Onyx International is reaching a fully stable Android on E Ink state, here showcasing their latest 6″ capacitive Android e-reader as well as their 4.3″ capacitive Android E Ink phone. The Android E Ink phone’s touch panel is still being finalized, I am borrowing the Android E Ink phone for the next 2-3 days, let me know what I should test and show on it. I’ll try to compare it with other LCD and AMOLED smartphones in direct and indirect sunlight if the weather permits here in Taipei. Onyx’s 6″ E Ink e-reader is quite stable, they still want to improve some of the Android UI for E Ink e-readers, but now it’s already stable. I am also borrowing their Android E-reader for 2-3 days, let me know what I should test on it, I’ll compare it with the Kindle Paperwhite.
Category: Favorite companies
Onyx International Android E Ink, stable e-reader and E430 4.3″ Android E Ink Phone
Kinect-style regular Webcam Gameplay on Sunchip’s RK3188 HDMI Stick
Check me dancing to Michael Jackson’s Bad in a Camera-recognition game dancing game running on Sunchip’s RK3188 HDMI Stick. The Kinect style body recognitions aren’t as precise as a Kinect because a regular webcam obviously doesn’t have that many sensors.
You can contact Sunchip here:
Kobe Chen
kobe@sunchip-tech.com
http://sunchip-tech.com
Shadowgun gameplay on Sunchip’s RK3188 HDMI Stick
Home Console on a Stick. What can Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft do?
You can contact Sunchip here:
Kobe Chen
kobe@sunchip-tech.com
http://sunchip-tech.com
Learning how to shoot in Shadowgun on Sunchip’s RK3188 HDMI Stick
I just need to get the right buttons aligned.
You can contact Sunchip here:
Kobe Chen
kobe@sunchip-tech.com
http://sunchip-tech.com
Sunchip RK3188 Quad-core HDMI Stick Headquarters
Here’s Kobe Bryant of Sunchip talking about their new Rockchip RK3188 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 HDMI Stick, showing also their other Set-top-boxes, Dual-core, Quad-core and showing around their headquarters with R&D engineers, sample production line, sales. marketing and more.
You can contact Sunchip here:
Kobe Chen
kobe@sunchip-tech.com
http://sunchip-tech.com
ARM Cortex-A12, Mali-T622, Mali-V500 launched
Here at Computex 2013, ARM has announced the new ARM Cortex-A12, 40% faster than ARM Cortex-A9, to be used in big.LITTLE mode with ARM Cortex-A7, it’s thus a new skew in between, optimized for both Global Foundries (28nm SLP) and TSMC (28nm HPM). I’ll try to interview someone from ARM about ARM Cortex-A12 here at Computex (if I can find them). Check back for 100 videos from Computex here in Taiwan, check back for my new dozen videos from some of the latest most interesting Shenzhen factories, a lot of the latest best Shenzhen hardware makers coming up.
Related articles
- ARM Cortex-A12 brings big.LITTLE to the mass market in 2014 (slashgear.com)
- ARM unveils Cortex-A12 CPU and Mali-T622 GPU in expectation of a mid-range boom (engadget.com)
- ARM announces Cortex-A12 processor, Mali-T622 GPU (pocketnow.com)
- ARM launches new Cortex-A12 processor with new Mali-T622 GPU and Mali-V500 video processing (androidauthority.com)
- ARM unveils processor and graphics tech for mid-range smartphones (venturebeat.com)
- ARM, Globalfoundries outline 28-nanometer plans (reviews.cnet.com)
- Cnet tech: Why your next Android tablet will be more powerful (reviews.cnet.com)
- ARM announces processors, antipiracy chips at Computex (news.cnet.com)
- Computex 2013: ARM announces mid-range A12, ‘sets record straight’ on Intel’s Silvermont (zdnet.com)
- ARM Takes Aim At Mid-Range Devices With Three New Chips (techweekeurope.co.uk)
Geniatech dual band WiFi and DTV tuner on MicroUSB for HDMI Sticks and Tablets
Geniatech shows their new HDMI Stick with built-in 5Ghz dual-band WiFi support and provides a new compact DVB-T tuner on MicroUSB for Rockchip and AmLogic based tablets (comes with default driver on AmLogic tablets and for Rockchip requires modification to the tablet firmware). They have a DTV to WiFi battery powered box for $45 (guidance, I guess bulk price). Geniatech also shows some of their other current devices and they tease the next generation quad-core 2Ghz AmLogic ARM Cortex-A9 with Quad-core Mali-400 that is due to arrive in products around June/July.
