Posts in Handhelds

Watching TV together with your smartphone

Rafe Needleman | Sep 23, 2009

Hand Eye Technologies requires an app on the smartphone as well as on a box connected to the TV.
(Credit: Hand Eye Technologies)

I'll be paying special attention to Hand Eye Technologies when the company gives its pitch at DemoFall 09 at about 10:40 a.m. PDT Tuesday. This company, as I said in "What to Watch," is trying to close the loop between television and the Internet, by using smartphones as secondary, interactive screens for people when they're watching typical broadcast shows.

As CEO Jonathan Kessler explained to me Monday night, the first step to making this work is to enable your smartphone to know what you're watching. First, you need special technology in your TV or settop box. It knows what the screen is displaying and whether it's live or playing off a DVR or DVD. Then your phone needs to know what you're interested in that's showing on your TV.
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Filed under: Handhelds, Home AV
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Study: Smartphones to kill PNDs

Dong Ngo | Sep 02, 2009

If you need a GPS device to get around, it's becoming more likely you'll get yourself a mobile phone with built-in satellite mapping than buy a standalone personal navigation device (PND).

According to market research firm iSuppli, by 2011, virtually all smartphones will sport built-in GPS functionality, and by 2014 there might be no more market left for PNDs.

While this is a grand statement, it's quite credible. Just a year or two ago, it was hard to find a phone with built-in GPS functionality that actually worked reliably. Now look at my iPhone 3GS. I have all three major GPS applications on it, including TomTom, Navigon, and iGo My Way, and each can turn the phone into a dependable navigator. In addition, I am now testing the fourth one, CoPilot Live from ALK Technologies.
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