Android

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) last week announced the launch of a new mobile phone application that will initially be available for iPhone/iPod touch, BlackBerry and Android handheld devices, and that the company says will subsequently support "dozens" of additional handhelds. "The TCM mobile device application is the ultimate mobile experience for classic film fans and is an important part of our strategy to solidify TCM's position as a lifestyle brand," Dennis Adamovich, TCM's SVP of brand and digital activation, said in a prepared statement.

A number of pieces of connected TV news came across [itvt]'s desk, Tuesday. Here is a brief--and by no means exhaustive--round-up (note: also see "Vudu Unveils Vudu Apps OTT Service," "ActiveVideo Networks in Deal to Provide Blockbuster with Cloud-Based User Interface," and "Showtime Networks, Betfair Launch Interactive TV Widgets"):

UK satellite TV operator, BSkyB, announced Tuesday that its Sky Mobile TV service is now available on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. The company has developed a Sky Mobile TV app specifically for the iPhone/iPod touch: the app allows users to stream live TV via WiFi, and available channels include Sky Sports News, Sky News, ESPN, At The Races and all the Sky Sports channels.

Sigma Designs, a provider of system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for set-top boxes and consumer electronics, announced Tuesday that it is committed to "broad scale support" of the Android operating system on its media-processor SoC's, and also announced the availability of a ported version of Android on its Vantage SMP8654 development platform.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently traveling in the UK, and, because of time constraints, we are covering a number of this issue's news stories in round-up/summary form. We anticipate some additional interruption of our regular news publishing schedule in the coming days, so we apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers. Here is the round-up:

Total Immersion, an augmented reality company that has apparently been around since 1999, contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know that it has signed an exclusive distribution partnership agreement with int13, a French software firm that specializes in smartphone applications. The deal calls for the companies to integrate their respective technologies to market embedded AR applications through a new, mobile version of Total Immersion's D'Fusion platform.

SPRXmobile said Monday that version 2.0 of its Layar augmented reality browser, which launched in June in the Netherlands, is now available in all local Android Markets, and that multiple new content layers have been developed for the browser, following the company's decision to open it up for third-party development almost immediately after launching it (note: for more on the Layar platform--which leverages smartphones' integrated GPS and compass capabilities to display layers of interactive digital information on top of real-time video on those phones' camera screens, thus effectively transforming reality into a giant, clickable interactive video--see the articles published on itvt.com, June 17th and July

Revision3, a company which bills itself as "an actual TV network for the Web" and which develops and produces original broadband TV shows, contacted [itvt] earlier this week to let us know about a new show it has just launched that may be of interest to our readers. Entitled "AppJudgment" and hosted by a rotating roster of Revision3 personalities, including Patrick Norton ("Tekzilla"), Revision3 co-founder David Prager and Ron Richards ("iFanboy"), the show reviews new applications for the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Palm Pre platforms.

MIPS Technologies, a company which, among other things, provides processors for home entertainment devices, announced this week that it has met what it describes as a "key milestone" in its ongoing efforts to drive the Android platform beyond mobile handsets: two months after announcing its port of the Android platform to the MIPS Architecture, the company says it is making the source code publicly available. It has also launched an Early Access Program for a small group of its key customers, which will have access to specific hardware and code optimizations before they are publicly available. It says that participants in the program will work closely with its engineering team and provide it with feedback and market expertise.

Dutch mobile technology provider, SPRXmobile, launched a product called Layar, Tuesday, which it bills as the "world's first mobile Augmented Reality browser." The browser, which will initially be available free-of-charge in the Netherlands for handsets running the Android operating system, displays real-time digital information on top of a mobile phone's camera screen--effectively transforming reality into a giant, real-time interactive video experience.