An LG smartphone with the designation LS970 has been leaked courtesy of an anonymous Brief Mobile source. The ‘Eclipse 4G LTE’ is notable for its horsepower, which could make it most powerful smartphone on the market when it lands. Under the hood, the device packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 ‘Krait’ quad-core chip clocked at 1.5GHz and paired with a generous 2GB of RAM.
The official wireless charger for the Galaxy S III unveiled last week won't ship until September, learned from UK retailer Mobile Fun, who will sell the accessory. That's between about three and four months later than the phone's launch, depending on which market one's in. Included in the kit is a replacement rear battery cover that likely adds thickness to the handset and a desk cradle that will wirelessly charge the device.
Clearwire and Qualcomm have announced a new partnership that will bring support for Clearwire’s TDD-LTE frequency to its multi-mode LTE mobile chipsets towards the end of the year. Clearwire had taken a different tact to most of the other US carriers, who have opted for the FDD-LTE standard. However, the TDD-LTE specification has been widely adopted across the globe by heavyweights including China Mobile, Bharti-Airtel in India and Softbank in China giving Clearwire a unique opportunity to offer a global LTE smartphone.
Samsung and Qualcomm have formed the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) in order to mount a challenge to Qi’s Wireless Power Consortium. The move may result in a battle analogous to Sony’s battle with Toshiba over the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats as one side seeks to establish its technology as the international standard. The Wireless Power Consortium, however, will present a formidable opponent -- it already has over 100 companies on its list of members, including heavy-weights like Energizer, HTC, Huawei, LG, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Texas Instruments and Toshiba.
The HTC One V smartphone is now available in Canada at provider Bell. On a three-year contract, the phone won't require any up-front payment, though the required voice and data plan is at least $50 CAD ($50.30). Contract-free, the phone is priced at $300 CAD (about $302).
For HTC, 2011 was sometimes considered a write-off: what looked to be a promising year with an early 4G lead saw the company overwhelmed by Apple and Samsung, and even by its own at times confusing lineup with problematic phones like the Thunderbolt. The One series for 2012 is the reboot, a return to basics with an emphasis on high-end design and even stripping back the custom Sense interface layer. We'll determine in our review of the HTC One X in 4G LTE trim, and to some extent the Evo 4G LTE, whether HTC is back to being a fierce competitor for the iPhone and Galaxy roster.
Images anonymously sent to Greek site Techblog have revealed an as yet unannounced addition to Sony's Xperia lineup. Codenamed Tapioca, the Android 4.0 device appears to be a budget-level addition to Sony's handset offerings.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which supplies many large electronics makers with computer chips and components, has reported that its first quarter net profit fell by 7.7 percent compared to last year. The revenue for the quarter was slightly higher than expected, however. It has also said it expects to see profits grow later on in the year thanks to an improved economy and chip orders that are greater than expectations.
Samsung officials in Korea have purportedly hinted that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S III will get different chips for different markets. The comments were made by an unnamed exec after Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs admitted that the 28nm MSM chips were facing a supply shortage, The Korea Times reported. Qualcomm chips will only be used in the US, the Samsung exec said, not explaining why.
Judge Janis Sammartino has scheduled July 5th as the date for deliberations on the latest chapter in the legal maneuvering between Apple and Motorola. Apple filed the countersuit in question in February with the intention of gaining declaratory and injunctive financial awards as a result of Motorola's short-lived injunction against the iPhone 4S in Germany. The July 5 hearing is likely to not be open to the public.
Sony's split with Ericsson is as much a cultural break as a corporate one, and the Xperia S on the surface reflects that. It's a showcase for the company's design and technology. But with the split just months old, has Sony's mobile team learned its lesson? Our Sony Xperia S review will decide whether Sony can hold its own, or if pressure from HTC, Samsung, and Apple is still fierce.
NVIDIA will release a mobile graphics chip that has more processing power than the current Xbox 360 sometime later in 2013 or 2014, the company said in ap presentation handed out to the media. The slide's projection for console performance does drop off at 2012. The solid lines represent estimated performance, with the dotted ones standing for trends.
