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Acer Iconia M500 runs MeeGo on an Atom CPU, coming at the end of this year (hands-on video!)
Acer's David Lee just hijacked Intel's netbooks and tablets Computex keynote to unveil a brand new 10-inch tablet: the Iconia M500. It's the first in the company's new M Series and runs MeeGo atop an Atom (Moorestown) processor. Its appearance and dimensions are strikingly similar to the company's Android tablet, the A500, and that similarity extends to the resolution of the screen as well: 1280 x 800. The MeeGo interface is a custom Acer skin offering what was described as a "snackable UI." The point seems to be to offer instant access to the things you care about, and the brief demo we saw featured a set of live widgets organized around an "Acer circle." Mr. Lee, an Assistant Vice President with the company, tells us Acer's new 10-incher will be on sale at (not by, sadly) the end of this year. Update: We've just added a gallery of hands-on shots below and you'll find video of the M500 after the break. %Gallery-124964%
Aava Mobile reportedly set to reveal Medfield-based Android / MeeGo phone at MWC
Eager for a way to forget about Moorestown? We wouldn't be shocked if Intel was in the same camp, and if this here rumor pans out, it could be Medfield acting as the amnesia at Mobile World Congress. If you'll recall, Intel briefly showed off a Medfield-based phone late last month, and now we're hearing that Aava Mobile -- the same company responsible for a WoW-crunching Moorestown demonstration at Computex -- is poised to release a real stunner in Barcelona. Slashgear has it on good authority that Aava's second-generation Core design will be officially rolled out in a matter of days, complete with Intel Inside, an 8.9mm-thick chassis, Android and MeeGo. You read correctly -- both mobile operating systems will be supported. It's said that Aava doesn't actually plan on hawking these to consumers; instead, they'll be shuttled off to developers in order to promote its integrated ACPU and modem platform. Hard to say if the shell we'll (hopefully) see at MWC will remain final, but you can bet we'll be digging for more once the show floor opens.
Nokia N9 to bust loose with MeeGo on Intel Atom power?
Nokia has to do something big if it wants to crack the US smartphone market. We can agree on that, right? And believe us, Nokia wants this -- nothing will make the mighty Finns (and the company's global investors) prouder than to gain some traction in the home of Apple pie and Google desserts. So how will the company do it? With Symbian? Oh, hell no. By introducing another MeToo handset? Nope, with MeeGo on a rockin' platform like the rumored N9 slider pictured above. Nokia announced its hardware plans for Maemo 6 a long time ago. At that time, the company was clear that it would continue using TI OMAP processors. Much has changed since then, however. In addition to several key leadership changes including a new Canadian-born CEO who spent much of his time working in the US, Nokia has joined Intel to roll up Maemo 6 and Moblin into MeeGo with Nokia's first Maemo 6 MeeGo/Harmattan handset pushed into 2011. Simultaneously, Intel has also been doing its best to show its new Moorestown platform as a powerful ARM alternative, even showing off MeeGo handsets exploiting a Lincroft SoC and Atom processor core. And Intel has said that Medfield-based smartphones (Moorestown's successor) would arrive in the middle of 2011. So why the build-up? Well, we've just been tipped to a claim by Prosessori, a respected Finnish technology magazine, that the Nokia N9 will launch with a 1.2GHz Atom processor. Better yet, it could be unveiled as soon as Mobile World Congress in February, presumably during Stephen Elop's keynote. Do we believe it? Not entirely, but it is possible given the chain of events that have taken place. And you can bet that the first commercially available Intel smartphone with a brand new Nokia user experience would certainly grab headlines in the US and around the world. Something that should translate into high-end market share (and profits) if it's as "exciting" as Elop claims. [Thanks, Janne]
Intel's Otellini says 35 Atom-based tablets coming in 2011, but smartphones get pushed back (again)
It's been a long, hard road for Intel in the mobile space, but it looks like things are about to get brighter: speaking at the Barclay's Capital Global Technology Conference today, CEO Paul Otellini said that some 35 Moorestown tablets running a mix of Windows, Android, and MeeGo would arrive in 2011. (No wonder the company just formed a tablet and netbook division.) What's more, he provided a handy chart showing the OS breakdown by vendor: Toshiba, Dell, Fujitsu are going Windows-only, while Asus and Lenovo are building both Windows and Android products, and Acer's going straight MeeGo. (Remember, Acer's using AMD in its Windows tablet.) That's pretty much right on schedule, and we'd expect to see several of these at CES, but not all the news is so rosy: Otellini also said that Medfield-based smartphones won't arrive until "mid-2011," which is a bit of a delay from the "first half of 2011" we'd been told in June. Sure, it doesn't sound like the end of the world, but ARM-based competitors like Qualcomm, TI, and NVIDIA continue to push ever farther ahead with multicore designs, and Intel can't very well catch up with delayed parts. Then again, if Intel can really deliver the performance and efficiency it's been promising it might not matter -- we'll see what CES has in store.
