Amazon Kindle Fire tablet believed to hit 250,000 pre-orders

Amazon launched its very own Android tablet last week, the Amazon Kindle Fire – and its own name seems to be an indicator of how popular the tablet is because it sure is selling like hot cakes! The tablet was only announced last Wednesday and it seems that Amazon has managed to hit 250,000 pre-orders – according to reports from unofficial sources close to the company. To put things into perspective, that’s more than what the PlayBook took a whole fiscal quarter to do.

It looks like what TechCrunch said about the Amazon tablet might come to pass: the tablet is starting to look like it’s going to be “on many people’s holiday wish-list this year” if it’s not on their wish lists already. Amazon’s positioning in marketing the device with the aid of its very own ecosystem (eBooks, magazines, newspapers, music, movies, and apps) sure puts it in a good position above other Android tablets, and possibly head to head against the iPad.
Not to mention its low, low price of $199 that many people don’t mind paying for.

What do you think about the Amazon Kindle Fire? Will any of you be picking up this tablet when it goes on sale, or have you already made your pre-order?

Read more »

Samsung introduces Series 7 All-In-One Desktop PC

 If you prefer keeping your room or desk clutter free, apart from laptops, all-in-one desktop computers are a good idea idea as opposed to having a separate monitor and desktop tower. While other manufacturers out there already offer such setups, Samsung will be making their first desktop foray into the US market with their Samsung Series 7 All-In-One PC.





The desktop will feature a 23” monitor and a base where the rest of the hardware has been installed. There are currently two configurations available, with the first being priced at $999 which will offer a 2.6GHz Intel Core i3-2120T processor with 6GB of RAM, a 1TB hardware, integrated graphics card along with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

The slightly more expensive model which is priced at $1,199 will instead sport a 2.7GHz Intel Core i5-2390T processor with 8GB of RAM instead. The other features remain and the same and both configurations will come with built-in WiFi and a DVD burner. The Samsung Series 7 All-In-One PC is expected to be available come 10th of October.

Read more »

Acer, ASUS to adopt fiberglass casings for future ultrabooks?

 

One of the reasons why computer manufacturers are slow in adopting ultrabooks, even though they want to, is due to the costs of manufacturing. Now in order to reduce the costs of manufacturing and hopefully find a way to undercut Apple’s MacBook Air, Digitimes has reported that both Acer and ASUS are turning to an alternative material to be used as the casing of their ultrabooks.




If the reports are to be believed, Acer and ASUS will both be turning to fiberglass as their material of choice for the casings of their ultrabook offerings. Both Acer and ASUS are said to be sourcing their fiberglass from Mitac Precision Technology.

The reason behind going the fiberglass route as opposed to an aluminum unibody like the MacBook Air, is because it’s apparently $5-10 cheaper than the aluminum alloy material, and will save both companies up to $20 for a whole ultrabook, or so Digitimes’s sources are saying.
While both companies have aluminum-shelled ultrabooks in the works and to be launched soon, Acer is said to launch their 15” fiberglass model in 2012. No word on when we will be able to expect ASUS’s fiberglass offerings.

Read more »

Amazon Tablet Will Be First True iPad Challenger, Research Firm Predicts

Within a year, Amazon will be a major player in the tablet market, second only to Apple’s iPad, a major research firm predicts. Not only will Amazon ship millions of its still-unannounced Android-based slate, but third-party manufacturers will sell a variety of “Amazon tablets” that feature the online retailer’s software and services.
This bit of soothsaying is courtesy of Forrester Research, which has just published a new report on how Amazon will quickly become Apple’s biggest competitor in the tablet space.
Amazon reportedly is readying an Android tablet that may cost “hundreds less” than the iPad, and may launch the product this fall, according to recent rumors. As Forrester sees it, an Amazon-branded slate priced below $300 would be a huge hit–selling 3- to 5-million units in the fourth quarter alone, assuming Amazon has enough supply to meet demand.

Apple iPad Still Number One

Amazon’s tablet success won’t challenge the iPad’s dominance, however. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, in a blog post, points out that Apple has sold nearly 29 million tablets thus far and “looks invincible.”
But Amazon’s retailing prowess will allow it to gain a sizable chunk of the market quickly, something other tablet makers have yet to accomplish.

