Category: Android

Archos 101 G9, 1280×800 Honeycomb, up to 250GB, starts at $349

Posted by – June 23, 2011

$349, Honeycomb 3.2, Google Marketplace, 3G dongle can be integrated, up to 250GB Hard Drive storage, 1280×800 resolution touch screen, available in September, 1080p@60fps full codecs high profile video playback support… Engadget is posting some infos.

Archos 80 G9, 1.5Ghz Dual-core OMAP4460 Honeycomb tablets

Posted by – June 23, 2011

Engadget is posting some infos.

Archos Gen9 event is streaming live now

Posted by – June 23, 2011

JBMM.fr and ArchosLounge.net are going to broadcast live from the Archos event today in Paris at 6:15 PM Paris Central European Time, 12:15 PM EST, 9:15 AM PST, check back when that time approaches to make sure this will be the right embed code. During the event, you can discuss the Archos Gen9 tablets here in the comments and at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=54171

Engadget posted some pictures and specs: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/23/archos-intros-80-gb-and-101-g9-android-3-1-tablets-1-5ghz-cpu/

There will be a live chat:

iWave PCB Designs based on i.MX53, i.MX51, i.MX27

Posted by – June 21, 2011

iWave Systems makes Freescale based PCB designs and software optimization.

Honeycomb 3.2 is for 7″ and other processors

Posted by – June 20, 2011
Category: Tablets, Qualcomm, Android

You see, I was mostly right, Huawei unveiled a Qualcomm MSM8660 Dual-core 1.2Ghz Honeycomb 3.2 tablet. They say Honeycomb 3.2 is the new version of Honeycomb for 7″ tablets and that seems to be the version to use on Tablets powered by other processors than Tegra2. To be released for an unknown price in Q3, it’s 390 grams, no kickstand, which means it will be released at any point between July and September in certain markets.

Android Infrared-touch i.MX508 are the new thing for E Ink e-readers

Posted by – June 12, 2011

Both of the new amazingly priced Nook Touch ($139) and Kobo Touch ($129) seem to use the new Freescale i.MX508 (I first filmed i.MX508 a year ago) to facilitate smooth touch interfaces using Infrared Touch technology (first used in the Sony PRS-650) but also to easily enable those to be the first Android powered e-ink e-readers! Basically i.MX508 and Android makes first real useful use of WiFi and Touch on e-ink e-readers! Using Android on e-ink is awesome to provide for great files support, web browser, easily add apps like news readers, rss readers, Chrome-To-Phone functionality (just beam any article or any text from your Chrome browser on your laptop to your e-ink e-reader in one click!), synchronizing of bookmarks, wireless beaming of web based ebooks, all in one click. Android on e-ink just increases the e-readers potential greatly. Using infrared touchscreen technology is a great way to provide the best possible readability, not adding any layers on top of the screen.

Look forward to much more fascinating devices to come with:
i.MX508 + Android + infrared touch + WiFi/3G + e-ink = Low-cost e-ink e-readers!
Also see my video of the alternative Acoustic Pulse Recognition (APR) touch technology.

An interesting thing to follow though will be to see how open Android i.MX508 e-ink e-reader makers will be towards allowing for alternative e-book stores, and allowing for full open Android apps installation and full unrestricted access to the web browser. As it may be that part of the profit margins on these new low-cost e-ink e-readers may be subsidized by the hardware makers expecting to make later huge profits on selling e-books, like Amazon does with their Kindle e-book store, it will be fun to see if all the e-ink e-reader makers will seize the opportunity to be open with Android on e-ink and at the same time find new interesting ways to monetize those. I for example would prefer paying less than $10 per month for unlimited legal access to all e-books, all newspapers, all blogs, all websites, everything, perhaps even certain 3G bandwidth included, but will content owners and hardware makers be open minded enough to let that happen quickly?

When will Google officially announce open source Android optimizations for e-ink devices and with deep integration of Google Books, Google Reader, Google Fast Flip and more?

