Video Calling Hits Skype for iPhone

Skype for iPhone with VideoWell, looky here-the iPhone version of Skype we wanted all along is finally here: one that does video calls. It works on the iPhone 4, current iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS, and iPad (although you really want the front-facing camera which the 3GS and iPad lack) and permits calls over both 3G and Wi-Fi. And judging from my very brief time with it so far, the quality seems quite good.

Apple's own FaceTime set the standard for simple video calling from a phone, and other options such as Tango are already thriving. but if you're a Skype user calling another Skype user, the new iPhone app couldn't be much simpler-and you can make calls to Windows users, something that's still not possible with FaceTime. (You can't, however, make video calls to Android users-but you gotta think that a video-capable version for Android will come along before too long.)

If you give the new app a try, let us know what you think. Me, I think I'll use it calling my three-year-old nephew and two-year-0ld niece-neither of who own an iPhone 4, oddly enough...

Source PCWorld

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RIM: BlackBerry PlayBook battery life is still being optimized, won't cause delays

If you've been keeping an ear to the techie ground, you'll probably have heard some analyst chatter suggesting RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook may be delayed due to issues relating to its supposedly poor battery life. That scuttlebutt has now turned out to be mostly unfounded, with RIM clarifying the situation through a communiqué sent to Erictric:

"Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented. RIM is on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook's battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life."

To be sure, it's not an outright denial that there may be PlayBooks floating about with disappointing battery performance, but the immaturity of the software on them is clearly such as to invalidate any conclusions drawn. Perhaps more important than the imprecise discussion of battery longevity (what does "comparable" even mean in this context?) is the note that the company is still on track to complete its software optimizations and deliver its first tablet on schedule. Guess we can all quit worrying now.

Source Engadget

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Samsung's phone division now also in charge of PMPs, Galaxy Player coming in Q2 2011

Yes, CES 2011 will be graced by the presence of Samsung's new 4-inch Galaxy Player, but our pockets, it would seem, might have to wait for it quite a bit longer. The Wall Street Journal today reports that, while Samsung intends to roll out the new Android PMP in its home market of Korea shortly after CES next week, the rest of the world is unlikely to be able to buy it until "the April to June period." Aside from its lack of phone functionality and a Super AMOLED panel, the new Galaxy Player is an almost identical replica of the company's wildly successful Galaxy S smartphone, which apparently has been no accident. The WSJ also lets us in on the knowledge that Samsung's phone division has taken over responsibility for building and selling its portable media player range, hence why we're now seeing such major overlaps between the two categories -- something that might very well continue into the future.

Source Engadget

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Archos 28, 32, and 70 now available, do not combine to form mythical Archos 130

Archos' line of inexpensive (dare we say "cheap," at times) Android tablets aren't necessarily on your wishlist, but for the budget-conscious, they're hard to beat. And now three new models are on sale, including the 2.8-inch Archos 28, the 3.2-inch Archos 32, and the 7-inch (of course) Archos 70. The first two will put you back $99.99 and $149.99, respectively, while the biggun' comes in both 8GB ($274.99) and 250GB ($349.99) options. What are you waiting for? Honeycomb? You're adorable.

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HTC Thunderbolt with LTE for Verizon pictured ahead of CES unveiling?

So, that lovely 4.3-inch LTE smartphone with Android for Verizon we've been calling the Mecha and theDroid Incredible HD? Looks like it might come to market as the Thunderbolt, so says Droid Life -- and we tend to put some weight on the rumor considering that they've just run twelve leaked shots of the thing. As you can see, this is clearly Verizon's head-on answer to the EVO 4G, featuring similar stylings and, in all likelihood, an LTE modem swapped in for the EVO's WiMAX one. Sure looks like that"controlled" leak from a few days back, doesn't it? More on this at Verizon's press conference next week, we presume.

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Motorola Cliq 2 pictures hit the outside world?

What, you didn't forget about the Cliq series, did you? The followup to Motorola and T-Mobile's slider's been long rumored -- we heard a few morsels of information back in September -- and now CellPhoneSignal has a few pics of what it claims is the Begonia, aka Cliq 2 (for T-Mobile, naturally). The keyboard here is, well, interesting, to say the least, and there's also apparently a five megapixel camera on the back. We're not really sure how our thumbs feel about the layout, but if this is legit, we'd reckon they'll get to try it out themselves sooner or later. That's what giant gadget trade shows are for, right? Right. More pictures via the source link.

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Another Sony Ericsson Android leaked in China, successor to the X10 Mini Pro?

Once again, here's proof that China is the place to be for piping-hot gadget leaks. The latest delivery is yet another mysterious Sony Ericsson slider, which is allegedly the Android 2.3 successor to the much loved X10 Mini Pro. Despite its modest dimensions, this little gem packs a 1GHz chip with an Adreno 205 GPU, scoring an impressive 1,553 on the Quadrant benchmark app -- coming close to the Nexus S' score -- and

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Digits conductive pins won't make a fool of you in the cold

Ever tried writing a text message or an urgent work e-mail with gloves on? Chances are what you planned to type and what came out couldn't look more different...if anything came out at all. Digits are a $14 set of four conductive pins that, like the Dots iPhone gloves, were designed to make cold weather touchscreen use easy, and hopefully error free. Unlike Dots and other pre-made touchscreen products, however, Digits allow you to use your own gloves, provided they're knit (unfortunately, they're not leather-friendly). Each pin comes in two parts: one piece sticks through from inside your glove, and the other, which sports silicone caps, attaches from outside, using the same concept as this DIY set.

