Intel doubles down on tablets, says it will power 130 new models this year
It’s obvious Intel wants to be inside your next tablet. But odds are, it isn’t: Revenue for the company’s mobile division was down an alarming 61 percent in the first quarter. And while the future still doesn’t look too promising for Intel-based smartphones, the outfit thinks it can at least make some progress on the tablet front. The company has just announced that it expects 130 Intel-based Android and Windows tablets to debut this year, with at least a dozen launching here at Computex. If that sounds like a big number, it is: At last year’s keynote, Intel promised just 30 tablets for 2013. Whether Intel reverses its fortunes in the mobile space remains to be seen, but hey, more devices can’t hurt, right?
Intel launches Core M processors for even thinner 2-in-1 PCs
At Intel’s keynote presentation here at Computex, president Renee James is set to show off Intel’s mobile future: a 2-in-1 reference PC powered by the company’s new 14nm Intel Core M processor. 14nm processors means less energy use and, when the buck stops, longer battery life — something we can never get enough of. We’re still waiting to see what that design will look like exactly, but we do know it’ll be a hybrid tablet-laptop, measuring in at 7.2mm thick (keyboard detached), while a companion media dock will apparently offer extra cooling (and a performance burst).
Update: As teased, in the flesh it’s a very thin tablet, with no fans to see. Intel’s president also teased the companion docks, although we only saw a glance of the keyboard add-on. Thankfully, it looked at thick enough to handle a bit of typing.
It’s not the first appearance of Intel’s new Broadwell chips: Intel boss Brian Krzanich showed off a more vanilla laptop running on the chips late last year. Regardless, Intel says the series is set to be its most energy-efficient Core processor yet, and that the majority of the hardware running on the chip will be fanless, as well packing hybrid functionality — which explains why the reference design took the shape it did. As you can see above, Intel’s Core M family will offer around a 20 to 40 percent performance improvement, while SOC power could be up to 45% less, while producing 60 percent less heat — thus the fanless design. The new processor will also take up around 50 percent less space inside devices, whether that’s a tablet, a laptop or both.
Microsoft is getting the Xbox One ready for World Cup action
The World Cup 2014 is one of the hottest topics there is at the moment. Whether you’re looking for in-depth coverage or streaming live games, it looks as if everyone has something special planned for the tournament. And, not surprisingly, this includes Microsoft. To go along with the recent announcement of ESPN FC World Cup Essentials, the Redmond-based company has now revealed Destination Brazil, a hub for the Xbox that’s set to feature nothing but World Cup content. There will be, among other things, an app dubbed Brazil Now and an original series titled Every Street United.
Brazil Now can utilize the Xbox One’s TV features to display useful info while you’re watching matches; it’s also able to notify you when a game is about to start and share score updates, right on your screen, similar to the existing NFL app. Every Street United, on the other hand, is a show which follows football legends Thierry Henry and Edgar Davids as they go around the globe trying to find new talents.
When it launches on June 12th, just in time for the start of the World Cup, Destination Brazil is going to be available on both the Xbox One and Xbox 360. That said, some features, like Brazil Now, will only be compatible with Microsoft’s newest console. For now, you can watch the trailer for Every Street United below and, perhaps, get more pumped ahead of the football craze that’s about to take place down in South America.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox
[OP-ED] Why I think iOS 8 is good for Android
A banner spotted at WWDC 2014 prior to Apple’s keynote – courtesy of The Verge
Today’s tech news has been dominated by the announcements made by Apple at WWDC 2014 happening now in San Francisco. As many expected, Apple is making their yearly iteration to their mobile OS platform, iOS, bringing it to iOS 8 sometime in Fall this year. And as usual, some of the improvements that Apple is making in iOS 8 bear some eerie resemblance to features already featured on Android; some commenters have already said that this seems more like Google I/O 2011 rather than WWDC 2014, but we’ll leave that argument there. The last few iterations Apple has made to iOS have been huge in bringing the platform back into contention with Android on a functionality level which some have suggested should worry Android and Google. However, I think it’s actually the opposite: I think that iOS 8 is good for Android, and here’s why.
