Chinese manufacturer Hott is launching a design for a 4.8″ tablet based on a version of Android which they have customized to work for them on the ARM9 Rockchip based processor which comes with full video playback support. Check out these interesting Android customizations in this product that they proudly define as “iPad-killer”.
The design of this 4.8″ Android tablet by Hott is the most compact that I have seen so far. I think it is very nice that it only has a minimal screen bezel. Check out it’s size compared to my Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android in the following pictures posted to Picasa (click to see the full size versions on Picasa):
The third release of the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) is now available for download from the Android developer site.
Among the new features of this Android Native SDK is following:
OpenGL ES 2.0 support
Applications targeting Android 2.0 (API level 5) or higher can now directly access OpenGL ES 2.0 features. This brings the ability to control graphics rendering through vertex and fragment shader programs, using the GLSL shading language.
This could mean we could soon get stuff like Unreal Engine for powerful 3D games on Android, N64 and Dreamcast games emulators, Quake3 for Android and plenty more games as well as 3D acceleration in Home replacements and in Android applications developed with tools provided by companies like Mentor Graphics, Digital Aria and more.
Dan Nystedt is reporting on Computerworld.com from a press meeting held by ARM in Taipei:
“The first tablet devices will launch in the second quarter by [mobile network] carriers,” said Roy Chen, ARM’s worldwide mobile computing ODM manager, during a press meeting in Taipei. “You’ll see a lot more in the third quarter.”
He said many tablet-like devices will be launched in China, but companies everywhere plan to launch tablets this year, including the top 10 telecommunications network operators.
Thus, you can look forward to huge amounts of hands-on video coverage of all these new ARM Powered tablets that will be released these next few months right here on http://138.2.152.197/category/tablets/
According to WSJ, Google is currently testing Android features on set-top-boxes.
It would be really nice to hear from Google what their strategy is for Android on HDTVs as well as for licencing Youtube HD access to cheap sub-$100 set-top-boxes that are based on Sigma Designs or Realtec processors, that come with Ethernet ports and which are powerful enough to stream 720p 2mbit/s or 1080p 4mbit/s from Youtube, if only they would provide an API to eventually display overlay advertising on the high bitrate videos or to charge end-users for the bandwidth through micro-payments.
I just bought the CinemaTube BV-5005 which is one of those Realtec based media streamers that should be able to strewam all contents from Youtube in up to HD but for some obscure licencing issues are not yet able to get access to the Youtube API for streaming legally. I will be posting an extensive video-review and an interview filmed at their CeBIT booth one of these next few days.
The service—which runs on TV set-top boxes using elements of Google’s Android operating system—allows users to search content from Dish as well as other Web video, like YouTube, and to personalize a lineup of shows, according to these people.
Viewers can search by typing on a keyboard, instead of using a remote control. Google hopes to link the service up with its nascent TV ad-brokering business, allowing it to target ads to individual households based on viewing and TV search data.
When I checked the Hivision stand on the 2nd of March, they told me someone had stolen several of their devices including their 7″ Android tablet. Luckilly, JKKmobile.com went by their booth the day before the official opening of the trade show to film this video:
New Mio Moov with capacitive multi-touch 3G ARM11 Tegra1 powered GPS navigation device, with a keyboard connected to the leather case, with an interface built on top of Windows CE.
Freescale is showing their reference design for sub-$200 tablets. The target is that tablets can soon be sold below $200 to end consumers that are able to run any Linux-based OS, including Android or Chromium OS – based on the open-source code available at http://chromium.org
In this video, Freescale’s product manager of Software Development demonstrates the status of their optimizations of running Chromium OS on their i.MX51 based devices, among other form factors is the recently announced $199 tablet form factor. It even supports hardware acceleration of HTML5 based video playback.
This means, full power Chromium OS could be made available in the next few months in Laptop and Tablet form factors to be sold well below $200 unlocked without contracts. The main question is how fast and how smooth will the Chromium Browser feel on ARM Powered devices? This is to be seen and tested very soon! Follow my video-blog for hands-on reports showing performance of Chromium OS running on all the ARM Powered devices very soon. Check also for Chrome browser running within Android, or for Chromium OS modified to add Android apps support, thus merging the two.
I also wonder, how much more does a $65 ARM Powered laptop cost if it uses an ARM Cortex A8 processor like the ones from Freescale instead of the ARM9 or ARM11 based ones from rockchip, VIA, Samsung and others. If the price increase is within $35, then welcome will be all the sub-$100 full power smooth ARM Powered Chromium OS laptops and tablets! Without actually knowing the real price difference between the ARM9, ARM11 and ARM Cortex based cheap laptops, my guess is that the availability of sub-$200 and sub-$100 Chromium/Android Laptops/Tablets is a possibility.
How soon will we see Google sell unlocked Chromium/Android on ARM powered laptop/tablet/e-reader convertibles with 50-hour battery life on Pixel Qi screens at http://google.com/laptop?
ARM is presenting this hardware based secure payments and authentication system which all future mobile devices may be shipping with. The functionalities of those calculators that people use for their netbanking can thus be integrated in the future mobile phones, to let people do secure payments and authentication using a simple 4 number pin code on their mobile phone. The way they do it is that they guide the keyboard entries directly into a separate secure encrypted OS that functions separately from Android to do the secure authentication that then sends back the certificate (or how it’s called) back to the web based application. This kind of system, I would guess, could also be integrated in laptops, or you could use your phone to authenticate yourself on any website very securely using any computer.
Creative is working on these Creative Zii Egg products based on their ARM based processor. Creative is also working on an ARM Cortex A8 based processor for their next generation of these products.
Firstview Electronic HK Limited is showing the PC706V which may be one of the worlds cheapest laptops, it runs Android on a low cost and low power VIA 8505 ARM based 533Mhz processor, with 128MB RAM, 2GB Nand flash, 7″ 800×480 screen, WiFi, SD card reader Nand flash, 7″ 800×480 screen, WiFi, SD card reader 3G dongle support. It’s supposed to run 4 hours on a 2100mah battery, it loads websites slower than a more expensive computer, but it can be made for only $65 in the Chinese factories when ordered by big resellers in large quantities.
Liquavista is demonstrating a new type of screen technology which could provide very low power black and white and color screens based on the LCD manufacturing process, though where the screen refresh rates can be automatically turned down below 1hz. Together with Pixel Qi http://138.2.152.197/2010/01/08/charbax-tests-pixel-qi-at-ces-2010/ or as an alternative, this type of LCD screen technology will enable all Tablets and Laptops to also become full e-readers and could in theory have 50-100 hours battery runtime or longer.
Interview with Oleg Naumenko, General Manager of PocketBook about the new PocketBook 601 (cheap Freescale based), about 302/602 (resistive touch) and 603 (wacom touch) e-readers.
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