Taking some hints from Google Now, the Expedia app on Google Play has received a major update that brings several fresh features and improvements, with the smart and beautiful Mobile Itineraries being the main attraction. The feature uses a location-awareness technology to pop up relevant information.

Dubbed as the online travel company’s “biggest mobile launch”, Mobile Itineraries allows users to get real-time updates of information on all of their Expedia bookings – flights, hotels, car rentals, and cruise.

Here’s the complete list:

• Flights - Mobile Itineraries displays confirmation code, airline, flight number, travel dates and times, gate information and flight status. Additionally, it provides a flights map showing pins for departure and arrival, as well as potential layover airports and paths between them. The app also shows airport terminal maps for over 200 major airports worldwide.
• Hotels - The Hotel Page shows hotel address, contact information and a map of where hotel is located.
• Car Rentals Provides confirmation code, car rental company, phone number for national 800 number, local phone number and the pickup and drop-off date and time.
• Cruise - See the day your cruise starts, then tap your cruise to open up your full cruise itinerary on the web.
• Destination Services - Shows the valid start date for each activity, the date the activity expires, the number and name(s) of guests and a link to redeem vouchers, which provides barcodes for the activity.

In addition, you can easily share your itinerary via e-mail and SMS. Should you encounter any issues while on the road, the one-touch access feature allows you to easily get in contact with Expedia customer service. The update also makes it easier to book hotels and roundtrip flights, improves the checkout process, and fixes the checkout issue for folks in the UK and Canada.

Head to Google Play now to grab your copy.

The HTC One was initially going to be released in early March in Taiwan, but the launch was hit by a series of unfortunate delays. The wait is now over, as the flagship phone has finally hit various retail stores in the country yesterday.

On location to capture the excitement were the folks at Mobile01. Bearing in mind that it was still fairly early in the morning, we can see from the pictures that the store was reasonably packed with HTC enthusiasts. The first lucky buyer was a 34-year-old man named Mr. Lin. Congrats!

For now, HTC is only selling the 32GB model of the phone, with the 16GB and 64GB variants expected to follow suit in the future. If you’re having trouble finding one in your area, it’s probably because only 6,000 units are up for grabs, or so according to the source. Well, color us surprised — not.

Fortunately, the next batch of units is supposedly due in the coming days.

Are you planning on purchasing the HTC One? Here’s our review to help make your decision a little bit easier.

In a report released by Gartner last month, Nokia was trailing Samsung in the overall worldwide mobile phone sales chart in 2012, a testament to the former’s sales power – particularly for “dumb” phones – in emerging markets.

But Nokia will want to heed the finding of the latest “Mobile Trends” survey from marketing firm Upstream, which shows that Samsung is beginning to flex its mobile muscle in several key markets in the developing world.

If price weren’t an issue – 32% of those surveyed in Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria said that they’d prefer to purchase a handset from Samsung, while Nokia came in second at 22%. Apple and BlackBerry were third and fourth with 21% and 10%, respectively.

Curiously, looking at the individual numbers from each country, Samsung didn’t register at all in the minds of prospective buyers in Nigeria. Nokia was the most preferred brand with 37%, followed by BlackBerry (21%) and Apple (15%).

According to Upstream CEO and founder Marco Veremis, it’s likely that those in Nigeria prefer devices that give them easy access to social networks and the web. And in a market where a steady power supply is still an issue, having a handset with a long battery life – something that’s traditionally associated with Nokia’s offerings – is more preferred.

It’s worth noting that Samsung was the most desired brand in the rest of the surveyed markets.

Prepping up to the hottest handset in our galaxy, at least for the time being, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is not only desired by customers, but wireless carriers have also fallen to the many charms of the features-laden phone. So far, six major carriers in the U.S. have said that they plan to carry the Galaxy S4.

If you’re particularly interested in hearing about its availability on U.S. Cellular, well, we don’t have the info yet. What we can tell you is that the “super regional” carrier is now getting ready to open the pre-order gate for the Galaxy S4.

The announcement is up on the carrier’s website, where it says that customers will get to pre-order the Galaxy S4 starting from April 16. What about the price? When will it hit stores? You may want to sign up on said page in order to get that information directly from U.S. Cellular, though we’ll also be on the lookout.

Just to recap, AT&T will start taking pre-order for the GS4 on April 16 as well. It’ll be offered for $249.99 with a two-year contract. Meanwhile, T-Mobile will have the phone on its store shelves on May 1 for “$99″; you can read more on Magenta’s new uncarrier pricing here. We have yet to hear from the others, but we’ll be sure to let you know once we do.

Can’t wait to get the Galaxy S4?

We’ve talked for a number of times about the new purple variant of the Galaxy S3 that Sprint is reportedly preparing to introduce, the last of which when we brought to your attention the first rendering of the handset.

Bringing some closure to the rumors is Samsung, which has finally confirmed the existence of the smartphone in its new clothing.

Meet the latest member in Sprint’s Galaxy S3 family – the amethyst variant. I had to Wiki it (shame on me, I know), but amethyst refers to a deeper shade of purple. Only the front part of the phone is visible on the website, but it looks like the aforementioned render was spot on, as you can see below.

Now that the purple Galaxy S3 (SPH-L710ZPBSPR) is out in the open, we should be hearing an announcement from Sprint about the phone’s availability soon. As expected, there’s really nothing new in the specs department, so it’s a purely cosmetic makeover.

