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Driven by smartphone sales, the mobile phone market rebounded with 21.7 percent year-to-year growth in the first quarter of 2010, IDC says. Meanwhile, as of April 1 Android was available on 34 different devices from 12 manufacturers, with Android ad-view traffic growing at a 32 percent rate over the last year, says AdMob.
LynuxWorks announced version 4.0 of its Linux-compatible LynxSecure separation kernel and hypervisor, adding support for Intel Core i7 and i5 processors and SMP mode. LynuxWorks is also working with Portwell on a LynxSecure-based proof-of-concept wireless sensor platform for hospitals based on Portwell's WADE-8067 Mini-ITX board, says the company.
Sweden telecom software firm Enea released improved first-quarter financials this week, also announcing a variety of industry partnerships on multicore technology. Enea's new collaborations include multicore-related initiatives with Freescale and Netlogic Microsystems, the latter involving a joint Linux SDK for Netlogic's MIPS-based XLP, XLR, and XLS processors, according to Enea.
Pixel Qi claims its power-saving, transflective LCDs are finally on sale in “specialized products,” and will be more widely available soon. The displays work in both color and monochrome e-paper modes, and are said to require less than half the power of an ordinary display.
[Updated: 2PM] — The Canonical-backed Ubuntu project today released final Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop, Server, and Netbook Editions of its popular Linux distro. Code-named “Lucid Lynx,” Ubuntu 10.04 features faster boot times, a new MeMenu social networking interface, the GNOME 2.3 desktop, and greater integration with the Ubuntu One cloud service, including a music store.
Texas Instruments (TI) announced Linux kernel support for its TMS320C64x multi-DSP core system-on-chips (SoCs). Code Sourcery, Enea, Nash Technologies, and PolyCore have signed up to support the Linux port with, respectively, multi-core ready compiling and debugging tools, telecom middleware, inter-processor communications and LTE support, and MCAPI framework code, respectively, TI says.
Long-suffering smartphone maker Palm finally may have found a financial savior. Hewlett-Packard, the world's second-largest IT systems provider, announced in a teleconference that it has agreed to purchase the struggling smartphone maker for $1.2 billion in cash on hand, or about $5.70 per share.
Via announced two panel PCs featuring 1.3GHz Nano processors, up to 2GB of RAM, hard disk or CompactFlash storage, stereo speakers, and two-megapixel cameras. The Vipro VP7815 has a 15-inch touchscreen with 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, while the Vipro VP7806 has a 6.5-inch touchscreen with 640 x 480 resolution, the company says.
Diamond Systems announced a SUMIT-ISM adapter board and a digital I/O module compatible with the recently minted FeaturePak expansion standard. The SUMIT/FP adapter lets FeaturePak modules work with systems providing SUMIT-ISM expansion, while the FP-GPIO96 offers 96 buffered digital I/O lines, the company says.
Adlink announced two rugged “740”-branded single board computers (SBCs) based on Intel's “Pineview” Atom processors. The CoreModule 740 is a PC/104-Plus board equipped with the Atom N450, while the ReadyBoard 740 is an EPIC-format SBC that uses either a dual-core D510 or single-core D410 Atom, plus a Broadcom Crystal HD H.264 video decoder.
Mozilla has released a pre-alpha version of its Mobile Firefox (code-named “Fennec”) web browser for Android 2.1. Meanwhile, Google's VP of engineering Andy Rubin told The New York Times that Adobe Flash will be available on Android 2.2 (“Froyo”) later this year, and that Android will inevitably surpass the BlackBerry and the iPhone.
Microsoft and HTC have signed a patent agreement protecting the handset maker from Microsoft patent lawsuits over its industry-leading Android smartphones. HTC will have to pay royalties to Microsoft, which for the first time is enforcing its alleged Linux-related patents on an Android-based product, but the agreement could help it defend against a lawsuit from Apple.
Advantech announced a fanless industrial computer that supports Intel Core i7 or i5 CPUs. Sporting six programmable function keys on its front panel, he ARK-3440 has two 2.5-inch drive bays, two gigabit Ethernet ports, four expansion slots, and six USB 2.0 ports, the company says.
Six Japanese technology firms have announced they are developing a new application platform for mobile phones that will be compatible with Linux, Symbian, and possibly Android. Developed by NTT DoCoMo, Renesas, Fujitsu, NEC, Panasonic, and Sharp, the unnamed, multimedia-focused mobile platform is scheduled for arrival in phones in early 2012, say the partners.
Shenzhen-based Eken announced a seven-inch tablet computer that runs either Android or Windows CE 6.0. The M001 has a 600MHz ARM-based processor, 128MB of RAM and 2GB of flash storage, an SD slot, stereo speakers, and 802.11b/g wireless networking, the company says.