Archive for February, 2010

Sky’s Mobile TV now enabled for 3G

Sky Mobile TV is now usable over 3G, with Apple allowing the change to the app and giving users the option to stream television shows and live sports over the mobile phone networks.

Sky’s subscription mobile offering launched on the iPhone back in November – offering streaming television channels like Sky Sports News, Sky News and live sports channels over Wi-Fi.

Now, for the £6 a month fee, Sky’s channels will be available over 3G networks as well as Wi-Fi.

Available on 3G

"The UK’s largest Mobile TV service is now available on 3G for all iPhone users," Sky told TechRadar.

The Sky Mobile TV app launched in November last year and offers the best in live TV on the move initially allowing users to stream content over Wi-Fi from Sky Sports, Sky Sports News, Sky News, ESPN and At The Races.

Sports fans will be able to watch all live televised Barclays Premier League, Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premiere League and Coca Cola Football Leagues on 3G as well as live coverage of international and domestic cricket, PGA European Tour Golf, Guinness Premiership Rugby and a range of other sports.

Customers who already have the app will have received an update to advise them that the service is now available on 3G. New customers will need to download the app from the App store or at www.itunes.com/appstore and subscribe to the Sky Mobile TV service for £6 a month and register for a Sky customer ID.

Well received

The app has been well received, with MacFormat‘s Chris Phin commenting on a Sky Mobile TV review published on TechRadar that the ‘quality was incredible’.

But will the 3G networks be able to cope with it? A spokesman for O2 was kind enough to tell TechRadar that the company was aware of the application.

"Yes, I can confirm that the Sky Sports will work over our 3G network," said O2.

LG Mini GD880 hands-on video

Not to be outdone, LG chose MWC to show off its Mini GD880, a svelte piece built from brushed aluminum in both black and silver. Build quality is striking here — jaw-droppingly so — with fit and finish on all corners, seams, and around the various ports looking spot on.

This device also has heft for its diminutive size — sure, it’s only 99g, but that feels like so much for a device of this size — but it only adds character and, well, it feels like money for lack of a better word. Running LG’s S-Class UI, the touchscreen sadly isn’t really up to snuff, we had to really poke at the screen to get it to register a touch, and there was lag and delay between key press and action.

Of course, this isn’t shipping today, but rather launches in Europe in March — for some unknown price — and then on to other markets. So here’s hoping there is still a tweak or two in the GD880’s future, it’d be a shame to let something as glorious as it looks not deliver an experience to match.

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HTC Legend hands-on video

Mobilecrunch paws the oh so shinny HTC Legend which was announced today and is made with an aluminum uni-body, bit like the Mac and Nexus One.

First Impressions:

• It’s absolutely gorgeous. The majority of the unibody design is cut from a single sheet of aluminum, ensuring that there are no screws or unsightly seams. It’s hard not to compare it with a MacBook Pro; side by side, they look like they were born from the same robotic mother.
• The Hero was notoriously slow at launch – and while it sped up over time, it still had its lags here and there. The Legend is only 72Mhz faster (600Mhz vs 528mhz), but that little bump (and all of the work Google and HTC have been doing, presumably) make this an incredibly smooth ride.
• Being accustomed to trackballs, I went into the hands-on a bit unsure about the optical trackpad. I didn’t even consciously notice the difference until someone mentioned it – which says a lot. It works perfectly.
• In terms of durability, the unibody design makes this thing a friggin’ tank. As long as you don’t go smashing the glass screen, you’ll be hardpressed to damage the guts inside. HTC smashed the handset onto the desk multiple times hard enough that it was uncomfortably loud, and it walked away unscathed.
• HTC introduced a Exposé like multi-touch zoom control on the home screen, allowing you to use two-finger pinching to show all of your widget pages at once. This seemed silly in theory, but it’s pretty great in practice. You don’t realize how annoying it is to scroll through 7 pages of widgets until you’re given an alternative.

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HTC Legend, Desire and HD mini up for pre-order at Expansys

Expansys it hot out of the gates on the new announcements from HTC at Mobile World Congress and already taking pre-orders for those that can’t wait for the new Nexus one and Hero replacements to land.

