The Tower Sensor Pack allows users to discover sensors. Find more information at http://freescale.com/tower and http://towergeeks.org
Category: Freescale
P&E Micro USB Multilink Universal, Cyclone PRO, Cyclone MAX
Posted by – June 21, 2011
Connect your Freescale board to your PC through USB for debugging.
FTF 2011 (June 20-23rd) starts, look for my full video coverage
Posted by – June 20, 2011
Category: Freescale
The Freescale Technology Forum is underway. Check back for videos on all the latest Freescale powered devices and news.
I’m at the Freescale Technology Forum 2011 in San Antonio
During the next 4 days (June 20-23rd), follow my RSS feed, add my RSS to your Google Reader, subscribe to my YouTube channel, I will be posting my best videos directly from the Freescale Technology Forum 2011 here in San Antonio Texas. Look forward to lots of awesome new Freescale powered devices and news.
If you have heard about any awesome stuff to be shown at the FTF, any cool companies that you think that I should interview, please post your tips here in the comments or send me your tips at charbax@gmail.com or on the Submit news page.
Android Infrared-touch i.MX508 are the new thing for E Ink e-readers
Both of the new amazingly priced Nook Touch ($139) and Kobo Touch ($129) seem to use the new Freescale i.MX508 (I first filmed i.MX508 a year ago) to facilitate smooth touch interfaces using Infrared Touch technology (first used in the Sony PRS-650) but also to easily enable those to be the first Android powered e-ink e-readers! Basically i.MX508 and Android makes first real useful use of WiFi and Touch on e-ink e-readers! Using Android on e-ink is awesome to provide for great files support, web browser, easily add apps like news readers, rss readers, Chrome-To-Phone functionality (just beam any article or any text from your Chrome browser on your laptop to your e-ink e-reader in one click!), synchronizing of bookmarks, wireless beaming of web based ebooks, all in one click. Android on e-ink just increases the e-readers potential greatly. Using infrared touchscreen technology is a great way to provide the best possible readability, not adding any layers on top of the screen.
Look forward to much more fascinating devices to come with:
i.MX508 + Android + infrared touch + WiFi/3G + e-ink = Low-cost e-ink e-readers!
Also see my video of the alternative Acoustic Pulse Recognition (APR) touch technology.
An interesting thing to follow though will be to see how open Android i.MX508 e-ink e-reader makers will be towards allowing for alternative e-book stores, and allowing for full open Android apps installation and full unrestricted access to the web browser. As it may be that part of the profit margins on these new low-cost e-ink e-readers may be subsidized by the hardware makers expecting to make later huge profits on selling e-books, like Amazon does with their Kindle e-book store, it will be fun to see if all the e-ink e-reader makers will seize the opportunity to be open with Android on e-ink and at the same time find new interesting ways to monetize those. I for example would prefer paying less than $10 per month for unlimited legal access to all e-books, all newspapers, all blogs, all websites, everything, perhaps even certain 3G bandwidth included, but will content owners and hardware makers be open minded enough to let that happen quickly?
When will Google officially announce open source Android optimizations for e-ink devices and with deep integration of Google Books, Google Reader, Google Fast Flip and more?
Here’s how I think those e-ink e-readers could be sold in the best way: $99, $10/month optional pre-paid plan gives 100mb 3G data (upgradable bandwidth for $1/100mb or less) and full unlimited access to all e-books, all e-newspapers, e-magazines, blogs through RSS/search and more. Full unrestricted web browsing on e-ink. And nice complete cloud syncing with your Smartphone, Tablet and Laptop. While e-ink e-reader market is doing great perhaps reaching 20 million units to be sold this year, if they price them right and open them fully, I think they’ll do even better.
Sources for these videos: the-ebook-reader.com, engadget.com
Related articles
- Kobo Bets on a Smaller, Touch Sensitive E-Reader (gigaom.com)
- Tipster: New Nook is ‘The Simple Touch Reader’ (news.cnet.com)
- $129 Kobo eReader Touch Edition unveiled, original slashed to $99 (geek.com)
e-ink touch screen technologies shown by Freescale at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 2, 2011
Tyco Electronics introduces Acoustic Pulse Recognition (APR) touch screen technology in a reference e-ink touch screen based on Android on the Freescale i.MX508 platform.
Freescale Tablet strategy at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 2, 2011
Freescale is still showing just the i.MX51 and i.MX53 platforms at Computex, but this time, they emphasize the aspect of customizing tablets for niche uses, kind of providing for the long tail of the tablet market. Especially in the Chinese market, which could amount to 7 million tablets this year alone, Freescale has a pretty significant market share.