Analysts at Citigroup and Piper Jaffray helped trigger stock market jitters on Thursday over the implications of LTE chip supply as it relates to Apple. Following Qualcomm statements after its quarterly results that there was a supply shortage of its 28 nanometer chips made at TSMC, Citi's Glen Yeung and Piper's Gene Munster both suggested that was a direct sign of Apple choosing a 28nm MSM9615 cellular chipset for its next iPhone. To Yeung, a ramp down in existing 45nm parts combined with the shortage was a sign Apple was switching production and lowering orders of older hardware as it got ready to produce the new.
Following launch secrecy details, a second leak Wednesday has dropped hints that the Galaxy S III, or whatever the device is named, may be a breakthrough in speed. The same source for The Verge as earlier said it would use the rumored quad-core chip, likely the Exynos 4412, and deliver "superlative benchmark performance." The part isn't confirmed, but it's likely to be identical to the Samsung chip in the Meizu MX Quad-core, which could be 60 percent faster than the dual-core MX.
Qualcomm Incorporated released its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2012 today, with numbers showing substantial revenue growth for yet another consecutive quarter. The mobile chip and network gear maker noted record revenue and earnings per share growth, driven by 3G- and 4G-enabled devices.
The AT&T version of the HTC One X received its official launch details on Wednesday. The LTE-equipped Android 4.0 hardware should be in stores on May 6 and will be priced aggressively for an LTE phone, at $200 on a contract. Pre-orders start April 22.
ARM on Tuesday rolled out a unique variant on the Cortex-A15 designed to bring the next-generation chip to shelves faster and with less power use. A new hard macro variant that has fixed specifications, including quad cores clocked at 2GHz based on a 28 nanometer TSMC-made (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) design, instead of the "soft core" that lets firms heavily customize an ARM design to their own ends. In return, however, it's both faster to implement and uses the same power as the earlier Cortex-A9.
Motorola might be making a fundamental shift from its loyalty to TI if an inadvertent GLBenchmark test run posting is an indicator. A phone known as the MB886, codenamed Qinara and possibly a reference to the Dinara has shown up using Qualcomm's MSM8960, or the same 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 chip as found in phones like HTC's One S. Motorola has used TI's OMAP and occasionally NVIDIA's Tegra 2 in its Android phones, suggesting a new direction in chip options.
The AT&T version of the HTC One X may get its final release window very soon. Rumors emerging from BGR have an announcement due as soon as Tuesday, with shipping coming "within five to seven days" of that date. Pricing itself wasn't given out, but it's expected to come in at $250 to $300 given AT&T's past 4G phone pricing.
Nokia has inadvertently let some owners of the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 get full control over their phones. A discovery by XDA-Developers member biktor_gj has found that some phones ship with Qualcomm's stock bootloader, not the Nokia-customized version, and can load any custom firmware. Accordingly, he had already posted an interop unlock that lets owners load virtually any app, not just those cleared through the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Lenovo, traditionally a PC maker, will begin accepting pre-orders for its range of smart TVs in China as soon as April 10, PCWorld learned. A dedicated website has already been set up, and the flagship model will be the 55-inch K91 Android Smart TV we had a chance to check out at CES. It alone gets a 240Hz LED panel with 3D capability.
A new and potentially far-reaching rumor has had TSMC's 28-nanometer manufacturing capacity significantly hampered for about half of the year. Supply was said by Digitimes, which has a mixed track record, to be tight enough that it wouldn't clear up until the end of the summer. The shortage was enough that it was purportedly forcing AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm to all limit their releases or find alternative suppliers.
When HP released its ill-fated 10-inch TouchPad, it was also prepping a smaller seven-inch version for the market. In August it sent the device to the FCC for regulatory approval, and even through the company abandoned the entire webOS-based family a few weeks later, HP did not pull the submission for the smaller tablet. Wireless Goodness has now posted photos from the FCC filing's teardown.
Apple received important ammunition on Thursday in its defense against Samsung's Australian lawsuit over the iPhone. Both Infineon's owner Intel as well as Qualcomm have both provided source code for their 3G implementations. Apple hopes to show that it's not violating Samsung's 3G patents and will likely try to argue for patent exhaustion, or the idea that the patents' license don't extend further than ann immediate grant to someone else.
HTC at its live event Wednesday rolled out the Evo 4G LTE. Its adaptation of the One X we tried in February will be the first in the US with HD Voice. The trick ups the effective bitrate of voice to provide a clearer and more natural sound, although Sprint hasn't explained fully how it works.
