Jared Newman

Asus may finally show off its Padfone at Mobile World Congress next week, after teasing the modular device since last May.

The Padfone is a 4.3-inch Android smartphone that slips into a tablet dock with its own 10.1-inch display, allowing the phone to power the tablet. It's a lot like Motorola's Webtop products, except with a tablet dock instead of a laptop.

The Yahoo-owned photo sharing site Flickr is about to get a makeover, with new interfaces for viewing and uploading photos.

Flickr's head of product, Markus Spiering, gave BetaBeat a sneak preview of the changes, which will roll out starting next week.

First came the Dish Network. Then came Verizon and Redbox. Now, Comcast is announcing its own video subscription service in an effort to siphon business away from Netflix.

The service, called Xfinity Streampix, will be free for subscribers to Comcast's triple play service of TV, Internet, and phone. For other Comcast subscribers, Streampix will cost $4.99 per month, Variety reports. The service will be available on the Web, mobile devices and connected TV platforms, but Comcast hasn't announced any specific apps yet.

Barnes & Noble has released a $199 Nook Tablet with 8 GB of storage to better compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The new model has the same dual-core, 1 GHz processor as the 16 GB Nook Tablet, which still sells for $249. However, the 8 GB model has half the RAM, at 512 MB. Both models have a microSD card slot for up to 32 GB in expanded storage.

As we get closer to the launch of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Microsoft has been releasing a steady drip of information about its next operating system. The latest tidbit? A new logo--sporting the same "Metro" aesthetic as Windows 8 itself.

With Windows 8 coming later this year, Ultrabook makers are reportedly scratching their heads over how to integrate touchscreens with thin-and-light laptops.

Existing Ultrabook designs are inadequate, DigiTimes reports, because when you tap the touchscreen, you might end up pushing the top panel downward. Strengthening the hinge is an option, but then the entire laptop could topple back if you push too hard.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream SandwichMotorola has promised to upgrade many of its smartphones and tablets to Android Ice Cream Sandwich, but not any time soon.

So far, Motorola's Xoom Wi-Fi is the only device that has received Android 4.0, and the Xoom Family Edition is the only U.S. device scheduled for an update in the first half of the year. Five other Motorola devices will get Ice Cream Sandwich in the third quarter, including the Atrix 4G, Atrix 2, Photon 4G, Xyboard 8.2 and Xyboard 10.1.

Most PlayStation Vita owners won't dig any deeper than the game cartridge slot, so iFixit has done its usual thing and cracked open the handheld gaming system. Here are five findings from iFixit's PlayStation Vita teardown:

Easy to rip open

In a refreshing change of pace from locked-down phones and tablets, the Vita easily comes apart with a small Phillips screwdriver and a plastic prying tool. There's not too much adhesive inside, unlike the recently torn down Droid 4, and the battery pops out with no trouble once its Phillips screws are removed.

LightSquared's plans to revolutionize the wireless industry with a broadband network may have been dealt a death blow by the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC believes that LightSquared should not be allowed to operate an LTE network near frequencies used by GPS because of concerns about interference. The FCC had last year given LightSquared a conditional waiver to run its network, provided the company could prove that GPS jamming wasn't an issue, but now the commission wants to revoke the waiver.

Time Warner Cable's streaming cable services are no longer exclusive to the iPad and iPhone. PC and Mac users can now watch live TV from the cable provider through their Web browsers.

The TWC TV Web app, available now in beta, works in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. Users will also need to install Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in, version 4 or higher.

Samsung’s AV product manager isn’t too concerned about Apple’s rumored effort to enter the TV market, saying in an interview that Samsung will triumph on picture quality.

Considering Apple's unparalleled success in the music player, smartphone and tablet markets, you would think that rival tech makers would stop underestimating the company. But Chris Mosely told Pocket-Lint that “How smart [TVs] are...great, but let's face it, that's a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.”