Intel or ARM NoteBook? Lenovo Says Both

Lenovo has announced the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid notebook which features an Intel Core processor (i3, i5, or i7 depending on the model) AND a Qualcomm Dual core ARM processor, allegedly a Qualcomm APQ8060 and runs both Windows 7 and a custom version of Linux. My first reaction when I read the news was: “What a stupid idea!” :~/ The ThinkPad X1 Hybrid has 13.3″ HD display with 1366×768 resolution and built with Gorilla Glass. The laptop also features an HD webcam, a fingerprint reader, an encrypted hard disk drive, an HDMI port, USB ports, and Intel’s Wireless Display (WiDi) technology. RapidCharge technology charges to 80% capacity in 30 minutes, i.e. approximately the time it takes to take a shower and cook an egg… (Not my idea, see promo video below). The only thing that can possibly justify having two different processors on the machine is the Instant Media Mode (IMM) […]

BiKN Technology Platform: 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Network

NXP and Treehouse Labs has unveiled BiKN technology platform that uses low-power 802.15.4 wireless chip technology from NXP Semiconductors to enable the “Internet of Things”  and opens new markets and applications for affordable wireless sensor and control networks. This technology allows to track “Smart Objects” tagged by wireless sensors and monitor (and possibly control) them via an application running on mobile devices, PC or Cloud servers. BiKN Technology Platform can be used in a range of applications including home and industrial automation, smart energy management, improving tracking and monitoring of equipment and inventory in retailing and hospitality, enhancing safety monitoring and security in healthcare, social services, athletics and educational environments. BiKN Technology Platform works by integrating hardware and software, operating through mobile and web-enabled devices, and leveraging IEEE802.15.4 low-power networking standards. Treehouse Labs uses the NXP JN5148 ultra low-power wireless microcontroller and the JenNet-IP open source wireless network protocol stack […]

Video Demo of XMBC on Raspberry Pi

XMBC is a free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. Some people are currently working on porting it to the Raspberry Pi board. They posted a video demo on their forum and I uploaded the video to YouTube for those interested in seeing the progress. The video just shows XMBC booting, then accessing the menu and showing the Videocore GPU is detected. This is still work in progress, but it looks promising. 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

Myriad Alien Vue Brings Android to Your TV

Myriad Group, a company based in  Switzerland,  brings Android (and a Google TV alternative) to non-Android platforms through its Alien Davlik technology, called Myriad Alien Vue. Alien Vue is a solution that enables TV service providers to add apps to their existing managed service offerings, in order to respond to over-the-top (OTT) content distribution channels from Apple, Google and others. It is compatible with apps developed using HTML5 and most Google TV apps such as YouTube, Netflix and Twitter apps. The release includes an app store developed in conjunction with AppCarousel that can be fully be customized / branded by service providers. Myriad Alien Vue also supports additional plug-in components like Myriad Connect & Share, providing multi-screen functionality for personal and premium content. Alien Vue allows to leverage existing TV and set-top box equipment and works with mobile phones and tablets to give users control over their TV experience. Alien […]

Android 4.0 Source Code For MIPS is Now Available

In the last few weeks, MIPS has already released the Linux Kernel for MIPS Android and shown us a low cost (99 USD) Android ICS Tablet. Today, they announced the official release of MIPS Android 4.0 source code. The latest version of Android 4.0 is “mr0″ and you can read the release notes for further details. Before downloading the Android source code be sure that you have a correctly setup Linux workstation. Now, here are the instructions to checkout MIPS Android 4.0:

The first time you run the repo sync it will download several gigabytes of source code to your machine so be patient and it may take a few hours.  Once the download is completed future updates may take only a few minutes since only the code changes are downloaded. If you just want to have a look, All MIPS Android source code can also be viewed online at http://www.github.com/mips. […]

99 USD MIPS Android 4.0 Tablet Hands-on Video

Following the announcement of the 99 dollars Ainol Novo 7 Android ICS last week, MIPS’s Amit Rohatgi, Mobile Principal Architect at MIPS released a longer demo video of the device, showcasing the following: Angry Bird Game with framerate around 50 FPS. Kindle Reader Web Browser Rear & Front Camera Photo Gallery (transition are a little sluggish) Email (Exchange account) 1080p video playback both an the device and mirroring on HDTV via an HDMI cable He also explain that on of this friends could watch 3 full-length movies on a battery charge. 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

Qt Quick QML Digital Signage Demo Part 2

Following up on Qt Quick QML Digital Signage Demo Part 1, I’ve updated the digital signage demo to support the following: Play 5 videos in a loop Display 5 pictures in a loop where the picture is changed every 5 seconds Use a (twitter) RSS feed for the scrolling text I initially planned to use QML to list the media files, but it is apparently not possible without using C/C++ and I may do it later on. So instead, I hard-coded the video and picture playlists in the QML files with the ListModel element. Videos are located in the video directory and pictures in the pic folder. An index is needed to scroll thru the playlist, but QML does not support global variables, so I created a JavaScript file (globals.js) to store the video and picture index: // Global variables in JavaScript file var iVideoIndex = 0 var iPicIndex = […]

Renault R-Link In-Vehicle Infotainment System

During LeWeb 11 exhibition, Renault announced the R-Link, a 7″ touchscreen tablet that will equip Renault’s cars starting with the Zoe Electric car and the new Clio (Clio 4) in 2012 for a cost of between 500 to 1000 Euros. The R-Link features a 7″ resistive touchscreen display and comes with steering wheel-mounted controls and speech recognition to make sure the driver keeps an eye on the road. This tablet is said to be running a modified version version of Android 2.2 on a Texas Instruments ARM Cortex A8 processor clocked at 800 Mhz. Renault says the R-Link covers all the car’s functions and data while offering access to a menu of useful and community applications already available on Smartphone such as Tom Tom GPS, Emails, an application finding available parking (Apila),  public transport routes (Metro), multimedia applications to play music & video and display picture… At the time of its […]

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