Fine Oils

Pocketbook A7: В Тулу с самоваром?

2012-01-27T10:04:00.000-08:00

Понадобилось мне тут дать коротенький и миленький матерьяльчик про Покетбук А7. Стал копаться, и вышло не совсем коротко и совсем не мило.

The new Pocketbook A7 features a 7 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. Hopefully, it's IPS, or IPS type display of Samsung Galaxy Tab/NOOK Color class. The CPU is a single-core 1 GHZ processor with 512 MB of RAM. It comes with 4 GB of internal storage and you can upgrade it via the MicroSD up to 32 GB.

The Pocketbook A7 will run custom Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread at launch that has no Google Apps and no Google Market on it, at least officially. Does every new e-reader need an Ice Cream Sandwich on it is a different question.

It has a 2 MPix front camera though and a microphone, then there are these e-reader type hardware buttons. But there's no HDMI output and no rear camera, even if the front camera is quite good.

Presented as an e-reader, it has full compatibility with Adobe Digital Editions in PDF and EPUB formats. This allows you to shop with other stores that sell books in EPUB format and transfer them easily to your tablet. It currently reads EPUB (ADOBE DRM), PDF (ADOBE DRM), EPUB, PDF, FB2, TXT, DJVU, RTF, HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, BMP, PNG, MP3, WAV, AVI, MKV, MP4.

When this Pocketbook A7 will show up in US retail for about $199, I doubt it might be a good contender for a $199 NOOK Color. It certainly won't be a competition to more powerful and popular Amazon's Kindle Fire.

Consumers of color e-readers here in US are well fed by several offerings. First of all, it's iPads, but if someone looks for a bargain, it was a NOOK Color starting holiday season of 2010, and throughout almost all 2011, then there were NOOK Tablet and Amazon's Kindle Fire, which are dominating the market segment now. Of course, there are plenty of niche products like all these Kobos and Pandigitals, but they are just like that: not mainstream, very small in sales and customer satisfaction. If you're aiming for a niche here, aim at below $149, just like all these Chinese slates. Then we will see. Or we won't: just like we didn't see any of previous 5 or 6 Pocketbook models here.

However, there are plenty of markets where consumers have never heard of Barnes & Noble, or even Kindle Fire, so who knows?

An update: some sources indicate that the SoC used in A7 is indeed TI OMAP3621 of NOOK Color fame (and grief), so when (and if) the e-reader will be launched for US market, it will be in direct competition with NOOK Color, feature for feature, except A7 has also a microphone and and a Web cam. Video chat with Skype on Pocketbook A7, anyone?

Galaxy Tab P1010 WiFi-Only: Irish Gingerbread

2012-01-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot about this highly overpriced ($349), very underpowered (single core 4-year old TI OMAP3630), but otherwise nice tablet called Samsung Galaxy Tab GT-P1010. As you might have noticed, "GT" in its name is not your "Gran Turismo" moniker. P1010 is on the opposite end of your Ferrari. Sammy-Mommy itself didn't like its child right from the start: the trend of not giving it even a Gingerbread update continues up to this day. The device stays with Froyo everywhere except (probably) Ireland and its dependencies (?). Irish were possibly more persuasive in talking Samsung into giving them Gingerbread ahead of the rest of unhappy crowd of P1010. Or more loud.
Anyway, they have got it for Irish as the Christmas present, and a good guy taney from XDA-Developers has adapted it for non-Irish P1010s. You can find his procedure here. My humble addition to it stems from my own experiences, so if you're fine working with Kies/quirky Samsung USB drivers/Odin, go ahead and disregard all below. However, teaching your P1010 an Irish accent can soft-brick your tablet in no time.

So here we go:

Step 0. Install the latest Samsung USB drivers (this January's version will be fine). That is, if you didn't do it for your other countless Samsung devices already. It goes with that huge bloat called Kies, so what? Install Odin version 1.61, the link is at taney's post.
Steps are essentially the same as taney's, what's rewritten by me is in blue.

Step 1. Put your P1010 into download mode (by holding POWER and VOL-DOWN) (POWER OFF your P1010 if it's in ON; make sure your tablet is fully charged before that; an important note from yanbingyu: P1010 shouldn't be connected to your PC at the moment).

Step 2. Start Odin, connect your USB cable to your PC, make sure you have your ID:COM correctly determined and yellowed with that. Put marks on Re-Partition, Auto-Reboot and F. Reset Time. Put the Odin's "wifi" file in the PIT, put marks on PDA and CSC and put the correct files of Irish Froyo (P1010XWKC1_OXX) first. Start your flashing, and hold your breath.

Step 3. Chances are, you're not real Irish, just like me. So you end up boot-looping. Don't be scared though: you flash an Irish kernel (P1010ZHKF1-kernel) on top of this mess, and everything should end up fine. Éire go deo! You don't need Re-Partition and CSC this time. I would recommend Step 3 as obligatory, but it's just me.

Step 4. Get the Gingerbread update from here P1010XEUKPG, and flash it just like the kernel above. You might need a password to unlock the archive. Don't fret, it has nothing to do with IRA though. Find it at the original XDA-Devs thread where it's divulged by someone who isn't scared by IRA. You should be golden this time. Or green all over. Email taney (and me) some Guinness.

After all is done and you and your P1010 have started to talk with distinct Irish/Gaelic accent, you might get a special versions of root and ClockworkMod recovery for it. After that, putting up custom ROMs and apps and tweaks will become a breeze, just like it was made with CM7 for NOOK Color. Talking about NOOK Color with CM7, it didn't show much of better performance than this Gingerbread on my P1010 that still isn't overclocked and has tons of Samsung's bloatware present.

Road to ICS for P1010 is quite open now.

Big Google+ Watches You!

2012-01-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

Gizmodo has published this rant recently.

Google’s New Plan: Annoy You Into Compliance
Google Plus users just got a pretty horrible new feature: search your name, and instead of finding out information about yourself, you're asked to provide it. Quite simply, Google doesn't want to give you information until you give it information. Guh.
As Drew Olanoff
Image via Wikipediaof The Next Web noted today, if you are using Google's new Search Plus your World (which is on by default) instead of giving you the results you are looking for, a Google vanity search now prompts you to fill out the remainder of your Google Plus profile. It's a clear example of Google prioritizing Plus over Search. It's essentially allowing a social network to hijack your Search screen until you feed it personal data. Your normal results appear below the nag, but when I tried this myself, the prompt took over the entire window of my 13" screen. Google is increasingly acting like an overbearing second grade teacher. If you don't share, you can't have any for yourself.
So what happens if you do try to "complete your profile?" Mine was nearly complete, at 85 percent. I filled out my university information and added a photo to my "scrapbook" (related: what the hell is my scrapbook and who can see it?) which were the only two missing fields in the "Update your profile" window. But that only took me to 95 percent. I tried editing my profile directly from within Google Plus itself, dutifully filling out each and every field, including the really intrusive stuff like my relationship status and "who are you looking for?" (I'm just looking for myself!)
I'm still only at 95 percent. I have no idea what I need to do to get to 100. Maybe it's some philosophical lesson that represents the fundamental loneliness of the human condition by never allowing you to reach completion. I have no idea.

It goes on and on, a "rantus vulgatus". A simple answer to this is "Opt out!" A more elaborate answer would be: "Have you read that fine print? Opt out if you don't like any clause of TOS". Steve Jobs once famously quipped that "Americans don't read". I'm not so radical in my perceptions, but I'm pretty sure that overwhelmingly, Americans don't read TOS.
In MobileMag, I wrote about TV that can watch you, literally. The overall tone of that article is sadness, sure. But show me somebody who was pushed into a purchase of such "smart" TV, against his or her own will. TOS is present for that TV, I'm sure.
Let's have a look at a bigger picture. In a society built on consumerism, fees for authors writing about consumer products are paid by advertisers, it's a fact of life. Moreover, fees for that Gizmodo article are also come from the same source: advertisers, even if it's an ordinary rant against the same advertisers looking for better targeting this very rant's author.
Sure it looks and feels Orwellian. Arsoning of Megaupload smells of Fahreheit 451 very much. But if you don't like to divulge the remaining 5 percent of your privacy, just opt out. No need to start another senseless movement "Occupy the Google+". After all, biting the hand that feeds you never worked. Don't play idiot, and they won't be evil.
As one commenter has put it for that clueless author, "Grow the [censored] up!".

UPDATE. I've got quite a sizable response to this. New, simplified and unified Privacy Policy will be in place on March 1, 2012 at Google. It may help.

iPad 3: Are You Excited Still?

2012-01-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

Rumors are multiplying exponentially now. Will iPad 3 be shown on Steve Jobs anniversary birthday (February 24), or we should wait till March? Launch date aside, rumors may also have two, or even three candidates for new iPads that about to appear in 2012. There were at least two schools of thought, so to speak, on the iPad 3 (or just call it "new iPad" probable thickness: some say, it will be thicker (+1 mm or so), others say, it will be of the same thickness, or even thinner. It's hard to determine, which models of "new iPad" both were referring to though. One insight in that thickness issue was given by a case manufacturer Chinee:

Case shown is obviously not much stretchable, so it's a tight fit. But its inner space is designed to fit a slightly thicker iPad, so the "thicker" rumor spreaders might be winning at this point. However, another interesting piece of information that 9to5Mac.com tells about this case is that it is meant for device named iPad 2S.
So, not only rumors mutiply, but these rumors begin to fork for different possible models.

Other rumors of using improved HD FaceTime-capable camera and quad-core A6 processor are rather old, even if getting more and more support. The only question that remains here, is better camera and/or A6 meant to iPad 2S too, or it's reserved just for "proper" iPad 3?

Rumors aside, a decision to get iPad 3, or iPad 2S, or whatever, at lauch, or any time after launch is not an easy one. There's no doubt that Siri made a hit out of otherwise not really interesting iPhone 4S. What on iPad 2S (or iPad 3) can make a current user of iPad 2 cough up in excess of 5 Franklins to get this next installment of Apple's tablet design? Is it that HD FaceTime camera interacting with virtual but visual Siri lady? Or we should wait till iPad 4 for that?

We'll see soon.

RIM Blackberry Playbook OS 2.0.0.7111

2012-01-23T19:33:00.000-08:00

Reluctantly, I took the plunge, went to the developer mode on my RIM Blackberry Playbook 16 GB, to get me a next 2.0 developer Beta of their OS. I've got my Playbook as a $199 deal from Radio Shack back in December, it's not there anymore, but if you're fast, a refurb unit could be yours at BestBuy for just $169.99. I'm not getting any referrals from BestBuy (of all places!), so don't blame me if that deal is gone, too. You were just not fast enough.
But you should have: Playbook is so smooth and slick that its crippled hardware counterpart named Kindle Fire will never be, ICS, or no ICS. The only (and BIG) problem with BB Playbook is that except for its native Browser, there's virtually no apps to speak of. Just nothing. Android Player demoed in October on RIM's DevCon for a developer beta of 2.0 failed to materialize in those 2.0 betas available for downloading.
It is still nowhere to be found, or not working properly, if you, like me, didn't go Dingleberry way.
Anyway, previous 2.0.0.6149 beta has brought no repair of video chat (front) camera, broke wallpapers from 1.0.0.8. If rooted, or should I say, "Dingleberried" it might give these goodies to all of you Android fans:

It's sandboxed Gingerbread what you see here, with many quirks. Will be Android Player for the February (some say February 17th) Release of 2.0 be based on ICS? I don't think so.

But enough about "sad" things. 7111 Beta update has wallpapers back, the whole operation feels smoother, and the Browser has hit a record 344 points at html5test.com (plus 9 bonus points, whatever they mean). For your comparing pleasure, the winner is Google Chrome 16.0 with 373 points (15 bonuses), runner-up is (now was) Firefox 330, upcoming Opera 12.0 will have the same 344, but we talk desktop browsers here. In tablets, the utterly unusable Firefox 9 was declared a champ with 313 points, but we know it's not anymore. (Apple's iOS 5 Safari is mere 305 points).
SunSpider JavaScript performance was not that great (2582 ms), but let's say, just fine.
BrowserMark by Rightware shows 57007 that beats LG Optimus 3D (47337), Samsung Galaxy S2 (35139) and all the rest of phones costing twice and more than BB Playbook.
Adobe Flash was probably upgraded to 11.1.something from 10.3, I'm too lazy to check the upgrade log. Everybody is happily kicking a dead lion in Adobe Flash, but it's good to know that the only mobile device they continue to work on is BB Playbook.

