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Samsung Galaxy Stellar available through Verizon beginning Thursday, free after rebate
Samsung's decidedly grounded Stellar smartphone just got the official nod from Verizon, launching on Thursday with a $50 price tag (before a $50 mail-in rebate). The "free" handset packs a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon, Ice Cream Sandwich, LTE connectivity, a 4-inch WVGA display an a rather modest image capture duo -- a 1.3-megapixel camera up front and an autofocus-capable 3.2-megapixel snapper on the rear. There's also 802.11n WiFi and support for microSD cards up to 32GB. As unimpressive as they may be, none of these specs comes as a surprise, following the smartphone's early debut on Best Buy's site last week. Still, if you're in the market for an upgrade with a non-existent equipment budget, this little Galaxy may be just what Big Red ordered.
More Samsung Galaxy Stellar details spill, September 6th launch appears likely
More details about the Samsung Galaxy Stellar 4G LTE, Verizon's upcoming budget offering, are now surfacing from the midst of the carrier's internal systems. Our source has confirmed that the Stellar is now expected to launch on September 6th, and has provided some documentation that reveals the vast majority of the phone's spec sheet. Starter Mode once again gets mentioned here -- according to the docs, it's a "new, simple way to interact Access apps and control device settings with ease." As far as specs go, these docs back up the details leaked on Best Buy's website earlier: Android 4.0, a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 3.2MP rear camera and 1.3MP front-facing cam and 800 x 480 WVGA display. Additionally, Amazon Kindle, Audible and Zappos apps are mentioned, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 and 4GB internal storage. Dimensionally, the phone will weigh 4.73 ounces and measures 121.92 x 63.75 x 11.94mm (yes, that last measurement is for thickness). Given the lower-end specs, the Stellar likely won't launch to a grand amount of fanfare -- especially if the $100 price point is accurate. Check out our gallery below to see a few more images of the crucial docs. As a sidenote, many of the images will have creatively blurred-out sections in order to protect the identity of our source. %Gallery-164042% [Thanks, Anonymous!]
Samsung Galaxy Stellar gets premature outing at Best Buy
Verizon just isn't having much success preserving its secrets these days. What hope the carrier had left of keeping the Samsung Galaxy Stellar under wraps has just been been dashed by a full product page at Best Buy. Like we suspected, that astronomical name is attached to the conspicuously grounded Jasper: as long as the listing is accurate, we're looking at a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (toned down from the 1.5GHz rumor), a 4-inch, 800 x 480 display, a so-so 3.2-megapixel back camera and a 1.3-megapixel shooter at the front. We aren't seeing the leaked mentions of Amazon apps or a Starter mode, but there is hope that the Galaxy Stellar might undercut the still fairly stiff $100 price from the earlier Verizon-sourced scoop -- while it's not guaranteed to remain, the $450 contract-free price at Best Buy is about $50 less than we saw before. All that Verizon needs to do now is dispense with formalities and commit to a launch; meanwhile, you can catch a snap of the listing after the break and click the source to see the page for yourself, while it lasts.
Samsung Galaxy Stellar pops up in Verizon docs, might light up our skies soon
Having launched an all-out blitz on the high-end of US smartphones, Samsung must be eager to conquer the mid-range as well. A Verizon rebate list finding its way to Droid-Life has the previously unknown Galaxy Stellar showing up amongst the carrier's more budget-minded smartphones for a $50 discount sometime between now and an August 19th expiry date. There's little we can definitively attach to that starry-eyed name so far, although we have our hunches: first and foremost is that it's the Jasper, the Snapdragon S4-touting spiritual successor to the Droid Charge. It might alternately be the even more mysterious SCH-i415, which just showed up at the FCC this weekend and could be a world-roaming sequel to the Stratosphere (SCH-i405) with CDMA, LTE and GSM all rolled into one. Whether the Galaxy Stellar is one of these two devices or something entirely off of the map, there's a strong indication between this, Sprint's mystery SPH-L300 and the slightly more tangible Galaxy Reverb that Samsung will leave no CDMA corner unturned in the near future.
