If you're due up for an upgrade anytime in 2012, Best Buy is offering a quick and easy way to save yourself $50 on your new handset, regardless of device, carrier, or plan. This new promotion, simply called Phone Freedom, is available now to all users - as long as you sign up before February 12.

Signing up couldn't be easier - just head over the Best Buy's Phone Freedom landing page, plug in your phone number and e-mail address and you're enrolled. After that, buy whatever handset you like in 2012 and BB will hand over the ...

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Best Buy Introduces 'Phone Freedom,' Gives Up A $50 Gift Card If You Register Before February 12 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Google announced last spring that Kansas City, Kan., landed the search engine’s super-speed Internet project, but disputed details within the original agreement created a troublesome 10-month delay. However, it now seems KCK is finally fiber-ready.

Google claimed it would begin KCK customer signups for the service in the fourth quarter of 2011, and the company planned to power-up the fiber optic network in the first quarter of 2012. For a while, it seemed those plans would not come to fruition, but Google announced in an official blog post today that it is ready to lay fiber now.

“We’ve measured utility poles; we’ve studied maps and surveyed neighborhoods; we’ve come up with a comprehensive set of detailed engineering plans; and we’ve eaten way too much barbecue. Now, starting today, we’re ready to lay fiber,” wrote Google Access General Manager Kevin Lo.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based Company said it plans to stretch thousands of miles of cables across Kansas City, K.S., and Kansas City, M.O…

“Each cable contains many thin glass fibers, each about the width of a human hair. We’ll be taking these cables and weaving them into a fiber backbone—a completely new high speed infrastructure that will ultimately be carrying Kansas Citians’ data at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today,” Lo continued.

“At first, we’ll focus on building this solid fiber backbone. Then, as soon as we have an infrastructure that is up and running, we’ll be able to connect Google Fiber into homes across Kansas City!”

The local community successfully vied against 1,100 other United States localities courting Google and its ambitious Internet plans. KCK subsequently became the first “Gigabyte City” or “Fiber Town.”

Google noted the primary reason it came to KCK centered upon local officials’ ability to move quickly and make the project work. However, almost a year’s time was lost. The apparent dawdle stemmed from how, and where, Google can hang its data-flowing glass wire.

Recent media coverage of the extended delay most likely reawakened Google and prompted the company to resolve any underlying kinks in the deal. The search engine is now focused on building a solid fiber backbone and getting the project back on schedule.

Lo contended: “As soon as we have an infrastructure that is up and running, we’ll be able to connect Google Fiber into homes across Kansas City!”

Google has not named the neighborhoods that will receive connection first.

HTC will give us our first taste of their 2012 smartphone lineup at Mobile World Congress, but Japanese site Ameblo is giving us a look at one handset a few weeks early. The HTC Ville appears in a series of images only slightly less blurry than a video of the rumored dual-core device that came online last week. We don’t gain too much new info, but the photos re-emphasize the Ville’s thin profile, a design element that moves away from the chunkier casings of last year’s handsets (designs HTC called disappointing). The HTC Villa is said to run a 1.5GHz processor, make use of a 4.3-inch qHD AMOLED display, and measure in at a respectable 8.9mm. The phone should ship with Ice Cream Sandwich and an updates version of HTC’s Sense UI.

[Ameblo via AndroidCommunity]

Software giant Microsoft will release in the second quarter a high-profile productivity tool for Android-toting business professionals, it’s been revealed. Accompanying Microsoft’s CRM Dynamics 2012 platform update is this preview guide which specifically mentions Android support, as noted by ZDnet. The document also includes a screenshot depicting Dynamics CRM mobile client for iPad, as seen on the right. In addition to native clients for Android devices and iPads/iPhones running iOS 5.x, Dynamics CRM will also be available on devices powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.

As opposed to a web client that comes with significant limitations, the mobile client comes with all the bells and whistles so it should be Godsent for road warriors. Many businesses rely upon Dynamics CRM to  manage their interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. Dynamics CRM mobile client will be priced at $30 a month per seat versus rival Salesforce’s mobile client which starts at $65 a month per seat.

Microsoft also said this Dynamics CRM platform update widens browser support:

In addition to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Q2 2012 service update provides the ability for end users to access the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Client across all modern Internet browsers on various platforms. This includes browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari running on PC, Apple Macintosh or iPad.

Microsoft’s offering on Android Market is limited to the Bing search app, a Lync 2010 client and a local news app.

Cross-posted on 9to5Mac.com

Best Buy has reportedly been testing the waters for a possible “iTV” offering from Apple. According to The Verge, the retail giant has been circulating a customer survey that provides some very specific details about an Apple HDTV to gauge consumer interest. Here are the details:

• 42-inch 1080 LED display
• Runs iOS
• App Store functionality
• iCloud for access to all your music, TV shows, movies, photos, and videos
• iPhone and iPad as a remote control with AirPlay to push content from your devices to the TV
• Built-in FaceTime camera and microphone (we’d imagine Siri, as well)
• Netflix, YouTube, Flickr support
• $1,499 price

This list, while detailed, could be easily have been put together by anyone familiar with Apple’s current Apple TV product, though the 42-inch display size and price of $1,499 could be solid indications of what we can expect from Apple. The Cupertino-based company is rumored to be preparing to launch its first HDTV featuring iOS and Siri later this year.

Read

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[New App] Transparent Screen Lets You See Where You're Walking While Using Your Phone, Enables Your Internet Addiction was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Oh, this could get good. Verizon's cooking up a little Valentine's Day contest, wherein you can win a Motorola DROID RAZR. (Not a new RAZR MAXX? Lame.) The contest kicks off Feb. 13 and runs through Valentine's Day. To enter, you'll have tweet a "creative" Valentine's Day confession -- poems and pics are suggested -- and tag the stories with #tweetheart.

So, ya know, you could say something nice about your sweetie, something about along romantic dinner, maybe a walk through the park. Or we could well see sordid tales from the Red Light District. Because this is, after all, the Internet. 

Find out next week, we suppose.

More: @vdayconfessions