Category: OS

Archos wants to provide the G9 tablets for 0.50€ per day with 3G to students in France

Posted by Charbax – October 3, 2011
Category: Tablets, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

The Archos CEO Henri Crohas today spoke on French radio station France Inter (the audio is in French) to suggest for a Government supported promotion plan to be offered to French students where the student can pay only half a euro per day to get the Archos 80 G9 with 3G stick and with a 3G data connection on a 2-year contract.

The French Government is launching an offer to students in France to get an iPad2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for 1€ per day over a 2-year contract to get the tablet and 3G connectivity. That amounts to 730€. As a counter attack, Archos is suggesting that the Government support a French offer to French students, where the student can choose to get the Archos 80 G9 with 3G stick and with 3G access for half the price 0.50€ per day over 2 years, that amounts to only 365€. Given a choice with such huge price difference, obviously most students will choose the Archos tablet deal and not Samsung or Apple.

Archos is the only Tablet maker in France, and one of the only tablet makers based in Europe. The latest sales numbers for Tablet sales in France show that Archos is biggest Android tablet maker in terms of market share, in front of Samsung. They are of course second biggest tablet maker after Apple, for example last November and December months, Archos had 22% tablet market share in France and Apple had 68%. But that difference may get lowered quickly if the French Government accepts to support providing Archos tablets to all French students at a discounted price, half the price compared to the iPad2, all the while Archos providing a faster processor and far more features such as more video codecs supported, HDMI, 2x USB Hosts, Kick-stand (which makes it much more usable for education) an up to 50% faster processor and more.

Consider that Archos only has 100 employees, and Apple has 50 thousand (500x more). Consider that Archos has a market capitalisation of $200 Million on the Paris stock exchange while Apple is valued at $350 Billion on NASDAQ (1750x more). That Archos has about $40 Million cash to use for launching mass production while Apple has $70 Billion cash that they can use to launch as much mass production as they want (1750x more). And regardless of all that, it seems Archos may find a way in France to single handedly sell more tablets than Apple.

Review: N5Zero Tablet, sub-$100 5″ capacitive Android tablet

Posted by Charbax – September 28, 2011
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Rockchip, Android

This is my world exclusive review of the new Window88.com N5Zero Tablet. A 5″ capacitive Android tablet to be sold for less than $100 (to resellers). It’s using the Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 Single Core processor at 1.2Ghz, the screen resolution is 800×480, it has 512MB RAM, a MicroSD slot, between 2GB and 16GB built-in flash ROM storage (depending on the configuration, mine has 8GB), no Bluetooth, the graphics are powered by the Vivante Gc800 that does up to 57 million triangles per second and full OpenGL ES 2.0 for fully smooth Flash 10.3 (and soon Flash 11) support, it supports smoothly all the latest Android 3D games, video playback support is 1080p with all codecs but there is no HDMI output.

Most importantly, this cool 5″ capacitive tablet is being sold out of China for below $100 USD! Of course, you have to consider that the low sub-$100 price is for resellers contacting Window88.com and ordering large quantities of the tablet, perhaps 100 pieces minimum, or 500, or 1000, that is to be discussed by interested distributors with the Window88.com people. The final retail price can be a bit higher. In China this tablet is being sold for 699 renminbi on the market, that is $109. But if this tablet gets imported to Europe and the USA, expect a pricing that can be around $139 or more depending on how much margins the resellers want to take.

Rockchip claims that their RK2918 processor has a better performance than the Samsung Hummingbird in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″, Samsung Galaxy S1 and that it’s also faster than the Apple A4 in iPad1 and iPhone4. That is to be confirmed. Sure enough, this is by far not as fast as the newest Dual Core processors such as the one Samsung promises for the 5.3″ Samsung Galaxy Note, but consider that this Window N5Zero is to be sold to resellers at below $100 and that with software optimizations, with perhaps Ice Cream Sandwich coming, this could be fast enough for many users looking for cheap tablet value worldwide.

Read about more of the specs here: http://window88.com/chinese/pro_show.asp?pid=36&p_name=Tablet%20PC

Toshiba Thrive 7″ 1280×800 Honeycomb 3.2 tablet

Posted by Charbax – September 28, 2011
Category: Tablets, Nvidia, Android

Toshiba is expanding their Toshiba Thrive Android tablet series with this new 7″ version with a 1280×800 resolution, Micro HDMI, Micro SD, running on the Nvidia Tegra2 processor. Robert Scoble tries to get the representative to say something about the price, but he can’t say, Techcrunch says that it’s going to be below $400.

