Posted: 22 Feb 2012 07:34 PM PST  Ninja core. Stealth core. Companion core. Veriable symmetric multiprocessing. Those are all phrases that NVIDIA has used to describe their 5th processing core in Tegra 3. And to celebrate the 5th core, NVIDIA has now announced a 5th name, “4-PLUS-1.” Four high performance CPU cores for premium experiences, plus one low-power CPU core to save battery life. I am often entertained by the messaging that comes from marketing and public relations teams, and this is no exception. At the same time, I still understand what NVIDIA is trying to accomplish. Their customers wanted an easy to understand name they could put on a box that represents the value of Tegra 3′s 5th low-power CPU core and it doesn’t get much simpler than 4-PLUS-1. We’ve already covered the benefits of Tegra 3, so I won’t dive into that again. For the real technical folks out there, NVIDIA also updated their whitepaper on variable symmetric multiprocessing. If you want the simple version of how multi-core processors extend battery life, just check out the video below. Let us know what you think about the new 4-PLUS-1 branding in the comments below. |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 03:24 PM PST  Last year at Mobile World Congress, Google had the coolest booth at the show, literally. I bet I downed a dozen of their fruit smoothies. This year they are planning something even more over the top, and they have a countdown teaser on their MWC page. Check out last year’s festivities in the video below and let us know what you would like to see this year. |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 03:03 PM PST  When Asus announced the Padfone last year, many of us questioned the success of such an odd device. Who wants a phone that plugs into a tablet-sized display? Then Asus released their Transformer series of tablets with attachable keyboard docks and people saw the advantages of their modular design. Asus went back to the drawing board and will unveil a newly redesigned Padfone at Mobile World Congress this weekend. The major change to the original concept is supposed to be the addition of a keyboard dock, similar to the Transformer. The concept design that Asus showed at CES actually worked with the original TF101 keyboard dock, but the new Padfone is expected to be compatible with the TF201 dock from the Transformer Prime. This three piece combo was hinted at in a new teaser video released by Asus. The quick clip shows a set of matryoshka dolls with a message that reads, “1 + 1 + 1 = Endless Possibilities.” I’m a huge fan of the Transformer Prime, so if Asus can improve the user experience even further then I think they could have a hit on their hands. Not many US carriers have ever carried Asus smartphones, so it remains to be seen if we will ever see the Padfone on our shores. How many of you would be interested in a phone + tablet + keyboard trio? |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 02:32 PM PST  Sometimes less really is more. Qualcomm has been telling us their dual-core Snapdragon S4 is faster than competing quad-core chips and now Texas Instruments is echoing that same message. This time they take a direct shot at NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 by matching it up with their OMAP5 development platform. The video below is extremely boring, but it shows how OMAP5 is faster than Tegra 3 at web browsing, while playing a MP3 file and downloading a movie in the background. In the demo they claim their OMAP5 is only running two ARM Cortex-A15 CPU cores at 800 MHz, while “a commercial device powered by a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor” (aka Transformer Prime) is running at 1.3 GHz. Texas Instruments showed me their OMAP5 platform behind closed doors at CES, but I was not allowed to take any pictures of it. However, they later demoed it live on the Engadget show and some lucky attendees captured it on video (see below). OMAP5 looks like a very impressive platform, but the exact availability has not been specified. I was told at CES that devices powered by OMAP5 should arrive by Q4 2012 or early 2013. That makes the demo above kind of pointless since it compares an unreleased processor with something currently on the market, but it proves the obvious point that Cortex-A15 is a great improvement over Cortex-A9. Samsung is also developing their new Exynos 5250 processor with two ARM Cortex-A15 cores, which goes into mass production next quarter. From what we know today, it looks like Samsung will beat out Texas Instruments and be first to market with a mobile processor based on Cortex-A15. Hopefully Texas Instruments will provide more information about possible OMAP5 devices next week at Mobile World Congress. |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 01:57 PM PST  If you were a T-Mobile customer disappointed with last night’s announcement of the Galaxy S Blaze 4G, then take note. Evan Blass of PocketNow is reporting that the device we have been calling the LG X3 could be coming to the US as the T-Mobile G4X. In global markets, the device will be known as the Optimus 4X. Evan has a damn good track record and T-Mobile did launch the Optimus 2X as their G2x, so we believe this rumor is likely to come true. LG is expected to officially unveil this device in the coming days at Mobile World Congress. Rumored specs of the LG Optimus 4X include:
Even though the specs look impressive, we will have to wait and see how the device performs when released. Many customers, including myself, experienced all kinds of problems with the original T-Mobile G2x and LG was slow to address the issues. Hopefully they learned their lesson and this device will live up to the hype. |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 01:11 PM PST  The collaborative experience of Google Docs for desktop is awesome. Multiple users can access, edit and view a single document, as they see the changes being made (by all of them) in real-time. This feature is absent from our smartphones and tablets no more, as today’s Google Docs update is bringing real-time, collaborative editing to Android devices. One can simply join a shared document and start editing away with your team. Others can see the changes as they happen, and it is also possible to use pinch-to-zoom to see the document as preferred. Google has also included rich text formatting, allowing users to highlight, bold and use bullet lists, among all the other features you may know. To tell you the truth, things can be a bit confusing when using this feature, especially if the users are one too many. It can get to the point where there are too many things going