MeeGo 1.1 spotted running on Moorestown hardware, blowing minds
Love application launchers? Application switching? Open source software running on non-commercial hardware? You're going to love this video. MeeGo 1.1 has been spotted on Aava-built, Intel Moorestown-powered hardware. It appears, in fact, to be that Virta 2 smartphone development kit of theirs (which already managed MeeGo 1 just fine), thought it's a little hard to tell in the dim lighting the MeeGo event coordinators chose to set the mood for Linux love. Not a ton of the OS is shown off in the video above, but there are some nice transitions and smooth scrolling. That Firefox load time has miles to go, however. Mainly we're just excited to see something that isn't ARM running a next-gen smartphone OS (no offense, ARM), and we're looking forward to seeing where MeeGo lands on the Android / webOS / guy-in-garage continuum of Linux-based smartphones.
Gemtek's Moorestown tablet comes with a DECT phone, runs MeeGo and controls your home
OpenPeak brought us one of the first Atom-based tabletphones at IDF 2008, but it may have passed on the torch in more ways than one -- this year, it's Gemtek's turn to show off a Moorestown machine with Linux on board that shares a host of design cues. Who-copied-whoms aside, we have to say the "IP Media Phone" is a mildly intriguing device, combining a DECT cordless handset with a 7-inch MeeGo tablet, the latter ready for both VoIP and video chat thanks to an integrated webcam and mic, and has full home automation controls thanks to 4Home software and a built-in Z-Wave radio. 802.11 b/g/n WiFi connects it to the base station / charging dock, which has room for two USB ports, an ethernet jack, and an SD card slot, while the tablet itself features mini-HDMI, mini-USB and a headset adapter plus an SD card of its own. Though the glossy fingerprint magnet of a capacitive touchscreen left much to be desired, laggy to respond to our press, we were told the tabletphone's an early prototype with wholly unfinished hardware. If history's any indication, expect to see the final form thoroughly rebranded when it likely arrives in the first half of next year. %Gallery-102383%
Keepin' it real fake: TESO LPAD runs 'MeGoo' or 'Andriod' on Moorestown
Chinese company TESO has an unrequited love for all things Apple. Not that it cares, we're sure it's doing just fine on the grey market with its KIRFy Cupertino crafts. But maybe it's time for this Shenzhen cloner to go mainstream with what's purported to be a 9.7-inch tablet running "MeGoo" (a MeeGo typo, certainly) or "Andriod2.2" (that'd be Froyo) OSes on a 14-mm thick LPAD powered by Intel's newest 1.9GHz Z600-series Moorestown processor. Of course, it's a hell of a lot easier to list specs on paper than it is to ship highly spec'd product. And given TESO's inability to correctly copy the names of its choosen operating systems onto a sheet of paper, what hope is there of it cloning the user experience of a class-leading tablet?
Aava Mobile reveals Virta 2 smartphone development kit, we go hands-on
When we met with Finnish startup Aava Mobile today, they pulled out the same old prototype phone... then, to our great surprise, dropped a brand-new device right alongside to show us how their Moorestown-based ambitions have grown. This is the Virta 2 reference design, which will ship to developers soon, with the same basic hardware inside but a few important tweaks. First of all, you'll note that's MeeGo on this screen, not the droid we were looking for, but that's because the development kit can switch between operating systems by merely swapping out the microSD card. Whereas the original prototype had a thin, flimsy shell, the Virta 2's gone downright rugged, ditching the iPhone chrome for a more durable gunmetal frame, and there's a full compliment of sensors (compass, accelerometer, ambient light and proximity) alongside quad-band radios, WiFi, Bluetooth and a pair of cameras for your video chat testing needs. At €1900 (roughly $2393) per unit, the dev handset isn't exactly cheap, but where else are you going to get an Atom Z600 to play around with? Devices ship late August or early September, and Aava expects the platform (but not this exact handset) to see commercial availability next year. Find preorders at our source link, if you've got the bankroll. %Gallery-97354%
Developers to get native x86 version of Android 2.2 this summer?
