Underground SIG-Labs

From drain to gain

Mobile phone today is not solely a communication medium, but rather become smarter in handling multi-tasking activities than just talk to your friends. Not only time scheduler, notes and push mail but now people getting more advance in making their computer applications go to mobile. As the need to connected always has been greatly become important (to link to facebook, myspace…), WIFI is among the best options they have to fulfilled such need.

However, the biggest problem is on cell phone battery life. Even a simple changes to the software running on Wi-Fi access points could significantly extend or even double cell phone battery life. That’s the finding of a study that investigated why using Wi-Fi on a cell phone, and on some other portable devices, sucks up power so quickly. It found that a protocol designed to reduce Wi-Fi power drain often doesn’t work effectively.

Recently, Nokia says it’s developing technology that could draw enough power from ambient radio waves to keep a cell-phone handset topped up

Ambient electromagnetic radiation–emitted from Wi-Fi transmitters, cell-phone antennas, TV masts, and other sources–could be converted into enough electrical current to keep a battery topped up, says Markku Rouvala, a researcher from the Nokia Research Centre, in Cambridge, U.K. Rouvala says that his group is working towards a prototype that could harvest up to 50 milliwatts of power–enough to slowly recharge a phone that is switched off. He says current prototypes can harvest 3 to 5 milliwatts.

The Nokia device will work on the same principles as a crystal radio set or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag: by converting electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal. This requires two passive circuits. “Even if you are only getting microwatts, you can still harvest energy, provided your circuit is not using more power than it’s receiving,” Rouvala says.

To increase the amount of power that can be harvested and the range at which it works, Nokia is focusing on harvesting many different frequencies. “It needs a wideband receiver,” says Rouvala, to capture signals from between 500 megahertz and 10 gigahertz–a range that encompasses many different radio communication signals. Historically, energy-harvesting technologies have only been found in niche markets, powering wireless sensors and RFID tags in particular. If Nokia’s claims stand up, then it could push energy harvesting into mainstream consumer devices.

Wow….this would be a great achievement if the ‘power through wireless’ can be done. But what happen when the guy is using his VOIP service while charging his mobile ‘on air’. Will it drain his brain? will the electromagnetic conversion endanger human brain?

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Tags: Nokia, power through wireless, RFID, VoIP

How ARM will impact Intel market

The hard battle between Intel and AMD seems to be long way to go. While Intel clearly has the upper hand in client processors and AMD is playing catch-up, there is another battle brewing for PC processors, particularly in notebooks. Here, we will discuss about the battle for the “secondary” processor and how this battle will not pit Intel against AMD, but rather, x86 architecture against ARM. And it’s not looking good for x86.

Dell and lenovo have come out with the “instant” laptop, which has capability to instantly access mail, calender, web without full boot up of the machine. They run a version of the Firefox browser for Web surfing and provides direct connection to Exchange, GroupWise or IMAP/POP3 e-mail systems through direct memory access. Also included is a dedicated document viewer for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files, dedicated Wi-Fi and a VPN for secure connectivity. In essence, what Dell has done with Latitude ON is provide an embedded “smartphone-lite” device that uses the main screen, keyboard, power and memory systems.

What makes the Dell and Lenovo approach interesting is that first, they utilize low-cost, low-power, ARM-based chips adapted from the smartphone industry. Second, they provide dedicated-function processing. And third, each subsystem is capable of being functionally extended, possibly even by third parties through a future API to include additional convenience and protection capabilities.

It is safe to assume that other manufacturers will follow suit and provide coprocessor subsystem in business and higher-end consumer machines—particularly as prices for ARM chips continue to fall. It is also highly likely that additional functionality will be added over time.

Finally, it is apparent that neither Windows nor x86 will be the preferred platforms utilized by these coprocessor subsystems—at least until x86 can match the low cost and low power of ARM (potentially with future Atom chips).

