Consumer Electronics Daily News

VIZIO Launches New Premium PC Line-Up with HD Touchscreens

VIZIO announced today the pricing and availability of its spring 2013 line-up of Windows 8 PCs, equipped with 10-finger capacitive touch displays on every new model and supported by outstanding picture quality and rich audio.  With select models now available for pre-order at VIZIO.com and on sale at MicrosoftStore.com, each Thin + Light and All-in-One model offers seamless touchscreen technology, powerful performance and premium entertainment enhancements for the ideal interactive Windows 8 experience.

Offering the top-of-the-line quad-core processors from both AMD (A10 APU) and Intel® (Core™ i7), the VIZIO Touch PC line-up boasts optimal performance in an exquisitely designed, premium PC.  Highlighted by 15.6" Full HD (starting at $1,189.99) and 14" HD+ (starting at $1,089.99) screen sizes, VIZIO's Thin + Light Touch models showcase an ultra-thin profile, multi-gesture touchscreen and increased battery capacity.  A standard voltage quad-core processor enables the Thin + Light Touch to perform like a desktop, but is conveniently mobile thanks to an ultra-thin chassis.

The All-in-One Touch PCs are also now available to consumers, offering 24" (starting at $1,279.99) and 27" ($1,549.99) screen size options. With stunning, Full HD 1080p touchscreen display, enhanced 2.1 audio system with subwoofer, remote control and dual HDMI inputs, the VIZIO All-in- One Touch PC delivers world-class entertainment and performance. An alluring design with sleek lines, wireless keyboard and multi-gesture touchpad, the All-in-One Touch is a marriage of beauty and functionality.

"To help VIZIO PC users unlock the ideal interactive Windows 8 experience, we have integrated touchscreen functionality across our entire spring PC line-up," said Matt McRae, Chief Technology Officer, VIZIO.  "With the launch of the new Touch PCs, we look forward to delivering enhanced performance and entertainment options to new VIZIO consumers."

AMD and Intel processor options for the 24" All-in-One Touch, 14" and 15.6" Thin + Light Touch PCs allow consumers to select a model that best meshes with their lifestyle. The latest AMD high-performance A10 quad-core APU with Radeon™ HD graphics is ideal for serious multi-taskers or gamers, armed to deliver strikingly rich visuals and immersive gaming experience, while the third-generation Intel® Core ™ i7 quad-core processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology focuses on high-performance, tackling the most demanding tasks, supporting all the applications with extra speed and maximum power.

Beyond the sleek design and processing power, VIZIO continues to leverage its HDTV background with brilliant picture quality, high contrast and wider viewing angles, a staple of the Touch PCs. An expertly-tuned SRS Premium Sound HD™ audio system, a DTS technology, delivers rich audio quality, complementing superior visuals with deep, resonant sound to get the most out of music, movies, games and more.

Each Touch PC features upgraded Wi-Fi with 802.11ac, making VIZIO one of the first PC OEMs to deliver advanced technology. About three times faster than standard 802.11n, consumers are now able to stream HD content not only faster, but smoother via their Touch PC.

To further ensure a premium consumer experience, VIZIO once again delivers the only PC line-up fully equipped with Microsoft Signature for Windows and backed by award-winning VIZIO Customer Support. By eliminating junk ware and offering a meticulous configuration, built-in world-class security software and 90 days free Microsoft Signature support from Microsoft, VIZIO Touch PC users will fully enjoy Windows 8.

Consumers can now pre-order select VIZIO Touch PC models on VIZIO.com and purchase the 15.6" Touch Thin + Light (CT15T-B1) and 24" Touch All-in-One (CA24T-B0) at MicrosoftStore.com. 

 

MLB.TV Two-Day Free Preview Begins Today

 MLB.TV, the Internet's longest-running and most prolific live video subscription service, will offer baseball fans a free two-day preview beginning today. The preview will feature a schedule of 16 Spring Training exhibition games, each available across every MLB.TV supported device, beginning with today's New York Yankees and Washington Nationals from Nationals Park at 2:05 p.m. (EDT) and the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies from Citizens Bank Park at 1:05 p.m. (EDT) on Saturday.

The Yankees-Nationals game this afternoon also will be available in the first-ever MLB.TV embeddable live video player, allowing the live stream to be embedded within any site on the Internet. Embed code will be available at MLB.com/live. A live feed of the game also will be available on Twitter from @MLB and Facebook.com/MLB.

