Category: Pixel Qi

PixelQi screen compared to i Pad screen

Posted by Charbax – June 1, 2010
Category: Laptops, Displays, Pixel Qi

Comparison of the PixelQi screen and the I Pad screen in broad sunlight.

Pixel Qi wide view capacitive

Posted by Charbax – June 1, 2010
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Computex, Pixel Qi

Mary Lou Jepsen demonstrates the Pixel Qi wide angle view capacitive touch 10″ screen, with anti-glare layer, wacom touch, two actual Pixel Qi prototypes as well as she explains how the Pixel Qi screen is actually made.

Pixel Qi shows 10″ capacitive

Posted by Charbax – May 31, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, E-readers, Displays, Exclusive videos, Computex, Pixel Qi

Imagine being able to combine the Laptop, Tablet and e-reader into one convertible device, then having a screen technology that enables you to take it outside in the sun! Geeks outdoors in the sun, how cool is that going to be? Imagine also being able to turn off the backlight, increase up to 5x the battery runtime of your Tablet compared to for example the iPad. At Computex 2010, Pixel Qi is finally releasing the 3Qi screen, here demonstrating 10″ capacitive touch screen support and with half a dozen or more major partners. Here are some details from Mary Lou Jepsen, CTO of Pixel Qi, about the current status of the mass manufacturing of this technology. Look forward to many more Pixel Qi related videos from Computex 2010 uploaded right here on http://ARMdevices.net

Marvell makes OLPC XO-3 Tablet, now official

Posted by Charbax – May 27, 2010
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Opinions, Marvell, Pixel Qi, OLPC, Android

I predicted it in my article on 18th March, Marvell’s Moby Tablet announcement is the beginning of the new OLPC XO-3 project.

This is great news! It means XO-3 is coming earlier than 2012 as originally planned. It’ll basically start coming as soon as the next generation Marvell Armada 61X processor is ready. Check my video of Marvell Armada 610 and my video of the Marvell Armada 618 to have an idea how impressive this processor is. This means that prototypes of XO-3 could be showcased today and I’m guessing mass manufacturing can start before the end of year.

This also means the 5000+ people at Marvell are now working towards reaching the goals of the OLPC project. Cheaper access to learning, information, web, online entertainment, e-books, worldwide communications, all this is great!

Read the press release: http://www.marvell.com/company/news/press_detail.html?releaseID=1418

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I am going to Computex

Posted by Charbax – May 16, 2010
Category: Computex, Pixel Qi

Computex in Taipei Taiwan June 1-5th is going to be awesome. Last year was my first Computex show and it was a great experience. While last year, I was lucky to be the first to see Pixel Qi in action (2, 3, 4), I saw Android on laptops and tablets, I saw Smartbooks demonstrated by Freescale, Qualcomm and Nvidia (2). I interviewed ARM about the status of Mobile Computing. Now finally, all those products are actually going to reach the market. For the past year, advances and optimizations in Chrome and Flash support is showing consumer-grade web browsing experiences for these products. Here are some of the main topics that I hope to film at this year’s Computex conference:

– Pixel Qi LCD in actual announced products “to be announced by half a dozen or more companies”, this technology is going to be the basis for the combination of E-reader, Tablet and Laptop markets.

– Chrome OS and Flash support on ARM Powered Laptops, makes Smartbook category ready to be a massive success.

– Android Tablet Edition, I trust that Google provides the full Google Marketplace on a whole range of Tablets to be shown.

– Cheaper Android Phones, I want to see cheaper phones shown by other manufacturers than just HTC, Motorola and Samsung (although those companies make nice Android phones).

– Youtube HD on cheap set-top-boxes, right after the Google TV announcements expected at Google I/O, I would like to see manufacturers showing cheap sub-$100 ARM Powered set-top-boxes that stream Youtube in HD quality directly on the HDTV, that may provide HDMI pass-through and overlay interactive features to existing TV channels as well.

– Connected E-readers, e-ink devices are great for reading, they make people read more again. But it’s important that all the worlds text contents reach those e-readers wirelessly.

Check back here on http://ARMdevices.net before, during and after the Computex trade show June 1-5th, to find me uploading 50 to 100 new awesome videos showcasing all those new ARM Powered devices that I think are going to change the world. If you are a blogger, subscribe to my RSS feed and make sure you check back here for the best Computex video coverage, you are of course welcome to embed my best videos on your blog with a link back to my blog post. If you are a fan of big technology news blogs and you like my videos, I appreciate if you submit my best videos to those sites.

