Tag Archives: Freescale

Computers, News

Sharp’s 5-Inch NetWalker PC-T1 MID Announced

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The world splits to two: from one hand, companies that produce slates and from the other, those who prefer calling them tablets – and then, there’s the MID which is kind of a hybrid creation of both species. I mean, just think about it for a second, why do we need a MID when “tablet” or “slate” will probably do good, eh? This way or another, Sharp’s new MID, NetWalker PC-T1, is coming our way this May, packing a 5-inch display that boasts netbooks’ 1024 x 600 screen resolution (Crazy!). Besides that, for a whopping ¥47,000 (about $510) price tag, you’ll get a Freescale i.MX515 processor, paired with one single USB port, MicroSD card slot, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g WiFi, and up to 6-hour of battery support. Software wise, it would run Ubuntu 9.04 as the OS, tucked with Anglo-Japanese dictionary and an e-book reader that would apparently have access to Sharp’s e-bookstore which includes over 25,000 titles to download. See you next month!

[Sharp]

Computers, News

Freescale's 7-Inch Smartbook Tablet Officially Announced, Boasts an Enticing Design And $200 Tag

Freescale is already staring eyes towards the CES show, which goes live this coming weekend, and the way things look, there’s plenty of stuff that worth waiting for. In a nutshell, the semiconductor giant surprises with a 7-inch smartbook reference design that fits well the Smartbook Tablet gender, only with a lot more to offer. Make no mistake, it’s a sort of a prototype that Freescale wishes to develop with its OEM partners, and the list of components is admittedly, very impressive, still you should give it at least six month before it gets – this way or another – official. The most attractive thing in here is the price which stands right below the $200 mark and digging into the specs, it ain’t so much at all, considering the fact it has a 1GHz i/MX515 chipset, paired with ARM Cortex A8 processor that seats together with 1,024 x 600 touch display (and ambient light sensor), 512MB of DDR2 RAM, optional 3G WWAN module, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3mp camera on top, and 3-axis accelerometer support. You get between 4GB to 64GB of internal storage, expandable with a microSD, while battery suppose to work all day long at 1,900mAh. And whether you’re fond of portable devices or not, Freescale’s machine offers (for extra $50) an optional docking station fully equipped with QWERTY keyboard and identical color lot – Now that’s definitely something we’d like to have our hands on. Stay tuned for more, images and PR details are just after the slot.

Update: Word on the street is that the $200 tablet from Freescale that sports a 7-incher display and a strong ARM Cortex architecture, will go live somewhere, somewhat, equipped with either Google’s Chromium OS or sort of a Linux platform at your choice, while Android is said to be on the prep as well, and capacitive screens are likely to be considered as part of this slate. Checkout the demo video half past the break.

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Computers, News, Operating Systems

Google Chrome OS Announced, Will Be available In 2010

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Google has just thrown a bomb to the IT world, announcing a new Chrom OS platform that suppose to give an open-source solution mainly for netbooks but also for full-size desktop systems, and is expected to go live somewhere on the second half of 2010. Additionally, the new OS from Mountain View, CA is claimed to smoothly run any x86 and ARM chips, while the company firmly says it already teamed up with manufacturers like Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments to bring you all the best and comprehensive UI you’d get, so stay tuned for a lot more to come. Here’s what Google’s blog had to say, in a nutshell:

“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

[Google]

Applications, Media Players, News

30GB Zune Shows Y2K9 Failures

Originally written on January 1st:

Surprising or not, the 30GB Zune players started suffering from serious fails just as we hit December 31th 2008. If you are one of those unhappy owners, you’ve probably noticed some murky crashes, locking your Microsoft devices, turning them unfunctional. No official word from Microsoft up to this point.  

Update1: seems like the problem comes from the internal clock and calendar. Redmond has issued an official respond:

“We are aware that customers with the Zune 30GB are experiencing issues with their Zune device. We are actively working now to isolate the issue and develop a solution to address it. We will keep customers informed on next steps via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support). “

Update2: turns out it was a Freescale’s code bug that caused the same problems to other similar players with the same chip.

[via Engadget]