Weather is annoyingly fickle, and so is the wind. If massive offshore wind farms are going to become reality, we need better ways to store the extra energy from windy days for the windless ones. One a bizarre-sounding idea floating around: giant balloons of compressed air stored deep underwater.
Voice control is easy to find in cars, but it’s not always intuitive. You often have to use specific syntax, which might be hard to remember when you’re barreling down the highway. GM may have a smarter approach in store, though. The Wall Street…
To all our wonderful friends in Seattle, let’s make it clear: there’s no better place to be this Friday (July 18th) at 7PM than the Showbox SODO for our second Engadget Live event of the year! Why is this a cant-miss event? Flip through the gallery…
Few activities are as taxing, time-consuming and mentally draining as air travel, and there are hundreds of thousands of travel-related apps to help us get from point A to point B with as little hassle as possible. But there’s always room for…
Just a few months ago Alan Mulally was being mentioned as the possible next CEO of Microsoft, but after leaving his position as CEO of Ford, he’s now aligned with a different tech company: Google. While his connections to the auto industry could…
When we last saw Minuum talking Android Wear, their concept was a spectacular rendering of how the round face of a Moto 360 could make typing on the tiny screen easier. Sadly, we quickly learned that concept would never work, but a new video released by the company holds promise. This time, concept gives way to reality. Minuum was always … Continue reading
Do you have a Netflix subscription? If so, the odds are high that you no longer subscribe to a plan that will allow you to order discs, instead opting for the more popular instant streaming feature. Even if you do subscribe to a plan that includes disc shipping, there has been a sneaky change you mightn’t noticed: no more Saturday … Continue reading
MediaTek has launched the MT6795, their new high-powered offering for smartphone makers around the world. Has you may have heard before, MediaTek has been pushing 8-core processors very aggressively, to the point that other chip makers felt compelled to match this number. Of course, more cores aren’t always better, but there are instances where MediaTek thinks it can show the difference. This is one of those moments where we need real-world app benchmarks instead of synthetic tests.
In any case, the MT6795 features eight ARM A53 cores, which are not as powerful as the A57 ones, but I’m not sure that there is a practical way to cram eight A57 cores into an SoC in a cost-efficient way (let alone a power-efficient way!). To make this battery-friendly, MediaTek told me that they made tweaks to the Android thread scheduler in order to optimize how the work is dispatched to various cores.
The modifications are marketed under the Core Pilot name, so keep an eye out for that. Core Pilot can either distribute work to many cores to maximize speed whenever possible, or keep all the load on a single core to allow the 7 others to sleep. Not all software is multi-core friendly, but some basic apps such as web browsing can be efficiently handled by multiple threads and cores.
Also, the MT6795 is a 64-bit processor. We’ve covered the topic when the iPhone 5S came out, but the idea is that in time, 64-bit processors will be able to address more than 4GB of RAM, and given how fast mobile software is growing, phones will be ready when the time comes. There are also some performance benefits in having larger 64-bit registers (and more of them), but the most interesting aspect of 64-bit is the ability to have more memory.
Talking about memory, the MT6795 comes with a dual-channel memory bus, so its 15 GBps bandwidth is twice as high as previous MediaTek designs. Bandwidth, or the ability to move data fast, is critical in nearly every aspect of computing. Often, even supercomputers are limited by bandwidth rather than raw compute power. On mobile, it’s not an easy problem to solve because moving data also means consuming power, but being able to switch to “peak” performance, get the job done and go back to sleep has been a proven method to actually reduce power usage.
MediaTek also told us about some new video features. First, there hardware H.265 encoding which means smaller movie file size and practical 4K recording usage. Secondly, MediaTek expects to score well in 3D gaming and has provided us with benchmark numbers of around 80 FPS in the GLBenchmark 2.7 (T-Rex).
Finally, the MT6795 features an integrated LTE CAT4 modem, which has passed the China Unicom certification. MediaTek could not comment on other carriers other than saying that more certifications would be coming, most likely including the two most difficult in the world: AT&T and DoCoMo.
It’s always interesting to see new chips in a market that is dominated by Qualcomm. The 8-core approach is quite aggressive and could gather mindshare, as long as the battery life is kept under control. So far, MediaTek’s strategy has earned it a lot of fans worldwide, and the next question is: who will use it? We will know by the “end of year” (note that this could mean Chinese New Year), when handsets are being released. MediaTek told me that it’s up to their customers to announce products, but they will ship the chips in quantities towards September.
MediaTek MT6795 8-Core Processor For Mobiles
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Facebook owned Oculus is yet to release a consumer version of its Rift virtual reality headset though for the past few months it has been shipping developer kits. These kits are primarily meant for those who want to develop software that works with this VR headset. Unfortunately there are Oculus Rift eBay resellers who sell off the developer kits for a cool profit online. The company is now taking action and shutting them down.
The move comes after Oculus announced that it is cancelling orders from China due to extreme pressure from scalpers. Those units were likely going to turn up online as well or would have been sold through the company’s grey market. Oculus doesn’t want that which is why it cancelled Rift DK2 pre-orders from China.
As the developer kit 2 starts shipping several listings have already appeared online on eBay with sellers demanding as much as $5000 for a unit. Word reached Oculus’ official forums and the company announced there that it is actively cancelling pre-orders for people who have listed their units online for resale.
“We don’t allow resale of the development kit,” Oculus says, also adding that no warranty is provided on second-hand sales, meaning if you pick one up from eBay, you will have no recourse with the company should anything go wrong.
This is not the first time that a product in the development stage is causing such a ruckus. During the early days of the Google Glass Explorer program many units were sold on eBay for fat profits. No one would need to go to such lengths if people simply stopped purchasing hardware that was not meant for them, but then again, they never listen do they!
Oculus Rift eBay Resellers Being Shut Down
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Another day, another iWatch rumor. Apple’s elusive smartwatch is nowhere to be seen despite the fact that with every passing day the rumor mill continues to pick up speed. There have been multiple reports which claim that the smartwatch will be released later this year though Apple itself has not confirmed anything yet. A new report published today claims the iWatch will be available in two sizes and that three models will be on offer once it finally hits the market.
We have heard the bit about different display sizes before. This report claims that the iWatch will offer a 1.6-inch and a 1.8-inch display. The display size is believed to be the main distinction between these two models as the rest of the specifications are expected to remain the same.
The report claims that two models of the 1.8-inch variant will be offered, adding that the primary difference between the two will be the use of sapphire glass for one model. One 1.8-inch model and the 1.6-inch variant are not expected to use sapphire glass.
Apparently using sapphire glass in one model of the iWatch would pave the way for Apple to use sapphire glass in the 5.5-inch iPhone 6. Recent reports suggest that the gigantic iPhone has been delayed to 2015.
The iWatch is expected to hit the market in the third quarter of this year. Yesterday an analyst predicted that Apple’s brand loyalty and ecosystem could drive as many as 60 million units in sales for the company’s first smartwatch.
Three iWatch Models Will Reportedly Be Offered This Year
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