Long-time Texas Instruments (TI) hardware partner Mistral Solutions announced an open-platform development board based on TI's industrial focused, Cortex-A8-based AM35x Sitara system-on-chips (SoCs). Supported by a CraneBoard.org community site and a Linux BSP (board support package), the 5.5 x 4.5-inch CraneBoard combines the 600MHz AM3517 with features including Power over Ethernet (PoE) and CAN bus interfaces, says the company.

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Google's Samsung-built Nexus S smartphone began shipping today for $200 with a two-year T-Mobile contract or $530 unlocked, officially launching the Android 2.3 (“Gingerbread”) era. According to this review, it's the best Android phone on T-Mobile, and — while the cameras need work — the beautiful screen, fast performance, and Android 2.3 make it one of the best on the market overall.

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Win Enterprises announced a desktop network appliance with a single- or dual-core Atom processor and six gigabit Ethernet ports. The PL-80260 includes a CompactFlash slot and 2.5-inch drive bay, three USB ports, and a serial console port, according to the company.

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LG Electronics announced an Android 2.2-powered handset claimed to be the world's first dual-core smartphone, due for a release in Korea next month. The Optimus 2X is built around a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, and offers a four-inch WVGA display, an eight-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel webcam facing front, says the company.

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Synology is shipping a two-bay network attached storage (NAS) server with a new hardware design touted for its quieter operation. Built around a 1.6GHz processor, the DS211+ can hold up to 6TB of hot-swappable storage, and features a gigabit Ethernet port, three USB 2.0 ports, and an SD slot, while providing 19.4 dB(A) noise levels and 24 Watt power consumption, says the company.

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Robotis is shipping an 18-inch, humanoid robot developed as an open source research platform by Virginia Tech's Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa). The Linux-ready Darwin-OP can walk, kick a ball, and pick itself up after falling over — thanks to an Intel Atom-based FitPC2i SBC (single board computer), an ARM Cortex-M3 based management controller, 20 actuators, and audio/video sensors.

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Via Technologies announced a Pico-ITX board featuring PCI Express expansion and an embedded-oriented Nano E-series CPU. The Epia-P830 offers gigabit Ethernet, two SATA ports, and support for HDMI, VGA, and LVDS displays, the company says.

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Google has begun letting users link Voice Search queries made from their Android 2.2 smartphones to their Google accounts in order to boost recognition accuracy. The new voice search personalization feature is currently available for English only, but will support other languages in the future, says the company.

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Broadcom announced a dual-core ARM11 baseband platform that exclusively targets affordable Android phones. Clocked to 500MHz, the Broadcom BCM2157 SoC (system-on-chip) combines an applications processor with 3G HSDPA modem connectivity, GPS, NFC, and 30fps H.264 encode/decode, the company says.

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Kontron has expanded its family of Intel Atom-based HMI (human machine interface) devices with a 17-inch offering. The fanless Micro Client IIA 170 features a resistive touchscreen with 1280 x 1024 pixel resolution, both CompactFlash and hard disk storage, two gigabit Ethernet ports, and one or two serial ports, the company says.

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Google's Intel Atom-based Cr-48 notebook test platform for Chrome OS beta testing gets a mixed review in this eWEEK evaluation. The fast, clean Chrome OS interface is said to get the job done fast on the web, but the keyboard is “deeply flawed,” and a tablet might have been a better device target for the cloud-based operating system anyway.

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Artila Electronics announced a Linux-based COM (computer on module) called the M-502, with a 400MHz Atmel ARM9 processor, 2.5-Watt power consumption, plus Ethernet, USB, SD, SPI, I2C, and I2S interfaces. The company also offers an Atmel-powered “Matrix-518” box computer with dual Ethernet ports, eight serial ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and 21-pin GPIO.

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ARM Holdings has officially acknowledged its plans to take on Intel in the server market. However, CEO Warren East is quoted as adding that ARM licensees won't begin to erode Intel's market share until 2014.

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ViewSonic's seven-inch ViewPad 7 and 10.1-inch “G-Tablet” Android 2.2 tablets are now on sale in the U.S., starting at $430 and $400 respectively. The ViewPad 7 stands out with its open 3G SIM slot flexibility and dual cameras, while the G-Tablet has already shown blazing speed on one published benchmark, thanks to its dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor.

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VDC Research has highlighted the top 18 trends expected to shape the embedded market in 2011. For example: Android will catalyze the commercial Linux market, MeeGo will find an opportunity in Symbian's decline, and Windows Phone 7 will re-establish Microsoft as a leading mobile player; meanwhile, COMs will thrive, while PC/104 devices will face growing pressure, the research firm predicts.

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