Category: OS

Some of my expectations for Mobile World Congress

Posted by Charbax – February 17, 2012
Category: Opinions, MWC, Android, Windows

The MWC is the ARM conference, all the latest fastest newest ARM Processors are unveiled, all the biggest Smartphones of the year are demonstrated, the Smartphone and Carrier industry generating Trillions of dollars of yearly economic activity converges in Barcelona between February 26th and March 1st, expect the best video coverage to be posted right here on ARMdevices.net!

Please help me in getting well prepared for this event, send me an email with any tips for awesome things to be shown at MWC that you think that I should video-blog. You can also post here in the comments what your expectations are for MWC, interesting leaks and prediction articles to check out, please let me know what you think I should film in priority.

Here are some of the topics which I am looking forward to see:

– ARM Cortex-A15 demonstrated by Texas Instruments, Samsung. Maybe Nvidia shows Project Denver for the first time. ST-Ericsson may show it also. Does Qualcomm have an equivalent Mega-Krait on demo?

– Single-core ARM Cortex-A9 becomes a huge deal. I expect sub-$100 Cortex-A9 smartphones based on MediaTek MT6575 and ST-Ericsson U4500. It’s a big deal it brings performance to the sub-$100 unlocked smartphones market which can be hundreds of millions of phones per year.

– Samsung upgrades Galaxy Nexus up to OMAP4470 1.8Ghz. Samsung upgrades Galaxy S2 to Plus with latest Exynos4 at 32nm (Dual 1.5-1.8Ghz or Quad 1.2-1.5Ghz?). Samsung upgrades tablets with 1200p screens, newest Exynos, TI OMAP4470 and/or Nvidia Tegra3?

– Sony goes crazy on Android. Expect powerful and good looking Sony Xperia phones with latest screen and processor technology. Sony needs Android for its economic recovery. Expect a new range of Sony branded phones.

– Panasonic launches its ARM Cortex-A9 processor for other than Set-top-box/HDTV use? Maybe they use their dual-core for a Lumix phone. For people who care about the smartphone camera this is going to be good. Real point-and-shoot optics with a full Android smartphone integrated.

– Google acquires Motorola. Motorola announces new OMAP4460 1.5Ghz and OMAP4470 1.8Ghz phones and tablets with ICS. Makes Lapdock hardware system an open standard. Lapdock devices are now more powerful at Laptop productivity use than the Intel Atom netbook. Does Google use MWC to launch its Google Entertainment System for cheap Android@Home Hubbing, ARM Powered Google TV platform upgrade, new level of support for ARM Powered Native Code video-games and advanced ARM Powered Google Desktop software.

– LG aims very high, showing stuff even better looking than their LG Spectrum phone. Using fastest processors and latest IPS LCD HD screen technology. There is talk of Optimus 3D2 and X3.

– Huawei positions themselves as potential top challenger for smartphone volume of sales throughout the world. Launches the awesome OMAP4460 super slim P1S at (I guess sub-$300 unlocked) and shows their new Diamond series with even faster processor and even larger screen (I guess at sub-$400 unlocked). Also, launches range of low-cost sub-$100 Android phones with up to approx 4″ screen sizes and single-core ARM Cortex-A9 processing, thus near Galaxy S2 performance at sub-$100 unlocked pricing. Huawei wants to be one of the best value for price makers worldwide.

– ZTE does it like Huawei, cheap, good value, innondates the market with mid-range sub-$200 unlocked and sub-$100 low-cost.

– Microsoft shows off Windows 8 on ARM Tablets/Laptops convertibles, for the first time, journalists are allowed to actually play with it. They probably are going to give a thousand Windows 8 on ARM Tablets to developers at the conference. Expect Samsung, HTC, ZTE, Nokia to show Windows 8 on ARM Tablets/Laptops Convertibles. Microsoft announces plan to acquire Nokia.

– Toshiba ramps up their tablets. Toshiba shows a successor to the AC100 ARM Powered Laptop, this time OMAP4470 1.8Ghz or Tegra3, ICS with an awesome Chrome for Android support.

– HTC shows Tegra3 and Qualcomm Krait stuff. May expand Wildfire to approx 4″ screen sizes and Single-core ARM Cortex-A9 level of performance for the sub-$200 unlocked smartphones market.

– Fujitsu joins the Android market with a new slim Tegra3 smartphone.

– For expensive high-end, 720p is the new standard for smartphones and 1200p is the new standard for tablets.

What do you expect from MWC?