Archos 97b Platinum, RK3188 Retina
Archos shows their first Rockchip RK3188 9.7″ Retina tablet. Price to be confirmed (check back, I may get the expected pricing for you).
Filmed at the HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) 2013
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Archos 70b Titanium 7″ 1280×800 for $129
Archos presents this $129 1280×800 7″ IPS tablet, Titanium is currently on the Rockchip RK3066, I guess Archos might make a 7″ Platinum with RK3188 soon also (to be confirmed).
Filmed at the HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) 2013
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Onyx E430 Android 4.3″ E Ink phone
6 months ago, I filmed Onyx showing the first Android E Ink e-reader prototype. Now Onyx International shows their new 4.3″ E Ink Android phone with a front light. Onyx also shows their first 6″ Android based E Ink e-reader also with a front light. Onyx is thus now fully focusing on Android on E Ink, for Android E Ink phones and Android E Ink e-readers. Check back soon at http://ARMdevices.net for more news from Onyx on their latest and upcoming Android E Ink devices!
Filmed at the HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) 2013
[s2If !is_user_logged_in()]
| Logged-in Members of ARMdevices.net ($50/year) can see the full contact information for this company from the business card here. Become a Member Now! |
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]For you member: Find the business card for this company here[/s2If]
My Google I/O 2013 expectations
I haven’t been able to buy a Google I/O ticket (servers crashed) and it doesn’t look like Google wants to invite me with a press badge (thus far), but here are my Google I/O May 15-17th 2013 expectations. I’ve not always been exact in my Google I/O predictions, see 2011 and 2012. Here’s what I’d announce at this point if I was running Google:
1. Google Smartwatch. (approx same “Wearable UI” as Google Glass) $199 BT 4.0.
2. Exynos5410/Tegra4/S800 Chromebooks launched. (prob 13.3″ $299, preferably with Pixel Qi 20-hour battery life).
3. Android 5 unveiled. intro “Full Chrome” on Android, Android Extension for Chrome OS too (that’s what I call “the merger”). Android 4.3 may get released at I/O with Android 5 release for months later.
4. Andy Rubin announced chief of new Google Internet of Things and Google Robots department (this is the new Google X project)
5. Google TV now part of Android 5. all HDMI/MHL turns any Android device to full Google TV UI, even HDMI throughput and IR blaster can be supported on most phones/tablets with adapter.
6. Google Gaming now serious. launches $99 Google Home Entertainment Console. It’s ARM Cortex-A15 with Mali-T678 GPU. Most Android games now mapped for TV controller game play. Exynos5410/Tegra4/S800 too.
7. Google Glass public release in 3 months for $499. $299 version by end of the year. Early Glass Explorers get choice of $1000 credit in Google Play Store or they get 2 extra Google Glass to give to friends/family.
8. Moto X Phones launched. $99/$199/$299 (540p-dual/720p-quad/1080p-octo) (maybe T4i/S600/T4) with no contract on T-Mobile in USA. unlocked worldwide. Waterproof, unbreakable, sunlight readable Pixel Qi LCD ultra long battery life.
9. Google Book launched. $99 WiFi e-reader with Google Books, Android E Ink front-lit based.
10. Google Play Subscriptions launched. $20/month for unlimited text/audio/video/apps (authors/devs can opt-out, users can pick any category separately at $5/month each, worldwide day-1). Overnight Google Play becomes by far biggest content platform worldwide.
11. Google+ 2.0. Now + gives personalized recommendations across web.
What am I forgetting? php/mysql wordpress/phpbb free hosting on Google App Engine? New YouTube monetization? White Space Global Google Voice (with launch of White Space modem in Moto X Phone)? The Cheaper $99 Nexus 7 Lite (RK3188 based)? Upgraded Google Arduino platform on ARM Cortex-M3? Google ARM Servers announcement for cheaper/better/cleaner cloud?
You can comment here or in my Google+ thread.
YouTube feature requests (so they can monetize more)
YouTube is the worlds coolest website in my opinion. World’s biggest in bandwidth usage. Super awesome/impressive. Thanks Google for the bandwidth and for the video storage! Here are 11 of my ideas (that I’ve been posting for years) for how YouTube can make 10x more money per view for themselves and for people like me who upload the videos, which I think would be good:
1. Let every YouTube Partner get donations like non-profits do. Integrate Kickstarter like functionality in YouTube channel “fund this video project, here are details what we would like to film” and show if goal is reached, donators can advertise their website/company if they want next to donations value.
