Author Archive: Gareth

Adobe Flash 10.2 for Honeycomb dated

Adobe has announced on their blog that Adobe Flash 10.2 for Android 3.0.1 (Honeycomb) tablets will be available on Friday, March 18th. They state that they have been working very closely with Google to integrate Flash 10.2 into the new OS and browser capabilities of Honeycomb. Currently the only Honeycomb tablet available is the Motorola XOOM.

Lenovo Skylight Slate appears through FCC

Lenovo finally got their act together and decided to go through with the FCC approval for their entry into the Android tablet market, with what may soon be called the Lenovo Skylight. The 10" Android 2.2 tablet’s FCC testing documents made its way into the FCC database yesterday.

Tegra Zone now available on Android Market

nVidia’s Tegra Zone is now available for you to download off the Android Market. We got a sneak peak at this awesome little application/market back during CES 2011 and it looked and ran pretty smoothly. It had all the options a user would want including multiple screenshots, gameplay videos and HD trailers for each game, behind-the-scenes featurettes and a great looking user interface. You’ll also be able to see what people like us are saying about each game right in the description! Another great feature is that although this is technically another market application, it uses the Google Checkout back-end for payment processing. You won’t need another account to buy games, you can just use your Google account that you already have.

Games that will be available on Tegra Zone initially will be the same ones now available on the Android Market:

• Monster Madness
• Fruit Ninja THD
• Backbreaker THD
• Samurai II: Vengeance (See some of the coolest Samurai Swords here)
• Hardwood Solitaire IV
• Dungeon Defenders: First Wave HD

Also to be available after the release of Tegra Zone very shortly will be Vendetta Online which we know a lot of you Android gamers out there are looking forward to getting your hands on and playing, especially you space MMORPG fans. Other games coming shortly to Tegra Zone include Hardwood Spades and Galaxy on Fire 2. Time for us to get into the thick of things here at GDC 2011!

Source

Windows 8 Tablets due in Q4 this year

Some say that Windows 8 tablets using ARM processors could be out before the years end. Business Insider’s sources claim that Microsoft has thousands of engineers which have been working on the ARM version of Windows 8. It has already been leaked that Windows 8 will be more tablet-centric and touch friendly.

Windows 7 tablets have been critised for two main problems. Firstly, an unrefined touch interface. The few tablets on the market now seem to not only be less responsive than Android or Ipad alternatives but also fairly fiddly. Windows also seems to suck up battery life at an alarming rate. These are the precise two things that Windows 8 will combat. The ability for Windows 8 to run on ARM processors should allow the platform to match Android and Apple tablets with their 10 hours or more battery lives.

Some companies have managed to make Windows 7 quite a pleasent experience, for example Viewsonic’s Vpad 10 which I had the pleasure of playing with at MWC. This tablet had Windows as the front runner and ran Android 2.2 on top, with Meego as a option they plan to shoehorn in.

It will be great to see Windows shaking up the mix. Windows 7 proved to be a strong operating system and if Windows 8 is an improvement, with the support behind it, Microsoft has the potential to be a market leader.

Posted by Gareth

Video on Skype coming soon to Android

Got an Android phone with a front facing camera? Or a Tablet and want to do the video conferencing damn near all of them advertised? Well, February 28th could be a good date for you. Rumour has it that there will be an update for Skype on Androidy platforms that will include video chattery. Can’t imagine the networks being particularly enthusiastic about it so I imagine it might just be wi-fi only after a short time but the fact that it might just allow for some nice cross platform conferencing will be a winner.

[Source]

Posted by Gareth

HTC drops $40 million investment in OnLive

In a one-two punch, the Wall Street Journal reports HTC has initiated two major investments in mobile service companies.

Garnering most attention is the reported $40 million injection of funds in cloud gaming firm OnLive, which is designed to enable games to be streamed over the web to any number of devices – from PC to TV, tablet and mobile.
HTC will buy 5.33 million shares in the privately held OnLive at $7.50 a share.

The move is billed by the paper as an attempt by HTC to strengthen its hand in the mobile gaming business, with company spokesperson Maggie Cheng claiming the move will "strengthen its gaming capabilities and help HTC tap into increasing demand for games on smartphones".

Embedding the OnLive player in its Android hardware would be a major boost to the company. OnLive has previously demoed its services running on iPad, but as yet, there’s no commercial deployment other than a spectator mode app. 
Said investment has been closely following by the acquisition of UK-based Saffron Digital.
The firm specialises in delivering video on demand content to clients, with the likes of Vodafone, T-Mobile, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia partners.
Combined, said investments seem to point to HTC gaining a foothold in delivering media content via the cloud, though the firm itself is remaining tight-lipped about any notion of a co-ordinated strategy being behind the moves.

[Source Pocketgamer]

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