Weekly wrapup: Internet TV widgets, iPlayer PS3 upgrade, Moto's social networking play, Palm Pre hands-on, Spotify hits iPhone/Android, Nokia E55 review, and more

Here’s a summary of the last two weeks’ 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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Internet TV

Opera wants to put Internet widgets on the TV too

Opera, the Norwegian company behind the desktop and mobile web browser of the same name, wants to be a major player in the nascent Internet-connected TV space.

BBC iPlayer on PS3 gets a makeover, higher quality video and 1080p UI

The version of iPlayer optimized for the PlayStation 3 has been given a major update that delivers improved video quality and a User Interface designed for High Definition televisions that operate up to 1080p.

Samsung Blu-ray players to support YouTube and Blu-ray rips!

This one of those press releases that made me chuckle. Samsung today announced that it has added support for YouTube, along with video formats that utilize the Matroska (MKV) container.

Introducing GigaOM’s NewTeeVee Live 09

One blog that I read religiously to keep track of the Online Video industry is NewTeeVee from the GigaOM staple of tech blogs. NewTeeVee also puts on the respected NewTeeVee Live conference every year and it’s nearly that time again. And as with last year, we’re proud to be a media sponsor for the event.

Mobile

Motorola just bet the house on Android and social networking

On stage live at GigaOm’s Mobilize 09 conference, Motorola unveiled a large part of its comeback strategy (there seems to be a lot of “comebacks” in the handset market at the moment) based on a new smartphone powered by Android, the Google-led mobile OS, featuring a custom UI that puts social networking at its heart.

PlayBite: Hands-on with the UK/GSM Palm Pre

Despite my positive coverage of Palm’s ‘come back’ smartphone, today was the first time I actually got to see the device in person, a whole nine months after it was first announced and three months after it went on sale in the US.

Hands-on with the Nokia E55 (or how I learned to live with half a QWERTY)

I was keen to try out Nokia’s attempt at a third QWERTY touting form factor, with the announcement of the E55. The device adopts the traditional candy bar shape by featuring something the handset maker is calling a “compact QWERTY”.

Nokia dumps location-based service Friend View, falls in love with Facebook

The new application called Lifecasting with Ovi enables users to publish “their location and status updates directly to their Facebook account from the home screen of [there] mobile device.”

Digital Music

Spotify hits the iPhone and Android app stores

The stars were already aligned: a preemptive PR strike, a premium business model, and regulators questioning anti-competitive practices with relation to the iPhone’s app store — making it less and less surprising that Apple should give Spotify the green light.

Nokia’s all-you-can eat music service now “comes with” its own flagship touch screen phone – Nokia X6

Although I’d put poor marketing, carrier resistance, and possibly DRM, ahead of the lack of a flagship device to explain why Comes With Music, Nokia’s all-you-can-eat music service, hasn’t been the hit the handset maker had hoped for, the company’s newly announced X6 music phone is encouraging.

That’s a wrap. Thanks for reading,

– Steve (follow me on Twitter: sohear)

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.

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