The OMAP44xx choice, Notion Ink says, has benefits on performance, multimedia playback and even the range of non-traditional tablet tasks users might through at the new slate. The PowerVR SGX5xx GPU paired with the chipset will, along with Notion Ink’s own software architecture, mean Adam II can turn its hand to being “a logic analyzer, medical imaging device, signal acquisition and processing, 3D modeling and multi-media [device].”

TI’s Wi-Link 7.0 - which pulls WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and FM transmit/receive into a single chipset – and Phoenix Audio Power Amplifiers will also be included.

As for the software, Adam II will rely on Notion Ink’s own “Modular Based Software Architecture” which will apparently allow for apps to take advantage of hardware features in a drag-&-drop environment. That, the company reckons, should mean non-programmers will able to create their own custom apps and games:

“Adam II will release the world’s first Modular Based Software Architecture which will further expand the scope of application development and use nearly every single hardware feature in a “user customizable” application. Drag and drop features will enable easy application modification and Open Source Module will further expand the use cases and tablet deployment. Node operations like in Blender, and “Application Authoring Tools” are primarily aimed at non-programmers for composing applications, games and use-case flows in a drag-and-drop fashion, utilizing visual editors and behavior-based logic system” Notion Ink

The tablet market has been a baptism by fire for Notion Ink, with the company’s ambitious first-generation plans giving them lessons – often painful – in how to handle excessive customer demand, aftersales care, hardware returns and more. Still, with none of the Android tablet manufacturers yet conclusively challenging Apple’s iPad, we’d like to think there was still space for an imaginative alternative to the all-conquering iOS slate.

No word on when we might see the Notion Ink Adam II launch; the company has said it plans to be a little more circumspect with its public promises so as not to overhype the new model.

[via Android Community]

TI’s targets include TVs, fridges, HVAC systems, printers, energy meters and more, each of which could be persuaded to share their data in a way that might better allow users to monitor and control how technology plays a role in their lives. Although low-power WiFi chipsets are already available, the CC3000 is appealing because TI has done most of the hardware already: no display for setup is required, it can be integrated “within hours” to existing hardware, has minimal microprocessor demands and needs no specific OS.

As Texas Instruments’ video below suggests, everything from bikes to dishwashers and industrial equipment could end up talking to you via your smartphone or tablet, or indeed to each other, using standard WiFi with the promise of whole-house range. It’s a gleeful idea for home automation enthusiasts; now we just have to see which vendors pick up TI’s chip.

A TI SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 FRAM evaluation module kit is available from today, priced at $199, for those keen to integrate the chipset into their hardware.

This tablet is not the thinnest in the world, nor is it the sleekest in any way, but it is light. And it does not feel fragile in the least bit, that’s for sure. It runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb out of the box, and is powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP4430 1GHz dual-core processor. The display is 1280 x 800 pixels strong and it does seem to be, in general, a pretty OK tablet.

What you’re going to see in the hands-on video here is that this tablet runs a stock version of Honeycomb and has a collection of apps so strange it’ll make your head spin. Of course this version is the NTT Docomo iteration, that meaning it’s got carrier-added apps we (and I mean I) have never heard of before. When this device is released in the USA, expect it to have LTE speeds on AT&T. That’s not confirmed, but if I was a betting man, I’d bet on that.

See that little square dot? That’s TI’s next generation temperature sensor, sitting next to the old model and the CES award it won the company. 

But what really stands out in the TMP006 chip, is its ability to measure temperature outside the device. This is a first for mobile devices, and is will undoubtedly be included in future smartphones and tablets. The sensor was extremely sensitive; even when holding your hand close to it a change in temperature was noticed and calculated. It even picked up a temperature change when aiming it towards a window 8 feet away.

The sensors are extremely small at 1.6mm x 1.6mm, so they won’t bulk up any device that adopts the technology. The IR signal can easily pass through practically any plastic, so there are very few obstacles manufacturers will have to cross. A single TMP006 chip is now available for $1.50 each, in 1,000 unit quantities; the perfect price for kickstarting the chip into mass production.

Piezo drivers allow for both a greater frequency (i. e. a more powerful buzz) and a greater range of vibration control, giving developers and OEMs more options when it comes to haptic interaction. In addition to standard whole-device vibration, the new piezo motor combines with extension points below a device’s screen to selectively restrict the feedback to the screen only. In effect, this makes the user “feel” like the vibration effect happens only on the point touched. Truly selective haptic feedback with multiple point tracking is still a few years away.

Texas Instruments’ DRV8662 haptic feedback driver delivers a more powerful “buzz” with a lower power drain than its contemporaries, though not as low as some of the admittedly weaker actuating feedback units. The first consumer device to use this piezo driver is Pantech’s new Element tablet, which recently launched on AT&T.

The games and applications running on TI’s development tablets were displayed, and included very impressive gaming performance.Framerates and definition were noticeably smoother, even on the relatively simple animation demonstration. On the TI 4460 (the same processor in the Galaxy Nexus and various other high-end smartphones and tablets) got about 24 frames per second, while the new 44670 got a solid 42. Mobile hardware with the new chipset should start appearing sometime in late Q2 2012.

Various software demonstrations from TI’s software partners demonstrated the flexibility of its APIs. A gesture-based cookbook reader (so you don’t have to touch the tablet with dirty hands) was particularly effective, and the same technology was used for a controlling a monster tuck game without touching hardware. A WiFi Direct demonstration beamed 1080p video to a TV module while still having full access to Android’s tablet interface on the host machine, allowing for true single-device multitasking (AKA couch surfing). We’ll look forward to seeing what TI OMAP 5 has to offer in the next generation, which promises to be an even more dramatic improvement.

The C6000 Jacinto processor includes dedicated 3D graphics accelerators along with video co-processors supporting full 1080p HD video playback and streaming, graphics, and user interfaces. The processor integrates a digital signal processor (DSP) that enables OEMs to add real-time audio, radio, speech, and other applications.

The OMAP processors feature a smart multicore architecture, allowing for high performance and low power consumption. They can display information and multimedia in real time as well as handle several applications running at the same time.

The WiLink 7.0 and BlueLink 7.0 solutions combine WiFi and Bluetooth technologies for true mulitasking, allowing multiple devices to connect at the same time without interference. And to manage this entire solution, TI offers a QNX-based software ecosystem with the new QNX CAR 2 application platform.

[via TI]

Together, TI says, it’s enough for “fast and fluid multitasking in Windows 8 while maintaining ultra-low power consumption”, something particularly important when you want to take on Android and iOS based tablets that can last all day on a charge.

The OMAP4470 also includes M-Shield mobile security, a separate hardware-managed encryption system. That can be relied on to create a trusted execution environment (TEE) without taking up cycles in the primary OMAP4470 cores.

It’s not just tablets TI has in its sights, however. The company is also pushing its ARM-based OMAP4470 as an alternative to AMD and Intel x86 processors in notebooks and desktops. We’ll know more when we can check out the Windows 8 demo board first-hand.

Since you can’t exactly jab your fingers at your TV, a nine-button remote does duty for controlling the interface. There’s also Android’s voice-to-text for dictating emails, URLs and more. Squeezed into the remote is an accelerometer, for motion-controlled gaming, and you can reach around the back of your TV and tap your phone against the HDMI Dongle as it has an NFC chip too.

Streaming Netflix, Hulu and other video-on-demand services is the obvious use, but big-screen browsing and other multimedia playback are also on the cards. Android’s selection of gaming apps is increasing all the time, and the HDMI Dongle should have the grunt to keep up with most current titles.

Unfortunately, Always Innovating seems to have learnt from its struggles with the Touch Book hybrid tablet and has decided not to offer the HDMI Dongle directly. Instead, it will be licensing the design to others, with the first such example expected to go on sale this coming summer. Whether it will look exactly like this remains to be seen, though; Always Innovating is positioning the guts of the dongle as ideal for powering a tablet, too. The promise is that it will all be open-source, too.

Pricing is expected to be in the region of $79 upwards.

[via Engadget]

By that time we expect Toshiba to once again be in the same boat – with a tablet that on its own is certainly worth the cash that a person dropped on it, but compared to the rest of the current Android tablet lineup just does not compete. Even though this tablet will still be 7.7mm thin, will have a 5 megapixel camera on the back, a 2 megapixel camera on the front, and will of course have a 16GB and a 32GB option, will certainly be shut out by such masterpieces as the Asus Transformer Prime. A brighter screen, twice as powerful a processor, and two color choices to boot? I think so, yes.

That said, the OMAP4 is certainly nothing to scoff at, and this unit does look quite enticing to the eye with its stark aluminum silvery back and its microSD card slot, not to mention its miniHDMI-out port. Like the original Toshiba Android tablet, we’ll certainly have a few options for connections. With a market of consumers looking to get the tablet that suits them perfectly, it’ll be the people who trust the name TOSHIBA that pick this bad boy up — other than that, those who love things that are SHINY.

[via Toshiba]

Qualcomm is believed to have picked Samsung and Sony, with the Korean company’s strengths in component manufacturing – including displays, memory and other elements – singling it out for attention, along with the fact that it already has a solid presence in the tablet market. Texas Instruments selected Toshiba as well as also opting for Samsung.

Finally, NVIDIA is said to have gone for Lenovo and Acer, with Lenovo selected as major partner for its heft in the Chinese market. Conspicuous by its absence is ASUS, despite the fact that the company is already believed to be working on Windows 8 tablets – albeit likely using x86 processors, not ARM-based chipsets – for release in the second half of 2012.

Exactly how soon we can expect to see ARM-based products from any of these companies remains to be seen, however. According to previous leaks, Windows 8 on ARM tablets aren’t likely to go on sale until mid-2013, a delay analysts are already suggesting will leave Microsoft significantly disadvantaged up against the iPad and Android-based slates.

When consumers predominantly look at a tick-list of specs, generally with the mindset that “more = better”, how do you get past the immediate assumption that four cores in one phone or tablet are automatically better than two cores in another phone or tablet? It’s a question we’ve asked chipset manufacturers like Texas Instruments – another firm that has shifted to A15 rather than increase the number of A9s in its chips – before, and they generally dodge it, arguing that’s something the brands using the chips in devices are are skilled at.

