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  • Want VoIP Calls On Your Bluetooth Headset?


    Callpod has launched a "plug-and-play" Bluetooth device that connects with a headset or headphones to provide streaming music and voice over a 100 meter (328ft) range.

    Called the Drone, it plugs into the USB port of a computer and audio is routed automatically.

    When a VoIP call comes in, Drone switches over to the call automatically.

    The Drone works with all Bluetooth headsets and headphones, supports all major VoIP platforms and is Mac and PC compatible.

    It will retail for USD $49.99.

    Performance details:

    • 100-meter (Class-1) range
    • VoIP and music streaming to any Bluetooth headset or stereo headphones
    • Automatically pairs with your headset or headphones
    • Seamlessly switch between music and VoIP calls
    • No software installation – Plug and Play
    • Optional software install for advanced functions such as data transfer
    • Upgradeable firmware

  • HDTV Now In Over A Third Of US Households


    HDTV penetration has doubled in the past two years with 34 per cent of US households having at least one high definition television (HDTV) set.

    Representing about 40 million households, this figure is set to double again over the next two years, according to consumer research from the Leichtman Research Group.

    The findings also showed that 22 per cent of all households purchased a new TV set in the past 12 months.

    Of these, 43 per cent of this group spent over USD $1,000 on a new TV.

    The results are based on a survey of 1,302 households throughout the US, and are part of a new LRG study, HDTV 2008: Consumer Awareness, Interest and Ownership.

    Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said while more people than ever before have HDTV sets, educating consumers on HD programming remains an issue.

    The survey found that about 18 per cent of individuals with an HDTV continue think that they are watching HD programming, but are not.

    “About 40 million US households now have at least one HDTV set, and LRG forecasts that this number will double over the next four years,” he said.

    Other findings include:

    • Combined, 38% of HD owners say that replacing an old/broken set or wanting to buy a new TV set was the most important reason for getting their HDTV – compared to 22% citing picture quality, and 7% the quality of HD programming or the number of HD channels
    • 44% with annual household incomes over $50,000 have an HDTV compared to 20% with annual household incomes under $50,000
    • 33% of HDTV owners have more than one HDTV set, and 25% are likely to get another HDTV set in the next year
    • 9% of HD owners say that they switched multi-channel video providers when they purchased their HDTV
    • 42% of HDTV owners say that they were told how to receive HD programming when they purchased their set
    • LRG estimates that about 58% of all HD households are now watching HD programming from a multi-channel video provider – up from 53% last year. 

  • Flip Launches HD Version Of Mino Camcorder


    The incredibly popular Flip camcorder is going high def with the launch of the MinoHD.

    Flip makers Pure Digital says its new baby is the the world’s smallest HD camcorder – and at a mere 3oz it’s hard to disagree.

    Intended to make capturing and sharing HD video easy and affordable the MinoHD records up to 60 minutes of HD video and features Flip Video’s new FlipShare software, also announced today.

    This on-board software platform allows consumers to plug the camcorder’s signature flip-out USB arm into any computer for easy drag-and-drop video organizing, editing and sharing on YouTube, MySpace, AOL Video or via email.

    Priced at USD $230, the Mino HD is USD $50 more than the standard-def version. It will initially only be available in the US.

    Pure Digital has sold some 1.5 million of its simple-to-use digital camcorders since last year, helping revenues to grow by 44,667 per cent over the past five years.

    Unsurprisingly, this has made it the number one best-selling camcorder in the US, according to the latest rankings from leading market research firm the NPD Group.

    One difficulty is that sharing video in HD is difficult because sites like YouTube and MySpace still don’t play HD clips.

    That must surely change soon – or there will be great opportunities for Vimeo’s hi-def video sharing service to grab a large market share.

    Flip MinoHD Features:

    • Weight: 3.3 oz.
    • Resolution: HD 720p
    • 4 GB of internal memory to record up to 60 minutes of HD video
    • 1.5 inch anti-glare LCD display
    • Internal, lithium ion battery recharges when USB arm is connected to computer
    • One-touch recording with 2x digital zoom
    • Touch-sensitive buttons for recording, playback, fast forward, rewind, pause and delete
    • FlipShare software:

    -On-board application installs directly when connected to any PC or Mac
    -Drag-and-drop interface for easy browsing, playback, organizing and video archiving
    -Integrated online video publishing to YouTube, MySpace, and AOL Video
    -Free, unlimited private emailing of videos and video greeting cards
    -Custom movie editing, with the option to use your own music and add titles/credits
    -Capture still photos from any standard or high definition video
    -Order DVDs online and have them shipped anywhere in the world
    -TV connection for instant viewing (cable included)
    -Tripod Mount

  • When Will Wii Go HD?