“Even though Amazon taking on Apple is a bit like David taking on Goliath (compare the market cap, profits, and cash position of the two companies), Amazon’s willingness to sell hardware at a loss–combined with the strength of its brand, content, cloud infrastructure, and commerce assets–makes it the only credible iPad competitor in the market,” Epps writes.

How Amazon Will Do It

Unlike Apple, which earns most of its income from hardware sales, Amazon isn’t seeking a profit from hardware, Forrester says. The retailer could sell its slate as a loss leader, but still profit by directing its tablet users to Amazon services and software. This strategy would likely strain the already shaky Amazon/Apple relationship.
Other Android manufacturers may also overlay Amazon’s software on their tablets to provide a “richer customer experience”–assuming, of course, the Amazon-oriented interface is superior to plain-vanilla Android or other OS skins.
If consumers flock to Amazon tablets, developers will soon follow. Retailers, banks, and media and software companies will quickly build apps for the Amazon slates, thereby reducing Apple’s advantage in the apps race.
Apple says there are more than 100,000 iPad apps, whereas Google’s Honeycomb platform has less than 300, Forrester says.

Read more »

AMD Delivers Multi-Display Support with Longevity on Latest Entry-Level Embedded Discrete GPU

Today at Embedded Systems Conference East, AMD (NYSE: AMD) introduced the AMD Radeon™ E6460 discrete graphics processor as AMD’s next generation entry-level embedded graphics processor and complements the previously announced AMD Radeon™ E6760.

With support for up to four simultaneous displays and more than double the 3D graphics performance of the ATI Radeon™ E2400 GPU¹, the AMD Radeon E6460 GPU sets a new bar for features and performance in an entry-level embedded GPU. With five years of planned supply availability and with the graphics memory included in the same package, the AMD Radeon E6460 GPU delivers the longevity, small footprint, and ease of design demanded by embedded system designers.

“The AMD Radeon E6460 GPU provides the high value, small footprint, and long supply demanded by embedded customers,” said Richard Jaenicke, director of Embedded Client Business for AMD.  “With a footprint-compatible subset of the high-performance AMD E6760 GPU, the new AMD Radeon E6460 GPU enables broadly scalable graphics and multimedia performance in a single board design.”
The AMD Radeon E6460 GPU enables an immersive experience with desktop-level 3D graphics and multimedia features:

Read more »

Cheap graphics cards help crack passwords

 

Do you happen to be in possession of some rather nifty hacking knowledge, and also a £30 graphics card lying around the basement somewhere? If you answered “Yes” on both accounts, then good – chances are you are already equipped to be able to crack passwords in just a dozen seconds.
This was what business hosting firm UKFast revealed as part of Cyber Security Awareness Month, where they laid claim that hackers are able to figure out just what your password is in under 12 seconds with the kind of equipment mentioned, where tests involved an Nvidia Geforce GT220 graphics card as well as a Windows 7 machine.

The company’s security staff managed to crack an eight character password in four hours, while a seven character password took a mere five minutes with a six character password in a matter of 12 seconds. Imagine how much faster those passwords can be cracked when a far more powerful graphics cards is utilized, where even a GPU that costs 30 quid can process as much as 158 million possible passwords per second. Food for thought, no?

Read more »

Super Talent USB 3.0 Storage POD Enclosure

With USB 3.0 promising faster transfer rates, we’re sure that there are many users out there who would love to get their hands on a USB 3.0 external hard drive, but the good news is that instead of spending $80-$100 on a new USB 3.0 external hard drive, you can instead opt for the $29 Super Talent USB 3.0 Storage POD Enclosure.





Granted this will save you quite a bit of money, but at the same time it will require you to do a little tinkering, assuming that you’re up for the task of course. The procedure does not appear to be overly complicated and will not require you having an engineering degree to accomplish, only a ordinary screw driver.

All you’d have to do is remove your external hard drive from its casing, install it into the Super Talent’s enclosure and you’re good to go. The only kicker is that your current SATA hard drive needs to be 2.5” in size or an SSD for it to work.

