Using a small modification to ICS to use software GL from Vishal Bhoj, Linaro engineer Mathieu Poirier was able to get ICS running on the Snowball board. This may be the first demonstration of Ice Cream Sandwich running on another SoC than the OMAP4?
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FXI Cotton Candy, Exynos 4210 computer in a USB stick
Posted by – November 19, 2011
Norwegian FXI Technologies is showing their new Exynos 4210 ARM Cortex-A9 based computer in a 21 gram USB stick form factor. It has HDMI output, it powers from USB, has a built-in MicroSD card slot, WiFi and Bluetooth. It’s to be released next year.
Video by: booredatwork.com
Related articles
- FXI Introduces Cotton Candy – Dual-core Android Device Inside a USB Stick (phandroid.com)
- FXI Technologies develops Cotton Candy on a (USB) stick (digitaltrends.com)
- FXI Cotton Candy is an ARM PC in a USB stick (geek.com)
- Dual-Core Android PC Now Comes On a USB Stick (hardware.slashdot.org)
- USB Stick Contains Dual-Core Computer, Turns Any Screen Into an Android Station (laptopmag.com)
- Tiny USB Stick Brings Android to PCs, TVs (wired.com)
- This computer-on-a-USB-stick turns any device into an Android terminal (venturebeat.com)
- FXI’s Cotton Candy could turn every screen you own into a cloud client (engadget.com)
E Ink is giving away E Ink watches (US residents only)
Posted by – November 18, 2011
E Ink is giving away 4 E Ink wrist watches worth $195 every Tuesday until the 13th of December on their Facebook page. All you have to do is “Like” the E-Ink page on Facebook and enter your name, email and click to let it grab your Facebook contact info. E-Ink wrist watches are pretty awesome, I got mine since June 2010 that I wear every day, I only had to install the batteries once in the beginning and it’s still running on the same small wrist watch battery. It’s nice to be able to change the design of your wrist watch, have it display the date and all in a very sunlight readable way. It’s just cool to know you’ve got an E Ink e-reader type screen on your watch. Check out this video where I show my E Ink wristwatch:
Here is more information about the $195 Phosphor E Ink watch that you can win on the E Ink facebook page: http://www.phosphorwatches.com/E-Ink-Digital-Hour-Clock-Watch-Stainless-Steel-p/70510565280.htm
Liliputing.com: Google Marketplace works fine on the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet
Posted by – November 17, 2011
Liliputing.com just posted this video showing how nicely the full Google Marketplace can be made to work on the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire. For the next step, I expect Amazon will update it to Ice Cream Sandwich, and when they do, I expect Amazon to pre-install the full Google Marketplace and all the Google Apps, just because that’s what is better for the consumer. And I think Amazon will figure out that it’ll actually increase their own content sales in terms of revenue per tablet to simply fully unlock the Kindle Fire.
It still doesn’t have HDMI output, kick-stand, MicroSD card slot, USB host, webcam, legal Mpeg2/AC3/DTS codecs up to 1080p legally either.
Source: liliputing.com
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on the OMAP4 Pandaboard
Posted by – November 17, 2011
Texas Instruments released this video showing that Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 now already boots fine on the OMAP4430 based $179 Pandaboard which you can buy at http://pandaboard.org. I expect that we might see Desktop-optimized user interfaces and a full Chrome web browser soon, maybe with Android 4.1 or 4.2. As I also think it’s important for every ICS smartphone to turn into a “desktop mode” when using the HDMI output and when a keyboard and mouse are detected.
ZiiLABS ZMS-20 playing 1080p High Profile
Posted by – November 16, 2011
ZiiLABS released this video demonstrating 1080p high profile level 4.1 H.264 with CABAC, deblocking and 8×8 transforms. Played on the ZMS-20 based JAGUAR platform.
Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich source code released, how soon on every SoC?
Posted by – November 15, 2011
Wow, Google just released the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich in this Google Groups post.
Expect all Gingerbread-capable devices be able to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich rapidly. The question is only how soon each ARM SoC can have it fully hardware accelerated? Who is doing that work of doing all the hardware optimizations? Who is eventually disabling or tuning down certain hardware accelerated advanced user interface features in the software if that hardware is not powerful enough or of lower performance?
As of course one can expect all the latest high-end Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 processors to support this soon, including all devices on the TI OMAP4, Samsung Exynos 4210, Qualcomm MSM8260/8660, Nvidia Tegra2 and Tegra3, St-Ericsson U8500/U9500 and more. Imagine how awesome it is going to be to see firmware updates upgrading all Tablets and Smartphones using following cheap SoCs to Ice Cream Sandwich:
- TI OMAP3630/3530/3430 ARM Cortex-A8
- Samsung Hummingbird ARM Cortex-A8
- Freescale i.MX51/53 ARM Cortex-A8
- Marvell PXA618 Single Core
- Qualcomm 8255/8255T Single Core up to 1.5Ghz
- Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 1.2Ghz
- Telechips 8803 ARM Cortex-A8 1.2Ghz
- AmLogic 8726 ARM Cortex-A9 Single Core 800Mhz
- NEC/Renesas EV2 ARM Cortex-A9 Dual Core 533Mhz
- Qualcomm MSM7227 ARM11
- Mediatek MTK6573 ARM11
- VIA 8710 ARM11
and more! Does anyone know how to get a confirmation from each of these ARM SoC providers to get an idea about how soon and if they expect to get full Ice Cream Sandwich support? Who is going to make that work, do each SoC provider, each device maker have to do all the work or is Google contributing a lot of those software optimizations already as part of the open source Android 4.0.1 code release?