Mobile device chipmaker ARM on Tuesday revealed it has partnered with smart card maker Gemalto and German tech firm Giesecke & Devrient to boost smartphone and tablet security on platforms like Android. The idea is to help speed up the development of a security standard for all devices that takes hardware and software into account. The standard could be used by parties such as banks for secure wireless payments (such as Google Wallet) as well as studios and other providers of video-on-demand content.
Sprint's adaptation of the Evo One, has been given a last-minute leak through a press render. The shot obtained by Pocketnow shows a device that has clearly made some cosmetic changes, eliminating some of the curves and making it slightly taller than the reference version that AT&T will be carrying.
The LG Miracle may be bound for two North American carriers at once, based on separate tips. The Windows Phone hardware has shown in an FCC filing as the LS831 intended for Sprint. Details are short as to how it would differ beyond the needed CDMA and EVDO 3G, but it would have a five-megapixel back camera and the expected front VGA camera.
In a rare instance of backing off of a major deal, NTT DoCoMo said Monday that it had broken up its planned 4G chip alliance. The Japanese carrier along with Fujitsu, NEC, Panasonic, and Samsung had ended their joint venture in chips after an agreement on exact terms "could not be reached" by the end of the fiscal year, at the end of March. The company NTT DoCoMo had made to get ready for the alliance, Communication Platform Planning Co., was being closed and liquidated as a result.
Qualcomm senior VP Rob Chandhok in discussion Friday made clear that the quad-core version of the Snapdragon S4 would be destined for Windows 8 notebooks. Confirming that ARM wouldn't be confined to tablets for Windows 8, Chandhok told IDG that he expected them to show up Intel's ultrabook concept with thinner designs and longer battery life. They would share the 28 nanometer process behind the dual-core versions, but the extra power would make them more viable for games and more complex apps as the software underwent an "maturation."
TSMC may have at least some involvement in Apple's device supply chain based on claims by Taiwan's Economic Daily News. The business newspaper asserted that the contract manufacturer had landed deals for power management parts designed by Dialog Semiconductor for future Apple hardware. TSMC had supposedly already involved itself with iPads and iPhones by manufacturing Broadcom, CSR, Cirrus Logic, and Qualcomm.
A new source speaking to Android Central maintains that the HTC One X smartphone variant that will be unveiled at a joint event with Sprint on April 4 will be called the Evo One. Other key information revealed by this latest, unnamed source includes a ship date of June 6 for the handset, which will also get a 4.7-inch, 720p LCD (not AMOLED as claimed). Powering it will reportedly be a dual-core, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor.
HTC on Thursday set out the first launches of the One X, One S, and One V outside of Taiwan. Austria, Germany, and Switzerland will all get the Android 4.0 centerpiece phones on April 2. Prices for the One X, One S, and One V will come in at 599 euros (719 Swiss francs), 499 euros (599 francs), and 299 euros (349 francs).
Intel has managed to not only hold on to but widen its lead as the world's largest chip designer in the past year, iSuppli determined Monday. By revenue, Intel had seen its revenue in 2011 go up over 20 percent to $48.7 billion dollars despite the effect of the iPad and other tablets. ARM's champion, Samsung, had moved just over half a point to $28.6 billion.
The same source as the original leak of the HTC One X for AT&T has since posted benchmarks showing it possibly taking the crown for the fastest Android device yet. Despite stepping down from the international version's quad-core Tegra 3 to the dual-core Snapdragon S4, the AT&T version was shown by Android Central forum contributor Phonegeek to be roughly twice as fast. Qualcomm's own Vellamo browser test showed the Android 4.0 phone mostly thriving in CPU-heavy JavaScript, a feat borne out by Quadrant's very high CPU and memory scores.
A contributor posting details to the Android Central forums has given a rare glimpse of the AT&T version of the HTC One X. While his impressions of the LTE-aware version's light weight and good build quality match what we tried ourselves (linked above), he added that the battery life for the Android 4.0 flagship was "really good" compared to most LTE phones to date. The longevity was likely owed to the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip inside, which builds LTE directly into its core and is much more power-efficient.