    Nintendo’s lead game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, has been making comments that suggest Wii could go HD sometime soon.

    The ability to support true next-gen graphics on HDTVs is one area the Wii falls down on compared to competitors Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

    Although rumors have appeared on the Internet that the Japanese company might be working on a version of the Wii capable of supporting HD gaming, no official statements have been delivered by Nintendo.

    Now Miyamoto, one of Nintendo’s most influential people, has expressed his opinion on a possible HD Wii console, according to Softpedia.

    The man responsible for hits like Mario and The Legend of Zelda said that technology is constantly changing and that Nintendo should change with it.

    “I’m afraid we cannot confirm what we are doing today,” he said.

    “But the fact of the matter is that technology is evolving all the time and in Japan, for example……all the analogue broadcast will be stopped and shifted into the digital broadcasting. So many things are taking place and we are working in terms of the changes of the technologies all the time.”

    Hardly confirmation but it would seem that an HD Wii has become a "when" not an "if".

  • Boinx Launches Mac-based Live Recording Studio


    Boinx Software has launched a new tool for video podcasters that turns a Mac into a live video recording studio.

    Called BoinxTV, it’s an audiovisual mixing application that allows one person to edit high quality recordings live.

    Aimed at video podcasters or for providing coverage of events, it works with up to three cameras and allows for on-the-fly camera switching, transitions, lower thirds, graphics, logos, crawlers, graphs, title, and so on.

    Created jointly with The Coding Monkeys, the beauty of BoinxTV for video podcasters is that once filming is finished they have a QuickTime movie that requires no post production.

    Oliver Breidenbach, CEO and co-founder of Boinx Software, said the application was going to give more people access to high quality production software that allowed them to create video content.

    He told hdtv-biz-news BoinxTV was a "game changer" because it made it easy to create professional ‘TV style’ recordings – at an affordable price.

    "It’s going to be much more fun and much more appealing to do videos on a regular basis," he said. "But the price is also making this technology available to a much broader audience than before.

    "We are not going to replace the million dollar equipment used in the broadcasting industry but BoinxTV gives people the ability to make professional-looking shows."

    Breidenbach said they had already received very positive feedback from professionals in the US that provided local content to affiliate TV stations.

    He said Boinx’s software meant, for example, a football game could be coverered using three cameras and edited live from the stadium using a MacBook Pro rather than undergoing a lengthy post-match production process.

    Breidenbach said HD content was an important aspect of BoinxTV and there was no limit to the resolution that could be used in projects.

    However, he said there were still streaming and bandwidth issues to be resolved.

    "My feeling is that many people are looking at HD but no-one really knows where it is going," he said.

    "At the moment they are perfectly content with lower resolution, that is 720p, which is still thought of as advanced.

    "HD is very important for us as a future direction but we made a decision that we did not want to delay shipping BoinxTV.

    "In the meantime, we will keep working on whatever we can do to optimise the code."

    Another HD issue was hardware limitations but that required action from Apple.

    "I would expect improvements to the operating system will help in that direction as well," said Breidenbach.

    "In about 6-9 months we will be able to do full HD and ultimately there will be even higher resolution."

    Another future upgrade to BoinxTV will be live streaming, a feature that Breidenbach said was already possible but not in the most convenient form.

    Currently, it is possible to stream content live using an encoding box or using software.

    "In the future we will provide live streaming from the application," he said. "For now we provide a live streaming solution that’s workable but not very convenient."

    BoinxTV can be downloaded at boinx.com/download for USD $499.

    The BoinxTV Sponsored Edition costs USD $199 (single license) and requires a credit for BoinxTV in every video created with BoinxTV.

  • iPhone Ousts Razr As Smartphones Dominate US


    Apple’s iPhone has overtaken Motorola’s Razr to become the best-selling consumer cellphone in the US in the third quarter of 2008.

    Results from research firm NPD show the Razr, which has been the top-selling phone for the last 3 years, now sits second, with RIM’s BlackBerry Curve in third place, followed by two LG phones, which rounded out the top five.

    NPD’s report doesn’t include sales figures, but Apple’s exclusive US carrier partner AT&T said it activated 2.4 million iPhones in Q3. Motorola said it shipped more than 3 million Razrs worldwide in Q3, but didn’t specify its US sales.

    The iPhone’s success is all the more impressive considering it costs upwards of USD $199, while the RAZR has been virtually free with a signed contract for the past few years.

