Hardware video acceleration is a sore subject for quite a few cellphone fans these days, but it looks like Samsung's next generation of mobile processor will speed up graphics directly by integrating a hardware video accelerator. The 65nm S3C6410 processor is based on a 667MHz ARM core but adds in 3D graphics acceleration and hardware support for H.264 and MPEG4, as well as other codecs. The chip is powerful enough to record and play VGA-res video at the same time, which Samsung says will enable higher-quality video conferencing while saving battery life -- that's what we like to hear. There's no word on when or where we might see this bad boy pop up, but with support for Linux, WinMo, and Symbian, as well as architecture support for various types of DRAM and flash memory, we'd guess there might be a few interested suitors.

According to Reuters, chipmaker ARM has plans to show off an Android-based "Google Phone" prototype at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The news agency is citing a "source" for this information, and both Google and ARM declined to comment, as if reading from some sort of industry script, though we're seeing and hearing a lot of buzz from MWC on new tech, so this would come as no surprise. Come on guys, we don't mind if the OS is still a little buggy... show us some hardware.

Apparently somewhere along the way Dean Kamen's robo-prosthestesis came to be called the Luke arm (care to guess why?), and according to the IEEE Spectrum blog, it's gearing up to undergo Food and Drug Administration trials pending DARPA's final thumbs-up, which would put the project in motion. Be sure to check out the rest of the profile of the arm's development, which is well worth the read.

Boston Globe reporter Scott Kirsner got a chance to go behind the scenes with DARPA's much publicized robotic arm, designed by a team led by Dean Kamen. The video includes an interview with Dean, along with some footage of the arm itself, including a symbolic handshake between the reporter and humanity's future destroyer (or if not, the ancestor of humanity's future destroyer.) Anyway, the video offers some interesting insight into the development of what could eventually be a truly bionic arm: check it out after the break.

As ARM continues its quest to become the record holder for partnerships created in one month, now we're seeing that the firm is getting cozy with Intel. Apparently, the duo is looking to instill ARM's TrustZone technology into mobiles, PDAs, set-top-boxes or other devices running "open operating systems such as Symbian OS, Linux and Windows CE." Essentially, the process involves wedding ARM's security solutions with Intel's Authenticated Memory, which purportedly "provides a solution that is stronger than either technology working independently," and moreover, the combination of technologies "can help reduce SoC cost." For the geeks who dig this stuff, feel free to hit the read link for a way-too-detailed eight page PDF. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via TheInquirer]

Just after Symbian announced that its future operating systems would support ARM SMP multicore technology, ARM has teamed up with six others to collaborate on a Linux Mobile Computing platform. More specifically, the firm has joined with Marvell, MontaVista, Movial, Mozilla, Samsung and Texas Instruments in order to develop a "Linux-based open source platform for next-generation mobile applications." Reportedly, the platform will eventually be released into the open source community, and it hopes to move swiftly in getting the goods into "Connected Mobile Computing (CMC) devices." And if you're wondering when you can get your hands dirty with it, ARM is hoping to release a full platform early next year and have equipped devices on shelves by early 2009.

[Via jkkmobile]

Ever so shortly after hearing that next-generation cellphones could boast some pretty powerful onboard graphics processing, Symbian has just announced that these same phones could support the ARM Symmetric Multi-processor (SMP) architecture. The firm has inked a deal with ARM that will enable future versions of the Symbian OS to support ARM SMP multicore technology, which is said to offer "exceptional multicore performance for media-rich applications along with the power efficiency required to continue to deliver industry leading battery life." Apparently, the two are looking to stuff the newly unveiled ARM Cortex A9 multicore processor into Symbian-based smartphones by 2010, so unfortunately, we've got a few years left to wait before this goes commercial.

Yeah, we've seen some pretty fancy robotic arm work already this year, but Festo is out to show 'em all up with its fluidic muscle-packin' Airic's_arm. This robotic prosthesis sports a "bone structure" which mimics that found on a real live human, and can be moved via the 30 "muscles" built within. Essentially, Festo's approach to movement relies on "an elastomer tube reinforced by aramid fibers, which contract quickly and exert a pulling force when they're filled with a blast of compressed air or liquid." Of course, you'll notice it doesn't offer quite the same range as less bionic alternatives, but this thing's pretty accurate, indeed. Check it out for yourself, the video's right down there.

[Via DesignNews]
Read - Festo's Airic's_arm
Read - Video of Airic's_arm in action

Looks like today's morning's firmware leak turned up some well hidden details about the iPhone's hardware engine -- and also confirming some reports we'd previously received. From what we can tell, it looks like the iPhone's got a 620MHz ARM chip running under the hood. Specifics:

• ARM1176JZF chip with TrustZone (enables trusted computing environment for media, apps, network, OS, etc. -- very bad for hackers)
• Can vary in clock speed up to 700MHz or more, depending on implementation (thanks, Nigma)
  
• ARM Intelligent Energy Manager (claimed to reduce power consumption 25-50% in portables)
• 16K / 16K cache
• Features vector floating point coprocessor ("for embedded 3D-graphics")
• ARM Jazelle enabled for embedded Java execution (hmm...)
• SIMD, high perf integer CPU (8-stage pipeline, 675 Dhrystone, 2.1 MIPS)
• 0.45 mW/MHz power draw (with cache)

Whatever it is Apple's got that thing doing, they're doing it right. Thus far our iPhone battery life tests have far exceeded expectations (more on that soon).

