News Archive for 09/02/10
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SanDisk, in collaboration with Toshiba, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference announced its latest memory technology that combines X3 and 32 nanometer manufacturing processes. The multi-level cell NAND flash is designed to offer 32Gb capacity with three bits of memory per cell, all in a package small enough to fit the microSD memory card format.
People aware of the situation have told the New York Times that satellite radio provider Sirius XM is readying itself for the possibility it may declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Although still solvent, the company is believed talking with experts in bankruptcy cases and restructuring and has made enough progress in the necessary documents that it could make its declaration "within days." No official signals have been given regarding a potential collapse.
ASUS has announced the N81Vg notebook, featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce GT 120M GPU. The device offers a 14-inch LED-backlit display that supports 1080p video playback. Customers can choose from a variety of Intel Core 2 Duo processors, while available hard drive capacities range from 160GB to 500GB. Two DDR2 SO-DIMM slots allow RAM expansion up to 4GB. The DVD Super Multi drive can also be used to play Blu-ray discs.
The hot-selling Nokia 5800 XpressMusic that sold more than one million examples in the UK in about two months will be coming soon to North America, according to a slip by a reseller. The full touchscreen handset will reportedly be available on February 26th in the US in a version with 3G using HSPA on supporting North American networks. The phone will tentatively cost $399 as an unlocked, unsubsidized device rather than receive a discount through a tie-in with AT&T.
A new cell phone from Sony Ericsson has been uncovered at the same time as the company's pre-MWC launches. The C901 has a 5-megapixel camera like the C903 and likewise sports 3G data network support and quad-band GSM for voice. The camera's functions are similarly high-end and involve an LED flash, autofocus, face and smile detection and geotagging using built-in GPS.
Earlier reports that forecast paid applications will become available in the first quarter of the year at to the Android Market have held true, as a Monday report from the Wall Street Journal says developers will be able to charge for their software very shortly. While the report focuses on Microsoft's strategy, it mentions the paid applications are coming later this week, citing unnamed sources close to the Android Market. The application store is hosted and operated by Google, having been launched at the end of October.
Sony is about to release its latest geotagging accessory for its Cyber-shot line of digital still and video cameras, the GPS-CS3KA. The device is available for pre-order via Amazon and is the long-awaited successor to the Sony CS1, itself released in 2006. The device can add the location of photos and videos captured by users' cameras as well as their date. It is powered by a single AA battery rated at 15 hours of life and can accept both MS and SD memory cards.
A new, previously unseen handset, the Samsung Instinct Mini, is coming to wireless provider Sprint, BGR says in a new leak. Little is known about the new phone, other than that it will be sold alongside current Instinct models and will be available in two colors: copper or graphite. The phone will only support EVDO Rev 0 data networks, however, and is due for a release at the carrier on April 19th. More information about the new phone is expected soon, and may surface as early as next week at Mobile World Congress in Spain.
An Amazon spokesperson said the Kindle 2 e-book reader officially announced just yesterday will be launched in countries outside of the US, says a Tuesday Reg Hardware report. While there is "ambition" for an international introduction, no specific dates for the widespread launch were mentioned. The original and popular Kindle was only sold in the US via Amazon.
LG's KM900 Arena should beat out the Palm Pre to be one of the first non-Apple phones to support multi-touch input, LG Korea's press site shows. The interface, known as S-Class, will let users pinch to zoom in the web browser and while viewing photos. While its main home screen has a conspicuously iPhone-influenced design, the 3D aspect divides the front end into core phone tasks, apps, media playback and a section for widget apps like clocks and calculators.
Intel at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference today provided some of the first concrete details of Westmere, the codename for its 32 nanometer processor family. The design is primarily a smaller, more efficient adaptation of the Nehalem architecture in the Core i7 but, in the dual-core desktop (Clarkdale) and notebook (Arrandale) offerings, will include both a two-channel DDR3 memory interface and an integrated but switchable graphics core. Like NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI mode or AMD's Hybrid CrossFire, the technology will let systems with dedicated graphics chipsets revert to Intel's own core in low-demand situations or when on battery.
Sony Ericsson as part of its launches on Tuesday unwrapped the AB900 Bluetooth speakerphone. The device serves as a typical speakerphone for the desk or car but can pick up stereo Bluetooth audio and pipe it through FM radio to send it through the car's speakers. Incoming calls work on the more ubiquitous hands-free Bluetooth standard and switches both to and from music on the fly.
