Nokia and Microsoft are set to take the stage in just a few hours to unveil the next-generation of Lumia handsets.

Rumors have Nokia announcing two new Windows Phone smartphones Wednesday, both running the latest version of the operating system, Windows Phone 8.

Nokia announced its first two Windows Phone devices around this time last year at Nokia World in London. The two phones, the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800, were the first phones on the scene running Windows Phone 7, and the first phones to result out of Nokia's partnership with Microsoft.

When Nokia announces its Windows Phone 8 devices Wednesday they won't be the first out of the gate. Samsung announced its Windows Phone 8 ha…
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Android's market share in the U.S. has risen from 50.8% to 52.2%, while Apple's iOS grew from 31.4% to 33.4% in the quarter ending July 2012, comScore's latest report reveals.

The two most popular mobile platforms now have a collective market share of 85.6%, leaving all other competitors in the dust.

RIM's BlackBerry OS, Microsoft's Windows Phone and Nokia's Symbian were among the losing users, with a 9.5%, 3.6% and 0.8% market share, respectively.

On the manufacturing front, Samsung is still number one, netting a small market share loss, falling from 25.9% to 25.6%. The electronics giant is followed by LG, which lost 0.8% and now holds a 18.4% market share, and Apple, w…
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Taller, Thinner Display

It's been long rumored that the size of the iPhone 5 screen will be larger than the current iPhone screens. Many suspect it will be about 4 inches diagonally compared to the existing 3.5-inch display. Meanwhile, according to The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone 5 will tout a thinner screen, which would allow the device to be lighter in weight than ever before.

Image via Lab Factory

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If you haven't had your fill of iPhone 5 rumors yet, get ready for a flood of speculations and predications in the week leading up the company's big press event on Tuesday, September 12.

One major clue we can garner from the invitations is that it will be called the iPhone 5, thanks to a large "5" in the shadow of the event's date. But other than that, nothing has truly been confirmed.

SEE ALSO: Apple Sends Out Invitations for iPhone 5 Event

From a taller display and LTE connectivity to new earbuds that cut back on echoes you might hear while making calls, Mashable has compiled a list of the latest and most believable rumors making the rounds online.

Check out the gallery above a…
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Wikipedia has launched a photo contest that's expected to be the world's largest "by a large margin," the online encyclopedia says.

Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 encourages people to photograph monuments "of historic and cultural relevance," upload them to Wikimedia Commons under a free license, and allow Wikipedia to use them. Judges will determine the best photo submissions, narrowing them down to the top ten finalists by mid-October. An international jury will then select the grand prize winner.

The third annual competition, which takes place in September, has 30 countries participating this year. It started off in the Netherlands in 2010, expande…
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One of the highlights of this year's PAX game expo was Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Director Hideo Kojima showed an 11-minute video presentation of the game at a special presentation. You can check out a short clip in the video above.

In our weekly gaming recap, we also look at Guild Wars 2's launch jitters, and the latest installment of the Final Fantasy franchise.

Which games are you excited for? Share your thoughts in the comments.

More About: Gaming, PAX, game

A recent article on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reassessing the use of portable electronic devices on planes brought forth a number of comments on whether or not it's a good idea to let people make cell phone calls at 30,000 feet.

But such a future may not be all that far off. Recently, Virgin Atlantic announced plans to begin offering its air passengers the ability to make and receive calls in the air.

But safety issues aside, what is the etiquette of talking on a cell phone during the flight?

"I am a big fan of NOT having to listen to the conversations of other people during flights. We all get enough of that when our feet are on the ground and we can get away fr…
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1. AMC: Zombie Experiment NYC

Adding zombies to anything is a good first step toward virality. The most-shared ad of the month comes from a guerrilla-style promo for AMC's The Walking Dead.

Click here to view this gallery.

As summer ends, we all wonder what the next viral YouTube sensation will be. Will the song "Call Me Maybe" stand the test of time and continue to make parody waves in the fall?

Probably not, but it certainly has permeated the social advertising sphere in recent months. Also topping August's most-shared ad charts are zombies, flash mobs and emotional tearjerkers.

Now if only we could get an ad featuring a zombie flash mob dancing to "Call Me Maybe."

Thanks to our friends at Unruly for compiling this list.

More About: YouTube, ads, features, trending

Te gusta la televisión? Nosotros también. Millions of viewers caught Telemundo's first ever Premios Tu Mundo (Your World Awards), which aired live Aug. 30. To be exact, 1.6 million people tuned in to the awards show. Telenovela stars Rafael Amaya and Gaby Espino hosted the show, the latter of whom took home the prize for #Most Social.

