Mobile Devices - Page 178

Another Apple patent has turned up and this one is just as cool as the last, if not cooler. Once again, though, I must caution you that just because Apple filed for a patent, it doesn't mean that this technology will ever see the light of day. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on to the goods.

The patent that was found recently deals with a technology for taking a 3D picture using the cameras found in iOS devices. 3D has become the norm for almost every device it seems, so it's surprising that it has taken Apple this long to come up with something like this. According to the patent, the technology would utilize "depth-detection sensors" to create stereo disparity maps in creating 3D imagery.

The new cameras are also supposed to include facial recognition and facial gesturing. Awesome. This camera should be able to take such awesome 3D photos that they can only be appreciated on Apple's Retina display. It is also saying that 3D pictures could be taken using ONE of more cameras which differs from today's technology which requires two for perspective differences. It will be cool to see if or when this technology shows up.

We all know the new iPhone is coming (I'm going with the 'new iPhone' name, that's what the new iPad is called), and now we have a source from Texas Instruments who has told iPhone maintenance outlet RepairLabs, that TI have begun work on producing the power management chip for the new iPhone. Senior staffers in the company were referring to Apple's project as the iPhone 5, but this could just be a place holder name, or something that would differentiate the handset from the iPhone 4S.

Apple has used Texas Instruments for power management chips in iOS-based devices before, so this is no surprise. RepairLabs interpreted the production of these chips as a sign that a new release was a "few months" away, since this is the same sort of time frame from previous TI production runs.

On top of the TI leak, there has been a Chinese contact who has supposed new iPad parts has been told that the new iPhone is being slated for a September release. This person has said that the screen would be bigger, but there weren't any concrete details on whether it would be the leaked 4.6-inch screen that popped up as news recently.

A slow golf clap by myself is being done for some researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi, where they've developed a new type of plastic that can mimic human skin. Yes, it mimics the skin on your body. It was presented at an annual meeting of the American Chemical Society on Monday, where the material turns red when damaged, and can self-heal if simply put into some light.

Researcher and professor, Marek W. Urban, who reported on the development in San Diego this week says:

It's the new and improved iPad and it sports 4G support for increased data speeds worldwide! Well, not if you're in Australia. Australia's 4G network runs on a different frequency band than what the new iPad supports. So you can't technically get 4G in Australia, even if you do have the new iPad.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken Apple to court over misleading advertising, due to the fact that the iPad doesn't operate on the 4G LTE bands that are used in Australia. "The ACCC alleges that Apple's recent promotion of the new 'iPad with WiFi + 4G' is misleading because it represents to Australian consumers that the product "iPad with WiFi + 4G" can, with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case," it says.

Apple has now extended the offer to all Australian buyers of the new iPad to collect a refund if they feel they have been mislead by the advertising. This may only be the start of 4G problems for Apple. The iPad is compatible with US and Canadian 4G networks, but many European networks are planning 4G networks which fall outside the supported bands.

HTC's Wind is a magical thing, a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale single-SIM card world. HTC Wind sports dual-SIMs, and is only available in China. The T328w Wind is powered by a Qualcomm 1GHz single-core processor, a 4-inch 800x480-pixel screen, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

HTC's Wind also features a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, as well as HTC's Beats Audio and SRS processing for music fans and audiophiles alike. But, it's the dual-SIM feature that makes this smartphone stand out against the crowd. Dual SIMs make it appealing in eastern Europe and Asia, where users like to switchin between two or more carriers to minimize call and data costs. This can be quite useful as one carrier might sport insanely cheap voice calls, but expensive data. If this is the case, you could switch to the other SIM and enjoy great data rates.

HTC's Wind will come in a bunch of colors: black, white, pink and blue. HTC has priced the phone competitively, at 2,000 yuan ($317 USD) and HTC have not yet announced dates on when the dual SIM-rocking Wind will land in China, or other countries for that matter.

I'm getting to boiling point over these Samsung leaks, I really wish Samsung would just turn up at my house for an interview, GALAXY S III in hand (a few of them) and say "have at it". But, for now, we'll rely on leaks. PhoneArena is reporting they've just received a photo claiming to be the Samsung GT-i9300.

