NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu and NEC rekindle love and LTE partnership, Samsung and Panasonic left in the rain

NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu and NEC rekindle love and LTE partnership, Samsung and Panasonic left in the rain

The fractious on-again, off-again love affair between NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu and NEC has taken another turn. After dissolving a partnership to build a common LTE platform that included Samsung and Panasonic, the trio have rekindled their love over a candlelit dinner. The gang are stumping up the cash to bankroll Access Network Technology, a venture to build, wait for it, LTE platforms for smartphones and tablets, with each party bringing its own R&D and IP knowhow to the table. There’s no word on how jilted lovers Samsung and Panasonic feel about the team-up, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t shed a private tear and think about the good old days.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu and NEC rekindle love and LTE partnership, Samsung and Panasonic left in the rain

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NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu and NEC rekindle love and LTE partnership, Samsung and Panasonic left in the rain originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy S Duos details make the rounds, bring Galaxy S III vibe to the dual-SIM world

Samsung Galaxy S Duos makes the rounds, bring GS3 vibe to dualSIM world

Fans of Samsung’s Duos phones wanting 2012 updates have had to make do with last year’s looks so far. From what’s surfacing through multiple Indian sites, though, Samsung must want to spread some of the Galaxy S III’s modern, nature-influenced style to the Duos’ twin-SIM audience. The Galaxy S Duos S7562 won’t make its bigger sibling jealous with a 4-inch WVGA display, a 1GHz Snapdragon MSM7227A chip or 512MB of RAM, but they’re not the point. As always, the highlight is that pair of SIM slots for carrying both home and work phone lines — or simply mixing and matching prepaid plans. The rest of the hardware falls in line with what’s likely to be a much less expensive smartphone, including a 5-megapixel back camera, a VGA front camera and 4GB of storage. Buyers will be glad to know that Android 4.0 should still be coming along for the ride in addition to that stone-inspired look. We’ve asked Samsung for more official details; there’s talk of an Indian launch before the end of the summer, which (if true) could give the crowds in Bangalore and Mumbai more to look forward to in the fall than just cooler temperatures.

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Samsung Galaxy S Duos details make the rounds, bring Galaxy S III vibe to the dual-SIM world originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Xperia J possibly spotted, may court entry-level fashionistas

Sony Xperia J possibly spotted, may court entrylevel fashionistas

That didn’t take long. We’ve only known about the Sony Xperia J and its reported ST26i codename for a short while, but ePrice has already given the purported starter smartphone the full photo tour. From cursory looks and specifications, the J will slot neatly between the Xperia miro and tipo at the start of the line and the small but potent Xperia U: while it’s not believed to be quite as fast or iconic as the dual-core U, the single-core, 1GHz J could still be faster than its tiniest cousins and strive for some chic with a brightly colored back wrapped around a 4-inch display. The real highlight may simply be an Xperia that ships with Android 4.0 from the get-go instead of requiring yet another upgrade merry-go-round. When the Xperia J shows is still up in the air, despite presumptions of an appearance at IFA; however, we won’t be surprised if the J appears side-by-side with the Mint when it’s officially ready for a close-up.

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Sony Xperia J possibly spotted, may court entry-level fashionistas originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 20:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm S4 MDP tablet is not for you

You’ve heard that the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro Mobile Development Platform tablet is the most powerful Android slate ever made, that is looks pretty neat, and that it’s up for sale now – but let me tell you this: you don’t want it. If you take a peek at this tablet and notice the variety of hardware features that are visible from the front of the device (not to mention the bacK), you should instantly be suspicious: a consumer-aimed tablet doesn’t look like that in our modern mobile world. Instead this device was created for a very specific set of users, users who have $1,299 in their budget to grab devices that’ll help them forward their career or business.

This device is made for developers and for vendors – developers looking to make their apps work optimally with the architecture Qualcomm’s designed for processing and graphics, first of all. As for vendors, this means the people looking to implement the processor inside the device, the Snapdragon APQ8064 S4 Pro SoC, into devices galore. The name MDP has appeared on several devices made by Qualcomm before, the other most recent of these being the MDP8660 we saw at Mobile World Congress 2012. The MDP8660 was a phone-sized device and used the Snapdragon S4 processor that appeared before the S4 Pro we’re seeing this week.

The tablet we’ve seen this week works with a Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor. This processor’s generation is also known as Krait and works at 1.5Ghz per core. This tablet has 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 320 graphics processor as well. On the back you’ve got a 13 megapixel camera with 1080p video capability, while the front-facing camera is only meant for relatively low-res video chat.