Samsung, though, makes both the chips and much of the hardware that those chips end up in: it can’t avoid the marketing challenge. The company’s press release this morning did make a vague effort to put the spec improvements into context, hitting on the 2560 x 1600 resolution and stereoscopic 3D support though not with any great gusto. That’s perhaps to be expected from the semiconductor department, but unfortunately most product manufacturers aren’t doing much better either. This reluctance, laziness or inability to tell would-be users why they should care is increasingly going to bite those pushing tablets and smartphones.

The chipset world is split in how it sees next-gen mobile processors taking shape. NVIDIA has thrown itself into the more-core approach, doubling up but keeping the same A9 architecture as it shifts from Tegra 2 to Tegra 3. Texas Instruments has taken the opposite approach, sticking with a pair of cores but shifting to ARM Cortex A15 architecture for a complimentary boost in power. Qualcomm, meanwhile, is hovering in-between: it designs its own chips, licensing the core tech from ARM but tweaking as it sees fit. The custom Krait cores in the Snapdragon S4 series, therefore, will have roughly the performance of an A15 but use significantly less power than either it or indeed an A9, or so Qualcomm tells us.

A good rule of thumb is to look at what Apple is doing, though of course the Cupertino crowd has followed a vastly different strategy with its phones and tablets. An oft-highlighted difference is the fact that Apple hardly ever talks about raw specifications, focusing instead on the experience. The iPad 2 has a dual-core chip, Apple points out, but that’s so that “multitasking is smooth, apps load quickly, and anything you touch responds instantly”; similarly, the graphic chip is faster not just because that looks better on the spec sheet, but so that games and menus are “even more fluid and realistic.”

However, Apple in effect has its tablet and smartphone markets to itself: nobody else makes an iOS-based “iPad” or “iPhone”, whereas Samsung, ASUS, Acer, Motorola and the rest all make Android tablets and phones. In their rush to compete, they’ve all set the benchmark for “success” at being faster/more powerful/more-packed-with-cores. Android Tablet A is 0.23% faster than Android Tablet B, so it is A Better Device.

General consumers don’t understand why that might be the case, however, so they’re forced to translate the specs as best they can. Until now, the tablet market outside of the iPad has predominantly revolved around NVIDIA’s Tegra 2, but that’s increasingly going to diverge as the next-gen chipsets arrive. Context is something that will play a huge role as each manufacturer justifies their choice of processor.

Their challenge is arguably the consumers’ gain: instead of being picked on price, or which has the skinniest chassis (but probably the same specs inside as everything else), or a color option that matches your suit, brands will be forced to explain why buyers should care rather than simply throw a long list of specifications at them. It could even result in a net benefit for manufacturers, too, a refinement in positioning opening up new niches for iPad rivals and allowing them greater space to flourish.

Samsung, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Texas Instruments have convinced us that there’ll be no shortage of power in the next-gen phones and tablets. Now the industry needs to raise its game in how it dresses that power with something even more important to end-users: context. Without that, every mobile device not wearing an Apple logo is likely to struggle to find its feet in an increasingly impatient marketplace.

The Galaxy Nexus will be available by the end of 2011 running Verizon’s speedy 4G LTE network and will be working at what Verizon says is 5 to 12 megabits per second with upload speeds at 2 to 5 megabits per second in LTE coverage areas across the USA. This device will feature a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display at 1280 x 720 pixel resolution and will have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor from Texas Instruments, the OMAP 4, with 1GB of RAM to back it up. There’s a 5-megapixel camera on the back capable of 1080p full HD video capture, a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front for video chat, and NFC inside for all your Near Field Communications needs.

You’ll also be able to enjoy such Ice Cream Sandwich features as Android Beam which uses NFC to share web pages, apps, and other media with just a tap of your phone to another NFC Ice Cream Sandwich phone, and all your favorite Google apps will be inside – including a whole newly designed Google+ app. Take a look at our hands-on with the Galaxy Nexus and our hands-on with Ice Cream Sandwich both in these links and in the videos below, and get prepared for some awesome Verizon action in the near future!

Ice Cream Sandwich hands-on demo

Galaxy Nexus Hands-on:

The RAZR is two things at once: the thinnest 4G LTE smartphone on the market at 7.1mm at its thinnest point, and it’s got several factors at play that make it tough enough to withstand AT LEAST your everyday rough and tumble usage. The RAZR has Corning Gorilla Glass on the front, KEVLAR along the back the device, diamond-cut aluminum accents for the rest, and a splash-guard coating across the entirety of the device, even the electrical boards inside, so that if you get dashed by an angry critic or you pull the RAZR out during some sprinkling rain, you’ll be just fine. Of course you shouldn’t dunk the device in your bathtub, as this device isn’t completely protected against foolishness, but for ordinary occurrences like the device jumping out of your hands onto some concrete pavement, you’ll be perfectly fine. Even the inside is what Motorola calls a “precision machined stainless steel core.” Good LUCK busting this one.

This invulnerability comes into sharp focus when you consider how thin this device is. Where the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Nexus are thinner across their widest points, this device does have the thinnest thin profile on a smartphone today – it’s just the part at the top where the camera is that makes this device fat. And here’s the thing about that: the swoop on up to the top of this device makes for a really excellent contrasting look compared to the rest of the Motorola line of smartphones. If you look at the device from the front, it looks rather similar to the ELECTRIFY and the upcoming XOOM that we’re not supposed to have seen yet, but from the side and back you’ll find a smartphone that’s entirely unique and absolutely refreshing.

The battery isn’t removable, but since its a gigantic 1780mAh, who the heck cares, and there is a slot for both SIM card and microSD card along the side, 8 megapixel camera on the back, 1.3 megapixel camera on the front, and both 1GB of RAM and 16 GB of RAM on the inside, with a 16 GB microSD card pre-installed. The cameras work really well from what I’ve seen thus far, definitely not repeating what we’ve seen with the BIONIC — have a look at a tiny video I filmed with the RAZR here:

Looks good, don’t it? Any frame of that video would be good enough to chop out and use as a dandy photo. So what’s there to say that’s bad about this device? The user interface isn’t my favorite. If I had to choose a UI that wasn’t vanilla Android, Motorola’s vision wouldn’t be on top of the list. Two: this device is locked per Verizon’s request, it seems, with the software actually having the ability to be unlocked and indeed the Motorola RAZR version of this device (international name) being unlockable, it is only here in the states that we won’t be able to do any real hacking. And yes, there is an e-fuse installed on this device.

So why would I choose this device over any other comparable device out there today? Because its strong enough to survive anything I throw at it, because I can replace the user interface with ADW Launcher EX if I really want to, and because both the camera and the connection (4G LTE) are top-notch. Also there’s a perfectly legit dual-core processor sitting inside at 1.2GHz that’s nothing to scoff at. When you put all these piece together and wrap them up in one of the most appealing chassis designs on the market today, you have a winner in my book. I use smartphones to take photos for projects on SlashGear such as my ongoing exploration of Target, for my pet project Insane Overload which incidentally has a lot of photos from my trip to NYC where I first saw the RAZR, and for email and games, both of which can be handled VERY readily by this device.

Oh, and it’s the first device to play Netflix at full HD right out of the box – and it’s got HDMI output to 1080p – and it has Motorola’s Webtop interface optimized with Firefox, which I WILL use. AND it has one of the greatest code-named in the world: Spyder. So until the Galaxy Nexus comes out, you can bet that this device will be in my pocket — that is, if it comes out before the Galaxy Nexus, of course.

BONUS here’s some accessories as well – what more could you want?

What we knew about this platform back when it was announced was that there’d be at least two new processors, OMAP5430 and OMAP5432, both of them with up to 3 times the performance of previous generations OMAP4430. Want to know what devices run an OMAP right now? Have a look at our lovely Texas Instruments portal and see for yourself: everything from the legendary DROID BIONIC to the Archos 80 G9 tablet to the possibility of being in the Samsung Nexus Prime, the device we hope to see tomorrow in Hong Kong sporting no less than Android’s next generation Ice Cream Sandwich!

What you’re about to see here is the OMAP 5 platform’s graphics capabilities:

and a demo on how the platform will work with manufacturers in the future:

This is one of the new ways the processor groups are trying to spread the word that their processors are the one’s people should adopt. In that they’ve reached out to us to show YOU these videos, they’re convincing the manufacturers of the smartphones and tablets and everything in between that they’re going to be what the consumer desires for their innards. Do these videos convince you to look for the OMAP 5 in your future device?

There’ll be 32GB of integrated storage, the tipster continues, along with WiFi a/b/g/n and NFC. Apparently the camera will only muster 5-megapixels – with a 1.3-megapixel camera up front for video recording – though will still be capable of 1080p Full HD video recording. Connectivity is said to be LTE or HSPA depending on carrier, though seeing as the Nexus Prime is said to be a Verizon exclusive in the US that will mean LTE. Versions abroad will presumably have HSPA (or HSPA+) instead, where LTE networks aren’t available.

Finally there’s NFC support, as Google continues to push its Google Wallet wireless payments service, and a 1,750 mAh battery. OS is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, with no third-party modifications since this is a pure Nexus device. Interestingly, one addition to ICS is said to be a granular data monitor, which will show how much data is being used on a per-app basis.

Could this be the phone that puts the iPhone 4S resolutely in the shade? We’ll be at Samsung’s event at CTIA next week and will bring back all the details from there.

[via Android Community]

iPhone 4S

This is the newest device of the pack, it packing a lovely new A5 chip that, optimized to the max for this one single phone, will allow you to play such fantastic games as Infinity Blade II – see a preview of what’s to come in our review of the first in that series of games for iPad 2. This device will be released worldwide and on three of the four major US carriers this month in three models, the least expensive of these being $199 with 16GB storage inside. Some other nice neat new apps revealed at the iPhone event on October 4th were Cards physical greeting cards app and Find My Friends for GPS tracking of all your best buddies. There’s also some little additions to the iPhone line via iOS 5 like the camera shortcut on the lockscreen. Then there’s some real strange things like: Bluetooth 4.0, the lovely fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on both the front and the back, three-axis gyro, and again, a global release on 100 carriers worldwide.

Learn all about the iPhone 4S in our full reveal guide as well as our hands-on look.

Samsung Galaxy S II

The Galaxy S II is one of the most popular Android devices in history. It’s sold over 10 MILLION units worldwide of its original version, and the new versions on AT&T and T-Mobile plus the EVO 4G Touch version are set to be massive sellers as well. This device runs the newest version of Android – as all the Android devices on this list do, but with a special user interface Samsung calls TouchWiz. This interface is the most updated version of what Samsung calls its most optimized interface for users using Android -and it’s quite nice, if I do say so myself, having one in my pocket right this second. Instead of working with the Apple Appstore, you’ll be using the Android Marketplace, one of the most popular app stores in the world after the Apple app store which, if I’m not mistaken, is still beating every other store by a longshot for legitimate checked-and-ready apps. The Samsung Galaxy S II comes in many shapes and sizes but, for the most part, always has the lovely Super AMOLED Plus display, Samsung’s sharpest and brightest in the world. This device comes with an 8 megapixel camera on the back, similar to the 8 megapixel camera the iPhone 4S is using, and another webcam-ready camera on the front, also similar to what the iPhone 4S is using.

This device, as is true of each of the other Android devices on this list, is a powerful choice, and will last you the 2 years you’ll have it on contract unless you’re the sort of person that always needs the most advanced handset around. For you I recommend not purchasing a smartphone at all, as sure enough, several months down the line, no matter what you’ve purchased, you’ll have been trumped by the newest technology.

You can check out our several reviews of this device here:
Samsung Galaxy S II original international edition
Samsung Galaxy S II AT&T version
Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch

HTC Sensation

The device known as the HTC Sensation is the culmination of HTC’s efforts to create the perfect phone, similar to what Apple has done with the iPhone and Samsung has done with their Galaxy line, here is where HTC puts it all on the line. You get nearly the newest version of HTC’s custom user interface Sense (currently only beat by the feminine device HTC Rhyme at the moment) and the most comfortable shape for a handset that your humble narrator has ever felt hit his palm. It’s shaped to please, ladies and gentlemen, and like the last two devices, this smartphone has the 8 megapixel camera on the back and a webcam-ready camera on the front.

Unlike the previous two devices, this smartphone is only available on T-Mobile here in the USA and on a broader market internationally. HTC generally releases their devices across the sea first, bringing them then to the USA market on one carrier at a time. Prices for this device are, once again, comparable to the first two smartphones.

Our reviews
T-Mobile Sensation 4G
HTC Sentsation original international edition

Motorola DROID BIONIC

The BIONIC is another dual-core device (like all devices on this list), this time in a device that also works on Verizon’s 4G LTE network. This is the only device on this list that can say that it’s got those kinds of upload and download speeds, and it’s also one of the most widely anticipated Android devices to have been released this year. It’s running Motorola’s newest UI over Android and is pushed as a device that can accomplish many things with its several docks and desktop-mode for advanced computing beyond that of a normal smartphone. Apple made fun of the camera on this device because it is said to be significantly slower in taking photos than the competition, meanwhile it has a similar 8 megapixel camera on the back and video chat capable camera on the front.

The DROID BIONIC is only carried by Verizon, and only here in the USA. This makes the device by far the smallest in distribution numbers, but does offer an exclusive sort of feel, if you know what I mean. It’s also got a bit of a curve to the edges of the glass, this making it, the G2x, and the Sensation each part of the curved Gorilla Glass club – strength and a lovely feel.

Review
DROID BIONIC

LG G2x

The LG G2x is, in its original form, the first smartphone in the world to hold a dual-core processor in it. It was called the Optimus 2X then, and it, like I mention above, has one of your humble narrator’s favorite display glasses in the world – a couple of large bends and this device is unique. Inside you’ll find the second most advanced Android operating system out of the box, but it’s instantly ungradable to the newest Gingerbread – as all the other Android devices are on this list. This device has the 8 megapixel camera on the back and the video chat capable camera on the front, and, like the DROID BIONIC and the Galaxy S II, has the ability to play videos via HDMI on your big screen HD TV. The iPhone 4S can do this in a similar way to the Galaxy S II, both of them requiring a special converter cord to do so.

Review
T-Mobile G2x from LG

Processors

Since the Apple processor and the rest of these Android-powering processors aren’t able to all really work on the same benchmark tests, we’ll just have to speak on what we’ve seen here. A dual-core processor on an Android device makes it capable of wiping the floor with all of their single-core counterparts, but unless you’re really ramming away on video and playing the highest-tech games, you’ll not notice a WHOLE LOT of difference in your daily activities. If you’re going to be using your device to play videos through your TV, it’d make a lot of sense to have a dual-core processor. If you’re going to be playing games like Riptide GP for Android, you’ll absolutely NEED a dual-core processor because it requires it.

That said, different processors are doing different things to pump themselves up for consumers – Qualcomm – whose chip sits in the HTC Sensation, recently announced their support for game developers in the Qualcomm Snapdragon Game Pack. Similarly, NVIDIA has a whole NVIDIA Tegra Zone of apps created with the developers to work specifically with their own Tegra 2 dual-core chip – these games are then only playable on NVIDIA-powered devices, including the G2x. Texas Instruments (on the DROID BIONIC) have been finding their way into several big-name devices of late including the Kindle Fire and is rumored to be part of the next Google hero phone Nexus Prime. Samsung sits in this pack with their own Exynos dual-core processor on the Galaxy S II – this processor has been known to beat out competing dual-core processors on benchmarks that are, admittedly, not that precise, but by a LOT in some cases. Finally there’s the A5 dual-core processor from Apple for their newest iPhone 4S, this is a processor that’s quite similar (if not basically identical) to the A5 processor sitting in the iPad 2, the most popular tablet-type mobile device in the world – and by the looks of it, it’ll be at least keeping up with the competition if not beating it due to the small library of devices it must be optimized for.

Anything else you’d like to know? You can see the full specs on the iPhone 4S by heading to our iPhone 4S Hands-on post, then for the rest you can see our http://device.ac/ device archive for the rest: Galaxy S II (AT&T and original), Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, LG G2x, DROID BIONIC, and the HTC Sensation. Let us know which one you’ll pick if you’re in the market!

Hardware

This is one of the first devices you’ll find on the market using the Texas Instruments OMAP4 dual-core processor (running here at 1GHz) and the first tablet you’ll see running the processor (other than developer units, of course). This is Texas Instruments first dual-core processor on the market and one we first saw up and running all the way back at MWC 2011 in Barcelona. We first got out hands on these devices (prototype versions, at least), back in June of 2011 where we saw both versions again. Have a look first here at the video from that session:

Next have a look at our most recent re-introduction to these devices courtesy of ARCHOS themselves just this past week:

If you haven’t just watched the videos above, you should know that the ARCHOS 80 G9 tablet has a kickstand. It’s got a microSD slot, an HDMI port, headphone jack, power/lock button, and microUSB port, and that’s all on the same side – the left-hand side if you’re holding the device in landscape mode which, if you’ve not noticed by now, is the way ARCHOS intends you to hold it (or set it on the tablet, as the kickstand would suggest). Unfortunately the kickstand itself is not as strong as we’d like, especially given the fact that this one will be holding up a whole tablet. It’s constructed of plastic and won’t survive very long if a child (or a clumsy adult) gets ahold of it. While it is in tact, on the other hand, it works very nicely to give this unit a unique ability to hold itself at exactly the angle I use tablets at every day.

The ports (ports galore!) make this device one of the most versatile tablets right out of the box, right after the Toshiba THRIVE which prides itself on being able to plug in anything. Having basically every kind of port that I’d ever need certainly ads to the out-of-box experience that many of the higher-priced tablets simply do not. They’ve got converters and 3rd party cords that need to be purchased to make it all happen. ARCHOS scores big points for this.

Along those same lines is the construction of the tablet. We’ve not yet seen a tear-down of either of the G9 tablets so we’re not aware of the innards, but outside it appears that this is the nicest set of tablets ARCHOS has yet presented. They’re a real big-time effort, this tablet able to be placed amongst the rest of the Honeycomb tablets we’ve reviewed here on SlashGear, not low quality like some of the similarly priced units we’ve come across.

The 80 G9 is nice to handle, has a unique shape to it, and has a relatively decent display on it. Where previous ARCHOS tablets suffered from some not so perfect viewing angles, here we get at least 90 degrees of good color and alignment, where you’re not QUITE able to see perfectly when you’ve got the device nearly flat, it’s alright, because why on earth would you be looking at it like that anyway? The tablet is light, it’s thin enough to run with the big dogs, and again, it feels very nice to handle.

Before we go on, let’s catch some unboxing and hands-on action courtesy of yours truly, opening the box and handling the device like a pro:

Note that there’s a bit of an issue with the music in this video – turns out the song file happened to be corrupt – there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the speakers, the playback, the music app, any of that. Just the file that you’ll never ever come in contact with for the final release. No worries!

Software and Performance

Devices that also run the same processor as you’re seeing working here in the G9 series are the LG THRILL 4G glasses-free 3D smartphone and the Motorola DROID BIONIC, a 4G LTE device and the first to have both a dual-core and LTE connectivity. What this should tell you is that this processor, the Texas Instruments OMAP4, is no small cookie. This device should feel unique running it, especially since ARCHOS now has the only two Android tablets on the market with a dual-core processor not made by NVIDIA. Is that a good thing? It’s certainly a unique thing.

In the above photo, the apps Antutu Benchmark (the bunny in the upper right) and CF-Bench are the only two apps that do not come with the tablet right out of the box. You’ll see all the different apps you get with the tablet in the hands-on videos above.

Inside the tablet you’ll find a unique range of apps (that, again, you can see listed in the hands-on and unboxing video above. Best of all is the fact that ARCHOS didn’t do TOO much to change Honeycomb at all. This appears to be a trend amongst tablet producers since Android 3.0 Honeycomb was released, not changing it very much at all (with a few big exceptions) leaving a Vanilla experience for Android users across the states. Will all this change with Ice Cream Sandwich? We shall see. For now, the bees continue to buzz.

We can run any number of high-flying apps requiring the full processor power of a dual-core chip, and most of them run just about as well as they can on either of the other two devices running the same OMAP4 right this moment. This is a tier-one device and you can tell by the quickness in the running of every app. The smallest amount of disappointment comes from the space right around the rim of the display where the border begins – it’s here that touch responsiveness appears to wane just the smallest amount, and this is certainly not because of the software, but because the hardware leads our fingers past the border. Strange? Yes. Will I get used to it after a few weeks of work and play? Certainly I will.

