How's about this for a coincidence? We've just benchmarked the Snapdragon 800 reference tablet, with some very nice results, and now Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft will use a Qualcomm chip in its next refresh of the Surface RT. The report, based on insider sources, doesn't stretch to detailing whether we'll be looking at the flagship 800 processor specifically, but that'd seem like a logical upgrade for the current hybrid which runs on NVIDIA's Tegra 3 and already feels underpowered. As for NVIDIA, the same unconfirmed report suggests that they'll still have a role to play as a supplier "for some versions" of Microsoft's product. That's a curious notion, because it implies we might see multiple iterations of the Surface RT to suit different price points or markets (e.g., those with or without LTE), and at least one version of those could house a Tegra 4. Or it could simply be a diplomatic way of saying that the existing RT products will continue to be sold and supported for a while. Either way, if Microsoft doesn't implement the full force of Snapdragon, someone else hopefully will.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

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Source: Bloomberg

It's hardly a secret that AMD has stepped out of its x86 comfort zone to develop an ARM-based server chip, but now we know a little more about it. Going by the name of "Seattle" and scheduled for launch in the second half of next year, it'll be built around ARM's 64-bit Cortex-A57 in either 8- or 16-core configurations, which will likely be clocked at a minimum of 2GHz. In an apparent acknowledgement of ARM's superiority at low wattages, we're told that this design has the potential to deliver 4x the performance of AMD's current Opteron X processors, with improved compute-per-watt. There's a clear limit to AMD's reliance on ARM, however, as it'll use Seattle to up against Intel's little Atoms, but will continue to sell its own x86 designs for higher-power applications. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on something more interesting from this union, which might be an ARM CPU paired with a Radeon HD graphics processor in some sort of mobile-class SoC. Guess we'll just have to be patient.

Filed under: Networking, Internet, AMD

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After a dribble of leaks, including one that was entirely accurate, HTC has thrown the Desire 200 live on its website. We're still missing some key info on pricing and availability, but the specs have been laid out in full: a neat form factor housing a 3.5-inch, 320 x 480 LCD display; an aging Snapdragon S1 1GHz processor running an unidentified version of Android (likely 4.0) and HTC's Sense skin; 4GB of expandable storage and 512MB RAM; a 3G modem for HSDPA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps; 5-megapixel camera; and, finally, a pair of "high quality" Beats Audio in-ears (although the webpage depicts a pair of Solos). If anything lifts it above other budget Androids, it'll be the decent-looking build quality and styling, coupled with the small size, which we hope will come for a very functional price tag.

Update: We have a price, courtesy of Engadget Chinese, but it only applies to Taiwan: NT$4990, which equates to around $165.

Filed under: Cellphones, HTC

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Source: HTC

It can't be easy, developing a Windows Phone sat nav app in the heavily publicized shadow of Nokia Here, but when we met the folks at CoPilot recently they were brimming with confidence. They've already counted 4.5 million downloads on Android and iOS, and today they've finally gone live for owners of WP8 devices too. The free app comes with CoPilot's own, slightly different approach to laying out navigation info and options on a small screen, plus an offline map for the country of your choice, but you'll have to scroll through directions manually. For the full works, which are only free for 14 days, you'll need to spend £17.99 (the equivalent of $28) on an in-app upgrade that brings voice guided turn-by-turn instructions, a year's worth of live traffic flow info, 3D maps and a few other features. You'll find more screenshots and a growing number of reviews over at the source link.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile

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Source: Windows Phone Store

We had a feeling the little Galaxy S4 Zoom wouldn't be the final word in Samsung's Android-powered camera lineup for 2013, and now it seems that a truer successor to the high-spec Galaxy Camera is indeed on its way. As quoted by the Korea Times, JK Shin has confirmed that a "mirrorless camera that runs on Google's Android software" will launch at the company's forthcoming event in London on June 20th, which will likely also show off other Galaxy-branded products. Assuming no mistranslations have gotten in the way, the reference to a "mirrorless" camera implies the existence of an interchangeable lens system, suggesting that the new Galaxy Camera might be more akin to Samsung's NX range of cameras than to its cheaper point-and-shoots. If that's the case, then this could be a significant upgrade in terms of sensor size and image quality, but at this point there's still very little we can say for sure.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile, Samsung

