IMPORTANT NOTE: this is the nth part of my MWC (Barcelona) report series (a lot more to come!). Of course, I’ll try to cross-post them here too (I couldn’t do so while in Barcelona because of the very slow & expensive Internet connection), but it’ll take a lot of time; in the meantime, feel free to check out the original articles. It’s REALLY worth checking out them: many of them contain info that you won’t ever read anywhere else. Furthermore, some of the more “thematic” articles discuss all the news of a given area (audio encoding, Web browsing, advanced Bluetooth etc.)
MWC Audio Encoding News Roundup; Skype cracked!
MWC: Breaking Sony-Ericsson XPERIA X1 news & pics!
MWC: Bluetooth news: A2DP news & reviews (e.g. Voyager 855); a new BT access point; Nokia’s new DVB-H transmitter
MWC: Web browsing: WebKit, Thunderhawk news; a dedicated Web browser handheld
MWC: the competition: BlackBerry (RIM) and Nokia
MWC: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 to come with WM 6.5?
MWC: a really-really great e-paper & WindowsCE- based (!) phone & reader from Polymer Vision: Readius – the first foldable(!) e-book reader ever
MWC: more S-E Xperia X1 shots & info; it'll be based on the Qualcomm chipset?
MWC: more S-E Xperia X1 info & photos
MWC Report Part I: Opera Mobile 9.5 pics, i-mate, Nokia, MS Press Conference, MSN Direct news etc.
OK, now, to the article:
Samsung
Architecture-wise, it’s without doubt Samsung’s MWC announcement of a brand new, high-end chipset (also having a CPU), the S3C6410 (and its budget version, the S3C6430), that may be the most interesting to Windows Mobile users.
As you may already know, Samsung’s SC3244x (for example, the SC32442 used in the HTC P6300 (HTC Panda), E-Ten’s late 2007/early 2008 models like the X650 and the M800 etc – see the complete list HERE and HERE for the SC32442 and the SC32440, respectively), the chipset used in several current(!) Windows Mobile devices, is REALLY outdated. I’ve shown numerous examples and proofs of this (see for example THIS) - for example, the very bad CPU usage of A2DP (about 50% at 400 MHz) and the complete lack of advanced multimedia (MP3 / AAC) en/decoding support (this is why you can’t, for example, use the high-quality Resco audio codec pack with (old) Samsung CPU’s, as has also been pointed out HERE). These two tasks are all far better handled by any other, current CPU’s like Intel XScales (even the “old” PXA-2XX ones) and TI OMAP’s (again, even the oldest ones used in Windows Mobile 5+ devices). The only real advantage of the SC3244x is the CPU usage-independent power consumption – the other two, above-mentioned architectures can’t boast with this. (See the bottom section of THIS article for a proof.)
Before MWC, as far as their newer chipsets are concerned, only the S3C6400 was known. For example, E-Ten’s brand new, high-end, feature-packed V900 (to be released in April) will have this chipset. (Currently, there’re no other existing/announced devices (see THIS) with this CPU.)
This chipset is the base (the direct predecessor, parent) of the new S3C6410/ S3C6430 models. In this respect, it’s pretty much comparable to the Marvell XScale PXA270 as opposed to the PXA310, let alone the even more feature-rich PXA320.
The just-announced S3C6410, which is an even more advanced version of the S3C6400 , is even better; for example, it supports hardware 3D acceleration. Again, it’s like the PXA310 or the PXA320 compared to the PXA270. Unfortunately, currently, no future devices are known to have it.
(the 3D performance demo of the brand new S3C6410; you can see the S3C6410 flier I’ve also made some shots of here)
(multimedia demo on the older S3C6400)
(HD AX audio decoding demo on the older S3C6400)
(this is how an imaginary device could house the S3C6400)
Note that, currently, the only available online information is the above-linked one. While it does explain the advantages of the new S3C6410 platform over the “old” S3C6400 one, it’s definitely worth checking out their offline brochure I’ve taken a shot of (with my Nokia N95 – man, it DOES have a very nice camera. Hear that, Windows Mobile ODM’s? We want something similar on WM too!) Also note that Samsung’s portal doesn’t have any information on the S3C6430 at all. Finally, note that none of the other portals reporting on MWC have anything else on the new CPU than the above-linked press release (see for example MobileBurn, electronista.com, techon - these are the sites mentioning S3C6410 I could find via Google). That is, it’s in by me that you get a full rundown of the differences between the new CPU’s and the “old” S3C6400.
(again, click the pictures to get a full-resolution, readable one!)
As can clearly be seen, the S3C6410 is a much more advanced version of the S3C6400: it uses 65 nm technology instead of the 90 nm one (most probably resulting in major power and size savings), it has advanced 2D capabilities (for example, H.264 hardware decoding – as is also explained in the online version) and even 3D hardware acceleration. The “budget” S3C6430 seems to be exactly the same as the S3C6410; the only difference seems to be the complete lack of 3D hardware acceleration. Hope we’ll still see the latter (that is, the S3C6410) with proper (!) 3D drivers.