Source: Robert Scoble

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Huawei Honor 4″ smartphone, 1.4Ghz Single Core, Gingerbread

Posted by Charbax – September 26, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Qualcomm, Android

Huawei announces yet another value Android phone. It’s got a 4″ 854×480 capacitive LCD touch screen, a 1.4Ghz Scorpion MSM8255 Snapdragon Single Core processor, 8 Megapixel (with HDR feature), 720p video record, Adreno 205 graphics, 512MB RAM, HSPA+ 14.4Mbit/5.76Mbit, 1900mAh battery, gyroscope, 4GB ROM and MicroSD slot. If they decide to sell this for $199 unlocked (pricing is not yet officially confirmed because the pricing can be a choice by the carriers), this could become one of the worlds most popular smartphones in the coming months.

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Slashgear.com: Archos 80 G9 1Ghz review

Posted by Charbax – September 26, 2011
Category: Tablets, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

The Archos 80 G9 for sale at $299 is hereby the worlds most powerful Android tablet, scoring 987, that’s higher than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the Vellamo benchmark:


click for the full size image

Here is their review: http://www.slashgear.com/archos-80-g9-review-video-25182615/

You can discuss this review and video in the ArchosFans forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=57174

Samsung Galaxy R

Posted by Charbax – September 24, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Nvidia, IFA, Android

Tegra2 and a 4.2″ Super Clear LCD capacitive touch screen, this smartphone is similar to the Samsung Galaxy S2 but it just has a cheaper processor and screen, so I think it is likely this phone will be about $100 cheaper. But that is to be confirmed.

How Microsoft can run the x86 apps on the ARM Powered Windows 8

Posted by Charbax – September 17, 2011
Category: Opinions, Windows

When people click to try to install an x86-compiled .exe file in the ARM version of Windows 8, this is what Windows needs to do:

1. Check if the app is already re-compiled and automatically download and install the ARM version from the Windows App Store. This process can be about as quick as installing the application on x86.

2. If the app is not yet re-compiled, it offers the option to run it in Virtualization mode on ARM, served through Windows cloud computing services, well cached and parts can be emulated for near-instant interactivity and instant response within the app, this is clever cloud served virtualization that also runs a bunch of things locally to offer the least possible delay. It’s part virtualization and part hardware accelerated emulation, they can do it. Apps not yet recompiled for ARM can automatically send a notification to the developer encouraging him though a simple one-click feature to recompile and submit the ARM version of every app in the Windows App Store. Users in the enterprise can combine more locally and more dedicated virtualization servers if they need to further lessen lag time or if they don’t trust the cloud for certain confidential apps virtualized.

Michael Angiulo, Corporate Vice President, Windows Planning, Hardware & PC Ecosystem said following:

We will make sure it is absolutely clear where your legacy apps will run. (…) Porting things and whether we open native desktop development are decisions that are either not made or not announced yet.

Source: thisismynext.com

Ubuntu for ARM Powered Servers, to go mainstream within 2 years

Posted by Charbax – September 17, 2011
Category: Servers, Ubuntu

Canonical is working with ARM and Calxeda to prepare the customized and optimized Ubuntu Server Edition software to run on ARM Powered servers once they are ready.

With Ubuntu Server becoming the de-facto standard for cloud infrastructure and big data solutions, we recognise that power consumption is key to efficient scaling. Building on four years of working with ARM, we are now taking the step of supporting Ubuntu Server on ARM. We expect these processors to be used in a variety of use cases including microservers.

This is a first step and there will be many revisions of processors, hardware designs and of software as the performance and supported server workloads optimised for ARM grow over the next four years. It is, however, a first crucial step towards a new technology and one where yet again open-source innovation leads.

The new addition to the Ubuntu family | First release in October 2011

In October, the Ubuntu Server 11.10 release will be simultaneously available for x86, x86-64 and ARM-based architectures. The base image of the releases will be the same across architectures with a common kernel baseline. The ARM architecture will also be part of the long-term support (LTS) version of Ubuntu Server in 12.04 and other future releases.

Initial development focus and optimisation will be around the most popular Ubuntu workloads of web/network infrastructure and distributed data processing via NoSQL or big data applications where workloads typically use hundreds or thousands of systems.

Source: blog.canonical.com

Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 runs Windows 8

Posted by Charbax – September 17, 2011
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Texas Instruments, Windows

Video showing Windows 8 running on a Texas Instrument OMAP4430 Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, it’s behind glass though they are not showing things react to touch in this video.

