Free Republic

AMD is launching its first tablet-optimized APU today, in a bid to challenge Intel's de facto dominance of the Windows 8 tablet market. Dubbed Hondo, the new Z-60 draws less power than any Brazos-based part AMD has launched before. Some of you may remember that AMD launched a tablet processor last year, but the Z-01 -- codenamed Desna -- was an ordinary Brazos core that binned well enough to run within a lower power envelope. It was more a proof-of-concept chip, meant to demonstrate that AMD could, and would, compete in the tablet market. Hondo, in contrast, is a new...

Electron microscope photos of an Apple A6 processor lifted out of an iPhone 5 confirm the presence of a dual-core ARM CPU within the system-on-a-chip plus a trio of Imagination Technologues PowerVR graphics cores. The SoC was pulled from the handset by the team at iFixit.com, and the die extracted from its ceramic package and then photographed by Chipworks. Source: iFixit.com/Chipworks Close-up snaps of the transistors show the part to be fabbed - by Samsung - on a 32nm process using high-K metal gate technology. The SoC 9.70 x 9.97mm die is labelled 'APL0589B01'. The CPU element's dual-core design is...

Intel Haswell Set to Benefit Significantly from 22nm Tri-Gate It is indisputable that Intel Corp.'s latest microprocessors are very competitive in terms of performance, power consumption and other qualities. But no matter how good code-named Ivy Bridge chips are, the next-generation Haswell have to be better. Analysts believe that Intel pins a lot of hopes on Haswell as the chips will be in many ways revolutionary. "Haswell will be the first processor to be designed from the ground up to fully optimize the power savings and performance benefits from the move to 3D or tri-gate transistors on the 22nm process...

Ready or not, yet another mobile operating system is about to join the fray. Perhaps you've heard of Firefox OS, otherwise known as Boot to Gecko (B2G). Firefox OS is Mozilla's attempt to approach the mobile scene in a different way, one in which apps run in HTML5 and nothing else. Short and sweet, Mozilla wants to shake up the mobile OS scene the same way it did the browser market many years ago, and it's well on its way to doing that. Sprint is reportedly on board to support Firefox OS, and so is Deutsche Telekom, parent company of...

Hybrid Microprocessors Gain Market Share as Systems Become More CompactHalf of the $111 billion microprocessor market was generated by hybrid processors that included graphics cores or other kinds of processing engines, according to a report by IMS Research. Hybrid microprocessors will not only continue to gain market share, but will also let companies like Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. onto new markets, such as media tablets and smartphones. “Through the last decade the mobile and media consumption device markets have been pivotal for this hybridization trend; Apple, Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, ST Ericsson, Texas Instruments and many...

Synaptics brings force to touch" width="63" height="14" />Synaptics has three new technologies to talk about, ClearPad, ForcePad, and ThinTouch. All bring a bunch of new tech to bear, resulting in thinner, better, and possibly cheaper touch interactivity, all with more features than the ‘old way’. First up is ClearPad, this is basically Synaptics’ name for a touchscreen with the sensor integrated in to the display itself, not glued on as a separate layer between the display and the glass cover. To make matters better, they also combine the transmit and receive layers to save yet more height over and above...

Apple Controlled Nearly 70% of Media Tablet Market in Q2 Total available market of media tablets in the second quarter 2012 increased significantly from 18.7 million units in Q1 to nearly 25 million units in Q2. Thanks to the launch of the third-generation iPad, Apple managed to sustain its leadership position with 68.2% market share. Meanwhile, Asustek Computer and Samsung Electronics are closing in and shipments of their tablets are increasing faster than sales of Apple iPad. Total worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2012 are estimated at 25 million units; up from 18.7 in the first quarter...

Google massively underestimated demand This won’t come as a surprise to most of you, but according to our sources close to the matter, Google’s Nexus 7 tablets are selling beyond Google’s wildest dreams. This makes Google, Asus and even Nvidia happy as they are all part of the project and share the profits. Many investors in all three companies will like what they see. There is a big chance that Nexus 7 will outrun the Kindle Fire’s initial success with a big chance or being more than a one-quarter miracle. We can see many people wanting to buy Nexus...

From the mouse to Xbox, the best experience has been when software, hardware and peripherals work together, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer when he took the stage Monday in Hollywood, Calif. for a mystery announcement. He quickly introduced the Surface tablet. Not Xbox Surface, just Microsoft Surface. It is not a giant table, but rather a tablet meant, in many ways, to compete with the iPad. But the Surface won't just be on the Nvidia ARM processor, like the iPad. There will also be a Surface that runs on Intel-based processors, to run a full-blown version of Windows 8 Pro....

News and talk radio app Stitcher, is gearing up for the presidential elections with a dedicated election service that allows users to follow their favorite candidate and get elections news from select sources. The Mobile Election Center tab inside the Stitcher app will give users a chance to get information directly from the different campaigns and also gather election-related news from outlets like Slate, CBS News, Marketplace, Bloomberg, PRI and MSNBC and others.The update to the Stitcher app, available on iOS and Android, is sort of a no-brainer for Stitcher, whose users spend 70 percent of their time listening to news...