Gold Capped: Is prospecting still worth it?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the auction house. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him or tweeting him at @foxvanallen. The jewelcrafting shuffle used to be an incredibly lucrative way to make money. It was simple: You went to the Auction House, bought out the stock of ore, and then hit your prospecting key as fast as you could. You'd craft what was profitable to craft; you'd vendor the raw gems that weren't otherwise useful. And because the vendor value of the raw gems was almost always more than the value of the Elementium or Obsidium Ore prospected to get those gems, we had a no-lose situation. A jewelcrafter's risk was 0; the profit potential limited only by the amount of time you had to waste doing the "shuffle." Of course, that was prior to patch 4.2. After the patch, each green gem (for example, Zephyrite) saw its vendor value slashed to a mere 50 silver. The days of the jewelcrafting shuffle were over. But still, the days of profitable jewelcrafting still live on. This past week, my Gold Capped tag-team partner Basil opined that patch 4.3 will bring epic gems. He's probably right, but that doesn't mean you have to bide your time, stockpiling Pyrite Ore until patch 4.3 to make some serious money as a JC. Let's take a second look at the old jewelcrafting shuffle and see if we can still find profit hiding in the jewelcrafting profession.
Insider Trader: Jewelcrafting in the first week of Cataclysm
Insider Trader is a column about professions by Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, who also writes Gold Capped about how to make money using the auction house. Email Basil your questions. Jewelcrafting in Cataclysm remains one of the most interesting professions in the game, providing resources that everyone needs, as well as offering one of the most flexible (and thereby most appealing to min-maxers) personal performance perks of any profession. Let's take a tour around the profession window, starting with the core ability that everyone thinks of when they think jewelcrafting: gem cutting.
Live from Microsoft's E3 2010 keynote!
After last night's Kinect-ic event, what on earth could Microsoft have in store for its big E3 2010 press conference? A slimmer Xbox 360? Valhalla motherboards? Hulu integration? Surely there's gonna be a new game or two in store. Stay tuned -- doors open at 10:00AM PT / 1:00PM ET and the magic starts shortly after!
Student-made Xbox 360 laptop channels the Heck out of... well, you know
Few can build 'em like Benjamin Heckendorn. Fewer still bother to try. Two college kids managed to do a bang-up job anyhow building this fully loaded, Jasper-juiced Xbox 360 laptop. With a built-in 17-inch Gateway monitor, keyboard, functioning Xbox Live camera and Wireless Network Adapter, this brick hits all the right notes -- yet remains remarkably stylish for a learn-as-you-go student project. If you agree, you can read a remarkably detailed account of how they built it at the source link, see a proof-of-completion video after the break, or even further their education by purchasing the mean machine on eBay for your very own.
Ben Heck molds Jasper Xbox 360 into new and improved laptop
Ben Heck, the amazing modder who invented the Xbox 360 laptop, has done it again, this time fashioning a Jasper Xbox 360 (his second time fooling with a Jasper motherboard) into a new and improved slammer. Featuring a sleeker look and a flush CD drive, the new laptop also adds an IR port for use with the Xbox 360 media remote. Oh, and digital potentiometer volume control, because it's super cool.Head past the break for a brief video showing off the new device.
Ben Heck's latest portable Xbox 360 adds sleek white finish, Jasper motherboard
Even after five iterations, Ben Heck's portable Xbox 360 models are still a spectacle to behold -- he seems to keep outdoing himself every time, both in functionality and style. This latest model has the appearance of an oversized plastic polycarbonate Macbook when closed, and packs a 17-inch Gateway LCD panel. The big improvements here include the Jasper motherboard, a flush-mount DVD door and side panels, digital potentiometer / button volume controls, and an ethernet port in addition to WiFi. Not everything's been kept, as Heck says he ditched the camera, not seeing a point for it -- but hey, there's still two USB ports if any of his (already spoken for) customers want to add it. Impressive work, indeed. See it for yourself in the video after the break. [Via TechEBlog]
Confirmed: New Xbox 360 Arcade systems have 512 MB on-board memory
The Xbox 360 Arcade pack just got a bit more useful. The mysterious 512MB Arcade unit seen yesterday is real! Microsoft confirmed to Eurogamer that it has doubled the memory on the "Jasper" motherboard of the hard-drive-free system. However, of course, not all of that space will be available to the owner: "The Xbox 360 system software uses some of the included 512MB memory;" Microsoft's statement reads. "Less storage will be available to users."The on-board storage was originally introduced to house the New Xbox Experience upgrade. According to Microsoft, this extra storage doesn't portend any new functionality: "We want to offer consumers a bit more memory at the same low price so they can enjoy more experiences on Xbox LIVE."
