The company behind the Linux-based OS Ubuntu announced on Wednesday that it will be offering a version of its software that will run on smartphones. Namely, the Ubuntu operating system uses the same drivers as Android and would work as a replacement software for existing phones running the Android OS, according to Canonical.

Canonical will release the open-source code as a file that can be installed on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, initially. Plans are also in the works with manufacturers to provide the software pre-installed on …

Have you been on the fence about getting a Nexus S? Well, Best Buy has announced that starting last night (August 2nd) at midnight it will begin offering the Google Nexus S for free. You’ll still have to have a two-year agreement with AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile, but it beats full price.

Better hurry because if you wait a day later the price will jump back up. We imagine Best Buy will be very busy today with this news.

In June the rumor was that Amazon isn’t getting enough parts for the production of the company’s upcoming tablet devices. But now it looks like Amazon has found the right suppliers and is reportedly buying all parts that it can to ramp up production of the 7 and 10-inch tablets.

Vendor reports suggest that Amazon now comes second only to Apple when it comes to IC parts shipment from Taiwan. This synchs up with the previous report that Amazon is importing 2-finger touchscreen display solution for its devices. So we may be seeing three sizes of tablets.

Google has announced that their Nexus S Android smartphone will be arriving on the AT&T network later this week. July 24th to be exact. The Nexus S smartphone has Android 2.3, a 4” Super AMOLED screen, a 1 GHz processor for 3D graphics, front and rear facing cameras and support for NFC. Basically everything you want.

The Nexus S also has the latest Google mobile apps, like Google Earth, Google Maps with Navigation, Google Talk with video chat, Google Voice and Voice Actions, and access to over 250,000 apps in the Android Market.

Sony and Nintendo have embraced 3D, but Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has yet to actively support it. Xbox senior product manager David Dennis says that the company is taking a wait and see approach and you can’t really blame them.

He says that Microsoft will not implement 3D in the 360 until 3D proves its staying power and gamers demand it.

We knew that Google was working on a new Nexus smartphone and now we have some news. According to BGR, Google’s first Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone will be called the Nexus Prime, and it will be made by Samsung. The display is expected to feature a 720p resolution, and it looks like it will be a Super AMOLED HD display, and feature a dual core 1.2GHz or 1.5Ghz OMAP 4460 processor.

It will be the first to launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Other features include 1GB of RAM and a five megapixel camera that will be able to record full High Definition video in 1080p. It sounds pretty tasty so far.

Great news. Hulu Plus for Android is available, however you may not be able to install it yet. The Hulu Blog states that six phones: the Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Atrix are compatible, with “additional device announcements” coming later in the year.

If you look at the list, many flagship phones are missing, but we have high hopes that they will have it running for everyone in no time. Hopefully that is the case.

If you own a Motorola Xoom and live in Europe, you can now download the Android 3.1 Honeycomb update.Looks like the SD memory card slot on the XOOM is finally sorted out as well. According to Motorola, the update will be coming over the next several weeks and that the functionality will vary by region.

So if you are in Europe and have a Xoom, you must be pretty excited right about now. Motorola really didn’t say much else about the update, so other improvements may be less useful than the Sd card slot.

Rumor is that Google has been working on a new Nexus handset and now we may have a brief glimpse at it thanks to folks at TechHog who have a photograph that is supposed to be a prototype of the Nexus 3. The phone is apparently being manufactured by HTC.

It has a front facing camera, and is being tested on HSPA+ and Sprint CDMA networks. So it looks like Google will launch the phone on Sprint since the carrier has been working with Google on Google Voice and Google Wallet. Other than that, we know nothing little else. However Techhog was asked to remove the images and info, so that pretty much confirms things.

Netflix finally has an Android app that is publicly available. The app is pretty identical to the one released for the iPhone and it lets users manage their instant queue and watch videos. Of course to use it you need a subscription starting from $8.

Thing is, only a handful of phones can use the Netflix app, all of which are using Snapdragon processors. These first five include the Samsung Nexus S and four HTC phones, including the Evo 4G, the original Incredible, the Nexus One, and the T-Mobile G2. The Droid Incredible 2 and Thunderbolt, weren’t mentioned, though they have also have Snapdragon.

Sprint’s Nexus S 4G has one major difference from the original and that’s the fact that it has a WiMAX radio. It also has Android Gingerbread and goes on sale today, right on schedule. To refresh your memory, this smartphone features a 4-inch curved Super AMOLED screen, a 1GHz Hummingbird chip and NFC capabilities, along with the promise of Google Talk video chat.

Sound good? Well, it will cost you $200 on-contract from Sprint, or $50 less if you’re a brand-new customer and get it from Best Buy.

The Sprint version of the Nexus S has been available for pre-order for a while now, but things just got a bit more official. We have a date. And that date is May 8th. You’ll have to do the usual two-year commitment with Sprint and pay your $200 of course.

You won’t have long to wait now. The device is identical to the Nexus S on T-Mobile’s airwaves except for the addition of CDMA and a WiMAX radio. It features a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and a 1GHz processor with dedicated graphics support and Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

This mouse looks like your typical no frills wireless mouse, but don’t judge a mouse by it’s looks. The Nexus SM-8000 Silent Mouse is virtually quiet when its buttons are pressed. No sound. It won’t bother those around you with annoying clicking noises.

Nexus’ 2.4GHz wireless mouse has five buttons, a DPI of 1,000 up to 16,000 and runs on two AAA batteries with an automatic power save mode. Nothing on pricing and release yet. They are being quiet about that as well.

We’ve had Google Android phones since late 2007 and the first Google phone came from working with HTC on the Google Nexus One which launched last year. This year the Google Nexus S arrived from Google and Samsung. So they like to partner up. The latest rumor is that Google is working on its first Nexus-branded tablet with another friend.

According to Mobile Review, Google is working with LG on a Google Nexus Tablet. Of course this tablet will run Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb and it might launch as early as this summer or early in the fall. It is likely that Google would make sure that the tablet would get software updates earlier than third party tablets.

Google is just a tad biased toward it’s own phones, so the Google Nexus One is getting all of the Android updates first before other models, just like the Nexus S, which is the first handset to be powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread. And now there is a new handset from Google today, the Nexus S 4G.

The hardware has been co-developed with Samsung and will be on Sprint’s high-speed 4G data network. It features a 4” Contour Display, a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, front and rear facing cameras, 16GB of internal memory, and NFC (near field communication) hardware. The Nexus S 4G will arrive later this spring.