Here’s how I think those e-ink e-readers could be sold in the best way: $99, $10/month optional pre-paid plan gives 100mb 3G data (upgradable bandwidth for $1/100mb or less) and full unlimited access to all e-books, all e-newspapers, e-magazines, blogs through RSS/search and more. Full unrestricted web browsing on e-ink. And nice complete cloud syncing with your Smartphone, Tablet and Laptop. While e-ink e-reader market is doing great perhaps reaching 20 million units to be sold this year, if they price them right and open them fully, I think they’ll do even better.

Sources for these videos: the-ebook-reader.com, engadget.com

Archos Gen8 Tablets can multi-boot Froyo, Debian, Angstrom, Gingerbread, Ubuntu, Chromium OS and more!

Posted by – June 10, 2011

Archos hacker Bubu just released the multi-boot menu support for the Archos Gen8 Tablets, it reportedly works great on Archos 70 Internet Tablet and Archos 101 Internet Tablet, find the release here: http://www.openaos.org/archives/739

This is how this is cool, you can install the official alternative OS firmware from Archos called the Special Developer Edition firmware here: http://www.archos.com/support/support_tech/_ppp.html?country=us&lang=en&p=gen8

Then you can install alternative firmwares and have them right there available in your multi-boot menu on your Archos, so you could for example today choose between Archos official Android firmware, Debian Linux and Angstrom Linux.

If more software hackers contribute, Archos tablets may also run Ubuntu 11.4, Chromium OS, Gingerbread and any other embedded Linux OS through this multi-boot system.

Bubu and the team at OpenAOS.org previously released this solution for the Archos Gen6 and Gen7 tablets as well.

Huawei MediaPad, dual-core Honeycomb 7″ capacitive?

Posted by – June 10, 2011

Huawei is holding a live press event at the Red Dot Design Museum Singapore at 5pm on June 20th, where they will unveil all the technical details of their new Huawei Mediapad Android tablet!

Watch my video talking about this product when it was just a mockup at Mobile World Congress last February (as codename then was Huawei S7 Pro):

Here is my speculation about some of the specs that the Huawei Mediapad may be presented with:

– Since Huawei has a long partnership with Qualcomm, I think they might actually use the new pretty awesome Qualcomm MSM8660 (CDMA+HSUPA) or/and MSM8260 (HSUPA) Dual-core 1.5Ghz processor, which as shown recently at Computex on the Asus Memo, can already run Honeycomb even though it’s just 7″, a 1280×800 screen might be required for Honeycomb to display correctly yet, but surely Qualcomm and Google are working to support Honeycomb 3.1 and Ice Cream Sandwich on smaller and lower resolution screens to keep prices low.

– Dual-core should be expected, Honeycomb can be part of the party. If they don’t yet use Qualcomm’s dual-core maybe they just have a Tegra2 in there for now.

– Expect it even lighter and thinner than the Huawei S7 Slim.

– Hopefully they don’t impose their custom UI on top of Android again, and maybe they do target a sub-$400 price point even with 3G included.

Qualcomm Dragonboard, $300-$500 Dual-core MSM8660/APQ8060 development board


Qualcomm is releasing this hardware and software development board solution for hardware makers wanting to customize their use of Qualcomm’s latest Dual-core ARM Processor. The Dragonboard includes a dual-core Snapdragon APQ8060 clocked at 1.5GHz (same as MSM8660 and MSM8260, just without the modem), runs on Android by default. The cost is $300 for a basic unit, and $500 if you want the screen and all the other components featured in this video.

Serafim shows 42″ Optical Touch Module (OTM) multi-touch screen

Posted by – June 8, 2011

At Computex 2011 you could find many very large multi-touch screens based on Optical Touch screen technology. Basically they add something to any 42″ or larger LCD HDTV to turn them into multi-touch capable very large touch screens.

