Smartphone and tablet processors are just about entering the dual-core stages of their evolution and Freescale wants to join the party. Not only this, the company is even willing to throw a quad-core CPU our way just for the fun of it.

Freescale just announced a trio of new mobile processors, suitable for use in Smartphones, Tablets and eReaders. The three versions of the i.MX 6 CPU are called Solo, Dual and Quad and come with one, two and four Cortex A9 cores respectively. Each of the cores can be clocked at up to 1.2 GHz. The level 2 cache isn't quoted for each of the CPUs but Freescale says it reaches 1 MB.

Still each and every of the i.MX 6 processors is said to allow full HD (as in 1080p) video decoding and encoding. There is also support for HDMI v1.4 and multiple USB 2.0 ports. The stereoscopic image sensor support allows for 3D imaging, provided that someone builds the right camera module for the task.

Freescale plans to start sampling the new CPUs later this year, which is not nearly as specific as we hoped to get. Anyway we do not expect to be seeing one of those babies on an actual tablet or smartphone before the next holiday season.

Its going to be hot on the tablet front at this year CES as another two major players confirmed they will be officially introducing Android slates at the show. Toshiba has just showcased the 10-inch Tegra 2-powered follow up to the Folio 100, while LG might be bringing not one but two Honeycomb devices.

The Koreans went on record, confirming their 8.9-inch tablet, which should run Android 3.0, but rumor has it that they might also give us a glimpse of another unit with a larger 10-inch screen.

On the other hand the Toshiba Folio 100, which was recalled shortly after its release, was quite a fiasco, but now Toshiba claims that all will be fine with the new device. And with the dual-core Tegra 2 CPU ticking under its hood it would be a shame if thats not true. Not to mention the HDMI and standard USB ports and the 1280 x 800 pixels widescreen display, which will be valuable weapons in the tablets’ crusade against netbooks.

Have in mind though that neither of the new tablets will actually start selling before Google officially announces Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Making mobile phones used to be a monumentally difficult task. You had to know a lot about radios, component sourcing, have intimate embedded software skills, and its why the companies who dominated the mobile world before Google and Apple crashed the party were also the same companies who built mobile networks. Motorola, Nokia, the 800 pound gorillas were alone. Now thanks to hardware platforms like Qualcomm Snapdragon, companies can snatch up everything they need to build a smartphone from one company, slap Android on it, throw their brand name on the front of the device, and immediately start bringing their product to market. One such company attempting to expand their product offering is Vizio, who until now has been known for making cheap high definition televisions.

Matthew McRae, Chief Technology Officer of Vizio, recently spoke to the Wall Street Journalabout two products that will most likely debut at CES this week. One is a smartphone that packs a 4 inch screen, 5 megapixel camera, and forward facing video chat enabled camera. The other is a tablet, 8 inch screen, also has a 5 megapixel camera, and its due out in the summer. Whether or not these devices will be awesome or just another slightly tweaked version of an Android powered device thats desperately trying to differentiate itself from the sea of competitors is something we will have to wait and see.

Remember when brands partnered with mobile handset makers to make limited edition devices? They were the exact same handsets that were already out on the market, but came with a different coat of paint, custom ringtones, and a fancy background. Expect to see a similar type of thing happen over the next few years, but this time the brands will go straight to Asia and bypass the traditional players by engaging in discussions with people who actually build hardware.

And the official press release has gone up. Added specs for both the tablet and the phone include: 1GHz processor, HDMI out, 802.11n WiFi. We still have no idea if the handset is GSM or CDMA, how big it is, how much it weighs etc. and we have got even less info on the tablet, such as screen resolution.

Intel used the first workday of 2011 to announce a fresh lineup of Core processors. The second generation of i3, i5 and i7 chips uses the Sandy Bridge architecture and so far includes no less than 29 CPUs.

All the new Intel processors are based on 32nm manufacturing process and boast improved performance plus better power efficiency. And its not just the reduced-size instructions that lead to it according to Intel its also due to the L3 cache, which is now shared between all cores.

The new CPUs come with built-in HD 2000/3000 graphics that promise a 2x improvement in performance compared to their predecessor. Thats still not matching a discrete GPU, but it’s not like everyone actually needs so much graphics power. Early reviews say that the new Intel graphics are even good enough for gaming if you can live with the lowest detail settings.

The Turbo boost technology was also improved in the latest generation of Intel chips. It now allows for even higher clock speeds. For example the 2.8 GHz Core i7-2600S can reach 3.8 GHz with Turbo Boost, which is downright impressive.

There are no doubts the mobile technology could be a force for good. The so called Thimble concept we will be discussing today perfectly illustrates that.

The idea here is to connect what looks like a Bluetooth-enabled one-finger glove with a mobile phone to transmit information to visually impaired. The mentioned glove takes ambient input from an embedded camera and relays it in via a tactile grid to the wearer finger in Braille. Additionally, it can also handle RSS feeds, books and I guess any other text.

Sounds promising but unfortunately not like something that would excite today venture capital industry. Maybe some government-sponsored institution could support it, but that usually translates into long time to market. Still, Thimble is an awesome concept that tackles a real-life problem of visually impaired people and we do hope someone will do something about it.