Sony Ericsson has joined forced with Aston Villa's Darren Bent and rock band Kasabian to stage a slightly bizarre (and completely awesome) real-life soccer football match using Xperia Play handsets, location tracking technology and ten real live human beings. The five-a-side match saw England international Bent face off against Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan, with both controlling their teams from on high with specially modified Xperia Plays.

While you probably won't be able to command real, actual footballers using your Xperia Play anytime soon, SE is using this opportunity to remind everyone that Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 and FIFA 12 are both available (and optimized) for the device, with the latter being an Xperia Play exclusive until February 2012.

We've got video after the jump.

Samsung's being a bit shy with the details, but the T-Mobile version of the Galaxy S II will be available in white for the holidays. That's the same 4.5-inch device we've come to know and love -- be sure to read our full review -- only in white. We can't imagine it'll cost any more than the black version, but we'll let you know more on that when we get it.

More: T-Mobile Galaxy S II forums

We've spotted the Samsung Illusion a few times in the past but Verizon has now fully unveiled the device for all. Pulling in to the entry level market, the specs for the Samsung Illusion aren't mind blowing but not bad either especially as a starter device.

• Android 2.3
• 3.5-inch HVGA TFT display
• 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor
• TouchWiz
• 3MP rear camera
• 512MB RAM
• 2GB ROM
• MicroSD card slot up to 32GB
• Mobile Hotspot capability – share 3G connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices
• SWYPE Technology – input text faster and in a more intuitive way with one continuous finger motion across the screen keyboard

The Samsung Illusion will be available from Verizon on Nov. 23, and will be available in Verizon Wireless Stores in January 2012 for $79.99 on contract, or free from Nov. 24-28.

Read our Galaxy Nexus Review!

Pardon us a minute while we read way too much into something. The screen you see here is what indirect Verizon retailers -- as in not a corporate-branded store -- now see to order their own Samsung Galaxy Nexus stock. And note that it says Samsung Galaxy Nexus, not Samsung Nexus Prime, which reappeared on a Best Buy flyer first posted in our Galaxy Nexus forums last night.

Point is, it's still coming to Verizon ... eventually ... and we're still expecting it to be the Galaxy Nexus. Probably.

Thanks, anon!

Read our Galaxy Nexus Review!

Look, we know the wait for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus here in the United States is making people act a little crazy. We get that, and we're not really blaming anybody. But this sort of thing isn't helping matters any. What you see here, according to new forums member mynewride, is a Best Buy Mobile flyer that is due to come out Dec. 1. And in it we have the Samsung Nexus Prime on Verizon. Or the Samsung Nexus Prime 4G LTE, if you turn the page. Or the Samsung Nexus Prime, member of the Samsung Galaxy S II family.

What. The. Hell.

OK. So, Best Buy doesn't exactly have a spotless record when it comes to Photoshop blunders. (See Exhibit 1, Exhibit 2 and Exhibit 3.) But the "Nexus Prime"-- the unofficial code name for the Galaxy Nexus that we all worked with for months -- has been seen in Best Buy's internal systems before, which might or might not mean anything here.

We're nowhere near sold on this one yet. But it's just one more chapter in the strange saga that's been the Verizon launch of the Galaxy Nexus.

We've got more pics after the break, and hit the source link for all the discussion from mynewride's original post.

Source: Galaxy Nexus forums

Read our Galaxy Nexus Review!

It’s not “rooting,” it’s openness

-- Nick Kralevich, Android security engineer

There's a bit of brouhaha on the Internet today about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus being "rooted."  While I applaud the gentlemen who take the time to build binaries needed to flash the superuser/switchuser files to the GNexus, I think it's more important to re-visit something from the past.  Namely, you don't need to exploit a Nexus device to root it.  The tools to unlock the potential of a Nexus phone are included, so pushing new software that allows more access to the system isn't really a surprise.  Hopefully, someone can go further with this access and do something that does surprise us. 

Mr. O'Brien, I tip my hat to you for taking the time to build your superboot image.  Most users wouldn't take the time needed to learn how do it, and you've provided the easy path for them.  Now there's no excuse for anyone with a GNexus to not jump in feet first and see what Android can do when given the proper tools, and openness.

More: MoDaCo

A quick jaunt across the Internet today and I see that Apple is pushing out working on yet another iOS 5 update to address battery life issues.  On behalf of Android users and fans everywhere, I'd like to take a moment and welcome all of you to the cloud.  It's nice up here -- things sync without wires, your phone knows where you are in case you want to share your location, and updates are a breeze when they're pushed Over The Air.  But like all good things, there's a price, and in this case it's measured in milliampere-hours.

Our boss and friend Phil has some sage advice -- plug your phone in.  Follow his wise words.  I'll also add that buying a spare battery is a good idea ... oh, never mind.

More iOS 5 news

Read our Galaxy Nexus Review!

That's right, boys and girls, the picture you see here is a SIM free, carrier unlocked Galaxy Nexus ready for shipping to a lucky British owner tomorrow morning.

The guys over at Clove have received their batch of devices this evening, and are ready to ship them out tomorrow with the final batch of intial orders being shipped before the end of Wednesday. There is enough stock to cover the initial pre-orders, with a "limited amount" available for new orders.

Furthermore, they also claim that their batch are not subject to the EDGE/volume bug, having had an "additional quality control check." That much remains to be seen, but if you've pre-ordered the Nexus, expect something special in the mail anytime now. 

Source: Clove

Read our Galaxy Nexus Review!

We've received several tips about a possible bug on the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus (check our review) which results in the phone schizophrenically switching between volume modes, or randomly muting itself. During the course of our review we didn't notice this at all, but today we received a tip suggesting it could have something to do with the EDGE (2G) radio. As such, we set our Nexus to 2G-only mode, and sure enough, when switching between EDGE and 3G or EDGE and Wifi, we found that our unit fell victim to the glitch, too.

Right now we're guessing that something about the way the EDGE radio works is interfering with the volume rocker, causing the down volume key to be triggered repeatedly. There've also been suggestions that only 900MHz EDGE networks are affected, but we haven't been able to confirm this.

In any case, we've got the whole thing captured on video. Hit the jump if you want to take a look.

Thanks to Andrew and everyone who sent this in!

If you're looking to give another early build of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich a go on the Nexus S and prefer the ROM Manager route, Koush (a name you should well know and trust) has made available in ROM Manager an early alpha build. It's early yet, and the camcorder and a few other things aren't working 100 percent -- again, alpha build -- but it's something else to play with if you want.

Check it out at the link below, or snag it in ROM Manager.

Source: XDA