Talking about dead lions... Mike Lazaridis once was quoted as saying:

"I don't see the benefits of a tablet over a notebook...A lot of technology falls in the middle."
"Offshoot products trying to fill gaps that maybe don't need to be filled. Yes, a tablet is a cool concept, but can you put it in your pocket? And would you carry one around if you couldn't?"

Whatever. I've heard too many BS from visionaries of the past ("Americans don't read", "Android is a stolen product", und so weiter, ad infinitum et ad nauseam.) to ever pay attention. Hopefully, a new RIM's CEO won't kill QNX HP Apotheker-style, and hopefully TI OMAP will start building their OMAP5x platform at last -- for Playbook 2.

Roots Of Android Lagginess?

2012-01-23T13:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a long write-up for a discussion started in December 2011 by Andrew Munn. Sure, it's long and boring many times over, but the points are valid now, in January 2012, still. I tried to add some of my small comments in red, here and there, and I will follow future discussion of the topics with my UPDATES here

Why is Android laggy, while iOS, Windows Phone 7, QNX, and webOS are fluid?
This post will attempt to answer that question.

However before I jump in, a couple disclaimers. First, I am a 3rd year undergraduate software engineering student. I interned on the Android team, and +Romain Guy who was responsible for much of the hardware acceleration work in Honeycomb, reviewed some of my code, but I was not on the framework team and I never read the Android rendering source code. I do not have any authoritative Android knowledge and I cannot guarantee what I say here is necessarily 100% accurate, but I have done my best to do my homework.

Second, I’m interning with the Windows Phone team starting in January, so it’s possible that this post will be unconsciously biased against Android, but if you ask any of my friends, it’s really hard to shut me up about Android. I have more Android t-shirts than days of the week and I’d rather give away my Macbook than my Nexus S. The Googlplex is like a second home - I’ve slept there on more than a few occasions to the dismay of startled janitors (and if you ever get a chance to visit, the banana french toast at Big Table Cafe is to die for). If anything, I’m probably biased in Android’s favor.

Finally, any opinions expressed in this article are solely my own and do not represent those of any past or future employers.

With that out of the way, lets dive right in.

Dianne starts off her post with a surprising revelation:

“Looking at drawing inside of a window, you don’t necessarily need to do this in hardware to achieve full 60fps rendering. This depends very much on the number of pixels in your display and the speed of your CPU. For example, Nexus S has no trouble doing 60fps rendering of all the normal stuff you see in the Android UI like scrolling lists on its 800x480 screen.”

Hun? How can this be the case? Anybody who’s used a Nexus S knows it slows down in all but the simplest of ListViews. And forget any semblance of decent performance if a background task is occurring, like installing an app or updating the UI from disk. On the other hand, iOS is 100% smooth even when installing apps. But we know Dianne isn’t lying about the potential CPU performance, so what’s going on?

The Root Cause

It’s not GC pauses(? Garbage collecting (GC) is ineffective, slows down the device, that far I can understand. What is "pause" in GC, if not hanging the device, I don't get). It’s not because Android runs bytecode and iOS runs native code. It’s because on iOS all UI rendering occurs in a dedicated UI thread with real-time priority. On the other hand, Android follows the traditional PC model of rendering occurring on the main thread with normal priority. (If rendering is made fully in GPU's shaders, that is, hardware, nothing is wrong about "normal priority" or a PC model. Rendering itself becomes way too fast, to bog down anything)

This is a not an abstract or academic difference. You can see it for yourself. Grab your closest iPad or iPhone and open Safari. Start loading a complex web page like Facebook. Half way through loading, put your finger on the screen and move it around. All rendering instantly stops. The website will literally never load until you remove your finger. This is because the UI thread is intercepting all events and rendering the UI at real-time priority.

If you repeat this exercise on Android, you’ll notice that the browser will attempt to both animate the page and render the HTML, and do an ‘ok’ job at both. On Android, this a case where an efficient dual core processor really helps, which is why the Galaxy S II is famous for its smoothness. (It could show more smoothness than a single-core Android phone, but that's all: nothing "famous" here)

On iOS when an app is installing from the app store and you put your finger on the screen, the installation instantly pauses until all rendering is finished. Android tries to do both at the same priority, so the frame rate suffers. Once you notice this happening, you’ll see it everywhere on an Android phone. Why is scrolling in the Movies app slow? Because movie cover thumbnails are dynamically added to the movie list as you scroll down, while on iOS they are lazily added after all scrolling stops.

EDIT:[Several people (+Chi-Ho Kwok and +Brent Royal-Gordon especially) have taken the time to explain some mistakes I made in my description of iOS. The fundamental distinction between Android and iOS rendering I identified still stands, but I made some over simpliifcations in my description of iOS because I wasn't familar enough with the workings. I'll let +Brent Royal-Gordonexplain:

"The iOS description here isn't quite accurate. There are several things at work:

1. Compositing and previously set-up animations—all the stuff that involves the Core Animation rendering layer tree—do indeed happen on a background thread.

2. Drawing new content into Core Animation layers and setting up their animations happens on the main thread. This is the same thread that user interface actions occur on.

3. In naively written code, all developer-written code would occur on the main thread. However, Apple provides very easy APIs (Grand Central Dispatch and NSOperation) to move things into system-managed background threads. In iOS 5, you can even declare that a Core Data (object-relational database) context cannot be used directly on the main thread.

All that stuff you noticed—the way images aren't drawn into lists while you're scrolling, the way WebKit rendering stops when the system is tracking a touch—isn't inherently built-in by a mechanism that pauses the world when a finger is on the screen.* It's deliberate behavior painstakingly implemented by the developer of each individual app.

This is not a technical difference; it's a cultural difference. Good iOS developers don't ship software until it runs at something near 60 fps while scrolling and tracks touches almost perfectly; good Android developers do.

* This isn't strictly true: the main thread is put into a special mode during touch tracking, and by default, certain callbacks are delayed in that mode. However, a lot of other things, like loads from disk or network activity kept completely on a background thread, are not paused; nor is anything automatically paused during momentum scrolling. The developer has to explicitly delay those things." ]
Other Reasons

The fundamental reason Android is laggy is UI rendering threading and priority, but it’s not the only reason.
First, hardware acceleration, despite Dianna’s reservations, does help. My Nexus S has never been snappier since upgrading to ICS. Hardware acceleration makes a huge difference in apps like the home screen and Android market. Offloading rendering to the GPU also increases battery life, because GPUs are fixed-function hardware, so they operate at a lower power envelope. (It may look "snappier" compared to other Androids running on similar dual-core phones, but it's not "snappiest" though:

Second, contrary to what I claimed earlier, garbage collection is still a problem, even with the work on concurrent GC in Dalvik. For example, if you’ve ever used the photo gallery app in Honeycomb or ICS you may wonder why the frame rate is low. It turns out the frame rate is capped at 30 FPS because without the cap, swiping through photos proceeds at 60 FPS most of the time, but occasionally a GC pause causes a noticeable “hiccup”. Capping the frame rate at 30 fixes the hiccup problem at the expense of buttery smooth animations at all times.

Third, there are the hardware problems that Dianne discussed. The Tegra 2, despite Nvidia’s grandiose marketing claims, is hurt by low memory bandwidth and no NEON instruction set support (NEON instructions are the ARM equivalent of Intel’s SSE, which allow for faster matrix math on CPUs). Honeycomb tablets would be better off with a different GPU, even if it was theoretically less powerful in some respects than the Tegra 2. For example, the Samsung Hummingbird in the Nexus S or Apple A4. It’s telling that the fastest released Honeycomb tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, is running the Exynos CPU from the Galaxy S II. (Well, Tegra 3 still goes down this "no-NEON" path -- or you may call it "dead-end", it would be interesting to see any comparative benchmarking. Four CPU cores of Tegra 3 can make the ICS UI lagginess problem visually go away, to an extent. But how much quad core Snapdragons and TI OMAP5x may add on top of that is anybody's guess: if ICS NEON/Renderscript support will turn out not up to a snuff still, the problem stays.)

Fourth, Android has a ways to go toward more efficient UI compositing. On iOS, each UI view is rendered separately and stored in memory, so many animations only require the GPU to recomposite UI views. GPUs are extremely good at this. Unfortunately, on Android, the UI hierarchy is flattened before rendering, so animations require every animating section of the screen to be redrawn.

Fifth, the Dalvik VM is not as mature as a desktop class JVM. Java is notorious for terrible GUI performance on desktop. However, many of the issues don’t carry over to the Dalvik implementation. Swing was terrible because it was a cross platform layer on top of native APIs. It is interesting to note that Windows Phone 7’s core UI is built in native code, even though the original plan was to base it entirely on Silverlight. Microsoft ultimately decided that to get the kind of UI performance required, the code would have to be native. It’s easy to see the difference between native and bytecode on Windows Phone 7, because third party apps are written in Silverlight and have inferior performance (NoDo and Mango have alleviated this problem and the Silverlight UIs are generally very smooth now).

Thankfully, each of the five issues listed above is solvable without radical changes to Android. Hardware acceleration will be on all Android phones running ICS, Dalvik continues to improve GC efficiency, the Tegra 2 is finally obsolete, there are existing workarounds for the UI compositing problems, and Dalvik becomes a faster VM with every release. I recently asked +Jason Kincaid of+TechCrunch if his Galaxy Nexus was smooth, and he had this to say:

“In general I've found ICS on the Galaxy Nexus to be quite smooth. There are occasional stutters — the one place where I can consistently get jitters on the Galaxy Nexus is when I hit the multitasking button, where it often will pause for a quarter second. That said, I find that the iPhone 4S also jitters more than I had expected, especially when I go to access the systemwide search (where you swipe left from the home screen).”

So there you go, the Android lag problem is mostly solved, right? Not so fast.

Going Forward

Android UI will never be completely smooth because of the design constraints I discussed at the beginning:

- UI rendering occurs on the main thread of an app
- UI rendering has normal priority

Even with a Galaxy Nexus, or the quad-core EeePad Transformer Prime, there is no way to guarantee a smooth frame rate if these two design constraints remain true. It’s telling that it takes the power of a Galaxy Nexus to approach the smoothness of a three year old iPhone. So why did the Android team design the rendering framework like this?

Work on Android started before the release of the iPhone, and at the time Android was designed to be a competitor to the Blackberry. The original Android prototype wasn’t a touch screen device. Android’s rendering trade-offs make sense for a keyboard and trackball device. When the iPhone came out, the Android team rushed to release a competitor product, but unfortunately it was too late to rewrite the UI framework.

This is the same reason why Windows Mobile 6.5, Blackberry OS, and Symbian have terrible touch screen performance. Like Android, they were not designed to prioritise UI rendering. Since the iPhone’s release, RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia have abandoned their mobile OS’s and started from scratch. Android is the only mobile OS left that existed pre-iPhone.

So, why doesn’t the Android team rewrite the rendering framework? I’ll let Romain Guy explain:

“...a lot of the work we have to do today is because of certain choices made years ago... ...having the UI thread handle animations is the biggest problem. We are working on other solutions to try to improve this (schedule drawing on vsync instead of block on vsync after drawing, possible use a separate rendering thread, etc.) An easy solution would of course to create a new UI toolkit but there are many downsides to this also.”

Romain doesn’t elaborate on what the downsides are, but it’s not difficult to speculate:

- All Apps would have to be re-written to support the new framework
- Android would need a legacy support mode for old apps
- Work on other Android features would be stalled while the new framework is developed

However, I believe the rewrite must happen, despite the downsides. As an aspiring product manager, I find Android’s lagginess absolutely unacceptable. It should be priority #1 for the Android team.