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Via: Android Beat

Source: Korea Times

AMD has refreshed its lineup of eight-core FX chips in what sounds like some straightforward overclocking of last year's products. The FX-9590 claims a clock speed of 5GHz in turbo mode, making it the "world's first commercially available 5GHz CPU processor," while the FX-9370 lags slightly behind at 4.7GHz, as compared to the 4.2GHz top speed of the current FX-8350. Both new CPUs are based on the familiar Piledriver core, which has a reputation for being relatively cheap and easily overclockable (honestly, the 5GHz barrier was obliterated long ago), but far behind an Intel Core i5 in terms of all-around computing. This is especially true since the launch of Haswell, which largely avoided clock speed increases in favor of architectural tweaks that didn't compromise efficiency. Maingear plans to pick up the 5GHz part for use in a gaming system coming this summer, but there's no word yet on pricing or even general availability for DIY upgraders. Now, we're just speculating, but with AMD increasingly focused on APUs, it's possible that today's chips will represent the FX's lap of glory.

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, AMD

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By now, most people ought to have dismissed the old stereotype that the male is the calm, rational opposite of the hysterical female. If anything, it's the other way round, which is why the short promo video shown right at the end of Sony's E3 press conference was kind of refreshing. It was also pretty useful, because even if the software it shows isn't final, it reveals how the PS4 user interface is likely to handle things like chat, gameplay video sharing and multitasking. Read on for a cut-down version of the fast-paced clip and our probing evaluation of what it says about PS4 gaming and human behavior.

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

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Source: Official Sony YouTube video

PlayStation Plus offers do come around every now and then, but Sony has just announced a more permanent addition to the service: the option of a $10 (or 7 euro) monthly membership to supplement the regular 90-day and annual subscriptions. The lack of commitment comes at quite a price, given that the longer contracts bring the the effective monthly cost down to $6 and $4 respectively, but it may still make sense for flighty types. Anyway, once you're in, you'll find a secondary, time-limited offer: an annual Music Unlimited Premium subscription for $42 (42 euros), which is okay, but nowhere near the discount offered in 2012. Those who remain outside of Sony's inner circle can also temporarily get 12 months of Music Unlimited for $60, or half of the usual cost. Lastly, a few more E3 crumbs: the PlayStation Network is now officially called "PSN", which is pretty much what we called it anyway, and PlayStation Plus also gets a new logo (shown after the break, not that it's especially shocking.), reflecting reflect its heightened status in the PS4 era

Filed under: Gaming, Portable Audio/Video, Internet, Sony

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Source: Sony (PDF)

We're in the midst of being shown new OS X Mavericks features here at WWDC, and one of those sounds especially interesting for those craving a bigger work area: for those already using a two-display setup, the dock and menu bar will now appear on either panel as your activity moves between them, and each display can be panned independently. What's more, if you have an HDTV hooked up to an Apple TV box, you'll be able to use that as a wireless third display in exactly the same way.

Follow all of our WWDC 2013 coverage at our event hub.

Filed under: Desktops, Displays, Apple

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Today's Apple liveblog started with the usual dose of big numbers. The fact that there have been 50 billion app downloads from the App Store is something we already knew, and Android has almost matched, but Apple has added that it now has 575 million store account holders, choosing from a total selection of 900,000 apps, with 375,000 of those tailored specifically for the iPad. 90 percent of iOS titles are active in the sense of being downloaded each month, and they've resulted in a total of $10 billion that has so far been paid out to developers -- three times more, Tim Cook says, than all the other platforms put together. Phew. Oh, but there are more:

• 600 million iOS devices sold so far (that's 235 million since last year's count and, as Ryan from the Block points out, evidence of "some pretty ridiculous growth");
• 300 million iCloud accounts, which apparently makes iCloud "the fastest growing cloud service ever";
• 240 million Game Center users;
• 800 billion iMessages sent (and perhaps received);
• Some ridiculous number of "push notifications" that we can't fully remember except that it was in the trillions.

Follow all of our WWDC 2013 coverage at our event hub.

Gallery: WWDC 2013: Apple stats

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Apple

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Talk to those high up at Mozilla and they'll tell you that the platform war for third place is a waste of time; that Windows Phone and BlackBerry are as doomed as each other, because developers will never, ever be interested in the "five percent". That's not to say there isn't room for a rebellious alternative, but the way Mozilla sees it, such an option has already been available since the beginning. It's not another proprietary ecosystem, but something that spans all ecosystems: namely, the web itself, in all its open and hackable glory.

