Ustream Preps IPhone App for Live-streaming Video to Facebook Profiles

Users of a new Ustream application will be able to broadcast on their Facebook Timelines live video they shoot with their iPhones.

The iPhone app, which will be unveiled on Thursday, is called Broadcast for Friends (BFF) and is expected to appear in the Apple App Store soon, once Apple approves it. Broadcast for Friends will also work with iPads.

Application users can apply pre-configured filters to alter the colors and mood of the video. The broadcasts don't have a time limit.

The free application can be used, for example, to broadcast wedding ceremonies, public meetings, artistic performances, parties and the like. Ustream doesn't plan to display ads with the application. Viewers can send comments in real time to the broadcaster.

Users can set different access levels for their broadcasts, including making them available to their Facebook friends, to themselves only, or to everyone. Users can also save a recording of the broadcast so it can be viewed later on demand on their Facebook Timeline.

Ustream said its infrastructure and technology will allow it to handle millions of simultaneous broadcasts.

The application brings together three popular Internet trends -- mobile, video and social networking -- and, if popular, it could help Facebook improve what some consider a currently subpar set of mobile functionality.

Ustream already has an application that lets users of iPhones, iPods and iPads, as well as Android smartphones, broadcast live video from their devices to their Ustream channel. The Ustream channel can be viewed on the Web or on Ustream's mobile applications. This application requires that users create a Ustream account.

However, this new BFF application runs independent of the Ustream website. Users do not need a Ustream account nor a Ustream channel. Users only need to download the BFF application, connect it to their Facebook account and they can start broadcasting video from their iPhone.

Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. 

Smartphone Applications for your personal Motor vehicle

　　Smartphone Applications for your personal Motor vehicle

　　Automobiles and telephones generally is a fantastic combination. When it truly is unsafe to text or chat about the phone when driving, Smartphones and automakers are teaming up within a distinct way. Automakers are starting to introduce applications for telephones that could support motorists with their motor vehicles inside of a variety of approaches. Even though diverse companies have made very unique Apps, the craze like a entire is heading inside of a similar course, that is making more data accessible to drivers in a quick, easy, entertaining, and environmentally-friendly way.
　　Chrysler has replaced paper owner's manuals with a Smartphone app. Considering that owner's manuals are sometimes a huge selection of webpages very long, this app is equally environmentally friendly and more easy. Motorists no longer have to retailer bulky manuals within their glove compartment, and the app could make sections of your guide simpler to locate than these are during the handbook or to the CD edition that is definitely supplied with a few models. This app is going to be free and can also contain video demonstrations.
　　One more automaker introducing Smartphone apps is Audi. Whilst their CarMonitor app is still in enhancement, the application will give drivers specifics of their motor vehicle by plugging it into their car's OBD-II port, which can be precisely the same port mechanics use to speak along with the car's personal computer. This app will reveal to the driver what miles for each gallon their vehicle is obtaining more than the system of a trip, motor revolutions, and emissions. Audi motorists will also have the opportunity to make use of this app to communicate with other Audi homeowners and locate equivalent info. Motorists will then be able to employ this details to seek out far more data, these as which routes are classified as the most effective.
　　Some auto manufacturers are actually linking Smartphones to autobus to get a short time now. This summer season, GM's OnStar communications service released a aspect which allows GM drivers to lock or commence their car or truck remotely from their Smartphone. The appliance also permits homeowners to flash their headlights or honk the car's horn from their telephone to help come across it inside of a crowded car parking zone. Nonetheless, this assistance is only accessible to OnStar subscribers.
　　Whilst nearly all of these characteristics have already been made through the car or truck suppliers on their own, there are also some handy applications which might be remaining intended by 3rd functions. One of such can be a radar detection application, which picks up signals from police pace radar guns and warns the motive force. This function also warns the driving force of red-light cameras. Another application presently being created overseas is often a webcam, that can make it possible for drivers to transmit webcam photographs to their cell phone. This would make it possible for parents to look at their teenager or any individual else who's driving their vehicle when they are not during the car with them. Despite the fact that neither of those applications are totally free, as almost all of the automaker apps are or will probably be, they're absolutely effective and some thing to appear into.
　　Whether clients are trying to find benefit, awesome applications, help with their car, or simply the most up-to-date know-how, the alliance concerning motor vehicles and Smartphone applications is without a doubt a stage within the correct route.

