Author:

Charbax

Nicholas Negroponte keynote at the Mobilize conference: Give Every Child a Tablet

Posted by Charbax – October 1, 2010
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Opinions, OLPC

OLPC‘s founder Nicholas Negroponte discusses educational use of the tablet form factor followed by a discussion with Marvell’s co-founder Weili Dai. They are building the $75 XO-3 Tablet for education, to be showcased as prototype within 3 months by next CES. Possibly that the first prototypes may even get to be using the latest wide-view capacitive Pixel Qi LCD screens and the Marvell Armada 628 processor.

To be productive using a tablet, I think plugging a $2 USB keyboard and mouse could still be the best solution. As text entry can hardly be as fast on a tablet, even using haptic feedback or web based voice recognition technology. If the USB keyboard/mouse can be developed to cost $2-3 maximum, then I think it would make sense to provide each child with the $75 tablet and the $2-3 keyboard/mouse combo as well as some kind of cheap bag that holds them together or perhaps even better, the keyboard/touchpad could double as a thin, cheap and light screen protector for the tablet when carrying it around and could as well be clipped onto the back of the tablet when only using the tablet mode.

Filmed at the Mobilize conference organized by gigaom: http://gigaom.com/2010/09/30/mobilize-2010-negroponte-sees-tablets-as-creative-tool/

Archos 43 Internet Tablet Reviewed

Posted by Charbax – September 28, 2010
Category: Tablets, PMPs, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

It packs everything you can think of into 130 grams, with 4.3″ highly responsive touch screen, $199 price point for 16GB, no monthly subscription fees required (makes it much cheaper but similar in performance to Droid X), it can access 3G on Mifi or using Bluetooth tethering. In this video I demonstrate awesome HDMI output to browse the Internet on your HDTV, to play amazing 3D video games using the accelerometer or perhaps using bluetooth gamepad controllers too, and of course, to playback HD quality videos.

My unboxing of Archos 43 and 32 Internet Tablets

Posted by Charbax – September 27, 2010
Category: Tablets, PMPs, Reviews, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

This is my unboxing video of the Generation 8 Archos Android tablets:

Archos 43 Internet Tablet (16GB) for sale soon for $199 in the USA and 199€ in Europe. (yes A43 is confirmed to be $199/199€ for 16GB Capacity). The Archos 43 Internet Tablet basically offers the same Android experience on a large yet very pocketable 4.3″ touch screen as on a Droid X using the same Texas Instruments OMAP3630 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz processor but for $199 all inclusive (no $599 unlocked pricing or $2000 with 2-year contracts), no monthly subscriptions required, though for 3G access and VOIP you need to use a Mifi or Bluetooth tethering. It comes with HDMI output and full video and audio codecs support up to MKV 720p high profile and high bitrate support (which I will test in my upcoming next videos).

Archos 32 Internet Tablet (8GB) for sale now on Amazon.com for $144 in the USA and 158€ on Amazon.de in Europe. This MiniTablet range by Archos offers basically a similar experience to the iPod Touch but for an amazing price starting at $99 for the Archos 28 to $149 for the Archos 32 which thus has slightly larger screen, a VGA camera and Composite tv-out.

In this video, I unbox them and boot them up for the first time:

Consider European prices include ~20% VAT taxes which is why the EU price of any consumer electronics devices is always higher than US prices which don’t include taxes.

You can discuss this video in my other forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=37752

netbooknews.com: Nvidia explains Tegra 2 tablets delay

Posted by Charbax – September 27, 2010
Category: Tablets, Nvidia, Android

CEO of Nvidia, Jen-Hsun Huang, recently said at their GPU technology conference that some of the reason for Tegra 2 tablets delay has been the OS and software integration (my guess: possibly something to do with optimizing existing Android source code for Nvidia’s ARM Cortex A9), that several companies have needed to collaborate to reach “Windows 95” level in terms of software integration, once the investment has been made to realize the horizhontal infrastructure behind these upcoming tablet, it will allow for the fast innovation curve that’s about to arrive when hundreds of companies can innovate faster in the tablet market. He hopes the Tegra 2 tablets will arrive to market by the end of the year, they are in the “home stretch”.

