Technical Talk

Samsung's Orion-ARM Cortex-A9 mobile processor

2010-09-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

Samsung's Orion 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 mobile processor announced

Even if Samsung Fascinate didn't surprised us with its codename, maybe Samsung's announcement of mobile processor Orion will do the trick. So what are the surprises of the newly debuted dual-core Orion, "5 times the 3D graphics performance over the previous processor generation from Samsung, 1080p video encoding and decoding at 30fps, embedded GPS, a native triple display controller, and on-chip HDMI 1.3a interface." Still wants some more, read on after the break.

Orion's mass production is set first half of 2011, yet availability on "selected customers" at the end of this year. Meanwhile, if Hummingbird impressed us, we can't wait for this new processor to be fitted in a new powerful device.

TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced its new 1GHz ARM® CORTEXTM A9-based dual-core application processor, codenamed Orion, for advanced mobile applications. Device OEM developers now have a powerful dual processor chip platform designed specifically to meet the needs of high-performance, low-power mobile applications including tablets, netbooks and smartphones. Samsung's new processor will be demonstrated at the seventh annual Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum held here in Taiwan at the Westin Taipei Hotel.

"Consumers are demanding the full web experience without compromise while on the go," said Dojun Rhee, vice president of Marketing, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. "Given this trend, mobile device designers need an application processor platform that delivers superb multimedia performance, fast CPU processing speed, and abundant memory bandwidth. Samsung's newest dual core application processor chip is designed specifically to fulfill such stringent performance requirements while maintaining long battery life."

Designed using Samsung's 45 nanometer low-power process technology, Orion features a pair of 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 cores, each comes with a 32KB data cache and a 32KB instruction cache. Samsung also included a 1MB L2 cache to optimize CPU processing performance and provide fast context switching in a multi-tasking environment. In addition, the memory interface and bus architecture of Orion supports data intensive multimedia applications including full HD video playback and high speed 3D action games.

Samsung's new application processor incorporates a rich portfolio of advanced multimedia features implemented by hardware accelerators, such as video encoder/decoder that supports 30fps video playback and recording at 1080P full HD resolution. Using an enhanced graphics processing unit (GPU), the new processors are capable of delivering 5 times the 3D graphics performance over the previous processor generation from Samsung.

For design flexibility and system BOM cost reduction, Orion integrates a set of interfaces commonly used in mobile devices to configure various peripheral functionalities. For example, with this processor, customers have the choice to use different types of storage including NAND flash, moviNANDTM, SSD or HDD providing both SATA, and eMMC interfaces. Customers can also choose their appropriate memory options including low power LPDDR2 or DDR3, which is commonly used for high performance. In addition, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver baseband processor is embedded in the processor to seamlessly support location based services (LBS), which is critical in many emerging mobile applications.

Orion features an onboard native triple display controller architecture that compliments multi-tasking operations in a multiple display environment. A mobile device using the Orion processor can simultaneously support two on-device display screens, while driving a third external display such as a TV or a monitor, via an on-chip HDMI 1.3a interface.

Orion is designed to support package-on-package (POP) with memory stacking to reduce the footprint. A derivative of Orion, which is housed in a standalone package with a 0.8mm ball pitch, is also available.

Samsung's new dual-core application processor, Orion, will be available to select customers in the fourth quarter of 2010 and is scheduled for mass production in the first half of 2011.

BlakBerry Curve

2010-07-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

New Blackberry Curve

BLACKBERRY LATEST MOBILE PHONE:

Blackberry Curve (8300) is one of the most popular latest phones since its launch. But since its launch, mobile industry has experienced many advances in technology. So to keep them update wit latest technology Blackberry family has launched its latest edition called BLACKBERRY BOLD.

WHAT'S NEW ?

Blackberry Bold is a blend of greatest features of Windows Mobile and the quality and reliability specific to Blackberry brand.

With the help of new Blackberry Bold now it is possible to edit your Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents. These updates can be moved over onto main PC or Mac. So now you can update and improve speeches and presentations during practice runs or when still on the road.

SOMETHING MORE INTERESTING:

Blackberry Bold is one of the most media-friendly release yet with the inclusion of Wifi which allows you to access the Internet from virtually millions of locations worldwide (the GPS and mapping functions can help you locate a site). And even outside of hot-spot areas, the Blackberry Bold utilizes HSDPA technology to access nearly 3G download speeds.

In new Blackberry Bold streaming videos are also available, complementing the mp3 player. And with the Media Sync application, you can easily transfer media files from itunes to your handset very easily.