We knew that Intel had designs on Android for its Moorestown CPU, and as you might have guessed, the company's plans don't stop there. Renee James, a Senior VP at Intel, recently said as much in a conversation with APC. Apparently, devs can look forward to seeing a fully native x86 version of Froyo at some point this summer. James goes on to say that "all of the code will be fed back into the open branch that will be created for x86." Awesome! Perhaps 2011 will see a yet another flood of generic, Atom-powered Android tablets. Because we don't see enough generic Android tablets as it is.
NPad tablet shown off in China, running MeeGo
Red Flag Software's just shown off a custom MeeGo tablet that's China-bound. Though we don't have any images of the unit yet, we know that the NPad be a Moorestown-powered, 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet that "looks like" the iPad, and it'll boast WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, and GPS. The company also says that it'll be cheaper than the iPad, so there's that!
Nokia 7- or 9-inch MeeGo tablet rumored to be running ARM (not Moorestown) in Q4
While DigiTimes has been known to get a rumor correct now and again, its success rate falls off dramatically when dealing with companies HQ'd outside of its native Taiwan. Keep that in mind when you hear it discuss a Nokia tablet with either a 7- or 9-inch screen. DigiTimes, speaking with "upstream component makers," claims that the Foxconn manufactured device -- of which, about 100 engineering samples have already been produced -- will be ARM-based with a Q4 launch targeted. If true (and that's a big IF) then it would certainly be running the MeeGo OS (that's a Quanta-built prototype above) when it ships. Of course, DigiTimes has been rumoring an ARM-based smartbook from Nokia due in mid 2010 for almost a year. And guess what? It's mid 2010, with smartbooks/netbooks now out of style and tablets all the rage. Thing is, we'd have thought that Nokia would be more likely to opt for Intel's Moorestown in support of their partnership given the Q4 timing. But hey, it's just rumor, let's not get too carried away.
Aava Mobile's Intel Moorestown prototype plays World of Warcraft beautifully (video)
Intel has managed to make Moorestown-based phones do an awful lot of things on stage. Multitask, scale photos sans lag, and automatically correct your grammar before it comes out of your mouth. But believe it or not, one thing we haven't seen the Aava Mobile-built reference design do is play the full PC version of World of Warcraft and / or Quake III (from within Moblin) for over an hour on a full charge. Well, until this week's Computex event. Peek a couple of videos just past the break if you're in disbelief, and trust us when we say that it had no issues keep the frames flowing at a comfortable clip. The future is bright, people.
