Always Innovating has stopped innovating for a moment and started production. Its transformer of a netbook/tablet called the Touch Book is now rolling off manufacturing lines on track for shipments starting next month. Anyone who has pre-ordered already will be happy to know that the prices we spied in April are still in effect, meaning $299 for the tablet itself, while the clip-on keyboard comes in at $99 extra. For that price you get an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 touchscreen, a USB 802.11 b/g/n adapter, Bluetooth, a TI OMAP3430 OMAP3530 processor, and 512MB of memory split evenly between RAM and NAND, plus a further 8GB of storage on an SD card. Not exactly a screamer, but performance running Linux (the only OS available) should be reasonably snappy, and we're curious to see what enterprising coders will do with its internal accelerometer. It does look a little like a knob-free Etch A Sketch...

Update: As Kaa pointed out in the comments, we were off by 100 on the CPU revision. It's an OMAP3530, not 3430.

[Thanks, Jeff]

This is quite possibly a better Vaio P... you know, if it actually worked. This non-functional stunner of a prototype is sitting pretty at Computex, an event where OEMs (like Sony, HP, and Dell) shop from the latest ODM (like Foxconn and Compal) designs before tweaking for retail launch. Instead of taking chances with Vista overpowering an Intel Atom processor, however, the ECS T800 on display at Computex is destined to run Android on your choice of 800MHz OMAP3 3440 or 1GHz OMAP3 3450 TI processors. It measures in at 246 x 121 x 20-mm / 800-grams (1.76-pounds) and packs an 8.1-inch display, 512MB of memory, a 2.5-inch hard disk or SSD, and a pair of internal Mini-PCIe slots for WWAN cards. Regarding ports, we're looking at 2x USB 2.0, a 4-in-1 card reader, and an audio jack for your headset. Hey ODMs, we're interested (even if the case for Android on a netbook hasn't been clearly defined) especially if it can be offered for $99 or less through a subsidized carrier agreement. So who's going to bite first, huh? Maybe you Dell now that your Mini 9 netbook has been discontinued. Video after the break.

Netbooks and digital picture frames aren't the only new territory Google's Android can be found exploring. ISB Corp is tinkering with the platform as a way of powering a set-top box. A reference board powered by TI's OMAP 3530 processor was on display last week, strutting its video playback and web browsing capabilities at the 12th Embedded Systems Expo in Tokyo, and there the company said it was in the process of optimizing the software for a smooth HD video experience. It's also reportedly demonstrating support for wireless keyboards and Bluetooth. Frankly, we haven't been 100 percent sold on a lot of these Android implementations, but there's definitely potential here. Hopefully we can get some more glimpses of it in the not too distant future.

This one's a bit of a stretch but totally plausible. Archos just announced a press conference in Paris on June 11th -- that's a fact. However, the choice of Android-green in the invite above has caused widespread speculation that we'll be getting a first peep at Archos' heavily rumored Android-based device. Remember, TI was kind enough to give us the full specs on a 10-mm thin Archos Internet Media Tablet "with all the functionalities of a premium smartphone" back in February. At that time, TI listed specs like a 5-inch high-resolution screen, Adobe Flash support, TV recording, HD playback, 500GB of storage, 7 hours of video playback off battery, voice and HSUPA data radio all powered by a smokin' OMAP3440 processor from TI. If true then we can expect to see the device hinted at in the invite launch in Q3.

[Via SlashGear, thanks Chris]

Read -- Archos Press event
Read -- Archos Internet Media Tablet [February 9th, 2009]

Ready for some more delicious Zune / Windows Mobile rumors after today's June Zune letdown? Well buckle up -- the always-sharp Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet says she's got specs for Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, the heart of that rumored "Pink" smartphone, and they're pretty wild. According to the list, Chassis 1 phones will all have 3.5-inch or larger multitouch displays with ARM v6+ processors and OpenGL ES 2.0-compatible graphics hardware, 256MB or more of RAM and 1GB or more of storage, as well as at least a 3 megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, a compass, and accelerometer. Oh, and glory be -- a 3.5mm headphone jack is required. Here's the kicker, though: NVIDIA's Tegra platform is specifically listed as meeting the core CPU requirements, as well as TI's OMAP 3 platform and "Qualcomm 8k," which sounds to us like Snapdragon's QSD8xxx-series chips. If you've been following along, you know that all three of these (Tegra in particular) have been bandied about as potential Microsoft phone platforms, so it makes perfect sense to us that Microsoft's giving its hardware partners a choice of currently-available high-powered platforms for Chassis 1 -- especially since we've been hearing lots of whispers of hardware based on these chips in the works.

