There isn’t any doubting the GSM Samsung Galaxy Nexus as a great phone. Sure, it has its share of drawbacks, such as its rear-facing camera, which is only capable of 5-megapixel resolution, but that applies to all Galaxy Nexus phones anyway.

Storage space has been another main point of contention, particularly for non-Verizon users of the Galaxy Nexus.  This is because GSM Galaxy Nexus phones contain only 16GB worth of internal storage, as opposed to Verizon’s Nexus which contains 32GB.

Unfortunately for current or prospective users of the GSM Nexus, two recent online posts are implying that users anticipating a 32GB edition might as well quit waiting. A representative from Expansys posted on the XDA forums that Samsung would no longer be carrying the 32GB Galaxy Nexus on its roster of phones. Negri Electronics, on the other hand, tweeted a similar message. These statements, however, have yet to be corroborated by Samsung itself.

What does this mean for would-be buyers of a Galaxy Nexus in terms of options?

AT&T and T-Mobile looking to buy the handset would have no other choice but to make do with “only” 16GB for their files, apps and multimedia. Verizon customers looking to buy a Galaxy Nexus may have a similar predicament, as the white Galaxy Nexus that is due for release may also come with just 16GB storage internally.

There’s no word regarding Sprint’s plans for its rumored 32GB Galaxy Nexus, but given the recent developments, chances are their Nexus handsets may contain half that amount of storage space.

It hasn’t been a year since NASA retired their space shuttle program after a 30-year run that started in 1981. Which is why it isn’t surprising that NASA has announced they will be consigning another part of the space shuttle era to memory lane. This would be one of the two customized Boeing 747 jumbo jet planes that were previously used to carry shuttle aircraft coast-to-coast during their run.

This particular plane enjoyed a run of 386 flights, 66 of these carrying shuttle aircraft from Edwards Air Force Base in California to the main launch site of Cape Canaveral, FL. It was delivered to NASA in 1990, a year after the agency acquired it from Japan Airlines. Its last mission was a simple 20-minute flight from the Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA to Palmdale, CA, where Dryden runs its aircraft operations.

So what fate awaits this retired carrier and its one-time companion? The retired plane’s spare parts will be used for NASA’s airborne observatory SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), which was launched in 2010. As for the active carrier, it will be used as transport for several shuttle orbiters that were previously decommissioned by NASA. Its itinerary will originate from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center and will fly these orbiters to different museums across the United States.

It is in some of these museums where NASA’s retired shuttles are displayed permanently for visitors. For instance, the Enterprise now resides at New York’s Intrepid Sea-Air Space Museum, while the Discovery can now be viewed at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center.

According to several leading UK broadsheets, the iPad poses a risk to its users in the form of RSI, or repetitive strain injury. This condition is distinguished by lingering pain in the hands and wrists, usually a result of repeated keystrokes on an electronic device (like a computer, laptop or tablet) and improper posture.

Apparently, the main source for these newspaper articles was a blog entry from Ergolab. The post thoroughly panned the iPad’s “ergonomic challenges”, comparing it to a laptop in that department. It stressed that neck strain would result from typing on the touchscreen with the iPad laid on a level surface. In addition to a strained neck, eye strain was also pointed out as a possible consequence of using the iPad in this traditional fashion.

The Daily Mail, on the other hand, highlighted a condition they called “iPad Hand”, a result of repeatedly swiping the phone’s touchscreen. This would not only affect the hand, but the rest of the arm as well. Again, the iPad’s touchscreen keyboard was cited by the Mail, however this is more or less the case with most other tablets due to their general design characteristics.

One of the iPad’s few drawbacks has been its docking station, which would allow users to connect a keyboard to the tablet. While this may make the act of typing easier on its own, the fact that the dock’s height cannot be adjusted hasn’t done the iPad many favors in the comfort department. As such, many medical specialists still advise tablet users to watch their posture and minimize tablet usage to avoid the risk of injury.

Despite an increase in builder confidence reported by the National Association of Home Builders through Wells Fargo, mortgage rates stayed low today, remaining unchanged across the board. The increase in home builder confidence marked the fifth consecutive month this figure went up, making it the longest uninterrupted period of improvement in five years.

Conventional or conforming mortgage rates remained exactly the same once again. These conforming loans require that the necessary documents such as bank statements and W2 forms be submitted, and credit scores play a large part in securing low rates. As of today, 30-year fixed mortgage rates, 15-year fixed mortgage rates and 5/1 ARM loan rates are still at 3.50 percent, 2.88 percent and 2.75 percent respectively.