2. Display Google Shopping Buy Now links under video and at end of video when the video is about a product that is for sale online, thus enable 4% commission built-in (quadruples revenue overnight I’d guess) Partner can opt-out or manage each video by evt selecting specific product from Google Shopping to list if that is not clear enough for Google based on title, description, search etc. Let Partner evt pick favorite web stores to list in priority, for example Amazon, Adorama, Newegg, Buy.com and BHphoto for US viewers, and others can be selected for other regions of the world.
3. Let viewers pay some monthly price perhaps $5/month or $10/month for an unlimited ads-free YouTube experience, simply remove advertising and set 1080p as default but only for the people who pay for YouTube. (doubles revenue overnight I’d guess), can also include netflix/hulu/amazon prime style contents, but unlocks ads on all YouTube Partner content by default. Partner can opt-out if they prefer. YouTube subscribers can evt get prioritized bandwidth in certain situations. Maybe there is a high-end 1080p encode, or premium 4K stream bandwidth when available.
4. YouTube should offer automatic “upload all my videos to YouKu” for Chinese audiences, until China finally at some point allows their people access to YouTube. Which may happen at any moment, but for now, please just let us easily clone everything to Youku. And a wordpress plugin to auto display the youku instead of youtube when website visitors are in China would be good. If you do this, maybe you’ll accelerate the Chinese Government un-blocking youtube simply because they’d be impressed you’d offer that kind of service. If not a service by Youtube, please link us to third parties who can hook up and automatically do this kind of thing.
5. Enable p2p video subtitling and subtitle translations. YouTube Partners can decide how much of a share of revenue to evt pay to volunteers who spend time improving the automatic subtitles and automatic translations of those subtitles. Thus when “manual subtitles” are available for video, that can be highlighted and displayed instead of the automatic one. And each can be improved collaboratively, subtitlers/translators get paid based on how many people view their work and evt how good it’s rated, let people rate those subtitles and translations of subtitles. The link to subtitle and to translate subtitles should be visible by everyone “improve subtitles” and “improve translated subtitle”, people can set which languages they understand in YouTube viewer settings to automatically display correct subtitles and buttons to “improve french subtitles here” or to hide that button if people are not interested to participate. All videos with for example over 100 thousand views may thus get better manual subtitles in many languages submitted by viewing public.
6. Offer p2p video titling/describing service. People can volunteer to watch yet unlisted videos as soon as a YouTube channel uploads them, and people can collaboratively submit manual titles/descriptions/tags for each video, which the YouTube upload can approve to be used to make the video public.
7. Auto-post YouTube uploads to WordPress blog, including management of WordPress categories when the YouTube video is being uploaded and eventual other default texts or code to add before or after video. Same for scheduled publishing.
8. Explain what time of day is best to publish video to get optimal view count based on channel statistics, suggest YouTube uploader schedule publishing to those times.
9. Improve YouTube Editor it needs to be near as good as Pinnacle/Sony Vegas/Avid/Final Cut etc. Let us edit with voice-overs, music, more stable frame precision, better flexibility/stability.
10. Offer p2p video-editing. People can spend time to offer suggested shorter edits of each video as alternative shorter versions of the video. Thus people watching who don’t have time, can switch to shorter user-submitted and upload-approved shorter version of video when that one is available. Allow also p2p video-editing to combine evt several videos into one, can be limited from playlist if YouTube upload decides to, or can be channel-wide. Also the edits must be approved by uploader before those can be listed somewhere in a “user submitted edits” section on the channel. YouTube uploader can decide how much to share evt revenue from edits with the editor.
11. Massively improve content recommendations algorithm. Let me enter a gree/red full screen mode. It must show me content YouTube knows I will like, let me Thumbs up each video with the space bar and let me evt skip video with right button. Thus remote control can be built with a big green thumbs up button and a red skip button (evt a red skip and dislike rating button also). People must be able to lie back in sofa and start some impressively awesome automatic playback of YouTube’s personalized recommendations of content. Each view must be absolutely awesome. Viewer must be able to type in area of interest, search query or pick from previous areas of interest that YouTube can detect, for example now I’m in the mood for tech videos, and at another point I’m in the mood for comedy videos, with evt tags like Android within technology and tags like Louis CK within comedy. For example. Build recommendations engine on YouTube that can reliably replace TV. When people watch YouTube in family or with friends, everyone has to be constantly impressed by each video shown. A mic in room can eventually record laughs as indicator to how good the content is and to attempt at continuing to show such cool content. Recommendations engine can automatically pick user submitted shorter edits instead of the full videos if it’s measured that the certain shorter edits are better than some of the original longer videos.
You can comment here on in my Google+ thread.
Mele Allwinner A31 and A20 Device Demo Showroom
Mele shows off some of their upcoming TV Box devices in their Showroom area at their Shenzhen headquarters.
