Hasta La Gadget!

Outdoor Technology has just announced a spanking new device for those who tend to ride bicycles and motorbikes in the form of CHIPS, a wireless drop-in audio system. It is said that CHIPS will be universally compatible with all helmets that have audio enabled liners. This means extreme sport enthusiasts are also not left out of the loop, as they are now able to listen to their favorite tunes and make calls without having to take their helmets off when doing so, and inadvertently, exposing themselves to unnecessary risks.

This patent pending method of delivering wireless audio to helmets can be considered to be the first of its kind, and it more or less puts to rest the question of delivering a tangle-free solution to the action sports market. Expect the CHIPS Wireless Drop-in Audio System to arrive this April in Chile, Australia and New Zealand, while all the other markets will see it this winter for $129.95 apiece. Anyone interested in picking it up?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: NUU Splash Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker, Krell Connect Announced,

Qualcomm Atheros has announced its new QCA1990, a low-power NFC chip that holds the title of being the smallest ultra-low system-on-a-chip currently available. This NFC chip is 50-percent the size of its competitors, and aims to solve the current criticism regarding the battery usage of NFC technology. Samples will begin going out in Q1 of 2013.

The QCA1990 is integrated with the Snapdragon S4, and, according to the press release, creates “seamless user experiences” when used with Qualcomm’s WCN3680 wifi/Bluetooth chip. Also, and perhaps one of its best offerings, the QCA1990 supports antennas that are 8 times smaller than current standards.

What does this mean for consumer technology? While NFC has been generating a nice deal of buzz amongst adopters of the latest and greatest gadgets, many devices still lack the feature due to its energy drain, with many critics saying that Bluetooth 4.0 is a better option. This new chip by Qualcomm puts the kibosh on those arguments, however, and is certainly a step in the right direction.

Qualcomm’s Vice President of Product Management David Favreau offered this statement. “Qualcomm Atheros believes NFC will be another key element of an enriched experience for smartphone and tablet consumers. As consumers continue to adopt functions like mobile payments and contactless data exchange, Qualcomm intends to be at the forefront of delivering simple, easy-to-use solutions to OEM partners.”

Qualcomm announces ultra-low power NFC QCA1990 chip is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple is reportedly looking into ways to replace its Intel processors in Macs with new chips based on the designs it uses for its iOS-based devices. The company has previously been rumored to be contemplating such a move, but Bloomberg reports today that Apple’s engineers are now more confident in their underlying chip designs and the ability of those designs to power Mac desktops and notebooks.

Bloomberg has reported similar planned changes in the past, in a retrospective reflecting on the year since Steve Jobs’ death. And around a year ago there were rumors that it was looking at alternatives to Intel as well. The hurdles involved include making sure that software works on Macs based on the new processors; when Apple went from PowerPC to Intel, the transition left a lot of legacy software incompatible and led to transition issues around porting software.

Apple would also have to be extremely confident in their new chipmaking powers in order to drop Intel, and this isn’t likely something we’ll see happen overnight, even now that they’ve achieved greater maturity with their mobile efforts. I’d expect Apple to deliver new architecture alongside a significant OS update, maybe an evolution that finally carries us out of the OS X generation.

Apple designs based on ARM designs would enable the company to create hardware that theoretically runs cooler with less significant power demands, and would make it easier to get OS X and iOS closer together (it seems to be wanting to do just that with its recent executive rearrangement) in terms of cross-compatibility of software and code. But unlike Microsoft, Apple is taking the long-view approach to that unification of platforms. So again, it seems like we’ll probably not see this make its way to actual shipping products for a while, but it’ll be a huge shift for all involved (Apple, users, developers and especially Intel) if it does come to pass.

Intel may have recently spilled its Q3 guts for 2012, but we highly doubt that the chip maker planned on outing its forthcoming projects for next year. An alleged internal slide makes the claim that the silicon giant plans to introduce a 10-core Xeon E5-2600 V2 Ivy Bridge-EP CPU in the third quarter of 2013. Compatible with Socket R LGA 2011 motherboards, this brute will max out at 20 threads through HyperThreading. Packing 30MB of L3 cache, this unannounced Ivy Bridge supports up to 1866MHz of DDR3 system RAM. If these specifications have whet your appetite, the Xeon E5-2600 V2 is only the tip of the iceberg — Chipzilla is said to also have a 12-core processor in the pipeline as well.

Filed under: Misc, Intel

Intel roadmap reveals 10-core Xeon E5-2600 V2 Ivy Bridge CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PC Perspective  |  ComputerBase (translated)  | Email this | Comments

While Apple and Samsung have been duking it out over patents, there’s always been the quiet, underlying irony that Samsung makes a whole bunch of the chips Apple relies on. Now, according to reports from CNET and MacRumors, Apple’s trying to change that. More »