News

Facebook 2.0 for BlackBerry

RIM yesterday released Facebook 2.0 via the BlackBerry Beta Zone and we have some nice new stuff which I am rather pleased about.

You can now check to see which of your Facebook friends are online and start a Chat conversation from within the Facebook application or within the unified mailbox on your BlackBerry smartphone.

On Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, as long as your status is set to online, you still receive notifications even if you are not using the Facebook app.

More details below:

LG 3D G-Slate overview… by a girl!

LG is one of the other big names bringing an Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet to the market over the next few months. Their tablet will be available through T-Mobile USA and run on their “4G” network. The LG Girl got some hands-on time with it, and shot a little promo type video. It gives us a little insight on what the G-Slate is all about. We still don’t have a firm release date or price point for the device.

Xperia Arc and Xperia Play appear on Vodafone’s site

Both listed as coming soon we are pleased to see Sony Ericsson, frankly, most exciting phones in a few years appear on the premiere network. Vodafone seem to be pushing out all the big names at the moment and they are the first UK network to fully list these devices.

Check out after the break for a rundown on the Xperia Arc and Play hardware.

Asus to shake up the netbook game

A new rumour has surfaced from DigiTimes reporting ASUS is looking to evolve their netbook game in 2011 with either Chrome OS or – our precious – Android. It’ll be on the affordable side with pricing expected to sit anywhere between £150 and £200. They’re claiming it’ll be a 10 or 11 inch netbook.

ASUS has already shown their Android-based netbook card – they debuted tablet/netbook hybrids at CES this year called the Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider (both pictured above). This would be a more traditional netbook, though, which makes things a bit interesting.

As far as processor technology goes, it’s believed that Intel’s established Atom series will be powering things under the hood, though which chipset exactly wasn’t said. While Chrome OS may be a better fit for a traditional netbook experience, Android has quickly become an easily-marketable household name and – to be quite honest – it can do a lot more than Chrome OS can in its current state. We’ll be keeping an eye out for further announcements from ASUS.

ZTE Announces 2010 Annual Results

Up until recently I don’t think too many ‘average consumers’ will have heard of China based electronics giant ZTE. However with the launch of a number of own-branded handsets the ZTE name is becoming a lot more recognisable.

Today ZTE announced their 2010 annual results and the news is excellent. Following a ‘surge’ sales are up by 50% in the US and Europe.

You can find ZTE’s full press release below. Well done guys!

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.