The Republican National Convention also edged onto the charts, no doubt due in large part to actor Clint Eastwood's invisible Obama speech, which subsequently inspired many a meme and parody. We'll see what this week's Democratic National Convention has in store for social TV.

SEE ALSO: Invisible Obama: Exclusive Q&A with the Internet Sensation

The…
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In the market for a cheaper Macbook Air? Apple has cut prices on factory-refurbished versions of the laptop.

There are currently 12 up for sale, ranging in price from $749 to $1,399, according to the company's "Shop Refurbished" webpage.

At 16% off, the least-expensive 11-inch Air has a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 2GB memory and 64GB flash storage. If you're looking for a bargain 13-incher, there's one with a 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 4GB memory and 128GB flash storage for $919.

Only two of the refurbished Airs are from 2012, including the priciest -- an 11-incher with a 2.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i7, 8GB memory and 256 flash storag…
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Michelle Obama's Tuesday night speech about her husband and the Obama family at the Democratic National Convention drove 28,003 tweets-per-minute at its peak, nearly double the 14,289 mark reached by Mitt Romney's acceptance speech at the Republican convention last week.

Obama's speech, intended to illustrate the differences between her husband and his Republican challenger, played well on Twitter. It had plenty of short, snackable lines easily packed into 140 characters or less.

This tweet, from the Obama campaign, saw more than 2,000 retweets:

Michelle Obama on POTUS: "He wants every young person to fulfill their promise and be able to attend college without a mountain of de…
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More About: Democratic National Convention, Politics, Twitter, US, barack obama, michelle obama, trending

Chatroulette just got a much cuter -- and safer for work -- spin-off.

The similarly named "Catroulette" is a cat adoption website that bases its user interface on Chatroulette's nexting model. The website allows you to skip through videos of adorable cats and kittens that need homes until you find one that you would like to adopt.

SEE ALSO: Sexy Bikini Makes Chatroulette 'Call Me Maybe' a Must-Watch

The site, which is backed by several cat adoption agencies in Belgium, is a major heartstring puller for feline fans. Unlike traditional adoption agencies, the website allows you to see exactly how many people have skipped over a particular kitty. Hairball heartbreak one click a…
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NASA Captures Epic CME Eruption

The sun experienced a huge coronal mass ejection (CME) on Aug. 31, 2012, and NASA captured several images. Image courtesy of NASA

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From here on Earth, the Sun looks remarkably consistent, continuously bathing our planet in light and heat without much change from year to year, let alone day to day. In reality, it's anything but calm, as this incredible NASA photo of a coronal mass ejection (CME) shows.

A CME is a huge burst of stellar material and magnetic fields from the surface of the sun -- essentially what happens when the sun "burps." They're often associated with solar flares, but they can happen separately, too.

SEE ALSO: Satellite Captures Breathtaking Photo of Hurricane Isaac

This particular CME occurred on Aug. 31, 2012 at 4:36 p.m Eastern Time. At its fastest, the burst shot out into space at more tha…
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You're probably at least somewhat familiar by now with "Gangnam Style," the baroque and bizarre Korean music video that's become a viral mega-hit on YouTube and been viewed more than 100 million times since July 15. If not, here's a quick recap: PSY, a rapper-singer type, emotes and dances around for some four minutes to an aggressively hypnotic techno track while surrounded at different times by horses, beautiful women, a carousel, commuters and old people.

(The video is so out there you're probably better off just watching for yourself here. And if that's not enough, here's a parody starring a giant duck.)

But while "Gangnam Style" does possess an undeniable odd appeal, most people…
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The Northwestern University football program launched a social media homepage on Tuesday, one that brings together content and status updates from a number of networks for easy fan consumption.

Not just a collection of Twitter handles and other links, school reps say the Northwestern Football Social Media Network is the first of its kind in college football.

The hub features standard team-related news, but also embedded videos from Northwestern YouTube channels and short Tout clips that give fans candid, behind-the-scenes access. Live updating Facebook and Twitter feeds provide updates and link out for easy following. Another section features scrollable images from Tumblr and Instagr…
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Rickrollers, rejoice: you now have a video to link people to that will earn you an appreciative laugh, rather than a punch in the face.

The cast of AMC's Mad Men -- which, to the chagrin of every fan of good television, is on hiatus until 2013 -- have here been expertly cut together to perform that seminal musical work of 1987, Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up.