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Acer to launch Chrome OS laptops at Computex

Posted by Charbax – May 13, 2010
Category: Laptops, Computex, Pixel Qi, Chrome OS

Acer Incorporated {{lang|zh-Hant|宏碁股份有限公司}}
Image via Wikipedia

Venturebeat.com reports that it has heard from several sources that Acer is going to launch Chrome OS laptops at Computex in June.

Last year’s Computex, Acer really disappointed me with their “fake” Android netbook, one that booted Android as a dual-boot with Windows on an expensive and power consuming Intel Atom based Netbook.

The big questions are:

– Will Acer’s first Chrome OS laptop use an ARM Processor or will it be based on Intel?

– What type of price point does Acer plan to reach?

The answers to those questions I think could be found by answering following two other questions:

– Does Acer want to be innovative enough and be one of the first big laptop manufacturers to use an ARM Processor in a Laptop form factor to lower the price, increase battery runtime, lower the weight and size of their new Chrome OS line of laptops?

or

– Does Acer feel it needs to stay in bed with Intel and Microsoft, and thus keep any non-Wintel projects out of their marketing radar?

If they announce it with ARM and Pixel Qi at Computex, hear the drum rolls:

1. 50h battery runtime

2. Instant on, month of standby

3. Below 800gr, 1cm thickness

4. Below $199 retail, no contracts, they sell tens of millions?

5. Built-in 3G module (maybe not included by default) for always connected use

6. Native Code SDK and OpenGL for even advanced video-editing and 3D games

7. Maybe even a swivel screen and the device holds like an e-reader? Touch-screen not absolute necessity for cheap model. Next/previous page and enter/exit buttons on the side would be good enough.

Source: Venturebeat.com

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Google builds own Tablet-e-reader

Posted by Charbax – April 13, 2010
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Pixel Qi, Android

Google Chrome Tablet
Image by nDevilTV via Flickr

The New York Times reports:

Google hopes to make its own apps marketplace available for new slate-like devices.

But Google is going one step further, exploring the idea of building its own slate, an e-reader that would function like a computer.

Yes! Things are going to happen fast!

Obviously, it wouldn’t make sense for Google not to provide the Marketplace on Android Tablets and e-Readers to compete with the ipod touch and the ipad.

Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, told friends at a recent party in Los Angeles about the new device, which would exclusively run the Android operating system. People with direct knowledge of the project — who did not want to be named because they said they were unauthorized to speak publicly about the device — said the company had been experimenting in “stealth mode” with a few publishers to explore delivery of books, magazines and other content on a tablet.

In a second blog post by the New York Times:

Another person who has been briefed on the Google slate project, but asked not to be named, said that Google was still wrestling with several parts of the project, but that it would most likely come with the Chrome Web browser from Google.

Google’s big push to consumers and developers with the device will be to offer a completely open platform — an approach that runs counter to Apple’s closed App Store model.

In the article, HP is said to be working on a 6″ Android tablet. Nokia is also working on an e-reader.

Logically, all those e-reader and tablet combos will have to use the Pixel Qi LCD screens to provide e-reader and a color Tablet in one device.

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OLPC to use Pixel Qi 3Qi screens

Posted by Charbax – March 30, 2010
Category: Displays, Pixel Qi, OLPC

Image representing PixelQi as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

A cross-licencing deal between the One Laptop Per Child non-profit and Pixel Qi has been announced in this press release:

As a result of the agreement, OLPC receives full license to all Pixel Qi “3qi” screen technology, including 70+ patents in process and all current and future IP developed by Pixel Qi for multi-mode screens. Pixel Qi is leading the design of new screens for OLPC’s next-generation XO laptops.

“A huge barrier to getting computers to mass use in the developing world is limited access to electricity. Pixel Qi is designing new screens for OLPC that will keep laptops going even longer between recharges and excel in long-form reading while providing color and video,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child.

Mary Lou Jepsen, founder and CEO of Pixel Qi, added, “OLPC’s focus on the need for low-cost, low-power devices led me to invent power-efficient LCD screens that are optimized for reading. Commercial tablets, notebook computers and smart phones have precisely the same needs. This is one of the few examples in which cutting-edge computer technology first deployed for developing nations benefits the developed world as well.”

A few questions I would have about this awesome partnership:

1. Will a version of XO 1.5 come with the 10″ 3Qi screen in the same form factor design?

2. If 3Qi only comes to OLPC starting with the ARM Powered XO 1.75, will it come in the 10″ size or will they cut a smaller 7.5″ version of it? My guess is to keep the costs low, they will pick the mass produced 10″ size there, and fit it inside of the same design just removing most of the screen bezel.