Now in its 11th year, MLB.TV Premium will continue to support more than 350 mobile and connected devices, including through the highest grossing sports app of all-time, MLB.com At Bat, on smartphones and tablets and those platforms listed here. MLB.TV Premium subscribers, again this year, will receive an exclusive offer to get a free subscription to At Bat 13 on iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones and tablets.

A complete schedule for the two-day preview may be found on MLB.com. Spring Training games are not subject to blackout restrictions.

Expedia Adds Beautiful, Simple Itinerary with Live Data

Expedia.com® today announced the addition of a set of robust, visual mobile itineraries capabilities to its award-winning Expedia mobile app. Because the itinerary is connected to the traveler's Expedia itinerary, the mobile app gives the traveler up-to-date info in their hands at every stage of travel using a set of rich visual cues. Using location awareness and time zone updates, the app surfaces the most relevant part of the itinerary and related information like airport maps, flight status, confirmation codes and addresses at the moment the traveler is most likely to need that piece of information. The addition of mobile itineraries neatly complements the features that have made the free Expedia app one of the top apps in travel: flight booking from more than 200 airlines, selection of more than 140,000 hotel properties and mobile-only deals.

"Unlike other itinerary applications, we've built what travelers really want. We are giving them live access to the most up-to-date travel data and wrapped it in a beautiful experience. We're launching our itinerary in 30 countries and 16 languages; on Android and iOS; for both phones and tablets around the world simultaneously. This is our biggest mobile launch ever," said John Kim, Senior Vice President, Global Products, Expedia.

The Expedia app's Mobile Itineraries feature delivers the following benefits:

• The most real-time data; the app updates information automatically.
• Free flight status updates (competitors tend to require premium upgrades to access this feature).
• Itinerary sharing via email and SMS.
• Login-free itinerary access using email and itinerary number.
• One-touch access to Expedia customer service.
• Itinerary information for all bookings made on desktop or mobile. Namely:
  • Flights. Mobile Itineraries displays confirmation code, airline, flight number, travel dates and times, gate information and flight status. Additionally, it provides a flights map showing pins for departure and arrival, as well as potential layover airports and paths between them. The app also shows airport terminal maps for over 200 major airports worldwide.
  • Hotels. The Hotel Page shows hotel address, contact information and a map of where hotel is located.
  • Car Rentals. Provides confirmation code, car rental company, phone number for national 800 number, local phone number and the pickup and drop-off date and time.
  • Cruise. See the day your cruise starts, then tap your cruise to open up your full cruise itinerary on the web.
  • Destination Services. Shows the valid start date for each activity, the date the activity expires, the number and name(s) of guests and a link to redeem vouchers, which provides barcodes for the activity.

Expedia also announced today that the Expedia mobile app has been downloaded over 11 million times in 228 different countries and territories including iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows 8 tablet versions.

The app is free and is available for download at www.expedia.com/app.

PowerPoint Goes Mobile with iSpring Pro 7 and HTML5

Just in case you don't have enough PowerPoint in your life already, today iSpring Solutions announced the official release of the brand-new iSpring Pro 7, which now makes PowerPoint presentations compatible with virtually all mobile devices.

With the popularity of iPads and Android devices surging to the highest levels on record, demand for PowerPoint-to-HTML5 technology has correspondingly mounted to a fever pitch. Presentation developers and E-learning designers have long been waiting for a solution. Now iSpring has implemented that solution in Pro 7 with the same mastery and high quality to be found in all iSpring products. As always, iSpring perfectly supports all advanced PowerPoint features: transition effects, animations, triggers, embedded media, buttons and hyperlinks.

iSpring Pro 7 also introduces new features for eLearning developers: improved voiceovers and video narrations, slide branching, restricted navigation to build learning paths, and support of the Tin Can API for even wider LMS compatibility. The option to create content compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act makes presentations accessible by screen readers.

The courses and presentations created with iSpring Pro 7 are optimized for viewing on various mobile devices. The HTML5 content will flexibly adapt to different screen sizes and adjust to changing device orientation. The presentation controls are tailored to meet touch screen interface requirements and support touch gestures.

"Thousands of iSpring customers participated in the public beta-testing program for iSpring Pro 7 and their feedback exceeded our expectations. We created a really great product," said Yury Uskov, CEO of iSpring Solutions.

Pricing & Availability

iSpring Pro 7.0 is available for purchase on the iSpring website starting today for the list price of $397. Everyone is welcome to test-drive a free 30-day trial of iSpring Pro 7. Customers who purchased iSpring Pro on or after January 1, 2013 will be able to upgrade to the 7th version for free. Registered iSpring Pro customers can get upgrades with considerable discounts. iSpring provides discounts to educational, government and non-profit organizations.