Engadget Podcast 199 - 06.04.2010
Conferences. Trade shows. Exotic locales. Special guests. Tablets. Fish legs. Tablets. Fish balls. Tablets. You know the drill.Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul MillerGuests: Joanna Stern, Darren MurphProducer: Trent WolbeMusic: Boys Don't CryHear the podcast00:02:38 - Engadget dines at Taipei's Windows 7-themed restaurant (video)00:06:05 - Windows 7 tablet roundup from Computex, nay Tabletex00:07:03 - Microsoft's Guggenheimer dismisses Android on tablets as 'an experiment'00:09:05 - Microsoft reveals Windows Embedded Compact 7 at Computex, hosts heaps of tablets00:10:40 - Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 explained, trial download now available00:12:10 - Microsoft: Windows Phone 7 not planned to hit tablets, Courier was always a concept00:13:00 - NVIDIA CEO says Android is an OS to 'unite behind,' will be better tailored to tablets this Fall00:13:40 - Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 tablet prototype preview00:14:20 - Samsung Galaxy Tab revealed00:17:10 - MeeGo Moorestown-powered tablet preview00:18:40 - Pixel Qi introduces tablet-ready screens, we go hands-on (video)00:23:40 - Exclusive: LG UX10 tablet preview at Computex00:39:46 - Intel demos Android 2.1 on Moorestown smartphone (video)00:41:45 - Qualcomm ships first dual-core Snapdragon chipsets clocking 1.2GHz00:45:47 - Labor practice protest goes down at Computex, Steve Jobs called an 'OEM profit bloodsucker'00:54:40 - Steve Jobs live from D801:02:57 - Steve Jobs' D8 interview: the video highlights (updated)01:03:38 - Steve Jobs on Foxconn: 'We're all over this'01:05:52 - Steve Jobs on lost iPhone 4G prototype: it's an 'amazing' story01:14:45 - Steve Jobs on TV: 'no one wants to buy a box'01:24:55 - Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie live from D801:25:06 - Jobs: The PC is a truck. Ballmer: There's a reason they're called 'Mac' trucks.01:27:00 - Steve Ballmer at D8: the video highlights (updated)01:38:38 - Kno dual-screen tablet appears at D8, we go hands-onSubscribe to the podcast[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.[RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator.[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune MarketplaceDownload the podcastLISTEN (MP3)LISTEN (AAC)LISTEN (OGG)Contact the podcast1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget
Aava Virta Android reference platform will be the first shipping Moorestown smartphone
Sure, Intel might not be planning for Moorestown-based smartphones to hit the market for at least another six months, and the LG GW990 might have died a quiet death, but that's not stopping Aava from getting right in the game with its Virta Android, an Atom Z600-based reference smartphone designed for developer testing. Slated to ship in Q3, the Virta features a Moorestown processor, a 3.8-inch 864 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, quad-band EDGE radios with AT&T 3G support, WiFi, Bluetooth, a five megapixel video camera, and a microSD slot. We're assuming the shipping version will look a lot like the prototype Aava device we've been seeing for a while now, but Aava has some fancier renders up on its site, so we'll see what happens and how much this costs when this thing arrives.
Intel Moorestown tablets will arrive before smartphones, won't hit for at least six months
Digging all the Moorestown tablets and phones we've been seeing at Computex? Yeah, us too, but it looks like we're still going to be waiting a considerable amount of time for them to hit the market. According to Intel's Anand Chandrasekher, the first Moorestown devices won't pop up for at least six to twelve more months. That may be after the end of 2010 mark we had heard before, but let's hope Intel is using the time to get things just right. Anand also said that the first Moorestown products will be tablets rather than smartphones, the latter arriving sometime in the first half of 2011 -- not too surprising given handset manufacturers' history of designing and optimizing around ARM silicon and the fact that the smartphone flavor of the Intel-friendly MeeGo OS is still in development.
Intel demos Android 2.1 on Moorestown smartphone (video)
Intel's barking up all kinds of trees (ones planted by Qualcomm, NVIDIA and ARM) with its Moorestown Atom platform, and while it'll be quite some time before we see an Atom Inside sticker gracing the face of a smartphone, the company's making sure the world sees what it has ramped up so far with reference builds here in Taipei. Aava Mobile was kind enough to build a number of prototypes for Intel to showcase at Computex, and while the vast majority were running Moblin, a couple were humming along with Android 2.1 underneath. We were able to get our hands around one here at the show, and while performance seemed decent enough, it certainly didn't floor us any more than a 1GHz Snapdragon has in the past. Granted, we weren't able to seriously tax it due to having no internet connection and no pre-loaded HD multimedia, but casual users probably won't notice a significant boost in screen transitions. Don't take our word for it, though -- jump on past the break for a video of Intel doing Eclair. %Gallery-94152%
MeeGo Moorestown-powered tablet preview
We saw a lot of new technology demoed at Intel's Computex keynote this afternoon, but the most impressive thing may have just been MeeGo running on a 10-inch Moorestown Quanta Redvale tablet. While the demo on stage was very brief, we caught up with some of the product managers right after the presser and convinced them to give us a peek at what is coming in 2011. To say we're impressed with the "pre-alpha" version of the software is a huge understatement. So, what are you still doing up here? Hit the gallery for a ton of hands-on shots and then that read more button for some impressions and video. %Gallery-94041% %Gallery-94039%
NVIDIA: Intel's Moorestown is like an elephant on a diet, iPad set bar too low
Leave it to NVIDIA to kick off the week with some good old Intel trash talking. Let's start with the company's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, who when asked if the Atom Z6 processor could be competitive, quickly responded with a "not possible." Why? Well, if you ask him, "you could give an elephant a diet but it's still an elephant." He called out the Z6's x86 roots and being behind Tegra in wattage -- he claims it will be years before they can reach the power levels of the ARM based chip. That's certainly an interesting analogy, but NVIDIA product director Bill Henry also has a way with words. When talking about Tegra versus Atom in tablets at the Netbook Summit, he said Intel was trying to put the power of a dump truck into a Tonka toy. Oh, but the strikes weren't only at Intel -- Henry added that the "iPad set the bar too low" and cited the typical lack of Flash and inability to handle 1080p video shortcomings of Apple's tablet. That all sounds good and well, NVIDIA, but it's time to stop talking and start showing some real Tegra 2 phones and tablets.