SEE ALSO: Nickelbacking: the new Rickrolling?

We tip our hat to the timewasting excellence of the video's creator, who must surely have had to repeatedly rewatch the entire first five seasons to put these words together. Well, there are worse fates. (And it's educational: who knew the characters said "desert" or "d…
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The first trailer for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln will debut in a Google+ Hangout on Thursday, Sep. 13.

This will be the first time that a film trailer has launched in a Google+ Hangout. In addition to the trailer, director Steven Spielberg and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will partake in a live chat about the film.

The hangout will be broadcast live online and via the ABC SuperSign in Times Square in New York City.

Fans can RSVP to the hangout via lincolnmoviehangout.com -- but those that want to participate in the discussion will need to submit a YouTube video with the hashtag #LincolnHangout explaining their interest in the film -- as well as what questions they'd like to ask Spie…
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Nokia is set to announce the next-generation of its Lumia line of smartphones a press event Wednesday morning in New York.

The announcement is likely to center around the company's first Windows Phone 8 handset(s). More than just a simple software update, Windows Phone 8 supports a number of hardware enhancements from current Windows Phone devices, including support for higher–resolution screens, microSD expansion slots and near-field communication (NFC), which can be used for mobile payments.

SEE ALSO: Are These the New Nokia Lumia 920 and 820?

Nokia launched its first mobile phone -- the Mobira Talkman –- in 1984. Weighing just over 11 pounds, the phone was revolutionary fo…
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Mashable is thrilled to announce that New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nick Kristof will join the 2012 Social Good Summit to discuss how gaming can be used for social good.

Kristof is a passionate advocate of social issues and new technologies, and has recently launched a social game in partnership with Games for Change that can be played on Facebook to raise awareness and aid for global crises.

Similar to FarmVille, Half The Sky Movement will enable players to make micro-donations to humanitarian efforts worldwide as well as contribute to causes in other ways.

At this year's Social Good Summit, Kristof will be on stage with Asi Burak, co-presiden…
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More About: Conference, Nick Kristof, digital, event, social good summit

Some investors and Facebook insiders may be rushing to sell off their stock in the company, but at least one person plans to hold onto his shares for a while: Facebook's CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that Zuckerberg has "no intention" to sell any of his Facebook shares for at least the next year.

"Mark Zuckerberg... has informed us that he has no intention to conduct any sale transactions in our securities for at least 12 months," Facebook noted in the new SEC filing. "Mr. Zuckerberg currently holds in aggregate approximately 444 million shares of Class B common stock as well as 60 million s…
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Despite a claim made by hacking group AntiSec, which said it compromised 12 million Apple iOS Unique Device IDs (UDIDs) and personal information from a laptop of an FBI staffer, the government agency is denying that it ever had the data the hackers allegedly stole.

"The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed," the FBI said in a statement to Mashable. "At this time, there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data."

Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDID) — which is a sequence of 40 letters and numbers specific to an Apple…
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More About: apple, iPod Touch, ipad, iphone, ipod, security, smartphones

As Apple gears up to launch its next-generation iPhone on Sept. 12 in San Francisco, the company is rumored to also be readying new iPods.

According to 9to5Mac, two or more revamped iPod lines such as an updated iPod nano, iPod shuffle or iPod Touch could come out of the event next week. The lines will vary in size and storage capacity, and likely come in all different colors.

SEE ALSO: Apple Confirms: It's the iPhone 5

Although a smaller iPad -- dubbed by the media as the "iPad Mini" -- was originally expected to launch in September, it's now rumored that we will see a new tablet surface in October.

There is also the possibility that another type of iPod could pop up at…
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How many apps have you installed on Facebook? More importantly, how many of them could post something in your name right now, without your knowledge? Chances are, it's more than half of them.

Privacy protection company Secure.me analyzed some 500,000 Facebook apps, and shared the results exclusively with Mashable. The biggest takeaways: 63% of those apps ask for the ability to post on your behalf -- and 69% of them want your email address.

"It has become second nature to connect various apps like Instagram, SocialCam, AngryBirds, CityVille, and Spotify to your Facebook ID," says Secure.me founder Christian Sigl. "You just click 'agree' without even really knowing what you ar…
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Former New York Giants football player Michael Strahan officially became Kelly Ripa's permanent co-host on morning show Live! With Kelly on Tuesday, ending months of speculation.

