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Digital photo frame (DPF) maker Pandigital announced an Android-based tablet that offers integrated access to Barnes & Noble's eBookstore. The $200 Pandigital Novel 7-inch Color Multimedia eReader is equipped with an ARM11 processor, 1GB RAM, a 7-inch, 800 x 600 touchscreen, as well as 802.11n and SD expansion.
Shenzhen, China-based Aoson is now shipping a mobile Internet device (MID) that ships with Android, and can also run Linux 2.4, Mac 9.1, and various flavors of Windows, reports Qianlong.com. The Aoson M500 mini-tablet runs on a 624MHz Marvell PXA303 processor, and offers a five-inch resistive touchscreen, plus 3G, WiFi, and GPS wireless capabilities, says the story.
Seagate announced what it's calling the “world's fastest 2.5-inch laptop PC hard drive,” combining 7200rpm rotating platters with 4GB of solid-state memory. The OS-independent Momentus XT boots up to 100 percent faster than traditional laptop drives, but costs much less than SSDs (solid state disks), the company claims.
Intel announced six new 32nm processors intended for ultra-thin laptops. Topped by the Core i7-660UM, with a clock speed of 1.33GHz and “TurboBoost” frequency of 2.4GHz, the CPUs will be available next month in devices from Acer, Asus, Gateway, and Lenovo, the chipmaker says.
The Puppy Linux project has released version 5.0 of its fast, small-footprint Linux distro, basing it on Ubuntu for the first time. Puppy Linux 5.0 is built from Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx binary packages, offers a new “Quickpet” application suite, introduces a choice of web browsers, and can now boot to the desktop, say the developers.
Atmel announced a microcontroller for capacitive touchscreens that allows operation via gloved hands or styluses, supporting screens up to 15.6 inches. The maXTouch technology uses under 1.8mW in a “touch-ready” state and performs “three times better” than competitive products, the company says.
Adlink announced a rugged, fanless computer that can operate at up to 167 deg. F and has room for two PC/104-Plus expansion cards. The RuffSystem 735 features four serial ports, four USB ports, two Ethernet ports, plus a CompactFlash slot and room for a SATA hard disk drive, the company says.
HP will use the Linux-based WebOS operating system it is acquiring from Palm for smartphones, tablets, and printers, but not in netbooks, say reports from HP's positive earnings call earlier this week. Meanwhile, AT&T has started selling the Palm Pre Plus and will start selling the WebOS-based Pixi Plus phone in June, says eWEEK.
The French firm EviGroup says it is now shipping an Android-based tablet with a five-inch touchscreen. Running on a ARM11-based 667MHz Samsung S3C6410, the $250 “Evi Wallet” offers 256MB RAM, 1GB flash, a microSD slot, and 802.11n WiFi, says the company.
A startup called TheCorpora is readying an open source Linux robot based on a Mini-ITX board with an Intel Atom and an Nvidia Ion GPU. The foot-and-a-half tall Qbo lacks arms or legs, but is mobile, can be controlled via WiFi, and offers stereoscopic face, object, and gesture recognition, plus speech synthesis and voice recognition.
Avalue announced a Mini-ITX motherboard that uses AMD's RS780E chipset and supports low-power AM3 socket processors, including the Phenom II XLT Q54L and Athlon II XL CPUs. The EMX-780E is equipped with up to 4GB DDR2 memory, dual gigabit Ethernet ports, USB and serial I/O, and PCIe expansion, and consumes 7 to 15 Watts, claims the company.
Google announced an Android and Chrome browser-based IPTV platform today that will offer integrated search for content across TV, DVR, and the web. Initially optimized for the Dish Network, Google TV will arrive in set-tops and TVs later this year from Sony and Logitech, based on Intel's Atom-based CE4100 SoC, says Google.
[Updated, 11:00 a.m.] — As expected, Android 2.2 (“Froyo”) was announced at this morning's Google I/O conference in San Francisco. Touted as including the “world's fastest mobile browser,” the upgrade will include USB tethering with WiFi hotspot support, stream music from home PCs, and offer an improved online marketplace, the company says.
The Linux Foundation (LF) announced that it has accepted the Open Source Automation Development Lab (OSADL) as a new Silver member of the non-profit organization. OSADL, which oversees the development of “Latest Stable” industrial real-time Linux kernel versions, among other projects, will collaborate with LF members on embedded and industrial Linux efforts.
Mentor Graphics has agreed to develop Linux software for NetLogic Microsystems' MIPS-based processors, targeting next-generation Internet networks. Mentor Graphics' Embedded Software Division will provide Linux development software for NetLogic's XLP, XLR, and XLS multicore, multithreaded system-on-chips (SoCs), say the partners.