Update: Sascha at Gear Log seems to think given the recently discovered Samsung chip in the iPhone, perhaps the processor in question is a Samsung S3C6400, a recently-produced 667MHz ARM1176JZF-based CPU that seems to fit the bill.

While you'd heard the whispers of a robotic prosthetic arm being crafted by Dean Kamen and his engineering colleagues, very little details have since surfaced on the project. Thankfully, a video was captured during a recent conference in Honolulu, Hawaii where Dean was addressing the FIRST Robotics competition. During the speech, however, he segued (ahem) into a brief glimpse at what's been going on behind the scenes with the device. Shown as "Gen X - Separate Exo Control," the robotic arm was seen demonstrated by team members grasping a water bottle from a friend, picking up an ink pen and turning the wrist over in order to write, and even scratching his nose. Kamen explained that haptic response was paramount, and the "fully completed" prototype sports 14 degrees of freedom (and actuators) and weighs less than nine pounds. Click on through for the captured demonstration.

[Via BoingBoing]

Perhaps its the extra lovin' Philips has given to stylings here, but somehow that extendable screen arm doesn't seem like as much of a gimmick this time around. The new X200 ultraportable sports a 1.73GHz Core Duo U2500 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 100GB HDD, DVD combo drive, 1.3 megapixel webcam and Windows Vista. The 12.1-inches of widescreen LCD probably aren't enough to get in the way of regular tray table use -- a favorite example of extenda-arm proponents -- but at least you won't have to do as much hunkering in front of this laptop when it's on your desk, thanks to the extra inches of vertical. The laptop looks to be shipping now in the UK for £850, about $1,700 US.

[Via PClaunches]

We've been hearing rumblings of inventor extraordinaire Dean Kamen's latest project: building a next-gen robotic prosthesis for soldiers wounded in the war. Details are still light, but apparently initial prototypes have been fabbed, and at TED Dean showed off an early video of the arm in action, performing such precise actions as picking up a pen and scratching a nose. Apparently it weighs six pounds, but we're sorely lacking information on this thing right now -- like whether or not you'll be able to install gyro-wheels and balance yourself -- so watch out for what some are hoping will be the new Cadillac of limb prosthetics in the coming months.

Texas Instruments demonstrated its first processor to enable high definition (720p) playback on mobile phones yesterday at 3GSM World Congress. The OMAP3430, first announced last year, is the first in TI's series of OMAP 3 processors and also first to include support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics standard for 3D acceleration. The 3430 gets the muscle to move your HD files and 3D gaming from its embedded ARM Cortex-A8 processor, but from the specs it seems that the video portion is only currently supporting up to 1024 x 768 (XGA) output via composite or S-video connections. Still, with this power available, sometime in the future your common cellphone will be playing back HD on the go or outputting video to a big screen HDTV. We previously expected to see handsets based on the technology this year, but while TI is shipping samples of the processors now, don't expect your HD-capable cell to hit stores until early 2008.

Chinese DAP manufacturer Meizu has seen quite a lot of interest in its M6 MiniPlayer -- so much so that it recently became available Stateside -- and now word on the street (and by street, we mean overseas internet forums) has the company poised to release an updated version. At this point details are still very sketchy -- all the more so because of the nature of machine translation -- but from what we can tell, the upcoming M8 will sport a 533MHz Samsung ARM processor, 2.6-inch VGA screen (compared to the M6's 2.4-inch QVGA display), and the latest Windows CE OS, but not, unfortunately, memory card support nor a user-replaceable battery. There's also no word yet on what capacities this model will come in, though we've heard rumors that Meizu is trying to break through the 4GB ceiling of the original MiniPlayer. That's all we've got for now, and please bear in mind, the pic you see above is simply one fan's fantasy and probably won't bear much of a resemblance to the final product.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

We love the idea of having GPS and PMP functionality in the same gadget, and when we see one of these devices with a 7-inch widescreen we certainly sit up and take notice, but unfortunately we'll need to make some friends in Korea if we ever hope to install the Inkel Widetouch W-7.0 from Etronics in our ride. Without any detailed specs on this upcoming model, we're going to assume that it's very similar to the ARM-powered Widetouch 5.6 we spotted last month, as both units also offer an optional DMB tuner to complement the media playback and navigation features. As usual, no word on pricing or release dates for this piece, but since the DMB-equipped 5.6 was going for around $600, we can safely assume that a similarly-configured 7-incher will cost at least a hundred bucks more. Keep reading to see just how fun it is to roll around with one of these in your Mercedes...