Also see THIS for their roadmap and THIS for a S3C6400 datasheet. Note that these pages only list the “old” S3C6400 and (still) don’t link to anything related to the S3C6410/S3C6430. By the time you read this, however, they may have already added info / links to this new info, though.
The S5L8900
Also note that Samsung has also had another, pretty much mysterious chipset for over a year, the S5L8900. It is, therefore, a year older than the S3C6410/S3C6430 (and is of about the same age as the S3C6400); this may also mean it’s still using the old, 90 nm technology, not the new, 65 nm one. It’s being used in many Apple products (including the iPhone) and only one WindowsCE (NOT Windows Mobile!)-based, announced Meizu M8 miniOne high-resolution phone. Unfortunately, it’s still not out and, again, it’s WindowsCE-based only, meaning NO (hacking-less) compatibility with the vast majority of Windows Mobile programs. You can find a full list of the mobile devices using the S5L8900 HERE.
Interestingly, Samsung’s official pages have absolutely no information on this chipset either – just like the case with the brand new, but, because of the lacking 3D hardware acceleration, not very interesting, “budget” S3C6430.
It’s stated to have a lot of goodies; for example, hardware 3D acceleration (a PowerVR MBX 3D processor). See THIS for more info, links and for some speculations on why Samsung doesn’t even mention it on their homepage.
All in all, way to go Samsung, and DO force hardware ODM’s use your S3C6410 – NOT the old S3C6400 or the budget S3C6430! (For example, could you force E-Ten to switch to S3C6410 from the already-outdated S3C6400?)
Finally, a somewhat unrelated shot of their new, power-saving LCD technology:
Imagination Technologies's stuff (incl. PowerVR)
When discussing the S5L8900 above, I’ve already mentioned the PowerVR 3D hardware accelerator used in the top-secret, only-for-Apple S5L8900 Samsung chipset. Now, let’s see what they have on offer. A LOT!
Note that the PowerVR 3D hardware graphics accelerator is used in several other chipsets; for example, the (advanced) Texas Instruments OMAP2420 chipsets used in the Nokia N93/N95/N82.
They have announced several advanced designs at MWC (see their original press release HERE). The new chipset is about two times faster than the currently available one in, say, the above-mentioned Nokia phones. Therefore, of course, first, I’ve asked them when we’ll see see their latest 3D mobile (low-power) hardware accelerator chipset to appear in mainstreams CPU’s (or CPU architectures) like the above-mentioned TI OMAP 2420 chipset. There isn’t any information on this.
I’ve also asked them on what they think of the Nokia N96 I’ve elaborated earlier on and whether they think its lack of a dedicated 3D accelerator, along with the lack of 3D hardware accelerator support in Next-Gen N-Gage games, means the end of using the PowerVR hardware acceleration technology in Nokia’s highest-end entertainment / multimedia / gaming devices. They consider the N96 a niche product – one that is not really made for gaming fans, but more likely those of watching TV in realtime. They also explained the lack of the 3D acceleration in the N96 is deliberate: Nokia didn’t want to totally cannibalize the N95 8GB (which was only released less than half a year ago) sales. And, I should add, those of the N82 – albeit, the latter phone also has a Xenon flash. All in all, they aren’t afraid of Nokia’s completely stopping releasing 3D-accelerated devices. They have also added that, sooner or later, Next-Gen N-Gage games will also get hardware 3D acceleration support (currently, they’re software-only, which pretty much sucks).
Turning to the question of Windows Mobile, while more and more WinMo models are receiving the more up-to-date TI OMAP chipsets, it still remains to be seen if any of these will have a chipset directly supporting 3D hardware acceleration. They didn’t have any information on this.
Unfortunately, the same stands for their new, mobile H.264 hardware accelerator solution. If you’ve read my H.264 Bible, you know well enough that, currently, no Windows Mobile chipsets support accelerating H.264 playback by doing the decoding in the much more efficient hardware. (Yes, in theory, the new Marvel PXA310 and PXA320 in the iPAQ 110 / 21x Pocket PC’s do – but whether there will be players to utilize this still remains to be seen. Hope the CorePlayer folks indeed manage implementing this.)
Note that they have also shown a 3D demo (still with their old drivers) of a non-3D hardware accelerated Nokia and on an accelerated one. The video can be found for example in THIS pocketgamer.co.uk article. (I’ve also made a video of it, but will only make it available later, when I have some time for transcoding it into high-resolution H.264 to avoid the problems associated with the low resolution of YouTube or Google Video).