4 G

2010-07-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

4G Technology

Fourth Generation (4G) mobiles

4G also called as Fourth-Generation Communications System, is a term used to describe the next step in wireless communications. A 4G system can provide a comprehensive IP solution where voice, data and streamed multimedia can be provided to users on an "Anytime, Anywhere" basis. The data transfer rates are also much higher than previous generations.

The main objectives of 4G are:

1)4G will be a fully IP-based integrated system.

2)This will be capable of providing 100 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s speeds both indoors and outdoors.

3)It can provide premium quality and high security.

4)4G offer all types of services at an affordable cost.

4G is developed to provide high quality of service (QoS) and rate requirements set by forthcoming applications such as wireless broadband access, Multimedia Messaging, Video Chat, Mobile TV, High definition TV content, DVB, minimal service like voice and data, and other streaming services.

4G technology allow high-quality smooth video transmission. It will enable fast downloading of full-length songs or music pieces in real time.

The business and popularity of 4Gmobiles is predicted to be very vast. On an average, by 2009, this 4Gmobile market will be over $400B and it will dominate the wireless communications, and its converged system will replace most conventional wireless infrastructure.

Data Rates For 4G:

The downloading speed for mobile Internet connections is from 9.6 kbit/s for 2G cellular at present. However, in actual use the data rates are usually slower, especially in crowded areas, or when there is congestion in network.

4G mobile data transmission rates are planned to be up to 20 megabits per second which means that it will be about 10-20 times faster than standard ASDL services.

In terms of connection seeds, 4G will be about 200 times faster than present 2G mobile data rates, and about 10 times faster than 3G broadband mobile. 3G data rates are currently 2Mbit/sec, which is very fast compared to 2G's 9.6Kbit/sec.

Google neXus oNe

2010-03-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

Size and weight

Height    119mm
Width     59.8mm
Depth     11.5mm
Weight    130 grams w/battery 100g w/o battery
Display3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
800 x 480 pixels
100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
1ms typical response rate

Camera & Flash

5 megapixels
Autofocus from 6cm to infinity
2X digital zoom
LED flash
User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver
Video captured at 720x480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

Cellular & Wireless

UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
HSDPA 7.2Mbps
HSUPA 2Mbps
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
A2DP stereo Bluetooth

Power and battery

Removable 1400 mAH battery
Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger

Talk time          Up to 10 hours on 2G Up to 7 hours on 3G
Standby time    Up to 290 hours on 2G Up to 250 hours on 3G
Internet use      Up to 5 hours on 3G Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback Up to 7 hours
Audio playback Up to 20 hours Processor

Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz

Operating system

Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)

Capacity

512MB Flash
512MB RAM
4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)

Location

Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver
Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning
Digital compass
Accelerometer

Buttons, connectors and controls

Front / Top

[1] Power
[2] 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
[3] Charging and notification indicator
[4] Illuminated capacitive soft keys:
Back, Home, Menu, and Search
[5] Tri-color clickable trackball

Back / Bottom

[6] Camera
[7] Camera flash
[8] Speaker
[9] Dock pin connectors
[10] Micro USB port
[11] Microphone

Left side

[12] Volume Control

Additional features

Haptic feedback
Second microphone for active noise cancellation
SIM card slot
Micro SD slot
Proximity sensor
Light sensor

Graphics, video and audio

Audio decoders: AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+) Mono/Stereo standard bit rates up to 160 kbps and sampling rates from 8 to 48kHz, AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz, AMR-WB 9 rates from 6.60 kbit/s to 23.85 kbit/s sampled @ 16kHz., MP3 Mono/Stereo 8-320Kbps constant (CBR) or variable bit-rate (VBR), MIDI SMF (Type 0 and 1), DLS Version 1 and 2, XMF/Mobile XMF, RTTTL/RTX, OTA, iMelody, Ogg Vorbis, WAVE (8-bit and 16-bit PCM)

Image: JPEG (encode and decode), GIF, PNG, BMP
Video: H.263 (encode and decode) MPEG-4 SP (encode and decode) H.264 AVC (decode)
Audio encoders: AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz

Language support

Display: English (U.S), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean, Japanese, Russian,

Keyboard: English (U.S), French (France), German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil),

Nexus One Desktop Dock

The Nexus One Desktop Dock is an elegant place to charge your phone, on your desk or nightstand.
Just drop your phone in the Desktop Dock, and the Clock app launches automatically, making it easy to:

Check the local time and weather
Set and clear alarms
Watch a slideshow of your photos
Play music
Dim your phone's display for nighttime use

We also include a 3.5mm-to-RCA audio cable that allows you to connect the dock to your stereo, so you can listen to your phone's music on your stereo system.

