In a call with Intel last Friday we heard about a ‘Million Dollar Development Fund’ which should be officially  launching right about now. (Should appear here.)

The fund is aimed at reducing the challenges that developers might have in developing for the Intel Atom Developer Program and it appears to be another part in an ongoing effort to seed the developer program.

The goal of the fund is to help accelerate innovation of software applications for Intel® Atom™ processor-based products, starting with netbooks and eventually supporting a variety of consumer electronics, including smartphones. With the netbook market segment set to grow from 35 million in 2009 to 139 million in 2013*, this new fund is designed to open up new opportunities for developers and independent software companies worldwide.

The Intel Atom Developer Program Million Dollar Development Fund represents Intel’s global commitment to support innovation by developers and software companies. The fund will be available to individual and student developers, as well as small, medium and large software companies to support the creation of new compelling applications and netbook user experiences. Hardware and financial aid also will be available to developers with the objective of reducing barrier to entry for new application development and accelerating time to market.

The first three elements of the development fund are available now with more to be announced over the coming months.

• Fast Track 2010: Developers want quick revenue and increased visibility. For 250 selected validated applications submitted between March 1-31, 2010, the developer or software company will receive $500. Talk about fast revenue!

• Download 2010: Revenue from one download is nice, but how about maximizing it? For 100 selected validated applications submitted between March 1-31, 2010, Intel will add to a developer or software company’s revenue on the Intel AppUp Center for 4 months (even for free apps).

• The Intel Atom Developer Challenge: This contest offers great prizes and marketing exposure for developers and their applications. Developers can join now at http://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/contest/developerchallenge, and watch for the announcement of more prizes on March 9, 2010.

So that means if even you developer a free app, you’ll get $500 when it’s approved and $2 per download. (Up to a limit of $5K for a free app. $25k for a paid app.)

It’s Windows-only right now but expect further announcements (and we get the feeling that more funds are set-aside) for the Moblin, sorry MeeGo-based app store soon. You should also see third-party app stores being built into OEM netbooks soon so there’s even more change that customers will download your app.

It’s a very interesting move by Intel and proves that applications stores are big business and costing millions and millions to get going. The next stage will be to convince the existing 40 million-plus netbook users to download and install the AppUp Center on their netbooks. Maybe if the apps are worth having, that stage will happen automatically!

What a fantastic start to the year we’ve had at Meet Mobility. First we’re live in Vegas at the Runcore booth and then a few weeks later, we’re running four sessions in Barcelona at the Intel booth at Mobile World Congress. I think I can speak for the whole Meet:Mobility team when I say that joining our individual web forces for podcasts and events has been one of most rewarding and exciting things we’ve done. You can guarantee we’ll be organising more of these events and as I write this, Sascha and JKK are trying to organise something for CeBIT next week so stay tuned.

My favourite session at MWC last week was the 30 minutes we spent with Scott Apeland. Scott is Director of Intel’s Developer Network and was able to answer most of our questions on the Intel Atom Developer Program, the AppUp Center Beta and the MeeGo announcement. The session is split into three parts and is available over at MeetMobility.

I’ve already seen a Dalvic runtime component on a Moblin build running on a netbook (Canonical were working on it and gave a quick glance at Computex last year) but here’s another clear indicator that there’s interest for running Android applications on the Intel Atom CPU.

Myriad have released Dalvic Turbo which is an optimised version of the Dalvic Engine used in Android.

I don’t know about you but wouldn’t it be nice to run all those Android apps on a netbook, on top of your existing Windows or Moblin OS. As long as the runtime offers access to all the components needed (no easy task) there’s no reason why your MID can’t be running a nice mix of desktop and mobile optimised apps giving you the best of both worlds.

This is definitely something I want to see in action and I will try to arrange a chat with Myriad at MWC next week to see exactly what’s possible.

Myriad brings 3x Faster Applications, Richer Game Graphics And Better Battery Life To Android.

We were expecting (a beta release of) Moblin 2.1 for handhelds before end of 2009 but it didn’t turn up. In a search this morning, however, found this. It’s a month old but it’s a build of Moblin for the Poulsbo chipset. Specifically for the Congatec In-Vehicle Infotainment board based on the Z530/Poulsbo. This could be useful for those looking for a slim Linux build for Menlow-based devices.