For benchmarks, you’ll have to note that we’ve got the 1GHz version of the 80 G9 tablet here, where we still understand a 1.5GHz version to come out as well. Have a glance at what this 1GHz version of the OMAP4 can do:

Camera

There’s but one camera on this device, and it’s forward facing. Here we’ve got a brief video and a photo or two to show you the quality. More than likely you’ll be using this device’s camera for video chat and that’s it.

Battery

As you can see here, there’s been some major optimization done with OMAP4′s processor conserving energy while the device is in sleep mode. It looks as if this device could survive essentially forever if we’d simply let it stay at home in bed. In use, we get less than a day’s work out of the device before we need to charge, but that’s with movie watching, HDMI outputting, high-demanding games, and the like. Normal users should expect right around a full day’s use.

Wrap-Up

This is the first Texas Instruments dual-core 1GHz OMAP4 processor-toting Android tablet on the market, and it’s pretty decent. The kickstand, being as large and obviously important as it seems, is a bit of a disappointment as it’s made of plastic and isn’t very sturdy. Even if it should fail, though, you’ve still got four rubber nubbins on the back of the device to sit flat for some excellent tablet-top action. This tablet is uniquely sized, has the ability to plug in many devices and cards, and is reasonably priced at $299 at the ARCHOS online store right now with a 1.5GHz version on the way for an increased price. At this price, I think we’ve got a winner. At least for those students looking to purchase a tablet computer without dropping their whole week’s wages on one.

As far as the software goes, it’s your basic Honeycomb experience with a few awesome app bonuses right out of the box. I hesitate going too far into out-of-box app experiences since unless it’s a unique app to that device, you can download them yourself no matter what device you buy. Here we’ve got a few from column B, and a few from column A, this second column being ARCHOS and apps that we can only get here. These apps are certainly decent and definitely a selling point (or it should be) for retailers and ARCHOS online.

Is this the tablet for you? It’s a strange time to be purchasing a tablet since we know that before the end of the year, we’ll be seeing quad-core processors on the market. That said, we’ve seen single-core devices out-perform dual-core devices in the past, it all depends on what software you’re running. ARCHOS, you did a pretty decent job here making a tablet that’s going to be accessible by the masses. People will buy it and love it if you include replaceable kickstands. The rest of the tablet is good to go!

What’s inside of this and the 101 G9 tablet, you might ask? Why, it’s not the NVIDIA Tegra 2, as you might expect, no, it’s the Texas Instruments OMAP4 dual-core processor running at 1GHz, and it’s pumped up! Take a look at our first brief benchmark as run with CF-Bench below and you’ll see that the only more powerful device in the system is the Galaxy S II, a device we’ve also got storming our door today via AT&T. This tablet has no carrier thus far here in the USA, instead working with Wi-fi only at the moment with an empty shell filling the USB slot on the back of the device.

We’ve got a video here filmed by Vince earlier today showing the director of marketing for ARCHOS with the G9 80 giving you a full rundown of what it means to work with one on a daily basis.

The benchmark, CF-Bench, that we’ve run here shows not only some Java-based marks and your total score in relation to some regular opponents, but the kind of processor this device has as well, product numbers and all. Have a look in the gallery below (images popping up larger so you can see the detail) to witness the glory:

Our first impressions of this tablet are that it’s thin, it seems to be relatively well constructed, and it’s really ready to hit the mid-range tablet market. It’s got a pretty darn powerful processor sitting inside its guts, and the multitude of ports along the left side of the unit are going to be a great selling point. Have a look at the videos above and below and let us know if you’ve got any questions we can answer or tests we can run for the full review, coming up soon!

BONUS here we’ve got yours truly unboxing and running through some apps and the general layout all the way back here in sunny Minnesota:

Note before we go on that the processor inside the Nexus S is a Samsung Hummingbird while the XOOM features the NVIDIA Tegra 2. Inside most recently a report coming from a manufacturer in India, we can surmise that the next processor group Google will be teaming with will be Texas Instruments for their OMAP4 SoC. That same report places the release date for Ice Cream Sandwich to be late October. We’re aware of some chassis specs on this device due to a tipster leak as well as that Samsung will likely host the device known as Nexus Prime because of a pre-fab support page hosted at Samsung – this came in addition to a hidden code at Samsung using the same name: Nexus Prime.

The tipster just mentioned said that the device would have a 4.65-inch display with HD resolution, that the display glass would be curved like the Nexus S, and that the device at whole would be as thin as 8.8mm with a metal chassis. This tipster also mentioned that this device would be called the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. At this point we can also assume that this device will feature NFC capabilities the same as the Nexus S since Google Wallet launches this week in the USA.

There’s more word from late August that says Verizon has no Galaxy S II because they wanted a DROID PRIME exclusive instead. Based on information from an unnamed Droid Guy source, the PRIME, without the DROID bit on it quite yet, is completely separate from the Nexus, this telling us that the NEXUS PRIME is a name meant to misdirect our attention. This source was said to be testing the HTC Vigor as well as the Prime, saying that the Vigor was a better phone, especially since neither of them were running vanilla-flavored Android.

Another bit of possible misdirection was the legal paperwork sent out to some sites in late August noting the name Nexus Prime again, saying they had code for the device before they should have. Mid-August had us once again thinking the Samsung Nexus Prime would be packing Ice Cream Sandwich and coming out in October, while Andy Rubin assured us right after the Motorola deal with Google that the Nexus on Motorola was not a lock-in.

As far as Ice Cream Sandwich goes, we’ve seen what’s very possibly an early look at the face of the new mobile OS as it sat on a Nexus S, and as mentioned above, Texas Instruments is all but a lock in for a big collaboration with Google for Ice Cream Sandwich, regardless of what smartphone manufacturer steps up to provide the chassis.

What do you think? Is there a solid device or three in there? Something Ice Cream Sandwich this way comes?

Also remember to hit up our earlier guide for this device, the Nexus 4G as it was known then, from a few weeks ago.

In a news release showing up this weekend, Shravan notes the following: “Official (“update button”) Ice Cream Sandwich update in November after Google’s launch in late Oct”. This follows the information we just this past week from Eric Schmidt himself as he noted either October or November as the launch window. Next, Shravan notes that he’s pretty sure OMAP will be the chipset of choice for the next-generation Android system. Shravan says “if you go by the industry signals, OMAP is the preferred platform for the next wave of devices.”

If you follow SlashGear, you also know that OMAP with Ice Cream Sandwich is a likely situation. While the last processor manufacturer for a hero device made in accordance with Google’s strict specifications for their version platform launch was NVIDIA and their Tegra 2 SoC for Honeycomb, we’re also banking on the idea that Texas Instruments and their OMAP4 chip will gain an audience with the Google gods.

That said, Shravan is also probably following along, as everyone else in the Android world is following along, with the leaks and spilled possibilities of the Nexus Prime coming quite soon if Samsung has anything to say about it, a hidden code and a legal team all that lies between us and, again, an October release of the Ice Cream Sandwich hero device.

[via Android Community]

According to a source familiar with the situation, Intel plans to show Windows 8 running on tablets and notebooks with new Atom processors. The rumored Windows 8 Samsung tablet will also be running on Intel chips. Intel will be focused on its next-gen Medfield chips and providing more details on its ultrabooks during the Intel Developer Forum, but may also introduce netbooks running on Atom chips.

Windows 8 supports both the Intel x86 platform as well as the ARM architecture, allowing Intel rivals to expand into the PC business. NVIDIA and Texas Instruments are both expected to also show off some Windows 8 hardware at Build. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Windows 8 running on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 or quad-core “Kal-El” processor, which are confirmed to be compatible and are due out later this year.

[via PC World]

Hardware

Motorola hasn’t strayed too far with the design of the DROID BIONIC, with a squared-off and masculine aesthetic that neither particularly disappoints or delights. With everything the company has squeezed inside, the 66.9 x 127.5 x 10.99 mm, 158g chassis is probably understandable, but it’s inescapably chunky all the same. At least it’s creak-free and the plastics – along with the Gorilla Glass fascia – feel high quality.

That toughened glass covers both the BIONIC’s 4.3-inch qHD 960 x 540 LCD TFT display and the row of touch-sensitive buttons for menu, home, back and search. Although LCD has for many been superseded by the various AMOLED technologies, we can’t really criticize Motorola’s choice of panel here. Colors are bright and viewing angles broad, and the capacitive touch is responsive.

Ports include microUSB and micro HDMI, along with a 3.5mm headset jack, while wireless connectivity includes LTE, EVDO Rev.A, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. There’s also GPS/AGPS and the usual range of sensors: digital compass, accelerometer, proximity and ambient light. Unfortunately Motorola obviously couldn’t find a way to add a GSM/HSPA radio, which means this isn’t one of Verizon’s World Phones. Step outside the embrace of CDMA coverage and you’ll have no GSM to fall back on when travelling.

On the back is an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash, capable of 1080p Full HD video recording. A VGA camera for video calls lives above the display, next to an LED status indicator for flagging up missed calls and new messages. Under the battery door is a 1,735 mAh pack along with a microSD card slot (with a 16GB card preloaded) to augment the 16GB of internal storage.

It’s the dual-core 1GHz processor that singles the BIONIC out among other LTE handsets, with Motorola turning to its old favorite Texas Instruments and the OMAP4430. In the BIONIC it’s paired with 1GB of RAM.

DROID BIONIC hands-on video

Software and Performance

Motorola hasn’t left Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread alone, and there are various customizations and preloaded apps cluttering up the DROID BIONIC. The days of the all-invasive MOTOBLUR are thankfully past, and instead you get a selection of resizable widgets and a non-stock onscreen keyboard similar to previous Motorola Android phones we’ve reviewed.

Unfortunately, roughly half of the 16GB of internal memory is taken up with preloaded software, most of which can’t be deleted. As well as all the usual Android apps – like Gmail, Google Maps and Navigation – Motorola adds Citrix GoToMeeting and Quickoffice, VCast Music, Verizon Media Manager and Verizon Back Up Assistant, Blockbuster, MOTOPRINT, Let’s Golf 2, Netflix, ZumoCast and others. Certainly we can understand that some apps will be of use to some owners, but it’s unlikely everyone will want everything and we wish Motorola had offered them as optional downloads rather than making them mandatory.