 

MySwar Launches Bollywood Music App

Music website MySwar.com has launched a music app for Android and iOS. With the launch of the MySwar app, music lovers will literally have Bollywood music in their pockets. MySwar aims to be the IMDB of Indian music and has built up the most comprehensive and accurate database of Hindi film songs from 1941 to present day. The MySwar app now gives music lovers access to this database on their iOS and Android devices.

Commenting on the app launch, MySwar's Founder, Param Arunachalam, said, "A large number of the visits to our website come from mobile devices. The app launch will provide these users a vastly better user experience and improve engagement."

Some of the key features of the MySwar app are:

Comprehensive guide: Complete listing of Hindi film songs, from 1941 to present day and across almost 50 genres. Lists Bollywood music releases by New Releases, Popular Songs, Year, Genre and Awards.

Accurate and extensive credits: The app provides detailed credits of not just the music director, lyricist and singers for each song but also assistants, arrangers, producers, recording engineers, studio, instrumentalists, etc (where available).

Artist information: Bio, awards and discography.

YouTube videos: Users can watch YouTube videos for songs when available.

Search and Advanced search: While the regular search lets you search for a song, album or artist, the advanced search feature lets you get song listings that match more than one criterion - singer, music director, lyricist, year range and genre. Searches handle multiple spellings - for example, "ishq" and "ishk" give the same search results.

Awards: Listing of most major Bollywood music awards, including Filmfare, National Film Awards, Screen Awards, Mirchi Awards and GiMA Awards.

Reviews: Read reviews of other music lovers. Submit your own reviews. Also check out the reviews of critics and bloggers. Or submit links to external reviews.

Similar song: For every song, a list of similar songs is shown based on genre and other musical attributes like mood and instrumentation.

Personalized recommendation: Get song recommendations based on your ratings.

Buy: Buy songs from iTunes if available (iOS only).

The MySwar app is being launched as a free app for a limited time only.

More details, including download links, can be found at: http://myswar.com/app/mobile

NewspaperDirect Unveils PressReader App for BlackBerry 10

NewspaperDirect has released a new version of its award-winning digital newspaper and magazine application, PressReader, for the BlackBerry® 10 platform.

BlackBerry 10 customers can download the re-engineered PressReader app from BlackBerry® World™ and their favorite publications from a growing list of more than 2,300 digital replicas of newspapers and magazines from 100 countries and in 56 languages, including the International Herald Tribune, The Australian, The Globe and Mail and Le Monde.

"NewspaperDirect's popular PressReader app leverages what BlackBerry 10 has to offer with a wealth of content that looks great on the high resolution displays of BlackBerry 10 smartphones," said Martyn Mallick, Vice President of Global Alliances and Business Development at BlackBerry.

Integrated with the BlackBerry® Hub, PressReader offers digital news reading features pioneered by NewspaperDirect, offering readers the ability to:

• Read pages and articles in full graphics or text-only views
• Zoom, pan and scroll through pages and articles
• Set up auto-delivery of titles when they are published

Interactive radio and content sharing through BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), email, Facebook and Twitter is scheduled to coincide with the release of BlackBerry Q10.

"NewspaperDirect is delighted to release a new optimized version of PressReader for BlackBerry 10 smartphones," said Alex Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect. "Not only will BlackBerry 10 owners be amazed at the vast selection of magazines and newspapers suddenly at their fingertips, our publishing partners will benefit from having their content instantly available to all BlackBerry 10 users."

 

Related articles

Nimbuzz for BlackBerry 10 Debuts

AT&T To Launch BlackBerry Z10 March 22

NewspaperDirect Unveils PressReader App for BlackBerry 10, Bringing Thousands of High-Resolution, Full-Content Newspapers and Magazines to BlackBerry 10 Smartphones

New PressReader App Released for BB10

BlackBerry Sold 1 Million BlackBerry 10 Smartphones in Q4

Opening Day App Updates Available Today

 MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball and an award-winning mobile app developer, today announced the Opening Day updates to its suite of mobile applications, including the highest grossing sports app of all-time, At Bat, will be available across their respective supported devices. The list of apps includes At Bat, At The Ballpark and Beat The Streak Presented by Dunkin' Donuts. In addition, MLB.com At Bat 13 is making its debut on the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone with features including MLB.TV live video streaming.

