Hasta La Gadget!

Nothing tests a stiff upper lip like a next-gen console launch. Having already been spooked by inaccurate pricing on the PlayStation Network, some Brits are now discovering that the Xbox One‘s heavily promoted TV functions aren’t readily compatible with their set-top boxes. Whether on Freeview, Virgin or Sky, users’ efforts to route TV output through the Xbox One’s HDMI passthrough port are apparently resulting in “juddery” and unwatchable video — perhaps because the Xbox One defaults to 60 frames per second while most UK hardware sticks to the PAL standard of 50Hz. In turn, if they’re forced to give on using passthrough, they also have to miss out on the use of Kinect voice control to start watching TV, change the volume or “snap” TV side-by-side with an app.

Ironically, one UK service that has made a particular point of never supporting the Xbox One — namely, YouView — may now offer the smoothest experience of the lot (albeit without any EPG integration), as its box seems to be more comfortable outputting a compatible signal. That won’t be much help to others, however, so we’ve asked Microsoft’s PR if there’s any progress towards a fix, and in the meantime you might want to try a possible workaround from a reader at HDTVTest.

[Thanks, Barry]

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: The Guardian

Huawei’s first two Honor smartphones were straightforward mid-range devices; with today’s unveiling of the Honor 3, the company is going the semi-rugged route. The third-generation model is IP57-rated for resistance to dust and water, and its high-sensitivity touchscreen will recognize wet hands. There’s also an HTC One-like infrared blaster to control TVs and home appliances. The Honor 3 is otherwise a modest upgrade, however — it carries a slightly larger 4.7-inch 720p in-cell touch LCD, a mildly faster 1.5GHz K3V2 quad-core chip, a higher-resolution 13-megapixel rear camera, a 1-megapixel front camera and Android 4.2. The 2GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage haven’t changed since last year, although they’re acceptable when the Honor 3 is already on sale for just ¥1,888 ($309) in China.

The smartphone will soon have company. Huawei is teasing a new TV set-top box, the MediaQM310, that should offer both cloud services and China Network Television’s online video. The media hub should be uncommonly powerful for its diminutive size with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 chip, Bluetooth and dual-band WiFi. There’s no mention of a price just yet, although that should come when Huawei ships the MediaQM310 to China sometime in September. Check out a photo of the device after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)

Source: Huawei (translated)

Fanhattan, maker of video-streaming tablet and smartphone apps, now has a set-top box to call its own. It’s called Fan TV, and combines live web streaming, TV and cloud-based DVR functionality in a single device. The interface is very simple and clean — you navigate through a TV-based UI, as you’d probably expect, with a tiny multi-touch remote driving the experience. The main device, designed in partnership with Yves Behar of OLPC fame, is also quite compact. Spec details are light, but we do know that the system runs on Android, and features limited connectivity, including Ethernet and HDMI. According to a The Next Web report, Fanhattan is planning to sell Fan TV through cable TV providers, rather than directly to consumers. The company isn’t sharing its content and distribution partners yet, but more details will surely become public before the expected US launch later this year. There’s also no mention of price. For a closer look, check out the promo video after the break.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Fanhattan

About a year and a half after Google announced its acquisition of Motorola, it’s closed a deal to sell the Motorola Home half to Arris. Motorola Home covers the company’s cable TV and internet device, which combined with Arris’ existing businesses creates what it’s calling “the Premier Video Delivery and Broadband Technology Company.” Meanwhile, Google keeps the Motorola Mobility half that covers its cellphones, tablets and of course, the related patents. The move cost Arris $2.2 billion in cash along with 10.6 million shares of its stock issued to Google. That’s on top of 10.6 million shares for Comcast in return for its $150 million investment, making them equal part (7.7 percent) owners with the folks from Mountain View. What does all of this mean? Your next cable-provided box will probably say Arris on it, and any faint dream of Motorola-built Android TV set-top boxes becoming widely available is officially over.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Google

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Source: Arris

The marriage of social networking and television is nothing new, but Myriad recently launched Social TV, a white label solution which allows TV service providers to roll out their own custom social networking platform on your cable box. It complements services like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ by offering a more contextual way for viewers to interact with their friends while watching TV. Social TV provides an integrated HTML5 experience that’s consistent across both television and companion devices (phones and tablets). Viewers can chose between receiving alerts on their TVs, mobile devices or both and can create show- or series-specific virtual communities that automatically expire when the program ends. The system is even mindful of time zones and time-shifts messages to prevent spoilers. More after the break.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD

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