Qualcomm at its CES keynote unveiled several new advances it plans for the new year. Device builders can now use its first Wi-Fi Display-capable chips. The component, which is using Wi-Fi Direct, lets users quickly share visual content on the local network without having to have an Internet connection. Qualcomm envisions it being used to share a web page or a photo from a phone to a TV or tablet.
Qualcomm Atheros just announced the release of the Skifta 1.0 Android app (free, Android Market) that will allow users to stream content from their Android devices or saved on the cloud to any DLNA-compatible device. It will offer a Channel library, that will let users access content from their Picasa, Photobucket, Soma.fm, Napster, ShoutCast, Revision 3 and TED Talks accounts or service, among others, without launching those apps separately.
Skifta has launched a new DLNA-based media streaming app for Android mobile devices running Android 2.2. Skifta, owned by mobile chip fabricator Qualcomm, takes a relatively simple approach to enabling content streaming from a user’s mobile. Users download the mobile version of the app to their phone and install the desktop counterpart on their computer or NAS server. Once installed, users can stream their media content including movies, music and photos to any DLNA-enabled device including TV’s, gaming consoles and Windows PCs.
Netgear upgraded its ReadyNAS network-attached storage in a major form tonight with its first Ultra devices. The four-bay Ultra 4 and six-bay Ultra 6 are built for home users who want to move as much data to a network share as possible and adds an extended amount of media sharing as a result. Both boxes can serve as remote recording space for TiVos on the network, and the spaces can be shared through Orb to be played on iPads and other iOS devices as well as Android and BlackBerry smartphones.
