AwoX Extends DLNA support for Android

Recently, AwoX support for Android has been extended to include additional DLNA components. Since the announcement of AwoX's MediaCTRL for Android, AwoX has since developed and released support for local media discovery and playback.
These new DLNA components also support digital media player capability, on Android mobile devices, and tablets. The recently added support for DLNA download capability allows users to grab their content directly from a DLNA-certified server (NAS, PC) in the home, and carry that content with them, on-the-go. This freedom of mobility allows the user to playback content on their mobile device’s media player, or on another DLNA-certified playback device.

Nexon Giants, MapleStory, KartRider, Enter the Mobile Social Game Space

Nexon is entering the mobile and social gaming markets with versions of two of its most popular worldwide titles, KartRider and MapleStory. Nexon plans to publish KartRider Rush on iOS and Android platforms, and is set to launch later this month. They also plan to publish MapleStory Adventures on the Facebook platform, later this year.

KartRider Rush will be a mobile version of Nexon's KartRider, and is going to be a free app on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, as well as on Android devices, later this summer. KartRider Rush will allow KartRider's more than 200 million registered players worldwide to race up to four players against each other in both battle mode and time trial mode. Single player mode will allow players to compare their scores against friends using Facebook Connect.

MapleStory Adventures will be available on Facebook this summer, taking the original 2D side-scrolling adventure, and adapting it to a simpler interface. It will allow Facebook users to participate in quests and challenges, while having the ability to invite friends to help in combat. The game will also follow Nexon’s microtransaction-based model, which allows players to play all of MapleStory Adventures for free, with the option to enhance the gameplay experience by purchasing in-game items. Nexon was not only the world’s first game developer to successfully commercialize microtransaction games, but with the release of MapleStory in 2005, Nexon has also led the way in using the microtransaction business model in the U.S.

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Sony Ericsson will tilt more toward U.S., China

According to Sony Ericsson's Chief Executive, Bert Nordberg, the company is open to joint ventures in China's gaming industry, and plans to sell its Xperia Play (their new cellphone-and-videogame device), in the country. Mr. Nordberg, declined to give a timeline for the device's launch in China, but said the handset maker will need at least three months to make preparations.

In recent years, Sony Ericsson, a 50-50 joint venture between Sony Corp. of Japan and Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson of Sweden, has struggled with losses and falling market share in the competitive smartphone race. Its focus now is on higher-end devices, like Xperia Play, running on Google Inc.'s Android OS, in a bid to improve its margins and raise its share of global market revenue. The company unveiled Xperia Play at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona last month.

Xperia Play is a crossover of PlayStation Portable gaming console and a cellphone. This is the first attempt in years by a major manufacturer to combine cellphone and full gaming capabilities in the same product. Mr. Nordberg said he expects the device to reach U.S. stores early April, using network operator Verizon Wireless, and then Western Europe. China is on track to become the company's biggest market for mobile phones around 2013-14, as Sony Ericsson ranked fifth in smartphone sales in China in the fourth quarter, according to Beijing research firm Analysys International.

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Google Opens Android Web Store

Google Inc. launched a new Web-based store for applications that run on mobile devices powered by its Android software, one of several moves by the Internet company to keep up with rival Apple Inc. in the wireless sector.

Google's new app market, available at Market.Android.com, is aimed at letting users discover new apps more easily from their computers, as well as to see recommendations by friends and download apps to their mobile devices. That could help level the playing field with Apple, which has had an edge over Android because it allowed users to find apps and buy them through the iTunes program on their computers.

Google also said developers could create Android apps that charge users for in-app purchases of virtual goods in games, among other things—a feature already available on apps running on Apple devices. Google said developers could set prices for their apps in foreign currencies, which previously they had been unable to do.

Google's new moves come as Android overtook Nokia Corp.'s Symbian as the most widely used operating system globally in the fourth quarter, based on the number of devices shipped. Apple came in third, those studies showed.

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BMW sees car keys not phones as next NFC wallet

The car key is about to go head on with the mobile phone in the battle for which one will become your new wallet.

BMW believes you’ll be paying for things when out an about not with your wallet, or your phone, but with your car keys.

Mobile phone companies embrace not keys but mobile phones, following Google’s move to include NFC (Near Field Communication) support in its latest Android operating system: version 2.3.

While that means company’s like Samsung, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson are adding the functionality to their next generation of handsets already, and many more like HTC and Apple are rumoured to be doing so, BMW feels that it can get in on the action too with a connected car key and its next generation of cars.

For the complete article, please click here.

Verizon Unwraps iPhone

Verizon Wireless finally told the world that it will start selling the iPhone, but the carrier toiled in secret with Apple Inc. for two years to make it happen.

The country's largest wireless carrier said it would have the iPhone in stores on Feb. 10 starting at $199, the same price charged by rival AT&T Inc., which has had the phone to itself since its launch in June 2007.

The move will give Apple an important new source of sales in its biggest market for the iPhone and help it compete with rival Google Inc., which had made inroads for its Android operating system by teaming up with Verizon to develop high-end smartphones.

It also will shake up the U.S. wireless market, ending a deal that has driven much of AT&T's subscriber growth and forcing smaller carriers like Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA to compete against bigger rivals armed with an immensely popular phone.

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Oxygen Audio debuts car stereo with iPhone interface

French electronics manufacturer Oxygen Audio will introduce an audio system at CES 2011 that uses an iPhone as the head unit interface. The O'Car audio system physically integrates an iPhone by snapping it to the front of the audio deck. A cantilever swivels the phone horizontally or vertically, and angles it in any direction.

Using the iPhone as the software platform, you'll be able to use your favorite app-du-jour for traffic information and navigation or whatever new technology comes to the market--as long as it goes to your phone. A downloadable app controls the entertainment system, offering AM/FM/RDS radio, 4 by 55 watt amp and subwoofer control, and also provides seamless app multitasking.

The single DIN head unit, which will retail for $299 in first quarter of 2011 (although there's a chance European markets will get it before Christmas), is equipped with hands-free calling Bluetooth capabilities and an external speaker. While you won't be able to access programs on your phone using voice commands, the O'Car app will automatically dim audio programs for voice prompts if you're using turn-by-turn directions or receiving or making phone calls, said Oxygen Audio spokesman Gregory Borchardt. And should you decide to switch devices, the aftermarket manufacturer is developing adapters for Androids.

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Packet Video Announces New Twonky Mobile Android App

PacketVideo (PV) announced its new Twonky Mobile Android app, which lets you play and share media directly from your phone with the push of a button. With the app, you can stream personal and online media from your phone to any Web-connected gadget or device. Twonky Mobile lets you have on-the-go access to your media without being tethered to a PC or requiring clunky cables to connect to devices.

Additionally, it remembers your preferences for each network you connect to, and the auto-copy feature lets you opt to have the media on your phone automatically copied to your PC or MAC. So when you come home and launch Twonky Mobile, all new content will be automatically transferred to your PC or MAC.

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Call Facebook friends for free with Vonage App

Vonage has introduced two apps that allow you to make free phone calls to your Facebook friends nationally and internationally. The apps, called Vonage Mobile for Facebook, are available free for the iPhone and Android phones.

The app is very simple to use. Load it and sign in as you do for Facebook. You will be asked what information you want to allow your friends access to, and you will probably at this point receive the message “Less than 5 of your friends have Vonage mobile for Facebook.” It then suggests that you invite some.

Calls can be connected over Wi-Fi or over 3G, although using 3G will use your data minutes. Connections made over Wi-Fi are free – and you save voice minutes even on local calls.

To read the full NY Times article, click here.