Category: Other

I want a Bluetooth remote on my watch for my tablets, yes 50€ Sony Ericsson LiveView is here

Posted by – November 19, 2010
Category: Other, Archos, Android

It’s out now on Amazon.de for 50€, I want something like this. This could be perfect with my Archos 70 Internet Tablet and my $48 Sony DR-BT100CX Bluetooth Stereo Headset. The idea is to answer VOIP calls on the wrist watch and use the Bluetooth headset without having to take out the Android Tablet from the pocket.

NXP Cortex-M series solutions

Posted by – November 17, 2010

NXP offers as wide variety of Cortex-M products from Cortex-M0 to Cortex-M4, here in this video are some demonstrations.

QNX car info cluster software solutions

Posted by – November 17, 2010

Here demonstrated in a nice Corvette, you can do a bunch of interactive things with these new ARM Cortex-A8 Freescale i.MX51 powered digital information clusters and infotainment systems that are coming in different configurations to more and more cars soon.

ARM Powered Lego Rubiks Cube

Posted by – November 13, 2010

ARM engineer David Gilday does this just as his hobby. Completely awesome.

Freescale Kinetis Tower System now sampling

Posted by – November 11, 2010

The Freescale Tower systems are development kits providing for many of Freescale’s sensors and processing features in a cube. The new Freescale Kinetis ARM Cortex-M4 processor and this Kinetis Tower System just started sampling now.

MDK-ARM and ULINKpro at ARM Techcon 2010

Posted by – November 11, 2010

ULINKpro, together with MDK-ARM, provides extended on-the-fly debug capabilities for Cortex-M devices.

John Bruggeman of Cadence on EDA360 at ARM Techcon 2010

Posted by – November 10, 2010

John Bruggeman of Cadence and Simon Segars of ARM just hosted a pretty awesome fireside chat at the ARM Techcon (full length video of which I will link to here once it is up). discussing areas in which ARM industry should cooperate more and where they can differentiate themselves and push the technology forward faster. Cadence is an EDA provider which means they provide software tools for designers of ARM Processors. The fireside chat includes discussions on standardization of Linux on ARM, supporting drivers, implementing security at the hardware level (see my video of ARM TrustZone), and how John Bruggeman thinks competing EDA providers should agree on how to collaborate on certain areas to focus on competing on others and bring the industry forward faster. Cost of designing a new ARM Processor should be cut by a factor of 5 he says if these industry players could figure out to better collaborate on the core tools. The goal is for companies that provide solutions and tools that enable always cheaper ARM Powered devices to consumers, that cost to build basic things should be built collaboratively so suppliers can save money on basic stuff and focus on differentiation. $100 Android phones and $400 HDTVs should still allow device makers and the industry that supports the creation of these tools to make a profit. In a constantly disruptive industry with cheaper and cheaper ARM Powered devices, but at the same time with more and more complicated, more advanced, soon reaching Nanotechnology scales ARM Powered devices, it is interesting to imagine how all these companies plan to continue to make a profit.

Video about my E-Ink watch

Posted by – November 5, 2010
Category: E-readers, Other, Reviews, IFA

I am being video interviewed by Sasha Pallenberg of netbooknews.com about my awesome E-ink watch:

It doesn’t exactly have the Bluetooth features, those features will come with the also cool looking touch screen Sony Ericsson Liveview and similar Android Bluetooth remote control watches that are coming.

This video was released at: netbooknews.com

Linutop OS 4.0, custom Ubuntu for web-kiosks

Posted by – October 28, 2010

Linutop sells small, silent and low power PCs based on AMD Geode and VIA C7 processors to use in business and industrial environments. Now they are launching Linutop OS 4.0 that anyone can download at http://www.linutop.com/software/download.en.html to boot from a USB stick or CD/DVD on any x86 computer. They are also considering providing this solution for ARM Powered desktop systems as soon as several popular low-cost designs are released. This video features Linutop founder and CEO Frederic Baille talking about Linutop and a screencast to show the principal features of this OS.

Archos Arnova Web Radio and TV

Posted by – October 18, 2010
Category: Other, Archos

Another cheap web radio player with speakers, also supports Web TV channels. Those are trendy as well for the kitchen or the bedroom, probably also works as an alarm clock. Probably cheap as well.

Specs:

Thanks BenMars for your reports from the Hong Kong Sourcing fair!

Source: http://www.jbmm.fr/2010/10/17/hong-kong-5-arnova-art-nouveau/

White Spaces voted “Yes” by FCC

Posted by – September 24, 2010
Category: Other, Opinions

This is fantastic news for people looking forward to free wireless broadband worldwide.

I’ve been asking everywhere for years, can this White Spaces network be setup like FON.com, where before we start building it out, we make sure that most of all these new access points comply with one same authentication system, compatible with OpenID and any of the other authentication systems.

This way, everyone would be able to access to every access point everywhere in the world. Instead of using WPA-type encryption like there is on WiFi, which means users can only access to their own access points but can never access WiFi anywhere else in the world unless the access points are left open.

