Riding high on Android and with its expertise in search, Google should’ve swept the board when it first turned its hand to smart TV. Instead, Google TV was lambasted for its confusing interface, patchy functionality and ever-changing line up of content (made unpredictable by Google’s apparent refusal to pay for licensing deals but instead attempting to harness free online streams). With the second-gen system now ready for prime time, the search giant has managed to coax some big names back onboard, as well as tease gamers with the promise of OnLive for console-quality play without any extra hardware beyond a wireless controller.

Samsung, Sony, LG and Vizio were all expected to bring Google TV powered sets to the show, and all but Samsung delivered. LG spared us the heavy-duty specs, only saying that its two Google TV sets would drop later this year and use a homegrown quadcore ARM chipset. Like Vizio, which announced the R-Series of Google TVs, LG has reskinned the core Google UI to suit its own interface styling. Vizio also had two set-top boxes, one adding a Blu-ray drive, the VAP430 and VBR430, which promise to make Google TV more affordable.

Sony, meanwhile, took another approach, not bothering with fully-integrated Google TV HDTVs but instead looking to two new set-top boxes instead. It’s possible the company learned the hard way from its first-gen Google TV sets, though the new Network Media Player NSZ-GS7 and Blu-ray Disc Player NSZ-GP9 are arguably more useful given there are plenty of people content with their existing TV but still wanting a smart upgrade.

Finally, Marvell brought along its ARMADA 1500 chipset and a reference design Google TV STB to demonstrate it. The company is pushing the design to its hardware partners, along with a useful upscaling addition that promises to make lower-res content and UI look better on a 1080p Full HD display.

As for Samsung, it stuck with its homegrown smart TV platform for CES, though reiterated its support for Google TV and promised that “a forthcoming offering will deliver an entirely distinct experience in the category” later in 2012. That’s not to say its hardware this week has been underwhelming, however. Our playtime with Samsung’s 60-inch smart TV – which packs Kinect-style motion and voice control – suggested the non-traditional navigation may be gimmicky but the core software is very strong, while integrated DIRECTV support and the potential for hardware upgrades along the line shows services aren’t being left behind either.

LG may have had Google TVs to show off, but it also pushed ahead with its own platform, and some models ramped up the extras to stand out of the crowd. The Cinema Screen 3D HDTVs, for instance, can use their 3D screen technology for dual-view gaming, each player getting their own full-screen view simultaneously.

Vizio, too, used its own VIA smart TV software on some of its other models, echoing Philips’ push for true theater-aspect 21:9 screens with the new XVT CinemaWide line-up. You’ll need a big living room to accommodate them – and Vizio will need more luck than Philips, which eventually axed its range – but if you’re a keen movie buff they might be a solid alternative to a projector.

Lenovo isn’t a name generally associated with TV, so the company’s K91 entrant to the home entertainment segment came as something of a surprise. Headed to Lenovo’s home territory China first, but with broader international availability expected after that, the K91 actually runs Android but Ice Cream Sandwich rather than Google TV (v.2 of which is based on 3.x Honeycomb) and has a custom UI to suit sofa-bound users.

Finally, Canonical is hoping the hunger for Linux-based smart TV platforms will see its own embedded Ubuntu system picks up steam. We were impressed by the performance on the Ubuntu TV the team had prepared for CES, though Canonical wouldn’t say much on the “multiple manufactures” apparently in talks about using the system. It’ll go head to head with Google’s renewed Google TV drive, that’s for sure, and the search giant’s known brand and significantly improved second-gen software could prove difficult to beat.

Convinced by Smart TV? Considering buying one of these sets, or holding out for more new hardware later in the year? Let us know in the comments!

The system works like current Google TV boxes from Logitech and Sony: it incorporates content from a cable or satellite box like the one on display, then controls, records and manages it. The system also aggregates web content via apps, like YouTube, Netflix, Revision 3 and the like. The prototype hardware was shown running the latest version of Google TV with Android 3.2 Honeycomb, so it has access to apps on the Android Market.

The box on display is just a mock-up design for Marvell’s partners, but already it’s considerably smaller and lighter than conventional units. Output includes HDMI and standard RCA. One of Marvell’s unique additions to the platform is integrated upscaling, for the elements of Google TV that don’t look so great on a 1080P television, like icons from downloaded apps. Marvell wasn’t ready to announce its specific partners or their intentions at the show.

The SMILE Plug was developed in collaboration with Stanford University and works in tandem with the Stanford Mobile Inquiry Based Learning Environment program to create highly interactive learning environments. The device acts like a small server and is powered by a Marvell Armada 300 CPU and equipped with Marvell’s Avastar 88W8764 WiFi chip. It can connect up to 60 devices at a time, allowing students to interact over a secure and reliable micro cloud controlled by the teacher.

The device can connect to laptops, smartphones, and tablets, such as the recently announced OLPC XO-3 tablet that’s powered by Marvell’s ARMADA PXA619 processor. The 8-inch tablet is designed for educational environments with an affordable sub-$100 price aimed at classrooms in emerging markets as part of the One Laptop Per Child project.

Additionally, the SMILE Plug runs on an Arch Linux-based open platform, the Plugmin administration app and the Stanford SMILE Junction Server. It also includes a 5V Lithium-Ion polymer battery for back-up power. The device is expected to ship this spring.

[via Marvell]

This little monster is both versatile and doesn’t look half bad in-hand. The bright green makes it pop, and more than one version will be available by the time the launch occurs this year. The best bit of this whole equation is the price: $100 – or likely that price, so they’re shooting for in the end. For those of you who’ve been following this story via our timeline feature (also pictured here in this post), you know this device dates all the way back to 2006 (in laptop form) – no small task to bring this project into fruition.

We’ve got both hands-on photos and a video (coming up later tonight) of this device for your consumption. As you may have heard already, this device will not be available for purchase at your local corner store, made specifically for the education and non-profit industry. We can expect this fabulous piece of machinery sooner than later!

Up front is an 8-inch screen – a 1024 x 768 Pixel Qi panel, no less, for indoor and outdoor visibility – with a peel-off silicone cover so as to protect it from scratches and bumps while in a schoolbag. There’ll also be solar panels on the inside, one of a trio of recharging options to keep the OLPC XO-3 running: as well as plugging it into the mains, should you have the luxury of being near an AC supply, there’ll be a hand-crank to manually top up the battery.

Sixty seconds of cranking is good for ten minutes of use, or so OLPC tells us, and the OS is either Android or the specialist education-focused Sugar platform. Ports – which are also covered up by that clever cover – include full-sized USB, audio and a memory card slot.

Best of all, though, is the price: OLPC expects the XO-3 to kick off at $100, though that will be for regular LCD rather than Pixel Qi versions. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to drop by Best Buy and pick one up, as OLPC will be selling direct to educational organizations and charities. Stand by for more from CES this week.

The XO 3.0 features Marvell’s Armada PXA618 SOC processor and Avastar Wi-Fi SOC,with 512MB of RAM. With the partnership between Marvell and OLPC, the XO 3.0 will reach its target audience of education systems in developing countries. Measuring at 8-inches the XO 3.0 tablet will be highly portable for students throughout the world.

A unique feature of this table is found in its charging circuitry. Drawing a charge directly from solar panels, hand crank and other alternative power sources, the XO 3.0 will be unlike other tablets. From just one minute of hand cranking, users can expect at least ten minutes of runtime, according to OLPC. The expected price for this tablet comes in at around $100. There are no individual sales of OLPC devices since they only sell in bulk to governments.

[via EETimes]

As for the trio of hardware companies building Google TV devices around those chips, full details haven’t yet been spilled. On Samsung, all Google will say is that it plans to bring Google TV devices to the market this year; similarly, Vizio will “hold private demos at CES” to show off what they’ve been working on since announcing a partnership with Google last year.

Sony was one of the smart TV platform’s first adopters, alongside Logitech, and the company intends to not only show off new products for the US but “plans to offer Google TV powered products in several countries around the world in 2012.” That’s something long-anticipated, given until now Google TV has been US-only, though it’s unclear what content partnerships Google has managed to ink.

LG, meanwhile, has already shown off its own Google TV hardware, using a homegrown chipset rather than one from either Marvell or MediaTek. It’s not know whether Samsung will follow that path or look outward for a chip, though given its own semiconductor production facilities we’d suspect it would be the former. We’ll know more next week when SlashGear arrives in Las Vegas for CES 2012!