Of them all, it’s ZumoCast that Motorola is most pleased with. The company’s own remote file access app, once you’ve installed the client on your PC or Mac you can access documents, photos, music and video remotely on your BIONIC. It works, though is obviously very much network-dependent; if you have a less than ideal connection then video is the first to suffer, dropping frames and generally becoming unwatchable.

In terms of benchmarks, the dual-core processor didn’t disappoint. Quadrant Pro came back at 2780, comfortably exceeding recent Tegra 2 devices we’ve tested. However, a stock Samsung Galaxy S II – running at 1.2GHz – bested the BIONIC with its score of 3540. Vellamo, a combination test of CPU and memory, Javascript, HTML5, canvas rendering speed, scrolling, network access and other elements, came in with a surprisingly low score of 705, however, easily beaten by even single-core phones.

Nonetheless, in general use the BIONIC felt fast and slick, with neither lag nor delay in loading and moving between apps, accessing webpages and playing media.

Camera

If the BIONIC’s processor offers speed, the smartphone’s 8-megapixel camera offers frustration. We had reasonably high hopes, based on previous Motorola handsets, but woefully sluggish autofocus meant we missed more photo opportunities than we captured. Focus lock can literally take seconds to fix, and even when we waited the end result was sometimes blurry all the same. Motorola tells us it’s looking into camera performance, and we’re hoping this is something a firmware update can address.

DROID BIONIC Sample 720p recording

Video recording, thankfully, is considerably better. The BIONIC can record Full HD clips at 30fps, and the lazy auto-focus makes less of a difference most of the time. Fast focus switches are out, but generally footage is crisp and very watchable. Unfortunately you don’t even get an HDMI cable in the box.

Phone and Battery

The BIONIC handles voice calls well – the absence of World Phone support already noted – even when the signal indicator might lead you to expect otherwise. You can make 3G voice calls while simultaneously using the 4G connection for data, though not 3G data. Audio is clear and loud, and those we called had no problems hearing us. There’s Bluetooth for headsets, including stereo headsets using the A2DP profile.

As with other recent Android phones, you can use the BIONIC’s 3G/4G connection to get your laptop, iPod touch or other gadget online, by turning it into a mobile hotspot. Up to five WiFi-enabled clients can be connected at any one time, though you’ll need to pay Verizon extra for the privilege.

Just like with other 4G devices we’ve tested, if you have LTE coverage the BIONIC simply flies. We saw peak download speeds of over 13Mbps and upload speeds of 3Mbps, faster than many people get with their home broadband connection. At that sort of level – and with the kind of use it encourages – Verizon’s data packages begin to look short-sighted. 2GB is $30 a month but you could easily burn through that in short order with some video streaming; the carrier also offers 5GB for $50 or 10GB for $80, with each further gigabyte costing $10.

The downside to all this speed and performance is battery life. Motorola has outfitted the BIONIC with a 1,735 mAh battery, but we were still caught short well before the day was through. With minimal use including a few phone calls and some IM, and when in a 4G area, we squeezed just over 6 hours and 45 minutes out of the phone. In contrast, a 3G-only GSM Galaxy S II still had roughly half its battery life left at the same point in the day, even though we’d actually used the Samsung more. Turn on the BIONIC’s mobile hotspot app, and things go downhill even more quickly. Motorola offers an extended battery for the phone, though you sacrifice style for extra longevity.

Accessories

Lapdock: ($299.97) Just as with the original Laptop Dock for the Motorola ATRIX, the DROID BIONIC’s Lapdock promises to turn your smartphone into a notebook replacement. Unfortunately, if you had the old Laptop Dock, you can’t use it with the BIONIC, which is a frustrating decision on Motorola’s part. Your money gets you an 11.6-inch, 1,366 x 768 display, battery promising 8hrs of runtime, a full keyboard and a trackpad, though not multitouch gesture support unlike, say, a MacBook Air.

Slot the BIONIC into the bay behind the screen and Motorola’s Webtop app automatically boots, allowing you to access Firefox 4 as well as view the Android phone’s display – and any apps on it – in a window. Performance is certainly faster than we experienced with the ATRIX, which was painfully slow, but still not a match for a regular notebook. Some mild document editing and maybe a tab or two in the browser is fine, but anything more and the whole thing grinds disappointingly.

Webtop Adapter: ($29.99) If the Lapdock is too rich for your blood, the Webtop Adapter offers another way into Motorola’s Webtop app. Pass-through microUSB and micro HDMI ports allow you to hook up an external display, and you can pair Bluetooth peripherals if the on-screen keyboard gets too limiting. Of course, you’ll face the same issues with performance as with the Lapdock.

HD Station: ($99.99) Although the HD Station does allow Webtop use – and has three USB ports which let you plug in wired peripherals – it makes more sense as a multimedia dock. A 3.5mm audio out port and HDMI output make it simple to keep speakers and a display permanently attached, though we’re frustrated at Motorola’s decision to use micro HDMI rather than a full-sized socket. An infrared remote lets you navigate the phone’s menus as well as control media playback.

Standard Dock: ($39.99) Identical from the front as the HD Station, turn the Standard Dock around and you’ll find the cheaper price means no HDMI or USB connectivity. Instead it’s only power and the 3.5mm audio output, and Motorola doesn’t include the remote either.

Standard Dock vs HD Station

Vehicle Navigation Dock: ($39.99) Google Maps Navigation has replaced dedicated PND units for many, and the official Motorola Vehicle Navigation Dock makes for a straightforward way to mount and charge your BIONIC in the car. It’s the usual combination of a suction cup and adjustable cradle, with a pass-through microUSB port for easy charging. Unlike some other cradles we’ve seen, however, there’s no external GPS antenna for better results, and no speaker system to amplify guidance prompts.

Wrap-Up

Make no mistake, there’s plenty to like about the DROID BIONIC. The combination of a dual-core processor and LTE adds up to a phone that’s fast in both performance and data access, while the solid display and HDMI connectivity mean it’s a good choice for multimedia playback. On the flip side, however, mediocre battery life and underwhelming stills performance from the camera take off some of the shine.

Pricing, too, is on the expensive side. Verizon is asking $299.99 for the BIONIC itself, though other vendors have sub-$200 deals; either way, you’re looking at a two-year agreement including a $50+ per month data package if you want to make the most of LTE. Throw in a couple of the official accessories and the total cost of ownership climbs fast, while Motorola’s decision not to make the original Laptop Dock compatible with this new phone leaves us suspicious whether docks and gadgets for the BIONIC will work with any future device.

Meanwhile, there are faster phones on the horizon. Samsung’s freshly-announced Galaxy S II variants for the US market promise faster processors, while Verizon likely has it’s own fresh superphones just around the corner too. Nonetheless, if you want the strongest combination of LTE, dual-core and display today, the DROID BIONIC by Motorola is your only option. Just don’t expect perfection.

Aesthetically it’s in keeping with the squared-off Motorola DROIDs we’ve seen recently, fronted by a bright and colorful 960 x 540 LCD panel. It’s a big display, the same as you’ll find on the HTC Sensation 4G for instance, though the extra pixels can leave the on-screen keyboard smaller what with everything Motorola has squeezed into it. 4.5-inches seems like a sweeter size considering our fingers.

Still, we can’t really fault the performance. Apps load quickly and run smoothly, webpages render fast, and there’s plenty of eye-candy. Motorola’s homescreen widgets are resizable – though not the regular Google ones, obviously – but we’re less impressed by the amount of bloatware the company installs, including Zumacast, GoToMeeting, Citrix Receiver, MOTOPRINT and more. Initial benchmarking suggests that the dual-core Texas Instruments CPU is faster than NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 but still lags behind Samsung’s 1.2GHz chip in the Galaxy S II.

DROID BIONIC Hands-on video:

The other headline feature is LTE connectivity, and that works well. So far we’ve tested it in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix, with 3G-busting data speeds in each area. Obviously it’s still very much coverage-dependent, but when you’ve got a 4G signal the DROID BIONIC really lives up to its name. The potential downside is battery life; Motorola estimates up to 650 minutes talktime or 200hrs standby from the 1,735 mAh battery, though it’s too early to say whether the BIONIC will last a full day of heavy use. It’s also worth noting that there’s no World Phone support, so the Motorola won’t play nicely with GSM networks if you’re roaming.

Elsewhere there’s an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of 1080p HD video capture (which can then be played back via HDMI), with an LED flash and auto-focus. A front-facing VGA camera is above the screen. Unfortunately we’re seeing some issues with sluggish auto-focus on the main camera: it takes a while for the BIONIC to lock focus and fire off a shot, and even after that the stills are often blurred. Motorola is looking into the issue, which we’re hoping is fixable with a simple firmware update. There’s a sample 1080p HD video clip filmed using the BIONIC below.

Sample 1080p video recording:

Motorola hasn’t been shy with accessories. In addition to a desktop dock there’s a Lapdock as we saw for the ATRIX, which turns the smartphone into a notebook, a HD Station for multimedia output into your HDTV or projector, a vehicle dock and a portable HD adapter. The Lapdock is probably the most interesting of the set, an 11.6-inch display, full keyboard and trackpad for the BIONIC that, when the phone is docked, boots into Motorola’s Webtop app with a full Firefox browser, multitasking with Android apps and control over calls and messaging. If your company has Citrix Receiver support you can even log in and remotely access your desktop. Unlike with the ATRIX, however, performance seems swift enough to make the Lapdock a realistic possibility as a notebook alternative.

We’ll be putting the Verizon DROID BIONIC by Motorola – as well as all the accessories – through its paces for the full SlashGear review, including benchmarks and speed tests, so let us know what questions you have and we’ll do our best to answer them! The smartphone will go on sale on Thursday, September 8 priced at $299.99 with a new, two-year agreement, while the Lapdock will be $299.97, the HD Station $99.99 and the Webstation Adapter $29.99.

