This is a 549€ Intel Atom N455 based 10.1″ capacitive tablet. It can reboot into Android for X86.
Category: OS
ViewSonic ViewPad 100 dual-boots Android and Windows 7 on Intel Atom N455 tablet
Posted by – September 3, 2010
ViewSonic ViewPad 7
Posted by – September 3, 2010
ARM11 based 7″ capacitive Android 2.2 tablet. They will launch this for 399€. I previously unveiled this design at Computex as the 7″ capacitive Foxconn Qualcomm MSM7227 based Android tablet: http://138.2.152.197/2010/06/04/foxconn-7-capacitive-android-tablet/
Archos 43 Internet Tablet, $199 4.3″ Android Tablet
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This 130gr super compact FWVGA 854×480 Android 2.2 tablet with ARM Cortex A8 1ghz 45nm omap3630. Although it’s a resistive touch screen, it is the most reactive and best looking resistive touch screen that I have seen thus far. This Android 2.2 device is extremely compact, offering comparable Android 2.2 experience to the HTC EVO and Droid X, though at a fraction of the price, for $199 for the 16GB model, it comes with HDMI output and support for all video codecs at up to 720p and with pretty high bitrates even for advance profile encodings. In this video I also try to demonstrate some of the performance for web browsing.
Archos 101 Internet Tablet, 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.2 Froyo $299 Tablet
Posted by – September 2, 2010
Probably one of the most affordable 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.2 ARM Cortex A8 45nm tablets, with beautiful built-in HDMI output and full sized USB host, it’ll come starting at $299 for the 8GB model with MicroSD slot, it’s amazingly thin and light, 480gr that is 30% less heavy than the iPad and it’s got 12% more screen surface area than the iPad.
Archos 28 $99 Android Internet Tablet
Posted by – September 2, 2010
The world’s cheapest Android 2.2 device with ARM Cortex A8 45nm processor. It’s got a 2.8″ QVGA resistive touch screen. But, it can really do most things basic Android users want. It’s less than half the price of the iPod Touch.
Archos 70 Internet Tablet
Posted by – September 2, 2010
Archos first 7″ capacitive Android tablet, with ARM Cortex A8 omap3630 1ghz processor, it’s 300gr in weight, very thin and it costs $275, that is less than half the price of the similar Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Archos 32 Internet Tablet, sub-$149 Android 2.2 3.2″ iPod Touch competitor
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This is the new Archos 32 Internet Tablet, with a 800mhz ARM Cortex A8 omap3630 processor based on 45nm process, it playsback all video codecs at up to 720p requiring no video convertions, suport composite video output, bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n, comes with 3.2″ resistive (but good) touch screen.
Huawei IDEOS U8150, 2.8″ capacitive Android low cost phone
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This is the first 2.8″ capacitive Android 2.2 smart phone, targetted by Huawei as a new low cost Android phone.
Samsung Galaxy Tab at IFA 2010
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This is Samsung’s new 799€ Android tablet. Comes with a glass capacitive 7″ LCD touch screen, a back facing and front facing camera, 1080p video playback support on the HDMI output of the Docking Station connector (codecs and bitrates specifics are to be confirmed). It’s quite compact for a 7″ tablet and it’s quite light at 380 grams.
Here are the full specs of this Samsung tablet:
Network: 2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE) : 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
3G (HSUPA 5.76Mbps, HSDPA 7.2Mbps) : 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
OS: Android 2.2 (Froyo)
Display: 7.0 inch TFT-LCD, WSVGA (1024 x 600)
Processor: Cortex A8 1.0GHz Application Processor with PowerVR SGX540
Camera: 3 MP Camera with Auto-Focus and LED Flash
1.3MP front camera for Video Telephony
Value-added Features:
■Android Market™ and Samsung Apps for more applications and contents
■Readers Hub, Media Hub, Music Hub, Social Hub (nicht überall verfügbar)
■Adobe Flash 10.1 player support
■Full HD video playback, Thinkfree Office, Swype, Hybrid Widget
Connectivity: 30 pin connector
WiFi 802.11n / Bluetooth® 3.0
Sensor: Gyroscope sensor, Geo-magnetic sensor, Accelerometer, Light sensor
Memory: 16G / 32G internal memory with up to 32G external memory slot
RAM: 512 MB
Size: 190.09 x 120.45 x 11.98mm, 380g
Battery: 4,000mAh (7 hour movie play)
More hands-on videos:
http://www.newgadgets.de/17983/samsung-galaxy-tab-hands-on-video/
Toshiba AC-100 ARM Tegra2 Powered Android Laptop
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This is probably so far the coolest looking ARM Powered laptop to be released broadly on the market. The first ARM Cortex A9 based laptop. Runs an optimized Android OS with custom web browser from Opera Mobile and I am guessing, the full Chrome browser for ARM may be able to run on this eventually as well. This laptop is being released right now for around 299€ or $299 with WiFi and a bit more for the version with built-in 3G modem.
