Hasta La Gadget!

CES 2013 has already brought some very exciting news about mobile processors, with NVIDIA revealing its Tegra 4 processor during its press conference earlier in the week. Not one to be outdone, Samsung today officially pulled the veil off its 8-core Exynos 5 Octa chip. Comprised of two sets of four cores, the Exynos 5 Octa is obviously geared toward keeping things moving fast and fluid, even when multiple applications are running on your mobile device.

As such, don’t expect to see the Exynos 5 Octa present in anything but high-end smartphones and tablets. The upshot to this is, obviously, a better experience when doing things like watching video or using multiple tabs in your mobile browser. In fact, Samsung CEO Stephen Woo says that there won’t be any stutter during HD video playback, which, as many of you likely know, can be something of an issue on slower processors.

In addition to trying to knock multitasking out of the park, the Exynos 5 Octa is also sporting 3D capabilities. That, of course, means better 3D gaming, so expect to see mobile games take a step up after the Octa starts showing up in devices. This processor also has the distinction of being the first mobile CPU to implement the ARM big.LITTLE technology, something we’ve described at length in the past.

Of course, all the power in the world isn’t worth anything if your battery can’t last long enough to take full advantage of it, which is why Samsung is also focusing on efficiency with this release. By packing together four Cortex A15 processors to do the heavy lifting and four A7 cores for lighter work, users should have the power they need while also saving on battery power when they can.

It’ll probably be a little while before we see the latest in the Exynos line begin making an appearance in a significant number of devices, but it should be making a splash in the mobile world before long. It’s been an incredibly exciting CES for mobile computing, so be sure to have a look at our CES portal for news you may have missed. As always, keep it here at SlashGear for even more from the show.

Samsung goes big with 8-core Exynos 5 Octa chip reveal is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

CTA Digital never fails to disappoint at CES. In past years the company has delivered some of the craziest gaming and iPad accessories, and this year they manage to both raise the bar and hit a new low with the iPotty. More »

To be completely honest, the YotaPhone is one of devices I’ve been most looking forward to seeing during Slashgear’s stay here at CES 2013. The device was announced last year and was immediately turning heads with its dual-screen setup. Dual-screen phones are nothing new, but the folks at Yota have put their own little spin on the dual-screen setup: instead of offering two LCD screens, the YotaPhone sports an HD LCD display on the front, and an eInk display around the back.

Of course, with dual-screen phones, manufacturers run the risk of having their devices ultimately come off as nothing more than gimmicky. The YotaPhone has its share of dissenters, but I’m pleased to report that it seems like a very solid device. We’ve got some powerful hardware running under the hood, including a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM, and a custom 2,100mAh battery, so there’s plenty to get excited about for the hardware enthusiast (though admittedly, it would have been great to see a quad-core CPU in place of the dual-core).

Both of the displays come in at 4.3-inches in size, with the LCD displaying at 1280×720 resolution. That naturally means 720p HD, so visuals are nice and sharp, and if you’re a fan of eInk displays, the YotaPhone’s rear screen will certainly please. Add to that a rear-facing 12MP camera and you’ve got a phone with one solid set of specs.

Interestingly, the folks at Yota have ditched buttons and have instead opted for gesture controls. This was something I was a bit hesitant about, but as it turns out, gesture controls work really well and seem like a intuitive replacement for the Android navigation buttons we’re all familiar with. While we’re on the topic of Android, it’s worth pointing out that Yota expects its device to be running Android 4.2 by the time in launches here in North America, but unfortunately the device we saw today was only running Android 4.1. Still, having Jelly Bean out of the box is always a good thing, so you won’t hear many complaints from me.

The phone is pretty lightweight and feels good in the hand, though there is a bit of a curve to both of the displays, which are each kept safe behind a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It’s important to keep in mind that the device we saw today is still only a prototype, so aspects of its design could change by the time the it launches here in North America. At any rate, I can safely say that the YotaPhone is every bit as cool as I was hoping it would be, but there are still a few kinks to iron out in the weeks and months to come. Yota says that it’s aiming for a late 2013 launch in North America, so expect to be seeing much more of the YotaPhone as we get closer to the end of the year. As always, you can find all of our coverage from CES 2013 at our CES portal, so be sure to have a look at that!

YotaPhone hands-on is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With $10m in the Kickstarter bank and a product shipping in two weeks time, Pebble was arguably the king of the crowdsourcers in 2012. The smartwatch already has us tempted after our hands-on, so we caught up with Pebble CEO Eric Migocovsky to talk lessons-learned from the original InPulse model, the process of growing a company in the public eye, and what’s next in the smartwatch’s future.

