Video showing Windows 8 running on a Texas Instrument OMAP4430 Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, it’s behind glass though they are not showing things react to touch in this video.
Source: anandtech.com
Qualcomm MSM8660 Dual-core runs Windows 8
Here’s an official video released on the Qualcomm YouTube channel showing Windows 8 running on their latest dual-core ARM Processor.
Source: QUALCOMMVlog
Microsoft also released this video showing that there is no difference between the ARM Powered device and the Intel Core i5 based device:
If you don’t have Silverlight you can download the WMV file here
Source: channel9.msdn.com
Nvidia Kal-El Windows 8 tablet hands-on
This seems kind of ready to me, why don’t they release this before Christmas?
I guess they still need to do a lot of work on the whole ARM and x86 Intel compatibility system so all the .exe files “just work” on ARM (virtualized, emulated, or whatever trick they are working on..), and for that a bunch of software optimizations still need to be done.
They should be selling or giving those ARM Powered Windows 8 Tablets away at least to the developers during the coming weeks and months? You can right now download Windows 8 Preview Edition at http://dev.windows.com but this is not yet the ARM version of that Preview software.
Source: thisismynext.com
Arnova 10 G2 for $129 or $99 with 1 or 2 year Philly Newspaper subscription
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News are doing a special promotion that can interest people living in Pennsylvania USA and would like to save on getting their daily newspaper and at the same time can be tempted by the combination of a subsidized Arnova 10 G2 Android Tablet for $99 or $129 depending on the length of the digital newspaper subscription that is signed.
video source: technicallyphilly.com
I first reported on the Arnova 10 G2 back in April when it was first announced. It is an awesome value device with a capacitive screen and the new Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 processor that can run at up to 1.2Ghz. It’s more powerful than the Apple A4 in the iPad1 and iPhone4, it’s more powerful than the Samsung Hummingbird processor in the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Samsung Galaxy S. Yet, the tablet is now being released named Arnova 10 G2 with a retail MSRP pricing probably between $199 and $229 (to be confirmed in the coming days).
Sure there has been some delays for this capacitive RK2918 tablet, I do not know why. Maybe Archos spent a few months selling the RK2818 tablets before ramping up production capacity and perhaps also having Rockchip try to have Honeycomb working on it. But more likely, Rockchip will try to use Ice Cream Sandwich directly for those, depending on the compatibility and ease of porting of that next version of open source Android with these ARM Cortex-A8 tablets released now.
This makes sense. The idea of the $99 10.1″ capacitive tablet is awesome. Here are some of my suggestions though for Philly to make this work in the most positive way:
– The $10/month subscription needs to include unlimited free access to all the worlds newspapers and not just the 2 newspapers. The economics are that people will not necessarily read more articles if they get access to more content.
You have to think big. I know it may be hard or impossible for the people of the Philly newspaper to reach out to all the other newspapers of the world and agree on some kind of Netflix-pricing to include full access to all the newspapers.
The idea is that you make it more attractive to more people inside and outside of your target market to want to subscribe to this idea. You write content in English. I think it makes no sense to limit yourself to a limited geography. You can write regional news in your current edition, but you can partner with all the other newspapers and let people read those other newspapers if they want.
Make the cake bigger together with others and your slice of the much bigger cake will be much bigger than your small cake.
Logically, the digital access subscription does not have to exclusively be consumed on that tablet. I guess that any other device can login and access that subscription plan. Simply build on your current Android app, and simply let it search and access the real format newspapers from all the other newspapers that you can partner with.
Here is Philly’s calculation and the customers options today:
– $199 or $229 is the unsubsidized Arnova 10 G2 price likely going to be when released within a few days from now.
– $99 with 2-year $10/month subscription = Total $339 for the Arnova 10 G2 with the 2-year digital newspaper access = $229 Tablet and $55/year digital subscription
– $129 with 1-year $13/month subscription = Total $285 for the Arnova 10 G2 with the 1-year digital newspaper access = $229 Tablet and $56/year digital subscription
– No tablet digital subscription price today = $3/week = $156/year
– No tablet normal paper newspaper by mail subscription price today = $7/week = $364/year
This can be a huge success for Archos and for newspapers but they have to continue on this plan and they need to pick up the phone and make some national and international agreements with all the other newspapers, join forces, subsidize Awesome ARM Powered Android Tablets to make people understand the value of technology and of the content.
