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Aaeon announced a fanless embedded controller that has an operating range from -4 to 140 deg. F. The AEC-6625 has a 1.86GHz Intel Celeron P4500 processor, room for one or two 2.5-inch hard disk drives, six USB 2.0 ports, up to three serial ports, and an optional PCI-104 expansion slot, according to the company.
Hercules announced the first two ARM members of its eCAFÉ netbook family, both running a custom Linux distro and featuring a dipswitch for flipping to other user-loaded Linux or Android operating systems. The eCAFÉ Slim HD and HDMI-enabled, 13-hour battery eCAFÉ EX HD are built on the 800MHz Freescale i.MX515 processor and offer up to 72GB flash storage, plus Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB connectivity.
Android will surge to a dominant 39.5 percent share of the fast-growing global smartphone market this year, then further climb slowly to a 45.4 percent share by 2015, says IDC. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will see the fastest growth as it supplants Symbian to reach a second-place 20.9 percent share by 2015, the research firm projects.
Fabless semiconductor vendor Conexant announced a digital signage-oriented system-on-chip (SoC) with Linux and Android development support. Built using an ARM Cortex-A8 core, the CX92755 supports HD video encoding and decoding, video/graphics overlay, image processing, plus integrated audio and power supply control, says the company.
McObject announced a design win for its in-memory ExtremeDB database, built into a new Linux-based 4G base station from Airspan Networks. The compact Air4G device uses ExtremeDB to help it simultaneously support WiMAX and LTE 4G networks, says the company.
Kontron announced a pico-ITX SBC (single board computer) featuring AMD's 500MHz Geode LX800 processor. The KTLX800/pITX includes up to 1GB of RAM, a microSD slot, 10/100 Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, two RS232 ports, and an SATA II interface, the company says.
HCL Infosystems announced three Android 2.2 tablets for the Indian market, featuring one-button access to HCL's India-focused Touch online service. The “ME” tablets include the seven-inch ME AE7 and ME AM7, both with 800MHz processors, as well as the 10-inch, 1GHz ME AP10, says the company.
Partly thanks to Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network, HTC's Thunderbolt is the fastest phone eWEEK has tested. The $250 price for the Android 2.2 phone is high, and HTC and Verizon need to work on extending battery life, but users who have access to Verizon's 4G network will be sorely tempted by the Thunderbolt's speed, big screen, and nicely tuned eight-megapixel camera, says this eWEEK review.
Google is working with MasterCard and Citigroup on a mobile payment service designed for NFC-enabled Android phones like the Nexus S, says an industry report. Meanwhile, Google is planning a Nexus-branded reference tablet built by LG, and might block tablets equipped with Android 2.x from upgrading to Android 3.0, says another report.
The Foresight Linux project released Foresight Linux 2.5, the first major release of this rolling-release Linux distro in two years, featuring Linux 2.6.35, GNOME 2.32.1, KDE 4.6.1, and Xfce 4.8. Meanwhile, rPath released rPath X6, a specialized Linux distro and appliance-building system that, like Foresight, is based on the Conary package manager.
Mechanical hard disk drives took another step toward obsolescence via Intel's announcement of its “third-generation” solid state disks (SSDs). Now offered in capacities as high as 300 or 600GB, the SSD320 series offers lower pricing, sequential write speeds that have doubled in speed, plus new encryption and data protection features, the company says.
The Linux Foundation announced the Top Five 2011 Linux Gurus — the members who contributed the most to the Linux.com community over the last year. This year's winner is Matthew Fillpot, who will receive a “Dream Linux Machine” and, like the other winners, an invitation to next week's Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit.
Microsoft researchers have come up with a way to better utilize “white space” networks, which would tap into unused TV spectrum to deliver broadband services. “SpecNet” would create a network of spectrum analyzers, allowing remote detection of frequencies that could be used for transmission, according to a paper that will be presented next week.
Sparkpad has begun selling customizable display computers at sizes ranging from eight to 15 inches, complete with a touch-ready, Lua-based Linux SDK and promised Android support. Sparkpad's Wi-Fi enabled tablets and panel PCs run on ARM11-based Telechips 8902 processors, and are touted as enabling customers to develop and deploy their own touch panels, digital signage systems, and tablets quickly.
Research in Motion will release two app players this summer that allow running Android 2.3 and Blackberry Java apps on its upcoming PlayBook tablet. The 1GHz, seven-inch tablet will run the apps in a secure virtual “sandbox,” giving PlayBook users access to a potentially huge number of applications.