Earlier today we also heard news of NVIDIA’s upcoming progression into the quad-core world of processors, certainly planning on chowing down on some tasty sandwiches in the process as well. As Texas Instruments shows their support in the form of an actual singular graphic, one must wonder if this means Google will be releasing their next Nexus device in the form of a Texas Instruments dual-core processor packing device or of it just means TI is planning on loving Ice Cream Sandwich no matter the circumstance. The love will be abundant.

Texas Instruments currently has two competitive dual-core processors in the mix, but 4460 and the 4470, the latter bringing the heavy power into the future. The 4470 is rated at 1.8GHz, significantly higher than the 1.5GHz and 1.0Ghz processors we’re seeing in handsets and tablets today. The faster memory is supported by a modified memory controller and this 4470 processor includes a PowerVR SGX544 GPU, this same GPU showing up in the upcoming OMAP5, TI’s next generation chipset. The 4470 is expected to start showing up later this year and will be placed in devices inside the beginning of 2012.

Also note that its been stated that upcoming Amazon tablets will be using Texas Instruments chips, this being a big deal because NVIDIA’s been running the Android tablet market thus far with their Tegra 2 dual-core chipset. What’s suggested above lines up with previous rumors that the next-generation Nexus device running Ice Cream Sandwich will indeed not be running NVIDIA’s quad-core processor and will instead very possibly be running Texas Instruments OMAP4 4460 processor – why on earth they’d choose to go with a generation before the most current generation processor is beyond sense – unless of course the newest chipset wont be ready for production at the time of the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, this meaning that the next generation Nexus device is right around the corner!

It should be Q1 2013 when things get really interesting, with the quadcore Krait chips arrival. The MSM8974 will run at between 2.0GHz and 2.5GHz, with 2MB of L2 cache, 800MHz DDR3 dual-channel memory support and Adreno 320 graphics. It’ll also pack LTE Cat-4, HSPA+ and various other connectivity support, and be capable of 1080p 60fps HD video together with processing images from up to 30-megapixel sensors.

Those chips should be propping up the flagships in tablets, smartphones and even ultraportable notebooks to rival Intel’s Ultrabook drive. SlashGear spoke to Raj Talluri, VP of product management for Qualcomm’s chipset division, about what makes the company’s chips special, particularly given that NVIDIA expects to have its quadcore Kal-El platform on the market sometime this quarter. The Qualcomm advantage, Talluri says, is that the company designs its own cores rather than, as with NVIDIA, TI and others, using off-the-shelf ARM designs.

“[Firms like NVIDIA and TI] don’t have the ability to make their own [cores], they haven’t mastered that yet” Talluri pointed out, suggesting that NVIDIA’s quadruple Cortex-A9 chip will sacrifice battery life in its pursuit of performance, while arguing that Texas Instruments was limited to just a pair of Cortex-A15 cores in its OMAP5 because any more of the toasty chips “would burn through the package.”

Instead, the VP claimed, Krait offers significantly more DMIPS per MHz (i.e. performance) than an A9 core, and is roughly on a par with an A15 core. However, when it comes to DMIPS per milliwatt (i.e. power frugality), Krait uses significantly less than either an A9 or A15 core. Rivals, he suggested, are merely targeting “multicore” rather than “the right core”; Qualcomm has already insisted that its existing dualcore is faster than Kal-El.

Update: Qualcomm has requested that we remove the roadmap information.

[via Netbook News]

Netflix already offers an Android app, but it’s only officially available for a select number of devices. The streaming media company has previously said that it’s an issue of security, with Android lacking a generic content protection system that will salve the concerns of license holders:

“The hurdle has been the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android. The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices. Setting aside the debate around the value of content protection and DRM, they are requirements we must fulfill in order to obtain content from major studios for our subscribers to enjoy” Netflix, Nov 2010

More recently, Netflix has been working to individually certify devices, but it’s a time-consuming process. That frustration has led to users exploring unofficial methods to get the app onto their handset.

With this blanket certification for TI’s OMAP4, however, there’s the prospect of more speedy approval for new devices. Motorola already uses TI chips, and the upcoming DROID 3 is expected to sport the OMAP4430. For the moment, though, TI isn’t saying which devices will come preloaded with the Netflix app, but only that the first examples will land “in the near future.”

[via Android Community]

Meanwhile, the source also lends weight to the original rumors from earlier this month that the phone will use Texas Instruments’ OMAP4460 processor, a 1.5GHz dual-core chip expected to begin showing up in commercial products sometime in the latter half of 2011. Meanwhile, those rumors also pointed to 4G LTE connectivity, which would certainly suggest Verizon support in the US.

In addition, however, there’s talk of Google widening its net with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich halo devices, with the search giant supposedly working with multiple carriers and multiple OEMs for simultaneous release. That would mean a number of high-profile, top-tier devices all being announced at the same time and all running the same brand-new OS, a formidable prospect for iOS, Windows Phone and webOS.

The exact identities of the OEMs involved is unclear, but it’s likely to include the usual big names like Motorola, HTC and LG. The new range is expected to launch this fall.

Back at the Windows Phone announcement, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop suggested that the initial batch of devices running the Microsoft platform would be repurposed hardware originally intended for MeeGo. That was borne out earlier this week, when Elop revealed the Nokia “Sea Ray”, the company’s N9-alike Windows Phone.

Of course, part of Nokia’s strength has always been its expansive manufacturing facilities – the company currently operates nine mobile device plants spread across the world – so the decision to go with Compal seems somewhat unusual. One potential explanation could be simple speed, with Compal already adept at implementing the Qualcomm processors that Microsoft mandates. Although rumors prior to Windows Phone 7.1 Mango’s official launch suggested that ST-Ericsson would join as a chip supplier, powering some of Nokia’s range, Microsoft confirmed that it was exclusively sticking with Qualcomm.

The N9 runs a Texas Instruments OMAP3630 1GHz processor, meanwhile, which suggests that although the Sea Ray may outwardly look the same, internally there’s something different going on and it’s not just a case of installing Mango onto the same hardware.

The exact SoCs aren’t specified, but are certainly different to the NVIDIA Tegra processors we’ve heard about before. Back in May, leaks pointed to two tablets, the 7-inch “Coyote” and 10-inch “Hollywood,” which would be based on NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 and upcoming Kal-El quad-core.

TI’s silicon will apparently be paired with Wintek touch panels and ILI Technology LCD driver ICs, with Quanta Computer putting them all together. Monthly shipments in the region of 700,000 to 800,000 units are expected, with Amazon apparently targeting the Thanksgiving shopping season in the US and year-end holidays elsewhere.

Texas Instruments’ OMAP4440 1.5GHz dual-core is expected to show up in commercial products in the second half of this year, and its 1080p Full HD abilities (and 3D support) would seemingly make it a natural fit for Hollywood’s Prime streaming movie services we’re told to expect. If the rumors are true, it’s not the first time we’d have seen TI swoop in and replace a rival inside a tablet: RIM dumped Marvell processors in favor of TI for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

However, Microsoft would also be pushing hardware partners to use Windows 8 on tablets of their own, though it’s unclear how licensees might respond to a home-grown rival. According to the leaks, the Microsoft Windows 8 slate will arrive sometime by the end of 2012; it’s not confirmed that it will use ARM chipsets, but given TI’s supposed involvement that seems the most likely course.

TI announced its new OMAP4470 chip, a 1.8GHz dual-core, last week, with availability expected in the first half of next year. The company confirmed to SlashGear that it had been designed with Windows 8 on ARM specifically in mind, balancing power and battery longevity in a way that TI reckons Intel and ARM-based rivals can’t beat.

Of course, there’s also TI’s OMAP 5 due in the second half of 2012, which would be even more powerful and mark a shift to the ARM Cortex-A15 architecture. Microsoft declined to comment on the rumors, and we’re a little skeptical about the whole idea; still, if Google can lend its brand to the “Nexus” range of devices and show Android OEMs how it envisages the platform evolving, perhaps that’s not such a bad idea for Microsoft too. The company released its first proper preview of Windows 8 for tablets last week.

The OMAP4470 follows in the footsteps of the existing OMAP4430, the 1GHz dual-core found in the BlackBerry PlayBook, and the dual-core 1.5GHz OMAP4460 currently with developers and expected to show up in commercial products in the second half of 2011. It brings with it the POWERVR SGX544 GFX graphics core running at 384MHz with support for DirectX 9, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1.1 and OpenCL 1.1, good for driving a display of up to QXGA 2048 x 1536 resolution or three simultaneous HD screens.

With chips like NVIDIA’s quad-core Kal-El in the pipeline, we asked Granger why TI has stuck with its dual-core strategy. Turns out, the OMAP4470 is a quad-core in a way: the two A9 cores are paired with two ARM Cortex M3 cores, used with TI’s Hardware Composition engine and dual-channel LPDDR2 memory with 7.5Gbps of bandwidth. That unique engine can offset processing – for things like multi-layer UIs – between the M3 cores and the POWERVR GPU and away from the A9 cores: Granger says that means the OMAP4470 isn’t just fast but power frugal, too, as well as offering performance where users particularly want it, in the browser and for graphically-complex games.

That power management, TI claims, means a smartphone or tablet with average batteries using the OMAP4470 is good for up to 10hrs of 1080p HD playback on a single charge, or up to 4hrs of 1080p HD recording. “OMAP4470 delivers the compute horsepower and system bandwidth to drive the best user experience” Granger says, for the “quintessential user experience” of a fluid UI and “class leading” performance.

Pin-for-pin, the new OMAP 4 chip is compatible with its predecessors, which means that manufacturers using the older versions face little work to swap over to the OMAP4470. However, it’s not just QNX and Android hardware which TI has in mind: as a member of the Windows on ARM Initiative, the chipset has been purposefully designed with Microsoft’s upcoming version of Windows 8 for ARM processors in mind. DirectX is one example of that, but generally TI is keen to take on Intel’s x86 chips when it comes to performance and battery life.

“We believe OMAP4470 is a great fit for an ultrathin laptop” Granger explained, highlighting that ARM processors generally add up to stronger battery life than x86 chips and that the latest models are now more than capable of competing on performance, too. Unfortunately he had no comment as to the rumors that TI would be the lead chip partner on Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The TI OMAP4470 will begin sampling in the second half 0f 2011, with devices using the chipset expected to go on sale in the first half of 2012. As for what comes after that, well, TI’s OMAP 5 platform – led by the OMAP5430 and OMAP5432 – with two 28nm ARM Cortex-A15 MPCores running at up to 2GHz is expected to hit retail in the second half of 2012.