Finally, a big-big thanks to the Imagination folks. Being pretty busy at discussing the H.264 issues, I’ve left my highest-end P&S camera (the 12 Mpixel Ixus 960 costing over 530 US$ in Europe) on their booth. When I wandered backwards (still having not realized my camera is missing – I’ve had a ScottVest on me, fully packed with mobile phones and PDA’s and, therefore, I haven’t promptly noticed the missing camera), they came to me and handed my camera back. Great and sincere folks – again, I can’t express my gratitude enough!
Qualcomm
First and foremost, if you’re a user of a HTC-manufactured, Qualcomm-based device like the Kaiser/Tilt, your first question will surely concern the 3D and the graphics drivers. (If you aren’t aware of the issue, just look around HERE, particularly around the sticky threads) Let me elaborate on this question first.
I’ve also spoken to a device manufacturer (an ODM). Their name must remain unknown (upon their request). They have a pretty nice (albeit QVGA) device with all the necessary (wireless & connectivity) goodies and is built on the current Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset (the one that lacks the 3D / real display driver in HTC’s current devices). They stated – XDA-Developers folks (and anyone else wanting a proper video / 3D driver for their Qualcomm devices), attention! – it’s in no way impossible to create a 3D driver for it. Some of the framework has already been produced but they have to work on the drivers too. We’ll see the results pretty soon, if the hardware manufacturer in question indeed manages to ready the driver before their deadline – which will be before the XPERIA X1’s release (or the Kaiser’s getting outdated). This also means that, should they manage to create a driver, the XDA-Devs hacks will have a decent source to get the already-written driver from – at last.
I’ve also talked to the Qualcomm folks themselves about the driver issues with HTC-manufactured devices. They didn’t want (read: refused) to comment on anything (pretty much understandably).
New Qualcomm chipset?
Of course, I’ve also spoken to the Qualcomm folks on whether they have anything to announce as, right before MWC, I’ve heard of their releasing a supposedly new chipset, running at 560 MHz and having a lot of advanced features compared to their current MSM7200. The MSM7200A (notice the trailing “A”) might not be the chipset in question because it “only” runs at 528 MHz (as has been also explained HERE). Unfortunately, the person in charge of answering questions like this wasn’t present so we’ll need to e-mail each other; I fill you in as soon as I receive some new info.
MWC: Chipset Vendors & New Chipsets - Part II has been posted to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1980944
Related
This CPU, as opposed to the earlier, PXA-270 series, is pretty much a step ahead. Now that I’ve praised (at least) the specs (3D acceleration, HSDPA, GPS etc.) of the new Qualcomm MSM7200 (SoC) chipset, let’s see what the competition (mostly Marvell (ex-Intel), but also Texas Instruments (TI)) offers.
You may already have read THIS PPCT thread and the highly recommended Marvell XScale PXA3xx Application Processors Tech Report, which is probably the best article on the new architecture. Therefore, I only elaborate on the news (read at least the latter article for a complete overview and background); what is planned and what new devices (will) have the new CPU’s (which isn't explained in the article).
While the new Monahan platform still doesn’t support 3D acceleration, GPS and built-in cellular phone support (unlike the Qualcomm chipset – and, of course, with TI’s CPU’s, phoning / non-3G cellular data capabilities), it has some great news; for example, in cases, much better performance and, what is even more important, hardware support for video decoding. The latter includes even support for H.264, the, without doubt, best, current, compressed video format. So far, this (except for hardware support for H.264 – the Intel 2700G doesn’t support H.264, which also means video players must use the far less efficient CPU to decode H.264 and can’t just rely on the 2700G to do this) has only been available to users of PDA’s based on Intel 2700G’s (that is, the Dell Axim x50v / x51v models and nothing else) – not even to users of the GoForce 5500-based PDA’s (the video acceleration capabilities of which, currently, isn’t supported by any video / multimedia player and it’s only later that it might receive support in CorePlayer as is also explained HERE); for example, the O2 XDA Flame.
Note that PPCT / CoreCodec forum member sonichedgehog360 has posted a decent overview of the new CPU HERE – worth a read because it has some new info, along with links, on the capabilities of the new platform.
Multimedia playback acceleration– will it indeed be supported?
Why would you need hardware acceleration support, in the first place? The explanation is simple: if the hardware supports video decoding, you can save a LOT of CPU (and, therefore, battery life). However, not all hardware solutions support all (popular) video formats and, even worse, even if the hardware supports video decoding, the players may not be able to use it. In the following section, I elaborate on all these issues.
Hardware video playback support is completely useless if the multimedia player software itself doesn’t support the hardware (that is, doesn’t explicitly call its functions). This is why you won’t see any CPU usage difference and/or won’t be able to underclock to 208 MHz your Intel 2700G-based Dell Axim x50v/x51v if your player doesn’t explicitly use the 2700G to decode video when playing back traditional DivX videos. The player must have explicit hardware support for the chipset. This can be more problematic than one would think.