When the topic of Android comes up with both technical and nontechnical friends, I hear over and over that Android is laggy and slow. The reality is that Android can open apps and render web pages as fast or faster than iOS, but perception is everything. Fixing the UI lag will go a long way to repairing Android’s image.

Beyond the perception issue, lag is a violation of one of Google’s core philosophies. Google believes that things should be fast. That’s a driving philosophy behind Google Search, Gmail, and Chrome. It’s why Google created SPDY to improve on HTTP. It’s why Google builds tools to help websites optimize their site. It’s why Google runs it’s own CDN. It’s why Google Maps is rendered in WebGL. It’s why buffering on Youtube is something most of us remember, but rarely see anymore.

But perhaps the most salient reason why UI lag in Android is unacceptable comes from the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Modern touch screens imply an affordance language of 1 to 1 mapping between your finger and animations on the screen. This is why the iOS over-scroll (elastic band) effect is so cool, fun, and intuitive. And this is why the touch screens on Virgin America Flights are so frustrating: they are incredibly laggy, unresponsive, and imprecise.

A laggy UI breaks the core affordance language of a touch screen. The device no longer feels natural. It loses the magic. The user is pulled out of their interaction and must implicitly acknowledge they are using an imperfect computer simulation. I often get “lost” in an iPad, but I cringe when a Xoom stutters between home screens. The 200 million users of Android deserve better.

And I know they will have it eventually. The Android team is one of the most dedicated and talented development teams in the world. With stars like +Dianne Hackborn and +Romain Guy around, the Android rendering framework is in good hands.
I hope this post has reduced confusion surrounding Android lag. With some luck, Android 5.0 will bring the buttery-smooth Android we’ve all dreamed about since we first held an HTC G1. In the mean time, I’ll be in Redmond working my butt off trying to get a beautiful and smooth mobile OS some of the recognition it deserves.

Credits

Parts of this post was inspired by this reddit comment by ddtro who explained the UI thread and real-time issue:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/mztwk/facts_and_fiction_about_android_graphics/c358f0x

This explanation of Android versus iOS UI compositing on Hacker News by Corun was illuminating:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3310475

Information about Android’s historical roots taken from In the Plex by +Steven Levy and Steve Jobsby Walter Isaacson

In overall, generalized "lagginess" problem of Android, the issue of BIG delay between the moment of "touch" and the reaction of Android device has got somehow swamped. It was assumed that it will be generally solved in ICS running, say, on Tegra 3 based Transformer Prime. But it's not: put iPad 2 and TF201/TF700T side by side and check how fast your finger draws some doodle in respective drawing/painting apps. Android still has around 0.1 sec delay which is unacceptable.
The problem of laggy CM7, sub-par video playback on NOOK Color was bothering me for a year now. It's good to discuss existence, or non-existence of GPU-based UI acceleration and video rendering in ICS on multi-core devices running close to 2 GHz and over, but that leaves a poor, weak NOOK Color wait till Andfroid 5.0 (Jelly Beans?). But is there anything to wait there, except for totally rewritten Android framework? There's a news that Blackberry OS 10 may be licensed out at some point, webOS is open-sourced... OK, it's just sad to see a good tablet NOOK Color fade out in the development.

SpareOne: Emergency Phone With 15 Years of Standby Life

2012-01-22T17:13:00.000-08:00

Except for weird "screen" form and claimed 15 years of standby life, SpareOne failed to arise much interest. People muse there might be no cell towers in less than 15 years for you to make that life-saving call, pulling last juice from that Energizer bunny. Nobody could also confirm that 15 years battery life estimate. However, the idea of spare emergency phone in your pocket, or glove compartment (or both) for $50 is quite sound, be it 5 years, or all 15 years of waiting for something to happen. Everyone needs something like this as a safety backup phone.

My only desire is that similar, or better battery functionality could be included as a special "emergency" back/case for your regular phone. Such a case may certainly include holder of 1 (or even 2) Energizer accumulator, solar charger skin for it and a high quality, high capacitance capacitor, just like the one shown.

But real life emergencies happen following widely different scenarios, and many such scenarios include losing your main phone in the first place. Adding a SpareOne rules here, provided that you still can get access to it. However, if the idea of stocking a separate spare phone sounds more appealing to you than bringing in emergency-enhanced features to your regular phone, there's no reason that it shouldn't be a cheap spare Android phone with camcorder, full GPS locator and automated call-backs. People with health problems may ask adding pulse, heat beat, blood pressure, blood sugar sensors to it, children must wear one at all times. Such life-saving phones could be activated by many other actions other than pulling out an insulator from SpareOne to activate it which, in case of a crime in progress, might be not in the victim's hands.

SpareTwo anyone?

ZTE T98 vs. ASUS Eee Pad MeMO 370T

2012-01-22T17:04:00.000-08:00

For many these two 7-inchers were kings of the last show, CES 2012. "For many" means here those many people who feel that proper portable and pocketable tablets shouldn't exceed 10 or even 9 inch caliber sizes (measured by screen diagonals, of course). "For many" also means not for all, I admit. For all, the real king of CES 2012 in tablet department was ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF700T:

Pay attention: this is not your "usual" Transformer Prime TF201, it's a souped up version of it: internally, it could be almost the same penta-core Tegra 3 driven TF201, but TF700T has a gorgeous 1920x1200 IPS LCD screen and enhanced HD video conferencing on top of what TF201 has to offer. The "upgrade" from TF201 to TF700T will pull another Franklin out of your pocket though: MSRP for TF700T is about $600 for 32GB model. Kings don't come cheap. What would be the price of cheapest iPad 3 we'll know for sure some time in March, but one thing is sure though: in the presence of iPad 3 TF700T will look severely overpriced at $600, plus under-powered, to boot. If you ask me, a $600 mark could be asked for a bundle of TF700T plus its keyboard dock. But nobody's asking...
If not discounted enough, such "king" will collect dust at shop shelves. Viceroys like ASUS Eee Pad MeMO 370T and ZTE T98 can take its place. The recipe for a successful 7-inch tablet was first written not for a tablet, but for a color e-reader, NOOK Color by Barnes & Noble. This recipe has it as a motto: get it with as much as a fully functional tablet can have for $249 at start and going down to $199 and below. Hallmark for success in this category in the end of 2011 was pricing of $199 for Amazon's Kindle Fire, so the bracket of $200 to $250 is the place where the true winners (and kings) will live.

1. ASUS Eee Pad Transformer MeMO 370T

When available in Q2 2012, this tablet will sport:
-- $249 MSRP;
-- Penta-core Tegra 3 at 1.2 GHz (some say underclocked, well, it might be better than overclocking is some strange attempt to beat the competition), 1 GB of RAM (by specs, it might have 2 GB of RAM, but even TF700T flagship of ASUS doesn't ship with 2 GB);
-- Android 4.0.1 (why not Android 4.0.3, there's still time), with the relatively light Transformer-style "theming";
-- 8 MPix rear camera with no flash (maybe, a 1.2 MPix front camera that was not clearly shown anywhere);
-- Supposedly 3G/GSM, WiFi (or maybe WiFi-only) 802.11a/b/g/n (or maybe b/g/n only), Bluetooth;
-- USB 2.0, microUSB, HDMI
-- 7" IPS LCD 1280x800 screen (it's 217 DPI, people, just like Huawei MediaPad/T-Mobile Springboard has).
Sorry for French, but here it is:

There's a bit of confusion spread all over the Internet caused by unimaginative naming practices of ASUS: a tablet ASUS Eee Pad MeMO 3D ME370T is powered not by Tegra 3, but by Qualcomm's Snapdragon MSM 8260 dual core processor, it looks different, harbors a capacitive stylus for whatever reason, and its rear camera is only 5 MPix. If it won't be priced at below $200 point, there's nothing to say about it here.

2. ZTE T98
As much as exact specs for 370T are quirky and elusive, this Chinese tablet exists as prototype only, and was shown as such at CES 2012, too. Side-by-side comparisons were obviously out of question there, mostly due to the limited lengths of security harnesses attached to both devices.

Apart from obvious differences in this prototype's and ASUS pilot model's backs, both tablets look eerily similar. It really looks like ASUS 370T has the same prototype chassis as this ZTE T98 prototype, or you may guess that ZTE T98 prototype was not a prototype for itself but a prototype for ASUS 370T. Hence the price cut for 370T below decency.
Specs list for T98 is practically the same as quoted above except for 8 MPix camera on T370 and 5 MPix camera on T98. It's unclear, will it hit the US at some point in Q2 2012, but if it happens, it better be below $200 at retail. Or it's a fail: who would need to pay $249 for the roughly the same hardware, but of no brand? ("No brand" means here it's no brand for US, just yet.) Then, last fall's game of $199 Kindle Fire vs. $249 B&N NOOK Tablet may start again. With different participants though.

Update. I didn't mention many later comparisons of MeMO 370T to other 7-inchers, but they are mostly trivial, and MeMO 370T is clear and undisputed winner. Even if it only shows some time in Q2 2012, many sales of other 7-inchers will stop or slow down, just out of anticipation. Then, the real market success of MeMO 370T will inevitably lower down all the prices for other 7-inchers that have "also ran".

Google Nexus Tablet, if it will show up about this time and won't be based on ZTE T98 prototype can really face an uphill struggle.

World's First ICS tablet Ainol Novo 7 Basic (Knight Paladin) Sells At Sears

2012-01-21T17:01:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaBefore breaking out of your SOPA&PIPA protest and rushing to Sears, have another look at what exactly waits for you there.

Name has stabilized around "Ainol Novo 7 Basic", but it still be around "Ainovo...", or "Ainol.... Knight Paladin" at other vendors. Then, there was camera-less "Ainol Novo 7 Paladin" (not the Knight Paladin) that was demoed at last CES. Knight Paladin (or Basic) was promised to hit US after January 15, and here we go, it did. As for what drives this tablet, here's an excerpt from my article at Mobile.Mag:

First thing that hits you, it's an overall cheapness, plus 800x480 low-res screen. How narrow are viewing angles, you may decide for yourself at Sears. I won't be near Sears till next weekend at least.

Second, and a very peculiar feature of the Ainol Novo 7 Basic is that it’s based on a first non-ARM SoC: a MIPS32-based Xburst JZ4770 SoC by Beijing Ingenic Semiconductor company. Brushing aside issues of further fragmentation of the Android ecosystem, this chip has passed 24,000 tests of obligatory Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) needed to get Android certification back in June.
Ingenic’s JZ4770 SoC is quite interesting chip in any case, and preliminary specs for the one that is used in Ainol Novo 7 Basic can be found here. Major highlights of these are:
– 65nm geometry process;
– embedded DSP (digital signal processor);
– Vivante GC860 GPU, a very good 3D performer;
– and a plethora of special features:

-- XBurst SIMD instruction set, 8-stage pipeline,
16/32-bit LP-DDR/DDR/DDR2 SD RAM interface, 8/16-bit SRAM interface, NOR Flash SLC/MLC/TLC NAND Flash interface, 4/8/12/16/20/24 bit ECC, SRAM interface, 12-ch DMA,
-- 500MHz Xburst VPU (this VPU must be "video processing unit), 1080p HD video decode,
-- 444MHz Vivante GC860 GPU, OpenGL ES2.0 and ES1.0, OpenVG1.1,
-- AC97/I2S/SPDIF, Audio Codec,
-- LCD interface, LVDS,
-- TV Encoder, EPD interface, 16.7MP camera interface (cameras are 2MP and 0.3 MP though), Touch ADC, 1-wire, PCM, I2C, SPI, UART, SIM-IF, SD/MMC/SDIO, USB Host, USB OTG 2.0, TS-IF, GPIO, Ethernet MAC, OTP Slave

That info was reported back in December when data was pulled from several sources, piece by piece.