On the other hand, Johnathan Nightingale, VP of Firefox Engineering, acknowledges that most of his estimated 450 million users don't care a jot for this type of sermonizing. All they want is a good browser, which means Nightingale is in a constant "fight" with Chrome and IE over market share and new features. With Firefox OS barely off the ground (and full of uncertainty), and with no iOS relationship to speak of either, it falls to Firefox for Windows, Mac and Android to wage this war, and if you read on you'll discover why Nightingale thinks these browsers will win -- even when they may appear to be losing.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile

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Samsung is already pressing ahead with its own high-density 20nm LPDDR3 modules, but SK Hynix reckons it can go one better. Instead of the stingy, piffling, retro 2GB stack offered by Sammy (pah!), the Korean memory specialist says it's sampling 20nm 8Gb (1GB) chips that can be stacked to provide 4GB of RAM in high-end mobile devices. This memory will come with all the trimmings and trappings of high-density LPDDR3, including a data transmission speed of 2,133Mbps (vs. 1,600Mbps offered by existing LPDDR3 phones like the GS4), a thinner profile and less power consumption in standby mode compared to LPDDR2. That just leaves the question of "when?," to which SK Hynix confusingly answers that we'll see products "noticeably loaded" with more than 2GB of LPDDR3 during the second half of this year, although it doesn't intend to start mass production of this exact chip until the end of the year. Of course, there'll come a point in 2014 when even mid-range processors like ARM's Cortex-A12 will theoretically be able to address more than 4GB, so that amount of RAM may not even seem so outlandish.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Listen, you probably shouldn't be here. The iPad is a pure and carefully honed machine. If its designers wanted you to use some kind of ludicrous hybrid contraption that fused a tablet with a physical keyboard and doubled the weight, they'd have built one for you. But they didn't. So go away and don't come back until you've saved enough money to buy a MacBook Air. (Still here? Good, because we're about to compare three of the latest iPad keyboard cases: the ClamCase Pro, Logitech's Folio and Belkin's Ultimate Keyboard, designed to fit 2nd, 3rd and 4th-gen tablets. Read on for more.)

Gallery: Belkin Ultimate Keyboard Case

Gallery: ClamCase Pro

Gallery: Logitech Keyboard Folio

Filed under: Peripherals, Tablets

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Don't get your hopes up, because the leaked video after the break is one of the most deliberately constrained pieces of camerawork that's possible to imagine. It avoids showing anything except the mechanical shutter release on the back of a phone that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Nokia EOS photos we covered yesterday, and in fact it comes from @ViziLeaks, who was one of the sources of those images. And, well, that's pretty much all there is to say about it, except that it adds a further bit of weight to the notion that we might see a new version of the PureView 808 camera (which also had a mechanical shutter) on a Nokia Windows Phone sometime soon.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile, Nokia

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Via: The Verge

Source: @ViziLeaks (Tweet deleted), ViziLeaks blog

See that slide above? When we first clapped eyes on it we couldn't help but wonder if Intel had finally managed to turn the tables on AMD, at least in terms of integrated desktop graphics. After all, running BioShock Infinite at 1080p is no easy task and Intel's claimed frame rate of 35 fps is actually 4 fps higher than what AMD claims for its flagship Richland processor in a similar test. But, as ever, things are more complicated than that. For a start, this particular marketing slide represents a very niche version of Haswell with a BGA socket, rather than the Core i7-4770K that a regular upgrader might purchase. Secondly, it's hardly fair to stack a Haswell chip that costs more than $300 up against an AMD APU that comes for $150. What we need are independent tests that allow us to weigh more factors, and fortunately, those are exactly the sorts of reviews we'll be rounding up after the break.