Archos sells more tablets than Asus and Acer, has Europe’s number one sub-400€ tablet market share

Posted by Charbax – February 16, 2012
Category: Tablets, Rockchip, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

Archos worldwide revenues increased 106% in 2011 compared to 2010. For the tablet sales in Europe, Archos is the second biggest tablet maker tied to Samsung. For the sub-400€ tablet market in Europe, Archos is the number one. Archos yearly tablet sales in Asia has exploded 464% going from 4,4M€ to 24,9M€ in revenue.

Think about it for a second. Archos is a 250-employee company based in Paris, and they are the European leader for the sub-400€ tablet market, they are virtually tied with the Samsung tablet sales in Europe and they are far in front of giants like Asus, Acer, Motorola, Toshiba, LG, Huawei, ZTE, HTC tablet sales in Europe.

Archos revenue from US sales “only” increased 57% year/year from 18,2M to 28,6M, my theory is because Archos has to prioritize where to spend their cash for production and distribution. Just as the Samsung Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note were released in Europe and Asia before the USA, Archos also has to choose to prioritize shipments to the European and Asian market, some markets also where Archos may be able to extract larger margins and satisfy resellers more evenly (a US reseller constantly having to be out of stock gets angry..). Over the past 3-4 months, monitoring the forums at http://forum.archosfans.com one can see hundreds of messages of American consumers being somewhat dissapointed not being able to buy the latest Archos G9 series of tablets, and due to Texas Instruments OMAP4460 1.5Ghz Processor being delayed, Archos can only really start shipping that promised 1.5Ghz tablet speed since recently. Also to consider, Archos has yet to annonce a 3G/4G/LTE USB Stick carrier for the US market, as the US market isn’t compatible with the rest of the worlds open unlocked 3G/HSPA+ SIM card USB stick system (I do believe some carrier, at least an MVNO should soon be allowing Archos provide a USB stick compatible with their network).

Consider this, Archos is a 250-employee company, with currently their record yearly revenue at 171,4 Million Euros ($224.669 Million). Apple has 60400 employees and a 2011 revenue of $108.249 billion. That means Archos makes 481 times less revenue than Apple. Yet, Archos manages to be second largest tablet seller in Europe behind Apple and tied with Samsung.

My theory is that if/when a company like Archos can get access to more cash, they can increase the mass production of their products and I think Archos has no problems selling out of all of their inventory, pretty much regardless of the worldwide region. The likely upcoming Socialist French President Francois Hollande (likely to be elected April 2012 instead of Nicolas Sarkozy) can make it a National priority to use State cash to invest in promising high-tech companies like Archos, France can heavily and rapidly invest in Archos to help Archos grab even more worldwide market share in a tablet market analysts predict to more than double again in 2012 compared to 2011. More investments can create a situation where Archos can expand R&D and Marketing/Sales efforts in Paris, thus upgrading firmwares even faster, developing new hardware skews faster, optimizing manufacturing and BOM techniques faster, something Archos can use to increase the value for money even faster making it even easier to sell all stock regardless of volume produced. With significantly more cash for more production, faster R&D, I believe Archos can grow and be the French high-tech company to seriously compete with Apple worldwide.

The Android tablet market has exploded in 2011. I believe the daily Android tablets activations worldwide has now overtaken the iPad2. The regular stack of analysts will only demonstrate that when they estimate Q1 2012 tablet sales in early April. I base my estimation on the fact most major latest Android tablets were released not before December 2011 (Archos G9, Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, Motorola XyBoard, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, etc), thus counting since December 2011 (and not October 2011 as the latest analysts have) positions Android tablets even more favorably against the iPad2. If you count the Samsung Galaxy Note as a tablet (which most analysts aren’t), it’s even more obvious that Android tablets daily activations have overtaken the iPad.

With excellent value for money in Archos ICS-capable tablets, such as the $279 Archos 101 G9 Turbo 1.5Ghz, the $229 Arnova 9 G2, the $199 Archos 70b Internet Tablet and the $149 Arnova 7b G2, all of them imminently fully running Ice Cream Sandwich, (all those are MSRP prices, street prices can be 20-30% lower than MSRP with volume) I believe Archos is well positioned to continue their growth in tablet market share. It’d be awesome to see Archos find the time to also provide an OMAP4460 1.5Ghz 7″ Kindle Fire killer (at around $249) and a 5″ Galaxy Note killer (at around $199) tablet with USB 3G/4G/LTE stick support as my favorite tablet sizes are 7″ jacket pocket sized and 5″ pants pocket sized.