The reason the two tablets being announced today are called Toughpad, or at least the reason why the A1 is called a Toughpad, is that it’s got a 4-foot MIL-STD-810G drop rating, operating temperatures between 14 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit, and resistance to dust and water ingress. We’ll see about that! In addition, the A1 tablet is a massive 2.13 pounds heavy, has a stylus pen, and has front and rear-facing cameras of unnamed size. There’s a “serviceable” battery inside, and you’ve got the option of getting the tablet with access to LTE or WiMAX connectivity.

Take a peek at every other Android tablet getting smashed while the Toughpad takes all the beating a good hardcore tablet aught to:

This device (the A1) also has software encryption, custom deployment and device management that they say is not found in any other consumer tablet, dual-factor authentication, and more business-oriented safeguards that’ll keep your boss satisfied with the amount of safe their information is in the guts. Panasonic’s A1 tablet will be working with a cloud-based storefront by the name of Business AppPortal and will have a handful of vertical market apps as well as virtualization and security solutions.

There’s also the Panasonic Toughpad B1, the 7-inch version of what’s been listed here in the A1, no additional specifications about which have been listed as of yet. We can expect similar specifications, including another Marvell processor.

BONUS: Since it’s so rare we get to speak about Marvell, have a peek at an old video of a device platform made by Marvell that may well have been a lost end, but we’d be glad to see it pop up again – Kinoma. What this project consisted of was Symbian running Windows Phone, and the potential of running Android apps, vice versa, and all the way back again. Have a peek at this Mobile World Congress 2011 clip here:

Maybe we’ll see it at Mobile World Congress 2012.

Hardware

When it comes to the hardware specs, the Vizio Tablet isn’t going to blow your mind given its cost constraints. But, what’s there has been thoughtfully selected for the least amount of compromise. The 1GHz Marvell Armada 600 Series single-core processor, along with 512MB of RAM, offers enough performance power without the battery drain, but we’ll get into the benchmarks and battery life later.

The tablet measures 6.6” x 8.1” and is about 0.48” thick, weighing 1.2lbs. The edges are slightly tapered and angled such that the tablet appears thinner than it really is. Hence, it also feels heavier than it appears. But, it does have a very convenient size that’s comfortable to hold and its build feels solid.

Its 8-inch capacitive touchscreen LCD display has the same 1024 x 768 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio as the Apple iPad 2, but on a smaller screen. It’s not an IPS panel and thus viewing angles are lesser on two of the four sides. Text and graphics generally look crisp, although pixels are visible on closer examination. Playing high-quality YouTube videos did reveal some blocky pixelation and jagged edges.

The tablet has a front-facing VGA (640×480) 30fps camera that’s just barely good enough for video chatting and there’s no rear-facing camera. It’s a minor trade-off and for its purpose a camera’s not really essential.

There are three LED backlit touchscreen buttons for Back, Home, and Settings that adjust when you switch orientations so that they’re always sitting in the bottom frame of the bezel. The tablet, however, is meant to be used in only two orientations. And by that, I mean you get only one landscape option and one portrait option such that the speakers are always near the top.

And that leads us to the tablet’s first standout feature—THREE stereo speakers. When you rotate the tablet from one orientation to another, the speakers adjust so that you always get right and left stereo sound. Since we just reviewed the Toshiba Thrive and it’s sitting here next to the Vizio Tablet, we were able to do a side-by-side comparison. Neither one is spectacular, but the Vizio does win with louder, fuller audio and the adjusting stereo makes a noticeable difference.

Another standout feature is the integrated IR blaster. The Vizio Tablet can turn into a giant universal remote capable of controlling up to 95% of your home theater devices using a continually updated database that contains presets for thousands of TVs, media players, and set-top boxes. Different profiles can be set up for each room to control the various entertainment devices throughout your home. It controlled my Toshiba TV and LG Blu-Ray player just fine making me feel like the true master of my domain. This kills two birds with one stone and is a great deal if you’ve been wanting a universal remote, since they can cost on average $150 with fancier ones fetching a few hundred more.

Storage capacity on the Vizio Tablet is only 2GB. This isn’t much space, but can be easily expanded with a microSD card of up to 32GB. Considering that a 32GB microSD—if you don’t already have one—sells for about $50, the total cost of the Vizio Tablet plus the card is still up to $200 less than a 32GB tablet. Additionally, transferring data to and from the tablet is easy thanks to its micro-USB port. A micro-USB cable is included in the box and is also used for charging the tablet.

Other connectivity options include Bluetooth, WiFi, and a micro-HDMI port that supports 1080p full HD video-out and is HDCP compliant.

Software & Performance

The Vizio Tablet comes running a highly customized interface called Vizio Internet Apps Plus (VIA Plus) on top of Android 2.3.2 Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb. Although this may be a gripe for some, Vizio’s decision to stick with Gingerbread makes sense for a more stable experience on the smaller screen and access to a whole lot more apps in the Android Market. Vizio does assure that an upgrade to Honeycomb are in the months ahead, although no specific timeline was given.

The VIA Plus interface brings apps to the forefront, with widget windows relegated to its own app called Widget Board. The main interface is split into two sections, one on top of the other. The first section shows all the apps in a particular category. Pressing the arrow button at the top right brings up a dropdown menu for you to select which category to display. You can add/delete categories and add/remove apps from each category. The second section shows all your apps in one place.

And, along the bottom of the screen sits a menu bar that works like a shortcut dock. There’s a total of five shortcuts that can be customized. Below is a quick video demo of the interface.

As you can see from the video, the interface isn’t very snappy and its touch controls aren’t consistently responsive. This is perhaps the biggest drawback to the tablet. Vizio has already confirmed that an update would be rolling out within the next 45 days to enhance overall performance, but in its current state it can get frustrating at times.

When it comes to synthetic benchmarks, the Vizio Tablet gets killed. If the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is like a Ferrari, then the Vizo Tablet is like a 2005 Ford Focus. You can’t really compare the two although they’ll both take you places. And again, for general consumers the overall user experience won’t be impacted much by these scores. We used synthetic benchmarking tools, including Vellamo, Quadrant Pro, and Smartbench 2011.

The Vizio Tablet’s closest competitors are probably the 7-inch Dell Streak and the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Dell Streak 7 boasts a powerful 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor in contrast to Vizio’s modest 1GHz Marvell single-core processor, but battery life complaints plague the Streak, which is said to even downclock speeds to stay more efficient.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab, on the other hand, with an initial $600 price tag was far from affordable. But even now with its price cut to $349, the tablet is several months old with support waning and a thinner, lighter replacement likely on the way.

Furthermore, the Vizio’s 8-inch display adds just that much more screen real estate for all your tablet-ing needs, but remains a size that’s very portable and comfortable to hold. Also, if connectivity options are important, the Vizio Tablet wins with its mini-HDMI and mini-USB ports.

The Vizio Tablet also comes with Flash 10.1 support with decent Flash performance results using the GUImark 2 benchmarking tool, but it cannot be upgraded to Flash 10.3 at this time.

Battery

Vizio’s decision to go with a single-core processor along with its highly customized VIA Plus layer may have contributed to a slower user interface, but it makes up for it in splendid battery life. The Vizio Tablet is rated for up to 11 hours based on standard use, while our usage, which mainly consisted of surfing the web, playing games, and watching YouTube videos intermittently throughout the day allotted us well over 9 hours.

Wrap-Up

The Vizio Tablet did have poor benchmark scores and the interface is noticeably less snappy than what we’re used to on a Tegra 2 dual-core tablet. Touch controls, at times, also felt slow to respond. An update, expected within the next 45 days, should boost performance.

However, the single-core processor does afford a much greater battery life and the good looking interface makes operation more intuitive and user-friendly for the first-time tablet owner or general consumer who probably won’t fuss over whether what’s underneath is Android 2.3 or 3.2. But, Vizio does promise to upgrade to Honeycomb in the coming months.

Upcoming Vizio 3DTVs (models XVT-3D556SP and XVT-3D476SP) with Google TV integration will be using this same interface for a unified VIA Plus ecosystem. And the inclusion of an HDCP-compliant micro-HDMI port on the Vizio Tablet means that protected content such as movies from streaming subscriptions can be sent in full 1080p HD to your HDTV. And then there’s the integrated IR blaster that lets you control your other home theater devices directly from your Vizio Tablet. All of this combine to make it the ultimate companion in the living room.

And when you want to enjoy multimedia directly on the Vizio Tablet, you’ll have the advantage of a three-speaker system to enjoy proper stereo sound in both landscape and portrait orientations. Its 8-inch screen is a perfect size for all your tablet needs while remaining comfortable to hold with an overall build and look that is solid and slick.

The Vizio Tablet will be a great choice for many general consumers. It’s currently selling for $329 $284.99 (at Costco), which is an excellent price for what it has to offer, especially to the first-time tablet buyer on a budget. With affordability and a broader audience in mind, Vizio made design decisions that reflect a focus on functionality, sacrificing mainly specs that shouldn’t bother most consumers while adding other unique features that enhance the overall experience.

“Marvell was having some serious problems getting the software to work with the hardware” the source at the company claims. “The team was just taking too long and there were issues that weren’t being resolved quickly enough.” The exact processor Marvell and RIM were considering has not been specified, but it’s likely one of the 6xx series; early rumors prior to the PlayBook’s official debut had suggested Marvell was supplying the silicon for the slate.

Texas Instruments, meanwhile, was forced to admit earlier in the year that NVIDIA had beaten them to the punch with the dual-core Tegra 2, with “a couple of months, maybe a quarter lead on our OMAP 4 product” according to investor relations VP Ron Slaymaker. Had TI been involved with RIM from the start, it’s possible that the PlayBook could have beat the XOOM and other Tegra 2 based tablets to market.

[via BerryReview]

The Marvell chips are inside the Asus T10 and T20 smartphones and the smartphones run the China Mobile OPhone OMS system in its latest iteration. Both of the smartphones claim to deliver high quality mobile gaming, mobile TV, and WiFi connectivity.

The Asus smartphones use the Marvell 88W8787 chip to combine WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and FM connectivity into the devices. Pricing and availability of the devices in China is unknown at this time.

Today, pushing the boundaries of the microprocessor for mobile devices are the likes of NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Marvell. Those companies use the ARM architecture to create their mobile chipsets. Right now, NVIDIA is first out of the gate with dual core mobile devices; their Tegra 2 processor is in devices like the Motorola Atrix 4G, LG Optimus 2X, Motorola XOOM tablet, LG Tab and G-Slate and a host of other super phones and tablets. Qualcomm’s dual-core is in the HP Touchpad and Texas Instruments dual-core is in the RIM Playbook, both products will be out later this year.

Not standing still with dual-core, NVIDIA showed me a demo last night of their latest quad-core chipset code-named Kal-El, that will deliver roughly a 5x improvement over their current dual-core Tegra 2. NVIDIA executives said that they are expecting quad-core tablets to ship in the August time frame and quad-core super phones by holiday of this year.

So the real question is why do we need multi-core microprocessors in our mobile devices. The answer is so we can create better software.

More cores mean more than just a faster overall experience with a mobile device. It means more complex software can be written. It means more visually rich graphics and multimedia experiences. It means a more compelling web experience with next generation Internet software.

Just think about how primitive the software created in the 90’s was, or what websites were like in 2000 compared to the web of today. All of the advancements with software have been possible because the industry pushed forward and created faster processors capable of running next generation software. Those processor innovations were then taken advantage of by the creative software community who utilized it and made more compelling software. Ask any software engineer and they will tell you, there is not such thing as too much processing power.

The same will be true with mobile devices. We will look back in 5,10,15 years and think how primitive apps, operating systems, and the Internet were on our mobile devices. All made possible by the innovations in the microprocessor to deliver this next generation of computing.

Multi-core in mobile devices is not simply important it is essential.

Video after the cut

They’re surprisingly enthusiastic about the EA800, too, with the 8-inch slate running quickly on its Marvell CPU. Whether students and other note-takers will find it quite so appealing remains to be seen, of course.

Meanwhile, ASUS has put up the user manual for the Eee Note EA800 [PDF link], along with the guides for the DR900 Eee Reader [PDF link] and TZ900 Eee Reader [PDF link]. A US debut for the EA800 is expected sometime in Q1 2011.

[ASUS manuals via EeePC.it]

However, while the EA800 is based around a Marvell processor, its 12-inch counterpart will supposedly use an Intel CPU, and there’s talk of Windows being the OS rather than the first Eee Note’s Linux system. It’s considerably more expensive, too, with pricing tipped at around $900. Meanwhile, the ASUS Eee Reader DR-900 may well be delayed over fears it could cut into Eee Note sales.

Last month the company outlined its tablet plans, confirming two 10-inch Eee Pads – one based on Windows 7 running on Intel’s Oak Trail platform, the other using NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 and Android – priced between $499 and $599 for a March 2011 release. ASUS is also eyeing the 7-inch segment, planning either Tegra 2 or Qualcomm Snapdragon Android slates.

Also World War III may have just started in North and South Korea. No biggie.

SlashAGGRESSION
News from Rueters at approximately 1:22am EST today (November 23, 2010) was that North Korean artillery had hit a South Korean island setting on fire buildings and bringing about return fire from South Korea. This information came to Rueters via Seoul’s YTN television. Reportedly there appeared to be 60 or 70 houses on fire, and the military (it’s unclear whose, probably S.Korea) confirmed the exchange of firing without further details. This story was reported by Seoul bureau for Rueters, Writing by Yoo Choonsik; Editing by Jeremy Laurence. I provide for you here all these people’s names incase this story proves to be massively important or a figment of someone’s imagination. This story comes from Rueters (link below), I’d like you also to take a peek at this screenshot from the Rueters website, paying special attention to the story title in the lower right hand corner.

[Via Rueters]

R3 Media Network

SlashPhone
O2 Launches Live Network Status Webpage
The Dell Venue Pro Has More Problems To Fix
MetroPCS Getting LG Optimus M On November 24th

Android Community
Unlocked Dell Streak now on sale direct from Dell
Withings Wiscale gets Android support
Motorola’s Tegra 2 Olympus leaks?
Sony Reader Coming to Android in December
2.2.1 Update coming to the Original DROID soon?
Motorola Defy [REVIEW]
Android takes top popularity spot from Symbian in Asia
DEFY to get Android 2.2 Quarter 2 2011
Skyfire 3.0 launches with Facebook Connect

SlashGear
Gliding snake research funded by US government [SNAKE]
Marvell Android tablet hands-on [Video] [FEATURED]
Digital Storm unveils new Sub-Zero gaming PC with peltier cooled liquid
Wrapsol offers 30% off on Cyber Monday
Dev-Team outlines jailbreak with 4.2.1 update
Jolicloud netbook now officially on sale [HOORAY CUTE]
Mobile Safari gets orientation API in iOS 4.2 for tilt-sensitive sites [IMA BARF]
Motorola Olympus Tegra 2 powered smartphone caught in wild
No iPhone 5 embedded SIM but T-Mobile interested say sources
Apple Black Friday teaser promises discounts in US & international stores [DISCOUNTZ]
Google Chrome OS netbooks delayed, but beta software release on track?
Droid Pro [REVIEW]
Original Apple-1 Computer Sells for $210,000 USD in London
Apple Proves People WILL Buy The Beatles Music from iTunes, Lots of it
Acer Android Tablets Hands-On [ACER EVENT]
Acer 10.1-Inch Windows 7 Tablet Announced, Due in February [ACER EVENT]
Acer Alive: Next-Generation Store, Focuses on Real-Time [ACER EVENT]
Acer’s Clear.fi is Media Sharing Made Easy [ACER EVENT]
Acer 4.8-inch Android smartphone boasts 1024 x 480 display [ACER EVENT]
Acer Android Tablets Announced [ACER EVENT]
Acer Iconia Dual-Screen Laptop Unveiled [ACER EVENT]
iPad production boosted as new Foxconn plant comes online
WD TV Live and Live Plus Media Streaming Boxes Get Facebook Support, Plus More
Are Premium 3D Glasses Worth It? [COLUMNS]
A Week with NOOKcolor: Reading (aka Core Apps) [FEATURED REVIEW]

To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash] or here: [SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up]

R3 Media Network

SlashPhone
O2 Launches Live Network Status Webpage
The Dell Venue Pro Has More Problems To Fix
MetroPCS Getting LG Optimus M On November 24th

Android Community
Unlocked Dell Streak now on sale direct from Dell
Withings Wiscale gets Android support
Motorola’s Tegra 2 Olympus leaks?
Sony Reader Coming to Android in December
2.2.1 Update coming to the Original DROID soon?
Motorola Defy [REVIEW]

SlashGear
Gliding snake research funded by US government [SNAKE]
Marvell Android tablet hands-on [Video] [FEATURED]
Digital Storm unveils new Sub-Zero gaming PC with peltier cooled liquid
Wrapsol offers 30% off on Cyber Monday
Dev-Team outlines jailbreak with 4.2.1 update
Jolicloud netbook now officially on sale [HOORAY CUTE]
Mobile Safari gets orientation API in iOS 4.2 for tilt-sensitive sites [IMA BARF]
Motorola Olympus Tegra 2 powered smartphone caught in wild
No iPhone 5 embedded SIM but T-Mobile interested say sources
Apple Black Friday teaser promises discounts in US & international stores [MILLION DOLLAR DISCOUNT LETS HOPE]
Google Chrome OS netbooks delayed, but beta software release on track?

