Thursday, February 10, 2011

INQ Cloud Touch Will Ship With A Keyboard Based On SwiftKey’s Predictive Fluency Technology

Yesterday, we saw INQ’s Cloud Touch Android handset with deep Facebook integration revealed in all its socially introjected glory in an exclusive TechCrunch demo. Coming to Europe in May of this year and possibly to the U.S. after, the Cloud Touch will be taking aim at text-crazy teenagers and insomniac Facebook users who spend the better halves of their days prowling the depths of the largest social network in the world.
Erick Schonfeld, the reporter who conducted the interview, touched on the music app (which was replaced by Spotify), Facebook, more Facebook, and some more Facebook, but failed to mention the story behind the keyboard in this upcoming social hub of a phone.
Considering the Cloud Touch is heavily typing oriented, I think it’s pretty important to mention the technology used in the keyboard created specifically for this device by INQ. In fact, if you have ever tried SwiftKey, you should already be familiar with the Fluency engine, which powers SwiftKey’s predictions.
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TouchType, the company behind SwiftKey and Fluency, hasn’t been sitting idle. While teasing us with all kinds of tablet versions of its primary product, they’ve also been secretly making deals and pushing the core technology to various companies. Looks like their efforts paid off.
In a statement to Android Police, TouchType said:
We are very excited to have partnered with INQ to bring this about, as it means more and more people will be getting access to the technology we’ve spent such a long time working on!
It also means the Cloud Touch is probably the best social messaging phone hitting the market this year.
Our further questions seeking more details on the keyboard itself were later clarified:
- This is INQ’s own keyboard, that we developed in partnership with them; we did most of the engineering, but it’s not SwiftKey, or a stock, it’s "INQ Keyboard". It functions differently to SwiftKey, and is the phone’s stock.
- They licensed the prediction engine from us, as well as our consultancy in building the keyboard.
Considering the fact that you can type out whole sentences by just clicking on predictions, I am quite sure all the Facebook junkies will find the Cloud Touch a bit automagical. Just don’t be surprised when your fingers suddenly stop burning up and falling off from all the typing you no longer have to do.
If you’d like to give SwiftKey a go to see what all the fuss is about, hit up this QR code or scan it with your favorite barcode scanner:
QR code for market://details?id=com.touchtype.swiftkey.trial
Congratulations, TouchType! (Now can we get some arrow keys on the regular keyboard?)

BBC iPlayer App For Android Goes Live In UK Market; First Order Of Business – Top Gear. Oh, And User Revolt

Earlier this week, BBC teased us with some delicious news of the official iPlayer app for Android arriving later in the week. The app lets UK residents watch TV, listen to the radio, manipulate their favorites, and look up schedules of TV programs. Oh yeah, and it just went live in the UK Android Market.
Watch and listen to BBC TV and Radio programmes from the last 7 days
BBC TV and Radio programmes now on Android. Watch and listen live, or choose your favourites from over 400 hours programming from the last 7 days.
- Watch live TV
- Listen to live radio
- Scroll through and find Featured and Most Popular programmes
- Add programmes to your favourites and have them ready and waiting when a new episode or series is available
- Browse through the schedule for upcoming programmes
Sounds good, right? Top Gear on my phone anywhere I go… errrr, nope – the app only works on Wi-Fi. Not on 3G, not on 4G, not even on 5G or 6G – just Wi-Fi, and on top of that only in the UK (no surprise there though).
Disappointed Android users who are downloading the app are currently staging a bit of a revolt in the Market comment section over the 3G fiasco, which, to be honest, is all too familiar to us.
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Yup, no love for those of us not in the UK (left) | No love from 3G lovers (right)
If inability to stream over 3G doesn’t scare you, proceed to the iPlayer screenshots and download links below.

Screenshots

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Download

QR code for market://details?id=bbc.iplayer.android
Android Market link

Android Application to run on other phones

Bangalore: Myriad, a mobile technology company, announced new software Alien Dalvik that will allow Android applications to run on non-Android platforms.

With this, a much wider range of devices and platforms will be able to host Android applications, making it available for new audiences. The software can be installed without any user disruption. The users won't have to restrict to the applications, OS of their device can hosts, and instead they will have the options of android applications on their devices as well.
Alien Dalvik is also likely to open up new revenue opportunities for mobile operators, OEMs and app store owners. They will have easy access to the Android applications and will be able to install them in varied range of device operating systems. It will allow android applications to run on platforms like MeeGo.

The software lets the application run unmodified and hence letting the app store owners and mobile operators to start their services just by repackaging Android Package (APK) files.

The software will be unveiled for the first time at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona. 

