Mobile Phone Blog:

Now then, I’ve spoken about the Tizen OS, precisely once before, and if you remember, I wasn’t that excited by what I was seeing. It didn’t look that brilliant, and I had my doubts about whether it would set the world alight, as some people seemed to be predicting. I said, at the time, that we’d have to wait and see what happens once the OS goes official, and comes out of beta.

Well, according to Tizen’s own website, that’s now, in fact, happened, and Tizen 1.0 Larkspur is go. Both the source code and the SDK have now been made available, so developers can get their hands on it to have a fiddle about with.

But will it be any good? (more…)

Right folks, you remember how the Orange Santa Clara got unveiled at MWC, and how it’ll be the first phone to hit Europe with an Intel Medfield processor (and you should, ‘cos I did a blog post about it)? I was quite impressed by it, as you may well remember, and I was looking forward to the day when it became the world’s first Intel-powered phone.

Alas, that ain’t going to happen, now, because according to Intel Newsroom, a manufacturer called Lava has beat Orange to the punch. Their phone is the Xolo X900, and it is, in fact, the first commercially available phone in the entire world to use a Medfield chip. As always, though, one must ask whether it’s any good… (more…)

We all know that tablets are an important sector of the market these days, after the success of the original iPad (a device that I predicted would never, ever take off… oh, how wrong I was), and Android tablets are gaining more traction in the market. Sure, Android tablets made by the likes of HTC or Motorola are nowhere near as popular as the iPad, but Android brings some key benefits to the table, and one of the big ones is that it’s a free OS.

And that means cheaper tablets, which brings us on to the topic of this post. According to IntoMobile, Intel have unveiled a reference design for a brand new Android tablet, called the Studybook.

And it’ll be cheap, as far as tablets go… (more…)

Ooh, now then, here’s something I’ve not heard a great deal about for, well, ages (since last September, in fact): Intel’s Medfield processor. Last we heard, Intel had developed a phone with one inside, to use as a reference design, but nowt’s happened since then.

Well, nothing visible to us consumers, anyway, ‘cos this new rumour (reported on by Unwired View) implies that quite a lot has been going on, behind the scenes. Y’see, it seems that someone is about ready to release a Medfield-powered smartphone on the UK market, and that someone is allegedly Orange. It seems to be based on that reference design that Intel showed off, and it’s purportedly called the Orange London… (more…)

Medfield. What’s that then? Well, without getting technical, it’s an Intel processor, that’s designed to give speedy performance, with low power draw, thus making it perfect for use in mobile phones. There’s been talk of Medfield-powered Android phones being on the cards for ages, but according to Engadget, we’ve now seen the first actual phone rocking the new processor.

As for actual performance of the phone, presumably it was quite impressive, since no-one’s saying that it ran like a three-legged dog, and ye’d expect them to, if it did. The most intriguing bit, though, was that Google’s Andy Rubin was there for the unveiling, hinting at some closer ties between Google and Intel, in future… (more…)

It’s no secret that when it comes to phones, I love power. We’re talking about Skynet levels of power, here, which is why I’m completely besotted with phones like the HTC Sensation. Power is good, and so powerful processors are, by extension, good things.

Well, it seems like a competitor to the likes of the Snapdragon and Tegra 2 is about to emerge, because according to CNet, Intel are shifting their focus, in a big way, towards the mobile industry. And that means we are finally going to see phones using their Medfield processor. Specifically, we’ll see Medfield phones next year.

So, should we care? (more…)

Nokia have teamed up with Microsoft. We all know this, by now, just as we know Symbian is being taken out the back of the shed and having a bolt gun put to its head. But what of the other OS Nokia were working on, MeeGo? Well, it seems that Intel are still committed to making sure MeeGo doesn’t go the same way.

Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini recently spoke to Bloomberg about the issue, saying, “I don’t see that Nokia changing its strategy changes the industry strategy. The operators still look for an open, operator-friendly operating system.”

Okay, maybe, but I suspect the open, operator-friendly operating system is Android… (more…)

These days, one of the key things people judge smartphones on is their processors. Rightly or wrongly, I know I’m as guilty of this as anyone, thanks to my obsession with raw poweeeeeeeer. The current kings of the hill are the Snapdragon family and A9 chips like Samsung’s Hummingbird processor and the processor Apple uses in things like the iPhone 4; they are also, of course, about to be joined by the Nvidia Tegra 2, another super-fast monster.

Well, it seems like there might be another one on the way, according to Engadget, and this one’s being made by Intel. The processor itself is called Medfield, and it’s touted as the replacement for the Atom chip, in netbooks and MIDs. (more…)

It looks like Intel is aiming to cash in on the highly profitable smartphone  sales next year, with its chips set to be included in dozens of tablets and smartphones in 2011.

Intel’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Otelinni released information about the company’s new ventures to Reuters – saying the chips will be used in 35 tablets.

Otelinni stated that the new tablets to include Intel chips will be rolled out in the first part of 2011 and will include big name brands such as Toshiba, Dell, Asus and Lenovo.

(more…)

Now then, here’s a thing: y’know how I’ve gone on about Snapdragon processors like there’s no tomorrow? And y’know how the Snapdragon has competition in the shape of both the Hummingbird chip and the Apple A4 processor? Well, there’s one hyper-advanced mobile chipset I’ve not spoken about so far, which may well have the potential to completely muller all 3 of those processor.

It’s called the Moorestown, it’s made by Intel, and I mention it now because Carrypad, the lucky bleeders, have got their hands on an Aava prototype running the new Moorestown processor. And it’s very possible that this may be the most important phone of the year, because it’s also running the pre-alpha version of MeeGo. (more…)