Sure enough, on my Kohjinsha SK3 it booted but it ended up with a messed up screen resolution. I’m heading out of the door for DevMob 2010 now so don’t have time to test on other devices so if any of you out there have time, let us know how it goes for your Menlow-based device.

The article mentions a full release in early Q1. So right about NOW then!

Any Moblin team members out there care to update us on final release details?

2.1 IVI FC release | moblin.org.

The N450 is the new Intel Atom-based chip that will be used for ‘Pineview’ netbooks in 2010. Many of you have heard about the new ‘leaked’ netbooks over the last few weeks and although it’s focused at netbooks, we think there is some scope for some relatively powerful UMPC designs using the N400-series silicon. To that end, we’ve been following the news closely.

The N450 integrates the GPU and CPU on the same die and there have been some questions over the capabilities, especially in the area of video decoding. The technical documents that are now available make it clear. There is no H.264 or WMV decoding on board and no support for digital monitor outputs. MPEG2 decoding is supported (useful for DVB and DVD standards) but that’s about it for video. So its certainly not a GMA500 core. It’s Intel technology through and through.

One thing we can clearly state now is that you won’t be watching HD-quality Flash videos on a standard netbook. Even when Flash 10.1 is released, there’s simply no decoding hardware for it to use. This leaves a big gap for Nvidia and Broadcom although if Intel get their act together with Moblin, the higher-clockrate Z200 Z500 series CPUs might be an option for video-focused netbooks.

For all the technical details, check out the N400-series PDF here.

New information released by Intel today includes release date, sizing and power efficiency details. There’s still no information on the GPU and the CPU is largely unchanged.  Don’t expect major real-world improvements.

It seems like we’ve known about Pinetrail for a while but at least most of the details are being confirmed in the latest Intel Press Release now.

You’re going to see a lot of news about this over the next few weeks and an incredible amount of hype through netbook-related PR as companies combine this new platform with Windows 7 and a CES launch to try and sell you a completely new netbook experience that it likely to be similar to the last one.

The new Atom N450 CPU with integrated GPU and memory controller runs at 1.66Ghz with 512K of Level 2 cache.  Memory bus speed goes up to 667 Mhz from 533Mhz but what does it really mean?

Power.

This is the keyword you’re likely to hear the most. Power means two things. 1) Power usage. 2) Processing power.  According to Intel, average (we assume platform) power usage has been reduced by 20% which means an improvement of 5% or less on a netbook. It’s a minor change. In terms of processing power, expect 10% improvements based on the new memory architecture and a slightly increased bus and clock speed.

Design.

The new Intel Atom netbook platform has been designed to reduce size, allow for easier thermal design and to reduce the cost. By moving from a three-chip solution to a two-chip solution and implementing the graphics core into the same die as the CPU the amount of silicon used is less. Silicon size is down by 60% according to Intel.  Not only will the cost of the platform be less, the cost of designing a netbook around the platform will be less. Designers will not have to include a fan and will have to worry less about passive cooling. Less space is required on the motherboard too.

Cost improvements are not likely to filter through to end-users at this stage so don’t expect any price drops.

HD video.

There is no support for hardware decoded video on the new Intel Atom Netbook Platform meaning that it doesn’t use the GMA500 GPU that we were expecting. Although details have not been confirmed, it is highly likely that the GPU will be the GMA3150 core as seen in some D510 CPU-based motherboard specifications. HD decoding was not included in the previous Intel netbook platform but as internet video becomes more important, we see this as a significant limiting factor for end users.

3D Support

Moving to a new GPU core means new capabilities. Details on the GMA3150 are very thin at the moment but real-world tests using 3Dmark06 indicate similar results as with the GMA950. Some basic support for DX10 is expected.

Target Market.

Indications are that Intel are being very careful to target the Netbook platform well away from their other laptop platforms. Marketing material talks about 7-10.2 screens and an ‘Internet’ focus. Netbook manufacturers are likely to ignore this though and we should see 10-12” devices with a range of features. The Broadcom BCM70012 HD video module and Nvidia ION GPU will be important options and likely to be used for up-selling.

Mobility.

