Remember that Need for Speed movie? No, probably not, but it’s real. At least, it is now after filming finally began on the project that was announced last year.

When Samsung announced the Galaxy S4 as the replacement for their massively famous Galaxy S III smartphone, the availability of a smaller, less expensive model in the vein of the Galaxy S III Mini was almost guaranteed. While Samsung has been keeping mum about the possibility of a Galaxy S4 Mini, it seems we might have all the confirmation we need.

Tweaks that make it easier and quicker to launch apps from the iOS lock screen seem to be something of a booming sector at the moment. Cydia has seen more than a few new tweaks that add new ways to quickly launch apps from the lock screen, often by replacing the stock ‘Slide to Unlock’ method of getting into a device.

Windows Phone is currently in the midst of one of its stickiest patches, even though it finally got its own YouTube app just recently. As the saying goes though, one YouTube app does not make a platform successful. Or something like that.

Everyone likes it when new smartphones are announced, even when they’re just plain old, by the numbers Android phones. Thankfully, the latest handset to be announced by Sony isn’t plain at old. In fact, it’s actually rather cool. Check it out after the break.

The majority of the planet may still be trying to get to grips to 4G, and plenty of areas in technologically developed countries still don’t have even 3G, but that hasn’t stopped various carriers and smartphone manufacturers from working on coming up with the fifth generation of mobile data, or 5G.

Concept videos are a dime a dozen at the best of times, but when everyone knows that a new iPhone is just a few short months away, things tend to heat up. Everyone with a passing interest in design and Apple seems to want to throw together a concept video or produce some renders that show what the next handset may or may not look like. We see them, and we move on.

It’s not just Samsung and Apple that like to launch an ad every once in a while, HTC too knows how to get peoples’ attention. While Samsung is intent on pointing fingers at Apple in its own set of TV ads, HTC appears to have taken a leaf out of its competition’s book by also poking fun at those that it is in direct competition with.

Carmageddon was hugely popular back in the 1990s, though perhaps due to its controversial nature more than anything else. The automobile combat game spawned many copycats, but Carmageddon still holds a special place in our hearts.

It’s been rumored to be on the way for quite some time, but Google flicked the switch that sees YouTube’s new paid channels go live. More details can be found right after the jump.

Apple’s products are sometimes said to sell themselves, but sometimes they need a little help along the way. Showing products in the right light can be half the battle during the early days of a product’s life cycle, and that’s where a good photographer comes in. Apple has one of those, and he’s great, and has been interviewed in detail. Check out the video right after the jump.

Facebook’s first foray into the Android modding world, Facebook Home for Android, has caused something of a stir in the smartphone world. It has led some people to rave about an otherwise mediocre handset in the HTC First, and it has even caused one jailbreak tweak to be launched that brings Home-liked Chat Heads to iOS.

If there’s one good metric showing what proportion of users are running a particular operating system, or which version thereof, then it’s website statistics. Every time someone visits a website, all kinds of data is exchanged and one of the things logged by the server hosting the website is the operating system used, and which version. It’s interesting stuff.

It’s no secret that Apple and Samsung are far from the best of friends. In fact, it’s fair to say that they don’t like each other at all, one bit, which is probably why Samsung’s entire advertising campaign for any new smartphone seems to revolve around bashing the iPhone more than bigging up the latest and greatest from South Korea, see the latest Galaxy S4 TV ads, for example.

We’ve all heard of drop tests, and there have even been cases of people blending new technology in the past. It’s something of a right of passage for new smartphones especially, with the humble drop test not just offering entertainment for those who like to destroy things, but also a real world example of how a phone may survive if dropped whilst out and about.

Windows 8 is far from long in the tooth, but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from getting the ball rolling on the next release of its ever popular operating system. Windows 8.1, codenamed Windows Blue, is penciled in for a release later this year, with testing still ongoing inside Microsoft.

Samsung just can’t help itself these days. Seemingly more important than extolling the virtues of its own handsets, the bashing of Apple and more importantly, the users of its smartphones, is target numero uno. At least, that’s what you could be forgiven for thinking if you’ve ever seen the company’s new Galaxy S4 ads.

While it’s true that not everyone is an iTunes fan, many will concede that iTunes 11’s MiniPlayer feature is actually rather nifty. Evoking memories of the good old days of Winamp, the miniature iTunes offers just the functionality required to get the job done, all whilst avoiding taking up the entire screen just so users can skip tracks.

Google Glass is the hot property on the internet right now, especially amongst those of us that live and breathe technology. But it’s not just those of us that happen to spend our time inside the tech bubble that are interested in Google’s bold push for computer equipped spectacles – even the mainstream media are getting in on the action.

Want to use Google Now but don’t live in an area that Google deemed worthy of having it enabled? Read on for an easy, non-jailbreak way of forcing Google Now to work in any country.