Apple Lates IPAD

2010-03-03T03:23:00.000-08:00

Safari

The large Multi-Touch screen on iPad lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen — one page at a time. With vibrant color and sharp text. So whether you’re looking at a page in portrait or landscape, you can see everything at a size that’s actually readable. And with iPad, navigating the web has never been easier or more intuitive. Because you use the most natural pointing device there is: your finger. Scroll through a page just by flicking your finger up or down on the screen. Or pinch to zoom in or out on a photo. There’s also a thumbnail view that shows all your open pages in a grid, to let you quickly move from one page to the next.

Mail

See and touch your email in ways you never could before. In landscape, you get a split-screen view showing both an opened email and the messages in your inbox. To see the opened email by itself, turn iPad to portrait, and the email automatically rotates and fills the screen. No matter which orientation you use, you can scroll through your mail, compose a new email using the large, onscreen keyboard, or delete messages with nothing more than a tap and a flick. If someone emails you a photo, you can see it right in the message. You can also save the photos in an email directly to the built-in Photos app. And iPad works with all the most popular email providers, including MobileMe, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.

Photos

With its crisp, vibrant display and unique software features, iPad is an extraordinary way to enjoy and share your photos. For example, the Photos app displays the photos in an album as though they were in a stack. Just tap the stack, and the whole album opens up. From there, you can flip through your pictures, zoom in or out, or watch a slideshow. You can even use your iPad as a beautiful digital photo frame while it’s docked or charging. And there are lots of ways to import photos: You can sync them from your computer, download them from an email, or import them directly from your camera using the optional Camera Connection Kit.

Star Trek is available on iTunes.

Video

The large, high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching any kind of video: from HD movies and TV shows to podcasts and music videos. Switch between widescreen and full screen with a double-tap. Because iPad is essentially one big screen, with no distracting keypad or buttons, you feel completely immersed in whatever you’re watching.

YouTube

The YouTube app organizes videos so they’re easy to see and navigate. To watch one, just tap it. When you’re watching in landscape, the video automatically plays in full screen. And with its high-resolution display, iPad makes the latest HD YouTube videos look positively amazing.

iPod

With the iPod app, all your music is literally at your fingertips. Browse by album, song, artist, or genre with a simple flick. To play a song, just tap it. iPad even displays album art at full size. Listen to your music with the powerful built-in speaker or with wired or Bluetooth wireless headphones.

iTunes

A tap of the iTunes icon lets you browse and buy music, TV shows, and podcasts — or buy and rent movies — wirelessly, right from your iPad. Choose from thousands of movies and TV shows (in both standard and high definition), along with thousands of podcasts and millions of songs. Preview songs before you buy them. Or just sync iPad with the content you already have in your iTunes library on your Mac or PC.

App Store

iPad runs almost 140,000 apps from the App Store. Everything from games to business apps and more. And new apps designed specifically for iPad are highlighted, so you can easily find the ones that take full advantage of its features. Just tap the App Store icon on the screen to browse, buy, and download apps wirelessly, right to the iPad.

iBooks

The iBooks app is a great new way to read and buy books.¹ Download the free app from the App Store and buy everything from classics to best sellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you’ve bought a book, it’s displayed on your Bookshelf. Just tap it to start reading. The high-resolution, LED-backlit screen displays everything in sharp, rich color, so it’s easy to read, even in low light.

Maps

Finding your way is a completely new experience on iPad. Tap to view maps from above with high-resolution satellite imagery, up close with street view, or with topography in a new terrain view — all using Google Services. Search for a nearby restaurant or landmark, then get directions from your current location.

Notes

With its expansive display and large, onscreen keyboard, iPad makes jotting down notes easy. In landscape view, you see not only a note-taking page but a list of all your notes. iPad even circles the current note in red, so you can see where you are at a glance.

Calendar

iPad makes it easy to stay on schedule by displaying day, week, month, or list views of your calendar. You can see an overview of a whole month or the details of a single day. iPad even shows multiple calendars at once, so you can manage work and family schedules at the same time.

Contacts

The Contacts app on iPad makes finding names, numbers, and other important information quicker and easier than ever before. A new view lets you see both your complete contacts list and a single contact simultaneously. Need directions? Tap an address inside a contact and iPad automatically opens Maps.

Home Screen

The Home screen gives you one-tap access to everything on iPad. You can customize your Home screen by adding your favorite apps and websites or using your own photos as the background. And you can move apps around to arrange them in any order you want.

