Atom-powered smartphone will run Windows 7 or 8

In Technology has announced a smartphone that will run Windows 7 or Windows 8 on a 1.6GHz x86 processor. The "xpPhone 2" has a 4.3-inch screen, 2GB of RAM, up to 112G of SSD (solid state disk storage), and 18.5 hours' talk time, the company says.
In Technology should be familiar to loyal readers, because the Chinese company previously offered an xpPhone device that ran Windows Embedded Standard 2009 on an AMD processor. This handset was said to have begun shipping last November, but we've never seen one in the wild or read a review.

Now, in a rambling press release that touts itself as "China Apple," In Technology has provided images and brief specifications of a successor. The xpPhone 2 will feature an unspecified 1.6GHz processor -- an Engadget report claims it's an Intel Atom Z530 -- and be capable of running either Windows 7 or Windows 8, the company claims.

As well as being a phone, the xpPhone 2 will essentially be the "smallest notebook PC in the world," measuring 5.5 x 2.9 x 0.68 inches, In Technology claims. Indeed, that's smaller than the Loox F-07C, a similarly Atom-powered phone Fujitsu shipped in July.

Like the Fujitsu phone, the xpPhone 2 has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. As pictured below, it can be used -- with a suitable forest of cable adapters -- as a desktop PC.

The xpPhone 2 being used as a desktop PC

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According to In Technology, the xpPhone 2 will feature 2GB of RAM and up to 112GB of SSD storage. Resolution of the 4.3-inch screen wasn't specified, but we're guessing it won't reach as high as 1024 x 768 pixels (which is the minimum required to run Windows 8 Metro-style apps, according to Microsoft).

In Technology pictured the xpPhone 2 being used as an in-car navigation device, suggesting that it will include a GPS receiver in addition to its cellular radio. We could not find a claim regarding the phone's weight or battery size, but the company says the device will provide 18.5 hours of talk time and 46 days of standby.

Background

In Technology's original xpPhone (pictured) had an extended gestation period. The device was first revealed in July 2009, and the company started accepting unpriced pre-orders in September of the same year.

In an apparent attempt to allay suspicions that the phone was merely vaporware, In Technology emailed WindowsForDevices.com in December 2009 with a video showing the device booting Windows XP. The company contacted us again in May 2010 with new photos (plus the videos embedded at the end of this story), noting that the device had been switched from the originally mooted Windows XP to Windows Embedded Standard 2009.

In Technology's website claimed last November that the xpPhone was on sale at last. With Windows Embedded Standard 2009 but "without 3G," it went for a not-inconsiderable $732, while a 3G version was $798. (Oddly, a version with only DOS was also cited, priced at $666.)

The xpPhone shown with a Motorola Droid smartphone
(Click either to enlarge)

The device wasn't exactly pocket-size, as the photo above discloses. The phone measured 6.88 x 3.3 x 1 inches (175 x 84 x 25.5mm) and weighs 12.1 ounces (345g), In Technology says.

According to In Technology, the xpPhone offered an AMD processor described only as a "Super Mobile" CPU, with 512MB of RAM, plus 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of SSD (solid state disk) storage. The company claimed that its patented technology allows incoming phone calls or SMS messages to bring the operating system out of standby, though no word was provided on whether the xpPhone is compatible with push e-mail.

According to In Technology, the xpPhone included 802.11b/g wireless networking and Bluetooth, while its cellular radio was capable of supporting both GSM and CDMA networks. Users could download data using either HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access), HSUPA (high speed uplink packet access), or EVDO, the company added, listing AT&T, Orange, and Vodafone as networks the device is compatible with.

The xpPhone has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard
(Click to enlarge)

A removable, 2150mAh lithium-ion battery was claimed to power the xpPhone for about five hours of talk time, about seven hours of typical application usage, and a maximum of 12 hours. Meanwhile, the device has a 4.8-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen display and a slideout QWERTY keyboard.


