Category: Texas Instruments

Kopin Golden-i 3.8 headmounted ARM Powered wearable computer for augmented video-blogging

Posted by Charbax – January 13, 2013
Category: Wearables, Smart Glass, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Kopin, Android, Windows

Kopin presents their new next generation wearable computer, headmounted hands-free interface micro-display connected device. This time it’s lighter, more compact, runs on a much faster OMAP4470, interfaces with Verizon’s LTE network, runs longer on a smaller battery, has a new higher-resolution micro-display, has a new better design. The Golden-i 3.8 is being released through Verizon in the USA during the next few months, through Vodafone in Europe, there are also potential carrier distributors for India and China. The use is industrial such as for using wearable computers for firefighters, police, doctors, mechanics, construction workers, military and more. The use can also be for all professionals and enthusiasts and early adopters of wearable computing.

During CES 2013, I was live video-streaming to a Google+ Hangout while reading the live IRC chat in the Golden-i headmounted display, that custom Google+ Hangouts and IRC chat functionality was programmed for me by Dave Hollick of Ikanos Consulting. This is just scratching the surface of what thishardware can do. With Android support coming to the Golden-i within a couple months, the whole Google+ Hangouts app and IRC apps can be made to run directly within the Golden-i, with voice-commands and voice dictation to live-blog, live-post to Google+ and live-tweet hands-free, for rapidly increasing the capabilities of ones headmounted hands-free Augmented Video-blogging setup.

This is how I video-blog.

Nicolas Charbonnier Golden-i 3.8 OMAP4470 Panasonic GH3 Steadicam Merlin 2 with vest

As Google’s Project Glass approaches early public testing phases, the enthusiasm for wearable computing is rapidly ramping up during 2013, I think that we can expect some really amazing things to become possible and usable using these types of wearable computing. Check back in the weeks and months to come on http://ARMdevices.net for much more coverage of the real useful usage of wearable computers with the Kopin Golden-i representing the forefront of what we can expect.

Archos TV Connect, $129 OMAP4470 HD webcam, Bluetooth remote, Archos Android set-top-box

Posted by Charbax – January 13, 2013
Category: Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Archos, Android

Archos launches their new TV Set-top-box system based on the dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP4470 with SGX544 GPU, it features a HD webcam, Ethernet, HDMI output, USB Host, Bluetooth 4.0 low-power support, (probably Miracast support), runs Android 4.1 and everything that also runs on Archos’s latest 101/97 XS Generation 10 series. You can use Archos new Bluetooth 4.0 remote and you can also use any other Bluetooth game controller from Xbox360/PS3/Wii and you can use any Bluetooth or RF/USB Keyboard and mice also for controls. The price is $129.

LEGO Mindstorms EV3 launched

Posted by Charbax – January 13, 2013
Category: Robots, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Android

LEGO Mindstorms EV3 turns your LEGO creations into live robots that follow your command. The new LEGO Mindstorms EV3 set includes new motors, new sensors, new programmable brick that runs hackable Linux on a Texas Instruments AM1808 ARM9 processor (upgraded from ARM7 in the previous mindstorms), 550+ LEGO Technic elements, remote control – to create and command robots, including 5 cool robot characters. The 3D building instructions and the Android/iOS app commands your robot via Bluetooth or WiFi. You can program your robots to walk, talk, move via the software program, the programmable brick or your smart device. Download brochure.

Ubuntu Mobile OS and Ubuntu for Android at CES 2013

Posted by Charbax – January 9, 2013
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Ubuntu

Canonical launches their new smartphone OS. I ask them what the difference is between Ubuntu Mobile OS and Ubuntu for Android on mobile.

Android 4.1 firmware on Archos 101 XS

Posted by Charbax – December 4, 2012
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

Archos updates the firmware (in the next few days) on their latest high-end $299/299€ Archos 101 XS Tablet to 4.1 Jelly Bean, fully using hardware acceleration, integrating Google’s Project Butter, now with Google Now support, Archos also has upgraded some of the web-based meta-data functionalities in their Video Player application, it automatically detects videos that need meta data, posters and fan arts loaded in so that you can have a more interesting way to browse through your movies and tv shows library. This video also features the $49 Keyboard Coverboard Dock and the new $149/149€ dual-25W stereo Archos Speaker Dock.

