Category: Tradeshows

Festo Robot Arms at Next Berlin

Posted by – May 8, 2012

Check out these robot arms.

Alexander Bard, History, Sociology of Tech at Next Berlin

Posted by – May 8, 2012

Including his keynote below.

VideoMeet Deutsche Telekom Video-conferencing platform

Posted by – May 8, 2012
Category: Web, Next Berlin

VideoMeet combines Gtalk, Skype, h264/263, some Microsoft video conferencing platforms and more, targeted at the enterprise.

Babelverse at Next Berlin

Posted by – May 8, 2012
Category: Next Berlin

They are winning best of show prices at every conference.

Polligraf at Next Berlin

Posted by – May 8, 2012
Category: Next Berlin

Deutsche Telekom NFC Mobile Payments R&D efforts at Next Berlin

Posted by – May 8, 2012
Category: Next Berlin

Deutsche Telekom talks NFC, secure mobile payments, using new special SIM cards.

uibk.com at Next Berlin

Posted by – May 8, 2012
Category: Web, Next Berlin

http://uibk.com provides a system to connect University students directly with companies that need to hire them for freelance work. They check that the students are real and thus this enable a market for freelance workers different from outsourcing sites.

GoSquared real-time analytics for your website at Next Berlin

Posted by – May 8, 2012
Category: Web, Next Berlin

GoSquared competes with Chartbeat for providing real-time analytics for your website. Add the javascript to your website and you can see your websites visitors in real-time, where they come from, where they click, how long they stay, etc.

I’m video-blogging at Next Berlin these next 2 days

Posted by – May 8, 2012
Category: Next Berlin

Look forward to a bunch of tech interviews with geeks, nerds, industry insiders here at the http://nextberlin.eu conference. If you know someone that you think that I should video-interview here at the show, please let me know here in the comments or to my email charbax@gmail.com thanks!

Highlights from my 2 weeks of video-blogging at 4 conferences in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Guangzhou China


During these past 2 weeks, I posted 122 videos from my trip in China. Thanks for watching! I have now returned back in Europe. Here are the numbers of videos that I posted from each conference:

Hong Kong Trade Development Council

Hong Kong Trade Development Council

Shenzhen Electronics Fair (April 10-11th): 21 videos

China Sourcing Fair (April 12, 15th): 32 videos

HKTDC Electronics Fair (April 13, 14, 16th): 36 videos

Canton Fair (April 18th): 11 videos

– Videos filmed at the Shenzhen Electronics Market, at Shenzhen company headquarters and at Shenzhen Factories: 22 videos

Here are the trends from these conferences looking at the number of videos that I filmed in each trending chip provider category:

1. Boxchip AllWinner A10 and A13 ARM Cortex-A8 with Mali-400 GPU. 24 new videos filmed. Before this trip, I only had 3 Boxchip related videos on my site, Boxchip has now exploded in popularity among Chinese device makers. It offers a beautifully smooth Ice Cream Sandwich experience for a really low cost. This cheap ARM Cortex-A8 SoC with Mali-400 GPU acceleration for Android 4 ICS might be key to make this solution now very popular: $63 no-name from Shenzhen Market, $47 capacitive Boxchip A13, Aipad Wacom, $120 9.7″ iPad-like, $79 1024×600 7″ IPS from Daza Electronics, FirstView, $85 10.1″ Laptops from Sunlike, $80 1024×600 7″ and $57 WVGA from Bmorn, Boxchip in Game players by Yinlips, $59 A13 from T Link, 1024×600 compact 7″ from Avaid, $49 resistive, Ochang, Yones Toptech, GDB, $60 Apical, $64 Eken, Rocat, Sanxo, 10″ Laptop by Kinstone, 7″ Laptop by Kinstone, 4upad, Yamay.

2. Rockchip RK3066 Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 with Quad-core Mali-400 GPU. My Interview with Rockchip about RK3066. The initial benchmarks I’ve heard about on RK3066 place its performance very high. There are already a range of prototypes with RK3066 inside being shown by a whole range of Rockchip partners. Here are my first RK3066 videos: $128 10.1″ 1280×800 by Alldocube, Pipo 10.1″ and 9.7″. Expect lots new RK3066 devices to be released quickly. The SoC and price difference between this and ARM Cortex-A8 solutions may make this one very popular even for cheap/affordable implementations out of China.

3. MediaTek MT6575 ARM Cortex-A9 with SGX531 GPU. MediaTek looks to dominate the low-cost Android smartphone market out of China. Last year, it was the ARM9 based MT6516 (as in my FG8 phone that I used as my main phone for 9 months until I upgraded to a Galaxy Nexus this February) that only supported 2G Dual-sim, which they then upgraded to the ARM11 based MT6573 with 3G dual-sim about 6 months ago, but now the MT6575 is a single-core ARM Cortex-A9 with full Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich support. The MT6575 is likely going to have a huge influence on the new higher performance yet still cheap Android phones to come in the next weeks and months out of China. ICS on sub-$150 5″ WVGA MT6575 Dolphin A80 phone (2), ICS on 5.2″ Hyundai H950 MT6575, $142 Galaxy Nexus clone with MT6575, Zopo ZP100 with MT6575 selling now for $174 street price in Shenzhen (I bought one, I’m waiting for the ICS release within days/weeks), Amoi dual-battery MT6575, sub-$140 5.2″ MT6575 by Daza Electronics, Quality Industrial MT6575, $75 3.5″ MT6575 by Orient and a bunch of companies showing MT6573 solutions: Yooe/Runtong MT6573 7″ Tablet, Long Ten Jie, Sharing, Begin, Dynamax, Vinus, Pusite, Zivi, J8000 and X20i, Zhongyi, Goal, LGTD, Migo, Zhenai waterproof.