Press Release:

TI’s OMAP4470 apps processor: It’s all about the user experience

Latest OMAPTM 4 platform processor sets new standard for mobile computing, bringing up to QXGA display resolution, HD UIs and 2x Web browsing performance

COMPUTEX, June 2, 2011—Building on the OMAPTM 4 platform family’s technological achievements , Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) introduced today the power-efficient OMAP4470 applications processor, designed to deliver the perfect balance between processing power, graphics, display subsystem functionality and multilayered user interface (UI) composition. The multicore OMAP4470 processor surpasses current market solutions with clock speeds up to 1.8 GHz, an 80 percent increase in Web browsing performance, increased memory bandwidth, a 2.5x boost in graphics functionality—via the POWERVR SGX544 core from Imagination Technologies—and a unique hardware composition engine. Mobile computing and gaming applications running on operating systems such as Android, Linux and the next version of Microsoft Windows will benefit from the OMAP4470 processor’s enhanced capabilities. Customers designing ultrathin laptops, tablets or smartphones around previously released OMAP 4 processors gain the added benefit of pin-to-pin hardware and software compatibility for maximum re-use and faster time-to-market.

―Superior mobile computing relies on a user experience that dwarfs all others. Fast and crisp Web browsing, HD and liquid UIs, support for the latest applications—these are the elements consumers judge and buy their devices on. The OMAP4470 processor delivers the maximum experience possible with an unmatched, power-efficient architecture,‖ said Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president, OMAP platform business unit, TI.

Making HD UIs a reality

Courtesy of its advanced graphics architecture, OMAP4470 enables customers to leverage tomorrow’s leading-edge display technology by supporting resolution up to QXGA (2048×1536). The new applications processor drives still more unparalleled HD UIs with simultaneous support for up to three HD screens and up to 2x more layered imaging and video composition than competitive solutions—a capability required by the sophisticated UIs of next generation operating systems. This feature is enabled by the combination of a hardware composition engine with a dedicated 2D graphics core, a highly sophisticated display subsystem, and dual-channel LPDDR2 memory enabling up to 7.5 Gbps of throughput to composite the graphics and/or video data output. This frees the GPU to perform graphics-intensive tasks such as gaming or widget creation while the compositing process is assigned to more power-efficient hardware subsystems.

Powerful enough for desktop applications yet highly power-efficient for mobile applications, Imagination Technologies’ POWERVR SGX544 GPU complements the OMAP 4 platform’s promise of high performance, low power. The OMAP4470 processor is the first OMAP offering to leverage the POWERVR SGX544. Combining the SGX544’s features with the sophisticated OMAP architecture enables TI customers to deliver a new set of applications to end-users, including DirectX-driven games and videos.

―Graphics processing is now at the very heart of the mobile computing experience, providing the gateway to an enriched experience of user interface, gaming, location services, web and media,‖ said Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination Technologies.

―Combining the OMAP 4 platform’s low-power, high- performance architecture with the extensive acceleration capabilities and API support of Imagination’s POWERVR SGX544 will enable experiences that will really make people sit up and take notice.

Availability
The 45nm OMAP4470 processor is expected to sample in the second half of 2011, with devices expected to hit the market in first half 2012. These products are intended for high-volume mobile OEMs and ODMs, and are not available through distributors.

The rumor points to the TI OMAP 4 chip as being the chip that Google favors for Ice Cream Sandwich. The reason according to the source of the rumor is that NVIDIA is lacking in engineering depth and innovation. There is also a strong indication that NVIDIA delays are part of the reason for a change. The source reportedly said that TI would deliver when it promised.

The source said, “Nvidia seems to have run out of steam, lacks engineers and has come up against a bit of an innovation wall.” Another rumor claims that Google may be looking at Qualcomm to provide chips for tablets running Android Jello, said to be the version of Android coming after Ice Cream Sandwich. The source says Google is simply going for the processors that seem to be the best at any given time.

[via Android Community]

There’s also plenty of connectivity support: USB Host and USB To Go, audio in/out, WiFi, a microSD slot and a keyboard controller that borrows the main notebook’s ‘board. Platform support includes Ubuntu and Android 2.3 (with updates promised as Google releases new versions). Battery life, meanwhile, is expected to hit 20hrs in the average 10-inch netbook, or double that if you have a Pixel Qi style low-power screen.

CUPP also plans a PunkThis Enclosure, basically a standalone housing for the board. That will have five USB ports, audio in/out, DVI, an SD card slot and headphone socket when it arrives in September.

The first netbook to get the module will be the ASUS Eee PC 1015PN, with CUPP expecting to offer a solder-less wiring kit in mid-July. Pricing should be under $200. jkkmobile grabbed some fondle-time, which you can see in the video below.

Press Release:

“Punk your PC” – 40 hour Computing

CUPP Computing has developed a 2.5” module for x-86 PCs. Codenamed “PunkThis” for PC, it is based on CUPP’s patented technology and “Multi-mode computing” vision. The device enables a user to combine a high performance PC processor (x86/IA) and a low power processor (RISC/ARM) into a single platform. This allows the user to choose between low power/extended battery life and high performance/ normal battery life, enhancing their PCs functionality.

PunkThis enables more practical computing with greater battery life and a more versatile set of use cases. It allows low power applications and flexibility, with seamless access to PC processing power as needed. This module will provide over 20 hour computing in a standard netbook or 40 hours with a low power screen. (PixelQi)

The PunkThis module fits in a standard 2.5” drive bay and contains both and Mini PCIe SSD HD and an ARM processor. The ARM Processor is a TI OMAP DM3730 at 1GHz with 512MB of RAM. It is designed to be an unlocked system to allow users to modify the OS and functionality. Two USB connections (Host & USB OTG) allow uses flexibility to access and share data.

The PunkThis board will have wiring kits that allow solder-less in installation into a number of PC platforms. The Asus 1015PN is the first target for these packages. (Additional platforms will follow.)

The PunkThis desktop enclosure will give users and developers a compact desktop Computer that can be used in a number of roles. As a stand-alone computer it can be used as media center, terminal, or connected device. When used in conjunction with a desktop PunkThis provides an ideal instant on, low power system to check mail and surf the web. Developers gain the ability to target the ARM v7 code base on physical hardware while retaining the functionality of a desktop environment.

PunkThis is an open unlocked device allowing users and developers to use their imagination to find new use cases and functions for this board. This gives manufacturers and consumers the ability to easily adapt existing PC’s for greater power efficiency and flexibility. Delivering functionality previously impossible in a Personal Computer.

CUPP PunkThis Techinical Specifications:

• TI DM3730 1.0Ghz A8 processor
• 512 MB RAM
• Micro SD System Memory
• Mini PCIe SSD for PC C: Drive
• Micro SD for Shared Drive
• Wifi
• USB ToGo
• USB Host
• Keyboard Controller (User Reprogrammable Keyboard Controller)
• Audio I/O

OS Development
• Ubuntu
• Android 2.3 (to be updated as new releases become available)
• Open Platform

Other:
• 20 hour battery life in 10” Netbook
• 40 hour battery life with low power screen (PixelQi)
• Sub $200 USD Price

PunkThis Enclosure: (Price undetermined)
• 5 USB Ports
• Audio I/O
• DVI I/O
• Power
• SD Card
• Head Phone Jack

Presently implemented in Asus 1015PN
Solder-less Wiring Kit for Asus 1015PN – Mid July
Module Production – Mid July
PunkThis Enclosure – Start September

Inside the 3 ATM water resistant stainless steel case (which has a leather strap and mineral glass crystal fascia) there’s a 3-axis accelerometer, vibration motor and ambient light sensor. We’re not sure if that means the pressure sensor, temperature sensor and RF wireless originally seen in the MSP430 hack-watch are now gone.

The analog version has two 16 x 80 white OLED displays, while the digital version has a 96 x 96 reflective display. Fossil – of whom the new Meta Watch company is a division – will be showing off the timepiece at Google IO next week.

[Thanks to everybody who sent this in!]

Press Release:

Meta WatchTM offers developers freedom to start their own wrist revolution

Richardson, TX, May 3, 2011 – Meta WatchTM is proud to announce a wearable development system that enables rapid development of ‘connected-watch’ applications. With Meta Watch, developers can quickly and easily extend the interfaces of devices and applications to the wrist. The Meta Watch platforms utilize embedded Bluetooth® technology to connect to smartphones, tablets and other electronics devices. The Meta Watch SDK/API makes it easy for the watch to display information from mobile applications or Internet services. For complete information, visit www.metawatch.org.

Meta Watch platforms are available in analog digital or digital versions, and include: a 3 ATM water resistant stainless steel case; leather strap; mineral glass crystal; vibrating motor; three-axis accelerometer, and ambient light sensor. Optimized for low-power operation, both watch platforms are based on the MSP430TM ultra-low-power microcontroller and CC2560 Bluetooth host controller interface solution from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI).

“Meta Watch makes our everyday mobile experience much better by enabling us to view important mobile notifications at the right time with virtually no effort”, said Bill Geiser, Vice President Watch Technology, Fossil. “Of course, you can get this information today, but it requires many different steps. Meta Watch simply makes it more convenient and, in the process, it opens the door to new partnerships like we have with TI and a growing network of development partners.”

“TI welcomes the opportunity to work with the Meta Watch team on creating a new channel for the community, and to helping developers push the watch’s capabilities to the next level,” said Eran Sandhaus, Director of marketing, wireless connectivity solutions, TI. “TI’s MSP430 ultra-low-power microcontroller and CC2560 Bluetooth host controller interface provide a solid foundation for the next- generation, connected devices based on the Meta Watch’s sleek form factor. We look forward to seeing the Meta Watch community flourish with ideas for wearable technology that will spark new consumer experiences for years to come.”

See Meta Watch in action The Meta Watch platform will be showcased May 3 – 5 at TI’s booth, #1530, during the Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley in San Jose, CA. On May 10 and 11, Meta Watch will also be part of the Developer Sandbox at Google I/O in Mountain View, CA.

