Hasta La Gadget!

Google just launched the latest iteration of its Chrome OS-based laptop here in San Francisco — the $249 (or £229, for those in the UK) 11.6-inch Samsung Chromebook. It’s ARM-based (fanless), 0.8-inches thick, weighs only 2.43 pounds, runs 6.5+ hours on battery, boots in under 10 seconds and supports 1080p video playback. Pre-orders start today at Amazon and PC World, and the laptop includes Google Now integration using Google Drive as a transport and comes with 100GB of free storage for two years. It will be available for sale on the Play Store and featured prominently at retailers like Best Buy, and naturally, we’re expecting this one to make a bigger splash than prior models based on the bargain bin price alone.

Under the hood, there’s a dual-core A15-based Samsung Exynos 5 Dual (5250) SoC, 2GB RAM, 16GB of built-in flash storage, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth, all of which should act to give this Chromebook a lot more oomph compared to slower, earlier models. Other specs include a 1366 x 768 native screen resolution, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 socket, combo headphone / mic jack, an SD card slot and a “full-size Chrome keyboard.” Hit up the links below for the nitty-gritty, or hop on past the break for a promo vid.

Update: Our hands-on with the new Chromebook is live!

Continue reading Google launches 11.6-inch ARM-based Samsung Chromebook: $249, ultrathin, 6.5-hour battery, 1080p video

Filed under: Laptops, Google

Google launches 11.6-inch ARM-based Samsung Chromebook: $249, ultrathin, 6.5-hour battery, 1080p video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trust us, this should ultimately make a lot of sense. As we already know, AMD recently set up the HSA Foundation to promote its vision for better parallel processing — and especially GPU compute — in mobiles and PCs. Its semi-rival ARM was one of the first big players to join up, and now Samsung has decided to hop onboard too. Why would it do that? For the simple reason that the Korean company still makes its own chips, based on ARM designs, and we’ve seen that GPU compute is going to be a big feature in its coming Exynos 5 processor with Mali T604 graphics.

Now, anything else at this point is pure speculation, since we only know about Samsung’s HSA membership from the appearance of its logo on a relevant slide at AMD’s keynote speech at IFA, and there’s no official word on Samsung’s intentions. At a bare minimum, the company could simply be firming up friendships and hedging its bets on the future of computing. We wouldn’t be surprised, however, if Sammy is looking to work with ARM and AMD to implement further aspects of the HSA philosophy into even more advanced Exynos chips down the line — chips that are able to use both GPU compute and smaller transistors to achieve leaps in performance while also gobbling fewer volts.

Continue reading Samsung slips into AMD’s HSA party, may seek parallel processing boost for Exynos

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets

Samsung slips into AMD’s HSA party, may seek parallel processing boost for Exynos originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boost Mobile is cranking out a trio of Samsung devices today, and the headliner is the Galaxy S II 4G. Essentially a prepaid version of Sprint’s ever-popular Epic 4G Touch, the device will be all yours starting on September 6th for $360. As expected, it sports a 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos chipset, 8MP rear camera with 1080p video capture, 2MP front-facing cam, a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 1,800mAh battery and WiMAX and EVDO rev A connectivity. Fortunately, it will run Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, and comes in both white and black options. Read on below for the full press release.

Continue reading Boost Mobile to launch Samsung Galaxy S II 4G on September 6th for $360

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Boost Mobile to launch Samsung Galaxy S II 4G on September 6th for $360 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week the fabled Samsung smartphone model known as Galaxy S II Plus has shown its face once again, having disappeared from the news circuit for several weeks only to show up in model form with a few more specifications here well into the age of the Galaxy S III. While it might not seem too sensible for the manufacturer to produce a device that’s essentially the same as the Galaxy S II, a legacy device at this point, here with a larger display, they may well have their reasons. Perhaps preparing this device for markets that’ve not yet seen any Galaxy devices, much less the II or III, here comes the 4.5-inch display-toting dual-core Galaxy S II Plus.

This device has a styling that’s surprisingly similar to the T-Mobile version of the Samsung Galaxy S II with a lip at the back and a center-sitting 8-megapixel camera with single LED flash. The front of this device has a set of four capacitive buttons – quite strange for midway through 2012, especially since we’re expecting an international release. The right of the device has a power button, the left has a volume bar, and there are indeed cameras on both sides.

The Galaxy S II Plus has appeared via Chilean carrier VTR and has been tipped to be popping up inside 2012. Inside you’ll find a 1.5GHz dual-core Exynos processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. This device appears to be pairing some high-end specifications with some low, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich comes standard at this point.

With a fabulous AMOLED display and dual-core processor under the hood, this device would have blown us away just about a year ago. Instead it’s being released here amid the Galaxy S III, a device which takes this smartphone to the cleaners with its advanced Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor or Exynos quad-core processor, depending on what model you work with. Have a peek at the timeline below for more previous mentions of the S II Plus – back again!

[via Engadget]

Samsung Galaxy S II Plus appears with Exynos processor is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung recently announced the long awaited Exynos 5 SoC (read more about SoCs and what they are all about in our primer here), which might just help usher in the next generation of mobile computing upon the masses. There were some demonstrations performed with the Samsung Exynos 5 in the past, and at long last, it has received an official announcement by the South Korean conglomerate. You can expect the Samsung Exynos 5 to feature a dual-core 1.7 Ghz Cortex A15 CPU, a Mali T604 GPU, Wi-Fi display support, 12.8 GB/s memory bandwidth with 2 port 800 MHz LPDDR3 RAM support, 1080p 60 FPS video performance and VP8 codec decoder, in addition to USB 3.0 support, now how about that?

The Mali T604 GPU is no pushover either, where it is capable of handling resolutions of up to WQXGA (2,560 X 1,600 – take that, Retina Display!), handle stereoscopic 3D with aplomb, deliver OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.1 and DirectX 11 support in the process.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Lenovo LePhone K860 gets Samsung Exynos quad-core chip and Android 4.0, Samsung officially announces the 1.4 GHz Exynos 4 quad-core processor for the GS3,