Pocket Picks round-up: 6th August - Android malware can record calls, Desire gets broken Gingerbread, Microsoft makes more cash from Android than from Windows Phone

In gambling, an each-way bet is a way of spreading the risk that the horse you back will bring in some kind of return for your cash, even if it may not be the eventual winner of the race.

In very basic terms, that appears to be exactly what Microsoft has done with its own OS - Windows Phone - as figures revealed this week show that its myriad patents are earning the company more cash than its own intellectual property.

While it doesn’t shout about it (for obvious reasons), the tech giants hold enough of a stake in the Android OS that it makes a good chunk of change off every Google handset bought.

So, next time your Google fanboy friend rabbits on about how his favourite faceless global corporation is ‘beating’ another faceless global corporation, be sure to just casually drop that fact in, and enjoy the look of surprise and horror on his face.

Thanks to the complicated range of patents Microsoft licenses out for Google’s Android OS, the company is now making more money from Android sales than it is from Windows Phone.

The corporation receives around $5 for every HTC handset shipped out, which reports say is now making the company three times more money than licences for Windows Phone, purely due to the sheer number of Android handsets being bought.

Effectively, the Redmond-based giants have managed to find a way of generating money in the mobile market without its own product experiencing great success. Now, that’s some clever business acumen at work.

LG has one. Sharp has one. HTC has one. And now, it appears Sony Ericsson is likely to jump on-board the 3D mobile bandwagon, if the latest rumours are to be believed.

As with the other models in this growing sub-genre of smartphone, the unnamed device will use a glasses-free autoscopic display. On the unusual side, the rumoured device will pack a whopping 4.7-inch screen to view your 3D movies and games on. That’s closing in on tablet size, if you want a frame of reference.

It wouldn’t surprise us that much if we did see the phone appear, given how many of Sony Ericsson's competitors are also releasing similar devices at the moment. But we’d be very surprised if customers embrace 3D on their mobiles to any significant degree, especially considering the relatively sluggish sales of 3D TV sets, and the falling number of ticket sales for 3D movie screenings.

Hurrah! The long-awaited HTC Desire Android Gingerbread update was released this week, after copious delays, ever-changing excuses, and large PR gaffes. Alas, it turns out that the warnings the company gave about the phone not having sufficient memory to run the latest mobile version of the OS weren’t so exaggerated after all, as Gingerbread on the Desire is essentially broken.

While some losses like the removal of the official Facebook app (you can re-download from the Android Market, no big deal) or the lack of customisation options won’t offend too many people, the ominous warning that the update may stop MMS and SMS from working should raise a fair few eyebrows.

So, the engineers were correct then - the Desire just isn’t capable of running Gingerbread. Well, not HTC’s version of Gingerbread, at least, because CyanogenMod offers up Gingerbread for rooted Desires without your losing the ability to send SMS messages.

We’re still waiting for the ‘big’ story relating to the ever-increasing number of viruses, trojans, and general malware on Android - you know: ‘millions of dollars stolen’, that kind of thing - but the latest reports suggest that we are moving ever closer to a serious incident.

Security experts have created a proof of concept app that not only installs itself onto a handset without consent, but can also be made to record your phone conversations and store them on your phone.

Because it's proof of concept, of course, it’s not out in the wild yet. Oh, and it does rely on your skimming over the permissions list (including one that says ‘intercept phone calls’). This does, however, suggest we’ll be seeing more of these types of malicious app in the future.

We can’t go a week without some kind of new Apple rumour, so here it is! All Things Digital has muscled its way onto the rumour podium and delivered a thundering speech (metaphorically speaking) that suggests the next ‘magical’ handset will be out in October, rather than September.

Its source for this rumour also dismissed recent reports that American telecoms network AT&T was gearing up for an influx of new customers in September (suggesting a new iPhone).

“I don’t know why AT&T’s calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it’s not for an iPhone launch”, the source said.

Whatever the case may be, expect a new iPhone to be revealed at some point in the future. Definitely.