12.85″ Pixel Qi Chrome OS Android 5.0 Laptop/Tablet Hybrid by Google for Q1 2013?

Posted by Charbax – November 27, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Opinions, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Google, Android, Chrome OS

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Chromebook on Android

Here are my expectations for Google’s rumored upcoming Chrome OS laptop/tablet hybrid:

– 12.85″ Pixel Qi LCD, Google sponsored, to be available to all other Android hardware makers as a new component. (Plastics based flexible unbreakable LCD for thinner lighter waterproof dustproof unbreakable build)

– Optical lamination allows for outdoor readable capacitive Pixel Qi LCD. Otherwise IR based Neonode touch can work.

– 20 million initial production batch, enough to make a significant mark on the market, next batch can be 100 million units.

– Android 5.0 to support Chrome OS on top of Android. Same for Ubuntu on top of Android. Multi-booting becomes standard feature of Android. It’s not really multi-booting, it’s enabling to run alternative Linux OSes on top of the base Linux OS of Android.

– $200, available worldwide on day 1. Second batch can be sold for $150 or $100. Schools can get rebates if they order one for every child. Google can subsidize a few of those millions to be used by Children in developing countries through the One Laptop Per Child project.

– 16GB Flash with SD slots and potentially a 2.5″ HDD slot.

– 25 hours battery life. 200 grams flat battery dock doubles battery life to 50 hours.

– Swivel screen. Super slim keyboard can hide behind screen for tablet mode.

– ARM Cortex-A15, either OMAP5 with SGX544 or Exynos5 with Mali-T604. Maybe another comparable ARM Processor.

– Modem slot, all types modems available as options, 3G+, LTE, White Spaces, easily user swapable. There is space for an internal usb modem too.

Let me know what you think of this rumored Google hybrid here or at my Google+ thread.

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laptopmag.com: Cotton Candy FXI-Tech Exynos4210 HDMI Stick reviewed

Posted by Charbax – November 20, 2012
Category: HDMI Sticks, Allwinner, Rockchip, Freescale, AmLogic, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Telechips, Android

I think the Norwegian guys at Cotton Candy FXI-Tech actually kind of invented the HDMI stick market, when they first showed a prototype of the Cotton Candy exactly a year ago in November 2011. Since then, tons of other ARM SoCs have been shown and released to the worldwide market:
January 2012: Allways Innovating shows OMAP4 on HDMI Stick (not released yet as far as I know),
March 2012: Telechips Cortex-A5 ultra compact HDMI sticks (2, 3) appears (probably still the most compact)
May 2012: The Allwinner A10 Mk802 appears, has taken most of the market, appearing for $74 but now available for $25 from Shenzhen, a version is $40 with free worldwide shipping in the ARMdevices.net members store.
June 2012: Geniatech shows AmLogic single-core Cortex-A9 in HDMI Stick (available for $49 with worldwide shipping in the ARMdevices.net members store)
September 2012: RK3066 is ready for dual-core HDMI sticks
October 2012: The dual-core AmLogic MX HDMI stick and $99 with worldwide shipping the ARMdevices.net members store).
More RK3066 HDMI Sticks shown, the one with Bluetooth, mini-jack audio out and female HDMI port selling for $60 including worldwide shipping the ARMdevices.net members store.
And now perhaps the most powerful HDMI stick on the market is the i.MX6 Quad-core HDMI stick (2), available for $89 including worldwide shipping hopefully starting later today on the ARMdevices.net Members Store.