4. Rockchip RK2906 ARM Cortex-A8 without HDMI for cheap. As with the Boxchip A13 without HDMI, Rockchip now also releases a new lower cost ARM Cortex-A8 skew without HDMI called the RK2906. The thinking might be that many people in China and worldwide do not have a HDMI or do not need the HDMI output, so they may as well design the SoC without HDMI to save another $2-$5 on the bill of material for the device. I’ve found it in the $49 Rk2906 7″ capacitive tablet by Sawink. Rockchip also launched the RK2908 (also featured in my Rockchip interview video) for cheaper ARM Cortex-A8 Set-top-boxes only.

Processors that I have not yet seen or noticed a lot of on this trip but who may have imminent devices that may quickly gain significant market share out of Shenzhen based device makers:

AmLogic announced their AML8726-MX Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 design. I think I’ve been hearing about a Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 coming from Telechips. But those can not yet be sighted at the fairs as far as I know.

A bit can be seen featuring the ST-Ericsson U8500 and low-cost skew U8410, I expect several more devices to be shown soon out of China featuring these. Also offering potentially great value Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 for smartphones and connected tablets. I think ST-Ericsson wants to position their Dual-core Cortex-A9 to compete with Single-core Cortex-A9 solutions.

Broadcom can be found just a bit. Sprodcom was showing some.

I hear rumoring of impending Freescale i.MX6 devices, up to quad-core but I guess possibly also great value lower priced Single and Dual-core devices to come.

Renesas announced their MP5232 1.5Ghz Dual-core Cortex-A9 with integrated LTE modem back at Mobile World Congress. But I have not yet found devices featuring that. I wonder if they plan to regain Chinese makers interest with a faster low-cost successor to last year’s EV2 533Mhz Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9.

Qualcomm seems to have upgraded the MSM7227 with skews that use the new faster ARM Cortex-A5 instead of the previous year’s ARM11. I am not sure if I have noticed that on this trip. I get a bit confused as they still call it MSM7227 or MSM7225, they add a T or an A at the end, I forget which is the new Cortex-A5 design.

Telechips also has a new Cortex-A5 processor which I first saw in March at CeBIT in the Valueplus Tizzbird HDMI stick, but I am also not sure if I have seen any other devices on this trip using that yet.

Fun things at the Shenzhen Electronics Fair

Posted by – April 23, 2012

Here are some examples of some of the fun things at the Shenzhen Electronics Fair.

Yamay shows Android tablets



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Long Teng Jie shows tablets and smartphones at the China Sourcing Fair



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Shenzhen Sharing Technology shows phones and tablets at the HKTDC Electronics Fair


They are showing some 3.5″, 5″ MediaTek MT6573 phones and tablets.

Pipo shows 10.1″ and 9.7″ RK3066 Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 tablets at the HKTDC Electronics Fair

Posted by – April 23, 2012

Pipo is showing some of their newest Rockchip RK3066 Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 based devices, that are coming to increase the performance of the low-cost tablets coming out of China.

Begin shows Phones and Tablets at the Canton Fair

Posted by – April 23, 2012

Showing some MT6573 based phones.

Sowill Technology Park shows Freescale and AmLogic tablet designs

Posted by – April 23, 2012

Out of the Shenzhen University, they are showing some tablet designs based on the Freescale and AmLogic processors.

4upad.com shows Boxchip A10 7″, 8″, 9.7″ tablets at the HKTDC Electronics Fair

Posted by – April 23, 2012

They are showing a range of their latest 7″ $66, 9.7″ $138 and other tablets mostly based on the Boxchip A10 processor.

iPega 2.4Ghz wireless speaker system and charger for Android, iPhone and the PS Vita

Posted by – April 23, 2012

Pega HK Limited shows their new wireless speaker system that works with MHL Android devices, iPhones and the PS Vita.

Zealio Electronics Co Ltd shows iPhone and iPad power adapter

Posted by – April 23, 2012

They claim their USB power adapter provides enough power to charge the iPhone and the iPad at the same time. Outputting 3.5A on one USB and 2A on the other. I wonder if it’s a mess all the different power charging of USB cables, that some USB power sources output more power than others, that some USB cables transport more power than others, and that new USB charging devices such as the new iPad having such huge batteries that take over 10 hours to fully recharge over a normal USB cable, but which may or may not charge faster when using a more powerful USB power source and USB cable.