Qualcomm Showcases Glasses-Free 3D Tablet Powered by SnapDragon S4 Processor

Mobile World Congress 2012 starts today and we should get a flood of announcements today. In the video below, Qualcomm showcases their Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor in a developer tablet showing 4 independnat videos decoded by the 4 cores and a 3D game demo taking advantage of the faster GPU (50% faster than the previous generation). They also showcase the Snapdragon S4 dual-core MDP Tablet with Full High-Definition glasses-free 3D display in WUXGA (1920×1200) resolution. This tablet also has 2 8MP rear camera in order to capture 3D movies and photos. 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

Mozilla Boot to Gecko (B2G) OS Is Coming to Your Smartphone

Mozilla, non-profit organization, well known for its Firefox web browser and Thunderbird mail client has recently moved to the mobile space with Firefox for Android browser for smartphones and tablets. However they intend to go even further by releasing a mobile operating systems named Boot to Gecko (B2G) competing directly with Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Mozilla mobile operating system will use web standards (like Tizen does) and the goal is to displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development (e.g. Android, iOS, WP7).  The OS itself will relies on the Linux kernel and some open source libraries and the B2G applications will be written using HTML5/Javascript/CSS3 standard. Basically, it will boot Linux and use the Gecko engine (like in Firefox) to render application in a way similar to what Google does with Chrome OS. The HTML5-based user interface of B2G is called Gaia and is a collection of web apps. […]

Ziilabs Unveils HanZpad Android 4.0 Tablet Reference Design

ZiiLABS, a subsidiary of Creative Technology,  has announced the HanZpad platform, a tablet reference design based on ZiiLABS ZMS-40 StemCell Media Processor (4 ARM Cortex A9 cores and 96  GPU cores) optimized for Android 4.x (ICS) and a Chinese operating system. The HanZpad platform is built around Ziilabs ZMS-40 processors with four 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPUs and 96-core for the GPU. The ZMS-40 SoC supports H.264 HP decoding of up to 3840×1080 for true 1080p 3D stereo, and 2560×1600 (WQXGA) display resolution support.  The firmware can also be upgraded to support for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) aka H.265 which can increase data compression ratio by up to 2 times compared to H.264. Beyond the ZMS-40 processor, the key features of the tablet are as follows: 10.1-inch, 1,280 x 800-pixels IPS panel 1GB memory micro SDHC slot (up to 64GB) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity 22-hour battery life (~1W power consumption) […]

Renesas Mobile Introduces Dual Core MP5232 SoC for Mid-range LTE Smartphones

Renesas has announced the availability of the MP5232, a dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.5 Ghz single-chip optimized to address the 150-300 USD LTE smartphones market. The MP5232 platform is designed to enable OEMs to accelerate the creation and delivery of high volume LTE/HSPA+ capable smartphones, tablets and mobile Internet devices the industry requires to deliver the full potential of LTE, says the company. Jean-Marie Rolland, CTO and Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Renesas Mobile Corporation explains: “We are seeing a number of US$600+ LTE super phone devices being launched in the market, but the industry needs a wider penetration of LTE devices for the business case for LTE to pay off.” The platform supports multi-camera (up to 20MPixel) and multi-display support, full HD 1080p multi-format video encoding/decoding, stereoscopic 3D (S3D) video and advanced graphics via a PowerVR SGX GPU to deliver a console-like gaming experiences and […]

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) Runs Android 4.0

Samsung has just announced its first Tablet to run Android 4.0 (ICS), the  Galaxy Tab 2. The tablet features a dual core 1GHz processor with a 7″ touchscreen display (resolution 1024×600), 1GB RAM and 8, 16 or 32 GB flash expandable via a microSD Slot.  There are also front and rear (3MPixel) cameras. Here are Samsung GALAXY Tab 2 (7.0) Product Specifications: Network HSPA+ 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100 Processor 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor Display 7” WSVGA(1024×600) PLS TFT OS Android 4.0(ICS) Camera Main(Rear): 3 Megapixel Fixed Focus CameraSub(Front): VGA for Video Call Video Codec: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, VC-1, DivX, WMV7, WMV8, VP8Format: 3GP, ASF, AVI, MP4, WMV, FLV, MKV, WebM Playback/ Recording: Full HD@30fps, HD@30fps Audio Codec: MP3, AAC, AC-3, AMR, FLAC, MID, WMA, WAV, VorbisMusic Player with SoundAlive 3.5mm Ear Jack Value-added Features Samsung TouchWiz/ Samsung L!ve Panel UX  Samsung Apps Samsung Kies / Samsung Kies air Samsung Hub* – Readers Hub/ […]

Trimble Yuma: A Military-Grade Rugged Ubuntu Tablet

SDG Systems announced an Ubuntu version of the Trimble Yuma, a rugged tablet for the industrial and military applications. The company also sells the product with Windows 7. This tablet enables the use of open source geospatial applications such as GRASS or Quantum GIS, as well as other Linux-based applications. The water- and dust-proof tablet  meets the military MIL-STD-810F standard and run Ubuntu 10.04 LTS netbook edition, although the company said other Linux distributions are available on request with a minimum purchase agreement or engineering fee.. Here are the Yuma Trimble specifications: Processor: Intel Atom Z530 1.6 GHz processor Memory: 1 GB DDR2 Storage: 32 GB Solid State Hard Drive Expansion: SDIO memory slot ExpressCard 34mm slot Display: 7″ widescreen 1024×600 WSVGA 650 nit Standard Batteries: Dual hot-swappable Lithium-Ion batteries, 2600 mAmp each Extended Batteries: Dual hot-swappable Lithium-Ion batteries, 5100 mAmp each I/O: USB 2.0 port (x2), 9-pin serial port […]

Penandfree PT- Pen Transforms Your Laptop into A Tablet

Penandfree has unveiled the PT-pen  (Presentation pen) at the 2012 ISE exhibition. The company claims this pen can transform ordinary laptops or netbooks  into touch-screen tablets, replacing the need for both a mouse and keyboard. PT-Pen can be used for capturing handwritten notes,  digital signatures and all sorts of creative sketches. MINT Interactive software is included with the PT-pen and provides access to a full color pallet, a variety of line thicknesses, a virtual keyboard and a handwriting recognition mode. Penandfree explains that PT-pen allows navigation in web browsers and can be used with office software such as Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint as it conforms with Microsoft tablet and standard HID specifications. Mint Interactive Software can be download for Windows XP/Visata/&, MacOS and Linux. For Android Tablet and/or iPad users, Penandfree unveiled the “Legato Smart-Pen”. The PT-pen digitally “inks” a laptop’s LCD using ultrasonic technology.  A magnetized receiver sits at […]

Spark: Linux Tablet with KDE based Plasma Active

This must be the very first Linux tablet available on the market. Spark sports an open Linux stack on unlocked hardware and comes with an open content and services market. The user interface is Plasma Active running on KDE. Here are the technical specifications: CPU: ARM AMLogic (Cortex-A9) @ 1 GHz Mali-400 GPU 512 Mo RAM 7″ multi-touch capacitive touchscreen 4 Go Flash SD card slot WiFi, 3G (GSM), HDMI (1080p), 2 mini-USB ports Battery: 3000 mAh at 7,4 volts or 6000 mAh at 4,7 volts Weight: 355 grams You can see Plasma Active interface in the video below: The tablet will cost 200 Euros (about 270 USD). They did not provide availability, but promised further information on Tuesday. You can learn more about the user interface, getting a binary image and/or getting info to development apps for the platform on Plasma Active website. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in […]

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