Apple is in the middle of evaluating potential parts for the next-generation iPhone, according to a Barclays research memo. One expected choice is Qualcomm's MDM9615 chipset, which enables voice and data over LTE. The part is different from the MDM9600 used in the third-generation iPad, which is limited to data only. It also remains to be seen if the new iPhone will support "world" LTE, unlike the iPad, which requires different models for different bands. Adding LTE to the iPhone is expected to cost Apple between $3 and $10 extra per unit versus 3G.
Sony has just revealed that its PlayStation-certified Xperia S smartphone has begin shipping across the world on Wednesday. Local retailers and providers will soon get all the pricing and information for the device, which runs on Android 2.3. An update to Android 4.0 is promised for later this spring.
Sprint and HTC on Tuesday jointly sent invitations to Electronista and others for their "latest collaboration" on April 4. The New York City invitation was sparse on details beyond having Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and HTC president Jason MacKenzie, using a pin in the graphic as a possible clue. While it might be a hint as to a pen-based tablet, it may also just be a reference to Sprint's classic "needle drop" TV ads.
The first Sony handset to ship with Android 4.0 onboard will be the Xperia Neo L MT25i, the company revealed in China on Tuesday. A successor to the Neo and Neo V, the phone will sport a four-inch, 480x854 touchscreen, HSDPA 3G, 512MB of RAM, and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
Sprint will soon launch an Android app that will bring all the features of its DirectConnect push-to-talk service to handsets without the need for specialized hardware. The information came from a leaked internal Sprint document shared by PhoneNews. Called Sprint DirectConnect Now, the app should also bring the long-awaited Push-to-X feature that never came out the hardware platform.
Some of Sprint's wider-ranging plans were outlined in a pair of leaks early in the week. Following earlier rumors, SprintFeed heard that the carrier would return to Windows Phone with an LTE-based model using a modern, dual-core Snapdragon S4 MSM8960. Past rumors had attached Nokia to the project, but that wasn't certain to the more recent tipsters.
HTC's Droid Incredible 4G may have had its features locked down through a benchmark run on NenaMark. The test of a Verizon phone identifying as the ADR6410LVW showed a device with an unusual processor choice: it would have the Adreno 225 graphics of Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4, but it would be clocked at 1.2GHz, matching up with earlier leaks but not at all like the usual 1.5GHz the S4 uses.
Samsung's long-in-development Galaxy S III may be the first smartphone with LTE-based 4G built into the processor. Apparent leaks from an executive to the Korea Times had a quad-core Exynos processor shipping with both LTE 4G and HSPA 3G inside. The move would supposedly be to reduce the "huge amounts" Samsung has to pay to Qualcomm to get 4G, the anonymous insider said.
Apple's emphasis on LTE support for the new iPad is sparking a conflict with carriers outside of North America, according to statements given out later on Friday. In the wake of a "backlash" from European carriers, The Australian understood that local carriers Telstra and Optus would both avoid making any mention of 4G. European providers had been calling on Apple to stop marketing 4G that their networks can't use.
(Update 2: more details) Following the new iPad's Australian launch, iFixit has been conducting a teardown of Apple's tablet. The early look so far validate rumors surrounding the design, proving that Samsung is the initial LCD supplier and that a different display connector sits inside that prevents simply swapping in an older screen. Even more so than before, the inside is dominated by the three-unit battery, with the mainboard just a fraction of the inside.
Nokia's design head Marko Ahtisaari confirmed in an interview [full content currently paper-only] that the company was developing a tablet. Without saying what it involved, he promised Kauppalehti Optio that it would be unique in a sea of would-be iPad rivals. The device was important enough that it was consuming a third of Ahtisaari's time.
ST-Ericsson is expected to unveil its plans to restructure its operations within the next two weeks. Reuters sources now claim that the reorganization of the joint venture between Sweden's Ericsson and France's STMicroelectronics is in line with the company's plans to be acquired by another chipmaker. Potential buyers named include AMD, NVIDIA, Intel, and Texas Instruments.
A District Court in The Hague ruled Wednesday that Samsung could no longer try to sue Apple over 3G. The partial decision reaffirmed a view that Samsung can't sue as long as Apple is willing to reach a licensing deal for 3G. Apple previously said it was willing to take a license but objected to Samsung's offered terms as allegedly unreasonable.
A new Pantech smartphone has been revealed. The Japanese website ameblo has posted a reference to the Pantech IM-A830S that appeared on a benchmarking list. The phone will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor and run Android 4.0.3, making it a clearly new and high-end phone.