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iPhone 4 gets stuck with NFC 'sticker' from Japan's Softbank

One of the lesser known predictions of the Mayan calendar foretells that 2011 will be the year of NFC. The contactless communications stuff looks to be building all kinds of stream in the Western world, but don't lose faith in your current smartphone if it doesn't already have it. Japanese carrier Softbank has responded to complaints about the iPhone 4's NFC deficit -- the FeliCa payment system is pretty popular over in the land of sumo, sushi and sun-rising -- by introducing a new "seal" for the back of Apple's latest and greatest. It sticks on, covering almost the entire rear, but is apparently thin enough not to get in the way of using one of Apple's own Bumpers alongside it. From our reading of the press release, the sticker

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Nokia N900 mixed with Gingerbread, baked at 425 degrees for 16-18 minutes (video)

Running Android on the Nokia N900 has been an ongoing theme for the better part of the past year -- and with hardware designed from the ground up to be both hackable and high-end, we'd expect no less. Indeed, Android 2.3 is the latest victim of an N900 sneak attack, and impressively, core components like messaging already seem to be working -- likely thanks to the fact that hackers had already gotten pre-2.3 builds rock solid. What's even more impressive, though, is how smooth and generally non-janky

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Sony Ericsson mystery handset leaks out, provides juicy rumor material

Do you recognize this handset? Neither do we, and that's kind of the point. We're looking at a never-before seen Sony Ericsson smartphone running Android -- neither the Anzu / X12 nor the PlayStation Phone -- and if we're not terribly mistaken, that's the company's translucent Timescape UI on top. Oh, and it seems to be attached to Vodafone Germany, for whatever that's worth. What's more, the picture itself only tells half the story, as the other half is where it came from -- a Picasa account filled to the brim with 8 megapixel test shots from a pair of camera phones. It's hard to say whether either the Sony Ericsson "LT15i" or the "MT15i" are the device we're actually looking at here, but the brethren have now fired off over 150 images testing out these camera modules. Rumor has it that both are running Gingerbread and that this one's internal codename is "Hallon," but honestly we're more interested in that huge camera module on the front. HD video chat, perhaps? Find a full-frontal picture after the break, and plenty more at our source links. 

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Samsung said to be bringing a 4-inch Galaxy Player to CES 2011

Samsung Hub is reporting this morning that Samsung intends to introduce a new Galaxy Player to the tech gathering known as CES early next month. We've not been able to track down Samsung's official word on the matter, but the Hub's information details a 4-inch Super Clear LCD display with 800 x 480 resolution, Android 2.2 as the operating system (replete with Sammy's own TouchWiz layer, by the look of that screenshot above), a 1GHz CPU, 3.2 megapixel imager on the back plus a front-facing camera, and a

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Mobclix: Android Impressions Grew By 420 Percent In 2010; iPhone Up 347 Percent

Recently acquired mobile ad exchange Mobclix is releasing its 2010 report, which takes a look at the top trend in the mobile advertising space. 2010 has been a big year for mobile advertising companies and startups, with the Google-AdMob deal approved, Apple’sQuattro buy and iAds launch, Millennial’s fast growth and more. Unsurprisingly, the trend that tops Mobclix’s report is the platform war between Apple and Google over the iPhone versus Android. Mobclix says that impressions on Android phones via Mobclix’s platform grew by 420 percent over the past year whereas iPhone impressions grew by 347 percent for the same 12 month period.

Another interesting trend highlighted by the report is that real-time bidding for mobile ad space is becoming more widely adopted by publishers and developers as the optimal way to fill space. Mobclix says that real time bidding inventory is expected to make up 10% – 15% of total ad buys for 2011. In fact, 50% of all targeted online ad display platforms will be powered through real time platforms by 2015.

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Researcher demonstrates vulnerabilities of mobile phones

Hackers equipped with inexpensive radio hardware and open source software can compromise your mobile phone, listen to your conversations, intercept your data, or rack up huge bills on premium services, all without you knowing. Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, a cryptologist at the University of Luxembourg Laboratory of Cryptology and Security, has discovered a new type of over-the-air attack on mobile phones, and at the 2010 DeepSec conference in Vienna demonstrated how the exploit could be used against nearly any mobile phone.

Using a US$1,500 base transceiver station, Weinmann, who has previously exposedsecurity weaknesses in the iPhone, demonstrated that common “devastating” programming errors in the Layer 3 communication stack of mobile devices can be exploited to gain control over the devices. He said that a motivated hacker could take advantage of these flaws to make an almost undetectable attack on the vast majority of cell phone models.

