Mobile Devices - Page 357

Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango has began rolling out to phones across the world. This is just the start and the ramp up of delivery will increase gradually, with Microsoft hoping to make the update to most customers within 4 weeks. Today Microsoft roll Windows Phone 7.5 out to more than 98 percent of existing Windows Phone customers. This is a simultaneous, coordinated, global update that cuts across carriers, phone models and countries.

Mango won't make it to everyone right away and Microsoft are doing this to contain quality issues. Microsoft aren't just delivering a new operating system, but also new software supplied by individual handset makers. This "firmware" is necessary so your phone and apps work with all Mango features. So the update is not just a one-size-fits-all, but a tweaked update to each and every phone.

Microsoft are trying to keep problems isolated and if they pop up they want to stamp them down quickly. This week, Microsoft will make the update available to 10 percent of customers, if it all goes to plan, they'll open up the floodgates to 25 percent. Then they'll hold off for two to three weeks and ramp up to 100 percent, monitoring quality the entire way. This way they can ensure Mango updates all go according to plan.

It's about time. Facebook for iPad is set to launch on October 4 at the iPhone 5 launch event according to Mashable. In addition, Facebook is also expected to launch a revamped version of its iPhone app that may unveil an HTML5-based mobile app marketplace. The Facebook iPad app has been the source of many news bits across the world this year and caused that much stir that even former Facebook engineer Jeff Verkoeyen left Facebook to work at Google partially because Facebook had been sitting on the completed app since May.

Why the delay? This stems from a combination of timing and a strained relationship with Apple. It is no secret that the two companies have been at each others necks previously, with examples such as Facebook pulling the plug on Facebook Connect in Ping because Apple didn't give Facebook any warning about the feature, which took a chunk out of bandwidth on Facebook's side.

There were also the rumors of Facebook being integrated into iOS, this was meant to happen years ago but Apple ended up integrating Twitter into iOS 5. But now with the shared goal of beating Google, Facebook and Apple might need to hug it out. Facebook doesn't have a mobile platform and Apple doesn't have a social platform. This is where the launch of Facebook for iPad at Apple's iPhone 5 media event comes into play.

Word came out just yesterday that Amazon is preparing to hold a press event in New York City on the 28th of September for an unveiling of sorts.

The event will take place at 9am on said date, but it can only be speculated at this time as to what little trick, or tricks they have up their sleeve. The most likely purpose of the unveiling however is to officially introduce its long-awaited "Kindle" (name yet to be confirmed) Android running tablet.

There's been a number of rumours floating around about it for several months now, but we were recently given more of an idea on what to expect when TechCrunch said it managed to get hands on with it. It was said in this report that it will hit shelves in late November at $250US.

The Kal-El-powered second-generation ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer has not been shy from the news lately and now the benchmarks for the "ASUS Transformer TF201" have floated up from the depths of the unknown and onto the Internet. The results have been taken down, but the magic involved in Google's cache have bought them back to life and they paint a glorious picture. When benched against the Acer Iconia Tab A500, which sports a Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip, the Transformer 2 scores 40.6 fps versus the 17 fps of the A500 in the "Egypt Standard" test in the GLBenchmark site.

Not only that, the "Offscreen 720p test" saw the Transformer 2 score 65 fps versus 21 fps which is not too bad at all. Considering that Kal-El's power consumption is meant to be lower than the Tegra 2, it offers much more performance as well as better battery life.

Kal-El has had a lot of news since it was first announced, but now NVIDIA have said it will not only arrive sometime in Q4, but it will sport a fifth core which is a "companion" core. This is built using a "special low-power silicone process" which works on tasks at a low frequency. NVIDIA calls this approach "variable symmetric multiprocessing" and it basically allows it to use this extra core for handling low overhead tasks such as e-mail syncs, social media syncs, etc.

Each core is an ARM Cortex A9 CPU that is individually enabled and disabled based on the workload or task, but all five can't run at once. The low-power 'companion' core runs at a lower voltage than the other four cores and is only used when the performance state requested by the OS/apps isn't higher than a predetermined threshold. Once the threshold is reached, the low-power core is disabled and the high-performance A9 cores take over, enabling between 1 and 4 cores as needed.