on, but if you can organize yourselves, it is great for any team assignment. It might also be important to note that there are still issues with certain types of documents. For example, spreadsheets and presentations don’t working natively, with the application. Word documents are opened with the app’s native interface, while other documents are accessed via a web interface. This can create some issues while editing, especially with presentations, which still can’t be created or edited on mobile devices. We are hoping that Google can bring some improvements to these issues soon. Such downsides deny users from fully experiencing documents on-the-go. But if word documents are your thing, then these new features are great. The interface is now closer to a full document editor, and the collaborative experience is definitely a plus. If there is anything missing, users can share and edit documents from tablets, smartphones and computers, so everyone can just fill in and fix errors. Check out the video below to see a demonstration, and hit the Market link to get your update! And just out of curiosity, how many of you would actually use collaborative editing? |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 01:03 PM PST  Are you jealous of the Verizon employees who were offered a limited edition of the Droid RAZR? Starting tomorrow, Motorola will be giving away a special edition "Red Carpet" Droid RAZR MAXX to five lucky people who retweet the hashtag #RedCarpetRAZR. As you might have guessed, this giveaway is to promote the 84th Annual Academy Awards. Motorola says that nominees for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress will receive the phone within a gold sequined pouch and nominees for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor will get the device with a high-end shaving kit. For more info on the Droid RAZR MAXX, but sure to check out our full review. |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:51 AM PST  With Android 4.0, Google delivered a mobile operating system that was suited for all screen sizes. As we have already explored, you can almost replace your PC with an Android device, but there are still some things that Google needs to improve upon. Google could target the desktop computing experience with Android 5.0, according to the latest patents discovered by Jack Purcher of PatentlyApple. In the patent overview Google claims that their Android operating system has been designed for a touchscreen user interface and it may be beneficial to have it “implemented on more traditional devices, such as a desktop, netbook or laptop device that include physical keyboards and/or pointing devices, such as trackpad devices.” We agree 100 percent. So does Ubuntu. Android 4.0 already works quite well with a standard mouse, but the touchpad support is limited. Thankfully this latest patent describes multi-touch events like two-finger scrolling, pinch to zoom, and flinging content. It will be interesting to see how Google implements trackpad support, but it appears that an Android smartphone or tablet could function as the trackpad when content is displayed on an external display. Some Android applications already allow you to convert your Android device into a mouse and keyboard for your PC, so it will be interesting to see how Google improves upon this. With Google’s acquisition of Motorola almost complete, this could have interesting implications for Motorola’s webtop application that allows a smartphone to drive a desktop PC experience. Some have speculated that Google will implement webtop-like features into Android 5.0, which is something I have been predicting since last year. One thing is for sure, Google clearly wants to bring their Android OS to as many devices as possible. Windows still has 70-80% market share on all web clients depending on the source, but smartphone sales already overtook client PCs in 2011, and that trend will continue to accelerate. In the next couple of years, we could see Android overtake Windows as the dominant operating system. What areas of Android would you like to see Google improve upon before you would give up your desktop or laptop operating systems?  |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:12 AM PST  This weekend is the time that HTC fans have been waiting for. On Sunday in Barcelona, HTC will hold their press conference for Mobile World Congress and unveil their full lineup of 2012 devices. Today HTC posted an image of a generic phone with the number 5 and a message that read, “This Sunday you'll discover something fast.” We think the number 5 could represent the 5-cores inside the Tegra 3 processor that powers the HTC One X, or it could simply be that we are 5 days away from the event. HTC says the show will begin at 8:30 PM Barcelona time, which is 11 AM PST / 2 PM EST in the United States. We don’t know if they are providing a live stream yet, but we will be sure to let you know if one is available. What surprises do you think HTC has in store? Any guesses what the number 5 represents? |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:00 AM PST  As promised, Asus has delivered a bootloader unlock tool for their popular Transformer Prime tablet. On a Facebook announcing the tool Asus said, “we pride ourselves on delivering the best experience for our fans and users throughout our products' life cycles.” I’ve owned the Transformer Prime since it was first released last year and I’ve been impressed with the software support from Asus. They have already delivered the major update to Android 4.0 and several other minor updates that included bug fixes and improved performance. Google has yet to update some of their own Nexus devices to the latest version of Android, so that just shows you the speed at which Asus is moving. Before you unlock your Transformer Prime, make sure you read all the details. It only works with the Transformer Prime model TF201 and the device must already be running Android 4.0. They warn that once you activate the utility you will not be able to recover your ASUS product ("Original Product") back to original locked condition and the Revised Product will no longer be covered under the warranty of the Original Product. The average consumer doesn’t care about unlocking their bootloader, but it’s nice to see Asus provide this option to the hardcore crowd. Hopefully more manufacturers, like Motorola, will adopt this practice on future Android devices. Update: We just learned that ClockworkMod Recovery has already been ported to the Transformer Prime. |
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Update - 39
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