Read more »

Verbatim Store n Save hard disk stores up to 3TB of data

Looking for a new hard disk to store stuff you’ve been downloading and collecting? If that’s you, you find yourself looking to pick up a new hard disk already, here’s a tip: there really isn’t much between the different the two brands you’re looking at. As long as they both feature the same specs, there’s really no reason to pay much more for one model unless the bundled extras are a big deal.

The Verbatim Store n Save external hard disk features a USB 3.0 port (which transfers data at up to 4.8GBit/s, is available in capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 3TB, comes with Nero BackItUp and Burn Essentials’ software, and Green Button  energy-saving software. No mention of when the hard disks will arrive in the US, but they are available in Europe now, with prices starting at $102 (76 Euro) for the 1TB model.

Read more »

Apple iPhone event: the 10 key questions

 
 What about the processor?
This seems like a no brainer: pretty much every rumour over the last few
months has said that the new iPhone will be powered by the same A5 chip that
runs the iPad 2. I don’t see any reason to think otherwise and the A5 is the
main reason that I think the new phone will be called the iPhone 5.
My guess: it will be powered by an A5 processor.

Will the new iPhone have an NFC chip?
Google’s Android handsets have had NFC ‘wave-and-pay’ technology for a while
now and certainly mobile phones are the future of payments. Apple seldom
jumps on new technologies early, however. It prefers to have a service in
place to use them and I don’t think NFC is established enough yet.
My guess: no NFC chip this time.

Will it have a better camera?
Since the first iPhone rumours emerged, the answer to this question has been
the same: the new iPhone will have an 8-megapixel camera – a considerable
improvement on the 5-megapixel version in the iPhone 4.
My guess: the new iPhone will have an 8MP camera.

Is there anything new to come in iOS 5?
At its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple unveiled iOS 5, the next
version of the operating system that runs the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The company does this so that developers can prepare their apps to take
advantage of the newest features. But will there be any new operating system
features announced tomorrow? Apparently so. The suggestion is that the new
iPhone will have a feature called Assistant, which embeds voice operation
throughout the device. It’s based on Siri, which Apple bought last year.
My guess: Assistant will be the only new iOS feature.

How much will it cost?
The 16GB iPhone 4 costs £510 from Apple and the 32GB version costs £612. Apple
typically keeps its prices the same when new technology is released. So what
will it do this year?
My guess: the price points will stay the same, with the 64GB model at £612 and
the 32GB at £510.

What will be the release date for the new iPhone?
There has been all kinds of guesswork about the release date over the last few
months. This Is My Next suggested
last month that the new iPhone would go on sale on October 21. That’s
two-and-a-half weeks after the launch event, which seems plausible. But
could Apple do it sooner?
My guess: the new iPhone will be released on October 14.

Read more »

Dell to unveil new Ultrabooks at CES 2012?

The MacBook Air is currently one of Apple’s best selling computers. Granted it’s not the cheapest Ultrabook around, but given its specs and its looks, it’s a price that some are willing to pay for. Dell, who is currently the number 3 PC manufacturer, reportedly has no plans to stop pumping out laptops until they have managed to create a challenger for Apple’s MacBook Air, and word has it that the company has plans to either unveil or release a line of Ultrabook computers in time for CES 2012.

According to the reports, these line of Ultrabook computers Dell will be manufacturing will feature Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor, but given that CES will be January and how Intel may only be shipping Ivy Bridge in March or later, either Dell will be getting some exclusive first deal with Intel or they may just end up showing prototypes at CES instead of actual product launches.

With Dell’s Adamo series intended to be contenders against Apple’s MacBook Air, which was then phased out and dropped due to weak demand, could Dell see success the third time round (second time with the XPS 14z which unfortunately turned out thicker and heavier than the MacBook Air)? After all, third time’s the charm, right?

Read more »

Sony VAIO SE and SA Series

As it was announced a month ago, today, Sony refreshed its Sony VAIO S Series lineup, with the addition of the full HD 15.5-inch model, the Sony VAIO SE, which aims at people who like to watch movies on their laptop.  Except for the larger screen size, the different storage capacity (500GB vs. 640GB), the battery life and the dedicated 10-key, the VAIO SE packs the same features as the smaller 13.3-inch (1600×900) Sony VAIO SA, with a thin design (under 1 inch), AMD Radeon Hybrid Graphics 6630M (up to 1GB VRAM) and the optional sheet battery that, according to the manufacturer, double the battery life (performance depends upon usage).

