Congatec and MSC have each announced Qseven carrier boards designed for x86 and ARM COMs (computer on modules), respectively. Congatec's conga-QMCB sports SD, Mini PCI Express, and CFast slots plus an HDMI video output, among other things, while MSC's Q7-MB-EP4 has goodies including two gigabit Ethernet ports, an MMC/SD slot and an mSATA slot, plus an optional 4/5-wire resistive touchscreen controller.

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Coby Electronics says it will unveil five tablets running Android 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”) at the CES show in Las Vegas, with shipments due in 1Q 2012. Meanwhile, Samsung is readying an Android 4.0 tablet for early 2012, offering 2560 x 1600 resolution and based on its Cortex A15-based Exynos 5250 processor, and Toshiba is prepping an “Excite” tablet running Android 4.0 on a TI OMAP4430 for February release, say reports.

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HP announced it is relaunching its Linux-based WebOS mobile operating system as an open source project. HP will continue to sponsor WebOS, but it will be available publicly under an open source license, soon to be joined by WebOS' Enyo application framework, says the company.

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Renault announced an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system that will arrive in its Renault Clio 4 and Zoe cars in 2012. R-Link is built around a seven-inch touchscreen tablet — reportedly running Android on a Texas Instruments ARM processor — and will feature TomTom navigation, telematics controls, multimedia, speech recognition, and an open SDK for third-party app developers.

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Lanner announced a mid-range digital signage player with remote power activation support and a dual-core, 1.8GHz Intel Atom D525 featuring remote p. The fanless LEC-7105 supports up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, features dual display via VGA and DVI outputs, offers an eSATA port as well as internal SATA and CompactFlash storage, and provides gigabit Ethernet, USB, and serial connections.

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Cybernet announced a 19-inch, all-in-one PC designed for medical applications. Featuring a white case with antimicrobial coating, the CyberMed G45 includes Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, or Pentium processors, up to 8GB of RAM, an SATA hard disk drive, and two Mini PCI Express expansion slots, according to the company.

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Meizu announced a high-end Android 2.3.5 phone equipped with an eight-megapixel, f/2.2 backside-illuminated camera with 1080p video recording. Aimed at the Chinese market for now, the Meizu MX features a 1.4GHz, dual-core Samsung Exynos 4210 system on chip (SoC), 16GB of storage, a four-inch, 960 x 640 pixel display, and a micro-SIM slot supporting pentaband 3G with HSPA+ support, says the company.

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Adlink announced it will release a range of ARM-powered COMs (computer-on-modules) next year that sell for “far below $100,” supporting operating systems including Android, Linux, and Windows 8. The devices, which will consume less than three Watts, will employ a still-unnamed, ARM-oriented format recently announced by Kontron.

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Fuhu announced it has begun shipping its “Nabi” Android tablet for kids, and says pre-order stock at Toysrus.com has already sold out. Running Android 2.2 on a dual-core 544MHz Cortex-A9 processor, the “Nabi” offers a seven-inch, capacitive 800 x 480 pixel screen, Wi-Fi, mini-HDMI, microSD, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1.

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IEI Technology announced a microATX industrial motherboard with an Intel H61 Express chipset and support for Intel Core i7/i5/i3 (“Sandy Bridge”), Pentium, or Celeron processors. The IMB-H610 supports up to 16GB of DDR3 SDRAM, and offers PCI Express expansion, four SATA connections, dual gigabit Ethernet ports, 10 USB 2.0 ports, six serial ports, and VGA and DVD-D ports, among other I/O.

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[Updated: Dec. 8] — Ubuntu users who dislike the new Unity desktop have other alternatives besides sticking with “Maverick Meerkat” or jumping ship to Linux Mint or another distro. An illustrated DeviceGuru tutorial shows how to load the GNOME Fallback mode on Ubuntu 11.10 and configure it to offer more of a GNOME 2.x experience.

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Fujitsu and SuVolta announced the successful demonstration of a CMOS technology that can cut SRAM (static random access memory) power consumption by more than half. The “PowerShrink” platform will be offered in 65nm products by Fujitsu in 2012, and is available for licensing by others, according to the companies.

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Red Hat revised its enterprise-focused Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution, claiming greater performance and scalability on multicore platforms. RHEL 6.2 offers enhancements to resource management, high availability, storage and file system performance, and identity management, and it scored an all-time-high 22,000 users on the SAP SD benchmark, the company says.

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PandaBoard.org is shipping a new version of its open mobile development board that advances from Texas Instruments' 1GHz dual-core, Cortex-A9-based OMAP4430 to the 1.2GHz OMAP4460. The PandaBoard ES keeps the same 4.5 x 4.0-inch dimensions, 1GB of RAM, and TI WiLink 6.0 wireless module, among other features, but adds a DSI expansion header and a new switch to control boot order.

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Logic PD announced a modular prototyping and demonstration platform for Android, showcasing the company's customization and integration services as well as components from third-party partners. Aimed primarily at long life-cycle customers, the “Catalyst” platform is built around a seven-inch multitouch “proof-of-concept” device loaded with wireless radios, running Android 2.3 on TI's DaVinci DM3730 Cortex-A8 processor.

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