3. I can’t wait to learn what power consumption the XO 1.75 and XO 3.0 can run at using the Pixel Qi screen. Does it now run 50 hours on a battery? How much better are ARM Powered laptops like the XO 1.75 and ARM Powered tablets like the XO 3.0 at implementing the DCON processor process where the main processor can turn itself off completely when not in use?

4. Can anyone confirm that we will soon see Pixel Qi in the Marvell Moby Tablet project? Thus sooner see some implementation of tablets for education leading to the full release of the XO 3.0 tablet.

Look perhaps for some answers at Mary-Lou Jepsen’s blog. Watch again some of my many Pixel Qi videos:
I’m testing it outdoors at CES
Interviewing Mary-Lou Jepsen about Pixel Qi’s status at CES
Demonstrating the Notion Ink Android tablet that uses Pixel Qi
Comparing Pixel Qi with Toshiba’s transflective screen and the Kindle’s e-ink
Filming in Mary-Lou Jepsen’s home lab
Interviewing Mary-Lou Jepsen at Computex 2009
Introducing the Pixel Qi screen at Computex 2009

This press release was found via: slashgear.com

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Marvell announces $99 Moby Tablet to Revolutionize Education

Posted by Charbax – March 18, 2010
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Marvell, Pixel Qi, OLPC, Android, Windows

According to this press release, Marvell is announcing the $99 Moby Tablet for Education. You’ve seen my video of Marvell’s 4.3″ Tablet prototype shown at CES based on the Marvell Armada 600 processor. The Moby tablet is based on the same Armada 600 platform but comes with a larger screen (probably 10″).


This is an image of a 10″ Marvell powered tablet recently shown at the Future of Publishing Summit in New York City as published by Harry McCracken of Technologizer.com, which may be the first $99 Moby Tablet prototype. Consider, this prototype design is most likely of a reference design, Moby won’t look like this when shipped.

Marvell’s Moby Tablet may be the first prototype of the OLPC XO 3.0:


The OLPC XO 3.0 for $75 wasn’t supposed to happen before 2012, but Marvell may now be speeding up its release for a $99 Tablet for Education within months.

Marvell’s first version of the $99 Tablet might not initially achieve all the design goals of the One Laptop Per Child XO-3, such as making it as waterproof, sturdy and with plastic unbreakable touch screen.

Will Marvell sell it directly to Governments and Schools to keep the costs low? Or does Marvell plan to have many vendors use their Tablet platform to release several versions of this Tablet platform for around $99 using many brands?

Most importantly, will the first Moby tablets come with a 10″ Pixel Qi capacitive touch screen display? Their press release does not yet mention Pixel Qi for the screen technology. But as this is targetted for replacing school textbooks, as it’s intended for reading, as Marvell is the largest sponsor of the One Laptop Per Child program of which Pixel Qi is a spin-off company and that the press release clearly says that “The ultra low power Moby tablet is designed for long-battery life“, my expectation is that it has to come with a Pixel Qi LCD touch screen display to be readable nearly as clearly as with e-ink and to be able to provide 20-30h battery runtime or more.

Powered by high-performance, highly scalable, and low-power Marvell® ARMADA™ 600 series of application processors, the Moby tablet features gigahertz-class processor speed, 1080p full-HD encode and decode, intelligent power management, power-efficient Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity, high performance 3D graphics capability and support for multiple software standards including full Adobe Flash, Android™ and Windows Mobile.

This seems to be happening now, for release soon, yet not with a confirmed release date yet:

Announcing the initiative this week during her keynote speech to the country’s leading publishers at the Future of Publishing conference in New York City, Marvell Co-founder Weili Dai said that the Moby tablet is a technology whose time had come.

Marvell will soon announce a pilot program in partnership with the District of Columbia Public School system (DCPS) where the Company will donate a Moby tablet to every child in an at-risk school as part of a multi-year program in new media and learning.

And this is definitely related to the One Laptop Per Child OLPC project:

Marvell has made a long-term commitment to supporting education at all levels and is the largest sponsor of the One Laptop per Child program which is bringing much-needed netbook computers to the developing world.

It would be really great of Marvell to speed up the release of the thin, light and cheap tablet/e-reader for education. Weili Dai, Marvell’s Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor’s Consumer and Computing Business Unit said following at her keynote speech to the country’s leading publishers at the Future of Publishing conference:

Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. (…) Marvell can help propel education into the 21st century with an all-in-one device that gives students access to the best live content, information and resources the world has to offer — from books and online sources, in text, video, news, music, data expression or any medium. With Moby tablet, students can conduct primary research, reach out directly to the world’s leading subject experts and even collaborate with one another around the globe. Best of all, the device is highly affordable. I envision Marvell’s Moby tablets to benefit all students around the world.