This video was released at: netbooknews.com

Sharp announces 5.5″ and 10.8″ Android Tablets as e-readers

Posted by Charbax – September 27, 2010
Category: Tablets, Android

Sharp previously released the Interesting PC-Z1 mini Ubuntu laptop, the PC-T1 same Ubuntu but in Tablet form factor and the IS01 Android form factor, all mainly released only on the Japanese market. Now Sharp is announcing their custom high pixel density screens on their new 5.5″ 1,024×600 and 10.8″ 1,366×800 Android tablets which they position as e-books. It seems to me though that no matter what back lit LCD resolution is used, a tablet cannot really be used for reading text for hours at a time such as e-books as people do comfortably using e-ink. Sharp should I think manufacture Pixel Qi Screens with a back light switch providing fully reflected e-reading experience if they really want to call those e-readers.

Source: sharp-world.com
Found via: crunchgear.com

Marvell Armada 628, 1.5 GHz Tri-Core Processor

Posted by Charbax – September 24, 2010
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Marvell, OLPC

Marvell Technology Group
Image via Wikipedia

Marvell is unveiling this amazing new processor for smart phones and tablets, the Marvell Armada 628 has:

dual stream 1080p 3D video and 3D graphics performance with quad unified shaders for 200 million triangles per second delivered on ultra-low-power, long battery life smartphones and tablets

1080p dual stream 3D video applications (30 FPS, multi-format)

By supporting 1080p 3D at 30 FPS, does that mean normal non-3D 1080p at 60fps High Profile H264 also can be played back flawlessly?

The new ARMADA 628 tri-core processor incorporates a number of advanced processing and power management features. The tri-core design integrates two high performance symmetric multiprocessing cores and a third core optimized for ultra low-power. The third core is designed to support routine user tasks and acts as a system management processor to monitor and dynamically scale power and performance. The tri-core architecture provides superior performance and lower power over dual-core designs while maintaining industry compatibility and leadership — ensuring a richer, faster and smoother experience than any other ARM-based processor available today.

That sounds like Marvell is awesomely at work using its ARM Architecture licence, customizing their processors as much as they can to design those processors how they think is best with their expertise and 5000 employees.

The ARMADA 628 is also designed to be the first mobile CPU to provide high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, which offers 10x faster performance than USB 2.0.

Hmm nice, I can’t wait to be able to transfer those terrabytes of data from one hard drive to the other faster that tens of hours.

The ARMADA 628 is based on a Marvell-designed ARM v7 MP compatible CPU offering 1.5 GHz performance. It offers support to use LP-DDR2 or DDR3 memory up to 533 MHz, a highly flexible display controller capable of driving four simultaneous displays at up t o 2K x 2K resolution, and a highly robust security subsystem that includes a secure execution processor. An integrated 3D engine renders 200 million triangles per second for an immersive game play experience and a multi-format video engine supports dual stream 1080p video for a true 3D visual experience. In addition, the ARMADA 628 supports DirectX, Open GL ES 2.0, and Open VG 1.1 – ensuring complete compatibility with the most hotly anticipated mobile game titles. ARMADA 628 supports RIM OS, Android™, Linux, Windows Mobile, and full Adobe Flash.

Key Features

World’s first “tri-core” application processor
Up to 1.5 GHz for the two main cores and 624 MHz for the third low power core
“Heterogeneous multiprocessing” with “hardware-based Cache Coherence”
1 MB System Level 2 Cache

I am really looking forward to see some devices using this new processor.

Perhaps now this new Marvell 528 processor generation (as I expect could be the numbering of the Desktop/Laptop derivative of the 628) will be fast enough as well to power Desktop and Notebook class devices like these ones I filmed:
http://138.2.152.197/2010/01/18/marvell-slim-desktop-solution-ebox-based-on-the-marvell-armada-510-processor/
http://138.2.152.197/2010/01/06/marvell-armada-510-based-12-1-arm-powered-laptop/

Will Marvell use 628 in the upcoming OLPC XO-3 low cost low power tablet for education project?

Source: marvell.com
Found via: techmeme.com

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White Spaces voted “Yes” by FCC

Posted by Charbax – September 24, 2010
Category: Other, Opinions

This is fantastic news for people looking forward to free wireless broadband worldwide.

I’ve been asking everywhere for years, can this White Spaces network be setup like FON.com, where before we start building it out, we make sure that most of all these new access points comply with one same authentication system, compatible with OpenID and any of the other authentication systems.

This way, everyone would be able to access to every access point everywhere in the world. Instead of using WPA-type encryption like there is on WiFi, which means users can only access to their own access points but can never access WiFi anywhere else in the world unless the access points are left open.

