Linux 4.10 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 4.10: So there it is, the final 4.10 release. It’s been quiet since rc8, but we did end up fixing several small issues, so the extra week was all good. On the whole, 4.10 didn’t end up as small as it initially looked. After the huge release that was 4.9, I expected things to be pretty quiet, but it ended up very much a fairly average release by modern kernel standards. So we have about 13,000 commits (not counting merges – that would be another 1200+ commits if you count those). The work is all over, obviously – the shortlog below is just the changes in the last week, since rc8. Go out and verify that it’s all good, and I’ll obviously start pulling stuff for 4.11 on Monday. Linus Linux 4.9 added Greybus staging support, improved security thanks to virtually mapped kernel stacks, […]

Fairphone 2 “Ethical” Smartphone Gets a Ubuntu Port

Fairphone aims to “create positive social and environmental impact from the beginning to the end of a phone’s life cycle”by designing easy to repair and long lasting phones that can be recycled and reused, and manufactured in good working conditions using conflicts-free materials. Their latest model is the Fairphone 2  5” Android 5.1 smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, but you can now install Ubuntu on the device as UBports Ubuntu community has released a port for the phone. Let’s go through Fairphone 2 hardware specifications first: SoC- Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AB) quad core Krait 400 processor @ up to 2.26 GHz with Adreno 330 GPU System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot with support for SDHC, SDXC, UHS cards Display – 5″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) LCD TFT IPS touchscreen display with Gorilla Glass 3 Cellular Connectivity 2x micro […]

LG Watch Style and Watch Sport Smartwatches Launched with Android Wear 2.0

Google released an Android Wear 2.0 developer preview  last May at Google I/O 2016, with the new operating system now supporting standalone apps and keyboard and handwriting input method, featuring a new user interface with material design support, integrating Google Fit & Google Assistant support, and supporting many of the features available in Android 7.0 Nougat like data saver, and emojis. The first two devices running the latest Android Wear 2.0 will be LG Watch Style and Watch Sport smartwatches. LG Android Wear 2.0 watches specifications can be found in the table below (Source: XDA) LG Watch Style LG Watch Sport (W280A) Display 1.2″ 360×360 P-OLED (Gorilla Glass 3) 1.38″ 480×480 P-OLED (Gorilla Glass 3) Processor Snapdragon Wear 2100  @ 1.1GHz RAM 512MB 768MB Storage 4GB Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, LTE, NFC, GPS Sensors Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, Gyro sensor Heart Rate Sensor (PPG), Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Barometer […]

Emdoor EM-QL8170 is One of the First LTE Tablets Designed Thanks to Allwinner & Qualcomm Partnership

Allwinner and Qualcomm announced a partnership last year to help Chinese manufacturers design entry-level LTE tablets based on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, and Allwinner collaborated with Emdoor one several designs including EM-QL8170 LTE tablet with a Snapdragon 210 processor and a 6.98″ display. Emdoor EM-QL8170 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 (MSM8909) quad core Cortex A7 processor up to 1.3 GHz with Adreno 304 GPU @ 400 MHz System Memory – 1 or 2 GB DDR3L Storage – 8 or 16 GB flash + micro SD slot Display – 6.98″ IPS touchscreen display with 1280×720 resolution Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, and GPS Cellular Connectivity – LTE Cat 4 with 2x micro SIM card slots Camera – 2.0MP front-facing camera, 8.0MP rear camera Audio – 1x microphone, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, likely some speaker somewhere… USB – 1x micro USB port Battery – 2850 mAh battery Dimensions – 189.7 […]

Inforce 6309L Board is Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E Processor with 10-year Availability

Inforce Computing launched 6309 micro single board computer powered by Snapdragon 410 processor, and compatible with 96Boards Dragon 410c board, a little over a year ago. The company has sent a newsletter promoting the launch of cost-down version with long term support equipped with Snapdragon 410E processor, and named Inforce 6309L. Comparison table between Inforce 6309L board and DragonBoard 410C provided by the company: Inforce 6309L Dragonboard 410C SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor with Adreno 306 GPU Dimensions 54mm x 85mm Memory Storage 1GB LPDDR3 8GB eMMC Micro SD Connectivity Wi-Fi/BT/GPS Video 1080p HD video 720p HEVC playback Camera Dual cameras 13MP on MIPI-CSI Interfaces Micro USB, USB, Micro HDMI, MIPI-CSI, expansion header Micro USB, USB, HDMI, expansion header Operating System Android Lollipop 5.1 Linux (Debian) Win10 IoT core Both boards are pretty similar, except Inforce 6901L replaced the HDMI port with a mico HDMI […]

Qualcomm’s Alleged “No License, No Chips” Policy Gets it into Trouble with the FTC

Qualcomm is the leader in baseband processors used for cellular communications in smartphones and other products, and one way the company has become a leader is by leveraging its patents, by either forcing customer to first “purchase a license to standard-essential patents, including elevated royalties that the customer must pay when using a competitor’s processor”,  “refusing to license its cellular standard-essential patents to competitors”, or “entering exclusivity dealing arrangements” with companies such as Apple. At least that’s according to a complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US that accuses Qualcomm of maintaining a monopoly and using unfair methods of competition, violating the company’s commitment to license on a FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) basis . The license requirements may explain why smaller companies have a hard time making Qualcomm based products, although this may have  improved with the partnership with Allwinner, and the launch of Qualcomm […]

Crowd-designed ZTE Hawkeye “Project CSX” Smartphone with Eye-Tracking, Adhesive Back Launched on KickStarter

ZTE launched Project CSX last year in order to let anybody submit product ideas and/or vote for the best choices, and after several months, the winning entry was a phone with an adhesive backcover and eye-tracking function to control the phone without hands. The company has now named the phone ZTE Hawkeye launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds for the development and manufacturing of the smartphone. Hawkeye smartphone specifications [Updated on Jan 18 with the released the specs]: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-core processor @ 2.0GHz System Memory – 3GB RAM Storage – 32GB flash memory + micro SD slot up to 256GB Display – 5.5″ FHD (1920 x 1080) Audio – HiFi audio Connectivity – WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, dual SIM card slot Camera – Rear: Dual Lens 13MP + 12MP with optical zoom; front: 8MP USB – 1x USB type C port Sensors – Fingerprint […]

Vapor Cooled ASUS Zenfone AR Smartphone Comes with 8GB RAM, Supports Google DayDream and Tango

ASUS Zenfore AR is an interesting beast, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, it’s the first processor I’ve heard to come with 8GB RAM, and also the first to support both Google DayDream virtual reality, and Google Tango 3D depth sensing camera. On top of that, it’s allegedly cooled by an “advanced vapor cooling system”. Zenfone AR (ZS571KL) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad core processor up to 2.35 GHz with Adreno 530 GPU System Memory – 6 to 8 GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 32, 64, 128 or 256GB UFS 2.0 flash, micro SD/SDCX card slot up to 2TB, 5GB ASUS WebStorage for file, 100GB Google drive for 2 years Display – 5.7″ WQHD (2560×1440) AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 4, 10-finger capacitive touch Camera Tricam system with 23MP autofocus, motion tracking, and depth sensing cameras (Tango) 8MP front-facing camera with autofocus dual LED flash Video – […]