UK shoppers looking to get an unlocked handset will be able to buy the HTC Legend for £399.99 while would be HTC Desire owners will have to pay £449.99.

HTC HD Mini owners looking for some Windows Mobile 6.5.3 until Windows Phone 7 comes out (it won’t be upgradable) can get in cheap for £349.99.

No word from Expansys on when the new handsets will be hitting the shop, but with HTC public suggesting an end of March / Early April launch window it won’t be long now.

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N900 Receives an Update – Firmware V3.2010.02-08 Now available

the N900 has just received a new firmware update from v2.2009.51.1 to V3.2010.02-08.  Jay goes on to say that, at the moment this firmware update is only available via the N900 device itself and not via Nokia Software Updater and is 16MB. No news on change log yet.

Go to Application Manager, click “Update” and then you should see an update for Maemo 5. Backing up your data would be advised.

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HTC Legend, Desire, and HD mini promo videos

HTC have made some nice videos showing off the three handsets they just announced at Mobile World Congress: the HTC Desire, HD mini, and Legend. They havent been officially released yet, so heres a sneak peak curtsey of Mobilecrunch.

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HTC enhances Sense with Leap and Friend Stream, available for Hero too

Announcing that it has "enhanced" the already quite delectable skin, HTC has noted it’ll be available preloaded on the brand new Desire and Legend handsets, and as a free download for the venerable Hero. So what’s new? The press event this morning told us about Leap, the new pinching function that allows you to view all your home screens at once (see above), and Friend Stream, which aims to be your social media aggregator du jour with its one stream combining Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates. There’s also a new newsreader application and widget, along with additional improvements to the browser and web client.

Update: Vodafone is to offer the updated Sense to its Hero customers.

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T-Mobile to offer HTC Desire in March, Orange from April

Like the look of the new HTC Desire? Then we have news of how you can get your hands on the new 2.1 Android handset here in the UK as T-Mobile has announced it is to offer the handset from 26 March and Orange is set for an April launch.

The European version of the Google Nexus One, the Desire boasts an impressive spec list that includes a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display and a 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p video capture.

T-Mobile is bundling in two complimentary titles from a selection of T-Mobile’s video on demand library with an exec stating: “The Desire is one of the most eagerly-awaited handsets of the year, and without doubt one of the highlights of this year’s Mobile World Congress. T-Mobile was the first network to bring Android to the UK, and we now offer our customers a larger range of Android-powered handsets than any other network”.

Orange says it is to offer the HTC Desire “free on selected consumer pay monthly and business price plans from April” with no more info provided at this stage.

The crucial bit – pricing and contract length – is still TBC as far as T-Mobile goes too, with the operator saying only: “the HTC Desire will be available to pay monthly customers”.

Update: Vodafone and O2 will offer the Desire in April too.

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Freeview offers free iPhone app

Freeview has announced it is offering iPhone and iPod touch owners a new app to help them plan their TV viewing whilst on the go with instant access to the Freeview programme guide, including HD channels and over 50 Freeview channels.

 
Features including a "now and next" view, "Top 10" channel list if you care, along with the ability to reorder channels so favourites appear first and can be customised to a viewer’s local region.
The app also offers the ability to filter listings by category, search by text entry, and recommendations automatically provided for all programmes said to be in order "to help introduce users to related programmes based on their selections".

BBC HD channel listings are available now on the app while ITV1 HD listings will be available shortly and Channel 4 HD listings will be added when the channel becomes available on Freeview HD.
The Freeview app is free and available for all iPhone and iPod touch users to download from the iTunes App Store now. It goes head-to-head with the Radio Times iPhone app that’s offered for £1.79.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/31539/freeview-offers-free-iphone-appVia

MWC: LG Mini GD880 Announced

LG’s latest feature phone the Mini GD880 packs a 5 megapixel cam, WiFi, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and integrated FM radio into a frame that’s just 10.6mm in depth and weighs just 99 grams — about as thin and light as it gets. It also boasts continual over-the-air syncing via LG‘s new Air Sync service, making it a pretty smart phone — for a feature phone.

The Mini will be available throughout Europe beginning in March, for an as yet undetermined amount of cash money.

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