So… about that Flipboard exclusivity on the Samsung Galaxy S III. Looks like an XDA member went ahead and extracted the Flipboard APK from the unreleased Galaxy S III and made it available to all. Silly companies and their backdoor deals, won’t they ever learn. They need to stop wasting their money on these deals and just start giving consumers what they want — because we’ll get it one way or another.

Google has remained highly committed to the Google+ experience and are continually pushing out new features to improve upon it. Today, they’ve added the ability to reply to Google+ notifications from within Gmail. This is a great feature that allows you to comment, share, and +1 without leaving your inbox. It can be tedious sometimes to receive an email notification and then have to open up the app or navigate to the web client just to +1 a comment. This new feature should boost user engagement and make for a more enjoyable experience.

It looks like Square has yet another competitor in the mobile payments arena. Global payment leader VeriFone has announced SAIL, a credit card reader much like Square’s, that will attach to a number of mobile devices. While VeriFone may have a little catching up to do, they have the advantage of an extensive network with a commanding percentage of retail transactions passing through their service.

Now that the smoke has cleared, we can get a better look at the Samsung Galaxy S III and all it has to offer. First off, it’s a large device with a 4.85-inch display that almost puts it into the phablet category. It may be big but it’s still pretty thin and lightweight, measuring 8.8mm thick and weighing 133 grams. You’ll have two colors to choose from when deciding on the Samsung Galaxy S III: Pebble Blue and Marble White. The device’s design is described as that of a “smoothed pebble” and features rounded edges, a small bezel and glossy finish. It’s chock full of features — some old, some new — and will be available in Europe by the end of the month.

The latest Android distribution numbers are out, reminding us why we prefer Nexus devices. Although the number of Android 4.0 devices nearly doubled since last month, they remain embarrassing low. It’s been six months since Ice Cream Sandwich melted its way into our hearts yet only 4.9% of Android devices accessing the Google Play Store were running it.