Today, Sears has this to say about their product:

USA SELLER!! *** INCLUDES 32GB MEMORY CARD, USB KEYBOARD, CAR CHARGER****

Brand New Novo 7 capacitive multi touch tablet pc android 3.2 1GHz 7.0 Inch Capacitive Screen,

800*480 Pixel, 5 point multi touch

OS: Android 3.2

CPU: 1GHz DDR: DDRII 512M

Wifi: 802.11a/b/g/n(300Mbps)

Camera: Front 0.3, Back 2.0

G-sensor

Remote Control

Video Formats Resolution:480x272, 720x480, 1024x768, 1280x720, 2160p Video: supports MKV, AVI, WMV, RMVB, TS, TP, MPEG, VOB, FLV, MOV MP3/MP4 Player: compatible with multiple formats, supports shuffle and repeat playing mode, high definition video playback

Support Android APK, APK game

E-Book: TXT, LRC(PDF, EPUB, FB2 installing the third party software ) HDMI Output

According to a commenter, there's also might be a GPS radio on board. Picture above shows something with a satellite and car in cross hairs, but it could be a joke, just like a Green Dude, or Adobe Easy button that you won't find in your bundle. But GPS, or no GPS, Sears $209.99 deal includes 32GB TF card (better known as SD card here), a USB keyboard that doubles as a flap case, plus a car charger bundled on top of standard set of boxed stuff.

By the way, you might also try merimobiles and get the tablet with standard USB cable, charger, earphones, and remote for just $132.99. You may want to know it will be shipped from China though. Even if it's with free shipping, it's still a risk much greater than dealing with Sears. If you decide go for China still, take into account that all China will be closed till January 31st for holidays.

Your unit might run Honeycomb when out of the box, but the ICS 4.0.1 upgrade is waiting for you here.

First reports have units with the screen corruption, complaints about official ICS 4.0.1 being laggy compared to its leaked beta.

Battery life is not so spectacular even by the specs claim (4-6 hours) and may turn out shorter than 4 hours.

YouTube doesn't play videos, pre-installed Google Market can't download a single app. When it does, after some tweaking, the apps available to your Ainol Novo 7 Basic are of quite limited list.

MIPS incompatibility with ARM architecture is to blame, but in many cases of good programming there might be left some MIPS flags that if turned ON could make an app start working on Basic. Here's what c0demag1c of XDA-Devs offers:

MagicCode is a software designed by "c0demag1c dev team"to make it possible to run an ARM based native apk on a MIPS device. It changes the .so in the apk to the mips mode directllllly so that users can run a arm-apk easily. Up to now,we have tried to run a lot of apps and both of them is working well now.

A funny slip of a tongue should be actually taken seriously: just couple of important apps started to work. But with time I'm sure, the list of compatible apps will grow.

Tablet Republic has a rapidly evolving forum for those that took a plunge and got the device. While there, look for ICS 4.0.3 upgrades, plus what to do with them to keep/restore root and MagicCode functioning. Or getting just plain version cleaned out of Chinese-only apps.

All in all, Sears will see many returned units. The price for their "refurb" bundle may get to something more realistic, like $130...$140.

Ice Cream Sandwich on NOOK Color: Continuing Story

2012-01-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

Story of building ICS for NOOK Color doesn't stop at the point when I finished my Jan 17 article here. Samiam303 of XDA-Developers has started to build his own ICS Nightlies, CyanogenMod style even earlier.
Jan 17 (or was 16th?) ICS nightly was used for this demo of ICS YouTube app working (sorta, with some hiccups):

It's good enough for the build three or four nightlies old, but video poster complains about Plus HD (theme?) not working on every second Android app. Ask me, I wouldn't care less for the keyboard theming at this point. If HD YouTube clips were meant (like in: not playing them -- 480p and above) then there's nothing new for NOOK Color at this point. I mean, it didn't work in CM7, why would it in ICS which supposedly should have a special Renderscript code using HW rendering?

Original post of Samiam303 was updated yesterday, and it includes now a working Gapps (working, at least for these first nightlies), fixed telephony permissions (like somebody needs these.... Actually, everyone needs: telephony is a PITA for NC still, even for ICS 4.0.3 builds supposed to be modular). A cosmetic boot animation fix was also added, but it's again: вам шашечки, или ехать куда-нибудь?

A bootable ICS (or double-boot) SD card by verygreen recipe can be built, and it's a good way to play with these early builds.

Good reports for ICS Nightly of Jan 20, then there this Jan 21st Nightly available as I'm writing this. What is to expect next? More stability with overclocked kernels, less SOD problems, better working DSP and Nook Tweaks for boosting audio.

Samiam3003's builds are based on dalingrin/fattire work with commits to fat-tire github here, so if you feel like starting a build and nightlies of your own, or just try and feel the bleeding edge of development you ca go and check there. Why, you ask me, you would need this? Just because almost nothing in alternative, AOSP ICS projects works as planned yet: key pieces of HW acceleration code for UI transitions & responsiveness, video, 2D/3D are either proprietary, or not written yet. Even if there is some movements in the omapzoom depositaries, these could be of little or no use to our "ancient" Froyo-level 2.6.32.9 kernel that is still used in this otherwise interesting project for NOOK Color.

CES 2012: Follow-Up

2012-01-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

Я тут напредсказывал, чего, скорей всего, нельзя будет увидеть на CES 2012, прошедшем недавно в Лас Вегасе. Статейка моя была опубликована в МобилМаге довольно давно, 10 дней тому, так что я не думаю, что тут какой-то конфликт интересов просматривается. Да и читателей за 10 дней набралось чуть поболе 1000 (мои лучшие статьи набирали по 5, 25 и даже 40 тысяч читателей). Беру свой оригинал (черновик, без редакторской правки), и теперь посмотрим, что сбылось, а что -- нет.

1.Не будет показан ни iPad 3, ни iPhone 5, даже в неработающих макетах. LG, Toshiba, Sharp смогут продемонстрировать свои 2048х1536 ретиноподобные экраны, ну и батареи заметно большей емкости могут быть продемонстрированы Так и вышло. Шарп, похоже, из этой компании выкинули, а так -- всё, как было сказано. Ну, это было просто предсказать.

2. Не будет показан Google's Nexus Ice Cream Sandwich Tablet, поскольку пока это только слух, пущенный Эриком Шмидтом. Какой-то прототип может появиться, но ждать от него гладкой работы ICS не надо. Это тоже легко было предвидеть: не только с таблетом у Гугля конь не валялся, но и Айс Крим Сендвич для таблетов (и не только) сыроват ещё. Айнол показал-таки своего Ново 7 Паладина, но это не тот Knight Paladin, который Энди Рубин благославлял в Китае. Просто Паладин оказался дешевкой совсем без камер. Однако, в местном Sears торговлю Knight Paladin-ом начали пару дней назад, но с Ханикоумом заместо Айс Крим Сендвича.

3. Не будет показан обновленный Google ТВ. Тоже без сюрпризов обошлось: нечем Гуглю было похвастаться.

4. Бутлоадеры многих телефонов не будут торжественно, хором разлочены.. Тут предсказывать было совсем легко: никогда такого не было, и с какого перепугу вдруг все дружно откажутся от жирных отчислений? Тем временем команда Dingleberry ("Говнюшечка", если принять точный русский перевод) обошла защиту ББ Плейбука, а несколько классных хакеров обошли бутлоадер НУК Таблета, не дожидаясь разрешений.

5. Blackberry Playbook 2 не будет показан на шоу. Еще одна бета ОС 2.0, может, появится, но ничего кардинально интересного в ней не будет. Если их Самсон не укупит, Плейбук 2, может, и появится -- к концу года. Но РИМ ещё дожить должен до конца этого года.

6. Не надо искать 7-дюймовый HP Touchpad GO. Qualcomm может показaть девелоперские платформы webOS на Snapdragon S4, но я сомневаюсь.. Так и вышло -- девелоперские платформы были показаны, а webOSa на них не обнаружилось.

7. Creative/ZiiLABS Jaguar не будет показан. А вот тут я промахнулся: забыл про ZMS-40. Этот процессор со 100 ядрами был показан.

8. Целый список технологий и прототипов цветных е-инк ридеров будет так или иначе демонстрироваться, но мало там чего нового будет.. Всё, как доктор прописал. Доктор сказал: в морг, значит -- в морг.

В следующий раз, собираясь на CES 2013, спрашивайте совета у меня. Может, чего интересного предскажу. Или не предскажу.

Stop SOPA and PIPA!

2012-01-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

Just stop PIPAing and SOPAing and ACTAing the Internet, will you? How different is this from Intenet censorship and Chinese Communist Party-style blocking of parts that somebody doesn't like?

iPad 3 Rumors: A Collection

2012-01-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

My long (and unfinished) articled titled "Tabletology" was expressly aimed at non-Apple tablet devices. Namely, what design decisions should be taken to bring them as real contenders in the world with indisputable iPad domination. But the true alternative to the iPad 3 can be conceived by careful and detailed research of (rumored so far) design decisions of next Apple's flagship tablet.

Below is the collection of such rumors. Many of them may prove false in a month or two from now. Many design decisions might be not taken, even if being discussed. Rumors are rumors, do whatever you want with them. My commenters are also welcome to correct these and add more.

January 12: Kinect-type gesture control technology may find its way into iPad 3, as 9to5Mac muses. If somebody remembers, I mentioned similar and/or Siso Tablo-type input technology in my "Tabletology" treatise here. Good intentions, especially useful to leave competition well behind.

January 11: Blog Macotakara (see the link below) claimed Sharp would be supplying display panels for a next-generation iPad, a conflicting report from Korean publication Electronic Times Internet News (via PatentlyApple) claimed Sharp “failed to pass Apple’s approval process for mass production.” The report also claimed Samsung and LG already kicked production for iPad 3 panels into full capacity as of the beginning of this year:

It has been confirmed that Samsung Electronics and LG Display will supply LCD panels for Apple’s iPad 3, which is scheduled to be unveiled as early as in Q1 this year. Sharp was originally known to be developing display panels, but reportedly failed in initial supply.

According to the report, Apple is planning on placing orders for 65 million LCD panels for iPad 3 during 2012. It also claimed Samsung and LG would be supplying 5 million displays in the first quarter to meet demand for the device’s launch. Although there is obviously no way to verify this, and the publication does not exactly have a track record for breaking Apple news, the report does mention the same XQGA (2048×1536) display as Macotakara’s. The report cited only an “industry source.”

65 million LCD (OGZO) panels is a BIG number. Wish I could see HP Touchpad 2 employing some of these, or their clones that inevitably pop up later. Orders indicate an early March launch of iPad 3, at least, its first version. That is, if the rumor of the three next iPad models is true.

January 11: According to the Japanese blog Macotakara (which can be accurate with Apple rumor reporting), Apple’s contract manufacturers Foxconn Electronics (also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Pegatron Technology have issued orders to begin assembly of next-generation iPads for an early-March launch.

The report is based on unnamed Chinese sources, and it noted the iPad 3 will look virtually identical to iPad 2 while featuring the same hardware button configuration, shape of the dock connector and position of the two cameras. Even the Smart Cover will work with iPad 3; although, tipsters mentioned magnets will be placed in a “different position.” Some form fitting cases may not work, however, as the device is slightly thicker, probably to accommodate added parts. Macotakara also noted that Sharp would provide panels for the device that sport a 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution. This is in line with earlier reports by DigiTimes and the Wall Street Journal.

Earlier (in December) Macotakara published views of alledeged iPad 3 parts:

In other words, parts become more compact and thinner than their respective analogs from iPad 2 design. If this observation could be combined with the notion of 1-2 mm larger thickness of iPad3, then it's a serious hint of more poweful and thicker battery.

