Front-facing camera for FaceTime will be biggest add
By Gregg Keizer November 19, 2010

Apple will roll out a second-generation iPad next April, a year after the original's launch, a Wall Street analyst said today. According to Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co., Apple will take an annual refresh path for its tablet, just as it has for the iPhone, which has seen new models introduced in June or July the last three years."I think April is the proper time-frame for an iPad 2," said Marshall, using a label that's been bandied about for the next iteration of Apple's tablet. "Since I'm projecting that Apple will release a CDMA iPhone in March, both will help to equalize Apple's seasonality." Marshall's comment about a CDMA iPhone refers to reports, as well as his sources among Asian parts suppliers, that Apple will launch an iPhone next March able to run on mobile networks such as Verizon in the U.S. AT&T, Apple's current exclusive partner in the United States, relies on the more widely-used GSM (global system for mobile communications) technology. Analysts and bloggers have been speculating on the composition of the next-generation iPad — everything from a thinner form factor to a higher-resolution display — but Marshall said the second iPad will be essentially the same as the first. 

Read more here –>computerworld.com

Read More>

By Tarinder Sandhu Mon 6th Sep, 2010

Corsair is a company whose roots are firmly entrenched in providing components to the enthusiast community. Known predominantly as a supplier of high-quality memory for the past 16 years, Corsair has steadily been diversifying interests outside the cut-throat world of DRAM manufacturing. Encroaching on other markets, we’ve seen PSUs, flash devices, coolers and chassis introduced in the last few years. In a somewhat surprising move that we unearthed back in May, Corsair planned to move this diversification up a notch by introducing a range of audio products. The first audio product to bear the Corsair name is the HS1 USB gaming headset. Due to be widely available in a couple of weeks’ time, Corsair dropped a full-production sample in for our aural delectation. Now a weekend on from wearing the ‘set on a regular basis, let’s give you the skinny. The HS1 USB is launching with a $99 (£80-£85) retail price, putting it firmly in the premium segment of the headset market. Competition is fierce from established competitors such as Creative, Sennheiser, Logitech and Razer, to name but a few.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>

By Electronista Staff September 6, 2010

AMD and NVIDIA may focus their attention on mid-range graphics with new introductions this fall, based on early details divulged this morning. The Radeon HD 6000 series would start with just two models in the 6700 line; their names aren’t known by DigiTimes, but they would be the Barts XT and Barts Pro hinted earlier and would be direct replacements for the 5750 and 5770. Both are rumored to get their unveiling in October. It’s not clear what would happen to the higher-end Radeon HD 6780 mentioned earlier. Apple is rumored to be one of the earlier adopters as it already has drivers in beta Mac OS X 10.6.5 releases, although the systems most likely to use AMD graphics were already updated just last month. Simultaneously, NVIDIA is due to release the GeForce GT 430 around the same timeframe. The chipset would sit at the lower end of the scale; although it would be based on the more advanced Fermi architecture, its new GF108 core would put it in between the GeForce GT 220 and GT 240 in performance. One prior leak had given the GT 430 a 700MHz core and 900MHz memory on a 128-bit bus.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>

By Jason Mick – September 6, 2010

A new study from market research firm Quantcast offers some interesting insight into the state of the smartphone market.  The study looks at trends in North American mobile internet use and how Apple’s iOS (the iPhone, iPad), Android, RIM OS (Blackberry), and “Other” (Symbian, Windows Mobile 6.5, Palm’s webOS, etc.) are stacking up. The good news for Android is that the study shows its use to be soaring, while Apple’s is dipping.  Android surged from approximately 10 percent in November 2009 to 25 percent in August 2010.  Apple’s iOS, meanwhile, has fallen from a peak of approximately 68 percent in October 2009 to around 56 percent, at present. The bad news for Android is that the study still shows the iOS devices appear to beat out Android ones in terms of traffic market share.  That may seem confusing to some, given that market researchers Canalys and the NPD Group both said that Android passed the iPhone in U.S. market share. The cause of the incongruity is likely the iPad.  The iPad is selling over 2.3 million units a month.  Most users with iPads access the internet regularly either via Wi-Fi, or via built-in 3G modem (if their unit has one).  Android, by contrast, only has one tablet or mobile-internet-device available at present in North America — the respectively low-volume Dell Streak.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>

By Sebastian Pop September 2, 2010

GlobalFoundries just used its first Global Technology Conference as an opportunity to offer a sneak peak at one of the upcoming Fusion processors from Advanced Micro Devices, codenamed Orochi and based on the as yet unreleased Bulldozer architecture. The Bulldozer and Bobcat are the new architectures that will spawn working processors either by late 2010 or in 2011. The Bobcat’s first incarnation will be the Ontario mobile chip, based on TSMC’s 40nm manufacturing process and with DirectX 11 graphics. The Bulldozer architecture, on the other hand, will be used in desktops and servers, the Orochi being one of the apparently more ambitious projects that the chip maker is working on. No real information was provided on this 8-core product besides that it will be the second 32nm-based product and will be built immediately after the Llano. The Orochi will feature a set of 4 Bulldozer modules, which provide 8 cores and 8 threads, and will probably have an AM3+ package with an integrated DDR3 memory controller. The aforementioned Llano APU (accelerated processing unit) was also pictured during the conference and is known to lack L3 cache.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>

