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Microsoft promises more Windows Embedded Compact 7 updates

Microsoft has revealed several Windows Embedded Compact 7 updates, one planned for the fourth quarter of this year and one for the second half of 2012. Next year’s version will get an updated kernel, faster file system, and broader hardware support, according to an EE Times report.
A 9:30 a.m. keynote was delivered Oct. 26 at the ARM TechCon show in Santa Clara, Calif. by Microsoft’s Dan Javnozon, group product manager for the Windows Embedded marketing group. At the time, we were up north in our Palo Alto batcave getting other news stories out, so we’re grateful to EE Times for reporting on what transpired.

According to writer Rick Merritt, Javnozon spilled the beans regarding two pending updates to Windows Embedded Compact 7. Building on an “Windows Embedded Compact 7 Update 3″ version that was released last month — see later — the revisions suggest that the Windows CE-based operating system won’t be left forgotten in the wake of an ARM-powered Windows 8.

Microsoft’s Dan Javnozon announcing Windows Embedded Compact 7 updates

Source: EE Times
Javnozon, pictured above, is said to have promised a Compact 7 update for the fourth quarter of this year, though apparently no details were provided. In addition, Merritt writes, he promised “Compact v.Next” for the second half of 2012 — with an updated kernel, faster file system, and “broader hardware support.”

Compact v.Next will also get boosted real-time capabilities, EE Times reports. But in a brief post-keynote interview, Javnozon declined to provide further specifics, the story added.

Microsoft’s most recent revision to Windows Embedded Compact 7 operating system was announced on Oct. 17. “Windows Embedded Compact 7 Update 3″ includes approximately 125 code defect fixes, several new tools for automating testing, and available Silverlight source code for the operating system’s media player, according to the company.

Windows Embedded Compact 7 was first announced in June 2010 as a significant upgrade to the previous Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3. New features included multicore support, an upgraded Internet Explorer web browser, Adobe Flash support, user interface (UI) development via Silverlight, and the ability to share and manage content across DLNA (digital living network alliance) devices.

The operating system runs not only on x86 processors like its big brother Windows 7, but also on other architectures such as ARM — including the multicore Cortex-A9 — and MIPS. (However, Microsoft notes, Hitachi’s SH4 is no longer supported by this particular Windows CE variant, and ARMv5 is the earliest supported ARM architecture.)

According to an Oct. 17 blog entry by Olivier Bloch, chief software architect for Windows Embedded, Windows Embedded Compact 7 Update 3 is now freely downloadable. He wrote that the new release contains “approximately 125 code defect fixes” for the Compact 7 operating system, Platform Builder tools, and the Compact Test Kit (CTK).

The installer for Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Compact 7
The CTK has two new tools, Bloch adds: The Compact Automation Tool Solution (CATS) for automating test scenarios, and The Compact Stress Tool for automating stress tests. Also now included is new Silverlight for Windows Embedded (SWE) sample code for the Compact 7 Media Player, which was previously provided only in binary format. A previous dependency on the compositor in the sample code has been removed, so Media Player performance should be improved across all hardware configurations, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft originally promoted Windows Embedded Compact 7 as “bringing the power of Windows 7 across … specialized devices such as slates, portable media players, and others.” Indeed, the operating system was shown off last year on an early version of the Asus Eee Pad EP101TC (below), a tablet that was later revamped to run Android instead.

The Asus Eee Pad EP101TC originally ran Windows Embedded Compact 7
Since then, both the progress of Android devices and the announcement of a pending, ARM-based version of Windows 8 has caused Redmond to lower its sights — or so it would appear. Thanks to its low cost, simpler hardware requirements, modularity, and real-time characteristics, however, Windows Embedded Compact 7 will continue to find customers, or so its supporters argue.

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However, NASA is not the first group to launch Nexus Ones into space.

NASA on Monday launched three 2010-vintage Nexus One smartphones into orbit via an Antares rocket, saying that the Android devices would be among the cheapest satellites ever devised.

The devices are part of the administration’s PhoneSat program, which is designed to ascertain the suitability of consumer smartphone processors as cheaper satellite brains.

Michael Gazarik, NASA associate administrator for space technology, said in a statement that there’s no shortage of possible applications for the space-going Android phones.

“Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-born applications. They also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space

The devices contain much of the hardware needed for basic satellite functionality, including reasonably modern processors, cameras, GPS receivers, radios and a host of other small sensors.

The phones are housed in four-inch cubesat structures, and will attempt to take photos of the Earth via their onboard cameras.

The PhoneSats are also part of an elaborate game, as they transmit packets of data back to Earth, where they can be received by amateur radio operators. While some packets are simple status reports, others are tiny fragments of the Earth pictures being captured from orbit, which can be reassembled into complete photographs.

Interestingly, however, NASA is not the first to undertake this type of project – a privately-held British company called Surrey Satellite Technology Limited launched a Nexus One into space aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s PSLV-C20 mission in late February. However, the STRaND-1’s price tag – “about as much as a high-end family car,” according to SSTL – is likely significantly higher than NASA’s PhoneSat, which cost less than $7,000.

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All quiet on the Galaxy S IV front, but plenty going on elsewhere.After a CES week during which the Android world was all a-twitter over a device that wasn’t even revealed at the show, the previously hyperactive Galaxy S IV rumor mill has quieted down, mostly. It’s likely to only be a momentary respite, however, as the device is heavily tipped to be released at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

MORE OFFBEAT: The dumbest products of CES 2013

Perhaps the biggest news on the most hotly anticipated Android device so far in 2013 is that an ostensible screenshot of mobile benchmarking results has been published by a Japanese-language blog), which points out that the 1.8GHz CPU speed matches up with Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa eight-core SoC. (More on the Octa later.)