Devices could thus come with auto-ahtentication and thus instantly connect to the Internet.

If a pricing is decided from the access point provider, then a standard for charging can be implemented. Such as $1/GB or less, something like that. So you login with your OpenID and you click “OK” to pay whichever rate/GB the current access point provider might be charging. And get an overview of eventual alternative networks that are also available in the area and their prices.

A counter in the top right corner of Android should display how much credit I have and how much I am using at any time. Credit would be pre-paid and could be earned by sharing ones home ADSL/Cable/Fibre connection with the neighborhood!

This way, if an access point can be built for the same price as a WiFi hotspot, then the whole world could be covered with free interoperable Super WiFi in the matter of months and for very small investment cost.

Found via: techmeme.com

Archos CEO keynote video presenting its Generation 8 series of Android Tablets in Beijing China

Posted by Charbax – September 23, 2010
Category: Tablets, Opinions, Texas Instruments, Archos, Google, Android

I’ve said it before, I am an Archos fanboy, and I am really looking forward to their 5 new tablets coming out on the worldwide market during these next few weeks. I briefly filmed those tablets at IFA, see my videos of the 101, 70, 28, 32 and 43 tablets. Here is the full keynote video of Archos CEO Henri Crohas, showing the Gen8 Archos Android Tablets a couple of weeks ago in Beijing China:

$299 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 10.1″ WSVGA capacitive Android 2.2 tablet 8GB. $349 for 16GB version
$275 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 7″ WVGA capacitive Android 2.2 tablet 16GB, $349 for 250GB version
$199 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 4.3″ FWVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 16GB
$149 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 800mhz omap3630 3.2″ WQVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 8GB
$99 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 800mhz omap3630 2.8″ QVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 4GB, $119 for 8GB version

I think those new Archos Android tablets are very good value for money. Google Marketplace can very likely be installed on all of them as the previous Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android which was released October 2009, got the Google Marketplace on it through a solution released since November 2009 in the http://forum.archosfans.com

No matter what Google or anyone else says, Android 2.2 is great for tablets, most of the apps from the Google Marketplace, probably 99% of them will work just fine on the Archos series of Tablets, apps requiring a back-facing camera, GPS/Compass, 3G or hardware buttons are a minority. Archos can playback most video formats, including h264 MKV high profile at up to 720p with high bitrates (to be tested and confirmed if that reprensents more than 90% of all 720p movies currently traded on p2p networks).

Archos also released this animation illustrating their advantages in hardware design over the iPad:

This keynote presentation is available as a slideshow with prompter subtitles at: http://www.archos.com/_pres_hc.html Here are a couple of some of the best slides:

Orange brings £99 Android phone to the UK for pre-paid plans

Posted by Charbax – September 22, 2010
Category: Smartphones, Android

After the 2.8″ Vodafone 845, the UK is getting yet another low-cost Android phone, this time it’s the San Francisco from Orange UK, sold for £99 (= $153, consider the UK has a 20% VAT tax that is not paid for such products when sold in the USA), at this affordable price on a month-to-month pre-paid usage plan. It might actually have a 3.5″ capacitive WVGA 800×480 touch screen, but maybe a low cost one. It comes with the Google Marketplace, which probably means it has all the Bluetooth, WiFi, Compass, A-GPS, back-facing camera, accelerometer and all the other features required for Google Marketplace to come pre-installed. As more and more of these low cost Android phones become available, such as also the Kyocera Zio M6000, no more 2-year $2000 contracts are going to be required to buy cheap Android smart phones! I expect Android’s market share will increase even faster once these low cost pre-paid Android phones start to become available everywhere.

Update: It appears that this phone is based on the ZTE Blade design. Source, specs sheet (Thanks, Cesar Cardoso). Update 2: a comment is saying it has a Qualcomm MSM7227 ARM11 45nm 600mhz processor (same as these phones, same as HTC Legend and Sony Ericsson X10 Mini among others, same SoC as in the Foxconn 7″ Android tablet reference design that I filmed here and here) with the AMD z430 GPU, same GPU as in the Nexus One/HTC Desire. The screen might actually be 3.5″ Capacitive WVGA AMOLED type! (thanks, Hackingthelacking)

Found via: androidguys.com

Fascinating article about ARM in the New York Times

Posted by Charbax – September 21, 2010
Category: Opinions, ARM, Google

ARM CEO and other Executives provide very interesting quotes in a new article in the New York Times:

The number of ARM chips produced a year, which go into many different products, dwarfs the hundreds of millions of chips sold by Intel, the world’s largest chip maker in terms of revenue. Inevitably, analysts often portray the companies as mortal enemies, dueling for dominance in the chip market. ARM executives play down such a dramatic story line in their typical, low-key fashion.