Philips GoGear Connect Android Media Player
Posted by – September 2, 2010
Philips is launching this new Android based media player. It is based on the Freescale i.MX51 ARM Cortex A8 based processor and officially comes with support for the Google Marketplace and is going to be sold for 249€.
Toshiba Folio-100 Android Tablet at IFA 2010
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This is Toshiba’s new 10.1″ capacitive Tegra2 powered Android tablet.
Toshiba Places, content on all screens
A synchronized cloud based content browsing and streaming system that works across set-top-box, laptops both ARM powered and Intel powered, and on Toshiba’s new Tegra2 based Android laptops and tablets.
shanzai.com: HeroTab RK7 Android 2.1 Tablet unboxing
Here’s a new Telechip TCC8902 based Android tablet that can output 1080p video in some limited way. It is still unclear what if any 720p and 1080p video playback limitations Telechips might have. Playback of 1080p MKV H264 high profile with DTS audio at very high bitrates using HDMI output might not be totally smooth. Web browsing isARM11 powered which makes it slower than the ARM Cortex A8 and A9 tablets that are coming out for more expensive prices.
This video was released at http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/bandit-gadgets/tablets/1665
ARM Powered Google TV, how soon?
Posted by – August 20, 2010
Google needs to announce the ARM Powered Google TV to compete with the rumored Apple iTV. Google TV could be sold for less than $99 using ARM instead of $299 using Intel.
Here’s a recent demonstration of Google TV showing its integration with Dish Networks services as reported by Engadget.com:
What hardware requirements will the ARM Powered Google TV have? ARM cortex A9 with DDR3 at the minimum for fast HD 1080p resolution browsing and interfaces? HDMI input and output (pass-through)? IR-blaster?
My guess is that there could be 2 different versions of Google TV for ARM Powered devices:
1. The full version: with full integration with existing cable/satellite box (HDMI in/out and IR blaster) plus same functions as the basic version.
2. The basic version: that only does the IPTV, Internet-only and media streaming features.
Using ARM, the Internet-only basic Google TV version could be sold at or below $49 while the fully backwards compatible with cable/satellite channels Google TV experience could be sold at or below $99.
I don’t think Google has signed any “exclusive” partnerships with Intel, they have a partnership for sure, just as Google has a partnership with Intel powering the more than a million Google servers that are out there. Intel feels left out of the whole Android ecosystem, so they are the ones who have been most desperate to at least be a part of the Google TV initiative. I think it’s more about Google waiting for the next generation ARM Cortex A9 to be ready to support full HD 1080p interfaces smoothly before they announce ARM support. Early next year, Google TV will be open sourced anyways, so by that time all the ARM vendors will have it.
An upcoming era of revolutionizing $99 set-top-boxes
Posted by – August 12, 2010
Americans watch in average 5 hours of TV every day. Imagine a revolutionary $99 set-top-box which you add to your living room. This one increasingly brings more and more content from the Internet to the HDTV. This one even improves the experience of regular TV channels by overlaying search features and better targeted ads (which can finance better TV content).
Engadget is reporting on the rumored $99 Apple iTV set-top-box. It will basically be like an iPod Touch, without the screen and with an HDMI output and a remote control. It’ll have the latest Apple A4 processor which is based on the Hummingbird 45nm ARM Cortex A8 processor (similar to the one used by Samsung in the Galaxy S) designed by Intrinsity before they were bought by Apple. As usual, I don’t expect Apple to include support for many video and audio codecs and a proprietary iTunes synchronization over the network is more likely than support for the Samba and Upnp local file sharing standards.
The idea here is that by using the optimal ARM processor of the market, a very powerful yet very cheap set-top-box can be made. One that brings full 720p web browsing to the HDTV, but also re-designed and optimized graphics accelerated user interfaces to the HDTV, basically smooth interfaces for Youtube and other video-on-demand sources, to thus be watched directly on the HDTV.
I’ve video-blogged about Android based set-top-boxes such as the $50 design by Webia Technologies and Bonux and the $129 (retail target price) one made by Keenhigh mediatech. Both can run the latest Android 2.2 software (when available) with full 3D graphics acceleration even though their processors are likely ARM9 or ARM11 based.