I am definitely eager to see and hear more on Marvell’s Moby $99 Tablet project. Look forward to more coverage on this Tablet/e-Reader for Education here at http://ARMdevices.net as I try to get more informations and perhaps even bring you videos of more prototypes soon.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/marvell-drives-education-revolution-with-99-all-in-one-moby-tablet-designed-for-the-worlds-students-88376967.html

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I am going to film 50 videos at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Posted by Charbax – February 10, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, MWC, Pixel Qi

Mobile World Congress 2008
Image by Mark Wiewel via Flickr

Olé! I am going to Barcelona for the worlds biggest and most influential conference on Mobile phones, mobile Internet devices and future technology in the mobile world. This is going to be my first Mobile World Congress, so I am really looking forward to it.

Please do subscribe to my RSS feed or follow be on http://buzz.google.com/charbax to keep updated with my latest video posts in real-time just as I upload them in HD quality to Youtube and post them here to this blog.

You can follow me through Buzz on my Google profile http://www.google.com/profiles/charbax

If you enjoy any of my videos, please do “Like” them in Google Buzz, please do submit them to influential blogs and other sites so more people watch my best videos.

I am looking forward among other things to film videos of amazing new products and technologies among these:

– ARM Cortex A9 powered stuff, I expect Texas Instruments will have awesome demonstrations of this, and for sure more Nvidia and I wonder who else will show this technology.

– Nexus Two, Three and Four. What I mean by that are alternatives to HTC in making at least 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED, Android 2.1 and 1ghz ARM Cortex A8 or faster smart phones. Those are likely to be on display by manufactures among others that are Samsung, Motorola, Acer.

– ARM Powered laptops are getting even closer to worldwide release. I would like to film more demonstrations of awesome looking Android laptops like the HP Airlife 100, Quanta manufactured prototypes, Marvell reference design prototypes and many more. It would be nice to see some of them run smooth Google Chromium OS and fast and smooth web browsers.

– May this be a perfect opportunity for big manufacturers to officially announce and launch Pixel Qi screens in new Laptop and Tablet form factors at affordable prices and with amazingly long batterz runtimes.

– I expect to see huge things from Google and from all the Open Handset Alliance and ARM Solutions Center for Andriod providing new amazing hardware acceleration solution in new software updates, demonstrating next generation Android solutions, showing more high resolution large screened Android solutions.

– Chrome OS demos, show those. Anything that is ARM Powered and that runs Chrome OS smoothly will be very interesting to see and interview software engineers about the status of running a full speed Chrome browser on ARM devices, what they plan to do and how soon it will be released and for how much. Can they run unlimited amounts of tabs on a $150 ARM Powered laptop with only 128MB RAM inside?

– How cheap can the cheapest Android phones be at this point? Will we see huge amounts of new manufacturers from around the world demonstrate cheaper Android phones and that still perform pretty well? Can we see $100 unlocked Android phones already, or at least below pointing at well below $200?

Please do contact me or post comments here if you hear about any specific awesome ARM Powered devices that I should film at the Mobile World Congress, I will try to film all the requests that I get in comments, by email and to my Google Buzz threads.

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ARM Powered Linux laptops to dominate the world

Posted by Charbax – February 8, 2010
Category: Laptops, Opinions, Pixel Qi

ARM Holdings
Image via Wikipedia

According to ARM CEO Warren East, the Netbook category is expected to explode to cover 90% of the laptop market over the next several years.

And that if Microsoft doesn’t want to provide a version of Windows 7 or Windows 8 for ARM Powered laptops, then that Linux based OSes will do just fine.

I’m hoping to see following specs in mass market ARM Powered laptops soon:

– ARM Cortex A8/A9
– All screen sizes from 4″ to 15″
– Android and Chrome OS combination, provide optimized Chrome browser yet still support Android notifications and applications
– HDMI output
– Pixel Qi 3Qi screen for outdoors readability and 50 hour battery runtime
– Capacitative touch-screen Tablet swivel form factor
– Less than 1kg weight
– Pricing: less than $200 unlocked without any contracts needed

I’m really looking forward to see more of these hopefully as soon as during the Mobile World Congress from February 15-18th in Barcelona, where I plan to go an film 50 videos to be posted here on http://ARMdevices.net, so please do subscribe to my RSS feed to keep up to date.

