Thursday, April 19, 2012

Update - 297



Posted: 25 Mar 2012 02:35 PM PDT
Nvidia recently released Kepler, a more efficient 28nm GPU, used in the GeForce GTX 680 desktop graphics card. Tech site Anandtech discovered an email sent by Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang to all Nvidia employees congratulating them on the launch of Kepler. In the email, Huang mentions his intention to bring this chip architecture to other devices, including smartphones.
“Today is just the beginning of Kepler. Because of its super energy-efficient architecture, we will extend GPUs into datacenters, to super thin notebooks, to superphones.”
Obviously, the exact same chip can’t simply be inserted into a phone, but this declaration by Huang shows that there is a closer relation between the GeForce and Tegra lines via the Kepler architecture. While the Tegra 3 is Nvidia’s current mobile champion, the next generation from the company will bring us even closer to desktop level performance from a mobile device.
Read Huang’s entire email after the break.

—–Original Message—–
From: Jensen H Huang 
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 9:48 AM
To: Employees
Subject: Kepler Rising
Today, the first Kepler – GTX 680 – is on shelves around the world!
Three years in the making.  The endeavor of a thousand of the world’s best engineers.  One vision – build a revolutionary GPU and make a giant leap in efficient-performance.
Achieving efficient-performance, great performance while consuming the least possible energy, required us to change our entire design approach.  Close collaboration between architecture-design-VLSI-software-devtech-systems, intense scrutiny on where energy is spent, and inventions at every level were necessary.  The results are fantastic as you will see in the reviews. 
Kepler also cultivated a passion for craftsmanship – nothing wasted, everything put together with care – with a goal of creating an exquisite product that works wonderfully.  Let’s continue to raise the bar and establish extraordinary craftsmanship as a hallmark of our company.
Today is just the beginning of Kepler.  Because of its super energy-efficient architecture, we will extend GPUs into datacenters, to super thin notebooks, to superphones.  Not to mention bring joy and delight to millions of gamers around the world.
I want to thank all that gave your heart and soul to create Kepler.  You’ve created something wonderful.
Congratulations everyone!
Jensen
source: anandtech
via: theverge
Posted: 25 Mar 2012 12:40 PM PDT
Learn the tech world’s latest web, mobile and social breakthroughs and meet the developers who are turning them into tomorrow’s startups. Keep yourself and your team driving innovation at Google I/O, which returns to San Francisco’s Moscone Center from June 27th – 29th, 2012.
Mark it in your diaries Google Android lovers, registration for the always awesome input/output conference is merely double-digit hours away. Formal registration opens at 7AM PDT on Tuesday the 27th of March. If you’re champing at the bit to get involved then you’ll need to be quick as there are 5,500 spots up for grabs on a first come, first served basis and if previous years are any indication, it’ll sell out in a matter of minutes. You’ll need to make sure you’re signed up for Google+ and Google Wallet in order to register and the cost this year is a handsome $900 ($300 for students).
Past events have given us a sneak peak at forthcoming Android releases as well as an insight into the wonderful world of Google, could we be about get our first look at the fabled Android Jelly Bean release? Stay tuned in to TalkAndroid as we bring you all the news from the 2012 I/O conference as it arrives. Let us know what you’re hoping to see this year in the comments below.

source : google developers
Posted: 25 Mar 2012 10:55 AM PDT
Last week we reviewed the insanely popular overnight hit, Draw Something. As soon as the app was released it almost instantly became the top free and paid apps in the Play store and remains there to this day. If you are reading this I imagine you have at least heard of this app and at most are highly addicted to it, playing it all day long with over 15 games going on simultaneously – I know who you are :-) Anyway, all folks who have a Draw Something account recently received an email outlining the future update plans for the game. If you have been experiencing bugs have no fear, not only are OMGPOP and new owners Zynga going to fix all reported bugs, they are going to issue some great new features as well. In case you trashed the email or it landed in your spam box, this is what you can expect in the upcoming update:
  • Sharing drawings on Twitter and Facebook
  • Save drawings to your devices’ photo library
  • Notifications for Android devices
  • Increase of the max streak from 99 to 999
  • Pull down to refresh game status
  • Undo button for your last brush stroke
  • Even better performance
  • More Words
  • A slew of other fixes and tweaks
So there you have it. Not only will you get to keep your winning streak going ten times longer than before, you’re about to see an influx of drawings in your social network feed (just what I needed). I personally like the addition of new words. I am getting really tired of drawing a caveman over and over again.
If you are reading this and have yet to try Draw Something, you should check out our review I mentioned earlier, or jump straight to the download link below. As cheesy as it may appear, it truly is a hoot! Giver ‘er a shot already.
qrcode
Posted: 25 Mar 2012 09:10 AM PDT
Many of us have been waiting a good while for HTC to step it up a notch and release something that felt new yet still encompassed all that we love about Sense UI and Android. For most, that phone is the HTC One X. Slated for AT&T and heavily rumored to land on Sprint, the One X will bring HTC lovers the new Sense 4 with ICS, LTE and for AT&T, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor. While we still drool and wait for a release date, one lucky duck in the Android Central forums by the name of Phonegeek has received one for testing on the AT&T network. In the forums, Phonegeek states that the U.S. version of the One X will only have 16 GB of internal storage, versus 32 GB in its international cousin. It is speculated that the reason for this reduction is to make room for the LTE radio. Phonegeek goes on to mention that the One X is about the same thickness as the HTC Inspire 4G, yet the Inspire weighs in at 6 oz and the One X, a mere 4.5 oz. Hopefully the lighter weight won’t take away from the feeling of having a solid, well-built phone. The forum is full of photos and other details so feel free to check out the link and take a peek at the future of HTC.
Posted: 25 Mar 2012 08:09 AM PDT

