No, that is not Phandroid’s own Rob Jackson wearing Google’s augmented reality HUD glasses. That’s Google co-founder Sergey Brin who was spotted at a “Dining in the Dark” charity event, leisurely strolling about with the prototype Project Glass glasses, stopping to pose for pictures with attendees. This is the first time we’ve been given a look at the Google googles in the wild and I must admit, they actually don’t look half bad.

Apparently, Sergey wasn’t the only Google employee in possession of the glasses with Google’s Vic Gundotra also said to have a pair. The pic you see above is a quick smartphone snapshot from a tech reporter Mr. Robert Scoble’s DLSR display and higher res photos are said to be on the way. We’ll update this post once we’re able to get our hands on those.

What do you guys think so far? Better or worse looking than you first thought? Will you guys be lining up for these?

Samsung took a moment to clear the air on all the “3D on Galaxy S III” rumors that have been flying around. According to a representative speaking to Engadget, Samsung has “no immediate plans” to include 3D on any of their smartphones. They acknowledge that they continue to explore new technology, which would lead us to believe that they are at least still working on autosteroscopic 3D for AMOLED displays.

Although Samsung Electronics is constantly exploring new technologies for our mobile devices, we have no immediate plan to include displays featuring 3D technology in our upcoming smartphones.

And this quote doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility of future phones using the technology. With the quote, you could say it’s safe to assume not to expect the functionality on the Galaxy SIII, which would in turn rule out the possibility of seeing dual cameras on the back of the device. That being said, we’ll just let the rumor rest in peace for the time being.

When it comes to the HTC One X, there’s no surprise that the entire tech world is going ape-nuts over it. Arguably the best Android device to date, there’s no question HTC has struck gold on that one. And it’s not just the One X — the One S has been receiving its fair share of praise despite its slightly lesser specs (but saved thanks to a beefy Qualcomm S4 processor). But there is another phone in HTC’s One line of devices that hasn’t gotten too much coverage, the HTC One V.

I get it, the One V is HTC’s entry level device for 2012 and spec-wise, there just isn’t too much here we haven’t seen before. But even as an Android enthusiasts who prefer to stay on the bleeding edge of tech, I think it would be safe to assume not all of our friends or family members feel the same passion we do, and often come to us when it comes to picking out a solid, affordable Android device.

Thankfully, I came across this video today from NetbookNews showing off some benchmarks from the One V, even throwing a few of the more demanding games at it like Temple Run and Shadowgun. How did the device perform? Well, check out their video walkthrough and see for yourself.

After watching this video, I have to say, the HTC One V has proven itself as one hot, little firecracker. Shadowgun ran pretty smooth with only a reasonable amount of framerate drops during heated of battles. It feels a little weird to type it out but, I’d even go as far as saying the One V is one of Android’s first premium entry-level devices for the masses? What did you guys think? Impressed?

Oh, will you look at that. Seems a certain dual-camera’d device made a cameo appearance in HTC’s latest behind the scenes video for the HTC EVO 4G LTE. Let’s just call it the “EVO 3D 4G LTE” for kicks (even if the original dropped the “4G” moniker). A prototype shell of that device was briefly shown and although the device was never announced or “leaked” in any way, shape or form, we can only wonder if HTC is planning for a sequel to the controversial EVO 3D. With a Qualcomm S4 processor, 3D HD display, dual 8MP cameras on back — would you guys consider going 3D with a spec sheet like that? Or is 3D for the birds? You can see the device for yourself in HTC’s design video below.

The Google Play Store received a silent update today. Version 3.5.16 should find its way to you in the coming days and reportedly fixes a few issues some users were having with 3.5.15 like force closes and/or disappearing purchased apps. I checked my Galaxy Nexus and sure enough it was updated although Gingerbread running devices like the Galaxy S 2 and my brother’s G2X had yet to see the update.

No matter, the app has been pulled by the folks at AndroidPolice and is ready for the download. Just sideload and install like any other app and you’ll be good to go. Enjoy.

Download Google Play Store 3.5.16

They report Google’s looking to make a few design changes and changes that would allow them to get the cost of the tablet even lower. We’re not sure what allowed them to get to the reported $250 price point in the first place, and to think that they want to go even lower is pretty crazy to think about. It’s not impossible – Archos was able to bring some decent affordable, yet modern Android tablets to the market.

All we hope for is that Google’s mission to bring the device’s price down doesn’t affect their mission to bring a quality device. We’re sure the success of the Amazon Kindle Fire (and the reason, price, behind it) is their driving motivation for doing so, but I think we’d all prefer a quality device over an extremely affordable one.

Sega has just announced that they’ll soon be releasing Football Manager Handheld 2012 for Android. A once-iOS exclusive, Football Manager Handheld allows users to take control of clubs in leagues from 12 different countries, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Wales.

