OnLive Desktop Plus gives iPad superspeed Flash

OnLive Desktop may have stumbled upon the best way to get Flash content on an iPad: host the CPU-hungry tech on a server as far away as possible from your tablet, and simply stream over the results. In an update to the OnLive Desktop remote access app, first released last month, OnLive Desktop Plus adds gigabit-speed accelerated browsing with full Adobe Flash support, delivering what the company says isn’t just the fastest full-browsing experience when mobile, but the fastest experience on any platform.

“You can expect even the most elaborate Flash websites to load in seconds, even if it would have taken your home computer minutes to load the same page” OnLive CEO Steve Perlman promises. ”Animation, video and sound come through impeccably and instantly. And, large cloud storage files and Web email attachments—even 50 MB PowerPoint presentations—to upload or download in less than a second.”

Apple has always strongly defended its decision not to allow Flash on its iOS devices, blaming Adobe for never releasing a version of the software that’s efficient and streamlined enough to meet with iPad and iPhone owners’ approval. Adobe seemingly agreed, and announced it would cease development of mobile Flash efforts and instead concentrate on HTML5.

Still, even with HTML5 gaining traction, there’s still plenty of Flash-based content out there on the internet. Some is simply video and gloss, but other sites use Flash-based UIs that render them impossible to navigate on an iOS gadget. That’s what OnLive Desktop Plus will help address, and the company says that because it’s servers are running all the Flash content and merely pushing on-screen changes to your device, your bandwidth use might actually decrease.

All of that comes at a price, however. Unlike the original OnLive Desktop service, which is free, Desktop Plus will demand a $4.99 monthly subscription. That does at least get you access to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Reader, along with 2GB of cloud-based storage to use.

Meanwhile, OnLive has promised that a version of OnLive Desktop for Android tablets is “coming soon,” along with Android smartphones, PCs and Macs, and even monitors and TVs hooked up via an OnLive MicroConsole thin client.

Article: RSS via SlashGear

Tags: Adobe, Apps, Cloud Computing, Flash, iOS, iPad, OnLive, OnLive Desktop

Posted in Apps, Cloud Services, Computing, iOS, iPad | No Comments »

Google TV gets swanky YouTube app update

“Big improvements”

Google has announced several major improvements to its YouTube application for Google TV. Released “in the next few days”, the updated app will offer faster navigation and access to YouTube channel pages.

The company claims that the application will be a lot smoother to use and offer several new features, including Discover, which offers a browsable menu of channels, all through different categories, such as Comedy, Gaming, Science & Education and Sports. And the channel pages themselves can be accessed so that you can subscribe and watch playlists and popular video content.

When watching a video on a channel, there will also be a new menu overlay that will allow you to instantly access other content from the same user. You will also be able to give content a thumbs up or post comments that will be seen on the web version too.

The new YouTube Google TV application will be appearing on the Android Market very soon.

Article: RSS via Pocket-lint

Tags: Android, Android Market, Apps, Google, Google TV, Smart TV, YouTube

Posted in Android, Apps, Google, HI-FI | No Comments »

Google Chrome browser arrives on Android (video)

The latest step in bringing Google-based unification has arrived. The Chrome browser is here on Android. This beta version is currently only available for that elite crowd of ICS phones and tablets and like its desktop progenitor, the synced settings and bookmarks are all in tow. Expect to see a new, more natural mobile view of the tab system. It’ll also remember what you were last looking at on your desktop Chrome browser, and sync it across to your mobile device — it’s like Kindle or iBook’s bookmarking system, but for the web. Your autocorrect content from the desktop is similarly synced. Expect to see the reappearance of link previews, something you may recall from the results of any Google searches, offering a brief thumbnail of a link’s destination. We’re giving it a good play-around right now, but while we get our first impression up, check the quick intro video after the break.

Update: Here’s our hands-on. With video, naturally. Another more in-depth video from Google can also be found after the break.

Article: RSS via Engadget

Tags: Android, Android Market, Apps, Google, Google Chrome, Ice Cream Sandwich, Web Browser

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Facebook Premium Accounts coming says Telsyte

A subscription service may be in Facebook’s cash-grabbing future if Australian analyst group Telsyte are to be believed. Speaking with News.com.au, the group via analyst Foad Fadaghi noted changes that may well be coming soon to the group that this week posted its Initial Public Offering looking for a bump in the money market in more ways than one. Better mobile apps, more invasive advertising, and “Facebook Premium” may all be on the plate for you social networkers out there inside the coming months or years.

