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New TI power chips save energy, move towards universal charging
TI isn't just in the business of making ARM-based processors. The company makes all manner of components and chips. Amongst the things in its vast repertoire of silicon are charging controllers. Texas Instruments' latest offering, the UCC28700, not only draws an impressively low sub-30mW when idle (meeting new five-star rating requirements from the European Commission), but does so in a tiny package that eliminates the need for an opto-feedback circuit or other external components. A second new controller, the TPS2511, tackles the problem of multiple chargers by moving to a 5V universal system for tablets and smartphones using the USB Battery Charging 1.2 specification. This could mean not only lower electricity bills (if only nominally so), but smaller wall warts that can be used across numerous devices. For more, check out the PR after the break.
Microsoft to Windows RT OEMs: 'If your name's not on the list, you're not making a tablet'
China Times is reporting that Microsoft is only letting an elite few companies build Windows RT tablets in order to focus its research and development resources. It reportedly asked three chipmakers to pick up to two OEMs to bring inside the tent, with NVIDIA grabbing ASUS and Lenovo, TI snagging Toshiba and Qualcomm selecting Samsung and HP. However, the latter company dropped out of the program to concentrate on x86 machines, so it's rumored that Dell's currently jockeying to take its place. The first wave of completed tablets will arrive on October 26th, and Redmond won't open up the market until January next year -- so expect Windows RT to be the buzz-word of CES 2013.
Kouziro crafts wired-only, 21.5-inch Android 4.0 mega tablet, makes us think it's compensating for something
We're wondering if Kouziro saw the ASUS Transformer AIO and developed a little Freudian envy. That would certainly help explain the company's FT103 tablet, which at 21.5 inches is one of the biggest devices running Android 4.0 without veering into full-size TV territory. If you're having sudden flashbacks to the Toshiba Excite 13 and dreading the thought of lugging around all 11 pounds of this slab, you'll breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Kouziro doesn't make any pretenses surrounding portability: there's no battery, and a kickstand keeps it upright on a desk rather than crushing your lap. The lackluster 1GHz TI OMAP 4428 processor and 8GB of storage certainly won't do much to draw attention, though. All the same, the HDMI input and 1080p screen resolution could make it a very clever secondary display for another device, and the extra-extra-extra-large size lets it stuff in two full USB ports and Ethernet along with the usual front camera and mobile expansion. The late July release in Japan and the ¥34,800 ($437) price aren't outlandish for what's in the box -- just brace yourself for psychoanalysis from friends and family after taking the FT103 home.
Toshiba's Windows 8 RT laptop gets demoed by TI (video)
When Toshiba broke out its Windows 8 RT, Transformer-like tablet at Computex we were quite sad to find it was only a non-functional prototype. Especially since TI was on hand as well, maker of the OMAP processor that will be under the hood. Well, we'll call it a consolation prize, but the Dallas-based chip maker does have a functional version of an ARM laptop that Toshiba will be releasing. The video is more or less the same demo we were given on the OMAP 4470 development tablets -- some swiping between apps and light web browsing. We don't have any new details to share about the touchscreen clamshell device unfortunately, but you can see it in action after the break.
Dausen iPhone pico projector battery case at Computex 2012 (hands-on video)
It's not the first iPhone 4/4S pico projector battery case we've come across here at Engadget, but we spotted this little number at Computex 2012 and just couldn't resist sharing it with you. What makes this accessory a bit more unique is that it incorporates the latest in DLP technology from Texas Instruments. As such, it's capable of projecting a 640x360-pixel image up to 70 inches across with 1000:1 contrast ratio. The 2200mAh battery lasts about 3 hours on a charge an can even top off your iPhone in a pinch. Additional features include a built-in speaker powered by a 0.5W audio amplifier. We spent a few minutes using the pico projector and while it works pretty much as advertised, it clearly struggled with the harsh lighting conditions of the show floor. Stay tuned for pricing and availability, but don't miss our hands-on gallery below and our demo video after the break.%Gallery-157640%
TI demos Windows RT on OMAP 4470 at Computex 2012, we go hands-on (video)
It seems like every ARM chip manufacturer wants a piece of Windows 8 here at Computex 2012 -- and for good reason. Hot on the heels of Asus' Tegra 3-equipped Tablet 600 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4-based development tablet, Texas Instruments is showing Windows RT on its very own OMAP 4470-based system. The 1.5GHz dual-core SoC features a PowerVR SGX544 GPU and leads the competition with a dual-channel memory interface. We chatted with Bill Crean, Product Manager of the OMAP Processor Business Unit who showed us Microsoft's latest OS running on TI's development tablet. The demo looked snappy enough, providing some insight about what to expect from some of Toshiba's upcoming devices. No word yet on a quad-core version. Enjoy our hands-on gallery below and take a peek after the break for our demo video.%Gallery-157638%
TI cuts the cables, backs Miracast as wireless video standard for OMAP platform
It wasn't but a few days ago that the Wi-Fi Alliance announced its certification program for the Miracast wireless display specification. Now, TI has thrown its weight behind the technology with the announcement that future versions of its OMAP processor and WiLink connectivity chip will adhere to Miracast standards. As you'll recall, the Miracast certification program has yet to go into effect -- that'll happen later this summer -- which means for the time being, it's still too early to refer to TI's solution as "Wi-Fi Certified Miracast." Nonetheless, the company's already showing its compatible wares this week at Computex, which currently includes the OMAP 4470 / WiLink 7.0 combo. Naturally, TI also intends to ensure Miracast support as part of its upcoming OMAP 5 / WiLink 8.0 platform. As if you needed yet another reason to be excited for that one. To learn more, you'll find the full PR after the break.
