12.85″ Pixel Qi Chrome OS Android 5.0 Laptop/Tablet Hybrid by Google for Q1 2013?

Posted by – November 27, 2012

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Chromebook on Android

Here are my expectations for Google’s rumored upcoming Chrome OS laptop/tablet hybrid:

– 12.85″ Pixel Qi LCD, Google sponsored, to be available to all other Android hardware makers as a new component. (Plastics based flexible unbreakable LCD for thinner lighter waterproof dustproof unbreakable build)

– Optical lamination allows for outdoor readable capacitive Pixel Qi LCD. Otherwise IR based Neonode touch can work.

– 20 million initial production batch, enough to make a significant mark on the market, next batch can be 100 million units.

– Android 5.0 to support Chrome OS on top of Android. Same for Ubuntu on top of Android. Multi-booting becomes standard feature of Android. It’s not really multi-booting, it’s enabling to run alternative Linux OSes on top of the base Linux OS of Android.

– $200, available worldwide on day 1. Second batch can be sold for $150 or $100. Schools can get rebates if they order one for every child. Google can subsidize a few of those millions to be used by Children in developing countries through the One Laptop Per Child project.

– 16GB Flash with SD slots and potentially a 2.5″ HDD slot.

– 25 hours battery life. 200 grams flat battery dock doubles battery life to 50 hours.

– Swivel screen. Super slim keyboard can hide behind screen for tablet mode.

– ARM Cortex-A15, either OMAP5 with SGX544 or Exynos5 with Mali-T604. Maybe another comparable ARM Processor.

– Modem slot, all types modems available as options, 3G+, LTE, White Spaces, easily user swapable. There is space for an internal usb modem too.

Let me know what you think of this rumored Google hybrid here or at my Google+ thread.

ARM Linux Linaro hangout with Zach Pfeffer

Posted by – November 27, 2012

Hanging out with Zach Pfeffer, Android lead at http://linaro.org, they are working to optimize Linux on ARM.

Would you like to join the next Google+ Hangout? Post a comment here with a link to your Google+ Profile or comment under the Google+ Post and I’ll invite you to the next Google+ Hangout on Air! The next one is tonight midnight Copenhagen/Paris/Berlin time, 11PM UK time, 6PM EST, 3PM PST. Make sure I have circled you then look at my Google+ Profile Page at that time to see the Hangout invite. The topic is going to be the stories of the day at http://techmeme.com but it can also be any other technology news topics that you’d like to talk about!

laptopmag.com: Cotton Candy FXI-Tech Exynos4210 HDMI Stick reviewed


I think the Norwegian guys at Cotton Candy FXI-Tech actually kind of invented the HDMI stick market, when they first showed a prototype of the Cotton Candy exactly a year ago in November 2011. Since then, tons of other ARM SoCs have been shown and released to the worldwide market:
January 2012: Allways Innovating shows OMAP4 on HDMI Stick (not released yet as far as I know),
March 2012: Telechips Cortex-A5 ultra compact HDMI sticks (2, 3) appears (probably still the most compact)
May 2012: The Allwinner A10 Mk802 appears, has taken most of the market, appearing for $74 but now available for $25 from Shenzhen, a version is $40 with free worldwide shipping in the ARMdevices.net members store.
June 2012: Geniatech shows AmLogic single-core Cortex-A9 in HDMI Stick (available for $49 with worldwide shipping in the ARMdevices.net members store)
September 2012: RK3066 is ready for dual-core HDMI sticks
October 2012: The dual-core AmLogic MX HDMI stick and $99 with worldwide shipping the ARMdevices.net members store).
More RK3066 HDMI Sticks shown, the one with Bluetooth, mini-jack audio out and female HDMI port selling for $60 including worldwide shipping the ARMdevices.net members store.
And now perhaps the most powerful HDMI stick on the market is the i.MX6 Quad-core HDMI stick (2), available for $89 including worldwide shipping hopefully starting later today on the ARMdevices.net Members Store.

Read the full review of the Cotton Candy FXI-Tech HDMI Stick with many pictures here: http://blog.laptopmag.com/cotton-candy-tested-fastest-pc-on-a-stick-can-take-over-any-screen

Re-watch my overview video of the latest HDMI Sticks from Shenzhen:

Pierre Cardin’s latest Rockchip RK3066 and RK2928 tablets


Pierre Cardin is one of the top Rockchip based tablet makers in Shenzhen China. Here are some of their latest Rockchip based tablets.

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Logged-in Members of ARMdevices.net ($50/year) can see the full contact information for this company from the business card here. Become a Member Now!
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Ubuntu for Android is imminent

Posted by – November 15, 2012
Category: Opinions, Ubuntu

An official Canonical YouTube channel released this video:

This can mean that Ubuntu for Android is imminent. They seem to suggest that consumers can soon choose Ubuntu support next time that they buy a smartphone.

Here are some of my questions about Ubuntu for Android:

– Does Canonical work only on specific exclusive hardware and chip makers? Is there some kind of exclusive partnership with a Samsung or other Smartphone/chip maker to optimize and fully hardware accelerate Ubuntu on Android for them?

– Does the PC/Laptop Docking happen through a standard MHL connector compatible with multiple designs/sizes of phones and tablets?

– Are most Android 5.0 phones going to be compatible with alternative OSes to boot on top of Android? Can we soon just download the 700mb Ubuntu app made on Android Native Development Kit (NDK) on Google Play Store (if our Android device is officially supported with full hardware acceleration) to activate the on-top-of-Android-boot functionality?

– Can Chrome OS on Android be available at the same time? How about Google TV on Android? My big guess for Android 5 is that this multi-OS strategy is going to be a deep new feature of the next Android release. Dock your next Android device and it can switch or boot on the external HD display any alternative Linux OS such as Chrome OS, Google TV, Ubuntu, and maybe even Windows RT.

