New Samsung app streams images to smartphones from TV

Android based App turns smartphone into remote, game controller and also settings hub for the new Smart TV models.

Samsung has introduced a new application for Galaxy S II smartphone that can stream images directly to the smartphone from a Smart TV.

Dubbed as Smart View, the application supports Samsung LED Smart TV models, Series 7 and Series 8, both of which are available in India.

The Smart View App requires Android 2.3 Gingerbread or higher updated running on the device and currently supports Galaxy S II.

New Smart View app acts as a full remote control for the Smart TV and Blu-ray Disc products when connected to the same via wireless router. The app even offers an onscreen keyboard wherever text entry is required.

Besides that, the app also acts as the optical game controller for the games on your TV. The gyroscopic sensor of the smartphone adds more fun while playing games on TV using your smartphone as game controller.

Noteworthy feature of Smart View is that it allows pushing content from smartphone to TV and TV to smartphone when both app and Smart TV are connected over Wi-Fi. Not only that, you can sit on the couch and fine-tune the controls for the TV and Blu-ray Disc players using the Smart View app.

One crucial part is that you'll need to have a Wi-Fi network setup at home or connect Samsung Wireless LAN adapter to the TV USB port.

The app lets you do what one can do with Apple TV and iPhone/iPod touch using WiFi, i.e. two-way streaming of multimedia content between TV and a smartphone.

Currently the App supports only Galaxy S II and Samsung plans support for Galaxy S (GT-I9000), Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Player (YP-G870) in coming months.

Get extra ipad storage with Kingston Wi-Drive

Access your files over Wi-Fi on the pocket-friendly Wi-Drive that allows streaming multimedia, PDFs and more files.

Kingston has come up with a new device that can be used by the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch owners as an additional portable storage space, and has been dubbed as Wi-Drive.

The new Kingston Wi-Drive is available in 16GB and 32GB storage options and will allow users to access data wirelessly using iPhone (3G and higher), iPod touch (3rd Gen and higher) and iPad.

Indians will have to wait till June end to buy this additional storage for their iOS devices. At present, Wi-Drive is available outside India for $130 (Rs 5850 approximately) and $175 (Rs 7875 approximately).

Several users are either not aware of the cloud storage services offered or believe in carrying their own data with them. Apple iOS device's shortcoming of non-expandable storage can be dealt with this Kingston Wi-Drive that is Wi-Fi enabled.

The Wi-Drive device comes with its own battery backup and supports streaming of music, photos, videos, PDFs and more. Apple devices need to connect with the device using the Wi-Drive App (which will be available soon) over Wi-Fi to access their files.

The Wi-Drive supports different audio file formats such as AAC, MP3, WAV. Besides, it also supports different video files (m4v, mp4, mov, Motion JPEG, AVI), image (jpg, bmp, tiff) and document formats (pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, txt, rtf, and xls).

The Wi-Drive also works as a portable storage which one can simply hook to Windows, Mac or Linux platform based computer to quickly transfer data.

Being pocket friendly, you can carry this portable storage anywhere with you and simply enjoy streaming of content provided you have Wi-Fi setup or you can create a personal mobile Wi-Fi hotspot using the iPhone 4 (requires running iOS 4.3 update or higher).