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Android phones running stock or manufacturer-installed KitKat 4.4+ get a big photo-shooting upgrade today. Google Camera is now available from the Play store. The app replaces the standard shooter on Nexus devices and places a separate camera app on others. The headline feature: Lens Blur, which does exactly what the name indicates. You shoot the image, and then use the app to either blur the foreground or background. Photographers call the capability "bokeh", and it usually requires a specialized lens on dedicated hardware to produce well. The blurred effect is highly desirable for portraits. Can you say selfie?

Mobile apps are like your neighborhood produce store. You walk inside the doors looking for specific items. They also typically let users tap into their phone's full potential. For example, a native app might integrate with a phone's camera, voice recorder, contacts or other features. And for shoppers looking for a richer, more advanced interface, applications typically win out over the mobile web because they are designed specifically for that handset's hardware and operating system. Overall, native apps offer a tailored shopping experience that's well delivered but limited. The mobile web on the other hand is a like a huge shopping mall with seemingly limitless stores and tons of options all under one giant roof. It's not as constricted or fragmented as shopping on disparate mobile apps but the experience isn't as tailored as the specialty store. Unlike device-specific native apps though, the mobile web has enormous flexibility and, usually, much larger reach. Customers don't need to download robust programs from app stores to their handset in order to begin shopping. Instead, all they have to do is type in a web address in their mobile browser to start spending their digital dollars. Much of the time mobile sites serve as stripped-down versions of regular websites and serve a utilitarian purpose: selling goods and services.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry Curve 8900, also known as the BlackBerry Javelin, is expected to hit United States markets in February, according to TmoNews.

If you've been gritting your teeth and letting the PR onslaught of the iPhone 3G, Storm, and G1 knock you around as you waited for Nokia's entry into the widescreen, touchscreen superphone market - that wait appears to be nearing it's end. Nokia has gone and gotten all official and release-y with it's anticipated (if somewhat disappointing) 5800 XpressMusic or as we know it, the Tube.

While Samsung recently released a couple of very successful Windows Mobile Professional touchscreen smartphones, Windows Mobile Italy got the word that the Korean electronic giant is now working on a new Windows Mobile Standard smartphone, the Samsung GT-C6620. While details are pretty sketchy at the moment, it's said that the Samsung GT-C6620 will feature Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard and sports an inbuilt QWERTY thumb keyboard with a similar form factor to the Samsung SGH-i600/BlackJack.