Here's the thing, though: we've also always been told that "Pink" is the codename for Zune software and services on Windows Mobile, so something tells us that Chassis 1 phones running Windows Mobile 7 will feature a strong dose of Zune flavoring -- a plan Steve Ballmer's repeatedly confirmed in the past year. So how do we think this all fits together? Well, we'll slightly revise our previous totally crazy, off-the-wall prediction: we think "Pink" is the codename for a new consumer-focused version of Windows Mobile that integrates Zune services, running not only on a touchscreen Zune HD, but on several third-party phones. Are we crazy? Yes, absolutely -- but you've got to admit the pieces are coming together.

We've seen ZigBee wireless functionality showing up in everything from remote controls to robots, but apparently that was all just the beginning. The Alliance has announced plans to expand its low-power standards to support Internet Protocol, a move that member-company Texas Instruments is apparently quite pleased about -- perhaps seeing an opportunity to make up some of those declining sales in the mobile phone area. IP connectivity in all sorts of random devices should open the door for plenty of exciting and new-fangled connectivity options, all of which can only mean one thing: dung beetle MMO.

Here's a murky report flushed from the bowels of rumor-dom that's sure to get investors into a tizzy as information and misinformation spreads. The Commercial Times, with its hit-or-miss record of rumor mongering is reporting that Compal Communications, "will be forced to postpone its shipments of smartphones to Palm from mid-year to the end of the year." It goes on to say that,

"Palm's two smartphones will be delayed as Compal is waiting for Qualcomm's new chipset solutions that will enable better performance."

Now, before you panic, keep a few things in mind. First, the article never specifically mentions the Pre which Palm has emphatically stated (just 3 days ago) is on track for launch in the first half of 2009. Also, DigiTimes which is re-reporting the rumor from the original Chinese-language source claimed last week that Chi Mei, not Compal, was doing the Pre assembly. Also note that Palm has stated that the Pre uses a TI OMAP processor making the Qualcomm quote a bit dubious. Our take? This rumor's bunk, at least as it applies to the Pre. We'll be getting a statement from Palm just as soon as they awake.

[Thanks, Herman M.]

Update: Palm just followed up with us on this, stating that there is "No change in our previously announced plan to have the Pre available in the first half of 2009." Phew!

This economic crisis has been tough for nearly every business worldwide, perhaps best evidenced by the number of corporate spats we've seen develop lately as everyone gets more and more protective of their respective turfs. While Intel and NVIDIA have lately been engaged in an epic war of PowerPoint presentations, fewer disputes have been bigger or longer-running than the one between Intel and its more direct competition, AMD. That "us inside" company just earned some bragging rights, being named the biggest processor manufacturer in the world again by iSuppli, with a 13.1 percent global market share. AMD, which came in tenth last year, dropped down to the number twelve position in 2008 after its revenue declined 7.8 percent compared to 2007. News was also bad for Texas Instruments, which dropped a position largely thanks to the success of mobile processors from Toshiba and Qualcomm. Don't be so glum, TI, maybe successes from Russell Crowe's favorite flavor of pico projector will make up for the difference.

Remember that GP1 pico projector that was quietly announced alongside a slew of others at CES this year? Apparently it's sporting the P1 moniker in Europe, which is infinitely confusing given that BenQ used to have a PJ that looked mighty similar to this one, and yeah, it too was called the P1. At any rate, the GP1 you see here is BenQ's first ever LED beamer, and with it will come an 858 x 600 native resolution, 100 ANSI lumens, 2,000:1 contrast ratio, an integrated USB reader, TI's DLP technology and a lamp life of 20,000 hours. It should be out in Germany by April, but we're still expecting it here in the US next month for a lofty $599.

Okay, an Android RAZR would have been amazing, but sadly Motorola didn't announce anything at all at MWC, so our dreams are on hold for the moment. In fact, day three was bereft of any major announcements, but there was some action: Telstra boss Sol Trujillo's prototype HTC handset running Windows Mobile 6.5 was pickpocketed, we played with a few real Android prototypes, and we even saw Windows Mobile hacked into compatibility with a capacitive touchscreen. What else did we learn?

