Android TV: Googlebot on the gogglebox
Android is coming to your telly. Crave chatted to to manufacturers working on televisions powered by Google mobile operating system at technology trade show IFA this week. As all the big names showed off their Internet-connected tellies, less well-known names are going 'Droid.
The amazingly-named Swedish company People of Lava is the first to develop an Android-powered television, while Vestel also has the backroom boffins working overtime to build one. Don't worry if you hadn't heard of Vestel, it's only the largest telly-maker in Europe. Continue reading...
CNET UK Podcast 201: The latest from IFA 2010 and new Apple things 
We’re still coming down from episode 200, but that doesn’t mean we can rest in one of the busiest weeks of the technology calendar. This week, Apple announces new hardware, and we hear about some of the cooler things being announced at German trade show IFA.
News
Digg redesign goes live, users not happy
Sony launches Qriocity video-on-demand service in Europe
Sonos integrates Spotify into its music systems
Microsoft to increase XBox Live subscriptions by £1 a month
Crave
Microsoft Kinct
Motorola Defy
LG 31-inch 3D OLED TV
Facebook Feedback and competition
Our competition this week is simple. Just tell us, via the comments section below, or on our Facebook wall, what ‘green screen’ background you think we should record our review videos on. The winner will get some Paperjamz instruments, signed by Glen Matlock. We have a guitar, an amp and a drum kit that we’re offering to a lucky winner, selected for the best idea.
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Ping in iTunes 10 review: The pong of failure
Ping is pants. The new social network that Apple has added to iTunes 10 offers to link you up with your mates, and with musical celebs, to share and comment on your favourite tunes. So far, so good. But a social network has to be social, and Ping isn't.
We never thought we'd ask for more Facebook
Firstly, there's no one on it. Fair enough, Ping just came out this week, and you could argue that people haven't had a chance to sign up. But Spotify launched a similar feature in April, and it shows all the areas that Apple has gone wrong. Like iTunes, most of us here in CNET UK towers have Spotify installed. And with Spotify, we were up and running, hooked up with our mates and sharing playlists within minutes of updating to the new version of the software. How we laughed as our happy hardcore and Canadian lady-folk mingled over the Interwebs! Continue reading...
ViewSonic ViewPad 100: 10-inch tablet runs both Windows 7 and Android
ViewSonic has sprung another surprise by launching a new 10-inch dual-boot tablet, following this week's 7-inch £350 tablet reveal.
The ViewPad 100 can dual boot into either Windows 7 Home Premium or Android 1.6. It will cost £550 and is out in October. Continue reading...
Virgin touts £10 a month BlackBerry Curve 8520
Virgin Media is offering a good-looking deal for those students who are looking for a BlackBerry smart phone, but can't quite afford a new top-of-the-range model.
Available is the Qwerty keyboard and 2-megapixel camera sporting entry-level Blackberry Curve 8520 for £12 a month, or £10 per month if you're an existing Virgin Media customer with a TV package. Students with an NUS Extra cards, can get an extra 15% off. Continue reading...
LG PX990: First THX 3D certified plasma in the world announced
The sausage-fest (seriously, the only food you can get there is sausages) that is German technology trade show IFA rumbles on, and so do the new technology announcements. And today, LG has continued its assault of the 3D market by announcing the world’s first THX 3D certified plasma.
The new PX990 will feature active 3D technology, has a full HD resolution --something not possible with the passive 3D models-- and offer a 5,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. The PX990 will also feature LG’s Netcast functionality, which promises broadband TV delivery. Refreshingly, the company will also be throwing in a Wi-Fi dongle too, which is something most manufacturers don’t. The TV will also feature DLNA for moving video content from your PC or NAS onto your TV, a boon for people with lots of home movies or huge music collections. Continue reading...
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Royal Mail smart stamp can be read by iPhone, produces Bernard Cribbins
The Royal Mail is dragging itself kicking and screaming into the 21st century with a new 'intelligent' stamp, which can be read using image recognition technology by your iPhone or Android devices.
The 'intelligent' stamp is a claimed world first, incorporated in Royal Mail's latest Great British Railways edition. The way it works is very simple. Continue reading...
Motorola Milestone 2: Hands-on photos with the latest droid 
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The Motorola Milestone is one of the best smart phones out there, with a sharp screen and Google's Android operating system. So it's no wonder that Motorola isn't messing much with a good thing for the Motorola Milestone 2.
But it has sorted out a few of the quirks that we complained about the first time around. For example, the Milestone 2's slide-out Qwerty keyboard has been improved -- the gold trackpad has been ditched in favour of bigger keys, and the keys aren't quite as flat as before. Continue reading...
TomTom Go Live 1000: Multi-touch super sat-nav
TomTom has built a "super sat-nav" that it believes is "the future of driving". Say hello, directionally-challenged readers, to the Go Live 1000.