Read the full review of the Cotton Candy FXI-Tech HDMI Stick with many pictures here: http://blog.laptopmag.com/cotton-candy-tested-fastest-pc-on-a-stick-can-take-over-any-screen

Re-watch my overview video of the latest HDMI Sticks from Shenzhen:

$240 SmartDevices T30 10.1″ 1280×800 OMAP4470, $300 SmartQ U7, SmartQ U7H 7″ with built-in DLP projector

Posted by Charbax – October 27, 2012
Category: Tablets, Projectors, Exclusive videos, Members Content, Texas Instruments, China Sourcing Fair, Android

SmartDevices shows their latest couple of tablets, their $240 Texas Instruments OMAP4470 10.1″ 1280×800 running Jelly Bean, and their new 7″ SmartQ U7 on OMAP4430 and SmartQ U7H on OMAP4460 with a built-in 854×480 DLP projector. SmartDevices also talks about their work on the upcoming OMAP5 ARM Cortex-A15 processor, to be released perhaps as soon as the end of the year.

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Innoio Innocube pico projector at the HKTDC Electronics Fair

Posted by Charbax – October 25, 2012
Category: Projectors, Exclusive videos, Members Content, Texas Instruments, HKTDC Electronics Fair

Check out this cubic pico projector, the Innocube from Innoio.

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SCT shows DLP pico-projector in MT6577 dual-core phone

Posted by Charbax – October 15, 2012
Category: Smartphones, Projectors, Exclusive videos, Members Content, MediaTek, Texas Instruments, HKTDC Electronics Fair, Android

Texas Instrument’s pico projector technology is about to reach into my and more smartphones and tablets, here demonstrated by SCT integrated into an MT6577 smartphone. The price of the DLP pico projector module ads about $50 to 60 to the bill of materials of the smartphone. Battery consumption can possibly be decent depending on the brightness of the lumen output, perhaps not using much more power than the backlight of the same phone.

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Archos 80 XS and Archos 97 XS

Posted by Charbax – October 13, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Exclusive videos, Rockchip, Texas Instruments, HKTDC Electronics Fair, Archos, Android

Archos is launching two more sizes for their Generation 10 Android Tablet series, including the $199 Archos 80 XS and the $299 Archos 97 XS, each with the optional $49 Archos Coverboard Keyboard Dock. I’ve been using my Archos 101 XS every day during these past 45 days, replacing my broken $1000 Intel Ultrabook for all of my on-the-go productivity and 10.1″ Tablet usage. It’s much thinner and lighter than an Intel laptop, the thin and light keyboard dock ads productivity to the already very awesome OMAP4470 tablet. The same priced $299 Archos 97 XS runs on the same OMAP4470 and the $199 Archos 80 XS runs on the Rockchip RK3066 processor to achieve thus a Nexus7-like price point with its own awesome thin and light magnetic Keyboard dock.

LG L9, OMAP4430 4.7″ Android Phone

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2012
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, IFA, Android

LG L9 with a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 OMAP4430 with SGX540 GPU, with a nice large 4.7″ qHD display and a retail price at $299/299€.

HSA Foundation Keynote at IFA 2012

Posted by Charbax – September 4, 2012
Category: 4K UHD, MediaTek, Texas Instruments, Samsung, AMD, IFA, ARM

Phil Rogers, President of the HSA Foundation (Heterogeneous System Architecture) comprising members ARM, AMD, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, Samsung Electronics and Texas Instruments, at IFA is announcing new members Apical, Arteris, MulticoreWare, Sonics, Symbio and Vivante talks about The Next Era of Computing Innovation including the demonstration of a range of use cases for a standard to optimize the use of CPU and GPU to accelerate the performance of applications on devices and in the cloud.

Huawei IFA 2012 Press Conference

Posted by Charbax – August 30, 2012
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, HiSilicon, Qualcomm, IFA, Android

Here are some of the highlights of the Huawei IFA 2012 Press Conference. They are launching a whole range of new Android phones Y201 pro for $129/129€, G330 for $199/199€, G600 for $299/299€, P1 for $399/399€ and D1 Quad XL for $449/449€ and tablets 10FHD and MediaPad 7 Lite on the European and worldwide markets in October, and they are also launching their new Huawei Emotion UI.

Archos 101 XS review, Ultrabook-killing machine

Posted by Charbax – August 25, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

In this video, I show web browsing speed on this OMAP4470 ARM Powered Laptop/Tablet convertible. This ARM Powered Laptop loads web pages faster than the Ultrabook, both over the same WiFi home network! I load web pages like Engadget.com, Gizmodo.com and TheVerge.com faster on the $400 Archos 101 XS than on the $1000 Toshiba z830 Ultrabook! And the firmware isn’t even Jelly Bean yet! It’ll get the Jelly Bean firmware by the time Archos starts selling this device next month in Europe or the month after that in the USA! Everyone knows Jelly Bean and Linaro speeds up Android even more!

This Archos 101 XS likely provides one of the industry’s fastest performance for productivity on Android, it’s the first OMAP4470 device announced and demonstrated that I know of. Productivity is in Chrome on Android and a few other productivity apps that can be the Office suite (included for free for word/excell/powerpoint stuff) and that can also be Remote Desktop for enterprise professionals who want productivity that way using Teradici and Citrix on Android stuff. I would like Archos to integrate Ubuntu on Android also, I hope they call Canonical to get that included with the Jelly Bean firmware. Thus you’d click on the Ubuntu icon to switch to Ubuntu in a second, do whatever you want in Ubuntu including run any Ubuntu application, and then have the same icon on Ubuntu to switch back to full Android in a second too.

While we’re waiting and looking forward to even faster ARM Cortex-A15 with Mali-T604, that likely doesn’t reach consumer devices until next year though. Right now, the latest and best class of ARM Cortex-A9 processors, with OMAP4470, with 32nm Exynos 4412, with 28nm Qualcomm S4 Pro Quad-core, with HiSilicon K3V2, i.MX6 Quad, we’re getting some excellent memory bandwidth performance on ARM allowing for fast enough full 720p/800p even 1080p web browsing speeds on Tablet, Laptop screens and on any external monitors as a Desktop/Set-top-box with full fast enough performance for productivity!

The time we’ve been waiting for is here! The ARM Powered Laptop is faster than an Intel Atom Netbook! It’s even faster than an Intel Core i5 Ultrabook!!!

While at $299 and an unlimited amount of cash (think: French/EU Francois Hollande national IT investment project) for mass production, I think Archos can single handedly be able to sell more Android Laptops like this one than all the Intel/Microsoft Ultrabooks/Netbooks and new Windows 8 convertibles put together. At $399 introductory Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price, Archos can still get in there and sell as many as Archos can afford to manufacture, selling easily at 50% cheaper than the iPad3 with keyboard ($598), at 63% cheaper than the Asus Transformer Prime/Infinity with keyboard ($648), this is the thinnest, lightest 10.1″ ARM Powered Laptop/Tablet convertible yet. And it has features other tablet makers don’t have such as full hardware accelerated video and audio codecs support, MicroSD/HDMI and USB Host, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi Direct, 1080p@60fps/3D@1080p@30fps and multimedia streaming features such as Samba/Upnp and DLNA.

I think it’s great value and I’m looking forward to try to use this as my main 10.1″ tablet/laptop instead of my ultrabook for the next few weeks and months. Let me know in the comments what specific features you’d like me to test on this device in my next video of it.

Archos 101 XS launched, check back for my video-review tomorrow

Posted by Charbax – August 22, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

Sure $299 with keyboard would have been nicest, but even at $399 it’s a no-brainer:

Archos 101 XS with keyboard: $399
Asus Transformer Pad TF300 with keyboard: $528 (+33%)
Acer Iconia Tab A700 with keyboard: $598 (+50%)
Asus Transformer Prime with keyboard: $648 (+63%)
iPad3 with keyboard: $598 (+50%)
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with keyboard: $598 (+50%)
Microsoft Surface with keyboard: $599 (likely) (+50%)

Archos 101 XS is the thinnest, the lightest, has better performance than Tegra3, offers fastest GPU and memory bandwidth on the market (the 32nm Exynos4412 probably beats or equals though), offers features none of those more expensive devices have.

Check back for my initial extensive video-review of Archos 101 XS Gen10 tomorrow!! I expect to use this as my favorite 10″ device to replace all other 10″ tablets, Netbooks and Ultrabooks in the months to come.

