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The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced that it is creating a new specification that will let USB ports deliver up to 100 Watts of power. The development will allow manufacturers to create embedded PCs, laptops, printers, and other devices powered solely via their USB connections, the organization says.
Sealevel Systems introduced an ARM9-based single board computer (SBC) that runs Windows CE 6.0 on an ARM9 processor. The Relio SBC-R9-2100 includes an Atmel AT91SAM9263 CPU, 128MB of RAM and 256MB of flash storage, and extensive I/O including Ethernet, serial, USB, CAN, and digital interfaces, the company says.
Samsung announced its first Android smartphone based on the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. Available now in Sweden and heading for Europe and Asia “soon,” the 4.2-inch Samsung Galaxy R offers Android 2.3, the TouchWiz UI, 8GB of flash storage, and both five- and two-megapixel cameras.
Forrester estimates that Apple's iPad owns 30 percent of the European tablet market, with Android tablets, HP's Touchpad, and RIM's Playbook competing for the remaining 30 percent. Meanwhile, Apple won a preliminary injunction in a German court to keep Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet in most of the European Union, says a report.
Atmel announced five new versions of its ARM926-based SAM9 family of Linux- and Android-ready embedded processors — now featuring $6 pricetags and a new soft modem from Conexant. The 400MHz SAM9G15, SAM9G25, SAM9G35, SAM9X25, and SAM9X35 processors feature 100mW consumption plus support for DDR2 and NAND flash memory, and some models offer LCD touchscreen support and CAN interfaces.
The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) announced a new standard for embedded solid state drives (SSDs). The SATA µSSD standard eliminates module connectors, allowing drives to be manufactured in single ball grid array (BGA) packages that sit directly on a motherboard, the organization says.
Windows 7 will become the world's most-installed PC operating system by the end of this year, according to a Gartner forecast that sees Linux rising to just 2 percent of desktop share in five years. Meanwhile, Windows is also popular as a development environment, a field in which Linux has slipped to third place behind Mac OS, says Evans Data.
Elektrobit Corp. (EB) announced a Android reference platform for vertical-market smartphones and tablets. The EB Specialized Device Platform is available now with a Texas Instruments OMAP3 processor — an OMAP4 version is coming next year — and a 4.0- or 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, plus a wide variety of wireless and sensor options including 4G LTE.
Team Tiny Core announced a new version of its small-footprint, in-memory Linux desktop distro. Tiny Core 3.8 includes faster shutdown, updates to the BusyBox tool collection, improved searching, and the ability to re-download non-installed extensions, among other enhancements.
Axiomtek announced a fanless embedded PC that packs a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and is intended primarily for railway applications. The tBOX320-852-FL has dual 2.5-inch drive bays, one externally accessible, plus a CompactFlash slot, two Mini PCI Express slots, and gigabit Ethernet ports with locking M12 connectors, the company says.
AMD announced an updated SDK (software development kit) allowing programmers to tap into the GPUs (graphics processing units) of its A-Series (“Llano”) processors. Meanwhile, the Khronos Group released version 4.2 of its OpenGL specification, and AMD and Nvidia have both pledged support for it.
Zimperium will soon release a penetration-testing app called Android Network Toolkit (Anti), ready to sniff our Wi-Fi vulnerabilities for good or evil, says Forbes. The software was shown at the DefCon hacking conference in Las Vegas, following a Black Hat security conference that featured presentations on a new DARPA Cyber-Fast Track project, the Shady RAT cyber-attack, and Facebook facial-recognition tools.
Blue Sky has begun taking pre-orders for the “I'mWatch,” an Android 1.6-based gadget that offers a 1.5-inch screen and audio jack, interacting with smartphones via Bluetooth to display alerts. The device follows last week's WIMM One wearable Android watch, as well as an Android-based watch platform from Motorola called the MotoActive that popped up recently on the web.
The popularity of smartphones and media tablets will mean worldwide mobile connections will reach 5.6 billion by the end of this year, up 11 percent from 2010, according to Gartner. While related revenue will be up a higher 22 percent, providers will still struggle to recoup their costs, the research firm adds.
Klaus Knopper has released version 6.7 of his Debian-based live-CD Linux distro. Again employing the LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), it is also said to include version 3.3.3 of the LibreOffice suite, the Chromium 12 web browser, and a new version of ADRIANE (Audio Desktoop Reference Implementation And Network Environment) for partially-sighted users.