Xbox 360 Jasper units with 512MB internal memory spotted in the wild
We're not sure how this one sneaked by, but it looks like Microsoft slipped a new Xbox 360 Jasper motherboard past us earlier this year, according to a poster in the XboxHacker forums. Found in a Japanese Xbox 360 Arcade this past April, the new motherboard is essentially the same as the previous (read: probably the most reliable 360 model so far) with one small difference. Rather than 256MB of internal storage, this one appears to be packing 512MB.While the unit pictured above is Japanese, some members of the Xbox-Scene forums claim to have the board as well, meaning the new hardware may already be available in North America. We're not aware of any surefire way to spot one of these new units without taking them out of the box, though the ones we've seen mentioned were manufactured in April 2009. Outside the box, you'd just need to see how much memory was listed in the settings menu.Anyone out there have one of these new Jaspers? Let us know in the comments.[Via Xbox-Scene]
Xbox 360 Jasper motherboard with 512MB storage hitting US stores
When the Jasper motherboards started showing up in Xbox 360 consoles late last year there was reason for excitement -- quieter fans, more efficient design, and 256MB of internal storage to set gamers free of overpriced memory cards. Now the systems are receiving an unannounced storage boost, with an XboxHacker forum member braza noticing that his Japanese Arcade model sported a 4GB 4Gb Samsung NAND chip. That's twice the size of the old one, giving the equivalent of a 512MB internal memory unit. That first system was manufactured in April, and they're starting to hit US Arcade units as well. As of now we're not sure if there's a way to tell from outside the box whether you have this beefier revision of Jasper, but we're sure your local retailer wouldn't mind if you just bought their entire stock of consoles and ripped them all open to see.Update: Oops, that's a 4Gb (gigabits) NAND chip, allowing for roughly 512MB (megabytes) of internal storage.
Jasper Xbox 360 Pro acquired: the photograph is proof
So yeah, finding an Xbox 360 Jasper in Arcade form isn't all that difficult these days, but we certainly haven't seen a glut of Pro models shipping out with the supposedly cooler, smoother and altogether more melancholy Jasper hardware within. A lucky soul over at PDAToday has acquired one such unit, and while he may just be incredibly fortunate, we'd say it's about time you to-be Pro owners start looking out for a few telltale signs. As you can see in the closeups in the read link, there here FDOU team Pro -- which was ordered from Amazon on December 22nd -- boasts a 12.1 amp rating and the unmistakable Jasper power port. Of note, it did come bundled with a Falcon revision (175-watt) power supply just like Ben Heck's Jasper Arcade, though we suspect Microsoft is just clearing out excess inventory given that the older PSU won't damage the Jasper machines. Any others out there run into any holiday luck? Let us know![Thanks, Bill]
Ben Heck spots a Jasper in the wild, tears it up
If you've got a strong stomach, you may want to watch modder extraordinaire Ben Heck tear open a brand new Jasper 360 and then devour it, letting the solder drip down his face like the guts of a downed gazelle. Seriously, it's disturbing stuff.But it's not all for the joy of the kill. Heck also tells you how you can distinguish a Jasper console from its stinky, 90nm GPU-having Falcon brethren. Here's hoping you've got the iron nerve to sift through the carnage to find the details. If you can't hack it, there's an even easier method of finding which console you own courtesy of AnandTech.