Revenue for the fourth quarter 2011

In M€ non audited Q4
2011		 Q4
2010		 Var
(M€)		 Var
(%)
EUROPE 46,3 24,6 21,7 88%
ASIA 8,7 2,2 6,5 300%
USA 10,2 8,8 1,3 15%
TOTAL 65,2 35,6 29,6 83%

 

Total revenue for 2011

In M€ non audited 2011 2010 Var
(M€)		 Var
(%)
EUROPE 117,9 60,7 57,2 94%
ASIA 24,9 4,4 20,5 464%
USA 28,6 18,2 10,4 57%
TOTAL 171,4 83,3 88,1 106%

 

Yearly revenue (Million €)

2009 : 57,9 ($76M)
2010 : 83,3 ($109.5M)
2011 : 171,4 ($224.7M)

Source: Archos Q4 2011 earnings press release on abcbourse.com, boursier.com, easybourse.com and investir.fr

MediaTek MT6575 single-core ARM Cortex-A9 launched!

Posted by Charbax – February 14, 2012
Category: Smartphones, MediaTek, Android

Here’s the third generation MediaTek ARM Processor for low-cost Android phones! This can make the sub-$100 Android phones (no contract, not subsidized) better than the performance of a Nexus One. With support for dual-SIMs, qHD displays, 8MP camera, 720p video playback/recording, 3G/HSPA modem, SGX Series5 GPU (SGX540?). MediaTek claims:

MT6575 offers over 35% improvement for browser applications and over 20% improvement in graphics capabilities for gaming when compared to competitors’ best offerings in these segments.

I don’t know which competitors best offerings MediaTek is comparing with. Are they talking about AmLogic AML8726-M? ST-Ericsson U4500? Freescale i.MX6Solo?

The MT6575, delivered in 40nm CMOS technology, builds on the proven track record of the 2nd generation MT6573 platform – i.e., the platform that powers the Lenovo A60, China Unicom’s top selling handset in the sub‐RMB 1000 (approx. $160 USD) smartphone category.

The MT6575 is currently being incorporated into the latest smartphone offerings by many of MediaTek’s leading customers and the first smartphone models based on this new platform will hit the market in the first quarter of 2012.

Source: mediatek.com

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Google Wallet should use ARM TrustZone for 100% security

Posted by Charbax – February 13, 2012
Category: Opinions, ARM, Android

Google Wallet should rely on ARM TrustZone to make the pin code authentication system 100% secure. I filmed about ARM TrustZone a couple years ago. (I suggested this last May when Google Wallet was launched). The way ARM TrustZone works is to create a separate 100% trusted OS used just to enter the pin code on a hardware level separation, thus a little secure-mode light diode can light up when in it, the main purpose is to prevent software snoopers/fake logon screens etc. I expect something like this is enabled by the NXP PN65 security chip that Google has suggested using on the initial couple NFC-enabled phones on the market, but actually using ARM TrustZone is the best idea. I expect to see new ARM TrustZone enabled phones at Mobile World Congress in a couple weeks from now. Here’s a latest news item about ARM TrustZone for Mobile Wallets: ARM to add NFC mobile wallet support (NFCworld.com)

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Google Entertainment System (GES)

Posted by Charbax – February 10, 2012
Category: Set-top-boxes, Opinions, Google, Android, Google TV

Can be as cheap as $49 or $99, run a full ARM Powered Google TV with advanced 3D video-gaming. For example using Mali-T604 graphics, the graphics are comparable to an xbox360. It basically plays all Android games on the TV. Use a Bluetooth or RF Keyboard/mouse and you’ve got a full Chrome Desktop on your HDTV. It also includes the Android@Home RF protocol for connecting all your home appliances to the web. USB host for hard drives, becomes a WiFi hotspot, may also dock a White Spaces modem/router later so you share your unused home bandwidth to your whole neighborhood. Google can brand as much hardware they want, and I think they should, they just also make that hardware and software open source and let any other hardware makers sell it also.

You can discuss this and share it on Google+: https://plus.google.com/106075758531242552855/posts/YSLEdSYj5aj

Source: my logic/speculation and the Wall Street Journal

Windows 8 on ARM comes with Desktop (of course..)

Posted by Charbax – February 9, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Opinions, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Windows

There has been false rumors going around the web for the past 2-3 months, spread by Mary-Jo Foley of ZDnet and Paul Thurrot of winsupersite.com, that somehow Windows 8 on ARM wouldn’t be getting Desktop mode and full Desktop apps. Those rumors are wrong. In the following video, Microsoft demonstrates (again) how Windows 8 on ARM is going to come with a full Desktop mode with full Desktop apps such as Internet Explorer and Office.

