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Samsung Galaxy Tablet P1000 firmware leaks out, points to 1GHz Hummingbird core?
Samsung's Galaxy Tablet might debut with Vodafone. It might appear at IFA. And it might ship with a slightly slower processor than the last batch of rumors supposed. Samsung Firmwares claims to have stumbled upon a Android 2.2 software build for the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 complete with device specs in tow, and says it will have a 1.0GHz S5PC110 processor just like the Galaxy S at left. That's not the only characteristic the 7-inch tablet might share with that smartphone, as the website also fingers an 800 x 480 screen, which might explain why Sammy felt the need to smack the iPhone 4's pixel density. We wouldn't call it anything near confirmation, but the website also corroborates the 3.2 megapixel rear camera and tiny front-facing shooter our tipster tagged in June, plus a Swype keyboard, Flash and the ubiquitous WiFi and GPS. We're eager to find out what's actually under the hood when we finally see it in person.
Samsung YP-MB2 appears at Korean e-tailer, specs and release date in tow? (update: first pics?)
Astute Samsung fans may have noticed an August 11th date circulating the web, and taken it to mean the company will then officially announce the Samsung Galaxy Tab. As it turns out, there's at least one more possibility: the YP-MB2 portable media player, spotted at Korean portal Daum and supposedly ready to launch on the very same day. While rumors surrounding the possible iPod touch competitor have swirled for weeks, all we knew for sure was that it was a GPS and WiFi-capable Android 2.1 MID with a four-inch Super AMOLED screen. Now, it looks like it could be everything we wanted in a PMP -- a Galaxy S missing only the bits that made it a phone -- and capable of decoding DivX, XviD, OGG and FLAC with that 1GHz Hummingbird processor. It's still unlikely we'll ever see it stateside with its T-DMB antenna inside, but if a pared-down version made to the US we'd be most happy to give it a try. Sadly, even the Korean version's just a particularly likely rumor for now, so you'll have to make do with optimistic thoughts and the leaked video below. Update: Samsung Hub spotted what might be the very first real picture of the media player at Korean blog, and sure enough it's looking nice and iPod-like. Spot a high-res version after the break.
Samsung Vibrant launching today, awaits new owners in T-Mobile's online store
A tiny bit of uncertainty has been cleared away thanks to good old Twitter, where T-Mobile has made July 15 (aka, today!) the official launch date for its Galaxy S derivative, the Vibrant. The original Tweet seems to have disappeared into the ether apart from that screenshot above, but T-Mo has reiterated the statement in subsequent missives, telling its followers that the Vibrant will be on sale today. We imagine the typical $199.99 price point will remain unaltered, so all you'll really need to do now is decide whether this is the Super AMOLED handset for you, or whether you can wait the extra few days until Sprint et al intro their offerings. Decisions, decisions. [Thanks, Alex] Update: And it's now available to buy directly from T-Mobile's online store [Thanks, Volaris].
iPhone 4 vs. Galaxy S, part deux: HD video playback (video)
We just couldn't leave this face-off of superscreens alone, and went back for another bite at the cherry. Admittedly, we found out the Galaxy S had a browser-specific brightness setting that we hadn't maxed out before setting off our camera hounds, so we've gone and remedied earlier comparison shots with the gallery below, and just as a bonus, we've now also run a HD video clip on both phones. This was to see how the Hummingbird and A4 SOCs, considered close siblings, handled some taxing video work and also to again compare performance deep down on the pixel level. What we can tell you now is that both handsets chewed through the 1080p HD clip with ease and that both gave results we have no hesitation in describing as sublime. Click past the break for the up close and personal video comparison action. N.B. -- We ran a 1080p clip on both phones' respective YouTube apps over WiFi. Although we're certain from the quality of the video that it was at least 720p, we can't say for sure that it was the full 1080 enchilada.%Gallery-96333%
Apple's A4 is like Samsung's S5, except where it's not
Though the Apple iPad and the Samsung Wave most assuredly share the same brain, EE Times would like you to know there's more to a chip than its core -- analyzing Apple's system-on-a-chip designs in detail back to early iPhones, the publication noticed that Cupertino's silicon both has custom design quirks on top of ARM and shows heavy influence from Samsung as well. EE Times claims that while the A4 and Samsung S5PC110 are similar, there are certainly differences, enough to call the A4 a custom design. Essentially, Apple has a taken a one-size-fits-all product originally engineered to meet the needs of a broad range of OEMs and reduced its complexity, footprint, and cost to match Apple's particular goals. As far as whether PA Semi or Intrinsity had a hand in that design, the authors suggest only the latter seems very involved. What all this means for intellectual property questions is anyone's guess -- we'll let the lawyers fight that one out -- but when you encounter diehard fans that claim one's ripping off the other, at least now you'll be able to calmly explain the situation. Find the deep technical dive at our source link.
