Dish Network remote access app comes to Android, your Harmony groans

Dish Network took another step towards its ambitious TV Everywhere plans — not to be confused with Comcast’s and Time Warner’s TV Everywhere partnership — by releasing the Android version of its Dish remote access app late last week. This nicely completes the provider’s suite of mobile offerings, which have already been available on the iPhone, iPad and certain BlackBerry phones. The catch is that to take advantage of the app, Android users must own a Sling-enabled Dish device like the ViP 722 / 722k HD DVRs or the recently released Sling adapter. With the necessary hardware though, the app turns smartphones into a control freak’s best friend, working as a remote control, a DVR manager, and a Sling-powered media streamer to view recorded or live programming over Wi-Fi or 3G. That’s a pretty nifty feature set considering it costs a lovely low price of free, and it’s certainly more robust than mobile offerings from Comcast, Time Warner, or DirecTV. In other words, when it comes to getting the most from your paid TV service while on the go, it appears the underdog satellite company can certainly dish it out.

Continue reading Dish Network remote access app comes to Android, your Harmony groans

Dish Network remote access app comes to Android, your Harmony groans originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s spicy new Android Market to display high-res images, videos, be more tablet-friendly?

Google's spicy new Android Market to display high-res images, videos, be more tablet-friendly?

We’re pretty sure that Gingerbread is to be Android 2.3, but we’re still missing the official Google confirmation, and beyond that still waiting to hear exactly what the heck this point release will entail. It’s certainly looking like there’s a new Android Market in the works, though, with Google adding new fields to the submission that accept higher resolution icons, a high-res “feature graphic” measuring 1024 x 500, and an optional link to a YouTube-hosted promotional video. Google has also confirmed that up to eight screenshots will be able to be submitted in the near future, with a maximum resolution of 480 x 800. This could all be to make things rather more friendly for higher-res displays, like one would find on a tablet or a TV, or it could simply be the web-based interface that the Market so desperately needs. We’ll surely find out when Google dishes all the details on this next version, which should happen any day now. Any day now…

Google’s spicy new Android Market to display high-res images, videos, be more tablet-friendly? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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People of Lava launches Scandinavia Android TV, melts home theater hearts and wallets

After teasing us with its cool hardware and even cooler name last spring, Swedish TV maker People of Lava has now launched what it claims is the world’s first Android-powered TV — that is if you don’t count Korea’s Smartroi TV running Android 1.5. Its top-of-the-line 55-inch models cost a wallet-singeing 40,000 Swedish Krona (or roughly $5,820) and ship with Android 1.5 along with widgets for Google Chrome, Facebook, YouTube and Google Maps. They also have access to an app store which currently only includes 20 titles, but could grow to more than 1,000 by the end of the year — since according to marketing director Martin Ljunggren, the store should import any app now in the Android Market that’s scalable to a TV screen. That’s a feat we’re curious to see given Android’s difficultly scaling apps even to tablet screens — but hey, what do we know? In terms of sales, People of Lava hopes to move $29 million dollars worth of Scandinavia units in 2011, in both Sweden and niche US and UK markets. Overall that’s great news for the tech savvy well-to-do, but considering Mountain Vew’s focus on Google TV, we’re not sure how long these Android TVs will be around.

People of Lava launches Scandinavia Android TV, melts home theater hearts and wallets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube Remote app released, controls Leanback on GTV or PC from your Android phone

We weren’t completely in love with Google TV’s YouTube Leanback experience when we gave the platform a run through, but that could change now that the YouTube Remote app has been released to the Android Market. Users pair the devices simply by signing into YouTube Leanback on the TV or PC and the app on the phone with the same account, then select a video on the phone and send it to the bigger screen with a press of a button. At least, that’s how it should work. TechCrunch got a hands on with the new app and a new Topics sorting system for the site during a demo and found some potential, however trying it on one of our devices elicited a slew of crashes before we eventually got everything synced up and working. QR code’s after the break so you can have a go of your own.

Update: Once we got everything rolling, we were able to get a better impression of the app. While it was a bit slow to open on our Galaxy S phone, once it is up, it worked smoothly, scrolling side to side through various queues of types of content and our favorites list. While the task of pulling up Leanback in a browser window or even on a Google TV device makes it ill-suited for viewing just one video at a time, where it excels is building a up a queue of videos and sending them over all at once. It will work on multiple screens at the same time as well, but there’s no Airplay-style syncing to be had, if one of them starts to slow down or buffer it will simply continue lagging behind, and without any volume controls or ability to reach other functions, you’ll still need to keep other remotes handy.

Continue reading YouTube Remote app released, controls Leanback on GTV or PC from your Android phone

YouTube Remote app released, controls Leanback on GTV or PC from your Android phone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mintpass planning a dual-screen, dual boot tablet for 2011

Mintpass, the Korean firm known for its Mintpad tablet (as well as a few baubles, including a flashlight that looks curiously like a chapstick tube and the Cube MP3 player), has recently announced that it will soon be releasing a dual-touchscreen, dual OS device. We don’t have too many details yet, but we do know that it’s, um, slated to ship with Windows 7 and Android, as well as Android Market access and some sort of feature called “Space Touch” (which we have no details about but sounds pretty awesome nonetheless). Like the Toshiba Libretto W100, this will be able to either operate as two independent displays or, when folded up like a laptop, feature the keyboard on one display with your apps on the other. The company is currently looking for a manufacturer and plans on launching the thing sometime next year.