With a TDP of 7W (down from around 14W including chipset) and a much smaller silicon size it should be possible to make some extremely thin and light mobile computers with this solution.  Menlow still retains better power (energy) characteristics and includes HD video support but the cost of the new netbook platform might make it interesting for some 7-10” mobile computing devices running Windows 7 or Moblin. The new platform won’t be interesting for MID development. Moorestown includes better integration and the new ‘power gating’ feature which is needed for always-on operation in the MID world.

Meet:Mobility is a project organised by Sascha Pallenberg of Netbooknews, JKK of JKKMobile.com and myself. We create regular podcasts and vodcasts and join together to cover major events. Be sure to add the podcast to your podcatcher!

Meet:Mobility Podcast 36 is now up. Recorded on Dec 3rd 2009.

JKK, Sascha, Chippy and special guest, Warner Crocker from GottaBeMobile talk about the new Fujitsu Handheld PC, Time Inc’s Tablet concept and the Crunchpad. What happened there? We also tell you how you could win a car with the Intel Atom Developer Program.

All the details including download, itunes link, rss and multi-format streaming link  over at Meet:Mobility

If you are interested in sponsoring the bi-weekly podcast, please contact us.

Meet:Mobility is a project organised by Sascha Pallenberg of Netbooknews, JKK of JKKMobile.com and myself. We create regular podcasts and vodcasts and join together to cover major events. Be sure to add the podcast to your podcatcher!

Meet:Mobility Podcast 36 is now up. Recorded on Dec 3rd 2009.

JKK, Sascha, Chippy and special guest, Warner Crocker from GottaBeMobile talk about the new Fujitsu Handheld PC, Time Inc’s Tablet concept and the Crunchpad. What happened there? We also tell you how you could win a car with the Intel Atom Developer Program.

All the details including download, itunes link, RSS and multi-format streaming link  over at Meet:Mobility

If you are interested in sponsoring the bi-weekly podcast, please contact us.

Intel are going to make my Mifi giveaway (coming up this week) look a little cheap! Read on…

Intel have just announced that the SDK for the Intel Atom Developer Program has reached Beta stage and along with the announcement comes information about how you can now start testing and submitting applications to their program. In order to get things moving, Intel are offering some big big prizes. How about a Smart Car or a $20K vacation? There are 100 netbooks on offer too!

Here’s a quick summary of what’s happening.

• The beta version of the Intel Atom Developer Program Software Development Kit for both Microsoft* Windows (C and C++) and Moblin (C) is now available. The features of the beta SDK include authorization, crash reporting, a consumer store client emulator for testing, license management and revenue management.
• Now that the beta SDK is available, developers can complete the required steps to submit their applications and developer components for validation to be sold through Intel OEM partner app stores starting in 2010.
• Submit early. Win big! Applications submitted by December 21, 2009 are eligible for big incentives.
• Enter the Intel Atom Developer Challenge by February 2, 2010. The first 100 validated applications will receive a tricked out netbook, and the talented developers with the most innovative application & elegant application design will win all-expense-paid “rock star treatment” trip to GDC 2010!

You developers get all the perks. Where’s my old Kernighan and Ritchie book?

More information on the latest news and a ton of information links are available on the information page that has just gone live at Intel.

I should have been in bed but I got hooked into an excellent Gillmor Gang videocast (below) this evening. Robert Scoble, Mike Arrington, P Rangaswami, Kevin Marks, and Saul Hansell talk a lot about the iPhone and Driod war, discuss the differences and then, all of a sudden, at about 39 minutes in, the conversation switches to the Crunchpad.

As I watched, I sent three important tweets out:

• “crunchpad is steamrolling” , “costs keep coming down”. “big news on that shortly” says @arrington
• Crunchpad is going to sell “for something between three and four hundred dollars” , web-only says @arrington
• “soft revenue”, “sponsorships” on Crunchpad. Sounds like ad-supported “without impacting the user experience”

There’s more in the video below.

$300-$400 dollars PLUS advertising (sponsorship) is what everyone will be talking about. For mass-market couch-surfing, that’s too expensive. The Archos Android tablet and iPod Touch have already set the pricing bar (and possibly the sizing) for home-based sofa-surfing devices.

