Jen-Hsun Huang, the CEO of Nvidia has recently announced a major Tegra 2 win (Honeycomb) and a new project “extending the performance range of the ARM instruction-set architecture, enabling the ARM architecture to cover a larger portion of the computing space” so it’s no surprise that the CEO is positive when he talks about ARM.

I had the chance to watch him being interviewed by All Things D mobile correspondent Ina Fried last week at CES and with Galaxy Tab in hand I was put to the test in noting quote after quote of amazing pro-ARM comments from Jen-Hsun.  How about some of these gems:

“2011 is likely to go down like 1995. We will realise that the personal computing industry was redefined”. Jen-Hsun is referring to Windows 95, the operating system that changed the way consumers interacted with personal computers.

“The most important architecture going forward is likely to be ARM.”

“Whatever expectation you have…are going to be fully met by mobile computing devices within the next 3 to 4 years.”

“3D on phone is a foregone conclusion. This piece of glass is is likely the most accommodating piece of glass for 3D”

Here’s a quick video I did of Jen-Hsun demonstrating the LG Optimus 2X. There’s a fuller video over at All Things D

In addition to Tegra 2, 3D and Honeycomb announcements, Nvidia have also taken a Cortex A15 license and have announced project Denver which appears to be looking to combine future ARM architecture (possibly Cortex A15, possibly a new license for ARMv7 or even ARMv8!) and running parallel with the Windows on ARM project. If Nvidia are chosen as the reference design for that, they are sitting pretty! An Nvidia blog post gives more info about Denver.

However, Nvidia talks about ARM like it’s the only low-power choice but we know that Intel are moving into this space too. In fact, as processing power requirements reach into the same 1W envelope, it’s the screens, radios, batteries and software need to be sorted out. An wild, uncontrolled third party app can negate a lot of potential hardware efficiencies.  Also, if Windows 8 is supporting ARM, I expected it to also be supporting the new power features of the Intel platforms that bring it right alongside ARM. Don’t forget that Android is running on Intel too!

Nvidia appear to have an excellent leader, strategist and spokesperson in Jen-Hsun and it’s unlike any other company playing in this mobile game. The brand is looking good, products are looking good, strategy and partnerships are going well and given one or two more major wins, Nvidia will rise to the top very quickly.

Thanks to Ina Fried for (literally) last-minute access to All Things D at CES. Ina runs the Mobilized blog for All Things D and is on Twitter here.

JKK, Sascha and Chippy with show number 62 on Jan 12th 2011. Happy New Year and welcome to a special CES review edition where we’ll focus on the important mobile computing news from Las Vegas. Don’t forget to rate us if you’re listening on iTunes.

Listen, subscribe and download at MeetMobility here.

In terms of build quality, the Enspert E301 stood out from the other tablets at CES. It’s from the company that brought you the Inbrics M1 (and used to be called ‘Identity.’) The Inbrics M1 never reached EU or US markets so let’s hope this one does better. With cellular data planned for the device, we think they stand a better chance this time round and based on what we’ve seen, this is up there with the best of the non-Honeycomb tablets.

Full specs are in the database but here’ are a few highlights:

• Samsung SP5C110 – 1Ghz Cortex A8 with PowerVR 540 graphics
• Digital TV receivers planned
• 3G/4G recievers planned
• 5.0MP Auto-focus camera
• Launch planned for ‘back-to-school’ 2011

It’s the last point that worries us somewhat. By Q3 2011, this device needs Honeycomb!

More images in the Gallery

This overview video goes over the main features of the device. (From CES 2011)

Viewsonic seem fairly clear about the G10S products final specs and seeing as their are some very similar / branded variants on the market already, it is likely that this will be available very shortly.

We’re talking about an Android Open Source 2.2 (no Market, Gmail, Navigation etc.) buid on a  Tegra2 platform with some talk (!) of Honeycomb. Certainly the specs seem ok, the build quality is acceptable and, to me, it appeared fairly light for 10” device. 3G was mentioned too so this might be the main difference over the Advent Vega version that already sells in the UK. Once again, pricing is going to be the key differentiator in this busy 10″ Android Tablet space. We should get that in just a few weeks. We’ll also be keeping an eye on Honeycomb ports over Q2 because with the docking station and potential USB host capability this could turn into something completely different over time.