It sports the usual Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich UI, but right now, we don't know what phone this is, or what it could even be. Considering the GALAXY S II is the GT-i9100, the GALAXY Nexus is the GT-i9250, the GT-i9300 should slot right into the GALAXY S III spot, but does it?

It definitely looks like a GALAXY S handset, sans buttons, which is an ICS-based thing, really. So we should expect the leak to be right with the UI and look of the device itself. We see TouchWiz-sporting ICS with Samsung's Music and Video Hubs, the S Memo, S Planner, and S Suggest apps. The screen looks to be between 4.6- and 4.7-inch, too. But there's nothing to compare it against, so this is just a "it looks like", and not "it is" statement.

The new iPad's screen does look pretty, but most non-tech savvy users most likely thought that before Apple released the 2048x1536-powered Retina Display on the new iPad, that Full HD was as high as screen resolutions went, but they would be very, very wrong. 30-inch screens have maxed out (for consumers) at 2560x1600, and they are beautiful.

Microsoft knows the new tablets, and more importantly, Windows 8, needs to usher in something to combat against the unstoppable iPad. Enter, resolutions and pixel-dense displays. The Building Windows 8 blog has covered it quite well, where Microsoft have identified a sort of "Goldilocks Zone" for three general classes of resolutions: standard, HD, and quad-XGA. Within this zone, text and UI elements aren't blown up to stupid-looking proportions, nor are they shrunk down to something so small its hard to touch.

In the first case, buttons and text will be shown without scaling. In the second, they'll be at 140-percent normal size, and in the third, 180-percent of normal size. The author of the most on Building Windows 8, Microsoft US team member David Washington, admits that high-density screens will make many familiar UI elements such as pulldown menus and small close boxes, "increasingly burdensome". Metro should hopefully solve this.

Technology-wise, there is nothing I want more than Samsung's GALAXY S III smartphone. Just over twelve hours ago, we reported on the latest leakage of the Samsung GALAXY S III image, where it was teased in a VISA ad. Interesting, eh?.

The latest image (above), is reportedly the "official press photo" of the GALAXY S III. We should expect a 12-megapixel camera with an LED flash and some nifty features such as slow motion, time-lapse, as well as full HD (1080p) video recording, as well as an insane 60fps recording. Front-facing camera is still a 1.3-megapixel snapper. If the display is the reported 4.8-inch, we should expect that 1920x1080 display to give us 313 pixels pier inch (PPI).

The device is said to be 8mm thick, and weigh around 125gm. The latest rumored launch date is still May 22nd.

When a new device comes out, there's always going to be complaints from people experiencing buyers remorse. In this case, the new device is the iPad 3 and the complaints are that it runs too hot and, now, that it is unable to charge while running certain, high-load apps and games. The extra heat has to come from somewhere, and now it's plainly obvious: To power the new hi-res screen, they needed a more powerful processor, which has a higher power draw. This results in higher heat and a higher power requirement for these intensive apps.

The new Retina display is a major part of the problem as well. It's, in part, the reason for the beefier processor. Additionally, the back-light for the screen uses 2.5 times more power than the iPad 2 back-light. So, this normally isn't a problem for the 10W charger to overcome. But, when the user decides to crank up the games or apps, it requires more power than is supplied by the 10W charger.

This nets a decrease in the overall battery charge since it is supplementing the power that the charger can't produce. The solution could be as simple as getting a higher powered charger such as the Mac Air's 45W MagSafe. Or, just don't use your tablet while charging. Besides, the new iPad already takes longer to charge due to its larger battery.

Shock. Horror. Stop the presses. Apple's latest iPad has an issue! It runs hotter than its predecessor, the iPad 2. Not by something small like 1c or 5-percent, but a decent whack of an increase. I've personally noticed this, and thought it was the apps I was running, or my iPad specifically, but it seems I'm not the only one.