Honeywld Marvell Armada 1000 88DE3010 “Berlin” based Android Set-top-box

Posted by – June 8, 2011

Here’s one of the first Marvell Berlin (Armada 1000) based Android Set-top-boxes I have yet seen, firmware is still to be finalized but they can start shipping this hardware this month.

ShiZhu Technology shows Pixel Qi Tablets at Computex 2011

Posted by – June 3, 2011

Check out how ShiZhu’s new Pixel Qi tablet series perform outdoors and indoors against other regular LCD based new Android tablets such as the HTC Flyer (with an anti-glare coating) and the Archos 70 Internet Tablet, you can see how the Pixel Qi screen is much more readable outdoors. This tablet is based on the Samsung Hummingbird Cortex-A8 processor. They are releasing also a 7″ and they can provide them in several different designs.

Pixel Qi tablets can run on solar power


A quite small modern solar panel can produce 1W of power, enough to power both the Pixel Qi and the whole ARM Powered tablet motherboard behind it. Think for a second how amazing this is. They can put solar panels on the bezel and the Tablet could basically be fully solar powered, have a bigger solar panel on the back of the tablet if you want to just charge it and not use it. This compact 1W Solar panel is $3. OLPC could be using this for the upcoming OLPC XO-1.75 Laptop and the XO-3 tablet.

ZTE Light Tablet with Pixel Qi screen

Posted by – June 3, 2011

While this is not yet with the anti-glare anti-reflective coating and the reflective mode for touch is not yet implemented in this ZTE sample, this is how the ZTE Light with Pixel Qi might look like, the fully optimized version should be shipping in the third quarter of this year.

UDM.tw Q101 compact TI DM3730 Cortex-A8 module PCB design

Posted by – June 3, 2011

UDM provides a full Texas Instruments ARM Cortex-A8 module to integrate in tablets or any other device.

Cupp Computing turns any Laptop into an ARM Laptop


Cupp Computing is now launching as a product their module to replace the hard drive in any Laptop, add an SSD, up to 2 MicroSD cards (one for the ARM Powered OS of your choice), and with a keyboard shortcut you instantly go from the ARM Powered OS to the x86 OS, and back while the x86 goes to sleep. The ARM Powered Laptop runs up to 40 hours on a battery, if you have just 10 minutes left of battery, switch to ARM mode and you’ve still got 1 hour of use to finish your work. In ARM Mode it can run Android, Ubuntu, Chrome OS and other. They are currently using OMAP3, they can use OMAP4 also soon for more ARM Performance. They also plan to work with motherboard manufacturers to add the whole ARM Powered laptop module right onto all motherboards so ARM Powered laptop mode becomes a default option in all laptops.

ARM Powered Android used to lower the cost and power of Point-of-sale systems

Posted by – June 3, 2011

POSLab is showing their ARM Powered TI Cortex-A8 implementation of Android on a Point-of-sale (POS) system.

Malata shows first 7″ Tegra2 tablet

Posted by – June 3, 2011

This will run Honeycomb when it’s released after around September. Malata manufactures their tablets for several brands, including ViewSonic and others.

FirstView shows Rockchip RK2918 capacitive tablet design

Posted by – June 3, 2011

FirstView now also makes a nice looking capacitive RK2918 based tablet:

ZiiLabs ZMS-20 ARM Cortex-A9 1.5Ghz runs Honeycomb nicely

Posted by – June 2, 2011

ZiiLabs launches their ARM Cortex-A9 1.6Ghz processor, demonstrated here in their Jaguar 7″ and 10.1″ capacitive tablet reference platforms running Honeycomb smoothly. Here’s an interview with Tim Lewis director marketing and partner relations at ZiiLabs about their Stemcell’s differentiation, performance, value. Is this only the third SoC to publicly (I still had to go find their demos in their private meeting room) demonstrate Honeycomb support yet after the Tegra2 tablets and the Qualcomm Dual-core Asus Memo?