Mintpass planning a dual-screen, dual boot tablet for 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab can be made to run all apps in full screen, here’s how (video)

You might have noticed in our Galaxy Tab review that a number of pretty significant Android apps failed to scale to fully utilize its real estate, leaving an unpleasant black border surrounding their content. Well, you can now take that issue off your list of cons for this otherwise delectable tablet as our buddy JKK has figured out a way to overcome the scaling problemo. Using Spare Parts, a free app available in the Android Market, and a couple of reboots, he was able to convince the Engadget app to run in full screen on the Tab. He’s right in guessing that we’d be happy about that, though we imagine owners of Samsung’s slate will be the ones with the biggest grins on their faces right now. See the how-to video after the break.

[Thanks, Mani]

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab can be made to run all apps in full screen, here’s how (video)

Samsung Galaxy Tab can be made to run all apps in full screen, here’s how (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 04:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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StumbleUpon launches App Discovery on Android, trips over clumsy interface

StumbleUpon’s been serving up crowdsourced, personalized website recommendations since the turn of the century with the simple idea that like-minded surfers will enjoy the same stuff, and if that sounds like a fantastic formula for recommending apps, then you’re in a spot of luck. StumbleUpon’s bringing App recommendations to Android today as part of an update to its app, and we have to say, the program’s got some potential if it catches on.

As with all crowdsourced software, StumbleUpon’s not terribly good at its job right off the bat and a moderately unresponsive UI (with tiny touchscreen buttons) doesn’t really help, but the app presently pulls from a set of existing Android app databases that give it a nice head start. After you log in with your StumbleUpon ID, it asks you if it can (a la AppBrain) take a look at the existing apps on your phone, after which point it displays likely correlations one by one (complete with descriptions, screenshots and Android Market star ratings) for you to vote up or down. We got quite a few flashlights, soundboards and fart machines, mind you, but most everything we saw had plenty of ratings and at least four stars, and a good number of our favorites (and some probable soon-to-be-favorites) popped up as well, and voting up and down app concepts is an amusing diversion in and of itself. Sadly, it doesn’t use your existing StumbleUpon topic preferences to recommend apps, but it will hopefully align them to your tastes soon, assuming that enough folks can look past the iffy UI long enough to help their fellows and give the free app a go. PR after the break.

Update: It’s on the Android Market right now — find it at our source link, or use the handy-dandy QR code at right.

Continue reading StumbleUpon launches App Discovery on Android, trips over clumsy interface

StumbleUpon launches App Discovery on Android, trips over clumsy interface originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Facebook app for Android available, adds Places, Groups & improved notifications (update: iPhone, too)

Facebook admitted during its mobile event today that the app for Android devices has been lagging behind other clients and has already made a push to correct that with a new version, 1.4, now available on the Android Market. Not much has changed, but the list of fixes indicates it now supports check-ins with Places, Groups and some much needed improvements to notifications. Check out the gallery for a few screens of the new functions in action or snag the QR code after the break.

Update: It looks like the iPhone app is getting an update as well. Unfortunately, some folks are having trouble downloading it. Let us know how it goes for you.

Continue reading New Facebook app for Android available, adds Places, Groups & improved notifications (update: iPhone, too)

New Facebook app for Android available, adds Places, Groups & improved notifications (update: iPhone, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Navigon MobileNavigator finally hits American Androids, includes augmented reality POI view

Navigon MobileNavigator finally hits American Androids, includes augmented reality POI view

We got our first taste of Navigon‘s MobileNavigator for Android way back at CES last January, and since then Googlephone users across Europe have been merrily navigating around using the thing. Finally, Americans get our chance, with Navigon announcing a North American release. This version includes maps of the good ‘ol US of A, downloaded to the storage card (1.5GB worth) to enable full offline navigation, though you’ll need a connection to get traffic updates. There’s an improved Reality View Pro mode, which shows “photo realistic 3D views” of street signs and, the cream of this frothy app, a new Reality Scanner mode. This Layar-like view overlays nav and POI information over a real-time stream of the world from the phone’s camera, letting you spot that Stuckey’s from afar. The app hits the Android Market today for $39, but that’s one of those limited time deals. After two weeks it jumps up to $59, so don’t be slow with the clicking.

Continue reading Navigon MobileNavigator finally hits American Androids, includes augmented reality POI view

Navigon MobileNavigator finally hits American Androids, includes augmented reality POI view originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android Market surpasses 100,000 apps: can’t stop, won’t stop growing

Ah, there we go. Right around three months after we falsely suspected that El Goog had crossed the 100,000 mark in its Android Market, the company itself has today confirmed the passing of that line via Twitter. For those keeping count, it took but three months to go from 70,000 to 100,000 and seven months to go from 30,000 to this point. Of course, Apple’s still holding down the lead in terms of sheer numbers with close to 300,000, but there’s no question that the Android Market has nearly everything a boy (or girl, for that matter) could want. Except for a quote generator from Step Brothers. Oh, wait….

Android Market surpasses 100,000 apps: can’t stop, won’t stop growing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  source@AndroidDev (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments