DeviceGuru

Technology market analyst ABI Research has published its annual prognostication of technology trends and events that won’t happen in the coming year. The 11-page article is available for free download (after registration) from the firm’s website.
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Shipments of Ultra-Mobile Devices (UMDs), including a range of emerging devices such as UMPCs (Ultra-Mobile PCs), netbooks, and MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices), are expected to grow to 385 million units annually within five years. Their main obstacle will be smartphones, such as the iPhone and various Android models.
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In recent years, two new sub-$500 mobile device categories have burst onto the scene: the “mobile Internet device” (MID), with the iPhone representing its greatest success; and the “netbook,” popularized by the Asus Eee PC. Get ready for the third wave: the “netpad.”
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At last week’s TED2009 conference, two researchers from the MIT Media Lab demonstrated a “Sixth Sense” device that gives its wearer supernatural abilities. What’s next — Google implants?
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Embedded Linux has now been around for a decade and consistently ranks as one of the top OS choices for device development. But, does it still have its mojo?
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OpenSource World — the successor to LinuxWorld — is soliciting presentations for its Mobile Open Source sub-conference. The conference will take place Aug. 10-13, 2009 in San Francisco.
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My Mobile Witness Inc. has unveiled a free service that lets you use your cellphone to protect yourself from danger. When faced with a potential threat, you snap a photo of the person, place, or situation of concern, send it via MMS or SMS to the company’s “digital vault,” and — if necessary — reveal the existence of the archived evidence.
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LG Electronics will unveil the “world’s first market-ready” 3G watch phone at CES in Las Vegas this week. The LG-GD910, featuring built-in 3G video telephony service along with quadband GSM, is an upgrade of a prototype showcased last year.
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A recent online survey found that eight in ten consumers use electronic gadgets in the bathroom, primarily for communications, entertainment, and wellness purposes. This leads us to wonder if the “iLoo” might be a good candidate for Apple’s next hot product.
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ABI Research’s analysts have published their annual year-end forecast of key technology trends. In light of the looming global recession, however, this year’s prognostication is framed as “What’s NOT Going to Happen in 2009.”
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A recent survey conducted by ABI Research found that there are basically four kinds of tech-savvy adult consumers: (1) Tech-Savvy, TV-Averse; (2) Online, On a Budget; (3) Wireless Women on the Web; and (4) On-the-go Gadgeteers. Which kind are you?
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The worldwide market for application processors will grow to nearly $2 billion by 2012, fueled by strong demand for smartphones and other mobile devices, predicts The Linley Group.
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Although Near Field Communication (NFC) offers significant benefits for mobile phones, only one NFC-enabled handset has reached market to date, reports market analyst ABI Research. So what’s NFC?
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Less than 5 percent of the more than 1 billion mobile phones produced annually end up being recycled or disposed of in eco-friendly ways, reports ABI Research.
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The machine-to-machine (“M2M”) communications market will grow robustly over the next five years, with an estimated 95 million cellular M2M modules shipping in 2013, ABI Research predicts.
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Canonical Ltd., commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, says it’s porting Ubuntu to the ARM RISC processor architecture. Ubuntu on ARM will target netbooks and other emerging device categories requiring a “rich, always-connected, mobile computing experience, without compromising battery life.”
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Transmeta, the turn-of-the-millennium startup that sought to “revolutionize mobile Internet computing” with an innovative “code morphing” CPU architecture aimed at replacing Intel processors in mobile devices — and former home to Linus Torvalds — is up for sale.
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From a virtual standing start of just 10 million units in 2008, more than 10 million ultra-mobile devices (UMDs) are expected to ship in 2013, predicts ABI Research. UMD is ABI’s umbrella term for UMPCs (ultra-mobile PCs), netbooks, and MIDs (mobile Internet devices).
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After many months of anticipation, the first mobile phone based on Google’s Linux-powered Android software platform was unveiled today by T-Mobile in the U.S.
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Femtocells and picocells are likely to form an integrated part of initial rollouts of LTE (long term evolution) networks, ABI Research reports. These cellular mini-base stations, featuring improved indoor wireless coverage, reportedly have been generating considerable interest in mobile wireless markets.
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Taiwan-based Axiomtek has released a tiny single-board computer (SBC) based on a 1.1GHz Intel Atom processor. The Pico820 SBC is implemented on a Pico-ITX form-factor and targets space-constrained embedded and mobile applications.
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Get ready for Rovio, a small three-wheeled mobile robot that offers audio/visual telepresence via its built-in wireless web-cam. An onboard webserver enables access from anywhere in the world, according to Wowwee, which plans to ship the product soon.
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You’ve heard of SD, miniSD, and microSD cards. Now, get ready for Embedded SD — a new standard set for release this November by the SD Card Association.
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The Mobile Internet Devices market will grow at the “spectacular” rate of 167 percent compounded annually over the next five years, ABI Research reports.
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With 90+ percent of my desktop computing conducted from within Firefox, and half the Internet services I use supplied by Google, the opportunity to test Google’s new “Chrome” browser was irresistible. Here are my first impressions.
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