Our good friends at Viliv gave as some quality time with all their 3 new devices this morning. This video is from the X10, a 10” 1024×600 Android device with an excellent (bright, great viewing angle) screen and a big, 31wh battery. The Samsung s5pc110 has the Power VR 540 graphics core in it too so the graphics performance is very smooth indeed.

Viliv are going through the process of Google Android authorisation and are working on an Android 2.3 upgrade. As for Honeycomb, it’s not certain yet if that will run on the single core CPU. [Anyone know the minimum specs for Honeycomb?]

This is planned for launch after the Viliv X7 Android Tablet. (expect April-May) No pricing was given.

Here’s my hands-on video.

While Meego on Moorestown is an interesting story, I bet the combination of Android on X86 raises more eyes. We’re at the Intel booth and Gemtech are showing the Zeus some tablet. Not much information here although I did speak to a representative who tells us it is being test by carriers right now and will launch in Q2. There’s a Meego version in the works too.

Video coming soon.

I’ve arrived and I’m getting ready for the big event. Sitting here with JKKmobile and Galaxy Tabs in the casino it’s a big change from our Netbook-focused experience of last year. Neither of us have our netbooks with us and we just can’t stop talking about it! No doubt the netbooks will come out when the hard, hard work begins but for this casual moment, a tablet works!

The first press events start tomorrow (4th) so stay tuned.

I was watching the film ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ the other night. It’s a strange story about a journalist and his journey to Las Vegas to report on a desert race. He gets somewhat distracted by drugs. As much as you might like to see reports of me running naked through the expo halls waving my ‘Tab’ and shouting “The Carrypads have landed. I told you they were coming.” that’s unlikely to happen here. My drug will be the hardware, software and technology going into the latest products in 2011 and you know there’s going to be enough of that around to keep me focused.

On my journey today i’ll have a good chance to research details on all the tablets announced and rumored. I have the Galaxy Tab in my hand and its loaded with info that I need to sort through and make sense of. My first thought though is that there’s no space for ARM11 devices in 2011 so I’ll probably be leaving out anything that falls under that category. Focus will be on devices with Intel (I’m expecting to see Android on Moorestown at some point this week) or ARM V7 (Cortex-like designs) platforms. I’m sure Android will dominate but WEBOS, Meego and qnx may get a look-in. I’ll also have my eye open for alternative form factors and lightweight netbooks too.

Shortly after I land you should see a rundown of all the devices along with basic specs and thoughts.  Until then, have a great day and keep an eye out for the expected rush of PR news. They’re all back at work today!

[written on the Galaxy Tab]

CES, the big consumer electronics show starts officially In just 4 days but for us, and you, it all kicks off tomorrow.

Not only am I flying out tomorrow for the first pre-events on the 4th but the PR companies will be back at work after the new year break so expect a lot of news as the scramble for the key stories begins. For the western world it’s an important show that will present company strategies that will play out as products during the rest of the year.

I’ve been kindly invited out to CES by Intel and will be bringing you not only their mobile hardware, OS and application news but lots of other news from CES too. There are meetings planned almost all the way through the 5th to the 8th so its going to be a busy one.

Sascha and JKK from the Meetmobility podcast will be there too and I expect there will be a party or two where we’ll get the chance to compare news with other bloggers and reporters.

As well as my reports, we have a team trying to keep up with all the news that comes in through other sources and as usual, we’ll be keeping focused on consumer internet devices on Carrypad and the more professionally-oriented mobile devices on UMPCPortal. I’m sure there will be a few crossover devices too. There will be videos and, when I get more time during the latter part of  the week, more analytical reports.

My reporting will rely heavily on the Galaxy Tab this year as I plan to tap out some quick posts to keep you all updated on the latest in Las Vegas but the Netbook (Gigabyte Touchnote) and smartphone (Nokia N8) will also play important roles. I had planned to take the video reporting up a notch to 480p but I haven’t been able to find a camera / Netbook combo that satisfies me yet. I want to keep it ultra-mobile as always so i’ll take my time to find the right equipment. I’ve written a few posts about my quest for new equipment over at my personal blog, Hiblue.

My Twitter account. @chippy will be a good place to see all the behind-the-scenes activity if you’re that way inclined.