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ARM Powered OLPC XO laptops coming within a year

Posted by Charbax – February 8, 2010
Category: Laptops, Opinions, Marvell, Google, Pixel Qi, OLPC

When the OLPC project’s XO laptops are used in schools, the results are transforming education around the world. It’s getting children excited about school. It’s getting attendance to increase by 100 percent, which it does in most places where OLPC has deployed laptops, where more girls go to school, where the truancy drops to zero, where children take laptops home and teach their parents how to use them.

The One Laptop Per Child engineers are working on an ARM Powered XO 1.75 laptop which is going to be released within a year from now. My guess is that they might be optimizing it for using the Marvell Armada 610 or 510 processor.

The OLPC’s official power consumption target is 2W of power consumption. Though I wonder, is 2W of power consumption really the goal? Not even lower?

For example, the Pixel Qi screen is supposed to consume only 0.1W when backlight is turned off, once Pixel Qi has optimized refresh rates and other details which they have said they will be able to do over the next few months. The whole ARM Processor System on Chip should not consume nearly any power at all when nothing is moving on the screen, when the student for example is just reading an e-book. Then how low really can the power consumption go? Shouldn’t 0.2W power consumption in offline e-reader mode be a realistic goal? Thus shouldn’t the child get 100 minutes of use for 1 minute of cranking?

Since most of the children served by laptops from the OLPC project live off the grid, and may not get electricity for many years, getting the power consumption down on the laptops is one of OLPC’s main engineering goals. This and lowering the cost of the laptops to below $100 per laptop are the main goals of the OLPC project.

I’d like to see all the major ARM Processor makers announce that they will support OLPC in that goal, so that the XO 1.75 may not only be based on the Marvell processor, but that other processors will be optimized for it as well. All ARM Powered laptops shall point towards the same goals in my opinion, also in terms of software optimizations. We need fast and smooth web browsers, have Google and everyone else focus on optimizing the web browsing speed using the Chrome browser. While having everyone focus on one OS for all ARM Powered laptops may be a good idea eventually, until we figure out which OS are the best for which use, having easy multi-boot menus work and utilizing a minimal of extra storage space to ship laptops with multiple choices of Linux OS such as shipping ARM Powered XO laptops with Fedora based Sugar OS, with a Gnome desktop alternative, and with eventually an alternative based on a combination of Android and Chrome OS may be the best solution.

Free wireless broadband is also a priority. Sure a combination of existing cellular, ADSL, Fiber and WiFi Mesh networks of the OLPC project can already achieve a lot. But perhaps the generalization of use of 700mhz spectrum for wireless broadband all around the world will help lower the cost of deploying ubiquituous wireless broadband, especially in countries that deploy the OLPC project without having pre-existing broadband infrastructures in place. The TV spectrum needs to be used for free wireless broadband for all.

Rich countries need to prioritize the OLPC project in deploying revolutionary education using computers and Internet technology all over the world.

Source: smartplanet.com

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Mary Lou Jepsen shows Pixel Qi at CES 2010

Posted by Charbax – January 8, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, E-readers, Exclusive videos, CES, Pixel Qi

Mary Lou Jepsen, Founder of Pixel Qi, provides the latest status of the Pixel Qi screens, tells us about their latest engineering and production ready designs, current power consumption and power consumption targets.

Charbax tests Pixel Qi at CES 2010

Posted by Charbax – January 8, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, E-readers, Displays, Exclusive videos, CES, Pixel Qi

I am testing the latest production ready Pixel Qi screen outdoors by the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. It is the technology that will combine Laptops with Tablets and Ereaders.

Click on the images for the full sizes available at Picasa (please link back here if you use them):

Pixel Qi CES 2010
Pixel Qi CES 2010 Pixel Qi CES 2010 Pixel Qi CES 2010

Notion Ink Pixel Qi tablet with Nvidia Tegra2 processor

Posted by Charbax – January 8, 2010
Category: Tablets, Displays, Exclusive videos, Nvidia, CES, Pixel Qi, Android

Notion Ink is the first example of awesome Pixel Qi screen integration in ARM Powered devices. This is the first example of the huge revolution that comes with ARM Cortex A9 Power and a Pixel Qi display. This is awesome.

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CES video coverage on ARMdevices.net

Posted by Charbax – January 2, 2010
Category: Opinions, CES, Google, Pixel Qi

Consumer Electronics Show
Image via Wikipedia

I will be in Las Vegas to film up to 50 HD quality videos from January 4th to 11th of the best ARM Powered® devices to be shown at the tradeshow. I will try to film behind-the-scenes Interviews with Engineers, Product Managers and other experts in the ARM Powered® Tablets, Mobile Phones and Laptops that are going to be shown at CES and launched hopefully soon thereafter at attractive prices.

