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Portwell announced a Mini-ITX board that includes RAID support and Intel's Xeon E3-1225 processor. The WADE-8011 has six SATA ports (four 3Gb/sec. and two 6Gb/sec.), three video outputs (HDMI, DVI-D, and VGA), eight USB 2.0 ports, plus both PCI Express x16 and PCI Express x1 expansion slots, 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.
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.
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.
CompuLab unveiled two hard disk drive-equipped versions of its tiny, Linux-based, Nvidia Tegra 2 powered computer, a discounted price on its Trim-Slice Pro Dev-Kit, plus Trim-Slice support from Arch Linux and MeeGo's Smart TV group. The $319 Trim-Slice H250 includes a 250GB drive, while the $279 Trim-Slice H Diskless lets users add a disk of their own, says the company.
Aaeon announced two industrial system controllers that come with Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processors. The AIS-Q572 and AIS-Q574 include single or dual 3.5-inch hard disk drives, dual gigabit Ethernet ports, eight USB 2.0 ports apiece, and optional DVD readers, among other cited features.
Aug. 12 is the 30th anniversary of the IBM Personal Computer — generally seen as having launched PCs into the mainstream of technological advancement. But now, one of the system's original designers claims in a blog posting, PCs are “going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT, and incandescent light bulbs.”
Apple has reportedly petitioned a German court — the same one from which it won an iPad-related preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Pad 10.1 earlier this week — with a complaint against the Motorola Xoom and a tablet from German vendor Jay-Tech. Meanwhile, Open Invention Network (OIN) announced 35 new licensees for its Linux patent protection services.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.