Clearwire Downsizing Retail Operation


We reported in November that Clearwire was going to downsize at least 15% of it’s workforce as they are running out of cash. Shortly after Clearwire did some debt financing but they were still not out of the woods.  Today they have announced that they are moving forward with plans to downsize there retail operation.
Clearwire hasn’t said whether they are shutting all of their 140 retail locations but there is also no time frame or number of stores in the announcement we are expecting more information when they report their quarterly results on February 17th.
Clearwire established some of their retail locations as far back as 2006 when they were selling pre-wimax modems to smaller metropolitan areas to offer an alternative to people still with AOL on dial up.  Cities like St.Cloud Minnesota, Greensboro NC, and Stockton CA were part of Clearwire’s initial footprint headed by former CEO Perry Saterlee.
More after the break

During their pre-wimax days Clearwire also had a large force of direct representatives that peddled Clearwire services door to door, cold calling and in front of supermarkets.  That portion of their business was shut down a few years ago as it was the most costly acquisition for the company.
Today 51% of Clearwire is owned by Sprint the Nations third largest carrier. Sprint has deployed their version of 4G as “Wimax” across the Clearwire/Sprint co-owned network.  Towards the end of last year Sprint was encouraging a deal with Clearwire and T-Mobile to share spectrum however that deal has yet to come to fruition.  Clearwire finished their 2010 rollout a few days early and has not formerly announced their rollout goals for 2011.

Verizon iPhone 4 Available In Retail Stores Today

As of Yesterday the 9th of February customers wishing to grab the new CDMA iPhone from Verizon could do so online; however if you don’t want to purchase your Verizon iPhone online you can as of today hit your local Verizon retail store.
Yes folks you can now hit your local Verizon store as of 7am local time today to purchase the much sought after and long time coming Verizon iPhone, although make sure you visit that store early as the Verizon iPhone 4 will be offered on a first come, first served basis.
No doubt the Verizon iPhone will be hugely popular as it is expected that many will opt to switch from AT&T to Verizon, and chances are Verizon retail stores will have long lines waiting to nab what Verizon is calling ” The phone that changed everything. Now on America’s most reliable network.”
So there it is people, the long wait is finally over, and what once was just a hope has now become a reality. If any of our readers grab the Verizon iPhone today feel free to shout out your joy in our comments area below, and of course if you had any problems getting the device feel free to vent.

Apple Profiles Gap Adventures Travel Company

The world’s largest independently owned adventure travel firm, Gap Adventures has been chosen by Apple for a business profile to show other firms what they could achieve by using Apple gear such as the iPhone.
Apparently Apple awarded Gap Adventures the accolade in part due to their use of the iconic iPhone , tweeting real time images from tours that are geo-tagged which meant tour leaders didn’t need to label the images as they go.
Founder, Bruce Poon Tip says…“Apple is always looking for companies that inspire, that do great things with their products, and we have a lot in common. The relationship with Apple, which is an ongoing business relationship, is based on mutual respect. Apple sees my company as a leader in a space that is unique and very different than the computer business.”
According to Poon Tip, Apple loved their Lip Dub video, which was created using Apple products and also features a few, and we have that video for your viewing pleasure below.
Apple also features several Gap Adventures images for their marketing in retail stores, posters, screen savers and displays.

Taiwan market: Motorola releases Android-based Milestone 2 smartphone

Motorola has launched its new Android smartphone, the Milestone 2, in the Taiwan market. The number of new Android phones introduced in the Taiwan market in 2011 will be more than the nine models launched in the local market in 2010, according to Ritchie Ma, general manager of mobile device business for Motorola Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Milestone 2 is powered by a 1GHz CPU and is equipped with a 3.7-inch display, 8GB memory and a QWERTY keyboard. Running on Android 2.2, the smartphone also enables Motoblur capability.
Motorola also plans to introduce its first dual-core Atrix 4G smartphone as well as Android 3.0 Xoom tablet into the local market, Ma indicated.
Sales of smartphones are expected to grow by a double-digit rate in the Taiwan market in 2011, Ma asserted.
Motorola shipped 38.55 million handsets in 2010 taking up the seventh position in the global handset vendor ranking with a 2.4% share and trailing after Nokia, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics (LGE), RIM, Apple and Sony Ericsson, according to the latest data compiled by Gartner.

Motorola Bee Concept Phone Runs Honeycomb, Trumps ATRIX



Over on the lovely and wonderfully wishful designers portfolio Joy Studios, makers of such gems as pre-pre-concept visions of Apple iPad 2, Sony Playstation Portable Phone, and the Apple iPhone Nano, they’ve got a brand new bag. This new design is a phone that will run Honeycomb out of the box, making use of Android 3.0 to create what they’re calling the “big brother” of the Motorola ATRIX. This Motorola Bee can record video in full HD 1080p, has a gigantic 4.3 megapixel screen at 1280×720, and of course works with both its own HD Multimedia Dock and Laptop Dock.

