Mobile Devices - Page 352

A few days ago we reported about the battery life issues hurting some iPhone 4S customers, but now Apple have confirmed they have found a few problems that are leading some iPhone users to experience less-than-expected battery life with iPhones powering its latest iOS 5. Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD:

In the past few weeks, there have been various reports not only from tech sites, but from users, that their battery life on the iPhone 4S has been less than stellar. The problems seems to stem from what network a user is on, usage patterns and other factors. Apple has of course been quiet about it (don't want to hurt those precious iPhone 4S sales or make people think Apple products aren't invincible!) but the support forums are filled with posts on the issue.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments grew by 44-percent annually, with a record 117 million units in Q3 2011. Samsung sped past Apple to claim top spot as the world's number one smartphone vendor. Samsung shipped 28 million smartphones and overtook Apple to become the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume with 24-percent market share.

Director at Strategy Analytics, Neil Mawston says:

Apple's iPhone 4S may have enjoyed a large start in sales, but those sales are useless if there are various issues with the handsets. Today brings the problem of battery life on the new iPhone 4S. A story on the Guardian reported that Apple engineers have begun contacting certain users who have complained of battery problems.

Apple have reportedly asked those used to install diagnostic programs onto their iPhone 4S' so that Apple can better diagnose what is causing the battery issues. Since the get go, the Internet has been ablaze with people complaining about the battery life. Even as far as reviews from such places like iLounge, which noted their biggest disappointment with the iPhone 4S was its battery performance.

Then we have TechCrunch which had an opinion piece titled "Dear Apple, Please Make My iPhone 4S Battery Life Suck Less", which they say after a full charge, the 4S dies within eight hours. They also claim that the iPhone 4S battery only lasted for around two-and-a-half hours of Internet usage, 30 minutes of talk time and five hours on standby before being totally drained. This is the same kind of issues that various people on the Apple support forums are reporting.

Own a tablet? Impressed with your single or dual-core speed? Well, ZiiLabs have shown off their JAGUAR3 reference Android-based tablet, which sports a 50-core processor. Inside the JAGUAR3 is a ZMS-20 system-on-a-chip (SoC), which sports two 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A9 cores as well as an additional 48 StemCell processing cores, effectively bringing it up to a 50-core monster. There's not much technical details on the 48 StemCell cores, but ZiiLabs compares them to GPU cores and says they easily make ZMS-20 "the most powerful SoC available for tablets today."

Passed out on the ground in a puddle of your own drool? Well, get your stuff together, kid. If you thought 50-cores were great, ZiiLabs will also intro the ZMS-40 to OEMs next year which sports, get this, 100-cores. The ZMS-40 SoC features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 and 96 StemCell processors. This 100-core "4th-generation" chip is compatible with the Jaguar3, so OEMs will have no troubles upgrading the part as it becomes available.

ZiiLabs is not well know, but you may know the company who owns ZiiLabs. ZiiLabs is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. and with that, brings 25 years of experience with 3D graphics, GPU and SoC designs under its previous name, 3DLABS.

With little more than rumour to go off ever since we first heard about it many moons ago, Dell has finally confirmed the Latitude ST tablet's existence as well as a very close launch date - that being November 1st!

Dell says the Latitude ST is a business oriented product, running Windows 7 and being based on Intel's Oak Trail platform. The device also includes support for VMware and Citrix's virtualization solutions.

The unit weighs in at 816 grams and features a 10.1-inch (1366x768) touchscreen. It's powered by a 1.5GHz Atom Z670 processor with 2GB of RAM and up to 128GB SSD for storage. It has 802.11b/g/n WiFi, optional 3G support, SD card slot and USB and HDMI ports.

Winamp for Android is amazing. I love it, I use it all the time and it is wonderful. Today brings Winamp for Android updates that include a bunch of new features such as a Winamp for Mac Sync beta app that brings the same wireless freedom to Mac users that Windows users have enjoyed for a while now, access to Spinner's MP3 of the day from your Android phone, and a new premium version of the app with extended features.

The biggest feature is Winamp for Android now lets users sync their music and videos wirelessly with the Mac, the same as Windows users have been able to do. The Winamp for Mac Sync Beta app is brand new and a available as a free download. The new updated Winamp for Android also includes more streaming music for Winamp's "Listening Party" feature, where you can stream songs and listen together with friends, and more free music from Spinner.