Tips have Acer, ASUS and Toshiba showing Windows 8 tablets at Computex, color us unsurprised
We know Computex will involve nothing less than a deluge of new laptops, but if we believe Bloomberg, it's going to be a Windows 8 tablet-topia as well. Hot on the heels of the Windows 8 Release Preview, it's claimed by the ever-present "people with knowledge of the matter" that Acer, ASUS and Toshiba will all be showing tablets with the new OS at the Taipei show. ASUS will reportedly get the star treatment at Microsoft's keynote and show off Transformer-style Windows 8 tablets that we suspect are hinted at in ASUS' slightly cryptic trailers. Processor loyalties could be split across the wider group, though: ASUS is said to be spreading the love by showing both an Intel-based tablet as well as one using NVIDIA's ARM-powered Tegra line, but Acer's previously rumored tablet is poised to go the Intel-only route, and Toshiba's may exist solely in a TI OMAP-based ARM camp. It's not apparent if anyone else will join the Windows 8 tablet frenzy, although Qualcomm is expected to show yet another Snapdragon-running test device. We'll be on the ground at Computex next week, so you can be sure that we'll give you the full rundown on Windows 8's opening salvo.
Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 makes a splash Stateside, offers a lightweight slice of Android 4.0 for $349
Lenovo has offered few hints (if unsubtle ones) that the IdeaTab S2109 was on the way, but it's now in the US in earnest. As we saw early on, some of the Android 4.0 tablet's specs read like those of an iPad 2, down to the 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 IPS panel, 1.3-pound weight and ever so slightly thicker 8.9mm unibody shell. Lenovo is catering more to the movie-watching set, though: a four-speaker system and 1080p video over micro-HDMI make us see it as a couch-surfer's Netflix machine. We're a bit less enthused with the aging dual-core, 1GHz TI OMAP 4430 inside, but we won't complain about the $349 asking price. If the balance is appealing, both Lenovo and Office Depot will be ready to serve it up in early June.
Meta Watch announces new dev kit with added iOS support, Bluetooth 4.0
Can't wait for the Pebble E-Paper Watch to ship this fall? The Meta Watch developer system that we first saw last year just got a major upgrade, and could serve as an acceptable stand-in for now, with the arrival of both iOS support and Bluetooth 4.0 to the $199 connected wearable. The device includes a 96 x 96-pixel sunlight-viewable LCD, six programmable buttons, an accelerometer, vibrating motor, ambient light sensor and a black or white strap. The developer platform Meta Watch is available through Texas Instruments now for $199. Hit up the source link after the break to make it your own.
Motorola shows three all-touch Android 4.0 phones in China, we see a possible Verizon model
It turns out that Motorola didn't want to wait until the Google deal closed -- or, for that matter, an American launch -- to undertake a significant revamp of its phone line. A quiet Chinese event last week is now known to have brought us three RAZR-derived, all-touch phones for the three carriers in the Asian country: the XT885 for China Unicom (pictured at left), XT889 for China Telecom (center) and MT887 for China Mobile (right). Other than the network types and pretty bits, you're mostly looking at the same device, where the highlight is an official dip into Android 4.0 waters that drops the physical navigation in favor of more Nexusish on-screen keys. Don't expect a revolution in performance over last fall's roster given that they still have 1.2GHz dual-core processors, eight-megapixel rear cameras and 4.3-inch, 540 x 960 displays. The trio arrives in China on June 2nd; Motorola is likely more worried about popping champagne than giving out US launch details right now, but earlier leaks give us a strong hunch that the MT887 could hit Verizon as the uncannily similar (if still very unofficial) Droid Fighter before too long.