As Google goes along partnering with Intel to release Google TV soon, I expect the Intel based designs to be sold at $199 or likely above that. I think it would be nice to know how soon the customized Android software that represents the Google TV disribution would also be optimized for use on cheaper ARM Powered solutions. As Android on those cheap prototypes looks great, it would be good for those devices to know they can rely on a Google OS optimized for use with a remote control and optimized for easy access to revolutionary HDTV features. Including the support of Youtube in HD quality on all those cheap boxes.
The basic hardware features needed for full Google TV support on cheap ARM Powered set-top-boxes I think are HDMI input and output (pass-through) for overlaying features to contents from existing Cable/satellite set-top-boxes as well as the IR blaster to control that other set-top-box. But for Internet and media streamer features only, all that is needed is just a Google TV for ARM software release.
Advanced video games coming to Android devices
As the Nintendo 3DS might come with 3G and smartphone-like features, it is also about to be the time for the smartphones to include button layouts that are optimized for advanced 3D video games. As the OpenGL ES 2.0 3D rendering is getting so advanced with the latest ARM processors, all it takes to experience advanced video gaming decently on phones is game pad buttons on each side of the screen. While capacitive touch screens and accelerometers provide the start of an idea that gaming can work on these devices, to get the best possible experience, it is just a hardware issue relating to the hardware design.
Gaming emulators seem to work great on Android, it is to be seen if Nintendo will be bold enough to offer legal access to all its old games at fair prices to licence and download legally directly from within an official Nintendo game console emulator to be released in the Android market place. I think that the best pricing strategy that they could provide is $5 subscription pricing renewed each month that the games are played offering unlimited access to all Nintendo games on the specific supported platforms. Hopefully all Nintendo game console games emulated up until Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast would be supported this way.
Another very interesting possible development, is that the portable gaming device will have so powerful graphics acceleration that it will actually be able to function as a HD video games console when connected using HDMI to the HDTV. Whether the latest portable ARM powered devices are able to render 1080p video games at full frame rates using HDMI to a HDTV, that is to be seen, but the development might be approaching that possibility. At least current hardware definitely might output Wii level quality graphics to any TV using the TV output. So the portable Android gaming device might not only compete with the Nintendo DS and the PSP, it might also compete with the Wii, XboX and Playstation 3.
Engadget is reporting on a rumor that Sony-Ericsson is preparing a 1ghz Snapdragon powered Playstation smartphone with Android 3.0 onboard. It is to be expected that Sony may want to keep exclusive access to their own games to be released for that new Android gaming platform. The slide-out gamepad design from under the device that is shown in Engadget’s mockup design, instead of the keyboard, is probably an okay solution for gamers.
I would like to see someone build a good elastic design for a wireless bluetooth gamepad accessory that can be strapped to each side of any smart phone or tablet of any size and shape and have good gaming buttons push inwards to cover as much of the screen bezel as possible. Even to snap into 4:3 gaming mode and 16:9 gaming modes as the user prefers. Thus a solution to nicely transform any Android device into an advanced video gaming device. The design below is not exactly good enough design for this idea, please let me know in the comments if you know any better design:
Archos 32 is a sub-$149 ARM Cortex A8 Android 2.2 iPod Touch competitor
Posted by – August 11, 2010
Archos has always been at the forefront of embedded ARM innovations in portable gadgets (full disclosure, I am also the webmaster of ArchosFans.com and Forum.ArchosFans.com). Archos newest generation 8 line of devices is to be announced and released within a month or two from now, which are to include at least 5 tablet sizes, with Android 2.2 compatibility, based on the new Texas Instruments OMAP3630 45nm ARM Cortex A8 processor, same as in the Droid X and Droid 2, to provide even more advanced OpenGL 3D acceleration and improved video decoding and encoding features.
So as at least 5 different skews or sizes of Android tablets are to be released by Archos from 2.8″ to 10″ with planned pricing between $100 and $350 unlocked and out of any required contracts. This is why I think that this new series of Archos Android tablets is probably to be the cheapest ARM Cortex A8 based Android tablets to be available broadly on the market thus far.
This new Archos 32 (8GB), to be priced at and below $149, comes with a 3.2″ 400×240 WQVGA touch screen, WiFi and Bluetooth, composite video output, USB host, support for all video codecs including Mpeg4, H264, WMV, Mpeg2 and more at up to 720p and 12mbit/s bitrates and including audio codecs support such as Mp3, Flac, WMA and Ogg Vorbis. It is I think basically placed as a cheaper alternative to the iPod Touch, using the latest Android and being more opened in the way it interoperates with Windows, Mac and Linux machines not requiring synchronization through a software like iTunes, but connecting as a standard USB mass storage device.
