Sprint has announced availability and pricing for the highly anticipated U.S. launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Beginning October 25, Sprint will offer the Samsung Galaxy Note II for $299.99 with a 2-year commitment. The Galaxy Note II was unveiled back in August at the Samsung Unpacked event in Berlin and was said to hit all U.S. carriers by mid-November.

We’re only days away from the release of the DROID RAZR HD and if you were thinking about picking one up from Verizon, you might want to consider the deal Costco has instead. If you happen to be a Costco member or know someone who is, you might want to think about ordering your DROID RAZR HD from them as they are offering up quite the bundle.

If you happen to be the owner of a GSM/HSPA Galaxy Nexus or Nexus S, you might want to keep your eye out for an update. According to reports, Android 4.1.2 has begun rolling out to the “yakju” Galaxy Nexus and the “soju” Nexus S. This isn’t surprising since Google posted the factory images just a few days ago and it’s only been about a week since Nexus 7 owners received the update. .

Could Amazon be making a go at Apple and Samsung in the smartphone sector? According to Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist, it sure looks that way. According to the report, Amazon is in advanced talks with TI, looking to scoop up their chip business at a cost of billions of dollars. Texas Instruments has been quite vocal about wanting to get out of the smartphone market and has scaled back its support after losing most of its market share to Qualcomm and predicting an unattractive long-term opportunity for them in the smartphone market.

Monday is here… *sigh*. While you were busy trying to accomplish every “to-do” relax over the weekend, a few stories developed that you may have missed. I’ll briefly round-up a couple bits of information here for you to catch up on and then let you get back to enjoying your Blue Monday.