To be fair, I don’t think Mike Arrington expects the Crunchpad to be selling millions and he understands that the home ‘pad’ market is just taking off so this, like many other 1st attempt projects, could be more of a learning and branding exercise than anything else. If you think about how Nokia are playing with their Maemo devices it’s much the same. They are nurturing awareness and developer support for a time when the market is ripe. That could be 2010, 2011 or beyond but you have to be ready to strike when the conditions are ready.

Clearly the Crunchpad is alive, it’s going to cost between 300 and 400 dollars, it’s Atom-based, it’s going to be sponsorship-supported, web-only and we should expect ‘big news’ shortly.

Related recent article from Ben: Slates, slates, they’re everywhere, they’re in the water, they’re in the air

Via: Techcrunch

Talk about being put on the spot! Just hours after the announcement of the Intel Atom Developer Program, Ajay Mungara, the Community Manager for the program, asks me about the type of applications we might see on netbooks, the compelling use cases and a ton of other stuff that really made me think quickly and deeply. 14 minutes of brain-drain! Hope you enjoy it.

And please, let me know what you think of the Intel Atom Developer Program. Do you think it will take off? If not, why not?

There’s a huge amount of information to digest around the announcement of the Intel Atom Development Program, or app-store but at a special lunch meeting with some of the key people in the IADP team I managed to refine what I think is going on here.

In summary you’re looking at Intel setting up a distribution, billing and  validation process for applications that are built to run on Windows and Moblin-based netbooks. Intel expect most of the (currently 19) Moblin distributors to build this into their Moblin-based distributions and on Windows, the system will be available as a downloadable application. It’s early stages for the program but I’m hearing that work on the back-end is well progressed and making an estimate that we’ll see this being fed into Moblin-based netbooks in the first half of 2010.

Key features of the program:

• To be available for Windows and Moblin-based netbooks initially with other Intel architectures being supported at a later date.
• Intel will manage the billing systems.
• Component sharing to allow code segments, engines etc to be shared in a controlled way and including a financial payments system.
• Reputation points. A feedback mechanism that scores developers.
• Validation process. Intel will run an operation that will check for thinks like: clean install, component use, malware, security, network utilization issues, appropriate content. They will not be testing software for bugs.
• Primary use is for binaries (executable programs) rather than source code. Open source sharing will be supported though.
• There will be a lightweight mechanisms for licensing code to restrict use and provide statistics for developers.

Clearly this is a significant step forward for Moblin but also a significant step forward for distribution of Windows applications for netbooks. Intel are saying that the program is not there to generate revenue directly but to enhance the platform and make it more attractive for end users and developers. (Increased product sales.) The revenue split is likely to be 70/30 with the 30% going towards financing the validation process back-end systems and further development.

With tens of millions of Netbooks already out there and tens of millions coming, this is clearly something that developers need to take a closer look at. Moblin is not just for netbooks and as the platform support widens, I would expect this to be available for devices based on the Moorestown platform later in 2010. With one CPU and software architecture running across all of those platforms, from smartphones to laptops, there is a lot of potential for this to rise high on the list of platforms that developers consider when they write mobile and web-focused software.

For more information, see the new app developer website from Intel

There are a number of companies lined up here to present their software and solutions. 4.5 mins per company.

I’ll try and summarise each one here.

1. Navteq

Digital map data provider promoting their developers network. Free sample map data available. API available for location based traffic and advertising.

Also promoting the Global LBS challenge.  Prize pool is $8.2 million in cash and licensing.

2. RX networks. Promoting their GPS-enhancing solutions.

Improving lock-times, indoor performance for mobile devices.

Products:

3.  Dial Plus

Enhancing phone calls with contextual information by using internet channel while you make a voice call.

Pulls in info from chosen social networks and cloud services.

4. Speaktech

Facebook and Twitter app for moblin.

5.  Accuweather.com

Working to provide weather data from 2.7 million locations in 38 languages. Working to get that on Intel MIDs.

6. Fluendo

Developers of Gstreamer open source media framework and codecs.

Have been working to optimise the codecs for Menlow and Moorestown platforms.

7. Discretix

Security applications for MIDs.

8. Aricent.

Independent design house for mobile and consumer devices.

9 Good technology.

Push information technology.

Working with Intel to provide push info/mail/social networking services on Moblin.

10. SNR Labs.

Providing radio control (control of 3G, Wifi etc) for power management and hand-over.  Working with Intel on Moorestown platform.