Given the source, it’s important to remember that this should be taken with many grains of salt – even the inclusion of the point about the Exynos 5 Octa could easily be read as a little too circumstantially convenient. (Like Manti Te’o confessing to Lance Armstrong on Oprah or something.)

Still, I can’t deny that the pairing of Samsung’s two biggest headline grabbing topics makes sense. We’ll see what happens (probably) at MWC at the end of February.

Speaking of the Exynos 5 Octa, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is unsurprisingly not a fan, according to a report from Unwired View. Essentially, he told reporters in China yesterday, Samsung is just covering for the fact that the four high-performance Cortex-A15 cores drain a ton of power by jamming four slower but less demanding Cortex-A7s into the SoC alongside them, and attempting to reap a publicity windfall by boasting about their eight-core processor.

While Jacobs is correct in noting that all eight of the Octa’s cores won’t operate at the same time, I’m not sure why he’s saying this means the SoC is going to suck. OK, so it’s not a “true” eight-core SoC, but the idea of using the low-power cores for light work and switching to the A15s for more serious tasks still makes sense, and could well back up Samsung’s claims of improved battery life and better performance. Seems like fairly ineffectual spin to me.

The Nexus 4 official wireless charger has appeared on the site of Norwegian store Dustin Home, providing a slick pad on which to charge the Nexus 4 that you still probably don’t have. Presumably, this means that it’ll become available soon in the U.S., but this is a product release story involving the phrase “Nexus 4,” so who really knows?

(Hat tip: Android Central)
But wait! The Nexus 4′s availability problems will soon be a thing of the past, according to an LG executive who spoke to Challenges.fr Wednesday. LG France director of mobile communication Cathy Robin says production of the Nexus 4 is due to increase by mid-February, which could ease the supply crunch. As of this writing, both the 8GB and 16GB models are still sold out on the Play Store.

(Hat tip: r/Android)
Android Police has what it says is an internal Sprint document, which asserts that the company plans to offer a $400 device credit to new family plan customers who port at least one line in from a competitor. The deal’s supposedly set to roll out tomorrow, so you don’t have long to wait, if you’re interested.

All quiet on the Galaxy S IV front, but plenty going on elsewhere.

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A survey of developers shows that their interest is in iOS, while Android and Windows 8 get mixed reviews

A just-released survey of more than 5,000 developers put another massive dent in in HTML5′s reputation as a development platform for mobile apps, locking in its reputation as one of the most overhyped technologies in years. Apple, though, still shines in the hearts of developers. Android? Not so much.

In the most recent quarterly survey of its own developer base, mobile application development platform vendor Appcelerator found widespread dissatisfaction with nearly every key feature of HTML5. (IDC conducted the actual survey.) Developers dissed the user experience, performance, monetization, fragmentation, distribution control, timeliness of new updates, and security. That covers pretty much the whole HTML5 app gamut.

[ Go deep into HTML5 programming in InfoWorld's "HTML5 Megaguide Deep Dive" PDF how-to report. | Then understand the issues surrounding HTML5 today in InfoWorld's HTML5 Deep Dive PDF strategy report. ]
 

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It’s worth remembering that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that his biggest mistake to date was betting so heavily on HTML5, and so he’s moving the company to native code. Whether that’s really a blow to open standards isn’t yet clear. But given the enormous gravitational pull of Facebook, there’s no doubt that the move blew a huge hole in the future of HTML5. (My colleague Andrew Oliver has a very different view, saying Facebook blew it by not hiring enough top-notch developers.)

The only HTML5 features that earned a thumbs-up were cross-development capabilities and immediate updates, liked by a few points more than 80 percent of the respondents.

Michael King, Appcelerator’s head of developer relations, says there is a future for HTML5, but it will be with a limited class of applications. Things like forms and other apps with a low degree of interaction are appropriate, he says, but not immersive and interactive apps. They demand a native environment to have the performance, look and feel, and easy access to native features.

Apple, yes; Android and Windows 8, maybe
Apple maintained its dominance at the top of developers’ lists for mobile app development this quarter, with 85 percent of developers very interested in building apps for iOS smartphones and 83 percent similarly focused on iPad apps.

The survey was conducted in August, weeks before iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 were launched, so developers were unaware of the Apple Maps app fiasco. At the time of the survey, the iOS features developers said they were most looking forward to using were Apple Maps (37 percent) and enhanced Siri (22 percent). Despite the Apple Maps problem, “the massive numbers of applications that interface with or use Google Maps, such as Yelp and Facebook, will now rapidly migrate to Apple’s new mapping function, leaving Google a much smaller audience for Google-sponsored ads and Google information,” King says.

Android, though, did not fare well. Developer interest as measured by the survey has declined for three of the last four quarters. It appears that just under 66 percent of developers are very interested in developing for the Android tablet platform, and 76 percent for the Android smartphone platform. Google’s inability to curtail Android’s massive fragmentation, even with “Ice Cream Sandwich,” has forced developers to focus on the iPad as the leading tablet platform and on the iPhone first for smartphone apps,” King says.

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If you are a social person then the social android apps can surely interest you the most. There are few great apps available which take socializing to a new height.

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