Hope to have some good conversations with you all in the comments!

[This post written on the Galaxy Tab.]

We’re all unique customers and all have our unique requirements. I categorise myself as th ‘boy scout’ type. I am not a fan of highly converged devices (the N900 was not something for me) but I do like being prepared with a good, mobile set of kit. I have a tendancy to want to cover as many scenarios as possible with my mobile devices but I balance that with the realisation that you can’t have one device for each task. Some convergence is needed. But how much?

One device I’m testing at the moment is the Nokia N8 which I think (although I’km not 100% sure yet) will slot in as my personal high-end featurephone with the Samsung Galaxy Tab and a netbook/notebook. I have a long-term love of what I call mobile online photography. Sharing and moving images wirelessly is important and having a camera in the pocket at all times is critical to catching memories. It’s the reason I used an N82 for so long.

Dovetailing…

Note that I didn’t call the N8 a smartphone. Technically, it probably is but when lined up with the best smartphones out there, it falls short. It has a specific target audience and my Sister summed it up when she bought an N8 recently. She told me she wanted a phone, a camera and an MP3 player. She does a bit of Facebook and Web access but not enough that the N8, with it’s relatively low-end web performance, was going to be a problem.

Those three requirements are the primary ones I’m thinking of too as I look at the limits of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It’s too big to be an MP3 player or phone and as a camera, the size also has disadvantages. Samsung didn’t exactly go OTT with the camera specifications too!

The N8 also brings in some other important features.

• Notifications in the pocket.
• Clock / Alarm clock
• FM Radio / transmitter
• One handed messaging / reading
• Offline maps

As a bonus, you get HDMI and analogue A/V out, AMOLED screen, USB On-the-Go (with USB HDD, keyboard and mouse support) a relatively open filesystem and, in my opinion, quite an original, smart design. I have the Orange version and it’s on loan from Nokia in the UK. Thanks to them for letting me test it out.

At a push, the N8 can do everything a smartphone can but having had great experiences with Android and iOS, it’s a real step back to be using Symbian for some of the things I used those operating systems for. Image, URL and selection sharing becomes a chore. ‘Share’ in Symbian-speak means OVI services (Twitter or Facebook) and ‘Send-to’ allows other services to link-in. Some apps such as the popular Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook application Gravity, don’t link into these share services at all. In fact, applications like Opera don’t even offer an integrated share option.  Notifications seem to appear in random places too and setting up internet connectivity between WiFi and 3G is a bit of a juggle to start with.

I’m pleased to say that the battery life is OK, voice quality is good, it feels strong and the audio player and camera application are fast. HDMI and USB converter cables are included and there’s a dual-charger option. Both the mini Nokia connector and the micro-USB ports charge the device. I like that! In fact, I like the N8!

The CES Plan

Last year I did CES with a tripod, camera, phone, mid and netbook,battery pack and of course, mains connectors. This year I want to do at least one day with a lightweight mobile setup. I will use a Sprint 3G Mifi while i’m in Vegas so unfortuinately, while it gives me a mobile hotspot, it does mean strapping a battery pack onto it to make it last all day. The idea is to do photo blogging during the day and the videos I take will be uploaded during the evening. The N8 will take 720p videos at up to about 8Mbps and even has on-device editing which could help.

Here’s the set-up I plan to use:

In the image you can see a ‘device’ strapped to a battery pack. I used a battery charger to simulate the MiFi unit that would actually be there. Today, my MiFi unit is being used elsewhere.

The total weight:

What advantage will I have?

CES is a brutal show and there’s lots of walking. I’ll be extremely happy if I can reduce the weight from around 5KG to 1KG. Importantly I should get some speed advantage too as the photo blogging process is simple and fast.

What disadvantage will I have?

• No detailed video editing during the day. (In fact, Video on the N8 doesn’t really lend itself to close-up product videos so I may have a bigger problem here. See testing notes below.)
• Higher bitrate (unedited) videos will take longer to upload.
• Video camera will be higher resolution but without stabiliser, good optics, zoom, continuous auto-focus, the end result will look lower worse than my previous set-up with a VGA-capable camera.
• I won’t have a keyboard during the day.
• No tripod (always bad when handling a product and trying to film at the same time)
• No ability to upload multiple images into my gallery. All will have to be posted direct to WordPress in a compressed format.