So, what does it do? Well, it gets you from A to B, mostly, but TomTom has crammed in a gang of advanced features, most notably a 5-inch, capacitive touchscreen display that lets you zoom in and out of maps using pinchy, stretchy iPhone-style multitouch gestures. Continue reading...
Google ready to step up Apple war with music download store
The battleground between Google and Apple is about to get explosive, as reports revealed that Google is in talks about creating its own music download store.
Reuters reported that Google is in talks with music labels about creating a download store, as well as a cloud-based music service which would allow mobile users to play songs they don't own wherever they liked. Sources claim that Google plans to have the service up by Christmas. Continue reading...
Angry Birds for Android available today
Stand by Android owners, as you'll be able to get your fix of evil pig killing suicidal flying birds from today.
In a blog post, Angry Birds developer Rovio revealed that Angry Birds Lite Beta would be available for anybody to download today. The creators were originally planning to run a closed beta test, but there was a 'massive response and demand from the Android community' to make it available. Continue reading...
Samsung announces SF, NF, HF and RV laptops and netbooks
Psst! Want to be utterly overwhelmed by a deluge of new Samsung laptops and netbooks? Great, pull up a chair, because we've just got wind of not one, not two, but four different series of portable computer from the Korean electronics deity.
First off the assembly line is the SF series -- a hyper-attractive range of laptops designed seemingly to drop jaws and extract drool from anyone within 100 feet. They come in a choice of screen sizes (13.3-inch SF310, 14-inch SF410 and 15.6-inch SF 510), feature Intel Core i3 or i5 CPUs and have hybrid graphics solutions that switch between Nvidia and Intel chips depending on whether you're gaming or doing something mundane like checking emails. Continue reading...
Motorola Defy hands-on photos: Brains and brawn
What a smart phone, but you're too clumsy? The Motorola Defy is the first rugged Android smart phone, perfect for people that break screens and wreck cases.
The Defy has a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen and runs version 2.1 of Android, so you'll get all the apps and features of a proper smart phone. That puts the Defy head and shoulders above other rugged phones, which tend to be tough but dumb. Continue reading...
Nokia smart phone owners invited to test out Swype for Symbian
Nokia smart phone owners can try out the hot new Swype text messaging technology, previously only available to selected Android users.
Swype for Symbian Beta is now available to download for smart phone owners running Symbian for S60 5th Edition. This means the Nokia 5800, 5230, X6, N97, N97 mini and C6-00 handsets. Continue reading...
Why did Apple pull Facebook from Ping at the last minute?
Apple's new musical social network Ping has pulled support for Facebook.
Alongside announcements on the iPod nano, shuffle, touch and Apple TV, Steve Jobs revealed a new social feature called Ping. This is now integrated into iTunes, allowing you to connect with artists and bands, as well as check out what others are listening to. Continue reading...
Orange launches HD mobile voice calling, but does it live up to the hype?
Fed up of bad connections and muffled voices on the other line? Orange says it has opened the way to a future of crystal-clear calling by allowing phones to make mobile High Definition (HD) voice calls.
As we reported on back in January, the technology is supposed to improve the sound quality of traditional mobile calls by using the Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate (WB-AMR) voice codec. The much-improved audio quality is due to its use of wider speech bandwidth of 50-7000Hz compared to the current narrowband speech codec of 300-3400Hz. Continue reading...
O2 iPhone users continue to be hit by phantom data roaming charges
If you're on O2 and been abroad using your iPhone, have a careful look at your bills, as reports say that some of you are still getting unexpected and wrong data roaming charges.
As we highlighted back in July, people on the Apple forums have been complaining about being charged for data roaming, despite disabling the feature in the iPhone settings. Continue reading...
Huawei Ideos review: Hands-on with the cheapest Android 2.2 phone
Huawei is bringing a cheap phone with the latest version of Android 2.2 to the pockets of pay-as-you-go peeps with the Huawei Ideos.
Huawei may not be a household name, but it's the company that brought you the T-Mobile Pulse Mini, among other phones that appear on our shelves under the network's own names. Continue reading...
Sony brings iTunes baiting video-on-demand service to Britain
Sony is launching its Qriocity premium video streaming service in the UK, hogging some of the buzz created by the launch of Apple TV.
At the IFA 2010 show in Berlin, Sony said it was expanding the service from the US to Britain in the autumn. It has been available in across the Atlantic since April. Continue reading...
Apple music event: Hands-on photos with new iPod nano, shuffle, touch and Apple TV
Phew! We're only just recovered from last night's Apple music event, where Jobs and co. hit us with a slew of brand new iProducts and announcements. We were right there on the scene liveblogging our little cotton socks off, and we have in-depth previews of every new bit of hardware. Still, we figured we'd walk you through the evening, a little trip down memory lane. Then later maybe coffee, roses...?
Click through the photos above to check out a sultry blend of our hands-on photos and snaps from the event itself. Among the most interesting announcements were: Continue reading...
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