The question of course is how does Microsoft plan to support more Desktop apps on ARM. For example, can we install a full Chrome browser on Windows 8 on ARM, how about apps like Photoshop and Ulead video studio? I expect Microsoft to have support for some recompiled desktop ARM apps in Windows store and support for PC over IP remote desktop for some x86 apps that can work smoothly over remote desktop which I expect Windows Azure to host as a cloud service.

To simplify compatibility, Microsoft is promoting the new Metro style HTML5 based apps system. Sure enough, Metro style apps all work on ARM and x86. But I am also sure that Microsoft carefully plans to also allow recompiled desktop apps on Windows 8 on ARM, they will for sure provide recompilation tools, specifications for use on PCoIP protocols, even partly use some parts of emulation and an ARM based Virtualization hypervisor.

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Archos 101 G9 Turbo 1.5Ghz for $279 at Woot.com today

Posted by Charbax – February 9, 2012
Category: Tablets, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

It’s basically as powerful (or more powerful) than a Tegra3 tablet, but at nearly half the price. The normal MSRP price (for the 16GB 1.5Ghz version) is $399 so this is a good deal! It’ll support Ice Cream Sandwich through an official firmware update probably coming later this month. Support for US-compatible 3G/4G/LTE USB sticks is possibly also soon to be announced (depends just on US carriers or MVNO’s allowing Archos to use their networks I think).

Check it out at http://www.woot.com/

Found via: androidpolice.com

Chrome for Android now released

Posted by Charbax – February 7, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Opinions, Google, Android

This confirms my expectation for Ice Cream Sandwich, that Chrome OS and Google TV are being merged with Android. I’ve been talking about it since my October 5th ICS predictions and way before in May 2011, January 2011 and February 2010.

A full Chrome Browser in Android can be the key to see the huge market for ARM Powered Laptops explode.

Look forward to having a full ChromeOS-like Laptop experience on your ARM Powered Android Tablet as soon as you plug a Keyboard dock to it. Look forward to having a full Chromebox-like experience when you connect the HDMI output of your Smartphone to a PC monitor or HDTV and use a Bluetooth or USB Host Keyboard and mouse.

The main question is now to test the performance of the full Chrome browser on Android, I’d like to see its performance on the Galaxy Nexus that has the high memory bandwidth OMAP4460 1.2Ghz and 1.5Ghz processor. I’d like to see its performance on OMAP4470 1.8Ghz, and Tegra3 1.3Ghz. I think the Chrome browser performance on those Android devices can now be faster than on a Netbook.

Teradici PCoIP, optimized remote desktop on TI’s OMAP4460

Posted by Charbax – February 1, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Software, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Android, Windows

Teradici is doing software optimization using the PCoIP (PC-over-IP) protocol to run a full x86 desktop remotely over the Internet onto an OMAP4460 device. Here in this demo remotely using an x86 desktop that is over 2000 miles away (and considering that Internet connections at trade shows can be unreliable).

ARM Powered Sony Google TV NSZ-GS7 launched

Posted by Charbax – February 1, 2012
Category: Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, CES, Google TV

Sony is launching this cheaper and better ARM Powered Google TV Set-top-box, it may be using the new Dual-core Marvell Armada 1500 ARM Processor, let me know in the comments if you know which ARM Processor Sony is using.

Texas Instruments shows latest Augmented Reality Tablet demos

Posted by Charbax – February 1, 2012
Category: Tablets, Software, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Android

Using software from Total Immersion and Metaio, Texas Instruments is showing their latest status of hardware acceleration on the DSP, Still Image Co-processing for Augmented Reality applications, games, navigation and more.

Diesel Dogs Smart Weights

Posted by Charbax – February 1, 2012
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, Freescale, CES, Android

Diesel Dogs develops Bluetooth Smart Weights, records the movements of weights into an Android application, to be used for people working out and who want to try to optimize their workout. They were invited by Freescale to exhibit at CES 2012 as being in the top-10 winners of the Freescale Third Annual Bluetooth Innovation World Cup.

Lenovo SmartTV K91 55″ Android ICS TV

Posted by Charbax – January 25, 2012
Category: Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, Qualcomm, CES, Android

Using the Qualcomm APQ8060 Dual-core 1.5Ghz processor, Lenovo is releasing the Ice Cream Sandwich 55″ HDTV in China.