The new iPad has been tested by Tweakers.net, with an infrared camera, and 5 minutes of GLBenchmark. The results? It runs much hotter. According to the site's measurements, the latest third-generation iPad runs at 33.6C (92.5F) compared to the iPad 2's temps of 28.3C (82.9F). This is a sizeable increase. Personally, mine gets too hot for my left hand to hold it for prolonged periods of time.

I have to put it on my legs, or put something between me and the iPad. I really didn't want to buy a cover for it (because it makes it even heavier than it already is), but it seems I might have to, just to escape the heat issues. I'm attributing it to the more powerful GPU, driving the more pixel-laden display, as well as the much bigger battery to handle all of it. One would think Apple would've known it ran hot and did something with the device to escape this.

I'm beginning to think that HTC named their latest smartphone One S for a reason, it has just smashed every single other smartphone in Basemark ES 2.0 Taiji, cementing themselves into the number one position with the best scores for the benchmark.

If we look at the top 10 devices, 7 of them are Samsung-built devices, with the Pantech Burst sliding into #8, and OPPO Find 3 with #10. Samsung fill out everything else but #1. The closest device is Samsung's Galaxy S II I777 which scores a minimum, maximum and average frame rate of 41, 44 and 43, respectively. HTC One S scores 49, 49, and 49, respectively.

Kicking the shiny butt off Samsung's closest smartphone. This is a sure win for HTC, something that people should definitely be checking out when they want to purchase a new smartphone. Considering that HTC's next phone to be listed in the benchmark is their Velocity 4G at #17, this is a huge win for HTC.

Apple's third-generation Apple TV has splashed down, and it has already been taken apart by a forum member of XBMC.org, revealing a bunch of details of its innards. Apple has previously noticed on its tech specs page for the new Apple TV that it sports a unique single-core A5 system-on-a-chip, an upgrade from the previous A4 chip featured in the previous generation, but lacking the dual-core goodness of the A5 featured in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

The A5 chip in the new Apple TV is identified as APL2498, indicating a variation on the APL0498 processor that is found in the standard dual-core A5 part. The part number for the RAM included in the chip suggests that it's a 512MB chip from Hynix, a nice upgrade from the 256MB of RAM in the A4 package on the previous-gen Apple TV.

Flash storage is the same, where we have an 8GB part from Toshiba, the same storage capacity found in the previous model. Apple could've increased the storage amount, considering the new Apple TV is capable of 1080p playback, but at the same time Apple most likely enjoy keeping the $99 pricing. Lastly, the new APple TV also seems to sport a second antenna which was not found in the previous-generation model, it's currently unknown what this new antenna is capable of.

Apple has to be happy with the sales numbers coming in regarding the new iPad 3. "The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday."

The new iPad has already launched in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands. 24 more countries get the ability to buy the joy that is the new iPad 3 this upcoming Friday when it launches. It will be available through the Apple Online Store, Apple's retail stores, and select Authorized Resellers. iPad is sold in the US through the Apple Online Store, Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Additionally, if you're looking for a good deal, now might be the time to pick up an iPad 2 because it is now offered at a more affordable price of $399 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi + 3G model. (Prices USD)

The two main competing technologies for tablets show off after Apple's Phil Schiller threw up a slide claiming that it has four times the graphics performance of Nvidia's Tegra 3. For those of you who don't know what the A5X is, it's the new CPU in the iPad 3. Thankfully, someone decided to check Apple's claim for validity. Laptop Mag compared the performance of Apple's new iPad with that of Asus's Transformer Prime. They used some benchmarking software available on both platforms.

The results, however, were less one-sided then I'm sure Apple would like to see. In Open GL 3D performance, Laptop Mag found that A5X came out far ahead of Tegra 3 on GLBenchmark 2.1. But, this was not the case in number-crunching. The Tegra 3 beat the iPad's new chip at integer and floating point performance, as well as memory performance. The iPad did win on memory bandwidth.

