The folks over at VIZIO have been busy. Just last week, the VIZIO Tablet received a major firmware upgrade giving it improved graphics performance and battery life, along with a host of other upgrades. Now the company has announced that the VIZIO 8" Tablet with Wi-Fi supports ooVoo, allowing VIZIO Tablet owners to video chat – for free - with up to six callers at once.

All you'll need is your VIZIO Tablet, a Wi-Fi connection, and the ooVoo app (available for free in the Android Market), then you'll be able to party chat to your hearts' content. ooVoo is available across multiple hardware platforms, from mobile devices to PCs, and in addition to free video and voice calls, ooVoo also supports calls through a web browser and can be upgraded to enable calls to landlines as well. 

Vizio just announced today that its new 8" Tablet with Wi-Fi is now supporting ooVoo. For those who don't know, ooVoo is a competitor to Skype and offers video conferencing for up to 6 people at once. That means you can use the new Vizio tablet to call your family and friends - and perhaps all at the same time! The service is available provided you have a WiFi connection and ooVoo is available on a variety of platforms, including Mac, PC, iOS and Android. What makes this compelling is that ooVoo works with desktop units, tablets, iPhones, Android phones, Android tablets and more - so you're locking into a system that's all but ubiquitous to the digital marketplace. It even works to landlines (voice only, of course) so nobody is left out.

Vizio said Tuesday that its new 8" tablet is now offering support for the video calling application known as ooVoo. The app enables up to six people to videoconference through the tablet. 

“Just as consumers are shifting away from linear TV programming towards more video on demand, video calls are also evolving from by-appointment usages to a live, spontaneous social experience,” Matt McRae, Vizio's Chief Technology Officer, said as part of the announcement. 

Vizio has announced that its 8″ Vizio Tablet now supports the ooVoo video chat application that lets up to six participants communicate with audio and video over WiFi. ooVoo is an application that has been out there for a while, but it is not compatible with all Android devices. For instance popular devices like the Motorola Bionic, the HTC Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy S2 are not supported at this point. ooVoo also runs on PC and Mac and all versions are free downloads.

Leave it to the leaner and meaner folks at Vizio -- they have become well-known for breaking the price barrier on great-looking flat-screen TV's, and are now making a similar approach at the burgeoning tablet market. Just as HP was deciding to abandon the format made famous by Apple with its iPad, Vizio steps boldly forward with a sleek, efficient and highly affordable rig -- Amazon currently is advertising them at $289 bucks, the price of a smartphone! But does it perform?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VIZIO 8” Tablet Now Supports Free Video Chats with Up to Six Friends through ooVoo™

-Available as a free download from Android Market™, ooVoo Video Chat App makes video calls a social experience

Irvine, CA—September 13, 2011 — VIZIO, America’s #1 LCD HDTV Company*, announced today that the VIZIO 8” Tablet with Wi-Fi now supports ooVoo, the premier video communication service that enables up to six callers to chat together for a unique social video chat experience on mobile devices.  Support for this innovative social app on the VIZIO Tablet now allows users to connect with friends, family and other social circles through free video or voice calls on the larger, more convenient 8” screen of their VIZIO Tablet. 

With ooVoo, VIZIO Tablet owners can now enjoy party video chats anywhere there is a Wi-Fi connection.  ooVoo is available across multiple hardware platforms, from mobile devices to PCs, as a free download from Android Market™. In addition to free video and voice calls, ooVoo also supports calls through a web browser and can be upgraded to enable calls to landlines as well. 

Although Vizio is not focusing its production on the Android smartphone and tablet market, the company recently released its first Android product, the VIZIO 8” Tablet. However, the tablet runs an older version of Android instead of the latest Honeycomb platform, which has yet to make its debut on smaller touchscreen tablets.

Vizio's tablet is powered by Android 2.3.2 Gingerbread operating system and comes with a proprietary V.I.A. Plus user interface.It features an 8-inch LCD capacitive multi-touch display with support for 16 million colors and 1024 x 768 pixels resolution. Both price and specs sheet suggest that this is a budget tablet, but for what it's worth, the manufacturer seems to care a lot how it fares on the market.

Vizio Tuesday announced the arrival of a new update for the Vizio tablet, featuring the previously announced access to Hulu Plus as well as other enhancements. 

“Vizio ’s dedication to providing Entertainment Freedom For All has led us to continually work to develop faster and more accessible ways for consumers to enjoy their content,” Matt McRae, Chief Technology Officer for Vizio , said as part of the announcement.

VIZIO has announced a software update for their 8-inch VTAB1008 tablet today which includes improvements to battery life, overall speed, and universal remote compatibility. According to the press release, the update enables faster scrolling and UI gestures and improved graphics performance and comes quickly on the heels of the Hulu Plus announcement.

No, it's still not Honeycomb, but Vizio has just rolled out an update for its 8-inch Tablet that promises quite a few improvements, including better graphics performance, faster UI navigation, and better battery life. Home theater-minded folks will also no doubt be pleased with the updates to the company's Universal Remote Control app, which now boasts support for "up to 95 percent of all CE devices in North America."