Friday 03 September 2010

Rovio are known for supporting their game well with plenty of free updates and they have said that they are setting themselves the goal of producing the best game that has ever been released on Android. That will be music to many an Android owner's ear.

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Royal Mail Launches 'Intelligent' Stamps To Tie In With Smartphones    [ 03-09-2010 18:32 ]

Author: Irina Turina   Source: TechRadar     Translation by: Paul Smith     

Britain's Rooyal Mail is laying claim to having released the world's first 'intelligent stamp' that will allow you to interact with it via your Android/iPhone smartphone. Basically the stamps contain information that can be picked up through optical recognition technology, which then presents the user with various information. In this case the stamps are part of a collection celebrating Britain's railways and one of the pieces of content available is a rather superb recital of W.H. Auden's poem, the Night Train, read by veteran British actor Bernard Cribbins (you may remember him from various Carry On films). The Royal Mail issued a statement saying "This is the first time a national postal service has used this kind of technology on their stamps and we're very excited to be bringing intelligent stamps to the nation's post."

To access the content you will need to download ana pp to your handset called Junaio. Before anyone asks I, and no one else I spoke to, had a clue what that means or why the Royal Mail would choose that particular name, and no I don't know how to pronounce it either.

Besides affording people the chance to listen to some very nice poetry the technology used here could have some very practical applications, especially as more and more of us are using smartphones. For one it could be used to allow people to obtain information about letters or packages they have received, such as who sent it, where it was sent from, maybe even what it contains or confirmation that a letter is actually from the person it says it is from.

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Gingerbread Not 3.0 After All    [ 03-09-2010 18:15 ]

Author: Irina Turina   Source: Phonedog     Translation by: Paul Smith     

The chaps over at Phonedog are suggesting that the upcoming Gingerbread release for Android may not, as was widely assumed, be Android 3.0. Apparently that distinction might be saved for Honeycomb, which will supposedly be released sometime early next year. Gingerbread is more likely to be called Android 2.3 or perhaps even 2.5. That would suggest a more incremental set of updates rather than a revolutionary step forward, but of course the main thrust of Gingerbread still seems to be UI enhancements.

Honeycomb on the other hand is said to be the first iteration of Android that will be specifically optimised for use on tablet devices. We already know Samsung are planning on a Honeycomb powered tablet sometime next year. To be fair The Galaxy Tab runs Froyo at present (with a planned upgrade to Gingerbread at some stage) and most who have had a chance to use it have been pleasantly surprised at how well it runs and behaves on the Tab. One wonders then what Honeycomb might bring to the table to furthe rimprove upon that experience.

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Samsung Prioritizing Android, Dismissive of Win Phone 7    [ 03-09-2010 17:34 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin   Source: Engadget     Translation by: Paul Smith     

Samsung have been making it known that Android is their first priority when it comes to smartphones. Great news for Android, but less so for Windows Mobile 7, which is due to launch within the next few months. It's not just that Samsung aren't giving Windows Phone 7 priority though, they were actually dismissive of it. YH Lee, Samsung's marketing chief, told Reuters that "... we are prioritizing our Android platform ...". He then went on to say of Windows Mobile 7 "... there is still some professional, specialized demand there." That doesn't sound like the words of a man embracing a new consumer platform that Microsoft at least hopes will rival Android and iOS. Indeed Mr Lee was talking up Android by comparison saying that there was a 'consumer demand for it'.

If Samsung's view of Windows Phone 7 wasn't exactly upbeat their view of Symbian (yes Samsung have dabbled) was positively dour. Mr Lee commented that Samsung were seeing no 'visible demand' for it. Hardly surprising really given the combination of Samsung never having truly committed to the platform and the waning star that the platform is under at the moment.

As for Samsung's own Bada OS Lee confirmed that Samsung will be continuing with the project and of course Samsung will shortly be releasing their second Bada handset, the Wave 723. Far be it form a humble tech writer to suggest that Bada isn't really capturing the public imagination and that Windows Phone 7 will probably have a bigger impact, but Samsung presumably knows best.

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