Posts Tagged ‘surprises’
Nokia Lumia 928 possibly seen in Verizon’s system, spoils few surprises
Author: Randy Miller
We know that Verizon is adding at least one more Nokia Lumia to its stable in the near future. However, there’s been little in tangible evidence to suggest just what’s coming to the carrier’s Windows Phone line. A purported leak to Phone Arena from Verizon’s internal product listings could help fill in that picture. It mentions a Lumia 928, and not much else — but Nokia’s naming customs immediately suggest that this will be Big Red’s rumored variant of the Lumia 920, which is currently limited to AT&T in the US. The device isn’t necessarily connected to the RM-860 we saw at the FCC, although it does support murmurs that Verizon wants at least some kind of improvement over the strictly middling Lumia 822. If the 928 is real, we’re mostly left wondering whether or not it will come quickly enough to remain relevant.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia, Verizon
Via: My Nokia Blog
Source: Phone Arena
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Style, Surprises Liven Up Latest Windows Phone
Author: Brandon Zimmerman
As if there isn’t enough going on at Microsoft right now with its new version of Windows and the first Microsoft-made computer, this week the company announced Windows Phone 8—an overhauled version of its mobile operating system.
Windows Phone, which launched two years ago, was an early glimpse at how the Windows 8 touch environment would look on the PC. Instead of static icons that represent apps or programs, both Windows Phone and Windows 8 use what Microsoft calls “live tiles.” These are icons that morph to display different images or information gleaned from your apps.
One big complaint about earlier iterations of Windows Phone was that its live tiles weren’t really live. Some icons changed to show different data, but not all, and not all of the time. Some of the data wasn’t very informative or helpful. On top of that, the tiles were stacked atop one another on the home screen, forcing people to scroll down a giant list of pinned tiles to find what they wanted.
I’ve been testing Windows Phone 8 for the past week, and I can say that this revamped version’s tiles are more “live” than in the past. The Start Screen, where these tiles appear, is redesigned to show more, left to right. And tiles can be resized to small squares, allowing people to see more with less scrolling.
The only trouble with this: Small live tiles can’t display as much data as their medium or large versions, and some small versions of tiles aren’t live at all. For example, the medium and large iterations of the “People Hub” display ever-changing photos of friends, like a patchwork quilt of images. The small version of this tile turns into a lifeless white icon of two people.
A feature called Rooms can be set up for private sharing of notes, calendars, chats and photos with specific groups of friends.
Overall, Windows Phone 8 is a delight to use. I tested it on the Windows Phone 8X by HTC, a sleek and stylish smartphone that will be available in the next three weeks from Verizon for $ 200 and from T-Mobile for $ 200 or $ 150, depending on your plan. AT&T plans to offer the 8X in November but the company hasn’t revealed its pricing plans.Sprint intends to offer Windows Phone 8 devices next year. By the end of this year, at least six new Windows Phone 8 models will be available. Current Windows Phone owners will soon be able to update their software to 7.8, a build that gives them the new Start Screen but not the full features of Windows Phone 8.
I especially enjoyed using apps on Windows Phone 8. A lot of these apps are designed to mimic the overall look of the Windows Phone software, displaying extra menus and features as I panned horizontally.
I used Amazon’s Kindle app, Zite, AllRecipes, WSJ Live, Facebook, Twitter, ESPN ScoreCenter, Evernote, the Weather Channel, TripAdvisor and various news apps including the Daily Beast, the Guardian, BBC News and USA Today. Though there are only 120,000 apps in the Windows Phone Store versus over 700,000 in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, these apps looked stylish and refreshingly different.
A new Windows Phone 8 feature called Kid’s Corner lets parents hand their phone over to their kids without fear of the child accidentally emailing 200 people. Kid’s Corner starts up with a right-to-left swipe from the phone’s lock screen, displaying any games, videos, music or apps that the parent has marked as accessible to the kid. If the child taps the phone’s Power button, the phone returns to its lock screen, which can be protected with a passcode.
This version of the Windows Phone also features Rooms, which can be set up for private sharing with specific groups of friends. Things like calendars, notes, chats and photos can be swapped here.
Kid’s Corner on Windows Phone 8 displays only games, videos, music or apps that a parent selects. A
Some features and apps have odd qualities. When I opened the People Hub and read my sister’s latest Facebook status, I couldn’t see names of people who “liked” her status. In Twitter, I opted to be notified when anyone retweeted my tweets, but these only appeared in notifications at the top of my phone screen rather than in the Twitter app.
Battery life on my Windows Phone 8X by HTC was remarkably good. I didn’t use the phone for calls or texts as I was testing a version of the 8X that didn’t have a SIM card, so that affected my results. But even after tapping on my 4.3-inch screen and using Wi-Fi all day—checking email, browsing the Web, taking photos and playing with apps—I still had ¼ of my battery remaining by midnight.
