Hasta La Gadget!

Say hello to the world’s first dual-core smartphone. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Sounds like the future. Of course, like most things especially futuristic (at least so far as the mobile world is concerned), there’s no word on when the thing is coming to our shores.

LG’s Optimus 2X is destined for Korea first–launching on that country’s shores in January. Other Asian countries and Europe will be getting their hands on the phone soon after. As for the US–not a peep on that front.

You want specs? How about these specs? The Optimus 2X is packing a 1Ghz NVIDIA Tegra 2 (we mentioned the thing is dual-core, right?), 8GB of memory (expandable to 32GB via microSD, a 4-inch WVGA screen, front and rear facing camera, 1080p video playback, and HDMI mirroring.

Neat.

The Verizon iPhone isn’t any more real right now than it was a few years ago, but that’s not going to stop analysts from making bold predictions about the phone. The handset, which is currently rumored to be hitting the market at the beginning of next year, will sell nine million units in 2011, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

That number is 36 percent of the total number of phones he expects Verizon to sell next year. It’s also two million less than the 11 million iPhones he expects AT&T to sell next year. Munster expects most of the new Verizon iPhone buyers to come over from AT&T.

The two carriers will sell a combined 20 million iPhones next year, according to his numbers–more than the 17.5 million he expects AT&T to sell, should the Verizon deal never come to fruition. The analyst told Apple Insider that these numbers “may be conservative.”

According to the report, AT&T will sell a total of 63 million iPhones globally next year–that number is up from 46.3 million in 2010. The number will jump to 78.3 million globally in 2012. Apple and Verizon are both expected to nab 14 million each.

What should you get as a Christmas stocking stuffer for the Android lover in your life? How about one of these cute li’l Androids? 

Earlier this month, we told you the story of a man in north Texas whose exploding Droid 2 sent him to the hospital, resulting in a blood splattered handset and a face full of stitches.

The man, Aron Embry, told the press, “Once I got to the mirror and saw it, it was only then I kind of looked at my phone and realized that the screen had appeared to burst outward.” He showed off the phone, shattered and covered in blood, a pretty convincing sight as it appeared on the local news.

Things, however, may not be quite what they seem. We got word this morning from a Motorola employee involved with Droid development that the phone may not have exploded at all. The Droid 2 in question “was a phone that got dropped,” the employee told PCMag. “[T]he guy didn’t notice the glass had cracked […]so when he put it to his ear, he cut himself.”

Apple today released its list of the most popular apps for the iPhone and iPad. Not surprisingly, Angry Birds and Facebook made it out on top this year. Facebook topped the list of free iPhone apps, followed by Angry Birds Lite (the demo version of the popular game), Words With Friends, Skype, and Tap Tap Revenge. The Weather Channel, Rock Band, and Microsoft’s Bing all made the top ten, as well.

Rovio’s popular bird slingshotting title topped the games-heavy paid iPhone app list, followed by Doodle Jump Skee-Ball, Bejeweled 2, and Fruit Ninja. Major League Baseball’s At Bat app was actually the highest grossing iPhone app of the year, followed by Angry Birds at number two.

Over on the iPad side, Apple’s Pages and iBooks topped the paid and free app lists, respectively. Angry Birds HD, Netflix, Pandora, Google, Kindle, and Wolfram Alpha all made the list, as well.