Netflix now on Wii U

Video player

Netflix has said that its users can access the video on demand service from their new Nintendo Wii U console in the US and Canada after the console went on sale on the 18 November.

"Millions of Netflix members use Nintendo’s Wii system to watch movies and TV shows. Nintendo products are popular with our members and today we are happy to announce that Netflix is available on Wii U!"

According to the movie and TV show streaming service, Netflix on the Wii U system was designed to take advantage of the console’s unique two-screen experience with up to 1080p HDTV and the Wii U GamePad.

READ:?Wii U unboxing ceremony performed by Nintendo CEO

Like Microsoft's SmartGlass approach for the Xbo 360, gamers will be able to browse detailed information on the GamePad, or if they want let everyone to see what's going on by mirroring the two screens.

Like Wii U games, gamers will also be able to use the GamePad for a personal viewing so others can use the TV for watching something.

READ:?Nintendo Wii U, Xbox SmartGlass and PS Vita: second screen entertainment explored

Netflix is available today on the Wii U home screen with the Wii U launch in the US and Canada. Netflix members can sign-in for full access.

Netflix is expected to also be available in the UK for the European launch on the 30 November.

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Tags: Gaming Home Cinema Netflix Nintendo Nintendo Wii U

   

Netflix now on Wii U originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:26:00 +0000

Source : androidtabletblog[dot]com

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Take fast notes on the go with Quill

I recently examined the complex (but incredibly handy) BeNote application and found it to be an outstanding tool to keep your life and business day organized. But what about those users who want to take simpler notes, say for meetings? When you need to quickly write out notes or sketch drawings, there’s a great solution called Quill.

For only $1.00 (USD), the Quill handwriting/note-taking app offers the following features:

• Active pen (digitizer) support for ThinkPad Tablet, HTC Jetstream, and HTC Flyer
• Fast response to pen strokes
• “Fountain pen” mode supports pen pressure (requires active pen)
• Pinch-to-zoom
• Double-finger tap to zoom
• Two-finger move gesture
• Pen strokes are vector art
• “Pen only” mode to disable touch input while writing
• Android 3.x hardware accelerated graphics
• Open source (GPL) format
• PDF export (save to SD card, Evernote, Share)
• PNG (raster image) export
• Backup/restore your data
• Ruled/Quad background paper
• Tagging for pages
• Easy switch between multiple notebooks
• Undo/redo
• Change pencil thickness/color

Obviously, the experience with Quill is made better with an active pen. With these, you get touch sensitivity and other features (depending upon the pen and tablet). Active pens that are known to work are:

• ThinkPad Tablet Pen (N-trig digitizer) for the ThinkPad Tablet
• HTC Scribe (N-trig digitizer) for the HTC Flyer / HTC Evo View 4G / HTC Jetstream
• Samsung S-pen (Wacom digitizer) for the Galaxy Note

Even without an active pen, you can still use a capacitive pen (I’ve purchased these at drugstores for $5.00) or your finger. Regardless of how you interface with the app, Quill is a great way to take instant notes without having to dig through the features and steps of other, more complicated, note-taking tools.

Let’s take a loom at how to install and use Quill.

Installation

As you would expect, getting Quill on your tablet is quite simple. Just follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Play Store
2. Search for “quill” (no quotes)
3. Tap the entry for Quill
4. Tap the price button
5. Tap Accept & buy
6. Let the installation complete

You should now see the Quill launcher in your app drawer (or, depending upon you tablet, the home screen). Now, it’s time to start taking notes.

Usage

When you first fire up Quill, you’ll find yourself on a fairly minimalistic page (Figure A). You can immediately begin writing, sketching, adding images, etc. Just place your pen (or your finger) on the screen and start writing (or drawing).

Figure A

Quill on the Verizon-branded Samsung Galaxy Tab.

In the right half of the top toolbar, you’ll find all of the available tools. If you want easier access to these tools, tap the red circle in the bottom left corner. When you tap this, you enable the toolbox (Figure B).

Figure B

Quick access to the tools make for faster note taking.

You can easily switch between the fountain pen and the pencil. Unless you have an active pen, you won’t see any difference between the pencil and fountain pen. The fountain pen supports pressure sensitivity (so the harder you press, the thicker the line).

You can change the thickness of the pencil by doing the following:

1. Enable the toolbox
2. Select the pencil tool
3. Tap the drop-down between the color picker and the tool selector
4. Choose from ultra-fine to giant

It’s also possible to add an image to your note. This is great for annotating. To add an image to your note, follow these steps:

1. Open the toolbox
2. Tap the image tool (directly to the right of the eraser)
3. Tap and drag the screen to size the image
4. From the image selector (Figure C), tap either Gallery (to select an image from your collection) or Photo (to take a photo with the tablet’s camera)
5. If you’re adding an image from your Gallery, locate it, and tap it to add
6. If necessary, tap the Crop button to crop the image
7. If necessary, tap the rotate button(s) to change the rotation of the image
8. Once the image is exactly how you want it, tap the Save button

Figure C

If you change your mind about adding an image, tap the Erase button to cancel the action.

The image should now be in your note. You can draw or write notes about the image (Figure D).

Figure D

Here you see notes added to a screenshot taken from BeNote.

To use the pinch-to-zoom feature, you must first tap on the zoom tool (top left tool in the toolbox). Once you’ve selected that tool, you can then pinch to zoom in or out, and you can move the note about on the screen. The nice thing about zooming is that you can make finer-grained notes. This is especially helpful if you have trouble writing smaller print clearly - just zoom in, write, and zoom out.