With so many rival smartwatches already on the market and in the pipeline – Toshiba is showing one such concept here at CES – Migocovsky says it’s been a “perfect storm” of publicity, timing, and attention that has seen Pebble capture the imagination. Part of that is backer engagement, Migocovsky believes: the fact that Pebble is contactable by Facebook, Twitter, and other routes to anyone with a question or a suggestion.

Those suggestions have come thick and fast, though Migocovsky is wary of over-promising at this stage. The current SDK only caters for alternative watch faces – the first thing you’ll see when you glance at your wrist, given the e-paper display is permanently on (and a tap of the watch triggers the backlight) – and there’s no timescale for when third-party applications will be enabled. Still, the If This Then That integration does make for more flexibility for those willing to craft a few web-app macros.

Pebble Smartwatch demo:

Pebble doesn’t see that app limitation as a drawback, however; in fact, Migocovsky argues it’s an advantage. If the initial product isn’t good enough to be deemed worthy of a place on your wrist, you won’t wear it, he points out: if people aren’t wearing it, then developers won’t recognize it as a worthy market to code for, and the carefully-honed ecosystem will shrivel.

Pebble Smartwatch interview with Eric Migicovsky

That commitment to Kickstarter backers isn’t going anywhere, either. Not only will the 85,000 people who supported Pebble with cash up-front be the first to get their smartwatch, Migocovsky is also determined to make sure they don’t end up with an outmoded device any time soon. The “added extra” hardware features – such as the Bluetooth 4.0 capabilities, despite the fact that Pebble currently only uses Bluetooth 2.1, and the ambient light sensor – are a big part of that, and Pebble will be pushing out firmware updates every 2-3 weeks until every initially-promised feature is present and correct.

Next step, though, is batch-shipping of the first Pebble units to backers, with Migocovsky saying the factory is capable of producing 15,000 units a week when at full tilt. When the initial list is done, then they’ll turn to the reservations list that opened after the Kickstarter closed; that currently measures in the tens of thousands, Pebble says, though not quite the same number as the watch start-up saw backers.

The wearables market is certainly heating up, with a range of form-factors (on the wrist, digital eyewear like Google Glass, clip-on activity trackers, and more) being played with, and it seems 2013 may be the year it all comes to a head. Our early impressions are definitely positive – several of the SlashGear team are also Kickstarter backers – but we’ll reserve our full opinion until we can live with Pebble on our wrist for a while.

Pebble smartwatch: CEO Eric Migocovsky talks Kickstarter loyalty and more with SlashGear is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week we got the opportunity to speak with Jane from ONGUARD about the company’s new family of folding cases and covers for the iPad, iPhone, and Google Nexus 7. What you’re seeing here is a brand new line of cases and covers, the company bringing on a new generation of magnet-toting amalgamations of protection and display for your devices. What we’ve seen here is a unit for the iPhone 5 that’s a case and a stand in one, a similar solution for the iPad (3/4), and another for the Google Nexus 7 tablet that’s not just a stand, but a sleeve as well.

The iPhone 5 unit we’re seeing here is shown in leathery black with red stitching, working as two separate pieces, a case that can exist on its own, and the leathery bit that fits over it to create one single unit. The protection this unit offers is thick and robust, but the real gem is the stand – it’s magnetically held tight and down in your pocket when you don’t need it and folds up and out when you do. Real simple, really high quality – and it’ll hold your iPhone up in two different positions.

NOTE: None of the cases are called “origami” as such, but that’s certainly the easiest way to describe them to someone who has never seen them before.

Next is the iPad case and stand by the name of ONGUARD Shell. This unit fits around the sides and back of your iPad to offer some basic protection for everything but the display and, like the iPhone case, folds up in a triangular origami-like way to prop your iPad up with style. While we’ve seen similar solutions to this in the past, this is the only unit we’ve seen where the stand stays flat against the back when not in use.

Finally there’s a unique case/stand by the name of ONGUARD Sleeve for the ASUS Nexus 7 from Google. This unit (like the other solutions we’ve seen today) comes in a variety of colors, but here works on the understanding that the Nexus 7 is already thick enough as it is, keeping your protection limited to when you’re in transit with the machine rather than having it covered at all times. The case then folds up and acts as a stand, once again, when you’ve taken the device out for daily use. Well played!

We’ll be seeing more of ONGUARD in the near future – for now you’ll want to jump in on the rest of our CES 2013 action in our massive CES portal all week long for more hands-on action and up to the minute updates all week long!

ONGUARD iPad, iPhone 5, and Nexus 7 folding “origami” cases hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.