The bottom line: With the potential of one or more coprocessors per PC, ARM has a lucrative path in which to infiltrate the PC market—a market it has never impacted. While it’s unlikely that ARM will displace x86 for the core processor anytime soon, it nevertheless gives ARM a large potential market of many millions of units—a fact not lost on ARM licensees (for example, Texas Instruments, Freescale, Qualcomm and Samsung).

However, the coprocessing subsystems potentially offer another point of machine failure and/or instability, especially in corporate settings where consistency, security and device management is critical. Companies should be careful when and how to deploy these coprocessor-enabled systems until they prove their worth.

source : www.eweek.com

Tags: AMD, arm, arm processor, Dell, intel, lenovo

Android 2.2 for Samsung Galaxy

Around last year, we have heard about a great venture between Samsung, ARM, IBM, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments having together created Linaro, a not-for-profit company focused on supporting the development of open-source products for devices powered by ARM’s chip designs. Along with Android, other open-source ventures such as LiMo, MeeGo, Ubuntu and WebOS stand to profit from the project, which could help unify a fragmented Linux mobile operating system market.

And today, users of Samsung’s popular Linux powered smartphone, the Galaxy S, can now install the latest version of Android thanks to a leaked ROM.

The Galaxy S is becoming one of the best selling smartphones ever, with Samsung managing to shift tens of thousands of the devices every day. It’s been reported that the company has managed to flog more than half a million units to South Koreans in just a month. Not surprisingly, users are looking forward to getting Android 2.2 installed. The leaked ROM shows that Samsung is well on its way to updating the phone to the latest version of Android.

Though the Galaxy S ships with Android 2.1, which was released in January, Android 2.2 offers among many other features the ability to run Adobe’s Flash software. This added functionality combined with performance upgrades has had users clamouring for updates.

Tags: android 2.2, linux smartphone, samsung galaxy

Iphone 4 has got trouble. Can somebody help?

Iphone 4 has come with the latest design and features from its IOS version 4. Claim to have the most remarkable 960 x 640 resolution in 3.5″ display, the text and graphic will be unbelievably clearer and sharper. However, some users have recently been shouting about some issues with Iphone 4, and the hottest is about its signal loss antenna. Engadget has forwarded the issues straight to the Apple on the reception issue, and the answer is a little bit surprising.

In essence, Apple cops to the fact there are reception issues with the new iPhone — namely, that if you cover the bottom-left corner of the phone and bridge the gap between the notch there with your naked flesh, you could see some signal degradation. Yes, you read that right: it’s not a software or production issue, simply a matter of the physical location of your hand in regards to the phone’s antenna. The company’s suggested fix? Move your hand position, or get a case which covers that part of the phone, thus breaking contact. As you can see in the email above which just arrived in our tip box, this is a sentiment which runs pretty high at the company. Here’s the official statement:

Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

We know what you’re thinking, and we’re thinking it too: this sounds crazy. Essentially, Apple is saying that the problem is how you hold your phone, and that the solution is to change that habit, or buy one of their cases. Admittedly, this isn’t a problem that exists only for the iPhone 4 — we’ve seen reports of the same behavior on previous generations (the 3G and 3GS), and there is a running thread about this problem with the Nexus One. While it is definitely true that interference is an unavoidable problem, we can’t help feeling like this is really a bit of bad design. If the only answer is to move your hand, why didn’t Apple just move the antenna position? What we can say without question is that in our testing of the phone, we had improved reception and fewer dropped calls than we experienced with the last generation, and we never noticed this issue. Additionally, when using a bumper we can’t recreate the signal loss. So, now we have an answer… all we’re wondering is whether or not the company will start handing out bumpers pro-bono to those who are experiencing problems. It certainly seems like the right thing to do.