The big question for me will be to notice the actual performance level reached by those latest ARM Cortex A8 or ARM Cortex A9 processors to be embedded in those devices. The certain crucial performance levels that we need to see working smoothly and fine are following:

– The web browser needs to browse on websites fast and with multiple amounts of opened tabs.

– The web browser needs to load advanced Javascripts and AJAX based websites just as fast as on an Intel-based Laptop.

– Flash 10.1 support needs to be just about as smooth and good on ARM Powered® devices as on Intel-based ones.

– I’d really like to see the first demos of fast and smooth Google Chromium OS demos running on ARM Powered® Laptops and Tablets. The full Google Chrome browser optimized to use hardware acceleration of the ARM Powered® Laptops and Tablets is crucial for the success of the platform. That is, it would be surely great to see Firefox and Opera browsers also working fast and smooth for all those advanced things.

– Some level of advanced 3D hardware acceleration for 3D game platforms such as the Unreal Engine, Quake3 demos, even N64 emulators demonstrated to work on all the latest ARM Cortex based technologies would be really great and would add a certain level of confidence in ARM Powered® devices from the bunch of 3D gamer geeks that do represent a large part of the blogosphere.

– In general, it would be extremely great to see working implementations of full hardware acceleration in Android and Chrome OS, as well as in Ubuntu 9.10 and any other Linux ARM based OS that can really be used well to optimize the use of hardware acceleration.

Then in terms of business models, ARM Powered® devices should have more opportunity to be sold to consumers at attractive prices. Subsidizing the devices with telecom contracts running up to more than $2000 over the 2-years is one way to do it. What I would really like to see are official announcements that the ARM Powered® Laptops and Tablets are not only very powerful in terms of Javascripts/Flash/3D performance, but also that they can be sold significantly cheaper to the end consumer than devices based on Intel.

The $200 ARM Powered® Laptop and the promise of $100 ones for consumers to buy totally unlocked and without contracts, that is where the biggest opportunity lies with ARM Powered® devices in my opinion. By bring the PC/Laptop industry to a lower cost level, could also mean that 1 Billion or more people around the world will be able to afford to have full access to the web. And if all those devices can add the Pixel Qi low power sunlight readable screen and even function in Tablet mode, run 20-40 hours on a low cost and light battery, then all the greatest. It would be really nice to see actual product announcements at CES in just a few days.

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OLPC XO-3 to make ARM Powered Tablets happen at $75

Posted by Charbax – December 22, 2009
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Opinions, Pixel Qi, OLPC

OLPC designer Yves Behar is showing the XO-3 design over at http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/22/tablet-computer-negroponte-technology-cio-network-olpc.html

One Laptop Per Child XO-3 design

Imagine an ARM Powered Tablet computer with the 10.1″ Pixel Qi screen, where the screen uses plastics instead of glass to be very resistive. Imagine low enough battery usage in transflective mode to power the device for 40 hours even though the less than 1cm in thickness of the Tablet does not allow for much space for the batteries. Imagine a fully optimized use of the Pixel Qi screens reflective abilities where the screen only needs to refresh at the speed of 1hz when in e-reader mode when nothing moves on the screen, with the processor and motherboard also completely shut off and standby to save power when they are not required. But where screen refresh rate and the processor and motherboard can instantly be turned on as soon as they are needed again.

Imagine wireless data technologies based on White Spaces, for free unlimited wireless broadband on the 700mhz spectrum, WiFi Mesh networking and maybe even low power Bluetooth built-in.

OLPC XO-3 tablet concept design

Imagine a touch screen technology which would allow for very responsive touchscreen interfaces to accommodate reading, web browsing, typing and playing of games. Yet where the touch screen functions on a plastic screen that is scratch resistant.

One Laptop Per Child OLPC XO3 games

All that for $75 and to be released within two years. Those are the latest plans from the OLPC organization, the same people that invented the Netbook industry as I wrote in http://www.olpcnews.com/commentary/impact/olpc_netbook_impact_on_laptop.html

olpc xo-3

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Nvidia Tegra Powered Android Tablet uses Pixel Qi screen!