Additionally, both units boast Intel Core i5-2430M/2.40 Ghz processor with TurboBoost, 4GB DDR3 RAM (expandable to 8GB), Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) technology, optical drive (CD/DVD/burner), one USB 3.0 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI out, SD card slot, Memory Stick Duo slot, VGA output, audio jack.

According to Sony, the VAIO SE offers up to 5.45 hours of battery life with default brightness, while the VAIO SA lasts s up to 7.15 hours with similar settings, please note that battery life highly depends on usage.
The Sony VAIO SE (Sony VAIO VPCSA3AFX/BI) weights 3.65 lbs and the Sony VAIO SA (Sony VAIO VPCSE13FX/B) weights 4.4 lbs, they both start at about $999.

Read more »

Nokia to Cut 3,500 Jobs, Fund Siemens Venture

Nokia Oyj will eliminate 3,500 jobs, shut a mobile-phone factory in Romania and inject 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) with Siemens AG into their unprofitable network-equipment venture.

The closure of the plant in Cluj, which only began production in 2008, along with adjustments with suppliers will take out 2,200 positions, Nokia said today. The company will also reorganize its map business, cutting 1,300 jobs, and review the future of its handset plants in Finland, Hungary and Mexico.

The reductions come on top of 4,000 job cuts announced in April, mainly in research and development. Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop is slimming Espoo, Finland-based Nokia to arrest a decline in market share to Apple Inc. and pursue faster-moving Asian competitors such as HTC Corp. that are driving the price of smartphones below $100.

“It seems there’s a shortfall in volumes compared to what the company expected last spring and now they need to adjust production to meet lower levels of demand,” said Michael Schroeder, a Helsinki-based analyst at FIM Bank.

Nokia fell as much as 2.3 percent in Helsinki and was up 0.5 percent to 4.20 euros as of 12:48 p.m. local time. Siemens added 0.1 percent to 68.93 euros in Frankfurt trading.

Preferred Shares

Nokia and Siemens will each contribute 500 million euros in cash to Nokia Siemens Networks, their 50-50 venture. The parents will get preferred stock in return, Nokia spokesman James Etheridge said by telephone.

The owners named Jesper Ovesen as the venture’s executive chairman, replacing former Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who was non-executive chairman and is retiring from Nokia. Ovesen, 54, was chief financial officer of TDC A/S, whose private equity owners sold shares in the Danish carrier to the public last year.

It will be easier for Nokia Siemens to tap the financial markets independently once its profitability improves, Siemens spokesman Wolfram Trost said. It’s too early to speculate on a possible initial public offering and the focus now is on operational and financial improvements, he said.

Nokia Siemens, which has been unprofitable for all but one quarter since it started in April 2007, said in July that it wanted to improve its competitiveness as a standalone entity and had ended talks about a possible stake sale to private-equity investors. The venture, the second-largest maker of wireless networks after Ericsson AB, is struggling to hold onto that position as competition with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. intensifies.

Industry Outlook

“Ovesen may be able to do another successful restructuring just as he seems to have done at TDC,” said Michael Hagmann, an analyst at Nomura International Plc in London. “At the end it may take a little bit longer until demand in this industry finally improves enough for Siemens to be able to offload its stake.”

Nokia shipments of low-end phones dropped 16 percent in the second quarter. Smartphone volume fell 34 percent. The company is expected to start shipping a new line based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone by year-end.

Nokia has 10 handset factories. Three make smartphones, in Finland, China and South Korea, and one in the U.K. makes the Vertu luxury models. Low-end mobile phones are made in Brazil, Mexico, China, Romania, Hungary and India. Nokia announced plans in March to add a plant in Vietnam.

Navteq Reorganization

The company is folding its maps business Navteq, acquired for $8.1 billion in 2008, into a new location and commerce software division that will help its handsets stand out from competitors. Nokia will shutter units in Bonn and Malvern, Pennsylvania as a result.

Nokia’s smartphone market share plummeted to 20.9 percent in the second quarter from 37.4 percent a year earlier, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Its overall handset market share declined to 22.8 percent from 30.3 percent in the second quarter of 2010.