Samsung Galaxy S preview
Just because the US has gone gaming crazy these past couple of days doesn't mean the smartphone world has stopped turning. Samsung trotted out its Galaxy S handset last night in London, and we were naturally there to try and glean a better understanding of where this 4-inch Android 2.1 device fits in our wishlist hierarchy. It's quite the stat sheet stuffer, as we're sure you're aware, and it strikes an alluring figure for those looking to get on the true do-it-all smartphone bandwagon. Check out our latest impressions -- replete with video and a whole gallery dedicated to the Super AMOLED screen's performance in sunlight -- just past the break.%Gallery-95331%
Samsung Galaxy S gets torn down, looks equally beautiful on the inside (video)
You'll be hard pressed to find a sane individual who'd argue that Samsung's Galaxy S isn't a lust-worthy piece of kit on the outside, and after watching the video past the break, we doubt you'll get too many takers on proving things unsightly within. Equipped with a Super AMOLED display and a bit of that Hummingbird goodness within, there weren't too many bits and pieces to tear apart. What was found, however, leaves a new appreciation for steady hands. Go on, give it a look-see -- the real deal will be out and about before you know it.
Apple purchases Intrinsity, just 498 more ARM licensees to go
With P.A. Semi under its belt, and now "people familiar with the deal" reporting to The New York Times that a purchase of Intrinsity is a go, Apple's march to ARM preeminence is becoming much more clear. A rumor about an Intrinsity purchase surfaced a few weeks ago when the processor design firm's website went down and a few of its employees switched their LinkedIn employee status over to Apple, but now we've got some solid confirmation -- though Apple and Intrinsity are still staying tight-lipped about the deal. Intrinsity's rumored contribution to the iPad's A4 chip is a modified A8 core it designed dubbed the Hummingbird, which squeezes 1GHz of performance out of a chip regularly limited to a mere 650MHz. It's unlikely that this acquisition will shed much more light on the internals of the iPad or future Apple devices -- in fact, it might help obfuscate them -- but it's clear that Apple is dead set on owning as much IP and "smart people" in relation to ARM as it can muster. Of course, the next big rumor on this front is a purchase of ARM itself, but that's an entirely different can of worms.
ODROID tablet sports Hummingbird application processor, shows off naked dev edition on video
Time to add another candidate for the tablet portion of your gadget budget. The ODROID tablet -- being developed by Hardkernel, the folks behind the ODROID portable console -- has at its heart a 1GHz Samsung S5PC110 application processor. Also known as Hummingbird, this chip can drive 1080p video at 30fps according to Samsung, and its ability to deliver a flawlessly smooth user experience was demonstrated in our Galaxy S hands-on. It is an extremely promising core to build around, and the 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1,366 x 768 resolution and Android 2.1 inclusions are nothing to sniff at either. For now, all we have is the demo video after the break -- starring your favorite tech blog -- but we'll surely keep an eye out for developments with this device. Particularly if the bezel matches the thin metal frame we're seeing right now.
