Be it Verizon’s fault or Google’s, owners of the recently released Galaxy Nexus smartphone can’t tap into the device’s built-in Near Field Communication feature for use with Google Wallet. It’s just not going to happen.

Not going to happen, that is, unless you perform a few lengthy customizations on your smartphone. A crafty workaround has been found that allows Galaxy Nexus owners to use Google Wallet just like all of their friends that own Sprint’s Nexus S 4G smartphones. But the hack comes with a few catches: Namely, you’re going to hack off both Verizon and Google if you try it.

How’s that? Well, the process for enabling Google Wallet on your Galaxy Nexus demands that you unlock the device’s bootloader and root the smartphone. And once you’ve done that, there goes your warranty through Verizon should your smartphone encounter any errors (or catastrophic free-falls) in your future.

It’s already been a year since Google first introduced us to the CR-48. Aside from a new name and shinier coat, how far have Chromebooks really come?

It’s been roughly a year since Google’s Chromebooks (then known as the CR-48) first surfaced. Google’s “nothing but the Web” netbooks have laid fairly low, making a big initial splash and then playing second fiddle to a variety of other Google releases this year (the Google Wallet and Google+ specifically coming to mind).

The tablet market hasn’t been too friendly to Google’s Android operating system. Over the last year, consumers have been increasingly turning to Apple’s iPad to satisfy their tablet desires. Android-based products, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab0, Dell Streak and countless other slates, have been collecting dust on store shelves.

ASUS wants to release another convertible tablet with Ultrabook design and specs that will run Windows 8 on Intel’s Ivy Bridge platform, according to Asian rumor site DigiTimes. Can a convertible design succeed in the post iPad world? Intel, Microsoft and ASUS certainly hope so. The combination of a tablet-centric version of Windows and the Ultrabook specs and design might be the winning combination Windows-loving users have been looking for in a tablet.

Windows 8 will be betting the business on the touch interface. Intel’s new Ivy Bridge platform, which follows on the wildly successful Sandy Bridge processor, will make the Intel Core iX processors even more efficient and powerful at the same or lower prices. It won’t come till next Spring, but when it does the Ultrabook format should benefit greatly.

Siri? iCloud? Bug? How can the next iPhone avoid the much-publicized battery life problem reportedly (and still) plaguing the iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 5 is still considered as a big rumor, but apparently, Apple will release a new iPhone next year and it will use the iPhone 5 moniker.

Rumors this week talked about the iPhone 5 release date and features. From dual-core to quad-core CPU to larger screen and new design, of course, it is still the same old cycle of rumors circulating on the internet claiming that Apple’s iPhone 5 will be the biggest and the most aggressive iPhone yet.

Android is, without a doubt, the most successful Linux distribution out there. And it’s only going to go from strength to strength in 2012.

Microsoft might have sold hundreds of millions of Windows 7 licenses, and Apple might be managing to persuade tens of millions of people to buy iOS-powered devices every quarter, but the real winner when it comes to operating systems in 2011 is Android, Google’s mobile operating system.

Rumors about the possible release date and features of Android’s formidable rival, iPhone 5, have begun growing louder even as the popularity wave of iPhone 4S and its new feature Siri have begun dying down.

The latest rumors suggest that the iPhone 5 will be released in 2012 as Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs’ last masterwork. The most likely release date is early summer in 2012. Some analysts suggested that the iPhone also could be released in the late summer or early fall of 2012.