Category Archives: Android

Samsung extends Android Galaxy to a credible point-and-shoot camera

Posted on August 30, 2012 by sleibson2

You can now add Samsung to a small-but-growing list of digital camera vendors offering Android-based point-and-shoot cameras. The first was Nikon, announcing the S800c camera last week. (See “Nikon announces Android-powered camera: the $349 Coolpix S800c”) Now Samsung has introduced … Continue reading →

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Nikon announces Android-powered camera: the $349 Coolpix S800c

Posted on August 22, 2012 by sleibson2

Nikon has just announced an Android-powered point-and-shoot camera—the $349 Coolpix S800c. It’s a 16Mpixel camera with a 10x optical zoom but the real innovation appears on the back in the form of a touch-panel LCD 0.8Mpixel OLED display that is … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, ARM, Cortex-A9, EDA360, Linux, Mobile, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Which Android Phones are winning in Asia, and where?

Posted on August 17, 2012 by sleibson2

This is too cool! Animoca publishes games for Android-based platforms and, apparently, collects information about what type of platform a game is downloaded into. So the company just published an analysis titled “Animoca data: the top Android phones in key … Continue reading →

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Android-based, open-source gaming venture OUYA raises nearly $5 million on Kickstarter (so far, 22 days left to fund)

Posted on July 17, 2012 by sleibson2

Gamers are passionate. This time, they’re passionate enough to more than completely fund game console startup OUYA’s drive to produce in volume what it’s already prototyped: an open game console for the television. If you’re not a gamer, you might … Continue reading →

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Friday Video: Slo-mo video shows how much faster and smoother Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) is than Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted on July 12, 2012 by sleibson2

Project Butter was a concerted effort by Google software engineers to make the display in Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) much smoother, faster, and more responsive than in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). But how to show it? Here’s a great … Continue reading →

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Friday Video: Two more low-cost, ARM-based, embedded-Linux development boards from ODROID and Google

Posted on July 12, 2012 by sleibson2

Recently, I published a list of 39 low-cost, ARM-based, embedded-Linux development boards. (See “39 low-cost boards for embedded Linux application development starting with Raspberry Pi. Want the list?”) I ran across two more of these dev boards this week that … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, ARM, Cortex-M3, EDA360, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Architecting Android Apps: FREE, in-person seminar in San Jose, May 7. Priceless. Pizza and Soda—$2

Posted on April 16, 2012 by sleibson2

Android has quickly become the OS/GUI of choice for highly interactive 32-bit embedded devices and part of the appeal is the relative ease of developing applications (apps) for the platform. Now you have a chance to hear about the art … Continue reading →

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Want more information on ARM’s view of the server landscape? Attend EDPS on April 5

Posted on March 19, 2012 by sleibson2

In just a couple of weeks, plus a day or two, ARM’s Director of Server Systems and Ecosystem Ian Ferguson will be presenting ARM’s views about the server market in the “Low-Power with Performance” session of the EDPS Workshop. With … Continue reading →

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Android apps no longer need…Android???

Posted on January 9, 2012 by sleibson2

One of the first product announcements coming from the Las Vegas CES show this week is a real mindtwister from OpenMobile World Wide. It seems the company has developed an Application Compatibility Layer (ACL) that permits Android apps to run … Continue reading →

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Towards the $100 smartphone: Spreadtrum Communications moves up the food chain with Android baseband SoCs

Posted on January 4, 2012 by sleibson2

Just a year ago, EDA360 Insider discussed the successful tapeout and first-pass silicon success of the SC8800G cellular baseband SoC from Spreadtrum Communications. (See “Spreadtrum achieves first-pass success with 40nm cellular baseband SoC, credits Silicon Realization”) Now, an EETimes article … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, ARM, Cortex-A5, EDA360, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Friday Video: Circuit simulation app for Android. SPICE for $10, runs in your hand? Well, almost.

Posted on December 9, 2011 by sleibson2

Here’s the most unlikely Android app I can imagine: a fully realized circuit simulator created for touch-screen use on Android phones and tablets. How geeky can you get? The $10 app is named EveryCircuit. It was written by Igor Vytyaz … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, Apps, EDA360, Silicon Realization | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Friday Video: Multicore, ARM-powered CubeStormer II solved Rubik’s Cube puzzle in world-beating 4.762 seconds

Posted on November 11, 2011 by sleibson2

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a video of the ARM-powered CubeStormer II, a robotic mechanism constructed from four Lego Mindstorm NXT kits, that’s purpose-built to unscramble Rubik’s Cubes in the minimum amount of time. The CubeStormer II envelops … Continue reading →

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The WORD on ARM’s big.LITTLE Cortex-A15/A7 design philosophy from Jack Ganssle, a leading expert and consultant on embedded design and firmware development

Posted on November 7, 2011 by sleibson2

I’ve written up many bits of wisdom from my friend Jack Ganssle before and his latest Embedded Muse newsletter carries a lead article on the new ARM big.LITTLE design philosophy that teams a high-powered ARM Cortex-A15 processor core with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, ARM, Cortex-A15, Cortex-A7, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

ExtremeTech.com provides some lessons to be learned from the Google Nexus One smartphone’s system-level design and Android 4.0—Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted on October 30, 2011 by sleibson2

Ryan Whitwam at ExtremeTech.com has written another insightful article on System Realization as it relates to the Google Nexus One smartphone’s supposed inability to run Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the latest and soon-to-be-introduced version of the Google Android OS. As … Continue reading →

Posted in 65nm, Android, ARM, EDA360, Ice Cream Sandwich, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

ARM drops Cortex-A7 core on unsuspecting market, devastates low-power SoC and application-processor landscapes. What’s it all mean?