Samsung's Galaxy S has four times the polygon power of Snapdragon
When we got some hands-on time with the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S, it was painfully apparent that the thing has some serious power under the hood. Now we have a better idea of just how much power, with reports indicating that it has the graphics oomph (thanks to its PowerVR SGX540 GPU) to push 90 million triangles per second. Compare that to the Snapdragon platform, which manages 22 million polygons, and the iPhone 3GS's 28 million from the earlier SGX535, and you get a feel for the muscle lurking behind that gorgeous Super AMOLED screen. Of course, polygon counts aren't everything when it comes to graphical power these days, and 300 million triangles won't help you if your handset gets laggy after you install every single Bejeweled clone in the Android Market, but forgive us if we're a little excited about the rapidly brewing mobile GPU war. [Thanks, Robert]
Japanese researchers develop robotic, heroic hummingbird
This is not the first time we've heard about a robotic hummingbird, but they're still a rare enough species to warrant our attention. Japanese researchers at Chiba University near Tokyo have developed a new bot which behaves much like the quick-winged bird, which is controlled by an infrared sensor. The little birdie weighs in at less than an ounce and can fly in a figure eight, moving up, down, left and right. Next steps for its development -- which the researchers say will arrive by 2011 -- include the ability for it to hover mid-air, and have a small camera attached to it. Ultimately, its creators see the robot (which has cost around 2 million dollars to develop) being able to help search for people in dangerous situations, such as destroyed buildings, or aiding in the search for criminals. We haven't gotten a look at the little guy yet (the above photo is merely to whet your imagination), but we anxiously await its arrival.
DARPA contractor shows off tiny robo-hummingbird UAV
We've seen plenty of tiny UAVs (or NAVs -- Nano Aerial Vehicles -- as they're also known), but none quite like the robo-hummingbird that's been in development at DARPA-contractor AeroVironment for the past couple of years. While we haven't heard much about it during that time, the company recently completed its most advanced prototype to date, dubbed Mercury, and it's taken advantage of the opportunity to show off all the progress it has made. As you can see in the video after the break, the bot is able to fly about and hover in place by mimicking the wing movement of a real hummingbird and, of course, be controlled completely untethered. What's more, the firm says that the final version will actually look like a real hummingbird as well, and be able to be controlled from up to a kilometer away -- even inside buildings, where a hummingbird won't look at all out of place.[Via Danger Room]
Darpa develops a 1.8 gigapixel digicam and no, you can't 'check it out'
Yeah, I know you thought your Hello Kitty digicam was some hot stuff, but believe it or not the kids at Darpa have even got that one beat. Called ARGUS-IS (both named after the mythological eye guy and an acronym for Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance - Imaging System) this guy straps a 1.8 gigapixel camera to the bottom of an A-160T Hummingbird robot helicopter. The device is able to hover at high altitude (over 15,000 feet) for up to 20 hours -- keeping tabs of an area of over a hundred square miles. The frame rate is 15 fps and the "ground sample distance" is 15 centimeters -- each pixel represents about six inches. The sheer amount of data taken in by a camera like this is too large to be completely relayed to the ground, but users are able to define upwards of sixty-five independent video windows within the image and zoom in or out. Additionally, windows can be set to automatically track items such as moving vehicles, individuals, the books you get out of the library, and the items you pick up at 7-11 after a night out with the gang.
Let's talk about those Hummingbird ads ...
Click for 3x better image quality Dear Joystiq Reader, You may have seen the above ad for a new line of HP laptops, right here on Joystiq. You clicked on a link or voted on a comment and, next thing you know, your comfortable, cozy gaming blog was replaced with a giant, full-page ad featuring a video of ... what is that? Is that a hummingbird?For some of you, the ad appears multiple times a day; for others, you need to close your browser tab or window to get rid of it; for others still, it comes and goes as intended, but disturbs your browsing experience; and lastly, some may not mind the occasional full-screen ad at all. We're not fans of the interstitial, but we don't call the shots. All we can do is communicate your indifference and/or displeasure to the people who make those things happen. Ads on Joystiq aren't going away, but ones that interfere with your ablility to read Joystiq should. So, sound off in the comments. We're listening. Love, Joystiq%Poll-15148%
Boeing's unmanned A160T Hummingbird helicopter takes flight
It's been a few ticks since we've seen Boeing send an atypical aircraft into the friendly skies, but the firm's latest helicopter has successfully completed a 12-minute test flight without so much as a pilot on board. The A160T Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft is a turbine-powered "warfighter" that aims to provide "intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance coverage" in locales that could make even the most calloused veteran queasy. During its time in the air, it reportedly met every objective set for it, and while we've no idea how soon this thing will be lifting itself up, it'll eventually reach speeds of up to 140 knots and stay airborne for up to 20 hours before returning to base for a pat on the wing.[Via The Raw Feed, image courtesy of SkyControl]
