<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
On 09/04/2011 02:50 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAPweEDwQBJf0s11uz6AsDhfO-0hgtopypfXACk0hADuOFXbFWw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">"Amazon's not the only big-name company planning on a budget-level
tablet release; Lenovo recently announced their Ideapad A1 tablet as
competition. It includes a 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, along with other
features more commonly seen on higher-priced tablets, such as dual
cameras, bluetooth, GPS, wifi, and a MicroSD slot. Is this the start
of the Android tablet price avalanche?"
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/09/04/1439221/Lenovo-To-Offer-200-Budget-Tablet">http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/09/04/1439221/Lenovo-To-Offer-200-Budget-Tablet</a>
so it begins...
</pre>
</blockquote>
Archos Arnova 7 Android 2.2 tablet will be priced at US$99<br>
ARM Cortex A8 1 GHz<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.gizmag.com/archos-arnova-7-tablet/19016/">http://www.gizmag.com/archos-arnova-7-tablet/19016/</a><br>
<br>
another low cost tablet, Rockchip A8 (no open docs) Archos Arnova 8
G2 <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.slashgear.com/archos-arnova-8-g2-android-tablet-seen-at-fcc-07170114/">http://www.slashgear.com/archos-arnova-8-g2-android-tablet-seen-at-fcc-07170114/</a><br>
<br>
Ramos W10 Amlogic cortex a9 (no open docs), 7.0" <font
id="ECS_GOODS_AMOUNT" class="shop1">$149.99</font><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.androidauthority.com/best-cheap-android-tablet-for-games-2011-16502/">http://www.androidauthority.com/best-cheap-android-tablet-for-games-2011-16502/</a><br>
<br>
The prices have been falling for the past year along with being even
more locked down. The docs have also been closing for the past 2
years.<br>
<br>
Without open docs for the ARM SOC's it's difficult to develop open
firmware (coreboot or u-boot). There are some hacks to clone closed
firmware or projects like <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://kexecboot.org">http://kexecboot.org</a> to work around being
locked into a kernel and boot source. But how do you keep the device
free from malware in the firmware (hardware init and bootloader)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11372">http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11372</a> , tracking or closed
firmware, etc? <br>
<br>
Somebody reversed some of the firmware used in the Asus Transformer
since Asus had used the Secure Boot Key in the tegra2.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://androidroot.mobi/technical/tf-secure-boot-key/">http://androidroot.mobi/technical/tf-secure-boot-key/</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://tabletroms.com/index.php/2011/06/08/asus-transformer-secure-boot-key-leaked/">http://tabletroms.com/index.php/2011/06/08/asus-transformer-secure-boot-key-leaked/</a><br>
<br>
About a month or so later Asus changed their secure-boot-key. Is
this the mess we want to deal with? If we want to build open designs
we need devices with open docs. TI might be the only vendor with
cortex a8 devices and newer with at least partially open docs.<br>
<br>
-Bari<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>