Forget the new iPods; it’s the other things that point to where Apple wants to go
By Ryan Faas September 2, 2010

There were a lot of rumors and expectations ahead of Apple’s much-hyped music event yesterday. As expected, Apple unveiled a new touch-based iPod Nano, and an iPod Touch sporting the company’s A4 processor, its super-high-resolution Retina display, and front and rear cameras offering HD video recording and video chat via FaceTime. There was also a new iPod Shuffle, which thankfully returns to the previous iteration’s design with on-device buttons and a clip to make it wearable. While the iPods and Apple’s upcoming updates for iOS 4 — next week for the iPhone and iPod Touch, November for the iPad — were big announcements, Apple CEO Steve Jobs also introduced a revamped Apple TV and iTunes 10 featuring Apple’s new “Ping” social network for music. Both represent major moves for Apple that point to where it hopes to go in the years ahead.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>

Lets loose the hounds
By Lawrence Latif Sep 02 2010

PHONE MANUFACTURERS EAGER to pay software licensing fees can now get their mitts on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7), as the Vole has released its redesigned mobile operating system to manufacturing. The Vole announced that its latest mobile phone OS is now in the hands of those who want it by saying that the work of its internal engineering team is “largely complete”. All that’s left is for handset manufacturers to tweak designs and marry Microsoft’s gleaming new operating system to their handsets. Microsoft’s Terry Myerson claims that WP7 is the firm’s most tested mobile operating system with the outfit having tested it with “nearly ten thousand devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes.” It’s not surprising that Microsoft has worked hard to get WP7 polished. Previous versions of the Vole’s mobile operating systems would kindly be described as primitive. With Apple and Google raising the bar so high, Microsoft has been forced to increase the functionality, fit and finish of its mobile operating system considerably just to compete.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>

By Chris Foresman Sept 2,2010

Apple became the biggest fish in the very small touchscreen tablet pond when it launched the iPad this past spring. But more fish will arrive starting mid-month when Samsung launches its Galaxy Tab mobile device in Europe (US and Asia will get it “in the coming months”). After being rumored and teased for weeks, Samsung officially unveiled its entry into the burgeoning market at the IFA show in Germany on Thursday. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a 7″ widescreen touch tablet powered by Android 2.2. The Tab will use the same TouchWiz UI used on Samsung’s line of Galaxy S smartphones, which gives it a very iOS-like look and feel. Also following the iPad’s lead, the device has a metal back, black bezel, bottom speakers, and even a 30-pin connector. At the heart of the device is the same 1GHz ARM processor and PowerVR GPU core that powers the Galaxy S phones, and is in most respects equivalent to Apple’s A4 processor. It also includes 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, and 3G connectivity; assisted GPS capabilities; accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer sensors; and comes with either 16GB and 32GB of built-in flash storage.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>

By: Tim Gideon 08.30.2010

What if Apple killed off the iPod line and decided that everything from the nano to the touch is now an iPad? It sounds crazy, but it’s possible. If the leaked photos of cases for the upcoming sixth generation iPod nano are actually leaked photos and not, say, completely fabricated, then Wednesday’s Apple event in San Francisco is going to be interesting. In the past week, two separate leaks show a case that is far smaller than the current nano, and another that is a tad larger than the iPod shuffle. The cases seem to leave space for a touchscreen, which raises several questions. If the nano is the same size as the shuffle, is the shuffle no longer? And if the new nano features a touchscreen, is this is the end of the iPod name? The iPad is basically a large iPod touch, and if the shuffle is eliminated, or rather, combined with the nano, the entire line has finally morphed from a screen-and-click wheel design to a touchscreen line. They could all be renamed as iPads.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>

By Agam Shah August 30, 2010

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday said it will remove the ATI name from its products by the end of the year, killing a brand name synonymous with graphics enthusiasts for 25 years. AMD offers a range of graphics products under the ATI brand, including the Radeon, FirePro and Eyefinity offerings. The chip designer will instead attach the name AMD to those products by the end of the year, said Drew Erskine, an AMD spokesman. The change in brand name won’t affect the company’s graphics product offerings or plans, Erskine said. ATI was originally established in 1985 as a graphics company and was acquired by AMD in 2007 for US$5.4 billion. At the time of the acquisition, ATI was the one of the largest graphics chip providers for consumer electronics, set-top boxes and gaming consoles. AMD said at the time it would continue to offer ATI products, and it also announced a next-generation processor design called Fusion, which would combine high-performance graphics and CPU processing on a single piece of silicon.

Read more here –>Link

Read More>