Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet Powered by TI OMAP4 Processor

Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet Powered by TI OMAP4 Processor

Amazon unveiled its first Android tablet yesterday called the Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire seems to have similar hardware specifications as the RIM PlayBook. The Amazon tablet is powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP 4 dual core processor, features a 7″ capacitive touchscreen, using IPS (in-plane switching display) technology with 1024×600 resolution,  8GB of flash storage, WiFi support, a Micro-USB port, top-mounted stereo speakers and a stereo headphone jack. The Kindle Fire apparently lacks a microSD or SD slot, does not support 3G and does not have camera. It measures 191 x 119 x 11 millimeters and weighs 413.9 grams. When Wi-Fi is disabled, the battery will last for up to eight hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback. The good news is that it will be sold for 199 USD.  It’s 100 USD cheaper than the (already cheap) Archos 80 G9 with a similar hardware, although […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Android 2.3 Coming to Sony Ericsson Xperia Devices

Android 2.3 Coming to Sony Ericsson Xperia Devices

CyanogenMod has announced that they would work with FreeXperia and support the following devices in the next release of CyanogenMod: Xperia Arc Xperia Neo Xperia Mini Xperia Mini Pro Xperia Play Xperia Ray Xperia X10 Xperia X8 Xperia X10 Mini Xperia X10 Mini Pro Cyanogen (Steve Kondik) also mentionned that FreeXperia is now part of CyanogenMod development team. Back in January, I’d already posted that it was possible to install a hacked version of Android 2.2 on Xperia X10. You can follow Xperia X10 Development on CM7.1 on XDA form and obtain the source code on github. ROMs based on CyanogenMod 7 for Xperia X8 and Xperia X10 Mini are available at http://code.google.com/p/minicm/

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Qualcomm APQ8060 Android Development Board BSQUARE DragonBoard

Qualcomm APQ8060 Android Development Board BSQUARE DragonBoard

BSQUARE announced the DragonBoard a development board built around Qualcomm APQ8060 mainly targeted at Android 2.3 development. Here’s an excerpt of the press release: BSQUARE Corporation, a leading enabler of smart, connected devices, today announced general availability of DragonBoard™, an Android™ development platform based on Qualcomm Incorporated’s Snapdragon™ APQ8060 processor. DragonBoard provides device makers, application developers and other hardware and software ecosystem suppliers with early access to the APQ8060 processor in a flexible development environment. DragonBoard is a powerful, feature-rich development board that offers exposed connectors, adapters and expansion headers including JTAG, Ethernet and mini USB. These features provide deep levels of development, testing and expansion that allow OEMs to do early prototyping of APQ8060 based systems, component suppliers to integrate devices with the APQ8060 processor and Android application developers to create innovative applications for the growing open source development community. When combined with BSQUARE products and services, DragonBoard enables […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on CraneBoard: Low Cost Development Board based on TI AM3517

CraneBoard: Low Cost Development Board based on TI AM3517

The CraneBoard is a low-cost, open-source hardware development platform based on the AM3517 Sitara ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessor. The CraneBoard was announced in December 2010, can be purchased for 199 USD and can be an alternative to the Beagleboard-xM. AM3517 is especially suited to industrial applications and would be a preferable platform if your project needs CAN or PoE support. The board has less RAM (256 MB vs. 512MB) and no camera port. Here are the features and specifications of the board (I highlighted the differences with Beagleboard-xM in green): AM3517 Sitara ARM Cortex-A8 – 600MHz Integrated 3D Graphics Accelerator RAM: 256 MB NAND Flash: 256MB Support for on-chip peripherals: 10/100 EMAC USB OTG utilizing on-processor PHY 3.3V I/O CAN Bus DDR2 Power over Ethernet and other power options including USB and DC MMC/SD Card Support Fully open-source four-layer PCB Fully Open Source Linux Board Support package (2.6.32) Based on existing […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on New Remote Technologies to Control Smart TVs

New Remote Technologies to Control Smart TVs

With Internet-connected flat TVs and set-top boxes, we can now use browse the web and play games. But the traditional remote is not up to the task and new solutions are needed to interact with smart TVs and internet STB such as gesture recognition,  wii-like remotes and tablet/smartphone control. A few companies showcased their solutions at IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) 2011, which took place between the 9th and 13th of September 2011 in Amsterdam: PrimeSense Gesture Recognition PrimeSense, an Israel-based company known for its range image sensor embedded in the “Kinect” motion-based controller for Xbox, began to promote the sales of its range image sensors to TV and STB makers.  PrimeSense ran a prototyped UI software on a notebook PC and controlled the UI by using a gesture recognition device connected to a PC. The UI can be operated by moving a hand. You can then control TV screen like […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Summary of Google Devfest 2011 Chiang Mai, Thailand

Summary of Google Devfest 2011 Chiang Mai, Thailand

I attended Google Devfest 2011 in Chiang Mai, Thailand last Saturday (24 September 2011) . This was really interesting and enlightening. So if are a developer, I really recommend to register to a Devfest if Google comes to your city. I was relatively surprised by the number of attendees which I estimate between 150 to 200. This Devfest focused on three main subjects: Android HTML5 (and Chrome) Google Analytics Please find the complete schedule below: Track 1 Track 2 09:00 – 09:30 Keynote 09:30 – 10:30 Android Market for Developers (Ankur Kotwal) 10:30 – 11:00 AM Break 11:00 – 12:00 Bleeding Edge HTML5 (Eric Bidelman) 12:00 – 13:00 Implementing Google Analytics (Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar) 13:00 – 14:00 Lunch 14:00 – 15:00 What’s New and Important in Android (Ankur Kotwal) Displaying Large Geographic Datasets: Google Fusion Tables (Luke Mahe) 15:00 – 16:00 These Aren’t the Site You’re Looking For: Modern HTML5 Web Apps (Eric Bidelman) Working Off the Grid: HTML5 Offline (Ernest Delgado) 16:00 – 16:30 PM Break 16:30 – 17:30 Insights […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 51 Comments on Beagleboard Emulator in Ubuntu with Qemu

Beagleboard Emulator in Ubuntu with Qemu

If you just want to try a program on Beagleboard, but do not want (or have the means) to purchase a board, you may be able to use qemu to emulate the Beagleboard or BeableBoard-xM. I’ll details the instructions to run the Nano build (minimal kernel) and the ARM Linux Internet Platform (ALIP) distribution for Beagleboard on qemu. Please read the full post before starting the installation before there are currently some issues such as no Ethernet support. First, install or update linaro-media-create: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linaro-maintainers/tools sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install linaro-image-tools Then download the nano image and omap3 hardware pack: wget http://releases.linaro.org/platform/linaro-n/nano/11.08/nano-n-tar-20110823-1.tar.gz wget http://releases.linaro.org/platform/linaro-n/nano/11.08/hwpack_linaro-omap3_20110823-0_armel_supported.tar.gz Generate the image for qemu: sudo linaro-media-create –image_file beagle_sd.img –dev beagle –binary nano-n-tar-20110823-1.tar.gz –hwpack hwpack_linaro-omap3_20110823-0_armel_supported.tar.gz If you don’t have it already, get the latest qemu-linaro package from Linaro Maintainers PPA: sudo apt-get install qemu-system Check the version is correct: qemu-system-arm -version QEMU emulator version […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products