As far as the current versions of multimedia players are concerned, currently, it’s only the “old” Intel 2700G (that is, the x50v/x51v) that is natively supported by TCPMP / CorePlayer (the two best video player apps). As far as the (pretty rarely used – now, it’s only the O2 XDA Flame that uses it) GoForce 5500 chip is concerned, as is also explained in my Flame article, CorePlayer will only receive support for it in the not very near future, if at all – as of version 1.4, 1.5 or 1.6 (currently, CorePlayer is still at version 1.1). Hopefully both the new Marvell PXA-3x0 and the Qualcomm MSM7200, both much more widely used than the GoForce 5500, will receive support earlier and with much more probability.
The current situation?
Note that, currently, many recent (!), 2007 Windows Mobile models, even flagship ones, are based on the older, much less capable Intel PXA-27x-series CPU. Most important examples of these are the HTC Advantage X7500 / X7501 (HTC Athena), the current flagship model of HTC, the O2 XDA Flame and all the forthcoming I-Mate Ultimate models (see links HERE). I-mate's sticking to the old, outdated architecture in their still future(!), not-released models is a big letdown and, therefore, I wouldn't really recommend these devices to any geeks or power users. These models, despite being pretty new (the X7500 and the Flame was released in March and May, respectively, and, again, the I-Mate devices will only be released later this year), are still based on the old, PXA-270 XScale CPU. It’s only with (some) future models (most importantly, the HP iPAQ 210) that the new platform will be used. Hence, if you need decent, flawless (no dropped frames), preferably high-resolution (VGA) H.264 video playback without your video player chewing through your battery, you might want to wait for the iPAQ 210 - or any other, PXA-310-based Windows Mobile phone instead of, say, going for the X7500 or waiting for the new I-Mate models. You might also want to prefer devices with the Qualcomm chipset – it is also vastly superior to the old, PXA-270 architecture, (also) video playback wise (see the description of Qtv HERE). Note that CorePlayer doesn't seem to support the latter.
Other articles / threads
Marvell chips could speed mobile Web browsing (alternate source)
Marvell brings former Intel Monahans to market
Related CorePlayer.com threads: 1 2
UPDATE (10/01/2007): thanks to HowardForums forum member Malkatraz for pointing me in the direction of the FCC photos of the forthcoming I-Mate Ultimate devices, I've found out some of them will also have the GoForce 5500 accelerator chip. This might mean, particularly if the I-Mate Ultimate series becomes a success in Europe / the U.S., that GoForce 5500 support will be added to CorePlayer - and to existing / forthcoming 3D accelerated titles (games, emulators, demos). (Don't forget that, right now, very few originally 2700G-optimized games/emulators support the GoForce 5500 - see their list in my original XDA Flame article.) This also mean the I-Mate Ultimate series (or, at least the ones with the GoForce 5500) isn't that bad a choice as I've originally thought as, at least, they are equipped with a 3D accelerator / video decoder. Let's see how they fare against the HTC Omni, the future HTC offering I'm waiting for the most - hope I-Mate does offer a decent alternative to the Omni.
Also, a big thanks goes to Firstloox forum member D LMC for pointing out the Toshiba G900 also seems to have a GoForce 5500 (it's not listed in either the official specs or PDAdb.net). Opinions, however, differ on whether it's working at all. See THIS for more info.
As you may already have noticed, I've been promoting the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset-based handsets not only because of their, compared to the alternative chipsets / processors, more advanced features; for example, the pretty good, albeit a bit worse than now industry-standard SiRFstarIII GPS, HSPA support built-in; speed advantage over most other CPU's; being ARM11-based etc. But also because of their three-dimensional (3D) graphics and multimedia decoding acceleration support.
3D acceleration is a MUST for both running (yes, you've guessed) 3D games, some emulators (for example, Tala's SNES, PocketGBA or some arcade emulators - see my emulation-related articles). Multimedia decoding, in general, also means MPEG video decoding support, which, through the much lower CPU usage, may result in drastic battery life increase. A perfect example of this is decoding non-H.264 (unfortunately, decoding H.264 isn't supported by the 2700G) video on the Intel 2700G-based Dell Axim x50v and x51v. Enabling the explicit 2700G support inside TCPMP (or CorePlayer) results in the possibility of drastically underclocking the PDA. Typically, a full-res (PAL / NTSC) AVI file can be played back underclocked to 208 MHz, as opposed to 624 MHz, which the handheld would constantly run at when only using software-only decoding. This means a GREATLY enhanced battery life.
The developers of CorePlayer (the premiere video player for all(!!) mobile platforms (yes, even the iPhone will be supported!!) have announced they would look into the problem. BTW, they also promise support for the GoForce 5500 already available in the O2 XDA Flame, the Toshiba G900 and some forthcoming i-Mate PDA’s. Also, they promise support for the 3D accelerator in the Nokia E90 / N93(i) / N95, the S-E P990 / M600 / W950 / P1 / W960 and the Moto Z8.