Ports on the xpPhone
(Click to enlarge)

Features and specifications listed by In Technology for the xpPhone included the following:

Processor -- AMD "Super Mobile"
Memory -- 512MB of RAM
Storage -- 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB SSD
Display -- 4.8-inch touchscreen display with 800 x 480 resolution
Cameras -- VGA-resolution for videoconferencing, and 1.3 megapixel main camera
Keyboard -- Slide-out QWERTY keyboard with separate numeric keypad
Wireless:
WAN -- GSM/GRPS/EDGE/WCDMA, CDMA/EV-DO, TD-SCDMA
LAN -- 802.11b/g
PAN -- Bluetooth
GPS
Other I/O:
1 x USB 2.0 host
1 x USB device
Microphone and earphone jacks
Docking connector with VGA output
Expansion -- SIM slot
Battery life:
Talk time -- 5 hours
Standby time -- about 5 days
Windows XP application usage -- from 7 to 12 hours
Dimensions -- 6.88 x 3.3 x 1 inches (175 x 84 x 25.5mm)
Weight -- 12.1 ounces (345g).

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Windows 8 Update: OS gets friendly with Linux

Microsoft works out rift with Linux community over dual boot issue; video efficiency; latest on Windows RT

s initial boot security for Windows 8 made it hard to start other operating systems on Win8 machines, but the company has worked out a way for Linux and other OSes to clear the secure boot sequence on such devices.

The secure boot, called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), requires a key for the boot firmware to hand off to the operating system, the idea being to make sure the operating system isn't corrupt.

Microsoft's initial UEFI implementation was restrictive by making it difficult for non-Windows operating systems to get their keys included in the firmware, says Tim Burke, vice president of Linux engineering for Red Hat, in a blog. But that's all been cleared up with some cooperation among interested parties, he says.

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Linus Torvalds
Now the keys can be registered via Microsoft key signing and registry services for $99. That way participating vendors can get their keys accepted by the machines so their OSes will boot. "I'm certainly not a huge UEFI fan, but at the same time I see why you might want to have signed bootup etc," Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds (pictured) is quoted as saying in the ZDNet Linux and Open Source blog. "And if it's only $99 to get a key for Fedora, I don't see what the huge deal is."
Power sipping video hardware

Windows 8-certified hardware will offload video decoding to a hardware subsystem, according to the Building Windows 8 blog.

"This allows us to significantly lower CPU usage, resulting in smoother video playback and a longer battery life, as the dedicated media hardware is much more efficient than the CPU at media decoding," Scott Manchester, group program manager for Microsoft's Media Platform and Technologies team, writes in the blog. "This improves all scenarios that require video decoding, including playback, transcoding, encoding, and capture scenarios."

A chart in the blog (below) indicates the hardware will call for a half to a third of the CPUs needed by Windows 7 for the same video tasks.

Chrome for Metro
Google's Chrome browser is getting tuned up to support Windows 8 in both desktop and Metro modes. Presumably, it won't be much challenge to get the browser to run in desktop mode since Microsoft says any app that run on Windows 7 runs on Windows 8.

But it's a little more challenging to fit it out to handle Metro and all its touch features. The company has been working on it since March, and says, "Over the next few months, we'll be smoothing out the UI on Metro and improving touch support, so please feel free to file bugs."

Samples of the browser will be available with the next Chrome Dev channel release, but the company doesn't say when that is. It also takes the opportunity to restate it's complaint that Chrome is banned from Windows RT, the ARM version of Windows 8 "Chrome won't run in WinRT, i.e. Windows 8 on ARM processors, as Microsoft is not allowing browsers other than Internet Explorer on the platform," Google says.

Qualcomm is down with Windows RT
Qaulcomm says it is making ARM chips designed for Windows RT devices -- the Windows 8 combo of operating system, limited Microsoft Office and hardware that won't run x86 applications. The chips are called Snapdragon S4 Pro.

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Exam 70-681 TS: Deploying Windows 7 and Office 2010
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Exam 70-624 TS: Deploying and Maintaining Windows Vista Client and 2007 Microsoft Office System Desktops (retired)

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