My Best Toys

Social phone struggled to gain friends

Microsoft has pulled the plug on its range of “social” handsets the?Microsoft Kin One?and?Microsoft Kin Two.

“Microsoft has made the decision to focus on the Windows Phone 7 launch and will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones,” Microsoft said in a statement sent to Pocket-lint.

Although the statement doesn’t give a reason as to why the company has pulled the plug on the phones that it only launched in April, it would be easy to draw poor sales as the overriding conclusion for the decision.

In April, the situation was very different. Microsoft launched the handsets with a glitzy press launch for the devices teaming up with Verizon in the US to sell the handsets and Vodafone exclusively in UK, telling the world that this was the social phone perfect for the 20-something hipster keen to keep in touch with their mates.

However in the real world that vision hasn’t translated into reality and like the Palm Pixi, Verizon has struggled to sell to that elusive “20-something hip crowd” it was designed for.

As Microsoft says in the statement. It means the handsets will not be making it to the UK as was originally planned.

The Kin is dead, long live the Kin.?

Do you think Microsoft was right to can the handsets? Were you looking forward to getting on later this year? Let us what you think in the comments below.

Tags:
Phones Microsoft Microsoft Kin Microsoft Kin One Microsoft Kin Two Mobile phones Windows Phone 7

Microsoft Kin phones dumped after failing to make friends originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:42:35 +0100

Social phone struggled to gain friends

Microsoft has pulled the plug on its range of “social” handsets the?Microsoft Kin One?and?Microsoft Kin Two.

“Microsoft has made the decision to focus on the Windows Phone 7 launch and will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones,” Microsoft said in a statement sent to Pocket-lint.

Although the statement doesn’t give a reason as to why the company has pulled the plug on the phones that it only launched in April, it would be easy to draw poor sales as the overriding conclusion for the decision.

In April, the situation was very different. Microsoft launched the handsets with a glitzy press launch for the devices teaming up with Verizon in the US to sell the handsets and Vodafone exclusively in UK, telling the world that this was the social phone perfect for the 20-something hipster keen to keep in touch with their mates.

However in the real world that vision hasn’t translated into reality and like the Palm Pixi, Verizon has struggled to sell to that elusive “20-something hip crowd” it was designed for.

As Microsoft says in the statement. It means the handsets will not be making it to the UK as was originally planned.

The Kin is dead, long live the Kin.?

Do you think Microsoft was right to can the handsets? Were you looking forward to getting on later this year? Let us what you think in the comments below.

Tags:
Phones Microsoft Microsoft Kin Microsoft Kin One Microsoft Kin Two Mobile phones Windows Phone 7

Microsoft Kin phones dumped after failing to make friends originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:42:35 +0100

Pocket-lint goes behind the scenes at mobile TV operator’s HQ

Among a swathe of new features planned for the coming months, FLO TV is to add time-shifted programming in the US to allow subscribers to catch up on shows they may have missed first time around. In addition, there are strong indications that the Qualcomm subsidary is to come to the UK the moment deals have been struck with third party partners.

Speaking from the company’s San Diego base, Bill Stone, President of FLO TV Incorporated, told us that, thanks to two successful trials with BSkyB on its 40MHz of L-Band Spectrum (secured in auction back in May 2009), the company was in a position to talk to relevant interested parties: “We want to partner with people who are experts in the technologies, and who can make us?successful,” he said. “We’ll be talking to cellular operators, pay TV operators, and content suppliers [in the UK]“.

However, it is unlikely that this will result in the release of a standalone FLO TV device, such as its personal TV. Instead, it is likely to be a service offered by network providers or broadcasters through existing handsets and smartphones, such as the iPhone.

As previously hinted, it is expected that this will happen between 2011 to 2012.

In the more immediate future, the company is to add its time-shift feature in the US, and will be implementing several other upgrades to the software on its PTV devices over the coming months, including the ability to receive push programming on its 4GB internal storage.

FLO TV-compatible mobile handsets will also see social networking functionality and interactive data streams (weather, etc) appear in the coming weeks.

Stone was also keen to stress to us that the MediaFLO environment is capable of expansion to e-magazine distribution and other forms of media-rich content. Watch this space.

Tags:
Phones Mobile TV FLO TV Qualcomm BSkyB

FLO TV to add time-shifting and lurks on UK’s horizon originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:42:00 +0100

Pocket-lint goes behind the scenes at mobile TV operator’s HQ

Among a swathe of new features planned for the coming months, FLO TV is to add time-shifted programming in the US to allow subscribers to catch up on shows they may have missed first time around. In addition, there are strong indications that the Qualcomm subsidary is to come to the UK the moment deals have been struck with third party partners.