An FHA mortgage, on the other hand, does not take credit score into consideration when determining rates. Low down payments are fairly common for this type of loan, however closing costs for FHA loans are higher than conforming loans. The present rates for FHA 30-year fixed mortgages, 15-year fixed mortgages and 5/1 loans remain at 3.25 percent, 2.75 percent and 2.75 percent.

The only change in yesterday’s mortgage rates was for jumbo 30-year fixed mortgages, which went down to 4.125 percent from 4.25 percent. However, jumbo 15-year fixed mortgages and jumbo 5/1 ARM loans stayed at 3.38 percent and 2.50 percent respectively. In order to qualify for a low rate for this type of loan, excellent credit is mandatory. These are private loans which also require strict compliance in terms of necessary documents.

Apple’s iPhone has long been regarded as a major technological force in the smartphone market. As such, it has enjoyed dominating sales ever since its introduction five years ago. Now the figures are in, and once again proving that the iPhone is also a definite leader in terms of dollars and cents.

According to a report from leading research firm Gartner Inc., Apple overtook Samsung in the fourth quarter of last year as the highest-selling smartphone manufacturer. In fact, Apple was 2011’s smartphone sales leader, as per Gartner’s statistics.

Apple sold a total of 472 million smartphones in the recently concluded year, which is equivalent to 31 percent of the entire smartphone market. However, as far as the general handset market is concerned, Apple is “still” at third overall behind Nokia and Samsung. This is still an improvement as they had only recently passed LG for the third spot.

Gartner mentioned in their report that Apple and Samsung were clearly dominant as their new releases propelled both manufacturers to banner years in 2011. As for manufacturers such as Research in Motion (RIM), LG and Sony Ericsson, Gartner was not impressed with their performance for the previous year. The iPhone 4S was cited as the main reason for Apple’s astounding success last year, as the Cupertino, CA-based company sold 35.5 million iPhones in Q4 2011.

Apple’s iOS platform also posted significant gains in 2011, moving past Nokia’s Symbian as the second leading operating system in the market with a 23.8 percent share. Once again, Android was the unquestioned leader in operating systems, posting a 50.9 percent share, down 1.6 percent from Q3 2011 numbers.

Officials from the Mexican Ministry of Tourism announced Tuesday that a record number of tourists visited Mexico last year. The 22.67 million individuals who listed Mexico in their vacation plans in 2011 marked an increase of 0.2 percent over 2008’s erstwhile record-breaking numbers. Compared to 2010’s year-ending numbers, tourism numbers rose by 2 percent.

Mexico Tourism Board CEO Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete expressed joy over Mexico’s new tourism record and stressed that the country’s diversification plans had worked out as planned. As a result, this attracted a wider range of tourists in terms of country of origin, with some countries experiencing much greater gains than expected.

Lopez-Negrete added that the Mexico Tourism Board will be celebrating the new Mayan calendar and heavily promoting Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Yucatan as tourist spots. These five states comprise the scope of the ancient Mayan civilization.

Breaking down the figures posted by the Ministry of Tourism, 66 percent more Brazilians visited Mexico last year in comparison to two years ago. Other countries whose residents flocked to Mexico more often in 2011 than they did in 2010 were Russia, with a 55 percent increase in tourists and China, with a 30 percent increase.

The top ten list in this category was rounded up by Colombia, Italy, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Canada.  However, less Americans were visiting Mexico in 2011, largely due to the worldwide economic crisis affecting the US more than most other countries. Nonetheless, for Americans, Mexico is still the most popular tourist destination outside of the fifty states.

A study conducted by CASE (Consumers Association of Singapore) revealed that the number of travel complaints increased by around 40 percent in 2011.

Although this does seem like a lot of additional irate customers for one year – the number of complaints went up to 1,396 from 994 year-on-year – part of it can be justified.

According to CASE executive director Seah Seng Choon, certain unforeseeable events, such as the flooding in Thailand and the catastrophic Japanese earthquake led to several cancellations. Other factors were also mentioned by Choon, including the general increase in the number of Singaporean travelers and the large number of online promotions last year.