Google today said it's making efforts to bring more information about home energy use to homeowners, in an effort to save energy and therefore help reduce pollution as well as slow the waste of natural resources. The company is developing a PowerMeter program in conjunction with the US government and public works companies who supply energy to homes. The software would let users view their exact power consumption in real time by teaming smart meters with software to automatically relay how much power is being drawn by a given device at any one time or over a certain period.
OEMs should not expect price drops on Intel notebook hardware until at least June, according to industry sources. Cuts had been rumored after a drop in the company's net income for the fourth quarter, as a means of boosting sales. Simultaneously, however, it was worried that a reduction would cause significant damage to notebook builders, who in some cases may be carrying large inventories of full-priced components.
After teasing the device at CES, Dell today launched its Wasabi PZ310 printer. The handheld, 7-ounce design is a companion to digital cameras that support PictBridge over USB as well as most Bluetooth-equipped devices, letting users print away from home. Dell uses a relatively new ZINK (zero-ink) technology borrowed from Polaroid that relies on a layer in the paper itself to print an image without having to use either an inkjet tank or a laser toner cartridge.
A cheaper iPhone will debut sometime this summer, according to RBC analyst Mark Abramsky. Citing checks, Abramsky says the device will not be a rumored iPhone nano, but instead a pared-down regular iPhone. The model could omit 3G and GPS functions, reduce camera resolution, and impose a cap on data usage; the tradeoff, however, would be a $99 entry price, attached to a lower-cost data plan, worth approximately $15 per month.
First appearing late last year, the Nokia E63 is now available for purchase in the US, the handset maker announced on Tuesday. Marketed as a less costly option to the company's E71 smartphone, the E63 has support for North American 3G data networks using HSPA and includes a Wi-Fi module for even faster access. The QWERTY device has a full HTML web browser and can access multiple e-mail accounts with Mail for Exchange support.
Dell's Inspiron Mini 10 could ship as soon as the end of this month, a conversation with a Dell online sales rep may show. UK blogger Paul Synnott has posted a chat log which suggests Dell agents have been told the Mini 10 will be available on the 27th, or the last Friday of the month. Publicly, the company has remained uncharacteristically vague on the release date for the 10-inch netbook and has provided only a small degree of information at a CES press event in January.
Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini on Tuesday announced the chipmaker will make its biggest ever investment for a manufacturing process for its 32 nanometer chips. The plan is to spend $7 billion on retrofitting existing production plants to build the new chips in the US over the next two years. The manufacturing plants due for the upgrade are based in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico and will create about 7,000 jobs across the three states.
Sony Ericsson's pre-MWC efforts have begun with the launch of two sliders in its Cyber-shot and Walkman lines. Topping the list, the C903 steps up the quality of the company's mid-range cameraphones with a 5-megapixel sensor, flash and a sliding lens cover like on some of Sony's dedicated still cameras. It also includes face and smile detection, TV output and built-in GPS that can geotag shots in addition to locating the owner's position.
Along with Toshiba, SanDisk at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference today announced plans to ship an ultra-dense form of NAND flash memory that promises a breakthrough in storage. Called X4, the technology uses a special memory controller that maintains data traffic speed while still fitting four bits of data per cell. The approach lets SanDisk and Toshiba place 8GB of memory on a single chip, twice as much as before, and while still maintaining a transfer speed of 7.8MB per second.
Preparing itself in the run-up to next week's Mobile World Congress, Nokia today launched the 5630 XpressMusic. The new mid-range phone in the company's media-focused lineup centers around a rare voice recognition system that will play artists, songs and other music content just through speaking its name. Its visual interface also borrows from the N97's social component by including a new Contacts Bar on the home screen that provides quick access to the recent calls, messages and photos from as many as 20 favorites.
(Updated with pricing) Dell as promised has launched the Latitude XT2 as the second-generation of its convertible tablet PC. The new version comes with multi-touch support out of the box and uses pinches, swipes and other gestures to zoom and scroll through apps that support the features, such as web browsers and photo viewers. It also continues to carry a second digitizer and will work with a bundled stylus for more precise control or for drawing.
Google may have consciously stripped multi-touch input from its Android mobile operating system solely to avoid a conflict with Apple over patents, a member of the Android development team claims. The iPhone maker reportedly asked Google not to use multi-finger input and, according to the source for VentureBeat, was granted its wish. The exact reason isn't known, though Apple has both the incentive of an early competitive advantage as well as patents that might have forced it either to negotiate a patent license or else challenge one of its closest partners in court.
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