Meet:Mobility Podcast 45 is now available. Streamed live (meetmobility.com/live) on 12th March 2010 with special guest Charbax (Twitter, ARMDevices.net)

In the podcast we talk about the mobile computing highlights of CeBIT including the Archos 7, four convertible netbooks, the new Atom processors and ION GPU options and much more.

Full show notes and links to download/listen are at Meet:Mobility

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® Atomâ„¢ 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 Dalvik 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 Dalvik Turbo which is an optimised version of the Dalvik 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 ultra mobile PC 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 inch 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 inch 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.

Meet:Mobility Podcast 36 is available. 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.

Update. The first iPad was launched April 3, 2010.