Category: Android

NewGadgets.de: MSI VoIP Phone MS-9A31 with Android Hands On at Cebit 2010

Posted by – March 10, 2010
Category: Other, CeBIT, Android

Android powered VOIP phone showcased by MSI at CeBIT 2010 for household and commercial applications.

Source: http://www.newgadgets.de/10506/msi-zeigt-voip-telefon-mit-touchscreen-und-google-android/ and NewGadgetsDE on Youtube

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Chromium OS on a $199 Tablet powered by Freescale

Posted by – March 8, 2010

Freescale is showing their reference design for sub-$200 tablets. The target is that tablets can soon be sold below $200 to end consumers that are able to run any Linux-based OS, including Android or Chromium OS – based on the open-source code available at http://chromium.org

In this video, Freescale’s product manager of Software Development demonstrates the status of their optimizations of running Chromium OS on their i.MX51 based devices, among other form factors is the recently announced $199 tablet form factor. It even supports hardware acceleration of HTML5 based video playback.

This means, full power Chromium OS could be made available in the next few months in Laptop and Tablet form factors to be sold well below $200 unlocked without contracts. The main question is how fast and how smooth will the Chromium Browser feel on ARM Powered devices? This is to be seen and tested very soon! Follow my video-blog for hands-on reports showing performance of Chromium OS running on all the ARM Powered devices very soon. Check also for Chrome browser running within Android, or for Chromium OS modified to add Android apps support, thus merging the two.

I also wonder, how much more does a $65 ARM Powered laptop cost if it uses an ARM Cortex A8 processor like the ones from Freescale instead of the ARM9 or ARM11 based ones from rockchip, VIA, Samsung and others. If the price increase is within $35, then welcome will be all the sub-$100 full power smooth ARM Powered Chromium OS laptops and tablets! Without actually knowing the real price difference between the ARM9, ARM11 and ARM Cortex based cheap laptops, my guess is that the availability of sub-$200 and sub-$100 Chromium/Android Laptops/Tablets is a possibility.

How soon will we see Google sell unlocked Chromium/Android on ARM powered laptop/tablet/e-reader convertibles with 50-hour battery life on Pixel Qi screens at http://google.com/laptop?

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ARM TrustZone Powered Mobile Payments

Posted by – March 6, 2010

ARM is presenting this hardware based secure payments and authentication system which all future mobile devices may be shipping with. The functionalities of those calculators that people use for their netbanking can thus be integrated in the future mobile phones, to let people do secure payments and authentication using a simple 4 number pin code on their mobile phone. The way they do it is that they guide the keyboard entries directly into a separate secure encrypted OS that functions separately from Android to do the secure authentication that then sends back the certificate (or how it’s called) back to the web based application. This kind of system, I would guess, could also be integrated in laptops, or you could use your phone to authenticate yourself on any website very securely using any computer.

You can find more information about this at: http://www.arm.com/markets/mobile/trustzone-and-mobile-payments.php

Creative Zii Egg Android device

Posted by – March 6, 2010

Creative is working on these Creative Zii Egg products based on their ARM based processor. Creative is also working on an ARM Cortex A8 based processor for their next generation of these products.

Digital Aria 3D Android Interfaces

Posted by – March 6, 2010

3D home replacement, 3D features for Android applications, Digital Aria works on hardware optimizations for Android based devices.

$65 Android laptop

Posted by – March 5, 2010

Firstview Electronic HK Limited is showing the PC706V which may be one of the worlds cheapest laptops, it runs Android on a low cost and low power VIA 8505 ARM based 533Mhz processor, with 128MB RAM, 2GB Nand flash, 7″ 800×480 screen, WiFi, SD card reader Nand flash, 7″ 800×480 screen, WiFi, SD card reader 3G dongle support. It’s supposed to run 4 hours on a 2100mah battery, it loads websites slower than a more expensive computer, but it can be made for only $65 in the Chinese factories when ordered by big resellers in large quantities.

Altina 4.8″ Android GPS with ethernet

Posted by – March 5, 2010

http://altina.com.tw is launching a 4.8″ Android GPS MID with built-in 3G and even an ethernet connector.

Interview with PocketBook about 601, 302/602 and 603

Posted by – March 5, 2010

Interview with Oleg Naumenko, General Manager of PocketBook about the new PocketBook 601 (cheap Freescale based), about 302/602 (resistive touch) and 603 (wacom touch) e-readers.

You can buy these devices in Europe via my-ebook-reader.de (for end users) and silkit.de (for resellers).

LG Phone Watch at CeBIT 2010

Posted by – March 5, 2010

LG is showing some new phones at the CeBIT 2010 consumer electronics show.

Camangi Webstation

Posted by – March 5, 2010

7″ Android Tablet.

Onyx International status of firmwares and products at CeBIT 2010

Posted by – March 4, 2010

Onyx is talking about their latest status of the firmware updates that they are making for their implementation of embedded Linux in a wacom touch screen enabled WiFi e-ink e-reader the Onyx Boox, also sold at Bebook Neo. They are also talking about the imminent release of a 3G version, different designs, larger e-ink screens and the eventuallity of using Android OS in future devices or as a firmware update in the current one.