“People want there to be this David and Goliath struggle between us and Intel,” Mr. East said. “It just isn’t that way.”

I wonder also if Intel strategists are resting on their laurels and not seeing ARM as a threat to its Netbook, Laptop, Desktop, Set-top-box (Google TV) and Server markets?

“We don’t look like Intel,” he said. “We’re never going to be a $100 billion outfit.”

Yet ARM just unveiled new chip designs that could carry its products into servers and networking equipment — Intel’s turf.

Is ARM presaging an era with no more $100 billion giant dominant corporations in the consumer electronics industry? ARM solutions enabled Apple to more than triple its gigantic valuation on the Nasdaq over the past 5 years, but are these mega Silicon Valley companies going to continue to be so large?

Investors appear enthralled by ARM’s business. Over the last year, the company’s shares have nearly tripled, to a close on Friday of $18.34, from a low of $6.52. Rumors have swirled that Apple may acquire ARM, though such a move seems unlikely given ARM’s broad partnership model.

“I laughed about it with the folks at Apple,” Mr. East said. “It is completely nonsensical.”

It is simply not going to happen. The EU and ARM’s obligations to its partners would not allow it to happen.

“Apple and the Newton made the company exist,” said Mike Muller, one of the founders of ARM and its chief technology officer. “The Newton never went anywhere, but it got ARM started and gave us some credibility.”

Dealing with hand-held devices and cellphones forced ARM to operate under severe power restrictions. It chased milliwatts, while Intel chased horsepower.

Once ARM has reached the desired level of performance at a desired level of power consumption, then it means ARM can bring competition to a market, which creates an environment for a faster rate of innovation among companies. Once full web browsing is demonstrated to work on ARM, once full WebTV and VOD interfaces fully work on ARM, it will mean that the ecosystem of ARM providers can replace the need for Intel in these areas.

“We’ve always known Cambridge is not the center of the universe,” Mr. Muller said. “If you’re in Silicon Valley, you might make that mistake.”

The company offers choice to customers through various types of licenses. A customer can take ARM’s basic design at face value or choose a license that allows it to create custom products.

“We’re encouraging specialists to do what they’re good at,” Mr. Muller said.

The companies making ARM Cortex A8, A9 and A15 designs, such as Texas Instruments, Freescale, Samsung, ST Ericsson, Nvidia, Rockchip, VIA and Telechips those are using the one type of ARM licence. While Marvell, Qualcomm and Microsoft are using another type of ARM licence which allows them to differently customize their processor technology offerings.

Intel and Microsoft secure the vast majority of profits available in computers and servers, leaving the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer to fight over a few dollars per machine.

Apple has shown that the largest profit margins are available in adopting the ARM ecosystem and philosophy of product design and marketing. It is likely that we will soon see all the major PC, Laptop and Server manufacturers shift to using ARM solutions, which will both allow to lower cost to customers and increase the profit margins at the same time!

Source: nytimes.com
Found via: techmeme.com

laptopmag.com: HP’s $399 Android Tablet includes a printer

Posted by Charbax – September 20, 2010
Category: Tablets, Freescale, Android

HP is releasing this Freescale i.MX51 Powered $399 Android 2.2 Tablet which includes a “full function” color printer, with scanner and WiFi internet connection. The Android OS has been customized by HP to include only apps for printing stuff, the idea being that you can carry around this Android tablet and launch a bunch of prints wirelessly and dock it to your printer for charging. This may be the first Yahoo customized Android device, it doesn’t include Google apps/email/maps/marketplace but uses exclusively Yahoo apps and widgets.

Source: http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-hps-photosmart-estation-printer-and-its-detachable-android-tablet-video

Pixel Qi 7″ screens coming too

Posted by Charbax – September 20, 2010
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Displays, Opinions, Archos, Pixel Qi

Pixel Qi is the single most revolutionary LCD screen technology, adding the benefits of low power, reflectivity, long form and outdoor readability all the while providing a switch on the side of the device to provide full color backlight mode to the screen as well. Thus combining Tablets with E-readers, making 50-hour tablet battery runtime without increasing battery size a possibility and bringing full color video, web browsing and full Android UIs to E-readers. The 10.1″ screen will be announced soon for more products than just Notion Ink and Innoversal:

We will be announcing other products carrying Pixel Qi screens here in this blog; stay tuned.

