Navigation device manufacturer Rydeen Mobile Electronics announced a seven-inch, Android-based tablet called the “gPad GCOM701” at last weekend's IFA show in Berlin. Also at the show, Foryoudigital demonstrated its five-inch, Android-powered MX10, and Enspert announced that it built the “Identity Tab” Android tablet recently released by Korean carrier KT.

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The PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) has announced formal adoption of the COM Express Revision 2.0 spec, ratifying the 3.75 by 3.75-inch COM Express Compact module size and adding Digital Display Interfaces. Concurrently, Kontron announced a revised version of its ETXexpress-AI COM (computer on module), adopting the new COM Express Type 6 pinout.

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Philips and Samsung have both announced Android 2.1-based, 3.2-inch portable media players (PMPs), primed to compete with Apple's newly upgraded iPod Touch. Philips' GoGear Connect reportedly includes Wi-Fi, GPS, and Android Market access, while Samsung's Galaxy Player 50 offers both a videocam and two-megapixel camera in addition to its multimedia capabilities.

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Direct Insight announced a SODIMM-sized COM (computer on module) based on TI's Sitara AM3703 or DM3730, with ARM Cortex-A8 cores clocked at up to 1GHz. The SwiftModule-DM offers up to 256MB of RAM and 256MB of flash storage, and a touchscreen interface supporting up to 2048 x 2048 pixels, and is compatible with both Linux and Android.

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IDC analysts say consumer purchases of PCs will slow in the second half of the year, but that strong commercial sales will help offset some of the weakness. PC shipments will be up by 17 percent year-over-year, the research firm added, lowering its previous prediction of a 19.8 percent gain over 2009.

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Samsung Electronics announced its much-anticipated Android consumer tablet, due to ship in Europe in mid-September. The Samsung Galaxy Tab runs Android 2.2 on a 1GHz Cortex-A8 processor, and offers a seven-inch, 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, a three-megapixel camera, a front-facing videocam, 802.11n, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, and 3G with voice telephony, says the company.

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Globalfoundries says it has reached a “significant milestone” in its production of 28-nanometer ARM Cortex-A9 processors, with silicon expected in late 2010. While initial clock speeds could reach an Intel Atom-beating 2.5GHz, the company said further performance boosts for 28nm are in the works, and also provided its first timeline for the introduction of 22nm and 20nm manufacturing.

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Toshiba Europe announced a 10.1-inch Android 2.2 media tablet, due for a fourth quarter release in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The Folio 100 runs Android 2.2 on an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and offers a 10.1-inch, WSVGA display, but it lacks both GPS and Android Market access.

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Beijing-based international online reseller LightInTheBox.com announced it has had two months of surprisingly strong sales of a seven-inch, $140 Android tablet. The aPad Android Tablet runs Android 1.6 — with Android Market support — on Samsung's ARM11-based 667MHz S3C6410, and offers 1GB of flash, an SD slot, Wi-Fi, and an 800 x 480-pixel screen, says the company.

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HP and Hynix Semiconductor announced they've entered into a joint development agreement on a memristor technology called ReRAM, claimed to be up to 100 times faster than flash memory while using 1/10th the energy. ReRAM devices could start replacing random access memory (RAM) and flash within three years, and may eventually replace CPUs, too, say the companies.

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Asus announced a mini-notebook featuring both a dual-core Intel Atom processor clocked at 1.8GHz and an Nvidia Ion GPU (graphics processing unit). The Eee PC 1215N has a 12.1-inch screen, up to 4GB of RAM, a 250GB hard disk drive, an HDMI output, and optional USB 3.0 ports, according to the company.

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Worldwide PC shipments are projected to total 367.8 million units in 2010, a 19.2 percent increase from 2009. But demand for desktops and notebooks is likely to fall in the second half of the year, the research firm adds.

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Hannspree announced a 10.1-inch, Nvidia Tegra 2-based tablet running Android 2.2, aimed at a European audience. The Hannspree Tablet offers 16GB of flash, HDMI output, 802.11/b/g/n, and claimed eight-hour battery life, and also supplies one key feature so far missing from many Android tablets: Android Market access.

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Mistral announced two Linux-ready daughtercards for Texas Instruments (TI) evaluation modules (EVMs), the latter already available with the chipmaker's ARM9-based Sitara AM1x and OMAP-L1x SoCs (system-on-chips) on board. The UART Expansion Module offers interfaces for soft UART, hard UART, and soft DIR, while the CAN Expansion Module provides soft CAN, and hard CAN bus interfaces.

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Motorola announced two new 3.7-inch Android phones, set for a fourth-quarter release in Europe. The Defy is a ruggedized dust- and water-resistant smartphone that runs Android 2.1 and MotoBlur, and the Milestone 2, available with Android 2.2 and a slider keyboard, is almost identical to the Verizon-destined Droid 2, but adds 720p video recording.

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