Source: anandtech.com

Qualcomm MSM8660 Dual-core runs Windows 8

Posted by Charbax – September 17, 2011
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Qualcomm, Windows

Here’s an official video released on the Qualcomm YouTube channel showing Windows 8 running on their latest dual-core ARM Processor.


Source: QUALCOMMVlog

Microsoft also released this video showing that there is no difference between the ARM Powered device and the Intel Core i5 based device:


If you don’t have Silverlight you can download the WMV file here
Source: channel9.msdn.com

Nvidia Kal-El Windows 8 tablet hands-on

Posted by Charbax – September 17, 2011
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Nvidia, Windows

This seems kind of ready to me, why don’t they release this before Christmas?

I guess they still need to do a lot of work on the whole ARM and x86 Intel compatibility system so all the .exe files “just work” on ARM (virtualized, emulated, or whatever trick they are working on..), and for that a bunch of software optimizations still need to be done.

They should be selling or giving those ARM Powered Windows 8 Tablets away at least to the developers during the coming weeks and months? You can right now download Windows 8 Preview Edition at http://dev.windows.com but this is not yet the ARM version of that Preview software.

Source: thisismynext.com

Arnova 10 G2 for $129 or $99 with 1 or 2 year Philly Newspaper subscription

Posted by Charbax – September 17, 2011
Category: Tablets, Opinions, Rockchip, Archos, Android

The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News are doing a special promotion that can interest people living in Pennsylvania USA and would like to save on getting their daily newspaper and at the same time can be tempted by the combination of a subsidized Arnova 10 G2 Android Tablet for $99 or $129 depending on the length of the digital newspaper subscription that is signed.


video source: technicallyphilly.com

I first reported on the Arnova 10 G2 back in April when it was first announced. It is an awesome value device with a capacitive screen and the new Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 processor that can run at up to 1.2Ghz. It’s more powerful than the Apple A4 in the iPad1 and iPhone4, it’s more powerful than the Samsung Hummingbird processor in the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Samsung Galaxy S. Yet, the tablet is now being released named Arnova 10 G2 with a retail MSRP pricing probably between $199 and $229 (to be confirmed in the coming days).

Sure there has been some delays for this capacitive RK2918 tablet, I do not know why. Maybe Archos spent a few months selling the RK2818 tablets before ramping up production capacity and perhaps also having Rockchip try to have Honeycomb working on it. But more likely, Rockchip will try to use Ice Cream Sandwich directly for those, depending on the compatibility and ease of porting of that next version of open source Android with these ARM Cortex-A8 tablets released now.

This makes sense. The idea of the $99 10.1″ capacitive tablet is awesome. Here are some of my suggestions though for Philly to make this work in the most positive way:

– The $10/month subscription needs to include unlimited free access to all the worlds newspapers and not just the 2 newspapers. The economics are that people will not necessarily read more articles if they get access to more content.

You have to think big. I know it may be hard or impossible for the people of the Philly newspaper to reach out to all the other newspapers of the world and agree on some kind of Netflix-pricing to include full access to all the newspapers.

The idea is that you make it more attractive to more people inside and outside of your target market to want to subscribe to this idea. You write content in English. I think it makes no sense to limit yourself to a limited geography. You can write regional news in your current edition, but you can partner with all the other newspapers and let people read those other newspapers if they want.

Make the cake bigger together with others and your slice of the much bigger cake will be much bigger than your small cake.

Logically, the digital access subscription does not have to exclusively be consumed on that tablet. I guess that any other device can login and access that subscription plan. Simply build on your current Android app, and simply let it search and access the real format newspapers from all the other newspapers that you can partner with.

Here is Philly’s calculation and the customers options today:

– $199 or $229 is the unsubsidized Arnova 10 G2 price likely going to be when released within a few days from now.
– $99 with 2-year $10/month subscription = Total $339 for the Arnova 10 G2 with the 2-year digital newspaper access = $229 Tablet and $55/year digital subscription
– $129 with 1-year $13/month subscription = Total $285 for the Arnova 10 G2 with the 1-year digital newspaper access = $229 Tablet and $56/year digital subscription
– No tablet digital subscription price today = $3/week = $156/year
– No tablet normal paper newspaper by mail subscription price today = $7/week = $364/year

This can be a huge success for Archos and for newspapers but they have to continue on this plan and they need to pick up the phone and make some national and international agreements with all the other newspapers, join forces, subsidize Awesome ARM Powered Android Tablets to make people understand the value of technology and of the content.

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Are Windows 8 tablets going to be released before Christmas already?