You see the similarities to the ATRIX, I’m sure. Or you don’t, but wish you did, therefore take a quick look back at our Motorola ATRIX 4G Hands On and Unboxing post, courtesy of SlashGear. This phone connects to several different media outlets in the same way the ATRIX is being promoted as doing. In addition to the HD Multimedia Dock and the Power Dock, it can plug into a similar Power Dock and has Micro-HDMI output.
Also similar to the ATRIX this phone has a fingerprint scanner for security. Our pal Vince says this feature completely rules. The Motorola Bee has Wifi, Bluetooth 3.0, 3G speed (this is weird considering the 4G speed of the ATRIX,) and 32 GB memory upgradable to 64 GB. The display is AMOLED and has super multi-touch, and there’s a whopping 5 megapixel webcam on the front of the phone for video chat. On the back is a generous 8 megapixel camera with flash, and it just looks very lovely, wouldn’t you agree? — thanks for the tip, Manni!
motorolabee3 motorolabee2 motorolabee1 phony

Honeycomb Renderscript Detailed [The Balls]


The following is a nutshelled rundown of what Renderscript is, and what it does. Renderscript is a brand new feature that was introduced, but not fully explained during the official Android 3.0 Honeycomb event. What Renderscript is involved in is graphics. Renderscript is a new API that’ll deal with high-performance 3D rendering as well as compute operations. What Renderscript aims to do is to bring a higher performance, lower level API to developers who, in a blaze of glory, want to max out the performance of their applications. These developers must be comfortable working “close to the metal” if they’re going to use this new API, but in doing so, they’ll receive three tools: a developer friendly compute API similar to CUDA, a simple API for rendering 3D on top of hardware acceleration, and a familiar language for use in C99.


How Renderscript has already been used is in things as simple as the live wallpapers shipped with Honeycomb and as complicated as the YouTube and Book apps which are, as I’m sure you’ve seen or will see soon, lovely to look at. The greatness inherent in Renderscript is the same greatness that makes Google say “close to the metal” as to attain the performance gain you’ll be gaining, you’ll be executing native code on the device. The great thing about this whole situation is though, unlike NDK that exist now, the final product works cross-platform.
The development language for Renderscript is compiled to an every-device intermediate format while you’re developing before it is placed into the application package – this language is C99 with extensions. Unlike other situations that are cross platform and are weakened by this plus, when your new app is run, the scripts will be compiled to a machine code and are made to be optimized for whichever device they’re running on.
With Renderscript, simple scripts will be able to run on a GPU as a compute workload when capable hardware is available for use. When more complex scripts come through, they’ll be able to run on the CPU. In addition to this, note that the CPU will serve as a fallback incase a suitable GPU or other accelerator is not available – these scripts will still be able to run on the CPU. Basically, simple scripts will be able to run in many more places in the future than they do now, but for now, CPU resources are leveraged and the work is moved to as many CPUs are in the device and able to be used.


Above you’ll see a demonstration video created by Android Developers to show the power of Renderscript. In the video, caught from some Android tablet running Android 3.0 Honeycomb (we’ll take a wild guess and say it’s the Motorola XOOM), 900 individual particles are simulated and rendered. This is a brute force physics simulation activated by the pushing of one of the balls, then continued by the activation of gravity from the right side of the video frame. This show is put on so gracefully because the compute script takes advantage of both cores in the device automatically, running each frame with great smoothness.
Renderscript’s origins go all the way back to live wallpapers and the 3D application launcher included with Eclair. Renderscript provides a new runtime for continuously rendering scenes which sits right on top of hardware acceleration and uses the developers scripts to give custom functionality to the controlling Dalvik code. These controlling codes will be sending commands at a course level, commands like “move the list” and “turn the page,” these commands determined by the scripts provided by the developer so that the process can be fully customizable.
In the creation of Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Android Developers have moved from GL ES 1.1 over to 2.0 as the renderer for Renderscript. With this update, elements have been added such as 3D model loading, programmable shader support, and more efficient allocation management. This new compiler is based on LLVM and is beating down efficiency shown in Android versions 2.1 through 2.3 – and what’s the very best thing about this whole situation?
Renderscript API and tools are now public.

Soon the developers at Android will be providing us with more technical information and some sweet sample code. Until then, enjoy these weirdly human-proportioned Androids made by the developers, shown here running on one of their internal test apps. As the application implements a single scene-graph, this graph demonstrates recursive script-to-script calling. Both Androids are loaded straight from an A3D file (an on-device file format for storing Renderscript objects) made in Maya and translated from a Collada file. Fun!