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, AMD, Intel

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Acer has already managed to cram full Windows 8 into a $380 8-incher (shown above), but ARM-based Windows RT tablets have the potential to drive prices down even further -- if only someone, somewhere would see their merit. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft is now trying to help things along by offering discounts to OEMs who'll use RT in smaller tablets. The prices in question are confidential, so it's hard to gauge the likely impact for consumers, but with Dell's XPS 10 still costing $400 with its dock, and with Surface RT fetching $500, there's definitely scope for improvement.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

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Source: Bloomberg

The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, has condemned social media as a "the worst menace to society" following a weekend of anti-government demonstrations across his country. He singled out the "scourge" of Twitter in particular, since protestors have been using that platform to share information and vent anger at the government. Small-scale riots started over plans to build a shopping mall or mosque (depending on who you believe) on the grounds of a popular park in central Istanbul, but they quickly spread to other areas and to a broader set of grievances about Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian stance. None of these disturbances were especially visible on national TV stations, however, as there have recently been heavy crackdowns on press freedom within Turkey. From the sound of it, Erdogan would prefer a more tightly controlled internet too -- or perhaps none at all.

[Image courtesy of Adem Altan/Getty Images]

Filed under: Internet, Mobile

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Source: The Times (paywall)

It's fair to say that Haswell doesn't do much for desktop enthusiasts -- a few percentage points of compute performance perhaps, but nothing like the major improvements for mobile SKUs and integrated graphics. Nevertheless, those questing after every extra FLOP probably ought to take note that ASUS is about to bring out a Haswell-equipped version of its ROG TYTAN desktop. We have no pricing or availability yet, just an official video that popped up on ASUS's official YouTube channel during the weekend. It promises a water-cooled Core i7-4770K with one-button overclocking to 4.1GHz, alongside an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680. That choice for graphics seems a bit strange, given the launch of the GTX 770 and 780 last week -- but it's possible the spec will be updated, or that more expensive options will have the newer cards. We won't know either way until ASUS puts out some info pricing and availability, and we'll update this post if that happens.

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, ASUS

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Source: ASUS (YouTube)

Few trend-spotters would disagree with the following prediction from ARM, but it's worth laying it out anyway: Of the 300 million mobile devices sold in 2010, the majority cost over $400. Within the next two years, however, these "crazy money" products (as a spokesperson described them) may represent just 25 percent of the total mobile market -- still huge in absolute terms, since almost two billion phones and tablets are forecast to be sold in 2015, but a distinct minority relative to entry-level and mid-range options.

In an effort to convert these expectations into an even taller heap of gold, ARM has just announced a new mid-range core, the Cortex-A12, which is designed to replace the aging Cortex-A9 while offering a 40 percent boost in performance. This gain will likely come with the added advantage of better battery life, since the Cortex-A12 will initially be fabricated at 28nm instead of 40nm, and will be offered to manufacturers alongside a new Mali GPU (the Mali-T622) and video engine (Mali-V500) that promise further power savings of their own. The Cortex-A12 will also support big.LITTLE configurations, allowing it to be installed alongside Cortex-A7 cores that will take over for low-effort tasks in order make further power savings. Big.LITTLE hasn't really blown us away so far, at least not on the Octa-core Galaxy S 4, but its wrinkles may well have been ironed out by mid 2014, which is when the Cortex-A12 is due to land. Check out the PR for more technical details on each component.

Richard Lai contributed to this report.

Gallery: ARM unveils Cortex-A12 CPU and Mali-T622 GPU in expectation of a mid-range boom

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Haswell is hardly a secret at this point: there's been a steady drip-drip of demos and technical leaks since as far back as 2011, and just a month ago we brought you the low-down on its integrated graphics. But today, finally, we have official pricing for a number of variants, a concrete date for availability (this coming Tuesday, June 4th) and, perhaps most importantly, some detailed benchmark claims about what Haswell is capable of -- particularly in its mobile form.

Sure, Intel already dominates in MacBooks, Ultrabooks (by definition) and in hybrids like Surface Pro, but the chip maker readily admits that the processors in those portable PCs were just cut-down desktop chips. Haswell is different, having been built from the ground up with Intel's North Cape prototype and other mobile form factors in mind. As a loose-lipped executive recently let slip, we can look forward to a 50 percent increase in battery life in the coming wave of devices, with no loss of performance. Read on and we'll discover how this is possible and what it could mean for the dream of all-day mobile computing.

Gallery: Haswell mobile slide deck

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Intel

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This particular rumor has been swirling for a while already, but Reuters says its own sources are now backing it up: Samsung will switch from an ARM-based design and use Intel as the supplier of the processor inside at least one version of its next 10-inch slate, the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1. Word is that Samsung will run Android off Intel's latest x86 Atom architecture, Clover Trail+, which we've so far seen in just a handful of Android smartphones including the Lenovo K900 and ZTE Geek.

