Qualcomm Augmented Reality Challenge Winner: Paparazzi

Qualcomm announced the winner of their augmented reality challenge developed with Qualcomm Augmented Reality Software Development Kit (QCAR SDK): The top prize of $125,000 was awarded to a team of two developers from Lithuania, Paulius Liekis and Arminas Didžiokas for Paparazzi, an interactive augmented reality game where the player becomes a virtual paparazzo and sneaks pictures of a vain celebrity before he gets agitated and attacks the photographer. The second (50,000 USD) and third (25,000 USD) prizes were also awarded to augmented reality games respectively Inch High Stunt Guy by Defiant Development Pty Ltd. (Australia), a game where the player arranges various obstacles to enable a stuntman to successfully jump his motorcycle through a hoop and Danger Copter by Alex Beachum, Jonghwa Kim, Jason Mathias, Kedar Reddy and Evan Sforza (USA), a gaming adventure where the player becomes a helicopter pilot who maneuvers a water-spouting chopper to extinguish fires and […]

Texas Instruments OMAP 5 based on ARM Cortex A15 Core

Texas Instruments announced its new generation of mobile chips OMAP 5 based on the latest ARM core Cortex A15.  Press release excerpt: DALLAS (Feb. 7, 2011) /PRNewswire/ — Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) announced today the next generation of its popular OMAP™ family: the OMAP 5 mobile applications platform, which is positioned to transform how mobile devices, such as Smartphones, tablets and other mobile form factors are used, making them even more valuable in our daily lives. … The 28 nanometer OMAP 5 applications processors carry on the OMAP family tradition of delivering significant increases in performance and functionality, while lowering power consumption compared to their predecessors. Specifically, they offer up to 3x processing performance and five-fold 3D graphics improvement, yet provide a nearly 60 percent average power reduction compared to a sample user experience on the OMAP 4 platform. Additionally, the OMAP 5 platform’s software is designed for […]

Android Honeycomb Toshiba Tablet based on NVidia Tegra 2

Toshiba setup a website for its upcoming “The Toshiba Tablet,” running Android 3.0 on an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor.  It boasts a 10.1″ multi-touch screen with a resolution of 1280×800. It also offers dual cameras (5MP Rear Camera with Auto-focus / 2MP Front Camera), a replaceable battery, a USB, a mini-USB port, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, SD Card, a docking port, HDMI output and a head phone jack. Toshiba Tablet supports up to 720p HD resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio. The screen also boasts an ambient light sensor in order to provide consistency between indoor and outdoor viewing. The Toshiba tablet won’t be available until Q2 2011 according to Toshiba. While we’re all waiting, here’s “The Toshiba Tablet” teaser video. 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 […]

Android Set-top Box: Bonux HZ20A / HZ20B – ZiiLABS Processors

Bonux, a Taiwan company founded in July 2009, announced two Android 2.2 set-top boxes based on ZiiLABS processors: The Bonux HZ20A and HZ20B. If you can remember Bonux also showcased a 50 USD Android STB earlier on. Here are the specs of the two media players: HZ20A HZ20B OS Android 2.2 CPU Ziilabs ZMS-08 ARM Cortex A8 @ 800 MHz Ziilabs ZMS-05 ARM9 @ 400 MHz RAM 512 MB DDR2 256 MB DDR2 NAND Flash 512MB 256MB Wifi 802.11 b/g/n (Via optional external USB Dongle) Adobe Flash Flash 10.1 FlashLite Video Codecs /Formats MPEG-1/MPEG-2/MPG-4(MP4 & MOV)/DivX(4/5)/Motion JPEG/H.264/WMV9/VC1/Real Video (RMVB – VGA Resolution) Audio Codecs MP3/WAV/WMA/AC3/AAC/OOG Max Resolution/Bitrate 1080p 40 Mbps Subtitles SRT/SMI/SUB/SSA File Systems FAT32 / NTFS(Read-Only) They are not using the default Android user interface, but their own customize UI, which can be a good thing on a TV. Their user interface has the usual Videos, Music, Pictures and […]

Setup Citrix XenDesktop for Citrix Receiver

You may have seen the Motorola Atrix 4G at CES 2011 and its ability to run Windows 7 via the Citrix Receiver installed in the smartphone and the laptop dock. This can be interesting  for small and large businesses alike since they could do with one (and more) Citrix server and a phone for each employee without the need for an extra laptop or desktop PC. Citrix does not only support Motorola Atrix 4G and you could install the receiver on your own smartphone or tablet free of charge: Windows Mobile Receiver 11.5 for Windows Mobile BlackBerry Receiver 2.0 for BlackBerry Android Receiver 2.0 for Android iPhone Receiver for iPhone iPad Receiver for iPad Today, I’ll show how to install Citrix XenDesktop (The “server” part of Citrix) in order to run Windows 7 or any other operating systems supported by Citrix. First download Citrix XenDesktop – Express Edition. The file […]

SATA-IO Universal Storage Module (USM) Standard

The Serial ATA International Organization (Sata-IO) announced the Universal Storage Module (USM) standard at CES 2011. This standard mainly defines mechanical characteristics and some electrical specs for hard drives so that they can be connected to devices (PC, laptops, tablets, televisions, media players, set-top boxes…) via a slot without the need to have an extra cable. This also allows a SATA harddisk to be used as a USB harddrive via a standard adapter. Later on this will also support other connection standards such as Firewire. The specifications will only support 2.5″ HDD, not the larger 3.5″.  Those specifications are not publicly available yet (Target: 1H 2011) since they are still developing them. In the mean time you can check the FAQ (below) and have a look a the USM presentation slides. Seagate showcased their GoFlex design based on the USM specs where you can see the forum factor of the SATA […]

Digital Signage at CES 2011: HumanKiosk, ng Connect Program and Displays

Digital Signage solutions were also presented at CES 2011. Mediatile HumanKiosk Mediatile showcased its HumanKiosk solution, a digital signage system allowing face to face conversion (customer <-> representative) via 4G/LTE cellular networks at the Verizon Wireless and Alcatel Lucent booths. This system allows potential customers to ask questions about a particular product or service to a (hopefully) knowledgeable person. In case of very specific knowledge (e.g. some banking products), the company providing the products can save money (no need to have such persons in all branches) and provide a better customer service. Here’s a demo below of the HumanKiosk. ng Connect Program Alcatel-Lucent made several announcements about its ng Connect Program and three features are aimed directly at digital signage / dooh applications: Media Hotspot: Alcatel-Lucent, Atlantic Records and MediaTile developed a new jukebox concept that allows consumers to purchase their favorite music, movies and more via their mobile phone […]

Samsung Super Amoled Plus Displays

Samsung further improved their Super AMOLED technology and designed “Super AMOLED Plus” screens with the following characteristics: Easier Reading: Improved screen image (50% more sub-pixels (8 to 12)) Save Power Consumption: Real Black (i.e no energy is used to display black) Slimmer: Reduced panel depth by 14% This new technology will improve contrast and outdoor visibility. Samsung will release 2 smartphones (Samsung Infuse 4G – i997)  using that technology later this year (Q2 2011) with 4.3″ and 4.5″ screens, using 1.2 GHz single core hummingbird processor and running Android 2.3 (gingerbread). 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