Unlike some phones that don’t display tips or shortcuts, Windows Phone 8 encourages you to use its personalization tools. For example, a screen showed up that said, “Use Facebook photos on your lock screen” and I tapped configure. (Not Now was another option.) From then on, different Facebook photos showed up on my lock screen—a fun surprise.
The animations in Windows Phone 8 are smooth and playful. When you send an email, the email message appears as if it is backing away from you, then shoots up.
Tiles on the Start Screen fluttered with info. When I pinned a Roquefort Pear Salad recipe from the AllRecipes app to my Start Screen, the small tile version of this recipe only appeared as a photo of the salad, but its medium tile occasionally flipped to show the title of the salad on one side and the image of the salad on the other.
Someone who glanced over my shoulder and looked at the user interface of Windows Phone 8 said, “That’s a really pretty phone.” He was right. Its combined good looks, functional features and sexy new hardware make it a winning smartphone.
Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com
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New iPad’s A5x Processor Holds Few Surprises Despite Enormous Size
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Initial teardowns of the new iPad whetted many a chip nerd’s appetite when they revealed that the A5x chip inside was truly gigantic. At nearly 13x13mm, it is significantly larger than the A5, which was itself already kind of a hefty bugger.
Now some clear images (from Chipworks) have been taken of the die itself (some rather rough ones with initial “floorplans” showed up earlier over the weekend) and it’s becoming more and more clear that the A5x is a stopgap measure: a last-generation product that’s overcompensating, if you will, with a jumbo-sized GPU.
The A5x is manufactured with a Samsung 45nm process, a size Intel and AMD were using back in 2008. Nowadays all the cool kids are using 22nm. That means modern chips can fit around four times as many transistors and cells onto a piece of silicon than the technology used to create the A5x. It’s kind of ironic, since Apple has focused so much on getting four times the pixels into its displays.
Of course, it isn’t quite an apples-to-apples comparison; the ARM architecture and SoC model are a different animal than the x86 model. But it’s not going too far to say that the A5x is the processor equivalent of like a souped-up street car from a few years back. Sure, it gets the job done, but you can’t keep adding turbos and wings forever. At some point that engine hits its limit. And while the GPU performance is good, the base technology of the A5x is starting to show its age, and the competition may use that to their advantage.
And even before the new iPad was released, the name A5x really tipped Apple’s entire hand. Our speculation was correct, and chances are the “true” successor to the A5 series will come in the new iPhone. Will it be based on ARM’s A15/A7 big.little model? Seems logical. Saving power is essential with the major GPU, screen, and LTE. It may be too late for Apple to adapt it, but anything could happen.
And it must be acknowledged that most consumers really, really don’t care what processor or chip is inside their iPad. But the drama going on behind the curtain is still interesting to those of us who do care, and as we have seen, sometimes these little technical stories shed light on long-term plans.
One last fun thing: if you go to the large photos over at Chipworks, you can actually see the varying densities of the logic cells on the dark areas. It shows up as a sort of mottled, almost sloppy look, but it is in fact highly precise engineering. All the wonders of our modern tech-based world have their base in these microscopic clusters of transistors, memory cells, and logic gates. It’s fascinating (to yours truly, at least) to see them forming this kind of micro-topography.
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Nokia Siemens promises better TD-LTE and CDMA coverage, no alarms or surprises
Author: Alexander McQueen
So, Nokia Siemens Networks wasn’t fibbing when it said it would re-focus its efforts on mobile broadband. It’s just announced a ‘six pipe’ radio head upgrade for time division LTE (TD-LTE) base stations that can boost capacity by 80 percent and coverage by 40 percent compared to a traditional three-sector site. Alternatively, the same replacement can be used to reduce a station’s running costs, by allowing it to cover three sectors using a single radio head. As far as we’re concerned, anything that recalls OK Computer is a good thing, but if it speeds up carriers’ shift to LTE then it’s even better. Meanwhile, for those who still want to invest in CDMA, Nokia Siemens is pushing it’s 1X Advanced technology, which also promises big improvements in voice and data capacity as well as energy efficiency. Read on for more technical details in a PR double-shot.
Continue reading Nokia Siemens promises better TD-LTE and CDMA coverage, no alarms or surprises
Nokia Siemens promises better TD-LTE and CDMA coverage, no alarms or surprises originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Kindle Fire Gets Torn Down – No Surprises Here
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iFixit, bless their hearts, have taken a Kindle Fire to pieces, though as it turns out, there aren’t too many pieces to begin with. The battery is one huge unit, and all the processing and I/O occurs on a single PCB at the bottom of the device.
