Iceland’s banking collapse is the largest suffered by any country in economic history (relative to the size of its economy). As one of the reactions to the crisis, the Icelandic people are drafting a new collaborative constitution, by the contribution of the Icelandic people, elected representatives, they are waiting for the parliament (new election coming up in April 2013) to take this new people-generated consitution and implement it. Gudrun Pétursdóttir was chairman of the Icelandic Constitutional Council, which organized the collaborative and open process for revising Iceland’s constitution after the 2008 crisis.
Chromebook Pixel leaked
Posted by – February 6, 2013
Is this the Pixel Qi Google Chromebook for long battery life and outdoor usability? 12.85″ 2560×1700 resolution touch screen? ARM Cortex-A15 preferably big.LITTLE, is this a Texas Instruments OMAP5 powered or does Samsung provide Google with an Octa Exynos5 for Chromebook already?
What do you think the price is going to be? My guess is $100 for non-touch non-Retina version and $200 for touch Retina version. The goal to basically make the ARM Powered Chrome OS the number 1 OS for laptops/desktops worldwide.
My video-blogging Highlights of CES 2013
Posted by – February 5, 2013
Video-blogging last month at CES was awesome. I’ve posted 75 videos filming with the ultra-high quality Panasonic GH3 camera on a Tiffen Steadicam Merlin 2 with vest and using the Kopin Golden-i 3.8 for augmented video-blogging. At the CES 2013, there were some significant ARM related announcements, demonstrations and releases. Here are some of my highlights:
1. Samsung announcing the Samsung Octa ARM Cortex-A15 and ARM Cortex-A7 big.LITTLE processor. (I didn’t get to film any interviews about Samsung Octa yet, here’s the 1-hour Samsung keynote) I did film the Samsung 2013 HDTV series (which features perhaps a latest newest ARM processor built-in for its smart tv and features)
3. Rockchip RK3188 quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 on 28nm HKMG process node launched for about Exynos4412-level performance in cheap tablets. Rockchip RK3066 dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 also reaching more devices on the market like the Archos Titanium tablet series at $7″ 1024×600 $119. 8″ 1024×768 $169, 9.7″ retina $249 and 10.1″ 1280×800 $199, the $169 Archos Gamepad and the Minix HDMI stick.
4. Allwinner A31 quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 in tablets being released: Archos launching Allwinner A31 Powered Platinum Tablet series in 8″ $199 and 9.7″ Retina $299, Allwinner A31 also shown by Eken and Sungworld.
5. Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 800 series, Qualcomm’s next generation ARM Processor records and playsback 4K video.
6. Nufront reaching maturity with their NS115 dual-core ARM cortex-A9 in many thin and light 7″ tablets coming out of China.
7. Infotmic launching iMAPx15 dual-core ARM Cortex-A5 processor for low-cost tablets and phones.
8. ARM Powered Set-top-boxes launched like new Marvell Powered Google TV boxes from netgear, Hisense, Asus and TCL and the OMAP4470 Powered Archos TV Connect.
9. E Ink on the backs of Smartphones being launched by Russian Yota Devices, can extend battery life on your smartphone by 10x (talking about weeks of battery life for your smartphone). E Ink was also showing their new awesome higher resolution and front-lit e-reader screens like in the awesome new Kindle Paperwhite (which I’ve got and that I’ll video-review) and the interesting super thin CST-01 E Ink wrist watch.
10. One Laptop Per Child’s latest XO-4 Touch ARM Powered laptop release with Neonode IR touch on Pixel Qi screen using Marvell’s Armada PXA2128 dual-core with companion core processor. OLPC also launches their XO learning OLPC XO Tablet, optimizing Android for productive use of Tablets in Childrens education worldwide.
11. Educational and fun robots: Lego Mindstorms EV3, Roboware Kimi and Parrot AR Drone 2.0
12. 1080p Android phones launched: ZTE Grand S LTE, Huawei D2, 6.1″ Huawei Mate, and Sony Xperia Z
13. 4K coming to the market: HiSense introducing $2000 4K 50″, $3500 65″ 4K and shows up to 110″ 4K TVs, Panasonic shows their first printed 4K OLED promising affordable high yield mass manufacturing, Panasonic showing an impressive 20″ 4K Tablet, Panasonic talking about 4K camcorder and showing a 4K 46″ and 20″ LCD TV, Sharp launching 32″ 4K Tablet, 60″ ICC-4K and showing 13.5″ 4K OLED, Samsung’s 4K 84″ TV for actual release, LG releasing 55″, 65″ and 84″ 4K and StreamTV upscaling and auto-3D.