Image courtesy of The Verge
The upgrades to iOS are extensive, and a full list of those can be found pretty much anywhere you look on the internet today. Widgets, predictive text, third-party keyboards, or automatic photo backup are all nice, but we’ve seen it all before, some of which Android has had for many years. The improvement that caught my eye, however, is the actionable notifications. This currently only has a very basic implementation on Android right now, suffice to issue basic button commands, but Apple’s implementation will allow you to complete entire actions, like reply to a message, all from the notification. While it remains to be seen how useful this actually is in reality, it’s made more interesting by the fact that this isn’t available on Android yet. And this is where this becomes useful to Android.
Image courtesy of The Verge
Depending on how these features are accepted by its users, Android may choose to do something similar in the next major iteration of Android. If you’re an Apple fan and you somehow feel incensed or smug about the suggestion that Android should copy Apple, just remember that Apple has been catching up to and copying Android for years; notification bars in iOS 7 and now widgets and third-party keyboards in iOS 8 should be evidence enough.
And really, the argument shouldn’t be who’s copying who, or even who is better than the other. Sure, fans on either side of the fence are going to fight to the death about who copied who and who’s done what functionality better. But at the end of the day, the people who benefit most from these two gargantuan mobile platforms doing battle is us, the consumers. While it’s arguable which platform is making better progress lately, it’s kind of a false dichotomy as the competition between the two drives them to improve things for the common good.
So the next time someone tells you that iOS has something that Android doesn’t have, remember that the competition is a good thing and that you can be sure that Android and Google will have something in store to one-up Apple in the future, and inevitably, vice versa somewhere along the track.
What do you think about Apple announcing iOS 8? Do you think the competition between Apple and Google is a good thing for mobile platforms? Let us know your thoughts below.
Sources: The Verge, Android Police
//<![CDATA[
ord = window.ord || Math.floor(Math.random()*1E16);
document.write('’);
//]]>
Android 4.4.3 Ready for Nexus! Samsung Leaks their Devices Getting Android 4.4.3! – Device Updates
Device Updates is here for you, and Android 4.4.3 is on everyone’s minds today. Yes, some of you probably already have it on your Nexus device, and hopefully a lot more of us will be getting it soon. Let us know just how great it is running on whenever device you have it one, and go ahead and enjoy the video you see below.
Device Updates
Android 4.4.3 factory images for Nexus
T-Mobile Nexus devices receiving Android 4.4.3 OTA update today
AT&T Galaxy Note 3 Receives update
Samsung devices receiving Android 4.4.3 updates leak
//<![CDATA[
ord = window.ord || Math.floor(Math.random()*1E16);
document.write('’);
//]]>
Apple Solves Battery Issues with 5.5-Inch iPhone 6, Looks to Ship 20 Million Units in 2014
Recent rumors surrounding Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6 have pointed to two models for the device: a 4.7-inch version set to launch later this year and a larger 5.5-inch version for late 2014 or early 2015. While Apple previously released the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c at the same time last year, reports have indicated that issues with the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 battery life and display technology will force the company to launch both phones at separate times later this year.
Now, a new report from Chinese site Laoyaoba (Google Translate, via GforGames) claims that Apple has solved its battery issues with the 5.5-inch iPhone 6, as the company will partner with Chinese manufacturing company Sunwoda Electronics to manufacture 20 million batteries for the device. Apple’s main battery supplier Dynapack will also help with production, however the Taiwanese-based company has reportedly struggled to keep up with demand.
The report also notes that Apple is aiming to build 20 million 5.5-inch iPhone 6 units by the end of this year, which follows a rumor last month that stated the company’s desire to build a total of 80 million iPhone 6 units in 2014. If true, this would mean that the majority of iPhone 6 units would be of the smaller 4.7-inch version, perhaps indicating that the larger version will be hard to find until supplies improve later next year.
In addition to a larger screen, Apple’s iPhone 6 is expected to include a thinner profile, a faster A8 processor, and an improved camera in the form of optical or electronic image stabilization. Apple has also included an option for developers to size apps for devices referred to as “Resizable iPhones” in its release of Xcode 6 earlier today, which likely further indicates that iPhones with larger displays are coming.