January 10: iLounge editor claims that he have held the next iPad in his hands:

iLounge editor Jeremy Horwitz, who at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show scooped an iPad 2-mockup case that eventually proved legit, is back with another exclusive. According to his article, yesterday he was shown what purports to be a next-generation iPad at the CES 2012 show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Even though he did not snap a photograph of it he published some interesting observations that largely support what iLounge heard in November. For starters, iPad 3 might in fact be a bit thicker than the current-generation tablet to make room for new parts:

The new iPad’s body is so slightly thicker than the iPad 2 that the change is unnoticeable on first inspection; a roughly 1mm increase will barely be perceptible to users. We’ve heard that the only accessories that might have issues are cases, and then, only cases that were precisely contoured to fit the iPad 2’s back. [...] Switch, button, speaker, and other elements located on the side edges are all the same, as are the headphone and Dock Connector ports. In other words, last year’s accessories should generally work properly with the new model, which is great.

The editor got the impression that what he saw “seemed to be more than half a year old” rather than just manufactured. It is conceivable Horwitz was holding in his hands a pre-production prototype. Looking at the back, Horwitz noticed visual changes that suggest an enhanced camera system… On the rear, the camera in the upper left corner has become bigger—noticeably so when placed alongside the iPad 2, but not so huge that anyone would think they were different at a distance. The new camera hole is silver-ringed, and does in fact look the same size as the iPhone 4S’s much-improved rear camera system, minus the LED flash.

This too serves to reaffirm iLounge’s previous article mentioning FaceTime high-definition camera on the front and an improved camera on the back said to match iPhone 4′s or iPhone 4S’s back sensors that capture 720p and 1080p video, respectively. 9to5Mac independently heard late last year that Apple was prototyping next-generation iPads with eight-megapixel sensors during the last summer. Things, of course, could have changed by now. The iPad 3 has also been long rumored to feature a high-resolution Retina Display driven by a dual LED-bar system, as indicated by hidden iOS code.

Highly suspicios rumor, if you ask me. Holding more or less precise prototype, or mock-up, and not take a sneaky shot of it? Even the blurry one? Hello? What was reported as the rumor from the bearer of these "first hands-on" could be easily deduced from other rumors, plus applying Horowitz-type thinking that Apple never changes drastically from its winning designs.

January 10: iPad 3 may be manufactured either by Foxconn, or by Pegatron. For me, it doesn't matter.

January 6: 9to5Mac: Extremely reliable and knowledgeable people familiar with iOS’s inner workings explained that core references begin at “0.” For example: A single core device would be limited to ”/cores/core.0,” and a dual-core device would come in at ”/cores/core.1.” A “core.2″ (which is not referenced in iOS code) would be a triple-core processor according to this labeling method. iOS 5.1 beta 2 now includes core.3, a seemingly quad-core chip from Apple.

In other words, iPad 3 (and iPhone 5, probably) will be powered by quad-core A6 chip. By all rumors, it will easily beat penta-core Tegra 3 in many, if not all benchmarks. At the time of July and August internal discussions at HP that led to discarding HP TouchPad and its webOS, it was rumored that HP engineers were successful in their purely experimental prank of flashing webOS on iPad 2. Supposedly, they were in total awe from what they have seen: webOS was flying on iPad 2 hardware. But sure, it might be just a rumor, incorrect, or incorrectly retold.

January 5: The front camera will reportedly become a FaceTime HD camera and the rear camera is supposedly in line with either the iPhone 4 or 4S (based on lens size). It's quite easy to believe in this rumor, as previous iPad cameras were widely ridiculed. The rumor of iPad 3 getting 1 mm thicker may receive another confirmation at this date. iPad 3 pricing may be at today's iPad 2 levels, iPad 2 would start at $399 at the time when the iPad 3 will be available.

Corning Gorilla Glass 2 was announced as coming to CES 2012 (and it was demoed there).

All rumor mills concede that iPad 3 can get this almost "bullet-proof" glass

December 28: DigiTimes said the next iPad will have a monster battery that will more than double the current 6579 mAH to a whopping 14,000mAH. Apple currently uses battery suppliers Simplo Technology and Dynapack who both denied to comment on the report.

Furthermore, Apple is set to unveil two versions of its next-iPad, “One for the high-end segment and one for the mid-range segment” according to another DigiTimes report.

But this time, reports doubt that there will be early rumored 7.85" iPad.

Instead of the previously-rumored 7.85-inch, the upcoming iPad models will still feature 9.7-inch screens but come with QXGA resolution (1,536×2,048 pixels), the sources indicated. Dual-LED light bars are designed for the new iPads to strengthen the brightness of the panels, the sources added.

Larger battery together with reworked (stronger) backlight may indicate thicker new iPad(s). Denser internals may stop that thickening trend, so the result is unclear.

December 26: 9to5Mac brings in new hints about the production of iPad3. This time, it's Home buttons for iPad3 that have caught their attention. Along with the rumors that iPad3 may get thicker than iPad2 mostly because of its "Retina" class display of 2048x1536 is so dense that it will require nearly twice the thickness of backlighting LEDs, there are more interesting insights in the overall design of iPad 3 that nobody has leaked out just yet.

First of all, it was deduced that contrary to previous rumors, iPad 3 won't lose that Home button, after all. Second, these button specimens are found in large quantities which may mean that iPads 3 are in production stage already. Or near it. Third, coloring scheme of these buttons hint that iPad 3 will follow iPad 2's black and white pattern.

Then, when compared to iPad 2 Home buttons, new buttons do look more compact, especially if their internal design is considered. 9to5Mac deduces that smaller inner structure of iPad 3 Home button again indicates stricter inner space limitations for iPad 3 designers.

My take on it, it's not only that. Seeing the center of the button being closer to its cut edge, I dare to say that iPad 3's bezel might get narrower. However, judging from Apple's design conservatism it can stay absolutely the same, or change ever so insignificantly, and the size difference between iPad 2 and iPad 3 buttons can be fully explained by denser iPad 3 internals.

December 23: According to Focus Taiwan, that also cited a local report in the Chinese Economic Times newspaper, Apple is shooting to launch iPad 3 on Steve Jobs’ birthday anniversary Feb. 24. (In view of later rumors, this might turn out as a "launch announcement" from Apple on February 24th, with an actual launch (or release, if you wish) date some time in March).

Ice Cream Sandwich: NOOK Color, NOOK Tablet et al. As Recipients

2012-01-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

These days, and especially after an obscure Chinese Ainol Novo 7 Basic (or Ainol Novo 7 Knight Paladin, or Ainovo whatever) has got a status of the world's first ICS tablet, every effort is put to use in getting Ice Cream Sandwich on much more popular tablets -- at least here in US -- NOOK Color, NOOK Tablet, Kindle Fire, HP TouchPad. One day, even Blackberry Playbook may get ICS. Before delving into a discussion why would it be needed, especially for the devices running superior OSes like webOS and QNX, we will look into ICS developments for NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet first.

1. NOOK Color
First attempt was made back in November by dalingrin and fattire. Attempts as such were not compiled into flashable ROMs, so anyone interested should build his own ROM for his own personal use only.Since then, they lifted the ban on distributing their code in flashable form, and two so called "sneakpeeks" were released:

Here's what's working:
* bluetooth (pairing/file transfer only confirmed)* wifi (full it seems but it's brand-new to the kernel so who knows how stable anything is)* backlight* accelerometer* improved stability (but not perfect)* gapps* setcpu/overclock* real data usage info (not stubbed out)* battery levels/charging* physical menu button* touchscreen* 3d games* usb gadget in kernel (ie, mounting your sdcard to your computer)* screenshots* build system (to auto-create update.zips)* sound

For sure not working yet:
* video* full 2d acceleration (esp on complex web pages)* and much much more

Last "sneakpeek2" can be downloaded from here. Even with further developments, installing a "sneakpeak2" first might be helpful in achieving a more stable CM9 on NC.
Basing on these "sneakpeeks", Samiam303 has started the practice of nightly builds that was a usual practice for official CM7 builds on NC back in the day. (As of yet, this 'official' decision, or grafting NC to an "official CM9 tree wasn't made). His 'unofficial' nightlies can be downloaded from here. They are roughly have the same sets of working and non-working parts of ICS, with slight variations between nightlies.

verygreen's NC bootable card can be made containing (and booting) such ROMs, which is good for experimenting with ICS on NC, because so far, these are not your daily drivers.

2. NOOK Tablet

This project had much harder obstacles to start comprehensively. It was that sad B&N decision to employ a locked and signed bootloader for their build. Such a decision has no rational ground, as Amazon's Kindle Fire doesn't have a locked bootloader. However, the implementation of security measures on NT was flawed, so it permits hijacking and injection of 2nd-init code that was specially tweaked to work on NT:

When this scenario works, NOOK Tablet becomes widely open for alternative ROMs. The limitation of staying with stock kernel may linger though for a while, but whatever protection and security B&N wanted to demonstrate to their potential content providers was laid out bare, almost fully broken at this point.

Due to locked bootloader debackle, the CM9 development for Nook Tablet is its early stages. So far, current status here is described as this:

The main problems with these ICS builds are sadly remain not tackled yet: no projects to build a kernel mature enough to handle enhancements in hardware graphics (2.6.38+, better be 3.0.x). This is true for both NOOK ICS projects.

3. Amazon Kindle Fire

This severely crippled (crippled=no SD card slot, no volume rocker for ClockworkMod Recovery, half the RAM) brother of NOOK Tablet has lots of trouble of getting its ICS project getting not just boot and running more or less stable. Some attempts are shown, but it's unclear at this point what are they capable of:

I should admit I don't like this device and am not really interested in whatever may come up with their ICS projects. Whoever wants to know more, may go to their corner at XDA-Devs.

4. RIM's Blackberry Playbook

Putting Linux-based Android ICS on this powerful machine is not very brilliant idea because Playbook's QNX does practically everything better than any Android, ICS included. So, why the trouble? The problems start and multiply when one considers getting any good apps to his or her Playbook: "native" apps are mediocre at best (Bing maps), then, there are ridiculously low number of them. On top of that, there are too many apps that cost a lot when their counterparts for Android are free. Official RIM's Android Player puts very hard limits on what can be put on your Playbook for virtually no apparent reason: Dingleberry Team has rooted and cracked that carefully guarded Playbook's framework quite a long ago (the hastily slapped firmware update from RIM didn't remove the possibility to downgrade, so everyone can downgrade, repeat the Dingleberry updated rooting routine and stay rooted after upgrade). Here's an attempt to run Hulu on BB Playbook:

here is me using the new release of dingleberry, it is now at 3.0 version.features include:
Huluberry app - watch Hulu on your playbook in US (gets installed on pb when dingle 3.0 ran)
Downgrade OS - part of dingle 3.0 pc app (as shown in video where button is)
for watching Hulu outside US you need to change your proxy and reconnect to wifi and open huluberry. video tutorial soon.download dingle 3.01 here:
http://www.crocko.com/26CF2C96DFF648A49BE38F7BFAAA0EE0/Dingleberry-3.01.zip

The Dingleberry tool itself can be downloaded from here.

5. Other tablets and devices that deserve ICS, or at least, attention

These, paradoxically include Ainol Novo 7 Basic, an officially world's first ICS tablet. Its blind (cameraless) twin called Ainol Novo 7 Paladin was demoed at recent CES 2012 running ICS beta (4.0.1) with occasional hiccups here and there. Could these imperfections be attributed to just beta of ICS, or the fact that it was built on MIPS chip, or to the both -- is anybody's guess. Staying with 'official' first ICS installations, it's worth to mention that users of Galaxy Nexus running "officially" final version of ICS, namely 4.0.3 (what "final" here, no 4.0.4 and Jelly Beans comes soon?) report many random reboots of their phones.

HP TouchPad runs ICS, as per this video by verygreen:

As for now, camera doesn't work, video doesn't play. Looks like heavy, debilitating legacy of CM7 on NC (together with its insufficient kernel) presses on this project as it did with NC a year ago. But good luck with it. Me, I'd rather see OpenQNX put on this tablet, and many other tablets.