Jasper 360s: Secret to succesful identification
We spotted an informative writeup over at AnandTech regarding various Xbox 360 Jasper identification strategies. What's a Jasper? Well, Jasper is the codename for the latest Xbox 360 models to roll off production and house tiny 65nm CPU and GPUs. The smallest, coolest, least power demanding, most stable and generally "best" Xbox 360 version to be manufactured. Anyhoo, if you're in the market for a 360, we highly recommend you try to secure a Jasper 360 using a few of AnandTech's Jasper identification strategies. They've detailed tips including console lot number matching, looking up the console wattage and - most accurate of all - looking at the power connector. Remember, Jaspers are teh hawtness. You want Jaspers.
Microsoft confirms 256MB internal memory for Xbox 360 Arcade
Microsoft has partially confirmed rumors of the latest Xbox 360 hardware revision, revealing that new Xbox 360 Arcade units indeed ship with 256MB of on-board memory. In a statement obtained by X3F, a Microsoft spokesperson said: "We are constantly updating the console's more than 1700 internal components. We can confirm that we are moving to internal memory for the Xbox 360 Arcade. The physical internal memory is the same size as the previous external memory units -- 256MB."While vague, the statement seems to imply that Arcade systems will no longer ship with external Memory Units, as reported by at least one Jasper hunter. Assuming this is the case, the Arcade SKU is now equipped to handle various memory-required functions like game saves and NXE (128MB) without the use of an external memory device. Of course, this also means the advantages of the once-bundled Memory Unit must be sought at an extra cost. Microsoft has not confirmed the installation of internal memory for other Xbox 360 SKUs nor has it confessed to outfitting its consoles with the Jasper chipset. (Don't hold your breath for that one.)
Finding Jasper: Shot of Xbox 360's 256MB internal storage
Further evidence has arisen supporting claims that Xbox 360 consoles boasting the latest hardware revision, the 65nm-chip-on-the-solder "Jasper," are making their way through retail channels. An X3F tipster forwarded the above image of a new system's "Storage Devices" screen, which indicates the presence of the 256MB on-board flash storage, designated "MU." Unlike the previous batch of Arcade systems, the new console reportedly did not include a 256MB external memory card.With Microsoft remaining mum on the specifics of internal hardware changes, images (and videos) like the one above represent our best means of finding Jasper. Are you out there, buddy?
Video proof of Jaspers with 256MB internal memory
click to enlarge X3F tipster Stuart has sent us some more photo evidence that new Xbox 360 units are shipping with 256MB of internal memory. Stuart recently purchased a new Xbox 360 Arcade unit to replace a broken unit when he noticed that it didn't include a 256MB Memory Unit as they have in the past. Having hooked up his old 512MB Memory Unit and his old hard drive, he noticed that another storage option was listed on his Xbox. As you can see in the image above, there are storage options for the hard drive, the memory unit, and a third option titled MU. The third option lists 214MB of usable space, which is in line with what we reported over the weekend. It also appears that this unit contains a Jasper chipset, as our tipster claims it came with a 150W power adapter (one of the supposed marks of a Jasper unit). [Update: Looks like it's actually a 175W power supply]As if that wasn't enough, YouTube user BRB100779 has posted a video showing off the same memory screen and has gone to exhaustive links to prove that the image on the screen is legitimate. Find the video after the break.We've contacted Microsoft for comment and will update this post when we receive more information.
Rumor: Jasper 360s get 256MB internal storage
Word on the street is that the Jasper Xbox 360s (consoles with a smaller 65nm chipset) are finally hitting retail shelves and along with the benefits of running cooler, requiring less power, and being generally more "stable", we're finding out that Jaspers may also have additional storage capabilities. According to a Xbox-Scene who recently got their mitts on a Jasper 360, the on board flash chip storage has been increased from 12MB to a whopping 256MB. If true, the additional built-in storage would allow Microsoft to pre-install the New Xbox Experience without requiring a memory card or HDD. We're also told that 214MB of the on board storage can be used for game saves and XBLA storage. Nice!
