27/09/2012

Qualcomm introduces some cheap quad-core processors for 2013's mid-range!

   Today Qualcomm has announced they have three new reference designs for future mobile phones. Each of them includes new processors which we can expect to see in consumer products next year.

   The new processors have the memorable names MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q! Each of these will have four CPU cores each and will support LPDDR2 memory. The chips will also have dual-SIM support, enough bus bandwidth for 720p video encoding and decoding and they'll play nice with 720p displays.

   The processors have slightly different radio compatibilities; the MSM8225Q has an integrated UMTS modem, while the MSM8625Q works with Qualcomm’s own integrated multimode UMTS/CDMA modem. Both of them will work with FM radio, Bluetooth 4.0, wi-fi connectivity, and Qualcomm Atheros AR6005 and WCN2243 chips.

   The final processor that's being worked on is going to be called the Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8930. It's made specifically to support all China operators with UMTS, CDMA and TD-SCDMA. This processor was first announced way back in February 2011 and should be with us by the end of the year, but it won't turn up inside your next device until the first quarter of 2013. This processor is dual-core and has support for 4G LTE. So it'll work with LTE-TDD and TD-SCDMA in China!

In other news:

• Happy birthday Google!!! The company is celebrating their 14th birthday today!

• Rovio's new Bad Piggies is officially available in your app store of choice!!!... Assuming it's Google's Play store or Apple's App store.

• Google's Eric Schmidt came out today and all but called Apple a patent troll. This is what he had to say;

“Literally patent wars prevent choice, prevent innovation and I think that is very bad. We are obviously working through that and trying to make sure we stay on the right side of these issues. So ultimately Google stands for innovation as opposed to patent wars …I think one of the worst things that happened in the last few years has been the belief that somehow there are so many patents in the mobile phone world, an estimated 200,000 patent that are overlapping and complicated and so forth, that one vendor can stop the sale of another vendor’s phones or devices.”

• LG has filed a patent suit against Samsung in Korea, with the former accusing the latter of stealing some of the OLED technology. The most that's at stake here is $6million, so it hardly seems worth it to us!

• It turns out that the real reason Apple decided to ditch Google maps was because Google was unwilling to offer iOS users turn-by-turn navigation. Google instead wanted to reserve that particular right for their Android users! 

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iOS6 from WWDC 2012

iOS 6.

   There's over 200 new features, lets get started:

Siri:

• Siri can now open apps, just say the name and it'll open!
• It'll find your sports score and reschedule your meeting effortlessly.
• Use Siri to use your phone direct from your steering wheel! This will see Apple working with BMW, GM, Mercedes, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Toyota, Chrysler and Honda, to give you support in the next 12 months for the Siri on the wheel button. Which will allow you to press the button and tweet, message or do pretty much anything else Siri can do!
• Siri is coming to The New iPad! But, not the old ones.

Facebook integration.

• Apple have said "We have been working very closely with Facebook to create the best Facebook integration ever in a mobile device."

• It'll be just like Twitter integration; you can post anything you want to from your phone! 
• "But we didn't stop there. We've also integrated it with the App Store, so now you can like apps and see which apps your friends like." This is something you can now do to the App Store from elsewhere.
• The API is public so you can integrate Facebook into your app!
• Contact syncing... Finally!! This is coming to the Mac too!

The Phone App:

• "You've probably been in a meeting before where you can't answer it right now, and you wish you could easily text them back a message or be reminded later..." now you can control an incoming call. Slide up and you can get reminded to call back later or send a message back, which is actually useful.
• There's a new 'Do not disturb' mode, which will silence all notifications!
• You can now screen your phone calls, ignoring all or just letting in a few people at a certain time. You can set it so that if someone calls you multiple times, regardless of who they are, they'll get through.

Facetime:

• Facetime over Cellular data!!!
• You can now answer the calls from a mobile on an iPad or a Mac with the use of an Apple ID.

Safari:

• iCloud Tabs now have a feature that allows you to get your desktop tabs onto or off of your phone.
• There's now an Offline Reading option. You can add anything to your Reading List and it'll download and cache it for later.
• The iPhone can now bring up a notification that an app exists you can tap a banner which will push you straight to the App Store. This can push URL's to an app so you can keep reading where you left the browser.
• Ohhh and landscape browsing will now give you full screen viewing.

Maps:

• "In iOS 6, we have built an entire new mapping solution from the ground up, and it is beautiful."
• "Beautiful, beautiful maps. Now, part of Maps is local search... we have already ingested more than 100 million business listings" if that's not enough there's Yelp integration already.
• The traffic information comes in too: "We're also building a traffic service." It's a simple presentation, with red bars showing traffic slowdowns and icons showing construction, accidents, etc. Your speeds will help inform Apple of problems, so it knows if you're speeding in Realtime.
• Siri integration too!
• You can ask where to get petrol and it'll tell you!
• There's a 3D fly-around view too.
• These are all vector based like Google Maps so you can spin and twist and really disorientate yourself as much as you want. Zooming works so that when you get close enough to a place it'll pop into the 3D view.

Other:

• There's a "Lost Mode" for iOS devices. Send a phone number and it'll show a notification on the screen. If anyone finds it they'll tap, it'll dial that number automatically.

   This update will ship in the Autumn, so it will arrive with the new iPhone and will come to the 3GS and newer versions of the iPhone, 2nd generation iPads and newer iPads, and the 4th generation iPod touch and of course all future iDevices!

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