Wii U’s quick-boot update is finally here, takes you straight to the games
If you’re planning to play Mario Kart 8 in the near future, you may have a wait ahead of you thanks to the latest Wii U update. Ironically enough, though, this should speed up the process of playing games from here on out. The patch (version 5.0.0 U) most notably adds a quick start menu to the GamePad that gives access to a handful of recently played or installed software — something the company showed off back in January. What’s more, as Kotaku spotted, you can now download and install updates while the system is in standby, and Nintendo’s gargantuan controller can even receive push notifications from the system when it’s in its low-power state. Exactly what those will entail is anyone’s guess, though. If you’d like a preview of how the rapid-boot menu works ahead of using it for yourself, we’ve embedded a clip after the break.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Nintendo
Via: Kotaku
Source: Nintendo
ASUS’ GX500 gaming laptop has a 4K screen and is just 19mm thick
Remember the ASUS NX500, that super-thin, MacBook Pro-inspired laptop we saw yesterday? (Now you do.) Well, then: This right here is its macho, gaming-obsessed cousin, the GX500, which just made its debut here at Computex. Like the NX500, it’s a 15.6-inch notebook coming in at just 19mm (0.75 inch) thick and 2.2kg (4.85 pounds). Spec-wise, too, it packs a Core i7 processor and a 3,840 x 2,160 display that covers 100 percent of the NTSC color gamut. The difference? It purrs along with heavier-duty NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M graphics. Oh, and the chassis is black with industrial red accents, making it less of a MacBook clone. No word yet on how much it will cost or when it will be available, but it seems to us this should make for a compelling Razer Blade competitor. Hopefully we can review one soon enough and decide for ourselves.
ASUS has two Steam Machines and one is incredibly compact
Computex has a heavy PC gaming flavor to it in places. Between the likes of NVIDIA and ASUS’ ROG brand, it acts as a gentle primer to PC-based gaming hardware ahead of E3 – which is next week, if you forgot. Alongside a frankly ridiculous 4K gaming laptop, ROG’s announced two new Steam Machines with varying footprints and specifications. The GR8 takes up just 2.5 liters of space, and ASUS ROG is talking up the size:power ratio as the best it’s ever made, with a Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750Ti inside. Meanwhile, 4K output and Miracast support could well make this a plausible, portable ‘console’ PC – you’ll just need a screen.
Slightly more powerful (and bigger), the G20 gaming desktop still packs high-end 4th generation Core i7 processors, but upgrades the GFX to the GeForce GTX 780. Interestingly for a gaming rig, there’s no visible exhaust events, with a hidden airflow tunnel apparently offering heat management and (really?) near-silent operation. ASUS has it pegged at 25dB at idle. Even without the ports, If you still like your gaming PCs at least a little garish, there’s still built-in lighting, that will cycle through millions of color shades. Millions!
Both units will launch as Steam Machines, bundled with Steam controllers, although in traditional Computex style, ASUS hasn’t got prices to share just yet — expect them to appear alongside Valve’s next announcement about Steam Machines.
New Android 4.4.3 Google Dialer Gives Us a Fresh Color Scheme
Android 4.4.3 is finally out in the wild, or at least for some of you out there. We got word that T-Mobile Nexus 5 users were suppose to receive the Android 4.4.3 update starting today, and sadly I am a Tmo Nexus 5 user, and I haven’t seen the update yet. Yes, I have yet to root my N5, so I can’t be cool and just load it up on my phone.
A new Google Dialer screenshot then started to floating around the community today, and it of course has a new color scheme which we heard about. We then thought we had an apk download for anyone on KitKat to use, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be working correctly. I downloaded it onto my N5 and it completely took away my dialer app, so I recommend NOT INSTALLING THE NEW GOOGLE DIALER quite yet, until we figure out if it is legit working on devices out there. If you have installed the new Dialer and you are not seeing your dialer icon anymore, just head into your app settings and remove all updates for the Google Dialer. Meanwhile, let us know if you like the new dialer look, and if you got yourself some Android 4.4.3 yet.
Source: Droid-Life
//<![CDATA[
ord = window.ord || Math.floor(Math.random()*1E16);
document.write('’);
//]]>
AIVAnet 