In this week’s Gadget Lab podcast, the crew talks shop about the new PlayStation phone, a popular Android mod, a lame patent troll exploiting app programmers and the state of Macintosh viruses.

Mike Isaac kicks off the show with his take on Sony-Ericsson’s Xperia Play, an Android phone with a built-in game controller and software for playing PlayStation games. It’s pretty a rad device.

Also in the Android world, Cyanogen has been a popular modification for 32 different Android devices. It’s an easy-to-install mod that unlocks new capabilities for Android, such as changing wallpapers or enabling free tethering.

Moving into the Apple universe, I talk about a patent firm that’s threatening to sue several independent iPhone app programmers if they don’t pay him a licensing fee for a patent he owns. The technology? Using an Upgrade button in software. Sounds pretty slimy.

We wrap up the podcast with a look at Mac security. A new Trojan horse called Mac Defender has recently fooled hundreds of customers, and we discuss whether this means Mac customers need to start installing antivirus software by default, like Windows users do.

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Or listen to the audio right here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #115