Here’s a pretty cool looking augmented reality application, he points the smartphone at a city built with paper, and the phone displays some augmented reality overlay on top.
Category: Android
I’m Watch, i.MX233 Android Bluetooth wrist watch
Posted by – October 27, 2011
They are launching before Christmas, it’s a $299/299€ Android watch, running on the Freescale i.MX233 ARM9 processor, it has a 1.54″ capacitive touch screen, with Bluetooth it synchronizes with any Android phone, iPhone or other smartphone, there is an API to adapt Android apps to it.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich runs on Texas Instruments OMAP4460
Posted by – October 19, 2011
The new awesome Samsung Galaxy Nexus was just unveiled in Hong Kong. It has an amazing 1280×720 4.65″ HD Super AMOLED screen, LTE/HSDPA+ and runs on the new Texas Instruments OMAP4460 1.2Ghz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor. This is what TI’s Vice President of OMAP platform business unit Remi El-Ouazzane has to say about this:
Today is a great day for our collaboration with Google…The long-awaited Android 4.0 release is finally being revealed with the OMAP4460 processor powering the absolutely gorgeous Samsung Galaxy Nexus device. I am so excited about this launch. What I may be the most excited by is not only the ability to converge to one Android release for both smartphones and tablets, but to be able to pack that level of performance across graphics or video on an HD screen and within the power envelope of a smartphone device…This is where our OMAP smart multicore architecture makes a huge difference. At the end of the day, brute force (number of cores, for instance) does not rival sophistication.
and a further statement from TI:
Today, TI proudly revealed a major OMAP platform milestone: yes, the highly-anticipated Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” release runs on the OMAP4460 processor. This advancement is an exceptional demonstration of what OMAP processors uniquely do, and what separates them from competitors in the mobile processing world: the ability to provide hardware-integrated security, distinctive and advanced imaging features, enhanced memory and more, all on a smart multicore architecture.
Here are some of my impressions and expectations for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich:
- This means Samsung can maybe “easily” update processor speed to 1.5Ghz and maybe also later to the OMAP4470 1.8Ghz when those faster OMAP4 processors become available.
- I don’t know how fast Samsung can manufacture these screens and how much it costs them, my guess is this screen is the most expensive Super AMOLED yet, and I guess that Super AMOLED is already quite a bit more expensive than LCD and I wonder if Samsung is able to manufacture enough of these screens to not create major shortages for the availability of this Galaxy Nexus worldwide for the months to come. If there is one phone worth queuing up for if you want to be sure to get one in the first weeks/months at release, this may be it.
- They haven’t yet shown what happens when you connect to HDTV output, I wonder if the “pins” on the side provide HDMI and data output/input or/and if an MHL connector takes care of this like on the Samsung Galaxy S2. I expect the full Motorola Atrix type Laptop Dock, Desktop Dock, Multimedia Dock, all those features are likely part of Android 4.0, which is why I think Ice Cream Sandwich means the merger of Android with Chrome OS and Google TV.
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus is likely going to be expensive. This is not news though for high-end smartphones, those are all ridiculously expensive today. But that’s just how things are, and they are able to sell tens of millions at those expensive prices. Consider that you are paying $2000 to $3000 for this phone with a 2 year contract. Considering the possibility that Samsung may not be able to manufacture enough of those 720p HD Super AMOLED screens, they may even purposefully increase the price even further at launch.
Archos 80 G9 for sale at $269 through Amazon and Circuit City
Posted by – October 12, 2011
I just checked the latest price on the Archos 80 G9 tablet (the basic 1Ghz 8GB version), and wow, it seems to be just $269 now on Amazon.com
It currently says:
Ships from and sold by CircuitCity.
The Archos 101 G9 1Ghz 8GB is also now for sale on Archos.com for $369 at this URL: http://store.archos.com/10070_101g9_landing.php
Consider that the 1.2Ghz Turbo version with 16GB and 250GB hard drive will also start becoming available later this month. And that the 1.5Ghz version should start being for sale around December normally. The faster Turbo versions having more storage will obviously be a little bit more expensive.