By way of corroboration, Korea Times is reporting the exact same Galaxy Tab 3 rumor and has also quoted an anonymous Intel employee who claimed that the number of Atom engineers based in Korea has ballooned from six last year to as many as 50 personnel today. They're said to be working on "Samsung-related projects with a mission to customize circuits for adaptation in Samsung products" -- which certainly doesn't sound like typical Intel behavior. Korea Times specifically says that Samsung is looking to reduce its reliance on the tricky supply of its own ARM-based Exynos processors, while Intel is offering the Korean giant good prices and cooperation in order to build its mobile market share. This all tallies with the idea of Atom coming to some high volume Android products -- and it's very possible that we'll see proof of that at Computex next week.

Filed under: Tablets, Mobile, Samsung, Intel

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Via: Android Beat

Source: Korea Times, Reuters

Now that we have the low-down on NVIDIA's two mainstream heavyweights, the GTX 770 and the GTX 780, we figure it's time to move beyond specs and official slide decks and bring together some reviews from the specialist sites. Both cards contain the same Kepler architecture as NVIDIA's 2012 line-up, with no huge leaps in evidence, but they either add more of this silicon (in the case of the GTX 780) or drive it harder (in the case of the GTX 770) in order create new options for enthusiasts and for those upgrading from a card that is two or more generations old. At the same time, these products represent a major shift in NVIDIA's pricing strategy. At $649, the GTX 780 is priced much higher than its direct ancestor, and it aims to approach Titan-level performance without hitting the same thousand-dollar high. Meanwhile, the GTX 770 costs just $399 and yet is said to replace last year's flagship cards like the GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, which are still being sold for $450 and upwards at some retailers. Read on and we'll summarize how these claims have stacked up against reality.

Filed under: Desktops, Displays, Gaming, NVIDIA

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It probably won't come as a huge surprise, given the GTX 780's appearance last week, but today's launch of the GTX 770 nevertheless brings us a very interesting product. The card is claimed to be about five percent faster than last year's much more expensive flagship, the GTX 680, thanks to faster memory (7Gb/s instead of 6Gb/s), a slightly higher base clock speed (1,046 vs. 1,006MHz) and an equivalent number of CUDA cores (1,536). Seeing as how the the GTX 680 still holds its own with current games, this performance parity strikes us as something of a deal -- assuming independent benchmarks back it up. We're awaiting a confirmed US price, but we'll eat our SATA cables if it's anything other than $399 for a 2GB model (the press release just says "under $400"). UK and European prices match those of the GTX 670 (£329 inc. VAT, 329 euros exc. VAT), and availability begins today. Check out NVIDIA's slide deck for more details, including power consumption and noise, SLI scaling (which looks healthy) and some in-house frame rate comparisons against other products.

Update: $399 is confirmed. The cables are safe.

Gallery: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 slide deck

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, NVIDIA

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HP will soon have an NFC-enabled Bluetooth speaker to go along with its NFC-enabled mouse, not that we reckon the two will ever have much to say to each other. The manufacturer's Wireless Portable Speaker (model no. S9500) has just been revealed in an FCC filing, where it managed to pass inspection without giving away a great deal of information beyond its physical styling (more retro than HP's current wireless speaker) and the name of the engineer who signed the test report ("Apple," confusingly). Beyond that, we know this speaker would have to pair manually with a Slate 7, since that tablet lacks NFC. Also, the Quick Setup Guide says "First Edition: June 2013", which suggests an official launch could be just around the corner -- potentially alongside other unknown, NFC-enabled products from HP.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile, HP

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Source: FCC

It feels almost unfaithful to the Ascend W1 to be looking at a potential sequel already, but that's what evleaks claims this is. How he got the image we have no idea, and neither do we have any price or specs to go with it -- it's just this lone render of a Huawei handset running Windows Phone 8 in Chinese. There was actually a previous leak back in April (shown after the break), which also purported to be the Ascend W2 and which did come with some detail: a 720p 4.3-inch display, Snapdragon S4 chip, 8MP rear camera and 1GB RAM for $289. However, today's picture fails to match up with the earlier one in a number of respects, not least in the shape of the bottom edge and in the position of the front camera / sensor opening next to the earpiece, which means the only certainty here is that they can't both be right.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: evleaks (Twitter)