Testing

This afternoon I took an hour to simulate some CES work. I used my studio to simulate the low-lighting product bays and moved around my house, inside and out, while I wrote the blogs. I pushed out 4 posts in an hour which isn’t bad. You can see the test posts here. I’m happy with the keyboard input on the Tab. Happy with the battery life of the kit. Happy with the camera (pushing photos to the Tab is simple and quick over BT) and I’m happy that I’ll have enough connectivity. As a photo-blogging set-up, this is awesome. In fact, if I wasn’t having to use a MiFi, this setup would be well under 1KG, including the bag, my Wallet and a few other bits and pieces.

I’m not happy with the video though and this could be a showstopper for me. Videos are extremely important for my work. During 2010 the number of video views I got per day on YouTube grew by at least 4x to around 12000 per day. Views on articles are not growing that quickly. I currently use VGA for file-size and usability but I am definitely wanting to upgrade to 720p in 2010.

I took a video with the N8 during the test and it was very poor indeed. The problem is that the N8 has a fixed-focus video configuration which means it doesn’t work well for close-up work and that’s exactly the scenario I need to cover. Despite recordings being high-bitrate and high-resolution files, the quality isn’t good enough for this close-up work. I’ve used the video function in typical smartphone scenarios and it’s great but my special requirement is a real problem. Does this mean I’ll have to take my old Canon S2IS for videos? If I do, why bother with the N8 at all?  Sure, the Canon adds 500 grams  but even at 2KG, I’m saving a lot of weight and I get that critical video capability back.

Maybe there’s even a better, lighter camera option?

I’m now taking a look at a new standalone camera that includes WiFi, Bluetooth, 720p recording and weighs just 168gm. Remembering that professional photo and video blogging is not the same as professional photography and that mobility is absolutely key to my work, the Samsung ST5500 might work out well.

It really looks like the N8 won’t quite fit in as my mobile video device. I’m sad! I really thought I’d found an amazingly light and flexible mobile reporting kit for trade shows but now I know that if the N8 can’t do the video part, no smartphone can offer the photo/video performance I’m looking for.

Tomorrow i’ll be heading out to at least try a Samsung ST5500. At 200 Euro it’s not that expensive and there’s a possibility it will lift my mobile reporting kit to the next level. Happy to hear your suggestions for a sub 200gm compact for low-light and close-up moblogging though!

As for the N8 it still could fit in well. Despite the problem above It still seems to fit my setup better than any other phone. I love the quality of the build and the small features like the fm transmitter, usb on-the-go, metal body and even silly little things like timed profiles and the lock/unlock slider. For general family/friend videos it’s going to be fine too. I’m also reading that software updates are coming soon. Browser improvements, sharing improvements and continuous focus video recording will really help. As for the market and third party apps, I’m actually very happy to be doing that on my Galaxy Tab. The dovetailing really does seem good. There’s no doubt I will take the N8 to Las Vegas in a few weeks so standby for more reports on it.

The other Moorestown-based MIDPhone to be demonstrate at CES was the AAVA. This one is just a prototype but as with the LG GW990, it shows just how small devices based on the Moorestown platform can be.

AAVA Prototype Moorestown Phone running Moblin 2.0 | Netbooknews – Netbooks, Netbook Reviews, Smartbooks and more.

Good tablet  news coming in via Pocketables.

SMiT will bring a 7″ Android tablet to CES. There’s no information about the specifications and just a fuzzy image so let’s add this one to the ‘hit’ list and see what we can find out over the next few days. Is it going to be a ‘real’ Google Android deices or just another basic Android build. I fear the latter but it will certainly be competition for the W1060.

Pocketables: SMiT invading CES with MID tablets in tow.

Meet:Mobility Podcast 38 is now up. Recorded on Dec 30th 2009.

JKK, Sascha and I talk at length about the main CES 2010 topics including Pineview, consumer tablets and other mobile computing devices. Also covered: Camangi Webstation. Viliv N5. Tegra. Predictions for 2010.

Listen, subscribe or download the podcast at Meet:Mobility

You can also find the podcast on Mevio where it’s available in a number of different formats and on iTunes (Please rate the show on iTunes.) You can also subscribe via RSS.