[NTLK] Einstein, Android, new Hardware, old Hardware

Matthias Melcher mm at matthiasm.com
Wed Nov 30 10:32:21 EST 2011


After all this discussion about rejuvenating old hardware, I would like to clarify a few things, and bring you guys good news ;-)

OK, rejuvenating the hardware is tough, because we do not have access to three logic chips on the Newton motherboard. Everything else can be reproduced. Those three can not. The only way to make new Newton would be to desolder this chip from old Newtons. So in the end we have not really gained much.

Also, getting rid of the PCMCIA slots would be extremely limiting, because in most machines, these slots would be filled with a network card and a Flash card. Writing drivers for other WLan modules and other RAM is very difficult because so many manuals are missing.


However, don't fret! There is Einstein, and we are actively developing again. Yes, *we* are. I have some great help on the Java side from Frank. Thank you very much!

Looking at http://code.google.com/p/einstein/updates/list you will find many new entries. We are trying to perfect the Android implementation of Einstein and we have come quite far. I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note, and Einstein is getting close to be quite usable on it. It's slow, but thanks to the dual core cpu still quite responsive.

Done:
 - it's running
 - fixed power saving, sleep mode, screen rotation, screen size
 - added Android menus and preferences

Current work:
 - easy package installation (somewhat working)
 - easy ROM upload from a PC or other sources (looking good)
 - arbitrary screen sizes (half way there)
 - internet access (three quarters there)
 - published APK Android Package (as soon as the rest is solved)

Next:
 - speed, speed, speed ( we will replace more and more code fragments with native code)
 - developers, developers, developers (we need a command line base developer environment)

I'd say the future is bright, with a green backlight ;-)

 
 - Matthias


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