Boy, was this first hour of the Google IO packed with news. We already told you about the major Honeycomb and Android Ice Cream Sandwich updates, so now let’s talk about the new Movie Rental and Google Music services that the company launched today.
The Sony Ericsson Developer Blog recently published details including a step by step walk-through showing code-savvy users how to build and then flash their own custom Linux kernels onto their Sony Ericsson Android devices.
Building on feedback taken from forums such as XDA, the walk-through aims to help users get around troubles such as building and flashing your own custom image (if you are into that sort of thing).
Today Nokia has released the dedicated LinkedIn app for free for Symbian smartphones. It’s the social network for professionals and business contacts out there.
It’s a full-featured app, which allows you to send/receive messages, invites for new contacts and browse profiles.
Those with an Android device will most likely know Google Goggles well. The smart-camera app that can identify a myriad of logos, books, DVD’s, landmarks, artwork, businesses, products, barcodes, and text and search online for information, a website or whatever you want on them.
It can even translate written text from one language to another and cheat solve Sudoku puzzles. Well Google’s Mobile Blog have just announced it’s receiving an update on Android.
If you’re a customer of T-Mobile in the US you’re in for a treat. As of tomorrow (the 11th) T-Mobile are looking to reinstate their free calls over Wi-Fi service.
Great news assuming you have a compatible handset. At present Wi-Fi calling eats up your plan’s minutes but this revised service will allow you to make calls for free!
It’s a small step for Adobe and a huge step for the iPad as the Photoshop-aid tablet apps are finally official and there for the taking (buying).
Adobe Eazel, Color Lava and Nav are online at the Apple App Store for the iPad and could be yours for a total of 10 bucks or $5, $3 and $2, respectively.
T-Mobile’s G2, or HTC Desire Z as we know it on our side of the pond, will be getting an official OTA update to the latest Android version – Gingerbread – much like its European cousin.
Improvements included are some UI refinements, a 3G/4G indication in the place of the “H” at the notification bar, improved text input and power management (we’re guessing Power saving mode here).
Microsoft has just sealed a deal for acquiring Skype Technologies SA company. The deal is for $8.5 billion – the biggest sum Microsoft has paid for an acquisition up to date. They are certainly overpaying but they desperately need to expand their online services portfolio.
The rumors about this acquisition started just yesterday, but it’s official now.
Amazon may have beaten them to the punch but Google is still launching their long-rumored cloud-music service – called Music – today at the Google I/O conference. Google Music will serve as a digital locker, where users can store their songs and stream them over the Internet on any device. The Google I/O conference is set to start later on today – 5pm London time, to be exact.
This, much like the Amazon Cloud Player, is happening without a deal with the music studios…
The HTC Wildfire S is a great little device. It feels sturdy in its aluminum body and it looks really fresh with its cool paint job. It also brings along the much-needed better display and latest Android version to make it a true upgrade over its predecessor.
The Wildfire is probably the hottest mini around these days and boasts some serious specs for its size. It’s got a 600MHz processor, 512MB worth of RAM, 3.2” HVGA (320×480) display
HP announced today that it’s launching a refreshed batch of the 14-inch Pavilion dv4 and Envy 14 notebooks as well as a redesigned Mini 210 netbook. In addition to them, HP has also lifted the cover of two new EliteBook models for business users – the 2560p, 2760p and 5330m.
Let’s cut to the chase starting off with the Envy 14. This sleek looking 14.5-inch notebook is unsurprisingly getting some juicy Sandy Bridge processor options, high-speed USB 3.0 interface and HP’s imagepad which uses image sensor technology for advanced gestures.
The Nokia Reader is an application for receiving RSS news feeds on Symbian^3 devices and is part of the Ovi Notifications Support Package (ONSP). It just received an update, which improves overall performance and fixes the bugs in the previous version.
The list of improvements include connectivity, a bug that forced the user to re-enter his/hers Nokia Account credentials and force stop issues, which needed a reinstall of the previous version.
The Samsung Galaxy S II says “Hej” to its Swedish fans – it’s available in stores now. Unlike its siblings that are on sale in other countries, this one has dropped the Samsung logo from the front and I for one think it looks better.
The press release also promises an NFC-enabled version of the Galaxy S II in the summer.
HTC’s first foray into the tablet world, the Flyer totes a fancy new stylus that works with its 7 inch capacitive touchscreen which, along with some extra multimedia functionality, allows users to annotate, draw and highlight on text, websites and images. For the stylus as a stand alone purchase, it’ll set you back around $80.
Yep, you read correctly kids. To many, a stylus might seem like an antiquated feature left over from the days when the resistive touchscreen devices reigned supreme, but the Flyer’s stylus offers far greater versatility than any before it.
The Sony Playstation Network was expected to be up and running again this week. However it seems that Sony didn’t realize the extent, to which the security of the network was compromised and will hold off restarting it and won’t meet the deadline it set for itself last week.
The main focus is on security and Sony wants to test the entire complex network before it launches it again. This is done to ensure the security of the network and guarantee that personal information won’t get stolen even if the network is subjected to more attacks.
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