Strikes Multi-year, Multi-Device Strategic Partnership with Motorola Mobility*, Including Smartphones that Motorola Will Begin to Ship in 2H 2012 Lenovo K800 Smartphone Based on Intel® Technology Available in Second Quarter 2012 in China   INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, Las Vegas, Jan. 10, 2012 – Intel Corporation today announced a number of advancements across its smartphone business, including a multi-year, multi-device strategic relationship with Motorola Mobility*, Inc. and a handset by Lenovo* based on the company’s new Intel® Atom™ processor platform. Several smartphones based on the new Atom processor are expected to come to market in 2012. 

FLOGGER OF SHINY TOYS Apple has lost in an early court decision over the future of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. The two firms have been battling over patents and designs for some time now, and last month Samsung said it was going to change the design of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet to get Apple off its back."The newly modified device will be renamed the Galaxy Tab 10.1N and we've made two changes to the design," said Samsung spokesman Jason Kim. "The design of the bezel has been changed and the speaker has also been relocated."Apple was...

Reuters) - HTC Corp has begun testing new phone models that work around technology cited in a patent lawsuit won by arch-rival Apple Inc, and HTC's chief executive voiced optimism over the company's ability to meet challenging market conditions. Speaking to media at the company's Taiwan headquarters on Wednesday alongside Google Inc's senior vice president of mobile, Andy Rubin, CEO Peter Chou said that the company would be working with Google to protect itself from "unfair" means to stop innovation."This industry should not allow one company use its powerful weapon to stop other innovation and take it all...this is not...

Courtesy of Intel and Micron SEMICONDUCTOR FIRMS Intel and Micron have teamed up to produce the world's first 128Gb NAND flash device. The die will be fabbed on a 20nm process and grouping eight together will equal 1Tb, or 128GB of data storage in a small package about the size of a fingertip. The firms said the device will be going into mass production in the first half of next year and will be ideal for smartphones and tablets.Glen Hawk, VP of NAND solutions at Micron said, "As portable devices get smaller and sleeker, and server demands increase, our customers...

HP just announced its plans to discontinue operations on webOS devices, specifically the recently announced TouchPad and webOS phones. The future of webOS is uncertain as HP simply added that it would "continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward". This likely means that HP is looking to either license out the software or dump it in an outright sale.  At this point I don't know that HP needs to be at the helm of the webOS project. Licensing it out could generate short term revenue from companies looking to hedge their bets against Google/Motorola,...

Takeaway: If you thought Google Android and Apple iOS butted heads in 2010, wait until you see what they do in 2011. And, see where both have weaknesses that could be exploited. Throughout 2010 there were escalating tensions between Google Android and Apple iOS, as the two platforms emerged as the rising superpowers in the mobile world. But, if you thought things were heated between them last year, then as the saying goes, you ain’t seen nothing yet. These two ecosystems are on course for a massive collision in 2011 and the stakes are about to get a lot higher....

A dark horse to watch out forIt looks like a dark horse is going to be the one to watch for the next round of ARM CPUs, Marvell. Yes, not Qualcomm, not Nvidia, not even TI, a fourth player is now in the game.

Android Honeycomb on board Toshiba's 10.1-inch has released a media tablet with Android Honeycomb. The gear has been released in Japan under the handle “Regza AT300”. The Regza AT300 has an Nvidia dual-core Tegra 2 chip under the bonnet and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting and a 5-megapixel rear camera that takes pictures and records video. The 1280-by-800, 720p multi-touch screen features "Toshiba Adaptive Display," which adjusts the colour and brightness of the screen depending on lighting conditions. The tablet includes USB 2.0, mini USB and SD card ports, as well as an HDMI output for watching video...

Aims to deliver 128Gb devices for smartphoness Toshiba has unveiled new fabricated NAND flash memories using 19nm process technology. According to a press release the new technology has been applied to 2-bit-per-cell 64GB chips that offer the highest density on an 8GB single chip. Tosh said that it will also add 3-bit-per-cell products fabricated with the 19nm process technology to its product line-up. The 2-bit-per-cell 64Gb will be available from the end of April with mass production scheduled for the third quarter of the year. The memory maker claims that the 19nm generation process technology will shrink chip size,...

Every few months Google embraces another CE company. It began with HTC and G1, giving that manufacturer resources and manpower enough to produce a powerful entrant in the smartphone race. It continued with Motorola for the Droid and has cycled through to Samsung for a brief period. This bear hug essentially gives the manufacturer access to Google’s engineers and pre-release code and leaves everyone else out in the street, waiting for a software update. Now Google has set its sights on LG and, if rumor is correct, it means a Nexus S tablet is on its way from LG...