May 21

Job Listing Hints at More Powerful Processor in Future iPhones

Posted in: Apple, arm, iPhone, Phones, processor, rumors, Today's Chili

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A recent Apple job listing sheds light on possible hardware that will deliver a significant performance boost for upcoming iPhone models.

Apple is hiring a low-level iPhone programmer who is familiar with the ARM mobile-processor architecture and NEON vector processing. NEON refers to the vector unit in ARMv7 Cortex processors — an improvement from the current iPhone’s ARMv6-based processors.

According to ARM, ARMv7 Cortex processors will deliver a significant performance boost to accelerate 3D gaming, speech processing, audio decoding, image processing, telephony and sound synthesis.

Because the programmer position is unfilled, it’s unclear whether this processor will appear in Apple’s next iPhone, which many are predicting will be announced at June’s Worldwide Developer Conference. Apple has made no official announcements about a third-generation iPhone.

Job Listing [Apple via MacRumors]

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Photo: Brandon Shigeta/Flickr


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May 01

ARM CEO hints at possible Windows 7 support for ARM processors

Posted in: arm, netbook, processor, Today's Chili, windows 7, Windows7

This could just be a case of a CEO letting his wishful thinking out into the open, but ARM’s Warren East was apparently all too happy to talk about the possibility of Windows 7 supporting ARM processors during a recent analysts conference call, even if he wasn’t quite ready to offer much of anything in the way of specifics. He did lay out the scenario pretty well, however, leading off by saying that “Microsoft will continue to play an important part in this [netbook] space,” and that “if there was Windows support for the ARM processor today clearly it would be a very different marketplace.” To which he apparently quickly added, “perhaps there will be support in future but that’s really for Microsoft to comment on and not for us to comment on, I’m afraid.” Of course, all of this is made all the more interesting given ARM’s increasing interest in the netbook space, which is certainly a tough nut to crack without Microsoft’s assistance — Android possibilities notwithstanding.

[Via Electronista]

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ARM CEO hints at possible Windows 7 support for ARM processors originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 May 2009 20:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 30

Apple Assembles Chip Design Team, Plans Custom iPhone Guts

Posted in: Apple, arm, processors, samsung, Today's Chili, top

The WSJ reports that Apple is putting together an all-star chip design team, starting with the former CTO of AMD, to work on in-house units for mobile devices. Old habits die hard.

Apple is prone to occasional fits of vertical integration, and has never been terribly reluctant to run counter to the prevailing hardware winds, but this doesn’t sound like some Jobsian act of contrarianism. The report indicates that it’s the iPhone’s unique power and performance demands that are driving this move, at least ostensibly:

Apple could use the internally developed chips to sharply reduce the power consumption of its hit iPhone and iPod touch devices, and possibly add graphics circuitry to help its hardware play realistic game software and high-definition videos, people familiar with its plans say.

Apple already works with Samsung, the manufacturer of the ARM-based processors used in the iPhone and iPod Touch, to design chips suited to their specific needs, and Apple is a large enough company that it doesn’t have trouble coaxing tailor-made hardware out of its suppliers. But totally in-house chip design boasts the huge advantage of secrecy; removing Samsung from the equation ensures that any power-saving, graphics-boosting chip features Apple manages to conjure for their next iWhatever don’t eventually find their way into units available to other industry giants like HTC or RIM.

So don’t confuse Apple’s latest move with an effort to spur innovation—from here, this looks like technology-hoarding, pure and simple; a bid to further insulate their mobile devices from competition by locking down their hardware as hard as they do their software. [WSJ]

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Apr 26

Skytone’s Android-powered netbook to cost around $250

Posted in: Android, arm, Google, netbook, Today's Chili

Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies Company, which we will absolutely never call by its full name again, has just dropped a juicy nugget about its forthcoming netbook. If you’ll recall, we recently caught wind of the ARM-based, Android-powered rig (the Alpha 680), which is expected to be a stripped down portable useful for web surfing and light duty Office use. Nixon Wu, Skytone’s co-founder, recently confessed that it’s aiming to sell the machine for around $250, and if all goes well, it should have prototypes ready by June and final products ready for consumption a month or two after that. Call us crazy (or just greedy, really), but we were totally hoping for this to ring up at $199 or less.

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Skytone’s Android-powered netbook to cost around $250 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 21

Skytone debuts ARM-based, Android-powered netbook / tablet

Posted in: Android, arm, netbook, Today's Chili

Well, after months of nothing but hacks and proof of concepts, we now have not one but two Android-powered netbooks — neither of which are actually available just yet, of course. This latest one comes from Chinese firm Skytone and, unlike the I-Buddie, boasts a slightly more unique convertible tablet design, which the company was apparently able to make happen by cutting corners in every other area. That includes a slightly underwhelming 533MHz ARM processor, a 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, a mere 128MB of RAM, 1GB of storage, an SD card slot for expansion, and even optional 3G (although that could just be a dongle). What’s more, it looks like Skytone is saying that the netbook, dubbed the Alpha-680, could sell for as little as $100 if and when it’s actually released — which, as far as we can tell, could happen next week or never.

