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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Chromium OS gets ported to Raspberry Pi

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/chromium-os-gets-ported-to-raspberry-pi/

DNP Chromium OS gets ported to Raspberry Pi

Hexxeh has already proven his love for Chromium OS and the Raspberry Pi, obviously the next step was for the hacker to combine his passions into one project. Thus was born Chromium OS for the tiny ARM-powered computer from the UK. The initial commit of the port was officially approved by the Chromium team, meaning that anyone lucky enough to get their mitts on the board can download the code themselves. Of course, there's a long road to hoe before we see a stable version -- if we ever see such a thing. Right now the OS does little more than boot up, but if the embedded version of Chromium can be made to function without issue it could make browsing the web on the Broadcom SOC-sporting PC much less painful. Then again, performance is a big question mark. Seeing how much the 700MHz ARM11 chip struggled with the Midori browser, we wouldn't hold our breath for miracles. Then again, the underlying system is far less demanding than a full fledged Linux distro with a desktop. Hit up the source link to download Chromium OS for the Raspberry Pi yourself.

Chromium OS gets ported to Raspberry Pi originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Project Moonshot take two: HP's low-power Gemini servers let go of ARM's Calxeda for Intel's Centerton

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/project-moonshot-take-two-hps-low-power-gemini-servers-let-go/

Last we'd heard of HP's Project Moonshot, that effort to create low-energy servers was set to ride on the back of the Calxeda SoC. But for the rollout of its production-ready "Gemini" models, the company's changed tack, replacing the previously announced ARM chips for Intel's Centerton. Why the sudden swap? Well, it seems that new Atom processor delivers the same energy-sipping promise of its predecessor, while also adding 64-bit support, a broader software ecosystem, error correcting code memory and hardware virtualization. That's all well and good, but when you boil it down to layman's terms, HP's really just angling for the ultimate in efficiency and it plans to do that by providing these compact servers in "a [smaller] footprint" than currently available setups. The system's still not quite ready for primetime consumption, given its very recent public outing, however, demo units are in the pipeline, with a planned launch for the end of 2012. If this sort of back-end geekery gets your blood flowing, feel free to hit up the official presser after the break.

Continue reading Project Moonshot take two: HP's low-power Gemini servers let go of ARM's Calxeda for Intel's Centerton

Project Moonshot take two: HP's low-power Gemini servers let go of ARM's Calxeda for Intel's Centerton originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Windows Phone 8 Will Be Powered By a Snapdragon S4 Plus Processor [Guts]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5920057/windows-phone-8-will-be-powered-by-a-snapdragon-s4-plus-processor

Qualcomm and Microsoft are continuing their cozy relationship with Snapdragon S4 Plus processors set to power Windows Phone 8.

A couple weeks ago, Qualcomm launched tiers for the Snapdragon platform. The S4 Plus is built for a wide array of smartphones. It's dual-core, up to 1.7GHz, up to Adreno 305 GPU, it has built-in 3G and 4G LTE, USB 2.0, and Bluetooth. It's a nice bit of kit, and for the geeks out there it will be the Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960, specifically, according to Qualcomm.

It's interesting that they would only mention the Plus at this point, because Microsoft said today that Windows 8 would support multiple cores (up to 64 cores, which are of course powered by fairy earwax and happy thoughts). The S4 Pro is the one that can have up to four cores and an Adreno 320 GPU, but we've not seen any of these yet, so perhaps they're just waiting to announce that at a later date. Regardless, nice to know where your guts are coming from. [Qualcomm]

CinePro Turns Your iPhone into a Digital Cinema Camera [Video]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5919808/cinepro-turns-your-iphone-into-a-digital-cinema-camera

CinePro Turns Your iPhone into a Digital Cinema Camera iOS: One of the drawbacks of using the video camera on your phone is the complete lack of control. While good automatic settings are useful in a lot of situations, there are times when they fail to achieve the look you want. While our expectations are fairly low for these tiny cameras, they don't have to be. CinePro supercharges your iPhone's video recording capabilities, providing everything from manual controls to fancy filters.

CinePro offers a lot of cool features. To start, you can set the frame rate, white balance mode, exposure, autofocus mode, and ISO. You can leave certain settings on auto and others on manual. The entire top row provides you with quick access to all the changes you can make. On the bottom row, however, you can choose filters and even make adjustments to them. CinePro includes several stock filters to start you off, but allows you to add more for $1 per pack (as an in-app purchase). Even if you don't go crazy with all the filter packs, the $1 it'll cost you to just get the standard app is worthwhile if you want a little more control over your video recordings. It's not going to turn your iPhone into a true cinema camera, but it's a great step in the right direction.

CinePro ($1) | iTunes App Store

Kinetis L Series MCUs use ARM Cortex-MO+ to sip least power, cost 49 cents each per 10K order

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/kinetis-l-series-mcus-use-arm-cortex/

Freescale aims to drag 8- and 16-bit manufacturing into the modern era with a 32-bit MCU that's cheaper than a cup o' Joe. The ARM Cortex-MO+ based Kinesis L series MCU is now available in alpha to interested parties, it's capable of sipping a scant 50 µA/MHz of power and will cost just $0.49 when you buy 'em in lots of 10,000. While the cheap chips will no doubt go on to help power the internet of things, the associated debut of a $12.95 development board coming in August will also be a boon to developers and hobbyists. The platform will allow "quick application prototyping and demonstration" according to the company, and provide a GUI tool for generating start-up code and device drivers. So, if you've gotta have that new beer dispenser mock-up running at a full 32-bits, check the PR after the break.

Continue reading Kinetis L Series MCUs use ARM Cortex-MO+ to sip least power, cost 49 cents each per 10K order

Kinetis L Series MCUs use ARM Cortex-MO+ to sip least power, cost 49 cents each per 10K order originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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