The result? A quad-core processor that consumes less power and yet provides higher performance than the Tegra 2.

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz expects that two new iPhones will launch this fall, with the iPad 3 delayed into 2012. This speculations comes from conversations with industry insiders and was detailed in a note to clients, according to reports. The iPhone 5 is reported to sport a lighter, thinner form factor as well as packing a larger display and an 8-megapixel camera. It is also rumored to be both GSM and CDMA-capable, making it a "world-mode" smartphone. It is expected to not include LTE connectivity.

The second rumored phone is reportedly going to be the iPhone 4-plus and will launch alongside the iPhone 5. The iPhone 4-plus is based on the current-generation iPhone but will feature a few improvements. This handset could target the mainstream price point and focus on the China market, but it's reported to not be exclusive to that region.

The iPad 3 is said to be delayed until 2012, mostly because Apple is currently dominating the tablet market. While they're ahead, why not push further? Why wait just because you "dominate" the market. The iPhone market will only peak with Android phones coming in from left, right and centre. These lawsuits against Samsung aren't doing Apple any favours.

Archos, maker of well priced Android tablets is set to launch the first of its G9 tablet series before the end of this month in the U.S. - the Archos 80 G9 8GB. Costing $299 USD, the tablet uses Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and runs off a 1GHz OMAP 4 dual-core processor. It sports an 8-inch (1024 x 768) touchscreen and packs an 8GB SSD. Archos has said it will be available for preorder from the 20th of this month, and online availability is planned for the 30th.

Come October, another four models will enter the G9 series, all using 1.5GHz dual-core OMAP 4 processors. They include the :-

- Archos 80 G9 with a 16GB SSD - $329

Qualcomm have come out swinging with their roadmap for their Snapdragon range of mobile processors during their Innovation Qualcomm event in Istanbul. We should be expecting their next-gen chips to be available at an astonishing 2.5GHz. The roadmap (as seen in the pic below) shows that there will be four new Snapdragon classes. S1 class will be for the mass market with speeds of 1GHz and Adreno 200 graphics. S2 will be for high-performance smartphones and tablets based on a 45nm process with 1.4GHz processing speeds and an Adreno 205 GPU.

Next up we have the multi-tasking and advanced gaming devices which will have 1.5GHz dual-core chips slapped inside, with Adreno 220 graphics, 3D and 3G HSPA+. Finally, there's the next-generation devices which will get the S4 polish which includes a 28nm-based manufacturing process, up to 2.5GHz CPUs which will be made available in single, dual and quad-core configurations, dual or quad-core next-gen Adreno graphics and 3G/4G LTE networking.

Still sitting down, or are you on the floor in a puddle of drool? These new Snapdragon parts should be sent to manufacturers by years' end and consumer-based products should launch in early 2012. This means we might see some mobile phones at CES 2012 at the earliest, if not, possibly the Mobile World Congress shortly after. Excited?? I am!

Microsoft is prepping to show off a Windows 8-based, Intel-powered, Samsung-built tablet at the Microsoft conference this week with at least one of the tablets being shown will not only be distributed to some attendees, but will be built from Intel silicon. People were expecting a move to ARM-based processors, but Intel seems to have won that battle. ARM-based providers such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA all provide hardware for Motorola, Samsung and Sony tablets that are Android-powered.

It's not yet known if the Windows 8 tablets will be running ARM, but Intel is reported to be a go. ARM processors are generally favored for their power efficiency over Intel CPUs, but we should see a change in the wind coming in the form of next-gen Atom chips from Intel coming soon.

Apple's next-gen iPad 3 is set to have a "massively upgraded" battery, but will cost Apple anywhere between 20 and 30% more per unit according to Cens.com. The new battery is reported to go into production early next year and has been designed to be both thinner and lighter with a longer service life than the current iPad 2. With the iPad 3 rumored to have a higher resolution screen, this would impact battery life. Apple would be smart to combat this with an upgraded battery.

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