Spotlight Search

Spotlight Search allows you to search across iPad and all of its built-in apps, including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, iPod, and Notes. It even searches apps you’ve downloaded from the App Store. So no matter what you’re looking for, it’s never more than a few taps away.

Accessibility

iPad comes with a screen reader, support for playback of closed-captioned content, and other innovative universal access features — right out of the box. There’s no additional software to buy or install. These features make iPad easier to use for people who have a vision impairment, are deaf or hard of hearing, or have a physical or learning disability.

2010-03-03T02:48:00.000-08:00

Original Kindle

The Kindle 1

Amazon's first offering of Kindle in November 2007 sold out in five and a half hours and the device remained out of stock for five months until late April 2008.

The original Kindle device, featuring a 6 inch (diagonal) 4-level grayscale display, retailed for US$399. Amazon subsequently lowered the price to $359. The 250 MB of internal memory in the Amazon Kindle 1 can hold approximately 200 non-illustrated titles, and the memory is expandable with an SD memory card.This model is no longer available, as it was replaced by the Kindle 2.

On the original Kindle, Whispernet only works in the United States, but content can be downloaded from Amazon over the Internet. Amazon did not sell the original Kindle outside the United States. Plans for a launch in the UK and other European countries were delayed by problems with signing up suitable wireless network operators.

Kindle 2

On February 9, 2009, Amazon announced the Kindle 2 which became available for purchase on February 23, 2009. The Kindle 2 features 16-level grayscale display, improved battery life, 20 percent faster page-refreshing, a text-to-speech option to read the text aloud, and overall thickness reduced from 0.8 to 0.36 inches (9.1 mm).

The Kindle 2 has 2 GB of internal memory of which 1.4 GB is user-accessible. Amazon estimates that the Kindle 2 will hold about 1500 non-illustrated books. Unlike the original Kindle, Kindle 2 does not have a slot for SD memory cards. To promote the new Kindle, author Stephen King made UR, his then-new novella, available exclusively through the Kindle Store. On October 22, 2009, Amazon ceased selling the Kindle 2 as originally built in favor of the International Version it had introduced earlier in the month.

According to an early review by iFixit, the Kindle 2 features a Freescale 532 MHz, ARM-11 90 nm processor, 32MB main memory, 2 GB moviNAND Flash Storage, and a 3.7 V 1530 mAh lithium polymer battery. On November 24, 2009, Amazon released a firmware update for the Kindle 2 that it said increases battery life by 85% and introduces native PDF support.

Kindle 2 International Version

On October 7, 2009, Amazon announced an international version of the Kindle 2 that works in over 100 countries, which became available October 19, 2009. The international Kindle 2 is physically very similar to the U.S.-only model although it uses a different mobile network standard. The original Kindle 2 uses the Sprint network while the international version uses AT&T's U.S. mobile network and roams on 3G, EDGE, and GPRS on GSM networks in other countries. On October 22, Amazon lowered the price on the international version to $259 from $279 and ceased selling the U.S.-only model.

Kindle DX

Amazon Kindle DX
The Kindle DX
Manufacterer	Foxconn for Amazon.com
Type	e-book reader
Release date	June 10, 2009
Operating system	Linux-2.6.22.19
Power	Lithium polymer, 3.7 V, 1530 mAhr, 5.66 Wh, P/N 170-1012-00
CPU	Freescale 532 MHz i.MX31L, ARM-11
Storage capacity	4 GB internal flash memory (82.5% user-accessible)
Display	9.7 in diagonal (5.4" (137 mm) x 7.9" (201 mm)), 824 × 1200 pixels or 0.99 megapixels, 150 ppi, 16-level grayscale electronic paper
Input	USB 2.0 port (micro-B connector), 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack, built-in stereo speakers, AC power adapter jack
Connectivity	Amazon Whispernet (Sprint)using EVDO/CDMA AnyDATA wireless modem E727NV WN2, with fallback to 1xRTT
Dimensions	10.4 × 7.2 × 0.38 in (264 × 183 × 9.7 mm)
Weight	18.9 oz (540 g)

On May 6, 2009, Amazon announced the Kindle DX which retails for $489. It is the first Kindle model with an accelerometer, automatically rotating pages between landscape and portrait orientations if the device is turned on its side, unless automatic rotation is disabled by the user. It is slightly over ¹⁄₃ inch (about 8.5 mm) thick, has a 4 GB (3.3 GB user-accessible) storage capacity, holding approximately 3500 non-illustrated e-books, a 9.7 inch (24.6 cm) display with 1200 x 824 pixel resolution, and a battery life of up to one week while using wireless or two weeks offline. The DX adds support for PDF files natively, built-in stereo speakers, and 1xRTT wireless technology as fallback option for when EVDO connectivity is not available. Like the Kindle 2, it does not have an SD memory card slot. The model was released on June 10, 2009.

