on April 26th I received a mail that deeply impressed me. I'll replace the actual name of the person with "the extremely kind person" in all following articles. You'll see why I chose that name, when you read the mail:

the extremely kind Person wrote:Plusminus,

I had ordered the TI android platform, meaning the Zoom Mobile Development Kit that TI demoed Android on at the Barcelona conference - the platform that TI's third party, LogicPD made:

http://www.eeproductcenter.com/micro/br ... =206501478
(based on TI's OMAP 3430)

...and it arrived today. Actually, I got two. Would you like one?

There's a picture of it here:
http://www.omapzoom.org/wiki/tiki-index.php

I've been looking at your anddev.org site and you've done a great job for the whole community. It's the least I/we can do to say thanks for all you've done.

Give me your address, or an address to send it to you and I will ship it.

Cheers,
the extremely kind Person

In moments like that, I think: "Thank god there are such nice people in this world"



Getting back to business now, you are probably really interested on what that "ZoomMDK" actually is. (Note: MDK stands for "Mobile Development Kit") The ZoomMDK as a whole is a generic Mobile Development Platform, which is published under the wings of TI (Texas Instruments), on which one can run many different Operating Systems. The probably most widely known are OpenMoko and of course our Android. Wind River, which is a member of the OHA (openhandsetalliance.com) did the port of Linux/Android to the Zoom. The Hardware itself was designed by LogicPD. Sellers are i.e. Avnet. Its not 100% clear when the first devices officially get shipped, but it will be something around May 15th, which is from now: one week in the future.

The official site for the Zoom is omapzoom.org, where one can also find the official forum.



Lets have a look at the deeply impressing hardware (Note: here I found serveral inconsistencies).
...The most interesting parts are marked with a ":larrow:"..

Official full feature list wrote:

• OMAP 3430 Processor ES2.0
  
  • POP Memory
    
    • 1Gb NAND
      
    • 1Gb MDDR SDRAM
• TWL4030 Power Management IC
  
  • Power Regulators
    
  • Audio CODEC
    
  • Keypad
    
  • Reset
• Debug Support
  
  • 20-pin Compact JTAG
    
  • UART
    
  • Ethernet (RJ-45)
• Size:5.625” x 3.375”
• 1-HS USB 2.0 OTG Port
  
  • Mini AB USB connector
    
  • TWL4030 I/F
• 1-Audio Connector
  
  • 3.5mm
    
  • L + R out
    
  • Mic in
• 1 Enfora Modem
  
  Quad-band GGE
• 1- micro-SD/MMC connector
  
  4 bit support, Dual voltage
• Camera
  
  • Omnivision, 3Mp, CSI2
• User Interface
  
  • 3 x 4 Telephony keypad
    
  • 4 user defined buttons
    
  • 5-Way navigation
    
  • Touchscreen
    
  • Power Down, Reset
• Video
  
  • 3.7” VGA/QVGA LCD
    
  • DVI-D output
    
  • S-Video?
• Power Connector
  
  • USB power
    
  • Battery
• Expansion Connector
  
  • Power
    
  • McBSP
    
  • UART
    
  • USB ULPI
    
  • MMC
    
  • I2C
    
  • SPI
    
  • GPIO
    
  • Support for WLAN, BT, DTV, GPS, modem, etc.
    
  • Common definition with SDP

Unfortunately there is no GPS built in, but it can be adapted (maybe wired).

Get some more info here:
http://www.omapzoom.org/wiki/tiki-index ... ge=ZoomMdk
http://www.logicpd.com/downloads/1080/1 ... _Brief.pdf

So why am I telling you all this
1. Document my experiences during the exploration of this amazing hardware-platform.
2. My plan is to test some hardware-intense/depending applications, like Tom Gibaras MoseyCode and my AndNav.

Tomorrow I will capture our local customs-store, throw them the import-taxes in their hands, run out, speed home and start hacking. (That was what it would be if I had no real life )
Actually I hope, that I can present the first pictures on Friday evening and a first review on Saturday

Stay tuned

Regards,
plusminus

Cool, I like it