Hasta La Gadget!

Heterogeneous System Architecture might not be a phrase that trips off your tongue right now, but if AMD, TI and – in a quiet addition – Samsung have their way, you could be taking advantage of it to interact with the computers of tomorrow. AMD VP Phil Rogers, president of the HSA Foundation, filled his IFA keynote with futurology and waxing lyrical about how PCs, tablets and other gadgets will react to not only touch and gestures, but body language and eye contact, among other things. Check out the concept demo after the cut.

Heterogeneous System Architecture is a catch-all for scalar CPU processing and parallel GPU processing, along with high-bandwidth memory access for boosting app performance while minimizing power consumption. In short, it’s what AMD has been pushing for with its APUs (and, elsewhere – though not involved with HSA – NVIDIA has with its CUDA cores), with the HSA seeing smartphones, desktops, laptops, consumer entertainment, cloud computing, and enterprise hardware all taking advantage of such a system.

While there were six new public additions to the Foundation, Samsung Electronics’ presence came as a surprise. The HSA was initially formed by AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, and Texas Instruments, but today’s presentation saw Samsung added to the slides and referred to as a founding member.

Samsung is no stranger to heterogeneous computing tech. Back in October 2011, the company created the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (along with Micron) to push a new, ultra-dense memory system that – running at 15x the speed of DDR3 and requiring 70-percent less energy per bit – would be capable of keeping up with multicore technologies. The Cubes would be formed of a 3D stack of silicon layers, formed on the logic layer and then with memory layers densely stacked on top.

As for the concept, Rogers described a system which could not only learn from a user’s routine, but react to whether they were smiling or not, whereabouts at the display they were looking, and to more mundane cues such as voice and gesture. Such a system could offer up a search result and then, if the user was seen to be smiling at it, learn from that reaction to better shape future suggestions.

Exactly when we can expect such technology to show up on our desktop (or, indeed, in laptops, phones and tablets) isn’t clear. However, Samsung has already been experimenting with devices that react to the user in basic ways; the Galaxy S III, for instance, uses eye-recognition to keep the screen active even if it’s not being touched, while its camera app includes face- and smile-recognition.

Your next Samsung could learn to love your smile is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Now these are some seriously nice-looking headphones — and really, that’s sort of the thing here. After all, internally, these cans are quite similar to older models from Sennheiser, and spending a little time underneath them was a fully engrossing experience, the cups dampening out a lot of noise of the show floor even without music playing. What was even more immediately noticeable about the Momentum, however, was just how comfortable they were, thanks in no small part, to the use of hair-sheep skin straight out of Somerset, England — yep, if you’re anti-leather, these aren’t the headphones for you. But man, the material feels really, really nice.

The headphones are also quite light, which helps, so they shouldn’t be too much of a strain when you wear them on the go — and the Sennheiser rep we spoke with assured us that your ears still breathe well with them on, unlike a lot of over-ear pairs. The headband is made of a brushed stainless steel, which meets even more leather on the top of the headphones. Move down the wire and you’ll see a panel with three buttons — these control volume and let you pick up calls on your iPhone. Further down still ia a metal jack that bends, so you can keep the headphones at either a 180- or 90-degree angle from your device.

Of course, all that fine sheep leather and metal doesn’t come cheap — these guys will run you a cool $350 when they hit the states this fall. Check out a hands-on video after the break.

Continue reading Sennheiser’s Momentum headphones bring their leathery, metal goodness to IFA, we go hands-on (video)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video

Sennheiser’s Momentum headphones bring their leathery, metal goodness to IFA, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Sometimes getting lost in the maze-like sprawl of the Messe can turn up unexpected surprises. In this case, we chanced upon Sony’s Xperia sola hiding in plain sight at Sparhandy’s booth. The petite Android handset, formerly codenamed “Pepper”, was officially announced earlier this spring and even crept up in FCC filings. But until now, we’d never had quality hands-on time with the 3.7-inch Gingerbread device. For its diminutive size, the wee phone sports a 854 x 480 LCD display powered by Mobile BRAVIA Engine, a dual-core CPU clocked at 1GHz, 5-megapixel rear shooter and NFC functionality for Smart Tag use.