Forsa 7″ Android Tablet at CeBIT 2010

Posted by – March 4, 2010

Here’s a 7″ Android Tablet powered by a Marvell xscale processor, can have built-in WiFi, GPS and 3G.

1Cross Tech MIDhybrid Android e-ink/LCD/keypad e-reader combo

Posted by – March 4, 2010

http://1crosstech.com is showing a cool looking combination of a 6″ e-ink e-reader on one side, with a 3.2″ HVGA Android LCD on the other side, and also with a touch panel keyboard input and a whole bunch more hardware features such as a 3G sim card slot, WiFi, Bluetooth an accelererometer, VGA webcam for video-conferencing and more.

Gigabyte EB10 Android e-ink e-reader

Posted by – March 3, 2010

Gigabyte is secretly showing a prototype of Android running on their first e-ink e-reader project. They are trying to adapt Android for e-ink e-readers, to allow users to install whatever RSS feed reader, news aggregator, any source for ebooks, web browsers and more adapted reading on paper-like screens with WiFi or 3G connectivity and perhaps even touch screens. I’d like a browser plugin that lets me bookmark articles in one click to read later on the e-reader thus using such synchronization software within Android that generates the reading queue based on web contents reformatted perfectly to read on such screen like reading on paper.

RealVNC for Android

Posted by – March 3, 2010

RealVNC software is being used by millions of people around the world for remote access to computers.

Hard Kernel ODroid Android gaming device

Posted by – March 3, 2010

This is the first Android device with such a gaming buttons layout. It’s affordable available at around $300 unlocked at http://hardkernel.com but does not come with a 3G modem, only WiFi. It does have a pretty snappy ARM Cortex A8 processor from Samsung clocked at 833mhz, with 512MB DDR2 memory, a 3.5-inch capacitive touch screen display and 720p video playback through its built-in HDMI output. This is for now the Developer Edition of this ODroid product to be released in March 2010, followed by commercial editions of this product, to hopefully include full emulators for all game consoles ported to Android up to N64 and Dreamcast games if this device’s 3D acceleration and processing power will be able to handle those emulators and if developers port those to this implementation of Android.

Skytone Alpha Android Laptop/Tablet presented by MAG Digital at CeBIT 2010

Posted by – March 2, 2010

It runs Google Android, it’s the first Android based Laptop that also come with a swivel touch screen for full Android tablet form factor. It also comes with cool gaming controls on each side of the screen. It uses an ARM11 processor, has 2 hour battery runtime, built-in mini-jack to composite tv output, and a pretty well integrated mousepad build quality. You can find more information at http://mag-digital.com

Leicke Chinfai Bluetooth keyboard works on the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android

Posted by – March 2, 2010

Chinfai, distributed by http://leicke.de in Europe, sells this rollable Bluetooth keyboard which I am testing with my Archos 5 Internet Tablet in this video. It seems to work great.

HTC Desire, HTC Legend and HTC HD2 Mini at Mobile World Congress 2010

Posted by – March 1, 2010

These are the latest HTC smart phones shown at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. This video shows how the HTC Legend is an improvement on every aspect compared to the HTC Hero and offers some talk and explanations for HTC Sense UI, and the HTC desire compared with the Google Nexus One.

Exclusive video: Archos 7 Home Tablet released for $179

Posted by – March 1, 2010

Check out my exclusive video of the Archos 7 Home Tablet that will be released in April/May for $179 in the USA and 149€ in Europe:

It is powered by a 600mhz Rockchip 2808 processor, does web browsing pretty well (for an ARM9 processor) and plays all video codecs at up to 720p video playback (at up to limited 2500kbit/s bitrates for 720p).

For now, this Archos 7 Home Tablet is being released this next month or by May already and at this amazingly low $179 price for the 2GB version with MicroSD card slot. There will also be a 8GB version and maybe larger capacities for slightly more expensive. It also has a mini-jack to composite video-output using the headphones jack and micro-USB to USB host features built-in. The built-in stereo speakers are very decent for movie watching and the 7″ 800×480 resistive touch-screen is just very fine and does allow for fast text input.

Archos is still working on the Android software optimizations, it comes with special video player, audio player and file explorer applications by default. My guess is that the Google Marketplace could be hacked to work onto it by the open development community at http://forum.archosfans.com

Also, my expectation is that Google will release an Android 2.2 or so version which will provide the full Google Marketplace experience on all large screen Android Tablets and even on Android Laptop form factors and also to provide such for lower cost platforms than the latest ARM Cortex based ones. See my interview with Andy Rubin and Eric Schmidt about those speculations: http://138.2.152.197/2010/02/22/i-interviewed-eric-schmidt-and-andy-rubin-at-mwc-off-camera-for-now-watch-eric-schmidts-keynote-video/

Here are some pictures of this device (click to see full sized version on Picasa):
Archos 7 Home Tablet with Android Archos 7 Home Tablet with Android Archos 7 Home Tablet with Android Archos 7 Home Tablet with Android Archos 7 Home Tablet with Android Archos 7 Home Tablet with Android Archos 7 Home Tablet with Android

You can discuss this video at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=31278

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