To see more wrap-up posts, follow the following tags: [The Daily Slash] or [SlashGear Morning Wrap-up]

Video demo after the cut

Marvell wasn’t talking specific chipsets, but it’s the ARMADA 628 that is at the helm of its tablet segment push. A tri-core chip capable of 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decide, hi-fi audio, advanced cryptography, and digital photo data processing, the 628 has a pair of 1.5GHz cores for processing and a further, 624MHz core that can be used for apps with low power requirements. That means longer battery life, since the heavy-duty crunching is only turned on when it’s actively required.

Actual shipping specifications will largely depend on OEM choice, so it’ll be up to the manufacturers to decide how much memory to fit, whether to use a glass or plastic screen, what camera(s) to install and other differentiators like that. Without knowing what sort of pricing range they’ll fall into, it’s difficult to predict market success, but it seems CES 2011 will mark the start of another tablet-centric year.

The processor operates at up to 1.6GHz on each core and has 16,600 DMIPS performance while consuming under 10W of power. The processor supports heterogeneous multiprocessing with hardware based cache coherence. The processor has up to 2MB of L2 cache.

Other features of the processor include a 64-bit memory interface supporting ECC at up to 800MHz clock rates for DDR2/DDR3/DDR3L memory. The processor also has up to 16 Marvell SERDES lanes with multi functionality for PCI-e, SATA, SGMII, and QSGMII. It also supports multiple USB ports and more. The processor is sampling to customers right now.

“Their money is a grant to the OLPC Foundation to develop a tablet or tablets based on their chip.  They’re going to put the whole system on a chip.  [Marvell have] been sponsors all along, but they were one of ten. Now they are the technology partner.” Nicholas Negroponte

However, while Marvell’s chips will be found inside the XO-3, that slate won’t be what the two companies bring along to CES 2011.  Instead, the first model will lack OLPC branding and instead be targeted at first-world markets, being based on the Marvell Moby platform and running Android.

It will be developed with OEMs and a partner in education, and is expected to go on sale sometime in 2011.  The OLPC XO-3, meanwhile, will follow on in 2012 according to Negroponte.

[via The Digital Reader]

From Around the Web

Robot Teaches Itself to Fire Bow and Arrow: We know robots are getting smarter, and better at pretty much everything, thanks to the ingenious engineers and designers behind their creation. This robot, developed by Dr. Petar Kormushev at the Italian Institute of Technology, has taught itself to not only fire the bow and arrow, but fire it better over time. The robot is designed from open source software, and features Augmented Reward Chained Regression (ARCHER) technology, which is the learning algorithm that made it possible for it to learn how to hit bulls eyes. The possibilities are certainly endless, and slightly disturbing. [via TechnaBob]

R3 Media Network

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Terrestar Genus Satellite Phone Available for AT&T

The processor is packed with a number of advanced processing and power management features and has a pair of symmetric multiprocessing cores and a third core that is optimized for low power. The third low-power core is designed to support the routine user tasks and acts as a system manager processor. The two main cores run at up to 1.5 GHz and the low-power third core operates at 624MHz with 1MB of L2 cache total.

The processor is able to play more than ten hours of full 1080p HD video or 140 hours of music on a single charge and still provide 3GHz of raw computational power. The processor also has six processing engines to support 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decide, hi-fi audio, advanced cryptography, and digital photo data processing. There are nine dedicated core functions. The processor will also provide USB 3.0 connectivity. The processor is available for sampling right now.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good.  The 7-inch display runs at WVGA 800 x 480 resolution, and uses a resistive touchscreen layer rather than the capacitive we’re now used to.  There’s also no mention in the official specs as to which version of Android the gPad runs, though given Rydeen talk about Adobe Flash Lite 4 support we’re guessing it doesn’t have Froyo.

Up front there’s a 2-megapixel webcam for video chat, and you get 2GB of internal memory together with a full-sized USB host port for plugging in peripherals like memory sticks.  Everything will hinge on pricing, but that’s another thing Rydeen aren’t revealing; guess we’ll have to wait until the gPad hits the US market in November 2010 to find out.

Press Release:

Rydeen Introduces the “gPad” GCOM701
Android-based Device Features 7-inch Touch Screen, 2MP Front-facing Camera

Torrance, Calif., August 31, 2010 – Rydeen Mobile Electronics today introduced the GCOM701, a “slate” form factor device utilizing the Android® operating system. Powered by the Marvell® ARMADA™ 166 application processor, the GCOM701 delivers seamless connectivity; live, real-time content; rich and immersive media experiences — all with very long battery life. The new device exceeds innovation and availability standards in the Android based MID (Mobile Internet Device) market today. The new device features a front-facing camera, removable memory and direct-access hardware buttons. The GCOM701 is expected to ship in November 2010 and will be available in two colors, black and white.

The GCOM701 comes to market at a time when large-screen tablets with virtual keyboards are the talk of consumer electronics blogs and coverage. With a 7-inch TFT touch panel and 800×480-pixel resolution, the GCOM701 offers ample screen space for Web surfing, reading eBooks and viewing images, video and e-mail, in portrait or landscape mode. Its slim form factor makes it easy to carry in an oversized pocket or bag.

When it comes to features and connectivity, the GCOM701 delivers. WiFi connectivity (802.11 b/g) and GPS are built in. Bluetooth capability, along with an internal microphone and speaker, enable usage with Internet-based communications services such as Skype™. A front-facing camera enhances communications capabilities with video. The microSD slot accepts SDHC cards up to 32GB, giving ample space to store songs, pictures and videos, and both standard and mini USB plugs allow jump drives and portable devices to plug right in. For private listening, users can plug their favorite headphones into the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the road, the GCOM701 functions as a Portable Navigation Device (PND), complete with 4 million Points of Interest (POIs), powered by Navteq™.

Central to the new GCOM701 is the ARMADA 166 processor running at 800 MHz with 2Gbit of on-board RAM. An internal 7.4-volt battery delivers ample standby and up to 6-hour of operational time at full power mode (normal usage condition, up to 8-hour).

Marvell and Harman have just announced that the two companies will be working hard on bringing integrated WiFi services into the vehicle. Utilizing Marvell’s Mobile Hotspot (MMH) technology, the two companies are going to offer automakers the ability to integrate WiFi, making it possible for the vehicles to natively become your mobile workshop, or whatever else you need it to be.

The first car to get the WiFi treatment, will be the 2010 Audi A8, which is currently available overseas. And, what makes it better, is that it’s already integrated with the MMH technology. There’s a built-in WLAN module in each WiFi-equipped Audi A8, letting up to 8 different devices connect to the low power consumption WiFi connection. So if you’ve got a device that’s WiFi enabled, then the A8 is the car for you. Of course, we don’t have to say that that doesn’t give you the option to use your device while you’re driving. Keep that in mind. Press release below.

Press Release

New Audi 2010 A8 sedans first to feature a factory-installed Marvell Mobile Hotspot that turns car into a mobile office and entertainment center

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL), a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, and HARMAN, the global automotive audio and infotainment leader (NYSE: HAR), today announced they are enabling automakers to offer integrated Wi-Fi connectivity via award-winning Marvell® Mobile Hotspot (MMH™) technology. The 2010 Audi A8 is the first automobile on the market to feature a factory-installed mobile hotspot, representing a significant milestone for in-car Internet technology. The 2010 Audi A8 with MMH technology is now available in Europe.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100719/SF36559LOGO-b)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100719/SF36559LOGO-b)

Marvell and Harman Automotive integrated MMH technology into the Audi vehicle through a built-in WLAN module, enabling high speed online and internet access via cellular link or Bluetooth connected mobile devices. The MMH technology implements a full-featured, WLAN access point integrated entirely on the wireless chip. The technology integrated into Harman connectivity system realizes a full-featured local Wi-Fi mobile hotspot within the vehicle, giving passengers access to Web-based services. Up to eight devices can be supported, from Smartphones to high-performance tablets and other advanced mobile devices like Wi-Fi enabled digital cameras, laptops and portable gaming devices.

“I believe today’s consumers want the convenience of seamless connectivity and live content whenever and wherever they choose — whether in the home, office, classroom or automobile. Marvell is proud to be the industry driver of this new ‘connected mobility’ revolution,” said Weili Dai, Marvell’s Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of the Consumer and Computing Business Unit. “Harman’s solution for the Audi A8 sedan is a perfect example of using Marvell’s live, always-on technology to bring the car fully into the broader connected ecosystem. Marvell’s connectivity technologies transform the car into a mobile office and entertainment center, making accessible everything from productivity tools to passenger gaming and live media experiences. Finally, the car is connected to the rest of our lives.”

