It was only a matter of time. Earlier this week, Kodak announced that it has finally ceased production of Kodachrome film.

Kodachrome's days were numbered, even before the rise of digital cameras. Environmentally, it required a toxic development process. Aesthetically, it had taken a second seat to super-saturated emulsions like Fujichrome Velvia. And forget about getting it processed in an hour. Turnaround times were anywhere from a day to several weeks, depending on where you lived.

That said, Kodachrome defined the look of color photography for decades. And archivally, it was fantastic...

Sorry, couldn't resist. I know I've blogged on similar demos in the past, but this one has a nice sequence where Kroy Zeviar of QNX pulls the plug on an Atom-based board to show that QNX fastboot truly is a "cold boot" technology. The system doesn't have to be in any kind of "on" state for fastboot to work.

Kroy also briefly discusses how QNX fastboot technology can benefit a variety of HMI-intensive devices for the automation, medical, military, and communications markets...

Last October, I blogged on a teardown report that found the iPod touch contains a chip that supports both Bluetooth audio and FM reception. At the time, it was up in the air as to whether future firmware updates would switch on either of those features.

Well, no word on FM yet, but as for Bluetooth, the news is good: The new iPhone 3.0 software update allows iPod touch users to listen to music on Bluetooth stereo headphones...

QNX didn't take home any prizes from this year's Telematics Awards, except for a "runner up" in the telematics leadership category. And guess what: That's exactly how it should be.

Let me explain. All of the products that QNX offers - operating systems, tools, middleware, engineering services - are designed with one goal in mind, to make customers successful. The more customers succeed, the more QNX succeeds. So, by nature, QNX isn't in the business of creating glitzy, award-winning software. Rather, it's in the business of creating software that helps customers create successful, award-winning products.

And sure enough, more than 50% of this year's Telematics Award winners either work with QNX as a technology partner or use QNX software as the foundation for their automotive products. Onstar, for example. So, while QNX isn't winning, I think it's doing something more important: succeeding.  Continue Reading >>

If you think an ORC is one of those ugly buggers in the Lord of the Rings, think again. It's actually a highly reliable radio-over-IP (RoIP) system that has brought New Zealand's railway communications into the 21st century.

You've heard of applications where failure isn't an option. This is one of them. The ORC transmits all voice communications between rail vehicles and the train control center, and handles any emergency calls that a train may transmit if a derailment occurs. So it's got to run 24/7, with no excuses...

I must admit, I'm still scratching my head over Intel's plan to acquire Wind River Systems. But as it turns out, I'm in good company. Jack Ganssle, Richard Nass, and Chris Ciufo have weighed in on the announcement, and they are all equally bemused.

Don't get me wrong. These are industry experts, with deep understanding of the embedded market - not to mention a deep appreciation of Intel's business savvy. So they aren't totally confused by Intel's move. They do question, however, whether this acquisition is the best way for Intel to achieve its goal of becoming a major embedded player.

Mind you, these are still early days. Intel's reasons will no doubt become more obvious over time...

Our team has finished Aviage MM 1.2. Its got some excellent features and new platforms that it supports. Notably: DVD-V playback Video file playback Microsoft Zune support Significant improvements to Album Art support Significant improvements to metadata synchronization speeds Additional playlists supported Faster startup, much less memory used RTP & HTTP streaming TI OMAP3 Codec Engine (audio decoders) Intel Performance Primitives codecs There are [...]  Continue Reading >>