Mele contact:
Gennie
Sales Manager
Email: sales10@mele.cn
SKYPE: apvell091
Mobile: +86 1501 3777 080
Web: http://mele.cn
Mele Founders talk Mele Company History (making the Aigo hard drive based PMPs, Sigma Designs, Realtek and now ARM Android Set-top-boxes)
Here’s an interview with Nico Zhao (President) and Brian Xia (CEO), the co-founders of Shenzhen MELE Digital Technology Ltd. They talk about how they started Mele making ARM7 and embedded Linux in hard drive based portable media players for the Aigo brand in 2004, after 2006/2007, Mele enabled the Realtek MIPS based Set-top-box market by adopting that Realtek processor for the multimedia player box (switching from Sigma Designs) and then how they’ve shifted to using ARM processors in the last year or two to run Android on their latest series of TV Set-top-boxes and bringing a whole range of new features with that.
Mele contact:
Gennie
Sales Manager
Email: sales10@mele.cn
SKYPE: apvell091
Mobile: +86 1501 3777 080
Web: http://mele.cn
Mele R&D Department and Management Offices
Gennie Peng of Mele shows around the Mele Shenzhen Headquarters Management Offices as well as Mele’s research and development, hardware, software, mechanical design, graphic design, testing, quality control and more. Also showing the CEO, President, Sales Manager offices, HR, Finance and everything else. Mele is a lead Allwinner A31/A20/A10 TV Box maker, probably one of the worldwide leaders in that ARM Powered Set-top-box segment.
Mele contact:
Gennie
Sales Manager
Email: sales10@mele.cn
SKYPE: apvell091
Mobile: +86 1501 3777 080
Web: http://mele.cn
Mele Factory Tour
Mele is probably one of the worlds biggest ARM Powered Android Set-top-box makers in the world. They manufacture up to 500 thousand Android ARM Set-top-boxes per month. On this Mele factory tour, 8 floors, 10 thousand square meters, One floor is for Management, one floor is for R&D the other floors are for the Factory. This tour shows the SMT lines that are gearing up to mass produce Allwinner A31, A20 PCBs that go in Mele’s next generation Android Set-top-boxes. The next floor tour features the factory assembly lines, where the Mele factory workers are assembling the latest Mele Android set-top-boxes. Finally, this tour also shows Mele’s storage area for packed Set-top-boxes to ship as well as storage area for components before assembly.
Mele contact:
Gennie
Sales Manager
Email: sales10@mele.cn
SKYPE: apvell091
Mobile: +86 1501 3777 080
Web: http://mele.cn
Mele Allwinner A31 Quad Core Android TV Box for $110
Mele shows the first Allwinner A31 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 based Android TV Set-top-box, they have also designed a Windows 8 like UI on top of Android, they have designed one of the market’s best RF remote controls with a keyboard on one side and a remote control on the other side with microphone and speaker for using the remote as a phone, built-in accelerometers, gyroscope, also showing their box off running some advanced games on the Allwinner A31’s SGX544 GPU. The retail price is going to be around $110.
Mele contact:
Gennie
Sales Manager
Email: sales10@mele.cn
SKYPE: apvell091
Mobile: +86 1501 3777 080
Web: http://mele.cn
Mele Skype TV Video Chat Camera
Mele shows some of their Skype Video-conferencing Camera modules that work with their latest Allwinner A20, A31 based set-top-boxes, with either built-in camera connected on the set-top-box, or with a cable on the top of the TV, or a design for the Set-top-box actually built in to the larger camera to mount on the top of the TV. I am not sure about the status and possibility of doing 720p or even 1080p Video-conferencing on Skype on Android Set-top-boxes, I guess that support is up to the Skype Android app (which Microsoft controls), but I guess there are other Android Video-conferencing apps that support 720p and 1080p video-conferencing already and which should work with this system. HD video-conferencing is awesome, and this may be a way to have that work for around $150 retail price on each side.
Mele contact:
Gennie
Sales Manager
Email: sales10@mele.cn
SKYPE: apvell091
Mobile: +86 1501 3777 080
Web: http://mele.cn
Mele Allwinner A20 Dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 Smart TV Box
Mele shows their Allwinner A20 dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 based Set-top-box, running on Android 4.2.2, this Mele box is to replace their Allwinner A10 based box. USB Host price, Lan port, optical digital audio output and a bunch of other things, the retail price can be $60-$70.
Mele contact:
Gennie
Sales Manager
Email: sales10@mele.cn
SKYPE: apvell091
Mobile: +86 1501 3777 080
Web: http://mele.cn