Pricing, availability, and more
• Availability date: July 2011
• Where to buy: Pre-orders starting Monday, May 9, at https://estore.ti.com/
• Cost: USD $200
• Regions shipped to: U.S. and Europe
• Latest information: www.metawatch.org

About Meta Watch
Meta Watch is an advanced development group exploring technology-based opportunities for watches. It is a division of Fossil.

Each can be set to load by default, and once you’re inside AIOS you can choose any of the other platforms to switch to. Since Android, Ubuntu and Chrome OS lack that menu option, a double-press of the button on the Beagleboard opens up an OS switcher. AI is suggesting that each other platform has its own unique benefits: Android has the most polished browsing experience, Ubuntu has the most apps, and Chrome OS is unique as it’s apparently the first time the platform is running on OMAP3/4 hardware.

That latter point may well be particularly important as we see Texas Instruments’ OMAP4 chipsets arrive on the market; as we saw at MWC 2011, the new platform is capable of camera-based gesture recognition, multiple HD video streams and more, functionality which would be particularly interesting in a Chrome OS notebook. You can download AI’s Super-Jumbo here, and pick up a Beagleboard here for $149.

[Thanks Ali!]

Flash storage, DRAM, LCD panels, microcontrollers and other materials will all be impacted, according to iSuppli, though high existing stock levels of some components are expected to smooth the transition somewhat. Semiconductors, for instance, are only expected to be delayed by weeks, whereas NAND and DRAM are already seeing price surges of around 10- and 17-percent respectively. Solar panel production has also been affected, with AUO owned M. Setek shutting down its facilities as it investigates damage.

Texas Instruments has confirmed that its Miho plant – responsible primarily for analog and DLP wafer production – suffered substantial damage, and doesn’t expect full shipment capability until September 2011. Panasonic’s LCD fab has been more moderately impacted, though will suffer downtime due to its proximity to the most affected areas. Hitachi – which supplies displays for LG phones and Nintendo’s DS – has halted production as it assesses damage, while eight Sony production facilities have been similarly frozen while assessments take place. These include CD and Blu-ray production, Li-Ion battery manufacture and other components. Toshiba [pdf link] has warned its NAND production could drop by up to 20-percent, Apple being one well-known client of the flash storage, while it has also closed its CMOS image sensor plant which supplies Nokia among other clients.

Meanwhile, power shortages are impacting areas less physically affected by the earthquake, with TI reporting its attempts to shift production to other facilities are being delayed by the absence of stable power. Several undamaged Sony facilities are voluntarily offline in an attempt to conserve electricity, while Hitachi, Fujitsu, Toshiba and others are shutting down various levels of production, business operations and electronic signage in response. Specific products affected include Fujifilm’s X100 camera, according to reports, manufacture of which has temporarily ceased.

Even if production levels are stable, actually shipping components to OEMs remains an issue. Transport links have been heavily impacted, in addition to preventing employees from reaching production facilities. Although it’s easy to dismiss tech manufacture as a luxury amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis, Japan’s economic recovery is essential if the population is to get the long-term assistance and support it needs. That includes not just the sizable donations from Japanese businesses this past week, but stable employment moving forward.

It bears repeating, though, that the various aid, relief and rescue operations ongoing in Japan continue to need support today. You can find out more on how you can help here.

“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]

Phones

When you’ve got “Mobile” in your name you’re obviously going to have more than a few cellphones on show, and MWC 2011 didn’t disappoint. Perhaps more so than any year previous, we’d already seen at least some of the key device details in the run up to Barcelona, either via leaks – like the XPERIA Play – or through pre-launch teasers – like the Optimus 3D. Absent as ever is a sense of launch immediacy: specific release dates and pricing are in short supply, and none of the major exhibitors have managed to follow in Apple’s footsteps and push a device out the door only days or weeks after its official unveil.

HTC brought one of the largest smartphone ranges to MWC 2011, with a full five handsets including two with specific Facebook functionality. The HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S are all evolutionary rather than revolutionary, building on the successful releases of their predecessors, leaving the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa to win the bulk of our phone attention.

Maybe it’s the power of Facebook and the HTC hype machine, but the ChaCha and Salsa managed to whip up interest with little more than a dedicated (and, for that matter, non-user-assignable) hardware shortcut key and a hook into an updated HTC Sense. Even without explicit Facebook endorsement – though with a glowing if generic pre-recorded recommendation from founder Mark Zuckerberg – these look to be the two social networking devices to beat, as long as HTC can follow through on its promises to hit relatively budget pricing. Don’t underestimate how much of that solid start is the handiwork HTC has already put into Sense, however.

LG, meanwhile, looked to 3D for its cellular salvation, with the LG Optimus 3D packing a pair of 5-megapixel lenses and TI’s OMAP4 processor for Full HD 1080p recording and playback. With a glasses-free 3D display it’s probably stands the best chance of market success among 3D propositions, though most people we spoke to at the show threw in the telling caveat that “you can turn the 3D off and then the screen is great!”

Samsung hadn’t been discrete about the Samsung Galaxy S II, and its Sunday reveal wasn’t helped by a significant leak of specs and live photos after, we’ve been unofficially told, a huge mailing list of vendors, carriers, PR and other contacts were sent the details late on the Friday prior to the show. Still, the promise of a dual-core 4.3-inch smartphone still managed to impress, and with the Galaxy S before it setting sales records not only among Samsung’s range but in the US Android marketplace, we’ve only high hopes for the waifish successor.

The scale of Sony Ericsson‘s launch was undermined somewhat by a seen-it-all-before feeling; over-saturation of the XPERIA Play and leaked previews of the XPERIA Neo (along with its similarities to the earlier Symbian-based Vivaz) left only the XPERIA Pro with any sense of surprise. We can’t help but be cautious over the PlayStation phone, too, with lingering questions about the usability of its touch-sensitive alternatives to regular analog sticks and whether gaming developers will jump on board Sony’s new platform. Hardware-wise, beyond the slide-out control pad there’s little to differentiate the XPERIA Play from rival high-end smartphones – it’s not even a dual-core – and much of Sony’s drive seems to center around regular Android games packing extra content on the gaming phone. Sales, though, will have to convince developers that the extra work is going to be worth it, and the NGP may not arrive soon enough to envelop the XPERIA Play in its halo affect.

Apple weren’t even at MWC, but still managed to be one of the most talked about brands among attendees (and exhibitors); the company even clinched the GSMA “best smartphone” award for the iPhone 4. There’s no doubt that the Cupertino firm is still seen as the benchmark by which rivals are judged, and on the smartphone front at least there’s not a huge amount of lateral thinking going on.

Nokia was another brand getting well discussed, despite not really having anything to bring to MWC beyond CEO Stephen Elop. We sat down with the ex-Microsoftie to discuss his play for the Windows Phone market and reaction to conspiracy theories, product differentiation and the Android menace. Word from the halls was that while the Microsoft/Nokia pairing was probably the most sensible one, there is still plenty of work to be done if either company want to turn their respective brands around.

That ambition isn’t helped by Android and the huge amount of attention the platform garnered at the show. Google had cleverly distributed Android pins around the dozens of exhibitors with Android products, leading to a baseball-card-style swapping frenzy as the rarer examples were hastily negotiated over. Android was at the top end and at the budget end, with low-cost firms like ZTE and Huawei showing exactly why Nokia is terrified of their entry-level appeal. Eric Schmidt turned up for a MWC keynote to demonstrate a new Movie Studio app for tablets, described Android as “the world’s fastest growing mobile platform” and stormed through an at-times challenging Q&A about monetization, Twitter and fragmentation.

Tablets

As at CES 2011 before it, MWC 2011 wasn’t short on slates. Android again was the primary platform of choice, with a number of 3.0 Honeycomb models to choose from. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and LG Optimus Pad (aka the LG G-Slate) made their respective debuts, illustrating perfectly the difficulties OEMs have in differentiating their slates when Android’s prized “Google Experience” branding demands the software itself be left alone. Samsung picked portability and LG opted for 3D, but both managed to look underwhelming when compared to HTC‘s offering.

The HTC Flyer may not have Honeycomb out of the gate – it’ll launch with Gingerbread instead, with HTC promising a subsequent update – but its combination of custom software, OnLive cloud gaming, Evernote integration, beautiful 7-inch hardware and – prompting no small amount of controversy – stylus input option made it the stand-out slate of the show. Recognizing that not all tablet users are content with on-screen keyboards and the iPad content-consumption paradigm, HTC actually delivered on the marketing hyperbole with a unique proposition that we’re genuinely excited to try come Q2.

4G

4G may now be the umbrella term for everything from HSPA+ through WiMAX and LTE, but the confusion is only just beginning. While we don’t generally cover carrier infrastructure on SlashGear, it was tough to avoid the vendors and operators each trying to convince the MWC crowds that their own implementation of 4G was the way forward. We managed to borrow one of Novatel Wireless‘ rare Dual-Cell HSPA+ (DC-HSPA+) modems, promising downlink speeds of up to 42Mbps on Telefonica’s Spanish network; stand by for our full report on just what sort of real-world performance DC-HSPA+ delivered.

Next-Gen Chipsets

As always at MWC, spend any amount of time with the chipset manufacturers and you’ll soon start looking at the imminent device releases with disdain. Texas Instruments‘ OMAP5 promises to be vastly powerful by virtue of its dual ARM Cortex A15 cores – the company reckons the dual-core SoC will be faster and more power-frugal than a quad-core ARM A9 chipset – while NVIDIA threatened to overshadow its own Tegra 2 hype with the announcement of the Project Kal-El quad-core that will, almost unbelievably, be hitting products in the second half of 2011. Qualcomm too had quad-cores to talk about, with an update to its well-known Snapdragon line (that also threw in LTE support). Ben Bajarin took the multi-core message to task in a must-read piece of analysis.

That’s only the top skimming of the news from Barcelona this week, and you can find all of our Mobile World Congress coverage by using the MWC 2011 tag. There’s also plenty more coverage over at our sibling site Android Community. It’s was a strong showing from manufacturers and vendors, certainly, but then again it needs to be: Apple is expected to unveil the iPad 2 within the next month, and the iPhone 5 will be doing its best to reshape the smartphone segment midway through the year.

What was your favorite product of MWC 2011? Let us know which gadgets you’re excited about – and which you think don’t stand a chance – in the comments!

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.