ARM has released a new low-end core that adds higher-level math to chips inside microwaves and headsets to prepare for a connected future. If we’re gonna connect everything to the web, that means even the tiny brains inside relatively dumb devices need a boost.
On2 shareholders finally agreed yesterday to allow the encoding company to be purchased by Google (s GOOG), after the search giant raised its bid by $26.5 million earlier this year. But with the acquisition now set to close this week, questions are arising as to just what Google’s plans for the encoding company are.
Under terms of the deal, Google will provide 0.0010 of a share of Google Class A Common Stock for each share of On2 common stock, as well as 15 cents a share in cash, bringing the total value of the deal to about $133 million. It will close after some six months of haggling since Google made an initial offer of $106.5 million in August 2009.
When the deal closes, Google will own all of On2’s video compression technology, which includes the VP6 and VP8 video codecs. At the time it was first announced, many believed that the deal could allow Google to circumvent On2 licensing fees or collect them from third parties like Adobe (s ADBE) or Move Networks. The suggestion was also made that Google could use its control of the new VP8 to push it as the dominant codec for YouTube.
Read More about On2 Shareholders Finally Agree to Google Deal — What’s Next?
Our mobile devices are getting smarter, faster and mimicking the functionality of a full-fledged PC. As the top wireless chipmaker, Qualcomm has long been the “Intel inside” for mobile phones. But can it compete against a host of new processors with better graphics and more performance?
Over the last few years Mobile World Congress, the mobile phone industry trade show, has experienced a shift from being about mobile phones to being about always-on connectivity. Mobile broadband has changed the value of the mobile ecosystem and thus the players who care about it.
The Google phone, dubbed the Nexus One–an unbranded HTC-made carrier-unlocked handset running Android 2.0–looks slick. Here is why it won’t be an iPhone killer, though.
ARM (s armh) and more than 35 other companies have banded together to create an alliance dubbed the Solution Center for Android, which is aimed at increasing the resources available for developers trying to build for the relatively young OS on top of ARM hardware. Android, an open-source, Linux-based OS pioneered by Google (s goog), is the underlying operating system in several popular smartphones such as those from HTC and the Motorola (S mot) Droid. Read More about Android Gets Some Serious Support for Consumer Devices
[show=unskippable]Every icon has his or her imitators, and while The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart didn’t invent the concept of snarking at the news in a quasi-reporting format, his influence has had a profound impact not just on the television world, but on web video. And shows that draw inspiration from the format continue to find fresh approaches to the idea.
Of course, the easiest way to put a new spin on an old idea is to tailor it for a specific audience — which the the guys and gals from sketch comedy team Loading Ready Run nail with the Escapist News Network by focusing exclusively on video game news and culture. Hosted by Graham Stark and Kathleen DeVere, ENN‘s one-liners and punchlines can be a little dense for those outside the video game world, but even a casual gamer can appreciate a story on the gaming site Popcap that references the “enslavement of the human race via the highly addictive drug Bejeweled [Popcap’s insanely popular puzzle game].” Read More about The Daily Show’s Stepchildren Now Include Escapist News Network and Newsish
Texas Instruments (s TXN) today launched a calculator for the iPhone that will cost $14.99 and perform all the functions of its BAII financial calculator. The move is a watershed moment for this scion of high-end calculators (yes, I know about HP (s hpq), but TI is in my home state and makes the products on which I learned), and possibly an admission that the future of the calculator as a standalone device in this age of smartphones may be limited.
However according to TI spokeswoman Lin Windle, the core TI market — comprised of students and teachers — is still buying calculators, in part because fears of cheating keep wireless-enabled devices out of classrooms and testing centers. Read More about TI Says Calculators Aren’t Dead Yet, Releases iPhone App
Having spent a day with iTunes 9 and OS 3.1 on an iPhone and iPod touch, I find that I am completely smitten with a feature I pretty much completely ignored before yesterday. I’m referring to Genius, which hadn’t lived up to its name until this latest retooling.
Since upgrading to iTunes 9, I’ve used Genius Mixes exclusively on both my computer and my portable devices. Contrast this to the two or three times I ever used a Genius playlist since their introduction in iTunes 8. Read More about iTunes 9 Genius: It’s in the Mix
[qi:gigaom_icon_chip] Texas Instruments (s txn) last year said it would exit the wireless baseband business (it will still make custom radios for clients, but will dump its catalog of wireless baseband chips), and today the Wall Street Journal notes the effect this is likely to have on TI’s earnings. The consensus is that with TI dumping radios and betting on applications processors and analog semiconductors, baseband revenue will fall faster than its new core lines of business can grow — leading to a potential gap in revenue and profits. Wireless baseband chips currently make up about a fifth of TI’s 2008 revenue.
These chips are rapidly becoming a commodity, and so it makes sense to cede the market to larger players like Qualcomm (s qcom) and MediaTek, but TI is still placing a huge bet that it can make up the lost revenue on sales of its applications processors, analog chips and digital signal processors. Read More about As TI Dumps Wireless, Mind the Gap