Status of Ubuntu for ARM Laptops and Servers

Posted by Charbax – January 24, 2012
Category: Laptops, Servers, Texas Instruments, Ubuntu

David Mandala, Manager of the ARM Team at Canonical talks about the status of Ubuntu Linux on ARM Laptops and Servers, and about their plans for Ubuntu on ARM until 2014 and beyond. Who wouldn’t want to buy an awesome $199 ARM Powered Ultrabook, 13.3″ screen, ARM Cortex-A9 1.5Ghz TI OMAP4460 or 1.8Ghz TI OMAP4470, thinner, lighter than Intel Ultrabooks, 2x longer battery life on a smaller thinner battery (10x with the sunlight readable Pixel Qi), 1GB or 2GB RAM for full speed Chrome and Firefox web browser speeds?

Talking about the status of Ubuntu on TI OMAP3 (beagleboard), OMAP4 (pandaboard), Marvell, Freescale, Calxeda, plans for Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 optimizations by Ubuntu 12.10, ARM Cortex-A15, ARM Cortex-A7, ARMv8 64bit, the imminent inclusion of full hard-float optimization in Ubuntu 12.4 on ARM:

With Ubuntu 12.04 on ARM there is also hard-float support (ARMhf), as previously talked about on Phoronix, and this will mean a huge performance boost for many workloads. Mandala said the performance boost they are seeing is between 5% and 30% improvement for floating-point operations. Also benefiting greatly for end-users is improved font-rendering, web-page scrolling, and other operations from this ARM hardfp support. Other code is also benefiting due to better use of the stack calling convention.

Source: phoronix.com

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Orchard Inc Toughlet, Pixel Qi tablet for commercial ruggedized outdoor use

Posted by Charbax – January 24, 2012
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Pixel Qi, Android

Orchard Inc raised $4 Million for a tablet startup, here showing their titanium aluminium enclosure design, water resistant, unbreakable, with Pixel Qi and OMAP4 Powered Android, designed for outdoor use.

Tobii eye tracking demo

Posted by Charbax – January 24, 2012
Category: Displays, Other, Exclusive videos, CES, Windows

Tobii shows their latest eye tracking technology in the form of a thick bunch of cameras and detectors to be placed under a screen, after calibration, it can detect where you are looking on the screen, providing a new type of user interface for computing. Do you think we’ll soon have this technology automatically-calibrated and into all computer screens, into all smartphones and tablets also?

Obigo Browser on TV, Smartphone, Tablet and more

Posted by Charbax – January 24, 2012
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Set-top-boxes, Software, Exclusive videos, CES, Android

Obigo shows their web browser running on a smart TV, on a Smartphone, Tablet and more. Their software solution on Android also enables to customize home replacements for Android based on HTML5.

AQ Corporation NFC solutions

Posted by Charbax – January 24, 2012
Category: Tablets, Other, Exclusive videos, CES, Android

AQ Corporation shows some of their latest NFC solutions for tablets, they sell tablets which stores can buy to receive NFC payments in store.

Arnova 7c G2 sold for 80£ in the UK, 7″ capacitive unlocked 3G HSPA+ inside

Posted by Charbax – January 23, 2012
Category: Tablets, Qualcomm, Archos, Android

The new Archos Arnova 7c G2 has been released. It’s being sold for 80£ at Carphonewarehouse.com with an unlocked, no-contract 3G SIM card slot. It’s a 7″ 800×480 capacitive screen, the Qualcomm MSM7227 800Mhz ARM11 processor that can run Gingerbread now, ICS possibly soon, with the Adreno 200 graphics that supports most Android 3D games today.

This price is basically $99 without the 20% UK VAT tax. By far the cheapest 7″ capacitive 3G-enabled tablet.

Some other specs:
– 4GB internal storage, expandable with microSDHC cards
– Dimensions: 195 mm x 118 mm x 14.1 mm
– Weight: 490 g
– WiFi, Bluetooth, micro USB 2.0 slave port, microSD slot, front facing camera, G-sensor, microphone, built-in speaker, GPS

Lenovo IdeaTab S2110, Android ICS Qualcomm Krait MSM8960 Tablet with Keyboard Dock

Posted by Charbax – January 21, 2012
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Exclusive videos, Qualcomm, CES, Android

Lenovo showed a prototype of their next generation Android tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich on the 1.5Ghz Dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 Krait processor and supporting a keyboard dock that looks similar to the Asus Transformer Prime.