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FCC does it again, leaks new Archos generation

Posted by Charbax – July 29, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android, Chrome OS, Ubuntu, Windows

Another year, another Generation of Archos tablets is leaked exclusively through blurry pictures on the FCC leaking machine. Same happened with G5 in 2007, G7 in 2009, Home Tablet in 2010, G8 in 2010 (2). Here’s the Archos G10 XS (all FCC documents):


Rumored or confirmed:

TI OMAP4470 ARM Cortex-A9 processor
New Proprietary Dock for the included Keyboard Dock (maybe something else too)
Kick-stand (called Tablet Stand) is on the Keyboard Dock
Keyboard doubles as thin screen protector and seems to use a new twist function (with or without magnets) to attach and detach from the tablet.
Micro-SD, Mini-HDMI, Micro-USB (dunno if doubles as host)

Is there some kind of conspiracy? Why does the US FCC always leak Archos new devices before Archos decides to unveil those products to the press officially?

Consider some reasons why Archos Generation 10 can be very attractive to massive audiences:

– Price can start $299 for 10.1″ with the included Keyboard Dock.
– That can be $200 to $300 cheaper than Microsoft Surface.
– No technical reason that Archos G10 can’t also dual-boot into Chrome OS for ARM and even triple-boot into Windows 8 for ARM, Windows RT, if Microsoft simply allows Archos have a triple-boot on it (give the option to the consumer to pay for the Windows RT licence if they want to be able to triple-boot into it).
– This at $299 can be a very attractive ARM Powered Laptop/Tablet combo. Why not triple-boot Ubuntu, or Archos pick up the phone and talk with Canonical to ship it with the Ubuntu on Android app.
– This is the first TI OMAP4470 Tablet that I hear leaked and talked about. Texas Instruments dominated the market by the end of 2011, they can do it again and Archos has a long relationship with TI always shipping TI’s latest most advanced processors early. Expect a wide range of smartphones and tablets other than Archos to also use OMAP4470 before the end of the year, that helps provide a foundation for good software support, such as Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean using the OMAP4460 Powered Samsung Galaxy Nexus as the reference design. That makes it easier for Archos to always stay up to date on the latest version of Android.
– OMAP4470 uses the SGX544 GPU, one of the most powerful GPUs on the market yet.
– OMAP4470 increases memory bandwidth further from OMAP4460, memory bandwidth is one of the most important functions of a powerful ARM Powered device, often more so than Ghz, number of cores and other.
– Consider this ARM Powered Laptop/Tablet combo can weight less than 500 grams. When productivity proves itself sublime on Android, Ubuntu on Android, Chrome OS dual-boot and an eventual Windows RT triple-boot, this form factor can prove itself to be one of the most demanded by consumers.

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Toshiba OMAP4470 Windows 8 RT ARM Powered Laptop and Tablet shown on video

Posted by Charbax – June 17, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Computex, Windows

I was looking for it at Computex, I couldn’t find it being publicly demonstrated yet, but here it is on a 1-minute video. This new OMAP4470 ARM Powered Laptop from Toshiba looks nice! Now it’s going to be even nicer when/if it gets confirmed that this new Toshiba ARM Powered Laptop can legally multi-boot with Android, Chrome OS and Ubuntu and preferably be sold well below $500 with or without the hopefully optional $85 Windows RT licence.

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Ubuntu on Android demonstrated at Computex 2012

Posted by Charbax – June 11, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Computex, Ubuntu

Just dock your Ubuntu on Android enabled phone to a dock and it outputs Ubuntu on your monitor/HDTV all powered by your ARM Powered phone. Is Canonical going to be able to convince all device makers to pay for it and to support it? Should Canonical try to make it an apk in the Google Play Store, based on the Android Native Code Development Kit for it to work on most current Android phones?

AdLink OMAP4430/OMAP4460 Android Set-top-box

Posted by Charbax – June 11, 2012
Category: Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, Members Content, Texas Instruments, Computex, Android, Google TV

This is perhaps one of the first makers to use the TI OMAP4430 and later OMAP4460 in a set-top-box.


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