Posted by Charbax – December 18, 2009
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Displays, Nvidia, Archos, Pixel Qi, Android

Here is the worlds first announcement of a Tablet with the revolutionary Pixel Qi screen (that I filmed at Computex 1, 2, 3, 4), on top of that as a 10.1″ touch screen tablet, using the NVIDIA Tegra T20 chipset supporting 1080p Full HD video, with WiFi, Bluetooth, HSDPA, in a 1.5cm thickness and 771 grams. Notion Ink will show this cool looking ARM Powered tablet at CES, I will try to film hands on video there. This ARM Powered tablet form factor with Pixel Qi screen, as well as the swivel tablet Laptop form factor, is the form factor that I think will revolutionize the Laptop, Tablet and E-reader industry and I really look forward to seeing these demonstrated for the first time at CES from January 7th to 10th, look forward to my full video coverage here on http://138.2.152.197

Nvidia Tegra powered with Pixel Qi Notion Ink Tablet

Source: slashgear.com

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Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID video-review

Posted by Charbax – December 6, 2009
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Marvell, Pixel Qi

Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID

Since I filmed such a great video of it at IFA, OPTIMA TECHNOLOGY(SHENZHEN)CO.,LTD sent me a review sample of their new Optima OP5-E for me to publish an exclusive hands-on video-review. The new Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux based MID is now being released by http://www.chinaoptima.com/ and China Telecom on the Chinese market and they are now looking for global distributors (if many people demand it, there may be a distributor bringing this device to your local 3G telecoms market or sell it unlocked). (contact shkwan@wtpacific.com if you might be interested in ordering 300 units or more).

Maemo is the biggest potential alternative to Android Linux OS for embedded devices, mobile internet devices, pocket computers or phones, however you want to call them. This Optima OP5-E is the worlds first Maemo device that is not manufactured by Nokia. This makes the Optima OP5-E a product to check out for people who want to see how Maemo could make a commercial impact outside of Nokia in the open-source embedded device market.

It has a 4.3″ 800×480 resistive touch screen (capacitative at that size and price does not yet exist), 806mhz Marvell PXA310+ ARM processor, 128MB RAM, built-in 3G CDMA sim card reader (HSDPA version coming next month), built-in GPS, built-in Bluetooth, a high capacity exchangeable 2600mAh battery. All that comes for around $500 unlocked and could be sold at $300 or lower subsidized with a subscription plan from the carrier. It can support either VOIP and IM or regular voice and sms, that is up to the carrier how they want to integrate that feature.

The really cool things about this product are following:

– It has a built-in 3G CDMA modem with sim card reader.

– It has a pretty long battery life with a high capacity removable battery (I got a second battery to swap just in case I need more than 8 hours or more battery life for video playback)

– This type of device could function as a VOIP phone on 3G and WiFi networks (if the carriers agree to it and don’t apply packet shaping mechanisms to block VOIP usage on the 3G networks)

– Maemo may have quite a lot of dedicated open-source programmers already hanging out in the http://maemo.org/community/maemo-developers/ and who may have developed some pretty interesting Maemo based applications already (which I am going to check out and publish another video when I have found out which would be the best applications that work on this device and how much porting may be required to eventually adapt software that is already developed for the Nokia Maemo Linux tablets).

– It comes with a larger touch screen than on the existing range of Smartphones, significantly larger than the Nokia N900 screen, yet this product can be sold cheaper than all those smaller smartphones. I think that a larger 800×480 medium density screen is very valuable and I think that all those 3.5″ smartphones on the market have too small of a screen for Internet browsing and video playback use.

Things that I think Optima and eventually the open-source developers may improve on this device (based on my initial tests):

– The whole Maemo Linux user interfaces I think could use some optimizations and fine tuning, this device does support firmware updates, I don’t know how often Optima may release firmware updates for it to improve on all these things.

– The Firefox Fennec browser that is included, might not be as smooth and fast as the Webkit based browser that one can find on Android, the Palm Pre and the iPhone. Though, my guess is that it should be possible to port a version of a Webkit based browser to Maemo (if it hasn’t been done already), and I am sure this browser could be optimized and improved in firmware updates.

– Obviously, I would like to have HSDPA instead of CDMA 3G modem in this, to have i work here in Europe, Optima has told me that the HSDPA version will be released in about a month from now (maybe a bit later, I guess it may depend how soon interested importers from Europe and other HSDPA markets demand for it to be made available)

– I can’t seem to be able to connect my Bluetooth foldable Stowaway keyboard, I don’t know if Bluetooth headsets may be supported. I am sure, this could be fixed or improved in firmware updates. I don’t know if it supports Bluetooth tethering to access the Internet through a mobile phone that has that functionality. My guess is Bluetooth tethering is not supported yet since the 3G modem is integrated.

– It does not seem to have a TV output (unless somehow that functionality exists within the mini-jack output, but I guess it’s not there). Too bad, cause I enjoy watching DivX videos outputted from such a device onto a TV. Though, most existing smartphones on the market such as blackberry, palm pre and the iphone don’t have that feature either.