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HTC 7 Pro shows up on O2 Germany's site, promises January launch

HTC had pegged "early next year" for the 7 Pro's launch in Europe, and when you think about it, January is just about as "early" as you can get. O2's boys and girls in Germany have thrown up a teaser page for the QWERTY-equipped Windows Phone 7 handset, saying it's expected to be available next month -- a promising sign, indeed. Granted, launch dates

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How would you change Nokia's N8?

There's no need to tell you that a lot was (and still is, in a way) riding on Nokia's N8. It was said to be the outfit's first dead-serious smartphone to rival the giants of today, and it was also Nokia's first chance to truly reveal Symbian^3 to the world. We've already churned out our two pennies on the matter, but for those of you who bought in, now's the time to get really real. Are you satisfied with where Nokia's going with the N8? Do you seriously see a long and lively future when looking at Symbian^3? If someone (read: UPS) accidentally delivered the keys to the Finnish kingdom to you, how would you go about tweaking

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AT&T Enables Carrier Billing For Android Market Purchases

Users of Android smartphones on AT&T's network will now be able to charge their Android Market purchases to their monthly phone bills. Instead of using credit cards to buy apps from the Android Market, users can have their purchases incorporated in their monthly smartphone contract bill.

Google engineer Eric Chu announced the new billing option in a blog post on the Android Developers blog, saying carrier billing is "a great way to make it easy for users to purchase and pay for applications" from the Android Market. T-Mobile introduced carrier billing for Android Market purchases last year.

To pay for an app from the Android Market via your carrier contract, a new option tab was added in the checkout interface in the Market, where you can select to pay either with a credit card or via your AT&T account. If the AT&T account option is selected, after entering your credentials, the cost of the application will be added to your phone bill.

As Google announced this week, Android Market shoppers will also able to return an app they downloaded and receive a full refund within 15 minutes of the purchase time. This feature, though not particularly popular with developers, is a good way for users to evaluate whether the app they purchased is what they wanted.

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Turn Your Smartphone Into a Home Theater Remote Control

A universal remote control saved my marriage.

Okay, I'm exaggerating, but only slightly. My family room sports a 7.1 audio system, an Onkyo TX-NR1007 receiver, a Sony 1080p HDTV, aBlu-ray player, a Dish Network satellite receiver, and two game consoles. The chore of juggling the various remote controls was too much for my long-suffering family. They're used to my predilection toward tech geekiness, but figuring out which remote to use was the last straw. So I invested in an activity-based Logitech Harmony remote control and set it up once--and everyone has been happy ever since.

But dedicated universal remotes are so 20th century. Today people have smartphones and tablets, both of which are poised to replace universal remotes. Though this is still early-adopter territory, new apps and hardware are arriving rapidly.

What's cool is that smartphones and tablets are redefining the remote control. A universal remote used to be a device that controlled your AV rack. If you had a ton of money, you might throw a few thousand dollars at dedicated home automation gear, such as equipment from Crestron, and get whole house control. Today's universal remote controls particularly emphasize the remote concept--in some cases, allowing you to control your TV viewing from any location.

In this article, I'll first look at using a smartphone or iPad as a standard universal remote control. Then I'll briefly explore the world of home automation. After that, I'll discuss remote remote control. Finally, I'll provide a couple of real-world examples, one for using the iPhone as a universal remote, and the other for using an iPad to control a DVR remotely.

Smartphones as Universal Remotes

Using your smartphone as a universal remote isn't a new idea; it has been around almost as long as smartphones have. Back in the early days, when smartphones used Windows Mobile, various remote control apps surfaced. They were all a little clunky, though, and most of the versions I've seen took what I'd describe as a traditional, device-centric approach: Users had to turn on each device individually, and then control the devices independently.

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HTC Incredible HD teased for January 6th reveal?

See that? No, not all the ambiguous 4G talk, we mean the veiled phone. If we had to guess we'd say that we're looking at a January 6th reveal of the HTC Incredible HD / Mecha -- a device rumored to be headed to Verizon's new LTE network. Unfortunately, we don't know who 2mymob.com is (the domain carrying the tease) or how it's affiliated with HTC. So don't go entering your mobile phone number into the field where you can sign up for notifications. The site seems to be linked with Yahoo! marketing and by

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Ambarella's Cortex A9-based iOne is the smartphone processor of your dreams... but it's for your camera

You may not have heard of Ambarella factoring into the smartphone processor race alongside Qualcomm, TI, and Samsung, and there's a good reason for that: they don't do smartphone processors. Rather, these guys are in the business of making video and photographic processing chips, and their latest -- the iOne -- is a doozy. Starting with a dual-core Cortex-A9 at 1GHz, the iOne adds in an extra ARM11 core at 533MHz dedicated to handling camera functions and ensuring ready times of under one second. It's capable of real-time encode and decode of H.264 1080p video content at 30fps and includes a GPU that can run OpenGL ES 2.0 for what we can only assume would be the wildest camera UI you've ever seen. What kind of beastly point-and-shoot is this, anyway? Well, Ambarella envisions cameras running Android before too long, and when you think about it, the hardware difference between a smartphone

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