“We are pleased to partner with Marvell in extending a key component of the mobile office concept to our customers through this milestone application,” said Sachin Lawande, Harman Chief Technology Officer and Co-President, Automotive. “We are committed to providing a comprehensive in-car experience in cooperation with leading automakers, and the mobile Wi-Fi innovation takes this to a new level.”

Marvell’s unique Wi-Fi software architecture is optimized for extremely low power consumption on battery-powered consumer electronics, enabling passengers to connect to the vehicle’s network without affecting the battery life of their connected devices. MMH technology provides a secure Internet connection with standard 802.11 WPA2 authentication and data encryption mechanisms.

About Marvell
Marvell is a world leader in the development of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions. Marvell’s diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the term “Marvell” refers to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit http://www.marvell.com.

About Harman
HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 11,000 people across Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of 3.2 billion for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2010. The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE: HAR.

Marvell and the M logo are registered trademarks of Marvell and/or its affiliates. MMH is trademark of Marvell and/or its affiliates. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson are trademarks of Harman International Industries, Inc., registered in the United States and/or other countries

Kumar also says RIM are hoping to pull forward the BlackBerry tablet’s release from early 2011 to late 2010.  That certainly fits with other rumors we’ve seen, though differs in some of the key specifications: those sources had said the tablet would have a larger, 8.9-inch touchscreen display and no onboard 3G, using WiFi or Bluetooth to connect either via a wireless hotspot or tethered to a nearby BlackBerry phone.

[via NetbookNews]

The TegA W70 actually looks to be a rebadge of the Compal Tegra tablet NVIDIA have showed a few times – you can see it in their official slides here – while the other models appear to be reference designs and OEM hardware onto which Rover Computers have slapped their logos.  Because of that there’s little consistency across the range, with various builds of Android showing up (from 1.5 to 2.1).

The smallest tablet is the RoverPad Go G50, with a 5-inch WVGA touchscreen, Marvell PXA303 CPU, 128MB of RAM, 2GB storage and Android 1.5.  It has WiFi, GPS and 3G, along with a microSD card slot and USB connectivity, and measures in at 158 x 88 x 16 mm.  Next up is the RoverPad Go G72, a 7-inch version of the G50, with Android 1.6, Bluetooth, ethernet and optional GPS.

The RoverPad 3WG70 uses RockChip’s 2808 with 128MB of RAM and 2GB of flash storage; OS is Android 1.5 and there’s a microSD card slot, WiFI, webcam and USB.  Dubbed the most affordable of the five, it’s expected to come in at under 10,000 rubles ($321).  The Windows CE model, meanwhile, the RoverPad Air G70, uses a 667MHz Samsung ARM11 CPU, 256MB of RAM, a 4GB flash drive and a 7-inch WVGA touchscreen.  WiFi and 3G are optional, and there’s an FM transmitter, 3-megapixel camera, TV output and all the usual WinCE 6.0 apps.

Finally, the RoverPad TegA W70 is probably the most interesting of the bunch, with an HDMI output, WiFi, 3G, a 4GB flash drive, Android 2.1 and 512MB of RAM.  It has a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen and a webcam.  No word on pricing however.

[via Engadget]

With people all around the country looking to go green monitoring the energy usage in your home is a key aspect of being green and saving money. 4Home and Marvell have announced a co-developed plug computer based on that slick little SheevaPlug PC I mentioned before. The tiny PC is designed to connect to the electrical outlet in the home and monitor energy usage in the entire home.

The system uses 4Home ControlPoint software to allow the monitoring of a bunch of different parameters concerning energy usage. The coolest feature to me is the fact that the software can look at the energy use across your entire home and then estimate how much your usage is costing you for the day, month, and year. The software can also track real-time and historical energy use for the whole home or a specific appliance. Alerts can be set up to notify the user when they are passing a specific usage that they determine. The launch date and pricing for the energy management solution are unknown.

Video demo after the cut

Despite the compact chassis – just 4.7 x 3.3 x 0.5 inches – the V7 packs in GPS, 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth, along with an SD card slot and microUSB port.  There’s also a 3.2-megapixel camera and a 3.5mm headphone socket.

Unfortunately there’s no sign of a price or a release date, which is disappointing as this actually looks quite decent.

Call me skeptical. Very skeptical.

Over the years, the One Laptop Per Child Project has over-promised and under-delivered time and time again. Remember that XO laptop? It was supposed to go for $99. Oops, missed that one by a pretty wide margin. How about those cool dual-screen XO-2s? Well, they never made it past the Photoshop renderings. Even with the help of Marvell, it’s very hard to see how they’re hitting the price point of $75 and still delivering on the promised functionality. Maybe it’s just me but this is starting to feel an awful lot like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football. Except the people who keet getting the football pulled away from them have neither the budget nor resources to make the same mistakes over and over again.

I can question the whole concept of the project and debate whether emerging markets need this device or anything like it. I can argue whether emerging countries that lack food, water, medicine and other basic services need devices that can connect to the Internet before they get the basics that developed countries take for granted. (One feature of the XO was the ability to secure it to make sure it wouldn’t work outside of the target network, discouraging people from selling the devices for things they might actually need.)

Even if you think the idea has merit, it doesn’t appear that the OLPC folks know how to deliver. Comments that the XO set the foundation for netbooks are just ludicrous. Sure netbooks came after the OLPC but the idea that the XO was responsible for that phenomena is silly. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc is Latin for “after it, therefore because of it”. Except it’s almost never the case in reality and it’s amusing to see people pointing to the netbook as a positive result of the OLPC much like Tang was a byproduct of the US space program.

It’s hard not to appreciate what the OLPC folks are trying to do. It’s aspirational. It’s inspirational. It’s noble. They’re not in this for fortune, fame or glory but the desire to help people. It’s hard to criticize that. It is, however, perhaps time to realize that this is turning into a tremendous waste of time and resources that could be better spent elsewhere. I’m tired of the press reporting on one more initiative and program reboot as if there was something of substance. Perhaps I’m wrong and we’ll see come January, but as far as I’m concerned it’s time for the OLPC organization to be quiet for a change. When you’ve really got something real to deliver, let’s talk. Until then, this is just more hype and vapor of the worst kind.

They envisaged the XO-3 as a super-slim slate with an 8.5 x 11 inch touchscreen, water resistant casing and inductive charging system.  The Moby platform, however, is a little more mainstream in its abilities; all the OLPC press release confirms are video input, haptic feedback and multi-touch interfaces, as well as USB support for “traditional and non-traditional peripherals.”

While Moby is also capable of 1080p HD video, that’s unlikely to be a priority in the sort of environments the XO-3 will be deployed to.  Instead, they’ll more likely be interested in its lengthy battery life potential and its integrated WiFi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity.  Pricing was originally tipped as $100 for the XO-3, back when OLPC were expecting it to arrive in 2012; they now say they’ve accelerated development and shaved off almost two years.

Press Release:

One Laptop per Child and Marvell Join Forces to Redefine the Tablet Computer

New Family of Tablets to Provide Rich Learning Environment at Low Cost

Cambridge, Mass. and Santa Clara, Calif., May 27, 2010 – One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a global organization whose mission is to help provide every child in the world access to a modern education, and Marvell, a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, have signed an agreement to jointly develop the family of next-generation OLPC XO devices. The advanced tablet based on the Marvell® Moby platform will provide educators and children around the world with an affordable, rugged, low-power tool to explore, to create and to collaborate, as well as have access to 1.7 million free books.

In December 2009, OLPC announced plans to develop a student tablet computer called XO 3.0 by the end of 2012. By leveraging the Marvell Moby tablet reference design for the device, shipment of the XO 3.0 will be accelerated by nearly two-years. Marvell announced its Moby reference design for the education and healthcare markets in the last few months. The Company has also launched Mobylize, a global campaign aimed at improving technology adoption in the world’s classrooms.

One of the most compelling practical applications of the Moby-based XO 3.0 is that it will make it possible for children, teachers, parents and communities around the world to access educational content that cannot be presented easily, or occasionally at all, in textbook form. The XO 3.0 will deliver a unique tablet experience that can support rich and engaging computing environments critical to a proper learning opportunity.