    It’s US achievements follow recent reports that Apple has overtaken RIM as the number two smartphone vendor globally.

    The success of smartphones – four of the top five are high-end handsets – also underlines the trend in the US market towards more powerful, full-featured devices.

    Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD, said: "The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality."

    Overall domestic handset purchases by adult consumers declined 15 per cent year-over-year in Q3 to 32 million units.

    Consumer handset sales revenue fell 10 per cent to USD $2.9 billion, even as the average selling price rose 6 per cent to USD $88.

    NPD consumer cellphone ranking for 3rd Quarter 2008:

    1. Apple iPhone 3G
    2. Motorola RAZR V3 (all models)
    3. RIM Blackberry Curve (all models)
    4. LG Rumor
    5. LG enV2

  • Wow-factor Converting New Fans To Mobile Gaming


    Show most non-gamers an iPhone running the 3D fighting game Kroll and the reaction is usually some variation of "wow".

    What surprises them is that a game of such quality and with such stunning graphics is on a handheld device.

    That’s an experience Xavier Carrillo, CEO and founder of Digital Legends Entertaiment (DLE), the games and technology developers that created Kroll, is getting used to.

    He told smartphone.biz-news.com that the technology available on today’s handsets means sophisticated games previously only possible on consoles are now feasible on smartphones.

    The proof of that has been people’s reaction to Kroll ever since it was announced at the Worldwide Developer Conference by Apple earlier this year.

    "People are not aware what you can do on a mobile – what’s possible and how capable it is," he said. "It’s an eye-opener and it will attract a lot of people."

    Head-quartered in Barcelona, Spain, DLE has served as a Nokia N-Gage First Party Developer since 2004 and began publishing games for Apple’s this year.

    Kroll was specifically designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

    Content Is King


    With the latest smartphones now capable of running such advanced games, Carrillo said having excellent content was essential.

    He believes this will drive the sale of handsets as consumers seek out everything from games and music to maps.

    "People will buy a handset because of the game in much the same way as someone will buy a laptop for gaming," he said.

    In the case of the iPhone, Carrillo said the big publishers were now treating it as a console-standard gaming device.

    This means they can cross-market big movie releases – as they did with Indiana Jones – along with games for the PS3, the Xbox 360 and mobile devices.

    "We believe it’s going to be a huge opportunity," he said.

    Interestingly, smartphones have become such attractive platforms for gaming almost as a by-product of the drive to create multi-media handsets.

    The demand for more megapixels on cameras led to more RAM, the popularity of mobiles as music players required more storage capacity and the addition of TV functionality led to improved hardware accelerators.

    For gamers, Carrillo said it means someone playing a game on a smartphone on the train to work can now expect a quality similar to that on their PS3 at home.

    And while he doesn’t believe mobile gaming will replace consoles such as the PS3, it’s opening the whole gaming world up to a new market.

    "The mobile consumer audience is much wider – and it’s a different consumer," he said. "People that have never played games are discovering them now."

    The appeal to the mainstream was borne out in a recent Newsweek article.

    It compared the quality of games from Apple’s App Store more than favorably to desktop PC or console games and claimed the iPhone and iPod Touch were well on their way to becoming important forces in handheld gaming.

    Price A Factor

    That success will possibly owe a great deal to the price of games as well as their quality, according to Carrillo.

    He said experience in the PC gaming market had shown that several "micro" payments are a better pricing strategy than a higher one-off purchase price.

    Charging just a few dollars a time to download games from the Apple app store ensures people aren’t put off and make them more likely to take a chance on a game.

    Where developers can increase revenue is by offering extra content – often in the form of additional characters, weapons or scenarios – that players can buy separately.

    "People prefer games with less content that they can then add to," he said. "They can play the game and if they like it, they can pay more. If they don’t, then they don’t have to.

    "So it’s much better for them to spend a small amount several times than one large amount."

    Carrillo said mobile gaming will evolve in tandem with technological advances. So features such as touchscreens, accelerators and GPSs are being incorporated in developing location-based and community-oriented games as well as music and head-to-head games.

    But he said games developed for consoles can not just be copied over to a mobile platform.

    Aside from the hardware differences, PC games are played in very different settings to mobile games and that requires the content and controls to be adapted to that environment.

    DLE seem have got that right with the graphically-stunning Kroll – so expect to see a lot more people glued to their handsets.

  • Canon Upgrades High-End HD Camcorders


    Canon is to launch a pair of updates to its pro HDV tape camcorders in December.

    The XH A1S and XH G1S have had their 20X zoom lenses upgraded, with improvements to focus, irising and zoom.