Elop has also shifted 3,000 employees to Accenture Plc along with the Symbian operating software to make way for the adoption of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 and other platforms.

While factories in Asia “provide greater scale and proximity benefits,” the company is committed to keeping research and development facilities in Europe, Elop said in the statement.

Read more »

‘Android tax’ spells big bucks for Microsoft

Android device makers might get their software from Google Inc. for free, but more of them are forking over millions to Microsoft Corp. as an ‘Android tax.’

After signing patent licensing agreements granting Microsoft royalty payments with seven other leading Android makers in the past three months — such as Acer Inc. and HTC Corp. — Microsoft signed a deal Wednesday with Google’s largest manufacturing partner, Samsung Electronics Corp.
It was a dual victory, as the deal will also give Microsoft a “deeper partnership” with Samsung on Windows Phone 7 development.

This is “our most important Android patent licence to date,” Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, said on Twitter Wednesday.



While the company did not disclose the amount it will make from each Samsung Android device, RBC Capital Markets financial analyst Mike Abramsky estimates it to be between US$5 and US$15 per device sold.

If only half of the 19 million smartphones Samsung sold during its most recent quarter were running Android, Microsoft would have made between US$50-million and US$150-million based on those figures.

“Microsoft has quickly established precedents that Android phones and tablets require a licence to its patent portfolios,” Mr. Abramsky told clients on Wednesday.
“IP wars may mean that Android‘s ‘free’ open source model— instrumental in its huge growth—morphs into licensing; [so an] Android tax [is] possible.”
Wednesday’s agreement marks the seventh Android licensing deal Microsoft has inked in the past three months, making eight overall. As a result, Microsoft makes royalties on more than half of all Android devices sold in the United States.

That leaves Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. as the only U.S.-based Android maker without a Microsoft licence. Microsoft is fighting to change that, having won a motion last month to have an ongoing patent lawsuit moved to its home district of Seattle.
Days before a Florida judge granted Microsoft’s request, Google agreed to buy Motorola for US$12.5-billion, the largest acquisition in its history.

The deal gave Google control over 83 year-old Motorola’s vast collection of more than 20,000 patents and patent applications, badly needed ammunition the company could use to fend off what it had previously described as “a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.”
Microsoft’s Mr. Smith challenged the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s assertion in a blog post jointly written with his deputy Horacio Gutierrez and published Wednesday. Calling Google “chief among” those complaining about Microsoft’s licensing strategy, the pair posed a rhetorical question to the search firm.

“If industry leaders such as Samsung and HTC can enter into these agreements, doesn’t this provide a clear path forward?”
Responding to the barb in comments emailed to the Financial Post on Wednesday afternoon, Google said it was the “same tactic we’ve seen time and again from Microsoft.”

Read more »

IBM to Lead $4.4 Billion Chip Investment in New York

Five chip makers, including Intel, IBM, Samsung Electronics, GlobalFoundries and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have committed investment of US$4.4 billion in research and development in the state of New York over the next five years, to develop new 450-millimeter chip wafer technology, the state’s governor Andrew M. Cuomo said on Tuesday.
New York secured the investment in competition with other locations worldwide, Cuomo said in a speech that was also webcast.


IBM has committed $3.6 billion of the total investment to work on next generations of computer chips, including those using 22-nanometers and 14-nanometers process technology, said John Kelly, senior vice president and director of IBM Research.
Since 2000, IBM has invested more than $10 billion in New York state, its largest investment anywhere in the world, Kelly said.

The transition from 300mm to 450mm wafers will require unprecedented industry-wide collaboration, and the New York project is critical for the new consortium, called Global 450, said Brian Krzanich, senior vice president and general manager of manufacturing and supply chain at Intel.
Intel is already designing and building its future factories to be 450mm capable, and is counting on the results of the research and development in New York in the second half of the decade to go into production in those factories.
Intel has also agreed to establish its 450mm East Coast Headquarters to support the overall project management in Albany.
The investment will retain and create 6,900 jobs in upstate New York, including 2,500 new technology roles, according to a statement issued by the governor’s press office.
No private company will receive any state funds as part of the agreement. To support the project, New York state will invest $400 million in the State University of New York (SUNY) College for Nanoscale and Science Engineering (CNSE) in Albany, including $100 million for energy efficiency and low-cost energy allowances.
The state investment in CNSE will be made over a five-year period. “The state doesn’t fund business. The state funds SUNY if and only if the jobs are actually being created,” Cuomo said.