As you might expect, the sola fits quite nicely into the palm of your hand, though its tiny screen can pose an issue for those with larger digits. And speaking of touch navigation, this Sony phone separates itself from the rest of the Xperia pack with the inclusion of floating touch technology — much like the Galaxy Note 2. What’s that? Well, turns out this device can detect your finger’s presence up to 20mm away from the screen, allowing users to highlight links, but only from within the browser. Apart from that neat touch, which in practice, is a bit awkward to properly use, the phone functions exactly as it should for the low-to-mid range it occupies. Performance is appreciably quick and pages loaded up in the browser in just about 30 seconds time.

There’s still no word on whether the sola will ever make it stateside, but if you’re keen to see that hovering functionality in action, head past the break for a video demo and check out our gallery below.

Mat Smith contributed to this report.

Continue reading Sony Xperia sola: a pint-sized Android handset with floating touch (hands-on)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Sony Xperia sola: a pint-sized Android handset with floating touch (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Sometimes the most fascinating bits from a tradeshow come from those booth in between major manufacturers, and while we’re certainly not claiming that the Hi-Call is “the best product at IFA” as its spokesperson suggested to us with a smile, they’re nothing if not interesting. Hi-Fun’s gloves are Bluetooth headsets — or, well, handsets — with the speaker built into the thumb and the mic in the pinky, so you can talk by doing the traditional “call me” hand gesture.

Pairing is simple enough for anyone who’s done the process on a more traditional headset — the button is built into the top of the glove, along with a button to end the call. We took the gloves for a spin, as you can see in the video below, calling the rep’s very confused boss. In spite of turning up the handset volume as loud as possible, we had a lot of trouble actually hearing something on the showfloor — and the fellow on the other end seemed to be having similar issues, leading to quite probably the first time I’ve ever used the phrase “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you, I’m talking into a glove.”

Hi-Call will be out in the beginning of October, just in time for the cold weather. It’ll run you a not particularly cheap €49 for the pleasure of speaking into your pinky. Video evidence after the break.

Continue reading Hi-Fun’s call-receiving Bluetooth gloves, hands-in (video)

Filed under: Wearables

Hi-Fun’s call-receiving Bluetooth gloves, hands-in (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

As expected, the Samsung Unpacked event at IFA 2012 in Berlin, Germany, saw the unveiling of the latest phablet from the South Korean consumer electronics giant, Samsung, in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. This will definitely up the ante where the Galaxy Note family is concerned, where you get an even larger display than ever before (time to give your tailor a tinkle and make some changes in size to your pants pockets), in addition to a slew of other technological advancements that we will check out in the extended post.

For starters, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is a sight to behold even before it is turned on, and when you power it up, your eyes will definitely fall in love with the 5.5” HD Super AMOLED display that is touted to deliver breathtaking visuals and crystal clear detail. Boasting a 16:9 screen ratio, you are guaranteed of a cinema-like video viewing experience, making it ideal as the portable media player of choice. Sure, it might have fewer pixels overall compared to its predecessor, but that was a necessary evil in order to achieve the mentioned aspect ratio.

With the introduction of Air View, you are able to hover the included S Pen over an email, S Planner, image gallery, or video, where doing so will let you preview the content without having to open it. Talk about efficiency, and that would also mean less burden on your monthly data plan if you are not subscribing to unlimited data.

There is a Popup Note feature that extends the concept of Popup Play, where you can open an S Note instantly as a pop-up window, anywhere you like on the screen, giving you the opportunity to jot down a quick note as well.

Underneath the hood lies the muscle of a 1.6GHz quad-core processor complete with HSPA Plus or 4G LTE connectivity (depending on the market you are in), with Android 4.1, Jelly Bean running right out of the box. Depending on your budget, you can choose from 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities that can be further augmented using a microSD memory card. Fret not about juice, as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 will boast of a 3,100mAh battery that ought to last quite the distance through a day’s worth of heavy duty use.

At the back lies an 8-megapixel shooter, while the front has a 1.9-megapixel camera that also does HD video recording. You can choose from Marble White or Titanium Gray colors, where the Galaxy S2 is set for an October release in major European, Asian, and Middle East markets. Pricing details have yet to be disclosed.

Press Release

[ Samsung Galaxy Note 2 unveiled copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]