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INQ Mobile announced two unofficial Facebook phones, both of which are deeply integrated with the social network and are powered by Android 2.2. The 3.5-inch INQ Cloud Touch and 2.6-inch INQ Cloud Q are modestly appointed with a 600MHz Qualcomm processor, 4GB of memory, a five megapixel camera, the Spotify music player, and a full array of wireless features, says the company.
Broadcom announced its first smartphone system-on-chips (SoCs) to feature ARM Cortex-A9 cores, plus two new GPS chipsets with GLONASS support. The 40-nanometer fabricated smartphone SoCs, both supporting Android and integrating Broadcom's VideoCore IV mobile multimedia chip, include the dual-core, 1.1GHz BCM28150, designed for HSPA+, and the single-core, HSPA-ready BCM21654, says the chipmaker.
Qualcomm announced a new entry in its ARM-based “Snapdragon” family of processors, this time targeting tablet devices as well as smartphones. The APQ8060 includes dual cores clocked at 1.2GHz, a homegrown “Adreno 220” GPU, and the ability to capture stereoscopic HD video or 3D still images.
Lantronix announced a Linux-based wireless device server with IPv6 and extended temperature support. The PremierWave EN is built on a 400MHz Lantronix ARM9 processor, offers 64MB of RAM and 64MB of flash, provides dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n with extensive wireless security features, and includes USB, Ethernet, I2C, SPI, and serial connectivity.
MetroPCS announced yet another variant of the Samsung Galaxy S that may beat Verizon's HTC ThunderBolt to market, making it the first 4G LTE Android smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy Indulge is due to go on sale for $399 this week, sans contract, featuring a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, a 3.5-inch display, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, says the carrier.
AMD, which already is looking for a new CEO after the departure of Dirk Meyer in January, is losing Robert Rivet, chief operations and administrative officer, and Marty Seyer, senior vice president of corporate strategy. The move may be related to the company's shyness when it comes to moving into the tablet space, analysts say.
HP announced two WebOS-based heirs to its Palm Pre phones, both with slide-out keyboards, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and five-megapixel cameras. The 3.6-inch, HP Pre 3 runs on a 1.4GHz processor and adds a front-facing webcam, and the 2.6-inch HP Veer offers an 800MHz processor, says the company.
Adobe announced a final version of its Flash Player 10.2, touting new features such as support for full-screen mode on multiple monitors. The software now gains accelerated 1080p video from more GPUs (graphical processing units), including those built into AMD's recently announced Fusion E-Series and C-Series chips, according to the company.
Strategic Test announced a SODIMM-sized computer-on-module (COM) based on Freescale's ARM Cortex A8-based i.MX535 system-on-chip. Clocked at 1GHz, the 2.66 x 1.2-inch TX53 offers extensive I/O, including Ethernet and dual USB 2.0 ports, plus an available “Strategic Development Kit 5” baseboard, and a Linux BSP, says the company.
HP announced its first tablet PC running WebOS, using a new dual-core 1.2GHz version of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor. The HP TouchPad offers a 9.7-inch, XGA multitouch display, up to 32GB of memory, a 1.3-megapixel, front-facing camera, optional 3G and GPS, plus a TouchStone-based technology for exchanging web URLs with select WebOS-based smartphones with a simple tap.
An “IcedRobot” project aims to develop a version of Android that will be beyond the reach of Oracle's lawsuit against Google regarding use of the Dalvik Virtual Machine. By adopting the OpenJDK implementation of Java, the project will further separate Dalvik from Android and create an Android variant that will be suitable for running on desktop PCs.
Android's worldwide smartphone sales grew 888.8 percent in 2010 and moved past RIM in the fourth quarter to take second place behind Symbian with 22.7 percent, says Gartner. Meanwhile, IDC estimates that Android pushed the 87.2 percent growth in the global smartphone market in 2010, and ComScore says Android continues to lead iOS for second place in U.S. smartphone subscriber share.
While reducing costs remains a primary factor for adopting open source software, businesses are increasingly seeing it as a way to gain a competitive advantage, according to a new Gartner survey. Nearly 46 percent of surveyed organizations have deployed open source applications, and 22 percent use it consistently across all departments, says the research firm.
Portwell announced an industrial ATX motherboard that supports Intel's “second-generation” Core i3, i5, or i7 processors. The Ruby-D712VG2AR offers up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM, four PCI slots and three PCI Express slots, six serial ports, plus VGA, HDMI, and DVI-D video outputs, the company says.
Viewsonic's upcoming 4.1-inch ViewPad 4 smartphone will run Android 2.4, says an industry report. Due in April, this operating system upgrade will add dual-core support, and will have the same Gingerbread” nickname as the apparently short-lived Android 2.3, according to the U.K. website Pocket Lint.