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t.alex
HDMI is actually quite relevant for display like TV. However, would you use it ...
jeremybirch
All I see on their website for "optical navigation" is the module that goes into ...
Apexone: Here comes muPad from Shanghai
Junko Yoshida
6/13/2012 12:17 PM EDT
Open vs. closed environment
Gao makes the obvious comparison to Apple, which has fewer adaptation problems because all its devices are designed to work in the closed Apple environment.
"Our goal is to make this work in an open-system environment. And we need to make sure that this experience [using μPad] will satisfy most people," said Gao. At the moment, Apexone has 1,000 customers in China testing μPad for its user experience.
Laying out all the necessary components in a very thin layer was another challenge. Gao said that Apexone hired away a couple of engineers from an unnamed company that reportedly developed a 6.2mm thick smartphone recently.
While Gao did not name the company, ZTE's new smartphone, codenamed Athena, has been teased in a series of snaps on China's Sina Weibo social network (the Chinese version of Twitter) as the "world's thinnest smartphone." It will essentially make the 6.68mm Huawei Ascend P1 S look bloated by comparison. ZTE isn't talking about the Athena's detailed specs, but the company has revealed that it will feature a 720p display, multi-core Cortex-A15 processor and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, with up to 64GB of storage.
While becoming a $1 billion chip company is a well-stated goal for many China fablesses, Gao said that he doesn't see this as his endgame.
What if kids in China, not just his own 13-year old daughter and 6-year old son -- who both attend the Shanghai American School, originally with iPads and MacBook Pros, and now are already avid users of μPad -- but kids living in far-flung cities and rural areas, get a μPad?
Forget one laptop per child. Gao can make his dream, of accomplishing something that changes people's quality of life, come true.
Even when he left China in 1991 to get his master's degree and build his work experience in the United States, Gao said he knew he would eventually go back to China to run his own business and do things that matter. After his last U.S. job (founding GlobeSpan's design center in San Diego), Gao returned to China in 2002. Ever since, his sights have been set on the progress of the human interface. While many industry observers suggest that "touch" has already replaced the mouse, Gao demurs. "A lot of people don't even realize that an optical sensor is used in the trackball on a smart phone." Further, Gao envisions a time when "optical gesture" will dominate the human interface. Optical gesture should be able to add mouse-like accuracy to gestures. "Much better than touch," said Gao.
Does Gao ever lose sleep worrying that his μPad might get copied, with millions of μPad knock-offs cluttering the market?
Not really, he said. One of the secret sources in his μPad is Apexone’s optication navigation chip. What separates Apexone from other typical China startups is its command of a host of patents. Gao holds twenty-six U.S. and international patents, with another ten pending patents. So, go ahead, pirates. Try and rip off James Gao.
Make his day.
Related stories:
-Engineering as a career in China? Not so much
-Tweeting kanji from a Shanghai balcony, between sweat socks
-How Leo Li led Spreadtrum’s turnaround
-Four reasons why its 'game over' for foreign chip firms in China
-Why China?
Gao makes the obvious comparison to Apple, which has fewer adaptation problems because all its devices are designed to work in the closed Apple environment.
"Our goal is to make this work in an open-system environment. And we need to make sure that this experience [using μPad] will satisfy most people," said Gao. At the moment, Apexone has 1,000 customers in China testing μPad for its user experience.
Laying out all the necessary components in a very thin layer was another challenge. Gao said that Apexone hired away a couple of engineers from an unnamed company that reportedly developed a 6.2mm thick smartphone recently.
While Gao did not name the company, ZTE's new smartphone, codenamed Athena, has been teased in a series of snaps on China's Sina Weibo social network (the Chinese version of Twitter) as the "world's thinnest smartphone." It will essentially make the 6.68mm Huawei Ascend P1 S look bloated by comparison. ZTE isn't talking about the Athena's detailed specs, but the company has revealed that it will feature a 720p display, multi-core Cortex-A15 processor and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, with up to 64GB of storage.
While becoming a $1 billion chip company is a well-stated goal for many China fablesses, Gao said that he doesn't see this as his endgame.
What if kids in China, not just his own 13-year old daughter and 6-year old son -- who both attend the Shanghai American School, originally with iPads and MacBook Pros, and now are already avid users of μPad -- but kids living in far-flung cities and rural areas, get a μPad?
