Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Android Tablet

On September 1, at the IFA 2011 in Berlin, Samsung unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet powered by a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, probably Samsung Exynos Cortex-A9 processor used in Samsung Galaxy S2. Nobody could have guessed but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 actually features a 7.7″ touchscreen display using Super AMOLED Plus technology (as in Samsung Galaxy S2 smartphone), at first for a screen of this size. The resolution is 1280×800 (WXGA). It is almost as thin as Toshiba AT200 tablet with a thickness of 7.89 mm (vs 7.7 mm) and weights only 335 grams. Here are the specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7: Display: 7.7″ 1280×800 (WXGA) Super AMOLED Plus Processor: 1.4 Ghz Dual Core application processor Network: LTE & HSPA + 21Mbps | Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n Memory: 16/32/64 GB movi NAND + microSD 9up to 32 GB) Cameras: 3MP AF LED (Main) + 2 MB FF […]

Drawing Charts in Android with AChartEngine Library

AChartEngine is a charting library for Android applications that currently supports the following chart types: line chart area chart scatter chart time chart bar chart pie chart bubble chart doughnut chart range (high-low) bar chart dial chart / gauge combined (any combination of line, cubic line, scatter, bar, range bar, bubble) chart cubic line chart They announced that new chart types would be added in future release (Current version is 0.7.0). You can follow the updates for the library on Google Code or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/achartengine. You can download the aChartEngine library on Google Code. You can also download some demo code such as TemperatureChart.java which display the following chart with just 100 lines of code including comments. Here’s the code (TemperatureChart.java) to display the Chart above:

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and […]

Toshiba STB Stor-E TV Pro powered by Rockchip RK2918

IFA 2011 will officially start today (2nd of September) in Berlin until the 7th of September. But Toshiba has already showcased some of its products including the media player Toshiba STOR.E TV PRO powered by Rockchip RK2918 processors (ARM Cortex A8). This media player will allow any television with an HDMI port to have all the features of recent smart televisions. The STOR.E TV PRO has one HDMI output (1080p), 3 USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, Wifi support, Bluetooth support (for the remote), a USB device port and a 2-in-1 card reader. Both sides of the remote can be used, there is a “dumb” side (my words) with 2 buttons and the arrow keys and the other side features a full keyboard. The set-top box will have the usual features such as video playback, picture display, music playback and web browser (based on webkit) with Adobe Flash Plugin 10.2 […]

Toshiba AT200: OMAP4430 Honeycomb Tablet.

Toshiba also announced the Toshiba AT200, a 10″ Android 3.2 Tablet powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP4430 @ 1.2 GHz at IFA 2011.  At 7.7mm thick, it is said to be the thinnest tablet in the world. It feature an IPS (In-plane switching) screen for better viewing angle and color reproduction and  7 to 11 hours battery life is expected for normal usage. Here are Toshiba AT200 specifications: Processor:  Texas Instruments OMAP4430 @ 1.2GHz. Memory: 1GB of RAM and up to 64GB of flash storage. Display: 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. Cameras: 5 MP (rear) and 2 MP (front). Expansion: microSD slot. Networking: WiFi (802.11b/g/n) Bluetooth Other I/O: micro-USB micro-HDMI docking connector Battery: 7 to 11 hours of operation. Dimensions : 256 x 176 x 7.7 mm Weight: 558g They only have prototypes of the device for now, and will only sell it in Q4 2011 […]

Meet the Wifi SD Card: Toshiba FlashAir

Toshiba is currently showcasing the Toshiba AirFlash – a new Wifi-Enabled SDHC card – at IFA 2011 in Berlin (2-7 September 2011) The card features an embedded wireless LAN chip that allows it to both transmit and receive files wirelessly. The FlashAir is reportedly the world’s first SDHC memory card with embedded wireless LAN functionality to meet the SD Memory Card Standard. Previously other SD cards such as Eye-Fi allowed Wi-fi connectivity, but the Eye-Fi could only transmit files from a camera directly to another Wifi device, the FlashAir can receive and transfer by using point to point connection and a router is not needed. The FlashAir can be fully configured thanks to a configuration file located in the SD Card, so that you can select the IP of the SD Card, the wifi security settings such as WEP, WPA, WPA2… and more. The Toshiba FlashAir will be sampled starting […]

Freescale i.MX6 in Tablet PC by First International Computer (FIC)

Back in January 2011, Freescale announced the availability of its new i.MX 6 Processor series based on Cortex A9 with sample delivery at the end of 2011. Freescale has now revealed that First International Computer (FIC) – 大眾電腦 – a Taiwanese company –  has adopted Freescale Semiconductor’s i.MX 6 series microprocessors for use in tablet PCs at the 2011 Freescale Technology Forum China on August 30. FIC will use Freescale’s i.MX 6 MPUs in its new line of tablet PCs with a price target sub-200 USD in order to differentiate itself from major competitors. The Freescale i.MX 6 is based on the ARM Cortex-A9 architecture running at up to 1.2 GHz and come in single core (i.MX6 Solo), dual core (i.MX6 Dual) and quad Core I.MX6 Quad). Currently there are no further information on the FIC tablet specifications.   Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time […]

NFC (Near Field Communication) Infographic

NFC rumors has designed a massive NFC Infographic to show (some of) the many different usages of NFC and the impacts NFC may have such as: NFC Services in hotels, taxis, ticket offices… NFC gadgets: routers, wireless speakers, headphones… NFC Marketing: tags, business cards, smart posters… 1/5 of smartphones will be NFC-enabled by 2014 NFC may have a positive environmental impact as it decreases the number of paper receipts. NFC Business Case: Exponential growth expected in the next few years NFC in tablets NFC and social network NFC would allow unbanked consumers in developing countries to use electronic payment more easily. etc.. See the infographic below. Click for a larger image. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011. www.cnx-software.com

Android NDK revision 6b

Google has just released Android Native Development Kit Revision 6b, the Android SDK that allows developers to reuse C/C++ code. It is a bug fix version without new feature compared to Revision 6. Here’s the Changelog of the most important bug fixes: Fixed the build when APP_ABI=”armeabi x86″ is used for multi-architecture builds. Fixed the location of prebuilt STLport binaries in the NDK release package. A bug in the packaging script placed them in the wrong location. Fixed atexit() usage in shared libraries with the x86standalone toolchain. Fixed make-standalone-toolchain.sh –arch=x86. It used to fail to copy the proper GNU libstdc++ binaries to the right location. Fixed the standalone toolchain linker warnings about missing the definition and size for the __dso_handle symbol (ARM only). Fixed the inclusion order of $(SYSROOT)/usr/include for x86 builds. See the bug for more information. Fixed the definitions of ptrdiff_t and size_t in x86-specific systems when they […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design