Verizon’s Droid 2 has finally been rooted, by the cool cats at xda-developers of course. Those of you lucky enough to have Motorola’s latest and greatest Android powered Droid 2 be sure to check it out, but a warning: as usual proceed with caution! One wrong move, one misspelled command… Just be sure you know what you’re doing alright?

The latest version of the WordPress for BlackBerry app has gone live on BlackBerry App World this week. The app allows you to do most of the administrative work (posting, commenting, uploading video/photos…) on your WordPress blog through a BlackBerrry. It’s a simple app that boosts productivity for those of you with a BlackBerry.

This latest update is mainly bugfixes bringing the version number to 1.4.1. Localization is well under way, with 11 languages currently supported, with the door open to further community translations.

The app is of course free, and the reviews tend to be slightly above average at 3.5 stars by 106 reviewers. Be sure to check the BlackBerry for WordPress blog or the App World gallery for screenshots of the app. If you experience any issues after the upgrade be sure to check out the FAQ.

Download

A team at the University of Manchester has been researching and developing facial recognition biometrics to bring added security to smartphones. In collaboration with the Mobile Biometrics project, the team is using Nokia’s N900 to lock and track facial features in real time, using the lower resolution front facing camera. The emphasis here is on real time recognition, with a quick lock on and robust tracking. The test video showcases the N900 being shaken, twisted, rotated (etc…) with little effect on the tracking. Move it from side to side, flip the camera, dance a bit… and when the software looses track of the face it is able to recalculate and track the face fairly quickly. Facial recognition software is nothing new; the innovative part is using low resolution video being processed by highly efficient algorithms due to the lack of traditional processing power. Though it is becoming fairly evident that the lines between desktop and smartphones are blurring every day. The next time you unlock your cell, you may want to make sure to have a bright smile!

Samsung has finally come clean with their upcoming 7-inch tablet the Galaxy Tab, which has had its fair share of leaks, and uploaded an official teaser onto the web. We can expect an official product announcement and showcasing on September 2nd. In brief, the Galaxy Tab will be Froyo powered (Android 2.2), with HD video playback capability, Swype, video calling, and a custom e-reader software. The e-reader is said to be better than the current offerings on Android. You’ll obviously be able to browse the web comfortably, and as far as radios are concerned there will be WiFi and GPS for sure, with a possible 3G version on the way (read: unconfirmed/hints there-of). Interestingly, the video teaser uses augmented reality as one of the main selling points.

Smashing Magazine has released a free iPhone application, Color Stream, designed by Sahil Lavingia. The application is geared towards web designers to help them continue to work on designs on the go. Color Stream allows you to create color palettes for use in designs, and can do so either from scratch, or generated from an image on your iPhone, or even generate a color scheme at random. You can even use the camera to pull color data, meaning that if you meet inspiration along the way you can use the camera to capture your idea (in the city, in nature… wherever!). Coded by a designer, Color Stream is obviously fairly complete (monochromatic, triadic, analogous, etc…), with several intuitive user interface amelioration from standard Apple UI.

Sahil’s motivation for writing the app is clear: to always be productive, no matter where he is, and with thousands of downloads and 4+ stars he can’t be wrong.  Be sure to check out Smashing Magazine’s post for further information and a slew of screenshots!

Download

Virgin Mobile is simplifying their pricing plans for their mobile broadband service, Broadband2Go. Their current four plans will be simplified into two plans. The first plan is $10 for 10 days with a 100MB cap, while the second plan is unlimited data for $40/month. Pretty sweet eh? The new plans will be going into effect August 24th on its EVDO Rev A network. As Virgin Mobile is owned by Sprint, they will be using Sprint’s 3G network. So whether you’re in the country for a couple days and need a cheap way of getting online, or you live off of download, Virgin Mobile has you covered!

Google has started a new beta program to deliver AdSense advertisements for iPad applications. Advertisers with campaigns running on the Google Display Network via Mobile for AdSense will now be able to target applications that run on the iPad. The beta program is currently limited to the US and Canada, but is sure to expand eventually.

So basically, while developing an application using the iOS SDK, you can now further monetize by inserting ads into the application.

What are the implications of this? As time goes on, advertisements are slowly infiltrating every corner of our lives. As more money is to be made, more developers will be inserting ads in their apps (we’re not talking about web here, applications themselves!). It’s also interesting to note that Google is not missing an opportunity such as the iPad to expand its advertisement network, surely in a bid to put competition to Apple on its own platform. In fact, it’s probably Google’s strongest motive for their move on iPad apps.