Read more »

Google launches Google Wallet service weeks ahead of iPhone 5 refresh

While some reports have suggested Apple could introduce support for NFC-based payments in a new iPhone model as early as this fall, rival Google on Monday launched its own NFC solution conceived initially for Sprint Android smartphones.
What is an NFC e-wallet?

NFC, or near field communication, is a wireless communication technology that operates over short distances and allows certain devices to interact with each other when being placed in close proximity from a few centimeters to a few meters.

A secure application stores credit card information so that a chip in the NFC-enabled smartphone can connect the device to an NFC reader in a store to complete a wireless and rapid exchange of payment information. The technology allows compatible smartphones to function as an efficient e-wallet simply by waving the phone over the reader to pay for a product or service.

Google Wallet
Google Wallet was first announced and demoed in May during the companys Google I/O event and is initially available to Sprint Nexus S 4G users through an over-the-air firmware update.
The Mountain View, Calif., company is working with Citi and Mastercard to help Android smartphone owners use their device as a payment method at stores that support the new technology. In addition to Citi Mastercard credit cards, customers will be able to use a Google Prepaid Card to pay for their purchases. Early adopters of the service will be awarded a $10 bonus after setting up a Google Prepaid Card in the Google Wallet application.
Google said it plans to further expand payment choices in the near future as Visa, Discover and American Express have made available their NFC specifications that could enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet.
Apple NFC plans and the iPhone

The launch of Google Wallet comes just weeks before Apple is expected to introduce its next-gen iPhone. Reports have suggested Apple could, as soon as next month, announce two distinct iPhone models: a cheaper iPhone 4S model, expected to be based on the current iPhone 4 design, and an all-new iPhone 5.

The latter model has been rumored on more than one occasion to make use of a NFC chip that would allow customers to use it as a virtual wallet. An earlier report claimed that Qualcomm would supply Apple with NFC chips for a future iPhone without specifying whether this year’s iPhone 5 would include parts.
Apples interest in NFC technology and e-payment systems has been evidenced by several patent applications, job postings and even claims made by Deutsche Telekom execs.
Most recently, a New York Times report from last week on the imminent launch of the fifth-generation iPhone reiterated claims related to Apples own e-wallet plans.
When Apple does introduce a mobile-payment-ready iPhone, the company will immediately have an advantage over its competitors, including Google and Microsoft, which are trying to push payments on mobile devices too, author Nick Bilton wrote, though he was unsure whether the technology would arrive in the fifth- or sixth-generation iPhone.
One person familiar with Apples plans said the phones payment information would be tied to customers iTunes accounts, which would make it simple for customers to set up a payment account on the iPhone by simply logging into iTunes,” he added.

Read more »

Qualcomm Snapdragon roadmap talks of 2.5 GHz quad-core CPUs

 Qualcomm has just revealed its Snapdragon roadmap, showing us the chipsets that we should be looking forward this year and things are looking pretty exciting. Apparently, we are just a few months away from mobile chipsets with 2.5GHz quad-core CPUs

The S4 class of the Snapdragon family, which will be used in next-generation devices, will be using 28nm architecture for much better power-efficiency than the current crop of mobile chipsets. It will offer single-core, dual-core, and quad-core processors clocked all the way up to 2.5GHz plus a new GPU.


So far, Adreno GPUs haven’t won many battles on the mobile front, but Qualcomm will obviously try and change that. They next Adreno will be using new architecture and will have either two or four cores. So the top model of the next Snapdragon generation should have 8 processing cores – four for the CPU and four for the GPU – amazing right?

Finally, Qualcomm will also make sure that it’s not lagging behind in terms of network radios and it will be equipping its next gen chipsets with 3G and LTE antennas. With the LTE network coverage expected to rapidly expand over the next couple of years we can’t see anyone being shocked about that.

Read more »

Google Acquires Over 1,000 IBM Patents

Google has acquired over 1,000 patents from IBM, as part of its strategy to strengthen its patent portfolio to counter litigation, according to records of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Jim Prosser, a Google spokesman, confirmed the transfer, reported by a blog SEO by the Sea, but did not provide details such as the price Google may have paid for the patents.

