Hasta La Gadget!

Photo: Keith Axline/Wired.com

Popular television show streaming service Hulu Plus is now available on a host of new Android devices, according to a statement issued by the company on Tuesday.

The service will now be available on eight more devices than before, including three Motorola phones, three HTC devices and two LG phones. Hulu Plus — the paid version of Hulu’s media streaming service — allows users to view content on their smartphones and tablets.

Customers of streaming media service companies like Hulu and Netflix have faced serious issues with Android device compatibility since the companies’ respective mobile apps were released. Unlike Apple — which manufactures only a handful of devices — the Android platform is hosted on hardware across multiple manufacturers, all of which produce numerous, very different devices. As a result, Hulu and Netflix have struggled to bring their apps to all Android phones and tablets.

There could also be holdups for Android devices that are “rooted,” which essentially means those able to be hacked by the user to gain full control over the phone. Movie studios may be concerned that users with rooted phones will install programs that make it possible to make copies of streaming content from the phone, bypassing the DRM security measures in place.

The company will continue to work on bringing its app functionality to all smart devices, according to Hulu senior product manager Lonn Lee.

This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of September 12, 2011:

• Vodacom South Africa has joined the data throttling club, though this carrier is taking a slightly different spin: BlackBerry users consuming more than 100MB of data each month will find their download speeds downgraded to GPRS or EDGE. The company claims this will only affect less than five percent of its BlackBerry customers. [via N4BB]
• Bada fans: the Samsung Wave 578 is featured on Orange’s site as “coming soon.” [via The Inquirer]
• Motorola announced the availability of the Fire and Fire XT in India this week. [via Motorola]
• The Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is now being sold at Vodafone UK. [via Vodafone]
• Parrot announced the most recent addition to its lineup of Bluetooth products, called the Minikit+, a refresh of its popular hands-free speakerphone. The new model offers simultaneous pairing and voice commands. [via Parrot]
• Research in Motion is hoping to put the NFC functionality in OS 7 to good use, as it announced that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9330 as well as the Curve 9350 / 9360 will support HID’s iCLASS digital keys, which means corporate folks will able to use their smartphone as an access card. [via PhoneScoop]
• While digging through the Droid Bionic’s webtop app, the names of two unknown Motorola phones were discovered: the Edison and the Common. Little is known about the Common, but a recent FCC filing mentioned the Edison and is speculated to be the follow-up to the Atrix, albeit sans LTE as originally hoped. [via Droid-Life]
• The manager of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, Matt Bencke, wrote a post pleading developers to submit their Mango-compatible apps as soon as possible, as the new update is coming to existing phones soon and it’s obviously very important to have Windows Phone 7.5 run as smooth as possible. [via WMPowerUser]
• A leaked Radio Shack roadmap indicates the HTC Vigor should be available in stores by October 20th, and the QWERTY-packing Samsung Stratosphere will be up for online ordering as early as October 6th. As this is a third-party retailer, we can’t say with surety that these dates reflect the carrier’s official release. [via Droid-Life]

Mobile Miscellany: week of September 12, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Sep 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week on the Gadget Lab podcast: The gang chats about the latest in the iPhone-lost-in-a-bar story and takes a look at the latest, greatest Android phone out there, the Droid Bionic.

Reviews editor Michael Calore and staff writer Christina Bonnington start out the show recapping what’s been going on with an iPhone prototype that was purportedly lost at a San Francisco tequila bar. Turns out, the San Francisco Police Department did have a hand in assisting Apple with the recovery of a “lost item”, but we still don’t know its whereabouts.

Next, we break out the newest piece of Android eye candy on the block, the Droid Bionic smartphone. We talk about just how fast this guy is — and check out its accessories, a $100 charging dock and a $300 laptop dock, which are pretty similar to that of the Motorola Atrix.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds.

Or listen to the audio below:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #125

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0125.mp3

This week, as always, was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of August 15, 2011:

• More rumors are circulating about the upcoming Sony Ericsson Nozumi, originally leaked two weeks ago. The new specs getting floated around are even better than we previously thought, which include a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution for a PPI of 342, and NFC. (Thanks, David) [via XperiaBlog]
• The Motorola Milestone 3 — the GSM twin of the Droid 3, essentially — was released in Brazil this week and will be available in select Latin American countries later this month. [via AndroidCentral]
• Just as we’re getting used to the idea of a white HTC EVO 3D at Radio Shack, it’s now reported that a purple version will soon be available exclusively at Best Buy. [via PocketNow]
• The BlackBerry Torch 9860 has two new Canadian homes, as it launched this week on Telus for $100 and SaskTel for $130. Both carriers involve setting up a three-year commitment. [via MobileSyrup(1) and (2)]
• Did someone mention SaskTel? Yes, the carrier is jumping on the 4G bandwagon by announcing its intent to deploy LTE by the fall of 2012. [via MobileSyrup]
• AT&T’s LG Thrill 4G is finally getting released tomorrow after several weeks of delays. While the phone will be offered for $100 by the carrier itself, you’ll be able to get it at Costco for $30. [via PhoneArena]
• Alongside the Kyocera Milano, Sprint will also launch a new feature phone called the Kyocera Brio. The Brio will offer a QWERTY keyboard, a 192MHz CPU and will run Java. [via Electronista and AndroidCentral]
• At HTC’s Windows Phone launch this week, reps confirmed that all of its new Windows Phones will indeed have the mobile hotspot feature included, though it won’t be a part of the software update to the company’s existing lineup. It’s likely to be added with a future refresh, but apparently the feature was added too late in the process to get thrown into the initial rollout. (Thanks, Gilles) [via Pocket-Lint]

Mobile Miscellany: week of August 29, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 7-inch A1 tablet will run Android 2.3 and sell for $199. Photo courtesy of Lenovo.

Lenovo announced their newest tablet, the IdeaPad A1, which will undercut the competition with a starting price of $200.

The A1 tablet will run Android version 2.3 (Gingerbread), feature both front and back-facing cameras, Wi-Fi connectivity and all of the typical tablet accoutrements. Unique to Lenovo, the tablet will feature offline GPS, which connects directly to a satellite feed rather than through the wireless network. Like Lenovo’s other tablets, the A1 supports apps from both the Lenovo app market, and the Android store.

The A1 follows alongside three other tablets just released by Lenovo, which we reviewed last month.

For those who miss the comfort of a keyboard and a Microsoft OS, Lenovo is also releasing its U Series of laptops, including the U300s which comes in an ultra-slim, MacBook Air-like profile. The IdeaPad  U300s has a solid-state hard drive, and weighs in at .01 kg. less than the 13″ Air. A keyboard-centered fan ensures cooling despite the frame’s vent-less base.

Of course, if you favor computing brawn over slimness and portability, Lenovo’s U300 and 400 models are also available.