While it would be best for these Archos Android tablets to receive the permission from Google to come with the Google Marketplace pre-installed on them, it may be that Google might still not allow it. Though it is then also very likely that users of the product will easily be able to find a Market4Archos.apk file on the Internet to easily install the full Google Marketplace, Gmail and other Google Apps experiences to this device exactly as if the feature was pre-installed officially. I am still confident that Google will soon expand Google Marketplace to many new types of devices, not only to $500+ Android smart phones, but also to Tablets, Laptops with the Chrome browser icon and Set-top-boxes.
Find more pictures and more descriptions at: ArchosFans.com
You can discuss this at: Forum.ArchosFans.com
Source: fcc.gov
Found via: liliputing.com
Android now leads US smart phone sales, increased by 886% from last year
Posted by – August 2, 2010
According to market analytics company Canalys second quarter 2010 smart phone sales report, Android is the fastest selling smart phone platform in the USA between April and June 2010, with 34% of the sales in the US market, in front of Blackberry RIM who sold 32% of smart phones and Apple iOS who sold 21%.
Canalys’ detailed, globally consistent data shows it is the collective growth of Android device shipments across a range of handset vendors’ portfolios that is most remarkable. With key products from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, among others, shipments of smart phones running the Google-backed Android operating system grew an impressive 886% in Q2 2010.
As I posted in my previous post Why are we still waiting for the sub-$250 Android super phones?, this market domination in the USA is reached by the combined Android vendors without them even starting to provide much cheaper Android phones. As in my opinion, the strength of Android is not only the differentiation and increased number of features and choices, I think it is also most importantly the opportunity for competition in the smart phone industry to bring lower unlocked smart phone prices. Once Android super phones are sold below $250 unlocked, and that those can be used for pre-paid plans without long term contracts, I believe that the Android market share will even further increase.
Source: canalys.com
Found via: slashgear.com
I filmed the Augen $99 smartbook 6 months ago
Engadget and a bunch of other blogs have been reporting these last few days about the cool Augen branded Android Smartbook and Tablets that are being released in the US market at affordable $99 and $149 prices by Super Market chain KMart. I just would like to remind my readers that I posted my video review of the Augen Smartbook 6 months ago on January 29th as it’s based on the Hivision PWS700CA and its cool RockChip ARM9 processor that runs Android in this video: http://138.2.152.197/2010/01/29/android-laptop-review-hivision-pws700ca/
and that the Telechips ARM11 800mhz based Augen $149 7″ Tablet that Engadget and plenty other blogs also are talking about seems to be based on the same 7″ resistive tablet hardware design that I filmed 5 months ago presented by MAG Digital at CeBIT 2010 in this video: http://138.2.152.197/2010/03/02/mag-digital-presents-windows-ce-that-looks-like-android-in-a-tablet/
To let you know my opinion. I think it is fantastic that Augen and KMart are promoting such cheaper Android Laptop and Tablet form factors as alternatives to the much more expensive Apple iPad and Intel Netbooks. Archos has also been selling the similarly priced Archos 7 Home Tablet on the worldwide market which I video reviewed 5 months ago, which is now broadly available in many retail and online stores below $200 for the 8GB version (and the 2GB version originally planned at $149, then $179 but for now they are mostly selling the 8GB version). That Rockchip based Laptop and Tablet platform also being upgraded to 1ghz still ARM9 to support newer Android 2.2 versions.
But as we have heard from Canonical developers and from hearsay and off camera chatter by Google people at the Google Q&A at Computex about Chrome OS on ARM Laptops, although the second generation 45nm ARM Cortex A8 with faster DDR RAM and faster I/O performance can be enough, the coming of ARM Cortex A9 platforms may be preferable to achieve the full desktop web browsing experience that most consumers may require for them to consider the ARM platforms as fully usable alternatives in the Intel/Microsoft dominated Laptop market. And the iPad and the whole bunch of smart phones that are currently spread all over the market, those may kind of set expectations at capacitive and ARM Cortex A8 performance at the minimum. So it will be interesting, capacitive touch screen manufacturers allowing, to see how soon and how cheap those capacitive Android tablet designs at full user interface speeds can reach the market. ARM9 and ARM11 resistive tablets are not bad for a start, they can give the consumers and bloggers a taste of what can be done with Android at retail prices below $200 and even below $100. The ultimate goal should be though that we should have full speed ARM Cortex versions of all these devices in all the stores, with the best capacitive screens for tablets or non-touch screens for Laptops, preferably Pixel Qi screens, and available below $200 without contracts, running free Linux based Android or Ubuntu OSes.
