Hasta La Gadget!

Yesterday at BlackBerry World 2011 we were fortunate to sit down and chat with Chris Smith, Senior Director of the BlackBerry Developer Platform, along with Rasmus and Karl from The Astonishing Tribe. One of RIM’s recent acquisitions, TAT is known for some rather, well… astonishing user interface designs, and for infusing a bit of magic into some of the PlayBook’s apps, such as the bundled picture viewer and calculator. We were shown a number of demos, including the downloadable Scrapbook app, a rather nifty contact list, and a location-aware news reader. Over the years, TAT has built an engine and framework that make it easy for developers to create powerful and attractive UIs, and some of this will be making its way into the PlayBook’s native software development kit sometime this summer. Along with support for Open GL ES 2.0, SQLite, cURL, and POSIX (amongst others), this NDK will provide API’s to control the audio system, the cameras, and the sensors — possibly even code to enable stereoscopic 3D output over HDMI, as demonstrated before. We know that’s a lot of exciting stuff to sink your teeth into, so be sure to get a taste of it by watching our video.

TAT-astic native PlayBook development discussed and demoed on video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 08:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plex has been serving up streaming video for more than a minute, bringing content to Macs, iDevices, and even jailbroken Apple TVs (not to mention apps for all sizes of Android). For those who are neither Apple aficionados nor dedicated ‘droid users, the company has rolled out a client that runs on Rokus. It’s currently in beta and only supports video, but Plex plans to provide picture and music management in the future. Plex’s XBMC secret sauce paired with Roku’s ample streaming content buffet? Sounds delicious.

[Thanks, James]

Plex Media Server launches client for Roku originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well everybody, it looks like the free ride is over: carriers in the US have started to seriously crack down on Android tethering apps. Head on over to the Android Market site and try to install an app that turns your smartphone into a WiFi hotspot — there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be told, “this item is not available on your carrier.” We checked out a number of different tethering options and they were all blocked by T-Mobile and AT&T, which isn’t entirely new. Verizon has also joined the party and, while it missed at least one that we spotted, we’re sure they’ll all be gone in short order. Only Sprint has decided against banning such apps… for now. It looks like you might have to finally cough up for that tethering plan you’ve been desperately trying to avoid.

Carriers crack down on Android tethering apps, rain on our mobile hotspot parade originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 15:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who’s going to get the very first “tablet-optimized” Facebook app? Why, it’s RIM and the PlayBook! The Canadian company has today revealed it’s bringing a native Facebook app to its 7-inch, QNX-based slate, which will also be joined by a new Video Chat application. The latter will be available to download on May 3rd, with an over-the-air update dishing it out to current PlayBook owners. Its functionality will be no different from what we’ve come to expect from such clients — both voice and video calls will be available anywhere you can find a WiFi connection. As to the Facebook app, it’s coming some time later in the month, and will let you view and add your friends, share photos and videos “seamlessly,” access Facebook Chat, and view and interact with the news Feed. Both should be getting extensive demos at BlackBerry World, which is taking place this week, and we’ll be sure to have a gander and report our findings. Skip past the break for the full press releases.

Update: Well, that was quick — looks like Facebook for PlayBook is already up for grabs, and Canadian Reviewer has posted several screenshots for your amusement.

Continue reading BlackBerry PlayBook to get Video Chat and Facebook apps in May (updated)

BlackBerry PlayBook to get Video Chat and Facebook apps in May (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 08:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re the kind of person who’s always listening to music and wouldn’t be caught dead headphone-less, pause that song for a quick second and check out Seamless. This lightweight app links your iPhone‘s Music player to iTunes on your Mac in a pretty clever — not to mention Cupertino-esque — fashion. The whole crux of it is the “transition,” which simultaneously fades out a song on one end while bringing it to full blast on the other. All it takes to get started is a quick $1.99 download for your i-device and free Mac-centric companion app. Does it work as advertised, or is it really just a gimmick? Head past the break for a quick rundown of just how seamless this utility really is.

Continue reading App review: Seamless for iOS and Mac (video)

App review: Seamless for iOS and Mac (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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