Back at IDF in September we heard a lot about how Intel would be bringing an app store to Windows and Moblin-based netbooks. The Apps store is due to launch early in 2010 but if you want to get a head start on writing apps for a potential 30 Million plus customers (!) then today is your day. The software development kit has arrived.

The goal of the Intel® Atomâ„¢ Developer Program Software Development Kit (SDK) is to provide programming framework and libraries that enables the interaction with the Intel® Atomâ„¢ Developer Program processes and infrastructure.

The SDK (available here) allows you to program in either C (on Moblin) or C or C++ on Windows.

I’ve written a lot about the IADP on MIDMoves so check this article out (and this one) to find out the IADP and about how to win prizes that include an all-expenses-paid trip to CES!

Intel have set up a big range of resources that you can use too.

• Participate in the new Intel Atom Developer Program SDK Forum.
• Subscribe to the Intel Atom Developer Program Blogs.
• Follow us on Twitter @develop4atom and @intelsoftware
• Join the Intel Atom Developer Program Facebook Fan Page.
• Join the Moblin.org Facebook Group or Moblin.org Facebook Fanpage.
• Watch our Videos on YouTube: http://bit.ly/AtomAppVids and on the Intel Atom Developer Site.
• Follow the IADP Community Manager on Twitter. @mungara

And don’t forget one of the most important aspects about Moblin During 2010 you will see the platform extended to handhelds too. The potential market for Moblin is rather large!

Fennec is Mozilla’s mobile device browser. They have been working on it for some time. Last time I looked at Fennec on the VAIO UX, it was in beta 1. They’ve moved on to beta 3 now and I gave it a quick test on the Viliv S7:

If you’d like to give Fennec a try on your own device, you can download beta 3 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Windows Mobile, and Maemo (the WM version is still in Alpha 3).

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

In the same way that Google Wave is being designed, in a way, to represent what email would look like if it were invented today, Google’s just announced operating system is Google’s attempt to re-think what operating systems should be. Google says that the operating systems that we use today were fundamentally developed before the consumer web was around, and thus aren’t conducive to the activities and goals of computer usage that is expected in this day and age.

The Google Chrome OS, which is set to be released on netbooks in the second half of 2010, is an open source operating system that will run on both x86 and ARM based architectures, and Google hopes to initially target netbooks, but the OS will definitely be used elsewhere as well.

As the name implies, the Google Chrome OS is going to be like booting right into a browser in just a few seconds. This puts Google’s suite of web applications in a favorable position as Google brings more and more users into the cloud. Google also makes the point that developers who create new web applications will be developing for the largest computing platform, as web apps based on web standards will run in any browser, giving that application access to a user-base which extends to Mac, PC, and further.

In case it wasn’t clear, the Google Chrome OS will be completely free, and open-sourced later this year so that the open-source community can contribute to the project. We mentioned that the Google Chrome OS will start showing up on netbooks in the second half of 2010; Google says they are working with a number of technology companies to bring Chrome OS equipped devices to market, including: Acer, Adobe, Asus, Freescale, HP, Lenovo, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments.

Google seems to be very transparent about this project, as it seems to benefit consumers enormously. Consumers are going to get a quick booting, free OS. Netbook and other hardware producers have a solid choice in a free open-source OS which means consumers won’t have other OS license fees passed on to them. Additionally all of this is going to create good competition in the instant booting OS space, which means innovation and better products.

Read the official announcement from the official Google blog.