Are you a fan of the new color? Looking forward to get the phone from Sprint? Drop your comments below.

NVIDIA has been doing an admirable job keeping gamers abreast on its upcoming gaming console, Project Shield. Every week or so, the chip maker demos various graphics-intensive games running on the Shield to try and convince buyers that the console will be worth the hype.

The latest title that has been given the Project Shield treatment is a game that started its life on the Nintendo Wii, but finally found its way to Google Play last week – The Conduit HD. It’s a fast-paced FPS featuring stellar graphics and advanced physics.

With the Tegra 3 version already impressive as it is, how does the game run on the new console? From the explanation, the Project Shield-optimized version will come with enhanced polygon counts and lighting, more special effects, and better textures. Having all those physical buttons and controls certainly help make for a more enjoyable gaming experience as well.

If you’re curious, press play on the live demo video that we’ve embedded above.

The Project Shield, which is equipped with a Tegra 4 mobile processor, will only be launched this September – no thanks to the delay in the manufacturing process of the Cortex A15-based CPU.

What do you think of the demo? Planning to set aside some cash to get the Project Shield?

Things are kicking into high gear with OUYA. After the gaming console was sent out to developers in December, the maker promised that early backers will receive their units on March 28. Right on schedule, we’re hearing that the company has begun shipping out the first batch of the pre-ordered units to their owners.

Those who have received a shipping confirmation from OUYA can expect to see the open video game console arriving on their doorsteps in five to ten days. Don’t panic if you haven’t received any notification, as the team said that it’s rolling out the shipments over the next weeks.

It has also been confirmed that retail stores in America, Canada, and the UK will have stocks of the console starting from June 4. Several big names that you can grab OUYA from include Target, Best Buy, Gamestop, and Game. It will also be available online directly from the OUYA website or via Amazon.

The Android-powered device will retail for $99 in the US, while the UK price is tentatively listed at £99.99. According to Engadget, the OUYA package will include the console unit, one wireless controller, power and HDMI cables, and two AA batteries for the controller.

As a refresher, the console unit itself is equipped with a Tegra 3 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of onboard storage  – though it’s expandable via USB. The list of content partners include Twitch.tv, iheartradio, TuneIn,  XBMC, Plex, Flixster, and more.

If you’re still on the fence about spending your hard-earned money on the OUYA gaming console, check out our guide on the available alternatives.

Oh, yeah! If you’ve been waiting for OUYA to hit stores in the UK, now here’s your chance to grab the Android-powered gaming system.

Video game retailer GAME is now taking pre-order for OUYA on its website, where it’s currently offered for £99.99 with free shipping included. If you got the money to spare, you can also snag an extra controller for £39.99. Just don’t expect the device to ship anytime soon.

While the listing on GAME doesn’t specifically mention when the NVIDIA-backed device will become available, the console maker has hinted before that it wants to bring OUYA to a wider audience in June. There’s no guarantee that the date will stick, though.

If you do decide to take the plunge, we heard that OUYA might ship with some emulators onboard that will allow you to run NES, SNES, and N64 games. The console should also be compatible with XBMC, in case you want to use it for other than playing games.

How about it? Planning to go possibly against your better judgment and pre-order it from GAME?

The snazzy Sony Xperia Z has proven to be quite the hit amongst customers. The phone quickly sold out in countries like Germany and France, while in Japan, over 150,000 units were snapped up by buyers in the first week alone.

Even more impressive is the fact that Xperia Z is still on the top of the sales chart in its home country, a spot that it has held since early February. According to the head of Sony Mobile Communications Taiwan, Jonathan Lin, the Z has been the best-selling phone there for six straight weeks.

With great demands, however, come the rather bad news that Sony is having trouble meeting them, particularly for folks in Europe and Taiwan. We hope this is only temporary, though.

If you’re not looking to get the top of the line smartphone, you might be interested in an upcoming budget offering that Sony is apparently preparing. Industry sources quoted by DigiTimes said that Sony is readying a 5-inch phone that’s aimed for the mid-end market. The rumored device is expected to come with a quad-core MediaTek processor (what else?) and might hit stores in Q3 2013.

We’ll be on the lookout for that one. In the meantime, have you gotten the Xperia Z yet? Planning to do so soon? Tell us in the comments below.

Once unattainable, the full HD AMOLED display barrier has been broken by the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy S4. If you’re wondering when the technology will make its way to Android tablets, it looks like we’ll be seeing at least one tab from Samsung that will sport the extra high resolution AMOLED panel this year.

An unconfirmed report last week hinted that Samsung was considering releasing a 10.1- or 11.6-inch full HD AMOLED tablet, but the electronics giant reportedly has changed its mind. According to a Sam Mobile tipster, we can expect to see a new 8-inch slate instead, one that will boast an AMOLED display with a 1,900 x 1,200 resolution.

The tablet might be unveiled at the IFA 2013, which will be held in Berlin in September. It’s likely that we’ll see the Galaxy Note 3 there as well. After all, the Note 2 was launched at the same trade show last year.

While this sounds exciting, it’s best to take the latest report with a heap of salt, at least until we hear it directly from Sammy. Do you think the rumored 8-incher will end up becoming the sequel to the Galaxy Note 8.0?