Unfortunately, currently, it seems at least the HTC Kaiser (a.k.a. AT&T Tilt) doesn’t support any kind of hardware acceleration. Currently, all it does is software-only acceleration not taking advantage of the built-in hardware support at all.
This is certainly bad news. We can only hope either Qualcomm or HTC enables the access of the 3D accelerator to applications.
In the above-linked thread, I’ve asked the XDA-Devs folks to post (as I’ve also did with the O2 XDA Flame ones) to test whether ANY of the games / emulators listed as 3D accelerator-capable (see their list in the already-linked Flame article) run and make use of the 3D acceleration. (No need to test the multimedia decoding: I already know it doesn’t work).
If you do have a Qualcomm-based handset (in addition to the Kaiser, for example, the HTC s730) and would like to contribute to enabling 3D / multimedia support, make sure you join us HERE to share your experience.
Finally, if you work for Qualcomm and/or HTC, please PLEASE do something to cure these problems. A major selling point of the Kaiser (or, for that matter, ANY Qualcomm-based Windows Mobile handset) is the (promised) 3D and multimedia decoding support. We DO need it. We DO want to run 3D games, we DO want to have multimedia (video) players NOT chewing through our batteries, we DO want to run emulators at a decent speed. Do look at Nokia and Sony-Ericsson. They’ve been using 3D accelerators in their models for quite some time and they DO support it via both native and Java apps.
Thanks for stepping in, Menneisyys, maybe now someone will take us seriously.
I've been complaining about this for quite some time here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=339173, here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=339745 and here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1642248.
Oh, and not only there's no hardware support, but i can't even run the DirectX Samples on my Kaiser, the Caps say it supports backbuffer, so the samples try to run, but later there's no backbuffer and you always see the frontbuffer on the screen. At least say backbuffer not supported, don't lie like that !!!
Oh, and don't even get me started on how crippled the Qualcomm in the Kaiser is hardware-wise : no USB OTG (MSM7200 supports USB host) and no TV-OUT (chip supports this too).
They will never read the petition. WE must send emails to their support department requesting a fix.
Regards,
Taguapire.
1. App news / rebates:
a. (still a preview, but still much more advanced than version 1.1.3 released a month ago) CorePlayer 1.2, finally, released for Windows Mobile. See THIS for more info. The Symbian version, as opposed to what was announced a month ago (then, the CoreCodec folks only promised a Windows Mobile release for February), seems to hit the shelves very soon too - see THIS thread. It, among other things, promises hardware acceleration. I'm really looking forward to the dramatic speed / efficiency increase this could mean on current high-end Nokias like the N95 using the latest TI OMAP & PowerVR-based chipsets.
b. ALL of VITO Technology's products are available for $7 (!!) only: go purchase them while the offer lasts! (I'm pretty unlucky, it seems: it was just before MWC that I purchased their AudioNotes for Symbian S60v3 for some $25... should I have known this GREAT rebate beforehand... )
2. Gaming & emulation news:
a. Creatonia made free!
Insenic, who, in the past, have already made two of their previously commercial titles free, decided to do the same to their pretty nice RPG title Creatonia. While the biggest problems (for example, the lack of in-game music, the dull graphics etc.) are still present, it's really worth getting for free. See THIS for a review (frontpaged on several sites).
b. a new version of Commodore 64 emulator for both the MS Smartphone (WM6 Standard) and Pocket PC (WM6 Pro / Classic) platform, PocketHobbit, is released, with a lot of niceties like native QVGA support (remember? It was me who wrote an extended, QVGA-enabled Smartphone version of the original) and frame rate settings. See THIS for a generic overview of emulating the Commodore 64 under Windows Mobile. It's available HERE (NOT on the old links).
c. Astraware has released a fully-fledged, very interesting strategy game Westward, which is certainly worth checking out. There is a great Just Another Mobile Moday review HERE. It runs on both Pocket PC's and Smartphones (and even Palm OS devices).
d. Beijing Huike Technology, the developers of Dark Street reviewed HERE, have released four additional games for both the Pocket PC and MS Smartphone:
- 3D Mad Cars (see THIS): a racing game
- 3D Anti-terrorist action (see THIS): a simple 3D first person shooter
- Treasure Island: a Japanese RPG
- Holy Beasts: a 2D side scroller.
As far as the first two (3D) titles are concerned, unfortunately, I've found both games rather poor for their price tag. Their 3D rendering, on VGA devices (tested this on the HTC Universal and Dell Axim x51v), is slow - even on the fastest Pocket PC's (for example, a 624 MHz x51v). On QVGA devices, they're pretty playable, on the other hand - even on lower-spec'ed devices like the HTC Vox. The 3D hardware acceleration capabilities of the Dell Axim x51v aren't used either. All in all, I recommend going for a better title - there are a lot of them in both the 3D car racing and FPS categories, some with even 3D hardware acceleration support (for example, the free (!) DoomPPC / DoomGLES / HereticGLES)
All in all, don't bother with these two titles - they are simply not worth the $11.99.