14. Smartwatches: Italian startup I’m Watch has shipped over 30 thousand, Taiwanese WiMe shows one for $99.
15. Self-driving cars: Velodyne Lidar used by Google, Toyota showing Integrated Safety and Audi talking about their self-driving car.
16. Ubuntu Mobile OS launched, although I prefer their Ubuntu on Android implementation.
Gary Shapiro’s conclusions on CES 2013
Posted by – January 24, 2013
Category: Exclusive videos, CES
Gary Shapiro is the President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, the organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show CES. He says that CES 2013 has been the best CES ever. They call CES the center stage for innovation.
My only complaint (other than them closing the press room at 6:30pm, do they expect us to upload and publish all our videos filmed during the day in only half an hour?) is that I had nowhere near enough time to see everything. All 3300 exhibitors, 800 people speaking, so many different conferences and other related things around CES, tons of company’s private meeting rooms also showing off so many things. By the next year’s CES, maybe I can find a way to optimize my video-blogging further, somehow get the time to film more than the 75 videos that I’ve posted.
OLPC XO Tablet, XO Learning System launched
Posted by – January 24, 2013
Giulia D’Amico, Vice President of Business Development at One Laptop per Child Association (OLPCA) launches the OLPC XO Learning System, a user interface optimized for Children’s learning on Android Tablets. Vivitar is licencing XO Learning to launch their first OLPC XO Tablet in all WalMart stores in the USA by the end of Spring 2013. The initial Vivitar OLPC XO tablet features a 1.6Ghz dual-core (my guess Rockchip RK3066), 1024×600 screen, and the price is going to be very competitive (perhaps $99?), the target for WalMart is to reach all the Children in the USA in the next few months with this OLPC XO Tablet.
Every child has dreams and XO Learning directs the child’s passion, creativity and energy for these dreams into a new user interface that has 12 dreams. Such dreams include “I want to be” an artist, a musician and a scientist. Each dream features a rich learning experience and applications, books, games and videos that allow children ages 3 to 12 to naturally explore their dreams and learn at the same time.
“The challenge in computing and education is to use the technology to develop new ways for children to learn. The rich content of the dreams allows the child’s natural passion to be directed into learning experiences,” said Giulia D’Amico, the lead designer of XO Learning. OLPCA teamed with the legendary designer Yves Behar of Fuse Project and his team to create the XO Learning user interface and cover.
The content in XO Learning has been curated and selected for age-appropriateness and learning value by OLPCA, in collaboration with Common Sense Media, the leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents and teachers make informed decisions about media. Common Sense Media offers more than 18,000 media ratings and reviews based on both robust educational research and child development guidelines. XO Learning also offers a full range of parental controls and user IDs for up to three children, a dashboard where the child or the parent can review usage, types of content and the skills the child is developing. Press a single icon and XO Learning switches from English to Spanish with all new content depending on the language. Additional languages will be available in future releases.
press release
Read more at: xo-learning.org
OLPC XO-4 Touch Unboxing
Giulia D’Amico, OLPC Vice President of Business Development, unboxes and talks about the all-new XO-4 Touch One Laptop Per Child laptop, featuring the new Marvell Armada PXA2128 dual-core 1.2Ghz 40nm processor, Marvell 8787 WiFi chip and the Neonode IR Touch touchscreen technology. The OLPC XO-4 Touch now also features a HDMI output. Currently still running Fedora Linux based Sugar OS, the OLPC is thinking to port Sugar to Android to use on all OLPC Laptop/Tablet devices during 2013. Thus far, OLPC has shipped over 2.8 Million Laptops to children in schools worldwide. Australia is going to be the first country to deploy over 55 thousand OLPC XO-4 Touch laptop/tablets in the months to come.
Marvell presents OLPC XO-4 Touch and $30 Smile Plug Server for Schools
Marvell shows off the new OLPC XO-4 powered by the Marvell PXA2128 dual-core 1.2Ghz, Marvell 8787, and uses Neonode IR touch screen technology to thus add touch functionality to the One Laptop Per Child XO-4 laptop. Performance is thus increased and battery life further improved by using this latest 40nm process node Marvell ARM Processor in the upgrade.
