Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung has just delivered a most welcome (and concrete) bit of news for British smartphone lovers. Its next do-it-all Android superphone will be available on May 1st in the United Kingdom. The Galaxy S II will emulate its predecessor by being made available “across all major networks and retailers.” The press release promises a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, which indicates we’re looking at the Exynos 4210 variant of this handset. We’ll try to track down availability information for the rest of Europe, but at least Brits can now stop fretting about the delay / non-delay of this marquee phone’s launch.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S II to be available May 1st in the UK

Samsung Galaxy S II to be available May 1st in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Samsung Galaxy S II gets upgraded to 1.2GHz, delayed until May or June? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  GSM Arena, @Samsung_Mobiles (Twitter), Facebook  | Email this | Comments

Where would we be without prototypes, eh? One such pre-production unit, of Samsung’s dual-core Galaxy S II, has escaped into the Russian Ukrainian wilderness, where it’s been thankfully rescued from the cold by the guys over at gagadget. Apart from squaring it up against the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 — which we can only surmise was the nearest available Android handset, it surely can’t have been the best — they also dig pretty deeply into the latest TouchWiz UI and dish up a thoroughgoing gallery of sample images from that 8 megapixel autofocus camera on the back. It’s an enlightening read, once you’ve enrolled Google Translate’s help, though the video after the break might not be too informative if English is your only language. Still, it’s a great visual tour of some yummy hardware.

[Thanks, DarkDvr]

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S II shows up in Ukraine, gets a loving preview (video)

Samsung Galaxy S II shows up in Ukraine, gets a loving preview (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 05:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GSM Arena  |  gagadget  | Email this | Comments

RootMetrics found Verizon's 4G upload and download speeds significantly higher than other carriers'.

Have you been wondering if that new 4G smartphone you purchased is really getting 4G speeds? Wonder no longer.

RootMetrics performed an extensive study to determine how each network’s 4G speeds are holding up to their claims. The testing was performed across the Seattle area.

Their findings showed that Verizon’s LTE network performed at a 100 percent data-success rate. Its average data speeds were between four and 14.5 times faster than competitors, and average upload speeds were between 4.7 and 49.3 times faster.

The phone models tested included the HTC Thunderbolt (Verizon), HTC Inspire (AT&T), HTC Evo (Sprint) and Samsung Galaxy S (T-Mobile). RootMetrics’ CEO Paul Griff said that the smartphone model and its hardware had very little to do with 4G performance — that performance is almost all network related.

Wired has previously broken down what each carrier means by 4G, and what speeds should be expected from each service. Verizon’s LTE network promises speeds of 5-12 Mbps down and 1-5 Mbps up; AT&T’s HSPA+ network should provide 6 Mbps down (and they plan to upgrade to LTE in 2011); Sprint’s WiMax technology promises an average of 3-6 Mbps down and 0.6-1.4 Mbps up; and T-Mobile’s HSPA+ is supposed to provide 5-10 Mbps down. AT&T has reportedly been capping 4G speeds on Android handsets, but this has not been definitively verified.

Over in Oakland, California, the folks at TechnoBuffalo decided to perform a 4G speed test of their own using the HTC Inspire and Thunderbolt.

Using SpeedTest.net’s services and the phones’ Wi-Fi hotspot modes, they discovered median speeds of 8.85 Mbps down and 3.68 up on Verizon’s LTE network, and 2.16 Mbps down and .16 up on AT&T’s HSPA+ service — on par with RootMetrics’ results.

RootMetrics was careful to point out that merely achieving high data speeds doesn’t mean much unless it happens on a regular basis, though. It found that Verizon’s 4G download speeds were greater than 10 Mbps about 90 percent of the time, and their upload speeds were between 5 and 10 Mbps 100 percent of the time.

And Verizon’s average upload speeds were faster than every other carrier’s average download speeds by 37 percent.

A graph of how often each 4G service achieved a certain range of download speeds (from 0-500 Kbps to greater than 10 Mbps) shows Verizon dominating the high end, AT&T spending most of its time in the lower half, and Sprint and T-Mobile’s services ranging widely throughout.

How will AT&T and T-Mobile’s recently announced merger affect their 4G services? That’s yet to be seen.

“Our results stand alone and provide interesting context around consumer data experience for both carrier’s networks in the Seattle area,” said a representative from RootMetrics.

Until it is known how and if the two carriers will combine their networks, it’s difficult to say how the merger will affect their future 4G service. But it’s safe to say, unless it’s LTE, it won’t hold a candle to Verizon’s network.
– – –
Comparing the Carriers: 4G Data Speed Study (.pdf) Thanks Julie!

Engineers hid a microscopic warning deep within an Infineon chip. Image courtesy Chipworks

Silicon chips have billions of transistors in every square inch. But sometimes there’s enough room left over for chip engineers to insert a little joke.

While using a scanning electron microscope to examine the microcircuitry of a chip found in Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S phone, consulting company Chipworks discovered a surprise.

Underneath six layers of aluminum and silicon dioxide circuitry, almost at the level of the polysilicon wafer that underlies the entire chip, engineers concealed a tiny, tiny message.

Below the letters IFX (the stock symbol for Infineon, the company that makes the chip) is a tiny warning, made out of letters just two microns (2 µm) high:

IF YOU CAN READ THIS YOU ARE MUCH TOO CLOSE

“You would never find this message unless you were seriously looking for it,” says Chipworks marketing manager Rob Williamson.

The chip, the Infineon PMB5703, provides radio-frequency transmission and reception functions relating to the devices’ baseband and 3G features.

The tiny message is hidden in the upper right corner of the Infineon chip, in the square highlighted here. (Click the image to see a large photo of the full chip.) Image courtesy Chipworks

Chipworks has put many chips under the scanning electron microscope and has discovered dozens of hidden images and messages like this one. Constructed of the same materials as the chip’s circuitry — silicon dioxide, aluminum, copper and the like — the artwork can include cartoons, icons, or merely the initials of the chips’ designers.

In many cases, this artwork is not only tiny, it’s completely invisible unless you are disassembling the chip. Before it found this message, for instance, Chipworks had to delaminate the chip, layer by layer, putting each layer under the microscope. The purpose of that project was to understand the chip’s architecture, not to find hidden messages, but sometimes these Easter eggs pop out.

The makers of the Infineon PMB5703 must have had some extra time on their hands, because Chipworks found no less than four other images on the chip, including a smiley face, a drummer, a baby duck  called Calimero and a smiling dragon named Grisu.
– – –
“Hidden warning message found in Samsung’s Galaxy tablet“