Mar
31
Google has pulled an app that ran PlayStation games. The app's creator blames the release of the upcoming Xperia Play phone (above), which plays PlayStation games.
By Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica Read More
Mar
31
Chinese electronics manufacturer HTC will soon debut its own Android-powered tablet. From the looks of a new promotional video, it could be a strong competitor in a very crowded market. Read More
Mar
31
You’d think that after all the bickering between Apple and Adobe about banning Flash from iOS, Adobe would never want to be seen touching an iPad in public. But alas, in the video above, Adobe demonstrates its flagship product, Photoshop, working on an iPad. Read More
Mar
31
Motorola's Xoom, the first Android tablet to run "Honeycomb." Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Motorola’s Xoom tablet is the first promising alternative to Apple’s iPad, but the sickly condition of Android’s tablet app ecosystem may end up stalling the platform’s progress. Read More
Mar
30
RIM's PlayBook will ship without the core functions that make a BlackBerry a BlackBerry. Photo: Charlie Sorrel
Oh, RIM! What are you doing? According to a leaked internal document, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will ship without native support for e-mail, contacts or messaging. To use any of these services, you’ll have to either hook up a BlackBerry handset, or access them through the web browser. Read More
Mar
30
RIM's PlayBook will ship without the core functions that make a BlackBerry a BlackBerry. Photo Charlie Sorrel
Oh, RIM! What are you doing? According to a leaked internal document, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will ship without native support for e-mail, contacts or messaging. To use any of these services, you’ll have to either hook up a BlackBerry handset, or access them through the web browser. Read More
Mar
30
By Olivia Solon, Wired UK
The Terminator, C-3PO, the Cylons, and the Jetsons’ robotic maid Rosie are all highly agile and memorable humanoid robots from science fiction. They are intelligent, nimble, dexterous, autonomous and you never see them plugged into an energy source, waiting to refuel. Read More
Mar
30
I’d say that AirPlay is one of the best things about the iPad, letting you stream music and video wirelessly to speakers and screen. And I only use the audio version. But what if you want to use the iPad 2’s new screen-mirroring feature without the wire? Then you’ll need to do some hacking. Read More
Mar
30
By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica
Netflix announced last night that Canadian users will, by default, receive lower-qualityand lower-bandwidthstreaming video. The change was made to protect users, “because many Canadian Internet service providers unfortunately enforce monthly caps on the total amount of data consumed.”
Fast Internet connections could previously chew through 30-70GB of data while streaming 30 hours of Netflix video in a month. Data caps for the Rogers cable operator and for Bell Canada start at 2GB per month; cable operator Shaw starts at 15GB.
Faced with the prospect of users thinking twice before streaming anything on Netflix, the company has decided to put Canadians into a default “Good” streaming tier that will transfer only 625Kbps (which works out to 0.3GB per hour), using up 9GB a month if someone watches 30 hours of Netflix. The move is designed to keep users from exceeding their caps by accident.
The company admits that “there is some lessening of picture quality with these new settings” but insists that “the experience continues to be great.” Customers can manually switch their accounts to two higher levels of service, “Better” (0.7GB per hour) and “Best” (1GB per hour with standard definition content, 2.3GB per hour for HD content).
Netflix will continue to use adaptive streaming, which reduces the stream bit-rate in cases of congestion or low-speed connections, but this is the first time Netflix is purposely dialing back video quality and size for connections perfectly capable of handling the larger streams.
The major Canadian ISPsShaw, Rogers, and Bell Canadaall offer separate pay-TV services of their own. Netflix has offered its own streaming service in Canada for only eight months, and ISPs like Rogerswelcomed Netflix to the country bylowering the data caps on some tiers. (One lower-priced tier dropped from 25GB to 15GB.)
Perhaps Canadiansreally do need a “Not Safe For Canada” badge on large files after all?
Source:wired.com
Mar
29
It almost goes without saying that Sprint has probably been opposed to AT&T’s recent proposed purchase of rival cell phone carrier T-Mobile.
Now it’s official. Read More
Mar
29
Voice-recognition capabilities on the iPhone enable a user to play music and call contacts using speech commands. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Apple’s next-generation mobile operating system may include a more powerful voice recognition system, putting to use the company’s recent acquisition of an artificial-intelligence startup. Read More
Mar
28
Banana TV enables an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to stream photos and video to a Mac.
One of the coolest gimmicks of iOS is AirPlay, a button you press on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to stream photos, videos and audio to a huge display connected to an Apple TV. Problem is, you can’t normally use this nifty feature without your Apple TV (or an AirPlay Express, if all you want is audio). Read More