P.S. Thinking of getting NOOK Tablet, to tinker with ICS? Just wait a tidbit longer, and you can get an equally priced ($249) Asus Transformer Prime(or was it Memo?) 7-incher with better display (1280x800), rear camera and ICS running on penta-core Tegra 3.
P.P.S. Remember my Tabletology musings about how nice would be to have 16:8 and more elongated/wider screens on tablets? Somebody at Toshiba was definitely listening, consider this 5-inch, 21:9 prototype:

There's this Galaxy Note 5" inch phone that looks bulkier, and I wouldn't mind to get me this Toshiba instead. Sure, it's not for putting it in the back pocket of your tight jeans, but who does it anyway?

HP TouchPad: Жизнь После Смерти

2012-01-16T09:51:00.000-08:00

HP TouchPad is the thing of the past. It's not a product any more, as HP stopped its manufacture back in August of 2011. Its OS, the webOS, is given to the Open Source community to tinker with. Its meteoric rise to enormous popularity was caused by the frenzy of its fire sales: $99 for 16 GB model, $149 for 32 GB model, both tablets having an iPad-like 9.7" 1024x768 touch screens and driven by dual core Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. Tablets were gone in a week or two. Nobody liked webOS on a tablet, alright, maybe almost nobody. If you missed these sales though and still craving for this tablet, you can try ebay and get it for $220....$230. Why would you need it, is a separate question.
Since last September, good people at CyanogenMod team were successful in installing CyanogenMod 7, a custom Android Gingerbread version based on Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Out of all the Android customizations those developed by CyanogenMod team of smart coders are arguably counted as most clean and optimized compiled AOSP ROM. The CyanogenMod 7 project for HP TouchPad was stopped reaching Alpha 3 release described here http://liliputing.com/2011/08/hp-touchpad-afterlife-hackers-bringing-android-ubuntu-to-hps-tablet.html. HP ToucPad was also shown as capable of running Ubuntu, but that feat was more of a proof of the concept than your daily driver. But after that Alpha 3 the CyanogenMod team for HP TouchPad has firmly put CyanogenMod 9 in their cross-hairs.

The step to CyanogenMod 9, that is, this CM teams' nomenclature for Ice Cream Sandwich, took a larger and longer effort, but the result is obviously worth the wait:

As explained by green (or verygreen of CM7 on Nook Color fame, aka Oleg Drokin), camera and playback of video files don't work just yet, but the tablet is quite responsive, agile, and showing all the good things to come. This is a significant development in time when many manufacturers literally struggle to put Ice cream Sandwich on their devices.
While the CyanogenMod 9 development progresses also for Nook Color and even Nook Tablet with its locked (but circumvented) bootloader, webOS has reached its 3.0.5 version available via OTA:

While there's much less hoopla in webOS camp, it's a good step. webOS is not dead.

So, it looks like $220 (or $99, if you were lucky) is a good investment in a dual booting and powerful HP TouchPad.

Прошить ХП ТачПад РОМом с ЦМ9 широким массам пока (16 января 2012) не удастся, РОМ появился на несколько часов пару дней назад, потом был удален. Это может служить признаком того, что работа над видео-плейбэком (статичных видео фаилов) ведется и, возможно, близка к завершению. Тогда, вероятно, можно будет увидеть альфу ЦМ9 выложенной для широкого экспериментирования. Однако не ясно, насколько далеко продвинулась разработка по приведению камеры в рабочее состояние. Не известно, насколько Куалкоммовский дамп Андроида 2.2 может здесь помочь, плюс никто не продемонстрировал, что камера на тех редких экземплярах Тачпада вообще работала.
В Андроиде 4.0 поддержка камеры серьёзно переработана, включены многие морф-эффекты. Такая поддержка нужна для нового "фейс-контроля", и мне пока не известны ЦМ9 РОМы для других девайсов, где камера может осуществлять подобный "фейс-контроль" так, как это было задумано Гуглом для Галакси Нексуса.

Apple to Use IGZO Panels For Its Products

2011-12-30T19:40:00.000-08:00

Digitimes quoting its usual sources in Apple's supply chains, states that starting with the new iPads, Apple will utilize IGZO panels from Sharp in order to upgrade the display resolution of the new tablets to full HD level, the sources indicated. Panels manufactured by IGZO technology (IGZO means Indium-Gallium-Zinc Oxide). To enter the supply chain for new iPads, Sharp has switched some of its capacity for large-size panels to the production of small-size panels for smartphones and tablet PCs, said the sources, adding that Sharp will also continue to roll out its Galapagos tablet lineup in 2012 using IGZO panels. It is said that most Taiwan-based flat panel makers are capable to produce IGZO panels, but the yield rates of such panels still remain a major concern for the makers.

Earlier this month, it was also rumored that the iPhone 5′s 4-inch screen will be cutting-edge. According to ComputerWorld and other tech media outlets, Apple “is rumored to be funding Hitachi and Sony in making 4-inch IGZO displays” for the iPhone 5, and, quoting Neil Hughes at AppleInsider, who reminds us that this

“report arrives on the heels of claims from the Wall Street Journal, which said earlier this week that Sharp will also produce panels for the iPad 3 at its Kameyama No. 2 plant in central Japan; Apple typically sources its components from multiple partners,”

It now seems apparent that Apple is going to do something dramatic with the iPhone 5′s screen. Well, claimed 4-inch IGZO panel for iPhone 5 may sport 330 DPI "Retina" screen.

While not on Wikipedia yet, IGZO technology is known that it can offer:

-- thinner displays, up to capability to be implemented in form of flexible films;

-- low power consumption, panels don't require dual-bar LED backlighting usually needed for high resolution displays;

-- possible "e-Ink" mode of use.

Here's a preview of LG Display company's IGZO display:

According to LG Display (LGD), this sample is IGZO TFT type 4.3” TFT LCD with a 720 x 1280 resolution for smart phone applications. The display features 500 nits, 1000:1 contrast ratio and realizes 72% of NTSC color gamut standard. The product will be released in 2013. IGZO technology-wise, LGD has added an edge stepper layer to enhance reliability. According to LGD, the carrier mobility of the IGZO TFTs has 20 times the carrier mobility of conventional a-Si TFTs.

So, as it was assumed earlier, the IGZO panels are not limited to the production of only Sharp.

Samsung Series 7 Slate PC

2011-12-24T07:52:00.000-08:00

Market of tablet computing expands like nothing else in the industry of hi-tech gadgets, except for maybe the avalanche of new smartphones. Customers are getting used to the idea that a tablet is a more or less portable gadget with a screen diagonal ranging between 5" and 10". Bigger dimensions usually bring in a new term: a slate. Slates, or Tablet PCs are nothing new, and several manufacturers like HP, Lenovo, Toshiba and especially Motion Computing were producing such devices for professional use for years. These days, Samsung has decided to make its stake in the field of Tablet PCs. Engadget has a thorough, detailed review of Samsung's newest Series 7 Slate PC running full-featured Microsoft's Windows 7. Samsung Series 7 Slate PC rocks an 11.6-inch display that handily dwarfs pretty much everything else out there. It runs a Core i5, not Atom, processor, and is offered with a custom dock and Bluetooth keyboard. On this picture where the slate sits in its dock, it looks just great when in the desktop mode (bring in your own mouse though). Problems start when one takes it out of the dock and goes mobile, so to speak.

First of all, the thing is bulky and heavy: 2.06 lbs (934.4 grams) and 0.51 inch (13 mm) thick. These figures alone tell that you probably don't want to get it in a pinch to lift it from its dock and wear the slate around, still in a pinch like you could do with a much lighter and thinner Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Then, the slate spews fire, literally: it's not your tiny and cold ARM chip there, it's not even Atom, it's an Intel i5 CPU at inside, together with its hot 2 GB of RAM, quite hot Samsung 64 or 128 GB SSD an Intel HD 3000 GPU. This collection of hardware that was usually warming your laps in the form of mid-range laptop can now burn your fingers in this Samsung Slate if you pinch it on its exhaust grills.

Then, in mobile state, the use of a "regular" desktop Windows 7 is quite problematic. Even if the touch screen is here, and the Wacom-type pen input is utilized. Without Windows 8, it's a very strange niche product. Truth to be said, its prototype was in the center of Microsoft Windows 8 Preview presentation at BUILD and other conferences last summer. Attendees got their slates for the price of a ticket and with Windows 8 Preview installed, all the rest can get it from Samsung at $1099 in minimal configuration, or at eBay for about $1300 for more realistic complect of dock, keyboard, and a portfolio of a sort.

Windows 8 won't be with us till Q3 2012. At that time, Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 and TI's OMAP5 ARM processors should show up as pilots for hi-end tablets. Or slates, if you wish. Samsung itself has a promising line of of Exynos processors. Of course, these ARM processors that are meant to deliver performance needed for smooth run of Windows 8 might still leave lots of things to be missing in user experience. But you can bet your last Samsung Series 7 Slate these future ARM-based Windows 8 "professional" tablets will at least double the abysmal 3 hours 33 minutes of battery life in this i5-powered monster, with no vents and heat to speak of.

Then again, the next iPad 3 may never run Mac OS X, but if it will, and also sport a "desktoppy" 16: 9 aspect ratio, the whole ecosystem of Windows 8 "professional" slates like this curiosity from Samsung might get a serious blow.

See you at the fire sales of the Samsung Series 7 Slates. My bet it will be quite successful at the $350 price range.

Tabletology, Work In Progress

2011-11-26T15:51:00.000-08:00

Here in this essay I will be trying to envision what the successful and powerful tablets in 2012 and beyond might look like. I'd be trying to borrow many ideas and hints that have caught my attention during almost two last years of me writing about tablet computing and following relevant technologies and industries. Yet, I dare to design, or just sketch the outlines of a design that I feel I would like to buy and use. For many who reads this post my task will sound like a sheer waste of time, and all that might be needed -- by their understanding -- is to describe what the Apple's iPad 3 and beyond will look like. I'm fully aware that the next iPad will remain the most popular tablet for a long time and for too many who consider the slate as mostly entertainment, Web and media consumption device for coffee table.

I'm also aware that many non-Apple tablet manufacturers have similar tasks set up for their R&D departments. I'm afraid that too many of them are too much swayed into imitating iPad designs one way or another. Imitations so far have not achieved much in too many aspects, except for spreading patent wars across the globe.

Mobile computing with a tablet, or mini-netbook shaped device is a much wider concept by the virtue of combining content creation, communication capable slate with the similar, or better content consumption capabilities In this sense, it's quite easy to design a better and more universal device than iPad.

Everyone knows the limitations of iPads, but adding some functionality on top of iPad's capabilities is not a clever path. Recent and near future developments in ARM SoC technologies allows to start designing the better tablets from the clear slate, so to speak.

My next installments will be put into several different, but intertwined categories:

A. Form (form factors, sizes, aspect ratios, bezels, weight, and means of handling and operating the tablet)

B. Hardware and its functionality (computing power of CPU/FPU/GPU/caches/RAM, sensors and other devices onboard and connecting as peripherals, radios of different sorts, cluster computing capabilities, cloud computing compatibilities)

C. Display and controls (display properties, digitizers, user interface buttons, widgets, gestures, and other modes of control)

D. Operating systems (QNX, and all types of real-time embedded small footprint Linuxes; GPU computing capable RTOSes, hybrid OSes for cloud computing/host (local) computing combo scenarios)

E. Usability aspects (portability/wearability, docking capabilities, cross-system connectivity and interoperability, upgradeability, multi-boots)

A. FORM

The obvious notion that any reasonable size and aspect ratio is good and popular and deemed to be sucessful when it's close, or justequal to iPad's 9.7 inches and 4:3 will be no longer valid that much in 2012.
On the other hand, slates 9.7"...10.1" (and more inches) diagonally are much harder to hold in hands (or in one hand, for that matter of "handling"). They are also not much "portable", or "wearable", their natural habitat is apparently some stands, docks, or whatever contraption that promises to free the user weary hands. These are also have no chance to become truly "pocketable": if the pocket of a backpack was meant, then chances are its place might be already taken by a netbook. And tablets of 2012 may have still a good path still ahead of them, to really replace netbooks.