Additionally, games that are available on both iOS and Android were tested side-by-side. The iPad's retina display made games look sharper and more colorful, but the Tegra 3 powered tablet had more special effects and "eye candy." nVidia noted that the games used, Riptide GP and Shadowgun, had been specifically optimized for Tegra 3, and that the effects could possibly be reproduced on the new iPad.

It is being reported that Lenovo will be the first manufacturer to release a Windows 8-based tablet, according to insiders at the company, says The Verge. Lenovo reportedly want to release a Windows 8 tablet as soon as Microsoft unleash Windows 8, and they believe it will happen in October.

The yet-unnamed tablet would sport an Intel-powered chip, but specifications beyond "it'll use an Intel chip" are unknown. CNET believe we could see Lenovo release their first Windows 8 tablet, IdeaPad Yoga, which is a prototype device that first popped up at CES 2012, which I was very impressed with. It sported a 13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1600x900 with 10 touch points.

What makes the Yoga stand out from the crowd is its flexibility (see what I did there?), where its display can flip over, letting the user either opt to use it as a full-blown notebook, or a full-blown touchscreen tablet. It's electronic heaven!

Reddit is the place where magic happens, and todays magic is in the form of a supposed press image of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S III smartphone, which is said to be unveiled at Samsung's Unpacked event being held in London, on May 22nd.

Samsung have previously stated that the successor to their super-popular Galaxy S II would be unveiled at a "separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product". On the leaked image above, first up is the bottom right hand corner where we can see the name of a PR firm: Weber Shandwick.

Weber Shandwick have previously done work for Samsung in the past, even their press conference at CES 2010. Other details shown in the leaked picture is a dedicated camera button, a single home button, a front speaker grill, and an edge-to-edge screen. Every feature, I love. Dedicated camera button? Yes please! Edge-to-edge screen, bring it on!

The Apple iPhone alone at the top of the customer satisfaction survey. It was the only smartphone to receive a five Power Circle rating from J.D. Power in its two recent reports. Both reports measured satisfaction with devices used for less than a year. In the smartphone category, Apple received a rating of 840 out of 1,000 points, whereas HTC, received four circles and a rating of 793. Samsung and Motorola took third and fourth places, each with three circles and ratings of 789 and 758, respectively.

Quite obviously, the biggest factor impacting customer satisfaction was, according to J.D. Power's reports, battery life. Customers found battery life to be the least satisfying aspect of smartphones. Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power wrote a March 15 statement:

You read the title right! The FBI has been reduced to asking Google for help in cracking a confiscated Android phone's password. The phone was confiscated from accused pimp Dante Dears just a few months after his release from prison. He is accused of quote "telephone pimping" to get around his GPS/electronic monitor. Dante Dears went to prison in 2005 for being one of the founding members of the prostitution ring "Pimpin' Hoes Daily." This is one of the first times that former federal prosecutor Jon Kirby has heard of law enforcement not being able to crack any sort of password code.

Dears is accused of moving into an apartment and, shortly after, returning to pimping, using his cell phone to call the shots while avoiding strict supervision. For obvious reasons, Dears isn't cooperating with the feds and with them unable to crack the code, they've had to acquire a search warrant to compel Google to turn over his information.

A Google spokesperson stated they comply with valid, legal processes.

Apple's latest third-generation iPad is now here, folks, I have one on the desk next to me, but I have a tonne of news to deliver to you loving readers, who are more important than that little thing.

We all know it has hit, and Australia was first, because well, you know, we rock. Anyway, we had midnight launches in some states with some telcos like Telstra opening their doors (and arms and tills) at midnight. This is a full eight hours before Apple opened their retail doors, so some people were greeted with iPads very early today.

It has been reported that there were "snaked" queues, but I'm based in South Australia and had no problems. I called Big W, JB Hi-Fi and a few of their local retailers, and all of them had stock. My local JB's had all 6 flavors of the iPad in stock, and I drove down and picked two of the iPads up without any problems.

Apple's third-generation tablet, the new iPad, is getting some seriously glowing reviews. A few big tech sites have gotten their hands on the Retina Display-sporting iPad and have given it the once over, with some pretty powerful quotes below:

The Verge: