Category: Texas Instruments

Always Innovating OMAP4 HDMI Dongle

Posted by Charbax – January 12, 2012
Category: Laptops, Set-top-boxes, HDMI Sticks, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Android, Chrome OS, Google TV, Ubuntu, Windows

Always Innovating fits the Texas Instruments OMAP4 motherboard with all the needed features for a Desktop, Set-top-box and 3D home console into a USB stick sized device that connects to the HDMI port of your HDTV and gets power from USB. It has Bluetooth for Bluetooth keyboards and game controllers. Its USB can do USB host.

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Huawei Ascend P1 and P1 S, OMAP4460 1.5Ghz with 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus screen

Posted by Charbax – January 10, 2012
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Android

This may be the thinnest high-end Smartphone in the world, it may also be priced very competitively if Huawei aims at making this phone price competitive. I’m guessing it might be sold between $300 and $400 unlocked. It’s being released in Europe, Asia and the US for the GSM HSPA+ networks, unlocked and on contract. This is basically the Galaxy S2 screen in a device with more than the Galaxy Nexus performance. MHL connector, SIM card slot on top, MicroSD card slot. And an amazing 6-7mm thickness, it’s pretty awesome.

Texas Instruments to showcase OMAP4470 Powered Tablet running Windows 8 at CES 2012

Posted by Charbax – January 9, 2012
Category: Tablets, Texas Instruments, CES, Windows

Check back here for videos comming up of the 1.8Ghz OMAP4470 in a Tablet running a preview version of Windows 8. Here’s the press release:

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) hosts an OMAP4470 processor-based tablet running on a pre-release version of Windows 8 at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, demonstrating how the latest OMAP™ 4 platform distinctly supports Microsoft’s new computing experience, Windows 8, that reimagines Windows. Designed specifically to enable the ultimate tablet experience, the OMAP4470 processor’s rich multimedia, end-to-end security and powerful multitasking capabilities prove the ideal match for Windows 8 key features including a fast & fluid touch-first user interface, a rich user experience with hardware accelerated graphics, an always-on-always-connected experience, and multiple security enhancements.

Secure, visually-immersive computing in HD

The OMAP4470 platform’s smart multicore architecture pairs its main CPUs with several differentiated features including programmable accelerators, hardware composition engines and a dedicated ISP. Imagination Technologies’ super-fast PowerVR SGX544 GPU and enhanced memory architecture add still more functionality while an OMAP-specific distributed composition architecture enables advanced image and video layering for crisp, HD visuals. These elements and more are the force behind the OMAP4470 processor’s ability to enable fast and fluid multitasking in Windows 8 while maintaining ultra-low power consumption.

As tablets become more prominent in household and enterprise environments, the increased need for rich graphics and imaging is mirrored by the increased need for complete security. Tablets used for cloud-based applications, access to work documents or streaming premium content benefit from the TI’s system-level M-Shield™ mobile security technology—providing the highest level of terminal and content security available today. The M-Shield solution also operates a hardware-protected, trusted execution environment (TEE), which does not require a dedicated chip or extra CPU cycles, freeing the CPUs for critical Windows 8 computing functions.

“The always on, always connected experience requires the sophistication of a processing architecture best offered by OMAP technology,” said Deepu Talla, general manager, OMAP mobile computing, wireless business unit, TI. “The OMAP4470 processor makes expert use of its smart multicore architecture to enable enhanced PC and mobile computing experiences. Combining the OMAP 4 platform’s unique capabilities with Microsoft’s seamless interaction of touch, mouse and keyboard via Windows 8 will deliver a streamlined, fast and fluid experience.”

“Reimagined, Windows 8 is a fast and fluid, touch-first OS that brings a new range of capabilities without compromise,” said Aidan Marcuss, senior director of Windows Core Marketing & Ecosystem, Microsoft Corp. “Our partnership with platform leaders such as TI help take full advantage of ARM architecture, with new capabilities that enable compelling new PCs and user scenarios.”

For more information, visit http://www.ti.com/windowsonomap.

Variscite’s OMAP4460 SoM now supporting Ubuntu Oneiric

Posted by Charbax2 – December 17, 2011
Category: Laptops, Texas Instruments, Ubuntu

Variscite just released Ubunto 11.10 Oneiric support for the VAR-SOM-OM44 System on Module. The SoM is based on TI’s OMAP4460, 1.5GHz Dual-core Cortex-A9.

Charbax on Twit

Posted by Charbax – December 12, 2011
Category: Tablets, Wearables, Smart Glass, Web, Other, Opinions, Texas Instruments, LeWeb, Android, Windows

Here again, now Twit posted the video on the official http://youtube.com/twit channel, so here it is, when you click the play button below, it should start at the right time-code 35 minutes 17 seconds when I first appear on the show, where I get to talk to Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane on the Twit show at LeWeb 2011!

On Twit, I get to talk with Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane about the legalization of piracy in Switzerland, in France, about the latest Archos G9 and Arnova G2 devices and I get to show off my headmounted Motorola Kopin Golden-i system for augmented video-blogging.

I was on Twit!

Posted by Charbax – December 10, 2011
Category: Tablets, Smart Glass, Web, Other, Opinions, Rockchip, Texas Instruments, LeWeb, Archos, Android

You can see me starting at 9 minutes 45 seconds time code in following Twit Live video recorded at LeWeb 2011, I’m interviewed by Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane! This video features some of my talk about Switzerland legalizing piracy, France implementing the global licence to legalize piracy, Archos, my headmounted Kopin Golden-i computer, live stream and augmented video-blogging system.

Source: recorded video on Ustream.tv

I’ll post the YouTube embed if Twit and LeWeb release it separately on YouTube.

Archos 101 G9 Turbo 1.5Ghz OMAP4460

Posted by Charbax – December 7, 2011
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

This is the first demonstration of the 1.5Ghz OMAP4460 running in a fully optimized Honeycomb Tablet. Archos is releasing the Turbo 1.5Ghz in January 2012 worldwide starting at $399 MSRP (actual retail price may be as low as $369 I guess, based on the 1Ghz Archos 101 G9 being now sold for $339 and the 1Ghz Archos 80 G9 being sold at $269.) The price difference between the 1Ghz and 1.5Ghz Archos G9 tablets is supposed to be about $30.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus presented by Ulrich Rozier of Frandroid.com

Posted by Charbax – December 7, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, LeWeb, Android

Here at the Renault Atelier on the Champs Elysee in Paris, Ulrich Rozier of Frandroid.com presents his awesome phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Ice Cream Sandwich reference device, for sure the best phone in the world.

Ice Cream Sandwich preview on Archos G9

Posted by Charbax – December 6, 2011
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

Archos is showing a preview of Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich running on the OMAP4 based Archos G9 tablets to be finalized during Q1 of 2012. They still have to finish the hardware acceleration for video support, Samba/Upnp, 3G stick support and all of the other specific features that Archos provides on top of Android.

Archos Home Connect

Posted by Charbax – December 6, 2011
Category: Tablets, PMPs, Other, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

$129 Android webradio alarm clock, this can be a nice to have next to your bed. It can wake you up with your Google Music playlists, with your Spotify favorites, with your Pandora, Last.fm, you can use Tune In webradio tuner. It can display trafic informations on a map for your region, show you news healines, pull RSS feed items etc.

Archos Smart Home Phone

Posted by Charbax – December 6, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Other, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

This is perhaps the coolest landline dect phone, because it runs Android, supports not only landline calling functionality, it can integrate with Skype, SIP, Google Voice and more over the WiFi at home and each set costs $149, you can have up to 5 of them running on the same dect network in your home.

Samsung roadmap guesses

Posted by Charbax – November 24, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Opinions, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Android

Here is my speculation for some of the upcoming high-end Samsung Android phones based on the recently rumored new Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 at 1.5Ghz, and based on looking at the Texas Instruments OMAP4 roadmap and thinking the faster OMAP4 processors are fully backwards compatible requiring little design and software changes for Samsung to upgrade:

– Galaxy Nexus 1.2Ghz OMAP4460 dual-core SGX540 308Mhz 45nm launching before Christmas
– Galaxy Nexus 1.5Ghz OMAP4460 dual-core SGX540 384Mhz 45nm around January/February
– Galaxy Nexus 1.8Ghz OMAP4470 dual-core SGX544 384Mhz 45nm around March/April
– Andromeda (Galaxy S3) 1.5Ghz Exynos 4412 quad-core Mali-T604 32nm around May/June/July
– Hydra (Galaxy Nexus 2) 2Ghz OMAP5 ARM Cortex-A15 SGX6 28nm around September
– Quasar (Galaxy S4) 2Ghz Exynos 5 ARM Cortex-A15 Mali-T658 28nm around November

I’m using the names Andromeda, Hydra and Quasar because I think Samsung may at some point stop using the Galaxy name in every new phone.