Posted by Charbax – September 12, 2011
Category: Opinions, Windows

The awesome demo Microsoft presented at Computex last June looked like Windows 8 can quite possibly be ready for release in consumer devices before Christmas, at least in tablet mode.

How can the ARM Version of Windows 8 be ready for release already?

– On a tablet, they don’t really need to have all the .exe apps support, on ARM anyways, they can virtualize all that later.

– Microsoft probably is tempted to be a part of the Christmas tablet sales party. All they have to do is release an ARM tablet version of it now.

– The tablets don’t need as powerful ARM processors as Laptops, as you want full screen multi-tab web browsing to be fully smooth on a Laptop in Desktop mode. On a tablet, consumers are ok with a bunch of full screen UI stuff moving around, and while multi-tasking is awesome, basic consumers don’t even really know how to fully take use of it on a touch screen device.

– They can call those Beta tablets, or something.

What Microsoft should do with Windows 8 if they want to win market share and if they want a chance to compete with Android, Chrome OS and iOS on the platform ecosystem:

– Make it free

– Make it open source

Sure, this is a very weird suggestion for Microsoft. But why not?

Can’t Microsoft find other ways to monetize their platform than upfront licencing and patent lawsuits against competing platforms? If I am the Microsoft CEO, I tell them to focus on monetizing web apps, web services, provide the Office suite as a fully optimized web app, with paid services online for power users and the enterprise. Full cloud based Virtualization of all Windows apps, provide that as a service. If Windows used to get an average of $50 per Windows licence, they can focus to try to get as much or more through cloud services.

Should Microsoft be ashamed of revealing their source code to the world? The idea of open source is to enable the most manufacturers access to customize and optimize the OS for all types of hardware. Because manufacturers have to differentiate with hardware, Microsoft cannot win market share if all the Windows hardware looks too similar. They need all the smallest Chinese manufacturers to be using Windows 8 and sell those devices to developing countries and worldwide without worrying about optimizing, without worrying about paying licence fees, the strategy of free and open source instantly legalizes the Chinese and Indian market for Microsoft.

At last CeBIT, I interviewed Microsoft about Open Source, with the right CEO in charge (can Steve Ballmer do it?), they should embrace open source for Windows 8:

Let’s see tomorrow how right or wrong I am with my Windows 8 speculations.

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Huawei Mediapad, 1.2Ghz Dual-core 7″ 1280×800 Honeycomb Tablet

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2011
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Qualcomm, IFA, Android

This is the new Huawei Mediapad Android Honeycomb tablet, to be released with Honeycomb 3.2 installed, full Google Marketplace support, it runs on a Qualcomm 1.2Ghz Dual-core processor and comes with an impressive 1280×800 screen, HDMI output, USB and more.

Super Clear LCD vs Super AMOLED Plus

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, Samsung, Nvidia, IFA, Android

You can see in this video that the Super Clear LCD is brighter than the Super AMOLED plus. While Super AMOLED has real black, for the rest, is the Super Clear LCD better? It might be Samsung is now making this Super Clear LCD Tegra2 version of the Galaxy S2 in Galaxy R to either both slightly lower the price and perhaps also to satisfy the demand as they might not be able to manufacture them fast enough.

Huawei Vision, 3.7″ Android Smartphone

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, IFA, Android

Nice looking medium range Android Smartphone from Huawei, it may get released for around 250€ to 300€.

Huawei Boulder, 2.6″ qwerty Android phone

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2011
Category: Smartphones, Exclusive videos, IFA, Android

Low-cost Blackberry-style Android phone from Huawei, it may be sold for around 150€.

Hannspree SN-10T4, OMAP4430 based 10.1″ capacitive tablet

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2011
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, IFA, Android

Hannspree is releasing this new Honeycomb tablet based on the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 processor.

HannsG Wireless USB from an Android Tablet to a Touch Monitor

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2011
Category: Tablets, Displays, Other, Exclusive videos, IFA, Android

They have some kind of wireless USB dongle on the tablet, that can beam the Android screen and UI to a wireless USB touch monitor. The frame rate is not yet optimized but this seems to work.

Philips GoGear Connect 3, Android PMP

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2011
Category: Tablets, PMPs, Exclusive videos, IFA, Android

Philips releases its new GoGear Connect 3, with a 3.2″ HVGA capacitive touch screen with an unknown processor (please post in the comments if you know which processor they are using). Philips is also launching 3 new Android Speaker Docks, in different sizes, more or less portable and for home use from 100€ to 200€.