Related articles
- Philadelphia Newspaper Publisher Bundles $99 Tablet With Newspaper Apps (shoppingblog.com)
- Sound Familiar? Philadelphia Newspapers Subsidize A Tablet To Sell You A Subscription (wired.com)
- Let the Bundling Begin! First US Newspaper Publisher Offers Bundled Tablet Deal (geardiary.com)
- Newspaper company launches its own Android tablet (technicallyphilly.com)
- Philadelphia newspapers offer $99 tablet with Gingerbread to subscribers (digitaltrends.com)
- Philly newspapers’ cheap Android tablets up for grabs, and they’re cheap (geek.com)
- Philly papers offering subscribers $99 Android tablet (news.cnet.com)
- Philadelphia Media Network bundles ARNOVA Android tablet with digital subscriptions to Inquirer and Daily News (intomobile.com)
- Subscribe To Philly Newspaper Apps, Get A Tablet (paidcontent.org)
- Philadelphia papers to offer discounted Android tablets to subscribers (teleread.com)
Are Windows 8 tablets going to be released before Christmas already?
The awesome demo Microsoft presented at Computex last June looked like Windows 8 can quite possibly be ready for release in consumer devices before Christmas, at least in tablet mode.
How can the ARM Version of Windows 8 be ready for release already?
– On a tablet, they don’t really need to have all the .exe apps support, on ARM anyways, they can virtualize all that later.
– Microsoft probably is tempted to be a part of the Christmas tablet sales party. All they have to do is release an ARM tablet version of it now.
– The tablets don’t need as powerful ARM processors as Laptops, as you want full screen multi-tab web browsing to be fully smooth on a Laptop in Desktop mode. On a tablet, consumers are ok with a bunch of full screen UI stuff moving around, and while multi-tasking is awesome, basic consumers don’t even really know how to fully take use of it on a touch screen device.
– They can call those Beta tablets, or something.
What Microsoft should do with Windows 8 if they want to win market share and if they want a chance to compete with Android, Chrome OS and iOS on the platform ecosystem:
– Make it free
– Make it open source
Sure, this is a very weird suggestion for Microsoft. But why not?
Can’t Microsoft find other ways to monetize their platform than upfront licencing and patent lawsuits against competing platforms? If I am the Microsoft CEO, I tell them to focus on monetizing web apps, web services, provide the Office suite as a fully optimized web app, with paid services online for power users and the enterprise. Full cloud based Virtualization of all Windows apps, provide that as a service. If Windows used to get an average of $50 per Windows licence, they can focus to try to get as much or more through cloud services.
Should Microsoft be ashamed of revealing their source code to the world? The idea of open source is to enable the most manufacturers access to customize and optimize the OS for all types of hardware. Because manufacturers have to differentiate with hardware, Microsoft cannot win market share if all the Windows hardware looks too similar. They need all the smallest Chinese manufacturers to be using Windows 8 and sell those devices to developing countries and worldwide without worrying about optimizing, without worrying about paying licence fees, the strategy of free and open source instantly legalizes the Chinese and Indian market for Microsoft.
At last CeBIT, I interviewed Microsoft about Open Source, with the right CEO in charge (can Steve Ballmer do it?), they should embrace open source for Windows 8:
Let’s see tomorrow how right or wrong I am with my Windows 8 speculations.
Related articles
- Microsoft prepares to BUILD its Windows 8 future (winrumors.com)
- Microsoft set to reveal Windows 8 tablet next week? (techradar.com)
- Rumor: Windows 8 Tablet Appears Next Week (wired.com)
- Samsung Windows 8 Tablet Tipped for Microsoft Conference next week (slashgear.com)
3M Invests in Pixel Qi
3M (NYSE: $54 Billion current valuation) just announced together with Pixel Qi that they have invested in Pixel Qi Corp.
