Tying-up the rumors of an Intel, Google, Android project today is the announcement that Google will launch Google TV on Intel hardware. While the product is not important for mobile computing fans it does prove that Android on X86 has had a lot of investment and is ready for mainstream. It’s a potentially huge win for Atom.

Google TV is probably using  the Intel CE4100 processor formerly known as Sodaville.

The CE4100 processor can deliver speeds up to 1.2GHz while offering lower power and a small footprint to help decrease system costs. It is backward compatible with the Intel® Media Processor CE 3100 and features Intel® Precision View Technology, a display processing engine to support high-definition picture quality and Intel® Media Play Technology for seamless audio and video. It also supports hardware decode of up to two 1080p video streams and advanced 3-D graphics and audio standards. To provide OEMs flexibility in their product offerings, new features were added such as hardware decode for MPEG4 video that is ready for DivX* Home Theater 3.0 certification, an integrated NAND flash controller, support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory and 512K L2 cache. The CE SoC contains a display processor, graphics processor, video display controller, transport processor, a dedicated security processor and general I/O including SATA-300 and USB 2.0. [source, Intel]

We mentioned before that Android puts a new dynamic on Intel’s Moorestown platform, the fact that they are working so closely with Google shows that it’s not just marketing talk. My prediction: Expect an Android Phone based on Moorestown to be launched at Computex in just over a weeks time.

Update: Engadget were told it is indeed the CE4100.

You can find out more on the Google Blog

Although we’ve been hearing bits and pieces about Android on Intel’s Moorestown platform over the last few months we’ve never really had it in writing from Intel. Today we have.

Almost hidden in the latter part of a Fact-Sheet (PDF)on the Moorestown / Z6xx launch today, Intel has this to say.

“As a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), Intel has worked with Google over the past few years and is providing support for the Android platform at launch. The performance characteristics of the Intel Atom processor Z6xx Series are reflected across Android implementations making it a compelling platform for a range of handheld devices. inch

Support for Moblin/MeeGo is also mentioned. Windows isn’t.

This changes the game somewhat in my opinion.

Firstly, Intel now has a non-Windows platform. Politically, that’s huge. This is probably the first Intel computing platform since Windows launched, that doesn’t support Windows!

Secondly, Intel have just pulled in support for one of the most interesting and developed ‘smart’ computing platforms there is. There’s no longer any need to convince customers that MeeGo is going to be great because the trust will already be there. What a set of brands Intel, Google, Android. You wonder what the long-term aim is for MeeGo now. How long will they continue with MeeGo if Android on Intel becomes successful.

Moorestown and Android could really be a killer combination and it already scales to netbook-like performance to enable some very interesting tablet, MID and ‘smart’ book devices. 1M iPads proves that this new market is ripe.

This could also explain why Google haven’t yet opened the marketplace for tablets and other large-format handheld devices.

Here’s a video we took of Android running on Moorestown recently.

Intel press release.

I remember back to the forming of the Open Handset Alliance back in Nov 2007 when the ‘Open Platform for Mobile Devices’ was announced. Intel were a founding member and it was unclear what silicon platform Android was going to use. I think the term Google used at the time was ‘processor independent.’ Soon after that, the thought of running Android in Intel faded away but Intel has remained a member. Recently I’ve been hearing more and more news about Android on X86 and in news out today from IDF in Beijing, it’s been confirmed.

It looks like this is all stemming from the news that Google and Intel are getting together to offer Google TV  [news was published by NYTimes on 17th March.]. Yes, Intel is involved with another project to build software for TV’s (MeeGo) but there’s no way that Intel are going to say ‘no’ if Google are interested in the platform.

The likely platform is ‘Sodaville’ which is aimed at media delivery through an Atom CPU and a GMA500 graphics and video processor in a highly integrated, low-cost and power-efficient package.  The platform is very similar to that used in MIDs, UMPCs and embedded applications. It’s also likely to be very similar to the upcoming platform for smartphones, Moorestown. (More on that tomorrow.)

In Beijing today, the story took another step forward when Rene James, GM of Intel’s software and services group, confirmed that Android was indeed running on Atom and was also running on the Smartphone platform. That’s Moorestown. Apparently, customers are interested.

No real surprises there to be honest. Android ‘running’ on an X86 platform is hardly groundbreaking news but it does highlight that Moorestown will not just be a MeeGo-only platform. Indeed, Windows, Chrome OS, OSX, Linux builds, Android and MeeGo would all work. It’s just a matter of getting the people (money) together to make it happen.

As I mentioned in the MeeGo article today –

Stay very closely tuned to the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit which starts tomorrow and runs for three days. Intel, Nokia and Google are all there.

Maybe we’ll hear more very soon!

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Google is working on a tablet but even so, I can’t contain my enthusiasm for this news. Why? Because it’s Google and Android together in the MID/Pad/CID/Tablet space and that means that they’re actively thinking about getting Android, their apps AND THE MARKETPLACE on to other platforms. Marketplace is critical for seeding development and further interest in the sector.