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 gets serious with Windows 8

Lenovo has officially announced the ThinkPad Tablet 2, its much-leaked Windows 8 slate with optional pen input for what the company describes as “differentiators that matter” in the tablet segment. Headed to stores in October, alongside the launch of Windows 8, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 packs an Intel Atom processor and a 1,366 x 768 IPS LCD multitouch display, along with a battery good for up to 10hrs runtime.


That display can be outfitted with an optional stylus, which uses an active digitizer for more precision and slots neatly into a silo on the slate itself. Other options include a fingerprint reader, integrated 3G/4G – with both HSPA+ and LTE variants on offer, and Lenovo already having confirmed AT&T as one carrier – and a ThinkPad-style keyboard for heavy-duty text entry. Finally, there’ll be a desktop dock with HDMI output, a trio of USB ports and wired ethernet.
The ThinkPad Tablet 2 has twin cameras, 8-megapixels on the back and a 2-megapixel shooter up-front for video calls, and the whole thing weighs under 600g and is 9.8mm thick. Unsurprisingly, Lenovo is putting a little extra weight on its enterprise potential, hoping to leverage Windows 8′s pro-features to make a dent in the business market.

What we don’t yet know is exactly how much Lenovo will be charging. The ThinkPad Tablet 2 will be going up against not only Microsoft’s own Surface Pro – the more expensive version of the own-brand tablet, with both stylus control and Windows 8 rather than Windows RT – but the iPad which has already made strong gains in the enterprise marketplace.
Price differences between those two devices are expected to be broad, however; the new iPad starts from $499 while the Surface Pro is tipped to be around the price of an ultrabook, or presumably in excess of $699. Lenovo will tell us more closer to launch.

Google to trial personal emails for search results

Google is gearing up to test out a search feature that integrates with Gmail.
The idea is that when a Google search-engine user types in a query, the results that come up will not only be from the public web, but also from their personal Gmail account. This means that if someone searches "best restaurant", the results may contain a previous email from a friend that mentions a particular restaurant.
This feature is still in its early phase, and Google is inviting 1 million Gmail users to test it on a first-come, first-serve basis. The trial is only accessible for queries made through http://www.google.com.

Interested participants are able to sign up online.

Google has also made its Knowledge Graph service accessible across the world.
First introduced to the US in May, Knowledge Graph is a database of over 500 million people, places and things that are connected in 3.5 billion ways. Knowledge Graph collates and displays information from the database that relates to a particular search query. The summarised information is shown on the right-hand side of Google's search-engine page, and can give users the answers to questions they haven't even asked yet.

As of tomorrow, Knowledge Graph will be progressively rolled out to users in other countries, including Australia, making Google search queries in English.
The product is a result of Google's acquisition of Metaweb two years ago. It also draws on a number of free online resources, including Wikipedia; the information it shows is shaped by what queries users are making through Google Search.
"We strongly believe we have to give the best locally relevant results globally," Google search senior vice-president Amit Singhal said.

Indeed, Google has attempted to localise Knowledge Graph so that the response from searching the word "chief" in the US, for example, will be different to when it is done in New Zealand.

For US users, Google Knowledge Graph will now have additional functions, such as a more detailed carousel on the top of the search page. The rest of the world is getting the basic version.

Google is keen to push the product to non-English searches, but said that it still had a lot of work to do in order to make that happen.

"We are working aggressively to take it beyond English, but this is a very hard challenge," Singhal said. He pointed out it is already extremely difficult to do in English, let alone in another language.