We now have Flash Lite 4 port available on X86 running Linux Framebuffer. Why do you need port on X86 when Flash Lite 4 is meant for low end devices? Well- there are two reasons. ......continue reading

Calsoftlabs has ported Flash Lite 4 to TI OMAP running on Beagleboard. The port runs on Rev 3 of the board running Linux Framebuffer. An evaluation package is being put together and available to OEMs upon request. ......continue reading

Google’s Android kernel will no longer be part of Linux kernel tree. What this means is that updates from Android will not be intergrated into Linux kernel and vice versa. Linux kernel is an open community and the developers are often posting fixes for security, new device drivers and utilities. The decision seems to have come from Linux community. Linux developer blog suggest that problem seems is with Android’s security model, and framebuffer driver infrastructure. This prevents several Android drivers and platform code from merging into the main kernel tree. The blogger also points that ‘no one seems to care about the Android tree’. ......continue reading

QNX (owned by Harman International now) has a port of Flash Lite available alongwith the OS distribution. QNX is based on Unix and their Car platform comes with Flash Lite. The company provides users with a reference implementation to Flash Lite for selected platforms such as Freescale. To facilitate the adaption, QNX has put together a fairly large consortium consisting of hardware, software and OEMs. The company also has a portal where application developers can post their applications which would then be downloaded by car drivers. ......continue reading

Flash Lite 3 for digital home, is now available for TI platform. The port is optimized for h.264 video and AAC audio using TI Codec engine. This allows you to play Flash video in 30 fps at D1 resolution. The port allows for streaming content using HTTP and RTMP protocols.   We have kept the design modular so that the customers can potentially get the development kits from us and integrate their own libraries if they choose to.The port is tested on TI DaVinci DM 6446 processor and runs on Linux. Of course the port is done on Linux framebuffer as most of the embedded devices require a thin blitting layer. Please email me at anand at joshimail dot net for additional information. ......continue reading

For all the Beagleboard fans out there, we’ve created an evaluation version of Flash Lite 3. This is a fully functional version of Flash Lite that times out in 3 minutes. It is built on Angstrom Linux distribution and requires X. Please email me if you are looking for more information or are interested in having one. I should mention that OMAP 3530 (ARM Cortex A8) is a powerful CPU and seems to handle graphics as well as video very well. ......continue reading

Here’s a cool application for digital home.  Boxee is designed to be used on a TV screen and remote. Boxee runs on your laptop and via specialized UI, allows one to bring up applications, games, photos etc. on the TV.  It is still running on your laptop and is only available for Mac OS, Windows, Ubuntu and Apple TV. There is a remote control application available for iPhone. (Without spending time reading specs, my guess is that to be able to extend this to use general purpose remotes, you’d need some kind of special hardware/receiver on your laptop.) It requires a CPU running at 1 GHz or faster. Boxee is also using Twitter like ‘follow me’ model in which you can follow other users and recommend them shows. ......continue reading

Well- I am sure you’ve seen news of 1 GHz ARM coming to market soon. Freescale is planning on introducing MX51 which will have ARM Cortex A8. TI already has OMAP running at 600 MHz. OMAP Beagleboard already has a Linux distribution that runs XWindows, and one can easily build Netbook around it. ARM Coretex A8, which has ARMv7 instruction set is a powerful CPU capable of running XWindows at performance comparable to Atom. It is widely believed that ARM will be biggest competition to Intel in Netbook market, and having seen a few demo I believe that is very much possible. ......continue reading

Calsoftlabs, Intel and Adobe have been working on putting together an evaluation port for customers looking to develop devices using Intel’s Canmore. Intel Canmore, a media processor chip, also known as CE3100 is X86 based SoC. The chip is targeted towards consumer electronics products such as digital TV, set-top box, blue ray DVD and IPTV. The media processor combines leading-edge CE features for high-definition video support, home-theater quality audio and advanced 3-D graphics, with and offers performance, flexibility and compatibility of IA-based hardware and software. ......continue reading

Calsoft Labs, an Adobe Flash Lite distributor has ported Flash Lite 3.1 to Analog Devices’s Blackfin processor. The Blackfin processor is a DSP chip targette towards the consumer and mobile market. The port is available for the BF 548 chip and runs on uCLinux OS. The port supports all the standard Flash Lite features, and runs on the reference board provided by Analog Devices. ......continue reading

Android developers’ blog by Eric Chu provided details of the ANdroid market place for developers. Developers can register themselves as merchant on the portal, upload their applications and publish. Unlike Apple, this means that Google will not be taking a cut from the revenue generated. Good news for developers indeed!! ......continue reading

Openmoko, an open Linux platform company, is exhibiting at Linuxworld Expo this week. They are showing three models shipping using their platform. The devices are GSM based and unlocked. Users can buy them today and use with AT&T and TMobile in USA. ......continue reading

Apparently Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) is a term coined by Intel, and is used to refer to class of devices similar to Nokia’s N800. A new research report released by Forward Concept claims that Linux will be the most popular OS in the MIDs, and such devices will be dominated by ARM, not ATOM and Linux, not Windows. All the MID talk and emergence of new class of devices sounds  fascinating, but I have a fundamental question: ......continue reading

Flash 7 port running on directfb/gtk Linux is now available to OEM licensees. Directfb is popular in Set Top Boxes running Linux and is a much powerful layer than Linux framebuffer. Why would anyone still want Flash 7? Well ......continue reading

Remember QT from Trolltech? This is from Trolltech’s web site: ......continue reading