There has been a lot of talk about ChromeOS being the choice for pads, MIDs and smart-books but I don’t see it happening that way. Chrome doesn’t have any of the excitement that a dynamic, finger-friendly UI, location-enabled OS with app-store brings. Chrome is for the table-top. Android is the mobile OS and that fits like a glove on a handheld device.

The news comes from the NYTimes (via Laptopmag) and highlights a number of interesting consumer internet device developments. The best of which is:

Google, for example, has been working with several hardware manufacturers to push its Android software, which was originally designed for mobile phones and is a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone operating system. The company also hopes to make its own apps marketplace available for new slate-like devices.

The article goes on to mention Dell, Acer, Microsoft, Nokia and Lenovo along with a device from HP known as the ‘half pint’ a device measuring 6 inch diagonally. I like that thought. Check out the full article and the Laptopmag blog for more.

Google somewhat quietly released Google Reader Play early last month. Reader Play is essentially an alternate way to view Google Reader and is designed to present interesting and relevant items in a simple and pleasing way — it seems particularly suited to large screened devices. While several people, upon release, noted that Reader Play would probably work great on large TVs, the first thing that came to my mind was how well it could work with the iPad. Of course, that was only a theory because we didn’t have an iPad at the time for testing. Now that the iPad has been released, we can give it a try.

To my delight, Reader Play works pretty darn well on the iPad. Part of this is because YouTube videos can be played directly inside Reader Play, without having to launch out to the external viewer. Note that this isn’t Flash, it’s simply the iPad recognizing the video as a YouTube video and playing it with it’s own special YouTube player right inside the frame. Have a look at Google Reader Play in action on the iPad in the video below:

This makes complete sense. Google provide the application channel and Amazon provide the content channel for the Dell Mini 5. [ Information]  This will set it apart from the rest of the bunch so Archos are going to have to think carefully about where they go next. A raw Archos tablet with no apps and no content channel is going to look naked next to the Dell Mini 5. As will all the other raw Android builds we’ve seen so far.

The information comes from Engadget who got hold of a promotional flyer for the Dell Mini 5 that reveals the partnership.

Dell probably have an exclusive on this based on the hardware form factor and video capabilities but I’m sure it won’t be long before you’ll find the .apk floating around. Maybe even in the Google Marketplace.

A second flyer reveals a colorful range of finishes which points towards a solid consumer focus. Let’s hope the prices are pointed that way too.

Source: Engadget

More Dell Mini 5 information and links in the database.

Here is a short demo of chromeTouch, a Google Chrome extension which enables touchscreen and inertia scrolling within Google Chrome. Works great if you’ve been waiting to find an alternative to Firefox and the Grab and Drag addon!

Find chromeTouch here.

I also mentioned another extension that I added to increase the smoothness of the scrolling, that is called Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller.

Not quite mobile computing but interesting anyway is Google’s Buzz. Its an extension of their social circle features and integrates messaging, timeline, media into mail and other Google apps. I won’t go over it in detail because there’s a ton of information and discussion already out there but I do want to talk a little bit about the Buzz layer on Google Maps for Mobile because at the same time as releasing the new feature on Gmail, Google also updated their maps clients to include Buzz features. You could argue that Nokia’s Ovi Maps and Ovi Contacts already have these features and that there are other apps and services out there that let you do this but I’m seeing at least the potential for some major integration across Google products here that, given their user base, will blow away the competition.

I’ve made a video demo with the N82 and the Omnia Pro which you’ll see below and personally, I think it’s exciting to finally see location, search, public multi-media messaging and threaded public discussion being pulled together on a map with my pre-existing ‘social circle’ in this way. I always thought Google Latitude had good underpinnings in terms of privacy and  ‘friending’ but it never took off and although Buzz doesn’t seem 100% connected to Latitude’s idea of multi-tiered and friend-dependant privacy, it’s clear that Google could make the final connections very easily. Linking search, local friends, local events, photography in a live, localised way like this seems to have way more potential than the simple 140 character smart-bomb option.

There are still some things missing though. A client app would be nice but I assume that Tweetdeck and many of the other multi-protocol social messaging apps out there will link in soon and either Google Mail for Mobile or Gtalk will probably evolve along with Google Maps for Mobile. There’s also a lack of ability to embed the live maps and message stream in other places. The ability to ‘friend’ someone from the Maps Mobile app is also missing and of course, using GPS, 3G, maps, screen, GPU and GPU is going to KILL your smartphone battery life! Clearly a secondary device, something like the Dell Mini 5 with Buzz application is going to be better if you need to use this more than an hour a day.

It’s early days but I can see a lot of potential here. The ability to see local ‘buzz’ is just great and combined with local friend notification (already in Latitude) and event / threshold  alerting, this is going to be a great step forward for mobile communications capabilities. Whether people latch on to the idea i another matter but in a quick test with my wife this morning, she seemed happy to add ‘the Buzz’ to her familiar and often-used Google Maps application.  I can’t say the same introducing her to twitter and this could be the major advantage for Google; familiarity.

Although my Gmail hasnt been enhanced with Buzz yet (expected in the next few days here in Germany) I’ve been testing out the features from Maps Mobile. My ‘stream’ is here.