Android

The 404 758: Where it's Wilson vs. Watson on Jeopardy 404 (podcast)

Last night, IBM's "Watson" supercomputer competed against the top human competitors on "Jeopardy" to test Watson's ability to use artificial intelligence in the context of the English language.

Represented by a lighted blue avatar, Watson performed well against quiz game champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, finishing the first round with a tie against the latter at $5,000. It did this with the help of 10 racks of IBM Power 750 servers running Linux, although like everyone else we wonder if the speed at which Watson can "press" a buzzer is fair to the other contestants.

Either way, this sounds like the exposition for an unwritten Roland Emmerich movie starring Will Smith, so start loading up your ID4 viruses.

Howard Stern's "Private Parts" aired on HBO last weekend, and the King of All Media himself pulled a Tang and liveblogged behind-the-scenes commentary throughout the showing. In addition to answering questions from fans, Stern also talked about his co-stars, revealed details about specific shots, and even dished about adult film star Jenna Jameson's antics onset.

Stern's arrival on Twitter is an obvious move, although it took him a while to jump on the bandwagon--the star joined the Twitterverse on February 3, the same day he defended David Letterman's honor and galvanized his crew on "The Late Show."

Stern's incendiary approach to celebrity gossip and media makes Twitter an apt medium for speaking to his more than 270,000 followers. The Lord of Fart Manor can be found at @HowardStern.

Next on the show, we discuss Gawker and Facebook's recent site redesigns. The Internet is giving a cold shoulder to the Gawker network after it debuted an app-style blog layout last week.… Read more

Google adds video editor to Honeycomb

BARCELONA, Spain--Google today unveiled Movie Studio, a new application for the upcoming Honeycomb era of Android tablets that lets people edit videos.

The software, which Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt announced during a speech here at Mobile World Congress, is designed to expand on a phone's abilities to capture imagery.

With it, people can combine still images and videos to create broader video that can be shared online. People will be able to add musical soundtracks, fade to black at the end of the video, and add effects like the Ken Burns-style panning so common on Apple video software. … Read more

Blu-ray film comes with Android-friendly option

Android handset owners will now be able to watch a digital copy of a Blu-ray film on their smartphones.

The functionality comes by the way of "Unstoppable," an action-thriller starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine that hit store shelves today. The movie is the first with a Blu-ray Digital Copy that plays on Android, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment said in a statement.

The ability to watch digital copies of films on Blu-ray is already available for Apple's iPhone and iPad. And as with many iPhone-compatible films, "Unstoppable" will also allow Android owners to access … Read more

ViewSonic announces ViewPad 4, promises Gingerbread

ViewSonic Europe is in Barcelona this week where it's showing off the latest addition to its ViewPad family.

Joining its 7-inch and 10-inch siblings, the 4.1-inch ViewPad 4 is expected to be on the short list of Android devices running Android 2.3 Gingerbread when it debuts. Currently listed on ViewSonic's Web site as having Android 2.2, the hardware-maker promises an update to Gingerbread in the near future, and says it will demonstrate the device to key partners with Gingerbread in April.

In terms of user experience, ViewSonic has integrated its own custom user interface, ViewScene, … Read more

Customize your green robot with Androidify app

Love the little green robot on your phone? Now you can carry your affection to a new level with Androidify, an app that lets you customize Android's look.

Available for free from Android Market, Androidify lets users turn the logo-bot into caricatures of themselves or anyone else.

The app is the work of Google Creative Lab and Larva Labs, which has produced apps like Face Mixer and Retro Defense.

Choices include spiky hair, body types, beards, glasses, wardrobes, and accessories like hats, watches, and even a parrot.

The end result, though, may bear little resemblance to the original robot. The cartoonish avatars can be saved as user pics and shared with friends.

It's the next best thing to getting your own Android costume.

HTC Flyer joins the tablet wars

BARCELONA, Spain--With Apple, Samsung, LG, and Motorola all entering the tablet space, you had to know HTC would join them sooner or later, so we can't say we were completely surprised when the Taiwanese handset manufacturer unveiled its first tablet today at Mobile World Congress 2011.

Everyone, meet the HTC Flyer. This Android 2.4 2.3-based tablet features a 7-inch Super LCD touch screen that's encased in an aluminum unibody design. This is a design that the company has used on a number of its smartphones, including the HTC Legend, and we've always been fond … Read more

Did HTC just out Android 2.4? Not quite

We could scarcely believe our eyes when we read in HTC's press release last night that both the HTC Salsa and ChaCha "Facebook phones" will run Android 2.4, Gingerbread's successor.

Android 2.4? That at first seemed unlikely given several factors--the fact that Android developers are just starting to roll out Gingerbread 2.3 phones at this show and elsewhere, the fact that Google just finished a substantial effort to educate developers about Gingerbread, and the fact that Google has stated that it's trying to consolidate its Android release cycles. That adds up to … Read more

HTC buddies up with Facebook for two social-networking phones

BARCELONA, Spain--The rumors of a Facebook phone have been floating around for a while, but it was only recently that HTC's name came into the mix and, even then, Facebook once again denied the existence of any such product. Well, turns out the company wasn't being completely honest.

Today at Mobile World Congress, HTC unveiled two new smartphones that will feature dedicated Facebook buttons for easy access to the popular social-networking site. The HTC ChaCha and the HTC Salsa (yes, those are the names) each have a Facebook button on the bottom, which when pressed will let you … Read more

HTC Incredible S, Wildfire S, Desire S a'coming

In addition to going out on a limb with two Facebook-friendly phones, HTC also hedged its wilder bets this Mobile World Congress with updates to three of its more popular phones.

The HTC Incredible S, Wildfire S, and Desire S are all familiar designs that include the HTC Sense interface on top of an Android base.

The high-end HTC Incredible S sports a 4-inch WVGA Super LCD display and stereo surround sound to highlight its multimedia-friendliness. The 8-megapixel camera comes with dual flash, and there's a front-facing camera on board as well for video chats. DLNA support brings the … Read more

Hands-on with the T-Mobile G-Slate

BARCELONA, Spain--The T-Mobile G-Slate by LG isn't a new announcement. The 4G Honeycomb tablet was actually first introduced at CES 2011, but it only made a brief appearance during T-Mobile's press conference before it was quickly whisked away by LG executives.

However, our appetite for the G-Slate was satiated at Mobile World Congress 2011 where T-Mobile and LG provided us with some hands-on time with the tablet. Now, I haven't seen all the tablets out there, but I've certainly checked out a number of devices, including the iPad, the HP TouchPad, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab … Read more