Google also acquired another over 1,000 patents from IBM in July. It transferred recently some patents to smartphone maker HTC to help it pursue patent litigation against Apple.

Google has been interested in acquiring patents for some time now, which led to its failed bid in June for the patents of Nortel Networks, and its proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility for about US$12.5 billion.

The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation, Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel, said in a blog post in April.

“But as things stand today, one of a company’s best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services,” he added.
The acquisition of Motorola Mobility’s patents was a key consideration for Google to start talking to the company in early July. But Motorola told Google that it could be a problem for Motorola Mobility to continue as a stand-alone entity if it sold a large portion of its patent portfolio, according to a filing by Motorola to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

Like the patents from the previous patent transaction between Google and IBM, the range of inventions covered in the new set of patents is pretty broad, including desktop and server hardware, computer security, database processes, circuit design, parallel database systems and architecture, user authentication, creditcard/smartcard testing, and much more, said SEO by the Sea. The vast majority of patents appear to have been originally assigned to IBM, but there were a few that started out at Cognos, which IBM acquired in 2007, and which was merged into IBM’s business intelligence offerings, it added.

Read more »

Apple rumored to use thinner, lighter, safer battery for iPad 3

Apple is said to have chosen two suppliers to provide batteries that will be thinner and lighter, but also up to 30 percent more expensive, for its third-generation iPad.
 
Simply Technology and Dynapack International Technology have both been tapped for the next-generation batteries, according to Taiwan Economic News. Both companies are said to currently supply batteries for Apple’s iPad and MacBook lineup.


The report said Apple’s third-generation iPad will be mass-produced in the first quarter of 2012. The device’s battery is said to have been redesigned to be thinner and lighter, and will reportedly offer a longer service life than the battery found in the iPad 2.
“Furthermore, the new battery pack will also be required to meet CTIA IEE 1625 standard for better quality and safety reliability, a trend that has been commonly seen nowadays, especially in the U.S.,” the report said.

The new thinner, lighter and safer battery will also reportedly come at a higher price for Apple, costing between 20 percent and 30 percent more than the battery currently found in the iPad 2.
Both Simplo and Dynapack are rumored to begin providing batteries to Apple in the fourth quarter of calendar 2011. That would put the company on track to begin production of the so-called “iPad 3″ soon after, and would also put Simplo and Dynapack in a position to earn record quarterly revenues.
Last month it was said that Apple was already near the trial production phase for its third-generation iPad. The device is expected to have a high-resolution screen, similar to the Retina Display found on the iPhone 4.



That retina display is expected to be provided by three major suppliers in order to meet growing demand for Apple’s iPad lineup. LG Display, Samsung Electronics and Sharp have all been rumored to be in the supply chain for Apple’s next iPad.

Also in August, Apple was said to have e begun trial production of the proprietary A6 mobile processor that’s expected to power the next iPad 3 and, eventually, a sixth-generation iPhone. A previous report from the Taiwan Economic News named Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as the new manufacturer of the chip, reportedly snagging a role formally filled by Samsung.
The ARM-based A6 is said to incorporate TSMC’s 28-nanometer process and 3D stacking technology. The chipmaker’s “silicon interposer” and “bump on trace” methods are also said to be utilized in the next-generation chip, which is scheduled to be finalized in the first quarter of 2012.

Read more »

Nvidia CEO: Quad-Core Tablets Coming By End Of Year

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang wants to be the first to deliver a quad-core mobile processor

In its endeavor to be the leading chip provider for high-end smartphones and tablets, Nvidia has prided itself on moving more swiftly than its competitors.




The California chipmaker currently appears to be in the lead by one important measure: delivering the world’s first mobile quad-core processor.


Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia’s President and Chief Executive, confirmed to Forbes that Google Android tablets running the company’s much-anticipated quad-core processor will be available this year. That should keep Nvidia ahead of rivals like Qualcomm who aren’t expected to deliver silicon with similar capabilities until the end of the year.