In a Premium service, Fadaghi notes that he expects Facebook to offer up services that lesser companies simply cannot. That said, he also expects that Facebook won’t be going Premium anytime soon, just so long as the competition remains in-tact. He also mentions Google+ as a good source for keeping the competition strong enough that no one social network dominates the entire landscape. He spoke thusly:

“In the app space you will see a lot more in-app advertising, purchases and subscriptions. That whole ecosystem will keep growing. It already represents a significant portion of Facebook revenue, so that side of the business can definitely grow a lot more. The challenge is companies such Google+ will provide similar services, but are likely not to charge because they are less powerful in the social networking space. As long as there is competition, social networking sites will remain free to consumers.” – Fadaghi

Facebook is also setting itself up to get much better support in their mobile applications. The group will soon move a bit past the individual users and focus on businesses in not only the desktop-based browser-based site, but the mobile applications made officially by Facebook as well. Advertising will also be on the rise with more content driven or invasive methods for getting into your brain.

There may be more marketing or advertising related products or services that we see develop and come out as investors and shareholders look to make more money from the site. Traditionally social networking websites have had a lot of advertising imagery but haven’t been able to get the same high rates as the premium content sites, such as news. So those metrics will come under scrutiny.” – Fadaghi

It will be interesting to see the ever so gradual slide from one iteration of the most major social networking sites in the world to other versions of themselves. The advertising world is certainly sliding in on us all, and though a pay-per-use model isn’t near reality now for Facebook, you never know about the future.

Article: RSS via SlashGear

Tags: Apps, Facebook, Social Networks, Subscription

Posted in Apps, Facebook, Internet, Social Networks News | No Comments »

Google Chrome to Phone Android app gets new look and feel, landscape support

Google updated its Google Chrome to Phone Android app with two new features. First of all, you’ll notice a new (improved) look and feel. Perhaps even more important is the added landscape support, which for some reason was missing from the initial app. You may be browsing (and consequently using Google Chrome to Phone) in a portrait mode exclusively, but I’m sure folks with side-sliding phones (those with QWERTY keyboards and perhaps the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY) more often than not rely on landscape view. Finally, this release also fixes crash that occurred when copying text from Chrome to the mobile device.

All in all, if you use Chrome on your PC or Mac, and also happen to have an Android device, you simply must have this app installed. It will help you easily access web pages you’re looking on your computer from the phone/tablet.

Google Chrome to Phone (FREE) [Android Market link]

Article: RSS via IntoMobile

Tags: Android, Android Market, Apps, Chrome-to-phone, Google, Google Chrome, Web Browser

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Nokia’s 1997 game Snake authentically recreated on Windows Phone

There aren’t many mobile phone games from the 1990s that are really worth taking a second look. In fact, the entire market of vintage cell phone games is sorely uninspiring, but there is one that has and always will stand out from its monochromatic brethren. If you had a Nokia phone back in the day, then you either played Snake or you should have.

Now, developer Willem Middelkoop has revived the archaically simplistic game on Windows Phone, as ably demonstrated by Pocket-lint in the video below. And no, it doesn’t just put a black-and-greenish screen on the display and let players have at it. This app effectively turns your Windows Phone into a mid-1990s Nokia handset, complete with buttons and all. The experience is meant to be as faithful as possible, giving players a limited play area and requiring them to push numerical buttons to move the snake.

It is perhaps a fitting tribute to the fact that Nokia now runs a third-party operating system, something that mobile enthusiasts just a few years ago would have said was a ludicrous idea. Of course, Nokia didn’t create Snake; it lived as an old-school computer game long before you could carry a phone outside your house. But the simplistic game made a perfect splash into the mobile gaming sector. Incidentally, Nokia tried to release a modern-day Snake on its N-Gage phone several years ago. Neither the game nor the phone was successful. But when it comes to retro goodness, you can’t lose.

Article: RSS via Pocket-lint

Tags: Apps, Gaming, Nokia, Smartphones, Snake '97, Video, Windows Phone

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Five Million Android Users Might Have Fallen Victim to Another Malware Attack

According to Symantec, 13 apps from three developers—many in the official Android Market—have been carrying malicious chunks of code called Android.Counterclank, and are suspected of running on as many as five million phones, stealing info and running ads against the will of the device’s owner.