How soon can we expect to find some awesome sub-$100 and sub-$200 fully capacitive, fully smooth Android phones, tablets running on the amazing Android 4.0.1? Can we expect them all now to be fully officially allowed to pre-load the full Google Marketplace, having the full Google-supported Tablet features, official tablet services pre-loaded, no questions asked? I expect Google’s new Ice Cream Sandwich Compatibility Definition Document to allow for every one of those SoCs full compatibility, even the cheapest, and not requiring any specific sensors, screen sizes, buttons, 3G features or other to get official Google Marketplace on those.
I expect that we may see Ice Cream Sandwich on all these SoC, even the ARM11 based ones, starting as soon as before the end of the year, or maybe in January or February of next year. I expect all cheap tablets and phones to run the latest Ice Cream Sandwich, all come with the official Google Marketplace legally pre-loaded, regardless of sensors present. I also expect either Android 4.0.1 or perhaps later coming Android 4.1, Android 4.2 to also provide full support for Set-top-boxes, Laptops, E-readers and more. That means, I expect this to provide a full Google TV experience on HDMI out. I expect this to provide a full Chrome browser when outputting a HD output and keyboard/mouse is detected. I expect this to provide the best ever user interface and applications platform for E-Ink and Pixel Qi based e-readers, powering a better reading experience.
Source: techmeme.com
NewGadgets.de: Samsung Galaxy Nexus Hands-On
Posted by – November 15, 2011
This is obviously the best phone ever released. I’ll try to get it soon so that I can test Ice Cream Sandwich and film my own video-reviews. Until then, check it out here:
Source: newgadgets.de
List of my ARM Powered devices used for video-blogging:
Posted by – November 14, 2011
Andy Frame is interviewing me on ARM’s official YouTube Channel about my ARM Powered devices used for video-blogging and live video streaming from consumer electronics trade-shows.
List of devices featured in this video:
- Headmounted Display: Kopin Golden-i, OMAP3530 based, provides SVGA screen at eye-level for real-time monitoring of an IRC chat for asking better questions
- Headmounted Logitech c910 Webcam connected to the ARM Powered One Laptop Per Child XO-1.75, Marvell Armada 618 based, live-streaming the webcam video feed to http://ustream.tv (an optimal Headmounted computer, maybe Motorola’s next version, can include the webcam and Android based software to live-stream the video to any live video streaming service built-in)
- Archos 101 G9, OMAP4430/OMAP4460 1Ghz to 1.5Ghz tablet, similar specs as in the Galaxy Nexus but in a 10.1″ tablet form factor. Starts $269 unlocked no contract for 8″. This is probably my favorite high-end tablet at the moment. I’ll post my full video-review of the Archos 101 G9 in the next few days.
- Archos 70 Internet Tablet, OMAP3630 1Ghz single core, released about 13 months ago. I use this tablet every day as 7″ tablets fit in any jacket pocket. Thus I mostly use this for checking emails, web browsing, watching video, playing games, using apps when I am outside. I am looking forward to upgrade this to a dual-core 7″ tablet.
- My $87 FG8 Android Smartphone, it’s my main smartphone for the past 7 months since I found it in Shenzhen China. It supports Dual-SIM cards (so I can use my home and foreign SIM numbers at the same time, or use voice SIM and data SIM at the same time), has a decent 3.5″ capacitive touch screen, uses the wildly popular in China Mediatek MTK6516 ARM9 processor. I’m looking forward upgrading this to a Galaxy Nexus (because I am eager to try Ice Cream Sandwich) or to a newer faster 3G-capable sub-$100 Android phone.
- ZTE MF61 T-Mobile USA 4G HSPA+ Hotspot, $50 for 3GB/month pre-paid, $141 for the device, no contract.
ARM Mali-T658 announced
Posted by – November 10, 2011
ARM Media Processing Division’s Jem Davies and Ian Smythe talk about the launch of the new Mali-T658 GPU. It can start to appear in devices by the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013. This is like having a 250 Gigaflops super computer in your pocket. The performance is anywhere from 2x to 4x faster than the Mali-T604 announced last year. Now supporting configurations up to 8 cores. It easilly supports 4K resolutions. It’s compatible with the newly announced ARMv8 64-bit architecture. The Mali-T658 delivers desktop-class performance, achieved by doubling the number of GPU cores, doubling the number of arithmetic pipelines within each core and improving the compiler and pipeline efficiency. Find more information at http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/mali-graphics-hardware/mali-t658.php
Related articles
- ARM Announces New GPU (arm.com)
- ARM unveils new GPU chip design (bbc.co.uk)
- ARM Planning OCTO-CORE Mobile Graphics Processor for 2013 [Guts] (gizmodo.com)
- ARM’s new Mali GPU promises 10x leap in performance (electronista.com)
- ARM releases a speedy new graphics core for chip makers (venturebeat.com)
- ARM Mali-T658 GPU: 10x faster graphics than what’s inside the Samsung Galaxy S II (intomobile.com)
- ARM Unveils New Mali-T658 GPU, Promising Ten Times Better Graphic Performance Over Current-Gen Chips (androidpolice.com)
- ARM outs new Mali-T658 GPU (slashgear.com)
- ARM Mali-T658 supercharged GPU announced (techradar.com)
