Hasta La Gadget!

Open up Android Market on your Android device today and (most of) you will see a familiar set of three headings — Apps, Games and My apps — bidding you welcome. Do the same on your Sony Ericsson Android phone, however, and the last item in that list might no longer be there. That’s because SE has decided to introduce its own “channel” to the Market, wherein you’ll find a load of Xperia handset-specific junk software and other specially curated bits that your smartphone is adjudged to be in need of. The change means you’ll need to open up your menu to get at your own apps, but that shouldn’t be an entirely unfamiliar activity for Android users. Sony Ericsson may be the first manufacturer to pull this switcheroo, but it’s following in the well-worn footsteps of Verizon and T-Mobile in the US. And speaking of carriers, Sony Ericsson says this change is operator-dependent, so if you’re nice and lucky, your operator won’t bother to roll this out. Sadly, our Xperia Arc has already been infected.

Sony Ericsson sets up its own channel in Android Market, relegates ‘My apps’ link to a menu item originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For developers not quite ready to offer their iOS creations in the App Store, a new service promises to suck the grunt work out of bouncing works-in-progress off others. Pieceable Viewer is the magical program in question, launching today to let devs publish a copy of their apps to a private website, whose link they can share with beta testers, clients, and fellow code monkeys. Viewer generates a single line of code for sharing and, irony of all ironies, uses Flash to simulate apps inside the browser. It could be compelling for freelancers working with clients who don’t happen to own an iPhone, and, adds the company’s CEO, it helps devs circumvent Apple’s 100-device limit. All this from a company whose existing product enables people with no coding experience to build apps.

You can try it for free, with one person able to view one app, and a link that expires after an hour. Upgrade to a $30-a-month plan for three simultaneous views of up to five applications, and links that don’t expire. (For unlimited apps, you’ll have to spring for the $60 monthly plan, which lets up to ten people peep at once.) As for all you Android enthusiasts, your version is up next (surprise, surprise).

Pieceable Viewer lets devs share iOS apps, personal feelings through a browser originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe’s new Photoshop-connected iPad apps show what can be done with multitouch.

Forget Flash — Adobe’s latest iPad experiments are way more interesting than a plug-in to let you view restaurant websites. The three apps — Eazel, Lab and Lava — all link to Photoshop Creative Suite 5 running on a Mac or a PC, and let you use the multitouch display to control various functions.

Eazel lets you finger-paint on the iPad and then transmits the results to Photoshop. You can use wet or dry paint, control the size and opacity of the brushes, and a “particle-stroke painting” engine lets paint spread out for a few seconds before it dries. The most amazing part, though, is the control UI.

Plop down five fingers and a control appears at the tip of each. Move the appropriate finger to adjust color, opacity, settings and brush size. flicking your thumb left or right will undo or redo. This looks like something that should be in every app, not just drawing apps.

Next up is Nav, which puts the Photoshop tool palette on the iPad’s screen with big, easy-to-hit icons. The 4×4 grid is customizable, so you can pick your 16 favorite tools, and touching them selects the tool on the desktop machine. It also lets you browse and duplicate open documents on the iPad’s screen. This one is simple, but may turn out to be the most useful.

Finally, Lava is a color-mixer. Anyone who has mixed oil or acrylic paints on a palette (or an old piece of wood, or plastic or whatever) will know that it is far more intuitive than sliding widgets on-screen. Lava lets you do this, interacting with colors directly and using the results in Photoshop.

All of these apps, which aren’t yet available, use Adobe’s new Photoshop Touch SDK. This software development kit lets anyone write iPad apps that interact with Photoshop.

But it’s not a big deal just for iOS developers. The open SDK means developers working on other platforms — like Android Honeycomb and the forthcoming BlackBerry PlayBook OS — can begin coding their own apps based on Adobe Touch. Considering that tablets produced over the last year have been generally considered content-consumption devices, Adobe’s SDK release invites the possibility of a new wave of content-creating users.

These apps show what Adobe can do when it’s not fighting with Apple over Flash. They also show what multitouch can do when you stop thinking in desktop metaphors. I can’t wait to try them. They may even make me start using Photoshop again.

Nav [Photoshop]

Lava [Photoshop]

Eazel [Photoshop]

Mike Isaac contributed to this report.

See Also:

• Photoshop Crashes onto iPad
• Video: Adobe Shows Photoshop Concept for iPad
• Photogene 2.0 for iPad: A Desktop Photo Editor on a Tablet

The Silent FIlm Director iOS app lets you adjust a variety of settings to create your own vintage style silent film or home movie.

Nothing adds nostalgia to a just-taken iPhone video like retro visual effects and silent film-inspired title cards.

The Silent Film Director app for iPhones can transform any video you take into a ’60s-style home movie or a 1920s-esque silent film, taking that Instagram effect and amping it up a few notches.

The app is available in Standard and Pro versions. With the Standard version, you can record or upload video and render it with a variety of video effects (including Black & White, ’70s Home Video and Sepia), add a soundtrack (default, or your own), and adjust the playing speed and quality of the video. With the Pro version, you get additional advanced features like title cards and transitions, and the ability to mix photos and video with separate effects.

The app is pretty straightforward to use. In Standard Mode, you’re taken to a screen that lets you choose the desired effect, quality, soundtrack and time scale, then you can either make or load a video. If, instead, you click on Pro Mode, you can add a project by clicking on the plus sign in the upper right hand corner, or work on a previously started project.

After naming a new project, you can adjust the same properties as Standard Mode, and click Add to start inserting customizable title cards, editable video clips and photos. You can rearrange and edit each section of your video using the Timeline.

I tried out the Pro version of the app with a video taken of me trying out a remote-controlled mechanical chair at a warehouse robot party (yes, I said warehouse robot party).

Although I wish the preloaded music options automatically “finished” with a couple closing piano notes at the end, the app is easy to use and a fun way to spruce up some unexciting video footage … or create your silent film opus.

The Silent Film Director App is currently available for $0.99 in the App Store.

Thanks Alex!

Panasonic has been kicking around the idea of a tricked-out Android-based in-flight entertainment system for awhile, and now it’s ready for airlines to start retrofitting their livery. The system, dubbed eX3, runs Android, relieving restless fliers with news, live television, games, and what the company calls on-board social networking, but that’s mostly a nod to the Facebook app. Other amenities include broadband internet access and GSM service, touchscreen controllers, capacative screens, proximity sensors, and, in some cases, 3D displays. Not going to front — we’re stoked on the idea of tuning out on-board babies via multi-hour Angry Birds sessions, but we’re seriously hoping the airlines ignore one of the system’s marquee features: in-flight video conferencing.

Panasonic gives its in-flight entertainment system an Android makeover, adds 3D displays originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 10:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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