| Samsung Exynos 5 Octa chips to gain Heterogeneous Multi-Processing Sep 10th 2013, 02:59, by Juan Carlos Torres Samsung has just made an announcement that might rock the ARM processor world: a Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) solution that will be applied to its Exynos 5 Octa core processors. This is practically the manufacturer’s response to criticisms and alternative solutions being marketed by its rivals in the System-on-Chip manufacturing business. 
Heterogeneous Multi-Processing is a hot topic when it comes to eight, sometimes even quad, core ARM processors. The usual setup involves utilizing ARM big.LITTLE technology, with two groups of cores, one set of low-power, usually Cortex-A7, cores, and one set of more powerful cores, at the moment Cortex-A15. In Samsung’s initial software implementation, only half of the eight cores can be used at a time, depending on the workload required. More intensive processes would activate the A15′s, but would switch to A7′s when on standby. As such, only four cores are ever active at a given time. This limitation has been pointed out and exploited by MediaTek to advertise their “True Octa Core” processor last July, boasting of the first heterogeneous ARM big.LITTLE multi-processing support. Now it seems that Samsung has heard the call and is no responding with their own solution. Samsung’s HMP software implementation will be able to utilize all eight cores at the same time, allocating computationally intensive threads to the more powerful cores, leaving the low-power cores to deal with threads with lower priority. Samsung promises to deliver the HPM solution to its Exynos 5 Octa processors by the last quarter of this year, which could land on devices such as the Galaxy Note III and the 2014 Galaxy Note 10.1, both of which sport Samsung’s latest Exynos 5 Octa with an ARM MALI GPU and an ARM Artisan physical IP. While MediaTek has the first word on HMP solutions, considering none of its new chips are being shipped in existing devices yet, Samsung might have the last laugh instead. SOURCE: Samsung |  | Sony Xperia M finally lands in the US Sep 10th 2013, 02:23, by Juan Carlos Torres Barely a week after Sony unveiled its latest Xperia Z1 masterpiece, its older but smaller sibling, the Xperia M, has slowly made its way to US shores. The relatively smaller smartphone, which focuses on easy connectivity with other Sony devices, is now available for purchase from online stores. 
The Sony Xperia M was announced way back in June this year, sporting rather modest hardware specs. A 4-inch 854×480 display tops the device with a dual-core 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM running the show underneath. But more than just the hardware, the Xperia M is marketed as connected device, offering features such as Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and ANT+ that lets users easily connect not only to fellow Xperia M units, but also to Sony’s NFC-enabled BRAVIA TVs and even sports gadgets. Sony is now making the smartphone available in the US, but so far only from its own online store and from Newegg. Although two SIM variants were announced during launch, it seems that only the single SIM option is available in stores. Sony released a video earlier advertising the phone and its connectivity features which you can watch below. The Sony Xperia M is available with four back cover color options, but at the moment the purple option is out of stock, leaving buyers with a choice of black, white, or yellow when buying directly from Sony. The smartphone is being sold unlocked with a price tag of $249.99. VIA: Xperia Blog | | Roku app update enables streaming from smartphones to TVs Sep 10th 2013, 01:59, by Juan Carlos Torres Following the update to its iOS app last month, Roku has released an update to its Android app that brings in the coveted improvement to its Play on Roku feature. Users will now be able to stream videos from their smartphones to a Roku player for viewing on a TV or other larger display. 
The Roku Android app basically functions as a remote control for Roku streaming players, allowing users to browse from more than 1,000 Roku channels and offers other features such as instant replay. Last year, the company launched its Play on Roku feature on its mobile apps, letting users stream music and display pictures from their mobile devices to Roku players. Last month, Roku announced the logical next step to the Play on Roku feature, which is now landing on Android as well. With the new update, users will be able to stream video via Play on Roku as well. Unfortunately, the list of supported devices is quite short, including only the Samsung Galaxy S III, the Samsung Galaxy S 4, the HTC One, the Nexus 4, and the 2012 edition of the Nexus 7. No mention has been made about supporting more devices in the future, but at a minimum, Android 4.0 or later is required. 
The Play on Roku video streaming feature requires that supported Android device be paired with a Roku player running a software version of 5.1 or later. The updated Roku Android app is now available for download on Google Play Store and should already be rolling out to current users. SOURCE: Roku | | Google Play Music update brings in Genre Radio to All Access Sep 10th 2013, 01:32, by Juan Carlos Torres Google has started a staged rollout of a new version of its Music Android app bringing in some interesting features. One such feature is a new Genre Radio feature that will be, unfortunately, only available to Google Music All Access subscribers. 
Taking on music streaming giants such as Pandora and Spotify, Google launched its All Access last May, offering a subscription-based system for music streaming. At $9.99 a month, users can get access to full music streaming from Google’s huge library of content. Initially exclusive to the US, Google Music All Access was also extended to cover New Zealand and Australia, with more regions probably coming soon. Those who are lucky enough to have access to the service will now enjoy a new feature on Google’s Music app. The Genre Radio will allow All Access users to select streams based on the genre or sub-genre of choice. And when users want to download the music instead, they are greeted with an improved Download Queue manager that now lets users pause and resume downloads. 
The new version 5.2 of the Google Play Music app has started to arrive on some users’ devices, but as it is a staged rollout, don’t be surprised if you don’t see an update notification for a few days. VIA: Android Police | |
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