Posted on October 20, 2011 by sleibson2

ARM has just announced the ARM Cortex-A7 processor core for SoC designers and the low-power landscape will never be the same again. Why? Because the Cortex-A7 core implemented in a 28nm process technology is reportedly one fifth the size of … Continue reading →

Posted in 28nm, Android, ARM, Cortex-A15, Cortex-A7, EDA360, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Would you like some ARM Cortex-A15 resources to peruse?

Posted on October 17, 2011 by sleibson2

Thanks to LinkedIn ARM Based Group community manager Stephan Cadene, we’ve got several pointers to useful documents describing many aspects of the ARM Cortex-A15 processor core. This is all in preparation for many discussions of the ARM Cortex-A15 processor taking … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, ARM, Cortex-A15, Ecosystem, EDA360, IP, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Have you considered the Android factor in multi-core SoC processor management?

Posted on October 16, 2011 by sleibson2

Ryan Whitwam over at Extremetech.com has just published an interesting article comparing the system-level power-management approaches taken by the Nvidia Tegra 3 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 ARM-based multicore SoCs. Both of those products have been discussed here at the EDA360 … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, ARM, EDA360, Firmware, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Friday Video: Multi-core ARM CubeStormer II solves Rubik’s Cube in 8 seconds from punching the start button to solved puzzle!

Posted on October 14, 2011 by sleibson2

There’s nothing like throwing a mind-blowing amount of 21st-century technology at a 1970s problem and Rubik’s Cube seems like a popular nerdy problem to solve. I blogged about one Lego-based puzzle-solving robot a few weeks ago and now ARM has … Continue reading →

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Friday Video: Carl Howe and the Android Pirates of Cyberspace

Posted on September 29, 2011 by sleibson2

Yesterday, Carl Howe of the Yankee Group gave a Webinar about Android Pirates. Whazzat? Android pirates in Cyberspace? We’re all familiar with the very real problem of software piracy. We’ll, it’s spread to apps. In fact, the very nature of … Continue reading →

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Friday Video: Fashion-forward, Android-based I’m Watch provides wrist-based touch display for smartphones. Does anyone under 30 still wear a watch?

Posted on September 29, 2011 by sleibson2

Here’s a short 37-second video of a new personal wrist product called the I’m Watch that appears to provide a touch-screen interface to your smartphone. The I’m Watch debuts at next month’s ARM Techcon. Because the watch reportedly runs the … Continue reading →

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Friday video (early): Secrets of the Kindle Fire! EDA360 in action

Posted on September 29, 2011 by sleibson2

Think you can guess how well the Kindle Fire works from the specs? Dual processor. Android. 7-inch screen. Cloud-assisted Amazon Silk Web browser. Think that defines everything? Think you can directly compare the Kindle Fire against the Apple iPad this … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, ARM, Cloud Services, Ecosystem, EDA360, System Realization | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What’s unique about the new $199 Android-based Amazon Kindle Fire tablet?

Posted on September 28, 2011 by sleibson2

Is it the toughened Gorilla-Glass screen? Nope. Is it the dual-core processor? Nope. Is it the “cloud-accelerated” Amazon Silk browser? Nope. Is it the 8-hour battery life? Certainly not. Is it the unified email inbox? Getting warmer. Is it the … Continue reading →

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Friday Video: Why do you need four ARM Cortex-A9 processor cores in a mobile processor SoC?

Posted on September 23, 2011 by sleibson2

Earlier this week, I wrote about the phantom ARM Cortex-A9 in the upcoming Kal-El Tegra mobile processor IC from NVIDIA. (See “Processor Wars: NVIDIA reveals a phantom fifth ARM Cortex-A9 processor core in Kal-El mobile processor IC. Guess why it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, Apps, ARM, EDA360, Honeycomb, Silicon Realization, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Processor Wars: NVIDIA reveals a phantom fifth ARM Cortex-A9 processor core in Kal-El mobile processor IC. Guess why it’s there?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by sleibson2

NVIDIA has extended the path to many-core design by publishing a White Paper that reveals the existence of a fifth ARM Cortex-A9 processor core in the company’s previously discussed Kal-El mobile processor. This fifth processor core implements what the company … Continue reading →

Posted in Android, ARM, EDA360, Honeycomb, IP, Low Power, Silicon Realization, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

CNN reviews Droid Bionic 4G handset: “first 4G home run” thanks to some spectacular System Realization

Posted on September 20, 2011 by sleibson2

Jonathan Geller over on the CNN Web site has just published a review of the new Motorola Droid Bionic 4G cellular handset. There are two paragraphs in this review that really caught my eye: “The Bionic is the first Verizon … Continue reading →

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