Hasta La Gadget!

Being Mobile World Congress, quite a few software vendors found themselves tucked into corners of bigger booths, eager and willing to showcase their latest work. Ittiam is one of those companies, relying on Texas Instruments’ OMAP 4 platform to power its new HD video conferencing system. The demo shown here at MWC involved a foursome of TI development boxes, but the underlying platform was most certainly Android 2.2. Anil Kumar, the manager of Ittiam’s video communications division, noted that the system would work just fine on Gingerbread and Honeycomb, enabling up to four devices (smartphones, tablets, whatever) to link up and enjoy a multi-faced call over a standard 3G network.

Of course, the demonstration that we were shown used an Ethernet network for maximum stability, but the low-bitrate technology would allow bearable results on 3G networks (and better-than-average results on a 4G network). We were told that the company is in talks with “numerous” phone makers, in hopes of getting their VCS software integrated onto Android devices by the year’s end — think Qik, but for video conferencing — but he couldn’t hand out any specifics. Head on past the jump if you’d like to see a demo (and hear an awful lot more).

Continue reading Ittiam shows off four-way 720p HD video conferencing using Android, OMAP 4 (video)

Ittiam shows off four-way 720p HD video conferencing using Android, OMAP 4 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lots of people have lots of problems with lots of things, but to say that we’ve been getting lots of complaints about Nexus S issues would be an understatement. Hundreds have chimed in on the Google Mobile Help forum indicating that their handsets are frequently losing data signal and, once lost, a reboot is required to reconnect. It’s been said this could be related to an issue that’s been around since 2009 (issue 2845), but a new issue in the Android bug tracker has been created, 14672, which specifically deals with the Nexus S. You might want to star ’em both if you’re affected — or feeling charitable. Finally, and perhaps even more troubling, is the phone rebooting. By itself. In the middle of a call. You can imagine how this might be a little annoying. That issue is number 13674 and it’s linked down there too.

Update: Huzzah! Just got a note from Google saying: “All of the issues described in the post are resolved and will be fixed with an OTA that will go out soon.” Feel free to start mashing that “system updates” menu item.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Nexus S suffering from random data loss, reboots? (updated: fixes coming!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola may have once said that it was “open” to developing Windows Phone 7 devices, but it looks like that possibility is now a whole lot less likely than it already was. Speaking at Mobile World Congress this week, Motorola’s corporate vice president of software and services product management, Christy Wyatt, said that while she would never say never, she doesn’t envision Motorola using Microsoft’s OS, and added that “it’s not something we’re entertaining now.” Wyatt went on to say that “there were a bunch of things that we believed about Microsoft that ended up not being true, mostly about what functionality it would have in what period of time,” and further explained that Motorola is looking for “an opportunity to create unique value,” and it doesn’t feel it can do that on a “closed platform” like Windows Phone 7. Obviously, it does feel like it can create unique value with Android, and Wyatt dismissed concerns about a potential duopoly between Android and Apple, saying that “It could be a duopoly on platforms but I’m not sure why having another OS is a good or bad thing.” Incidentally, she also said that the upgrade process for Motorola’s Android phones has “humbled” the company a bit, and she promises improvements in the future, noting that “we were better with Froyo then with Éclair and we’ll be even better with Gingerbread.”

Motorola exec nearly rules out Windows Phone completely, laments ‘closed platform’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No big surprise here, but Eric Schmidt just told the crowd at Mobile World Congress that Google “certainly tried” to convince Nokia to pick Android as its future platform over Windows Phone 7. Schmidt said Google “would’ve loved” having Nokia on board, and that although they’d been rebuffed this time around, the offer to adopt Android later “is still open.” Look like Vic Gundotra might have to get down with a turkey after all.

Eric Schmidt: ‘We certainly tried’ to get Nokia to use Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eric Schmidt didn’t give a ton of details about the future of Android during his MWC 2011 keynote, but he did drop one interesting tidbit: the next version of Android will “start with an I, be named after a dessert” and combine Gingerbread for phones and Honeycomb for tablets into a cohesive whole. We’ll just go out on a limb and say that he’s talking about Ice Cream, and that we’ll see that Fragments UI construct used to bridge the phone / tablet display size gap. Unfortunately, Eric didn’t say anything about timing — just that updates have been happening on a “six month cycle.” Considering that Honeycomb has yet to officially launch on any devices, we’d say that’s not so long to wait — but of course we’re also dying to know more as soon as possible. We’ll let you know if we hear anything good.

Next version of Android will combine Gingerbread and Honeycomb, arrive on a six-month cycle originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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