Strahan replaces Regis Philbin, who retired in November after clocking 995,000 minutes in his 28 years as the morning show's leading man. The show is now called Live! With Kelly and Michael.

"Kelly and Michael were great today," the show's executive producer Michael Gelman tells Mashable. "There was a lot of excitement in the studio and their chemistry proved exactly why he was chosen for the job."

Up until Monday, Live! With Kelly filled Philbin's seat with a rotating cast of celebrity fill-ins su…
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Data is having a moment. Analytics are sexier than ever before, and metrics are drive decision-making and thus, boosting revenue. Not surprisingly, there are lots of data tools out there to parse your referral traffic, pageviews, time on page and more. But some people need to know what's happening now, how they can improve traffic immediately. That's where real-time analytics comes in, and if you ask CEO Tony Haile, that's where Chartbeat dominates.

Chartbeat went into beta on April 2, 2009. Today, it's a 33-person team, and a product used by tech and publishing heavyweights Foursquare, the Wall Street Journal, Time and Gilt Groupe. Chartbeat is an analytics tool for non-analytics people,…
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Old Spice is kicking off football season with a new marketing campaign centered around an active NFL star.

Greg Jennings, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, will serve as the newest Old Spice Guy to promote their Champion deodorant in a series of seven commercials that will air during the NFL season. The first will officially debut on Wednesday during the NFL kickoff game on NBC, but Old Spice has already put up the spot on YouTube. As with most of Old Spice's recent commercials, this one is as random as it is hilarious.

In the commercial, which you can watch above, Jennings is shown playing frisbee with his dog on a football field in an over-the-top cinematic victory scene…
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In case you missed it, a hacker group called AntiSec announced Tuesday it had grabbed the identifying numbers of 12 million iPhones and iPads -- and to prove it, released a million of those IDs to the public.

Now it seems the hackers may have nabbed the most high-profile prize of all -- the unique string of code used to identify President Obama's iPad. (Call it the First Tablet.)

The suspected Obama ID, first spotted by the blog RazorianFly, has not been confirmed by the White House. But it would make sense, since the hack allegedly came from a government laptop -- specifically that of FBI Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl, a supervisor in the FBI's Regional Cyber Action Team.…
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Conversational victory on Twitter isn't the end goal of Barack Obama's social media strategy, according to the campaign's chief digital strategist.

Speaking at a Democratic National Convention panel, Joe Rospars said that his focus lies on monitoring the social conversation and adding the campaign's own viewpoint to the topic of the hour for the benefit of Obama supporters.

"For our supporters, because there is so much more conversation [online], it's even more incumbent on us to have a relationship with them as the campaign with our voice that lends context to what's going on," he said. "In a turbulent storm of information and a lot of opinions and facts and numbers, we want to t…
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Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy Stellar Tuesday, an Android smartphone headed exclusively to Verizon on September 6th.

Designed for budget consumers, the phone will be available for free on the network with a new two-year agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Running on Verizon's 4G LTE network, the Galaxy Stellar has a 4-inch WVGA display (800 x 480), 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor, 1.3-megapixel forward facing camera for video chatting, and 3.2-megapixel rear facing camera for snapping photos.

One notable feature of the phone is a "Starter Mode" option, which gives new Android users a simplified home screen and pre-set widgets that make it easier for novice users…
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Name: Rootsy

Quick Pitch: Share photos, invites and stories with family members only.

Genius Idea: Rootsy lets you connect to family members on a private social network to share things that might be too personal to post on Facebook.

Frustrated with existing social networks and over-sharing personal family moments, a group of seven entrepreneurs at tech incubator QLabs in New York City developed a site called Rootsy.

Rootsy is a new social networking site that limits your connections to family members. So baby photos, reunion announcements and other information you might not want to share on Facebook can only be seen by select family members.

"People have their Faceboo…
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Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas really loves his tech. He uses a songwriting app to pen and easily rearrange lyrics, frequently browses social news website Reddit and takes in movies on an iPad.

The digital world has changed drastically since Thomas and his Grammy-winning band first started making music in 1996, and he has evolved along with it -- just as his fans have with the rise of social media and new gadgets.

It should come as no surprise then that Matchbox's Twenty's album release of North on Tuesday is accompanied with an interactive digital component: a Spotify-infused timeline of the band's 16-year career.

"I feel old," Thomas tells Mashable after looking at the timel…
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More About: Entertainment, Matchbox Twenty, Music, Social Media, celebrities, features, spotify, technology