Qualcomm CEO Jacobs reveals Chrome OS deal, color e-ink-like display
In his company's first-ever keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show Friday morning, Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs made a kind of prediction that appears, given his position, to inevitably become a self-fulfilling prophecy: As consumer electronics devices throughout the home, mobile space, and workplace become endowed with systems-on-a-chip that are based on wireless phone reference designs, almost everything with an on-switch will inevitably become, at its core -- whether it's used for that purpose or not -- a telephone.
"Those same chips that we put...into the cell phone, those chips are now going to go into the consumer electronics devices themselves," Jacobs told attendees. "So we believe that consumer electronics devices are essentially going to be phones inside. I mean, they'll look different, right? Different shapes, different sensors, different buttons, a little different software. Fundamentally, inside though, they're going to be cell phones, I think. And it's Qualcomm that's helping to drive that innovation."
Yahoo: After years of struggling, IPTV is becoming a reality
For five years, Yahoo has been eying the TV screen as a potential platform. Now, after securing partnerships with all of the top TV makers and IP-based content providers, Yahoo has made its Widget Developer Kit publicly available.
The app store gold rush can now be extended to the TV, and fully IP-based television doesn't look that far away.
The hurdles facing Intel's 'AppUp' app store for Moblin and Windows netbooks
The phrase, "There's an app for that," has helped the Apple iPhone become one of the most popular smart phones in the world by making it easier for consumers to download applications, widgets, and gadgets. "The number of apps users can download, free or for a fee, has become a major selling point for mobile devices," said The Wall Street Journal. "Companies that lack an app marketplace, such as Palm Inc., have suffered for it."
"The opening of Apple Inc.'s App Store in 2007 was the catalyst that had the greatest effect on smartphone sales," said Money Morning. "Instead of just a phone with a few widgets like a Web browser and a music player, phones became remote controls, compasses, newspapers and cookbooks."
Three post-CES goals for Microsoft
This weekend, following the Consumer Electronics Show 2010, is when Microsoft executives should reassess the company's New Year's resolutions and reevaluate marketing and product development strategies. CES hasn't been particularly great for Microsoft, although it wasn't terrible either. Windows 7 Mobile was, once again, largely a no show. CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote failed to dazzle with exciting new products. Still, Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher for Microsoft Research, offered real vision discussing natural user interfaces. NUI is a great marketing concept, too.
I suggest three goals Microsoft should set for the next six months, until the end of fiscal 2010 on June 30 (I originally planned five but decided the post would be too long). They are presented in no order of importance.
CES 2010 The Story So Far: 'I'm a PC' is in jeopardy
If you're a 2.0 GHz quad-core notebook PC running Windows 7, the place you do not want to be showing yourself right now is the Consumer Electronics Show. Like any other year, CES is about platform evolution, sometimes revolution. Where the most concepts evolve is where the action revolves, and this year it's around the growing confidence that manufacturers have finally found a small form factor they can invest in and make money on.
Netbooks, throughout their brief history, have been cheap, rubber-stamp PCs. That won't be the case for very long, as both Intel and Qualcomm now have argued strong cases in favor of multicore connectivity devices with limited, though functional, computing power for the consumer. There will be strong competition in this field, with Intel's Atom head-to-head in the consumer space against Qualcomm's Snapdragon, and with OEMs everywhere testing both brands and favoring neither over the other at this early stage.
What makes these platforms lucrative is that OEMs can keep their handle on them after the devices are sold. This will especially be the case for netbooks running Google's Android and Intel's Moblin flavors of Linux. During his evening keynote yesterday, Intel's Paul Otellini demonstrated the developmental state of Moblin by way of its app store, which Intel is calling "AppUp." OEMs will be able to put their own flavor on these stores, however; so Dell, for instance, will have a different storefront from HP, even though many of the same apps will be available both places.
Qualcomm's multicore Snapdragon will battle Intel's Atom using AMD's factory
It may be the biggest partnership win outside of AMD that Global Foundries -- the new company managing AMD's former fabrication facilities -- may ever have, or need to have, and it will be the talk of CES in just a few hours: Qualcomm has signed an agreement to be Global Foundries next big customer, with plans to produce smartphone and smartbook components at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany this year.
Fab 1 is AMD's former Fab 36 -- the main production facility for AMD's 45 nm quad-core CPUs, which Global Foundries produces for AMD today. It's one of the crown jewel facilities for fabricating multicore chips anywhere in the world, now being fitted for the high-k-plus-metal-gate process developed with IBM. With Global Foundries producing Snapdragon chips for Qualcomm -- as its CEO, Dr. Paul Jacobs, will likely make official during a CES keynote later this afternoon -- Qualcomm may not just go toe-to-toe against Intel's Atom both qualitatively and quantitatively, but may even have a leg up.
CES 2010: The 'chicken or egg' question of mobile user interfaces
With the growing popularity of Android, we're seeing a rapid increase in the emphasis that major mobile device makers put on their own branded user interfaces. Two years ago, Samsung showed the big effect a really polished UI can have with the introduction of its TouchWiz UI on Windows Mobile 6.1. Last year, companies such as LG, HTC, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung all unveiled new UIs that appeared on dozens of new devices.
