When I was 14, my stereo broke. Opening it up, I found a small piece of metal had been disconnected from the circuit board at the base. I grabbed a lighter, and melted the piece back in place. I plugged the stereo back in, and turned it on. It worked. It was the first time I actually got something I tried to fix working.
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At the Reuters Global Technology Summit, NVIDIA’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang as confirmed that his company wants to license its graphics technology (IP) to other mobile chip vendors, thus opening a new business for NVIDIA. This is an idea that we first […]
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NVIDIA has provided some insights about how the NVIDIA Shield portable gaming device came to be (read about our hands-on time with the Shield at CES). I recommend reading the article on their website, and if you want a quick primer: it’s a great story of an ambitious idea which was turned into reality by an initial group of hardcore engineers which subsequently got company-wide support to the finish line. I think that they tell their story very well (with a hint of corporate marketing), so there’s no point in parroting it here – it’s a very good read.
Most people see NVIDIA only as a chip or graphics cards manufacturer which is remote from building gamer consoles but in my view, the company always had a “platform building” DNA that the world sees only now. Note that although I worked at NVIDIA until 2007, this post only reflects my opinion, and I don’t have any current insider information, so your guess is as good as mine. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Oculus Rift: Eyes On The Most Immersive VR Hardware, NVIDIA Shield, preview and first impressions, 
For all the noise that was made around the relative lack of novelty with the iPhone 5, it’s fair to say that most people will probably agree on the fact that it is a faster phone, and not in a small way. Without running proper benchmarks, we’re not sure if it is really “2X faster” than the previous one but it is obviously faster.
One of the first theories to emerge was that Apple was using the ARM A15 core design instead of the ARM A9 design that was integrated to the Apple A4 and A5 chips. I know, the naming scheme is confusing, so to put this in context, ARM’s A9 and A15 core designs are CPU blocks, which can be integrated into Apple’s (or other) chips that also contain graphics processors, video processors etc. A full chip like the Apple A6 is called a “system-on-a-chip” or SoC (learn more about SoCs). Qualcomm’s Snapdragon , NVIDIA’s Tegra and TI’s OMAP are other well-known SoCs. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPhone 5 held back by… dogma, The unibody iPhone,
Today, Apple unveiled its long awaited iPhone 5, a device that was highly rumored so the new features were not a surprise, at all. During the time where those leaks happened, the main friction points that we have noticed among commenters were the display size and the prospect that battery life would not be increased significantly because of the thinness (7.6mm, which is impressive).
In an ultra-competitive race where super large displays (see any other successful high-end smartphones like the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3 and the new Galaxy Note 2), uber-cameras (see the new Nokia Lumia 920), incredible battery capacities (like the Razr Maxx HD), and amazing new features (see Samsung S-pen capabilities) are unveiled every week, we wonder why Apple has not committed to maintain the wow factor of the iPhone, because the company could easily do it. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: The unibody iPhone, Jimmy Kimmel pranks passerbys with the iPhone 4S, claiming it is the iPhone 5,
When the Wall Street Journal came out with the speculation that the iPhone 5 would feature 4G LTE, this was largely a non-news as virtually everyone expects LTE to happen in the iPhone 5 as 1/users demand it 2/ wireless carriers want LTE phones, period. The more interesting bit from WSJ was that LTE would work outside of the US market, which is unusual for LTE phones: most fall back to HSPA+ in Europe and elsewhere.
This happens because unlike HSPA+ and 3G, the radio bands (frequencies) used for 4G LTE are very different from one country (or one carrier) to the next. Even in the USA, LTE is not interoperable from one carrier to the next.
This did not prevent a “global” iPhone 5 4G LTE support rumor to spread on the web like wildfire. Of course, iPhone 5 users who are heavy travelers rejoiced right away. Those who had a prospect to resell the phone globally did so as well (prices are much higher in markets where the phone is not officially available). However, here is the cold shower: (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Digital Cameras + Android = Unavoidable, OnLive Game Streaming Company Goes Under,
Fan concept of an advanced Android camera
The world of compact cameras has changed rapidly in the past few years, and this change is due to the rise of smartphones, and more precisely, due the high quality of smartphones internal cameras. Sales of compact cameras has declined and manufacturers can barely keep their revenues afloat, if at all.
A possible way out: raise the bar and provide an added-value that only a bigger form factor can: bigger sensors, bigger lenses. However, smartphones and wireless broadband have changed user behavior forever: the main incentive for taking photos has shifted from “memory preservation” to “social sharing”, and users demand a way to share their photos with as little friction as possible.
To address these challenges, camera manufacturers have tried building their own software stack, and it is fair to say that it hasn’t worked. It’s too much work, too complex, and it’s likely that Android will emerge -again- as being the solution of choice. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: New Paper-Thin Lens May Allow Ultra-Sleek Cameras , OnLive Game Streaming Company Goes Under,
OnLive, the most prominent game streaming company is no more. The Company has apparently been experiencing financial difficulties, and had to lay off about half of its staff. People left the company with boxes late on Friday. The company says that its assets have been purchased by a “newly formed company with substantial funding”.
I’ve discussed the challenges of the cloud gaming business back in 2008, but the news came as a shock to the web industry as OnLive was seen has the “natural evolution” of traditional video games, and many were expecting high end game consoles to to be eventually replaced by cheap boxes connected to the network. That explains the recent noise about Ouya, a $99 Android console, which has raised 6 million of dollars in funding. OnLive was announced for Ouya recently.
The demise of OnLive is a stark reminder that the video game streaming business is an extremely difficult one, and that it is still very much “experimental”. That said, OnLive deserves some credit for pushing the model as far as they did. So… what happened? (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: OnLive to continue operations under new management [official], iPhone, iPad and Macs could be banned on Aug 24,
1. A very elaborate hoax. If it’s a hoax, kudos to whoever made it because it would require the same amount of design and engineering effort that would go into an actual smartphone. Not to mention all of the collaboration that would have been needed between the numerous different sites that have posted images and video already. That’s an insane amount of work for a laugh, so I don’t think it’s a hoax.
2. A decoy made by Apple to throw everyone off the scent and root out leaks. Now THAT would be amazing. I’m secretly rooting for this option if only because it would be so diabolically awesome.
3. An early model or sample of a design that Apple is working on. Maybe, but we have seen this same design pop up in too many places and it looks way too far along in development to be a model or early sample.
4. An actual production sample of the next iPhone. This is where I would put my money. I’m fairly convinced this is what the next iPhone will look like. If true, this design will be noteworthy for being the first unibody iPhone, making it the thinnest, strongest, and lightest housing to date. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPhone 5 photo leak could be a red herring, iPhone 5: photos of an alleged fully assembled unit [Rumor],
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