As I look at it, a good tablet of 2012 will have a screen diagonal between 7" and 8.5". With a 16:9 aspect ratio and reasonable (narrow) upper and lower bezels -- when in "landscape" orientation -- this tablet will remain relatively pocketable, and its "handling" by one hand won't be that much cumbersome.

However, 16:9 aspect ratio is not something universally prescribed for an 8" tablet: it's good for media, especially video where even more extreme 16:8 and 16:7 ratios would fare even better, but without total reformatting of "traditional" formats of digital copies of current printed magazines and comic books into one-column scrolls it's not much of an acceptable standard for them.

The solution to this dilemma may come in the form of advanced readers that can reformat the original material on the fly into those much easier to read and navigate scrolls and strips. The formatting service might be also available or on demand from a content provider.

Let's look at what bezels of 2012 can do.

First of all, upper and lower bezels (when in landscape orientation) for majority of today's tablets have inordinately excessive width. We were told for too long and too loud that bezels are convenient for handling the device, and just look nice aesthetically. And these particular bezels are needed for holding the tablet in portrait mode.

Well, let me tell you this: if you're fine with fingerprinting your screen by manipulating it with usual controls, it will be just fine to get rid of generally useless, or not very useful bezels -- both made as parts of front frame, or as extended space outside top. If anything, the physical frame on top of the display panel is an obvious and not justified legacy of so called "picture frames", bot regular and digital.

For holding device in portrait mode, I prefer completely flat, glass/laminated glass screen surface and placing my thumbs on more or less thin rubber (rubberized) rims -- whenever I happen to hold such a tablet in a portrait mode. These could be 2...3 mm thin, protruding 2...3 mm out of the screen surface and made as a part of a tablet's back cover. Use of rubber, or rubberized rim is also preferable for sealing the screen assembly and the tablet as a whole. Rim also protects screen from damage and scratches when lying tablet with screen down.

However, absolutely bezel-less edges of a tablet's screen are quite impractical. First, it takes 3...4 mm wide strip on top of the screen edge (when in landscape orientation) to house a front camera, Kinect-type cameras, a light sensor, Siso Tablo-type sensors (here, on this strip, or inside a rim itself), and whatever signal and indicator LEDs. Then, maybe 4...5 mm of sensitive space seems desirable around all image-bearing screen. This touch-sensitive space might be needed to enhance touch sensitivity of buttons and controls at edges, and also serving as the base for originating swipes Balckberry Playbook style.

All in all, getting rid of wide upper and lower bezels improves handling of the tablet which may still be conveniently pocketable even with the screens up to 8.5" by diagonal (with 16:9 aspect though, and hardly such a large 4:3 device could be considered pocketable).

Left and right "side" bezels (again, when in landscape orientation) is a quite different story. The landscape setting of a device 7...9" diagonally and with 16:9, or 16:8 aspect ratio invites its holding by hands with thumbs near left and right corners. Here, the thumbs may get their natural navigational and other controls: a small, rounded 5-directional touchpad and a scrolling strip or "wheel". These controls need a bezel space of a certain width, like 20...25 mm max. Wider side bezels might be easier to hold, but less comfortable for operating a split "thumb" keyboard when angling these thumbs down while still in tablet holding position.

Lower weight of a device with upper and lower bezels practically eliminated or reduced to thin strips is just a part of an advantage of such a "bezel-less" device. More important is the fact that manipulation of less mass situated outside the user's palms is more advantageous than plain mass reduction. In other words, total mass might be even increased (think of larger battery), and the ease of handling the device could still be there just by virtue of not much of a tablet hanging over the user thumbs.

Optimal placements of tablet controls are determined by predominant manner of handling the device. Then, these modes of handling differ for the cases when the tablet is set in a dock, or in a (charger) cradle, or perched on a desk with a "leg", etc. Even taking into account how sturdy these docking contraptions are, it looks like lower placements of controls are preferable for both "pressable" hardware buttons and "touchable" "soft" buttons. Besides, expected reactions on activated controls are generally more visible when user's palm and fingers don't block these from view as in case with manipulating these controls set on upper edge of the device.

Generally lower placements of controls (both in landscape and in portrait orientations) are preferable when the tablet is held in hands, out of dock, or any other holder. A tablet operated while being held in a hand limits operating capabilities of this hand that holds it to just a thumb movements. Naturally, it invites operating the tablet with fingers of a free hand. Yet it improves the tablet ease of use if that thumb can reach and operate some basic controls.

While in landscape orientation, weight of a tablet dictates eventual use of both hands to hold it, as opposed to "cradling" a tablet in a phone holding manner when tablet is in portrait orientation. Hence the need to use thumbs more effectively when long sessions of work with a tablet are meant, be it a split "thumb" keyboard, or controls.

Ability to use thumbs on side bezels when these bezels are equipped with gaming controls (e.g., five-directional track pads) is proven by millions hours gamers spend playing with their gaming pads every day. Two such pads, one for each thumb give you an easy access to 10...12 different controls and couple of trackpads for scrolling, zooming, swiping functions. Then, gaming on the tablet may become much more "natural" than smearing finger oil on screen areas for game controls, or attaching external game pads to a tablet.

Tablets with touch screens gave birth to an absolutely opposite approach to the problem of controls design: no "mechanical" off-screen controls, just one ON-OFF button. One day, with the development of Kinect-type sensors and voice commanding options for a tablet, this could be a viable solution. But my guess is this "zero-design" approach may only co-exist with much more reliable and convenient multi-directional thumb pads.

Pen, or better put stylus input remains a significant part in mobile computig since the timese when there were no "touch" screens as we know about them today: mostly capacitive or resistive touch screens. Active pens for Wacom-type digitizer screens regain their popularity with the tablet called HTC Flyer that sports a combo screen that senses "normal" capacitive touch and a precise, pin-point contact of the electromagnetic stylus. Tablets like HTC Flyer may have "traditional" stylus uses in sketching, handwriting, highlighting, and all sorts of taking notes and marking, but when the topic at issue is "controls" for a tablet, styluses are the best to operate original "desktop"-style controls (like "soft" navigational buttons) when these are scaled to a smaller 7"-9" screen.

Kinect-type gesture sensing devices may get their niche in the specialized tablets. A simple and a first example would be a gamer's tablet, but then there might be tablet-based car computers that may profit from the inclusion of motion sensing controls and improved safety brought about by such a contraption..

Finally, when in dock, or craddle, tablets must work with traditional (BT) keyborad and mice, and also with remote controls of a media center style. Host computer other than a given tablet may have an option to activate any controls on the tablet over WiFi, at least.

B. HARDWARE

It is very difficult to imagine the hardware powering the most versatile, high end tablets of 2012 and beyond, especially basing these projections on prototypes that didn't leave development labs yet. The heart of a tablet usually consists of a CPU, GPU, FPU, cache array packed in the form of a system on chip (SoC), or as application processor (AP). Terminolgy preferred by this or that particular chip designer company may differ, plus there might be substantial discrepances among manufacturers' ideas of what exactly hardware support should be implemented to better service the needs of a multi-functional, computing intensive tablet.

Basing on what is known today, in ARM SoCs there will be a single generalized architecture that will dominate in 2012 and beyond: it's ARM Cortex A15. So far, the particular designs based on ARM Cortex A15 guidelines are being developed by
--Texas Instruments for its OMAP5 series SoCs;
-- Qualcomm for its Snapdragon S4 SoCs and APs;
-- nVidia for its Tegra 3 SoCs;
-- Samsung for its Exinos line.
Of course, there will be still chips of previous , ARM Cortex A9 genration. That is, if these would be capable of 2...2.5 GHz clocks, 2 GB of DDR3 (fast) RAM, having 2 or 4 SMP cores, 2...4 or more graphic cores. Then, nobody asked what are the "lesser" ARM chip manufacturers think: all those Freescale, MIPS, ZiiLABS "alternative" technologies might show something surprisingly good one day. The problem is they won't be capable to attract much resources for mass manufacturing of their designs.

Let's get a closer look at projects and prototypes of major players first:

1. TI OMAP5xxx series:

(to be updated)

NOOK Tablet or Kindle Fire?

2011-11-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

As it stands now for me, none of the above. Black Friday is near, and the pricing for RIM's BB Playbook is released as $199... $200 for 16 GB model at Office Depot and Staples. Liliputing has a very good collection of gadgets and gizmos that will be on sale in a week, that is, Friday, November 25th, 2011: http://liliputing.com/2011/11/black-friday-2011-deals-on-mobile-tech.html. Take your pick there. You could also check Slickdeals or DealExtreme for up-to-a-minute latest deals, sure.

But to get a BB Playbook for a price of severely crippled AK Fire, it's what I call a real Thanksgiving.

For those, who haven't decided yet, here's some comparison that might move you to return your Fire or NOOK, and get BB Playbook instead. Or HTC Flyer for some, if the price would be right:

Sorry for a looooong clip. Below you can find best OS and best drivers in the industry at work, in a small test:

Another comparison centered around AK fire this time:

For those who might feel a little of nostalgia leaving Gingerbread apps behind, here's your cure:

Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Development Platform

2011-11-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

Raj Talluri of Qualcomm's VP of Product Management in San Diego has demoed the first Snapdragon S4 development platform: http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/3537/#.

The chip here is MSM8960, Snapdragon Wikipedia has this to say:

MSM8960	28 nm	ARMv7	1.5-1.7 GHz Dual-core Krait	L2: 1 MB	Adreno 225	Dual-channel 500 MHz LPDDR2	GSM (GPRS, EDGE), W-CDMA/UMTS (HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+cat.29), MBMS, LTE cat.3, CDMA2000 (1xRTT, 1xEV-DO Rel.0/Rev.A/Rev.B, 1xEV-DO MC Rev.A), TD-SCDMA	Q4 2011

Data in the tablet above is all good except for clocks now meter at 1.5....2.6 GHz, and the release is moved to Q1 2012. There are tons of excellent specs that this SoC can provide, but the really outstanding feature that went mostly undemoed is compliance to DirectX 9.3 class of rendering. As of today, the only other ARM chip that could boast the same is undemoed TI OPMAP5. Well, it might me be shown somewhere, but hardly in such a shell with four cameras, GPS & GLONASS, and whatnot.

NOOK Tablet Won't Boot Unsigned ROMs; AK Fire Is Rooted

2011-11-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipediapokey9000 of NOOK Color rooting fame has this "bad news" so far:

I have reason to believe the Nook Touch (obviously a typo, Tablet was meant) is eFuse locked. This means that we can only boot signed bootloaders from microSD.
Don't go making any hasty decisions if you already have a NT, but if you plan to buy one to root I'd recommend waiting a few days.
Technical stuff below. Please let me know if you've got some experience on OMAP and can back me up or tell me I'm a bozo for doing something wrong here.
Here's what I did to find out:
-Download and build swetland's OMAP4 USB boot tool under Linux found here.
-Plug your NT's USB into your PC and shut it down
-Run the command AS ROOT, using aboot for both 2nd stage and image:
Code:
sudo ./usbboot aboot.bin aboot.bin
It doesn't matter what we send for the image since I have yet to see it finish booting the 2nd stage.
-You should get some output like this (possible identifying values removed):
Code:
waiting for OMAP44xx device...
reading ASIC ID
CHIP: 4430
IDEN:
MPKH:
CRC0: 9c669ad9
CRC1: 682adccf
sending 2ndstage to target... f0030002
waiting for 2ndstage response...
unexpected 2ndstage response
First off, notice that we never get a response from the 2nd stage (aboot.bin). That means that even if aboot got completely sent to the OMAP it didn't run up to where it waits to sync up with usbboot.
Also notice that sometime before this timeout message, the NT has shown its first splash screen, meaning it's running u-boot from the internal flash. I don't have access to the docs on security modes (or i'd be in some sort of legal trouble now) but I'd guess that if you try to run something unsigned on a locked chip then the next device in the boot list would be tried.
The last thing is the CRC1 printed as part of reading the ASIC ID. According to the OMAP44xx TRM that field (offset 0x4d of the ID) should be all zeros for a GP (unlocked) device. In this case, it's not, and suggests a HS (locked) device.
Of course, what applies to USB for security presumably applies to external SD booting, and I've been unable to interrupt the boot process with a properly built card. I've used the "minimal Linux" build for the Pandaboard (which uses the same CPU) and cooked my own x-loader and u-boot intended to hang after boot, but all I get is a direct boot into internal flash.
Again, please correct me if you know better. I'm hoping I'm wrong!