I hope to get my Archos G9 tablet within a few days, and then I’ll post my full video-review. For now you can see my short overview video that I filmed of early pre-release prototypes of these tablets last July:
Variscite announces OMAP4460 1.5GHz Dual-core System On Module
Posted by – October 11, 2011
Variscite announces the first System on Module based on TI’s OMAP4460 smart multicore processor with dual ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCores™ running at up to 1.5GHz each – now the fastest on the market.
Variscite is really speeding things up with the new future-proof and highly integrated VAR-SOM-OM44, responding to the increasing demand for faster processing and cutting-edge multimedia performance. Leveraging Variscite’s known design expertise for proprietary System-on-Chips from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI), this offering is based on TI’s smart multicore OMAP4460 (OMAP 4) mobile processor. The VAR-SOM-OM44 is ideal for a wide range of target markets requiring rich multimedia functionality, advanced graphics and video capabilities, together with high-processing power.
Find more info: http://www.variscite.com/
This post was submitted by Variscite Ltd..
Archos wants to provide the G9 tablets for 0.50€ per day with 3G to students in France
Posted by – October 3, 2011
The Archos CEO Henri Crohas today spoke on French radio station France Inter (the audio is in French) to suggest for a Government supported promotion plan to be offered to French students where the student can pay only half a euro per day to get the Archos 80 G9 with 3G stick and with a 3G data connection on a 2-year contract.
The French Government is launching an offer to students in France to get an iPad2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for 1€ per day over a 2-year contract to get the tablet and 3G connectivity. That amounts to 730€. As a counter attack, Archos is suggesting that the Government support a French offer to French students, where the student can choose to get the Archos 80 G9 with 3G stick and with 3G access for half the price 0.50€ per day over 2 years, that amounts to only 365€. Given a choice with such huge price difference, obviously most students will choose the Archos tablet deal and not Samsung or Apple.
Archos is the only Tablet maker in France, and one of the only tablet makers based in Europe. The latest sales numbers for Tablet sales in France show that Archos is biggest Android tablet maker in terms of market share, in front of Samsung. They are of course second biggest tablet maker after Apple, for example last November and December months, Archos had 22% tablet market share in France and Apple had 68%. But that difference may get lowered quickly if the French Government accepts to support providing Archos tablets to all French students at a discounted price, half the price compared to the iPad2, all the while Archos providing a faster processor and far more features such as more video codecs supported, HDMI, 2x USB Hosts, Kick-stand (which makes it much more usable for education) an up to 50% faster processor and more.
Consider that Archos only has 100 employees, and Apple has 50 thousand (500x more). Consider that Archos has a market capitalisation of $200 Million on the Paris stock exchange while Apple is valued at $350 Billion on NASDAQ (1750x more). That Archos has about $40 Million cash to use for launching mass production while Apple has $70 Billion cash that they can use to launch as much mass production as they want (1750x more). And regardless of all that, it seems Archos may find a way in France to single handedly sell more tablets than Apple.
Review: N5Zero Tablet, sub-$100 5″ capacitive Android tablet
Posted by – September 28, 2011
This is my world exclusive review of the new Window88.com N5Zero Tablet. A 5″ capacitive Android tablet to be sold for less than $100 (to resellers). It’s using the Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 Single Core processor at 1.2Ghz, the screen resolution is 800×480, it has 512MB RAM, a MicroSD slot, between 2GB and 16GB built-in flash ROM storage (depending on the configuration, mine has 8GB), no Bluetooth, the graphics are powered by the Vivante Gc800 that does up to 57 million triangles per second and full OpenGL ES 2.0 for fully smooth Flash 10.3 (and soon Flash 11) support, it supports smoothly all the latest Android 3D games, video playback support is 1080p with all codecs but there is no HDMI output.