Matsunichi's MarquisPad MP977 tablet tempts us with $249, dual-core Android 4.0
You might remember Le Pan's tablets from CES this year, of which only one was truly ready at the time. The company is now ready to hit the US in earnest, but you'll have to forget the company name along with the earlier designs: it's now Matsunichi, and it's planning to kick off its US-ready makeover through the MarquisPad MP977. The tablet shares the 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 display of the Le Pan II, but it's now running a slightly speedier dual-core, 1.2GHz TI chip (likely the same OMAP 4430 as in the Droid Xyboard), ships with Android 4.0 out of the gate and comes in a sleeker -- not to mention browner -- shell. Storage is being cut in half over the Le Pan II to just 4GB between the internal memory and a bundled microSD card, though, and the battery is good for a very modest five hours. Nonetheless, the $249 sticker and a May release will put the MP977 in the running with the slower but more capacious Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. Matsunichi also teased us with a roadmap for a pair of future tablets in the process. The 10.1-inch MP1010 will keep the resolution, but it'll run on a quicker 1.5GHz TI processor and carry a total of 10GB of space when it appears sometime between June and August. If those 0.4 inches of extra glass are just too much to bear, an MP979 will bring all the extra storage and speed of the MP1010 to a 9.7-inch screen sometime between August and September.
HP t410 AIO Smart Zero Client does single-wire Power over Ethernet, no power cord required
Now, we don't normally cover this sort of networking equipment, but we were quite impressed by HP's new t410 All-in-One Smart Zero Client after we spoke to its proud product manager Walt Jurek. First of all, this isn't an AIO desktop PC, nor is it an LCD monitor -- well, if you're unfamiliar with thin clients, just think of this as an 18.5-inch, 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit monitor (featuring a 3M technology for the 200 nit brightness -- our money's on the Uniformity Tape) that uses just one Ethernet cable to get both its 13W power from a PoE (Power over Ethernet) switch, as well as data connection over Citrix, Microsoft or VMWare protocol. The t410 can automatically detect the virtualization environment and then reprogram its digital signal processor when needed, meaning less manual work for the admin (in theory, anyway). More after the break.
Lenovo's IdeaTab S2109 unveiled on YouTube, shows off 8.9mm-thick unibody shell
About a month after we spotted the IdeaTab S2109's FCC document, Lenovo's quietly launched a YouTube video for its 9.7-inch (1,024 x 768 IPS LCD) slate over the weekend. Why so shy? No idea, but what we do know is that on top of the deets we obtained last time, this Android 4.0 device comes in an 8.9mm-thick, gunmetal-finish unibody shell that packs a 1.3-megapixel front camera (yet no back camera), microSD slot, micro-HDMI, micro-USB and 10 hours worth of battery juice. Alas, there's no confirmation on the specific TI OMAP chipset used here, nor does the video indicate when or where we can get hold of this quad-SRS-speaker tablet; but at least it looks like we won't have to deal with any UI customization from Lenovo. For now, enjoy said video clip after the break.
Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 teased by FCC, launching with 9.7-inch display this month?
Lenovo's been hard at work with various Android phones and tablets so far this year, and here's yet another one that's just popped up in FCC's database. Dubbed the IdeaTab S2109 (or S2109A-F, to be specific), we're told by a reliable source that 'tis an Ice Cream Sandwich tablet assembled by Foxconn, and it'll come with a 9.7-inch, 4:3 IPS display (supplied by Chi Mei), a TI OMAP chip and four powerful SRS-ready speakers as featured on the beefy K2010. The above diagram suggests said slate has a microSD slot accessible from the outside, and if you take a closer look at the product label, you'll see that the device requires a whooping 2.5A input at 5V, which means it'll come with a 12.5W adapter -- a lot higher than many tablets' maximum consumption at 10W (including the new iPad) or below. Here's hoping that this is an indication for a faster charge time.As for availability, we heard that this S2109 will launch at some point this month, though our shy friend didn't specify which market it'll debut in -- the FCC document lists Germany, Canada, US, India, Russia, Turkmenistan, Mexico, Chile, Japan and China. If Android on a 4:3 screen sounds like your cup of tea then stay tuned for more news.
iRobot and Texas Instruments announce plans for a future full of OMAP-packing 'bots
iRobot, the Massachusetts-based maker of consumer and battlefield 'bots, announced a team up with TI this week. The partnership, sadly, doesn't mean we'll be seeing an army of autotuned DJ Roombas -- we will, however, likely be getting a slew of "intelligent and practical" robots packing Texas Instruments' multi-core OMAP technology. Remember those words the next time you hurl one through a window or get it to mop up the tiles around your toilet. No word on the nature of the products that will arise from such a deal, but they'll likely continue to do our bidding for a little while longer at least. Check out a minimalistic press release after the break.