MLB.com AT BAT 
MLB.TV Premium subscribers again may upgrade to At Bat 13 for free on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices, unlocking all premium features. Fans also may subscribe to MLB.com At Bat 13 for the one-time annual fee of $19.99. iOS users may pay $2.99/month using the recurring billing option available through the App Store.

MLB.com At Bat 13 for the BlackBerry Z10, available only for a one-time annual fee of $19.99, will give fans access to the app's features, developed and optimized for the device's mobile computing system. Those include: the Free MLB.TV Game of the Day; MLB.TV Premium subscriber login to watch every out-of-market game live and on-demand; home and away radio broadcasts; in-progress highlights; Gameday pitch tracking with realistic ballpark renderings; Condensed Games; Classic games library; league and team news, schedules and statistics; standings; and favorite team selection.

AT BAT FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS – OPENING DAY 2013

• Multi-platform live audio access for At Bat 13 subscribers, offering account portability to listen to live games on Mac/PC desktops and laptops
• Universal iOS and Android support for At Bat 13 subscribers, full feature accessibility across select supported smartphones and tablets
• Sortable batting, pitching and fielding statistics
• Re-designed individual team pages
• Updated news section interface
• Expanded video highlight integration
• Classic games video library archive
• Re-architected app navigation
• Additional push notification options
• Favorite team enhancements
• Searchable highlight library expansion to include access to complete video archives
• Closed captioning for live video

MLB.com AT THE BALLPARK 
The ultimate mobile companion when visiting any of the 30 Major League Baseball ballparks. MLBAM has built the app to be customizable for each ballpark from a foundation of interactive features, including mobile check-in, social media integration, offers, rewards and exclusive content.

AT THE BALLPARK FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS – OPENING DAY 2013

• Re-architected My Journal section
• Manually input all ballpark visits, dating back to 2005
• Upload and share personal photos from all ballpark visits, dating back to 2005
• View team statistics and watch video highlights from games attended
• Ballpark and player entrance music
• Social media clubhouse, including social rewards for select clubs
• Updated tickets section, featuring special offers by club
• Seat and experience upgrade functionality (select ballparks only)
• Passbook integration for digital ticket delivery and storage (select clubs only)
• Re-designed user interface

MLB.com BEAT THE STREAK PRESENTED BY DUNKIN' DONUTS 
Maybe season #13 will be the lucky one. Entering its teenage years without a grand prize winner, Beat The Streak Presented by Dunkin' Donuts, free-to-play, gives fans the opportunity to achieve fantasy baseball immortality by surpassing the legendary consecutive games hitting streak record of 56 and claiming a $5.6 million grand prize in the process. Tens of millions of streaks started. No grand prize winner. Yet…

BEAT THE STREAK FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS – OPENING DAY 2013

• Get pick results by push notification as well as improved reminder notifications
• New 2013 game rule: A streak won't end if a user forgets to make a pick
• Easily follow live game scoring for your picks in MLB.com At Bat

For more information on app and feature availability by platform, visit MLB.com.

LeapFrog Learning Games Sweep Parents' Choice Spring Video Game Awards

LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: LF), the leader in educational entertainment, today announced six of its learning games won Parents' Choice Spring Video Game Awards. Disney Phineas and Ferb won a "Silver Award;" Letter Factory, Brave and Learn to Read Ultra eBooks, Adventure Stories and Fairy Tales, won "Recommended Awards;" and Disney Jake and the Never Land Pirates won an "Approved Award." To date, LeapFrog products have received more than 80 awards from The Parents' Choice Foundation. Each game is available in LeapFrog's extensive library of learning games, apps, eBooks, videos, music and more for the #1 kids' learning tablets, LeapPad1™ andLeapPad2™, and learning video game systems, Leapster Explorer™ and LeapsterGS™.

The Parents' Choice Awards were established almost 30 years ago and designed to help parents recognize the best products for their children, including content such as games, apps and eBooks. During testing, the Parents' Choice Awards committees evaluated top-quality products that entertain, teach, stimulate the imagination and inspire creativity.

"We are thrilled with the continued recognition our learning solutions receive from The Parents' Choice Foundation," said John Barbour, Chief Executive Officer at LeapFrog. "Our highly experienced team of learning experts was involved in every step of the design and development process to ensure each of these games were engaging, age-appropriate and packed with learning. We are extremely proud to receive these coveted awards acknowledging our games as the highest quality educational video games for kids."

