the Hubble telescope to pin down what kind of star could have caused the August, 11 2011 supernova seen in the nearby Pinwheel Galaxy.

Technology giant Apple is negotiating to acquire Anobit, an Israeli flash storage manufacturer, for about for $400 million to $500 million. People must be wondering why.

Motorola's Droid Bionic is one of the most expensive smartphones out there, but you probably already knew that, so here are ten other important things to know about the Android powered device. Bionic costs $200, but it's packed with must-have features like compatibility with Verizon's 4G LTE high speed network.

The occasional sheep seeks respite from a sun that has scorched rocks black in this semi-desert region that South Africa hopes will host the world's most powerful radio telescope.

Scientists at the CERN physics research centre said on Tuesday they had found signs of the Higgs boson, an elementary particle believed to have played a vital role in the creation of the universe after the Big Bang.

"We don't call it the 'God particle', it's just the media that do that," a senior U.S. scientist politely told an interviewer on a major European radio station on Tuesday.

International scientists said on Tuesday they had found signs of the Higgs boson, an elementary sub-atomic particle believed to have played a vital role in the creation of the universe after the Big Bang.

Almost a quarter of the European Union's 500 million people have never used the Internet and there is a widening division between the web-savvy north of Europe and the poorer south and east, figures released on Wednesday showed.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp ironed out its crooked accounts on Wednesday after a 13-year fraud, with a $1.1 billion dent in its balance sheet triggering speculation it will need to merge, sell assets or raise capital to repair its finances.

Broadcom Corp raised its outlook for the fourth quarter on Wednesday on stronger demand for its chips, sending its shares up nearly 7 percent.

Google's new Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Android mobile operating system has dozens and dozens of new features, so it's less of an update than an entire renovation. Some of the main selling points have been features like the Face Unlock facial recognition security feature and the (now cancelled by Verizon) option to use Google Wallet to turn your device into a debit card

Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet have found a nice little home in the under $300 tablet world, and that's in part due to the fact they more like muscle-bound e-readers than full featured tablet computers. While both devices run the Android operating system, they run customized versions that do not allow either device to gain access to the over 500,000 apps in the Android Market.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus is coming to U.S. on Dec. 15, according to the latest rumor, which cites a Verizon store as saying.

Early adopters, this is the battle you've been waiting for. Samsung Focus S and HTC Titan are two of the best smartphones out there with the Microsoft system running their insides. Windows Phone 7 replaced Windows Mobile as Microsoft's mobile operating system in 2010. Now, with an updated 7.5 version, called Mango, the Windows Phone system is ready to duke it out with the likes of Android and Apple.