Devices could thus come with auto-ahtentication and thus instantly connect to the Internet.

If a pricing is decided from the access point provider, then a standard for charging can be implemented. Such as $1/GB or less, something like that. So you login with your OpenID and you click “OK” to pay whichever rate/GB the current access point provider might be charging. And get an overview of eventual alternative networks that are also available in the area and their prices.

A counter in the top right corner of Android should display how much credit I have and how much I am using at any time. Credit would be pre-paid and could be earned by sharing ones home ADSL/Cable/Fibre connection with the neighborhood!

This way, if an access point can be built for the same price as a WiFi hotspot, then the whole world could be covered with free interoperable Super WiFi in the matter of months and for very small investment cost.

Found via: techmeme.com

NewTek TriCaster TCXD850 and NewTek TriCaster TCXD300 released

Posted by – September 12, 2010

TriCaster TCXD850 is a 26’000€ real-time video editing Windows box with some Intel processors inside and a lot of connectors. Basically it allows for HD live tv editing in a box. But it’s really expensive and I wonder if a regular ARM Powered or Intel Powered laptop with the right software couldn’t do most of the same basic multi-camera live editing kind of things.

SD Association announces 300mb/s next generation SD 4.0 cards

Posted by – September 11, 2010

Those next generation SD cards can be made even faster. The new cards will have two rows of pins, and by having two rows of pins the new card will support up to 300mb/s transfer speeds.

On Power Solutions, multi-charger and backup batteries

Posted by – September 5, 2010

On Power Solutions is releasing these new multi-charger and backup battery solutions at IFA.

Citroën C4, world premiere unveiling at Olympiastadion Berlin after the Pyronale Fireworks

Posted by – September 5, 2010

I happened to be in the Olympiastadion, and suddenly, Citroën unveils this new car so here is a video of it. Sorry about the manual focus set to infinity, I forgot to reset it to automatic after filming the fireworks (which also were sadly filmed totally out of focus).

Bugano from Switzerland, Winning display of 2010 Pyronale Fireworks Competition in Berlin

Posted by – September 5, 2010

This is the full fireworks display by Bugano fireworks artists from Switzerland. Every year during IFA, there is the Berlin Pyronale fireworks competition on the outside of the Berlin Olympiastadion. This video is filmed with my Sanyo HD1000 that I have since the beginning of 2008, really sorry about the manual focus set to infinity and scene select to “fireworks mode”, it seemed fine in my 3.2″ viewfinder of the camera but this seems really out of focus in full screen. I wish to buy a better camcorder soon if I can afford a really good one with amazing video quality and much better focus and low light options, one that films better consumer electronics interviews and fireworks displays, with better 1080p mode. But, I only plan to do that once I can find a camcorder that can do great 1080p at “uploadable” bitrates, thus uses newest and best quality compression to keep low uploadable file sizes.

Sony Move

Posted by – September 4, 2010

Sony is launching Move as a motion sensing gameplay solution. It functions with a remote that has this color light bulb thing with a camera and Cell processor powered software in the PS3 that monitors where you move the controller and its ball, and thus can register movements into games. Will camera based systems reach the same kind of “magical” feeling in gameplay as the Wii sensors based system does?

Forever Plus Corp Digital Microscope in a panda bear

Posted by – July 14, 2010

Forever Plus Corp is showing new easy to use USB microscopes, they come with drivers for Windows or Mac, a special software to capture pictures video from the microscope or to do stuff like measuring the size of very small thing. I think it is pretty awesome to have cheap digital microscopes to magnify very small things onto the computer monitor or onto a HDTV. I plan to use one of these in my video reviews when it might be relevant to magnify small parts of cool products.

ARM CEO Warren East keynote at Freescale Kinetis Cortex-M4 launch

Posted by – July 13, 2010
Category: Other, Freescale, FTF

Freescale is one of the manufacturers partnering with ARM on making the new Cortex-M4 type of processors, Freescale calls them the Kinetis Cortex-M4 Microcontrollers. Cortex-M4 may help to enable to connect all things to the internet, such as the oven, the fridge, motors, medical and industrial applications. It’s something about adding DSP and programmable features into cheap Microcontrollers that may be put into all devices to help connect them to the Internet for cheap. Do you have some good ideas of what Cortex-M4 will be used for in the market? Write in the comments.

Freescale MMA9550L, the new Xtrinsic family of autonomous sensors

Posted by – June 24, 2010

Imagine not needing a power button to turn on your phone, just pick it up. Imagine cheaper warranty as manufacturers will know when devices were damaged because of usage error such as fall or banging. Imagine new user interfaces that are much more relying on sensors as the new Freescale Xtrinsic sensors can measure stuff 2000 times per second (the bandwidth and architecture being better). Imagine also sensors combining their abilities through fusion, again, no need to wake up the main ARM processor of the device to do all kinds of things! Imagine the device knowing exactly how it is touched, how it is moved, how it is held, the touch is not anymore only on the screen! This means better battery usage, months maybe even years of seamless standby. The new Xtrinsic sensor only needs 12 micro amps of power to be turned on all the time!