3M is the leading developer of innovative optical films for LCDs, probably the world’s largest. Together with Pixel Qi, they are capable of many interesting things. This should accelerate the availability of this screen technology to the mass market. First generation Pixel Qi screens are in over 3 million OLPC laptops being used by kids in the developing world, and Pixel Qi is ramping up deliveries of some of their latest screens to Chinese companies such as ShiZhu Technology and we should be seeing much more of that, hopefully also soon reaching the European and the US mass consumer market.
ST. PAUL, Minn. & SAN BRUNO, Calif. & TAIPEI, Taiwan, Sep 12, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — 3M, through its 3M New Ventures organization, has invested in Pixel Qi Corp., a developer of next generation LCD panels with operations in Taiwan and California. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded by LCD pioneer, Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen in 2008, Pixel Qi designs unique, innovative LCD screens that solve problems not addressed by conventional screens. Its first products are sunlight-readable, low-power LCD panels aimed for mobile device applications.
As consumers increasingly rely on connected, mobile devices in their daily lives, there is a growing, unmet requirement for display devices that offer portability, connectivity, long battery life and excellent indoor/outdoor readability in one device. Current displays are not able to solve all of these challenges simultaneously. Pixel Qi’s unique technology platform eliminates the need for trade-offs and enables high quality, outdoor or sunlight viewing with excellent battery life and portability in one device. The combination of its technologies with those of 3M will create excellent new opportunities for both companies.
“Pixel Qi’s full-function color screen technology, for the first time, gives consumers an outdoor-readable video display with exceptional battery life, usable anywhere, anytime. It’s a first in the industry. In our collaboration with 3M, we have the ability to accelerate this into mass adoption,” said Mary Lou Jepsen, co-founder and CEO of Pixel Qi.
The funding led by 3M New Ventures will play a key role in enabling Pixel Qi to develop its product offerings into volume consumer markets as well as digital signage and touch applications. The investment, which successfully concludes Pixel Qi’s second (series “B”) investment round, will also allow Pixel Qi to build and to strengthen its engineering and sales capabilities.
Stefan Gabriel, president of 3M New Ventures said, “Pixel Qi’s technology enables displays of such lower power and high usability that the vision of ubiquitous displays comes much closer to realization. In combining Pixel Qi’s disruptive display technology with our technology platforms, we can create new business opportunities in the consumer and commercial markets for 3M.”
3M’s Optical Systems Division is a world leader in the specialized films used inside liquid crystal displays to optimize the light throughput. Pixel Qi’s innovative LCD designs use such film technologies, and other advances, to create novel displays and enable the best outdoor readable, power efficient displays available on the market. “By addressing the energy consumption and sunlight readability challenges in one package, Pixel Qi provides a ground-breaking solution for the next generation of displays,” said Jim Bauman, vice president, 3M Optical Systems Division. “The combination of Pixel Qi’s low energy, reflective display technology with 3M’s innovative technologies will create exciting products for the mobile, handheld, tablet and other display markets.”
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/3m-invests-in-pixel-qi-corp-2011-09-12
Sony NEX-VG20 at IFA 2011 (with samples)
Posted by – September 6, 2011
Sony is releasing their new NEX-VG20 semi-professional camcorder with some new 50p at 28mbit and 25p at 24mbitps an 17mbitps recording modes and with some new 16.1Megapixel CMOS sensor. It’s going to be released in January for 2200€.
Here are some sample files recorded with this camcorder:
25p 17mbitps: Watch on YouTube Download on Google Docs
25p 24mbitps: Watch on YouTube Download on Google Docs
50p 28mbitps: Watch on YouTube Download on Google Docs
Using the Vario Sonnar Lense:
25p 17mbitps: Watch on YouTube Download on Google Docs
25p 24mbitps: Watch on YouTube Download on Google Docs
50p 28mbitps: Watch on YouTube Download on Google Docs
Pictures of that Vario Sonnar Lense:
Sony, NEX-FS100 at IFA 2011 (with a 50p sample)
Posted by – September 6, 2011
This is a new semi-professional HD camcorder from Sony with a lot of manual features and controls on it, with 2 XLR audio inputs, a full HDMI output and many other features as well as being compatible with the Alpha lenses, offering some slow motion recording modes and more.