Most importantly, this cool 5″ capacitive tablet is being sold out of China for below $100 USD! Of course, you have to consider that the low sub-$100 price is for resellers contacting Window88.com and ordering large quantities of the tablet, perhaps 100 pieces minimum, or 500, or 1000, that is to be discussed by interested distributors with the Window88.com people. The final retail price can be a bit higher. In China this tablet is being sold for 699 renminbi on the market, that is $109. But if this tablet gets imported to Europe and the USA, expect a pricing that can be around $139 or more depending on how much margins the resellers want to take.
Rockchip claims that their RK2918 processor has a better performance than the Samsung Hummingbird in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″, Samsung Galaxy S1 and that it’s also faster than the Apple A4 in iPad1 and iPhone4. That is to be confirmed. Sure enough, this is by far not as fast as the newest Dual Core processors such as the one Samsung promises for the 5.3″ Samsung Galaxy Note, but consider that this Window N5Zero is to be sold to resellers at below $100 and that with software optimizations, with perhaps Ice Cream Sandwich coming, this could be fast enough for many users looking for cheap tablet value worldwide.
Read about more of the specs here: http://window88.com/chinese/pro_show.asp?pid=36&p_name=Tablet%20PC
Toshiba Thrive 7″ 1280×800 Honeycomb 3.2 tablet
Posted by – September 28, 2011
Toshiba is expanding their Toshiba Thrive Android tablet series with this new 7″ version with a 1280×800 resolution, Micro HDMI, Micro SD, running on the Nvidia Tegra2 processor. Robert Scoble tries to get the representative to say something about the price, but he can’t say, Techcrunch says that it’s going to be below $400.
Source: Robert Scoble
Related articles
- Toshiba intros Thrive 7-inch tablet, says it’s ‘done right’ (electronista.com)
- Toshiba intros Thrive 7 Android tablet, we go hands-on [Video] (intomobile.com)
- Toshiba unveils the Thrive 7 – hands-on pics of the new 7-inch Android tablet (digitaltrends.com)
- Hands-On With The Toshiba Thrive 7″ Tablet (techcrunch.com)
- Toshiba adds to tablet line with 7-inch Thrive (zdnet.com)
- Toshiba to launch new 7-inch Android tablet with high-rez screen (venturebeat.com)
- Toshiba Enters the 7-Inch Tablet Sweepstakes (technologizer.com)
- Toshiba announces 7-inch Thrive tablet, we go hands-on (video) (engadget.com)
Huawei Honor 4″ smartphone, 1.4Ghz Single Core, Gingerbread
Posted by – September 26, 2011
Huawei announces yet another value Android phone. It’s got a 4″ 854×480 capacitive LCD touch screen, a 1.4Ghz Scorpion MSM8255 Snapdragon Single Core processor, 8 Megapixel (with HDR feature), 720p video record, Adreno 205 graphics, 512MB RAM, HSPA+ 14.4Mbit/5.76Mbit, 1900mAh battery, gyroscope, 4GB ROM and MicroSD slot. If they decide to sell this for $199 unlocked (pricing is not yet officially confirmed because the pricing can be a choice by the carriers), this could become one of the worlds most popular smartphones in the coming months.
Related articles
- Huawei Vision Launched; Offers Gingerbread On a Budget (techie-buzz.com)
- Huawei Honor: Quite possibly the best looking Android handset to come out of China (intomobile.com)
- Huawei Blaze hitting UK’s Phones 4u on September 30th (intomobile.com)
- Huawei Honor Leaked; It’s the Best Huawei Smartphone Yet (techie-buzz.com)
- Huawei Honour press shots are here (intomobile.com)
Slashgear.com: Archos 80 G9 1Ghz review
Posted by – September 26, 2011
The Archos 80 G9 for sale at $299 is hereby the worlds most powerful Android tablet, scoring 987, that’s higher than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the Vellamo benchmark:
Here is their review: http://www.slashgear.com/archos-80-g9-review-video-25182615/
You can discuss this review and video in the ArchosFans forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=57174