My pictures of it on Picasa:

Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID Optima OP5-E Maemo Linux MID

You can discuss this product in the dedicated forum section for it at http://forum.armdevices.net/viewforum.php?f=5

Here are the full official specs and press pictures:

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$80 Android Laptop, Menq EasyPC E790

Posted by Charbax – November 12, 2009
Category: Laptops, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Samsung, Pixel Qi, Android

First $80 Android Laptop - MenQ EasyPC E790

Here is the cheapest laptop in the world. It can run Android since it is based on a Samsung ARM926EJ-S3C2450 processor, but for now this review unit that I am reviewing in this video only runs Windows CE 5.0. Check back hopefully within a month for another video when Menq may have sent me a firmware upgrade to use Android instead of Windows CE.

As I filmed the Menq Easypc E760 last year at IFA, Menq is a chinese company interested in providing the worlds cheapest laptop designs. Last year, they were using a 480×320 resolution 7-inch screen to reach the $89 price point for laptops, now they are able to include a 800×480 resolution 7-inch screen. Find more information about this Menq EasyPC E790 at http://www.menqgroup.com/products/pro/E790.asp

The coming of the ARM based laptops, in my opinion, are indicative of the real revolution that is imminent for the Laptop and Desktop computer industry. As soon as ARM based laptops can run a full Chrome Browser, with unlimited amounts of opened tabs all running smoothly, with Flash support, full Javascripts support and basic multimedia functions, then I think the turning point will be reached where most consumers in the world, and especially in developing countries, will be buying only the cheapest laptops.

Web Browsing is all that most people need, with clever HTML5 enabled Chrome browser running on any type of Embedded OS, be it Android or Ubuntu, even offline application could be run reliably from within the browser engine. Anything most people really need will work.

As you can see in my video review, this Menq EasyPC E790 is kind of slow since it is based on the ARM9 processor technology. For not much more cost, though, the Chinese laptop manufacturers could soon be using the ARM Cortex A8 processor technology, which should provide for a 5-10 times faster web browsing experience, and even faster if using an upcoming ARM optimized Chrome browser.

This laptop, I think, is giving us a taste of the future of laptops. Soon all laptops will cost $80 or less, run 10 hours or more on a small and cheap 3-cell battery, even over 20 hour battery life if using the Pixel Qi screen technology. It is also providing a sensation for the what we can expect from the next generation OLPC One Laptop Per Child XO-1.75 to be released by OLPC with ARM processor technology inside instead of X86.

If using ARM9, OLPC could definitely sell laptops at below $80, but maybe ARM Cortex A8 will be preferable at around $10-$20 extra in manufacturing costs, and the innovative new Pixel Qi screen, WiFi meshing, more RAM and storage, could bring the next ARM based OLPC XO-1.75 laptop coser to $125 per laptop, to reach below $100 with mass production. In any ways, I am really looking forward to see the upcoming releases of the ARM Cortex A8 based laptops, yet still, this ARM9 based laptop is very interesting, and if you want your local supermarket to start selling them, I suggest you phone your local supermarket headquarters, and ask them to contact Menq and order for example 5000 pieces or more so they can get them at the price of $80 per unit and sell it to you for probably below $100 in supermarkets.

Pictures of this laptop:

Menq EasyPC E790 MenQ EasyPC E790 MenQ EasyPC E790 MenQ EasyPC E790 MenQ EasyPC E790 MenQ EasyPC E790 MenQ EasyPC E790 MenQ EasyPC E790

Find more information at http://www.menqgroup.com/products/pro/E790.asp

Blog about the cheap Alpha-400 laptops http://www.alpha-400.com/

Here are some of my previous famous videos of this type of cheap ARM based revolutionary laptops:

September 3rd 2009: Sharp PC-Z1, the first Freescale ARM Cortex A8 based smartbook on the market
June 7th 2009: $150 Freescale ARM Cortex A8 based Pegatron Desktop
June 5th 2009: ARM talks about the new ARM Laptops
June 5th 2009: Qualcomm talks about Snapdragon powered ARM laptops
June 5th 2009: Freescale shows smartbooks
June 4th 2009: Worlds first Android laptop, Qualcom snapdragon powered by Compal
June 4th 2009: Nvidia Tegra talks about Flash support and HD multimedia ARM laptops
June 4th 2009: Nvidia talks more about their new ARM laptops
September 12th 2008: Menq $89 EasyPC E760
September 2nd 2008: The $98 Hivision Mininote
September 1st 2008: Univ $150 ARM laptop
March 12th 2008: GeCube ARM laptop
March 12th 2006: Municator $146 desktop