    They are also to get upgraded camera firmware that allows users to adjust the zooming speed during pull-in or pull-out shots.

    Audio has also been improved overall, including two XLR inputs at varying sensitivity and the ability to record with external and built-in mics at the same time.

    The two cameras continue to share long-range optical image stabilization, an SDHC card slot for sharing footage, extreme customization of white balance and other settings to generate particular effects.

    There is also the option of shooting in film-grade 24FPS progressive, 30FPS or a 60FPS interlaced mode. An optional hard drive connection allows for longer shooting than normally possible on HDV tape.

    Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon USA, said HDV tape format continues to be the most cost-effective medium for high-quality high definition video capture and storage.

    "With the new XH A1S and XH G1S HD camcorders, professional user-requested refinements have been incorporated to provide even easier on-camera usability and operation," he said.

    The XH A1S is designed for serious amateurs or entry-level professionals who need only standard input and output and should be available in late December for USD $3,999.

    The G1S, which will go on sales at USD $6,999, adds HD- and SD-SDI output, timecode input and output, as well as Genlock sync input for multi-camera shooting.

  • iPhone Beats Blackberry In Business Smartphone Survey


    It may lack some vital business tools – no cut-and-paste, for starters – but it seems that Apple’s 3G handset is gaining followers who see it as more than just a fun device.

    The iPhone has received the highest customer satisfaction marks in the most recent JD Power & Associates customer satisfaction survey of business smartphone users.

    Out of 1,000 possible points, Apple’s smartphone received the high score of 778, with Blackberry-maker Research in Motion and Samsung coming in second and third with scores of 703 and 701.

    The iPhone scores high marks for its design, features, and ease of use, but owners of Apple devices also paid the highest average price for their smartphones, at USD $337.

    While the survey success doesn’t mean the iPhone is suddenly going to be enterprise phone of choice, it is yet another feather in the Apple camp’s cap following a couple of other positive news items over the past few days.

    At the weekend, independent warranty provider SquareTrade released a report showing that iPhones are more reliable than either BlackBerry or Palm Treo devices.

    The report, titled "iPhone More Reliable than BlackBerry, One Year In", analyzes failure rates for more than 15,000 new cell phones covered by SquareTrade warranties.

    SquareTrade found that after one year of ownership, iPhone owners were half as likely as BlackBerry owners to have a phone failure, and one-third as likely as Treo owners.

    After 12 months, slightly over 16% of Treo owners had experienced a failure, while just less than 12% of BlackBerry owners had their smartphone die on them.

    Only 5.6% of iPhone owners had a critical failure.

    Then at the end of last week, Canalys reported that Nokia’s market share dropped down to 38.9 per cent in the third quarter; which is down from 51.4 just a year earlier.

    On the other hand, Apple jumped to 17.3 per cent, and RIM increased to 15.2 the same quarter.

    Canalys credits some of the Apple and RIM increases to new phones and new marketing strategies.

    In a statement, the firm said: "The introduction of the iPhone 3G in July and Apple’s expansion into many more countries helped propel the vendor to second place globally.”

    The researchers went on to say that “it was ‘quite feasible’ to expect RIM to take the second place from Apple in the holiday sales fuelled fourth quarter, helped by new products—Bold, Storm and clamshell Pearl 8220.”

  • JAJAH Available For T-Mobile G1


    JAJAH has confirmed the availability of its service for owners of the newly released T-Mobile G1 Google Android phone.

    The announcement came as the IP communications company was named in the annual FierceVoIP "Fierce 15" list.

    Compiled by the editors of FierceVoIP, the list identifies the best-performing companies in the sector, following a review of hundreds of organizations.

    JAJAH has continued increasing its consumer business this year, while rolling out its JAJAH Managed Services platform for cable, telco and Internet companies.

    Earlier this year the company released its data-only EM-ONE ultra mobile device released in Japan, and JAJAH Babel, the world’s first free, real-time, English-Chinese translation phone-in service.

    Daniel Mattes, JAJAH’s co-founder, said its platform drives its own consumer business as well as many of the world’s most popular VoIP services, such as Yahoo! and Gizmo5.

    JAJAH’s is offering users of the G1 phone have a number of options for making a JAJAH call:

    • Option 1) JAJAH Mobile Web: On your mobile browser go to mobile.jajah.com, then type in the number you want to call or select the number in your JAJAH address book and your call will be connected. No WiFi or broadband connection required.
    • Option 2) JAJAH Direct: JAJAH provides a local number for each of your international contacts. Save these numbers to your G1 address book and dial them directly.