Lastly, we have the Winamp "Pro Bundle" which will set you back $5 but includes extended features such as support for FLAC, crossfading and gapless playback, and a customizable home screen for the player and a 10-band equalizer. The free version does however include more features than before, but the extended features are just extra flavoring on an already tasty product from Winamp.

Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, teased the codename "Sea Ray" phone in the middle of the year, which looked just like a Nokia N9. Today, Sea Ray has been unveiled as the Nokia Lumia 800 and we get to see how Windows and Nokia gel together, according to Elop, it's the "first real Windows Phone".

Nokia's Lumia 800 sports a single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 1.4GHz processor, 16GB of internal storage, a curved 3.7-inch ClearBlack AMOLED screen framed by a black, cyan or magenta case with individually drilled speaker holes, a dedicated camera button for the f/2.2 Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, 512MB of internal memory, 12.1mm-thick frame and a 1450mAh battery that is said to be good for approximately 9.5 hours of 3G talk time. Software wise, we have Windows Phone Mango, and the Lumia 800 comes packed with a free 25GB SkyDrive account, as well as Nokia Drive, a free turn-by-turn voice navigation program, a first for any Windows Phone.

Filling out the Lumia 800 we have Nokia Music with Mix Radio, which is a global service with no subscriptions or log-ins required for "hundreds of channels of locally-relevant music", and an ESPN Sports Hub, three programs not found on any other Windows Phone 7-powered device.

I remember importing the first iPhone into Australia because we were left out of Apple's circle of power, and I remember the camera being good, for the time. I upgraded to the iPhone 3G on launch day and I remember the camera only being a little better. But, now we have side-by-side shots of the same picture, from all of the iPhone's.

Gizmodo have a news piece where Lisa Bettany has taken the same picture with every iPhone (the original, 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S) to see the differences, and PetaPixel stiched them together to show you just how much the camera has improved from each generation.

As we can see from the above picture, the original to the 3G was not that much of an improvement, but the 3GS is when the iPhone became a serious photo-snapping camera. The iPhone 4 is another step up in quality, but the iPhone 4S... very, very nice indeed. Lots of detail, near-perfect quality when compared to even the 3GS and blows the 3G and the vanilla iPhone out of the water. Back when the original iPhone came out, most people had point-and-shoot cameras, but these days? There's just no real need if you take pictures in a non-serious, I-don't-need-a-DSLR way.

HTC has partnered up with Dropbox to offer a new deal with all of the latest Android-based handsets that will give a bonus of 3GB storage in addition to the 2GB of free storage offered by Dropbox if they connect to the platform with the new phone - launching in October.

The deal which is set to extend to all Sense 3.5 devices in the futurer, all allow users to save files and photos on their phone and have them automatically synced to their computer at home, or other devices running the Dropbox software. Dropbox currently offers users 2GB of storage, free, with the change to upgrade that by 8GB by getting friends to sign up to Dropbox. HTC's additional deal with 3GB makes reaching the 10GB storage for free, not that hard at all.

HTC wasn't clear whether this deal will come to their Windows Phone 7-based smartphones, this may be because Microsoft has Skydrive, which is built directly into the OS. Skydrive also offers 25GB free storage, which blows away the Dropbox offer.

The Commonwealth Bank has unveiled its near-field communication (NFC) payments product called Kaching. Kaching enables pay-anyone facilities through Facebook, e-mail and MasterCard PayPass. This is a great move by the CBA, as NFC allows data transmission over a range of approx. 10cm. An NFC-enabled chip in a smartphone can interact with a proximity card reader to make mobile payments.

Kaching is set to allow customers (via the app) pay each other via e-mail, Facebook or mobile, and via an iCarte case for iPhone or pay via MasterCard's contact-less PayPass terminals. Users don't even need to be Commonwealth Bank customers to receive payments, with non-bank customers directed to an external collection site.

The App is set to be compatible with Apple's iOS 4.3 and above, with cases designed for the iPhone 4 and 4S. CBA's chief information officer, Michael Harte has said that the Kaching app and the iCarte case have been designed in close consultation with Apple. Dubbed iCarte 420, the case contains an "embedded smart-chip" that can be configured for debit, credit and pre-paid use and also has the ability to read NFC-enabled advertisements and transit systems.