11 Asianux

Midinux linux solution for MIDs. Midinux 3 is launched.

11 Wind River.

Subsidiary of Intel working on UI development and Moblin 2.0 compliant OS builds.

Live demo of MID UI (video to be added) on Inventec Moorestown MID (first ever public demo)

12 Scalado

Imaging solutions solving issues of picture timing, panoramas, image enhancements. Providing slick gallery and slideshow solutions. Upload and sharing solutions.

13. Ixonos

Software services company for mobile industry.

Also capable of full hardware design of mobile devices.

14 Mobile Sorcery.

Cross-platform development product – MoSync.

15 Axel

Axel provide a single user interface for multiple mobile TV formats. Terrestrial and over Internet.

16. Nuance.

Dragon naturally speaking. Speech technologies.

Demo – Dragon naturally speaking on Linux. (Acer Netbook)

17 – Skyhook.

Hybrid
location service provider. 30-40m accuracy in 2s, 90% of the time.

18 – Maxim.

Designing analogue and mixed-signal ICs. Offering an audio and power solution for Moorestown.

19 – Freescale

Offering audio and power management solutions for MIDs

20 – NEC Electronics

Providing power management ICs for use in Moorestown.

And that’s it for the presentations today.

It’s only an early hands-on of the Archos 9 (they’ve got to get those first articles out quickly these days) but Gizmodo ends up with a positive vibe about the device. No word on battery life, performance or tablet features but there’s a hands-on video walkthrough. (Below)

Read the full story

We first got wind of two Inkia ultra-mobile devices a month ago when we saw a few renderings and some specs but it seems that at least the 5” version has made it through a sample run and out to some bloggers. There’s an English hands-on write up at Shanzai.com

We’re looking at a fairly basic MID here with a 1.1Ghz Atom CPU, 16GB SSD, 1GB RAM and naturally, the ability to run Linux or Windows. The sample price is around $300 which indicates to me that an end-user XP-licensed price of somewhere around $400 should be expected. Note that there’s no 3G in this though. The battery size is 14wh which means it should, given reasonable engineering quality, run for about 3hrs with WiFi on. Weight is 350gm but size-wise it’s still not as slim as most of us would like it. What I really like about it is the optical mouse pointer and buttons. For lazy-man browsing, it’s a must-have!

The big issue here though is the total lack of hardware or software keyboard. Anyone wanting to buy and brand the device for distribution is going to have to think carefully about that. Without a very good on screen keyboard it’s going to struggle to tempt buyers. Maybe a call to the Dial-Key guys at Fortune Fountain is in order!

We’ve added the Inkia 500 to the database.

Be careful how you read this story. Some people are taking it as meaning there will be no more Z-Series; possibly forgeting that there is a Z-series market outside the netbook market.

Only last month, Intel told me that Menlow (the platform that uses the Z-Series CPUs) will continue alongside Moorestown. I understand that this is because Moorestown won’t initially support Windows products and Intel need an offering for the Windows-based ultra mobile market. A small market, yes, but a growing one.

There’s one aspect that we need to consider though. PineTrail could be so close in architecture, size and power requirements to Menlow that PineTrail becomes the platform used for Windows-based ultra mobile devices until Windows-capable Moorestown variants come along in 2010. It seems unlikely though based on what we’ve heard.

All will be answered when I go to  IDF is September though so you don’ t need to worry for too long.

Intel to suspend Atom Z sales to netbook makers, say sources.

Already in my calendar yesterday was a short-notice conference call from Intel. Apparently they have an announcement to make. This morning I woke to see the keywords Intel and Nokia streaming through twitter and google reader. The rumor is that Nokia will be using Intel inside.

I assume this is a Moorestown product win which means it sits alongside the LG announcement for a 2010 product launch If this is true, it’s a really significant step forward for Intel in the Ultra Mobile and smartphone market.

Questions to be asked:

• Is it going to be voice enabled?
• What operating system (Moblin, Maemo or Symbian)
• Are Nokia simply testing the market and technology (in which case i’d expect it to be in a next-gen Nokia tablet rather than a  phone)
• If it’s a tablet, does it mean that the OMAP3-based tablet is scrapped?

The rumor comes from Bloomberg. The press call is at 1130am EST. Expect news on UMPCPortal as at breaks.