Looks like some bank accounts are a few hundred bucks lighter tonight, as preorders of the Verizon Galaxy S III have begun shipping. We're seeing arrival dates as early as Thursday, which should be a perfect way to cap off the holiday here in the States. 

If you haven't preordered, the Galaxy S III will be in Verizon stores starting July 10, with the 16GB version running $199 on contract, and the 32GB version hitting $249.

More: Verizon Galaxy S III forums; thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Just in case you missed out on some of the Android news today, now is the time to go ahead and get yourself fully caught up. Here on the blogs and in the Android Central Forums there is plenty to talk about. Have some questions? Need some help or just looking to chat Android? You know where to go, check out some of the threads below to get started.

• HTC EVO 4G LTE - Can you sync outlook tasks with the new Evo?
• HTC One X Forums - Whewwww, Weeeeee! AT&T LTE is Faaaasssst
• Droid RAZR MAXX Forums - Still haven't got the ICS update!
• Samsung Galaxy S III Forums - Your order is on hold
• Galaxy Nexus Forums - Next Nexus release question

If you're not already a member of the Android Central forums, you can register your account today.

Samsung's request for a stay in the potential Galaxy Nexus sales ban was denied this evening by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh. As everyone knows, Judge Koh decided last Friday that she feels Apple would win at least some of its case against Samsung for patent infringement, and suffer damages substantial enough to warrant a ban on the sale of the Android flagship phone. Google says it has worked out a patch that will allow the Nexus to be sold, but as it stands now as long as Apple is willing to pay a $95.6 million dollar bond sales of the Galaxy Nexus will be halted.

This is a very similar ruling as the one handed down last night for the Tab 10.1, also by Judge Koh. While we all want to smack Apple's lawyers around a bit for their innovation by litigation style of business, the real blame goes to the folks in offices who allow patents on vague ideas to stand. Apple knows they can get this style of justice as long as they petition enough courts, have plenty of money to spend on them, and have seen just how great Jelly Bean is. I can't blame them for trying to keep as many eyes off of the Nexus with Android 4.1 as possible. It's good business, even if it's bad for consumers. #boycottapple

Update: According to The Verge, Google may be pushing out an OTA update to resolve this as early as tonight. This OTA would take away local search on the device and redirect everything to the web. Remember -- you can ignore the OTA if you like. I will be.

Source: All Things D

Madfinger Games has brought their latest highly anticipated FPS to Google Play, and Dead Trigger is now available for just $0.99. The same folks who brought us Samurai II:Vengance and Shadowgun now deliver a fast-paced FPS that's chock full of zombies and blood. It's an alternate reality apocalyptic style game placed in today's times with today's modern weapons, and your job is to survive. Sounds like a winner already, doesn't it?

It gets better. Unlike some games where zombies are just brain-dead shambles that will happily hurt you if you bump into them, Dead Trigger has programmed an aggressive AI into these particular undead and they're more than happy to hunt you down and have a healthy brain snack. Add in a story line to progress along, a shop full of weapons and power-ups, spectacular Unity-engine graphics and a catchy soundtrack and you've got a real winner on your hands. 

Dead Trigger is available for most Android devices (there looks to be some issues with Sony phones and tablets) but it really shines with a Tegra 3 powered phone or tablet. The great graphics get even better with specular effects, normal tiled maps, highly improved ragdoll physics, and lifelike water and fog. On top of that, Tegra devices have game controller support baked into the app to really bring things to the next level. 

It might have taken a couple extra days (I've been counting them down!) but it sure was worth the wait. This is my new battery waster of choice. We'll give it a thorough look and revisit, but I just had to let you guys know it was ready for your killing pleasure. Grab it from the link below, and check out the trailer after the break!

