TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

According to Google’s Android boss Andy Rubin, half a million new Android devices are being activated daily. Not only that, the the numbers are growing by over four percent every week. Those numbers are frankly astonishing.

Back in January, Apple announced (in a roundabout way) over 360,000 daily iOS activations, and at that time Google was seeing 300,000 activations.

Pentax has gotten into the mirrorless camera game with the Q system. It seems most of the work has gone into designing the new lens mount, as the rest of the specs are competent but fairly ordinary. That said, it looks like Pentax has come up with a solid (literally) entry into the hot mirrorless market, with one exception: the sensor.

The first Q-series camera has a 12.4 megapixel sensor, measuring 0.43 -inches on the diagonal. That’s no bigger than what you’d find in a decent point-and-shoot.

Wacom, the graphics tablet company, has launched a drawing and note-taking app for the iPad. Called Bamboo Paper after its Bamboo line of styluses, the app is both simple and good.

Bamboo Paper follows the excellent Penultimate in its simple approach. You get little more than a sheet of virtual paper on which to scrawl your doodles and letters. Ink choice is limited to six colors, nib thicknesses to just three. You also get an eraser, undo and redo and a bookmark function. This last appears to do little more than put a marker in the corner of the page.

[UPDATE: HTC has now changed its mind again. A new Facebook post reads "Contrary to what we said earlier, we are going to bring Gingerbread to HTC Desire." ]

Those who bought the HTC Desire because of a promised future upgrade to Android 2.3 Gingerbread can put there heads in their hands and begin to softly weep. HTC has announced — via Facebook — that it has officially given up on the project. The problem? The phone doesn’t have enough memory for both Gingerbread and HTC’s own Sense user interface. To save you entering the seething morass of Facebook, here’s the announcement in full.

Our engineering teams have been working hard for the past few months to find a way to bring Gingerbread to the HTC Desire without compromising the HTC Sense experience you’ve come to expect from our phones.

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Paintball is fun, except for the painful bruises that remind you of that fun a week after the fact. And mega water guns like the Super Soaker are great, but… There’s just something so satisfying about pelting someone with actual, individual pellets.

Enter Xploderz, a (frankly mind-blowing) Nerf-styled, Super Soaker/paintball gun hybrid.

It’s teardown time again, and this time the poor gadget under iFixit’s menacing spudger is the Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook, one of Google’s follow-ups to the rather poorly-received Cr-48 Chromebook.

Before we get inside, it’s worth mentioning that Samsung has fixed the two big problems with the original. The trackpad now works properly (can it really have been so hard to get right? It’s not like trackpads are new tech) and the battery life is now a good long 8 hours.

Steve Jobs on Monday will lift the curtain on major software updates coming for the Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Apple said this week that its Worldwide Developers Conference would focus on the next-generation operating systems powering its PC and mobile products. In a keynote speech, Jobs will highlight new features in Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5, and introduce a new service called iCloud.

Apple’s annual WWDC is a weeklong event for programmers from around the world, where they can network and attend software-development seminars.

When OmmWriter appeared on the Mac, I wondered what the fuss was about. OmmWriter is one of those “distraction-free” writing apps which block out everything except the text you’re working on. OmmWriter went one step further than the usual full-screen mode, adding in calm, meditative background music to the mix.

The app was fine, but if you can’t ignore a few open windows on your computer while you’re writing, it might be time to pick another job, or pick up some ADD meds.

Apple has published instructions on removing a piece of malicious software that targeted Mac customers. The company claims that an upcoming Mac software update will remove the malware from infected systems.

In a bulletin published Tuesday evening, Apple listed steps to remove the malware, and added that an upcoming software update for Mac OS X would detect and remove the malware, as well. The OS X update will also warn customers if they click on the malware’s Install button, according to Apple.

The catering business is a weird place. A restaurant or bar will pay minimum wage to its employees, and endure endless staff turnover, but it will waste cash on the most pointless things. Exhibit A, from the DUO Restaurant and Lounge in New York, is the illuminated menu.

Faced with customers squinting to read menus in the subdued mood lighting, the owners — Lorraine and Sabina Belkin — decided against simply turning up the lights.