ComputerWorld, speaking to Symantec, learned that the apps have been downloadable for over a month, and Symantec calls it the biggest android malware outbreak to date.

Some of the 13 apps that Symantec identified as infected have been on the Android Market for at least a month, according to the revision dates posted on the e-store. Symantec, however, discovered them only yesterday.

Users had noticed something fishy before then.

“The game is decent … but every time you run this game, a ‘search icon gets added randomly to one of your screens,” said one user on Jan. 16 after downloading “Deal & Be Millionaire,” one of the 13. “I keep deleting the icon, but it always reappears. If you tap the icon you get a page that looks suspiciously like the Google search page.”

The apps, distributed by iApps7, Ogre Games and redmicapps, are mostly games with titles such as Counter Strike Hit Force, Wild Man and Stripper Touch girl. Here’s the full list.
 

Counter Elite Force
Counter Strike Ground Force
CounterStrike Hit Enemy
Heart Live Wallpaper
Hit Counter Terrorist
Stripper Touch girl
Balloon Game
Deal & Be Millionaire
Wild Man
Pretty women lingerie puzzle
Sexy Girls Photo Game
Sexy Girls Puzzle
Sexy Women Puzzle

Not-so-shockingly Symantec believes these publishers exist solely to distribute malware. Google might want to get rid of those.

Article: RSS via Gizmodo

Tags: Android, Android Market, Apps, Malware, Security, Symantec

Posted in Android, Apps, Security | No Comments »

An Unofficial Android Store Will Provide All The Apps Banned By Google

Unlike getting hold of iOS apps, it’s always been possible to trawl the web for software that doesn’t appear in the Android Market. But that process is about to get even easier, because soon there will be an unofficial store for banned Android apps.

Koushik Dutta, a member of the team behind CyanogenMod and the creator of ClockworkMod, announced that he is in the process of creating an app store that will be home to apps that have been banned from Google’s official Android Market. That will include customs ROMs, retro gaming emulators pulled due to copyright complaints, unofficial tethering apps, Visual Voicemail apps, one-click rooting apps, and, well, whatever else Google says can’t feature in their store.

This will, I’m sure, be of most interest to those who have already rooted their Android handset, as it will provide a one-stop shop for the customs ROMs and apps those devices can make use of. There’s no denying that having all that stuff in one place will be more useful than having to trawl the web. Those who haven’t rooted their handset will still be able to make use of the store though, as there are plenty of normal apps that have to be banned from Google’s store, especially if they violate copyright or a mobile operator’s need to generate revenue from value-added services, like tethering.

I just wonder if it can completely avoid being shut down. One of the reasons that such a wide range of unofficial ROMs and apps continue to survive is that they’re so broadly distributed that it’s difficult to hunt them all down. Put them all in one place and that’s no longer the case.

Article: RSS via Gizmodo

Tags: Android, Android Market, Apps, Google, Hacks, ROMs

Posted in Android, Apps, Google, Internet | No Comments »

Official Wikipedia app released for Android

It took awhile, but it’s finally here: the official Wikipedia app for Android is now available for download on the Android Market. Just in case you’re wondering why anybody would use the app instead of surfing the website on your phone’s browser, the app has the ability to save articles for offline reading, search for articles based on your location, the ability to switch languages on the fly, and an option to easily share what you’re reading.

The app is only in its first version, so for now you can expect a barebones Wikipedia experience, though more features should be available in the future. Head over to the Android Market to download it for free.

Article: RSS via Ubergizmo

Tags: Android, Android Market, Apps, Wikipedia

Posted in Android, Apps, Other News | No Comments »

Update to Google Maps improves battery life, public transit options and more

A new version of Google Maps has hit the Android Market today, which simultaneously brings fresher location tracking within Latitude and better battery life — two welcome improvements that seem contrary to one another. There’s also a couple goodies included for the transit-minded folks, as Navigation has been updated to better estimate location when GPS signal is lost, and the number of route options for public transit users has been increased from three to four. Sure, the changes are rather incremental, but who’s honestly going to argue with greater battery life? Not us, that’s for sure.

Article: RSS via Engadget Mobile

Tags: Android, Apps, Google, Google Maps, GPS, Navigation

Posted in Android, Apps, Google, Navigation | No Comments »