The NEX-FS100UK is an interchangeable lens camcorder featuring a Super 35mm sensor equivalent in size to Super35mm film cameras ( same as PMW-F3), and a Sony E-Mount 18 to 200mm zoom lens. Developed specifically as a digital motion camcorder, it captures fine detail and image texture with image fidelity, low noise and wide exposure latitude. Find more info at http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-broadcastcameras/cat-nxcam/product-NEXFS100UK/
Here’s a sample file recorded with the Sony NEX-FS100 at 50p: Watch on YouTube Download on Google Docs
Huawei Mediapad, 1.2Ghz Dual-core 7″ 1280×800 Honeycomb Tablet
Posted by – September 5, 2011
This is the new Huawei Mediapad Android Honeycomb tablet, to be released with Honeycomb 3.2 installed, full Google Marketplace support, it runs on a Qualcomm 1.2Ghz Dual-core processor and comes with an impressive 1280×800 screen, HDMI output, USB and more.
Super Clear LCD vs Super AMOLED Plus
Posted by – September 5, 2011
You can see in this video that the Super Clear LCD is brighter than the Super AMOLED plus. While Super AMOLED has real black, for the rest, is the Super Clear LCD better? It might be Samsung is now making this Super Clear LCD Tegra2 version of the Galaxy S2 in Galaxy R to either both slightly lower the price and perhaps also to satisfy the demand as they might not be able to manufacture them fast enough.
Samsung Galaxy Note, Testing out System Info (searching for CPU info)
Posted by – September 5, 2011
I tried to install the System Info apk on the Samsung Galaxy Note to try to learn more about the hardware used, especially that 1.4Ghz dual-core processor is interesting.
Huawei Vision, 3.7″ Android Smartphone
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Nice looking medium range Android Smartphone from Huawei, it may get released for around 250€ to 300€.
Huawei Boulder, 2.6″ qwerty Android phone
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Low-cost Blackberry-style Android phone from Huawei, it may be sold for around 150€.
Hannspree SN-10T4, OMAP4430 based 10.1″ capacitive tablet
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Hannspree is releasing this new Honeycomb tablet based on the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 processor.
HannsG Wireless USB from an Android Tablet to a Touch Monitor
They have some kind of wireless USB dongle on the tablet, that can beam the Android screen and UI to a wireless USB touch monitor. The frame rate is not yet optimized but this seems to work.
HannsG HU193, 18.5″ Wide USB 3.0 Monitor
Posted by – September 5, 2011
This 18.5″ monitor runs just on the power from the USB 3.0 or 2.0 connector. This is quite amazing to see such a large monitor that can run exclusively on that power, this means it’s an easily portable monitor solution, with just one cable.
Philips GoGear Connect 3, Android PMP
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Philips releases its new GoGear Connect 3, with a 3.2″ HVGA capacitive touch screen with an unknown processor (please post in the comments if you know which processor they are using). Philips is also launching 3 new Android Speaker Docks, in different sizes, more or less portable and for home use from 100€ to 200€.
Samsung Galaxy Y, cheapest Samsung Android phone
Posted by – September 5, 2011
This looks like it may be a very cheap Android smartphone, with a 3″ QVGA capacitive LCD, a 832Mhz processor, 2megapixel camera, is Samsung aiming this at the potentially sub-$99 Android Smartphone market?
Samsung Galaxy Y Pro, Samsung’s cheapest qwerty Android phone
Posted by – September 5, 2011
This looks to be Samsung’s cheapest Blackberry-style Android phone with a 2.6″ QVGA capacitive touch screen, a 832Mhz processor, it runs on Gingerbread for now.
Samsung Galaxy S2 White
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Samsung releases this white version of the Samsung Galaxy S2 Android Smartphone. This is likely the best phone on the market, so if you prefer to have a white version of it, you can consider getting this one.