You may have seen the Viliv S5 navigation demo from the guys over at Streetdeck recently; now it’s the Viliv X70’s turn. The X70 [Portal page] is larger than the S5 [Portal page], and has integrated GPS as well as 3G data. That means that everything needed to run the great looking Streetdeck software is already under the hood. With the car kit that Viliv has made for the X70 and the Streetdeck software, it looks like the X70 could work wonders as a navigation device. The power of using a full fledged PC as your navigation unit really shows over that of a simple dedicated GPS device. As you watch the demo below, take a look at the map as Chuck drives the car around. You can practically watch the map turn in real time as the car turns. Most of us using dedicated GPS devices are probably used to seeing the screen update every one or two seconds. With the X70’s relatively huge screen, you can bet that it will be easy to operate the Streetdeck interface and see all of the necessary navigational information. Take a look at the video below, the first few mins are a short overview of the device and car kit; the in-car demo starts at 6:30.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the prospect of Android being employed full time as a netbook OS. It looks like Acer is taking one of the first big steps and officially stating that they will bring an Android running netbook to market in Q3 according to Acer’s head of IT products, Jim Wong. Acer has been showing an Acer Aspire One D250 [Portal page] around at Computex with Android as the OS. They are saying that this isn’t the actual product, but just a test platform. And that of course would leave one to believe that they won’t just be releasing one of their previous netbooks with Android as an OS option, but instead be developing a new netbook specifically for the inclusion of Android.

I still can’t quite see the major appeal to running Android on a netbook instead of a more mature computer OS. I’m sure costs factor into the equation; maybe Android is cheap and requires little configuration from the selling companies end, but then again, wasn’t that what they were trying for with Linux? Would you buy an Android powered netbook given the choice between Android and XP (or even Linux)? Let’s say that choosing Android saves $100….

[Register Hardware] [Engadget] (additional pics and video through the Engadget read link)

I’ve been eagerly awaiting information on the upcoming Jolicloud OS and finally we can see what this cloud oriented OS brings to the table.

Sascha has a great video of the Jolicloud alpha over at Netbooknews.com. The 14 minute video gives a very nice overview of Jolicloud, which Sascha is calling a ‘social OS’. I have to agree that Jolicloud looks like it is much more than just another Linux distro with a netbook orientation. They are really bringing the concept of cloud computing into the OS itself. One of the thing that I find most interesting is that all of your settings are essentially stored in the web an synced between any devices that you own running Jolicloud. I’m not entirely sure if it works like this yet, but it seems that you might be able to sit down to a friends computer that is running Jolicloud, log in, and be looking at the exact configuration that you would be if you were using you own computer. Head over to Sascha’s site to see the video overview of Jolicloud, and don’t forget to swing by Jolicloud.com and enter your email address if you are looking for an invite to the Jolicloud alpha.

I stumbled across an interesting looking little program called GMA Booster while browsing the MicroPCTalk forums.

Apparently devices which have 945GM/GME/GMS/GSE or 943/940GML/GU Express chipsets are ULV versions of what is normally called the Intel 945 chipset (and can be found in many of the netbooks and UMPCs out there today), and they all feature the same GMA 950 graphics, but for the ULV chipsets, GMA 950 is underclocked to help improve battery life among other things.

A nifty little app called GMA Booster (website no longer exists) steps the GMA 950 graphics back up from 133/166 MHz, to the level that is found in non-ULV version of Intel 945, 400MHz. The nice thing about this is that it seems to be a simple instruction set sent to the chipset; it doesn’t change any voltage levels, and isn’t pushing the clock speed higher than it is designed to go, just up to its regular level.

Interested in knowing if your UMPC/Netbook/MID uses GMA 950 and could benefit from GMA Booster? Just hit up the Portal and navigate to your device, check the Graphics category on your device’s Portal page to see if it uses GMA 950.

I tested GMA Booster on my VAIO UX180 and the HP Mini 1000 [Portal page] to see what difference GMA Booster could make. I ran Crystal Mark and compared the graphical test scores before and after using GMA Booster to push the graphical core up to 400MHz.

Sony VAIO UX180

HP Mini 1000

As you can see, using GMA Booster to put GMA 950 up to 400MHz increased the graphical performance (as rated by Crystal Mark) by a little more than 20% on both devices. While 20% isn’t huge, I think it could be noticeable depending upon what you are doing on your device. It probably won’t translate to a direct 20% performance increase in the graphical applications that you are using as there is more that factors into graphical rendering, but again it could help the performance. Other benchmark programs which more specifically rate graphics capabilities might note a bigger improvement in scores.

GMA Booster is ‘donerware’ as the dev calls it. It is basically free, but you need to download it again after a week to keep using it. If you donate you will receive a serial number to alleviate that hassle.

Download GMA Booster

If you do venture out and give GMA Booster a try, why not comment here and letting us know how it works with your device?