The two chipmakers have been jousting over leadership of the high-end smartphone processor market. Qualcomm, which has a long history of providing technology to cellphone manufacturers, likes to emphasize its experience and expertise in the mobile device industry while Nvidia points to sophisticated technology and engineering that it brought over from its graphics processing unit (GPU) business. “We’re the only people seriously on the dance floor with Qualcomm,” contends Huang. “We’re really the only two active players [in the high-end mobile processor market].”

Nvidia was less definitive about its ability to launch a quad-core chip in a consumer-ready smartphone in the next few months. Nvidia previously predicted it would have quad-core phones on sale in 2011, but Huang indicated there may only be quad-core tablets this year.

Despite lining up notable smartphone partnerships, such as Motorola’s Atrix, Droid Bionic and Photon 4G, Nvidia’s focus on high-end smartphones limits its mobile processor business to 100 million units (globally) today. That’s why Nvidia plans to branch out from so-called superphones into the mainstream smartphone market. Huang says that will happen within the next year as Nvidia incorporates technology from its May acquisition of baseband processor maker Icera. He anticipates that Icera’s technology will be integrated with Nvidia’s Tegra mobile processors as a platform offering by the second quarter of 2012.

Extending into regular smartphones will give Nvidia a much bigger market to play in. Huang estimates the company could ship 1 billion mobile processors a year by 2015. “We’ll be very pleased if we can be a sizable player in the mainstream phone market,” says Huang.
Beefing up its mobile business will eventually flip the balance between Nvidia’s two main businesses: GPUs and mobile processors. Today, Nvidia’s GPU business is about $4.5 billion while its mobile business is about $2 billion. Huang predicts that will reverse by 2015 with mobile sales generating $20 billion of business for Nvidia and GPUs $7 billion.

Nvidia has already acquired a leading position in Android smartphones and tablets. Huang says the company has a 70% share of the Android tablet market, which makes up about 30% of the overall tablet market. Nvidia’s share of Android superphones is a little lower, about 50%, says Huang.

Read more »

Toshiba tries anew with 10.1-inch Android tablet

BERLIN–Toshiba, trying again to gain a foothold in the
tablet market, introduced the AT200
Android tablet today, a Honeycomb-powered model with a 10.1-inch screen.















The tablet, like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, has a screen resolution of 1280×800. It’s 7.7mm thick and the Wi-Fi-only model weighs 558 grams–measurements Toshiba is very excited about as a sales pitch.
“People like thin and light,” said Steve Crawley, Toshiba’s senior manager for tablet product development, at the IFA electronics show here. Toshiba boasts that’s the thinnest and lightest for a tablet in its screen size.

Andy Bass, Toshiba’s vice president of sales and marketing in Europe, shows the AT200 Android tablet.

The tablet has a dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor running at 1.2GHz; an LED-backlit LCD display; a battery good for eight hours of video; ports for MicroSD cards, HDMI video, and USB; a gyroscope, accelerometer, and electronic compass; a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash and 2-megapixel front-facing camera; stereo speakers; 1GB of memory; 256mm by 176mm by 7.7mm dimensions; and Wi-Fi supporting 802.11b/g/n. It’s got Adobe Systems’ Flash Player 10.3, convenient for the BBC iPlayer crowd, and Toshiba’s media player software.
It’ll ship in the fourth quarter, Crawley said. The tablet will arrive with version 3.2 of Google’s tablet operating system, aka Honeycomb, but Toshiba is committed to an over-the-air update to its successor, Ice Cream Sandwich, he added.
The Android tablet market is a tough one, though. Strong players such as Samsung haven’t made much headway against


Apple’s iPad dominance, and it’s tough for Android device makers to stand out from the crowd.
“If you’re all going Android some people will have their work cut out to distinguish the product,” Crawley said. Toshiba believes it can with the AT200, its third-generation tablet. In addition to the thin-and-light argument, the company will emphasize sound features, such as the ability to adjust sound according to best fit the conditions where the tablet is located, and video features, such as Resolution+ upscaling technology to improve low-resolution video.


Crawley believes that Android tablet software is “getting better all the time,” though. “We are very happy with the market and how it’s developing.”

Toshiba also thinks it’s in a better position now than it was during earlier tablet attempts such as the AT100. Asked what the company learned from those, Crawley replied, “What didn’t we learn? To be first on the market was a very difficult trick. We learned how to talk to Google better, to tailor our product more.”

Read more »