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]

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.

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!

Last week we got a few tid-bits of information on where Nokia is heading with its next round of Internet Tablets and now we're learning a little bit more courtesy of a spy shot taken at the company's Maemo Summit (held over the weekend in fabulous Berlin). The 3G HSPA connectivity and a TI OMAP3 processor mentioned earlier are confirmed, the latter of which will open the door to OpenGL ES 2.0 compatibility for graphics acceleration and, hopefully, alleviate the occasionally stuttery video playback that made the N810 a somewhat less than ideal PMP. Beyond that all we know so far is that it will utilize the company's Maemo 5 OS (Windows 3.1 is right out), will support USB 2.0 (surprise!), and that use of hair-care products at the Summit was apparently optional.

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.

It's not terribly uncommon to see a manufacturer try to push a product (or platform) into every crevice of your life, and it seems that Texas Instruments is diverting quite sharply from its calculatorish ways of old and making an aggressive push to get that DLP logo slapped on everything you own. While we've seen (literally) the diminutive Microvision display do its thang here at CES, TI is hoping to steal that thunder away by talking up its forthcoming palm-sized DLP projectors. The "fully featured" Pocket Projectors, which are co-developed by OMAP, would weigh "less than one pound," use the .55 DLP chip, and could purportedly connect to handsets or PDAs to beam up that big(ger) screen imagery for a crowd to see. Unfortunately for TI, these devices are not (at least initially) supposed to be integrated units, which could easily get overlooked if those built-in alternatives can muster acceptable quality. Additionally, TI is hoping to get that DLP logo stamped on your brain even when you visit the cinema, as the company now has its technology in 3,000 theaters worldwide and is frequently throwing logo-clad splash screens onto the canvas during pre-show advertisements. So if you wonder why you're strangely drawn to the DLP sets during your next HDTV shopping trip, trust us, it's not the mirrors, it's the marketing.

[Via AboutProjectors]