Android-run phones are about as unusual as Apple devices starting with ‘i’, unless we count the Apple TV. This next camera applications processor from Ambarella is dubbed the iOne. What’s atypical about it is the fact that the iOne SoC can be expected to support a category of smart cameras based on Android.

The SoC is projected to enable up to 32MP still image processing and high-speed capture of 5MP images at 30fps. It’s claimed to be the first ever low-power 1080p60 decoder accommodating full 3D HD decoding on a mobile OS platform. We’re also looking at 3D photoand video capture with the addition of Ambarella’s S3D pre-processor for stereoscopic HD video and still image shooting with this development.
“Coupling our proven video and imaging processing expertise with the Android platform enables next generation cameras to take a significant leap forward in user experiences and capabilities. The iOne will fundamentally change the way consumers capture, create and share visual content. We are very excited about the possibilities,” trilled Fermi Wang, Ambarella CEO.

A smart camera based on Android and embedding the iOne will be able to work with a number of interfaces including dual CMOS sensor inputs, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, analog video out, transport stream and much more. Apart from strong support for GPS, Bluetooth, FM, Mobile TV and Wi’Fi 802.11n, the processor can offer concurrent encoding of a full HD 1080p30 stream and a second stream for uploading to the internet or streaming via Wi-Fi.

The iOne employs a triple ARM CPU architecture that’s designed for low-power mobile media applications. A 533MHz ARM-11 deals with real-time camera tasks and allows a camera boot time of less than a second. At the same time, a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 CPU supplies the energy to operate Android applications.

Ambarella’s iOne SoC is currently being shipped in sample quantities to early access customers. So the word on when we can expect to see smart cameras running Android will obviously have to wait a bit.

Opera Software has released the final version of Opera Mini 4.2 for mobile phones, giving G1 handset users looking for change from Android's built-in WebKit browser a third party alternative to play with. Opera Mini, which is the first web browser alternative on Android, sports a number of enhancements, including what Opera claims is up to a 30 percent performance boost.

"With Opera Mini 4.2, we are showing the world that Opera never gets complacent. We will always be improving our product, adding speed, new functionality and features, and ensuring that it is accessible by all,” says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “Our support of the Android platform helps fulfill our mission to be available on more platforms, for more devices and reach more users, anywhere in the world."Opera Mini also boasts greater multilingual support with more than 90 language versions, personalization through skins, Opera Link support for notes, and support for mobile video on a wider range of phones.

LG Electronics and Microsoft today announced the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to form strategic collaboration in mobile technology.

The agreement was signed in Seoul by Yong Nam, Vice-Chairman and chief executive officer of LG Electronics and Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.

"This agreement between LG and Microsoft will create critical momentum in the industry," said Yong Nam at the announcement ceremony. "With this partnership, mobile computing will truly become an everyday reality, and LG and Microsoft will be at the forefront of it."

"This MoU further strengthens Microsoft relationship with LG and demonstrates our joint commitment to delivering the most innovative mobile experiences to our customers," said Steve Ballmer. "We are excited that leading mobility solutions providers, such as LG, are aligning with our vision for mobility."

The agreement includes strategic collaboration in R&D, marketing, applications, and services in the field of converged mobile devices.

"Under the MoU, mobile device business will be reinforced through incorporating LG?s core competences in marketing and products in mobile and IT sector and Microsoft?s proficiency in Windows Mobile OS, application, and service," reads the press release the companies issued today.Meanwhile larger home rival Samsung on the same day announced the launch of the domestic version of the Omnia touch screen handset model, based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system.

The model will be available from mid-November under an exclusive deal with No. 1 mobile operator SK Telecom, Samsung said.

Microsoft is hoping its Windows Mobile operating system can continue to challenge Symbian, a platform backed by Nokia and used in two-thirds of smartphones -- mobile handsets with computer-like capabilities.

Blackberry-maker Research in Motion and Apple's iPhone are also growing threats to Symbian, while several manufacturers are planning or have started to roll out smartphones based on Google's Android software.

Both LG and Samsung are members of the Symbian Foundation and are also developing models based on Android.

After the launch of the very first Google Android mobile phone, the T-Mobile G1 by HTC, Motorola was the next to announce that they were also in the process of developing their own handset to run on the same OS. That aside the next in line according to reports, is Asus who is planning to launch an Android-based handset sometime in the first half of next year.There are no specs or designs of the handset yet, but according to the same reports, the company plans to launch the first set of Android-based handsets exclusively in the Taiwanese market and then customize it for other areas.

When Motorola joined Google's Open Handset Alliance under former CEO Ed Zander, there was speculation that Motorola would develop a smartphone using Google's Android mobile Relevant Products/Services operating system.

Today, with CEO Greg Brown at the helm, it's no longer speculation. Motorola is working on an Android-based smartphone that will have an iPhone-like touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard, BusinessWeek reports. The report said the smartphone will be aimed at social networking, but will not be available until the second quarter of 2009.

Motorola would not confirm any details in the report, but spokesperson Charles Kaiser said the company is excited about innovation possibilities on Android and that Motorola is looking forward to "delivering products in partnership with Google and the Open Handset Alliance community."