A further update on Linaro status at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 2, 2011
Category: Exclusive videos, Freescale, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Computex, Android, Chrome OS, Google TV, Ubuntu
At Computex 2011, Linaro gave an update on their status, with some new technical demos showing graphics and other hardware acceleration that thy are working on.
Related articles
- Linaro to establish leadership in embedded software accross all ARM chips (armdevices.net)
- Linaro and Samsung roll out Exynos 4210-based Origen development board for $199 (engadget.com)
- Linaro Non-Profit is Rapidly Hitting Embedded Linux Milestones (ostatic.com)
- Linaro: Now a Year Old, the Linux Effort Begins to Deliver (pcworld.com)
- ARM President Tudor Brown Computex 2011 keynote (armdevices.net)
- Linaro supports Linux and Android on new Cortex-A9 open platform board (linuxfordevices.com)
- Samsung courts developers with low-cost Origen Exynos dev board (thinq.co.uk)
Play Doom on an E-ink screen
Posted by – April 20, 2011
Fun demo playing Doom on an e-ink screen using the new PocketBook 360 Plus.
Related articles
- Doom 2 gets ported to PocketBook 360 Plus e-reader (video) (engadget.com)
- Pocketbook 360 Plus ereader plays Doom 2 (who needs ebooks?) [Video] (slashgear.com)
- Doom 2 seen running on an E-Ink display (geek.com)
PocketBook 360 Plus
Posted by – April 17, 2011
PocketBook has updated their popular 5″ e-ink e-reader with a new faster Vizplex e-ink screen, a faster Freescale i.MX35 533Mhz arm11 processor and WiFi support.
Starworth Freescale Capacitive tablets
Posted by – April 17, 2011
Star worth are doing open mold tablets.
KM Technology Marvell and Freescale based tablets
Posted by – April 16, 2011
They make Marvell and Freescale based tablets.
Cwlinux.com embedded software and hardware solutions
Posted by – April 16, 2011
Category: Software, Other, Exclusive videos, Freescale, Texas Instruments, VIA, HKTDC Electronics Fair, Android, Ubuntu
They provide ARM Powered hardware and software solutions, based on Freescale, Texas Instruments, VIA and other.
Umedia shows a Freescale i.MX53 tablet prototype
Posted by – April 15, 2011
One of the first real i.MX53 tablet prototypes I have seen other than the reference design development kit.
Shenzhen Behind the Scenes 2: utopiacn, Apad Android Tablet maker
Posted by – April 12, 2011
See how this small Chinese Android tablet maker makes it happen, how they do it, see UtopiaCN’s boss show his new 10″ Freescale i.MX51 powered Android tablet, with tea and cigarettes, meet the creator of the famous Apad Android Tablets line, he says he was the first to introduce the ipad-copies and that everyone else copied his copies. They specialize in making Freescale i.MX51 and later i.MX53 tablets, and they also have some AmLogic PCBs lying around. Find more information about them and order their products at http://utopiacn.com
Also watch my other videos in my series “Shenzhen Behind the Scenes“:
1: Hongda Factory tour
2: utopiacn, Apad Android Tablet maker
3: Richtechie.com, Freescale i.MX51/53 PCB designer
4: Walking around the Shenzhen smartphone market
5: 3Gnet Factory Tour
Shenzhen Behind the Scenes 3: Richtechie.com, Freescale i.MX51/53 PCB designer
Posted by – April 12, 2011
The PCB is the motherboard, it includes the ARM Processor, all the main components of an ARM Powered device. The PCB designer designs that PCB according to plan to fit a certain amount of functionality into a given price point. They take the ARM SoC and puts it on a compact motherboard design, one that fits in Android tablets, Smartphones and more. In this video you can see some of the young engineers working at http://richtechie.com on the current and future Freescale i.MX51 and i.MX53 designs that this PCB makers customers want to release to the market.
Also watch my other videos in my series “Shenzhen Behind the Scenes“:
1: Hongda Factory tour
2: utopiacn, Apad Android Tablet maker
3: Richtechie.com, Freescale i.MX51/53 PCB designer
4: Walking around the Shenzhen smartphone market
5: 3Gnet Factory Tour
NewWay Freescale i.MX515 Capacitive $244 Tablet
Posted by – April 10, 2011
szppm is showing this 9.7″ same quality as iPad1 LG touch screen, based on the Freescale i.MX515 it’s sold for $244 at retail price, thus can be gotten from them for a bunch cheaper in bulk.
Synrgic Dreambook Freescale i.MX515 Android tablet
Posted by – April 9, 2011
Here’s a cheap Android tablet presented by Synrgic at the Shenzhen Electronics Fair.