You can control club transfers, influence training and tactics, and more. Managing clubs during a live match day is the main attraction, but there’s also a Challenge mode where you’ll carryout short-term scenarios. The app will cost £6.99 in the Google Play Store when it launches, though that “when” part isn’t set in stone yet. Sega says to expect it over the next couple of weeks so we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

The Amazon Kindle Fire is receiving an upgrade to firmware 6.3 tonight. Before we go any further, let me just inform you that the upgrade has already been rooted. You can find more details on that in this XDA thread. That said, this new update does break the previous root method and the following changes have been made:

• Sharing: Customers will be able to easily share favorite passages and notes from their books directly from Kindle Fire, without even leaving the book. Customers simply highlight a passage and select “Share” or choose the “Share” option from the toolbar within a book, write a note if they choose, and select which social network to share with. Passages or notes a customer chooses to share will be displayed to other Kindle readers viewing the same book, and customers can also choose to share via Facebook and Twitter. Amazon already has a vibrant community of readers who choose to share favorite passages and notes from their reading through Kindle.amazon.com. This update brings these notes and highlights to Kindle Fire, so a reader can easily see what other readers are saying about their books.
• Book Extras: Powered by Shelfari, Amazon’s community of book lovers, Book Extras make it easy for customers to see supplemental material about the book they are reading, without even leaving the book. Customers can view descriptions of characters, a glossary of common terms used in the book, information on the authors and common locations referenced in the book, and more. To view Book Extras from within a book, customers simply tap the top of the screen to bring up the toolbar, tap the menu button and select “Book Extras.”
• Archive of Personal Documents: Customers’ personal documents will be stored in the Amazon Cloud and available for re-download at any time from the Documents tab on Kindle Fire. Just as with Kindle books, Whispersync will automatically sync notes, highlights and last page read for personal documents.
• Print Replica Textbooks: Students can buy thousands of print replica textbooks to read on their Kindle Fire and save up to 60% off the list price of the print textbook. Print replica textbooks maintain the rich formatting, color and layout of the print editions, with features including notes and highlights, zoom and pan, linked table of contents, real page numbers and whispersync of notes, highlights and last page read.
• Reading View for Amazon Silk: There is a seemingly endless array of interesting and engaging content available on the Internet. Sometimes, unfortunately, that business article, blog post, or sports recap you clicked on is surrounded by a host of competing material. With Reading View on Silk, the content that you’re interested in is elevated above the clutter. When invoked by the customer, Silk will load the body of the page in a reading-optimized, single screen view (even for multi-page articles). The full page is still available in the background, allowing the reader to easily toggle back to a traditional view to see other interesting features on the page.
  Movie Rentals: The rental period for movie rentals that are downloaded to Kindle Fire now starts when a customer starts watching the movie, rather than when a customer starts downloading the movie.
• Additional Enhancements: This update will also bring some of the features customers have requested, including faster re-connect of Wi-Fi after Kindle Fire has been asleep, and general performance enhancements.

The update isn’t quite available yet but you can download it from Amazon’s servers before they’re ready to push it out to everyone. Be sure to install it in the “Update Your Kindle” menu under settings.

The 10.1-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has made a pitstop at the FCC as it rolls towards launch. The HSPA+ version, model number GT-P5100, has been given the approval of the federal commission, flashing its 850 and 1900MHz support along the way. Also put through the paces were the Tab 2′s 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0 capabilities.

The presence of an HSPA+ radio tuned to AT&T compatible bands suggests the new slate could see a carrier release here in the States, but at this moment this remains unconfirmed.

[FCC via Engadget]

Ever since the early days of Android its users have been stereotyped as folks who aren’t too keen on paying for their software. The myth has been kept afloat by a plethora of ad-supported titles available via the official Google Play Store (once the Android Market) and a handful of developer horror stories lauding the much more profitable nature of iOS deployment. We can’t forget accusations of Android users turning to pirated software to avoid shelling out any dough. So the picture being painted here shows Android users as quite the penny pinchers it would seem.

How about a little evidence that flies in the face of everything above? Humble Bundle, the software distribution model that allows users to choose how much they would like to pay for a collection of independently developed games, recently released their second Android pack and started collecting data on how much users of the OS were willing to pay. The results might surprise you. At an average payment of $7.43, Android users rank as more generous than buyers on Windows ($5.73) and Mac ($7.02). Android’s Linux counterpart saw its users ponying up an average of $9.92, which just goes to show how much users of open software want to support the indie developers that are creating great content for their platforms.

There is still time to go before the Humble Bundle wraps up, and statistics could change for better or worse over the next six days. If you haven’t checked out the Humble Bundle for Android #2, there’s no better time than now. Just don’t go making the rest of us look cheap if you decide to make a purchase.

[via HumbleBundle]