Weekly wrapup: Palm Pre and Facebook, LG Arena review, Vudu IPTV, Boxee app challenge, and more

Here’s a summary of the last week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.

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Mobile

Palm Pre aiming to be THE Facebook phone – social networking still mobile’s killer app

I’ve written many times before that social networking, and Facebook in particular, is the killer application for mobile phones. It’s what’s driving take up of mobile data and the adoption of higher end so-called smartphones. On that note, a leaked photo taken of the set for an upcoming Facebook television ad campaign puts Facebook at center stage.

Hands-on: LG Arena KM900 touch screen phone

I’ve had just over a week to test out LG’s latest flagship phone – the LG Arena KM900 – a device that I first set eyes on at last month’s The Gadget Show Live. The touch screen phone has a lot going for it, but like many post-iPhone offerings, doesn’t quite live up to the promise based on technical specs alone and at times has the potential to frustrate.

Internet TV

Vudu to power telcos’ pay-per-view IPTV offerings

Rather than punting the online video store via its own hardware alone, Vudu recently announced plans to “piggyback” third-party devices, including Internet-connected TVs, DVD players and other kinds of set-top boxes. And this week, the first of those partnerships was unveiled.

Boxee announces ‘app dev challenge’ (get coding, people)

Boxee have announced the ‘Boxee app challenge‘ in an attempt to provide a little extra incentive for developers. Not only are a bunch of prizes up for grabs for the best apps created up, but the Internet TV startup also promises to shine a little light on entrants along the way.

Survey: Consumers warm to Internet widgets on the TV

Take this for what it’s worth considering who paid for the research, but according to a recent survey 76 percent of US consumers who are in the market for a new HDTV would value having access to Internet widgets on their television.

BBC iPlayer stats: 12.5 GBs per second, 14 different versions, iPhone usage peaks at midnight, and more

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a huge fan of the BBC’s iPlayer; that’s why I named it as one of the top ten Digital Lifestyle products of 08. And I’m not alone.

That’s a wrap! Thanks for reading,

– Steve

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

One Response to “Weekly wrapup: Palm Pre and Facebook, LG Arena review, Vudu IPTV, Boxee app challenge, and more”

  1. LG arena is an excellent phone. Screen is wonderful, very responsive to touch. The only problem is with the divx, since often it doesn't work.

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