Kindle DX International

Since January 19, 2010, the Kindle DX International ships in 100 countries.

Overall

The exact sales numbers were not released by the company, but according to some estimates based on official statements it is estimated that as of Q4-2009 there were about 1.5 million devices sold^.

Amazon e-book sales overtook print for the first time on Christmas Day of 2009.

Content

Users can download content from Amazon and some other Kindle content providers in the proprietary Kindle format (AZW), or load content in various formats from a computer by simply emailing DOC, TXT, and PDF files to your own Kindle email address. Kindle Terms of Use forbid transferring Amazon e-books to another user or a different type of device^. Users can select reading material using the Kindle itself or through a computer at the Amazon Kindle store, and can download content through the Kindle Store, which upon the initial launch of the Kindle had more than 88,000 digital titles available for download, steadily increasing to more than 275,000 by late 2008. As of July 1, 2009, there were more than 300,000 books available for download. In late 2007, new releases and New York Times bestsellers are being offered for approximately US$10, with first chapters of many books offered as free samples. Many titles, including some classics, are offered free of charge or at a low price, which has been stated to relate to the cost of adapting the book to the Kindle format. Magazines, newspapers, and blogs via RSS such as popular blogs (Amazon Daily, Huffington Post, and Kindle me elmo) are provided by Amazon per a monthly subscription fee or a free trial period. Newspaper subscriptions cost from US$5.99 to $14.99 per month, magazines charge between $1.25 and $10.99 per month, and blogs charge from $0.99 to $1.99 per month.

The device is sold with electronic editions of its owner's manual and the New Oxford American Dictionary. Owners cannot use a dictionary in a language other than English as the "default lookup dictionary." The Kindle also contains several free experimental features, including a basic web browser. Users can also play music from MP3 files in the background in the order in which they were added to the Kindle. Operating system updates are designed to be received wirelessly and install automatically during a period in sleep mode in which wireless is turned on^.

File formats

The original Kindle supported only unprotected Mobipocket books (MOBI, PRC), plain text files (TXT), topaz format books (.tpz), and Amazon's proprietary DRM-restricted format (AZW). Version 2.3 firmware upgrade for Kindle 2 (U.S. and International) added native PDF support. Earlier versions did not fully support Portable Document Format (PDF), but Amazon provided "experimental" conversion to the native AZW format, with the caveat that not all PDFs may format correctly. It does not support the EPUB ebook standard. Amazon offers an email-based service that will convert JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP graphics to AZW. Amazon will also convert HTML pages and Microsoft Word (DOC) documents through the same email-based mechanism, which will send a Kindle-formatted file to the device directly for $0.15 per MB or to a personal e-mail account for free. These services can be accessed by sending emails to @kindle.com and to @free.kindle.com for Whispernet-delivered and free email-delivered file conversion, respectively. The file that the user wants to be converted needs to be attached to these emails. Users could also convert PDF and other files to the first-generation Kindle's supported formats using third-party software. The original Kindle supported audio in the form of MP3s and Audible audiobooks (versions 2, 3 and 4), which had to be transferred to the Kindle via USB or on an SD card.

Initially, Kindle 1 only supported the ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1) character set for its content; Unicode characters and non-Western characters were not supported. A firmware update in February 2009 added support for additional character sets, including ISO 8859-16.

Kindle 2 added support for Audible Enhanced (AAX) format, but dropped support for Audible versions 2 and 3. Using the experimental web browser, it was possible to download books directly on the Kindle (in MOBI, PRC and TXT formats only). Hyperlinks in a Mobipocket file could be used to download e-books but could not be used to reference books stored in the Kindle's memory. Kindle DX added native support for PDF files.

User-created annotations

Users can bookmark, highlight, and look up content. Pages can be dog-eared for reference and notes can be added to relevant content. While a book is open on the display, menu options allow users to search for synonyms and definitions from the built-in dictionary. The device also remembers the last page read for each book. Pages can be saved as a "clipping", or a text file containing the text of the currently displayed page. All clippings are appended to a single file, which can be downloaded over a USB cable.

2010-03-03T02:37:00.001-08:00

Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)