Pocket Picks roundup 22nd October: Galaxy Prime, Droid RAZR, and free apps from RIM

It’s been a big week for Android news - or, more specifically, Google news.

Not only was the company behind the scenes of Motorola’s anticipated reveal of the Droid RAZR (see below), but it was also on stage presenting the next of its Nexus of handsets - the Galaxy Nexus.

Elsewhere RIM began the clear up, PR-wise, after last week’s BBM cuts with an apps and games package to sweeten customers’ moods, while Foursquare seems pleased with where Apple is going with iOS, going by the the latest update to the official app.

So it wasn’t the (much better-sounding) Nexus Prime after all. Samsung and Google pulled the veil off the next Android reference phone this week, demonstrating the latest version of the OS, Ice Cream Sandwich, for the first time in its entirety.

Let’s start with the hardware. The Galaxy Nexus is no slouch, packing a dual-core 1.2GHz and an impressive 720p screen that measures in at 4.65 inches.

Meanwhile, Ice Cream Sandwich comes with a whole host of new features, including the ability to put apps in folders, take screenshots, better multitasking, and a lot more. Have a ganders at Pocket Gamer’s top ten Ice Cream Sandwich features for a more detailed run-down.

The handset should be out in the US from November, with the rest of the world following shortly after.

Meanwhile, Google-owned Motorola Mobility was busy revealing the next iteration of its iconic RAZR - the incredibly thin 4G-enabled Droid RAZR.

This new handset comes with a slightly smaller 4.3-inch S-AMOLED screen, 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, and measures just 0.28-inches thick. To put it another way - ‘woah, that’s thin’.

Despite technically being another Google phone, the Droid RAZR won’t ship with Ice Cream Sandwich, no doubt to avoid stealing the thunder from Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus. It's expected to launch in the US around mid-November.

Hot on the heels of the iOS 5 launch, Foursquare unveiled version four of its popular iOS location app.

One of the key new features in this latest iteration is that it uses the new location-finders in iOS 5 to create a ‘radar’, showing all the places your friends have checked into in the surrounding area, sending push-notifications as you pass nearby.

According to Alex Rainert, FourSquare’s product head, the company has been working on the feature “since Apple first released the SDK”, hence the speed at which the social/location network managed to get the update out.

After last week’s massive cut of BlackBerry Messenger, RIM has taken steps to restore some goodwill by announcing that it will be making a selection of apps and games free for its customers.

The range of titles - full list available by clicking the link above - includes a selection of games from Gameloft and EA Mobile, as well as some handy apps from the likes of iSpeech and Shazam.

I doubt many of those who had their business dealings disrupted last week are going to be particularly enamoured by the gesture (with some large corporations already publicly switching to iPhone as a result), but for individuals such as you and I, that’s not too bad a offer.

Apple’s first foray into cloud storage isn’t going to be the only altocumulus lenticularis floating in the internet sky for iPhone users.

Box.net, keen to not see a first-party service eat into its business, has announced that it will offer up to 50GB free for iPhone users who sign up for its cloud storage service within the next 50 days.

The catch? Well, it isn’t anything terrible if you ask us. All you have to do is download the app and sign up. We wonder if Dropbox - another popular cloud storage system - will try and raise its 2GB free limit in response.