Now, in the first weeks of calendar 2010, LG's S-Class UI can be found on most of its major smartphones. LG's S-Class UI appears on a majority of its smartphones, HTC is developing its Sense atop three mobile platforms, Sony Ericsson continues to make waves with "Rachael," and Motorola has introduced its second MotoBLUR device in what is expected to be a long line of them.
CES 2010: Femtocell gadgets on their way to wireless households
Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile USA have all announced femtocell services, and so have Vodafone in the UK and China Telecom, according to a panel of experts in the femtocell space.
In fact, although femtos aren't yet seeing widespread use in the US, by January of last year, Sprint had already introduced a home femto device called the Airave, while Verizon had unveiled the Network Extender and AT&T had rolled out the 3G Microcell.
Windows Mobile 7 damage report: Mixed assessments on the CES no-show
So what did you think of the Windows Mobile 7 sneak preview that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer slipped into his CES keynote last night?
Oh. That's right. There wasn't one.
Among the fuss about hyperconnected TVs, a look at the hyperconnected remote
To paraphrase the old aphorism: "If you want to make money in a gold rush, invest in shovels."
I frequently cite this saying when looking at the consumer electronics industry, because that's often how you find the next ten million-selling device, or the next hot company that could be your boss.
CES 2010 Intel CEO Otellini: Intel to enter apps market on netbooks with 'AppUp"
Today, Intel CEO Paul Otellini is absolutely not expected to come to the keynote stage at CES 2010 empty-handed. Already this morning, the company launched its GPU-on-a-die "Westmere" architecture 32 nm CPUs, with graphics processors sandwiched right in. Windows 7 computers from Toshiba and others with Westmere processors went on sale nationwide this morning.
And we're also likely to hear a lot about Intel's next generation Atom processor and platform, and see some of the small computers and devices that utilize it. Atom's greatest competition in recent days comes not from AMD but from Qualcomm, whose Snapdragon platform powers Lenovo's newest Linux-based "smartbook," the Skylight.
Palm opens up its webOS developer platform to catch up with Android
Palm's webOS was introduced at CES last year at this time, and it literally stole the show; in fact, this year, no other single product has yet generated the buzz of the Pre and webOS. But Android caught up extremely fast, and only very recently, with a surge in development activity during the latter part of 2009 coinciding with the release of Android 2.0-capable smartphones.
Now with webOS phones coming to the Verizon Wireless network with the "Plus" moniker tacked on ("Plus" meaning for some folks, "not Sprint"), Palm is acting as fast as it can to bring back developer momentum. Today at CES, in an announcement timed to coincide with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus releases, Palm announced it's changing the terms of its webOS developer program. Starting now, developers who intend to distribute their apps on the Palm webOS Catalog using an open source license will have their $99 registration fees waived. One developers' page called this a "limited time" offer.
Netflix makes more inroads in digital delivery; Will Blockbuster ever catch up?
In another blow to embattled video store retailer Blockbuster, Netflix announced at CES this week agreements with five global consumer electronics devices to introduce Netflix-ready devices later this year. The partners include Funai -- which distributes the Philips, Magnavox, Sylvania and Emerson brands in the United States -- Panasonic, Sanyo, Sharp and Toshiba. Each company will introduce Blu-ray disc players or digital televisions that can stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the home.
For $8.99 a month, consumers can watch unlimited Netflix content delivered to Netflix-ready devices -- and both the amount of content and the number of devices are increasing.
Intel risks 'bundling' graphics processor with new Core 32 nm CPUs
We've seen integrated graphics from Intel for several years, integrated into the chipsets of value-priced desktop and notebook PCs. Intel's 3D rendering capability has never been superior to that of discrete GPUs such as Nvidia's or ATI's but it's never had to be. But today, adhering to a plan set out by Intel in September 2008, that integration moves one step further, moving the company's 45 nm iGFX graphics processor onto the same die along with the 32 nm Core processor.
That means integrated graphics is not just for motherboards any more. Using the high-k-plus-metal-gate lithography process breakthrough announced in January 2007, which premiered during the previous 45 nm "Nehalem" generation, Intel's new "Westmere" generation CPUs for Core i3, i5, and i7 will feature a graphics processor clocked as high as 900 MHz -- essentially the same one used in Intel's previous integrated graphics chipsets.
Palm announces Pre Plus, Pixi Plus coming to Verizon on January 25
Palm didn't have a radical new device to show off at CES 2010, but the company did unveil improvements to its Pre and Pixi models, giving both phones the "Plus" moniker. The upgrades will be coming to Verizon -- not Sprint -- on January 25, but pricing was not disclosed by the company.
The Palm Pre Plus comes with double the internal memory of the original, bringing storage to 16GB. The "Home" button on the front of the device was removed, and comes standard with the induction charger. Pre fans looking to upgrade will be pleased with the improved keyboard on the Plus, along with a more snappy sliding mechanism.
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