The two other titles are a bit cheaper ($8.99), but this doesn't mean they're worth purchasing either. First, Holy Beasts is one of the worse side scrollers (particularly on VGA devices, where it has major speed problems). It's just incomparably worse than "real" top-down scrollers like SkyForce Reloaded (or, for that matter, emulated 1942 clones (1944 / 19XX) run under the great console emulator Finalburn Alpha). Not worth purchasing.
Treasure Island is a Japanese RPG - probably the most remarkable and recommended of the bunch. However, it's not known whether it's a long one. Fellow blogger Eric Pankoke stated "So far I've probably got 1-2 hours in it, but I have no idea where I am compared to the end. If trends adhere to this game, however, I don't expect it to be very long. Look at Angel Sword and Knight Tales: both the same style of game, both very short." (He's referring to being VERY short, playable through in a few hours only.) In addition, it's pretty much unplayable on VGA devices because of the huge, pixel doubled fonts (as of version 1.0.1), which makes it very hard to read the conversations. (The same problem exists in all the other titles of the same developer, but, as the text doesn't convey much anything in them, the bug doesn't cause as big problems as in this title.) On QVGA devices, there aren't problems like this.
The in-game music is VERY short and repetitive in all the four titles (albeit still better than in the, in this regard, worst OmniGSoft titles) - as was the case with Dark Street.
All in all, for the time being, you should stay away from Beijing Huike Technology's titles. There're WAY better alternatives.
e. SNES emulator written in assembly - way faster than even before?
Some weeks ago, I've already reported on the announcement of the developer of SmartGear about adding either GBA or SNES support (or both?) for his really excellent console emulator. Now, he has announced he'd rewrite the most time-critical SNES emulation code in ASM assembly, which means way higher speeds. This means his emulator would become the only one with real, 100% working emulation on even lower-spec'ed Windows Mobile devices (see THIS for my SNES Emulation Bible for more info on the existing emulators). Make sure you post into the original thread asking him to do this feat if you'd like to see a 100% working SNES emulator on your phone.
f. TetraEdge's games for half the price!
Many of you like TetraEdge's adventure games. They're indeed very good (albeit, of course, I still prefer old-school textual games like those of Legend Entertainment - see my MS-DOS Emulation Bible for more info on them.) The links to the individual games can be found in THIS PocketPlayers Reloaded thread; also check out my article HERE on how you can purchase from Mobile2Day if you don't speak German and Google Translator / Babelfish don't help either.
3. MWC: more to come!
I plan to publish a big writeup on the new Windows Mobile PDA's / phones on Sunday but not before that as I'm really busy.
In the meantime, some external threads / videos I recommend:
MoDaCo's E-Ten thread & MWC news& videos
MoDaCo: Toshiba's new models (G710, G810 and G910)
MDA Compact IV specs
MsMobiles' main MS Press conference video
Tuedsay's Q&A Sony-Ericsson & MS conference video (MsMobiles)
Discussion of the HP 210; my remarks; links to other tests (particularly the Axim/MobilitySite and the BrightHand forums are worth checking out if interested in the new model)
A PPCT discussion of the new Samsung SGH-i780 (a pretty promising Pocket PC with a BlackBerry-alike thumbboard, a square 320*320 (yes, you've read it right: NOT those awful, incompatible-with-most-titles 240*240 screens!) screen, the latest-and-(almost the) greatest PXA310 CPU (as opposed to the old, PXA270 series) and an optical touchpad (as opposed to traditional D-pads). I've played a lot with the latter at Barcelona and didn’t quite like it but I’ve already been spoiled by the touchpad of the HP iPAQ hx4700, which I hated.
In THIS PPCT thread, we discuss the VGA vs. QVGA question and the new, just-announced/released VGA devices.
MoDaCo's XPERIA thread
WMExpert's What’s up with Qualcomm? An Insider Q & A!
ZDNet's Readius review (also see mine HERE, should you have missed it)
Qualcomm Strikes Again: New Family of Mobile Chips Offering Rich Multimedia and Wireless Capabilities - here's the new Qualcomm chipset I referred to in my last, chipset / 3D accelerator-related MWC report. Unfortunately, not even the S-E XPERIA X1 will have this chipset - you'll need to wait more.
MoDaCo's revised Athena (Advantage)/ x7510 thread; a similar one from MobilitySite.
A quick note: I've also tested the new model at MWC and found the keyboard less-than-stellar. Don't expect anything similar to, say, the HTC Universal or the Kaiser/Tilt. See the linked threads for more info.
