Author Archive: 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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BBC iPlayer coming to iPad and Android this week!

How exciting! iPlayer in the palm of your hands. You might never have to enter the living room again or book a time to watch the last episode of Eastenders or Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Looking more tablet friendly than the last iPad version which was essentially a squished version of the big screen version the Beeb have promised these key features on Android and iPad:

• Watch live TV and listen to radio (not previously widely available on mobile devices)
• Access the BBC’s full catalogue of catch-up programmes; seven-days’ TV and radio on demand as well as series stacking (as you get on the web)
• A simple and intuitive design with high picture quality and personalised favourites (making the most of the touch-screen UI, and a popular feature on the website)

For those with Android don’t get too excited right away as it will only run on the Flash friendly 2.2 version, Froyo. Another reason for those without to rally the manufacturers, set up picket lines and burn brassieres to get your phone up to 2.2.

Toshiba Tablet gets its own site

Having made a real hash of the Toshiba Folio, Tosh have are stepping up to plate again in true do or die fashion. Toshiba Tablet is the cunningly titled tablet from Toshiba. This Honeycomb experience will feature a 10.1″ capacitive multi-touch screen running at 1280×800,16:10, 720p. the innards boast Tegra 2 from Nvidia, two cameras (2mp front facing and 5mp rear,) Wi-fi, USB, mini-USB, HDMI, full-SD card support, and 3.5mm headphone jack.

One of the big differences here is the ability to change the battery. You might need a screwdriver but having that option will shoot this straight to the top of many folks lists out there. Nice one Toshiba.

You can check out all the details on the rich website www.thetoshibatablet.com.

Huawei S7 Slim appears

Huawei’s made a good impression on the tablet market with the S7. What appeared to be lacklustre on paper turned out to be worth much more than the sum of it’s parts in reality. At the time it was mentioned that a capacitive version was on the drawing board and on Twitter today the unveiled, the Huawei Ideos S7 Slim.

Rest assure, if this is at Mobile World Congress, I’ll fine it and provide more info on it.

Details from the Google Event

Today Google held their media event which was shown live on YouTube. It seems that particular rumour has become true. 30-45 minutes before the event started, going to the Android site (android.com) and clicking on the market link in the bottom right would just redirect you back to android.com. Before then it would actually take you to the Android market promo page.

This has been something that developers have been wanting for a very long time as well as Android users and it is now official, we have web-based Android Market access! This will allow users to buy Android apps and games online from your PC and thanks to ‘The Cloud’ you’ll have it installed via OTA (over-the-air) right to your Android device.

Also announced along with the new web-based Android Market (which is now live) is the native ability for in-app purchases! This means we will start to see lots of Freemium games landing on Android soon. Freemium games are full games you would otherwise pay for, but instead you can download them for free in exchange you have the option of buying in-game items to customize your character, boost your gameplay and all sorts of stuff along those lines.