Download Dead Trigger from Google Play

More info at the TegraZone

We first heard about Emotion UI -- Huawei's new, custom interface -- back in May, ahead of it's supposed, planned release in June. The Chinese OEM now seems to be about ready to push it out though as of today, as the official site has gone live. Download links are present, but at the moment, only Chinese consumers can get the software. 

Emotion UI is compatible with Huawei devices running Android 4.0, and at this time only the Honor, Ascend P1 and Ascend P1E are showing as being supported. The P1 also still shows as "coming soon." 

Notably missing from that list, is the as yet un-released, Ascend D-Quad. It's highly likely that Emotion UI will be coming to the upcoming Huawei flagship too. 

Emotion UI promises to bring a (Chinese only) Voice Assistant, cloud services, an "intelligent contact finder," and unique homescreens, customizations and animations. From the images we've seen so far, it looks like it might not be too bad, it's a shame that for now at least, we don't get to play around with it. 

Source: Huawei (translated) via Unwired View

I like my Nexus 7. It’s speedy, well-designed and runs a pure, unmolested version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. But since I’ve returned with it to the UK, Google’s flagship tablet has seemed just a little less magical than it was in sunny San Francisco.

To understand why, you have look at the main purpose of the tablet. As we repeated throughout our coverage of the new Nexus devices at Google I/O, they represent a window into the content-rich world of Google Play. But a content consumption device is only as strong as the stuff it allows you to consume, and outside of the U.S., the Nexus 7 is severely impaired in this area.

Hooray! It looks like Google, Samsung, and Sprint were able to iron out the difficulties in redistributing the closed source radio code for the Nexus S 4G and it's now officially a part of the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) again! Says Jean-Baptiste Queru, Technical Lead, Android Open Source Project --

We've been able to resolve the issues around Nexus S 4G, and we can now properly distribute its CDMA and WiMAX binaries. That allows Nexus S 4G to work with AOSP just as well as Nexus S.

As a result, we now consider Nexus S 4G to be fully supported in AOSP,with no restrictions. Overall, Nexus S is the preferred platform for AOSP work.

I've updated the set of IMM76L binaries for Nexus S 4G to include WiMAX support. They're available at their usual location: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/drivers

Enjoy!

JBQ

Enjoy we will. Welcome back to the family, Nexus S 4G. We've missed you. You might remember back in February, support for CDMA devices was dropped from the AOSP. Dan Morrill explained that this was because binaries for proprietary radio code was signed by a different private key, and projects built from the AOSP would use the standard platform key. This would lead to all sorts of difficulties, and official support for the devices had to be dropped. Legal issues tend to conflict with open-source more often than not. It seems that the issues have been resolved, and Google can now deliver binaries with the correct key, and the Crespo 4G is alive and kicking in AOSP.

It's worth noting that there's no mention of the Sprint Galaxy Nexus, which uses LTE for the 4G network in place of WiMax. Hopefully, those issues can be resolved as well and we're one big happy Nexus family again.

Source: Android Building Group

Verizon has officially announced release details for the Galaxy S III, and we'll be seeing the device on Big Red on July 10. Pricing is $199.99 for the 16GB version, and $249.99 for the 32GB model. For your money, you're getting the same great internals (dual-core S4 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 4.8-inch Super AMOLED) on Verizon's nationwide LTE network.

At this point there's not much else to say about the Galaxy S III. Everyone loves it, and now (well, seven days from now) everyone can have one. The good news is all the rumors and wild speculation can be put to rest. Read Verizon's full press release after the break.

Just a quick heads up for those of you who might be preordering the Google Nexus 7 tablet as a gift. Just like with the Amazon Kindle Fire, there's an option in the ordering process that allows you to link the tablet you're ordering to the account that you're ordering from. That makes initial setup go that much quicker, but it's not something you're going to want to do if you're giving the tablet as a gift.

The good news is that you'll still need to enter your password to purchase anything (unlike the Kindle Fire, which at one point allowed for minor buying without re-entering a password), but this one's still something to be aware of.

More: Google Play