Category: Software

Chromium and Firefox within Android

Posted by Charbax – February 3, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Software, Opinions, Archos, Google, Android

The default Android web browser is really awesome in terms of speed, it even works amazingly fast on the ARM9 Powered web browser of the Hivision PWS700CA that I tested in my video-review a few days ago. Though for Laptop form factors, also known as ARM Powered Netbooks or Smartbooks, and for Android Tablets like the Archos 5 Internet Tablet that has a HDMI output and supports USB and Bluetooth keyboards and mice, the default Android web browser might not be enough.

This is why the support of the full desktop-like experience using Chrome and Firefox web browsers within Android are really going to be nice. Perhaps the June 2009 release of the Native Android SDK can help developers reach this goal.

The Mozilla team is showing this screenshot of Firefox running within Android (check also Mozilla’s wiki entry on Android: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Android):

Since Google is now working on releasing the full Chrome OS for ARM Powered devices, perhaps it would make sense to take the source code of that Chrome web browser for ARM, and make it into an Android application. This way on a Pocketable Android tablets or phones the default Android web browser would still be used, but when in HDMI output mode to a HDTV and when using USB or Bluetooth keyboards and mice, the Chrome browser or Firefox would thus be the browser of choice.

I think it would be nice as well if it was possible to provide a full speed browser experience even on cheap ARM Powered Android devices that come with little RAM memory such as only 128MB or RAM, still enable the use of unlimited amounts of opened tabs by somehow perhaps saving the state of each tab into ROM memory and be able to quickly in few milliseconds be able to pull that back into RAM memory when the specific tab is selected.

On the other hand, I also think it would make sense to support all Android applications within Chrome OS, thus this might mean that eventually Android and Chrome OS will merge.

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Tim Sweeney talks about Unreal Engine on ARM Powered devices

Posted by Charbax – January 25, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Set-top-boxes, Software, Exclusive videos, Nvidia, CES, Android

Tim Sweeney is the founder of Epic Games, he is in charge of the Unreal Tournament, Gears of War and plenty more very famous game franchises. But not only does his company make games, Epic makes the most famous and most popular 3D game engines on which hundreds of other games all over the industry are based on.

Now the Unreal engine is being launched for the Nvidia Tegra2 processor and has been showcased to run on other OpenGL ES based ARM Powered devices like the ipod touch.

In this interview, I ask when we will see Android devices with support for the Unreal Engine, and how many games does he think will work on all these ARM Powered devices that have the advanced 3D acceleration built-in.

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Thinkfree Mobile 2.0 with Editing on the Acer A1 Liquid Android phone

Posted by Charbax – January 9, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Software, Exclusive videos, CES, Android

Thinkfree 2.0 ads Editing support in office files support such as Word, Excell and Powerpoint support on Android devices.

Fraunhoffer IIS shows HD-AAC audio codec

Posted by Charbax – January 9, 2010
Category: Software, Other, Exclusive videos, CES

HD-AAC is a new lossless audio codec developed by Fraunhoffer among others and which uses ARM processors in this Logitech device which is able to playback that form factor.

Ribbit VOIP explained by Kevin Marks and JP Rangaswami of British Telecom

Posted by Charbax – December 12, 2009
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Web, Software, Exclusive videos, LeWeb

Kevin Marks and JP Rangaswami are introducing Ribbit VOIP platform and APIs that gives independent developers, ISVs, and global enterprises the tools and functionality to create new ways to communicate-with people, businesses, and software. Ribbit enables developers to combine the richness of voice calling with the interactivity of Web 2.0 experiences. More info at http://ribbit.com

I also ask them about how they think the telecom industry is reacting to VOIP as a threat to existing revenues and as an opportunity for creating new experiences around voice communications.

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Seesmic on the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android

Posted by Charbax – December 9, 2009
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Software, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, LeWeb, Archos, Android

Here is a demonstration at LeWeb conference in Paris of the Seesmic application for Android running on the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android, the worlds first Android Tablet with a 800×480 medium density 4.8″ touch screen and even with a 720p HDMI output. This video was filmed by John Yamasaki @jyamasaki of Seesmic using the Flip HD.

Sugar on a Stick Blueberry v2 introduced by Walter Bender of Sugar Labs

Posted by Charbax – December 9, 2009
Category: Laptops, Software, Exclusive videos, VIA, OLPC

This is a video-interview with Walter Bender of Sugar Labs at Netbook World Summit in Paris. Sugar is the Gnu/Linux based OS running in over 1.5 million OLPC XO-1 laptops used by Children around the world. It is the Linux distribution that popularized Linux on Laptop form factors. As I wrote in http://www.olpcnews.com/commentary/impact/olpc_netbook_impact_on_laptop.html the OLPC project has greatly influenced the whole PC/Laptop industry, and with more optimized and streamlined Linux implementations like this new Sugar Linux OS, the influence is only going to be even greater.

Blumpit is a new touch screen tablet user interface for web contents and web browsing

Posted by Charbax – December 9, 2009
Category: Tablets, Software, Exclusive videos

Blumpit works as a Firefox plugin and could soon also work as a Chrome Browser extension, to provide a bunch of user interface options on top of the browser and on top of any OS be it Windows, Linux or Mac. It could also work on cheap ARM powered laptops runing any type of Linux that can run a compatible Firefox or Chrome Browser with plugins or extensions support. Installing the Blump’it features is just a one-click process.

Linux on Laptops at the Netbook World Summit in Paris

Posted by Charbax – December 9, 2009
Category: Laptops, Software, Exclusive videos

Industry Linux overview by Linux experts Aaron J. Seigo, Community leader at the KDE Foundation and Arnaud Laprévote, CTO Chief Technology Officer at Mandriva Linux. They provide information on the status of Linux for ARM powered laptops and analyse the influence of Linux on the Laptop industry with the advent of the Netbooks.