Hasta La Gadget!

Anyone looking to fill half of their lounge with Samsung LCD just got a new size to choose. The 75-inch ES9000 is the bigger brother of the ES8000 that we saw earlier this year and ahead of the official launch in Korea, we managed to get an early eyes-on at a Samsung event held yesterday in London. In short, if you loved the LED-backlit display of the 55-inch model, you’re going to adore the ES9000, which features the same smart TV brains alongside a retractable webcam unit housed on the top edge. The picture was pleasingly rich and sharp — presumably due to the aforementioned backlighting and the ES series’ edge-to-edge design. The bezel is a mere 7.9mm and Samsung has decided to coat the frame in a gentle Rose Gold coating which, due to the TV’s slightly shady location, was a little trickier to pick out. That premium finish is matched by a premium price tag, however, and will hit checkbooks for 19.8 million won (around $17,450). Despite the UK appearance, retailer John Lewis (which hosted the event) couldn’t confirm whether retail models would be coming to its stores in the future. But if you can afford 75 inches of TV, you can also afford a quick flight to Seoul to pick one up.

Samsung announces 75-inch ES9000 smart TV for Korea, with similarly gigantic price tag (eyes-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 08:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This certainly doesn’t come as a huge surprise given where Acer has been focusing its attention as of late, but it looks like the company is truly intent on shedding its image as a low-cost brand — at least in Europe. Speaking with TechRadar, an Acer spokesperson said that “it can be a slightly conflicting message,” referring to it also offering computers under its Packard Bell brand, and that “Acer is moving away from the lower end.” In this case, Acer is defining low-end as under £400, or roughly $600, although it says there will be some crossover. The spokesperson further added that “Acer will become more premium,” also noting that “we try to separate the two brands as far as possible, so the average consumer has no idea that the two brands are associated.” What that means for Acer in North America (where the Packard Bell brand is long gone) remains to be seen, but we’ve reached out to the company for comment.

Acer says it’s ‘moving away from the lower end’ in Europe, leaving cheaper laptops to Packard Bell originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BSkyB has been busy pushing updates to several of its apps, starting with the Sky Go player. On both iOS and Android, the big new addition is access to Anytime+ video on demand from the Movies and Entertainment category, covering Sky1, Sky Living, Sky Atlantic and Sky Arts 1. On Android, v2.0 of Sky Go brings the ability to manage ones account directly via the app, move the app to the SD card and other bug fixes. What it does not do, yet, is expand the (short) list of compatible devices, although the listing promises Ice Cream Sandwich support later this month. Meanwhile, the Sky Sports app for iPad has a new update too, adding a guide, split screen view for F1 races and the ability to remotely set recordings and reminders from the tablet. All the updates are available at their respective app stores, the links can be found below.

Continue reading Sky Sports iPad app, Sky Go for iOS and Android refreshed with more content and features

Sky Sports iPad app, Sky Go for iOS and Android refreshed with more content and features originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen schemes from the likes of FreedomPop which offer “free” mobile internet access, but a company in the UK called Samba is taking the idea one step further. It’s partnering with Three UK to provide 517MB of free internet access on iPads if users agree to watch two and a half minutes of commercials. It also requires a app to be installed on the iPad to keep track of internet usage and serve up the ads.

Anyone using Samba can also build up credit by purchasing items that have been referred to them via the adverts, and there’s the more traditional route of simply buying credit too. The service isn’t just restricted to iPads, as users can buy a SIM card for £2.99 (~$4.67) to insert into a USB stick that will allow laptop owners to get in on the action as well, although a browser plug-in needs to be installed before the service will work. Samba will be offering its own dongle in the future.

Still, for that 500MB a month you’ve giving up some privacy. Samba say that cookies will be installed on your device that track your internet usage. That includes “traffic data, location data, weblogs, URLs, search terms and other communication data.” Certain material will also be restricted, like pornorgraphy and copyrighted/offensive material.

[via Gizmodo UK]

Samba launches free ad-supported 3G data is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Two years after it was meant to go live, and with a list of backers that includes the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arqiva, BT and TalkTalk, YouView today finally crashed the UK TV party. Available by the end of July with a selection of major retailers, the service is based around an all-in-one set-top box that you can use without a subscription, which includes 100 digital TV and radio channels, catch-up and on-demand services, as well as the ability to record programs.

But with a price tag that will begin at £299 ($469) without the required broadband thrown in, and competing against a host of existing services, is this a case of too-little, too-late?

At the launch event earlier today, Lord Alan Sugar — a self-made entrepreneur in the UK who is the star of the UK edition of “The Apprentice” — called the event “a great moment in British television,” but some of the reactions online have been quite to the contrary:

The service will first launch as a standalone product selling at major retailers like John Lewis, Dixons, Comet, Currys and Richer Sounds — as well as Amazon and the supermarket giant Tesco. The price for the set-top box is likely to go down when BT and TalkTalk, two of the investors in the service, start to bundle it with their own broadband offerings — where it will be part of a subscription package, much like carriers do with mobile devices.

The service sounds good enough, but for a set-top box pay TV service, it’s hard to see why consumers would choose this over something like Sky’s, Virgin’s or BT’s existing TV offerings, which already come bundled with broadband and offer all of these features and more.

YouView first came to life years ago as Project Canvas, a hopeful-looking joint venture between broadcasters, infrastructure players and broadband service providers to offer digital TV and on-demand services that would have, at the time, been a disruptive and probably welcome presence against the dominant pay-TV players Sky and Virgin. However, regulatory and technical hitches, coupled with other delays and management changes, have been an almost constant presence on the project from the start. In all, it has been estimated that the project will cost £115 million ($180 million) over four years from April 2010. (Some might argue that this, in fact, was the problem: not nearly enough money put into this to create something truly groundbreaking.)

Fast forwarding to 2012 and the final launch of the product, the whole industry has moved on: not only are there more pay-TV providers out there (including BT itself with its Vision service) but the existing services have become a lot more encompassing — for example BBC’s catch-up service iPlayer can be accessed via Virgin and BT’s services. On top of that, there are a host of other ways to get your TV fix now via OTT plays from Netflix, Amazon/LoveFilm, Google and more.

Moreover, YouView’s basic offering — 100 digital TV and radio channels, seven day catch-up and on demand programmes from the content libraries of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 — lacks something else that has been the clincher for many a household prepared to invest in pay-TV in the UK: exclusive content rights, specifically around sport. (Although the lesson of ITV Digital was that even this does not guarantee success.)

And yet, and yet… even if the initial signs do not look good, there is still some potential for how this might develop. YouView says it has had “interest” from over 300 potential content partners — with the “formal enrollment process” for them to join the platform also launched today. (Why YouView didn’t get these potential partners on board before launch, however, is not clear.)