NVIDIA Announces the APX 2500 for Windows Mobile: in my last 3D hardware accelerator chipset roundup, I still haven't discussed NVIDIA (see their GoForce 5500 in, say, the O2 XDA Flame and the two new Xscale-based i-mate models: the 8150 and the 6150).
I can only hope that it's compatible with the GoForce 5500 so that the (unfortunately, currently, still very few - see their list HERE) GF 5500-compatible games / emulators will also work on it without explicitlly adding support.
BTW, speaking of the O2 XDA Flame (XDA-Devs thread HERE, dedicated independent forum HERE) I've asked the O2 folks at MWC about both the successor to the Flame and the possible official (!) WM6 upgrade to the device. Nobody had any information. Interestingly, while O2's homepage some months ago still listed XDA Flame 2 as "coming", now, I can't find this ad any more. They, it seems, don't plan to release an upgraded version of the Flame any more.
wow Menneisyys, you're on top of things! Tons of thanks for all of this highly-condensed, yet incredibly interesting info! I popped through a handful of links and it's all good news to me!
Now I just gotta be patient for the Xperia X1!
1. Machines at War (see review of a previous version HERE), probably the best RTS (Real-Time Strategy) for Windows Mobile, has been updated to version 1.2, introducing even some new units. Well worth checking out.
2. the free and excellent (!) Doom clone, DoomGLES, has also been updated, now delivering far better GoForce performance.
3. if you still haven’t purchased Orions (the best turn-based strategy game for Windows Mobile) during the last, 40% rebate, now, you have a chance of getting it for free if you post a reply to THIS thread
4. PDAmill has released Pachinko Go!. The blurb is as follows: "What the heck is Pachinko? Gravity, Skill, and Luck! It's a unique game which is kind of a cross between a vertical pinball game and a slot machine which is extremely popular in Japan (and growing more popular worldwide every day). This simple, yet addicting game contains 3 unique Pachinko games in one package, including many unlockable extras to acquire, extending the gameplay even more!"
5. Still speaking of PDAmill, now, after a year of their completely stopping porting their games to the platform, they’ve made available all of their Palm titles for free (!). You can find them HERE.
6. SOTi’s Pocket Controller, which is without doubt the most powerful PDA remote controller solution (see THIS for more info & comparison to the alternatives), is offered for 10 euros (about $15), incl. VAT for EU residents, only till 05/11/2008. Go get it – it’s really a bargain for this price.
7. There’s a new, free platform game Greedy Penguins HERE for both Windows Mobile Pocket PC’s / Smartphones and Symbian S60 / UIQ3.
8. If you’ve read the latest updates to my iPAQ 210 review, you already know this, but it’s still worth devoting a separate bullet in here too: I’ve thoroughly benchmarked the brand new Marvell Xscale PXA310 platform and found out that, unlike even Samsung’s low-end CPU’s, it has the same (high) power consumption upon high CPU load. It’s certainly bad news. The good news is that it’s certainly faster than the PXA270, particularly at playing back AVC stuff now that CorePlayer 1.2.x has added WMMX optimizations. And, according to the CorePlayer folks, this is just the beginning – a lot more optimizations and performance enhancements will follow! (Also see my related, new chipset reports HERE and HERE)
9. The DivX folks have released a new (0.90) beta of their free (!) DivX / XviD player DivX Mobile Player for Windows Mobile and Symbian (note that while they state there’s no 0.90 for the latter, only 0.89, the internal version number does state it’s too 0.90). Note that you’ll need to register yourself in order to be able to access the app; after this, click the URL that comes in the e-mail, change your password and, then, go HERE to directly access the downloads.
I’ve quickly tested it on several real-world (high-resolution; mostly 576- and 640-wide) DivX- and XviD-encoded videos. It delivered acceptable results on both the two Windows Mobile handsets (HP iPAQ 210 and HTC Universal running Ranyu’s 7.6 of WM6.1) and Symbian (Nokia N95 with firmware version v21) when playing back most DivX videos. There were rarely dropped frames (albeit the playback wasn’t as smooth as under CorePlayer).
Playing back my XviD-encoded test video, however, was painfully stuttering under Windows Mobile and a little stuttering under Symbian. (I REALLY recommend THIS video; pay special attention to the camera moving in the second sketch with the office dialog). The same videos played back flawlessly under the latest versions (1.2.3 for WinMo and 1.2.0 for Symbian) of CorePlayer.
It isn’t able to play back standard ASP videos created in Nero Recode (after renaming them to .AVI’s so that the player finds them); it complains about being incompatible. (The same videos, of course, play back OK under CorePlayer, as has also been explained in my H.264 Bible.) Of course it won’t play back the much more advanced AVC (H.264) videos either.