Tags: antenna problem on Iphone 4, iphone 4 bad reception, iphone 4 problem, N900 beat iphone 4

Cisco introduces home energy touch-controller

Cisco has recently launched their new smart gadget to control home energy usage to maximize its efficiency. it is a 7-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive touch screen. Running Ubuntu Linux for MID on a 1.1GHz Intel Atom chip, the Home Energy Controller connects to smart thermostats and appliances over 802.11n WiFi or gigabit ethernet using protocols including ZigBee. It then lets you keep tabs on your electricity usage, and suggests ways you could improve — assuming you’re using the tablet for its intended purpose instead of watching hardware-accelerated videos on Mediafly, browsing the included app store, or (potentially) using it as a phone of some sort

Tags: cisco, cisco energy controller, cisco gadget, cisco tablet

Beware! World Cup fever is coming tonight

Whether you wanna believe it or not, the world cup fever is coming all over the wolrd, tonight. Everybody will get burn by excitement adn stressfulness.

With the 2010 World Cup set to kick off in South Africa tonight (Asian time), football fever has started spreading across Malaysia like an epidemic. In villages, schools, shops, offices or city, the main topic of discussion is the World Cup even though the Malaysian team is not one of the 32 finalists.

The excitement, which started two months ago, has reached fever pitch as the opening match between hosts South Africa and Mexico draws closer.In the capital, restaurants, mamak stalls, bistros, pubs, hotels, shopping complexes, petrol stations and clubs have all joined the bandwagon, with various campaigns to add to the excitement.Big screens have mushroomed at various locations as entertainment outlets clamour to offer their patrons the best choice of viewership.

For me, emmm…I got a big show in Badminton during SUKUM (Inter-versity tuornament) until 27th, and I am just a miderate fan of Brazil. Hope they can win and if not, means they are stupid enough and not fit enough for the game…hehehhe

Tags: brazil football, football, South Africa world cup, world cup

Iphone 4 to start Mobile video convergence

Everybody is very exciting when Apple has recently launched their latest machine, Iphone 4 at WorldWide Developer Conference 2010 (WWDC). The latest Iphone model is being loaded with owesome features like multitasking (capable to open more than one application at one time) and mostly capability to handle video call or video chat. Not only with video call capability ,  the latest model is powered by Retina Display, the 960 X 640 backlit LCD display boasts a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, making it the highest-resolution phone screen ever. To achieve this, Apple engineers developed pixels so small — a mere 78 micrometers across — that the human eye can’t distinguish individual pixels. That makes text remarkably sharp and graphics incredibly vivid. IPS technology also provides excellent color and contrast from almost any viewing angle.

The most significant outcome is that Apple is focusing attention on the iPhone 4’s video calling capabilities, apparently making “the dream of video calling a reality”. In typical Cupertino fashion, this conveniently overlooks the fact that video calling has been a reality for a long time. The front end camera with 5 Mega-pixel resolution is capable of shooting 720p30 HD video. Video Call can be made from Iphone to Iphone through WIFI, yet still not capable to deal with skype.

Another important improvements is the A4 processor the iPhone 4 now shares with the iPad. While Apple was happy to declare the 1GHz clock speed of the iPad, it has been less forthcoming with the iPhone 4, and it’s very possible the chip has been downclocked somewhat to conserve battery life. Either way, the chip itself is a tighter package that uses less power while running faster than the processor in the 3GS, and that’s always a good thing.

Wait the sec. Just heard that Nokia says about their new N920. The new N920 / RX-57 will have OMAP 4440 processor, which means they have capability to support 1080p30 with HDMI 1.3, yet will eat up battery life (hope they can increase battery also). The processor  versions are dual core SMP enabled ARM Cortex A9 processors on a 45-nm die. Both OMAP processors have dedicated graphics cores to off load the encode/decode of various video codecs and APIs like OpenGL, which (IMHO) makes the OMAP processor the best choice for the computing devices in this category. Are they really real? Are all High Definition (HD) for Iphone 4 and/or N920 just for real? Will you experience the same as what you with get with 32″ HD TV? just with small screen and try to make video call, not only local processing is required, but also compression method to transfer video from one the another. Yet pretty much depending on the Link (WIFI or 3G) reliability.