“While devices like eReaders and current tablets are terrific literary, media and entertainment platforms, they don’t meet the needs of an educational model based on making things, versus just consuming them. Today’s learning environments require robust platforms for computation, content creation and experimentation – and all that at a very low cost,” said Dr. Nicholas Negroponte, Founder and Chairman of One Laptop per Child. “Through our partnership with Marvell, OLPC will continue our focus on designing computers that enable children in the developing world to learn through collaboration, as well as providing connectivity to the world’s body of knowledge.”

“Marvell has made a long-term commitment to improving education and inspiring a revolution in the application of technology in the classroom. The Moby tablet platform – and our partnership with One Laptop per Child – represents our joint passion and commitment to give students the power to learn, create, connect and collaborate in entirely new ways,” said Weili Dai, Marvell’s Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of the Consumer and Computing Business Unit. “Marvell’s cutting edge technology – including live content, high quality video (1080p full-HD encode and code), high performance 3D graphics, Full Flash Internet and two-way teleconferencing-gives every student, regardless of learning style, the tools they need to grow and succeed. I am immensely proud of the capability of our Moby tablet and I am extremely honored to partner with the inventor of the netbook market for education, Dr. Nicholas Negroponte. I applaud his leadership, vision, passion and together we will make the world a better place.”

The new tablet computers from OLPC will feature video input, haptic feedback and multi-touch interfaces, as well as full USB support for traditional and non-traditional peripherals.

About the One Laptop per Child Foundation

The One Laptop per Child Foundation (OLPC at http://www.laptop.org) is a nonprofit organization created by Nicholas Negroponte and others from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are inexpensive enough to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. OLPC and MIT have at all times been and remain separate institutions.

About Marvell Moby Tablet Platform and Mobylize.org

Powered by a high-performance, highly scalable, and low-power Marvell ARMADA™ 610 application processor, the Moby tablet features gigahertz processor speed, 1080p full-HD encode and decode, intelligent power management, power-efficient Marvell 11n Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity, high performance 3D graphics and support for multiple software standards including full Adobe Flash, Android™, Windows Mobile and Ubuntu. The Moby platform also features a built–in camera for live video conferencing, multiple simultaneous viewing screens and Marvell’s 11n Mobile Hotspot which allows Wi-Fi access that supports up to eight concurrent users connected to the Internet via a cellular broadband connection. The ultra low power mobile tablet is expressly for long-battery life. For more information, visit www.mobylize.org.

About Marvell

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a world leader in the development of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions. The company’s diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the terms “company” and “Marvell” refer to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit http://www.marvell.com.

Instead of Android, Kumar believes, RIM will use their own BlackBerry OS; that tallies with what we heard yesterday about a compatible platform to the current smartphone line-up, and frankly sounds a lot more realistic than Google’s software.  As for hardware, the “BlackPad” (as the tablet is believed to be codenamed) has been tipped to use Marvell’s ARMADA processor, presumably the ARMADA 618 which we saw demonstrated back in February.

Marvell ARMADA 618 demo:

RIM are expected to prioritise similar functionality to their smartphones only with a bigger display to play with; that implies integrated 3G connectivity and an emphasis on messaging.  Quanta has been tipped as the hardware manufacturer.

Updated with official Marvell Moby MED image.

The Moby MED would be based on a Marvell 600 Series chipset, such as the ARMADA 618 we saw demonstrated at MWC 2010 a few months back.  The company were showing two potential setups, one simultaneously driving a PMP display and an HDMI connected 1080p HDTV, and the other having two LCD panels running independently.  Potential OSes include Windows Mobile and Android, complete with Flash support.

It’s unclear whether the Moby MED would have more than one display built-in, or if Marvell intend it to connect – either wired or wirelessly – to individual displays throughout, say, a hospital or clinic.  Unfortunately there’s no imagery of the reference design, nor a price; we’re guessing it’ll be higher than the roughly $99 tag suggested for the Moby.

[via Linux for Devices]

Press Release:

Marvell Drives ‘Telehealth’ Revolution with Moby MED — Always-On Medical Tablet

Healthcare-focused Tablets With Multiple Simultaneous Viewing Screens Including Video Conferencing and Live TV Allow Consumers to Manage Medical Records, Conduct Live Physician Consultations, View 3D Images and Sonograms, Collect Real-Time Data From Personal Monitoring Devices, Access Information From Online Sources, and More

Santa Clara (Apr 21, 2010) Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL) a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today announced a bold new healthcare initiative to drive high performance mobile tablets based on its leading silicon solutions. Marvell’s Moby MED initiative promises to give consumers much greater command over their own healthcare and proactive wellness information and decisions. The Moby MED tablet platform is an always-on, high performance multimedia reference design featuring live, real-time content, 1080p full-HD, 3D capabilities, and full Flash Internet. Marvell’s Moby MED tablet platform is designed to allow physicians to consult with patients remotely in real-time, allow consumers to manage their own health histories in a highly-secure, encrypted environment, make it possible to send and read high-resolution diagnostic imagery, and give consumers access to online medical information in a light-weight, long-running device.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070411/SFW034LOGO)

“Passage of the National Healthcare Reform bill was only the beginning. We as individuals now must take much more responsibility for our healthcare and wellness decisions — including connecting with personal physicians and proactively managing our private health histories. I believe the Marvell Moby MED tablet platform will empower patients to take proactive control of their healthcare, and will enable doctors to save more lives,” said Weili Dai, Marvell’s Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor’s Consumer and Computing Business Unit. “I believe the Moby MED solution could ignite a telehealth revolution in America. The Moby MED tablet platform features a built–in camera for live video conferencing and multiple simultaneous viewing screens allowing patients — no matter where they are in the world — to have real-time consultation with a physician while examining an x-ray image, referencing an online medical encyclopedia and order a prescription from a nearby pharmacy. The Moby MED tablet platform provides everything needed in a mobile medical tablet – from keeping track of blood pressure rates, glucose levels and other vital data to serving as a virtual medical station in remote parts of the world. With the Moby MED, doctors could once again make house calls—without leaving the office—and provide a much higher, more personalized quality of care.”

Marvell’s Moby MED tablet platform will also help deliver on a US “telehealth” strategy as recently defined in the Federal Communications Commission’s national broadband plan. The FCC’s national broadband strategy contains a 25-page chapter on telehealth, and calls upon the Department of Health and Human Services to make “e-care” projects a top priority. As part of the plan, clinics, hospitals and doctors’ offices will be encouraged to put health records into a secure database that can be remotely accessed by patients and their authorized care givers. In addition to saving lives, video consultation and other telehealth techniques can save money by giving facilities remote access to world-class specialists.

National adoption of electronic health records systems accessible from devices powered by the Moby MED tablet platform can save more lives by alerting physicians and patients of dangerous drug allergies and drug interactions when prescriptions are written. According to one study cited by the FCC report, these alerts alone could result in a net savings of as much as $371 billion for hospitals and $142 billion for physicians over the next 15 years.

Launch of the Moby MED tablet platform comes just weeks after Marvell announced its breakthrough reference design for a $99 Moby tablet (read more) aimed at powering affordable mobile tablets for the world’s two billion students. The high performance, low cost reference design concept has rapidly captured worldwide interest from publishers, educators and governments looking to replace today’s outdated and expensive printed textbooks.

About the Marvell Moby MED Tablet Platform

Specifically designed for healthcare, the Marvell Moby MED tablet platform drives development of high-performance low-power medical tablets with a built–in camera for live video conferencing and multiple simultaneous liquid crystal display (LCD) or electronic paper display (EPD) viewing screens for convenient viewing of information.

Powered by a high-performance, highly scalable, and low-power Marvell® ARMADA™ 600 series of application processors, the Moby MED tablet platform features gigahertz processor speed, 1080p full-HD encode and decode, intelligent power management, power-efficient Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity, 3D graphics capability and support for multiple software standards including full Adobe Flash, Android™ and Windows Mobile.

Optional platform features include Marvell’s leading storage and wireless solutions such as embedded MMC, which is a handheld device optimized SSD-type technology, and Marvell Mobile Hotspot which allows Wi-Fi access that supports up to eight concurrent users connected to the Internet via a cellular broadband connection.

The device they showed off is just a prototype, and it wasn’t working on a production-based shell, but the word around the block is that it’s (expected to be) really fast. Based on the ARM Armada processor, the tablet would be able to playback 1080p video and not take a significant hit to the battery life. (Which is a good thing.) Sadly, the version of Android running on the test device at the summit was 1.6, and not 2.1 (or even 2.0.1). While it’s still early obviously, this would probably change by the time the finished product hit store shelves.