Intel's Atom Z6xx series isn't targeting Windows Phone 7, but 'full Windows experience' still an Atom priority
As many times as Intel has tried and failed to shoehorn its way into the phone arena, you'd think it'd want to pimp as many notable platforms as it possibly could -- but strangely, Windows Phone 7 is notably absent from Intel's fact sheet on the just-announced, smartphone-focused Z6xx series of Atom cores. Instead, the wording of the paperwork clearly spells out that Android and MeeGo / Moblin are the focal points right now, which is leading everyone to wonder whether Intel's looking to steer clear of Microsoft's mobile strategy altogether. Granted, Microsoft's focus is clearly on ARM right now with its Qualcomm partnership having been announced back in February, but we're sure it wouldn't take too much pressure from Intel to get an x86 build of Windows Phone out there if these guys really wanted to play ball. We reached out to Intel to get some clarification on the issue and got this in response: "Intel's goal is to ensure we offer our customers a choice of software that runs best on our processors. Yesterday's announcement was focused on Linux OSs, however our strategy is to also support a full Windows experience on Atom as we do with Menlow, Intel's first generation atom chip for mobile devices and Pinetrail, Intel's chip family for netbooks. Stay tuned." What's getting us here is Intel's seemingly careful phrasing: "full Windows experience on Atom." Does that mean that Intel wants to keep Atom up in the Windows 7 end of the horsepower spectrum and avoid Windows Phone for the foreseeable future? It seems like a tough sell to say that Android is playing in an entirely different ballpark than Windows Phone is, and we're not sure that Intel can effectively argue that distinction -- but hey, with the Z6xx series' iffy power consumption stats, maybe it's for the best. [Thanks, R2V2]
Intel reaches for the 'smartphone zone' with Moorestown-based Atom Z6, comes up shorthanded
We've seen the future of Intel's mobile platform, and it isn't all roses and sunshine. Three years after the chipmaker told us Moorestown would reduce Atom's energy consumption by a factor of 20, company execs told us earlier today that they've more than reached that goal with the new Z6xx series. Problem is, in the smartphone realm Intel's competitors haven't been sitting idle; according to one of Chipzilla's cantaloupe-and-magenta bar charts, it seems the company has merely caught up in terms of battery life. That's not to say the chips aren't worlds better than previous Atoms -- Intel sees 1.5GHz smartphone processors that slay Snapdragons and up to 1.9GHz in a tablet PC variety -- but 5 hours of web browsing is most decidedly not the 24 hours of productivity Intel previously promised. Besides, who knows: Qualcomm also has a 1.5GHz SoC in the works, though it may not be available by the time Intel's chips ship in the second half of the year. None of this is to say that Intel won't continue to dominate in the netbook marketplace -- we shudder to think at the potential when combining a nice, chunky battery with Intel's nearly leakproof new chips, and perhaps a small serving of switchable graphics while we're at it. But without a single new MID or smartphone to show us this morning -- Aava Mobile and OpenPeak's offerings seemed unchanged from our previous encounters -- we're not sure if the company's other mobile ambitions have any sway. Not technical enough of a discussion for you? Peruse our gallery for the nitty-gritty. %Gallery-92318%