"Motorola is pleased to see the industry enthusiasm and support Relevant Products/Services of the Android operating system," Motorola's Kaiser said in an e-mail. "As a pioneer in mobile Linux and a founder of OHA, Motorola believes Android promises to be one of the most powerful, flexible and customizable open platforms, enabling truly integrated mobile hardware, software and Web experiences."Ready for Launch

The news Monday comes just two days before the first Android-based smartphone is slated to launch. T-Mobile, handset maker HTC, and Google have partnered to launch the T-Mobile G1.

Cole Brodman, chief technology officer at T-Mobile, said the partners believe there needed to be a compelling set of applications and devices that take advantage of mobile broadband networks. The companies announced the device starting at $179 in September.

T-Mobile's G1 includes one-touch Google search, an iPhone-like touchscreen, a three-megapixel camera, Google Maps Street View, and a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. There will opportunity for third-party developers to work with the G1, but it will be SIM-locked to T-Mobile, according to the company.

A Step in the Right Direction

Motorola moving into the smartphone market would be a step in the right direction for the company, which has been criticized for making dull mobile phones. The company shipped 16 new products in the first half of the year and said it plans to ship a total of 50 by year's end.

Despite shipping millions of mobile phones, Motorola has seen its profits plunge in the past year. Its sales were $8.1 billion in the second quarter, down seven percent from the same quarter in 2007.

"We expect to have more smartphones and QWERTY devices," Brown said during last quarter's earning announcement. "We expect to have additional announcements around touch and messaging and music and navigation and to strengthen the overall product portfolio in different geographies and tiers to make the overall spectrum of products more robust."

Google planned to announce on Tuesday that the source code for its mobile operating system, Android, is now available for anyone to use free.The move was expected, although the timing was uncertain.
Developers can find the source code on the Web site for the Android Open Source Project.

"An open-sourced mobile platform, that's constantly being improved upon by the community and is available for everyone to use, speeds innovation, is an engine of economic opportunity and provides a better mobile experience for users," said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms for Google, in a statement.

The first Android phone isn't yet on the market -- the G1 goes on sale in the U.S. from T-Mobile on Wednesday. Journalists were first able to publish reviews of the G1 last week.

Google expects that by making the source code for the operating system open, a wide variety of applications will appear, as will cheaper and faster phones.

But Google's model for Android has some critics. The LiMo Foundation, which publishes specifications for middleware for mobile Linux devices, and of which Google is not a member, says that Google's model might be too open."There's a debate about whether Google's approach to openness is sustainable and good for the industry," said Andrew Shikiar, director of global marketing for the LiMo Foundation.

Android will be released under the Apache license, which doesn't require developers to share their changes to the code back with the community, he said. This is one of the reasons why some people wonder whether Android will become fragmented as various incompatible versions of the software appear in phones across the market.

In the FAQ section of the site for the Open Handset Alliance, the group supporting Android, Google says that using the Apache license will let manufacturers innovate on the platform and allow them to keep those innovations proprietary as a way to differentiate their offerings.

Shikiar floats a more sinister reason that he's heard for why Google may have chosen the Apache license. "If it's fragmented and scattered, and the only common version is the Google-optimized one, it's good for them," he said. That's because the G1, which is optimized by Google, comes loaded with many Google services that can eventually bring in revenue for the search giant. If that turns out to be the best version of an Android phone, more people will use it and so, presumably, more people will be using Google apps.

LiMo and Symbian, which also is going open source, each use different licenses, but both include obligations for people who change their code to share their changes, Shikiar said.

Shikiar also criticized Google because he said the search giant hasn't created any sort of governance model for the Open Handset Alliance and doesn't publicly publish the group's membership agreement. A governance model spells out for participating companies exactly how their intellectual property can be used by other members. Without it, members might be reluctant to contribute, he said.

The OHA did not reply to questions recently posed regarding its choice of license and its governance model. Google also was not immediately able to respond to similar questions.

As we noted on previous occasions as well, just lately, nothing too spectacular came from Motorola, the only two devices that were, according to general belief, worthy of more attention being the ROKR and the ZN – and that's about it. Were we to compare Motorola with Sony Ericsson or Nokia, in terms of the “wow factor” in handsets, it's crystal clear that it comes on the last position, having recently managed to show a complete lack thereof.

One possible reason for this could be the fact that, as of late, Motorola has seemingly focused its efforts on expanding its Android team from 50 to 350 members. So, it was somehow expected for the manufacturer to post a job add somewhere in order to get more people, since 350 is not a figure that can be so easily attained.

And this is precisely what happened, according to Android Guys, who claim that Motorola posted a job add for a Senior Staff Interaction Designer on Coroflot, saying that the candidate, among other things, would also participate in the development of the UI for the company’s new Android Social Networking Smartphone. While the job does not sound half that bad, there is something that doesn’t quite click about it. Now, the website features only one Motorola job, and it is for a Senior Manager, User Experience Design. So what could all this mean? Either that Motorola removed the add in the meantime, or that it never existed in the first place.Either way, provided the rumors are true, this could mean that Motorola is really into developing a strong competitor for HTC's G1, since social networking is becoming a more important part in the 3G mobile world.

Furthermore, seeing how the company has not been on a winning streak as of late, having to deal with several financial issues, developing a blockbuster device would only seem the right direction to take. Let's not forget that Motorola was one of the original partners of the Open Handset Alliance, which is behind the open-source mobile OS, the Android platform.