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You can purchase the tablet right now from online retailer(s) for just under $1300 and have a closer look in our Qualcomm portal as well. Have a peek in the timeline below at a collection of on-site news bits and hands-on experiences we had at this past week’s Qualcomm event as well!


Qualcomm S4 MDP tablet is not for you is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core tops the benchmark charts [Hands-on]

Qualcomm‘s been hard at work with their new quad-core chipset for mobile devices, and we’ve got one in our hands. Their brand new Snapdragon APQ8064 S4 Pro SoC packs quite the punch and we’ve just started taking it through it’s paces. Announced and available starting earlier today, this developer device isn’t for average users, but is a clear indication of what we can expect from Qualcomm later this year.

Without getting too technical here the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 developer tablet kit contains a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and is running on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. This 10.1-inch display running a 1366 x 768 resolution is going to be put through its paces but for now here’s a quick glance at a few of the popular Android benchmark apps. Quadrant blew through the roof posting numbers nearing 8000, and AnTuTu clearly was ahead of the other quad-core options available today.

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Being a developer based platform this tablet isn’t something any consumer will see, but we’ll still give a quick input on performance. Usual tasks such as browsing the web, scrolling through webpages, heading to the Google Play Store and more are all extremely buttery smooth. Android 4.0 ICS is on board, instead of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but performance is still quite swift.

With popular tests such as Quadrant and AnTuTu we clearly see some extremely impressive results. Boasting nearly 8k in Quadrant was plenty exciting, considering most devices are lucky to break 5000 — those of which are all running Qualdcomm’s dual-core S4 processor. Anything older isn’t quite as lucky, and that includes some other quad-core options on the market. Vellamo, Qualcomm’s own in-house benchmark suite that focuses on web browsing also takes charge and scores well with their new quad-core. Results aren’t as chart topping as the others, but certainly shows some real progress.

While this is just a MDP device geared at developers, it’s already clearly beating the Nexus 7, and Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad powered Galaxy S III easily. These devices don’t give us an idea of battery life so that is still up in the air, but Qualcomm promises “all-day battery life.” For now take a quick glance at the results below. We’ll continue to update with additional screenshots and more tests, but Qualcomm has another winner here to top the charts. We can expect to see the new S4 pro quad-core arriving in devices later this year.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core tops the benchmark charts [Hands-on] is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) MDP benchmarks blow away the competition (update: video)

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MDP benchmarks blow away the competition

As mentioned earlier, we’ve just gotten our hands on Qualcomm’s latest development platform to see how its first quad core chipset fares. And boy, that APQ8064 really doesn’t disappoint, but it should be no surprise — we’ve already seen how the top dual core S4 chipsets already beat their quad core competitors in certain aspects, so it’s only natural for the quad core S4 Pro to annihilate them. As you can see in our chart after the break, the APQ8064-based MDP easily beat the Tegra 3-based One X and Nexus 7, as well as the Exynos 4412-based Galaxy S III. And partly thanks to the Adreno 320 graphics core, the MDP even scored an astonishing 132fps in our GLBenchmark test, while the quad core Galaxy S III with Mali-400 graphics came second with 99fps, with the remaining devices lingering around 60fps only.

Obviously, the question remains how big of a trade-off there is on battery life in exchange for those two extra cores and the more powerful graphics chip. That said, we have a feeling that Snapdragon’s Krait architecture and asynchronously clocked cores will again prove that Tegra 3’s 4-PLUS-1 design isn’t the best solution for battery efficiency — as many of you might already know. We shall see when APQ8064-based products become available later this year. For now, take a gander at our numbers and photos.

Update: Hit the break for our hands-on video with the MDP. Also, we had a chance play with the 13-megapixel autofocus camera in the worst possible lighting conditions, and it acquitted itself rather well considering the circumstances. Check out the sample gallery below.

Myriam Joire contributed to this mind-blowing hands-on.

Continue reading Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) MDP benchmarks blow away the competition (update: video)

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Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) MDP benchmarks blow away the competition (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SnapDragon S4 Pro Devkit Preview + Benchmarks

We’re attending a Qualcomm event in which we had the opportunity to get our hands on the quad-core SnapDragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) development platform. If you’re not familiar with the new chip, the stated goal of Qualcomm is to come up with a high-performance “all-day” mobile computing platform. To increase the speed, Qualcomm is using a quad-core architecture and a new Adreno 320 graphics processor – all in the same chip die.