Tags: Apple, iphone 4, iphone 4G, Iphone HD, N920, Nokia

Foxconn Mini Tablet powered by Android and Nvidia

Somebody publish the prototype for the above Foxconn-manufactured, Tegra 2-powered Android prototype, and we’ll be honest — it was awfully sweet. There wasn’t much going on beyond some gaming action — we didn’t see it boot into standard Android — though it was running the 3D football title you see above at a pretty healthy clip (check out the video after the break). NVIDIA reps weren’t very keen on sharing info about the device, though we can tell you that it’s apparently got 1GB of RAM inside cuddled up to that 1GHz ARM Cortex 9 CPU, a front-facing camera, and the WSVGA screen measures 8.9-inches (it’s also a much wider aspect ratio than something like the iPad). We’re going to hold any judgment till we see this thing cooking with a full UI, but we’re not knocking it — get this in at the right price, and we’ll likely be first in line.

Tags: android, android tablet, AndroidTablet, fox, foxconn tablet, FoxconnTablet, google io, Google IO 2010, GoogleIo, GoogleIo2010, hands-on, tablet, video

Can webbook beat netbook?

With the ermergence of a new era, so called ” all connected”, a necessity of mobile hardware to get us connected to each other is now a must for everybody. The existance of Netbook gives us a new paradigm shift towards the usability of mobile component especially to more lightweight application and inter-network communication mostly. As the people`s connectivity growth and get faster information and yet with simple usage, the new line of mobile hardware has been formed the serve the purpose, a webbook. Products like Lilt and Ipad are examples of webbook. The Webbook normally runs via next-generation operating system, which is known as a completely browser-based Operating System, like similar to Palm’s WebOS, ChromeOS but even more to the letter.

In my mind, I started referring to ChromeOS (as yet unannounced, hardware-wise) and the Litl computer as “webbooks”. They’re not really a netbook, the way we think of netbooks today, and they’re certainly not tablets. “Webbook” seems fitting, if admittedly not a great name.

The iPad, out of all announced and existing devices I can think of, reminds me most of the ChromeOS netbook (concept) and the Litl, except better. For one, the iPad drives a lot of its value through the built-in Safari web browser, which means that it is capable of doing many of the same things ChromeOS and Litl do. Unlike the two of them, it lacks Flash but it compensates that tremendously by being so much more than just a browser-based OS: it is the iPhone OS on steroids, and with more potential (and much more powerful hardware). Apart of that, Nokia seems never give up on their new Maemo and Meego OS, which defenitely will become the most portable linux device that run under Qt UI (refer to my N900…..heheheheheh).

Nique

Tags: ChromeOS, Ipad, iphone, Lilt, N900, netbook, Webbook

SHARP to come out with laptop alike ISO1

After Nokia claimed to have the most laptop features device, N900, Sony Experia try to beat them with their new Sony Xperia X10 with full 4-inch display and running under Android 1.6. The most interesting part is that The Xperia is running under snapdragon 1.0GHz processor, which is the fastest in the market so far ( so what!!!!! I already overclocked my N900 to 900 MHZ and running smmothly with multiple hardcore linux application, much more chilled)…However due to touch screen only capability, it still being considered as a smartphone.

A 5-inch IS01 handheld from Sharp running Android 1.6 on a Snapdragon processor and measuring 83 × 149 × 17.9mm and 227g might be considered as almost laptop alike PDA. While it looks like the classic Japanese eDictionary, the IS01 is meant to be used as a general purpose MID with a 5-row QWERTY, Sharp-built “New Mobile ASV” multi-touch capacitive display pushing a 960 x 480 pixel resolution and a 5.27 megapixel auto focus camera on back with a 0.43 megapixel jobbie up front for video calls. Rounding out the specs are 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, microSD slot, 1Seg mobile TV tuner, IrDA, 4GB of internal storage, and Qualcomm 3G CDMA data and where is GSM/CDMA voice ?????????????

Even if the device run even with 2.24 GHz processor but with slumpy OS , it is still a junk. Andorid is a beautiful OS but still a little part of Linux and not as a whole. Thats why I still refer to Maemo or even Meego (advanced with Qt UI).

Tags: Maemo, meego, MID, nokia N900, Sharp ISO1, snapdragon, Sony Xperia X10