Sure, it's not final, but with eFuse type bootloader encryption (if it's really there) it could severely hinder development for NOOK Tablet.
There are also first reports that out of 16 GB of internal storage only 1 GB is user-accessible. My guess that remaining ~14 GB is the whole B&N catalog of books is already loaded on the device. In this case, encryption of a bootlader makes some sense.

Here's one of the first "unboxing" of a stubborn Tablet:

(UPDATES -- if any -- will follow, so don't go anywhere)

Meanwhile AK Fire was successfully rooted bydeath2all110 who got ADB access via AK Fire's ID of

0x1949

Then, it took him SuperOneClick to root the Fire. Fire doesn't have a slot for external SD card, it hardly can read an USB flash dongle right now, so there's no way to check whether the same security measures against booting from an external unregistered device exist.

Famous cvpcs has compiled a so called 2nd-init and hijack software I described a little while ago. These precious pieces of code might be able to circumvent a locked bootloader function of setting up a predetermined init set of processes replacing these with whatever CM needs to boot. One problem remains though in such an approach: kernel is a stock 2.3.4 still. That is, no 3.0.1 goodness just yet. Then, the trick was made to defeat Motorola's locked bootloader, and M-Shield security type employed by TI OMAP4 SoCs might turn undead and unkillable still.

JTAG anyone?

In other news, just like I (almost) predicted , RIM BB Playbook will be available for $198 on November 18. The deal is good for Canadians though, as SlickDeals informs us.

Ice Cream Sandwich Source Code Is Released

2011-11-14T18:19:00.000-08:00

Start your building engines, gentlemen! The Source is here: http://source.android.com/

News

Source Code Available for Android 4.0

The source code for the Android 4.0 platform and software stack has been released! This release allows OEMs to begin preparing Android 4.0 for installation on new and existing devices, and allows hobbyists, enthusiasts, and researchers to develop custom builds. For information on how to obtain the software, visit ourGetting the Source page.

Here's the usual mantra:

$ repo sync

It might take quite a long time, as obviously the Google servers are under a big load right now.

Will update it later. Rohan Shravan was right with his earlier leak, and Android 4.0 is with us sooner than later. Just missed the correct date: November 14 instead of November 17.

I have no idea what might come into subsequent versions of 4.0.x, but I presume the source code is (slightly) OMAP4-centric. So, where is my NOOK Tablet? Sure, I will be trying CyanogenMod 9 from the Nightly Number 1 on my NOOK Color, but the true kick of the Ice Cream Sandwich is apparently with TI OMAP44xx chips so far.

Complete original message reads like this:

Hi! We just released a bit of code we thought this group might be interested in. Over at our Android Open-Source Project git servers, the source code for Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is now available. Here's how to get it:Follow the instructions at http://source.android.com/source/downloading.htmlCheck out the 'ics-release' branch:repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-4.0.1_r1 That's it! However since this is a large push, please be aware that it will take some time to complete. If you sync before it's done, you'll get an incomplete copy that you won't be able to use, so please wait for us to give the all-clear before you sync. This is actually the source code for version 4.0.1 of Android, which is the specific version that will ship on the Galaxy Nexus, the first Android 4.0 device. In the source tree, you will find a device build target named "full_maguro" that you can use to build a system image for Galaxy Nexus. Build configurations for other devices will come later. Unfortunately we still don't have our Gerrit code review servers back online. That remains our top priority though, and we hope to have them back soon. This release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, which naturally includes all the source code for the Honeycomb releases. However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich. So, we haven't created any tags that correspond to the Honeycomb releases (even though the changes are present in the history.) JBQ, on behalf of the AOSP team.
--
Jean-Baptiste M. "JBQ" Queru
Software Engineer, Android Open-Source Project, Google.

This is from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Translation to layman's language may read somewhat like this:

-- Android 4.0.1_r1 code of Samsung Galaxy Nexus is in the open (obviously, minus relevant TI OMAP4 code that might be avalable at TI OMAP gits);

-- there will be even pieces of Honeycomb code available, as long as these essential for building an AOSP 4.0.1 ROM;

-- later addition by JBQ makes amount of Google contribution is even bigger and more substantial:

I've just pushed the source for the PandaBoard kernel: branch android-omap-panda-3.0 in the kernel/omap project. I expect that's the one you might be most interested in since it can be run on hardware right away. Maguro (i.e. Galaxy Nexus) is next on my list.

I couldn't care less about putting better Android 4 on overpriced Galaxy Nexus (Maguro in this parlance) that already runs Android 4.0.1_r1, but bringing in Pandaboard specific kernel code is huge. As the least, it means a rapid development of ICM ROMs for AK Fire, B&N NOOK Tablet, RIM BB Playbook, and couple of Archoses Gen9 (sorry if I forgot some other Pandaboard-based devices);

-- proprietary binaries (compiled drivers) will be available in http://code.google.com/android/nexus/drivers.html .

BTW, here's your Maguro (金槍魚, or マグロ, or tuna):

Jokes aside, and Pandaboard looks like this:

(taken from OMAPpedia: Pandaboard is available from Digikey for $174)

NVSBL P4D, P3D Tablets: Younger Brothers of Ainol Novo8, Gadmei T820 and Aigo M801

2011-11-14T11:24:00.000-08:00

The Spanish company that apparently likes to stay "NVSBL" (must sound like "invisible")
has released couple of tablets (Sirius P4D and P4D v.3), for 179 and 169 euros, respectively; difference in the specs is apparently an addition of "n" to WiFi 802.11 b/g of P3D).

Both tablets by specs are virtual twins of Aigo M801, Gadmei T820, and their Big Brother Ainol Novo 8 Advanced:

WIFI 802.11 B/G/N
USB 1 x mini USB 2.0
Headphone Jack stereo
Operating System Android 2.2
Sensor-G YES
SD Slot 1 x MicroSD
Depth 13.7mm
Weight 300g
Screen 8" Advanced Capacitive 5 points Touch Pannel (apparently, similar to Gadmei T820/Aigo M801 1280x768 screen panel; some claim lacking cross patern characteristic for Ainol, or making it NVSBL, whatever your luck)
Memory 512Mb
Remote Included NO
HDMI 1 x micro HDMI
CPU CPU Cortex A-9 + GPU MALI-400 (this must be Amlogic's AML8726-M Meson 1 w/ Mali MP400 -- both single cores)
Bluetooth NO (could be put to YES by simple software tweak)
Width 214mm
Height 187mm
Internal Storage 8GB

(couldn't find battery specs anywhere; the tablets look quite thick though. Which is good. It is always good when Ainol Novo8-type device has bulging, very VSBL batteries)

This was an official presentation video, and below one can watch some unboxing. Inordinate amount of people like "unboxing" videos more than any other demos of new products, so here we go:

USB OTG port on P4D v.3 device has some host capabilities to handle a GPS USB dongle:

Another NVSBL product is NVSBL 4D Media: "untouchable" glasses-free 3D media player (Reproductor 3D sin gafas) is presented here:

3D non-touch screen can even save you 20 euros off Sirius price, it's just €159.

All tablets are quite thick for their NVSBL status and sure not RAZRs in their class. As of today, NVSBL Sirius P4D models are certainly NVSBL in NVSBL.es stock. Using a more adult language, the Siriuses (or was it Sirii?) are out of stock. Then, for extra 10 Euros you gain 0.7 mm of thick (to 13.7 mm) but lose remote when compared to P4D v.3. Which is AVLBL for order, BTW.

In other news Tegra 3 10.1" tablets are popping up at Lenovo, Acer, ASUS, HTC. A thorough hands-on review and benchmarks are needed, leaked specs, rumours, and renderings are of little interest here.

Major tech reviewers (Engadget, Gizmodo and The Verge) have published their reviews of AK Fire today. Many of them sound underwhelmed by lagginess and unresponsiveness demonstrated to them by the heavily "themed" Android 2.3.4 device. Silk browser doesn't seem so silky in a customer hands, performance of Amazon EC2 cloud was not to the expectations of many observers.

The best detailed review was made by The Verge's Joshua Topolsky, so go there to have your AK Fire fix.
I will be back with my own review of AK Fire only after B&N NOOK Tablet is released. I just can't see any sense in comparing Fire to iPad2, to Samsung Galaxy Tab 7+, to whatever definitely out of Fire leage. The only comparison it deserves is with B&N NOOK Tablet, and it comes pretty much handicapped to that fight:

-- half internal storage, NO external storage;
-- half the RAM (which brings you twice the freezees and lagginess, I should add out of my experience)
-- simple oleophilic glass screen (aka fingerprint magnet)
-- no microphone (no Siri to you, Kindle thingie!)
-- no hook for lanyard (this is strictly my favorite feature; just kidding though)

It might be that Ice Cream Sandwich will be released in just couple of days -- if one would be willing to believe Rohan Shravan's leak. NOOK Tablet will be much easier target to put CM9 on it than Fire.

One spec I'm especially after is a circa 40 Mbit H.264 Level 4.1 video playback at smooth 60 FPS. If any of these 10-inchers can do it, then sure, wake me up. If not, paint me uninterested, as they are all above a threshold of $200 MSRP but offereing nothing over some obscure Chinese tablet in terms of multimedia capabilities.

2012 London Olympics In Super Hi-Vision

2011-11-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaEngadget reports about planned NHK broadcast of 2012 London Olympics in Super Hi-Vision resolution of whooping 7680x4320 resolution. This picture when compared to a "regular" 1920x1800 pixels brings 16 times more detail. Holy macaroni!

The broadcast can be viewed in three places in UK (London, IBC Studios; Bradford, and Glasgow), one place in US (Washington, DC) and in three places in Japan: Akihabara, Shibuya, and Osaka.

I will set aside the 22.2 format of sound, and what size of street(?) screens will be employed, even with an information that in Osaka they already have this 450 inch (11.4 m) screen in Osaka. I simply won't be there, not even in Glasgow.

Not that I even want to go to real 2012 Olympics events. All I want is to watch it on the screen which hardly be more than 30" diagonally, but on the distance of my best vision: ONE FOOT. At such distance I'm sure I would be still unable to see pixels, or whatever graininess (or blockiness, as I hope the monitors would be capable to produce no less than 120 FPS).

I can most probably do just fine with 4 times less pixels on such a 20"...30" screen. In any case, I will see much more details on such a screen than if I could be ever present on a real event, at the best seats, and with the best Zeiss binoculars.

The nagging question here is: Where are those fairy tale's Creative/ZiiLABS ZMS-40 chips to decode and render these 120-150 Mbit/sec of DVB-S2 signal? How many of them might be needed for one such monitor? Can you Creative guys show us a demo of your WunderTV doing at least UHDTV (4320p)? If it takes 4 or even 8 such chps -- be it, who could stop you. From what I understand, they are less than $20 a pop.

Here's a real chance for Creative to stay relevant: show us 2012 Olympics.

Last Adobe Flash Player For Android Is Released

2011-11-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaIt's version for Android is 11.1.102.59 with fixes:

Video Streaming issue on Samsung Galaxy S2. Audio plays, but no video (2985567).
Enable 1080p video for NVidia Tegra 3 chipset based devices (2985986).

Here, with NOOK Color, we are quite far from enjoying Tegra 3 goodies. In afterlife, there might be some security patches, but that's it.

Sure, it will take years for a full adoption of HTML5. It also looks like stock browser of AOSP 2.3 collection will never get any update for its HTML5 compliance. Oh well...

No visual benefits for Flash videos on NC was noticed. Just don't upgrade your YouTube after version 2.1.6, and you're fine. Sort of.

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