Here’s a video about an Android 2.2 Capacitive touchscreen phone based on Mediatek MTK6516 processor. By today’s standard, this processor is not very fast (460 MHz), but its price point allows for very low cost smartphones. The Chinese smartphone in the video below only costs 565 RMB (around 87 USD) retail and features a 3.5″ capacitive touchscreen, GPS and a back camera. It seems to work pretty smoothly.However, it does not support 3G, so you’d only be able to use GPRS for data connections. If you wait a little longer, several sub-100 USD smartphones should be available on the market later this year with performance similar to Google Nexus One with processors such as ST-Ericsson U6715. 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. […]
Android to get 50% of smartphones market share by 2012
A Gartner’s study expects worldwide smartphone sales will reach 468 million units in 2011, a 57.7 percent increase from 2010. By the end of 2011, Android will move to become the most popular operating system (OS) worldwide and will build on its strength to account for 49 percent of the smartphone market by 2012 (Cf. Table 1). Sales of open OS (meaning with SDK, not necessarily open source) devices will account for 26 percent of all mobile handset device sales in 2011, and are expected to surpass the 1 billion mark by 2015, when they will account for 47 percent of the total mobile device market. Gartner also expects the price of Android to dramatically decrease by 2015 with 67 percent of all open OS devices with an average selling price of $300 or below. Here are the projection of smartphones sales by OS until 2015: OS 2010 2011 2012 […]
Phytec Texas Instruments OMAP4430 Computer Module
Phytec announced the first system on module based on Texas Instruments OMAP4430. The phyCORE-OMAP4430 features up to 1GB LPDDR2 DRAM, 1GB NAND Flash, one USB Host, one USB OTG port, Ethernet, I2C Interface, DSI and HDMI video output and consumes a maximum of 3 Watts only. Here are the full specifications of the phyCORE-OMAP4430 computer module: Texas Instruments OMAP4430 @ 1GHz PowerVR SGX540 GPU 56 KB On-chip SRAM and 512 MB (default) or 1 GB LPDDR2 DRAM 128, 256, 512 MB (default) or 1 GB NAND Flash 4 (default) or 32 KB EEPROM 2 SD/SDIO/MMC Expansion slot 4 UARTs, 1 RS232, 3 I2C, 1 I2S and 2 SPI/SSP serial connections. 1 USB Host and 1 USB OTG ports. 10/100 MBit Ethernet 2 x DSI, 1 x HDMI video output ports up to 1080p encode/decode and Touch screen support DVI/HDMI, PWM, Camera, Keypad, JTAG and RTC Dimensions: 41 x 51 mm […]
Hercules eCAFE ARM Cortex A8 Netbooks running Linux
Hercules, a subsidiary of Guillemot Corporation, announced two new eCAFÉ netbooks based on Freescale i.MX515 @ 800 Mhz (ARM Cortex A8) that run a custom Linux distribution and feature a dipswitch for flipping to other user-loaded Linux or Android operating systems: eCAFÉ Slim HD – 229 USD: LED screen: 10.1 inch, 1024*600, high brightness Storage: 8Gb Flash (iNAND), extensible up to 72Gb ARM CortexTM A8 FreescaleTM i.MX515 @ 800 MHz processor RAM: 512 Mb WiFi N technology Battery: 2400 mAh (7.4V) for 4.5 hours’ battery life Comfortable “chiclet” keyboard with flat, separate keys – 88% of a standard keyboard 0.3MP webcam with built-in microphone Connections: 3x USB, 1x Headset, 1x Microphone, 1x LAN RJ45, 1x DC-in 12V, 1x External card reader: SD/MMC/SDHC, 1x Internal card reader: SD/SDHC DIP Switch Weight: 1.9lbs / 0.86 kg eCAFÉ EX HD – 269 USD: LED screen: 10.1 inch, 1024*600, high brightness Storage: 16Gb extensible […]
Firefox 4 for Android and Firefox Mobile for Computer
Mozilla has just released Firefox 4 for Android or Nokia N900 (Maemo) which is available for download at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/mobile/download/ and on the Android Market. Have a look at the video below to see the main features of Firefox 4 Mobile such as multiple tabs, full screen browsing (no menu), panning and zooming, firefox sync to synchronize all your devices, spam filters, add-ons, personas and more. If you do not have an Android device or Nokia N900, you can still test if your mobile website works fine as Mozilla also provides Firefox for mobile to your desktop computer for Windows, MAC OS X and Linux. I’ve try it for Windows XP. There is no installer, after you download the file, simply extract the files in C:\Program Files for example, and then run C:\Program Files\fennec\fennec.exe to start Firefox 4 Mobile on your computer, it will open a 480×800 Window. Fennec is the […]
New Digital Media Processor: Conexant CX92755
Conexant announced a new single-chip media processor for multimedia display products such as digital signage, home automation/security and user interface control. The CX92755 is based on ARM™ Cortex-A8 processor and NEON™ single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) engine with Linux and Android development support. The highly integrated SoC also includes an advanced HD video codec and graphics processor, integrated L1 and L2 cache, a PCI Express™ interface and DDR3 memory, The CX92755 integrates peripheral functions including a Class-D amplifier with speaker and line-out, a microphone input, back-light regulator, power supply controller and touchscreen controller. The SoC also includes an embedded high-performance graphics processor, which supports display list processing, alpha blending, and color key control for advanced user interface operation and display effects. the CX92755 also support the major network connectivity standards such as Wi-Fi®, 3G, Bluetooth® and integrated Ethernet. The SoC also integrates Conexant’s HSSD/Smart DAA® (Direct Access Arrangement) interface, and […]
Archos Gen9 Tablets Coming in June 2011
During the investor conference on 18th March 2011, Archos announced they will release their Gen9 Android Tablets in June 2011 with 4 key differentiators compared to the competition: Plastic-overmolded stainless steel structure: Thinner, lighter and stronger tablet enclosure Better cost-effectiveness than competing solutions Patented techno used since Gen 7 in 2009 ARCHOS alone to use Hard Disks in tablets: Deep redesign of Android ARCHOS has a long experience in using HD’s for mobile devices Price: 250 GB HD = 32 GB Flash Memory ARCHOS 1st to use ARM Dual Core A9 @ 1.6 GHz Forefront competition limited to ARM Dual Core A9 @ 1GHz (iPad 2, Xoom All Gen 9 tablets targeted at 1.6 GHz All Gen 9 tablets targeted at 1.6 GHz New disruptive 3G modem solution for tablets Will allow ARCHOS to make headway into telcos Implemented in all Gen 9 tablets Patent pending Since Archos Gen8 were […]
Tablet Reference Design based on Samsung Exymos 4210
HardKernel, a Korean company, announced the ODROID-A, a tablet reference design based on Samsung Exymos 4210 (codename Orion), dual-core ARM Cortex-A9, Mali-400 GPU, 1GB Low Power DDR2, 10.1 inch 1366 x 768 TFT with capacitive multi-touch, Dual Camera, HSPA evolution, 9-axis sensor and running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. They will update it to Android 3.0 later on. This development kit will be available at the end of March 2011 for 749 USD (800,000 Won) for developers only. This should offer similar performance as the Motorola Xoom (except 3D maybe), and cost less which is a bit surprising for a development platform. They have an online community to support development on this hardware and they’ll provide the full source code and schematics free of charge. ODROID-A Specifications: Processor Samsung Exynos4210 Cortex-A9 Dualcore 1Ghz with 1MB L2 cache Memory 1024MB LP DDR2 800Mega data rate 3D Accelerator Mali-400 MP Core Micro-Sd slot 8GB […]