When you need a new page for new notes, simply tap the Next button. You can also create new notebooks (say for different departments) by going to the Quill home screen (tap the Quill icon in the upper left corner of the main window). From the Home Screen (Figure E), tap the Switch Notebook button, and then tap Create new notebook.

Figure E

You can also filter pages by tags on this screen.

To add tags to a note, tap the Tags button in the upper left corner, type the tag you want to add, and tap either Done or Next (on the keyboard - Figure F). You can add as many tags as needed to a note.

Figure F

When you type the first tag for a note, the keyboard key will say Done.

Finally, you can export your notes to various formats by doing the following:

1. Open the note to be exported
2. Tap the menu button in the top right corner
3. Select Export
4. Name the note in the resulting overlay (Figure G)
5. Select the output type (PNG, PDF, Quill Archive)
6. Tap Export

Figure G

From here you can also easily share the note.

Although Quill doesn’t have all the cool features of BeNote, it does enable you to take very fast notes, quickly add images, and keep multiple notes and notebooks. It’s fast, simple, and allows you to export your notes to a universal format.

Source : techrepublic[dot]com

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First impressions: Xbox SmartGlass for Android (Update)

Today is a good day for Xbox users with an Android smartphone. Microsoft has finally released the Xbox SmartGlass Android app, and we have been playing around with it for a bit. SmartGlass promises a second screen to use with the Xbox 360, much like the WiiU and its gamepad.

As the feature develops, one will be able to access secondary menus and options with a smartphone or tablet, without interrupting your game or media. During Microsoft’s demo, a tablet was able to access information about the battlefield while watching video of a war in the popular series Game of Thrones. That level of interactivity definitely seems like a step forward as we approach a new era in video gaming.

The app doubles as a SmartGlass and Xbox Live app. One has access to messages, friends, currently-played games/apps and even featured content. On the SmartGlass side, one is able to use an Android device as a form of remote control for the Xbox 360. You can easily navigate around the dashboard, and open any games or apps of your choice; all by sliding and tapping your finger on the navigation screen (reminds me of a mouse app for Android and PC).

The new app has its good and bad sides, so let’s just jump in and see what we have.

The Good

Xbox SmartGlass has all those features we are salivating over (even if not perfect yet), but there is more to it. Xbox 360 junkies will be able to have a central app, allowing them to access Xbox Live content on-the-go. I have been using it to read and send messages, look for new games and search for apps. If you are interested in any of the content found on the device, you can go ahead and pull it out on your Xbox by simply tapping a button. One can purchase it from there.

Likewise, there are other shortcuts and features that are very helpful. Everything from being able to search and access content to enjoying Play, Rewind and Forward shortcuts appearing under the navigation screen when playing a movie on Netflix.

The Bad

Because it is made by Microsoft, it’s to be expected that Windows Phone will get the better end of the stick. Certainly, the app is good, but it feels like it is not fully developed, but it could also be an issue of SmartGlass, itself. With that said, there are some faults we wish to see improved in the near future.

For one, the Dashboard navigation screen is a bit laggy. We must consider the device communicates with the Xbox via internet, so that should definitely make it a bit slower. The interface is also a designed oddly. It seems like a pressed down Xbox 360 interface instead of an Android app. It is a form of mix between the Xbox UI and the Windows Phone Metro UI, which makes it feel very out-of-place.

All aesthetics aside, the app does need some functional improvements. It is quite annoying to see that even when the app is left open, it has to sign back in if the screen goes to sleep and you turn the device back on. If you hit the home button and re-open the app, it has to sign in again. Pretty much, it seems to lose connection with your Xbox every time you leave the app. It could be a battery-saving “feature,” but it would be nice to have the option to keep a stable connection.

Another noticeable issue is that the navigation screen is not very helpful when using it to control the pointer (with the browser, for example). Navigation works perfectly for the Dashboard and apps as the Metro UI lets you jump to categories and tiles one by one. It gets very hectic when you are trying to use the pointer, though. The SmartGlass navigation screen is no use, the pointer moves like a millimeter per full swype. It is simply unusable, so you might as well pick up your controller and use that.

For some reason, I have also not been able to use the keyboard, even though there is a shortcut for it. I just can’t pull it up, whether it is in the browser, the Search Box or within an app.

Verdict

As you can see, the app has more downsides than I expected. Over all, it works for what it is intended for, but Microsoft has a lot of work to do. We need a bit smoother navigation, better shortcuts and a working keyboard. Not to mention full compatibility with at least all native apps.

I have not tried the Windows Phone app yet, but I sincerely hope it is better than the Android one. Ultimately, SmartGlass has huge potential. Let’s hope it evolves into all that Microsoft promised and other developers make great features for it.

I have been here breaking my head over it, thinking maybe I was doing something wrong. If you have been using SmartGlass and have found these (or more) issues, please let us know! If not, you can go ahead and download it straight from the Google Play Store. As for me, I will start using it more once it becomes more integrated and seamless.

Update

The slow pointer and keyboard issues were fixed after connecting my Android smartphone to the same WiFi connection as the Xbox. I happen to prefer using Verizon’s 4G LTE, so I almost never connect my device to my home WiFi.

I definitely apologize for this misunderstanding, but that brings another issue. The app certainly connects to my Xbox and does other things when not on the same network. Why not make these features available regardless of how the device connects to the internet?

Thanks, ego!

Source : androidtabletblog[dot]com

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