NATAS (National Association of Travel Agents Singapore) chairman Robert Khoo is looking to curb this rise in complaints through standardizing travel agencies’ terms and conditions, hopefully by the end of 2012. This, according to Khoo, will potentially minimize the number of complaints due to unfair stipulations.  He acknowledged the high number of travel agencies that force their agents to follow these practices, much to the chagrin of customers.

In other complaint-related statistics reported by CASE, the health care industry still remained the leader in terms of customer complaints, albeit barely. After recording 3,111 cases in 2010, this figure was nearly cut in half to 1,565 in 2011. This, according to Seah, was largely in part due to reforms conducted by CASE last year to improve wellness industry practices.

Unfortunately, the telecommunications industry saw their number of cases increase to 1,453, with smartphones and their associated applications and services rising in popularity.

Brace yourself, everyone, because the tablet you’ve all been waiting for just might be around the corner.  We’re referring to none other than Apple’s iPad 3, which is still rumored for a March release date. And according to a new report from iMore, Apple may be hosting a special event on Wednesday, March 7, to preview their latest, perhaps greatest iPad for the very first time.

iMore mentioned that their sources were reliable in the past, so if they’re on the level, then we have less than a month’s wait before the new iPad is finally unveiled. This is congruous to a previous report from AllThingsD, which also speculated an early March preview for the new slate. And those paying attention to iMore’s hit-and-miss record may remember that they accurately predicted an October 2011 launch date for the iPhone 4S in August of last year.

History also favors iMore’s new scoop, as the iPad 2 was also unveiled on a Wednesday – March 2, 2011, to be exact. It wasn’t much more than a week later when the device hit the shelves for the first time and sold like hotcakes, as one may expect from Apple’s products nowadays.

Aside from posting details on the iPad 3’s prospective unveiling, iMore also liberally discussed the upcoming slate’s possible features.  Similar to other rumors, the iPad 3 may support 4G LTE connectivity, and will most likely boast of an incredibly high resolution display.

Regarding the under-the-hood specs, the iPad 3 may be powered by a quad-core CPU – other sources say the iPad 3 will be powered by a dual-core CPU, so we’ll have to wait and see whether iMore is spot-on with their processor rumor or not.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is, without question, the smartphone most people are bracing for in the first half of 2012. Now the iPhone 5 is another story altogether, but since Apple’s latest edition of their flagship handset may be out later rather than sooner this year, most of the buzz is centered on the Galaxy S3 and its bevy of potential high-end features.

Ironically, the Galaxy S3’s toughest rivals at this point may not be any one of the other smartphones set to be released in the first two quarters of the year. With several Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates forthcoming, the challenge may be coming from older handsets, primarily those from HTC.

Aside from the Sensation, HTC is also planning ICS updates for the Amaze, Evo and Vivid series. Given their generally lower price in comparison to the current Galaxy handset (the S2), it seems that HTC is serious about keeping pace with the larger, more successful manufacturers.

As for the Galaxy S3, some of the rumored features include an improved back camera (possibly 12 MP), increased RAM size and a faster, more powerful processor. It may possibly include Super AMOLED Plus display, a form of HD display that may eventually beat any other phone in the market once the S3 is released.

Would these features be enough to hold off all these older models receiving ICS updates?

We may have a few more months to wait before finding out.

One week after hitting rock bottom, US mortgage rates are up once again, albeit slowly.

Bankrate.com figures showed a 4.14 percent rate for the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and 3.36 percent rate for the 15-year fixed rate mortgage, both increasing 2 basis points from last week. As for 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgages, the benchmark rate went up to 3.05 percent by 3 basis points.

The only benchmark figure that remained unchanged was the 30-year fixed jumbo, which remained at 4.55 percent. Last week, the rates for all four mortgage variants were at their lowest ever point since 1986, when Bankrate first started publishing their surveys.

These recent increases, small as they may be, are an encouraging sign for the US housing market. For the month of January, the US unemployment rate went down a bit to 8.3 percent, after close to 250,000 jobs were added.

For many experts, this increase in interest rates came as a bit of a surprise given the ongoing lack of investor confidence. In fact, these financial analysts are not expecting the rates to make any significant increase as the government works on helping the housing market recover.

In related news, Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, expressed similar skepticism about the recent drop in the unemployment rate. In a Senate hearing held Tuesday, Bernanke stressed that the figures did not take into account individuals who had stopped seeking employment or those currently working part-time. As such, the federal funds rate may remain low for the next two years or so.