Speaking from the company’s San Diego base, Bill Stone, President of FLO TV Incorporated, told us that, thanks to two successful trials with BSkyB on its 40MHz of L-Band Spectrum (secured in auction back in May 2009), the company was in a position to talk to relevant interested parties: “We want to partner with people who are experts in the technologies, and who can make us?successful,” he said. “We’ll be talking to cellular operators, pay TV operators, and content suppliers [in the UK]“.

However, it is unlikely that this will result in the release of a standalone FLO TV device, such as its personal TV. Instead, it is likely to be a service offered by network providers or broadcasters through existing handsets and smartphones, such as the iPhone.

As previously hinted, it is expected that this will happen between 2011 to 2012.

In the more immediate future, the company is to add its time-shift feature in the US, and will be implementing several other upgrades to the software on its PTV devices over the coming months, including the ability to receive push programming on its 4GB internal storage.

FLO TV-compatible mobile handsets will also see social networking functionality and interactive data streams (weather, etc) appear in the coming weeks.

Stone was also keen to stress to us that the MediaFLO environment is capable of expansion to e-magazine distribution and other forms of media-rich content. Watch this space.

Tags:
Phones Mobile TV FLO TV Qualcomm BSkyB

FLO TV to add time-shifting and lurks on UK’s horizon originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:42:00 +0100

The open TV platform’s CTO talks development timeline

Project Canvas’ chief technical officer has stated that the much debated and delayed service should be arriving in the first half of 2011.

The open online TV platform, which Anthony Rose describes as a “best of breed”, will have an Intel system-on-a-chip solution at its core upon which the BBC approved project will also design the user-interface. The idea is then that no matter how old your set top box gets, it’ll always feature the exact same, up to date service as all the brand new hardware of the time receives.

“Our priority has been - build the sucker and get it shipped,” joked Rose at an Intel-hosted panel discussion on the future of television.

“Getting the parties together is a remarkable feat in the first place. My team has a good deal of technical work to do. I can’t talk about the timescales given before I was on the project but what we’re talking about now is in the first half of 2011.”

Canvas has been something of an issue up until recently with the BBC Trust discussing its future and Sky and Virgin Media staunchly against its creation, both of whom Rose welcomes onto the platform “in whole or in part, as either free content or paid portions”.

The former iPlayer chief designer also took the time to outline the values of creating an open platform while highlighting the difference between the way Canvas will work and what Google intends to offer with Google TV.

“If you make something closed, then only you can provide the innovation. When it’s open, other people can collaborate to the success of the platform and come up with advancements and applications that you never even dreamed of.”

“As a consumer, maybe Google is a bit too open. When I’m sitting next to my TV in the dark with a keyboard trying to search for things to watch, that’s what I call a bit of a consumer fail. We believe that Canvas hits a nice sweet spot between these two with program search, linear TV and recommendations as well.”

It certainly sounds appealing, but if you’re hoping to be able to appreciate this multi-channel, online experience on your mobile phone or other devices, then think again. It’s nothing technical assure Rose but the issue of content rights rearing its ugly head once more.

“We might have the rights to use the content on TV but not to use the same material on mobile or online. So, rather than fragment and confuse the market, at this time we’re only seeking out the TV space. You can get listings on your mobile phone and even use companion devices - phone or tablets - to enhance your TV viewing, but that will be all.”

Not quite the perfect package but still great news to hear that there’s not too long to go before we finally get to see it. We’ll bring you word as soon as it comes.

Related links:

• News - Project Canvas: Approval granted by BBC Trust
• News - Virgin Media to work with Project Canvas?

Tags:
Home Cinema Project Canvas BBC IPTV

Project Canvas planned for early 2011 launch originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:32:56 +0100

New Operating System shows what’s in store

Nokia’s MeeGo?operating system took it’s next step into becoming a reality on Wednesday with the official MeeGo site publishing screenshots and a video walkthrough of the new OS in action.

“The MeeGo project is happy to announce Day 1 of the MeeGo Handset user experience project,” the team say on the MeeGo blog.

What that means is that from Wednesday 30 June, the handset baseline source code is available to the development community to start playing with.

This code is being actively developed as MeeGo 1.1, which is scheduled for release in October.

The MeeGo Project Handset Day 1 includes MeeGo APIs, incorporating Qt and MeeGo Touch UI Framework (MTF) as well as a subset of the handset reference UI and applications such as

-?????? Status Bar: clock, network, Bluetooth, 3G connection, notifications, and battery charge

-?????? Home Screen

-?????? Lock Screen

-?????? Application Launcher

-?????? Virtual Keyboard

-?????? Applications: Dialer, SMS, Browser, Contacts, and Photo Viewer

Nokia and Intel has also added hardware adaptation support for Intel Atom-based handset (Moorestown) and ARM-based Nokia N900 so developers can check it out.