The tablet itself has pretty much everything that the platform can support: stereo surround sound, multiple microphones, all the sensors that we may expect, including pressure, temperature and fingerprint reader. There is 1GB of RAM and 16GB of local storage (+ microSD slot). The development tablet has just launched and is available from BSquare, the company that usually manufacture the development kits for Qualcomm ($1299). Although this is a quality product, it is not meant as a “sexy” consumer device – it’s really a hardware that is meant to mostly sit on a developer desk, so don’t assume that actual products will look like this.



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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: 28nm Qualcomm Snapdragon chip will roll out from Samsung plants, Windows Phone 8: Qualcomm Takes It All,

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 quad-core tablets available now for $1299

Today Qualcomm has been showing off some of their technology including their new quad-core chipset, the APQ8064. And for those folks looking to get into the mobile powerhouse action right away they are now available. Qualcomm’s usual developer kit distributor BSQUARE have just posted them up for sale — starting at $1299.

Qualcomm’s new MDP (Mobile Development Platform) APQ8064 kit contains the same 10.1-inch display as we’ve seen on previous developer devices, as well as multiple ports, fingerprint scanners, 13 megapixel cameras and more. It even has 7 microphones on this thing. Running on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, their new quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM — once again those four processing cores.

Obviously this device is a developer product — especially for $1,299 — but it includes the tablet, a charging dock with two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, and even Ethernet. One of the added benefits of the new APQ8064 platform is the Adreno 320 GPU (graphics processing unit) which should pack about 4 times the graphical punch than the previous version. We’ve quickly ran a few benchmarks and are seeing amazing results but that will be coming shortly. Developers can jump in starting right now for the low price of $1,299 at the link below.

[via BSQUARE]


Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 quad-core tablets available now for $1299 is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core dev tablet now available for $1,299 (update: spec sheet)

Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core dev tablet now available for $1,299

For those keen beans out there who want to get an early taste of Qualcomm’s first quad-core chipset, news just came in that starting today BSQUARE, the usual distributor of Qualcomm dev kits, is offering the Snapdragon S4 Pro mobile development platform for a hefty $1,299 (and just for reference, the MSM8960 “Fluid” smartphone MDP is currently sold for $999). Similar to the dual-core “Liquid” slate we tinkered with last year, this new APQ8064-based MDP sports the same 10.1 WXGA display as well as 2GB LPDDR2 RAM, 32GB of storage space and Android Ice Cream Sandwich. But obviously, developers will be able to take advantage of the two extra asynchronous CPU cores plus the new Adreno 320 graphics engine, which is said to pack three to four times the processing capacity of the Adreno 225 in the current top S4 lineup. If you’re in no hurry then stay tuned for our hands-on later today.

Update: We’ve got a spec sheet after the break, and wow, there’s a 13-megapixel camera and seven mics on this slate!

Continue reading Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core dev tablet now available for $1,299 (update: spec sheet)

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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core dev tablet now available for $1,299 (update: spec sheet) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm talks mobile benchmarks, user experience, and AR

Getting started here with Qualcomm we’ve jumped right into benchmarks. Something that has increasingly been playing a large role in smartphones as a whole, and consumers purchase decisions. Overall when it comes down to it benchmarks should not only test graphics or CPU, but the overall user experience on mobile computing devices.

There’s many different options when it comes to smartphones, tablets, processors, and of course benchmarks. The Android market space for example has multiple options available. We’re not going into specifics here, nor are we naming names — but what do these really test? Mobile benchmarks need to fully test the device from all angles, not just any one scenario.

Obviously we have multiple options from SunSpider, Linpack tests for CPU, Quadrant which seems to focus on graphics, and more. Qaulcomm not only wants to make the mobile benchmark space better for consumers, but for everyone. Being able to test every aspect including user experience with things like browsing, and video playback should all be included. Along those same lines these tests need to also take advantage of the increasing power being built into devices. Apps that will truly test all 4 cores of our smartphones and tablets. Qualcomm offers an option with Vellamo, which we’ve covered in the past and will surely be hearing about more throughout the day.

Many enthusiasts and consumers alike might be hesitant to trust a benchmark built in house by any one party or SoC manufacturer, but we’ll be focusing more on Vellamo as the day continues. Another option could very well be Augmented Reality. As AR still hasn’t made a huge dent in the mobile space it surely is the future. Jon Peddie from JPR (research) briefly mentioned AR while speaking and stated it “will be the killer app,” and even went as far as to call it the mother of all benchmarks — as it stresses every aspect of a processor.

What do you guys think? Do benchmarks need to be improved for mobile devices, do they need to focus more on battery life and daily usage? Would an AR test be the ultimate benchmark? Stay tuned for more details on mobile benchmarks and Qualcomm’s new quad-core S4 processor.

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Qualcomm talks mobile benchmarks, user experience, and AR is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.