Hasta La Gadget!

Own a professionally installed Crestron home automation system? Then check this out mister moneybags. Former Sling boxer, Blake Krikorian, has turned his home automation hobby into a full-fledged Android app ready for download. The R2 Control App will set you back $99 (hey, it’s Crestron) from the Android Market and give you control over your 2-Series and 3-series systems from anywhere in the world via WiFi or cellular data networks. At least it will after an authorized Crestron programmer enables it. The app works natively with Mobile Pro / Pro G projects built for Crestron touchscreen or iOS devices and automatically resizes the UI to the native resolution of the Android device you’re using.

Great, we guess, but what we find most compelling is what Blake teases about the future. We had a chat with the Slingbox inventor who shares our concerns about the current state of home automation and believes that the industry is “on the brink of something big” that could finally take it to the mass market. Given his entrepreneurial lineage and clear home automation interests, we’re more than a bit intrigued by where this might go now that Blake and Google are in the mix.

Continue reading Slingbox inventor releases Crestron R2 Control App for Android, teases something big

Slingbox inventor releases Crestron R2 Control App for Android, teases something big originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 06:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Barnes and Noble’s Nook Android app now supports magazines, tablets, your Cosmo obsession

Barnes and Noble’s Nook Android app now supports magazines, tablets, your Cosmo obsession originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 May 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android Market may have a lot going for it, but most would surely agree that it could use some improvement when it comes to discovering apps that you aren’t specifically looking for. Thankfully, it seems Google has indeed been aware of those concerns, and it’s now announced five new features that should go so some way towards improving things. Those include some newly revamped top app charts that promise to be “fresher” and country specific, a brand new Editors’ Choice section that highlights apps chosen by Google, a new Top Developers feature that places a special icon next to the name of developers that make the grade (currently more than 150), improved related apps on individual app pages and, last but not least, a new trending apps section that shows the apps growing fastest in terms of daily installs. What’s more, while all of those features are currently exclusive to the web-based version, Google says they’re also “coming soon” to the Android Market on both phones and tablets.

In other Android Market news, Google has also announced that it will be adding support for larger apps — up to 4GB — in June, and it will be giving developers the ability to exclude specific devices to avoid compatibility problems, or make multiple versions of an app available under a single Market listing, complete with aggregated ratings and stats. All that, plus personalized recommendations based on your apps (details on it are still a bit light), and paid app support for an additional 99 countries (coming within the next week or so).

[Thanks, Ian and ZZ]

Google announces new ways to discover apps on Android Market, more tools for developers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 15:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve praised Plex in the past for delivering us box-free XMBC and for it’s prodigious media streaming proficiency. Problem is, its app wasn’t optimized for the Honeycomb OS and the upsized screen real estate of Android slates — until now. With the updated code comes tablet-friendly layouts and fast-scrolling in all grid and list views so you can zip through your large local media library. It also includes direct play and internet streaming sans-transcoding (just like the recently revised iOS app) for sating those right now vid cravings. The improvements serve smaller Android devices as well, which makes the newly egalitarian app more enticing than ever before. Best of all, it’s still only five bucks.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Plex plays nice with your Honeycomb slate after app update originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good news for Android users who hate paying for stuff: according to new numbers from Netherlands-based mobile analytics group Distimo, there are now more free apps available for Google’s mobile OS than the iPhone, at 134,342 to 121,845. There are a few things to consider here: first, when one adds free iPad-only apps, the total number of gratis iOS apps increases to a more competitive 132,239. And then there’s Apple’s sometimes rigorous vetting process, which has probably played a role in its numeric slippage — after all, this report doesn’t highlight things like legality, repetition, or the overall number of apps dedicated to making farting noises. Also, Apple has a lot more premium apps, giving it the overall lead at 333,124 to 206,143 — but between Android’s rapid growth and what the report terms iOS’s relative stagnation, Distimo expects Google to take the top spot in five months’ time, outnumbering iPhone and iPad apps combined — a rough scenario for Cupertino to stomach, no doubt, but at least the company will still have Windows Phone to kick around a while longer. [Source link requires registration]

Shocker! Free Android apps outnumber free iPhone apps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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