Read

Tags:
Phones Nokia Video Photos MeeGo Intel Mobile phones Operating Systems

VIDEO and PHOTOS: Nokia MeeGo gets walkthrough originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:06:37 +0100

New Operating System shows what’s in store

Nokia’s MeeGo?operating system took it’s next step into becoming a reality on Wednesday with the official MeeGo site publishing screenshots and a video walkthrough of the new OS in action.

“The MeeGo project is happy to announce Day 1 of the MeeGo Handset user experience project,” the team say on the MeeGo blog.

What that means is that from Wednesday 30 June, the handset baseline source code is available to the development community to start playing with.

This code is being actively developed as MeeGo 1.1, which is scheduled for release in October.

The MeeGo Project Handset Day 1 includes MeeGo APIs, incorporating Qt and MeeGo Touch UI Framework (MTF) as well as a subset of the handset reference UI and applications such as

-?????? Status Bar: clock, network, Bluetooth, 3G connection, notifications, and battery charge

-?????? Home Screen

-?????? Lock Screen

-?????? Application Launcher

-?????? Virtual Keyboard

-?????? Applications: Dialer, SMS, Browser, Contacts, and Photo Viewer

Nokia and Intel has also added hardware adaptation support for Intel Atom-based handset (Moorestown) and ARM-based Nokia N900 so developers can check it out.

Read

Tags:
Phones Nokia Video Photos MeeGo Intel Mobile phones Operating Systems

VIDEO and PHOTOS: Nokia MeeGo gets walkthrough originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:06:37 +0100

Lanthanide and Actinide action

You know you can’t get enough of the old app of the day action, so if you’re feeling a bit jittery a clammy eager to get your app fix then this should do the trick.

What we have here is something that no one should be without, not just because it’ll help make you more clever-er than you are at the moment, but because the pub know it all won’t know what hit them when you start bandying around words like “hydrogen” and “potassium”. Let’s hear it for “The Elements” app for the iPad.

Elements

Format

iPad

Price

7.99

Where

iTunes

Yes, you have read that right, this little beauty will set you back nearly 8 quid and so can be firmly placed in the premium app category but you will get a treat.

All the elements are animated, with plenty of info about each one - tapping on a particular element will bring up more detail and a tap of the Wolfram Alpha icon will give you up to the minute prices on each along with more data.

So download now from iTunes and with its 3D functionality and great user experience we think it’ll really help to bring a bit of chemistry to life.

Tags:
Phones Mobile phone apps iPhone App Store

APP OF THE DAY - The Elements originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:01:59 +0100

Lanthanide and Actinide action

You know you can’t get enough of the old app of the day action, so if you’re feeling a bit jittery a clammy eager to get your app fix then this should do the trick.

What we have here is something that no one should be without, not just because it’ll help make you more clever-er than you are at the moment, but because the pub know it all won’t know what hit them when you start bandying around words like “hydrogen” and “potassium”. Let’s hear it for “The Elements” app for the iPad.

Elements

Format

iPad

Price

7.99

Where

iTunes

Yes, you have read that right, this little beauty will set you back nearly 8 quid and so can be firmly placed in the premium app category but you will get a treat.

All the elements are animated, with plenty of info about each one - tapping on a particular element will bring up more detail and a tap of the Wolfram Alpha icon will give you up to the minute prices on each along with more data.

So download now from iTunes and with its 3D functionality and great user experience we think it’ll really help to bring a bit of chemistry to life.

Tags:
Phones Mobile phone apps iPhone App Store

APP OF THE DAY - The Elements originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:01:59 +0100

720p resolution, framentations and October release date.

While most are stressing about getting to Android 2.1 and some are starting to enjoy Android 2.2, thoughts are already turning to Android 3.0?it seems.

Mobile-review.com’s Eldar Murtazin has been spilling the beans on his Russian podcast, that thankfully the chaps over at unwiredview.com have translated and decoded.

According to the translation, Gingerbread aka Android 3.0 will be released around mid October time with the first wave of handsets shipping November/December - incidentally around the same time as the expected launch date for the first Windows Phone 7 handsets and the first MeeGo handsets from Nokia.

Like Windows Phone 7, the new version of the OS will come with a series of minimum hardware specs, in this case 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5-inch and higher. ?

The resolution is going to be better too for devices (read tablets) with screens bigger than 4-inches.

Interestingly however there is talk of a “completely revamped?user interface” that according to Murtazin means that the need for “skins” like HTC’s Sense UI and Motorola’s Motoblur could be out.

Finally Android is about to split if the chatter is correct. Going forward there would be two?branches reports Unwiredview; 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2.

We will keep you posted.

Read

Tags:
Phones Mobile phones Android android 3.0 gingerbread

Android 3 (gingerbread) details crumble out originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:48:44 +0100