Pixel Qi provides some insights into the reason why several tablet projects including the ones to use Pixel Qi have been delayed because of the success of the disruptive iPad:

Tight supply chain and 100% factory usage this spring and summer coupled with Apple’s disruptive iPad effectively had a 1-2 punch impact: delaying most tablet makers from coming to market as early as they wished. The situation has eased: the supply chain is more robust and factory capacity is widely available. Many of our device makers used this downtime to refine their designs with the result being even more exciting offerings that are highly differentiated from the iPad with options well beyond ATT for carriers. These device maker partners will be making more announcements coming this fall.

And so, a screen that I think would be perfect for the Archos 70 Internet Tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Foxconn ARM11 Powered 7″ Tablet reference design, Pixel Qi is announcing the development of the 7″ Pixel Qi screen size. Here’s also who needs to absolutely use the 7″ Pixel Qi screen, the $35 Indian HRD Tablet Project!!!

We are developing a 7” screen for tablets and ereaders that is planned for mass production in H1 2011. Samples will be available earlier, perhaps by late Q4 2010.

In my opinion, everyone in the industry with 7″ and 10.1″ LCD tablet projects, all need to be a part of this revolution and need to use this amazing screen. Hopefully with mass manufacturing and large serious orders, the screen will be cheap enough to be close to the price of a normal LCD, hopefully the yield and the long term performance in use will be just as good as normal LCD.

Source: http://pixelqi.com/blog1/2010/09/17/pixel-qi-tablet-availability-diy-screen-success-and-other-updates/

PocketBook 360 review (part 1)

Posted by Charbax – September 18, 2010
Category: E-readers, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Samsung, Archos

Here is an overview of the design and the size of the PocketBook 360 e-ink e-reader. This e-reader device has a nice compact 5″ e-ink screen with a nice screen cover design making it pocketable unlike the Kindle. This device is widely available on the worldwide markets such as for $193 on Amazon.com and remains one of PocketBook’s best selling products thus far, making PocketBook the third most popular e-ink e-reader manufacturer. In my next part of this review that I will post in the next few days, I will show you the user interfaces of the latest firmware update. Wouldn’t it be cool if such pocketable e-ink e-reader device was to get 3G/WiFi/Bluetooth as well as a Wacom-style digitizer screen or Sony’s new infrared/laser touch screen technology?

netbooknews.com: Nufront’s ARM Cortex-A9 development box, can run up to 2Ghz Dual-core

Posted by Charbax – September 18, 2010
Category: Laptops, Nufront, Android

In parallel with the Intel Developer Forum, just next to Intel’s event, some competitors are showing such nice things as this ARM Cortex A9 processor design and implementation by Chinese manufacturer Nufront, they say that final products with this could be on the market below $250 before Christmas with power consumption below 2W for the whole system. They plan this solution for low cost and low power Netbook and Desktop style products.

This video was released at: http://www.netbooknews.com/9048/nufront-readies-2-0ghz-dual-core-arm-cortex-a9-processor/

My top-15 videos filmed at IFA, Best of IFA 2010

Posted by Charbax – September 12, 2010
Category: Opinions, Top Video Lists, IFA, Archos, Google, Pixel Qi

The IFA consumer electronics show was cool, from September 2nd to 8th in Berlin Germany, I video-blogged 65 videos of the best products that I could find at the show. Here, as my Best Of IFA post, I would like to list the top-10 videos of the top-10 products of IFA 2010 that I filmed:

1. Archos 101 Internet Tablet, first 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.2 Froyo ARM cortex A8 45nm Tablet to be sold below $299. It’s really thin, at 480gr it’s 30% lighter than the iPad yet offers 12% wider screen surface (better for movies and TV shows). HDMI output and USB host and full video and audio codecs support. All that for $200 cheaper than the iPad.

2. Archos 43 Internet Tablet, nicely priced below $199 alternative to HTC EVO and Droid X, with no expensive contracts needed for this 4.3″ Froyo Android 2.2 experience

3. Archos 28 Internet Tablet, first ARM Cortex A8 45nm Android 2.2 Froyo device to be priced below $99 with no contracts needed, that’s 2.3 times cheaper than the iPod Touch

(yup, I am an Archos fanboy.. but so is ARM and Texas Instruments too..)