Just like the iPad, this unnamed prototype is aimed at publishers. eReaders that can display the text on screen with color instead of E-Ink is becoming a hot topic, plus the tablet can play video. Yes, we’re all for the revolution of eReaders (not that the Kindle, nook, or other E-Ink eReaders are bad, mind you), so bring on the competition. But, we should note that the semiconductor company, Marvell, isn’t making the tablets themselves. No, they’ll be manufactured by another company. And the finished product is meant to see shelves later this year, and hopefully it will see a price under the $499 minimum for Apple’s tablet. As soon as we hear more, we’ll be sure to pass it along. Then again, you could always look at the Notion Ink Adam. Sexy, right?

[via Technologizer]

Tablets are an obvious choice – and I’ve made no bones about my love of the platform – with NVIDIA’s second-gen Tegra already picked for Notion Ink’s slate and various other companies showing off prototypes or shipping tablets built on their offerings. Their frugality also makes them equally at home in smartphones, and of course chipsets like Snapdragon have already found their place in smartbooks such as HP Compaq’s Airlife 100.

Drilling down, though, what’s possible now that we couldn’t necessarily do before? Dual-display devices are shipping in a limited way already – Barnes & Noble’s nook is on shelves, and Entourage’s eDGe should arrive with preorder customers imminently – but the breadth of their flexibility is pared down. Most if not all of the new chipsets discussed at MWC can support high-resolution output to at least two panels simultaneously; something like TI’s OMAP4 can drive dual on-device screens while pumping out 1080p HD via an HDMI in fact.

Texas Instruments OMAP4 demo:

So, how about two displays – let’s make them low-power, using a 10-inch Pixel Qi panel or a 5.6-inch mirasol one – in a clamshell, book-style form factor, similar to what MSI and others have mocked up in recent months. Those touchscreen netbook concepts have generally run Intel’s Atom platform, but with the latest ARM chipsets they could have better multimedia prowess, longer battery life and the same sort of internet flexibility as the x86 chip. They can also be smaller; I’m picturing something similar to a paperback novel, maybe with a hinge that opens wide enough to stand the device up in landscape orientation for hands-free video watching. Given the chipsets can crunch more megapixels than mobile-sized CMOS sensors have to offer, we’ll throw a high-resolution camera with 1080p HD recording in there too; something like the OMAP4 can simultaneously encode Full HD and a lower-resolution, 3G-friendly stream for livecasting.

Since ubiquitous connectivity – kicking off from WiFi and Bluetooth, and of course migrating up through 3G and 4G technologies like WiMAX and LTE – is a given, there’d be no question about making voice-calls (either traditionally or VoIP, and perhaps using a Bluetooth headset or speakerphone) or supporting push-email and real-time social networking updates from Facebook, Twitter and others. Where the true game changer would occur is in removing the battery worry; imagine not having to ration out your usage during the day, safe in the knowledge that you have hour after hour ahead of you. I’d take some sort of inductive charging cradle, perhaps with an HDMI output, for opportune top-ups, but every chipset firm is promising more HD video playback (from a standard smartphone battery) than you could feasibly watch during a single day.

An always-on device should play nicely with the other gadgets you have around you, and that means streamlining ad-hoc pairing and cleverly managing what information gets presented at what time. We’ve seen some companies – such as Motorola with MOTOBLUR – try to do the latter already, but smartphones lack the processing grunt to bring true intelligence to the issue. In my opinion a successful mobile device doesn’t just replicate the desktop experience, mainly because it’s intended to span different contexts; instead, it translates information to suit the user’s situation. Next-gen chipsets are powerful enough to take sensor input from the real world – look, say, at TI’s gesture recognition research, which uses a basic webcam to track hand-movements – and understand the context a user is in, filtering information accordingly. If I’m driving (something that could be worked out from GPS speed, tracking my hands on the wheel, or various other sensor inputs) then the device would know to prioritise only calls and messages from the core group of contacts its seen me communicate regularly with, perhaps making an exception for those people geographically nearby just in case I’m planning on visiting them.

Texas Instruments gesture recognition:

How about gaming? The iPhone 3GS has gained quite a reputation for itself as a decent mobile gaming platform, thanks in no small part to its PowerVR SGX graphics chipset, but our imaginary dual-display device could blow it out the water. Like the Nintendo DSi – only with bigger screens than even the new DSi XL – you could have dual displays for more complex gaming setups; or, since the next-gen chipsets are happy driving different content and running various high-performance apps simultaneously, play games on one screen while monitoring email, browser and other more typical smartphone tasks on the other. Alternatively, how does plugging in an HDTV via HDMI sound, putting your gaming on a big screen? We’re talking graphics capabilities potential on a par with an Xbox 360 or PS3.

We’re approaching a tipping-point where power management, connectivity, software and – most importantly – user imagination and expectations are promising to coalesce and kick the next generation of mobile devices up another level of functionality. Of course, not everybody wants the same degree of convergence I’ve described, but the key factor is that it’s possible and with less compromise than is necessary right now. You don’t have to be an avid gamer to recognise the potential of a chipset that can crunch polygons without breaking its stride, just like you don’t have to be a heavy-duty social network addict to appreciate a device that’s intelligent enough to tailor its alerts to what’s going on around it. The sort of smarts in that sort of device will be enough to make today’s so-called smartphones look dumb indeed.

Marvell ARMADA 618 demo:

Of course, tablets are not a new invention, and you could forgive those people who have been carrying the pen-computing banner since Windows XP Tablet Edition (and before) for harbouring a little resentment at all this late-to-the-party interest. When Steve Jobs produced the iPad-tailored version of iWork with a flourish, and declared the suite an “amazing”, “extraordinary”, “tremendous” new way to work on a mobile touchscreen device, it’s hard not to imagine the frustration over at Microsoft; after all, tablets running their OSes have had access not just to shaved-down demi-versions of Office, but to the full apps.

So, to see broad applause for something so basic in comparison must be galling for Redmond. Like other platforms Microsoft has attempted before, it seems that their attempt on the market may have come a few years too soon; today’s low-power silicon no longer has a gap in-between lacklustre ARM chips and decent (but power hungry) mainstream notebook CPUs. HD graphics and broad connectivity are both possible without sacrificing battery life. Ironic, then, that those devices culling most interest are pretty much web-slates rather than fully-functional Tablet PCs; if Microsoft had known that was where the interest lay, how much further would their tablet ambitions have progressed?

As I wrote before, in the aftermath of CES, it’s unlikely any one tablet will satisfy the whole market. The iPad launch, while certainly historic for the number of people who joined our live-blog, met with some degree of disappointment from the geek audience normally so enthused about Apple. Still, cleverer men than I reckon it’ll be a success among a greater – though quieter – majority, enthralled by the simplicity of the UI, consistency with the established iPhone/iPod touch paradigm and gloss of the Apple hardware.

The geeks, then, are forced to look elsewhere. Do I need Flash support in my tablet? Perhaps not; but I’m reluctant to sign up to a platform where what I can and can’t run is so tightly controlled. Apple’s iPod may have swept the floor with the PMP competition, and its iPhone arguably revolutionised the touchscreen smartphone segment, but I’ve a feeling the iPad will only open the door to mainstream awareness of larger-scale touchscreen computing, not necessarily dominate it. Speaking to an exec from Freescale in Barcelona this past week, he reported a dramatic upswing in interest in their own tablet reference design in the aftermath of the iPad announcement: rival companies are counting on Apple to pave the way in mind-share, but view it as an opportunity for their own growth.

It won’t be an instantaneous thing; Tegra 2 tablets won’t arrive for another few months (Notion Ink‘s Adam is suggested for Q3 this year) for instance, and the timescales for other chipset manufacturers seem similar. We’ll undoubtedly see more designs and hear more about launch intentions at CeBIT next month, but it’ll be a little longer before you can open your wallet. Apple’s iPad, meanwhile, should go on sale in late March; a premium device, certainly, and not one suited to the ambitions of every touchscreen-lusting geek, but definitely a weathervane about which we can judge whether the market intends to put its money where its mouth is. The “third screen” paradigm is a well-discussed one, but it remains to be seen whether users will really spend on intermediary devices that slot in-between smartphone and notebook.

Each device was running a benchmarking demo video on the main unit, and playing video on the second panel.  The 1080p HD feed was smooth and jitter-free, but according to Marvell the main 1GHz CPU isn’t under stress; that means you can continue using the device for other things even during high-resolution playback.

We asked the Marvell team what differentiated the ARMADA 618 from NVIDIA’s second-gen Tegra or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon.  According to them, the 618 is more efficient and directly suited to smartphones than the NVIDIA platform; however unlike Snapdragon the 618 has direct Blu-ray bitstream playback, and if you had suitable drivers you could apparently plug in a Blu-ray drive and begin playing back footage from your smartphone.