The Engadget Spanish team just got their hands on the Samsung Show (the European, i7410 model) projector phone that we first caught a sneak peek of a CES. The Show's projector is powered by Texas Instruments' DLP pico technology, and though the fact that it packs a projector does increase the bulkiness of the phone as far as looks are concerned, the phone is still rather small and light. The Show can project an image of anywhere from five to fifty inches, with a 480 x 320 resolution. It's got a 3.2-inch WQVGA touchscreen, the TouchWiz UI and also boasts a 5 megapixel camera. There are plans for this bad dude to hit Asia and Europe (but no word on if it'll ever make its way to North America), but we still haven't heard when, nor how much it'll cost when it arrives. Check the video after the break.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

We were really impressed with Texas Instruments' OMAP 3-based mobile development platform when we saw it running Android earlier today, and the hardware seems to hold up well to all sorts of video-accelerated magic for a multitude of Linux-based interfaces. Not so much with Windows Mobile 6.5. Granted, this is a very early build of the OS according to Microsoft, and is lacking all sorts optimization mojo that will go into the final product due end-of-year-ish, but at the same time this is basically an interface skin to Windows Mobile 6 that Microsoft has had nearly a year to work on since 6.1, and it's not exaggerating to say that performance is a complete joke at the moment. TI's OMAP 3 was clearly struggling to handle basic scrolling of the home screen and app menu, though "smoothness" was slightly improved in scrolling through a gallery of photos. TI has been working with 6.5 for "a few months," and claims to have added optimizations to interface performance -- and interestingly is running this on a capacitive touchscreen device, something that isn't officially supported as far as we're aware. They're also saying that they plan on achieving full smoothness by the time this launches, but there's really a long way to go, and it's difficult to understand why this seems to be a last priority for Microsoft at the moment. On the other hand, TI is doing great things with its own 3D-accelerated interface, something which Windows Mobile 6.5 brings support for, so perhaps these will all one day (soon) meet in the middle and give us the sort of interface smoothness and usability we'd expect on a phone built a decade into this century. Check out the painful videos after the break.

We just got a great look at the potential of Android on Texas Instruments' new Zoom OMAP34x-II Mobile Development Platform, a sort of sexy cousin to Compulab's exeda. The OMAP3430-powered unit is being built by Logic and is meant for software developers to work on the OMAP3 chipset, but it's actually a pretty neat "device" in its own right, with a 4.1-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen LCD, HDMI out, all sorts of connectivity, 16GB of storage, an SD card slot, large QWERTY keypad and an 8 megapixel camera. There's also a debug board with Ethernet, USB plugs and some other technical stuff. For $1150 developers can pick up a WiFi-only unit, and $1399 buys you a 3G unit -- consumers can buy 'em too, and we can imagine certain enthusiasts wouldn't mind the cost for what basically amounts to the ultimate Android device. The unit runs other flavors of Linux, but we're really in it for the Android, especially thanks to that screen. Wind River has been doing development on Android for a while, contributing to the original source code as part of the OHA, and one of its developers even ported Android to OpenMoko. They've got a refined Android interface running on the Zoom, which includes a tabbed application browser, fancier widgets and a spruced up unlock screen. They wouldn't consider what they're doing a skin or a port, but it's exactly the type of stuff that device manufacturers will be looking for to differentiate their Android-powered handset. Video of all the magic is after the break.

Right around this time last year, Texas Instruments was busy showing off its OMAP 3 platform, which enabled 720p playback from a mobile phone. At this year's MWC, we've got a real live handset recording 720p, and TI upping the ante once more with a chip that handles 1080p. For those still with us after being blasted with resolutions, the predictably titled OMAP 4 aims to bring 1080p support, 20 megapixel imaging and "approximately a week of audio play time" to mobiles and MIDs that house it. Granted, TI also calls this stuff "future-proof," so don't believe it's totally incapable of uttering some pretty outlandish stuff. At the heart of the platform is a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 chip, a programmable multimedia engine based on TI's C64x DSP and a POWERVR SGX540 graphics engine. We're told that it'll play nice with Linux variants such as Android and LiMo, Symbian and Windows Mobile, though it'll have to be mighty impressive to outgun NVIDIA's Tegra. Battle on, we say.

[Via Linux Devices]