4. Toshiba AC-100 ARM Tegra2 Powered Android Laptop, this is the first mass produced ARM Cortex A9 powered laptop to be brought to the market, it is a significant product. Toshiba has done a super good keyboard and mouse-pad design for it and it is really thin and light. Now of course, all that is needed, is better software for it. I don’t think it is enough for them to just take open source Android and port it to it and add few custom widgets on top. They need to port the full Chrome web browser to Android. They need to officially support a triple-boot configuration on this ARM Powered laptop with Chrome OS for ARM and with Ubuntu for ARM also being optional OS to boot into. Also, I do think the $299 price point is a bit high. The idea with the ARM powered laptops is that they are going to be much cheaper and better value than the Intel powered ones. I think the relatively high price is only due to Toshiba being the first to market and them wanting to enjoy larger profit margins while they wait for all the other manufacturers to join the party. Also, once they get the Pixel Qi screen in there, the battery runtime will be close to 40 hours on such a device.

5. PocketBook 903 Pro, I really like the idea of 3G/WiFi/Bluetooth and Wacom-style digitizer in an A4 sized e-ink e-reader. I would like Chrome-to-phone like features, to throw any article and ebooks from my web browser directly onto such more readable display, and then I would also like to see connected annotation collaboration and communication features added, all those things are just software things.

6. Sony Reader PRS-650 Touch Edition, I am impressed with Sony’s new touch screen technology for their new e-readers. Although I would say it is a bit sad that Sony never updates their e-reader firmwares, that this 229€ version does not include WiFi nor Bluetooth nor 3G for connectivity. Still, the finger and stylus laser based touch screen technology is great for UI navigation and for annotations. I also like the fact that Sony is marketing it to be supporting free library borrowing of all e-books, I much prefer borrowing all ebooks for free and legally than paying $10 per ebook or pirating them. The electronic ebook library concept will be fascinating way for people to access all ebooks for free.

7. Samsung Galaxy Tab, for sure one of the big highlights of this IFA is to see such a huge company as Samsung going all in with the 7″ capacitive Android tablet market, I can’t wait to see how successful their marketing will be with this against the iPad. The whole area of discussions around Google supporting of Android tablets, it is simply fascinating. Of course, obviously, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is highly overpriced at 799€ without contract and 1359€ with 2-year contract. But it sure is a nice product and the tablet market really makes me happy.

8. UMEC Freescale i.MX51 based 7″ Android tablets, I like the features and possibilities of this hardware. See my other Freescale tablet videos such as the one running Chromium OS on it, it should be totally possible.

9. iMuz 5″ Android tablet, this South Korean company seemed to me to have pretty good Telechips ARM11 based Android tablet devices on display.

10. Sharp’s Parallax Barrier 3D screen, it’s pretty amazing to experience it at the trade show on display. This is the 3.8″ WVGA 3D screen that the Nintendo 3DS is going to use. It really works, although probably best with 3D games once the Nintendo comes out than with low quality built-in 3D cameras. You have to hold the screen in the middle and around exactly 30 centimeters from your eyes, my guess though with the Nintendo, this might become easy to get used to hold it like that and I also like Nintendo will have a slider on the side that will enable to lower or to completely remove the 3D effect of the screen.

My follow-ups:

11. Interpad’s Tegra2 Powered Android 2.2 Tablet, a really nice Android tablet too, to be priced 399€. I think it is based on the Malata Android tablet design that I filmed at Computex.

12. Toshiba Folio 100 Tegra2 Android tablet, yet another Tegra2 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.2 Tablet to come out, also priced above 399€.

13. Philips GoGear Connect, one of the first non-3G Android devices based on the Freescale i.MX51 ARM Cortex A8 processor with official Google Marketplace support but price is likely going to be above 249€.

14. Samsung YP-G50, another lower cost Android media player device, also to compete with the iPod Touch, with official Google Marketplace support and a slower Samsung ARM11 processor, the price is also likely to be at least the same as the iPod Touch.

15. Mobile Tech 5″ Android Tablet, this company is also making some interesting Telechips ARM11 based Android tablets.

If you have any other preferences for Best of IFA, you are welcome to post those in the comments.

