Hasta La Gadget!

Yowtch. Android fan site AndroidSpin.com is reporting a rumor from “what [it feels] is a reliable source.” According to said reliable source, Samsung has been purposefully delaying an Android upgrade, in order to get more consumers to buy newer versions of the company’s phones, such as the Vibrant 4G

The report states that Samsung has an update to Android 2.2 Froyo up and ready, but has told T-Mobile not to push it out to existing handset. Says the source,

Some disturbing things have happened the last week or so concerning our “Vibrant”. Samsung has NOT allowed us to push the update OTA for 2.2 because they feel it will decrease the value of the upcoming Vibrant4G +. While from a marketing aspect i totally understand, as the Vibrant 4G is what the original Vibrant should have been in the 1st place. But to shun off and bold face lie to customers is not what T-Mobile is about.

Both Samsung and T-Mobile have yet to respond to the report.

Here’s a report sure to raise the ire of safety advocates, everywhere. According to a new study, an increase in the number of people driving while talking on the phone may have actually made us all safer.

The study, conducted by Saurabh Bhargava of the University of Chicago and Vikram Pathania from London’s School of Economics studied 440,000 made by California drivers over 11 days. They found no significant increase in crashes from those drivers using their cells. The study comes as the number of traffic accidents declines, in spite of an increase in those talking while driving.

So, how could “distracted driving” actually make you safer? Bhargava and Pathania have a few theories. First, there’s the fact that drivers are often extra cautious when they pick up the phone behind the while. Also, those who are crappy drivers while talking on their phone may just be crappy drivers in general.

Makes sense, I suppose. It also flies in the face of pretty much everything we’ve ever heard about distracted driving, ever–including a number of laws that have been passed over the past couple of years.

Of course, we can’t really recommend that anyone go out and actually try it–after all, who will keep the Bluetooth headset companies in business? 

It’s been a little over 24 hours since Verizon announced it will be selling the iPhone 4 in February, and the accessories manufacturers are already jumping at the chance to sell their iPhone cases to new Verizon iPhone customers. Just how different will the AT&T iPhone case be from a Verizon iPhone case? That’s yet to be determined. That being said, Case-Mate has announced its line of Verizon iPhone accessories.

Its new line of cases will vary in a range of colors, textures, and materials. They’re not available for sale just yet, but you can sign up to get e-mail updates and arrival notifications when they are.

Some of the cases look familiar, like the Vroom, and the Gelli, but there are many new designs that are sure to tickle your fancy. Personally, I like the Waddler and the Monsta.

You can see the complete list of products after the jump

We know two things about Google’s Android naming conventions. First, they all revolve around dessert foods. Second, they’re all alphabetical. Thus far, we’ve had Cupcake (1.5), Donut (1.6), Éclair (2.0), Froyo (2.2), Gingerbread (2.3), and Honeycomb (3.0).

So, what’s next? Well, we’ve all been calling Android 3.1 (or is it 4.0?) “Ice Cream.” Turns out we’ve all been wrong–or at least incomplete. According to a story up today at TechCrunch, that operating system will actually be named “Ice Cream Sandwich.”

The new name confirmation came from Andy Rubin himself. Says TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid, “Android chief Andy Rubin told me so. Really, he did.”

The problem with Ice Cream? Apparently it looks to much like Froyo (i.e., frozen yogurt). Since Google has taken to constructing big statues to the dessert of choice on its campus. A giant Ice Cream would just create chaos.

After years of rumor and speculation, the Verizon iPhone finally became a reality today. That no doubt means that Verizon customers will renew their contracts by the boatload. The news also likely means that plenty of existing AT&T customers will be abandoning their contracts, in search of better service.

So, once you’ve dumped your AT&T contract and tossed away a few hundred bucks, what to do with your newly bricked iPhone? Well, you could get a few bucks from a reseller, or you could ship it to an electronics recycler.

Boring.

I asked the PCMag staff to come up with a few suggestions for your otherwise unusable handsets.

More ideas? Let us know in the comment section.