Forget one laptop per child. Gao can make his dream, of accomplishing something that changes people's quality of life, come true.
Even when he left China in 1991 to get his master's degree and build his work experience in the United States, Gao said he knew he would eventually go back to China to run his own business and do things that matter. After his last U.S. job (founding GlobeSpan's design center in San Diego), Gao returned to China in 2002. Ever since, his sights have been set on the progress of the human interface. While many industry observers suggest that "touch" has already replaced the mouse, Gao demurs. "A lot of people don't even realize that an optical sensor is used in the trackball on a smart phone." Further, Gao envisions a time when "optical gesture" will dominate the human interface. Optical gesture should be able to add mouse-like accuracy to gestures. "Much better than touch," said Gao.
Does Gao ever lose sleep worrying that his μPad might get copied, with millions of μPad knock-offs cluttering the market?
Not really, he said. One of the secret sources in his μPad is Apexone’s optication navigation chip. What separates Apexone from other typical China startups is its command of a host of patents. Gao holds twenty-six U.S. and international patents, with another ten pending patents. So, go ahead, pirates. Try and rip off James Gao.
Make his day.
Related stories:
-Engineering as a career in China? Not so much
-Tweeting kanji from a Shanghai balcony, between sweat socks
-How Leo Li led Spreadtrum’s turnaround
-Four reasons why its 'game over' for foreign chip firms in China
-Why China?
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Patk0317
6/13/2012 2:18 PM EDT
I really can't wait to see this. It might be a must have for road warriors if you can use it in your hotel room's TV!
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Andre BRAZ
6/13/2012 2:50 PM EDT
This is a market revolution !!!
I'll never more carry my laptop to my business trips...
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rick.merritt
6/13/2012 5:04 PM EDT
Sounds like a consumer applicaiton of the ad hoc standard Lexar and others pushed a few years ago for running executable code from a USB flash drive so people could carry their computing to any network computer.
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junko.yoshida
6/13/2012 6:59 PM EDT
I agree, Rick. This is something many people talked about in the past, but never materialized.
I think the new twists of this whole thing are the progress of Android; proliferation of USB port (in a TV); an optical navigation device Gao talks about; angling to bring in more entertainment content from the Internet, etc. so that this can be played on the consumer mass market front.
Gao tells me that his kids don't play with iPad any more, using muPad to play the game on a big screen.
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TJNZ
6/13/2012 7:06 PM EDT
This does sound very similar to FXITech's "Cotton Candy" USB pc. They are about to start shipping pre-orders. I guess muPad's point of difference may be its optical navigation interface if it is user friendly enough.
I suppose we could see a variety of different USB pc options in the near future depending who holds what patent?
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GREAT-Terry
6/13/2012 7:41 PM EDT
Wow, it seems the muPad is a very amazing device. What is more important is this company which has only 40 people is already a $1B company! It is so encouraging to see Chinese startup can have such a great innovation and even own so many patents!
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junko.yoshida
6/14/2012 12:28 PM EDT
Hi, GREAT-Terry. Sorry, I probably didn't make it clear in the story. This company has NOT reached a $1 billion revenue goal. It's the goal every Chinese fabless ia gunning for. But the point is that while his company has not achieved that yet, Gao doesn't see it being his end game.
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Bert22306
6/13/2012 8:50 PM EDT
I want one! Two years ago! Way to go, Apexone.
Since the TV application was mentioned explicitly, imagine what the supposedly "connected TV" vendors will think of this. A thumb drive to really make their "barely connected" TVs truly "connected."
I'm unclear on how the keyboard feature works, especially because it doesn't require a touchscreen, but to me that's details. However it works now, more than likely modifications can be made to fit each use case.
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hm
6/13/2012 9:41 PM EDT
Why not embed one muPad in each of TV? Perhaps Apple TV will have one inside it.
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junko.yoshida
6/15/2012 1:30 PM EDT
You could. But the point is that this thing can serve as a miniature STB simply by plugging it into any big screen TV with a USB port (most new flat panels these do have USB ports).