Let’s face it, we live in a world of internet-based communication. In fact, most of us tend to keep in contact with our friends and loved ones with messaging clients, especially if your friends and loved ones are spread out around the country or world. The most famed and successful international messaging client is no doubt the Blackberry Messenger by RIM, especially because it featured the popular group chat function. My friends and family aren’t particularly fond of the Android platform, so most of them are on either iPhones or Blackberries. That means unless we use some sort of cross platform IM client like AIM or Facebook messenger, we can’t communicate with each other in real time. Enter: GroupMe— one of the most important apps I use daily. This is not only the best group messaging client, it’s one of the best IM clients, period.
GroupMe works in a simple way. Once you install the app, it scans the contacts in your device in order to give you the ability to create “groups” or categories for certain people– no matter what the platform is. That means those of your contacts who are on an iOS device, Android, Blackberry or even a Windows Phone 7 can communicate with each other at the same time. Once that’s done, the group is given a unique identifier (a special phone number) and you as well as other members of that group will be able to communicate in a group chat in real time— no delays, no lag, all instant! In addition, the UI is seamless with features such as being able to share items like photos and your actual location on a map. It’s easy to transition from IM window to IM window and it’s fairly straightforward to edit and change your various groups. Oh and for those who are in the corporate world like I am— there’s a handy conference call feature that is available which allows any user to call the group’s phone number in order to open up an instant conference call among all the members of the group.
Sure there’s WhatsApp, KIK and other IM clients out there, but GroupMe trumps them all. It features a simple UI, allows for sharing of photos and user locations and features conference calls. It doesn’t get much better than this folks. It’s available for all Android 2.1+ devices now. So if you are one who is in constant communication with your friends and family, getting this app is a no brainer, so make sure you get it— now.
Posted: 25 Mar 2012 06:59 AM PDT
Happy Sunday all!!! We can’t get the new week started off without new news from the rumor mill, right? Manufacturing giant Motorola seems to have yet another DROID RAZR-like device in the works, this time making an appearance out in China. This gorgeous device (identified as “Blade” in some forums) features a nice build with all black casing (sans the Motorola logo on the front) and a kevlar backing, an HD camera which may feature around a 13MP count and hardware soft keys. Oh and it looks like it has the same thickness as the DROID RAZR MAXX, so it’s possible there’s a beefy 3300mAh battery inside. All of this points to a device that’s awfully similar to the DROID Fighter we highlighted last week. Perhaps this is a Chinese variant of the upcoming device.
Hit the break to see additonal photos and to let us know what you think about this device in the Comments section.


source: Droid Life
Posted: 24 Mar 2012 08:44 PM PDT
HTC has been getting a lot of attention recently with their One Series of phones. Looks like the HTC One V, the budget device in the series, has gotten FCC approval and is likely getting an April release. It already got GCF certification, and FCC approval is the last step leading up to a release of a smartphone. The One V will come with a 3.7-inch 800 x 480 touch screen, single core 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, 5MP camera with LED flash, and 4GB of onboard storage.
In other HTC news, Sprint’s Evo Design 4G, released last October, just gained Bluetooth re-certification. Why would it need to get re-certified? Most likely it’s because it will be getting a system update soon, and the rumor mill is churning out three letters: ICS. The Evo Design 4G is a mid-range device that has been fairly popular due to its affordability. When it gets Ice Cream Sandwich, it should help extend the life of this solid device. No news on when the update will come, but with the re-certification complete, it should be relatively soon.
sources: fcc, bluetooth
via: androinica
Posted by at 7:33 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)