Those expecting a carbon copy of the Playbook both outside and in will be disappointed: the layout, batteries, PCB, and all the components are different, making the form factor more or less the only real similarity between the two devices.
That said, it is possible they share a processor unit; reports had TI as the supplier, and 1GHz sounds about right. Curiously, it’s not visible on the surface of the PCB, or is integrated in such a way that it can’t be identified without a more invasive teardown. But TI provided the transceivers, power manager, and so on, so it’s a safe bet.
One thing they mention that I hadn’t noted before is that the battery’s charge time assumes an outlet connection for the 1.8 amps it supports; most USB ports and cables don’t provide that, so expect a longer charge time on USB (as you probably should with most devices). Total charge is stated as 4400mAh, less than the iPad 2′s 6600, but of course this has a significantly smaller screen and less intense CPU/GPU.
There don’t appear to be any hidden or unannounced features — personally, I was hoping for a microphone inside the speaker assembly, for use with Amazon’s latest acquisition. But it seems that the Fire is exactly what they say it is, no more, no less.
They’re just finishing up the teardown as I write this, and may include some extra information from Chipworks, as they have done before, so I’ll update this post if pertinent data is uncovered.
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Dutch coins feature QR codes, promise ‘surprises’
Author: Buck Howard
Governments cram all manner of bizarre imagery onto the back of currency, so really, what’s a few little QR codes between treasury departments? And heck, who are we to suggest that these new coins from the Royal Dutch Mint aren’t the beginning of a larger barcoded money trend? The mint is celebrating its centennial with two new QR-packing coins, a silver €5 and gold €10. The codes bring their owners to the mint’s website, which promises a “surprise,” once the money is officially available later this month. Some sort of cloud-based vending machine, perhaps?
Dutch coins feature QR codes, promise ‘surprises’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 01:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Leaked Intel Roadmap Holds No Big Surprises
Author: Ian Simpson
A few slides showing some of Intel’s plans for 2011 have leaked, but it’s nothing crazy. Intel doesn’t really do anything crazy, just tick-tocks its yearly advances, and 2011 is no different. Sandy Bridge will get a tweaked successor in the E series, which will allow more CPU cores and more graphics bandwidth. Then the next gen “Ivy Bridge” hits in 2012.
Should you wait? Nah. If you aren’t pressed for time, wait to see AMD’s new Bulldozer platform in the next couple months; if it doesn’t fit your fancy, it’ll at least help push prices down.
[via Electronista]
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iFixit Tears Down The iPad 2: No Surprises, But 512MB Of RAM
Author: Dave Adams
There isn’t much in the way of significant changes except the inclusion of the cameras, the spec bump to A5 and (as rumored) 512MB of RAM, and of course the generally thinner profile. One thing: the speakers are laughably small, though probably no smaller than the competition. One of these days a tablet will come along that doesn’t make your music sound like it’s at the bottom of a well, but until then, headphones are your friend.
Check out the rest of iFixit’s teardown here.
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Sony Ericsson’s CEO promises ‘big surprises in the next few months’ (video)
Author: Jack Schmidt
The grand opening of Sony Ericsson’s new Americas HQ in Atlanta isn’t the sort of thing we spend sleepless nights thinking about, but a PSP Phone is. It’s mighty encouraging, therefore, to hear the company’s CEO Bert Nordberg tease “big surprises” coming from his team over the next few months. That revelation was accompanied by plentiful references to SE as an entertainment phone maker, a sly grin, and the usual disclaimer that “we never announce them in advance” — though considering the gap between the Xperia X10 announcement and arrival to market, maybe Bert should reconsider that part. Either way, unless SE’s big surprise is the delivery of a smartphone with an up-to-date OS and cutting-edge components on time (which would, admittedly, be a surprise), we’re happy to take this as a sign that the Android 3.0-powered gaming platform-cum-smartphone is brewing nicely behind the scenes.
Continue reading Sony Ericsson’s CEO promises ‘big surprises in the next few months’ (video)
Sony Ericsson’s CEO promises ‘big surprises in the next few months’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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BlackBerry Torch teardown offers few surprises, much like the phone itself (video)
Author: admin
The new BlackBerry flagship has been put through one of the more important ceremonies of acceptance into the smartphone world: a teardown. The CrackBerry crew have disassembled a Torch to see what makes it burn and produced some glamor shots of naked hardware for us to gawp at in the process. As you can see by the exploded shot of the phone above, most internals are either integrated or soldered down, but this undressing does afford us an opportunity to take a look at the biggest novelty in this new BlackBerry, namely its slider mechanism. It’s impressively thin, rated for 150,000+ cycles, and yours to witness on video just past the break.
Continue reading BlackBerry Torch teardown offers few surprises, much like the phone itself (video)
BlackBerry Torch teardown offers few surprises, much like the phone itself (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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