Also watch my previous Ubuntu for Android videos:

Charles Dickens on E Ink vs Tablets for reading outdoors

Posted by – November 14, 2012
Category: E-readers, Displays, E Ink

Here is http://www.eink.com/ereader_tale.html‘s official latest comedy video showing why we should all consider buying an eink e-reader, at least the crazy cheap $69 Kindle if you haven’t already and let’s get to some serious e-reading going on again if you aren’t already.

I’m looking forward to spend more time outdoors with devices with sunlight readable screens, reading more of the awesome ebooks that I haven’t read yet. I fill those up with the best of project http://gutenberg.org for free, and still looking for Google to fix http://books.google.com

By the way, I’m still very much looking forward to official Google Android support on E Ink, synchronize the Chrome browser on my Laptop, Tablet and Smartphone so that I can always continue reading articles, emails, blog posts, Google+ circles on the WiFi connected and automatically synchronized E Ink e-reader comfortably without a backlight.

Do you ever use your backlit smartphones, tablets or laptops to read your ebooks? I wouldn’t recommend it, even turning down the brightness of the backlight doesn’t come close to the experience of using a backlight-free, frontlit device for any serious reading indoors and outdoors.

Jon Masters of Red Hat talks about LEG Linaro Enterprise Group, porting Linux on the 64bit ARMv8

Posted by – November 13, 2012

Red Hat is working on getting Fedora Linux up and running on ARMv8, Jon Masters talks about LEG Linaro Enterprise Group and getting the full Fedora Linux stack to work on 64bit ARMv8 server hardware from now and during next year as 64bit ARMv8 hardware becomes available. AMD, AppliedMicro, Calxeda, Canonical, Cavium, Facebook, HP, Marvell and Red Hat join existing Linaro members ARM, HiSilicon, Samsung and ST-Ericsson to form new group focused on accelerating Linux development for ARM servers.

Solana Crawford of Goodsearch.com at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 13, 2012

Goodsearch.com donates 50% of all their Yahoo powered search and e-commerce revenue to charities. They have 200 thousand members, and 1.5 million monthly users. Thus far, Goodsearch has donated $9.3 Million to charities this way.

Katia Beauchamp of Birchbox.com, Dave Gilboa of WarbyParker.com at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 13, 2012

Birchbox delivers beauty products randomly in a box for a $20/month subscription. WarbyParker delivers boutique-quality, classically crafted eyewear at cheap price points.

Windows Phone 8 Review: HTC Windows Phone 8X

Posted by – November 13, 2012

My initial look at Windows Phone 8, asking what is new about it to Harry McCracken Technology Editor at Time.com (he wrote an article about one of the tablets I showed him the Eken VIA8850 based A70 tablet at http://techland.time.com/2012/11/07/a-50-not-really-windows-tablet/).

Kevin Krejci of Fujitsu Laboratories of America at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 13, 2012

Kevin Krejci of Fujitsu Laboratories of America talks about the latest developments in Mobile technologies out of Silicon Valley and how that is being used by Japanese technology giants like Fujitsu.

Dr. Joseph Turian, How to do AI, crowdsourcing information work for pay

Posted by – November 13, 2012

Dr. Joseph Turian, President, Metaoptimize and Analyst, GigaOM Pro talks about using Crowd-Labor, getting machine applications that build on Human Intelligence.

You can watch his keynote presentation here:

LitMotors C-1, fully-electric, self-balancing, two-wheeled vehicle at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 13, 2012

LitMotors shows their new C-1, self-balancing two wheeled futuristic looking electric bike.

David Prager at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 13, 2012

David Prager, co-founder of Revision3 (recently sold to the Discovery Channel) is working on some new startup ideas.

Livefyre at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 13, 2012

Livefyre is an alternative to Disqus providing live blog, chat and comments for blogs and for use on the social web. This is the comment system recently used on Engadget for comments, by Techcrunch for their live blogging and they are talking to more blogs to integrate them.

The Open Company Map and T-Shirt at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 13, 2012

The Open Company is a startup about being transparent about the price of products, showing the conditions under which the products are made, how much the workers are getting paid, how many hours the workers work per week, how much it cost to make each product, how much for components, shipping etc. They are just a startup and consider expanding to add more products to their store.

Yves Behar at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 7, 2012

Yves Behar talks about wearable computing, the Ouya project on Kickstarter, the upcoming OLPC XO Tablet and more. Design has the power to educate, inform, change society and create new opportunities where none existed. And in an environment of connectivity, design has another aim: It wants to be free. Hear why from the designer that brought you the Jawbone headset, the open-source game console Ouya, and many other groundbreaking product designs.

You can also watch his discussion with Om Malik at Gigaom Roadmap here:

Stefan Olander shows Nike Fuel Band at Gigaom Roadmap #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 7, 2012

Connected gadgets attached to our bodies are enabling us to track and manage our physical routines, fitness plans and health functions.

Hear how design and data will deliver the quantified self. You can also watch the official discussion video here:

John Maeda talks about Creative Leadership at #roadmapconf

Posted by – November 7, 2012

John Maeda pioneered computer-based visual art at the MIT Media Lab, and his work now appears in the Museum of Modern Art. As the head of the globally renowned Rhode Island School of Design, he is pushing the boundaries of expression, design, connected culture and leadership.

You can also watch his full keynote on “The intersection of art, design, data and leadership” here. In this talk we will learn what he sees as the important vectors of the future of design, leadership and connected culture.

Electric Scooter Rentals in San Francisco at Scootnetworks.com

Posted by – November 7, 2012

$5/hour, $10 for a half day, $20 for a full day, people in San Francisco can rent an electric scooter at http://scootnetworks.com