LeapFrog won more Video Game Awards than any other brand in the Spring Parents' Choice Awards program. Six LeapFrog learning games were honored as the highest quality in children's media. The Parents' Choice "Silver Award," a top honor, was given to Disney Phineas and Ferb for the game's entertaining gameplay that introduces children to STEM skills. The Parents' Choice "Recommended Award" was awarded to Letter Factory, Brave and Learn to Read Ultra eBooks, Adventure Stories and Fairy Tales, for their ability to make learning fun and help children develop skills in science, literacy and letter recognition. Disney Jake and the Never Land Pirates was the recipient of the "Approved Award" and recognized as a wholesome product that helps children develop foundational math skills.

"Our testing panels of educators and parents trust that every LeapFrog learning solution will engage children and have a positive impact on their learning potential," said Claire S. Green, President, The Parents' Choice Foundation. "As a result, today LeapFrog holds more Parents' Choice Awards than any other company in the educational entertainment industry. Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Letter Factory, Disney Phineas and Ferb, Brave and Learn to Read Ultra eBooks are excellent examples of age-appropriate entertainment that engage and inspire children to explore new skills through innovative content experiences."

Letter Factory and Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Disney Phineas and Ferb and Brave (MSRP $24.99) are available for the #1 kids' learning tablets, LeapPad1 and LeapPad2, and learning video game systems, Leapster Explorer and LeapsterGS. Learn to Read Ultra eBooks, Adventure Stories and Fairy Tales (MSRP $19.99, for children ages 4-6), are available for LeapPad1 and LeapPad2. All games are available at major retail locations and at www.leapfrog.com. 

 

Free App Provides Lifestyle Advice

A turning point, a crossroads or a complete derailment, we all need a starting point to get our lives back on track now a new app, MyAppMentor aims to do just that.

Combining a suite of self-help elements into one, the mobile app brings together an international team of professional lifestyle coaches, careers experts and fitness instructors to advise and help create the new and improved 'you'.

Conceived by Louis Kingston while recovering from a serious health scare in 2012 it encompasses all the avenues he explored during his personal journey back to wellbeing including how to eat better, improve personal relationships, increase motivation and raise fitness levels.

MyAppMentor starts with the completion of a psychometric test and physical questionnaire to identify which areas of your life you need to focus on. This provides essential planning and direction to the process of changing the course of your life and along the way are plenty of tips and pointers which reduce stress and increase happiness.

Louis says: "I discovered that wanting to be well was really down to me so I went down the self-help route which is extremely powerful - even GPs are prescribing self-help books for their patients.

"I believe I got better through pursuing a healthier lifestyle and my own determination so I hope MyAppMentor will strike a chord with many others struggling with life issues. 

"I managed to discover so much information and learn many invaluable lessons along the way, I thought it would be great to share with others and so I decided to assemble a team of international experts and develop an app that has the potential to completely change your physical, emotional and professional life in a very short period of time."

MyAppMentor: Change your life starting now with the Complete Health & Fitness App now available in iTunes and Google Play.

Download MyAppMentor from iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/synchronised-apps/id598245049?uo=4

Download the Android version from Google Play

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.omobile.myappmentor

R2RLIVE Music Event During SXSW Smashes Expectations

 Cinsay and the Recording Artists Guild's huge, first-time music event, 'Rags to Riches', provided more than eight hours of non-stop music, celebrity interviews and exclusive entertainment with a packed house and an online, live video stream to more than three million viewers all over the world and serving as much as approximately 300,000 concurrent streams at one point.  Days before the event, it was already being billed as 'the online version of Woodstock' and was the talk of attendees at SXSW.  "Retweet to make history", read one of Diddy's tweets as a fan held up her smartphone to show a cameraman during the webcast. The webcast drew more viewers than other top-billed SXSW concerts being streamed by veteran showcase events during the weeklong music festival.

The R2RLIVE event broke online records without a big marketing budget. In fact, popularity for the eConcert grew simply on the inherent viralability of the Smart Store™ technology.  Fans, sponsors, bands and celebrities shared the preview video over Twitter, Facebook and email encouraging friends and family to register and watch the event.

The success of the event in part came from social media promotion and press featuring the performers. Big draws were Warren G, Skylar Grey , KITTEN, The Tontons and Larry g(EE).  Four of the performers were featured in lists such as, 'the top bands to hear at SXSW' by Time Magazine, the Daily Beast, Teen Vogue and Fuse Music Television.  Almost all the music genres were covered from jazz to hip-hop and pop to alternative rock. Some fans came out to see their favorite band or hit the red carpet to see their favorite celebrities and get an autograph. Many ended up staying for the entire event and purchasing branded merchandise.  A portion of the sales for the the branded merchandise benefited both Austin's Meals On Wheels and More, and The Fender Music Foundation.