NewTek TriCaster TCXD850 and NewTek TriCaster TCXD300 released

Posted by Charbax – September 12, 2010
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, Intel, IFA

TriCaster TCXD850 is a 26’000€ real-time video editing Windows box with some Intel processors inside and a lot of connectors. Basically it allows for HD live tv editing in a box. But it’s really expensive and I wonder if a regular ARM Powered or Intel Powered laptop with the right software couldn’t do most of the same basic multi-camera live editing kind of things.

SD Association announces 300mb/s next generation SD 4.0 cards

Posted by Charbax – September 11, 2010
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, IFA

Those next generation SD cards can be made even faster. The new cards will have two rows of pins, and by having two rows of pins the new card will support up to 300mb/s transfer speeds.

Samsung Galaxy Tab is 799€ (unlocked), 1359€ with 2-year 5GB/month service contract

Posted by Charbax – September 11, 2010
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Samsung, IFA, Android

I asked T-Mobile and Vodafone at IFA 2010 in Berlin, they both confirmed that their retail price for the Samsung Galaxy Tab when bought without the 2-year 40€/month contract, is going to be 799€. Thus the price is 1359€ with 2-years of 5GB/month contracts at 40€/month including the 200-300€ purchase price for the device. 5GB/month can otherwise also be had for 15€/month in Germany without contracts using Aldi and 20€/month without contract with Tchibo SIM cards.

So by signing up for a 2-year contract for a Samsung Galaxy Tab, the actual cost for the device is higher at 1000€ since 15€ x 24 months only amounts to 360€ and that the 15€/month for 5GB/month with Aldi can actually be stopped at any time as it does not have to be on a contract.

My point? The Samsung Galaxy Tab is really expensive. Samsung really sees an opportunity to make a lot of money for themselves and for their carrier partners by selling this device to as many people as possible. The high price of the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab I think are great opportunities for other players to provide lower cost tablet alternatives to the market.

ARM Cortex A15 is unveiled

Posted by Charbax – September 10, 2010
Category: Texas Instruments, Samsung, ST-Ericsson

The ARM Eagle platform is to be clalled ARM Cortex A15, targetted to be found in products to ship by 2013, will enable Mobile Computing, Smart phones and Tablets that are to be 10 times more powerful than current ones on the market while still achieving low power consumption and cost effective hardware designs. Texas Instruments, ST Ericsson and Samsung are announcing that they are building such processor designs.

The launch of the Cortex A-15 processor marks an exciting milestone for ARM, it brings together more than 20 years of ARMs expertise in low power design with new leading edge technologies. Together, these will enable further opportunities for ARM Partners to develop the consumer products for the next generation of connected computing.

For now, on this site, we are going to have a lot more fun with the ARM Cortex A8 that are on the market and being released and ARM Cortex A9 products to be released soon. But we are also looking forward to even more powerful yet low power and low enough cost ARM processors to achieve even more in terms of bringing ARM architechture up further from the smart phone, up to tablets, laptops, desktops and even to power the future of servers doing all the cloud computing.

How powerful do you think ARM Cortex A15 is going to be? You can discuss in the comments.

Google TV at IFA 2010

Posted by Charbax – September 8, 2010
Category: Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, IFA, Google TV

Google TV is going to change the way people watch TV. I am very much looking forward to testing the Logitech Revue and Sony Google TV solutions, even though they get released in the USA first, my guess for $300 or more it may even require subscribing to cable/satellite TV content packages.

Once Google TV is released open source, I think we could see ARM Powered Google TV alternatives also come to the market, with the whole HDMI throughput and IR blaster features being optional and eventually not even the most used option.

Google TV is best with content partnerships in place, if Google can access all the program guide informations it can provide better search of what is on TV. And the amazing feature of Google actually storing the DVR recordings on the cloud and streaming those from there, also completely disrupts the whole DVR business, fantastic.

But I also think Google TV does not need content deals to function just fine. It works on top of existing TV, no matter if the current TV channel owners and distributors agree for it to be there or not. HDMI input and output can’t be blocked. Google should go ahead and release Google TV to all countries of the world, and they should the open specifications and source code to the world, and release this solution to all set-top-box and HDTV makers. This will instantly make obsolete all the previous solutions by Philips NetTV, Samsung, LG SmartTV, Panasonic VieraCast. They will all see it in their interest to use Google TV protocol of features instead. I like the idea of Google TV on a set-top-box to work on any existing HDTV, I wonder if HDTVs with built-in Google TV could eventually come with a Google TV module that could be upgraded in the future if newer Google TV hardware appears at cheaper price than buying a new set-top-box.