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bobbytsai
6/13/2012 9:43 PM EDT
they shrunk the raspberry:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
been eyeing one of these:
http://liliputing.com/2012/06/pocket-tv-usb-stick-turns-a-tv-into-an-android-powered-pc.html
http://liliputing.com/2012/06/74-mk802-android-4-0-mini-pc-first-impressions-video.html
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Sanjib.Acharya
6/13/2012 11:36 PM EDT
It’s quite amazing to see a computer in the size of a thumb drive. As Gao has also envisioned, I think this could be the future when gesture sensing takes the place of a mouse.
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Jack.L
6/14/2012 10:13 AM EDT
This is not really a new concept other than navigation, but it really does not completely solve the user interface which is the issue. Yes it has a level of optical navigation (where?? -- it is a USB thumb drive plugged somewhere not easily accessible). So to that end, while I think it will have some level of success, I question how much. It does have the same issue as other computing devices .... obsolete as soon as it is built.
Of course, there is that other issue. What are the odds that someone will own this device, but not own a smartphone that is likely newer, faster, etc? Perhaps the real market is better phone to TV connectivity?
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gasdfnq
6/14/2012 12:57 PM EDT
good point. sounds like this device is a ipad without screen. it is better add phone function to be a smart phone. i believe it is very helpful for travel entertainment, but may not be good for home entertainment. if kids want to play video game, probably wii, ps3 or xbox is much better. i believe this is a good technolony, but could be applied in more area. let's brainstorming for Gao.
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Bert22306
6/14/2012 1:56 PM EDT
I think it has applicability for home entertainment too. I've had to dedicate a PC to my TV and sound system at home, in order to get true "connectivity." What the so-called "connected TVs" should, but do not, provide. There's a lot of radio and TV content on the web these days. Content that the "connected TVs" available on store shelves cannot access.
Possibly, a device like this one could have taken the place of the PC.
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joyhaa
6/15/2012 10:23 AM EDT
not quite, i'm chatting with two minipc vendors in Shenzhen now. the device only has 4GB storage so you will need a server for storage to say the least. this is more like mini-player for your TV. if TV has android/etc built-in you really don't need this small STB. I think it's useful for Kiosk though.
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junko.yoshida
6/15/2012 1:34 PM EDT
Yes, avid game fans would naturally resort to game consoles. But the beauty of this concept is in enabling TVs to download and run apps.
When I recently asked a Taiwanese TV chip vendor how they define "smart TV" versus any other TV, they had a very clear answer. The difference is, they said, whether your TV can download and run apps that are proliferating everywhere these days.
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Cal Q. Lust
6/15/2012 2:10 PM EDT
MS Kinect connection anyone? ... I own a Google Revue (Android based) on my 46" LCD TV ... not bad, as it does a lot (games, music/video streaming, wireless, hackable!). However, I have two problems with it: (1) resolution when Web browsing and (2) interface. I can get around #1 by zooming in, but I have to do this constantly. #2 - interface is a bit more troubling. It is a 3/4 keyboard with a mouse pad. It is OK and gets the job done, but what I would really like is an MS Kinect interface, so that I can use hand gestures to manipulate movement (scroll, zoom in/out) and select items. Any device that connects to the TV - namely Pocket TV and uPad - would seem to suffer the same interface issues.
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DataMuncher
6/15/2012 2:30 PM EDT
How different is this from a Roku or an AppleTV, especially once both of those start supporting 3rd party apps ? Seems like both of those enable abroad swath of connected TV and have a pretty good price point (less than 100$), plus have the interoperability all figured out (HDMI).
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t.alex
6/16/2012 2:56 AM EDT
Quite similar to this product?
http://www.fxitech.com/products/
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junko.yoshida
6/16/2012 3:02 PM EDT
Yes. But the differences here include that muPad does not use HDMI for connection. It's connected via USB port. Further, it lets consumers use a mouse when moving a cursor on the big screen.
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ost
6/18/2012 2:51 AM EDT
I would make it with hdmi connector in addition to usb..It would make it just fit in any tv.
And it has to work on a wireless keyboard/mouse..
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t.alex
6/23/2012 8:14 AM EDT
HDMI is actually quite relevant for display like TV. However, would you use it on a TV? Perhaps i would use it with my own personal monitor.
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jeremybirch
6/18/2012 2:33 PM EDT
All I see on their website for "optical navigation" is the module that goes into a normal optical mouse ie an led and a low resolution camera sensor to see which way textures are moving on a table etc. Is the navigation device just a mouse with a long wire, or bluetooth, or wifi?
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