Samsung will likely also continue to release high-end phones using the best that Qualcomm and Nvidia can come with. Thus expect some Qualcomm Krait and Nvidia Tegra3 in some new Samsung phones also. The reason being Samsung is so big they need to use all the major processors in their phone designs, thus spreading their reach further over the market.

What do you think Samsung is going to release?

Liliputing.com: Google Marketplace works fine on the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet

Posted by Charbax – November 17, 2011
Category: Tablets, Texas Instruments, Android

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 Charbax – November 17, 2011
Category: Development Boards, Other, Texas Instruments, Android

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.

NewGadgets.de: Samsung Galaxy Nexus Hands-On

Posted by Charbax – November 15, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Reviews, Texas Instruments, Android

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 Charbax – November 14, 2011
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Wearables, Smart Glass, Reviews, MediaTek, Texas Instruments, Marvell, ARM TechCon, Archos, Pixel Qi, OLPC, Kopin, Android, Ubuntu, Windows

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.

$5 Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 and BeagleBone

Posted by Charbax – November 1, 2011
Category: Development Boards, Other, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, ARM TechCon

Texas Instruments is launching a $5 ARM Cortex-A8, it’s re-optimized for specific tasks, it can go in tablets, but it can also be used in industrial and medical applications, and certain custom uses, where this can be thought of a high-end microprocessor yet very low cost, it starts at $5 for ordering 100 thousand units. It’s an ARM Cortex-A8 performance for industrial applications at the cost and power usage of ARM9 Microprocessor. TI’s Beagleboard.org community is launching the new $89 BeagleBone to develop on this platform. Watch this 20-minute presentation of this project by TI’s Jakob Alamat, director of marketing for TI’s ARM Microprocessor Sitara platform:

Read the full press release.

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B Labs demonstrates Virtualizating 2 OS on ARM

Posted by Charbax – October 30, 2011
Category: Software, Other, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, ARM TechCon, Android

B Labs can run 2x Android OS, for example one secure business install and one for personal use, or to run Android and a version of Linux.

Charbax Cyborg: How I video-blog, Live and On-demand

Posted by Charbax – October 29, 2011
Category: Displays, Cameras, Wearables, Smart Glass, Texas Instruments, ARM TechCon, Kopin

This is how I was walking around the ARM TechCon 2011, with the OMAP3530 Powered Kopin Golden-i Headmounted display (voice-controlled and with head-tracking) to monitor the live Ustream IRC chat, a USB webcam on my head streaming live video to Ustream through the Marvell Armada 618 Powered OLPC XO-1.75 in my bag (using another netbook when Marvell was showcasing the XO-1.75 at their booth), a T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot ($50/3GB/month/prepaid/$141-Mifi), and my nearly 4-year old Sanyo HD1000 (9mbitps 720p) with the external Sennheiser MKE400 shotgun microphone.


Source: ti.com

I also have the new higher quality JVC GC-PX10 but its 24/36mbitps 1080p50 recording bitrate is too high to upload on the relatively slow upload speed at this conference. At the San Francisco Downtown University Campus last weekend, the upload speed was 100mbitps so there I filmed all 16 videos at the OLPC Summit with that camera, for most of which you can even download the full original camera sample video file using Google Docs separately linked under each video.

Latest news from Texas Instruments at ARM TechCon 2011

Posted by Charbax – October 27, 2011
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, ARM TechCon, Android

The OMAP5 ARM Cortex-A15 processor is taped out, they are about to show impressive samples soon, they will then be tweaking and optimizing it before release in commercial products within about a year. OMAP4 is being launched in the Motorola Razr and in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones, each more awesome than the other. Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 works awesomely on OMAP4, Honeycomb 3.2 tablets like the Archos 101 G9 are being released now, TI is also looking forward to power products such as Laptops that run Chrome OS, Ubuntu and Windows 8.