[Via The Inquirer]

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Skytone debuts ARM-based, Android-powered netbook / tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 19

LitPhone projector phone, new pocket PJs surface in Hong Kong

Posted in: arm, pico projector, PicoProjector, projector, Today's Chili

Outside of Samsung’s W7900 Show and a few nondescript prototypes, the projector phone sector has been largely stagnant. Thankfully, it seems at least one no-name company is looking to make a name for itself by developing yet another entrant. The LitPhone, designed and showcased by China’s own SCT Optronics, is a GSM handset that sports CMMB TV tuning, a touchscreen and a built-in projector with an undisclosed native resolution. Furthermore, the company also demonstrated its USB-powered PCLit mobile projector at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, which debuted alongside Join Technology’s JP77 and WE3 Technology’s WE8626. Have a glance at the whole bundle down in the read link — just don’t get those hopes too high about a US release date anytime soon.

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LitPhone projector phone, new pocket PJs surface in Hong Kong originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 13

$22 iPod Shuffle shocker: components tiny, inexpensive

Posted in: Apple, arm, samsung, teardown, Today's Chili

When iSuppli recently reported that the parts and packaging of the iPod Shuffle 3G cost only $21.77, a mere twenty-eight percent of the unit’s retail price, PMP Today asked a most reasonable question: Where are the new Shuffle KIRFs? According to Business Week, Samsung is making a killing on these things, supplying not only the unit’s ARM-based processor ($5.98), but the storage ($6) on at least a few of the units as well. The lithium ion battery, described by iSuppli as “the smallest we’ve ever seen,” has an asking price of $1.20. As for things like capacitors and resistors, they’re being described as “about the size of a grain of salt” and cost fractions of a penny each. Of course, none of this takes into account things like paying engineers and designers, and royalties paid to patents owned by other companies. Not that the KIRFsters of Shenzhen worry about these sorts of things. Maybe the wherewithal required to produce a phony Shuffle is (for the time being) beyond the capabilities of the pirates? Or maybe they’re just having too much fun cranking out NOKLAs.

Read – iPod Shuffle 3G Costs $22 to Make: Where are the Clones?
Read – Deconstructing Apple’s Tiny iPod Shuffle

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$22 iPod Shuffle shocker: components tiny, inexpensive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 10

3K’s Windows CE-powered RazorBook 400 netbook goes half price, still won’t sell

Posted in: arm, netbook, price, pricing, Today's Chili

Man, remember just how great of a deal this looked like when it launched at $299 in May of last year? Funny how things change so rapidly, huh? Well, it’s pretty comical unless you’re 3K Computers, who now has a pathetic excuse of a netbook that it can only sell by slashing the asking price from $299 to under $150. Nearly web-wide, legitimate e-tailers are selling the RazorBook 400 CE for less than half of its original MSRP, and we’re not even a full year into its life cycle. But really, who’s jonesing for a CE-powered netbook (we could just stop there, truthfully) with a diminutive 7-inch display, 128MB of RAM and a processor that’s slower (in clock speed, anyway) than that found in HTC’s Touch Diamond? If you’re sheepishly raising your hand, the read link’s got sucker your name written all over it.

[Via Laptoping]

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3K’s Windows CE-powered RazorBook 400 netbook goes half price, still won’t sell originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 12

OLPC eyes ARM processors for the XO-2

Posted in: arm, Microsoft, Today's Chili

According to an interview in PC World, the OLPC crew are looking to adopt ARM processors for the next iteration of their feel good laptop. Its extremely low power draw and the system on chip possibilities make this move a no-brainer, until you consider the fact that plans for the XO-2 call for a dual-boot Linux / Windows machine — as of yet, Microsoft has declined to make a full-blown Windows OS for ARM. Then again, as Nicholas Negroponte states, the newest OLPC machine is still 18 months away, and “a lot can change with regard to Microsoft and ARM” in that time. We hope it does — we would hate to see the Third World’s computing needs left to those $10 laptop guys. You know what a disaster that turned out to be!

[Via OLPC News]

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OLPC eyes ARM processors for the XO-2 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 02

Touch Book from Always Innovating harbors removable tablet, netbook pricepoint

Posted in: arm, Linux, netbook, tablet, Today's Chili

It’s not every day we see an all-new angle on the laptop form factor, much less a netbook with aims at innovation. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that a company dubbed “Always Innovating” is trying to spice things up a bit. The Touch Book is an ARM-powered netbook that weighs less than two pounds and claims battery life of 10 to 15 hours, but the real magic happens with the removable screen — it slides right out of its keyboard dock and acts as a fully functional touchscreen tablet. When docked, the screen can lay out flat, and the keyboard can even be folded all the way under into an “inverted V” shape. There are other oddities like internal USB plugs to cut down on dongle mess, and the whole screen is magnetic for mounting on a fridge. The machine is running a Linux OS with a touchable 3D UI. The only press shots right now are these sketchy-looking renders, but Always Innovating is currently previewing the Touch Book at DEMO 09 in California, and plans to ship in Spring of this year with a starting pricetag of $299.

Gallery: Touch Book from Always Innovating harbors removable tablet, netbook pricepoint

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Touch Book from Always Innovating harbors removable tablet, netbook pricepoint originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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