Hasta La Gadget!

One new SoC per year? That’s what NVIDIA pledged back in the fall of 2010 and today at its CES 2013 presser, it delivered with the Tegra 4’s official unveiling. The chip, which retains the same 4-plus-1 arrangement of its predecessor, arrives with a whopping 72 GeForce GPU cores — effectively offering six times the Tegra 3’s visual output and is based on the 28nm process. It also is the first quad-core processor with Cortex A15 cores on-board, and offers compatibility with LTE networks through an optional chip. NVIDIA claims this piece of silicon is the world’s fastest mobile processor, and showed a demonstration in which a Tegra 4 went head-to-head against a Nexus 10 in loading websites (you can guess which one won).

The Tegra 4 also introduces new computational photography architecture, which adds a new engine to drive the image processing and significantly improve the amount of time it takes to calculate the necessary mathematics 10 times faster than current platforms. To show off its power, NVIDIA demonstrated HDR rendering on live video. The chip is also capable of implementing HDR in burst shots and with LED flash. The idea, NVIDIA says, is to eventually make our mobile cameras more powerful than DSLRs, and this is certainly a step in the right direction.

Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.

Continue reading NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile, NVIDIA

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Intel has just announced that CEO Paul Otellini will be stepping down in May of 2013. The long time executive will be retiring from the company and industry that he has dedicated the last 40 years of his life to, leaving behind a legacy that has seen Intel’s dominance in the x86 field grow to almost unapproachable levels. As the fifth chief executive in the company’s history he’s overseen not only the processor reboot that followed the inefficient Pentium 4, but also played a role in Apple’s famous transition from PowerPC to Intel. Otellini and the board of directors will work together over the next six months to ensure a seamless transition of power; however, a successor has yet to be chosen.

The change at the top comes at a time when Intel is facing renewed competition, but from an unexpected source. The rise of smartphones and tablets has seen the ARM architecture and its numerous licensees surge in both mindshare and marketshare. Intel is only now getting into that realm with its ultra low-power Medfield line of x86 chips. Whoever takes over as CEO in May will be facing a landscape that poses serious challenges to the company’s CPU dominance.

For Otellini’s complete statement, check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Intel CEO Paul Otellini to step down in May, leaves a legacy of x86 dominance

Filed under: Misc, Intel

Intel CEO Paul Otellini to step down in May, leaves a legacy of x86 dominance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s an eventful month for Microsoft in more ways than one — its long-serving executive (and Windows lead) Steven Sinofsky is leaving the company, effective immediately. Internet Explorer, Office and Windows interface veteran Julie Larson-Green will be taking on most of his duties by heading up all Windows development, including hardware “opportunities” like Surface; CFO and CMO Tami Reller will take on the pure business and marketing sides of the OS. Microsoft declined to comment to us regarding the departure, although there’s rumors of an uncanny parallel to Scott Forstall’s departure at Apple — AllThingsD claims that there was “growing tension” between Sinofsky and fellow executives. Whatever the reason Sinofsky left and regardless of where he’s going, the move deprives Microsoft of an executive known for getting the development trains running on time.

Update: Windows-focused writer Paul Thurrott has obtained a copy of Sinofsky’s email, which might shed some light on the departure. He portrays it as the outcome of some post-launch reflection and a chance to “seek new opportunities” based on his experience. It’s clear Sinofsky anticipated that critics would be suspicious — he’s adamant that it was a personal decision and not the result of an internal scuffle. The sudden exit, he claims, is to help make “space” for his new replacements.

Continue reading Steven Sinofsky leaves Microsoft, Julie Larson-Green and Tami Reller take the Windows reins (update: Sinofsky email)

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Steven Sinofsky leaves Microsoft, Julie Larson-Green and Tami Reller take the Windows reins (update: Sinofsky email) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint has cemented a deal with US Cellular to pick up its PCS spectrum and around 585,000 customers across the Midwest. The deal will land the newly-owned company 30MHz within the 1900 MHz band across Illinois, Indian, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, with the carrier stating that it’ll be putting the extra spectrum to use augmenting its coverage while it continues to roll out 4G.

US Cellular will apparently continue business elsewhere, once the deal passes regulatory approval some time year, stating that it aims to “increase focus on markets where it has strong positions” and “streamline operations” — probably involving its own 4G expansion plans.

Update: There’s a gray cloud to the silver lining. US Cellular warns that over 1,000 jobs will be cut as part of the network handover, most of them a mix of corporate and retail staff based in Chicago. It also says that the network offload reflects the challenges it has getting customers in larger cities: they’re both more expensive up-front and generate twice as much subscriber turnover as in less densely-packed areas. The Sprint deal should wrap up by mid-2013 if all goes according to plan.

Update 2: US Cellular has revised its own job figures and now says the exact tally is 980. While it’s only so much comfort to those affected, the exact amount is slightly more reassuring.

Filed under: Mobile, Sprint

Sprint pays US Cellular $480 million for Midwest spectrum and customers (update 2: 980 jobs lost) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Nov 2012 07:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has just reposted its statement acknowledging that Samsung did not copy its tablet design, after the initial wording was deemed unacceptable by the UK courts. The new version is a lot shorter, and simply repeats what it published in national newspapers this week, stating that the court did not find Samsung to be in breach of Apple’s registered design No. 0000181607-0001, reminding us that it was also upheld by the Court of Appeal, providing links to the appropriate patent and judgement documents online. The mention of the same case going in Apple’s favor in Germany has been removed completely. When first published, Apple included a short link at the bottom of its homepage. Now, to completely comply with the court’s bidding, there is a short statement accompanying the link, confirming that its initial acknowledgement was inaccurate. The court also told Apple that it must keep the admission online until at least December 14th. Will this be enough to appease the UK courts? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Filed under: Tablets, Apple, Samsung

Apple posts revised ‘Samsung did not copy’ statement, acknowledges first version was inaccurate originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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