Filed under: Multimedia , Odds and ends , iPhone We all knew it was coming , and it’s here. Yes, Apple has finally approved, with the belated blessing of AT&T, a version of the SlingPlayer Mobile app that now works on the 3G network. The original release of SlingPlayer Mobile [ iTunes link ] was WiFi only, and was one of the great disappointments of the whole iPhone experience. The folks at Sling Media worked hard to get the app approved, and AT&T finally relented, probably because the FCC has been breathing down the necks of the cellular providers who seem a bit, shall we say, arbitrary about what gets on the network. AT&T had no problem with streaming MLB games, but kept giving the Sling developers a big honking rejection.
Panasonic ’s recently unleashed Lumix DMC-FX550 has just been pretty extensively reviewed over at Trusted Reviews . Up first, the Lumix DMC-FX550 — a 12.1 megapixel affair with a 5x zoom lens. The reviewer found the touchscreen to be mostly useful and functional in conjunction with the hardware controls. The 1280 x 720 pixel resolution video recording is found to be nice quality, though the cam loses points for its mono audio, which is deemed “not too good,” while the startup time for the camera — about 3 seconds — is also a bit slow. Ultimately, however the DMC-FX550 is not very much of an upgrade over the previous DMC-500 model, though the reviewer gives it points for build quality.
The “personal assistant” label gets attached to a lot of websites and applications, but it’s always an exaggeration. Usually the service in question is can only tackle a small slice of what a human assistant would do, such as organizing your emails . Plus, you can’t just tell the app what you want, you have to learn how to use it. A new iPhone application called Siri has limitations too, but it’s already further along than the competitors I’ve seen, and it has the potential become a true personal assistant. Basically, you tell Siri what you want to do, and it connects you to the right online service to make it happen.
