Since most of the world was off yesterday for Labor Day, I followed suit and amidst my picnicing I couldn't find space between the steak, scallops, king crab legs and my Arnold Palmer to fit my laptop, so finally, without further ado, here is Tuesday's Monday Matters!
Froyo 2.2 and Flash Mobile 10.1
Don't kill the messenger but Adobe confirmed that not all Android devices that are on Froyo 2.2 will be Flash 10.1 capable. There are certain requirements needed to run Flash, the most obvious is the Froyo 2.2. If the screen is VGA, the processor must be at least 550MHz. If it is a WVGA screen, the processor must have a dedicated Cortex A8 800MHz. They also need hardware vector FPU support. Therefore the Droid Eris which is VGA with only a 528MHz processor will not get it. The Motorola Devour won't be upgraded to 2.2, ot 2.1 for that matter so that will not be getting it.
The ones that will be getting it in the Verizon lineup are:
HTC Incredible
Moto Droid
Moto Droid X
Moto Droid 2
Samsung Fascinate
(releases October 8th)
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PrePaid Phones
Verizon Wireless today announced it will be expanding its portfolio of prepaid offerings to include a new 3G Prepaid data package that lets customers access unlimited data on select 3G Smartphones and Multimedia phones for $30 monthly access. Multimedia phone customers also have the option of selecting a new $10 monthly data package for 25 MB per month ($.20/MB overage). The new data packages are available today for the following eligible phones:
3G Smartphones
- BlackBerry® Curve™ 8330
- BlackBerry® Curve™ 8530
- BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530
- BlackBerry® Storm2™ 9550
- BlackBerry® Tour™ 9630
- BlackBerry® Bold™ 9650
- Palm® Pre™ Plus
- Palm Pixi™ Plus
- DROID by Motorola
- Motorola DEVOUR™
- DROID X by Motorola
- DROID 2 by Motorola
- DROID Eris™ by HTC
- DROID Incredible by HTC
- LG Ally™
3G Multimedia phones
- LG enV® TOUCH
- LG enV®3
- LG Chocolate® TOUCH
- LG VX8360
- Samsung Alias™ 2
- Samsung Renown™
- Nokia Twist™
- Casio® EXILIM
Skype Mobile gets an upgrade.
New in the 1.5.0.4 version:
- caller ID will show the callers name from your contacts instead of just incoming Skype caller or just the #.
- Skype IM, will have cut and paste support
- Emoticon support in IM conversations
- You can now see country names and flags when dialling international numbers
- You can automatically set your location as your mood message
- Although it won't work over WiFi yet, Skype will not shut off your WiFi when turned on.
Crackle Comes to VCast
Verizon Wireless announced today that a new premium subscription movie service from Crackle, the multi-platform video entertainment network from Sony Pictures Television, is now offered on V CAST Video. Crackle Movies provide Verizon Wireless customers an unparalleled lineup of movie hits from the Sony Pictures library, including “Cable Guy,” “Finding Graceland,” “Blind Date,” “The China Syndrome,” “Easy Rider,” “Gattaca,” “La Bamba,” and more to watch on their phones.
More than 19 movies are available to subscribers at launch, with a refresh of two movies per week, allowing customers to access at least 25 different movies per month. Crackle Movies can be found on V CAST-capable phones in the Media Center/Get It Now® under V CAST Video/Pop Culture/Crackle Movies. Customers with select BlackBerry® smartphones can find content on their handsets under Menu/V CAST Video/Pop Culture/Crackle Movies, and customers with Android smartphones can find the V CAST Video app in Android Market™ by searching for V CAST Video. Customers can also access other premium Crackle content, including Crackle Originals, a highly acclaimed Web series ranging from comedy to suspense, and Minisodes, shorter versions of classic television shows, under the “Cutting Edge” category.
A Crackle Movies premium subscription is available to customers for $5.99 per month in addition to the $10 monthly subscription for V CAST Video on Demand. There are no megabyte charges to download, stream or watch V CAST content with any V CAST subscription; however, customers must subscribe to a data package for a data usage allowance.
If you have a phone that has HDMI out, this might be right up your alley! I plug my Droid X into a swanky big screen Samsung here at the office and I can watch VCast on the big screen. So I fired up Crackle and along with movies they have webisodes and quite a bit of other features under the Cutting Edge category as explained above. And most impotantly, I was able to watch them all on the big TV.
Google names next Android OS
For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, or even bothered to come to the conclusion there was a pattern, Google names its Android OS versions alphabetically after sweets. Cupcake (1.5), Doughnut (1.6), Eclair (2.0), and Froyo (2.2). The next will be Gingerbread (3.0). We are still waiting for Froyo on many devices and they have already announced the sucessor to Gingerbread will be Honeycomb (3.5).Honeycomb will be geared toward larger screen items like tablets.
Here's what the tentatively scheduled for Q4 2010 launch Gingerbread will potentially offer:
- Support for WebM video playback
- Improved copy–paste functionalities
Unconfirmed new features:
- Android Market music store
- Media streaming from PC library
- Revamped UI
- Support for bigger screens with up to Wide XGA (1366×768) resolution
- New 3D Games support including new Marketplace area for gaming
- Support for video calls
More than the features and enhancements it will bring, when a new OS comes, I get most excited to see what their statues will look like in front of Google's Building 44!
Here they are complete up to Froyo. That Nexus One has got to go!
That's all for today, If I wait any longer, I'll have to start next Monday's column!
Peace out!
-CC