The XO 4.0 is powered by the Marvell ARMADA PXA2128. Optimized by ARM v7 high-performance mobile processors with Hybrid-SMP technology at up to 1.2GHz, the PXA2128 reduces power consumption by roughly half and enables an extended battery life thanks to a low-power mobile (LPM) processor.
Features of the Marvell ARMADA PXA2128 include:
Marvell optimized ARM®v7 dual High-Performance Mobile (HPM) processors with Hybrid-SMP technology at up 1.2GHz
Architecturally matched ARMv7 Low-Power Mobile (LPM) processor optimized with Hybrid-SMP technology for extended battery life
Dual-channel independent memory controllers (LPDDR2 or DDR3/DDR3L)
Multiple power islands, dynamic voltage/frequency scaling, clock and power gating and standby modes
Powerful hardware accelerators for 2D/3D graphics, 1080p video, HiFi audio codecs and camera ISP
Dedicated security engine with hardware keys, secure memory and ARM® TrustZone® for secure boot and cryptographyMarvell’s Avastar 88W8787 delivers the wireless performance and range that will make the XO 4.0 a connected learning experience. Designed for both simultaneous and independent operation of the following:
IEEE 802.11a/g/b and 802.11n payload data rates for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
Bluetooth 3.0 + High Speed (HS) (also compliant with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR)
FM transmit and receive (digital encoder/decoder FM radio with RDS/RBDS)
The device supports the 802.11i security standard through implementation of the AES/CCMP, WEP with TKIP, AES/CMAC, and WLAN WAPI security mechanisms
Panasonic 4K Camcorder, 20.4″ 4K and 47″ 4K IPSa Displays
Posted by – January 24, 2013
Pansonic is showing off their 4K Camcorder prototype, displaying real-time 4K 30fps video to their 20.4″ prototype 4K IPS alpha LCD display, they are also showing playback of recorded 4K video to their 47″ 4K prototype IPS alpha LCD display.
$99 WiMe Smart Watch NanoSmart NanoPhone NanoWatch
Posted by – January 24, 2013
Check out the $99 (retail MSRP) http://www.wime.tw NanoPhone that can be used as the NanoWatch wrist watch. It connects to your Smartphone using Bluetooth and it can also use its own built-in GPRS SIM card modem. The Wime NanoWatch does not run Android, but its embedded Linux OS synchronizes with Android: “Smart advisor that will remind you the new SMS, miss call, Gmail of your android smart phone”. They gave me a review sample, I’ll try to post a video review in the days/weeks to come. I’ll try to figure out exactly what kind of features work yet in sychronization with my Bluetooth Android devices. Let me know in the comments what I should try to test on it.
Cubify 3D Printing ecosystem by 3D Systems, create and share 3D mockups
Posted by – January 22, 2013
3D Printing is being hyped by some bloggers as possibly enabling some type of peer-to-peer device printing revolution. I’m not totally sure about that. But as all the worlds consumer electronics and pretty much everything that we use in our lives most likely has been 3D printed while the industrial designers, architects and all creative creators think up, design, improve upon all the devices that we use. Upcoming new more affordable 3D Printers such as Cubify’s $1299 Cube 3D printer, printing in PLA or ABS plastics, allows more people to take part in the process of thinking up, 3D printing all types of mockup, molds, 3D print basic forms that possibly also can be used in certain basic circumstance.
MHL at CES 2013
Posted by – January 22, 2013
The MHL Consortium (Mobile High-Definition Link) shows some of the latest uses for the MHL connector, using Micro-USB to output to HDMI and charge at the same time. Providing up to 7.1 audio and 1080p video. HDMI sticks like the Roku Streaming Stick can charge through the MHL connector.
Eken shows $148 Allwinner A31 quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 Tablet
MOQ 1000 is $148 with a 1280×800 screen, they show 11.6″ prototype, $140 Remote controlled quad-copter drone with camera and self balancing (similar to Parrot) with support for WiFi and Bluetooth Android and iOS remote control, $122 9.7″ RK3066, $102 10.1″ 1280×800 VIA8850, $76 7″ 1024×600 IPS RK3066, A31 9.7″ and more. Eken sells about 150 thousand tablets per month. They also sell 600-700 thousand tablet PCBs per month to other small to medium sized Chinese tablet manufacturers.
World Wide Touch Technology (Holdings) Limited shows FingerQ PrivacQ Biometric Fingerprint platform for encrypted chatting
Posted by – January 22, 2013
World Wide Touch Technology (Holdings) Limited shows their Biometric Fingerprint platform for encrypted chatting. Including an Android smartphone cover case that includes such biometric fingerprint reader.
MultiTaction Cell 55 RadarTable by CAVI and Ultrathin bezel 6 times 55″ touch screen user interface
Posted by – January 22, 2013
You can stack up to 24 55″ thin bezel touch screen displays, featuring Multi Taction’s 24 infrared camera touch screen technology, each display starts at $26 thousand, used by museums, corporations, restaurants, bars, retail and more.
Lucien Elements, swarovski crystals in iPhone case
Posted by – January 22, 2013
iPhone cases using swarovski crystals and crocodile skin. Retail pricing from $150 to $700.
Solowheel, gyroscopic electric unicycle
Posted by – January 22, 2013
It goes at 10 miles an hour for about an hour, it takes about an hour to recharge. It also captures kinetic energy when you go downhill.
I’m Watch Android Watch, a growing market for smart Android watches
Posted by – January 21, 2013
Italian startup I’m Watch thus far has sold 30 thousand Android wrist watches worldwide, with pre-orders for over 50 thousand units, their goal is to sell more than 100 thousand units this year. For now the watch runs on the Freescale i.MX233 and runs Android 2, with certain Android applications being optimized for the I’m Watch, Bluetooth synchronization with any Android or iPhone. Thus when you get calls, you can see caller ID on your watch, you can use the watch as Bluetooth headset, dial contacts, view email titles/senders, IM messages, plenty other Android notifications can be programmed to be shown on the watch. They have a gold version for 13000 euros, Titanium version for 800 euros, silver version for 1500 euros and the regular one has an MSRP of 350 euros ($389 in the USA, currently with a $150 discount, thus $239). They are also launching the I’m Here GPS Tracker, with a SIM card built-in, the GPS tracker can be used to track all types of things everywhere in the country. You can put it in the bicycle, inside the car, inside a bag, in pockets of children, etc, then it can localize the GPS tracker on your phone or on your I’m watch.
My video with I’m Watch filmed last year when they showed the first prototype of the device in 2011 got over 372 thousand views thus far, 351 comments, I guess my video-blogging kind of helped them launch the device. I’m looking forward to (I guess, and I’d like to see) the next version to be slimmer, lighter, using Bluetooth 4.0 low power, run on a faster Jelly Bean compatible ARM Processor, and run tons more Android notifications synchronizations apps, use a sunlight readable Pixel Qi LCD or an E Ink display for the display to stay turned on the whole day, thus whenever you glance at your watch, it always shows time, notifications and everything, no need to reach it and push the button to turn on the display.
I’d like to see the Android smart watch device market explode during 2013, I’d like to see real useful usage being demonstrated and proven to work perfectly on this type of device. They gave me an I’m Watch which I am now going to try to test over the next days and weeks and I’ll report and post some video reviews on my hopeful success in being able to use it to improve my overall Android and smart device usage and experience. 2013 is the year that wearable computing becomes a mass market success, this device is one of the first examples of what we can expect.
Velodyne Lidar vision sensor system for the Google Self-driving car
Posted by – January 21, 2013
This Velodyne Lidar rotating sensor measures the environment in 360 degrees around the vehicle to detect the clear path and to detect all the obstacles while in motion on the road. Uses 64 lasers spinning, they can see everything that is in-front, on the side and behind the vehicle in real-time.
CoreTech Home Phone and Home Security Tablet
Posted by – January 21, 2013
CoreTech presents a tablet with dock for DECT home phone use and for control and view of home security cameras on the home network.
Havit Tablets and Accessories
$59 (retail price) Allwinner A13 7″ tablets, $119 (retail price) Rockchip RK3066 7″ 1024×600, $249 (retail price) Rockchip RK3066 9.7″. Their accessories are headphones, mice, keyboards and more. Selling these devices in South America and expanding to more markets.