All in all, you may want to give it a try if you prefer free stuff – but don’t forget: CorePlayer is still much better, more compatible and more efficient. The only drawback of the latter is not being free.
10. New hardware-wise, there is a plethora of new information. See for example THIS (a generic overview), THIS and THIS (HTC Diamond) etc. Of course, these threads / articles will be outdated today with HTC’s official announcements, which will be reported on by many portals; see for example MoDaCo’s related thread HERE and MsMobiles’ HERE).
11. There’s a nice hands-on review of the DVB-T receiving capabilities of the Gigabyte gSmart t600 HERE at MsMobiles. Before I finally publish my Digital TV Bible, it gives you a clear picture of what you can expect of DVB-T-capable handsets, reception capabilities- and battery life-wise.
12. The Xperia X1 will be released in mid-September; see THIS and THIS. According to one of my sources, who received it for beta testing, it does have 3D hardware acceleration, which is certainly very good news. It, however, has a rather bad thumbboard – much worse than those of the HTC Universal or the HTC Kaiser / AT&T Tilt. Now, I only wish it had a digital TV (DVB-T and -H at least for us Europeans; MediaFLO / DVB-H for Americans, T-DMB for Koreans etc.) receiver.... Too bad S-E’s engineers didn’t bother including one or don’t plan to offer a version (even with slightly bigger size) with one.
13. Pocket PC Thoughts runs a Win a Copy of SpaceTime 3.0 contest HERE – might be worth checking out if you need the best calculator available for Windows Mobile and have missed Valentine’s day’s excellent ($7) offer.
14. Spb Mobile Shell has been updated to v2.1
15. Desktop grade IE6 coming to Windows Mobile 6.1 by the end of 2008 – at last. See a related thread HERE, where I’ve also posted my remarks.
UPDATE (05/07/2008 1:00AM CET): Sorry guys and gals, I’ve forgotten to provide a link to the SOTI sale: it’s HERE. (Don’t be afraid of it listing an iPAQ 5455 / 5550; it runs on everything.) Let me know if you need with the German - I've provided some instructions on downloading / purchasing in for example HERE.
Incidentally, there’re a lot more excellent titles in their "10 (apps) for 10 (euros) special" list offer; for example, for Windows Mobile, Documents To Go Smartphone, Resco Explorer and Photo Viewer 2007; for Blackberry, MSDict Concise Oxford American Dictionary and, for Symbian, ALON MP3 Dictaphone for S60 3rd Edition 2.85. I’ll definitely review the latter and compare it to VITO’s AudioNotes and the other call recording-capable apps I’ve reviewed for Symbian. By the way, as far as the Blackberry version of MSDict Concise Oxford American Dictionary is concerned, the link on the 10 (apps) for 10 (euros) special page doesn’t work; follow THIS instead.
Thank you for another great informative post!
The DivX player is quite nice, and they have a converter online that works great with shrinking files to mobile format.
I’ve long been mourning on the lack of a Windows Mobile phone with a decent D-pad for gaming and running emulators. Windows Mobile devices with a, for gaming, usable directional pad are far and between. (Actually, the last Windows Mobile device to have a decent gaming controller was the Asus A620 five and half a year ago…)
Fortunately, Chinese manufacturer (currently, only selling their stuff to the Chinese market) TechFaith has come out with a gaming-friendly (but, in other ways, pretty underpowered) model, the G3000. (Actually, they even advertise it as a gaming-friendly handset.)
Unfortunately, while it does have a gaming-friendly D-pad and buttons on the other side of the bezel (and even some buttons at the top), the phone, feature-wise, isn’t anything to write home about:
* As far as gaming is concerned, it doesn’t have 3D acceleration. Now that Gameloft has a working version of their game on the Toshiba TG01 (see my latest report HERE), the importance of 3G acceleration has become even bigger.
* As far as the phone / Internet access part is concerned, it has no 3G support at all. Yes, it’s GPRS/EDGE only.
* The CPU is also a pretty old and underpowered one – read: don’t even think of the 1GHz Snapdragon, the one the TG01 will come with…
* It’s only sold in China; the TechFaith guys, however, stated they are looking into distributing it in Europe / the States too.
There are no plans of releasing an updated (read: 3G, much faster CPU, 3D acceleration) version right now. The folks at the TechFaith booth stated “if and only if there will be considerable demand / feedback”. Bad news, I’d say, given that this could become THE real and only choice for serious Windows Mobile gaming, the other phones either missing the D-pad completely or only having a bad and non-gaming-friendly one.
(Note that PDAdb.net seems to have messed up the G3000 entry: they have taken the photo of another phone Pebble for the G3000 and vica versa. That is, it’s with the Pebble record that the photo of the G3000 is displayed.)
Some pictures of the device I’ve taken at MWC (click the links for a much bigger picture!):
Some other shots of the booth / other devices (nothing particular or special – that is, don’t except anything like the Toshi TG01):