Hands-on demo with TI's OMAP5 platform at MWC (video)
It's TI's time to brag. We first met OMAP5 when the company's VP of the OMAP division, Remi El-Ouazzane, unveiled the developer's reference platform on our stage at CES. While there, he boasted OMAP5 as "the greatest platform on Earth right now," but we were given only a few insights into the platform's capabilities. Now, TI is back with a new wave of demos that better show the prowess of OMAP5 -- a system-on-chip design that houses a dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU clocked at just 800MHz, two Cortex-M4 cores for low-power processes, along with a PowerVR SGX 544 GPU that handles 3D compositions, and a number of accelerators such as TI's IVA-HD, which supports both video encoding and decoding and plays 1080p video at a whopping 60fps. We were shown a demo of all these capabilities humming in unison on a 1080p display, along with a complex HTML5 mashup that adds credence to the company's latest benchmark report. Photography geeks should know the system supports up to 14 megapixel cameras, and is able to process ten shots per second at that setting. We're told to expect devices based on the OMAP5 platform by the end of the year, and if you're anything like us, it's going to be one hell of a wait. Hop the break for the demo.
Texas Instruments dual WiFi module lets your tablet connect to your TV and the web simultaneously (hands-on)
Texas Instruments is helping to lead the way when it comes to mobile computing -- when we want an early look at what's to come months and even years down the road, TI is always one of our first stops. At this year's Mobile World Congress, the semiconductor leader wasn't shy about showing off its latest innovations, including those from its manufacturing and design partners. Today's demo focused on wireless video streaming -- a concept that engineers are approaching from every imaginable angle, and that is bound to make its way to consumers in a very big way within the next few years. TI's flavor is based on WiFi, and offers a dual-connection solution, letting you pair a tablet with a TV using peer-to-peer while also creating a second link between the tablet and a wireless router for Internet.We took the tech for a spin using one of TI's development platform tablets and an external WiFi dongle (shipping versions will be integrated), and everything worked as described, though the video stream was noticeably choppy and compressed. TI reps explained that they dialed down the bitrate in order to maintain a connection at the MWC expo hall, which, as you might imagine, probably had a wireless signal density greater than any other room in the world. The tablet we saw was running a very slick context-aware UI that displays one of three home screens based on your current location -- there's one for work (that displays your calendar), one for home (media and home automation controls) and another for travel (restaurant reviews and weather). Pushing content from the tablet to the TV seemed to be seamless, and while both the UI and wireless functionality may appear to be ready to make their way into your home, TI isn't making any announcements about availability. There's no need to wait for a teaser, however, which you'll find just past the break.%Gallery-149212%
Hands-on with wireless, ultrasonic stylus and touchless gestures at MWC (video)
This isn't the first time you've heard of EPOS or XTR, but it's been quite some time since we've checked in with either of the outfits. So, imagine our surprise as we stumbled on new developments from each company as we perused the Texas Instruments booth at MWC. In the case of EPOS, we're shown a stylus that, in addition to offering traditional physical touch input, also allows users to interact with a device via ultrasound. The system is built upon TI's OMAP4 platform and requires that four microphones be placed at the corners of the screen. In this demonstration, we're shown how users can manipulate objects on a 3D plane via the Z-axis by pulling the pen away from the display. Next, we're shown a new application for the touchless gesturing system that XTR first debuted back in 2010. In this scenario, it's demonstrated how tablet owners could use the front-facing camera (at merely QVGA resolution) to flip through pages of a cookbook without worry of getting ingredients on the device. The concept software was developed by a French outfit known as Stonetrip, and also allows users to zoom and pan through the pages. You'll find demonstrations of each technology in a video after the break.
TI reveals more OMAP 5 details at MWC 2012
Well, if our hands-on at CES didn't sell you on TI's next-gen OMAP 5 platform, perhaps some more specs revealed recently at MWC 2012 will. We've known about its dual Cortex-A15 and Cortex-M4 architecture since this time last year, but we didn't know that those M4 cores are there to handle real-time processing of multimedia -- like video encoding and decoding -- which TI claims can provide up to ten percent power savings. Additionally, the company's wunderkind SoC will pack a dual-core PowerVR SGX544 GPU and a dedicated 2D hardware-accelerated composition engine to deliver great graphics and lower power consumption than other mobile silicon solutions. OMAP 5 also comes with a multi-tasking image signal processor that can use up to four image sensors at the same time, or take 1080p 60fps video while snapping 12-megapixel stills simultaneously. So, you ready for a super-speedy OMAP 5 chip in your next smartphone yet? Those who are still skeptical can peruse the PR after the break for a full rundown of its considerable capabilities.