Products based on the Marvell ARMADA 618 are expected to hit the market by the end of 2010.

ARMADA 618 packages together support for Android, Windows Mobile and Linux, meanwhile, and throws in DirectX, Open GL ES 2.0, and Open VG 1.1 functionality and the ability to render up to 45 million triangles per second.  Each of the four displays can be driven at up to 2k x 2k resolution, and there’s support for USB 2.0 (both OTG and Host), various types of connectivity (including WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0 and FM), and of course 3G.

As for the Pantheon platform, that’s obviously a little less potent but is still, Marvell reckon, capable of Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM connectivity, live HD quality video and high performance 3D mobile gaming, with long battery life to boot.  The company will be demonstrating it – and ARMADA 618 – at Mobile World Congress next week.

Press Release:

Marvell Drives $99 Smartphones to Market with New Pantheon Platform

Pantheon-Powered Smartphones Support Android, Windows Mobile, and
Other Leading Operating Systems

Santa Clara, California (February 12, 2010) — Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL), a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today reinforced its leadership position in processing, analog, communications, and multimedia technology by announcing a new platform for smartphone manufacturers: the Pantheon™ platforms. The new platforms are designed to provide breakthrough levels of integration that inherently lower the bill of materials for mobile devices while offering consumers excellent performance, connectivity, and compelling user experience.

“Marvell is delivering the platform for a $99 smartphone that provides instant access, live content, high performance 3D mobile gaming, rich HD media and a wealth of applications. That is what today’s ‘always-on consumers’ want,” said Ms. Weili Dai, Marvell’s Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor’s Consumer and Computing Business Unit. “Marvell’s versatile platform solutions have been making high-volume smartphones more powerful, functional and affordable for more than a decade. The new generation of platforms we are shipping today offer higher performance and greater integration of onboard functionality—which lowers the manufacturing costs and makes the mass market $99 smartphone very real.”

The Pantheon platform incorporates Marvell’s advanced modem technology, seamless wireless connectivity, and superior multimedia processing to enable superior mobile Internet experiences. Pantheon-powered smartphones deliver high-quality consumer experiences that are designed to include rich user interfaces; instant live HD quality video; high performance 3D mobile gaming; extended music playback; other popular handset applications; and long battery life.

Pantheon solutions include powerful application processors, field-hardened cellular modems, radio frequency devices, intelligent power management, power-efficient Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM connectivity and the software and system expertise needed to bring new features to market more quickly. The Marvell Pantheon platforms are currently sampling to top tier customers. Pricing is available upon request.

Marvell at MWC
Marvell’s latest technologies will be showcased at MWC in Barcelona. Customers and press can come by the Marvell booth for demonstrations at the Courtyard 18 location.

About Pantheon Platforms
The Pantheon platforms reflect an architectural evolution of Marvell’s field-proven tri-core architecture solution. Built from the ground-up to deliver extremely cost effective, high performance highly integrated systems, the Pantheon platforms have over 800Mhz dedicated ARM compliant application processors, dual ARM and DSP processors for modem functionality, 720p video, over 20 million triangles, DirectX, Open GL ES 2.0 compliant 3D graphics, MIPI compliant camera, RF interfaces, and support for Android™, Windows Mobile™ and other leading operating systems (OS).

About Marvell
Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a world leader in the development of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions. The company’s diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the terms “company” and “Marvell” refer to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit http://www.marvell.com?c=1.

““`
Marvell Drives Live Content, Multimedia, and High-end Mobile Gaming for Smartphones

New ARMADA 618 Application Processor Powers Next-Generation Smartphones with Gigahertz-Class CPU, Integrated 1080p Full-HD, and Exceptional 3D capabilities

Santa Clara, California (February 11, 2010) — Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL), a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today announced the newest addition to the ARMADA™ family of application processors – the Marvell® ARMADA 618 for next generation HD-capable smartphones. Characteristic of the ARMADA family of application processors, the ARMADA 618 offers a CPU core with PC-class performance, integrated 1080p full-HD encode and decode, and exceptional 3D graphics – delivering a highly scalable and power optimized platform that is designed to fuel high-end applications, rich multimedia and gaming experience in a lightweight form factor with very low power requirements.

“Featuring a gigahertz CPU, 1080p full-HD video, 3D graphics, the industry’s fastest LP-DDR, and optimized power for longer battery life, Marvell’s ARMADA 618 application processor represents a dramatic leap forward in high end, multimedia smartphones,” said Ms. Weili Dai, Marvell’s Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor’s Consumer and Computing Business Unit. “Importantly, the ARMADA 600 series of application processors gives our customers a common platform solution to build multiple products and formats for the always-on consumer–scaling from smartphones to eReaders to tablets without compromising either the multimedia performance or the battery life”

About ARMADA 618
The ARMADA 618 is based on a Marvell-designed ARM v7 compatible CPU offering gigahertz-class performance in a 12mm x 12mm package. It offers the flexibility to use LP-DDR1 or LP-DDR2 memory up to 533 MHz, a highly flexible display controller capable of four simultaneous displays at up to 2K x 2K resolution, and a highly robust security subsystem that includes a secure execution processor. In addition, it features a powerful 3D graphics engine that supports DirectX, Open GL ES 2.0, and Open VG 1.1, rendering up to 45 million triangles per second with a complete floating point pipeline and unified vertex and fragment/pixel shading, generating contrast-rich scenes with high-definition resolution and color. ARMADA 618 supports Linux, Android™, Windows Mobile, and full Adobe Flash.
Availability

The ARMADA 618 will be demonstrated at the Marvell Booth (Courtyard 18) at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain next week. The ARMADA 618 is currently sampling to early customers. For more information please contact a sales representative or visit www.marvell.com.

About Marvell
Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a world leader in the development of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions. The company’s diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the terms “company” and “Marvell” refer to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit http://www.marvell.com?c=1.

It’s the more comprehensive sibling to the standard GuruPlug Server, which gets two USB 2.0 ports and a single ethernet connection, as well as no memory card slot.  Both have a 1.2GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and various tinker-friendly ports.

The Globalscale GuruPlug Server Plus is available for preorder now, at $129, with deliveries expected to take place from April 2010.  As for the basic GuruPlug Server, that’s $99 and will also begin shipping in April.

[via Hack a Day]

Video demo after the cut

In case you’ve forgotten, the SheevaPlug is a capable little server stuck inside a wall-wart AC adapter sized casing, with a USB port and ethernet connection.  Announced last February – and since updated with a new, more powerful version at CES 2010 earlier this month – it uses a fraction of the power of a full-sized server but is entirely sufficient for handling VoIP calls, number-prompt screening systems, intelligent diverts and voicemail-as-email.

The SheevaPlug itself is around $99 and PlugPBX is free and reasonably straightforward to install.  Once that’s done, you’re free to play around with either just the basic functionality – routing calls over the internet to save money on your regular landline provider – or go for more complex systems; one we’re pretty impressed by is adding a Bluetooth dongle to track whether your cellphone is at home or not, re-routing incoming calls to that number if you’re away from home.  More details in the video below.

[via Hack a Day]

Video demo after the cut

Like the eDGe, the Astri device – which appears to be called the MID, or My Interactive Device, just to confuse things – is targeted at the education market.  It’s based on an unspecified Marvell chipset (in fact was on display at the Marvell booth) and is currently a reference design being shopped around to OEM/ODM customers.

Basically, you can read ebooks and other documentation on the E Ink panel, making annotations and notes with the Wacom active digitizer, while navigating the Android LCD display on the other side for web access, multimedia and email/IM.  No final word on connectivity, but this is a far more portable device than other similar form-factors we’ve seen.

[via ARMdevices]

The above image was discovered in a dark corner at Marvell’s stand, accompanied by a spec sheet.  According to that, the chumby sunfury will have a 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen with WiFi b/g and optional 3G.  There are also stereo speakers and – like the existing, smaller chumby models – the device will boot from a microSD card for easy hacking.

Also wide open for modification are the apparent optional video camera input, 3-axis accelerometer and expandable I/O option card.  Both 800MHz and 1.2GHz versions are promised, which a little sleuthing suggests are from the Marvell PXA168 processor range, while RAM is either 128MB or 256MB.  The usual chumby widget platform – which Sony are also using – means support for YouTube, Pandora, Flickr and Facebook widgets, while native video support includes MOV, H.264, AVI, MJPEG, MPEG-4 and MP4.  You can also use it to display photos and media streamed from across your network.

No word on price, availability or anything else, but the fact that a lot of these specifications are shared with the Sony Dash suggests chumby might be developing it more as a platform for licensing out rather than an own-brand product.