News

Sky News for iPad is launched

Sky News today launches Sky News for iPad, a completely new way to experience breaking news and live video.

The interactive news service was designed specifically for iPad and has claimed the top spot in the charts for news apps on the Apple platform.

A dedicated editorial team produce real-time updates, expert analysis and interactive graphics for those who want to keep up with breaking news on the go.

Users can select from live and on-demand video and then dive deeper through supporting graphics, photo galleries, graphs and articles that provide extra context and analysis.

One of the key features of the app is the ability to rewind live video, even if users have missed the beginning of the story.

The live video is immediately available to replay once it finishes.

HTC Flyer expected mid April

Clove have dropped us a line today to let us know that they are expecting the HTC Flyer to be in stock mid April. The Android tablet is currently priced up at £600 including VAT but this has yet to be confirmed. More details when we have them.

You can pre order from Clove here.

HTC Flyer specification:

• Processor: 1.5GHz 
• Platform: Android  with HTC Sense 
• Memory  Internal storage: 32 GB  RAM: 1 GB  Micro SD memory card extension (SD 2.0 compatible)  Dimensions (LxWxT)  195.4 x 122 x 13.2 mm
• Weight: Around 415 grams with battery  
• Display:  7 inch touch-sensitive TFT screen with 1024 X 600 resolution
• Network: HSPA/WCDMA: 900/AWS/2100 MHz  Upload speed of up to 5.76 Mbps and download speed of up to 14.4 Mbps 
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• GPS: Internal GPS antenna Sensors
• Ambient light sensor 
• G-Sensor 
• Digital compass
• Bluetooth: 3.0 with A2DP for wireless stereo headsets 
• Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n  3.5 mm stereo audio jack  Micro-USB (12-pin micro-USB 2.0)
• Camera:  5 megapixel colour camera with auto focus, 1.3 megapixel front camera"
• Audio supported formats: Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav,  .wma (Windows Media Audio 9)  Recording: .amr, .aac 
• Video supported formats  Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3), .xvid (MP4 ASP and MP3)
• Rechargeable battery  Capacity: 4000 mAh 
• Standby time: Up to 820 ~1470 hours  
• Video Playback: Up to 4 hours
• AC adapter: Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz  DC output: 9V and 1.67A 

Posted by: James

RIM Announces BBM Social Platform

Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) Social Platform, giving developers the tools to build applications that take advantage of the  social aspects of the popular BBM service.

“The BlackBerry developer community has been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to integrate BlackBerry Messenger with their apps. BBM is a very popular service with over 28 million users and opening its real-time social connectivity to third party applications presents incredible opportunities,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platform at Research In Motion. “Access to BBM services from within apps will revolutionize gaming, enhance multimedia experiences, and add a new dimension to location based applications.”

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.

Three announce the Samsung Galaxy Pro

Three have announced today the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Pro on their network. The Android 2.2 device is another front facing QWERTY design that we have seen more recently from the likes of Motorola with the Droid Pro.

In the video below you can see the Galaxy Pro in the hands of a Three spokesperson. Focus is very much on the social hub feature which integrates your social networking apps. A great feature that I have used on other platforms.

I don’t have the full specs for this one but when we do we will let you have them.

Check out the funky video below.

Three launches all-you-can-eat data on PAYG

If you are a regular to our podcast you’ll know that I’ve recently been ranting about various UK carriers reducing the caps on their ‘unlimited’ data bundles and/or increasing the cost. Today Three are bucking that trend and have announced a new ‘all-you-can-eat’ data plan for Pay As You Go customers.

As their press releases states, which you can see below, this could well shake up the whole industry. Lets hope it leads to much greater competition on data!

Book apps for BlackBerry

Tomorrow is World Book Day, a worldwide celebration of books and reading. As lovely as it is to break the spine on a new book, technology now lets us enjoy a good story or two while on the go without having to lug around a heavy tome. Chick-lit, mystery or classics – no matter what you enjoy, there are a wealth of apps related to the literary world for your BlackBerry smartphone. Why not use it as an eReader to read on the train? Or order the latest bestseller from wherever you are and have it delivered to your house?

Check out a few book related apps after the break. You may find one that comes in handy?

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

iOS 4.3 Officially Announced – Available March 11

Alongside the iPad 2 being announced today, Steve Jobs with the help of Scott Forstall unveiled iOS 4.3 to the world. New features in the update include the Nitro Javscript engine from Safari on OS X to make browsing super sweet, new iTunes Home Sharing that lets you play content from iTunes to your iOS device over WiFi, new AirPlay features that we saw in the iOS 4.3 betas such as the ability for App Store apps to share audio and video. For the iPhone only, iOS 4.3 adds the personal hotspot feature but for only the GSM version and for the iPad it adds Photobooth and Facetime to take advantage of the new camera on the iPad 2. Oh and Apple is giving us choice of whether you want the switch on the side to be for locking the screen rotation or for it to be a mute switch.

iOS 4.3 will be a free download available on March 11 for the iPhone 4 (GSM), 3GS, iPod Touch 3rd and 4th gen and both iPad models.

Posted by Patrick

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