Qualcomm announces Snapdragon S4 "Pro" chip with Adreno 320 graphics

Qualcomm has just confirmed the Snapdragon S4 “Pro” which adds amazing graphics with Adreno 3

20 graphical core, building on top of the powerful 28nm Qualcom MSM8960 with Krait processor.

The new S4 “Pro” chip patches the weakest spot of the first MSM8960 chips, which in the rush to the market only included Adreno 225 graphics. The new GPU will allow for higher resolution displays and bring a four-fold improvement in visuals. It will support the latest gaming engines from Unity (games on it include the Samurai series and Rocket Bunnies on iOS) and Epic (the Unreal Engine, powering titles like Gears of War).

Adreno 320 will support hardware acceleration of rendering features like instancing and multiple render targets, and come with new APIs with OpenCL.

The S4 “Pro” chip release date is set for the second half of 2012 and Qualcomm underlined that it is optimized for upcoming Windows 8 devices, supporting full hardware acceleration for the platform.

Control your own Tankbot with your Android or iOS device for only $24.99

We often justify our technology purchases in the name of ‘business’ or ‘productivity’, but, honestly, who doesn’t want to be able to use that same tech to control a robot? We have great news for you fellow robot aficionados. DeskPets is now offering Tankbots, a toy that can be controlled with your iPhone, iPad, or Android powered device.

In addition to being controlled with a smartphone, they can also be put into “Autonomous Personality Mode”, which allows the Tankbot to use infrared technology to avoid walls and obstacles. For multi-player fun, that same infrared system can be used in battle mode to fire shots at an enemy Tankbot, although we think it’s quite obvious that any battling between these guys in the real world is going to consist of smashing them into one another.

These little bots have a built in USB charger that give you 15 minutes of fun on a 40 minute charge. They come in several colors and are available at Toys ‘R’ Us, Brookstone, and Radio Shack for only $24.99.





source: DeskPets via AndroidGuys

Rotten Core: Nokia lose huge market share in their homeland

There's a state of unease within Nokia at the moment and unsurprisingly so. With the first Nokia-Microsoft lovechild now out in the market (the Lumia 800, you might have heard of it) and an aggressive marketing strategy in place to drum up interest in Windows Phone-laden Nokia's coming fresh out of the factory, the Finnish company have been waiting with bated breath to see how consumers will receive this new-era Nokia.

They've shown a resilience to the tough times they've faced already and since the partnership announcement in February, many wondered just how this shift would affect the company's image. By bringing Microsoft in, they've inherently changed the way they operate and the way fans of the brand expect them to operate. Sure they brought the Asha lineup to maintain support for their Symbian products and the N9 is taking point in markets where the Lumia 800 isn't, but now Windows Phone is Nokia and as Stephen Elop so boldly said at Nokia World, the Lumia 800 is "the first real Windows Phone device."

Not only could a statement like that upset the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung, all of whom license Windows Phone from Microsoft, but the hardcore fans of what we could call the 'old' Nokia also might not welcome the change, and that is a notion that has the potential to hold water in this case.

The Finns have been proud of the globally recognized giant that is Nokia and it's probably one of the key things those from outside of the country associate with it, but a recent report from Helsinki's Taloussanomat shows that pride only takes support so far. In the last 12 months, Nokia have lost 45% of the market share taking their dominance from 76% right down to 31%.

Of course they still have the top spot, but the gap has dramatically narrowed, with the majority of their sales now in the possession of Samsung who have risen sharply from a mere 3% to 25% in the same amount of time. Apple then take third place with 16% in Q3 2011, with Sony Ericsson and Huawei sharing 11% each, leaving the remaining 6% of the market currently to ZTE.

This doesn't automatically spell the end for Nokia of course, far from it, but it still must be unnerving for them. The financial quarter in question actually precedes the announcement of the Lumia and Asha handsets, but as such, it does indicate that the change was necessary. It makes more sense for Nokia to have changed tack altogether, than continue along the road they were currently on and let's not forget the Finnish market is important for Nokia, but relatively speaking, it's a small one, with Finland's entire population around the 5 million mark.

Once the holiday season and the final financial quarter conclude we should get at least an initial indication of the impact the Lumia 800 is making. Until then however it's a case of crossing fingers and seeing if Nokia are able to reassure the old fans, as well as attracting new ones.

Source

Qualcomm announces new Snapdragon S1 and S4 chipsets

Qualcomm is expanding its Snapdragon lineup - adding chipsets to both the entry-level S1 line and the Krait lineup. Krait is a brand new design that will scale to up to 2.5GHz with one, two or four cores. It promises better power efficiency than current architectures.

The S4 badge will be carried only by the best of the best Snapdragon chipsets with Krait CPU architecture and next-gen Adreno graphics (dual or quad core GPUs).
There are eight new chipsets, which are joining the already announced MSM8930 and MSM8960 (single and dual-core CPUs respectively) and the Snapdragon APQ8064 (with a quad-core CPU and Adreno 320 GPU), which will supposedly power the rumored HTC Zeta.
The first products with Snapdragon S4 chipsets are expected to show up in early 2012 - starting with the single and dual core versions but we'll be seeing quad-cores later on too.
Qualcomm also announced four S1 chipsets, which are aimed at entry-level smartphones but have been upgraded to offer better performance than we're used to see in this segment. Specs for the S1 line are scarce but we can expect up to 1GHz CPU clock speed and Adreno 200 GPUs. There's a focus on 3G connectivity too, to bring entry level smartphones out of the 2G era.

Anyone can steal a Subaru Outback with an Android phone

Don Bailey and Matthew Solnik from iSec Partners demonstrated how to break into a car and hack into its remote control system.

Their research was shown at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, and they unlocked a Subaru Outback and started the engine from a distance using an Android handset and the so-called 'war texting'. You need to set your own GSM network around the car for that, and then intercept the password authentication text messages between the server and the car, all in just a few hours.

Actually the researchers are not worried about stealing cars, but rather that the same remote control systems with text messaging updates are in traffic lights and security cameras, as well as the power grid and water supply infrastructure. If anyone with skills, an Android handset and some relatively inexpensive wireless network equipment can hack into the remote control system of popular car brands, what's to stop someone from doing it on a grander scale, they argued.

"I could care less if I could unlock a car door. It's cool. It's sexy. But the same system is used to control phone, power, traffic systems. I think that's the real threat.", said Don Bailey for CNN.

source: TGDaily via Engadget